I closed my eyes and pretended I was at Brown on the main green, lying with Jared while the summer air weaved through the trees. I blocked out the echoing and murmuring inside the tomb and replaced it with laughing and the jovial sounds of flag football on warm days and the wonderful smells wafting from the Gate. Even my dorm room at Andrews was an escape. Mostly, I concentrated on our oak tree and the loft. I still mourned our first home, but in my mind, it was untouched. Recalling every memory of every place I’d spent with Jared was the only thing that kept me sane at that point—that and watching Claire and Ryan fall in love. Their sweet conversations and the way they reveled in every moment with each other kept me away from the darkness.
As the first of August came and went, my memories became harder to enjoy. They just mocked me. Us. Our faces had all grown pale, begging to see the sun again. Not even the promise of safety was worth this. Quiet times with Jared were something I had always wanted, but not in this prison, not in this tomb, where I already felt dead.
A small twinge in my belly made me hold my breath. It went away, but soon another came and then another. They were stronger, and the more I hoped they would go away, the quicker and more intense they came.
I tried to breathe, but the air was so stale. When I tried to concentrate on my breathing through the pain, all I could hear was the water dripping. Always dripping. It was maddening. I was in labor and going to give birth inside a drippy, cold hole in the ground.
“No,” I whispered.
Jared read a book a few feet from the mattress, noticeably waiting for me to tell him I was uncomfortable. I didn’t want to say it. Speaking the words made it real. There would be movement towards the supplies and the unpacking of all the medical paraphernalia I didn’t want to see.
Before another contraction came, I pushed myself out of bed. “I have to get out of here.”
Jared put down his worn copy of The Catcher in the Rye and turned to face me. When he saw I was standing, he stood, too. “Nina, you have to lie down.”
“I can’t.” I shook my head. “It’s enough, Jared. I can’t stay here, anymore. We need to find somewhere else.”
“There is nowhere else.”
I bent my knees and awkwardly bent over to pick up a few of my things lying around the bed. “Well, we can’t stay here. I can’t . . . I can’t have my baby here.”
Jared sighed. “Nina, stop. You’re being irrational.”
“Okay, so I’m irrational. But I’m going to be irrational outside, where I can breathe.”
Jared tried to touch my hand, but I pulled away. “You know you can’t,” he said.
“I can and I’m going.”
Ryan crossed his arms. “Then go.”
“What?” Jared seethed.
“She’s stronger than all of us. If she doesn’t want to stay, we can’t make her.”
“See?” I said to Jared, pointing to Ryan. “He listens to me. You’re not listening!”
“Sweetheart,” Jared said, holding his hands in front of him. “You know what’s waiting up there for us. We’ll be attacked the second we breach the stairs.”
“Just for a minute,” I said, trying to nonchalantly slide by him. I grabbed my belly and hunched over a bit, trying to casually weather another contraction.
Ryan touched Jared’s arm. “Jared, we got through an entire city of shells. If she wants to breathe some fresh air after nearly sixty days in a cave, I say let her.”
“You don’t have a say, so shut up,” Jared said through his teeth.
“I don’t either?” I said. I hobbled toward the entrance slowly, but Jared matched every step.
“Of course you do,” he said. “Just . . . just let me think for a minute.”
I closed my eyes tightly. They twitched every time the drops of water slid from the rock wall to the ground. “That’s the problem. I can’t think in here. I can’t breathe. I can’t sleep. I feel like I’m dying!”
“Jared,” Ryan began.
“Shut the hell up!”
“Maybe we all need some fresh air,” Bex said.
With wide eyes, both Jared and Claire craned their necks at their little brother.
Jared’s jaws worked under his skin, and he struggled to relax enough to speak to me in a calm voice. “Nina, for all we know the devil is up there. They will stop at nothing now.”
Ryan shrugged. “Sometimes you gotta dance with the devil to get out of Hell.”
The further we got to the entrance, the darker it became. Bex had set up twin-head industrial light stands around the perimeter, so bright that at first, when they were all lit, it felt like day. Now the shadows they cast were just another reminder of our prison.
