My Soul to Keep
Page 22
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Yet the sound kept coming.
In front of me, as I stood frozen in disharmonic agony, the figure stumbled and went down on one knee. A ghostly hand reached out for me, fingers penetrating the haze for one tortured moment before the hand fell, too, disappearing completely into the fog, along with the body.
But before the haze melted away, before the features came in clearly enough for me to identify, the real scream burst from my throat, slicing through the nightor day?like a foghorn through the stormy sea.
And still I screamed.
I tried to bring one hand up to cover my mouth, to stop the sound rattling my teeth. But my hand was pinned to my side, though nothing held it there. My limbs were frozen, and with that realization, my panic doubled, dumping a fresh dose of adrenaline on top of the premonition-panic already fueling my wail.
And finally, with nothing left to try, I closed my eyes tightrelieved that they, at least, still seemed to follow my commandsand prepared to ride out the scream.
When the last hoarse note slipped through my mouth like the exhale of a dying man, I licked my lips, then swallowed gingerly. My throat hurt like Id been gargling shards of glass.
A frigid breeze blew against my bare legs, raising chill bumps the length of my body, and a soft, eerie tinkling sound tickled my ears, a thousand wind chimes all jingling at once.
Wait, bare legs? Where did my jeans go?
My eyes flew open and devastating, terrifying comprehension sank through me, anchoring me to the ground where I stood as if I were mired in concrete. But I wasnt. I was mired in razor wheat, and the tinkling hadnt come from wind chimes. It had come from hundreds of tall, olive-colored stalks of grass brushing against one another, as sharp and brittle as blown glass.
I wasnt sure when the dream ended and the real horror began, but Id woken up at some point, still wailing, and accidentally crossed into the Netherworld. In my tank top and pj shorts. Barefoot and freezing.
Oh, shit!
Gone were my warm bed, fluffy pillows, and worn-thin carpet. Instead, I stood on bare dirtoddly gray in colorwith my big toe pressed against the base of one cold, fragile stalk of razor wheat. Another stalk brushed my elbow as the cold wind blew it toward me, and I froze to keep from shattering it and being pricked by thousands of glasslike slivers.
Harmony had said it wasnt possible. That we couldnt accidentally cross over, because moving from one world into the next required intent, in addition to the bean sidhe wail. So what did this mean? That I secretly wanted to cross over?
If so, Id certainly been keeping that secret well. Even from myself.
But there would be time to figure that out laterhopefully. My immediate concern was getting my defenseless bean sidhe butt out of the Netherworld before something predatory came along to eat me. And in the Netherworld, that could be anything. Including theplant life.
I had plenty of intent to cross over when I called forth my wail this time, but nothing came out but a soft, hoarse croak. Id lost my voice screaming my way into the Netherworld, and now had no way out. Nor could I move from the spot where I stood without slicing my bare feet open on every stalk of wheat I shattered.
Then, with panic looming, my hands actually shaking from both the cold and my slim chance of escape, a sudden crashing, furiously chiming sound made me jump. My elbow hit the stalk to my left, and it shattered into tiny needle-sharp shards. Several points scraped my leg as they fell, three or four actually lodging in my skin, but I couldnt bend to examine the damage without breaking more of the wheat. So I stood as still as possible, my mind racing in search of a way out, and I flinched each time the racket from my left grew louder.
The sound was like the tinkling of shattering razor wheat, only it echoed, and each burst followed a heavy metallic crash.
Desperate now, I held Emmas death in my mindremembering how shed looked as shed collapsed to the gym floor, her eyes empty, her hands uncurling at her sidesas I tried to work up enough saliva to swallow and ease the pain in my throat. Which would hopefully make it possible for me to wail, at least long enough to cross over.
My pulse raced. My palms began to sweat in spite of the cold eating at my skin, echoing the sting of the wheat shards in my flesh. The crashing continued, headed toward me, and I flinched with each new burst of sound.
I swallowed convulsively, wishing I dared to move enough to rub my throat, and wishing even harder that I had something to drink. Something warm and sweet, like the hot tea Harmony always made after I wailed.
Another crash, alarmingly close, and my stomach leaped into my throat. The next was closer stilljust yards away now. On my left, stalks of grass swayed to either side in a nearly straight line, like the part between a little girls pigtails. But the seed clumps at the top of the stalks were eye height on me, so I couldnt see much more than the movement itself.
Drowning in fresh panic, I opened my mouth and forced a sound out, devastated when the croak warbled, then faded.
I swallowed again and clenched my fists at my sides. Then I pictured Emmas pale, dead face in my mind and let loose my wail with everything I had left in me.
A new scream tore free from my throat, just as painful as the last one, but nowhere near as loud. The sound fractured, and I scrambled to pull it back together, closing my eyes in concentration. And when the notes finally steadied, I opened my eyes again to see that the grass around me had gone still. I no longer heard the crashing, but then, I could rarely hear anything over my own wailing. Yet I knew instinctively that the creature in the wheat with me had stopped moving, either scared or surprised by my wail.
