Chapter 4
I never could tell if the screams were real. In the seconds after my eyes popped open, my mind struggled to answer the question: nightmare or real life? It was getting harder and harder to distinguish between the two. But then one scream followed after another. And another. They got louder, more frantic. Shrill cries into the night sky that seemed to stretch before us like some black ocean with no end. And as my sister scrambled to her knees from where she slept beside me, I knew with dread coursing through my veins: this was real life.
“Robert!” I yelled with all of my might, pulling myself up onto my feet, blindly reaching into the darkness for my sister’s hand. There was no point keeping quiet. The cries for help echoed throughout the woods that surrounded us, trapping our group with whatever was hunting us down. A cage of desperation and horror. A hand clamped down on my shoulder and I yelped.
“It’s me,” Robert said from my left, reaching across and helping my sister to her feet. I couldn’t see him through the pitch black of the night. My eyes hadn’t adjusted to being yanked from sleep. Besides, my reflexes weren’t nearly as good as his.
Before I could open my mouth, a voice cut through the night. “Tess! Are you hurt?” Henry bellowed in my direction from the darkness of the abyss. I tried to answer back, but the yells and groans of the men and women who scrambled around us filled my brain, making it difficult to form a coherent thought, let alone words.
“What’s going on? Can you see anything, Robert?” Lockwood called out from behind us. I hadn’t realized he’d been resting so close to where my sister and I had slept, but I wasn’t entirely surprised, either.
Robert and Lockwood continued to exchange words, but I couldn’t make sense of them. All I could hear were the screams. The wound in my side stung, a sharp pain radiating down my spine. It was a painful reminder that this wasn’t the first time I’d met danger in these woods. My heart pounded against my chest, and I found it difficult to breathe.
What now?
What dark thing would happen next?
The heavy beat of feet against the ground fell in sync with the rapid beating of my heart, and I thought I’d go crazy from it. Every voice around me sounded muffled and far away. Out of reach.
Get it together.
I couldn’t be weak.
Not now.
Not ever.
The pounding of feet came closer and closer to where my sister and I stood huddled against our chosen one brother-in-law. I could feel him shift next to me, turning in every direction, searching for some escape route, but from the sounds of the screams that came sporadically from around us, it didn’t sound like we had anywhere to go.
My father had demanded that Louisa and I rest inside the perimeter of soldiers he had created. I hadn’t intended to fall asleep, but the weight of the past few days had caught up with me, and I had lost my battle with exhaustion. My father said we would be safe. We were surrounded by an army. An army of men and women who were now being attacked.
“Down!” Robert hissed. I didn’t wait to be told twice. I grabbed my sister by her elbow, pulling her down hard onto the ground. “Try not to make any noise. Try not to move,” Robert whispered, assessing the situation that I couldn’t even see.
My stomach pressed against the uneven, rocky dirt, and the ground dug painfully into my wound. I grunted and lifted my head, resting on my elbows to squint, but I could only faintly see the shadows of men and women darting here and there across my line of vision.
The screaming had become less frequent, replaced with the rhythm-less beat of yelled commands and popping guns. Louisa pressed her forehead into the dirt, whimpering softly. The only music the world seemed to play anymore—a symphony of war and death. The song played on repeat; the world a broken record player no one knew how to fix. But there was something off about the song. Something different. A new instrument added to the mix, one I didn’t recognize. Guttural. Slow. Drawn out. Raspy. And it was getting closer.
“What’s out there?” I asked, my voice panicked. I cringed at how loud and desperate it sounded.
“Quiet!” Robert commanded.
The sound was getting closer. “Sir! I think I see them. They’re safe,” a voice I vaguely recognized yelled, and then the soldier was running toward us.
“Cover her eyes,” Robert said to me, nodding toward my sister. I turned to find her looking up toward the man who claimed to be coming to our rescue. I furrowed my brow, trying to make sense of Robert’s words. What was about to happen?
“Damn it, Tess! Do it! Now!”
Before I could reach my hand over, Lockwood covered my sister’s eyes with one hand while placing a protective arm around her.