I moved quickly to the doorway, and Claire grabbed my wrist. “Maybe we should sedate her?”
I yanked my arm back, easily shouldering past her. “You’re not keeping me here against my will! I know I sound crazy! I feel crazy! This place is making me crazy! I don’t want to leave forever. I just . . . I just want a couple of minutes of sunshine, just a moment to feel alive again.”
Ryan appeared in front of me, holding up his hands. “Whoa, buddy. You’re getting yourself all worked up,” he said. He spoke through nervous laughter, trying to lighten the mood. “You need to take a minute to think about this. No one is making you stay, but maybe if you think about this a little more, you’ll reconsider.”
Jared looked to me with hope in his eyes.
“I thought you were on my side,” I said.
“I am, Nigh. I’ve always been on your side.”
“No one’s on my side. No one hears me.”
Ryan relaxed a bit. “Just try to clear your head and think about it. You’re not a prisoner here. You’re here to keep the baby safe until it’s born.”
I nodded. “Okay, I’ve thought about it. I can’t stand it anymore. Who wants to have their baby in a tomb? Not me. This was a bad idea. I just need to go. I have to go.”
I made my way to the entrance that led to the stairs, but Jared stood in my way, his fingers digging into my shoulders. “I can’t let you go, sweetheart. If you go upstairs, they’ll kill you.”
“But we . . . you . . . you need to get me out of here, okay? I don’t want to be here anymore.”
Jared nodded; his voice was low and calm. “I understand. As soon as the baby comes, we’ll leave. I promise.”
I shook my head, the tears cascading down my cheeks. I took a step back. “No. No, I don’t want to have the baby here. I can’t stay here another night. Not another second.”
“That’s a prize-winning freak-out, right there,” Kim said without emotion.
Jared grimaced. “You’re not helping, Kim. Listen,” he said, returning his attention to me.
My body shook. I was in control of nothing, not my body, not where I slept. I couldn’t even go to the bathroom alone or take a walk. It was too much. Too much.
“You can’t make me stay here. I can leave when I want.”
“You’re right. You can leave when you want, but I want you to stay. The second you’re aboveground, Nina, you’ll regret your choice. Just . . . trust me? Please? Just a little bit longer. Can you stay with me a little bit longer?”
Tiny twin rivers dripped from my jaw onto my dirty shirt. I closed my eyes, but all I could hear was the dripping. The damn dripping. It wouldn’t stop.
“No,” I whispered. I ran for the door, and Claire and Jared grabbed my arms. With my full strength, I took one step after another, slowly but surely making my way to the doorway.
Claire grunted against my strength. “Nina, stop!”
Bex joined his siblings, grabbing both of my ankles and wrapping his feet around them. I could have broken free, but I didn’t want to hurt him. I didn’t want to hurt any of them. I just needed to be aboveground, to breathe fresh air and feel the sun on my skin, to hear my voice—just one time—without an echo behind it.
“Nina, look at me! Look at me!” Jared said, positioning his face in front of
mine. “You have to stop. You’re going to get yourself killed, and the baby will die. Do you hear me? We’ll all die!”
I stopped struggling, and my body went limp as I sobbed on the ground against my husband. My focus on survival, irrational or not, had become a monster.
Claire and Bex took a step back with labored breath. I’d given all three of them a run for their money.
Jared stood and pulled me with him. “Okay?”
I nodded, watching him walk into the tomb. “I’m sorry.”
20. Legion
I bolted for the top of the stairs, shoving the altar out of the way. I crawled out of the hole, squinting against the bright sunlight filtering in through the rotunda.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, letting the warm, fresh air fill my lungs. I bathed in it, taking in every bit before Jared dragged me back underground. After a few seconds, the warm air went away, and the cold, dark feeling of the tomb surrounded me. Jared had barely let me take an entire breath before he’d forced me to return.
