Elysian House: Silver Bullet (2)

Chapter 5: Wrong Direction

"We're going in the wrong direction!" Brandon yelled from behind us. 

It didn't seem like we had a lot of choices. It was either this way or get eaten alive by those freakish looking dogs. So we kept running. Viola was right ahead of me, making random turns to get away from the beasts on our tail. Adelene was right behind me then it was Brandon. 

We came to a dead end unfortunately. Which really wasn't a dead end. 

Viola stopped suddenly ahead of me and I nearly ran into her. When I looked over her shoulder, I saw a large, dark drop below. Then I felt Adelene ram into me from behind and Viola's shoes slid closer to the edge. All three of us turned back to yell at Brandon to stop, but it was too late. His chest slammed into Adelene and Viola fell. I grabbed for her instantly and fell my own body sail over the edge.

Adelene soon fell after me. I'm pretty sure Brandon just jumped. 

Either way, all four of us were falling through the dark, screaming and yelling in fright. The barking above us soon became a distant echo and the darkness swallowed us whole. 

The flashlights fell and vanished. And then, we were consumed by something else. 

Everything became a rush and all I could hear was the sound of water filling my ears. I kicked my legs until I came back up for air. I reached my hands out blindly in the dark. "V-Viola!" 

The waves swallowed me up again and I held my breath as I kicked and tried to figure out where I was. But the river kept going so quick that there was no possible way to breathe or figure myself out. I came up again and this time, I heard someone else coughing. 

"Viola?" I called, hopefully in the dark. 

"Riley!" She gasped back at me and I reached toward her voice, hoping to find her hand somewhere in this darkness. I heard her voice turn into a garbled mess and I knew she went under. This time, I went under after her and I reached again. 

Finally, I felt her hand. She grabbed and squeezed and I squeezed back. 

Please, please, please. I begged in my head. For what, I'm not sure. But I wanted it. I needed it. I wanted her safety.

And then something miraculous happened. 

A blinding white light flashed in between the space between Viola and I. My eyes opened beneath the water and I could see her face. Her eyes were wide open and staring right back at me. Her dark chocolate hair was in a mess around her face, floating aimlessly in the murky water. The only source of light was the small ball of light, which had suddenly made everything seem a lot less jumbled and crazy.

Seconds later, I watched Brandon and Adelene appear, underneath the water. But both of their eyes were closed tight and their cheeks swollen to hold in their air. 

Viola's other hand came out toward me and with my other hand, I grasped it, laced my fingers through the gaps in her hand and the light between us brightened. 

Then I heard her voice in my head. Viola's voice echoing in my eardrums and in the base of my skull. 

Riley, I love you.

With my heart caught in my throat, the water dipped in and the four of us were suddenly falling downwards and the only way to see anything at all was through the ball of light between my love and I.

---

"The strange thing about this whole situation," said Devine, a quiet, nerdy man who lived in the mountains just beyond sight from the kingdom in which I was supposed to reign over at the passing of Elpis Zoe, "is that the Light naturally avoids Vampires."