Page 46 of Hallow Hill at Halloween: Part One

It was then that she learned about the plan to allow a human judge to decide her ultimate fate. It was too humiliating to contemplate.

“Riiiiiita,” she whispered. With a tiny smile, she said, “Show me your dreams.”

CHAPTER SIXRoad Trip

It was my first night alone in the house with Keir and his brothers gone hunting. Of course, I had my dogs. So, I wasn’t really alone. I crawled into bed and looked at Keir’s side, which was undisturbed. Perhaps I should sleep in the middle just to find out how that feels.

I closed the bedroom door just because I knew I’d feel completely secure if my pups were close by and not wandering about. If I left the door open, they would feel compelled to patrol.

After drifting off, which was surprisingly easy, I had dreams about being Alice in Wonderland, sitting under a massive oak tree with a book, wearing a Victorian blue dress with white collar and black silk bow. I was, however, not a pre-pubescent blonde but fully grown brunette Rita. I looked silly but didn’t feel silly, which is one of the benefits of dream state.

In my dream I was thinking, the only thing that could make the picture better was a horse. A magnificent white charger, content to nibble on nearby grass and wait for my ride. If only things were so easy waking. There appeared my white horse just as imagined.

Intending to inspect the horse up close and rub my hand over its no-doubt silky coat, I rose and started in that direction. Unfortunately, a gopher hole stopped my forward momentum. When I stepped in it, the hole instantly widened so that it easily accommodated my girly girth and sucked me in, full body, to a fall without a visible end. All I could see was darkness. I felt a scream rise in the back of my throat, but when I opened my mouth, no sound came out.

I touched down softly, unharmed on what might’ve been a plateau in the bottomless chasm, and immediately knew I was not alone there.

An horrific female face emerged from the darkness surrounded by writhing snakes behaving as if they wanted to get away but couldn’t. All they could do was twist in perpetual motion and strike at the other snakes that were just as hapless.

The face opened its mouth and hissed, “You look like herrrrrrrr.”

It was then I noticed that her pupils were vertical slits like reptiles.

“Wh…Wh… Who?”

“Athena,” she hissed slowly.

Athena? The Greek goddess?

Should I be flattered?

Should I be scared?

Should I will myself to wake up?

I chose the last and gave myself instructions.‘WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!’I wasn’t responding to the desires of my lucid self. Oh no.

As she slowly advanced toward me, I took a sideways step and slipped off the edge of the plateau. I was falling again. As before, I landed without injury but found myself in utter darkness like the black of a cave too far underground to receive any sunlight at all.

This time I did not sense anyone or anything nearby. I was completely alone in an environment that was completely black. Let me assure you, it’s true that being deprived of all external stimuli is disturbing. And crazymaking.

My ears strained for something to hear. My eyes strained for something to see. My breathing was heavy from the fear and feeling zingers of adrenaline shoot up and down my upper body.

When my senses were once again stimulated, I immediately wished they weren’t. I felt something slide against my ankle at the same time I heard various hisses. Like snakes. In my dream, I felt certain that I was going to die from fright.

But then, I saw a crack of light in the darkness.A door? A window maybe?Some way to access the world of light.

As I moved toward it, I realized I was stepping on moving things. I felt sharp pains in my legs but kept my focus squarely trained on the vertical slit of light just ahead. I found myself humming as best I could during breaths that came closer and closer together. When I was within inches of the light, I reached for it, and it disappeared, only to appear in a new location.

It was a game. Tease me with freedom. No option showed itself. It was chase the light or nothing. I resisted reaching for my legs which were stinging and burning at the same time, a definite ten on the pain scale. I squinted my eyes to make the tears fall. There was only a thin sliver of light to look at, but I needed it to be still and not shimmering. I could trick myself into believing in something still.

At some point, by grace, I woke though I felt anything but rested and refreshed. I thought I remembered my dogs whimpering as I was waking, but it must’ve been my imagination.

All evidence pointed to the probability that I was going to be in a hopelessly bad mood all day. I was wishing I didn’t have an interview and asking myself every grouchy question, including would it be too much to expect that Cole had taken the first plane back to where he belonged?

Never mind. The fact was that he didn’t. How do I know?

I’d just shuffled into the kitchen in my over-the-top red velvet robe, trimmed in the luxurious version of faux Russian sable, when Evie breezed in through the mudroom door like she was a resident.

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