Falling for your Fate

Chapter 39

Chapter 39

All I could feel was the bone-chilling cold. My body was shivering violently, and I couldn't help but wonder how I had slept at all. I didn't want to move because I was afraid I might get even colder.

As my consciousness started to take over, I began to wish it hadn't. Every patch of skin on my body felt bruised and my head was pounding. It hurt to breathe and it hurt to blink. All I wanted to do was disappear back into oblivion by with ever shiver I felt a new pain stab me, keeping me conscious.

Finally, able to focus enough in the darkness I began to assess my surroundings. It seemed like I was in a cave. The floor beneath me was dirt, covered in tiny rocks that dug into my skin with small little pinpricks of pain. There was a paper thin, rough blanket laying over me, doing nothing to keep the cold out. The walls were damp. Some patches had small streams of water flowing down them and pooling beneath. The steady sound of dripping filled the space but that was all I could hear. I couldn't see more than the cave walls around me. I didn't know where I was or how I got here. More importantly, I didn't know who had brought me here or why.

After laying there for another few minutes, still unable to hear any movement, I gingerly push myself to my feet. I winced at the sharp pains that shot through my body but don't dare make a sound. Based on my track record, it was unlikely that I had ended up somewhere safe.

Walking blindly in the darkness, I stretched my hands out until they met the cold, rough walls of the cave. I walked along their perimeter, running my fingers across the cold stone until I found a gap that I assumed was the entrance and exit. Hesitantly, I stepped through the break in the stone and was met with more disappointing darkness.

With every step I took further away from where I awoke, my heart rate increased. The beat was loud and heavy in my ears as I tried to assure myself that someone wasn't going to jump out of one of the crevices in the cave. My footsteps rang loudly in my ears, no matter how softly I tried to tread.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity the cave began to lighten. At first, I didn't notice it because it was too gradual but then suddenly, I could see almost everything in front of me. Including, where the light was coming from. I could hear voices coming from that direction and I looked for a way to get around them but whoever had put me in that dark cave knew that this was the only way out and I would need to go through them to escape.

Contemplating my options I decided I would rather face them of my own free will than wait for them to come and find me in the darkness.

So, slowly and silently, I edged my way forward. I pressed myself against the wall, taking comfort from the sharp rocks digging into my skin. The pain kept me grounded but it also distracted me from a growing feeling inside my chest. It was the same feeling I had felt when Penny had stopped me in the woods.

It felt dark and metallic. It seeped into my lungs and infected my bloodstream as that familiar power beneath my skin seemed to go dormant. I felt as if one of me senses had disappeared like I had somehow lost my sight.

Trying to take a calming breath, my body began to shudder as the sensation became more intense. What was happening to me?

I hadn't noticed at first, because of the turmoil inside of me, but the voices inside the light had gone silent. The light no longer flickering with their movement and the words that did break through the silence only confirmed my concerns.

'It's not polite to lurk in dark places, Leora,' a familiar voice scolded, ice running through my veins. 'Why don't you join us.' It wasn't a request and suddenly I didn't even have control of my own limbs. It felt like vines of fire had snaked across my skin but when I looked down, there was nothing there. The sensation was so vivid, I could almost see the tracks they left as it pulled me from my stupor and dragged me into the light. Once there, the fire fell away, but the dark, metallic taste didn't leave me. Instead, it only seemed to grow.