Night of Broken Souls by Thomas F. Monteleone

Author:Thomas F. Monteleone [Monteleone, Thomas F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Suspense & Thrillers
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

. . . An eternity passed before she crossed the first intersection of ducts. She had abraded her elbows and knees until they became slippery with her blood, but she kept moving. Dukor said nothing, but she could hear the mechanical precision of his breathing behind her like the approach of a steam locomotive in low gear.

Slipping into a dull, monotonous rhythm of movement, letting her thoughts become one with the repetitive advance, she almost didn’t notice the second intersection. Time had stretched into a sagging, infinite pull of taffy. The stinging sensation in her knees and elbows had been replaced by a dull throb, and her spine felt as if it were cracking like old ice.

“Stop here.” Dukor’s voice pierced the bubble of her despair and Isabella was suddenly, sharply, aware of everything in her surroundings. Reaching the turning point, she angled left around the corner and started to push ahead when his hand grabbed her foot. “Stop.”

She did. “What’s wrong?”

“Back up,” he said. “Past me. Into the cross-duct.”

At first she didn’t know what he wanted, and she was afraid her indecision would be taken the wrong way. “What—?”

“Back up!” he whispered harshly through his teeth. “I’m taking the lead.”

“Oh . . .!”

She suddenly understood his intention, and slipped backwards into the intersecting duct and waited for him to pass her and enter the left passageway. Without being told, she followed him.

They had not gone more than fifty feet when he suddenly flipped over on his back and sat up in the opening to a vertical shaft above them. He wriggled and twisted into a standing position and stepped up, disappearing from view. When she reached the point of his departure, looking up, she saw his shoes above her ascending on a series of ladder rungs running up the shaft. If she was going to get out of here, she would have to follow. Looking up reminded her all over again that they were buried somewhere in the earth, jammed into a warren of passageways that could collapse or suddenly end at any moment. Somehow, Dukor had memorized the intricate layout of the duct-system, or understood its design in a fashion that allowed him to negotiate its labyrinth.

But if she lost track of him, she would be lost down here forever. The thought hammered her like a brick on the back of the head.

As she maneuvered and twisted into position, she wondered why he had left her on her own. Granted, he had no worry of her escaping him, but if he didn’t need her at some point later, why didn’t he just kill her?

Of course, she thought, no one had ruled out that option, had they?

As she grabbed the rungs and began pulling herself upward, she felt infinitely weary, but she knew she would never quit. It didn’t matter what awaited her, she would face it with dignity and as much strength that remained within her. The monster who climbed above her was only that—created through a hideous chain of events that defined the mystery of existence itself.

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