Dark Matter - The Mors Mortis Trilogy Book 2

Chapter Thirty Six - The Portal

Jared was staring at Leah the moment that she was shot.

He watched as she staggered, as a dark force exploded from her chest, and then her skull hit the concrete, her head turning in his direction, eyes glassy.

Jared's breath caught, his heart slowing in a diamond bright shaft of horror as he waited for her to get up. Waited for her to breath, to move.

But she didn't.

No, Jared thought, the prayer sluggish with pain and confusion. No, no, no, no, no.

The words were ringing through his head, pulsing from his body, but he couldn't open his mouth to say them, couldn't move towards her, couldn't even think. He became vaguely aware of Tai screaming, of a low moan coming from his own throat.

"Move!" Parker's voice smashed through Jared's pain, obliterating it enough to bring him back to earth. "Brenton, you need to move!"

Jared's gaze shifted, hazy and unfocused. Brenton was scrambling towards the corner, his eyes wide and fixed on the darkness that had exploded from Leah.

Tendrils were flickering from it, curling out and tangling around Brenton's calves. Brenton began screaming, trying to kick it off, but the movement only made it crawl higher.

And then, suddenly, he was sucked from view, pulled into that churning centre and disappearing entirely.

Panic began to course through Jared as that dark mass turned back on itself, moving towards him. He tried to stand, but he was frozen, his body no longer responding to his brain's commands.

Tai was thrashing against his chains, pulling chunks of skin from his wrist, Parker bolting from the room.

The only person that wasn't moving was Leah.

Jared squinted at the portal hovering over her. He recognised it well enough. He'd stepped into it many times, letting it transport him to the world of the dead and back. But there was something wrong with this one. Something savage and uncontrolled. Something untethered.

It was that fact that made Jared's mind finally collapse, that made his hope evaporate and his prayers quieten.

Whatever this dark mass was, it was powerful. Powerful enough to destroy this world.

Maybe even powerful enough to destroy him.

He let his eyes fall closed, his breaths shallow and harsh as he waited for the inevitable tug, the cold touch of that empty space.

He almost wanted it. He wanted the emptiness it might give, the oblivion.

He could feel it closing in, pulling at the air around him, when there was a sudden cacophony of gunfire.

Jared heard the shots indifferently, floating into a blissful haze of unconsciousness. But then his body shifted, bumping and thumping, and he realised he was being dragged backwards, lifted onto someone's shoulders.

He groaned, eyes flickering open, and the world blurred, coming in flashes: gunmen beginning to surround the portal, their voices raised and wild; Tai sobbing as soldiers cut him from the cuffs; Parker lying at the top of the steps, eyes wide with a bullet sunk between them.

It was then that Jared closed his eyes and let his mind finally take him away.

Because he knew no matter where he looked, no matter what he saw, Leah was gone.