Page 38 of A Descent Into Darkness

“I will never forget what he did. I will have what’s owed to me, and no one will keep me from my prize.”

“If you don’t take our offer now. It will cost you everything.” Elordis gave me an ultimatum. I wanted to say no. I wanted to turn her down, but the pull of their magic on my psyche was hard to resist.

“She has quite lovely breasts,” she mused while I struggled to refuse their offer. “I could cut them off and you could keep them as a trophy,” she offered, drawing her knife under Katherine’s breast. She screamed as blood spilled over her belly, breaking through the last remnants of fog from my mind. I lunged for her, the other mermaids ensnaring my arms, holding me in place.

“Let her go! This game is over. I’m done with you.”

“For a man willing to give up everything for Peter Pan,you seem a little too attached. Let us help you.” She smiled smugly and then her dagger swung in an arc, sinking the blade into Katherine’s chest.

“No!” I screamed, my heart shattering as blood poured from her mouth and her eyes fluttered closed. My world shifted.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to end. It had all happened so fast. Everything we had planned was gone in an instant. Revenge gave my life meaning, but Katherine… she made it all worth it. The future I’d dreamed about had slipped through my fingers as the life left her.

I was in shock. I closed my eyes, but the sight of her lifeless body was burned into my mind. I knew I should leave this place, but I couldn’t bring myself to move. A part of me wanted to give in. To let them put me out of my misery and follow Kat into an afterlife that would surely be better than this, but the demon within me refused to let that happen. A burning ember of vengeance was seared into my soul. I didn’t have the luxury of dying along with her. I was meant to have my revenge against Peter Pan. Fate demanded it.

The demon roared in my ears, warning me to move, but heartache overshadowed the urge to fight. It weighed on me like an anchor, pulling me down into the depths of despair. Haunting me with the specters of what might have been. Cold hands tried to drag me down, but I didn’t care. I refused to open my eyes and see her dead body one more time.

Click!

“Get your slimy hands off of him!” The voice pulled me up short. It was her. It was Kat’s voice! My eyes popped open, turning to the sound. Standing on an outcropping not a hundred yards away was Katherine. She stood with a pistol in each hand and a deep scowl on her face.

“Katherine? How is that possible?” I breathed, my heart skipping to an unnatural rhythm in my chest at the sight of her. Had I finally lost my mind? What in the name of the Divine was happening? How could she be there if she was…

Laughter filled the cave, interrupting my mental breakdown, and my eyes darted back to the mermaids. Elordis rocked with laughter, her arms no longer holding Kat’s desecrated body. In its place was a barnacle crusted skeleton. Her dagger still stuck into its breast bone.

It had all been a trick. An illusion to break me down. They’d been toying with their prey.

“We were only trying to kill you,” she tsked. “The man who couldn’t stay a boy doesn’t like our games anymore,” she mocked.

The demon inside me snapped.

I lunged for her, ripping my arms free from the other two. I heard shots fired behind me, but all I could think about was wrapping my fingers around that cold, clammy skin and choking the life from her pretty little body. She pushed the skeleton from her lap, sending it toppling down the mountain of skulls she’d perched herself on. I stumbled over the old bones, temporarily distracted from my prize. I caught sight of her colorful tail disappearing on the otherside of the mound. I pursued her, bones crunching under my feet. I lost my footing at the top, stumbling forward and rolling down the backside, skulls falling all around me.

“James!” I could hear Kat calling after me.

“Kat, stay here! I’ll come back for you,” I barked. I couldn’t let the mermaid go. Not after what she’d done. Visions of Katherine’s dead body would haunt me for the rest of my life.

A crack in the rock wall was the only exit point I could see. I jumped back into the water, side stepping through the crevice in the rock. Roots crisscrossed in front of me, blocking my path. My dagger swung violently as I pushed my way through the tight space. The crevice snuffed out the light plunging me into total darkness. An unnatural breeze began to pick up the further I got. The wind blew through the rocks with an ominous groan. A warning to turn back, but I pushed on. The walls seemed to tighten around me until I felt wedged into the mountain. Either I would make it through or be suffocated by the stones. I sucked in a breath, pushing further as roots pulled at my hair, scraping across my face, and blocking my view. One last push, and I was through. I was spit out into an enormous cavern. Walls soaring overhead with pinpoints of light filtering in from above, like stars casting the cave into an artificial twilight. There, swaying gently with the soft winds, was an immense three-masted ship.

“She’s magnificent,” I breathed, in awe of the ship. The sight of it had completely derailed my pursuit. There was no sign of the orange-haired mermaid. She’d vanished into the mysterious depths. My mind sifted through questions. What was this place? What secrets did it hide? And how had a ship come to rest in the belly of a mountain?

“James!” Kat’s voice echoed through the narrow crevice.

“Here! I’m here!” I called back to her. Her beautiful face emerging from the darkness. A crease in her brow relaxed when she saw me, and my heart stuttered at thesight of her.

“Are you alright? What happened to the mermaid? I can’t believe we made it!” Her voice shook with emotion, the words pouring out of her in a nervous rant. She wrapped her arms around me, burying her face in my neck. Her whole body trembled, and I pulled her in tighter.

“You don’t have to worry about me. I’m fine. What about you?”

“I’m good. At least, I think I am. After I surfaced, I couldn’t find you. Then I saw you disappearing under the water. I tried to call to you, but you couldn’t hear me. What happened?”

I pulled her away from me so I could look at her. I ran my fingers over her full lips. The feel of her, real and solid and alive, soothed my soul.

“It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you’re here now. Look,” I said, pointing toward the massive ship.

“How… how is that possible? How did it get down here?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea.”

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