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Kyla couldn’t remember a time she’d ever run as fast as she ran from the cemetery that night. She couldn’t remember a time she’d ever had to. Cross Country races were one thing, where she competed for a cheap piece of ribbon with some silver scrawled writing on it, or maybe just the pride of knowing she could beat everyone in her division. But running in a race, even a race where she gave it all she had didn’t compare to what this was. A desperation for escape, a flight for survival. The vain hope of evading the reality on her heels.
It was fear that propelled her, that pushed Kyla’s legs to move harder and faster than she even knew they could. Like a jolt of adrenaline being shot through her veins, released by the thing she hated most in this life. But if fear could be used now to put distance between her and Nathaniel Blake…this liar behind her who wasn’t even a man, Kyla was going to take it, and take as much of it as she could. Whatever it required for her to get away from him, that was exactly what she was willing to do.
Running down the road away from Donovan that night…the night that had since become blurred in her memory, Kyla thought she knew then what it was like to feel a blur take her vision, to be disoriented and confused, but to keep pushing forward in spite of this. Whatever she had felt on Majestic Parkway, it wasn’t at all what she felt right now. This was worse. Much worse. Not because Nathaniel had tried to hurt her like Donovan had, but because her fear was no longer founded on speculation.
It wasn’t just an idea in her head or a prodding question at the back of her spirit telling her something wasn’t right. Nathaniel’s own words had confirmed her fear. He was the one who told her he wasn’t human.
It was a surreal feeling when the condo came into view, but at the same time it caused a hollow suspicion to rise in her. Kyla knew that Nathaniel could have easily caught her by now. If he’d wanted to, he could have had her by the arms again in a matter of seconds. She had seen the way he could move, and something told her that what little she had witnessed didn’t do justice to what he was really capable of.
Kyla shoved the thought from her mind and picked up her knees to push the last fifty meters up the inclined road. She usually despised the last fifty meters of a race, but tonight, she didn’t mind. She didn’t waste time going inside, realizing as she neared the condo that there was nothing Loni or Matthew could do to protect her. The last thing Kyla needed was to be somewhere she could be found, because logic told her (despite how senseless logic seemed at the moment) that no shoddily-built structure could keep her safe from Nathaniel Blake. She doubted even prison bars could do that if he really wanted her.
No, her family couldn’t help her right now. There was only one person who could.
Kyla raced to the driveway and jumped into the Civic before she let herself breathe. Pulling the spare key down from the visor, she attempted to start the engine, but it took her four tries to get the key into the ignition. When she finally got it, she threw the thing in reverse, slammed her foot down on the pedal and tore out of the driveway.
It wasn’t until she’d passed Paradise Circle that she realized she left her phone on the deck, but there wasn’t a chance she was going back for it now. She just had to get to Caden. She had to get where she would be safe.
Trying to shake the thought away of what she knew she couldn’t deny (but wished with everything that she could) Kyla trembled as she gunned the accelerator and sped up the road. She tried to calm her breathing, but the full mile of sprinting she’d just pulled off coupled with the fact that Nathaniel Blake apparently wasn’t human made that completely impossible.
It had never taken her so long to drive up to Edlowe Road, and that was even with her pushing twenty over the speed limit. Or at least it felt that way. Thankfully the cops that kept the highway patrolled at night didn’t catch her, which was oddly fortunate in itself, considering that they were usually all over the place.
Couldn’t make this situation much worse if they were, Kyla thought. She wasn’t sure anything could.
But then something happened that reminded her why it was a bad idea to think something like that, even if she didn’t actually say the words out loud. As Kyla wove her way swiftly through the canopy of trees and drew nearer to Skyline Drive, she had a brief moment where relief filled the place where her fear had been kept, like oxygen in the lungs of a suffocating man. She was close now, so close she could almost feel him. Even as she saw the road up ahead, she could imagine the safety of Caden’s arms.
And then it happened.
Suddenly, so suddenly she couldn’t make sense of what she was even seeing, a dark, black…thing flew at the Civic and crashed against the windshield. It flashed in her mind like a picture from a nightmare, a hideous creature with jet-black wings; red eyes, fangs bared…no trace of humanity in it despite that it held the face of a man.
