Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 43017 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 215(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 143(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43017 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 215(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 143(@300wpm)
“I ran. I tried to—”
“You let him die because you don't want him, you don't want his life,” Ryder cut me off.
His voice was a growl.
“No!” I began to whimper. “I love Alec, I want him. Please, help me help him.”
Kane clicked his tongue at me. “He loved you, Keela. He wanted to marry you, and you let him die. Why?”
I closed my eyes.
“Why didn't you want our brother?”
“Why didn't you save him?”
“Why didn't you love him?”
“Why, Keela?”
I placed my hands over my ears and screamed to block out the voices of the Slater brothers, but I heard each of them clearly in my head.
Why? Why? Why? Why?
I opened my eyes and screamed even louder when the four brothers rushed at me with extended arms. I dropped to my knees and bowed my head and waited for the pain of their attack to come, but it never did. I hesitantly looked up and cried out when the hallways dropped away along with the brothers. Everything had been replaced by a large room with a huge circular platform in the centre. Two faceless males were fighting up on it, and crowds of people surrounded the platform screaming and cheering them on.
I got to my feet as I looked around the room and took everything in. The platform, the people, the dance floor, the booths, the bar... I knew where I was… I was in Darkness.
“Keela? Come here, darlin'.”
I spun around and stared at my uncle Brandon.
“Why?... How?...”
“Shhh,” my uncle Brandon murmured as he walked over to me. “It's all goin' to be okay. I’ll make everythin’ better.”
I turned to him and hugged him, but pulled back when his hands pressed against my back and the feeling of wetness struck me. I stepped away from my grinning uncle and placed my hands on my back. I brought my hands back around to my front and stared down at them.
They were stained with a thick red liquid.
I whimpered when the metallic twang of blood filled my nose. I looked back up to my uncle, but screamed and stumbled backwards when the person in front of me was not my uncle. It was the ghost of a devil from my past.
“Marco,” I whimpered.
Marco Miles evilly smiled at me, and looked down to his hands.
His blood covered hands.
He clicked his tongue and lifted his gaze to meet mine.
“Well... isn't this interesting?”
I tried to back away from him, but multiple hands clamped down on my body and forced me down to my knees. I looked up, then to my left and right and wailed.
Nico and Damien held me down on my right, and Ryder and Kane held me down on my left.
“Now,” Nico growled. “Make her pay for hurting Alec.”
“I didn't hurt him! It wasn't me!” I screamed. “It was the shadow!”
The familiar click of a gun being cocked infiltrated my mind.
I felt the shock of a cold metal object being pressed against my forehead. I was hyperventilating with sobs as I lifted my head and stared down the barrel of a handgun. I screamed in terror when the culprit holding the gun wasn't Marco, but the shadow figure.
“You!” I bellowed as tears flowed down my cheeks. “Why are you doin' this?”
The shadow figure solidified and became a person. The person was dressed in a long black cloak with a large hood covering their face.
“Answer me,” I screamed and struggled against the brothers’ hold on me.
The shadow person lifted their free hand and tugged back the hood.
I froze as I stared at my own reflection.
It was me.
I was the shadow figure.
“You don't deserve him,” the shadow version of me said and pulled the trigger.
I awoke with a jolt, panting and covered in sweat. I needed to sit up so I could breathe, but I couldn't.
I was being crushed.
Crushed to death by a muscular sixteen stone male.
It wasn't Storm either.
My fiancé, the bear who was crushing the life out of me, easily had seventy percent of his large body spread out over me, pinning me to my mattress. I was used to this—Alec rarely let go of me when we slept, but at times when I had to wee so bad I could have cried, it was horrible.
Right now was one of those times.
I didn't want to wake Alec because he needed his full eight hours of sleep, otherwise he reverted back to a grumpy toddler. I also didn't want him to see me in my current state.
I was always a wreck after having the nightmare.
I tried to press myself back into my mattress to create a dent for some space so it would make slipping out of the bed easier. When I moved though, Alec's arm only tightened around my body.
Oh, for fuck's sake.
I had to get up.
“Alec,” I grunted.
Nothing.
“Alec.”
Not a bloody peep.
“ALEC!”
Alec jolted awake, jumped upright and brought my duvet with him in his panic. Now that I was free from his crushing weight I quickly rolled to my left and stood up off my bed and onto the floor. I rolled my neck on my shoulders and stretched my arms and legs out.
That felt better, much better.
“Are you okay? What's wrong?” Alec asked as he crawled over the bed to me in a blind panic.
He kneeled on our mattress and placed his hands on my shoulders. It was dark in our room, but the light from the hallway shone in and helped me see Alec's handsome face. I watched as his eyes squinted and scanned over my face through the darkness. He pushed me out to arms length and looked down my body, his eyes scrutinising every inch of me. He let me go after a moment and sat back on his heels with a frown on his tired face.
“You look okay,” he muttered.
I couldn't help but smile. “I am okay.”
That was the furthest thing from the truth.
Alec stared at me for a long moment before he growled, “Why did you shout my name then?”
Because you were crushing me to death.
I shrugged. “I needed to use the toilet and you were pinnin' me to the bed so I called your name to wake you up,” I lied.