Dark Realms Page 3

  Darnell wasted no time. He took a plate and began filling it with heaping portions of food, and then sat down at the other end of the long oak table, his gun close to his side.

  The smell of the food was really getting to me and my stomach growled loudly again.

  “That’s good enough evidence for me,” said Marie, grabbing a plate of her own as Darnell began shoveling food into his mouth. “I haven’t had this kind of food since my grandma died years ago.”

  I stared at the food hungrily, but the niggling voice inside wouldn’t let me grab a plate.

  “Hey,” said the old man, motioning towards the food. “Whatcha waiting for, Red?”

  I despised being called “Red”. My hair was more brown than red, but it never seemed to matter. Resisting the urge to snap back at him, I replied slowly, “I’m not feeling very well. Kind of nauseous, actually.”

  “You’ll feel better if you eat something,” he replied, staring at me with his watery gray eyes.

  “I don’t think so,” I answered, slouching down in the chair. “I’m feeling pretty bad.”

  Clement cocked the gun and pointed it at me. “Trust me, you have no idea how bad you’re gonna feel if you don’t eat.”

  More angry than scared, I clenched my jaw, grabbed a plate, and began filling it with food.

  He lowered the gun.

  Just then, there was the sound of a grandfather clock chiming in a nearby room. The two men looked at each other uneasily.

  “So, what happened to the other two guys?” asked Tara, pushing the stuffing and turkey around on her plate with her fork. “Did they crawl back to their holes?”

  “I’d watch my mouth if I was you,” said Clement. “Those fellers aren’t the kind you want to piss off.”

  Tara’s cocked an eyebrow and sneered. “You mean the kind of sicko pricks who enjoy torturing innocent people?”

  I thought she’d nailed it on the head, but Clement shook his head. “They’re much worse than that. Now, shut your trap and eat before they get back to the house.”

  She put her fork down. “Why are you so worried about us eating? I just don’t get that.”

  “Cause we were ordered to make sure you eat,” said Clement. “So eat.”

  “Ordered or paid to threaten and torture innocent women and children?” I muttered, glaring up at him.

  His lips thinned. “Looky here, we haven’t tortured any of you…”

  “Clement,” warned Darnell. “Enough.”

  Clement let out a ragged sigh. “Just eat your food, dammit, and quit asking questions.”

  Sighing myself, I stuck a forkful of turkey into my mouth.

  “Um, I have to use the bathroom,” said Marie, who seemed to be playing with her food.

  “Oh, hell,” said Darnell, putting his fork down. “Why does this not surprise me?”

  “Please,” she said, smiling sheepishly. “I’m sorry, I just can’t help it.”

  “Fine. Anyone else need to go?” he asked, standing up.

  We all raised our hands.

  “Women,” muttered Clement. “Okay, one at a time. I’ll watch the ones at the table while you bring ‘em to the toilet.”

  “Okay. Let’s go. You first,” said Darnell, waving his gun at Marie.

  Something in her eyes told me she was planning to do more than pee. “Wait,” I said, pushing myself away from the table. “We should go two at a time. It will be much quicker.”

  Darnell eyed me suspiciously.

  I tilted my head. “What? Do you think we’re going to try and escape down the toilet together or something?

  Tara snorted.

  He gave me a dirty look.

  “Come on. Going together makes much more sense, doesn’t it?” I prodded. “It’ll take half the time.”

  He relented. “Fine.”

  I stepped away from the table and he moved behind the both of us, his gun near the back of my neck. “Down the hall to the right,” he ordered. “Then up the stairs. Keep your voices down.”

  I followed Marie to a dilapidated staircase, which was old and creaked with every step. When we reached the top, it was dark. “It’s down there. Keep your voices down or you’ll regret it.”

  When we reached the bathroom, we closed the door, separating him from us.

  Marie leaned against the doorway and sighed.

  I put my finger to my lips and walked to the window. It was small, but definitely escapable. I tried pushing it open, but it wouldn’t budge.

