Page 241 of Soul So Dark
“I’m surprised they came with you,” I comment as we dodge in and out of the brush.
Aiden glances over his shoulder, “I heard alliances change by the day.”
After a while, the trees thin out and the black silhouette of a large structure appears in the distance. We draw our weapons and creep through the darkness, heads on a swivel as we approach the clearing. I don’t hear any sound to indicate where the Rhodens are, but there haven’t been any gunshots, so I assume they haven’t run into anyone.
We stop behind a pin oak with a thick trunk, peering at the barn. The windows are boarded up, blocking out any light that might exist inside.
“I’ll go,” I whisper. “Hang back, keep your eyes open, anddo notcome in until I give the all clear.”
“Why don’t you just stroll up to the front door?” Aiden snickers.
“What do you think I’m—” But then I stop short, hearing a muffled noise in the distance.
A moment later, it erupts into screams from inside the barn.
Scrapping the plan, we both take off across the clearing. The sliding door is latched and secured with a padlock, and the person door next to it is sealed off with layers of plywood. All the same, I brace myself in the frame and land a solid kick in the center.
It shudders, but the wood holds firm.
I give it another kick as Aiden continues around the side of the barn, only to return seconds later.
“There’s a cellar door, but it’s locked from the inside,” he calls.
I spin around, eyes searching while the screams assault me in the worst of ways.
Dallas’s screams.
Tearing off toward the next building, I crash through the door of the shed and start tossing things out of my way. Unrecognizable junk scatters across the wood planks; trash, spare machinery, and broken tools. I toss it all around like a twister, shouting and cursing and threatening to take the whole thing down with me. That is, until I see something familiar in the corner. And, for a brief moment, I wonder if it’s real.
Am I in the middle of these woods in the dead of night or am I still back in the desert, trying to get home?
Either way, I’m running out of time.She’srunning out of time.
I throw everything else aside and grab the ax covered in rust and wood rot, hoping it’s still sharp enough to get the job done. And even if it’s not, I just need it to stay in one piece long enough to bust through the wall.
Aiden barely steps out of the way before I take a running leap and sink the blade into the wood. I reel back again…and again…and again…
“Ten seconds!”Thatch’s voice echoes in my head.
I’m back there, a world away, and I can hear his voice, smell the basement, see the blood, and feel the wood buckling beneath my hands.
Eight…
I swing again.
Six…
And again.
Four…
“Break it! Now!”
Two…
One.
The ax blade slices through the mangled wood, sending splinters flying into the barn. As soon as I see the edges come away from the frame, I give another kick, tearing the plywood from its nails and screws.
