“What’s the point of saving your own life if you do nothing with it?” he asked, stunning me to silence. The truth in his words rang like bells through my head. He was right. The arrogant son of a bitch was right.
I closed my eyes and let my breath out slow. “We’re busy enough trying to save your soul. Please don’t try to save mine.”
He didn’t call out to me as I turned and went back to my room, shutting the door. I collapsed on the bed face first. There was no reason to listen to him. The only things that mattered were the last two souls that still needed saving. Faintly, I heard the front door open and close. I shut my eyes and told myself not to care.
My dreams were almost always nothing but fractured memories of the night I killed the man who saved me, but this time I didn’t see my room. There was a long hallway with a white door and a gold knocker. I stood there in this pure isolation, transfixed as a soft voice spoke into my left ear.
“Open the door.”
My head snapped around to look but no one was there. “Who’s there?”
“Relax, my dear. Don’t worry. Everything you’ve ever wanted…everything you’re waiting for in this life…is beyond that door. The only thing you have to do is open it.” The voice caressed my ears as if it were made of silk.
I felt relaxed, almost euphoric. My bare feet could hardly even feel the cold of the tile as I began to walk down the hall to the door. Black satin from the dress I wore curled around my ankles as I continued, one hand reaching for the elegant glass knob. My body came to a stop.
“Open the door, Jordan. You will suffer no longer. Don’t you deserve to be happy?”
“Yes,” I whispered, feeling the weight of its words. “I’m so tired.”
I turned the knob and the door swung inward, exposing nothing but a vast darkness. From it, a hand wearing a black glove stretched towards me. Surprised, I took a step back. A tall Japanese man stepped out of the shadows, clothed in a black tuxedo with tails. His hair was midnight black and framed both sides of his pale face. He bowed formally at the waist, speaking with a seductive purr.
“Please come with me. I need your help. Yours and yours only.”
He held out his hand, palm upward, with a patient smile. I had no idea who this man was, but for some reason, I believed him. I reached my hand towards his, but then hesitated. Something about his smile made the tranquil feeling retreat. He opened his eyes and I noticed that they were the palest blue I had ever seen, nearly white. Stranger still were his pupils, which weren’t round but thin slits like a snake’s.
“What’s wrong, my pet?”
“Where are we going?” I glanced furtively into the dark abyss behind him that now seemed ominous. At first, all I could think about was disappearing with the gorgeous stranger, but now my surety had melted into uncertainty.
He smiled again. “What does it matter? Don’t you want to be happy? Don’t you want to be freed of your burdens?”
“Yes, but not if I’m walking in blind.”
“I will be your eyes, your ears, your mouth. Rely on me only, Jordan. I am but your servant.”
My fingers hung in the air, mere inches from his, but something in my gut told me to pull away. I pressed my hand to my chest, shaking my head.
“Please, just tell me where we’re going.”
The man’s smile faded, leaving his once pleasant face colder than ice. “You have opened the door. There is no room for doubt or hesitation.”
He grabbed my wrist and pulled me towards him. I screamed and tried to yank my arm free. I turned to run back down the hallway but it seemed to stretch for miles with no end in sight, no door on the other end to run through. The man folded my arms across my chest and held me against him with inhuman strength, his lips brushing my ear.
“Make no mistake. I will find you and you will help me. Your Father is not the only one with a plan.”
He dragged me, kicking and struggling, backwards towards the darkness.
I woke up, groping in the dark for my gun when I noticed someone in front of my bed.
“Jordan, calm down! It’s me!” Michael strode into the moonlight cascading in from the window opposite the bed. How long had I been asleep? I slid the gun back underneath the pillow and pressed my hands over my eyes, trying to slow my breathing. The effects of the nightmare still raced through my body like a drug. I hadn’t felt such intense fear before, not since the night I killed that man.
“Nightmare?” Michael asked, casting a concerned look over my shaking shoulders. I rubbed my arms to settle the goosebumps and merely nodded, still too bothered to come up with a sarcastic remark.
“You have them every night, don’t you?”
I glanced up at him, frowning. “How did you…?”
He pulled out the bottom drawer of my nightstand. I winced. There was a small glass and a large bottle of strong whiskey inside. One of the few perks of living next to a liquor store. “Just a guess.”