Page 3 of Nightmare Island

The spirits waste no time. They surge toward Sten, a writhing mass of ghostly forms, eager for his death, so he can join them.He thrashes in the water, fighting against the spectral hands that grab at him. Falling in is survivable if you don’t let them drag you under to drown you…

Sten frantically claws his way toward the edge.

I can’t watch anymore. Can’t afford to because he’ll be back up the mountain the moment he gets out of the pool. This is my chance. Victory is within my grasp. I turn back to the climb, pushing myself harder than ever.

The summit is just there. Just a few more feet. My muscles ache in protest, but I ignore them. I keep going, my blood smearing the stone.

Then, the rock beneath my foot crumbles, disintegrating under my weight. For a heart-stopping moment, I’m falling, the world spinning around me. My hand shoots out, grabbing desperately for anything to stop my descent.

Panic strangles me.

My fingers catch on a tiny ledge, halting my fall. Pain lances through my arm as my full weight yanks on the joint. The screaming pain is agonizing, and I bite down a bellow. I hang there, heart pounding, breath coming in ragged gasps.

I can feel my grip starting to give way, tiny pieces of rock showering down as the ledge crumbles beneath my grip.

Goddammit.

The ledge gives way, and I fall.

“Fuck!”

Seconds is all it takes.

I plunge into the icy touch of the water, dunked deep under. Instantly, I’m swimming to reach the surface.

Fighting against the current of grabbing arms, I desperately kick and push myself up, my head breaking free as I gasp for air. I catch Sten’s glare across the pool. Idiot.

Freezing touches of the dead souls are all over my body, as if they’re trying to burrow under my skin. Their moaning echoes in my head, and my skin crawls.

“Having fun over there?” I call out sarcastically to Sten, who only snarls in response.

Fear claws at my gut, but I shove it down. I refuse to let it control me. Instead, I channel it into determination. I push harder through the water, kicking and swinging my arms. The edge is close, and I can almost taste freedom. A smirk tugs at my lips as I near the edge. That’s when a shadow looms over me from behind.

Stiffening in response, I whip around, my body protesting in aches from the sudden movement. The glint of a blade catches my attention, and I’m stunned. Sten’s expression screams desperation and rage as he slashes the knife at me.

I jerk back, but the blade catches me, slicing from my forehead down over my eye.

Pain explodes through my head, white-hot and blinding. A scream of agony tears from my throat as I instinctively cover my face.

“Fuck!” I shout, blood pouring between my fingers. My vision dances in my good eye, the other completely useless now.

Sten’s vicious laugh cuts through the haze of pain. “That’s your payment, you piece of shit. For daring to think you could be an Alpha.”

“Is that all you’ve got?” I snap back, my voice heavy with a thunderous growl, even as the spirits tug harder at me, more frantic than before. My skin pinches at their touch, but I force down the revulsion. I’m already drowning in agony, my skull pulsing.

“I’m just getting started,” Sten growls, raising the blade again from the water.

Rage fuels me as I lunge at him in the pool, but he moves faster and drives the blade into my chest, right over my heart. I feel it sink in, a cold shock that quickly blazes into searing agony.

Pain. Fuck, so much pain. It steals my breath, making the world spin. Is this how it ends? Rejected by my family for being different, for my mistakes, only to die in this shithole? This isn’t how it was supposed to go.

As darkness creeps at the edges of my vision, a last burst of fury surges through me. With a roar, I shove Sten with all my remaining strength, driving my hands against his shoulders that bob out of the water.

His gaze widens in surprise as he’s shoved, and his head flings backward, slamming into the sharp stone edge of the pool with a horrid crack. Blood pours from the back of his head as his body convulses, then goes limp. The spirits swarm over his body like fucking insects going to town on a corpse.

My gut turns.

The howls of the wolves around us fall silent.

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