She needed to find that voice.
Sonja crossed the lobby and opened the front door. Outside the winter storm had already rolled in, though the weather report had insisted it wouldn’t arrive until tomorrow evening. She stepped out into the storm, her flannel pants slapping against her legs.
“Please, find me.”
She rubbed her arms and followed the voice down the street, and then down the next and the next, until she reached the edge of her town. In front of her the Romanian wilderness dared her to enter.
“Come closer.”
Sonja took a deep breath and pushed forward into the inky blackness of the forest. It had been awhile since her feet had fallen numb, but the voice sounded closer than it had before. She was almost there.
Her feet pressed into the thin layer of powdery snow beneath her, and she wandered through the snow-covered woods.
“Follow my voice.”
Torchight flickered in the distance; it seemed to be where the voice came from. Sonja stepped through the trees and the forest opened up.
A group of cloaked figures stood in the small clearing. A few carried torches, the source of the light. Goosebumps broke out along her skin as the firelight made their cloaks flare scarlet, the same shade as spilled blood.
Sonja blinked several times; she felt like she was surfacing from a terrible, terrible dream. “What’s going on?” she asked.
She took a step back and several heads turned, tracking her movement.
“Come closer,” said a feminine voice.
And just like that, Sonja was dragged back under. She walked over to the cloaked woman, all the while her muscles twitched, as though they knew on some instinctual level that she shouldn’t be here. She couldn’t see the woman’s eyes, but she saw her luscious smile.
The woman handed her a folded dress. “Put this on.”
Sonja took the bundle she was handed and began to strip in front of the crowd. Her stomach felt sick, like she shouldn’t be doing this, but she couldn’t stop herself from removing her clothes and pulling the thin linen gown over her head. Her body trembled from the cold and her numb hands fumbled, but eventually she managed to get the dress on.
“Lay down your tired body,” the strange woman said, gesturing to a wooden altar behind her.
Now that she had mentioned it, Sonja was tired. So, so tired.
Sonja passed the woman and approached the altar, ignoring the stares that seemed to bore into her skin. She paused, for the briefest of seconds, murmuring a prayer under her breath, and then hoisted her body onto the raised platform.
The cloaked figures fanned out around her, their presence making her breath hitch.
Another woman’s voice began to speak, chanting some incantation in a language that Sonja’s bones recognized, even if her brain didn’t.
A twine rope slipped over her head and someone tightened it around her neck. The skin squeezed in on itself, crushing her windpipe. Her hands twitched, compelled by instinct to remove the force.
“Don’t fight it,” the woman said, brushing Sonja’s hair away from her face. “Find peace in the moment.”
Sonja’s muscles loosened at the command. She stared at the cloudy sky and the snow that drifted down. The ache of her feet, the chill of her skin, the spasm of her lungs, these sensations were all remote things to the calm that had come over her. She welcomed the darkness that spread over her vision, and she never felt the knife that pierced her heart, nor the one that slit her throat.
I stood in the middle of a snowstorm. Small white flakes blew around my body as I looked around. On either side of me dark evergreens were largely hidden under snow.
Something about this place tugged at my memory. Hesitantly I crept forward, and out of the snowstorm I made out gray and white stone.
The falling snow heightened the unsettling silence of the place, and as my heartbeat sped up, it became the only sound ringing in my ears.
I climbed up a short staircase, my steps faltering as a sense of déjà vu washed over me. It was right on the edge of my mind, that memory. But the moment I tried to focus on it, it dissolved. A wisp of smoke carried away.
I stared at the large door, dread soaking through my skin.
Evil lurks within.
The thought had only just crossed my mind when the door creaked open on its own.
That thought was all it took for me to stumble away.
“Wait.” The voice was rich and deep; the kind that came along with a beautiful face.
I knew that voice.
Even though every muscle screamed at me to run, I froze. I saw his almond-shaped eyes first. They glittered as though they were lit from behind. Then his chiseled features came into focus. The deep shadows threw his high brow, square jaw, and cruel lips into sharp relief. He looked even more sinister than I remembered.
I backed away from the devil, never taking my eyes off of him. Dangerous creatures were better out in the open than hidden in shadows.
“You do not need to fear me,” he said.
My teeth chattered as a shiver racked my body. “That’s what you said on Samhain,” I said, “right before you beat the crap out of me.”
He left the shelter of his castle, and his hair ruffled in the storm. It was such a human detail that, for a moment, it felt ridiculous to fear him. Then I remembered who I was dealing with, and I did what I wasn’t supposed to do: I took my eyes off the devil to turn and run down the stairs.
I flew down the steps, my hair whipping around me as the wind blew it about.
He materialized at the bottom, arms crossed, and I yelped.
He cocked his head. “Why you haven’t learned is beyond me, but you. Can’t. Escape. You can’t outrun me. You leave when I say you do.”
There was nowhere for me to go. I couldn’t get past him—not without brushing by him. The thought repulsed me. My only other option was up.
“I’m not going to let you go until you take a tour of the castle,” the devil said. “If you remember, I never got the chance.”