Beyond - Volume 1 (YA Paranormal Romance) (27 page)

“What?” I yell.

“I came here as soon as
I could. I have to get you to safety,” Damian says.

“But what about Simon? What happened to him?”

“He ran. I think he got away, but I don’t know if he’s hurt.” Damian wipes his nose on his sleeve.

I clench my fists and breeze out some air. Thoughts of Simon being injured or having to run for his life
have given me fury I’ve never felt before. He couldn’t have seen the ghosts coming for him. He probably doesn’t even know what hit him.

“They’re coming! We have to leave, now!” Damian says.

I grab the arm rest. “Can’t we take them on?” From the corner of my eye I spot Jianyu gathering as much equipment as he can get.

“There are too many of them,” Damian says
, throwing a blanket over the seats. “It’s not just him and the woman. He’s got other men with him. I don’t know who they are, but they’re dangerous and obviously working together.”

Damian tugs my arm and pulls me up. “We have no time to think about it right now. We’re going.” He hauls me to the door.

Then I see them. Through the hole between the boards I see long, black cars appear. Broad men in black suits step out, in their hands large guns, as black as the insides of my eyelids.

I shudder and grasp Damian’s arm, holding him tight.

“Up stairs,” he whispers. He pulls me back, gripping my shoulder, toward the old, broken staircase. Wonky wood keeps this thing together, but I doubt we can walk on it and go up.

Damian goes first and uses the banisters to lift himself over the weak boards. Then it’s my turn. I step forward with care. I have to spread my weight, so the stairs won’t break. Beneath my feet the wood creaks so much, I’m afraid the men standing outside will hear it. Damian helps me with the last few steps.

Then it’s Jianyu’s turn. He tries to follow in my footsteps as carefully as possible, but he’s too tall, which makes him heavier than us. The stairs squeak and grate harder than I could’ve imagined.

At that same moment two planks break underneath his feet and he falls through a hole
into the basement. Only with his hands is he holding onto the bars of the banister.

“Grab my hand,” Damian says as he tries to reach for Jianyu, but the hole is far too big to get near him.

“Go!” Jianyu says.

I look at him and then glance at the hole in the front door. Pitch black covers my sight. My heart beat rises, sending a
quiver through my entire body.

They’re here.

“Take this and go!” Jianyu bites the band from his watch until it comes off and rips loose the Velcro that was around his chest to secure the box that gave him life. Hanging on one hand only, he hurls the box and watch to Damian. He can barely hold on.

Damian nods. I know it’s a gesture of friendship. One that’s about to end.

Then he pulls me to a room on the top floor. With a hard kick he opens the door, pushes me inside and slams it shut behind us. With his back against it he stays put near the door. I have to hold my breath to stop the whimpers coming from my mouth, trying to regulate my emotions, but it’s no use.

Is this all really happening?
The thought of Jianyu hanging there, helplessly, is stuck in my mind. The men in their black suits and their guns remind me of the Grim Reaper coming to take our lives.

They’re here for us. They’re here to kill us, but why? And why do normal, living people work with ghosts? A bad ghost?

Jianyu’s scream echoes through my ears. A loud bang fills the house with noise.

I gasp for air. Damian holds his hand over my mouth, so I don’
t burst out into screams. My chest hurts, like it’s me that was just pierced. I don’t want to think about what happened, but the sounds keep repeating in my head.

Damian’s gaze glides over the room like a detective searching the crime scene for evidence.
How can he be so careless about the fact that his friend just got shot like a game bird?

Then he stops and glares at one specific point. My eyes drift to the left. I want to know what it is that he sees. Slowly, he takes his hand off my mouth and makes a gesture for me to be quiet. The staircase creaks again.

“The window,” he whispers and he points at it.

Now I get it. He doesn’t want to waste time thinking about his friends, because his survival instincts are bigger than his grief.

When I turn around, I see a narrow window through which I can escape. But only me. It’s too small for Damian.

“No,” I say, almost too loud. I slap my hands in front of my mouth and then on his, when I realize what he’s about to say.

“No, Damian, don’t,” I whisper.

“You have to go, quick!” he whispers as loud as he can through the palm of my hand. I shake my head. Damian pushes me to the window and wrenches it open.

“Take this with you!” he mutters. In my hand he drops the box and watch that once belonged to Jianyu.

Reluctantly, I try to wriggle my way through the window. First my feet and then my legs. Behind me I hear the noise of the men with the guns approaching us
, the mere sound sending panicky adrenaline through my body. I wring myself through the small opening, still holding onto Damian. To orientate myself, I look around me and below. My feet are on a small ridge that leads to a rain-pipe. That’s my chance to get out, but I don’t want to take it.

“C
’mon!” I say. “You can go through too!” I know it’s not true, but I want to make myself believe it is.

“Go!” Damian shouts. Through the window I can see how the door is trembling. Loud pounds are audible. I don’t get how they got up here with that gaping hole between the boards, but it doesn’t matter. They’re here
, and they found us.

Damian wants to release my hand, but I clamp onto his fingers with all my might. The men break through the door and point their guns at Damian. I scream. His fingers are the last thing I see before I shuffle toward the rain-pipe and slide down.

***

Tears stream down my cheeks like a river while I run. I have to flee, keep running. Hold on. Preserve my life. Save my future.
What future? With who?
The future I had in mind is gone, vanished right in front of my eyes. The boy who literally came from my dreams has slipped away.

The watch that I got from Jianyu is clenched in my hand, but I decide to put it on. Without thinking about it, I pull my shirt up and attach the belt with the reanimation box to my chest.
Then I zip up my coat to cover the box and pull my sleeve down so the watch is hidden. Now I’m charged up, just like a loaded gun, ready to kill. Ready to die, if I have to.

