Whispered Darkness by Jessica Sorensen Page 0,37

it feels like something else. Something darker and heavier. Something dangerous.

I move quicker, wading farther into the water and peering around. Where is she? At the bottom? Shit, if that’s the case, I’ll have to swim down.

“Beth,” I whisper under my breath. “Can you help me out here?”

Nothing but the sound of bubbles popping around me.

I can feel the water starting to ooze through my clothes and touch my skin. I want to gag. I want to scream. However, I manage to swallow down the urges and dunk my arms underneath the water, feeling around, looking for—

I feel it—a cold, dead hand.

Beth.

Sucking in a breath, I begin to pull her up when fingers wrap around my wrists.

I gasp, trying to jerk my arm back, when another set of fingers wrap around my other wrist. Then I feel them enclose around my ankles, legs—everywhere.

“Star!” I shout, my gaze darting to the shore of the pond, only to find that decaying arms have crept out of the branches of the tree and are wrapping around her.

“Shit,” she curses, stumbling back as the arms pull her toward the trees. “Don’t let them drag you in!” she shouts at me.

“I—”

I gasp as the arms jerk me downward, the water reaching my chin.

I try to wiggle free, try to keep them away, but more fingers wrap around me. There are so many goddamn arms. What the hell is this place? Hell? Did I somehow walk straight into hell?

I suck in a huge inhale as my head starts to go underneath the water—

“Harlynn!”

That deep, wonderful voice doesn’t belong to Star.

Kingsley.

I attempt to turn my head, to no avail.

I’m sinking, getting dragged downward. My eyes shut as the last of my body is submerged—

The fingers skitter away as arms wrap around me. Lean, strong arms.

I open my eyes. Kingsley is holding me, pulling me from the water. I grasp on to him, trying to get my footing but never do, and he ends up dragging me onto the shore. Then he lays me down in the dirt, his eyes filled with panic as he leans over me, inspecting my body and face for wounds.

“You’re okay. You’re okay. You’re okay,” he keeps whispering under his breath as he skims his hands along the sides of my face.

“I’m fine,” I attempt to comfort him, reaching up and cupping his cheek. “Thanks to you.”

He struggles to breathe evenly as he stares down at me, leaning into my touch. “I thought I was going to lose you again … I felt this pain … And then …” An exhale falters from his lips.

“For a second, I swear I thought I was going to die … Although, according to Star, I can’t … Wait … Where’s Star?” Panic rises inside me as I tilt my head up to look for her.

“Relax,” I hear her say. Then she steps into my line of vision. Her face and arms are covered in dirt, but other than that, she looks okay. “I’m fine.” She scrunches up her nose. “Though I don’t think I would’ve been if Kingsley hadn’t shown up.” Her gaze shifts between us. “Something about you two being near each other scared them away.”

“What away?” I ask. “Wait—were those arms the death stealers?”

She rubs dirt from her face as she shakes her head. “Those were the arms of death, and if they get ahold of you, they can drag you to the in-between.”

“What the hell is going on?” Kingsley mutters while horror lashes through me.

“Can they do that to anyone?” I ask Star.

“No, just those who have been there before,” she says ominously. “We may not be able to die, but we can go to the land of the dead again. And if we do, we can get trapped there forever.”

Is that where Beth is? As the thought haunts my mind, I twist my head to the other side toward the pond where I tried to pull her body out but failed. At least that’s what I think.

But floating in the water is a body.

11

Harlynn

It bobs up and down as the wind moves waves through the murky water. While its facedown, the color of her hair is the same as Beth’s, so it must be her.

“I’m so damn confused,” Kingsley says, breathing in the silence. “Why is Star here? And what were you even doing here to begin with?” His last question is directed toward me.

“Apparently, she’s died before and came back to life and can hear the dead,” I explain, sitting up