by Helen Bell
Her tongue darted out, licking the blood off her lips. “Don’t be. I wanted to help find Zoey. Did you see her?”
I shook my head. “No, I woke up in a room with thirteen girls who had been taken from the party too. We were tied with chains and had to go through some cruel challenges. They all died. I survived, so he let me go, but turns out the door was actually a portal to Ice Prison, and then the building vanished.”
Wide-eyed, she said, “Seriously? He made you do challenges? Gosh, that’s really messed up. You think he did the same to Zoey?”
That would be the rational conclusion. Zoey could be in the Jungle too, breathing this air.
“You didn’t answer my question from before; is the oxygen here fatal to humans too?” Silence. “Kelly?”
“Yes, they’ll die within a week,” she finally answered. “The air is highly toxic to regular humans.”
“Regular humans?” I echoed.
“Yeah, not Gifted. Some humans are born with a supernatural gift, like fortune-tellers and tea readers. The body of a Gifted human can sustain the toxic environment of the Jungle longer. They have about a month before it shuts down.”
My stare moved down to the tattoo on my palm, and she said, “Gifted humans cannot contain such powerful black magic. They’ll die instantly. But apparently you can, so it may indicate that you’re some kind of super Gifted human.”
“Too bad the only way I can know whether I am super Gifted is if I don’t croak in the next few days.” The bitterness in my tone was sharp. “Say I am. What about Zoey? Is being Gifted genetic?”
She shrugged apologetically. “I don’t know.”
The thought of Zoey dead made my stomach hurt. If she was here, she’d already breathed the toxic air in—wait.
I cast Kelly a questioning look. “How come there’s oxygen in the vampire’s section of Ice Prison? You don’t need it to survive.”
“We don’t, but mutated vampires do. Their heart returns to beat once they transform fully into an animal. Though, they don’t lose their immortality,” she replied.
“Where does your detailed knowledge of Ice Prison come from? Your father?” I wondered.
“Not just. Everything about Ice Prison is common knowledge in the Hidden World.”
A bright yellow bird flew inside the tree house. I watched its unique color with fascination while it hovered above our heads before it fluttered out.
“It’s beautiful,” I commented as it got out.
“It was a Yellow Dreamer, a harmless bird,” she said. “Watch out for the glowing butterflies, though. They’re gorgeous, but one touch of their sparkle trail and you’re paralyzed. Once you fall to the ground, it slips into your body through your nose or mouth then eats your liver, your colon, and your kidneys while you’re still alive. After that, they’ll eat the lungs and then the entire head. It’s a painful way to die.”
I sucked in a breath. While I’d been admiring the beautiful butterfly back at the river, that little monster had its eyes on its next meal—me.
“Yeah, they’re really nasty,” she continued. “Keep in mind that they’re drawn to blood and can sense when someone is unable to move because of illness or an injury. They’ll exploit it and enter their body to eat them, so be careful around them.”
“Don’t worry, duly noted,” I told her and changed the subject. “What’s the deal with the siren? Who sets it off?”
“Not who. What. Magic,” she answered. “Ice Prison was sculpted and designed by Herit. Ever heard of her?”
“I have. She’s supposed to be some sort of bad-ass warrior, super strong and powerful. Yet no one knows what she is.”
She nodded. “Herit was very powerful; even The Original Rulers were brought to their knees by her, begging for mercy.” She paused, as if imagining the event in her head. “Anyway,” she went on, “Herit built Ice Prison in another dimension, so things work differently around here. The night and the moon dominate this area. On Earth, twenty-four hours count as one day. If we follow this time measurement unit here, I can say that the sun appears in the sky once or twice a week at random times. That’s when the moon and stars vanish for three or four hours, and the hunt begins.
“Herit thought it’d be wise to give the prisoners a heads-up before the gargoyles come out. Otherwise, they would eventually slaughter everyone in the Jungle—where they’re at the top of the food chain. They have no predators, so she cast a spell that functions as an alarm. It goes off whenever the sun is approaching.”
