B008GMVYA4 EBOK

by Drake, Rebecca Ann

  The turning came into focus, Madison screamed as the exploding above her head became more forceful and louder. A black tunnel stood out from the right wall, sucking the room into its pitch black hollowness.

  Her heart thudded loudly in her chest from the strain of running and the ever present fear that hung around her like a bad smell. She was disoriented, causing her to feel like she was running all over the place – like running over sea waves. Motion sickness brought on through dehydration, panic, fear and being thrown around like a rag doll. She felt like she was running in slow motion, every shard of glass which hit the floor seemed to bounce and clatter a hundred times louder than it should as it collided with the floor in slow motion as it hit the ground.

  BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

  The glass scratched at Madison arms, blood trickled down the length of her arms and splashed onto the concrete floor. If she had not attracted The Coven before, the smell of her blood certainly would.

  She sprinted quickly past the last chandelier before turning to the right, entering the darkness. She stopped abruptly as the darkness sucked her in. Gasping she tried to catch her breath, her head throbbed as the blood rushed around her body causing her head to feel light.

  The corridor Madison had just escaped from was now silent and the exploding bulbs had stopped as soon as she vacated the corridor. The darkness unnerved Madison even more, something strange was occurring and it was related to the Vampires and The Black Orchid.

  Light from the corridor ahead did not penetrate the darkness, the darkness from where Madison now stood provided some kind of invisible door where the light and dark did not mix – a window where Madison could see into the outside but the outside couldn’t not get in. Normal light overpowered darkness, piecing through it with streams of beautiful golden light. Banishing the darkness in every corner until it was illuminated, but the darkness in depths of The Coven was different. It was a predator. The normal rules of nature did not apply down here.

  It was unnatural for a human to leave past their normal lifespan, feeding off the life forces of humans, never aging another day. Most of them forced to live in unnatural darkness that surrounds them - becoming one with the darkness. It would be only natural for the darkness to obtain some of the Vampire’s unnatural powers.

  Madison’s legs wobbled beneath her, making my whole body shake as she grabbed the damp stone wall to balance herself. She was completely helpless in the darkness, frantically Madison began to feel around on the stone walls searching for a lever to ignite the torches.

  Panic began to set in again, causing her to scramble around in the darkness, feeling the wall for the hard iron leaver.

  Madison could feel every edge of the sharp rock, every crevice, everything little indent or crack.

  The darkness began to pull itself around Madison, wrapping itself around her, drawing her in – urging to suffocate her – consume her completely.

  Madison panicked as her mind told her she was not alone in the corridor. She tried reasoning with herself but she could not shake off the darkness that now hung around her neck like a noose and a pending danger with her subconscious was lurking around her waiting to strike. What occurred in the corridor had troubled Madison and now the darkness clinging to her increased the fear and panic which already gripped her.

  Her eyes began to adjust slightly to the darkness, a sharp rock scrapped at the tips of her fingers, scratching the skin. Frantically Madison continued to finger the wall. Gasping, her fingers touched the cold hard iron of the lever. She instantly began to relax as her hands wrapped around the hard metal and pulling down the handle that stuck vertically in the air.

  Madison gritted her teeth as she used all her strength to pull the lever down towards the floor – it clicked loudly.

  Madison sighed a sigh of relief as the first torched exploded to life, igniting and illuminating that part of the corridor in an orange glow one. The next torch ignited then the next and the next until the corridor was fully a light.

  A cold sensation tickled at Madison’s elbow, she lowered her gaze to see what the cause of the sensation was.

  A twisted face stared up at Madison. Its mouth hung opened relieving a large hole of pure blackness that could swallow the whole world if it was big enough.

  Its face was pale and transparent, purple and pink veins were visible through the thin layer of skin which stretched across its face. Its eyes were hollow and clouded by a black cloud that hung down over each eye socket. It looked like a boy no older than 15 years old, but under the black hood of a hooded Jumper it was something much worse, a demon - The Black Orchid.

  The boys pale fingers with razor sharp, brown finger nails cupped Madison’s elbow.

  Madison screamed instantly, shocked by The Black Orchids presence and the face of the boy before her. The boy stretched his head up towards Madison’s, her heart jumped into her throat and he streaked in fear.

  Leaping forward, Madison darted down the corridor. The boy allowed her to slip through his grip, cocking his head to follow down the corridor.

  Blind panic gripped her. Her mind was in over drive, she only had one aim and that was to escape him.

  Her scream echoed down the corridor behind her as she ran, the tingling sensation from the boys grip on her elbow now beginning fade. She urged to look behind her to see whether the boy was pursuing, but the thought of looking upon the boys horror stricken face once again made her feel sick to her stomach.

  His face would haunt her for however long she had left to live, it was the type of face that you never truly understand or recover from. Human that saw the true face of The Black Orchid by chance would take the memory of their faces to the grave, repeating to anyone what they had seen would only lead them towards a mental hospital.

  Her Ugg boots slipped on the stone floor throwing her forwards, stretching out her hands to stop herself she landed in an arched position. Quickly pushing herself back up straight, she continued to sprint even faster down the corridor.

