❛𝐖𝐑𝐀𝐏 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐒 𝐀𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 𝐌𝐄 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐄 𝐈 𝐃𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐎𝐒!❜
⸻ in which Rory Hargrove is obsessed to uncover
the truth behind Barbara Holland's disappearance, while
facing her brother's enemy and buried se...
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IN AN INSTANT, HE WAS THROWN OFF AND FELL HARD onto the rock surface, which was completely dry. Even though the environment was humid, it wasn't water that dampened it.
He coughed compulsively to get rid of the remaining water in his lungs. He grunted and complained of a backache. How aggressive, damn it. The creatures in that place don't seem to like being observed or having their personal space invaded. The vines were still wrapped around his body, pinning him to the ground.
Steve reached into his pocket and pulled out a pocketknife. He lifted the blade and slashed through the tentacles with all his strength, slicing through the vines that were trapping him and clinging to him like leeches. The sound of the blade penetrating their slimy bodies was followed by the high, angry squeals of the wounded vines. He threw them off, and Harrington gasped heavily when he was finally free of them.
He struggled to stand, still massaging his back and where his neck had been strangled. He swallowed dryly, feeling a burning sensation in his throat. Steve lifted his face to look around, eyes wide and lips parted.
"What the hell?..." He muttered between his teeth, frowning, his hand still on his sore stomach.
He couldn't believe what he saw. He was in a place as dark as they come. In the upside down. A morbid, parallel version of his reality, expressing the fury of dead nature.
A shiver ran down his spine as the lightning broke the dark sky into red spots, bright lights that illuminated his dirty, damp skin. The stinking dust that defined that place, and the sticky trail left by the vines, was already soaked into his body and clothes.
He started walking towards the forest, cautious, but determined. His heart pounded in his chest, threatening to explode.
He had to get to his house, which was not far from Lover's Lake. According to his own theory about the lamp that had a life of its own and shone brightly in his room in the Halloween night, that indicated Rory had been at his house the night of the party as well, but in the upside down.
With his flashlight pointed at the ground, he tried to find his way back home. His chin trembled with the cold he felt, and he tried not to look around, lest the unknown and the imperceptible shapes in the dark frighten him.
The trees all looked the same in the darkness of this place's eternal night. He tried to orient himself, to exercise his weakened brain as much as he could, still demanding intensive oxygenation. In addition to his concentration, he had to keep his ears to the ground, listening to know if he was being followed.