I opened my eyes and realized I was still in the Sepulchre. The room was full of shells, poised to pounce. I could hear Jared crawling up the stairs, yelling my name, but immediately I was attacked. I fought off one and then two and three at a time. By the time Jared reached the top, I had already taken out half the shells in a fury of moves I didn’t even have to think about. A small woman threw herself at me, her arms flailing about. Jared incapacitated her with a single blow. Claire and Ryan reached the top, quickly followed by Bex, and the mob inside the Sepulchre quickly thinned. More filed in, though, and we were running out of room.
“Back up!” Jared commanded. “Back downstairs!”
The walls shook, and two large, dark forms squeezed their misshapen bodies into the entrance of the Sepulchre. They weren’t shells, but demons, large demons with gray skin and mouths full of teeth under moist snouts.
The one on the right grabbed Jared while the other took my shirt in one hand and slammed my back against the opposite wall.
“Hey!” Kim yelled from the mouth of the stairway. “Get the hell out of here!” Even though the monsters stood two heads taller than she did, she didn’t seem nervous in the slightest. The demons wailed at her, shielding themselves with their shoulders, but they didn’t retreat.
The demon that Jared fought barked at the black-eyed minions filing into the room, and before anyone could react, a half dozen of the shells dove at Kim, pushing her down the stairway. Her scream faded as she rolled further underground.
Bex leapt in after her, and Claire and Ryan went to work on Jared’s demon.
I tried to rip my shirt to escape the grip of the brute, but his hands were gigantic, and I couldn’t break free. A shell in military fatigues slipped into the room, walked to me without hesitation, and held a pistol to my temple.
The demon holding me signaled his partner, capturing Jared’s, Claire’s, and Ryan’s attention as well. In a move so fast I could barely follow, Jared pulled his sidearm from his belt and held it on the shell. The entire room froze.
“Don’t. Move,” Jared said.
I nodded. I was sure he was furious with me. His eyes glossed over and his teeth clenched as a deep line formed between his brows.
The shell spoke. “We’re taking her out of this place. Do not follow, or we’ll cut the child from her in the street.”
Jared held his gun on the shell, his entire body shaking with rage. Finally he lowered his weapon but just a few inches. “I love you,” he said. He immediately tensed his arms again, aiming his gun at my captor.
I smiled. “It’s okay. You’ll just save me like you always do, right?”
“Right. Just . . . wait for me.”
“I’ll wait for you,” I said.
Hesitant and clearly conflicted, Jared lowered his weapon. In the next moment, I was dragged backward with such force I felt I was flying. The rooms of the Sepulchre flew past, and then I was in the sunlight. The streets blurred as the demon raced me through the old city. A few minutes later I was dragged into an old building by the back of my dress.
The fiend tossed me, and I skidded to the middle of a room. At first glance, the room was a filthy mess, and then I realized the pile of sheets was a provisional bed. No medical supplies or baby blankets.
“What will you do to him?” I asked, hesitant to make eye contact with the rotting pile of flesh standing at the door.
“He waits to devour him,” the demon said, clear mucus glistening from his snout. The creature had the hind legs of a horse, but he stood upright, his dark arms crossed in from of him. He didn’t make eye contact with me, and I was glad, because his red, veiny eyes were the most frightening thing I had ever seen.
I groaned. Pain seared through my body, and I knew I would have to calm down if I were to slow down the contractions. The more time I gave Jared to reach us, the better chance we had. I climbed onto the tufts of sheets and leaned back on the heels of my hands.
A shell, a large woman, was allowed entry. I braced myself to be attacked, but she grabbed a fistful of my sweat-drenched hair, lifted me to my feet, and then reached up my dress and ripped off my panties with her free hand. I raised my hands to defend myself, but she only grabbed my wrists and tied them with cloth restraints attached to wires. Those thick wires were fastened to the cement floor with bolts. Once she completed her task, the woman left me alone with the demon.