In front of me, as I stood frozen in disharmonic agony, the figure stumbled and went down on one knee. A ghostly hand reached out for me, fingers penetrating the haze for one tortured moment before the hand fell, too, disappearing completely into the fog, along with the body.
But before the haze melted away, before the features came in clearly enough for me to identify, the real scream burst from my throat, slicing through the nightor day?like a foghorn through the stormy sea.
And still I screamed.
I tried to bring one hand up to cover my mouth, to stop the sound rattling my teeth. But my hand was pinned to my side, though nothing held it there. My limbs were frozen, and with that realization, my panic doubled, dumping a fresh dose of adrenaline on top of the premonition-panic already fueling my wail.
And finally, with nothing left to try, I closed my eyes tightrelieved that they, at least, still seemed to follow my commandsand prepared to ride out the scream.
When the last hoarse note slipped through my mouth like the exhale of a dying man, I licked my lips, then swallowed gingerly. My throat hurt like Id been gargling shards of glass.
A frigid breeze blew against my bare legs, raising chill bumps the length of my body, and a soft, eerie tinkling sound tickled my ears, a thousand wind chimes all jingling at once.
Wait, bare legs? Where did my jeans go?
My eyes flew open and devastating, terrifying comprehension sank through me, anchoring me to the ground where I stood as if I were mired in concrete. But I wasnt. I was mired in razor wheat, and the tinkling hadnt come from wind chimes. It had come from hundreds of tall, olive-colored stalks of grass brushing against one another, as sharp and brittle as blown glass.
I wasnt sure when the dream ended and the real horror began, but Id woken up at some point, still wailing, and accidentally crossed into the Netherworld. In my tank top and pj shorts. Barefoot and freezing.
Oh, shit!
Gone were my warm bed, fluffy pillows, and worn-thin carpet. Instead, I stood on bare dirtoddly gray in colorwith my big toe pressed against the base of one cold, fragile stalk of razor wheat. Another stalk brushed my elbow as the cold wind blew it toward me, and I froze to keep from shattering it and being pricked by thousands of glasslike slivers.
Harmony had said it wasnt possible. That we couldnt accidentally cross over, because moving from one world into the next required intent, in addition to the bean sidhe wail. So what did this mean? That I secretly wanted to cross over?
If so, Id certainly been keeping that secret well. Even from myself.
But there would be time to figure that out laterhopefully. My immediate concern was getting my defenseless bean sidhe butt out of the Netherworld before something predatory came along to eat me. And in the Netherworld, that could be anything. Including theplant life.
I had plenty of intent to cross over when I called forth my wail this time, but nothing came out but a soft, hoarse croak. Id lost my voice screaming my way into the Netherworld, and now had no way out. Nor could I move from the spot where I stood without slicing my bare feet open on every stalk of wheat I shattered.
Then, with panic looming, my hands actually shaking from both the cold and my slim chance of escape, a sudden crashing, furiously chiming sound made me jump. My elbow hit the stalk to my left, and it shattered into tiny needle-sharp shards. Several points scraped my leg as they fell, three or four actually lodging in my skin, but I couldnt bend to examine the damage without breaking more of the wheat. So I stood as still as possible, my mind racing in search of a way out, and I flinched each time the racket from my left grew louder.
The sound was like the tinkling of shattering razor wheat, only it echoed, and each burst followed a heavy metallic crash.
Desperate now, I held Emmas death in my mindremembering how shed looked as shed collapsed to the gym floor, her eyes empty, her hands uncurling at her sidesas I tried to work up enough saliva to swallow and ease the pain in my throat. Which would hopefully make it possible for me to wail, at least long enough to cross over.
My pulse raced. My palms began to sweat in spite of the cold eating at my skin, echoing the sting of the wheat shards in my flesh. The crashing continued, headed toward me, and I flinched with each new burst of sound.
I swallowed convulsively, wishing I dared to move enough to rub my throat, and wishing even harder that I had something to drink. Something warm and sweet, like the hot tea Harmony always made after I wailed.
Another crash, alarmingly close, and my stomach leaped into my throat. The next was closer stilljust yards away now. On my left, stalks of grass swayed to either side in a nearly straight line, like the part between a little girls pigtails. But the seed clumps at the top of the stalks were eye height on me, so I couldnt see much more than the movement itself.
Drowning in fresh panic, I opened my mouth and forced a sound out, devastated when the croak warbled, then faded.
I swallowed again and clenched my fists at my sides. Then I pictured Emmas pale, dead face in my mind and let loose my wail with everything I had left in me.
A new scream tore free from my throat, just as painful as the last one, but nowhere near as loud. The sound fractured, and I scrambled to pull it back together, closing my eyes in concentration. And when the notes finally steadied, I opened my eyes again to see that the grass around me had gone still. I no longer heard the crashing, but then, I could rarely hear anything over my own wailing. Yet I knew instinctively that the creature in the wheat with me had stopped moving, either scared or surprised by my wail.
