Chapter 5
The Nobodies
I ran for nearly an hour straight without any objective before I eventually found myself nearing my house. The high I had gotten must have worn off, because grim death blanketed me as I staggered up my front steps. I barely managed to unlock the door as my body collapsed against the frame. Surely I had the flu. Even with the unseasonably warm temperature, I was freezing. My hands felt weak, and it took a considerable amount of effort to just move my legs. Could I get upstairs? I made it as far as the foyer rug before everything went black.
The ground gave out from beneath my feet, sending me into a freefall. I had the wind knocked out of me as my body slammed into the surface below. Desperately struggling to refill my lungs, I gasped as my fingers curled, clawing up what felt like brittle dirt. The blurriness slowly eased from my vision, but all I could see was a billowing cloud of ash looming overhead, illuminated by the light atop of the hole.
Wait…
The hole?
The ends of my hair battered my face as I sat upright, seeing shadows cast amongst the rough stone wall beside me. Three grottos lined the space ahead, each entryway pitch-black. Was I in…a cave? The light at the surface burned coolly from an angle, and the sky above was dark. If it was already sunset, I’d be losing that last ounce of light in a matter of minutes, leaving me trapped in the dark. I screamed, hollering at the top of my lungs for help until my voice gave out. I scrambled back across the ground, kicking up the filth around me. Something about the dirt felt odd. Having spent time in Mom’s garden bed, I knew the feeling of mud and dirt all too well. This wasn’t the same. I lifted a handful, letting the material sift out between my fingers. Even with the minimal light, I could see the charcoal coloring. It wasn’t dirt. It was soot.
A low grumble echoed overhead, and a flash of lightning followed, highlighting the space. All the shadows vanished in that split second, leaving every inch of the hole exposed. My body slammed against the grated façade behind me as I fell into a frenzy, desperate to keep cowering back despite having no place left to go. Off-white fragments lay spewed across the cavern ground, and the intact structure in the corner solidified my fear. Long shafts rested beside the base of a vertebra, the ribcage and skull framing the outline of the skeleton.
“Somebody! Please!” My raw vocal chords barely choked out the words as my fingers clawed desperately into the cavern wall. I tried scaling the rutted mass, but my fingers kept slipping on the moist rock face, sending me on my ass as I repeatedly fell back down to the ground.
“Don’t be afraid.”
I wrenched around, my vision straining to see through the darkness. The draft coursing through the hollowed space swelled, pushing a pall of dust out from the faint corridor in front of me as footsteps echoed from within the tunnel. The remaining light overhead dimmed in an instant, and I sprang forward, ready to blindly race into one of the other passageways when the large shadow stealthily materialized. I shrieked, stumbling back into the wall.
The sweeping draft took hold of the flowing black robes, ushering the ends out like expansive bat wings as the hooded figure emerged from the tunnel. I tried to move, but something was holding me in place. It didn’t matter how hard I internally wrenched at my limbs; I was trapped. A severe chill prickled down my spine as the stranger drew closer. Struggling to see beyond the shadows of their hood, I couldn’t make out any distinguishable features. A gloved hand reached out towards me, and I choked on my own scream. I couldn’t even open my mouth.
“Noli timere,” whispered a low, silky voice. Each word hissed with an unnatural, serpentine quality, making every syllable all the more bone chilling. “Sponsa mea.”
Amid the bleak space, a startling surge of warmth radiated from the figure as his sweeping cloak engulfed me from all sides. Leather-bound fingers grazed the bottom of my chin, tilting up my head. The angle had me looking square in the face with the stranger, but I still couldn’t see anything. Not until he inclined his own head back did a pale, angular chin peek out from under the guarded veil. Pearly white canines gleamed in the limited light, the teeth elongating the further his jaw opened.
“Noli timere.”
***
I shuddered awake with a violent jerk, finding thin silk fabric looming not more than half a foot above my face. My mind reeled as it slowly regained its full consciousness. Where was I? All I could see was the desert gold linen, so I rolled over to get a better view of the living space. I shrieked, finding nothing but air beneath me. At the realization, my body suddenly dropped, and I hammered down onto the mattress. The cushiony springs bounced me off as I hit the comforter, sending me hurtling off onto the carpet beside the bed.