Forbidden Darkness (The Forbidden Darkness Chronicles, #1)

Twenty-Nine

"He's gone." The shock of him disappearing hadn't settled yet and I left the ICU, having Kristen and Philip trail behind me. "Oh my God, he's gone! We have to do something."

Thunder roared outside and something inside of me ignited. It was like a flame setting me on fire and it didn't hurt. It was almost as if I knew where to go. Images flashed in my mind, and I couldn't control them. "We need to leave, now!" I said, taking off down the hall.

"Wait, Heather!" Philip shouted. "How are we even going to be able to find him?"

As soon as we burst outside, I looked up at the sky and my stomach nearly dropped out of my body. The sky was blood-red, no longer black, and in the distance, far away, lightning was going off. It was flashes of blue and red, almost like it couldn't decide on what color it wanted to be. And because that was the only light in the sky, I knew.

"We need to follow it," I said, hopping in the passenger's seat.

The other two jumped in the car and Philip turned the keys, letting the engine roar to life. "How do you know?"

"He controls electricity, it has to be him!" I shouted. "I can just feel it, okay? Just drive!"

Philip didn't ask anymore questions. We pulled out of the hospital parking lot and took off down the road, hitting the highway a few minutes later. Raindrops pattered against the windshield, and while it was getting harder to drive, Philip seemed like he knew what he was doing. We had to get there in time, because if we didn't something really bad was obviously going to happen.

Kadin said he needed Darkness. That's why he went after my mom, because her energy would feed the Darkness, but we stopped him from getting everything he needed. All he needed to be all-powerful was Hayden. But then what? I didn't want to think about it. All I knew was that we needed to stop him before it was too late. Too late for everyone, including the people I cared about.

I don't know how I knew, but in my heart I knew that Hayden was okay for now. Kadin was waiting on something. Me? I wasn't sure but I just knew that we had to get there before his plan went too far.

After driving for about twenty minutes, I realized that we were nearby. The lightning was a lot closer and by the time we got to it, I saw that the lightning was coming from inside some sort of recreational park I'd never been in before. And they were closed.

"Damn it," I said. "We need to get in!"

There was a huge gate blocking the way but that didn't stop Philip. He opened the driver's door and grabbed a few knives from the center console, handing them to us. He said, "Come on, we're climbing the fence."

I didn't even bother to argue because I knew we had to make it inside. As the rain poured heavily on us, we tried our best to make it over. Philip lifted me on his shoulders first and when I reached the top, I threw myself over, thankfully landing on my two feet. Hard. I yelled as the pain shot up my leg but only for a moment. Being a Monster Hunter now really did have some pros that I didn't know about before—that would be one of them. Kristen was the next to come over and Philip helped her, although I could tell she didn't want help at first. Eventually she gave in and he threw her on over and she landed gracefully while I was still rubbing my sore knees from the jump. Philip came over just as gracefully and that made me kind of mad.

Thunder roared again, reminding me of our mission. We left our phones in the car due to the rain so I had no idea about the time. The park was very forest-like, surrounded by trees with signs pointing toward different paths to get to different parts of the park. Through the trees, and just a little ways away, I saw the lightning.

"Which path do we take?" Kristen asked.

I wasn't entirely sure. "Somewhere around here. You can see the lightning just on the horizon over there." I pointed over a little bridge, on what looked like a separate island. I had always lived in Summerville, so being practically in the middle of marshland was weird. At my feet, baby crabs crawled around and I was getting completely disturbed at the site. The ground was wet and mushy, which was probably why the crabs were all around, and I began to retreat toward the bridge that seemed to go over some more marsh. "Let's go."

We trudged through the mud and finally made it over to the bridge and jogged across it as more lightning flashed. The sky was still purple and the lightning was getting darker and darker by the second; I couldn't wait to see the news try to explain this.

After crossing the bridge, we finally made it over to the other island-like spot, and once again we had to go through the mud. I was soaking wet and my clothes were sticking to me like glue, making it hard to breathe. Behind me, Kristen and Philip were trying desperately to catch up but my determination was kicking in. I had to save Hayden. This was all my fault!

That was when I heard the noise. It was a low growl, like the ones I heard in the kitchen a few nights before, and I knew the Monsters were here.

"Uh...guys..." I said. "I think we're getting close."

Philip nodded, wiping water away from his eyes. "We must be. The Monsters are probably here to make sure that we don't make it in time."

After about a minute of more walking, I saw it. Up ahead, looking over us, was a wooden tower. It had to be about a hundred feet high, and stairs ran along the sides of the square tower. It had no walls around it, just a small platform all the way at the top. Monsters stood at the feet of the stairs but none of them lunged at us or attacked. They just watched silently as we approached. As I suspected, when I glanced up, trying not to get water in my eyes, I saw the lightning.

"He's up there," I shouted over the rain. "I have to go!"

Philip grabbed my arm. "You can't go up there alone."

With one look at the Monsters, I knew I had to do this alone. "Just trust me, Philip. Kadin isn't going to want us all up there. He'll handle it better if it's just me."

"Because he can kill you!" Kristen screamed. "I agree with Philip, you shouldn't go alone."

But I knew I had to. "Just stay here. If anything goes wrong, you have my permission to go up there and kick his ass, okay?"

Philip and Kristen exchanged a worried look but agreed.

As I walked toward the steps, none of the Monsters attacked. They were guarding it to make sure I went alone. When I began walking up, I had a really bad feeling about this.