“Rose! He’s dangerous! Get away from him!” Finn approaches as if to grab me but stops, raking his hand through his hair.
I kneel next to Alek who’s holding his head, face contorted in pain. With my heart thumping so hard it feels as if it could explode from my chest, I reach out and touch his shoulder. Immediately the energy flows, but the wrong way, an ache to match what I get when touching Finn. I snatch my hand away.
Alek lifts his head, eyes pleading. “You have to help me.”
“How?”
“I need you...” Alek says, and then clenches his teeth and shakes his head. “Don’t touch me!”
“What? Which is it, Alek?”
I extend a hand again and Alek lashes out, smacking my hand away. “Go with Finn.”
By now, my head is a mess of confusion. What does Alek want?
“Listen to Alek before he disappears completely,” says Finn. “Rose!”
“He’s not disappearing! He’s right there!”
“I don’t think he is.”
“The person he was bringing over, is he here? Did he do this to Alek?” I get to my feet and head for the stairs. “Alek? Is he up there? We could do something to help.”
“He’s there!” says Finn, pointing at Alek. “Didn’t Alek tell you what he was doing?”
“Bringing someone back...” Light-bulb moment. “Shit. No. Is he possessed? Is this person... thing killing him?”
“I don’t know! But we can’t stay!” Finn says.
Alek’s contorting body lies close to my feet, the man who came to save me and ended like this. Finn, the man who can’t touch me but would be dragging me out of the door if he could, stands close by. One can help himself and has done enough for me. The other can’t.
“Finn, go. I’m staying.”
“No.”
“He’ll kill you,” says Alek, words barely audible. “Make her go with you.”
“Rose!” yells Finn.
How can I walk away for a second time? Perspiration grows on Alek’s pallid skin as he pushes onto his hands and knees then collapses again, writhing against an unseen agony. His eyes are closed, and his chest rises and falls rapidly. Frozen, I battle the desire to reach out to him and the common sense urging me to listen to Finn.
I cover my ears but nothing is blocked out, and then I wrap my arms around my head instead, obscuring my hearing and vision. As I crouch on the floor, an icy chill travels across my back from fingers gripping my shoulder. I jerk away from Finn’s touch, loosening my arm from around my head, and I’m thrown straight back into the horror of Alek’s situation.
Alek is motionless.
“Oh, my God! Finn! Can you do something?” I shriek, turning back to him.
Finn holds his fingers in his other hand, gazing at me in shock. I can’t think about this now, how he still can’t touch me. What did he expect?
“There’s evil here, Rose,” Finn says hoarsely, “We have to go.”
I blink away his words. He no longer touches me, but the chill heading toward my heart isn’t from Finn. The thought Alek could die shatters a part of my soul. “Finn, please…” I manage to rasp.
I shuffle closer, willing Alek to still be breathing. Alive. The room is silent now, as if time has arrested in the moments since Alek last moved. Tentatively, I reach out a hand to touch his clammy face.
Alek’s hand flies up and catches my arm, and I cry out in pain as his fingers crunch around the thin bones of my wrist. “I told you to leave,” he gasps and closes his eyes again.
Alek’s grip remains and I wince at this and the loss of energy to him. “I don’t have much, Alek, don’t,” I gasp.
I’ve seen a lot of weird crap since I entered the nightmare world inside my own rabbit-hole hell, but this is beyond human comprehension. Someone - something - shimmers into view; part of Alek but not. His form touches Alek, like a double exposure on a photograph where two pictures join and shadow each other. The harder he grips my wrist, the more the figure solidifies. I watch; the crushing panic inside because Alek might die turns to fear for my own life as the figure rapidly becomes a man and the remnants of my energy flood through Alek to him.
Alek’s grip on my wrist loosens as his arm falls to the floor. He doesn’t move. I gasp for air, the lack of energy bringing on the fog, and I know if I close my eyes I’ll fall back into the Void I recently escaped from. Struggling to keep my eyes open, I focus on the motionless Alek and the impossible man standing next to him. He’s wearing Converse trainers, and for a few moments, I can’t do anything but stare at the black and white shoes. Demons wear Converse? My gaze travels upwards, along long slender legs in black jeans to the non-descript, blue T-shirt stretched across his lean chest.