Dirty windows lined the wall to my left. The outlines of dozens of shells cast shadows against the muddy glass. I wondered if I could take the giant standing guard at the door, but I knew that Jared and Claire had trouble with him, and I hadn’t exactly trained how to ignore labor pains while on the offensive. I subtly tested the bolts. They seemed fairly secure, but I was sure I could break free when the time came. The one exit would pose a problem; I didn’t know what else waited on the other side. I could probably break through the window, but once again, the contractions . . . . I tensed, trying to breathe through the pain. “Oh . . . my God!” I grunted. Deep breaths turned into panting. Sweat dripped from my hairline into my eyes. Just when I thought I might break in half, the contraction subsided. I let my body relax against an old cushion propped against the wall.
“May I have some water?” I asked.
The demon’s beady eyes shifted toward me. He snarled and then looked ahead.
The cramping and pressure grew more intense with the next few contractions, and then I felt a warm gush between my legs. When I looked down at the clear liquid that had drenched the sheets, I realized my water had broken. A short relief of pressure came, quickly followed by a spasm so intense that I nearly passed out.
I wailed and moved back against the wall. Nothing I did escaped the agony. “Please,” I whimpered between breaths, “help me.” Another wave washed over me; my blood-curdling screams echoed throughout the building. The panting didn’t help; nothing helped. My hands balled into fists, shaking and white-knuckled.
When the agony paused for a minute or two, I let my body fall limp against the cushion. Already exhausted, I knew unless Jared saved us my abilities would be worthless.
The intensity of the next contraction took me by surprise, and I sat up straight, my knees bent and widely spread, straining against my restraints. Unsure of what I was even saying, my mouth formed every obscenity I’d ever heard in my life. When it was over, I collapsed against the cushion, bawling, whimpering for my husband. Pressure between my thighs provoked me to reach down. Something soft and wet, covered in hair was barely peeking out from inside me. The baby was beginning to crown. I looked to the demon. He didn’t even seem to be on alert. Jared wasn’t even close.
I closed my eyes, making a concentrated effort to relax all of my muscles. Even when the pain came again, I refused to give into it. I refused to push. When the agony became too much, I held my screams inside. Any tensing on my part could push out the baby, and that was something I refused to do until I saw my husband. The waved crashed into me, and I lowered my chin to
my chest, bit my lip, and stared intently at the wall across the room. I would not push.
My body shook uncontrollably. Just as the pain subsided, movement outside the windows caught my attention. The guard at the door made a noise and shifted. He was nervous. Jared was here.
The shadows of the shells weaved back and forth. There was a large explosion, and then a blotch of crimson sprayed against the mud on the glass, highlighted by a ball of fire. The glass broke, and my husband pushed through, his eyes wild but focused. He immediately attacked the guard at the door, filling the creature’s head with an entire clip of bullets. Once the demon fell to the ground, Kim ran into the glass opening. She made her way to the door and closed it, holding her palms flat against the metal.
“I got it!” she said. She was covered in blood and noticeably injured.
“Are you okay?” I called to her.
She smiled. “Never been better. You just worry about delivering that ba—”
Before she could finish her sentence, a shell burst through the broken glass and pointed his gun at Kim. She turned, her eyes wide.
“No!” I screamed.
Jared charged the shell, but was too late. The bullet burst through Kim’s chest, blowing her back against the door.
“Kim!” I cried, watching her limp body slide down the door to the ground. Her eyes were open, but she was dead before she hit the floor. “Kim!”
“Nina!” Jared yelled, running to me. He slid on his knees, released me from the restraints, and then slipped his backpack from his shoulders, opening it and pulling out supplies.
Before I could speak, the overwhelming spasms engulfed me. I wailed, but I wouldn’t push.
Jared checked between my legs, and his eyes grew wide. “He’s crowning, sweetheart. Push.”
I shook my head. “She’s dead.”
“I know, but you have to push.”
“I can’t,” I said. Pieces of my hair were stuck to my damp face.
Jared smiled. “Yes, you can. You’ve done so well.”
I peeked at Kim. “They’re out there. Waiting for him.”
Jared touched my cheek. “I’m here. I won’t let anything happen to him.”
The Providence Trilogy Bundle: Providence; Requiem; Eden Page 84