Page 29 of Visions of Darkness

A chill raced down my spine, and darkness flashed at the edges of my sight.

A barren plane. Vapors and mist. Shadows rose and lifted and swirled through the wiry elms. The night thick, the sky low. Evil prowled across the lifeless ground.

Fear thundered my heart into mayhem, and confusion rushed through my brain.

What is happening? What is happening?

My eyes squeezed closed as I fought against the terror of the unknown, and my hands were shaking so violently I was barely able to hold on to her.

Jenny trembled beneath me just as savagely.

At the touch, an onslaught of images invaded my mind.

An insecure little girl sitting alone beneath a window in an empty room, her blond hair in pigtails, a doll clutched to her chest.

Parents who were too busy to notice.

The same loneliness I’d felt radiating from her earlier poured from her spirit, and a voice that was not her own whispered in her ear, “You’re pathetic. Worthless. You’ll always be alone. No one will ever love you.”

It grew louder, more menacing.

“You little slut. Bitch. Whore. You’re disgusting, begging for attention. Pathetic. How could you ever show your face again?”

Jenny’s eyes were wide and confused, though she didn’t try to break free of my hold.

Awareness swept through my consciousness. The instinctual call to bind the wickedness the way I did in Faydor.

Somewhere inside me, I knew it was impossible. I couldn’t bind a Kruen while awake—or even hear it, for that matter.

But I did.

I heard it just as distinctly as if I were tracking it across Faydor.

I saw it then.

A shadow that took shape deep in the recesses of her mind.

A Kruen.

God, how was this happening? Panic battered against the instinct that compelled me to bind.

I shoved the panic down and fought for her, let the energy gather inside me until it was a vibrating orb, though rather than projecting it with my mind the way I did in Faydor, I pushed it out through my hands.

I fought with all of me to separate the black spirit from hers.

The Kruen reared and flailed in an attempt to deflect my attack.

I missed the first time, and energy crackled, and I focused harder, digging around inside myself to find the strength. To fight harder. I reached out with all the strength I possessed to cast out the light within me.

A light that swelled. So bright it nearly burned. It whipped out like an electric current that blazed down my arms and through my fingers.

Sparking and snapping like a strike of lightning. Agony screeched from the Kruen’s disfigured, mutilated mouth when the light struck it.

In a flash of glowing darkness, it was crushed.

Eviscerated.

Dust.

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