It didn’t click in Kyla’s mind that what she was seeing was real. This whole night felt unreal to her; now more than ever. It seemed to move in slow-motion, like time had slowed down so the image could be deciphered, so her terror could be felt as it seeped into her heart…so the horror of the real could bring death to the relief she had almost felt, crushing in one final blow whatever might have remained.
Eternity couldn’t capture the length that it felt, though she knew it all happened in the blink of an eye. There was nothing about time that was right anymore; nothing about logic or the hope of escape. There was nothing but a shattered windshield, a monster with black wings and a sheer, unadulterated terror that clutched like death itself at Kyla’s throat.
Shrieking at a higher decibel than her voice had ever reached, she swerved off the side of the road, plunging the Civic into an embankment beneath the trees. She cracked her head against the steering wheel at the collision, hard enough that she was momentarily disoriented. Blood dripped down her face from a gash over her left eyebrow; Kyla felt it as she struggled to right herself. Pulling her hand away, she saw red on her fingers, and as she locked in on the image, all she could remember were those red glowing eyes.
Jerking away from the door, she tried desperately to work her way to the other side of the car. She just couldn’t do it fast enough.
Right when Kyla reached it, the driver’s side door was ripped open. A hand grabbed her first by her arm and then by her throat, yanking her out of the car.
Kyla tried to fight it off…whatever that thing was, but her vision was too blurred and her senses too confused for the attempt to be effective.
She could feel the sharp gravel scraping up her legs as she was mercilessly dragged by this creature up the road. She screamed in pain and struggled to free herself from its grip, but it was no use. It wasn’t about to let her go.
In a matter of seconds, the pain reached an intensity her body couldn’t bear, and Kyla began slipping in and out of consciousness. This went on for longer than she could determine, and even in the few brief times she would finally come to, she still couldn’t lock in on what was happening to her.
The next thing she was distinctly aware of was her body being thrown to forest floor and the wind being knocked out of her on the impact. It was so painful Kyla thought she might suffocate; and when she considered what was being done to her (or what was about to be done to her soon) she couldn’t help but question if that was really such a bad idea.
Her eyes shot open when she hit the ground and she gasped for breath, becoming frantic when she couldn’t catch it. She wanted to look around her and see where she was, but when the air wouldn’t come, Kyla knew her current location was far less important than her ability to get oxygen to her lungs. It took thirty-five of the most terrifying seconds of her life, but finally the air began to trickle in.
She remembered something Caden told her when she was nine years old, after she’d fallen out of a tree and she couldn’t catch her breath. “Take slow, small breaths,” he’d said, reassuring her the whole time that she was going to be okay. “Don’t try to get the air. Don’t be afraid. If you calm down, your breath will come back.”
Kyla remembered that now as she struggled in a panic just the way he’d said not to, and it was when she listened to the words he had told her all those years ago that it started to work; at least enough to enable her to figure out where she was.
Jerking her head back and forth and all around her, Kyla tried to take in the scene. She could tell she was somewhere on the mountain, but that was about it. She had no idea how long it had been since she was pulled from her car or how far her attacker had dragged her into the trees. All she could see was the black…threatening and thick, closing in around her moment by moment and cutting off any chance of escape she might have otherwise had.
It was the darkest night she had ever seen, the darkest feeling she had ever felt, and as she lay there petrified on the forest floor, all she could think was that this had to be a nightmare.
Slowing her confusion and ignoring the pain, she looked deeper into the dark and her vision began to adjust. It was clear she’d been dropped in the thick of the forest, just as she’d suspected, but that didn’t mean she knew where she was. All the woods looked the same around here; the towering pines, the moss-caked remains of dead, fallen trees. And they all smelled of pungent evergreen, which didn’t do much to help her navigate her way.
She could have been anywhere, and though that thought certainly concerned her, it wasn’t what drove her raging pulse right now.
Slowly, her vision began to adjust further. She squinted into the dark to look for a way out, but just as it started to come clear, a tall looming figure appeared in her sight. Screaming, Kyla crawled backwards away from it…away from this man who was cloaked in shadow.
And it was then that she knew who had brought her here.
“Donovan…” she breathed in a furious whisper. Recognizing his cold twisted grin, Kyla felt like she was going to throw up.
Donovan’s grin widened at the sound of his own name. Taking a step forward, he pulled a black, jagged blade from beneath the trench coat he wore. “Hello, Kyla James.”
