The Darkest Dream (The Darkest Trilogy) (4 page)

Was he Darren?

“You should really reconsider.
 
You know perfectly well what I will do to this girl.”
 
Demetrius warned.
 
I looked around the room again, praying for a regular—for a familiar face.
 
Someone who might help me stop whatever this was.
 
But all I saw was a few strangers, and it was clear that they were there with the man holding
Phe
.

“Let her go.”
 
His voice—Darren’s—was cold.
 
It was almost identical to the icy tone the man holding
Phe
had spoken with.
 

My mind swam with confusion as I tried to piece the puzzle together.

“Wrong answer, Darren,”
 

And before I could even comprehend what was going on,
Phe’s
eyes widened in pain, and the man—Darren—stepped forward.
 
I ran through the doorway, furious that I hadn’t done so sooner.

“
Phe
!”
 
I cried.
 
Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion as I saw the man shove my friend away, saw the way the man he’d called Darren tightened his jaw upon seeing me.
 
The pain I felt in my heart—as sharp as if I had been struck by a knife—was overwhelming as I watched
Phe
drop to the floor.
 

She was limp—nothing more than dead weight.

I screamed, then.
 
It was so distant sounding that, at first, I didn’t even know it had come from me.
 

Falling to my knees beside my friend, I gathered
Phe
nearer to me, hugging her as protectively as I could, knowing that if anyone tried to come near her, I would fight them with everything I had.
 

I glanced up at the man who had done this and saw his face, contorted and radiating evil.
 
His eyes were as dark as the night sky during an eclipse, and I shivered as an unnatural sense of fear trickled down my spine.
 

Shaking my head, I looked back down at the girl I’d claimed as a sister since age five, tears running down my face as I whispered to her—saying anything to try and persuade her to wake up.

“Please,
Phe
…please open your eyes,
”
 
I
pleaded.
 
My fingers were covered in blood—bright red blood that matched the stains on
Phe’s
uniform, and somewhere in my mind I wondered how so much blood had been shed without the assistance of any weapon.
 

“
Phe
—I need you to open your eyes.
 
Please.
 
You—you have to decorate my apartment.
 
You can do whatever you want, I won’t—
”
 
Tears
filled my eyes again and I started rocking back and forth, aching for her to come back to me.
 
“Please,
Phe
, you have to…I…you can’t leave me.
 
Not you, too.”
 
My voice broke as I choked back a sob.
 
“I need you,
Phe
.
 
Please.”
 
I whispered.

And then
Phe’s
eyes opened ever-so-slowly.
 

I gasped, wiping at my tears so that she wouldn’t see.
 
I wasn’t aware of anything going on around me.
 
All that mattered was my best friend, here in my arms.
 
“I’m sorry,”
Phe’s
voice was soft—too soft.

“
Phe
—
Phe
, please don’t close your eyes again, no—no, no,
Phe
—I—I love you.” The words were tumbling from my mouth without any thought.
 
I was unable to comprehend anything as I shook her.
 
The last three words came out as barely a whisper as I realized my friend was no longer breathing.
 

“No,
”
 
I
whispered harshly.

My eyes grew wide, the ache in my chest almost numbing, and I looked around the room in confusion,
Phe
remaining in my lap.
 
“I…somebody…oh my god,”
 
I felt as though I should be doing something—calling for help, facing the man who had done this,
anything
—but one way or the other, I knew that it was pointless.
 

I didn’t want to believe that this was reality, but somehow I knew.
 

“
Shh
, Lucinda—it’s…”
 
Darren said, only his voice was now calmer, quieter as he began to kneel down beside me.
 
I let out a sob, staring at him with nothing but bewilderment in my eyes.

“I…no.
 
No, no, no.”
 
I shook my head, looking down at
Phe
, then around the room once more.
 
This time my gaze landed on the
thing
that had done this.

“No,
”
 
I
shook my head again, seeing his face.
 
He was almost human looking, everything but the extended teeth and the form of his face.
 
“No, this isn’t happening,
”
 
I
couldn’t stop shaking my head, unable to look at him any longer.
 
I wiped at my tears, not even thinking anymore.
 
I couldn’t think—everything around me screamed nightmare, yet I couldn’t make it go away.
 

There was a strange sense of darkness surrounding me, and I couldn’t escape it.

“Not again, please…not again.”
 
I began to beg, my need coming from some place deep within me—some place guttural that I could not recognize.

I looked around the room, taking it all in.
 
The smell of smoke from the kitchen, the pool of blood on the floor, the glass of the broken plates and cups scattered across the floor.

And it happened before I could stop myself.
 
I lunged for the shard of glass and jumped to my feet.
 
All of the anger and rage I possessed within me acted as my fuel as I pushed it into the man’s stomach.
 

A flicker of surprise touched his dark eyes before he looked down.
 
There was a touch of red circling the shard, but his only response was a laugh.

“You’re a feisty one.”
 
He told me, and I realized I was holding my breath.

Then, just as suddenly as I’d attacked him, I was being held against the same man who had, just moments ago, killed my best friend.
 
I felt a wave of tears come over me and let them go, sobbing as he held me by the neck—barely even noticing the pain. Darren, the stranger, whoever he was, was standing in front of me, but my vision was blurred by the tears.
 

