Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 116263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Aria’s breaths were short and broken as she hurried to undo the lock. Metal grated harshly, and when she finally had the lock disengaged, she stepped out.
The cement was frigid beneath her bare feet.
And the child . . . The child peered back at her from over her shoulder. That tether pulled taut. A lure that Aria couldn’t resist.
She had to get to her.
Help her.
Get her back to her room, where she would be safe.
Only the little girl edged deeper into the wisping, dust-laden shadows that covered the lot. The vacancy sign flashed through it in serrated, bent strikes of white.
Aria felt it gather and cover.
A shroud of depravity. An intonation of evil.
It shivered over her flesh, and she sprang into motion and hastened down the stairs, clinging to the railing as if it were a lifeline since she could hardly make out her surroundings.
“Hello?” she shouted. “Hello? Where are you? Please. Come back!”
Another gust of wind whipped through, and the air thickened as a mist of clouds rolled in.
Disorienting.
She scoured through them, desperate to find which direction the child had gone. Her heart thundered, a pounding that throbbed in her throat and reverberated in her spirit.
Aria stepped off the bottom step and onto the packed dirt below.
Cold lashed her face, her flesh, her hair thrashing and scorching her cheeks as she searched through the blinding shadows that enclosed.
She stumbled forward, fumbling through the confusion.
She caught a movement in the distance, just off to the left, in front of her.
“Hey!” she shouted. “Please! Come back!” The sound echoed, and the tinkling of laughter rippled back.
Soft and delicate.
The little girl’s.
Aria began to jog in that direction, ignoring the bits of gravel that dug into the soles of her feet as she followed the faint laughter. It was coming from the direction of where the road had to be, just up ahead, even though she couldn’t see more than a foot in front of her.
Dread filled her to overflowing.
A powerful urge to help her.
“Please, come back!” she called again, lurching along behind the child, who always seemed to remain the same distance ahead no matter how quickly Aria moved. Her feet scraped over the bitter ground as she fumbled and rushed through the disorder.
The child kept running.
Giggling.
Laughing as she peered back at Aria with the palest eyes, though Aria was coaxed toward them like they were a lighthouse that beckoned in the darkness.
She hurried that way as the child neared the road. Headlights cut through the vapor at the same moment the little girl darted onto it.
Aria screamed.
Screamed as the blare of a horn shattered through the night.
She gasped, clutching her chest as the truck didn’t slow but blew right through. Tears poured down her cheeks as it passed, then disappeared into the misty fog.
Rushing forward, she frantically searched through the thick vapor.
She nearly fell to her knees when the tinkling laughter rolled, and she caught sight of the child standing on the other side of the road. She faced Aria as she swayed back and forth before she turned and darted into the field of high, dead grasses on the other side.
Relief pounded through Aria, though that frenzy still battered through her body as the child disappeared. Aria inhaled a shaky breath and raced across the road, following the path where the child had gone. She wove through the maze of tall grasses, winding and turning and fighting her way through the labyrinth, following the tether that had a direct connection to her spirit.
Giggles billowed as the wind thrashed. Blades of grass as sharp as razors whipped across Aria’s face and hands. She ignored the sting and hurried toward the call she couldn’t resist.
She came to a stop when she suddenly stumbled into a clearing. A clearing where the clouds swirled over a blackened pond.
The little girl glanced back just as she dipped one toe into the water, then fully stepped in with the other.
“No!” Aria shouted. She lurched forward in an attempt to grab her, but the water was deep, and the child immediately sank beneath the surface.
Aria didn’t hesitate. She dove in.
Frigid ice chilled her to the bone, and she struggled, lashing one direction and then the other to try to discern where the child had gone.
Daggers of glittering light speared through the waters, illuminating the depths, and Aria’s pulse stopped when she saw the child was on her back, her arms and legs limp as she sank, her blond hair billowing around her angelic face as she drifted deeper into the abyss.
Aria broke the surface and took a gulping breath of air before she dove back under and swam with everything she had toward the girl, who continued to sink.
Deeper and deeper.
The pit bottomless.
Fathomless.
Frantic, Aria propelled herself, and she stretched out to grab the child’s wrist. She nearly wept in relief when she wrapped her hand around the fragile arm.