Into The Dark

23.

The relics and other cult items began to shake as the chants became more violent in its approach, the cloaked bodies moved around Selassi in a deranged manner. James held onto Selassi's hands, continuing to soothe her with reassuring words but nothing seemed to work.

Selassi could feel increasing pressure to push but fought against it, she didn't want to give birth to her baby right here, not with all these people surrounding like moths to a flame. Her instincts told her to push but her heart warned her of the possible fate for her child and that scared her more than anything.

She wanted to call out her parents for some sort of intercession but then she realised that they wouldn't be able to help at all given that they were part of this cult themselves. Everything seemed so hopeless right now and she knew that all she could count on was herself but for how long?

Meanwhile, Nina's head with groggy as her eyes opened, she moved a little, feeling her hands chained to the bed railing and turned to see that Theo was still knocked out. All Nina could remember was Selassi get lost in some kind of trance, someone pushing her to the side violently and then everything went black.

She knew that at this point, Selassi and her baby were in grave danger and by the looks of it, her instincts were right about both Auntie Diane and James who nowhere to be found.

She realised that she and Theo were not alone as two cloaked figures stood at the door with a strong focus on them. Still feeling a little delirious, Nina looked around with half-closed eyes to see if there was a way to distract them and finally setting her sights on the chair nearby, she looked back to the cloaked figures who seemed to be chanting some strange words.

Stretching out her foot, Nina strained in quietly whilst watching the cloaked bodies chant away and when it finally touched the chair, she used all her might to kick harshly making it fall instantly.

The cloaked bodies switched out of their chants, seeing the chair on the floor but both prisoners still unconscious, one of them investigated the scene and picking up the chair before getting closer to Nina who was pretending to sleep.

The cloaked individual got close, to see if she was really asleep and her eyes opened quickly before they knew it, Nina struck with force as she headbutted the cloaked body, knocking them over.  The other cloaked body came over but Theo got up quickly having listened the incident unfold, breaking the cheap chains off and grabbing the cloaked individual by the throat.

Theo was completely vexed by the situation they were in, he wasn't surprised that James was involved but he was concerned about Selassi, that was all that troubling his mind right now.

" Stop Theo, you're gonna kill the person. We don't need blood on our hands" Nina warned him as he let go of the cloaked individual who instantly passed out.

They decided to use the chains and some duct tape, they found rope to tie up the mysterious cloaked bodies. They took off their hoods which unveiled two ordinary men with snake symbols carved on the side of the face.

" Selassi was right about something following her, they might be part of the cult that she mentioned that her parents were part of" Nina mentioned which had Theo stunned. He never knew that she was in that much danger and if the cult were really here, that meant Selassi could be hurt or worse.

" This is so fucked, we need to get some kind of help," Theo said, getting up but Nina was worried that Auntie Diane might have few important people in her pocket and she was sure the police could be one of them.

"This might be a long shot but perhaps Father John could help. He's the parish priest at Selassi's family church and he's only one that I think might not be involved." Nina said, rubbing her hand nervously.