His eyes held her in arrest through their horror and beauty, spellbound by a force she was unable to comprehend. She was captured by them…by the flame that existed beyond the windows of his blackened soul. And it was then that she realized, then that she knew what she should already have known:
Those eyes were not human.
It was fear that propelled her, that pushed Kyla’s legs to move harder and faster than she even knew they could. Like a jolt of adrenaline being shot through her veins, released by the thing she hated most in this life. But if fear could be used now to put distance between her and Nathaniel Blake…this liar behind her who wasn’t even a man, Kyla was going to take it, and take as much of it as she could. Whatever it required for her to get away from him, that was exactly what she was willing to do.
Running down the road away from Donovan that night…the night that had since become blurred in her memory, Kyla thought she knew then what it was like to feel a blur take her vision, to be disoriented and confused, but to keep pushing forward in spite of this. Whatever she had felt on Majestic Parkway, it wasn’t at all what she felt right now. This was worse. Much worse. Not because Nathaniel had tried to hurt her like Donovan had, but because her fear was no longer founded on speculation.
It wasn’t just an idea in her head or a prodding question at the back of her spirit telling her something wasn’t right. Nathaniel’s own words had confirmed her fear. He was the one who told her he wasn’t human.
It was a surreal feeling when the condo came into view, but at the same time it caused a hollow suspicion to rise in her. Kyla knew that Nathaniel could have easily caught her by now. If he’d wanted to, he could have had her by the arms again in a matter of seconds. She had seen the way he could move, and something told her that what little she had witnessed didn’t do justice to what he was really capable of.
Kyla shoved the thought from her mind and picked up her knees to push the last fifty meters up the inclined road. She usually despised the last fifty meters of a race, but tonight, she didn’t mind. She didn’t waste time going inside, realizing as she neared the condo that there was nothing Loni or Matthew could do to protect her. The last thing Kyla needed was to be somewhere she could be found, because logic told her (despite how senseless logic seemed at the moment) that no shoddily-built structure could keep her safe from Nathaniel Blake. She doubted even prison bars could do that if he really wanted her.
No, her family couldn’t help her right now. There was only one person who could.
Kyla raced to the driveway and jumped into the Civic before she let herself breathe. Pulling the spare key down from the visor, she attempted to start the engine, but it took her four tries to get the key into the ignition. When she finally got it, she threw the thing in reverse, slammed her foot down on the pedal and tore out of the driveway.
It wasn’t until she’d passed Paradise Circle that she realized she left her phone on the deck, but there wasn’t a chance she was going back for it now. She just had to get to Caden. She had to get where she would be safe.
Trying to shake the thought away of what she knew she couldn’t deny (but wished with everything that she could) Kyla trembled as she gunned the accelerator and sped up the road. She tried to calm her breathing, but the full mile of sprinting she’d just pulled off coupled with the fact that Nathaniel Blake apparently wasn’t human made that completely impossible.
It had never taken her so long to drive up to Edlowe Road, and that was even with her pushing twenty over the speed limit. Or at least it felt that way. Thankfully the cops that kept the highway patrolled at night didn’t catch her, which was oddly fortunate in itself, considering that they were usually all over the place.
Couldn’t make this situation much worse if they were, Kyla thought. She wasn’t sure anything could.
But then something happened that reminded her why it was a bad idea to think something like that, even if she didn’t actually say the words out loud. As Kyla wove her way swiftly through the canopy of trees and drew nearer to Skyline Drive, she had a brief moment where relief filled the place where her fear had been kept, like oxygen in the lungs of a suffocating man. She was close now, so close she could almost feel him. Even as she saw the road up ahead, she could imagine the safety of Caden’s arms.
And then it happened.
Suddenly, so suddenly she couldn’t make sense of what she was even seeing, a dark, black…thing flew at the Civic and crashed against the windshield. It flashed in her mind like a picture from a nightmare, a hideous creature with jet-black wings; red eyes, fangs bared…no trace of humanity in it despite that it held the face of a man.
It didn’t click in Kyla’s mind that what she was seeing was real. This whole night felt unreal to her; now more than ever. It seemed to move in slow-motion, like time had slowed down so the image could be deciphered, so her terror could be felt as it seeped into her heart…so the horror of the real could bring death to the relief she had almost felt, crushing in one final blow whatever might have remained.
