DARK SOULS (Dark Souls Series) (5 page)

Darkness coated my vision, leaving only my ears tuned to his movements. He was breathing heavily because of the pain, but he was enduring it. Sucking sounds came from above me, and I imagined that tongue coming toward me, black and slippery as it began to slither over me.

Oh god, oh god, please let this be quick. Please let this be over
.

I whimpered, my teeth clenched painfully together as I continued to press my shaking, sweat-drenched arms against him, my body still fighting despite my mind retreating into the dark.

It was then that I heard a whisper, deep within myself, reverberating delicately, rising as it reached my ears, but it didn’t come from him. It came from somewhere else. Somewhere inside me.

 A melodic voice echoed inside my thoughts, speaking to me, telling me what to do in soft overlapping words, a rush of whispers swirling around me. Intuitively, I listened, searching within my mind as the whispers surrounded me, before I made the final decision that would save my life. I opened my eyes.

I locked them onto his.

The screaming pain inside my mind and body died down, instantly silent. For a moment, I thought I had gone deaf; all sound had disappeared from my ears. But just as suddenly, a scorching heat rushed through me and my body jerked sharply against Rob’s. I felt the flames curl under my skin, rising and searing as they reached up into my face. I felt my lips swell, my cheeks flush, and my eyes ignite with the infernal heat.

His eyes widened, but not in fear. I watched with detached curiosity as the black slits in his eyes dilated into wide, black saucers.

The heat unfurled throughout my entire body, stretching out wide, snaking through my arms and legs, lifting my head and taking me over. Simultaneously, a quiet voice in my mind was trying to tell me something, to stop this, but some type of need, some type of
hunger
inside me refused to listen.

I removed my right hand from his other shoulder and braced it against his bare left forearm, keeping my eyes on his.  This time, there was no electric pain. The heat boiling inside my body was too strong.

“You want to come to me,” I said, and I was surprised and pleased at how melodic my voice now sounded. Like chimes and quiet bells ringing softly together.

I easily gave into whatever need was grabbing hold of me. Although I was conscious and knew what was happening, my body didn’t feel like my own. I felt the wind stir around us, blowing my hair up and around, twisting the strands around my face. Rob was mesmerized.

“
You are beautiful...”
he lisped through his fangs.

I felt his body relax underneath my grip.  My swollen lips curled up into what I thought was a smile, but I didn’t know. I couldn’t feel my face any longer; the heat had taken over.

Only one feeling managed to break through the strange fervor and register in my heat-saturated mind, taunting me, begging me. Hunger. My stomach clenched with tension and pain, and I searched within the swirling whispers to learn how to staunch it, and it was then that I knew.

Without a second thought, without any hesitation, I pulled him in for a kiss.

CHAPTER FIVE

Cold.

I woke up, shivering, confused, and instantly frightened.

Black
.

All I saw was darkness, but to my left, I registered a shaft of light coming from underneath a door.

Sounds.

Creaking, billowing sounds above me, and distant laughter and thumping bass coming from underneath me.

A party?

Yes, a party.
 I started to remember. I was at a party with Macy, she had grabbed me a beer that had spilled all over my cardigan, and then....?

I felt hard, cold ground beneath me, powdery like loose dirt, and realized I was lying down outdoors, clear plastic swaying softly in the wind above me. I moved to my side, groaning at the sudden pain it caused me, when I felt it.

A warm arm beside me, but it wasn’t mine. Warm, and slick.

My eyes started to adjust, and I noticed a shape beside me, a shape that looked remarkably like a person. I raised my hand to my head in an attempt to quell the pulsing pain, and then jerked when I felt warm slickness on my forehead.

“What the....?”

I brought my hand to my face, and saw red. “
What the...?
”

I felt the scream building in my throat as my mind finally caught up to what my eyes were seeing.

Blood, blood everywhere
.
Blood all over me.

Trembling, I looked down at the face beside me. “Rob?” I gasped. “Rob?”

Panic shot through me. Rob was beside me, but he wasn’t Rob anymore. His normally soft green eyes were staring up at the night sky, lifeless and frozen. Blood was all over him, mixing with the plaster dust as it seeped out of his body, and the logical part of my brain that was still somehow functioning told me that the blood was coming from a giant gash across his throat.