  “What’s going on in there?” whispered Darnell as Marie and I stared at each other. “It’s too quiet.”

  “Jesus, can I take my jeans off?” Marie hollered back.

  “Shh…” he answered.

  Marie stared down at the toilet, which was surprisingly clean. “Did anyone ever tell this guy that it’s impolite and more than a little weird to listen to someone trying to go potty?”

  “Just do it,” he grunted from the outside of the door.

  She smirked. “It’d be a lot easier without a guy listening in.”

  I tried the window again, this time with success.

  “Sorry, Emily,” lied Marie loudly. “I must have eaten something really bad. This is going to take a few minutes. Back up, Darnell, or you’re going to be in for a real unpleasant treat.”

  Biting back a smile, I stuck my head out of the window and wondered if breaking a leg would be worth trying to escape.

  It was a long way down.

  “Go,” she whispered into my ear.

  Taking a deep breath, I pulled myself out of the window and started crawling down the lower section of the roof. When I reached the edge, I sighed in relief, it wasn’t as high up as I’d originally thought. I turned and lowered my body, until I was hanging from the edge. I then dropped down onto the porch, followed by Marie, who was now sporting a pair of sunglasses.

  “Come on,” she said, pulling me forward.

  As we started running, I could hear Darnell screaming from the bathroom window.

  “Bye, suckers!” laughed Marie as we ran away from the house and towards the fields.

  “What about the others?” I hollered, looking back. “We can’t just leave them!”

  “We have to. We’ll get help… send someone to rescue them. Come on, before it’s too late!”

  We ran as fast as we could away from the house, next to the dirt road leading away from the farm. It seemed to go on for miles and as I looked ahead, I knew we’d be caught if we didn’t get away from the open road.

  “We need to go into the woods,” I pointed towards the trees up ahead. “Otherwise, they’ll catch us for sure.”

  “Okay,” she huffed.

  Just as we made it to the cover of the trees, we heard an engine in the distance.

  “Keep going, Marie!” I prodded.

  “Wait!” she gasped, as she was lagging farther behind.

  I glanced back.

  She held her side. “I should have never started smoking!”

  “Just keep running and don’t look back,” I hollered, as we headed deeper into the woods.

  “Yeah… sure… where are we going?” she gasped out.

  “I’m not sure,” I yelled back, leaping over a large branch. “But we have to keep moving!”

  “Wait!” cried Marie.

  Groaning, I stopped and turned around.

  She was bent over with her hands on her knees, panting. “Yeah… I just have to… catch my breath.”

  I stared past her towards the direction of the road, expecting Darnell to come barreling through the trees.

  “Do you think he saw us?” she asked.

  “Probably. We really need to keep moving.”

  She straightened up. “Okay.”

  We started running again, going even deeper into the woods. Once I thought we were fairly safe, I stopped to rest.

  “Where are we?” she asked, leaning her palm against a birch tree.

  “I don’t know,” I replied, looking around. It wa
s hard to see anything with so many tall trees. I couldn’t even tell if we were headed towards the mountains.

  She frowned. “Great, we’re lost.”

  “Well, it’s certainly better than being a prisoner.”

  She closed her eyes and touched the bridge of her nose. “God, my dad is going to flip out.”

  “Would you quit worrying about him?” I said. “He’s the least of your worries right now.”

  “Oh, if you knew him, you’d say differently. He can be a real monster.”

  “Come on. Let’s just get moving.”

  “What if we’re heading farther into the wilderness? We could get really lost.”

  I bit my lower lip.

  She was right. The deeper we went, the higher our risk of bumping into something a lot scarier than our captors – bears, mountain lion, even moose. There was no way we’d be able to defend ourselves against them.

  “Maybe we should wait here for a while and then head back the way we came before sunset. When it’s dark, we can follow the dirt road to the nearest town,” said Marie.

  “Wherever that may be. Something tells me I’m a long way from home.”

  “Where are you from?” she asked.

  “Missoula.”

  “I’m from Polson.”

  “I wonder where we are?”