  She continued to slip and slid on the floor, but she did not stop, she was too blinded by panic and fear to stop now.

  Again Madison was hit by the sensation that she was running on rough waves, as motion sickness and disorientation setting in once again.

  A loud click sounded behind her. Madison twisted her body too reluctantly to see the cause of the sound.

  The corridor behind was empty. There was a soft hiss, and then a torch slowly died leaving one section of the corridor in complete darkness. Then another hiss, another torch slowly died. The darkness stared to creep in behind her.

  Panic crept in even stronger, Madison straightened up and speed up her pace.

  Hiss… She was clouded in darkness as the torch on the wall beside her went out.

  Madison whimpered in the darkness, but didn’t stop – pushing herself forwards towards the orangey glow of the next ignited torch.

  The darkness approached, hot on her heel, pushing up forward. Her legs aching as she pushed them harder to keep ahead of the creeping darkness.

  Hiss… Another torch was extinguished.

  A shiver flew up Madison’s spine as the darkness touched her back as she was barely a step ahead of the darkness – the light protecting her.

  Madison could see the large candle lit hall at the end of the corridor, she aimed for it, continuing to quicken her pace, fearful of the pressuring darkness.

  Hiss…

  Madison was covered in darkness. Taking a big leap forward she escaped the darkness again. Instantly she was covered by the brilliant glow of the last remaining torch, escaping the darkness which stalked her yet again.

  Madison glanced up at the last remaining torch that was attached to the right stone wall. This was the last few feet for her to escape the darkness completely.

  Her heart thudded hard against her ribs, fear still gripping her.

  Hiss…

  She stared up at the torch at it began to go out, the yellow flame around the hot orange centre
slowly died down, leaving the tip of the torch illuminated orange for a second then disappearing as the air cooled the wood.

  The darkness suffocated her, covering her in its pitch black cloak – wrapping itself around her. She was paralyzed with fear for a second, stopping and spinning around in the corridor searching each direction for any sign of moment. A shuffling sound in the opposite direction startled her, without a seconds though, Madison turned and sprinted towards the candle lit hall.

  A cold tremble plagued her body as the darkness tried to suck her in. Terror washed over her, accelerating her heart beat even faster and causing her to pant and whimper uncontrollably.

  Shuffling continued louder behind her, gradually gaining on her. The nightmares Madison had been plagued with since arriving in London has only heightened her fear of darkness and being chased by the unknown, this caused her to panic further.

  She leapt forwards, landing just outside the border of darkness. Screwing up her eyes as the light penetrated her, causing her eyes to hurt, Madison sighed in relief – she felt safer in the light. Inhaling deeply filling her lungs with the cold, rasp air, she exhaled loudly lifting her leg to take a step further into the light.

  In one quick motion Madison’s raised leg was pulled backwards, she crashed to the floor face first. Her chin slammed into the stone floor, grazing it, ripping a large flap of skin off. Madison wailed in pain, biting her lip as she tried to suppress it. Her head throbbed from the impact, hands with sharp finger nails grabbed at her ankles pulling her back towards the darkness, grazing her knees.

  The ice cold hands of The Black Orchid gripped at her legs, Madison stretched out her arms, her fingers searching the stone floor for a crevice that she could hold onto.

  Madison screamed as her body slid across the floor backwards from their pull. The darkness now covering the whole of her lower body as the boys tried to pull her back into it.

  Her face stricken with fear and struggling to keep herself out of the darkness, blood splashed down from her chin onto the stone floor. Madison was sure that if the violently shaking building, the exploding bulbs and screams hadn’t attracted The Coven, the blooded stone floor surely would.

  Pushing the pain in her chin aside, Madison concentrated on using all her energy to free myself from The Black Orchid’s clutches.

  Tears trickled down her cheeks as panic whirled around inside of her. Her hands searched the floor frantically as she was slowly dragged further backwards.

  Her fingers grazed across a large crack, digging her fingers into stop herself from slipping, her body became ridged and straight as she fought against them.

  The icing hands moved slowly up to Madison’s lower back, pulling her more hastily now. Madison’s other hand found a stone slab which was more raised then the other paving stones, gripping hold of it, using both hands Madison began to pull herself out of the darkness back into the light.

  Kicking her legs she tried to remove the boy’s hands from her legs as they tightened their grip on her. Using all the strength she had left, she continued to pull herself out of the darkness. Sharp finger nails scratched at her lower legs as she tried frantically to kick them off, the hands slipping lower and lower down her legs as she pulled herself further out of the darkness. She felt a warm sensation of blood trickling down her legs from the razor sharp nails that cut the material of her jeans and pieced her flesh. She kicked out hard, her foot impacted with the hard torso of one of the boys knocking him backwards. This was enough for her to wriggle free from the other set of hands that grabbed at her legs. She pulled the whole of her body from the darkness. Her jeans on the back of her legs had been completed ripped in large scratch mark lines. Blood soaked the torn jeans and dripped onto the stone floor from the deep gashes to her legs.

  Scrambling around on the floor, Madison pushed herself to her feet and dashed down the centre of the large room towards the elevators.