He was pale, so pale he looked almost frozen white. I sat there, shivering and gasping, unable to understand what this was. How did I get here? What was going on?

I looked around frantically, trying to see if this was some type of ridiculous, horrible joke that was being played on me. Halloween was coming up. Nick was well known for his stupid pranks. But there was no one around me, no sounds of laughter. Just the sounds of creaking construction work around me.

Even though I knew Rob was dead, I was still compelled to put my fingers on his neck, checking for a pulse. It was difficult to find any spot that wasn’t mutilated to put my fingers on, but my numbed mind wanted me to anyway. And as soon as I did, my body
zinged
with pleasure.

I wanted to pull away, disgusted, but that deeper part was talking to me again, telling me to stay right where I was.

I watched, horrified and fascinated, as what looked like a blue spiral of smoke came out of Rob’s mouth.

Instinctually, I leaned in close to Rob’s mouth and breathed in as the delicate mist wafted up, and as it went into my mouth and hit my system, my eyes widened in pleasure.

It tasted like every delicious thing that had ever been made on this earth. Chocolate chip cookies, whipped cream, strawberries, seven-layer cake, milkshakes,
everything.
I couldn’t stop the moan that came out of my throat, and I vaguely registered just how unearthly my groan sounded.

When it was over, I wanted to wail in displeasure at the abrupt ending. It tasted so good and it felt so divine that I wanted whatever was happening to last forever.

My eyes once again opened, and I felt more alive and refreshed than I had ever felt in my entire life. I eventually realized that I was smiling widely. The logical part of my mind stepped in again and told me to
stop.
Stop whatever I was doing and understand that there was a dead person beside me.

At that thought, I looked down, feeling strangely calm despite the grotesque picture that I knew would greet my vision.

There was nothing there.

Shocked, my eyes jerked side to side, glancing everywhere around the rooftop but seeing nothing. I looked down at my hands, my chest, felt my hair, and nothing. No blood, no gore, I was covered in nothing.

I started to panic again, rising quickly from my seated position into an automatic defensive standing position.

You’re crazy, Em. You’re going crazy. Just like your mother.

I couldn’t prevent that thought from hitting my mind. That was the only conclusion. Here I was, on a deserted rooftop, hallucinating that I had violently killed someone, breathed in his deliciousness, and then promptly evaporated him.

Dreaming, hallucinating—as long as it was fake, the logical part of my mind reassured me. As long as this never happened.

I WILL FIND YOU!

I screamed in agony as a voice that wasn’t mine pulsed into my head, paralyzing me with pain.

I WILL KILL YOU.

I groaned again, curling into a ball, unable to stop the streaks of pain shooting from my head and throughout my entire body.

Crazy. You are bona-fide crazy
, I thought through the pain. Then, with calm acceptance before the blackness, I thought,
It was bound to happen sometime.

And with that, I passed out for the second time.

***

“Oh my god, Emily! Wake up!”

I groaned and weakly swatted at the arms that were shaking me so violently.

“Ems!”

The voice was becoming more persistent and laced with panic. “Ems, wake up! What the hell did you do? What did you take?”

Although my eyes felt like a stack of metal weights had landed on them, I attempted to slit them open in order to assess the annoying source that was preventing me from continuing to sleep.

“Macy?”

“Yes! Oh god, you’re ok. Thank god.” She sighed in relief, her liquor-coated breath wafting over me as she hoisted me up into a seated position. I winced at the smell. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere! You just disappeared! And then I find you lying like a corpse on a rooftop? What the hell? Are you okay?”

I cringed, her voice piercing against my pounding head. “I don’t...know. I had... one drink?”

Macy gasped. “Oh shit, did someone put something in your drink?”

“I...” Trembling, I attempted to stand with Macy’s somewhat assistance. We both tottered against each other, losing our balance on first the right side, then the left, before we both stood. “I don’t think so. Wait. Wait. Rob, where’s Rob?”

