FREE NOVELLA CHAPTER Chapter Eighteen
Demon Heart by Kiss Carson
Copyright 2021
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
A crack
formed between the etched images of Dominique and Zachary as the door opened.
Dominique entered the deep, sinister darkness that filled the void beyond the
door. Once she crossed the threshold, the door closed loudly behind her. She
lay on her back on…nothing…and the blackness surrounded her in a veil of peace
and serenity. She still held the dagger and the heart box, and a dull blue glow
still pulsed from under her skin, however the pain had subsided dramatically.
Dominique
closed her eyes and breathed deeply. This door wasn’t scary at all. In fact,
she could quite easily sleep through the battle to save Demon Realm. The sound
of metal scraping on metal disturbed her peace. She opened her eyes and studied
the obscurity. A spotlight snapped on with an audible click, its luminescence
focused on a cage suspended in the air.
“Domini,
are you there?” The sound of Zachary's deep voice forced a gasp from her. She
sat up and peered at the metal cage. Zachary rattled the bars and called to her
again.
“How’d
you get up there?” she called.
Zachary
didn’t answer. A second spotlight flicked on to light a second cage.
“Save
me, Dom!”
Instant
tears burned her eyes. She struggled to her feet and moved closer to the second
cage. A man, who looked just like her dead husband, paced the cage. Dominique
shook her head and squeezed her eyes closed to shut out the image. When she
reopened them, Jaye still stared down at her. She dropped the dagger. “No,” she
whispered.
“Hello
Dominique.”
Her
head spun. “What…?”
“I
guess this is your chance to save me.”
Dominique
felt faint. What was going on? “This is cruel,” she screamed into the darkness,
and pointed at Jaye. “You’re dead.”
He
shrugged, just as he always had. “Apparently not.”
In the
other cage, fifty feet or so away from Jaye, Zachary pounded on the bars. He
shouted but she couldn’t hear the words. Her gaze returned to Jaye. Her Jaye.
Alive Jaye. This has to be a trick.
Suddenly, the entire area came alive with light. Startled, Dominique stumbled
backward. The two cages were suspended above stake pits by four chains and a silver path lead from where she stood to each cage. Rotary saw blades appeared from nowhere and started
to cut through the chains. The fall onto the stakes would kill the men.
Instinctively, Dominique headed for the path that lead to Jaye, but then
stopped. Her husband was dead. Nothing could bring him back. Nothing. She stared up at Jaye. He
reached through the bars, his fingers stretching. Even on her toes she couldn't
reach him. The first chain on Zachary's cage broke and the cage lost stability.
Zachary stumbled, his eyes wide as he watched the blade start on the next
chain. Dominique moved closer to Zachary's cage and held her arms up as though
to catch him when he fell.
“I’ll
figure this out,” she called.
Jaye
rattled his cage. “You promised to love me forever, remember?”
Dominique's
throat closed to stop the sob that threatened.
“We can
start a family,” Jaye told her in a gentle voice. “Two boys, two girls, a dog
and a cat. We’ll buy a house by the sea and watch the boats.”
“That will never happen,” she said quietly and looked at
him. “Our life together has come and gone. Jaye, you are dead. Please, rest and
let me live.”
“You’d
rather love him?” Jaye demanded and tossed his head in Zachary's direction. “He
tried to kill you. He lied to you. Hell, Dom, he’s not even real!”
“And
neither are you,” Dominique yelled. The Hope Stone shard throbbed in her chest.
She fell to her knees, the surface hard and cold. “Let me go,” she begged the
game. “I can’t do this anymore. My heart is broken—.”
“But
your spirit is strong.” The echoing whisper startled Dominique. She stood and
looked around. Blades still worked at the chains holding Zachary's cage, bright
sparks of metal slowly disintegrating as they fell. Jaye’s arms slid through
the bars and he reached for her. She couldn’t see the owner of the voice.
“Please,
let me go home,” she said quietly.
Chana
appeared from the shadows and made her way towards Dominique, her
movements fluid, her smile gentle. “You have to choose.” She indicated to the
two cages. “Love or desire?”
Dominique
didn’t understand. “Which one is love and which is desire?” she asked.
“Only
you know that.”
Another
quest. Dominique wasn’t up to playing anymore. “What I would love is to go
home. What I desire is my bed, my computer—.”
“And
your husband,” Jaye yelled from his cage. “Dom, you want to choose me, you know
you do.”
Dominique
contemplated what Jaye said. If nothing else, her adventure had convinced her
that she was ready to start a family, ready to settle down and make a life with
someone. Another chain holding Zachary's cage snapped and the blade started on
the third thick strand of twisted metal. The cage lurched. The high pitched
squeal of the saw on the chain reverberated through her head. The heart box
grew heavy in her hands and she looked up at Zachary. He sat, feet propped
against the bars so he wouldn’t slip with the downward angle of the cage, and
watched her with those wonderful grey eyes. A bleak, tight-lipped smile lifted
his lips and as she watched, his chest rose and fell with a deep sigh. She had
never seen him so defeated. Then, she realized what she had to do.