“The snake with the three heads knew it was going to appear a few seconds before there was a siren,” I said.
She swatted a buzzing insect off her face. After slapping at it and crushing the little mutated vampire, which turned into ice as it fell to the floor, she shifted her attention back to me.
“Yeah, some animals can sense the energy of the sun when it’s about to come, and that gives them a few seconds of advantage. Oh, and about the green trees and photosynthesis you brought up earlier. The trees have adapted to the harsh environment, and now they can tolerate low light levels. Keep in mind that there’s plenty of Herit’s magic surrounding the place, so lots of stuff in the Jungle won’t make sense to you.”
A warm breeze blew in through the open door. Sweating, I fanned myself with one hand. “Like having one hundred degree heat even though the sun shows up only twice a week for a short period?”
“Exactly. Most vampires hate the heat, and this being a prison, it’s not supposed to be comfortable for us.”
“Then why does it rain blood here?” I asked.
“Herit was against starvation. Since the food sources for vampires here are limited, with her magic, she made sure there would be blood rain coming down occasionally in the Jungle,” she answered and got up to throw the empty bag of blood in a corner.
My eyes traveled across the room. “Whose tree house is it?”
“I don’t know. I found it empty a week ago, and no one has come to it since then.”
“A week?” My voice rose. “Brad’s party was only several hours ago.” Had I been unconscious longer than that?
She returned and sat down in front of me again. “It was, but I’ve been sleeping in this tree house for a week now according to my calculation. The time in Ice Prison moves much faster than in our dimension. An hour on Earth is twenty-four hours in the Jungle.”
“Great, so for you and me, it’ll take Gideon forever until he discovers Brad trapped us in Ice Prison. I don’t understand; he’s not a Watcher, so how the hell does he have access to this place?”
“He doesn’t. The demon king, Damon, does. Brad paid him lots of money to get his help. I saw the demon in his father’s mansion with a witch when Brad threw me in here. To open a gate to this dimension, you need a Watcher. Or a skilled witch and a powerful supernatural being who contains strong energy inside of him or her, like Damon. The witch has to draw her power from this energy to be able to open a portal.
“Anyway, don’t count on Gideon to save us. I don’t think he has the resources to create a gate. The good news, though, is that we’re not real prisoners, which means the magic in Ice Prison doesn’t know we exist, so it won’t block our way as we cross through the portal to our dimension.”
“What portal? The ones we came through to get here are closed.”
“Not the temporary gates, I’m talking about the main gate. Which leads to the Bermuda Triangle.”
“But won’t we find ourselves in the sea once we’ve passed through? And is the portal even visible?”
“It’s supposed to be, and we’ll build a log raft. It’s not ideal, but at least we’ll be back on Earth,” she told me.
A rickety log raft in the middle of the ocean was too dangerous. “I don’t know, Kelly. It’s not safe. Besides, without tools, it’ll take us forever to make a raft.”
“Being in Ice prison is way unsafer,” she pointed out and nodded at the weapon on my thigh. “We have a dagger and a machete. They’ll be useful.
If not, we’ll figure out everything at the portal. But first, we have to find it.”
“And hope for more empty tree houses on our way over there in case the sun goes up again,” I said.
“There must be more shelters throughout the Jungle. Don’t forget that I’m not the only vampire here,” she told me.
Somehow, that was not reassuring.
“Okay, so now all we gotta do is track down the main portal, which is somewhere in a forest full of dangerous mutated vampires, before I die from toxic air.” I sounded hopeless.
“Pinpointing the main gate’s location won’t be a problem—because of you.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Me?”
“Yeah, you. Humans are naturally drawn to it since Ice Prison was not built for them. Unlike vampires.”
“Are you positive about that? I don’t feel anything.”
“And you won’t until the BFB passes out of your system.”
“I see,” I said, and hope flickered inside of me. “If Zoey ended up in Ice Prison, she might’ve found the gate and gotten out of here.”
