Page 288 of Ominous: Part 1
The stairwell itself is steep, leading to a landing, then another disappearing out of view.
For a moment, none of us move.
Then Eli says, in a flat voice, “We come in peace.”
Luna looks at him, startled, and I wonder how often he made jokes with her and Dominic.
A laugh bubbles from my mouth before I can stop it.
I turn to him, his hand cool in mine.
He raises his brows. “What? I think they should know we don’t mean any harm.”
I roll my eyes and stand on my tiptoes as I lean into him, planting a kiss on the side of his face. I can feel his cheekbones lift with his smile.
“Disgusting,” Luna says again, but there’s amusement laced in her words, too. “Come on. We’ll walk down to the pool through here.” She stifles a yawn with the back of her hand. “Then I’m going to bed, haunted or not.”
Eli and I slip into the stairwell after her.
When the door thuds closed, it’s a lot darker than it was, the orange lights flickering and buzzing, a sound I didn’t hear in the hallway.
Luna has her arms folded over her chest, phone clutched in one hand as Eli and I follow her down the steps. “I don’t like this,” she says, although there’s nothing much to dislike. I know what she means, though.
There’s just a…feeling.It reminds me of seeing things. Paranoia twists in my gut, and I don’t know if it’s the Adderall I took or what, but my nerves feel raw.
“I feel as if we’re wading through the Styx.” Eli’s musical voice is like a duster pilfering cobwebs. He knocks away all the bad, soothing me slightly.
“What?” Luna asks, looking back at him. A lock of auburn hair falls over her eyes, narrowed and confused. “Sticks?”
We keep walking and she turns back around to face the landing and head to the next stairwell as Eli starts speaking again.
“It’s a river the Greek believed we crossed, to get to the underworld. The boundary between the living and the dead.”
“Shut up, Eli,” Luna mutters. “I don’t want to see the dead. I’ve changed my mind.”
I exchange a knowing glance with him, his green eyes darkened in here.
“Too late. Once Thanatos sends you along the river, you can’t fight the tide.”
Luna huffs. “It’s all Greek to me.”
“Did you just make a joke?” I ask.
Luna flips her middle finger at me over her shoulder without looking. She drops her hand, crossing her arms over her chest again, wobbling as she heads down the stairs, shoulders shifting with every step.
We’re on the second floor, indicated by the lettering in black against a white placard over the door on the landing, when we hear something slam closed a few floors up.
Luna and I jump.
She flattens herself against the door of floor two, inching her fingers toward the silver handle as she peers up at the maze of stairs.
I press myself against Eli, who wraps his arms around my waist, my back to his chest. “What the fuck was that?” I whisper.
“It’s almost as if this is a hotel,” Eli says quietly behind me.
“Shut up,”Luna and I both counter at the same time.
Eli’s hand slides up my waist, over my chest, to my throat, resting along my cheek.