I’m out of breath, but I keep running. The adrenaline helps me move
. I’ve got nothing else. Branches swish against my body, and the pine needles create weals across my face. Everything burns and prickles on my skin, but I won’t give up.

I run as fast as I can, as hard as my lungs and legs can bear. Away from here. Away from the guns and pistols. Away from my crush that doesn’t mean anything anymore right now. Damian is gone.

Leaves grate under my feet. It’s dark, and I can’t see anything, but I have to keep on going. Driven by fear, but also by the need to survive. For Damian and Jianyu. Both of them helped me escape. Both of them sacrificed their lives. Now I have to make the promise of my life a reality. Their sacrifice can’t be in vain.

I trip over a tree stump and crawl back up, only to come face to face with the dark ghost Sam.

I want to sprint past him, but he blocks my way. Then he grabs my arm.

Terrified, I draw back, but his grip is tight. He releases me after a few seconds. The noxious sneer on his face makes me enraged. He circles around me and pokes me in my stomach, giving me taps on my head. He’s toying with me. I swing my arms around me in the hopes of hitting him, but it’s no use. I can’t touch him. He can only put his hands on me.

So this is the power of a spirit.

“You can’t escape,
Love.” Sam licks his lips.

“How can you
do all of this? What are you?”

“All formidable ghosts can talk and move things,
Love,” he says and twirls around me. “Only the best of the best can do it.”

I bite my lip and taste the salty sweat rolling down my face. His attitude is like Joey’s
: arrogant, but I never wanted to hit Joey. Sam’s a bastard who deserves to be smacked into oblivion.

The men in the dark suits catch up to me. Their heavy steps and the guns in their hands create goose bumps all over my back. Everywhere I try to run, Sam blocks my way.
To the right, there’s a man in a suit.
My heart beats in my throat.
Guess I’ll go left. Shit, a man there too. They look like they’re clones, or something.

My breath is raspy
, and I hear a tiny squeak coming from my throat.

To the front, but that’s not an option
either, because now there’s a man too.

They’re closing in on me, from all sides. The only thing
that distinguishes them are their heads. Some bald, some smooth, black or brown hair, some have a beard or mustache. But they all have one thing in common; they’re all wearing sunglasses and pointing rifles at me. So these are the men that killed Jianyu.

I feel trapped in an invisible web. In my mind I wish this all
weren’t true and that I was dreaming. It’s so unreal, but I still know it’s the truth. So this is what they mean when they say ‘staring death in the eye’.

I bring my hands to my pockets, hopefully without them noticing, hoping Sam doesn’t notice. Just as I reach my mobile phone, Sam disappears. I look around. He seems to have vanished into clear smoke. One second later I feel a cold shiver running down my spine and a light touch of a rugged finger. I’m staring directly at him.

He makes a disapproving sound and grasps my wrist tight. I was too slow. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

“Everybody will know what you did. Do you hear me? You won’t get away with this!” How, I don’t know, but they will pay. All of them.

I know I’m in a difficult situation right now, to say the least, but because of the adrenaline coursing through my body, I feel invincible. I can take on anything. I’ve already stared death in the eye.

I throw my arms forward to hit him, but go right through him.

Only one way out.

Quickly, I turn around and prepare to make a run for it, but I bump into a bulky man that was already waiting for me.

A cry escapes my mouth the moment he grabs my wrists and a black bag is thrown over my head and tied up.

Total d
arkness.

This is fear. What I felt before for those spirits
and death, that was nothing. All that fades away seeing the black hollows of my eyes, the dark night that can’t be lighted. No matter how many times I blink, the light is gone. So this is what it feels like to be blind.

Oxygen is scarce
, and the air in this bag is damp and warm. Panic swells up inside me. My face gets moist from my own breath and tears that roll down my cheeks.

I scream and flounder, but it doesn’t get me free. Nobody will help me get out of this peril. Nobody
will hear my cries and whimpers and come to my aid.

My hands are bound with a rope that cuts my flesh when I move. I’m dragged across the
ground, and my legs hit branches and leaves and scrape over the roots and stems of the trees. It hurts.

When I move too much and try to wriggle loose, he grabs me by my
waist and lifts me up in the air. I scream, but it’s no use because he puts me over his shoulder. His bones press against my stomach, and it almost makes me hurl. I smack my bound hands on his back and scream as loud as I can.

“Raven!” I hear. I’ve no idea where it’s coming from, but I re
cognize the voice. It’s Damian.

He’s alive
!

My heart almost jumps from my chest, even though I know I’m captured and might never be free again. Who knows what they’ll do to me, but I don’t care at this moment. Damian isn’t dead
, and I want to be with him. I have to see him, know that he’s okay. I will keep on fighting until my last breath.

“Damian!” I scream back.

Then I feel a hard punch against my skull. My head is thumping, and my ears rustle. I’m lifted off his shoulder and placed on something soft. Everything hurts so much that I can’t concentrate on fighting anymore. My legs are bound with a rope too. The ends of the plaiting prickle my feet. Then they put cotton in my mouth to gag me. It tastes of salty, stinky man sweat.

I lie on my back on something that feels like a couch. Sounds catch me off guard
, and I get startled from them. A car door that’s slammed shut. Then a click somewhere farther away. We swing a bit. Another car door gets slammed shut. The heavy breaths of one of my kidnappers.

If I could only reach for my cell phone now, I could turn it on and dial
911. But my hands are tied together, and I can’t possibly reach for my pockets. The engine rumbles, and I feel myself slipping away in this choking bag.