“Unless Brad kidnapped her again, keeping her locked away. He was obsessed with her. Maybe he never threw her in Ice Prison in the first place,” she said.
“Yeah, you’re right.”
After I found Zoey, I’d deal with Brad. Preferably, I’d tie him up and drop him into a tank full of leeches and make him search for a goddamn key in all the colors of the rainbow, giving him a taste of his own medicine.
Rage consumed my body at the thought of his evil smile, so I shoved him out of my mind and looked down at the tattoo, wondering how it would react in this dimension. Time would tell.
I sighed and returned my gaze to Kelly. “We’re gonna leave the tree house as soon as the BFB wears off and go search for the main portal. Until then, we get some shut-eye. We need our strength to face whatever is waiting for us out there.”
“Sounds like a good plan. I’m exhausted.” She went to a corner and sat down as I stood up and closed the door.
The room turned black. “Sleep tight,” I heard Kelly say.
I lay down across the entrance, so if someone tried to get in, it’d wake me up. Then I put my head on the bag, using it as a pillow.
“You too,” I said and fell asleep.
Chapter 23
Dream images faded away as I felt a gentle shake on my shoulder.
“Sydney, wake up.”
I opened my eyes to Kelly’s face looking down at me. It took me a few seconds to remember where I was. I sat up, feeling refreshed, rested, and hungry.
I checked the number on my hand. It’d decreased by one. Good, the black magic didn’t behave differently here.
“Have any idea how long we’ve been sleeping?” I asked.
“My body clock says seven hours, maybe eight.”
I got to my feet. Sweat trickled down my chest as I opened the door. My skin was sticky with the increased humidity of the air. It was night outside, and everything looked like before. Something was different, though; I felt some sort of compulsion to get down and start walking west.
“Do you feel drawn to the portal? Did the BFB wear off?” Kelly said.
I went to the bag and pulled out a can of food. “Yes, but first I gotta eat. What about you? Aren’t you hungry?”
She vanished into a dark corner and then moved back to the door, a duffel bag on her shoulder. “I’ve been here longer than you, and I’m running low on the blood bags. I need to conserve my food as much as possible and feed on the next red rain.”
I nodded, and after I finished eating, we climbed down the ladder and walked into the dense forest. We had to stop several times to drag away fallen branches blocking our path. The terrain was hilly, never flat, making the hike more challenging. The heat and the clothes sticking to my damp body didn’t help.
Taking a break, I gave the machete to Kelly and drank water, trying to cool myself off. I inhaled the damp, slithery rotten smell of the forest into my lungs as I put the bottle back in the bag. That’s when I noticed the small insects nipping on my arms. Alarmed, I slapped at them and checked my legs. “Jesus,” I said with horror. They were covered in a mountain range of red bites.
Kelly stepped close to me, examining my legs with her eyes. “Ooh, doesn’t look good, but don’t worry; they’re not life-threatening bites.”
I glanced at her skin. It was smooth and perfect—not a single bite or cut. “God, I wish I was a vampire right now.”
“Bugs feed on the undead too,” she corrected my assumption. “I’m not immune to insect bites, but vampires heal fast, so I don’t even feel it.”
“Being a vampire does have its perks,” I said, wiping the sweat off my face with the hem of the shirt before taking the knife back and continuing with our journey. We brushed elbows and hips against encroaching foliage as we walked along little streams that weaved through the forest and many clusters of mushrooms. We followed the direction I kept being drawn to like a magnet.
For my human eyes, Kelly strode after me with a flashlight, illuminating our surroundings while I hacked a trail through the mass of vegetation. As we walked through the forest, I admired the beautiful sight of glowing funguses perched on the sides of rocks and trees along the way. A loud clap of thunder rumbled, and a few seconds later, the rain began. At some point, the rain cranked up, yet we didn’t get too wet since the forest’s canopy kept most of the water from hitting the ground.
As time ticked by, weakness suffused through my limbs, and we took another break.
“Eat something. You look weak,” Kelly said.
