She sat next to him as he flipped to the first book in the New Testament and began scouring the pages until he found the 22nd chapter. She didn't miss the slight fingershake as he located the 14th verse.
"Matthew 22:14," he read aloud, "For many are...
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"I think someone else is coming..." I told Taylor, though I doubt she could hear me. Her eyes were still seeing those haunting memories, her fingers digging into my arms like a vice.
"Maybe it's Star," I suggested...to myself.
I didn't believe it, though. The footsteps weren't coming from behind us, they were coming from up ahead.
"Taylor, c'mon, you gotta let go. You gotta wake up. Snap out of it!"
Her fingers slid off of my arm and she scrambled into a sitting position. Her mumbling stopped with a gasp, but now her eyes were pressed closed. She sat with her back pressed against the tunnel.
"We should go," I insisted.
She didn't budge.
"Taylor–"
"I can't! Okay? I can't. I'm done."
I wanted to grab her by her shoulders and yell at her to knock it off but caught sight of a dim light headed our way. The footsteps quickened and my heart leaped into my throat. What was I supposed to do? Leave her? Wait? My nerves were leaning towards waiting, mostly because I was frozen stiff as the light grew bigger.
The dark eventually gave way to the light of our lamps joining, and a boy stood before us. His eyes were washed out in the weird light, but other than that he didn't look too bloodthirsty. In one hand he carried his lamp, and in the other a book similar to the one that lay on the floor near us.
"Are you okay?" He asked. His voice was soft.
I nodded, but my voice got stuck in my throat. He looked between us, unsure of what to do. Taylor squeezed her eyes shut, clamming up completely.
C'mon, say something. You're not that scared, I lied to myself. Expertly. You are NOT that scared.
"Ny-Nyla," I finally managed, standing. "I'm Nyla. This is Taylor."
"Reed," he answered me. His gaze shifted to Taylor. "Do you need help standing?"
"I'm not leaving," she informed him.
His eyes flickered to me and back, but he didn't say anything.
"The, um, memories. She kind of freaked out and doesn't want to go further...wherever that leads," I stammered. "Um, how did you get here?"
He looked about as comfortable talking as I did. His eyes flickered between us again, like he was still trying to figure out if we were real or not. "I...woke up in a locked room. There were two other people with me," he answered.
"The same thing happened to us...we ended up finding that book and the door opened. Then we got separated in the tunnels. Star–the other girl–wanted to try another way."
Taylor didn't move so I crouched down and retrieved both the lamp and the book. I shuffled closer to Reed and opened the first page, showing him the name. Wordlessly, he opened his and my eyebrows went up. They weren't the same.
His was the New Testament.
Between that and the scarred 22:14 on the inside of his wrist–I could finally breathe a tiny bit easier. Because he was a part of this, just like us, and not in charge of it, like I'd first feared.
"We have the same scars; 22:14," I remarked, gesturing to his wrist. He looked over my wrist and met my eyes. "There are six of us, then."
"But why?"
He didn't answer, but now my mind was buzzing with questions. Why would someone do this to us in the first place? Where was this place? And then there was the worst one–the one that made me feel completely cold in my entire body.
Were we even alive?
Or were we all dead?
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