Mythical Link ▸ Link Neal {Book One}

Forty Five

     Link exhaled in a strangled gasp. He wrapped his fingers tight around her ankle and tried with all the strength he had left to pull her foot off of his throat. Unfortunately for him, the full moon made her so much stronger and the more he fought to relieve the pressure, the harder she pressed down. His arms trembled and his face reddened. He coughed and dropped his arms to his sides while he closed his eyes. The only thing he could think about, his throat caving in and not being able to breathe, overtook him to the point where his neck and face turned pink and the veins bulged in his neck. Link had a web of dread spread throughout his entire body. He knew he was going to die.

     "How's that dying thing working out for you?" Terra asked as she leaned forward gingerly with her elbow on her thigh, treating this as if she did this to all of her friends. A grin spread across her face as his mouth worked but he couldn't form words. He looked like a fish that had just been pulled out of the water. Link managed to whimper, and she grimaced and applied more pressure. He gagged and kicked his legs wildly as he felt his vision begin to grow dim, like the sun shrouded in darkness on a solar eclipse. 

     Link thought about Rhett. How his best friend was dragged upstairs by a hideous creature that shouldn't even exist, and there was nothing Link could do about it. He also thought about their families, huddled together in the closet downstairs most likely wondering if they would ever see their husbands, or if the kids will ever see their dads again. Tears welled in his eyes and he stopped kicking his legs. He closed his eyes for what he thought was going to be the last time in his life. Vivid pictures of Christy, the kids, Rhett and Jessie, the mythical crew, and all of the mythical beasts he'd ever encountered flashed before his eyes.

     The pressure that welled up in his chest was equivalent to a powder keg, and Terra held the match that would make it explode. The way she just showed up into his life with this huge problem, and how she had killed that animal in her place and now definitely the miniature horse, plus siding with the Alpha who Link presumed was the huge beast that had Rhett... she had it coming to her.

     "Your heart. Link, your heart is slowing." Terra's voice sounded distant to him, as if she were talking through a plastic tube. He couldn't feel his feet anymore, and the tingly numbness worked its way up his legs, abdomen, and chest. It felt like his entire body was about to sink through the ground, and it eventually came to the point where he couldn't even feel her foot on his neck anymore. 

     The flame had finally licked the wick and his chest exploded. A scream so shrill and so ghostly erupted from his wide open mouth, the force of the scream forcing him to arch his back away from the floor as if he'd been possessed by a demon. Terra clutched the sides of her head and collapsed to her knees. She cried out in agony as the scream ripped through her ear drums. 

     Link's scream reverberated through the house like a sonic tidal wave, and it rattled the windows one by one until they shattered. Doors that were once open slammed shut, and papers flew out of every nook and cranny of their home like birds who'd just been let out of the cage. Glasses clattered and split into a million shards in the cabinets like the domino effect, plates dancing until they slipped over the lip of their enclosure and crashed to the floor. The chandelier over the dining room table swung violently before the light bulbs exploded, spraying glass over everyone like rain.

     "Stop! Please make it stop!" Terra cried out, doubling over as tears spilled out of her eyes. She brought her hand up to her ear when she felt something warm and her fingers swiped through fresh blood.

     Link's scream carried up the stairs and reached the ears of the wolf that was about to toss an unconscious Rhett down the stairs. Rhett had a gash on the side of his head from being swiped at, and the wolf released him, dropping to its knees and howling in response to the scream. Rhett tumbled down the stairs on his back and his eyes popped open just as he'd reached the bottom. Link's scream was like a worm of ice that crept its way into his blood stream, chilling him to the very core.