Page 88 of Visions of Darkness

Give in.

Because I ached.

I ached for the woman who I knew was on her knees on the floor right then. Weeping for me.

“We have to go.” A dark urgency filled Pax’s tone.

But I couldn’t move. I gaped at the mangled mess that was left of the phone, a cold realization gliding through my veins.

I couldn’t go back.

I could never return.

I would never see her again.

Pax’s mouth was suddenly so close to my ear, his hold soft where he curled his hand around my elbow. “I know. I know. But it’s too risky. We can’t take this kind of chance again. I can’t take that kind of chance with you. It’s not tied to my name, but that doesn’t mean someone can’t tap in and track it.”

Numbly, I nodded.

“Let’s go.” Pax led me quickly across the lot. I fumbled along at his side, his strides so long and fast I had to almost jog to keep up with him.

I felt a disorder in it. A chaos that clouded. Particles from the piece of me that had been ripped from my soul.

As crushed as the phone had been at my feet.

My thoughts drifted to the past. When my mother had watched me with adoration rather than fear.

“That imagination is something else. I bet you will write a book one day. Promise me one thing?”

Aria gazed up at her mommy, eager to hear whatever she would say.

“Never give that imagination up. Never stop dreaming. It shines so bright inside you.”

Aria giggled and snuggled down deeper in her covers. “I won’t, Mommy. I promise.”

She tapped Aria’s nose. “I love you more than anything in this world. Now, sweet, sweet dreams.”

They’d been sweet, sweet dreams that had turned into our nightmares.

I choked around another sob, and that chaos spun. Into the air, where it whipped like a coming storm.

Dark clouds gathering in the distance.

It covered me in a slick of cold dread that lifted the hairs at the back of my neck.

I stumbled, unable to move my feet as Pax tried to drag me across the dirt lot to where his car was parked in front of the motel.

But I couldn’t do anything but look, my eyes wide as I lifted them to find a man who stood at the door to his semitruck.

I felt it crawl over me.

Evil.

I breathed it in through my nostrils, and it gushed through my veins in a streak of malignance.

Nausea boiled in my stomach and clawed up my throat.

Pax tightened his hold around my elbow, and he pressed his mouth to the side of my head. “Keep moving, Aria. Keep moving. Do not stop. Do not stop.”

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