Many Lives, Many Deaths

𝔐𝔞𝔫𝔶 𝔏𝔦𝔳𝔢𝔰, 𝔐𝔞𝔫𝔶 𝔇𝔢𝔞𝔱𝔥𝔰

Running down halls, trying to outrun the black fog flooding toward me. It was a maze, the house was a maze, a labyrinth that threatened to trap me forever. There was no way out, no way to escape the killer in the fog.

I knew this had happened before. Happened a thousand times in the past and would happen a thousand times more in the future. That's what Alston had said, at least. I was trying to outrun fate. Outrun death.

I smashed into a hard body. Looking up, it was just Alston.

"Cassie," he said, grabbing my hand. "We have to leave. Now."

He pulled me along. I couldn't run, I couldn't breathe. I had no idea what was happening, who was hunting me. Why I was being targeted.

"Cassie!" Alston pulled me into an unlocked room, shoving his huge body against the door. "Cassie, listen to me." He cupped my cheeks in my hands. "When you open your eyes again, this will be like a dream to you. You'll have no idea that we have met. You'll forget about this, about me. I won't, but I swear to the Gods, I will find you and I will save you."

For a brief moment, I wondered who I'd be in my next life, what I would be. I was beautiful in this life, able to make human men fall to their knees in awe, but Alston was the only one I wanted. Cassiopeia, that was my name. What would be my next name? What would kill us in the next life?

I wrapped my shaking hands on his wrists. "Don't leave me." I feared that when we died, that was the end, I would never see anyone, anything, ever again. "Please, don't leave me."

He smiled sadly. "I'm not the one leaving. You are." He pressed his lips against mine, coaxing them open...

Please don't leave me...

I didn't understand what woke me first- the absence of light or the killer smell wafting from the corridor. I half-expected Mr. Mew to be laying next to me, tiny orange body curled into a ball, purring madly, but his spot in my bed was cold.

Slowly, I sat up, pulling the white comforter from my body and swinging my legs out of bed. Something in my gut squeezed. The hall light I usually kept on while I slept was out, and I knew for a matter of fact that it wasn't dead. I had just replaced it last night.

My feet flattened against the cold hardwood of the floor, and my bare legs erupted into goosebumps. It was cold in the house. I always had the heater on full blast. Shivers crawled up my spine. Something was different. I glanced at my alarm clock, but the red numbers that were usually displayed on it were black, dead.

Something was wrong.

I crept to the door. It was terrifying, not knowing what was on the other side. I regretted moving out of Zaritin, away from my parents, my family. But it wasn't like I was expecting this to happen. It wasn't like I thought this would happen to me.

Something was there.

My nightgown swished against my ankles, as soft as a whisper of wind. A bead of sweat rolled down my back. What was I doing? What if there wasn't anything out there? What if I was delusional, just like Ma and Fa had told me, mocked me. I was delusional. I saw things and heard things no one else ever would. I wasn't normal.

The metal knob of the door was ice cold in my palm. I swallowed, my ears straining, but whatever was out in the hall was silent. I tried to keep my breathing down, but it was so erratic, I felt like people a mile away could hear it.

Slowly, I clenched my hand around the knob, turning the metal slowly, so slowly, the blood rushing in my ears, my body shaking. If no one was really there, I was going to feel like a major fool.