“I
choose love,” she told Chana.
“How
far will you go for love?”
“As far
as needed,” she replied. “I’ve come this far. I doubt my situation could get
any worse.”
“I
admire your courage. However, even as we speak you are being betrayed.” Sadness
filled Chana’s eyes. “We are both being betrayed. Your journey is far from
over, Lady Demon.” Chana clicked her fingers. Zachary and Jaye disappeared.
Darkness smothered light. Dominique's hold on the heart box tightened. What had she done? Who betrayed her?
High
above, a single light slowly grew in brightness to reveal a small alcove. A
necklace hung in the nook and the glow came from the charm but Dominique
couldn’t quite make out the shape. Whatever it was, she had to get it, and the
only way was up. First, she needed to find the ceremonial dagger. Dropping to
her hands and knees, she tucked the heart box under her arm and awkwardly felt
around for the knife. She could leave it but she had the feeling she would need
it. After a few minutes, her hand touched cool steel. With a triumphant laugh,
Dominique picked up the dagger and stood. Now she had to find a way to get to
the alcove.
From
memory, to her left there was a narrow stone path that lead all the way to the
top of the cave. If she could find that path, her quest would be made a lot
easier. Also, from memory, there was a narrow rock gorge that ran the width of
the cave. She remembered seeing the opening behind the cages. Her deep breath
whispered through the darkness. Seriously, what was she supposed to do?
“Give
me a hint!” she yelled into the darkness.
As
though waiting for her prompt, the cave came alive with light but being able to
see only made her job harder. Now, she saw the danger that waited for her. A
few years before, she’d played a role playing computer game where the character had to
dodge oversized blades like those on a circular saw, as well as avoid slamming
hammers and spikes that sprang from the floor and walls. Dominique stared at
the path ahead with dismay. A huge circular blade with red hot teeth buzzed
past, barely missing her. She stumbled back with a gasp and clutched the heart
box to her chest. Another blade whirred by, this time a step or two in front of
her. Noise grew in crescendo, the buzz and grind of saw blades, scrape and
squeal of spikes as they rose and fell, and the crash of two large rock
hammers. Dominique couldn’t determine their rhythm, and to cross the death
traps she needed to know their order.
Bravely,
she stepped past the first blade, waited for the second and hurried across the
track. A blade came from her left, and another materialized from her right.
Dominique's instincts told her to run, but common sense and gaming experience
demanded that she stay put. Heart box hugged close, she closed her eyes. Palm
sweaty, her grip on the dagger tightened. The buzz of the two blades filled her
ears until nothing else existed. A breeze crossed from her left, then her
right, and carried the odor of hot steel. The air smelled dangerous as it
swirled around her body, lifted her auburn hair and twisted the strands
haphazardly. Dominique held her breath. The heat of the blades passed over her
skin, front and back, and slowly faded. She opened her eyes and hurried across
the next blade’s track.
The
path lead her to the left and up. Thick, pointed stakes pushed from the
ground. Dominique let out a cry and stumbled back, almost into the route of an
oncoming blade. She froze. Avoiding obstacles was harder than she remembered,
but that was in a game. Now, she dodged death for real. The stakes thrust from
the ground again and quickly sank. This time, she was ready and jumped over the
holes before the stakes reappeared. Dominique avoided two more sets of stakes
and now stood halfway up the steep incline to the alcove where the necklace
hung.
She
passed the first hammer easily, but the second came unexpectedly and she lunged
backward. The first hammer slammed the ground in front of her. The second
hammer came down a split second later. This obstacle would be trickier than
first thought. The hammers struck the ground. Bang-bang. Bang-bang. One after
another, relentlessly. She would have to make a run for it and hope for the
best. Bang-bang. Bang-bang. Dominique's heart beat with the rhythm of the
hammers. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Bang-bang. Bang-bang. Run! Her heart stopped completely when she ran the distance of the
two hammers. The second hammer missed her back by less than an inch and she
kept running until the niche came into view.
A
lanyard hung in the alcove, and a key dangled from the leather – a key with the
head of a screaming demon. Excited, Dominique quickened her pace. The key came
closer. The Hope Stone shard inside her chest glowed fluorescent blue. Finally,
she would open the heart box and release Zachary's heart. Finally, the game
will be over and she could go home. But she didn’t see the dark opening in the
rocky ground until it was too late. She lost her footing and slid down the
tunnel, her screams of fright following. The heart box and dagger fell from her
hands as she exited the tunnel and rolled across the rocky ground of the cave. Now
on her back, she stared up at the demon key. Saw blades passed nearby. Metal
stakes squealed as they exited and entered the rock. Bang-bang. Bang-bang.
Tears burned her eyes and blurred her vision.
She had
to start all over again.
Chapter Nineteen
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