A voice cuts through the darkness-low and dissonant, echoing from everywhere at once. "I will protect you... keep you safe," it says, but something deep inside of me is telling me it's a lie. The words twist and warp, spoken by a hundred different voices, some soft, some raspy, others no more than a breath. They circle around me like vultures. **This isn't right. None of this is right.**
I try to move, but my limbs are heavy, weighed down like they're encased in lead. Panic bubbles up in my chest. I'm not in my own body; I can feel that much. I try to raise a hand, but it's like pushing through quicksand. **What the hell is happening?**
I blink, forcing my eyes to focus, and slowly, the world around me sharpens into view. I'm in a dim room, the air heavy with the smell of damp wood and a sharp, metallic tang-blood, maybe. Shadows stretch across the walls, distorted and twisting in a way that makes my skin crawl. A sickly sliver of moonlight seeps through barred windows. **Barred. Like a prison.**
I turn my head slowly, afraid that if I move too fast, I'll shatter whatever thin grasp I have on this reality. There's a girl lying beside me on a cot. Her eyes are wide, unblinking, staring right at me-no, through me. The moment our eyes meet, a shock runs through me like an electric current. She knows me. She sees me. **Who is she?**
Her lips tremble, trying to form words that never come. I feel it then-her fear, raw and sharp, crashing into me like a wave. My chest tightens. **She's terrified. We're the same, she and I.**
I want to reach out to her, to touch her hand, to anchor myself to something real, but my body won't listen. It's stuck in this awful numbness, like I'm paralyzed. My eyes dart around the room, desperate for something-anything-that makes sense, that tells me why I'm here, why I feel like this.
I catch sight of the barred window again. The moon hangs low outside, casting long, creeping shadows that slither along the walls. My breath catches in my throat. I do know hear anything, do not see any sign, but I know it, I can feel it. **Something's coming.**
Then I feel it-a weight, starting at my feet, crawling upwards with slow, deliberate malice. I try to scream, but nothing comes out. My throat feels like it's collapsing onto itself. The weight is climbing, a cold, clammy pressure that coils around me, squeezing tighter with every second. When it reaches my chest, the air turns electric, each breath sharp and shallow, like I'm breathing shards of glass.
A low growl rumbles through the room, vibrating in my bones.
"Mine," it says, the word seeping out in a deep, guttural whisper that makes my skin crawl. "You are mine, child."
I can't stop the scream building in my mind. **Get out, get out, get out!**
But the pressure only builds, slithering up my body like something alive, crawling toward my face. The bed shifts beneath me, groaning under a new, monstrous weight. My breath quickens. **No, no, no...**
Hot, rancid breath washes over my cheek, stinging my nose with the stench of rot, sulfur and something like damp tobacco. I force my head to turn, every inch an agonizing effort. And then I see it-a face hovering inches from mine, twisted into a grotesque grin, eyes glowing like embers in a dying fire. **Oh god. It's real.**
"Look at me," it hisses, each word spat out like venom, its voice wet and thick against my skin. "I want you to see."
I can't pull away. My vision blurs, but I'm trapped in those burning eyes, sinking deeper into them, like they're pulling me into some endless void. My heart hammers in my chest, my pulse a wild, frantic drumbeat. **Wake up. Wake up. This isn't real.**
The demon's grin stretches wider, its teeth long and jagged like broken glass, it's scale-like skin oozing pus. "Real enough," it sneers, as if reading my mind. "You are mine."
The walls around me start to fold in on themselves, warping and bending. Shadows stretch and consume the last bits of light. I try to scream, to do anything, but my body convulses under the weight of terror. My mind scrambles, reaching out, clawing for something to pull me back.
Then I feel it-a hand. Hesitating, trembling. I look down and see the girl reaching out to me, her eyes wide, begging silently. I stretch my fingers, barely brushing her cold skin. **Please, let this be enough.**
And then, like a thread being yanked, everything collapses into darkness once again.
YOU ARE READING
The Evil We Keep
ParanormalWhat if your dreams were a conduit through which people in need could contact you for help? What if magic insinuated its way through every single dimension of your life without you having any control over it? What if you had the capacity to feel peo...