  “I’m not sure,” she replied with a smirk. “I left my map at home.”

  I grunted.

  “You okay?” she asked.

  “I’m just so thirsty. What about you?”

  “Me too,” she replied.

  I wiped the sweat from my forehead. “We need to find water.”

  “Even if we do, it’s probably not safe to drink anything not bottled or out of a tap.”

  She was probably right. “Maybe, but we need to stay hydrated.”

  It was warm, in the eighties, we hadn’t drunk anything for hours, and we’d just run what felt like a marathon. I needed to find something to drink – and soon.

  I wiped more sweat from my face and noticed that I was feeling dizzy. “I don’t feel well.”

  Marie stepped closer. Her forehead wrinkled. “You’re very pale. You should sit down.”

  I swallowed. “Yeah, you’re right. Just for a little while… it won’t hurt, I suppose.” I staggered over to a large tree and slid down until I was leaning against the base of the tree.

  She walked over to me and knelt down. “Don’t worry. Rest. I’ll keep watch.”

  My eyes felt heavy. “Okay. Thanks.”

  Marie touched my shoulder and squeezed it. “Just rest,” she repeated, staring into my eyes. “Sleep.”

  “Yeah. Okay,” I whispered, falling asleep.

  Chapter Five

  I opened my eyes. It was dark and all I could hear were crickets chirping in the shadows and leaves blowing in the trees.

  As I blinked and stared in confusion, everything came rushing back. Martin, the barn, Gloria’s body in the loft, escaping from the rooftop with Marie.

  “Marie,” I croaked, my throat sore.

  She didn’t answer.

  I stood up and shivered. The temperature had to have fallen by at least twenty degrees.

  “Marie?” I whispered loudly, brushing at a small spider on my sleeve.

  Where in the hell was Marie?

  Something moved in the bushes ahead of me and I froze. I stared at it for a few seconds, holding my breath.

  Probably a squirrel or small animal, I told myself.

  Hoping that I was just being paranoid and Marie had also fallen asleep somewhere nearby, I began searching for her.

  “Marie,” I called out again, my voice echoing in the night.

  The moon was full but the darkness made it hard to see much of anything. I called out for her a couple more times as I walked around, but she didn’t answer. After a while, I began to wonder if she’d decided to abandon me, or worse – she’d wandered gotten lost.

  Just then, the sound of twigs snapping made me jump. I whipped around, but found myself alone.

  I released my breath and told myself to calm down. It was a forest and there were small animals everywhere. I began walking again, praying that I was headed in the right direction, whichever that was.

  “Emily….”

  Alarmed, I stopped and looked around, unsure if I’d imagined the voice. A gust of wind blew my hair and I brushed off the sound, blaming it on the wind and my overactive imagination.

  Shivering, I shoved my hands into my sweatshirt pockets and began walking through the woods again. After a few steps, however, something made me look up into the trees. A pair of reddish-orange eyes stared back down at me and I gasped in horror.

  That was not an owl.

  Terrified, I began to run.

  “Emily…”

  This time there was no doubt in my mind that someone or something was calling my name. The voice was eerie, with an almost feminine quality.

  I pushed myself forward, the blood rushing to my ears as the voice called my name again, this time followed by mocking laughter.

  “You can’t escape…”

  Scared to death, I choked back a sob and kept running, my legs moving faster than I’d have ever thought possible. Soon my eyes filled with tears, making it harder for me to see, and before I could blink them away, I tripped over something on the ground and flew forward onto my knees.

  “Emily…”

  I scrambled back onto my feet, trying to ignore the throbbing in my left knee, but the hot intensity of the pain was overwhelming.

  “How did that feel?”

  I turned around to find Martin staring at me, his eyes like hot cinders. He stepped towards me. “Funny how we keep meeting at night.”

  I backed away from him. “Don’t you fucking come near me!”

  “Such foul language,” he said with a chuckle.

  “I mean it, Martin. I’m not afraid of you, and I’m certainly not going to let you take me back to that barn.”