“Rob Pearson?” Macy asked, removing her hands from my arms only when she felt steady. She held them in the air a moment, testing her balance. “Why are you asking about him? I don’t think he’s even around, unless it’s to try to get me to sleep with him again. Wait—is he the one who gave you something?” Macy’s voice raised a few octaves at the last sentence, and I cringed.

“No, Rob Morrow.” I said, grabbing onto her arm again as she stumbled. 

“Who’s that? Some douche at this party who gave you something?”

I teetered slightly with her, but was able to look at her in confusion. “No, Rob Morrow. Your boyfriend.”

“Who? Ems, I don’t have a boyfriend,” Macy said, looking at me worriedly. “What are you talking about?”

“You know, Rob Morrow! You guys are so cute together. We’re always talking about it, how shy and sweet he is, and that if you weren’t so such a flighty hussy, you’d probably marry him.”

“Did you hit your head? We need to take you to a hop..a hospital.”

My strength was coming back, and I gently extricated myself from her hold. “No, no hospital. Just home to bed.”

I was truly dumbfounded over Macy’s reaction. Why was she acting like she didn’t know who Rob was? Was she trying to protect me? Did she see...

“Mace, did you see him? Did you see what happened?”

“I’ve been looking for you everywhere, going into every room and yelling your name like a crazy woman. All I found were naked limbs.” She made a face, stumbled again. “What the hell happened to you?”

Macy grabbed hold of my arm, leading me across the uneven concrete and to the stairwell.

“This is some shoddy construction work,” she said, glancing at the cracked, crumbling brick facade that framed our exit before we walked through the door. She held her free hand up above us, as if the strength of her arm alone could prevent falling concrete from breaking through our skulls.

“I was having a drink with Rob on the roof, and then...” My mind blanked. Or, not entirely blanked. I vaguely remembered the smell of the blood, and that
taste
...that wonderful taste.

I wasn’t about to tell Macy that part. But I was concerned. I think I killed Rob, and while that thought terrified me, the more I started remembering it, the more numb I became. It wasn’t Rob that I killed, I reassured myself. Rob had turned into something horrific. Something that I knew my mind had to have created. There was no freaking way that thing was real.

And if it was,
I thought,
where are your bruises? Why aren’t you injured?
I looked down at my body, giving it a brief once-over. Nothing. In fact, my body had never looked better. There was a faint glow coming from underneath my skin, golden and sweet. I also noticed some muscle tone in my arms that I didn’t even know I had.

“Ems, you’re seriously starting to worry me.”

I glanced over at Macy who was studying me, a little blearily.

Well, that made two of us.

“You’re looking at your body like you’ve never seen it before,” she said, wobbling over the first step.

 “I’m just recovering from my fainting spell up there,” I finally said, trying to reassure her as we tentatively descended the stairs. “Making sure I didn’t cut myself when I fell.”

“Dude, I don’t know who this Rob is, but I seriously think he spiked your drink,” Macy said. “We need to get you to the hospital so they can run some tests, figure out what it is.”

“No, really Macy, I’m fine. Really. Nothing was put in my drink. You know I haven’t been feeling well lately, I probably just fainted due to low sugar or something.”

“That’s ridonkulous. You don’t walk yourself into a construction zone on top of a house just to go faint. You’re going to the hospital.”

I grounded to a halt, grabbing Macy’s arm and turning her to face me and locking my eyes with hers.

“Hey! Ems, are you trying to kill me? I can barely get down these steps on my own. Stupid steps.”

An eerie tranquility settled over me, and I felt the heat again, though not as intensely. Just a gentle trace, gliding and flowing underneath my skin like a calm, warm river coursing through my veins. “Macy,
no. I’m not going to the hospital. Just forget about it.
”

I watched as Macy’s face slackened, her eyes shuttering as if half-asleep. Her arm relaxed in my grip.

“Okay,” Macy said strangely. “You’re not going to the hospital.”

I looked at her a while longer, suddenly confused. It was impossible to convince Macy to ever do the opposite of what she wanted; yet somehow, she relented. I looked closer, and saw under the dim light of the stairwell that her pupils had completely dilated and taken over her irises.