Page 15 of To Trap a Soul

Lindi was a good person, hardworking and faithful.

For the entire time she bled, drifting in and out of consciousness, betrayal obliterated her.

Each squirm sent agony through her midsection, as if she was tearing her wound further. Yet she continued to live, as if Sal, the bastard, missed anything vital. She’d even stopped bleeding, despite the worrisome puddle of it congealing against the stoneshe was smearing it against. Why couldn’t he have hit a vital organ or an artery?

Why did she have to be experiencing this long death?

As much as she wanted to cling onto life, it was futile. There was nothing she could do to save herself, and she’d rather get it over with than suffer to her final heartbeat.

Her eyes were so swollen and puffy from crying that her renewed tears stung so badly she hissed out a breath through clenched teeth. Each new droplet felt like razors to her eyes. Then she let out a broken cry when she twisted a certain way, and her entire abdomen protested against the pain.

She stopped, only to breathe and shudder as she fought her bindings, wishing they’d snap. She’d been hoping for that for what had to be an hour, wanting to flee – to go down fighting rather than this pathetically sad end.

All the while, the strange creature snarled, hissed, and growled beyond her feet. Except... when she looked down once more after resting, another had joined it – the setting sun was bringing more to pace within the growing shadows.

They bumped torsos and then dived for each other as a fight broke out.

Lindi whimpered, wriggled once more, and the light smell of rot abraded her senses like she reached some kind of threshold. She finally inched her way close enough to the edge of the cliff to peer over it. Vertigo struck her at the long fall, but it soon passed as she peered at the boulders and rocks below.

It looked like the side of the wall had broken off bit by bit and landed at the bottom.

It goes on forever.

Although she could just make out the other side of the Veil’s canyon, being closer to its edge really did prove just how daunting it was. She couldn’t see where it ended from left to right, only what was right ahead.

Rocks cracked off and rolled down the side of the wall under her weight. Seeing them do so only brought on a chilling wave of fear, which, oddly enough, made the creatures beyond her feet grow more agitated. One even whined, as if her fear made it hunger so badly it ripped a noise from it.

“So... they’ve brought another sacrifice, have they?”a voice mused, so quiet and distant that she barely believed she heard anything at all.

Twisting to her side to look around, Lindi darted her head around, but nobody was there. Instead, she once more connected gazes with one of the monsters and her eyes crinkled in anguish.

They were getting closer, and she tucked her feet up in worry that they’d soon be able to claw at the bottom of her soles. Sweat slicked her brow after being in the heat of the sun for so long, unable to escape it, and yet she was so relieved by its hot presence.

“It seems you’ve found yourself in quite the bind,”the voice stated, a touch louder than before and yet still as quiet as a reverberating echo.

Was that meant to be a joke?If so, it was horribly inappropriate as she clenched and unclenched her bound hands. Her brows drew together as she looked around again.Am I... hallucinating?

Her shoulders lifted self-consciously as she asked, “Who... is anyone there?”

She didn’t expect a response.

“Yes, human.”

Her lips parted on a gasp, and her eyes darted around to find the source of that oddly deep and sultry voice. Not even its quietness could hide the way it slid across her subconscious in a mesmerising stroke. It sounded...inhuman.Otherworldly. Perhaps even heavenly.

Lindi found her body easing against the rocky ledge. “God?”

“I doubt I’m one of the many gods you seek.”That didn’t sound too promising.“But yes, little one, I am indeed a god.”

“S-show yourself,” she demanded, wishing her voice held the power of a yell, rather than a hoarse rasp.

She didn’t want to speak to some faceless entity.

“I am unable to do that, but know that I am right before you, standing just beyond the cliff.”

She slid her face against the stone and peered beyond the drop off. There was nothing and nobody there. At least she was unable to see anyone – not even an outline that could give a hint of a presence.

“Who are you?” she asked, wishing tears didn’t bubble in her eyes. She thought she’d be all out of liquid by now, but they just seemed to keep coming, no matter how much she tried to stem them.

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