Fall Of The Underworld (Book 2)

Chapter 32

I spent a lot of time drifting through darkness, unable to wake and pull myself from this nightmare; memories and visions flashed around me, broken and fragmented and unable to be reached, and for what seemed like an eternity I just drifted through that empty void, unable to do anything except listen to the steady drumming of my heartbeat.

Then my memories reassembled, opening a window of light into that endless void, and that's when I opened my eyes.
I was in my old bedroom, the one owned by my ex-foster parents the Ricksons, perched on the edge of the bed staring down at the plain wooden floor; when I lifted my head and looked around, the once bare, dull walls were decorated with vines, the door was hanging off its hinges and the window was coated with so much dust it looked like this room hadn't been used in years.

Then somebody shifted around in my bed, making the springs creak and groan, and I turned around to find Lycaon in my bed; he was half-naked, propped up on the pillow with one elbow and giving me his most devilish grin.
"Didn't realise that you thought of me in this way, Moonie," he told me, winking at me and smiling like the bastard he was. "But, hey, I think I can get used to this."

Someone else snorted, and I spun around to find Adam standing in the corner of the room, arms folded over his chest and his eyes narrowed as he glared at the Werewolf.
"Over my dead body, Reckless," the Teleporter growled. "You lay one finger on her and I'll rip them all off."

To my left, both the wall and the door crumbled into dust, and there was Cernus, Keelie and Abbadon standing in the hallway, all of them still bearing the grisly wounds that ended their lives.
"Oh, please," Cernus said, each word a harsh wheeze due to the slash in his throat. "I could do much worse to him, and I don't even have fingers."

Then, one by one, others started appearing in my room; the Banshee walked through the right wall, the Siren climbed in through the window, the Unicorn rose out of the ground and even Inferno joined the party, appearing in a burst of flame with Erebus's knife still lodged in her chest.
This was all weird enough (note that I say weird, not scary), but what made it even weirder was the smell - the smell of rotting flesh and coppery blood and smothering smoke all combined into something so horrific, that it brought tears to my eyes and hands to my throat as I gagged and fought for breath.

Then the dead started to get angry and violent, their soft chattering becoming screams and maniacal shrieks of laughter - at one moment Adam was standing in the corner, smiling mysteriously as he surveyed the writhing, heaving mass of living corpses, then at the next he was literally being torn to pieces, the flesh being ripped in bloody chunks from his bones; I tried to get away, tried to escape this nightmarish madness, but then an arm was wrapped around my waist, pulling me into them, and I found myself staring up into Lycaon's eyes.

Except they weren't Lycaon's eyes; instead, I found myself staring into black, empty pits that housed not even a shred of a soul, and as the Werewolf grinned, black veins spread across his face.
"Going somewhere, Moonie?" He whispered in my ear, his hot, stinking breath making me shiver with revulsion. "Oh, come on, at least give me a kiss before you leave."
As he leant down towards me, about to rip out my throat, a voice off to my left snorted disbelievingly. "Oh, come on. I mean, I've had some weird dreams before, but even I can tell that this is fake."

All around me the chaos froze, like an old movie on pause, and I turned my head to the right to find Ember sitting cross-legged at the end of my bed, holding a bag of popcorn and munching on it as she surveyed me skeptically. Her silver clothes were torn, her pale face covered in ash, and directly where her heart was supposed to be was a short, deep gash, the edges crusted with blood.

"What the Hell is that supposed to mean?" I asked, managing to free myself from Lycaon's embrace, and the Silver Sparkler rolled her purple eyes as she tossed some more popcorn into her mouth. "What d'you think, moron? This isn't real. This is a little something we like to call a dream, and it's one you need to wake up from right now. I know you don't want to deal with what's happening right now, but everyone is currently in danger, including Lycaon and Leo, so here's a little bit of friendly advice for you - WAKE UP."