I sat down on the rocky floor and followed her advice, opening the bag and taking out a food can. When I was done, I hauled myself to my feet, and a wave of dizziness swept through me. I swayed and quickly put my hand on the bark of a towering tree to steady myself.
“Whoa, you okay?” Kelly shot to my side, ready to catch me if I fell.
“Yeah, it must be the heat.” Or the toxic air. “It’ll pass,” I said, not wanting to worry her. As I glanced around, a thought occurred to me. “We’ve been plodding through the forest like forever, but we haven’t run into any prisoners. Where are they? Those who haven’t mutated? Not that I’m complaining, just wondering.”
“The Jungle is a lot like human prisons,” she told me. “Vampires here live in groups. Gangs that mark their own turf. Rarely will you see a prisoner wandering alone. It’s not easy to survive on your own here. The inmates usually remain on their own turf most of the time. They don’t roam freely in the Jungle unless they have to.”
“Well, let’s hope we don’t encounter any vampire gangs on our way to the portal,” I said. Although my body was still drained of energy, we resumed our hiking, bent on getting to the gate.
As we proceeded, I became overwhelmed by the ineffable beauty around us. Enchanted gleaming flowers and fireflies surrounded the place. Many balls of light danced among the trees, creating a magical spectacle, and when we passed a pond, I watched in awe at the clear reflection of the stars on the water. It was as if they were there.
My attention focused on the stupendous views, and Kelly reminded me to watch my steps. The rain had long since ceased, but the forest floor was ankle-deep mud, which hid tree roots and rocks. Almost tripping a few times, I tore my gaze from the gorgeous view and watched my steps.
After we trundled up a hill and moved through some dense undergrowth, we reached a small lake. Ten feet from the water’s edge, I came to a sudden halt.
“Oh, good, another body of water. I’ll go wash the mud off my feet,” Kelly said behind me.
When she moved forward toward the lake, I whispered sharply, “Don’t take another step.”
She froze and stared over at the lake and then at me in bewilderment. “Why?”
“Do you feel any wind?” My voice was low. She shook her head, her brow furrowed. “Look out at the water again,” I told her.
Her gaze turned to the lake once more. A dreadful expre
ssion of dawning realization appeared on her face. “It’s not flat,” she murmured.
Ripples gave way to small waves moving at different speeds and different directions across the pond. Something was in there. And it was not friendly.
My eyes were on the shore. “Now look at the bank.” I waited for her to notice the broken teeth, skulls, and pieces of bones lying along the waterline.
“Jesus, that was not done by fish,” she whispered.
“Nope, and I don’t know if whatever is in the water can hear noises from …” I trailed off when she squatted, snatched a stone, and threw it into the lake.
There was a sharp movement in the water, and an octopus-like head the size of a wrecking ball rose to the surface. We jerked back as one wide tentacle emerged from the black water and smacked the muddy bank, two feet away from us. To close the gap, the sucker-bearing arm extended in our direction. We jumped aside, and the long tentacle reached the vegetation instead, tearing whatever it touched: grass, roots, leaves.
As the creature searched for us, I put my index finger across my lips, motioning Kelly to stay quiet. That thing seemed to be blind and relied on its sense of hearing. I preferred not to use the machete to cut it since the creature’s skin looked too thick, so I thought of another solution. Gaze fixed on the octopus-like head, I slowly bent down and grabbed the first stone my hand touched.
Holding it, I inched toward Kelly, leaning to her ear. “When I throw it, run. We’ll meet on the other side of the lake, away from its bank.” She nodded, and I tossed the stone.
It sailed through the air in an arc and fell onto the mud. A bushy stream of misty air and vapor exploded from the creature’s head as it swam toward the sound the stone had caused. I raced in the opposite direction, and Kelly disappeared. The noise my feet made drew the creature’s attention, and its arms moved after me. I kept running, speeding up.
Finally reaching the other side of the lake, a safe distance from the creature, I stopped and dropped the knife to the ground. I leaned over, my hands on my knees, panting. My body shook, and I felt weaker.