“You first.”
The earth started to shake, and the ground vibrated under me. I’d have thought it was an earthquake if we’d lived in California, but we didn’t get many earthquakes in Michigan. The ground swelled beneath me, and I tried to pull myself to my feet. The boy grabbed me by the hair and kneed me in the stomach. The breath rushed out of my lungs, and I fell to the ground on my hands and knees, coughing and gasping for air.
What the hell is going on? Doesn’t anyone else see this?
The earth moved, dipping and rising, tossing me to and fro like the tilt-a-whirl ride at a carnival. I tried to steady myself, but the rippling movement grew larger and more intense until the earth caved in, like a sinkhole. A yellow light shone from the bottom of the crater, piercing through the darkness.
I screamed and tried to scramble away. The boy tried to kick me back toward the hole, but I grabbed his foot and yanked as hard as I could. He lost his footing on the unsteady ground and slid down into the gulley, disappearing into the hole. I cringed at the sound of his screams.
I pushed up from the ground and crawled on all fours away from the hole. The ground was still rippling, like clothes hanging in the wind, and I slid backward. Desperate, I grabbed for whatever I could get my fingers around. I hitched my arm in a deep crevice. My arm stretched down and dug into the packed dirt. I held on, hoping the dirt wouldn’t give way and send me sliding down the side of the bowl-like depression and into the glowing hole at the bottom—and straight to Hell.
I just have to hold on until someone can help me. Chay or Drew… somebody.
Then I saw the shadow, and I knew my time had run out. I wasn’t sure if Chay or anyone else could get to me in time. I’d seen the glowing yellow light before. I’d smelled the sulfur. I knew what the shadow was before I looked over my shoulder. I’d seen them all in a vision. The woman in the parking garage. The yellow light, the sickening smell of sulfur, the gray-faced demon grabbing her. I remembered it all.
“Chay!”
“Milayna,” it hissed. “It’s time to come home.”
I looked over my shoulder and saw one long, gray arm clear the pit’s opening. It reached for me. Kicking, I flung my legs out of reach. I tried to hitch my legs up far enough to climb out of the large dip in the earth, but my feet couldn’t find enough leverage to push me up and over the side of the gulley. If the ground I held gave way, I’d have tumbled right into the hole.
My heart beat furiously in my chest and my breathing came in large, deep gasps. My vision was wavy, like it was rippling with the earth. Fear coated me in a sheen of sweat, stained with the soil I was rolling in. I reacted to the situation more than thought of what was happening. There wasn’t time to digest what was happening. Fear and the need to survive. That was what drove me.
I used my arms to pull myself to the top of the growing crater. Almost perfectly round, its concave sides made it nearly impossible to hoist myself over the rim. My muscles burned from the effort. I was tired from my visions earlier in the day and from the fight. I struggled to grab on to something, but the earth crumbled and I slipped down the side toward the hole, the demon’s arm getting closer and closer. Its fingernails cut along my ankle; I screamed when they drew blood.
Grunting and straining, I pulled myself up again, out of the demon’s reach. I was just throwing my arm over the lip of the opening when a shoe nudged my arm. I looked up, eyes wide and panic burning through me. “I think you’re going the wrong way, Milayna.” An ugly smirk spread over Lily’s face. “Haven’t you heard? In near-death situations, you’re supposed to follow the light.” She waved her hand at the yellow, glowing hole.
“Screw you,” I bit out between gasps.
“Big talk considering your position. Here, let me help you.” Lily squatted next to me. She put a hand on my arm and bit her bottom lip. “Hmm, nope, can’t do it. See ya, Milayna.”
She pushed my arm off the ledge. It didn’t take much effort, really. My muscles were burning. My body was tired, at its limit. I held on to the rim of the crater by my fingers. They screamed in pain. I closed my eyes and tried to muster enough energy to pull myself up one more time, but it wasn’t there. I was drained. Done.
And that was when the block of ice in my chest exploded. The heavy heat of Hell melted the ice and heated it to the point it burned me from the inside out as it flowed through my veins.