The Lost: Book Two of The Whitechapel Chronicles

Chapter 33

A/N: Hello dear Chapelites, I’ve agonized over this chapter and it’s now 3am and while I still don’t think it’s quite where I need it to be, I have to upload it before my fingers start bleeding and my eyes fall out. So please forgive me, I’ll come back and edit when I feel slightly more human.

Thanks,

Cinnamon xxx

 

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"I can't do it. I just can't."

Twice I had tried. Twice I had grasped Lucius' hands and dived into the black seas of Purgatory and twice I had failed to do anything but send the spirits into a frenzy and send myself flailing and scrabbling to escape their clutches.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of Lucius, who was mirroring my position, I took a deep breath, counted to ten - which continued to twenty - and placed my hands into his open palms. Instantly his bright blue eyes disappeared and I found myself plunged into darkness, feeling the multitude of bodies moving around me. I steeled myself as I caught sight of the closest ones to me, wanting to cry out in fear at those who displayed the most horrific of wounds, at those with the swollen, bloated skin that looked ready to burst open, at those with the wide open maws, wailing and moaning. They shuffled and swayed together, with barely a gap between them, walking it seemed, with no purpose, but to keep moving. Just a never-ending ocean of the dead.

I had expected it to be just as awful as before, but this time something had changed. I could sense it. The air felt weighty and oppressive as if someone had curled a hand around my throat and was squeezing, slowly increasing the pressure with every breath I tried to take. I gasped and inhaled deeply, grimacing as the foul acrid taste of the air hit my tongue. Nausea swelled within me and I clutched at my stomach, bending double to ease the pain.

It was then, with my head down, that I noticed the glow that emanated from my skin. My hands emitted a soft light and I held them in front of my face, staring in awe and fear at the way the light seemed to leave a trail in the air when I slowly waggled my fingers. Lifting the hem of my t-shirt, exposing the skin of my stomach, the flesh there seemed to glimmer with a luminous sheen as did my forearms.

I was so busy examining myself, I didn't realise that I had caught the attention of another. 

Something brushed my neck, a whisper of a touch that made me flinch and I whirled round to find a man standing close by, too close, and he was studying his fingertips, rubbing his thumb over them as if he couldn't quite understand what he had just felt. When the realisation kicked in, his darkly-lined eyes widened and he emitted a yearning groan, reaching out again, this time, grabbing a handful of my hair. The terrifying croak of joy he gave was met by my wail of fear and I stumbled backwards, hitting those behind me and jostling the crowd. Undeterred, he staggered forward, his shuffling zombie gait forcing him closer and closer, his hands outstretched, grasping air desperately as he tried to reach me.

Soon, my frantic efforts to escape the man only succeeded in alerting those around me and when the dead eyes of the hoard fixed upon me, I saw in them the same I had seen in the man. First puzzlement, then that pinprick of understanding, then wonderment, quickly followed by hunger, a deep agonising hunger that racked their bodies.

The murmuring rose throughout those nearest to me and soon caught on, rippling through the tide of souls as they all turned in my direction and began to converge upon me, arms stretching out as they clamoured to get closer. I tried to back away, but was surrounded on all sides. Hands grabbed at my hair, my arms, my face. Pinching, grasping, and scratching, all desperate to seek out the source of the light. I shrieked as my head was yanked backwards and I lost my footing, stumbling to the ground amongst them and yet still they did not stop. Pale ravaged faces full of hunger and joy swam into my vision, like blurry streaks of grey smeared across the black landscape and they all wanted one thing and one thing only: me.