Chapter 54: Chapter 54

Chapter 53:

Sanaya’s P.O.V:

Black.

That was all I saw no matter where I turned; no matter how many times I blinked my eyes. It was as if I had been shoved into a room that had all the lights switched off. Except, this wasn’t a closed room. It was open space, open enough that I could feel an icy wind blowing against my skin. It’s said that when you lose one of your senses, all the others become heightened, but they couldn’t be more wrong.

Other than the chill in the air, all I could feel was panic. Where was I? Why couldn’t I see? Was this really Shadowland? What was Shadowland?

The great thing about Shadowland is that no one, mortal or immortal, has ever come out of it, alive or dead.

Asmara’s voice rang in my ears and with it came a sense of hopelessness like I’ve never felt before. I felt tears stream down my cheeks as I swung my hands around wildly, trying to grab something. If I couldn’t see, how am I supposed to get out of here? Panic started to set in as my breathing became shallow. I dared not to move in fear that I might be standing somewhere dangerous. But even though I inhaled the cold, cold air into my lungs, my breathing continued to escalate to the point where I was almost hyperventilating.

Sanaya…

The word seemed to echo inside my head…or was Lancelin calling me? I couldn’t tell.

“Lance?” I called out, loud enough that my own voice seemed to echo endlessly all around me.

And just then, a flash of red lightning lit up the sky with a rumbling thunder so loud that the ground beneath my feet began to quake. I ducked to the ground with my hands covering my ears as a scream escaped my lips. My entire body shook uncontrollably as I remembered what I’d seen in the flash of red light before I’d closed my eyes instinctively.

Everything around me had been black rocks with jagged edges. Even the clouds in the sky had looked black as the red lightning pierced through them. There was nothing around me except black rocks.

And then a flash of green light illuminated my surroundings and I finally got my sight back. I looked down to find the pendant that Lancelin had given me, emitting a slight green light that wasn’t enough to tell me where I was, but enough so that I could finally see what was in front of me.

It has a drop of my heart’s blood inside it so you better take care of it.

Lance’s words once again rang in my ears and I tried to calm myself down as best as I could. Lance was with me even though he wasn’t with me physically. But with temporary relief that I felt at getting my sight back, a sense of dread also settled in my stomach. I could clearly remember Lance telling me that the necklace would light up only on one given circumstance…when danger approached me.

And that was when I heard it, the low moans and groans that had been like white noise in the background until now, but now I could hear them clearly, since my panic attack had subsided to some extent.

Something was out there and I didn’t want to find out what it was.

I tapped my feet on the ground a little bit, making sure that I had enough space all around me to bend over and that I wouldn’t topple over into a gorge. When I lowered myself enough so that the light from the pendent could reach the ground, I saw that not only was the ground made of black rock, the surface of the rock was made of jagged edged that looked sharp enough to cut through skin.

All around me, I could see such rock, some protruding from the ground to form large mounds while others forming tiny depressions that I needed to watch out for. But the things that disturbed me the most were the moaning sounds. They weren’t moans of pleasure, no, they sounded like someone was in a lot of pain. And the sound felt like they were moving closer.

Shit!

Where the hell was I? What kind of creature could be making those noises?

My heart nearly slammed out of my chest when I realized that I could see red orbs on the horizon and they definitely seemed to be moving towards me.

Fuck!

Their moans and groans grew louder as I watched the red orbs move towards me slowly, the sound of their voices enough to bring me to tears. For the first time, I was afraid of the light that my pendent was emitting because it made me stand out like a beacon. What were these creatures? And how were they moving on these sharp surfaces? The rocks looked dangerously sharp but these creatures seemed to have no problem crawling over to me.

I felt a slight rumble in the ground as they neared, as if the ground itself was repulsed by their presence. Something scuttled past my leg at that instant, something slimy and scaly at the same time and my skin burned at the point of contact. I screamed, unable to hold in my cries as my skin scorched like it had been dipped in concentrated acid. By the time I realized that I’d let the enemy in on my exact location, it was already too late. I didn’t know how they saw me, but their pace increased as did the rumble beneath my feet.

Shuffling my feet to see if I was standing on even ground, I took a step back, then another. I kept walking backwards slowly but steadily, keeping as much distance between those red eyes and myself as I could. I couldn’t see where the path was leading me but with every inch those red eyes gained on me, my heart threatened to leap out of my chest.

Suddenly, another red lightning lit up the sky and the ground shook with earth shattering force. Another scream escaped my lips, this time not because of a panic attack, but in pain. The earthquake had caused me to lose balance and as a result, I had tumbled backwards. But instead of falling on the harsh ground, my back had collided with a sharp object that dug into my skin, ripping through my dress and tearing at my flesh.

I slammed my hands in front of my mouth, screaming into my closed palms as the pain seared my flesh. It felt like thousands of tiny glass shards had embedded into my flesh. But the pain wasn’t the least of my problems, and I had been too late to realize that these creatures lived in Shadowland. Unlike me, who had closed my eyes when the lightning had crashed across the sky, these creatures had used it to their advantage to find me.

Not only was I bleeding and gasping in pain, but death stared at me through several pairs of red eyes that were now only a few meters away from me.