Page 70 of Nightmare Rising

Blunt force slammed into me again. Too late to brace, I fell to the floor. Skidding, I landed at the head of the stairs. My limbs splayed like a startled starfish; my wrists cracked on the timber to either side.

Gravity and momentum took over.

This is how a neck breaks.

I tobogganed downward, arms and head tucked in. The burned staircase fractured and splintered under me. All I could do was pray. Pray I didn’t get staked by the timber.

I didn’t lose consciousness, not quite.

The ground floor coasted under my back, my backpack taking the brunt of the force. An immovable object stopped me with a jar. For a moment there was surreal quiet, I didn’t know where I was.

My head was kinked against something, and I felt broken.

Alive. I hurt enough to be alive.

Had it followed me?

Something had.

The translucent faeries snapped at air, teeth wrenching on invisible flesh.

I sliced at the invisible in a crisscross pattern.

Wetness dripped over my eyes from a cut I’d barely noticed.

It could bethereorthere.

Small noises caught at me. The drift of a breeze... The hint of acid on my tongue.

Imagined or not, I kept on slashing, gasping and slashing some more. My neck freed, I pushed at the stairs with my boots, and at the floor, sliding myself backward... Scrambling, I almost gained my feet, only to fall again as the floor rolled or I was pushed. The impact made me black out.

Seconds.

My brain wobbled back into functioning mode.

I lay there, spots swimming in my blotched vision.

I was...I was done, so done.

If it still wanted to eat me, I couldn’t have stopped it.Here, entrée of Zara.

Still, I never quite let my arm flop. I kept it up, that trembling limb, the knife hilt slippery in my palm.

With fingers then thumb, I wiped blood from each of my eye sockets.

“Where are you, you mother-fucker? Where are you!”

I’d go out a hero, a brave one lying on my back.

Drag in more air; cough up more ash.

My heart beat at the silence.

It was gone. They were gone.

I closed my eyes and choked on a sob as my arms fell flat against the floor.

A few seconds.