Page 13 of To Trap a Soul

“The mist,” he answered, scrutinising her face for a moment before quickly averting his gaze. “It’s faded today, but the more we come here, the thicker it seems to get.”

“It’s grown again,” Sal said with a strange depth to his tone, and Lindi looked over to find his usual smug expression was deeply concerned and narrowed on the horizon. “I swear somethin’ unholy is at play ’ere. No forest should grow this fast.”

At his foreboding words, goosebumps trailed up her arms, and the prickling spread over her when Mathews stepped closer and pulled her from the back of his horse.

“The mist shrouds terrors, like a layer of foreboding quiet that hides hostility,” Mathews stated, revealing a deep, body-chilling voice for the first time, which was made ever colder by his words. “It’s a cloak of lies, obscuring the beautiful growing forest to hide the nightmares that linger within it. A veil.”

Lindi didn’t know why she smiled, but it was weak, false, and shaky as her lips quivered, and her nose tingled with the threat of tears.

“Y-you’re scaring me.”

All three looked at her, and she realised then that the only part of her that wasn’t surrounded was her back – yet the forest behind her felt oppressive all of a sudden. Their silence at her statement twisted her insides, and finally her eyes watered.

“What are you going to do to me?”

She eyed the deadly fall, wishing she could see how tall it truly was before nausea clutched her stomach and forced her to turn away. She feared...

No.She shook her head, dismissing the thought that came to her.They wouldn’t.It would be cruel to bring her here... just to toss her over the edge.

There needed to be a deeper meaning to them taking her and spending days bringing her here, other than to do something so barbaric.

“The Almighty Father is angry with us,” Gregory muttered as he came closer. It wasn’t the first time she saw it under his dark robes, as he often held it at night while they rested, but the cross at his waist was more noticeable in the daylight when it peeked out as he moved around.

Her stomach dropped, her new fear rebounding as quickly as she squashed it, and a cold chill crept up her spine.

Mathews knelt before her with rope in his hands, and before she could step back in protest when he reached for an ankle, Sal pulled his knife from his weapons belt.

“Don’t, missy,” Sal bit with gritted teeth. “Don’t make us chase ya. We want away from ’ere as quickly as possible.” Then he gestured to the gap of sunlight pouring into the canyon. “The light is fadin’, and it’ll only grow more dangerous traversin’ back through it with every hour.”

“Please.” Lindi took a step back, her bare foot ducking out of Mathews’ grasp, while the other shoe-covered foot was held firm. She turned her beseeching gaze to Gregory, the only person she’d seen any kindness from, hoping for his benevolence once more. “Whatever you’re planning, please don’t do it. Life is sacred – that’s what his teachings show us.”

“We have no other option,” Gregory muttered, watching as Mathews threaded the rope around her ankles. “We have to stop them, and we’ll try anything and everything before it’s too late. You haven’t seen them, so you don’t know what they’re like, but we do. If we don’t appease him soon, we fear we’ll be overrun. This must end when we can still hunt them. Before they start forming packs and decimating villages. Before they get...bigger.”

“A-are you talking about those rumours?” she asked with a sob. Lindi’s knees buckled as tremors assaulted her joints. “I thought they were...”

“Stories?” Sal bit. “Yeah, us too – until we saw one.”

Then he pointed to the horrible scars marring his face, the ones she’d never been able to make any sense out of. The side of his cheek was missing, his nostril and upper lip split in half. How he’d managed to retain both his eyes was a miracle, considering all the puncture wounds created in oval shapes.

Now that she looked deeper into them, she realised they were pointed fang marks, as if a small creature had pinned him down and bitten his face multiple times. The rest of his body was covered in claw marks, especially upon his biceps and upper chest.

“We’ve seen and killed many since then,” Mathews stated, his leather armour creaking as he stood.

“Why me?” Lindi asked, covering her face to hide her anguish from them, her fear, her very tears. The way her chest twisted so nastily, she wanted nothing more than to expel her heart, so it didn’t hurt like this or feel so betrayed.

“Why else?” Sal stated coldly, before carelessly pushing her so she’d stumble backwards, her ankle bindings having just enough slack to let her shuffle towards the edge of the canyon. “Pretty maiden sacrificed to a God. It’s well known in history, no?”

Peeking behind her, the blood rushed to her ears when Lindi noticed the ledge below the one she was on now, and the steep incline of rocks meeting them. When the heel of her shoe dipped over the edge, Lindi jerked forward with a shriek. Her ankles caught in the rope, and she fell to her knees, only to be yanked up once more by Sal.

“But whyme?!” Lindi yelled when she was turned and hauled a safe distance away from the edge. She didn’t dare hope that meant they were changing their minds.

“You were alone,” Gregory answered, remaining a safe distance back as Sal and Mathews blocked any chance for her to attempt a feeble escape. “Your village was small, your parents simple farmers and easy to overpower. Sorry about your father,by the way. That... shouldn’t have happened. He shouldn’t have needed to die.”

He cut Sal another fierce glare over it, who merely rolled his eyes in return.

“You’re unwed, young enough and isolated enough to remain pure, and so devoted to our God that you wouldn’t violate his teachings.”

Seriously? A virgin fucking sacrifice?

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