Lost Tribrid

Chapter 2

Breathing seemed to be a difficult task, not something I would have expected in the afterlife. Surrounded by darkness was the only indication that I truly had lost my life at the bottom of those damn stairs. I tried to move, hoping maybe if I could find the light all this pain would escape my body.

“Hello?” I called out, but no noise came from my lips.

The longer I lay in the blackness trying to recall how I could be here, but my mind remained frustratingly blank. Until whispers started to invade my mind. Feeling the skin on my bones tighten as I tense when dread consumes my thoughts.

“Please, can anybody hear me?”

This time my voice was but a whisper carried on the small draft filling the void.

“You shouldn’t fear me, for I could never bring you harm.”

The woman’s voice was so soft, causing a thud to be heard. Ears ringing from confusing and conflicting thoughts of familiarity.

“Do I know you?” I tried to shout, “do you know me?”

Begging for something to break, the silence or pain. Not caring how or who emerged as long as someone could bring me the peace that longed in the deepest depths of my soul. The voice never spoke again, silence with more unknowns. This voice sounded like the one in the living room that day. Unsure of how many days ago that was, more unsure how time flowed through the afterlife.

A flicker of light drew my head in an unknown direction. Pain was still very evident through my limps but subsided enough to move. Willing my brain to follow the simplest of actions that it leads daily. I may not be able to see, but be damned, I would find light, find f*****g peace! My brain shouted in my head, as demanding my body to do as it commanded. Then a burst of light flashed through me, rocketing my body back. Slowly daring to open my eyes as they try to adjust from the unknown time in darkness. My mind had been blown when I laid my eyes on a beautiful clearling. Surrounded by tall, gorgeous weeping trees. The largest standing in the middle so massive, you could have built a home in the trunk. Slowly turning to observe the surroundings, shocked to see many small cottage-looking buildings. As though I were standing on top of this weeping tree. Seeing for miles of the town I stood before, which consisted of three stone castles spread throughout.

“Where the hell am I?”

My words died on my lips as leaves crunched behind. Turning to come face to face with a ruggedly tall and handsome man. Though he had a more breath takingly beautiful woman hanging on his arm.

I watched as tears welled in their eyes, gazing over my body from head to toe. I wanted to feel uncomfortable at their stares. So intense I could feel my knees begin to buckle until a presence entered my heart squeezing it tight.

“You have no need to fear us, we could never bring you harm.” The woman smiled brightly.

Immediately, I thought that was the voice who had been with me, but it was slightly different. Unsure how, I knew they weren’t the same but could sense the family tie.

“Who are you?” Hesitantly questioning the pair.

“Oh, my precious child, how I would give anything to burn the world to the ground for what they have done to you,” the man’s voice boomed through the clearing.

How could that be possible? Not certain I heard him correctly, he had just said child, right? Avoiding their gaze at all possible turns, knowing this would be false hope. Dread and fear coursing all too familiar through every inch it could reach. Made me all too aware that the heavens weren’t so kind.

“NO!!” The scream was ripped from my throat before the rest of me could register what was happening.

Gasping for dear life, holding tightly to the shirt on my chest. Giving myself whip lash as I frantically searched the dim room. Odd relief washed over my sweat-beaded body, at least waking in a place I knew. Even though it was the place that will forever plague my nightmares.

The basement was colder than ever before with barely any light flooding through the cracks. Wanting to crawl to my spot in the corner, my body screamed against any further movement. Any noise had all the hair on my body standing to attention, unsure of where reality began. When reality suddenly smacks me in the face as the basement door creaks open. Thoughts of where the hostility hid, why hadn’t the door been burst through? Jeremy wasn’t a soft or kind man and never would I doubt as such. Glued to the spot frozen, by what would reveal itself to be more than my torturer. Light footsteps landed on the top step, pausing for a moment's breath to listen for anything in return. Never to be fooled by the life I have been given, silent as a mouse trying to hide from the monster above. Shock couldn’t have come in a greater form when the lean figure slowly descended the stairs. I couldn’t breathe because this couldn’t be real. I hadn’t awoken to a cruel reality but to an even crueler dream. The dream that I might get an escape from the horror that has become my daily life.

“What the hell?” His voice gasped as he looked over me.

I couldn’t speak or even comprehend what could be happening. Blinking rapidly to clear my vision, but I couldn’t determine what was causing the room to be so cloudy.

A man whom I have learned to have one of the kindest hearts. He always did what he could to make me feel like I could ask for the world when I was within the walls of the office. He would never know what that meant to me, even though my mentality was jaded. I knew it would be near to impossible to trust any person in the mass of souls this world held. Rick lifted a hand but paused when my body started to violently shake.

“Skylar, I wouldn’t hurt you,” he whispered as pain crossed his eyes.

I knew that when I was at the office but we weren’t at the office. No, we were in the basement of Jeremy’s house. How the hell had he gotten in or why would he even try? Rick didn’t know where I lived, or at least I assumed no one did. The only reasonable thought I could form would be this was Jeremy’s doing. I opened my mouth to speak but the presence of water falling on my face caused me to turn away. I looked up to see where the water could possibly be coming from. As my eyes came back to meet Rick, his hand was now inches away. Awaiting for the moment that he would strike but unable to look away.

“Why do you have to be so stupid? Don’t be a moron, men don’t want their dominance threatened!” I screamed to myself in my mind as my eyes widened when he brushed his fingertips against my flesh.

“I don’t know what the f**k is going on, but I am not leaving you here!” Rick spat as he leaned forward to gently lift me from the floor.

“You can’t he will kill us both,” I whispered past the pain in my body. “How, why?” were the only words I could bring myself to say.

Rick stared at me in utter confusion as to why I could even ask or assume he would leave. It wasn’t as though we talked more than work required daily. I needed to see him look me in the eyes and try to lie.

Rick wouldn’t have any clue about where I lived or even how to find me and I wasn’t lost to that realization. Missing work more times than I could count, not to mention there would be weeks at a time. Why this time would he want to come and find where I was? Rick didn’t feel the inclination to answer the question I posed. He gently scooped me up in his arms and started for the stairwell. Unable to fight as pain took away all movements from my limps. Gasps leave my mouth at the feel of anyone grasping my body so concerningly. Rick made sure to walk so that my body wasn’t jostled so frequently within his embrace. I could feel the panic start to rise as Rick cleared the doorway from the basement. Not having the courage to open my eyes for fear that Jeremy would be seething from what I could imagine the sight before him. No noise to be heard and, for once, I didn’t wish for death to consume. But that I could truly be free without the effort I could ever muster. We were going the wrong way when Rick appeared in the kitchen, seemingly lost. Not aware of which way he entered the house, my voice betrayed me when the sound didn’t come out. Rick’s body tensed and I knew the familiar blow would come with all the pain from his strength. The sound of bones cracking rippled through the house and my head jerked in the direction of the noise. Horror on my face as a large wolf stood in the backyard, eyes piercing into me through the window. The crackling noise grew as the wolf's body contorted in impossible ways. Rick started to rush through the house in the other direction but my eyes never left the window. Jeremy appeared naked as the wolf had disappeared and bile rose up my throat.