The Licensed Mage

21 Into The Darkness

She could hear the wind howling as she stood there shivering. Again she found herself lost in that frozen wasteland. She cried out for help but only heard her own voice echoing back. She looked around confused. There are no walls for the sound to bounce off from. Sheer panic gripped at her throat as she walked around, her bare feet becoming frost bitten from the frozen ground, unheeding of the ice silently cracking beneath her. She screamed and screamed until her voice was raw and her throat was frozen. Her saliva froze to her tongue preventing her from swallowing. She looked around in dismay as nothing but black stretched before her. The wind tore at her shirt, her only source of pitiful warmth and she clenched her arms together tight, trying to keep warm. For hours she wandered aimlessly screaming when she could, fighting the wind. Her nails dug into her arms as she fought to keep from shivering, the cold air crystalizing her blood from the wounds. The wind was galed at her back digging icicles into her spin when suddenly it stopped. Her tears froze in the corners of her eyes as she cried in this small relief when she stopped. Her feet, now raw and caked in frozen blood fused with the ground, trapping her in place. She didn’t feel anyone behind her, she didn’t hear anything behind her, yet she found herself unable to keep from turning around and looking over her shoulder. There was a blur of black on black but it disappeared before she could see what it was. Shaken, mortally petrified now her wide eyes scanned the black horizon behind her as the air began to freeze a thin layer of ice over them. Seeing nothing but still unsure she slowly turned forward and saw a black hole at her feet. A frozen memory of horror pushed forward in her brain as she stared at the hole, a scream frozen in her throat. The sound of her own breathing filled her ears as a head begun to emerge from the pool of black blood. Her jaw threw open as she screamed in horror, yanking at her feet, ripping her skin to free herself. She fell on her ass as a torso and arms emerged pulling at her ankles, desperate to get free. She didn’t feel the pain of her frozen skin ripping from her feet as the being covered in slick black blood now stood on feet in the center of the pool. She screamed so desperately the ice crack around her as she clawed at the ground. Without a sound the being was in her face, staring at her with hollow blood filled eye sockets. She was beyond screaming as she realized she could hear the air rushing in and out of her lungs but the being before her did not stir the air at all. Somehow that made it all the worse as she felt dread fill inside her. She felt ice forming a thin layer over her skin as a slick black blood covered hand went over her mouth.

        Claire jerked awake and immediately felt a crick in her neck. She moaned as she sat up straight in the chair, rubbing her neck as she looked around. She was in the office sitting in the chair in front of Malvina’s desk. She had slept while in the chair, resting her head on Malvina’s desk.

        “Claire are you alright?”

        She turned her head and jerked as she turned too quick pulling at the crick. She rubbed it furiously as she asked Malvina, “How long have I been asleep?”

        “10 minutes, and you drooled up a storm on my desk. I hope you’re cleaning that.”

        Claire looked down and saw she was right. She waved a hand and the drool was gone, the desk clean as new, “Where’s Raven?” She didn’t see him anywhere.

        “He pulled the short straw and got opted to get lunch. You sure you’re ok?”

        Claire leaned back in the chair trying to work the crick out, “I think so.”

        “That was some nightmare you were having, that or some hot dream, you were moaning like crazy.”

        “I was?”

        Malvina nodded her head as she went back to her paperwork. Claire tried rolling her neck but that seemed to only make the crick worse.