Page 19 of Haunted Heart
Whoever it is, it’s the right size and shape. Human. Definitely not a demon… or something worse.
I hold her hand tighter. “Come on, I think we found one.”
Hell is…Hell.
I hate it here Below.
The only favor that man did for me was to give me a way to escape this place.
I never planned to come back to it.
Everything is on fire.
Genevieve can’t see it. It doesn’t touch her.
She doesn’t belong here, and if anything or anyone tries to keep her here, I will destroy them… even if it means destroying myself.
The ground sizzles. Genevieve’s nose scrunches.
“Brimstone?” I ask, and she nods.
“You don’t smell it?”
“I can’t taste or smell. Up until tonight, I couldn’t touch anything either.”
“You’ve certainly thrown a few things at me.” She chuckles, but her smile disappears as something squishes beneath her shoe, rotten.
“That was magic, not touch.”
“Does your magic work here?”
“Not the way it does in the living world.”
I’m not certain how much my power is dampened here, but I know it is. I can feel it.
Every moment we spend here pulls energy from me, and I don’t know if I can get it back.
EIGHT
I get closer,and I can tell immediately that it’s not Dylan.
He’s too tall for a start, which means he has to be… “Jonas!”
I shout his name, but he doesn’t turn back. My voice doesn’t carry in the inert air. It won’t reach him to hear.
He’s headed for the ravine that spills down into the woods, and if he falls… I’m not sure I’ll be able to pull him back out. So, I run—wincing the whole way. These boots were made for aesthetics, not athletics.
I reach him as he gets to the edge, recoiling at what I see below. Eyes wide, I lurch away, grabbing his arm. I fall backward onto my ass, dragging him down with me. He’s as stiff as a felled tree.
“Jonas!” Even though I know he can hear me, he doesn’t react to his name. His eyes are like Julia’s were in the living world: all black and vaguely terrifying.
The lights are on, but no one’s home.
When I stand, he struggles to get up. Flailing like he’s a creature with a carapace, he doesn’t even try to bend at the waist.
As he works to get to his feet, I look down at what he would have fallen into.
It looks like a set from a horror film.