  He sighed. “Come on now. You disobeyed, Emily. Now you have to learn to deal with the consequences.”

  “Look, you can’t just kidnap someone and expect them not to try and escape.”

  He didn’t say anything, just stared at me quietly. Expecting me to obey him.

  Fuck it.

  I turned around and started limping away. Twenty steps later, I found him blocking my path.

  How had he gotten in front of me?

  “Surprise,” he said, grinning smugly. “See, you can’t possibly escape. So why even bother running? I mean… limping.”

  Sick of his arrogance, I clenched my fists and decided that I wasn’t going to go down without a fight. “So now what?” I hollered. “You’re going to teach me a lesson by killing me?”

  His eyes glittered in the darkness. “If it were left to me, I wouldn’t, but...”

  “What’s wrong with your eyes?” I interrupted. They were beginning to glow an eerie reddish-orange color.

  He took a step towards me. “You know, your fire intrigues me,” he said, reaching forward. He put his finger under my chin and raised it. “It’s… exciting, actually.”

  I felt like I was in a trance as he caressed the side of my cheek with the pad of his finger.

  “Truth is, I’m not quite sure what to do with you,” he whispered, eyeing me appraisingly.

  I swallowed hard.

  His lips curved up and something warm and delicious ignited deep within me as our eyes held. It spread from my pelvis all the way to my fingertips.

  “What’s happening?” I whispered, my legs turning to jelly.

  He put a hand around my waist to hold me up and slid the other one behind my neck. “Don’t fight it,” he whispered, staring into my eyes.

  I couldn’t understand what was happening. A minute ago I wanted to get as far away from him as possible. Now, thoughts of his lips on mine made me tingle all over. As if he could read my thoughts, he lowered his mouth towards mine and I held my breath.

  “Em
ily,” he said in a husky voice. “Your scent is driving me crazy. I don’t know whether to kiss you or…”

  “Kiss me,” I whispered, anticipating his mouth, hungry for it.

  “Stop!” ordered a strong voice behind us.

  Martin growled and released me.

  I fell to the ground.

  “What in the hell are you doing?” snapped Marie angrily, staring at Martin.

  He put his hands behind his back and stood with his legs apart, glaring at her in silence.

  “Marie!” I gasped, standing up. “Thank God you’re okay!” She turned to me and I noticed in shock that her eyes were glowing the same way Martin’s had just moments ago.

  She smiled coldly and turned back to Martin. “I’m fine. But I’ll be better after I feed. Obviously there’s been a holdup.”

  Feed?

  “Forget this one,” said Martin in a clipped voice. “Let me have her.”

  Marie snorted. “Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you? Keep her as a pet?”

  “What in the hell is going on?” I asked, my eyes darting between the two of them.

  “You know the rules,” said Marie, ignoring me. “She’s mine.”

  Realizing now that Marie wasn’t exactly who she said she was, and obviously a bigger threat than Martin, I moved closer to him.

  Martin swore under his breath. “I’m sorry, Emily. You’d better run. I wish there was something I could do.”

  I stared at him in confusion. “Do? About what?”

  “Martin,” warned Marie.

  He clenched his jaw. “Please, get… out… of… here. Now.”

  Marie smiled broadly, her teeth glowing in the darkness. “Yes, run away. I live for the hunt. It’s much more fun.”

  I stared at the fangs between her lips in disbelief.

  Fangs?

  “Listen, I’ll give you a thirty-second head start,” she said. “And there will be no help from Martin. I’m telling my father, by the way. When he’s recovered fully.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Your threats don’t frighten me, Celeste.”

  I looked at her. “Celeste?”

  “Marie is my middle name.” She wrinkled her nose. “By the way, why are you still here?”

  I have to be dreaming, I thought. It’s the only thing that made sense.

  Not needing any more prodding, I turned and began limping through the woods, away from the strange couple, convinced that any minute I’d wake up in my bed. Obviously, sleeping in a new place and a late-night snack of peanut butter had corrupted my dreams, giving me nightmares.