Page 149 of Remnants: Disruption
A woman with auburn hair and brown eyes. Her entire demeanor looks beaten and broken. A woman with a tan complexion, her dark hair and green eyes look serious and haughty. Another dark-haired woman whose dark eyes radiate with a malicious, nightmarish intent. A strawberry blonde with piercing blue eyes. A gorgeous blonde with silver eyes. A wild-looking, dark-haired woman with magenta eyes.
Another blonde. This one I recognize. Alexa, the “other subject” that Darkrend had in his retinue.
An older woman with greying hair and deep-set wrinkles. She looks like she’s peering back at me through the images—like she knows I’m here, too.
Like shattering glass, the images fall away and I land roughly on my knees. My head spins and the ground wobbles unevenly as I feel hands at my back.
“Shit,” I hiss out, feeling at my damp forehead with trembling fingers. “Thanks for thefuckingwarning, baldy.”
“Time immortal be thy guide, for the end no longer seems in sight,” a deep masculine voice cuts through the piercing ringing in my ears.
The hands leave my back, and I slump forward onto my hands and knees. Nausea rises in my throat, choking my senses. The ringing gets louder as stars dance in my vision.
“Fuck,” I groan out as my gut heaves. The late lunch I ate yesterday at Marla’s splashes against the soft grass at my palms.
“What—” I hear a voice ask, but the deep masculine one cuts them off.
“The grim night has begun, child. It is time for the final reckoning.”
I spit out bile and rancid spit. “Leave me the fuck alone.”
At the words, the splitting headache reignites. It radiates like someone kicked me directly in the tailbone and I curl forward again. Pain soars to a crescendo with hot pricks and stabs in organs that shouldn’t even be hurting.
I feel my forehead crash into the cool stone, and it sends another wave of pain through my spine.
Shadows begin to whisper. Like they had so many times before.
“No, no, no,” I groan, my voice hoarse with overuse.
I thought I was done with this. I thought I’d figured this out. I thought I was finally getting better.
The whispers get louder, almost turning into screams.
Power bubbles beneath my skin. Percolating like boiling water. The precipice of the flash point only moments from tipping me into something far worse than death.
I can feel it—the way the dead call for me. I can feel their claws gripping at my skin. The way I sink into the shadows like cartoonish quicksand.
“Breathe,” a voice says. The voice is calming. Familiar. Lovely.
The hissing strengthens. Widens. A deep, cavernous maw reaches up from hidden worlds that I should not be able to see.
I can see further, now. I see them all. I hear them all.
I—
Chapter 54
Enemy
November 15th, 1030 A.D., Mid-Afternoon
She is waking. She is remembering. It is only a matter of time.
Unknown
“Fuck!” I scream out, falling back into the brighter, fire lit grotto. My back strikes the ground, knocking worryingly flashing lights into my vision.
“Put that freak down!” a shrill voice comes from somewhere nearby.
