Page 4 of Tainted Serenity

Where the hell is Grey? Is he alive or dead?

Arthur takes several more steps before he reaches me, letting his fingers glide across my skin and tilting my head upward. His irises are black as the night in a starless sky, and I force myself not to swallow.

He smirks at me, and that fuels my agitation as I gather the saliva in my mouth before spitting at him. The song in the background switches back to the previous one, the voice carrying through the wind and giving a bone-chilling sensation.

“Come out, come out. Wherever you are.”This time, the voice is followed by another child-like giggle.

I watch as the fury unfolds in Arthur’s blackened eyes as he glances down at his shoes, where my spit hit him. Within seconds, he has my hair held in a tight grip, my scalp burning from the force with which he holds and tugs it from the roots.

“Insolent child!” he seethes, but all I can do is laugh.

I laugh at the absurdity of it all, at the twisted reality I find myself in. It’s a mocking and hysteric laugh that chills my blood. I laugh because I am fucking terrified of the snowy darkness that envelops me and Grey’s whereabouts.

I laugh because if I don’t laugh, I will cry, and I can’t fucking cry in front of Arthur Grimhill.

Show no weakness.

Because every time I do, it always ends terribly, and I can’t allow that.

Someone else lurks in the forest; I’m sure of it as voices whisper and whistle in my ears. But in my state of mind, the forest probably plays tricks on me, so I try to avoid all the sounds.

Arthur reaches into his pocket for something, and before I can react, his hand covers my mouth. The smell of something I have never felt before envelops me.

There is a gradual fading away of the world, the edges of perception blurring and blending into obscurity. In the darkness of night, my senses are enveloped in an enigmatic shroud.

Despite my best efforts, my mind is slowly but surely being taken over by my inner demons as I am dragged down into the depths of hell.

Chapter 2

Naya

“Find him.”

Arthur’s words echo around me, just waiting to grab hold of my soul and causing a blood-curling feeling inside me. I cannot remember how I got out of the chains that surrounded my body in an uncomfortable grip, but I somehow did. I do not even know which day it is or how much time has passed. All I know is the suffocating pain that is spreading throughout my abdomen, making my skin tingle with a burning sensation.

The wind whistles around the trees, and a pale beam of light illuminates the desolate woods surrounding me through the ink-black sky. Even the stars in the sky don’t get their time to shine behind the light of the moon. A palpable fear has taken over me at the realization that the man who turned my life upside down once again is behind me somewhere. Lurking in the woods, waiting to devour his prey—me.

There is nothing peaceful about the sounds the forest makes in the dark of night. As the crickets sing somewhere in the darkness, their sounds resemble the shrill whispers of forgotten souls ensnared within a timeless purgatory. Because of that, I feel my body shudder in discomfort as my ears take in the sounds on edge, ready to defend myself in case anything comes my way.

“Find. Him.”

Arthur’s voice repeats after several minutes. The wind carries his words like a melancholy harmony, spreading its sounds through the trees until they reach me.

“If you follow this path, you will find a tree looming above all else. He’s there, buried. You better hurry, dear; he doesn’t have much time left.”

The laughter that follows Arthur’s words is vicious, filled with malice, and slicing through the air like a serrated blade. My heart pounds heavily in my chest, its cadence quickening to match the pace of my racing thoughts, each beat echoing the last. The presence of dread engulfs me, suspending time in a slow-motion blur as I try to gather my scattered thoughts.

He’s referring to Grey, and the doll that replicated him, buried underground.

The realization of that has me gasping for breath.

“You better start running,” he sings in a haunting voice that sends goosebumps over my flesh.

And I do.

I push forward as fast and hard as I can until my legs can’t carry me any longer. The forest whizzes past me in a blur as my breaths echo inside my eardrums. The lactic acid starts building up in my muscles as I reach the brink of not being able to sprint any longer, but despite it all, I continue. All in the utter hope of arriving there on time.

If I were to follow the path forward, taking me deeper inside the eerie woods, I will find my way to Grey. He has to be there, not dead or buried.

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