“Let me go,”
 

My voice was barely a whisper, and it occurred to me then that I actually didn’t care if the man let me go or not.
 
I had no fight left within me.

The man only laughed cruelly.

“Oh, no, sorry little one.
 
I can’t do that,
”
 
I
sobbed again, my eyes sweeping over the fallen figure of my friend.
 
Memories of other loved ones I’d seen die in my lifetime flashed through my mind—first a beautiful woman, with hair the same color as mine; next an older man, pale and sickly.

“Let her go, Demetrius.”
 
The hold on my neck tightened, and I did nothing but let my arms hang at my side.
 
Even if I wanted to do something more, I couldn’t.
 
He was strong, and I was weak—I was so weak, I thought, feeling the life fading away from me.

What did it matter now?
 

I saw the beautiful woman, surrounded by so much blood.
 
And I saw the sickly man, surrounded by machines.
 

And I saw my best friend, pale and lifeless in front of me.

They were gone.
 
All of them—the people I had loved the most.

“Please let her go.”
 
There was something more in Darren’s voice now, something more than there had been with
Phe
.
 
His tone was lined with an undercurrent of desperation.

“Do we have an attachment to this one, little Darren?”
 
I opened my eyes, watching the man called Darren as his features hardened and he shook his head.
 
“I think you’re lying.”

“Let her go!”
 
The vehemence with which he spoke was startling.
 

“I think she wants to join her friend here—
”
 
The
man broke off at that moment, and I felt his elongated teeth graze my neck.
 
I felt them sink in, felt the sharp pain and the sudden burning.
 
The beating of my heart grew louder in my ears and the sound of Darren yelling grew fainter and fainter, just as the light around me began to fade to darkness

And then, with a loud growling noise, I saw Darren change, his face almost matching that of the man sucking the life out of me.
 
Everything faded to black and I felt as if I was falling—falling into the darkness, feeling it trickle through me.

But then, miraculously, I felt arms circling around me—and for a moment, I thought I might have landed in a rain cloud—the scent of it washing over me.
 

But—no, that didn’t make sense.
 

I held on for just a moment longer—long enough to
heard
the jingles of the bell as the door opened, and then everything was gone.

Fear thrived within me, clouded by a murky confusion, as I forced my eyes to stay closed.
 
I leaned back into the seat of the moving car, too afraid to open them—too afraid of what would come to life.
 

The nightmare was frighteningly real; I could even feel the blood on my fingers and matted in my hair, along with a severe pain in my neck.
 

Gradually,
an awareness
came over me and I opened my eyes—already filling with tears as I faced the reality before me.

It was not a nightmare.
 

Wide-eyed, I looked at my hands, moving them in front of me as I inspected them, covered in drying blood.
 
I let out a sob, then, knowing she was gone.
 

I spent another moment studying my hands before moving them to my neck, feeling the almost dry blood, the lifted skin that had been brutally torn.
 
After a long moment, I covered my face with my bloodied hands and sobbed into them, the scene in the diner replaying over and over again in my mind.
 
I longed for it all to be a nightmare, but the evidence was overwhelming and far too real to deny.

After several moments, I remembered I was in a car and I finally looked around, my eyes still widened with pain and shock.
 
When they landed on the man in the driver’s seat, I gasped slightly, pressing my back into the corner between the seat and the door, fumbling for the handle.
 

Reality had just become frighteningly more real as the figure beside me provided more evidence that this was definitely not a nightmare.
 
“I—please, let me go.”
 
My voice cracked as I spoke, my throat dry, and I tried to ignore the wave of panic threatening to take me over.
 
“Please, I have to—
Phe
is…I…she can’t be.
 
I have to—”
 
A wave of pain shot through my body as I began to move around, and my hand flew to my neck as I clenched my teeth and sucked in a harsh breath.

“It’s best if you…if you stay still.”
 
The man—Darren—was very calm.

“I have to—”
 
There was a sense of urgency coursing through my veins—not to get away from him, but to return to my friend.
 
I briefly considered why I wasn’t afraid of him, but the thought was quickly replaced with concern for the girl who had been a sister to me.

“You don’t have to do anything.
 
Your friend…there isn’t anything you can do for her now.”
 
I shifted my gaze to the road in front of me, bile rising in my throat.
 
I wanted to argue with him—to tell him that he was wrong, that he
had
to be wrong.
 

But I couldn’t.
 

He must have taken my silence as acceptance, because he continued on.
 
“You should rest.”

“I’m done resting.”
 
I was cold now, my body numb—perhaps the shock was returning.
 
But I found that, while my body was numb, my heart was something different all together: cold, enraged, wounded.
 

My mind was working in overdrive.
 

I had a million questions, but part of me didn’t want to ask a single one of them—part of me didn’t want to know anymore than I did.
 

The other part, however, was dying to know everything.
 
I needed to know what had happened.

The man exhaled, returning his focus to the road, and I finally found my voice again, however scratchy and harsh it may have been.
 
“I want to go back.
 
I can’t be here—and I don’t want to be here with you.
 
I…I don’t even know what you are.”
 
I stared at him
,
 
knowing
I should be afraid, but finding that I couldn’t bring the emotion forward.