Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 148397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 742(@200wpm)___ 594(@250wpm)___ 495(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 148397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 742(@200wpm)___ 594(@250wpm)___ 495(@300wpm)
“Respect me by getting her moving.” Sucking down his agony, Peter looked at the other jewels scattered in varying degrees of dread. “None of us will end up in that cupboard. I promise you. I meant what I said. I’ll kill you myself before I let anyone else be brought into this temple. But right now, forget everything you saw and follow me. As fast as you can. It’s dark the deeper we go, but use your hands, and you’ll get by.”
Shuffling behind the small podium—another rock that’d been chipped and chiselled to make a platform—he beckoned us to hurry. “Fuck the weapons. We’ve run out of time. Let’s go.”
Vanishing behind a thick outcropping of stalagmites, he limped into the darkness.
Rachel bounced on the spot, urgency flooding her. “We’ve got to go.” Waving at the other girls, she ordered, “Come on. Move. Quickly.”
Citra led the pack, following Peter through the secret passage.
Caishen gave me a worried look. “I don’t know about him, but I’d feel better if I had a knife.”
“Me too.” I flew toward the chest.
Together, we flung out canopic jars and tossed away heavy black velvet robes. Almost in sync, I found a few battery-fed torches, and he found a single knife with a nicked blade as if it’d been used against stone.
“Let’s go.” Holding out his hand, Caishen gave me a kind smile as I threaded my fingers with his.
We didn’t say a word as he pulled me through stone into hell.
Chapter Four
………………………….
Henri
I LOST TRACK OF TIME AND sanity.
The deeper the cave system swallowed me, the worse I lost myself.
The cave—with an altar, cupboard full of skulls, and carved seating for devils to watch fucked-up ceremonies—chilled my bones until I turned numb.
The energy in that place coated my skin with goosebumps.
I wanted to leave as soon as I stepped foot inside it and only stayed long enough to ransack the boxes and cupboards, looking for something to help me do whatever it was that I would do.
Nothing.
Nothing but a torch with half-dead batteries.
I had no idea what my plan was.
I was barefoot, freezing, and frankly, I feared myself.
Feared how fucking good it’d felt to squeeze the life out of Charles.
How empty my mind was as I added yet another soul to my tally.
I felt no guilt.
No remorse.
Nothing but single-minded determination to find Ily.
Fisting the torch, I eyed up the crevices leading from the large cave where death dripped down the walls. The one to the right was the largest. The one slightly to my left utterly uninviting with its ill-fitting crack and jagged rocks.
I chose that one.
If I wanted to hide, I’d probably go that way. Choosing the least inviting direction to dissuade those chasing me.
Twisting a little, I stepped into the dank, damp chill.
My stolen paintball gun whacked and cracked against the narrow walls, hindering me a little as I clicked on the torch and left behind fake sconces and a blood-stained altar.
I stopped counting minutes as I followed the long seam, heading deeper and deeper into the earth.
Every step, the blackness inside me billowed, matching the blackness swallowing me whole.
I feared the beast within me.
The thirst for blood.
The hunger for carnage.
All around me, heavy rock suffocated the sounds of existence, making it feel as if I’d been buried alive. I walked in a grave with no ending, laid to eternal damnation beneath soil full of saltwater.
On and on, I walked.
Heard no one.
Saw nothing.
Flashes of what I’d done to Charles popped like holograms in the gloom.
His eyes as I snuffed them out.
His lips as they turned blue.
His death had been satisfying but also…hollow.
It hadn’t granted me peace.
If anything, it’d opened a clawing, rabid hunger inside to do it again. And again. To eradicate every son of a bitch on this island until I was the only one.
I sniffed back the whiff of paint on my soggy clothes as I travelled through perpetual cave-dark night.
The journey acted like a sedative on the snarling mayhem in my veins.
It gave me space to think instead of act impulsively, and by the time the narrow pathway spat me out into another cave, I bordered human once again.
The click of my torch as I turned it off echoed in the rock-wrapped chamber. I didn’t need any light as the cave had electricity—burning brightly from exposed light bulbs suspended from the ceiling by thick plastic-wrapped wire.
Glancing around, I spied a few things of interest.
The uneven ground was soaked with the black-crimson of dried blood. A heavy wooden box tucked to the side looked like a treasure chest of murder. A heavy-duty hose hung, coiled and sleeping against the wall. The whiff of ocean filled the space, doing its best to tease my nose with wild water instead of the lingering stench of viscera.
Whatever went on in here would make even the sickest serial killer blanch.