Faith in her Timing

Chapter 7: Past Hauntings

Rio moaned in frustration, she could feel that she wasn't able to move her arms or legs. Something heavy was sitting on her chest. On top of that, her arms and feet were shackled down with handcuffs. Where was she? Why was she here? And what was this thing on top of her? It was dark, very dark. Somewhere in this space, candles were lit. A faint glow of the fire was seen jumping off the walls. But it wasn't enough to illuminate the room enough and make out where she was.

"N-No....G-Get off!" Rio faintly murmured, using her shoulders to sort of set herself off from the floor. The figure moved around and the eerie sound filling her ears told Rio that the figure was laughing at her. It opened its maw to speak and the sound caused her skin to crawl, goose bumps to break out all over her body.

"Weak girl...."

"N-No!" The girl now said a bit more forcefully. Her throat hurt. But it wasn't from screaming. Or was it? She notice her throat was dry too, as if it had been hours since her last glass of water.

"Weak girl!" The being rasped, raising its voice now. "You think you can defeat me! That you have real power! You have nothing! You are nothing!" It growled and placed an ice-cold hand on her neck. The skin, if you could call that cracked and wrinkled mass skin, was pitch black. Rio's eyes adjusted to the dark a bit more and she could faintly make out little red eyes, staring at her. The hand wrapped itself around her throat and squeezed. Not hard. It wasn't meant as a gesture to hurt her. It was meant to assert dominance. To show her that it was in control and not her.

"I have no real power?" Rio asked, scoffing at the words. She knew this voice. Why did she know this voice? A memory tried to come to mind but it floated away before Rio could reach it. "I helped fight gods, little creature! That's right! Gods! The god of Mischief himself tried to take over New York and I was right beside Tony to stop it. The power of Yggdrasil flows through me! You think I can't handle something as insignificant as you?"

The power of Yggdrasil....what did that even mean? Rio didn't know. But she knew that it was right to say it. To throw it into this demon's face. By now, she figured that what it was, sitting on top of her. A demon.

"You underestimate me, little girl! I know who you are, who you truly are.....Kara Black!"

The beast roared and squeezed her neck a little tighter. A knot tied itself in Rio's stomach when the meaning of these words hit her brain. Kara...Black....

"No, you can't know that!" She panted, struggling for air by now. How did this thing know her real name? Nobody knew her real name, not even Tony! And he could never find out! That it was all a lie. All a story.

"But I do know that! And I am going to take you down, Kara Black! I will take you down!" The creature squealed and rasped a throaty laugh, throwing its head back in delight. As he let out this godawful sound, Rio raised her voice and shouted her head off.

"NOOOOOOO!"

"Rio, Rio, wake up!" Two hands grabbed her by her shoulders and shook her. Then suddenly it was like Rio was pulled inside this cone shaped tunnel and snapped back to reality.

Rio was laying in bed, Timothy right next to her, grabbing her shoulders to wake her up. "Rio, wake up! Wake up!" He said in a slightly raised voice.

"Stop, stop, I'm up!" The girl groaned, as she grabbed her painful head with her right hand. "Ugh....it was just a dream...it was so real..." She murmured, squeezing her eyes shut.

"What did you dream about, my love?" Timothy asked her softly, as he gently laid her back on her bed and dabbed her forehead with a wet wash cloth. He had some in the drawer of his nightstand and he always had a glass of cold water next to his bed, for if he got thirsty during the night.