Page 35 of Surviving Hallow Hill
“Don’t fucking argue with her. Drop the bitch,” Sialen yells from above.
“Drop me!” Her demand is a screaming anger, and I know she’s just thinking of me while I’m struggling to think of her.
If I drop her, she’ll land down there alone.
With who-knows-what waiting for her.
If I hold on, we’re both fucked.
Or...
“What are you waiting—” Her words slip away as she begins to fall down, down, down.
It’s the longest, most fearsome descent into the blackness.
And I know, because I go down with her.
The rain that pelted my face just moments ago is no longer felt against my skin. The tear of rocks and sticks within the dirt attack me every second that slips by, and weirdly, I never release my hold on Amrose. There’s this one comfort in knowing that we’re in this together.
For the first time in my life, I’m thankful I am not alone in this fight.
But the worst is yet to come.
My head hits solid concrete with a resounding crack that echoes through my starry mind long after the impact. I blink through the pain and blood that’s slick against my right eye. The angle of Amrose’s leg beneath the weight of her small body is the first thing I notice. Because it’s all wrong. It’s twisted and gruesome to see. Her closed eyes are even harder to look at.
“Amrose,” I slur, blinking back the white that’s bleeding in from the corners of my vision.
She doesn’t stir at the sound of her name. Not even when my hand touches the hot blood along her cheek does she make a single move.
“She’ll be fine. She’s a fighter, that one,” says a familiar, smooth voice like water cascading down frosty ice.
Every bone in my body tenses, and my very soul recognizes that voice from memories that seem so distant now. It’s one of the voices that taunted me from beyond the bars of my cage with a smile on blood-red lips.
Krist.
The image of her lifeless blue eyes shining with death flickers through my mind. The Headmistress of Hallow Hill Academy was an eerie, eerie woman when I first met her. Pale skin stuck against bone, held up by a slithering, metallic tail. She was a thing of nightmares that rivaled Dr. Hyde himself.
When I stumble around to meet that piercing, knowing gaze, she’s even more frightening than I remember.
