Page 46 of Origins
But agony radiated throughout my hand as I touched the freezing brass doorknob. I couldn’t even turn it—I could only cry out, stumbling backwards as I cradled my hand against my chest.
I had screamed—and yet there was no sound.
I tried to shout again, to yell for help. But there was nothing—no noise at all. Terror raced through me. What was happening? Maybe Damen’s bath mixture hadn’t worked and I was dying now—or something?
The room began to grow heavy with darkness, and my panic thickened with it.Pure evil. There was something evil taking over this space. I had never felt anything like it before. The closest comparison would have been the sensation that caused the spirit last night to flee.
And now, in a typical fashion, it was here—locked in a bathroom with me.
Chapter Fifteen
Voice
My breaths came out in short bursts—and the air frosted in front of me with every exhale. It was so cold. So terrifying…
So dark. I couldn’t see anything now, not even my own hands.
“What do you want,” I tried to say. But still, there was a silence so profound that I feared I would never be able to hear anything ever again. Terror didn’t have a chance to consume me, though, before a sound—a noise that began so minutely I thought it was my imagination—began to come into focus.
Low laughter—feminine and sinister.
“Who’s there,” I asked—and this time, my voice had returned. Although that wasn’t much of a comfort, because now the only noises to be heard were myself and the unknown woman’s cackling. My shaking hands clutched the towel like a lifeline as I desperately tried to see through the dark.
The baleful laughter grew louder and more grating with every second; and I didn’t understand how—if any of the boys had stayed with me—they couldn’t have heard it.
Or maybe I was imagining this—I had fallen asleep.
I mentally dismissed that thought the second it passed. This was real—I knew it.
Just when I felt I might go crazy, the laughter stopped—leaving that dreadful silence behind in its wake. At this point, I didn’t know which was worse anymore. But at least I could hear myself: my heart pounding, my short gasps of panic.
I needed to get out of here. If it hurt, it didn’t matter. I had to leave.
Stumbling forward, I reached out for where I had known the door to be—but there was nothing. I had gone too far not to have run into it, or anything else. But it was as if all matter no longer existed outside of me, the presence, and this horrifying nightmare.
Moments that felt like an eternity must have passed. Every second, despair clawed its way deeper into my very being. I felt forgotten—unloved. I was a freak; no one even knew the depths of my depravity. I would be alone forever.
I was beinghunted.
No, this wasn’t real. I didn’t know these guys very well— but something inside me screamed that this was right. Somehow, I knew that I could depend on Damen’s offer of friendship. So, if that was the case, why was I feeling these things now?
Why was I huddling on the floor in a fetal position? This was extreme—even for me. I wasn’t afraid of the dark anymore.
“I’m okay…” I forced myself up off of the floor. Whatever this was—it was very wrong. If I died now, for example, the boys would at least remember my name. Even if I would just be remembered as the strange girl Finn drove to them.
And at least Finn might remember me—for whatever reason.
“This isn’t right,” I reminded myself, trying desperately to think of anything I could do to escape this situation. If I stayed here much longer, I might go mad.
“Leave him alone!” the same voice thundered from behind me—the volume so unexpected I fell back onto my knees and screamed. The presence that had been in the room since the beginning exploded in strength, and the woman’s voice grew devastatingly stronger. “He’s just curious!”
After those words, the presence vanished. But still, the velvet darkness surrounded me, and something different took the woman’s place. I tried to scramble to my feet, but I couldn’t move—frozen in fear.
But—physically—there was nothing here.
My face was wet with tears—I had never been more scared of anything in my life. “I’m sorry,” I apologized. I had done something to upset him, but maybe that would help.
He grew closer, but remained unseen. “Mine,” his icy voice pierced through the darkness.
