Page 19 of Run Like the Devil

The weirdest part was that it didn’t feel wrong. Despite having more limbs than I was accustomed to, I didn’t stumble around. Instead, I moved with confidence, as if I’d always had this body. It forced me to realize I didn’t quite feel like myself.

Something else was in my head with me—not specific thoughts but feelings. It eased me, calming me so nothing around me felt that scary even though it really should have.

I doubted Hubis had done this just so I could get a nice little peek of what came before. His words echoed in my head, where he talked about chaos, about violence.

Still, that other part of me didn’t feel that fear. They seemed happy, content.

I spun, though I wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t a sound, but as if I felt something there. Was that a sense I didn’t know how to identify? It was as though vibrations in the ground had alerted me, and sure enough, five other figures came from behind me.

No fear swamped me, though.

“Are you lost?” one of the five asked. The words weren’t a language I recognized, yet the meaning of them struck me a heartbeat after they were uttered.

“Who are you?” The words were mine, not the other being. Was this a memory of some sort? I experienced everything as if it were me, I responded myself, but those feelings were like another person. Each moment that ticked by made me more fearful.

I highly doubted Hubis wanted me to experience something pleasant…

“You should know better than to leave the domes,” another of the five said. It didn’t have a mouth that seemed capable of smiling, but I could almost feel the amused menace leaking from it. Maybe some things like that transcended all cultures and creatures. “It’s dangerous out here all by yourself.”

“I don’t know where I am,” I said, a quiver to my voice.

“You look clean. Clearly you came from a dome. You think we’re beneath you, huh?”

That same sense from before hit me as the five came forward, each strike of their feet against the ground echoing up and through my body.

“I’m not who you think I am.” I didn’t even try to sound tough. It wasn’t like me, but something about that other being made me feel small and weak.

“Even the way you talk says it all. What? Did you come out here to laugh at us? To mock the primitives who live out here?”

I shook my head, trying to deny it even if I didn’t understand. None of it made sense to me. I didn’t know anything about this world, couldn’t talk my way out of something I couldn’t even come close to understanding. I had no idea what the fuck a dome was, or what these people wanted, or why they so clearly hated me. Without any facts, I couldn’t argue, couldn’t manipulate them, couldn’t do anything but back away.

Something inside me said to run, like an instinct that better knew this world than I did. It had to be the being who had this body, and who was I to argue with good advice?

I turned and tried to bolt, but I didn’t get far before something heavy struck me from behind. It forced me to the ground, my body sinking into the dirt beneath the weight.

I struggled, but the difference between my strength and the being that had pinned me became clear. I felt like an ant trying to take on a bear. Worse, all too fast there were more hands when the others joined in, and soon I couldn’t even put up the smallest of resistance.

A face was just before mine, sharp teeth bared in the sort of anger that transcended everything. Them being from an entirely different world didn’t mean shit when it came to understanding rage that deep.

Whatever reason they had for hating me consumed them entirely. I could feel each place they touched me—the hands that pinned my arms, the leg that held my leg in place, the sharp ache in my side from where I’d struck the ground. Even if this body didn’t feel like my own, I experienced everything it did. No matter that this was some weird memory, an echo of something that had happened before my world even existed, it was real to me in this moment.

“Let me go,” I snapped, thrashing even if it gained me nothing.

“Don’t worry,” the thing on top of me said, but his tone was far from reassuring. “We won’t kill you. What fun would that be? You dome-dwellers are so soft that it isn’t even sporting to kill you. It’d be like slaughtering babies. Instead, we’ll just play with you a while, then send what’s left of you back to your precious dome. Let them see what happens when you come out here to laugh at us, let your broken body be a reminder of how much less you all are.”

Please, God, help me, I prayed out, even if it was stupid, even if that very God was the one who had put me here.

The being over me laughed, coming closer until they blocked out all the light around me. “God turned his back on all of us—you should know that by now. God doesn’t care what any of us do, but hell, maybe your screams will wake him back up.”

And all I could do was tremble at his statement, at the fear that swarmed through me.

* * * *

Tyrus

How had we ended up here again? I’d never believed in fate or destiny, but somehow it seemed as if such a thing were at play here. Unfortunately, it had me reliving a fear I had never wanted to experience again.

Loch remained unmoving on my bed, just as she had before, after she’d endured torture, after she’d somehow survived it and made her way to me. This time she lacked the blood and bruises, but the noises she’d made were somehow worse.

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