Shadows Rise: Asylum Trilogy #2 by Denise A. Agnew

Author:Denise A. Agnew [Agnew, Denise A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-942583-34-9
Publisher: Denise A. Agnew

* * *

Annabelle knew she shouldn’t do it. She hadn’t been in the ward with the soldiers more than a few minutes when an overwhelming urge to locate Cade struck her. Why, she didn’t know. After all, he’d gone into the basement to find a soccer ball. Ziggy had told all the men that everyone would play soccer after the noon meal, a few minutes from now.

After a while, when he hadn’t returned, she'd grown concerned. So here she was, heading toward that basement door that Dr. Prever and the superintendent said would remain open. They had nothing to hide. No secrets like ten years ago. Ten years sounded like a long time, but it wasn’t.

The door was open, but the light was out. Primal instincts rose inside her, thick and desperate. Her body protested the idea of stepping forward into the inky blackness. Don’t be stupid. What if Cade needs you? Whatever her belief about a relationship with him, to turn away now would prove cowardice—that she would leave a patient in peril for personal reasons. No. She’d never done that and wouldn’t start now.

One step closer to the door. Another. Images of bodies broken, ravaged, and destroyed rose up inside her. Not the bodies discovered ten years ago, but months ago. The men who had been injured in war haunted her mind, their hands reaching out to her, their voices wailing and pleading. Blood-splattered sheets, missing limbs, and missing faces on the dead. Her breathing sped up, her heart reacting as she recalled the nightmare of the field hospital with stunning clarity.

No. No. She couldn’t and wouldn’t fall to this. A patient proved far more important than the bloody reminders running loose in her imagination. Her integrity demanded it, but her feelings also required it. At the top of the dark stairs, she flipped on the light switch. “Captain Hale? Are you there? Silence greeted her. “Are you there?”

Forcing herself down the steps, she took them quickly. She reached the bottom and stared down the hallway. One light at the end of the hallway flickered and went out, leaving part of the hallway more shadowed. Irrational fear rose.

“No.” She refused the fear and demanded compliance. She would do her duty. “Captain Hale? Everyone is waiting to play soccer? Why are you down here in the dark?” Even as she said the words, she strongly felt he wasn’t down here. Somehow she knew. But she had to check. Her senses had failed her before at this asylum. She’d believed more than once that someone was beside her, that someone had whispered in her ear, and she’d turned to discover no one there.

Rather than call his name again, she walked down the hall and looked in each cell. No reason for him to be in one of those, of course, but she checked. At the end of the hall, she gazed across the large expanse where the concrete floor looked so new. Indeed it was ten years old and had been redone.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.