  She ignored the pain in her legs and the deep gash to her chin, which had now bleed all down her neck onto her t-shirt – her only focus now was to get out alive. The Coven would locate her soon, they would smell the blood and then she was dead. And now she had The Black Orchid after her, it was just a matter of time before both one of them caught up with her and at the moment The Black Orchid was hot on her heels.

  Chapter Sixteen: Promises

  The scratches and cuts on her arms from where the glass bulbs had exploded down on her had already started to heal.

  She wiped away the sticky, salty tears that stained either side of my cheeks.

  The skin around the deep gash of her chin felt swollen and sore, she could feel a heavy sensation from the big droplet of blood that hung at the end of my chin as it began to dry – closing the wound.

  Using the sleeve of her t-shirt, she gently dabbed the open cut, cleaning the wound carefully, she from the sting of contact with her t-shirt and the semi open cut. A throbbing sensation tingled at the back of her legs leaning over and she gently tried to examine the back of her calves.

  The boys nails were razor sharp, they had cut through the tough material of Madison jeans and flesh like butter.

  Standing up straight she ran her hand over her head, she was hesitant, more scared then she had ever been in her life, but she also had to be strong, coherent, able to think quickly and precisely if she was going to make it out of The Coven alive. Not only was Gabby, Trace and the twins intent on killing her, but now she had upset The Black Orchid and once The Coven catch wind of her blood they too would be pursuing her. As Brendan had disrupted The Black Orchids plans to obtain the scroll, they were now coming after Madison, as payback or possibly leverage.

  She felt sick to the stomach from everything that had occurred tonight. She had lost her best friend and Faye, and now she was fighting for her life – none of this seemed hardly fair. The emptiness inside her was still raw, the thought of Stephanie scared and alone brought instant tears to Madison’s eyes and a ball formed in her throat. And the fact that Faye’s lifeless body was still unfound in the club distorted her. Whenever there faces crept back into Madison’s thought she felt completely dumb, almost catatonic.

  Madison struggled to think straight, there were too many things for her to think about and everything was becoming jumbled. Every thought seemed like it had a white cloudy firm over it, stopping her from bringing an individual thought forwards. Her whole body was exhausted, every movement and every inhalation, left her body excruciating pain. She was in complete astonishment that she was still standing. As soon as the adrenaline wore off, she wouldn’t be able to walk for days.

  Madison stared at her reflection in the mirrored walls of the elevator. My face was pale and drawn, huge black circles hung underneath each eye, causing her to look as exhausted as she felt. There was couple of small scratches on her forehead, probably from the shards of glass that rained down on her from the exploding light bulbs. Her checks were red raw and puffy from the many tears that washed down over them. Her eyes were blood shot and dull, usually they sparked in bright lights. Her eyes were empty, emotionless – they were no feeling or hope left in them. There was a deep gash of Madison’s chin where she had impacted with the floor. The blood that she had removed earlier had now returned - dripping slowly down her neck. The skin around the cut looked red and very sore, if she survived tonight she would be left permanent scarred.

  Her blue skinny jeans and black t-shirt were covered in dust and a grey powdery substance that she had picked up from lying face down on the stone floor. Her hair was almost white with the amount of dust and debris which had fallen from the stone ceiling during the violently shaking room.

  One side of her right Ugg boot was torn due to the razor sharp nails of The Black Orchid and the fleecy material of both boots was damp and stained from being scuffed on the stone floor.

  Madison looked thin, she had lost nearly half a stone over the last few weeks and recent events had really taken its toll on her.

  She had made it across the candle l
it hall to the elevator without The Black Orchid pursuing or any further surprises, but Madison knew the fight had not ended here.

  The elevator jolted to a standstill.

  Madison shifted awkwardly on the spot; her legs were beginning to hurt. The control panel next to the elevator doors read Ground Floor; she waited for the gold doors to spring to life. The control panel on the left side of the two elevator doors flashed to life, symbolizing the outline of two doors, with red flashing arrows pointed outwards either side of the door, instructing that the doors were about to open.

  The doors sprang to life moving slowly apart, Madison stepped forwards intending to slip through the gap as soon as it was bigger enough for her to fit through. The doors suddenly stopped only partly open a couple of inches. Madison started at the doors suspiciously.

  The motor of the doors hummed softly as it tried to pull the doors open. The doors did not move - an invisible force prevented the doors from opening.

  Madison reached through the gap with both hands, gripping the outside of the doors to try and force them apart.

  The doors were stiff and heavy, there was no way Madison would be able to force them apart on her own. A flashing red light caught her attention, she stepped back from the doors and examining the control panel to the left and hitting the buttons. The two flashing arrows changed direction, now flashing inwards, symbolizing that the doors were about to shut.

  She thumbed the ‘open’ button, but it did not respond.

  There was a loud clanging sound as the motor of the doors reversed themselves abruptly, the doors sliding shut. Madison jumped back, her eyes frantically looking from the doors to the control panel.

  The elevator sprang to life, ascending into the higher parts of The Coven.

  Beginning to panic, Madison pressed all the buttons on the control panel – hitting any floor, urging for the elevator to stop.

  The elevator ignored all commands – continuing to climb higher and higher.