Page 5 of His Darkest Desire

The orb brightened, and the whispers grew louder. Though she couldn’t make out the words, they were melodic, hypnotic, beckoning her closer.

Just as the voices reached a crescendo, they fell silent. The car’s lights, both interior and exterior, flared on.

The blue orb vanished in the cones of illumination cast by the headlights, which fell on the golden leafed boughs of a tree that was much too close to the road.

Kinsley’s heart leapt into her throat as she realized that she’d reached the bend.

But she hadn’t turned.

The front wheels hit a bump, jolting her. She slammed both feet on the brake pedal. Her body shifted forward, and the seatbelt dug into her chest as the SUV slid on the muddy road.

The vehicle pitched downward.

She must’ve gasped, or screamed, or cursed, but she didn’t hear whatever sound emerged. Only the sight before her held her attention—the steep downward slope riddled with trees, undergrowth, boulders, and logs, all lit starkly by the headlights.

Her stomach lurched as gravity overrode the brakes, dragging the SUV fully off the road.

Chaos swallowed Kinsley. The vehicle bounced violently down the hillside, jostled by the many obstacles. The noise was deafening, the jerky movements of the headlights were disorienting, and the punishment on her body was immediate as she was thrashed from side to side and up and down mercilessly. Even the seatbelt couldn’t keep her fully in her seat.

The car halted with an immense crash. Something hard and very, very heavy crushed her midsection back against the seat even as her head snapped forward and struck the steering wheel.

Darkness enveloped her vision, deepened by the wave of agony washing over her.

From somewhere far off, she tasted iron, smelled rain and dirt, and heard faint whispers drawing closer over the rush of the storm.

Blue light tinged the black behind her eyelids, but she could not open them.

Unconsciousness sank its claws into Kinsley, dragging her down, down, down. She didn’t fight.

Then she didn’t see, hear, smell, or feel anything at all.

* * *

A crack of thunder jolted Kinsley awake. Her eyes flashed open. Bright, ethereal blue luminescence filled her vision. The orb came into focus before her, flitting from side to side before drawing closer. Kinsley slowly blinked, struggling to clear the blurriness from her vision.

Sound rushed back into her awareness. Heavy raindrops striking the car and nearby foliage; wind whipping through leaves and branches; creaking metal; the drawn-out echoes of the thunder that had roused her.

And whispers. Not from the speakers anymore, but from the floating orb. They were softer now, almost soothing, coaxing her to wakefulness.

The scents of rain, wet earth, wood, and decay filled her nose, as well as that of acrid smoke. A tang of bitter iron remained on her tongue. She swallowed, but it did not rid her of the taste. Was that…blood? Her body trembled, but it wasn’t simply the air from outside making her shiver. It was a deep-rooted cold chilling her from within.

She raised her throbbing head. The orb’s light revealed the shattered windshield and crumpled dashboard, the broken window and its bent frame, and the rear-view mirror dangling by a frayed wire.

Kinsley attempted to sit back, but she cried out as agony ripped through her middle. She looked down.

Her gaze fell on something protruding from the instrument panel—a tree branch. It had run through a gap in the steering wheel and was…was…

A nightmare. I’m stuck in a nightmare.

This…this can’t be real.

She drew in one ragged breath after another as she lifted her quivering fingers to the branch. The bark was rough and solid. As though in a dream, she trailed her fingers along the branch to the place where it impaled her belly. They came away wet and sticky with blood.

“Oh God,” she rasped, the words sending another wave of pain through her. “Oh God, oh God, oh God…” Every breath she took was fresh agony, building and building. She screamed.

The sound tapered into sobs and a soft, pitiful whine as Kinsley closed her eyes and weakly clutched the branch. “This can’t be happening…”

Tears streamed down her cheeks. She was all alone, in the middle of nowhere, run through and pinned in place by a branch.

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