Page 8 of Demons In My Head: Exposing the Exiled
Tears flooded my eyes as Misha's deep voice broke through my fear. I needed to run. Fuck. My legs still weren't moving. Footsteps were closing in.
'Run fast, little rabbit. We're the only ones who get to catch you in a hunt.'Ashland, demanding and sure of himself.
Talon's manic smile flashed in my mind for a split second before the sounds of his and Felix's howls pierced my soul.
Before I registered what was happening, I was moving faster than I'd ever moved before. This was a dead end. But I was prepared to fight. I was always prepared to battle. I'd never known a time in my life when I hadn'thadto fight.
Except when you were with them...
"PALMERRRR!" Slade bellowed. "THERE IS NO ESCAPING ME!"
Pushing away the little voice whispering truths I wanted to ignore, I sprinted to the end of the hallway and cursed under mybreath when I saw that the determined monsters were quickly catching up. Desperately, I scanned my surroundings for a way out, as I had only moments left to come up with a plan.
Facing the wall, I pressed my head against the cold stone and recoiled as I felt an all too familiar shiver race down my spine. Cocking my head, I stared at the spot and blinked as the wall itself seemed to ripple.
A door concealed by magic? I reached out for where the handle should be and gasped when I gripped it. I threw a'please work'into the universe, hoping someone was looking out for me. I gasped as I fell forward, through the door, and landed on the ground.
Panicked, I looked back at the secret entrance.
"PALM—"
Slade's voice was cut off abruptly as the door solidified and sealed itself.
"By the stars," I panted, falling onto my back and allowing myself ten seconds of rest.
I quickly realized I was in some kind of storage room. The walls were lined with shelves, all crammed with boxes and bags. Dimly lit, the air was thick with dust and the smell of cleaning chemicals. The only light came from a small window high up on the wall. It wasn't much, but it was enough to see.
I didn't have time to take in my surroundings for long, though. The sound of banging from the other side of the door caused my momentary feeling of safety to evaporate. I could hear Scorpio barking orders to his men, telling them to search the building from top to bottom until they found me.
I had to find a place to hide, and fast. My eyes roved over the room, looking for anything that could help me. That's when I saw it. A trapdoor set into the floor, its edges rusted and flaking.
Without thinking, I ran over to it and tried to yank it open. It was clearly a hatch that hadn't been used in a very long time,and it refused to budge. There had to be something in this room I could use to help pry it free. I scanned the shelves frantically, coming up empty-handed.
The actual door to access this room blended so well with the bland walls that I nearly overlooked it. Why would Scorpio have created a magical door if he couldn't use it? I knew it wouldn't be long before I was discovered, so I used all of my strength to slide one of the shelves in front of the door. It wouldn't keep them out for long, but hopefully, it would buy me enough time to get the trapdoor open.
A drop of sweat trickled down the side of my face, and I hastily wiped it away and turned back to my task. I stifled a shriek when I took in a familiar, shimmering form standing directly on the trapdoor.
"Jasper?" I rasped and threw myself at the spirit. I'd never been so happy to see a ghost in my life, let alone the spirit of a demon.
He opened his arms and caught me. The coolness of his form, the airiness, instantly turned into the warmth and security of a man that, for the first time in my life, I needed.
"You can't seem to stay out of trouble, can you?" he said, an undertone of humor in his very accurate question.
I hadn't seen him since moments before my explosive interaction with Rhodes.
"How did you know where I was?" I released him and looked up into his deep pine green eyes.
He ran a hand through his mahogany hair, pushing it off his forehead. "I followed you." He lowered his hand and stared at it in wonder. "That will never get old..."
Of course he'd been following my movements. "Thanks for leaving me hanging while Rhodes threatened to murder me."
Jasper opened his mouth to say something, but the sound of the door handle being twisted saved him from having to explain himself.
He bent down, grabbed the trapdoor handle, and pulled it open as though he wasn’t a ghost and it were any other regular door. Not one that had been sealed by time, rust, and secrets.
"In you go, darling," he said, gesturing for me to go first.
"Ready or not, babe, here I come," Scorpio sang through the crack in the door, loud enough for me to hear over the scraping of the metal shelf being shoved across the floor.
