Whisper by Lee Shane

Author:Lee, Shane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-12-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Forty-Two (Atell)

Atell was quiet. Her normally inquisitive mind was blanketed with worry and subjugated by the ringing aftershocks of the attack on Rudight. She was dealing with it better than she had expected, better than she had hoped, but it was still hard, and she’d had to retreat inside herself to maintain control.

Everything’s okay, she told herself. Then, No. Everything is not okay. But you’re okay for now, and believing otherwise isn’t going to help anything.

The wall. The sound of the explosion, and the flying stones crushing houses and people. The swarm of black-fleshed monsters spreading throughout the town like a disease.

And Hider, rising above the horde as some inhuman god. The sight of him had scared her, then infuriated her. She knew this wasn’t the first city he’d let this horde run rampant through. He was willing to sacrifice countless lives to get the power he wanted. And for what? So he could never be pushed around again?

It makes no sense. That child...that inhuman, he was seeking company. He stayed with Orrin and Derrick for years. He helped them survive. He...

The blood, splashing onto the dark walls of Rudight earth. The way people’s bodies collapsed as their life poured onto the ground.

She pulled in a breath. The Hider she had known and the Hider that had met her eyes at Rudight were two completely different people. Not even that—two different species. Two different entities. But which of them had spared their lives? Which of the Hiders had seen them standing there, defenseless, and not ordered the horde to dive on them and tear them into pieces?

She hoped it was the first Hider, the one she knew. If it was the new one, the implications could only be horrid.

Atell turned her attention to Laine, bringing herself back into the present. It was hard, but she knew it was important. If she retreated too far inward, the feelings would pile onto her and not let her back out for hours. She thought of them as her hauntings. The ghosts of Iyes come to smother her.

She breathed and watched the young Rudight man from the side of his face where the webbing of scars on his cheek was almost lost in the dim light.

“Are we safe?” Laine asked Jost, in response to his command to talk. He looked at all of them in turn, hoping for validation. Assurance.

“Safe?” Jost smiled. “No. Probably not for a long time, if ever. But hopefully we won’t die in the next ten minutes.”

“We should get somewhere safe,” Laine insisted. “Somewhere protected.”

“That’s not really an option out here, Laine,” Atell said, trying to sound comforting. “The best way to stay safe is to keep moving away from Rudight.”

“I know where I am!” Laine whipped his head toward Atell, but she didn’t flinch. She could see the fright in his eyes. The realization that he was probably in over his head. But that didn’t matter, because there was nowhere else to go. There may not be anywhere for him to go back to.

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