Page 71 of Monsters of Desire and Nightmares of Passion

“Mrez, help.”

“I’m coming, Ivy.” Mrez turns into his physical self. His tentacles clasp onto a few of the handholds. He shoots me a tentacle. “Grab on.”

By now, both of my feet dangle in the air, having been pulled off the rocks by the grasping hands. I try pulling them up. The touch of the skeleton hands and meatless fingers burns my skin.

“It hurts. I can’t hold on.”

Mrez extends another tentacle and Velvet purrs as loud as she can. I’m shaking. My hands bleed. Pain crawls into my mind. It makes no sense to try and hold on any longer. I should just let go. If I die here and now, The Church of Light can’t use me as a sacrifice. Why wait? Why suffer? Why lose more people? I’ve already lost enough people to last a lifetime. I can give up. It’s fine. I don’t have to hold on. If this is the end, so be it.

“Let me go, Mrez. They’re too strong.”

Mrez eyes flicker and turn into red hot suns. “The fuck I will. I won’t let you go. Just hold on.”

His tentacle wraps around my midsection and squeezes tight, pushing the air out of my lungs. He tries to pull me away from the clasping hands, but they are legion and he’s alone. I look down. Thousands of hands have built a chain, a human chain pulling me closer to them. They need me.

“Join us, Ivy. Stay with us.”

Roars fill the valley below. I refuse to think about what’s going on there. Khal and Draw call to each other, roaring over the noise and screams coming from the faceless mouths of the lost Shadows.

“Leave me,” I plead.

“I won’t let you go,” Mrez calls out.

I feel Velvet’s small body leaving me.

“Save yourself, little one,” I whisper.

A claw punctures my back followed by a sharp pain that spreads through my body. It’s a short, intense pain, one that explodes inside my veins and makes me gasp for air. The spirits of the lost Shadows enter me. They claw at me, burn inside of me, and break me into smaller pieces. For a few heartbeats, all I can do is panic. Then, suddenly, I stop being afraid. I understand them. They enter me fully, melding their own minds with mine, showing me bits and pieces of their own stories and sufferings. It’s deep, intense. My desire to absorb their pain becomes greater. What’s happening to me? Without warning, the world explodes into a million shards of intense porcelain colors that enter my heart and mind like in an old story I forgot about.

It’s nearly impossible to breathe. One of my hands slips off the stone wall. The bleeding fingers of my other hand go numb, though they still burn with pain. I hang on to the jagged grey rock with my fingertips. The world spins and bleeds. I hear my guys fight and feel their wounds. Their roars are part of mine. My energy has drained to the point that I can no longer hold onto the rocks and breathe at the same time.

Mrez disappears and, the next second, the claw is gone from my back. There’s no more pain. Velvet flies next to me, her small teeth holding on to the back of my nightgown.

Mrez appears again, embraces me in his arms, and lifts me up.

“Mrez, what happened?” I can’t express the fear and horror I just experienced, which sublimely ended in a feeling of peace.

“You’re safe,” he whispers. I sense his presence behind me, as if he’s floating. “Just a few more steps, Ivy. We’re almost there.”

I look up. Mrez is right. The entrance to the cave is close. I only need to climb a few more feet. It’s easy now. My strength is restored. Maybe I imagined everything that was happening. Maybe it was the fear playing tricks on my exhausted mind. Yeah, that and low blood sugar. And lack of caffeine. When did I last have a cup of coffee? Tea works fine for me but, when my mind spins like this and I experience low blood sugar, coffee is the only thing that does the trick and helps me get back on track.

As I try to climb faster, pulling myself up, my foot slips again and I dangle from the stone wall.

“Mrez.”

He appears on the wall above me, his hand reaching for mine. Several tentacles shoot from his body, wrapping around me. The dark tentacle closes around my waist, pressing hard and making it difficult to breathe. Yet it also gives me strength, for some reason. Mrez grabs my hand and lifts me up. Everything is happening so fast I don’t even realize I’m already high above and close to the cave.

We both land inside the dark cave, Mrez covering me, keeping me safe. He cocoons me and, for a second, I don’t want to move. I want to stay like that, not moving, not breathing, ignoring the world and everything about it. Just as I’m about to lose myself in this feeling of safety, everything returns at once. I suddenly become worried about Draw and Khal, knowing they’re protecting my back and providing the time for me to climb up to safety. Velvet floats over us, her small tongue lulling out of her open mouth. She licks my face the way a puppy would.

“Where are the guys?”

“I’ll have a look.” Mrez steps closer to the entrance of the cave, leaving me alone with Velvet in my arms. Her small paw looks better already.

I lean back against the wall, only then noticing the blood flowing from my palms and knees. Velvet licks it off and, with each of her touches, the blood disappears, leaving behind clean healed skin.

“How are you doing this, sweetie?” I ask her, cuddling her close and scratching under her chin. The more I study Velvet, the more she appears to be the cross between a Shih Tzu, a Burmese cat, and some alien fever dream. Not alien, I correct myself. Something from out of this dimension.

Mrez returns, a sweet smiled plastered over his lips.

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