Eternity couldn’t capture the length that it felt, though she knew it all happened in the blink of an eye. There was nothing about time that was right anymore; nothing about logic or the hope of escape. There was nothing but a shattered windshield, a monster with black wings and a sheer, unadulterated terror that clutched like death itself at Kyla’s throat.
Shrieking at a higher decibel than her voice had ever reached, she swerved off the side of the road, plunging the Civic into an embankment beneath the trees. She cracked her head against the steering wheel at the collision, hard enough that she was momentarily disoriented. Blood dripped down her face from a gash over her left eyebrow; Kyla felt it as she struggled to right herself. Pulling her hand away, she saw red on her fingers, and as she locked in on the image, all she could remember were those red glowing eyes.
Jerking away from the door, she tried desperately to work her way to the other side of the car. She just couldn’t do it fast enough.
Right when Kyla reached it, the driver’s side door was ripped open. A hand grabbed her first by her arm and then by her throat, yanking her out of the car.
Kyla tried to fight it off…whatever that thing was, but her vision was too blurred and her senses too confused for the attempt to be effective.
She could feel the sharp gravel scraping up her legs as she was mercilessly dragged by this creature up the road. She screamed in pain and struggled to free herself from its grip, but it was no use. It wasn’t about to let her go.
In a matter of seconds, the pain reached an intensity her body couldn’t bear, and Kyla began slipping in and out of consciousness. This went on for longer than she could determine, and even in the few brief times she would finally come to, she still couldn’t lock in on what was happening to her.
The next thing she was distinctly aware of was her body being thrown to forest floor and the wind being knocked out of her on the impact. It was so painful Kyla thought she might suffocate; and when she considered what was being done to her (or what was about to be done to her soon) she couldn’t help but question if that was really such a bad idea.
Her eyes shot open when she hit the ground and she gasped for breath, becoming frantic when she couldn’t catch it. She wanted to look around her and see where she was, but when the air wouldn’t come, Kyla knew her current location was far less important than her ability to get oxygen to her lungs. It took thirty-five of the most terrifying seconds of her life, but finally the air began to trickle in.
She remembered something Caden told her when she was nine years old, after she’d fallen out of a tree and she couldn’t catch her breath. “Take slow, small breaths,” he’d said, reassuring her the whole time that she was going to be okay. “Don’t try to get the air. Don’t be afraid. If you calm down, your breath will come back.”
Kyla remembered that now as she struggled in a panic just the way he’d said not to, and it was when she listened to the words he had told her all those years ago that it started to work; at least enough to enable her to figure out where she was.
Jerking her head back and forth and all around her, Kyla tried to take in the scene. She could tell she was somewhere on the mountain, but that was about it. She had no idea how long it had been since she was pulled from her car or how far her attacker had dragged her into the trees. All she could see was the black…threatening and thick, closing in around her moment by moment and cutting off any chance of escape she might have otherwise had.
It was the darkest night she had ever seen, the darkest feeling she had ever felt, and as she lay there petrified on the forest floor, all she could think was that this had to be a nightmare.
Slowing her confusion and ignoring the pain, she looked deeper into the dark and her vision began to adjust. It was clear she’d been dropped in the thick of the forest, just as she’d suspected, but that didn’t mean she knew where she was. All the woods looked the same around here; the towering pines, the moss-caked remains of dead, fallen trees. And they all smelled of pungent evergreen, which didn’t do much to help her navigate her way.
She could have been anywhere, and though that thought certainly concerned her, it wasn’t what drove her raging pulse right now.
Slowly, her vision began to adjust further. She squinted into the dark to look for a way out, but just as it started to come clear, a tall looming figure appeared in her sight. Screaming, Kyla crawled backwards away from it…away from this man who was cloaked in shadow.
And it was then that she knew who had brought her here.
“Donovan…” she breathed in a furious whisper. Recognizing his cold twisted grin, Kyla felt like she was going to throw up.
Donovan’s grin widened at the sound of his own name. Taking a step forward, he pulled a black, jagged blade from beneath the trench coat he wore. “Hello, Kyla James.”
His eyes held her in arrest through their horror and beauty, spellbound by a force she was unable to comprehend. She was captured by them…by the flame that existed beyond the windows of his blackened soul. And it was then that she realized, then that she knew what she should already have known:
Those eyes were not human.
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