When Sarah Solomon took refuge in an old cottage in the woods, she knew it would only be a matter of time before the monsters came a' calling.
Cursed with a power she neither wants, nor knows how to harness, Sarah has become a target, but who is he...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
There was some comfort to be found in the darkness.
To forget pain. To forget fear.
Instead, I could float, weightless, as if even my bones were feathers, and all that remained was a constant wave of bliss that reminded of those rare, brief moments of my childhood before madness and death came. An embrace. The warmth of someone's hand stroking my hair. The slow, steady beats of a heart. The rhythm of a lullaby that carried me in the dark.
Like driftwood.
The current pulled me along, the pace increasing.
'Sarah...'
I was no longer drifting, but rushing, hurtling towards the edge.
'Sarah?'
A hand stroking my hair. A familiar, pleasant buzzing at the roots, humming down my cheekbone, my jawline, my throat.
Michael's voice. Michael's hand.
I opened my eyes.
My head was on his lap. I was curled on my side, with my head on his lap, as he stroked my hair.
Struggling to get up, I pushed up on my elbow, my vision blurring as the sudden movement encouraged waves of dizziness and a sudden, sharp spike of nausea.
'Hey, go easy,' Michael said, gripping my arms to steady me. 'A couple of thousand volts tends to turn the body to jelly for a while. If you don't want to fall on your arse, it's probably best to keep still until the fog lifts.'
'They tasered me. They fucking zapped me,' I said, once I could open my eyes without the room flipping upside down and inside out. 'Wait... did they tranq you?'
Michael grimaced. 'Yeah, doesn't look like they've studied Trueborn Biology 101 though. I don't think they had any clue how much sedative to use. They got lucky, I guess. Woke up just as they were throwing both of us in here.'
'And where is here, exactly?' I said, slowing turning my head to take in our surroundings.
The high walls were all smooth metal, as was the ceiling. Underneath us was a surface of cool black marble running with thin silver veins. On the opposite side of the room, stood a huge square door, that stretched from floor to ceiling, the type of door I had only ever seen in movies or TV shows.
I gasped. 'Are we in a vault?'
Michael rapped his knuckles lightly on the wall behind him. 'Steel-reinforced concrete panels. Steel-cladded door with a dual custody combination lock, meaning that both locks have to be opened at exactly the same time for the door to be unlocked. This isn't just any vault, Sarah. This is a top of the range, high security safe that could probably withstand a nuclear blast, designed with perfection to ensure that not even an army could get in.'
'Or to ensure that nobody gets out.'
He nodded. 'Yep. I've been inside a few vaults in my time, but trust me, I've never seen anything like this.'
