Time Will Tell by Dinah Roseberry

Author:Dinah Roseberry [Roseberry, Dinah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy: Dark Fantasy; Young Adult
Publisher: DreamPunk Press
Published: 2022-08-22T00:00:00+00:00

8

BELIEVE!

The monster’s laugh was not a laugh at all; it was a vicious growl, fluid dripping from its maw in anticipation of a wondrous meal. The girl and boy belonged to it in the Black Place now! They were caught!

It floated closer, thinking how stupid the girl was. An offer of rat meat was not enough to gain entrance to the past! How could she think it so dumb to fall for a trick that a child constructed? For all of them were just that—children. Bad children! It would have their lives this time! Its bellowing rang through the darkness like a misshapen bell.

For now, though, it played with them—shaping and reshaping the Black Place to confuse the travelers. What fun it was having. There had not been such activity in a very long time…it paused in its triumph…no, there’d never been activity in this place, much less this luscious edible kind.

It thought itself so clever. It made the rooms of its home hot and then cold and the floors mushy and wet. This would surely disgust them and take their attention from whatever they were planning. It swirled and laughed, stirring up a cloud of toxic gas to add to the mix. This was such fun!

But then it was startled.

They had thrown a rope into the past.

The past? That was not possible…unless there was a power from that time listening in. And how could that be? There was no link that allowed it.

Why, it had taken time immortal to open the crack in the elevator. Nothing from the past could do the same. Nothing from the past could catch a rope. Nothing in the past could ruin its plans…The monster floated more quickly.

Maybe it had been wrong…too confident in its own game. Playtime was over, and it was hungry for the boy. There was no more thrill of the chase. Those times were over now. This boy and his friend would make a wonderful marriage feast. And the girl would watch it all.

The three travelers were close to the light now. It seemed quite bright and not far from their reach. Yet…it seemed always just out of range.

“Come on!” Lucas’ whisper rasped. “Climb faster, I hear something behind us! And you know what that’s gotta be! It can’t be as far to the light as it looks!”

At that moment and just as Anitra reached the light, the monster burst from the deep darkness and snapped at the rope, breaking it. The three began to tumble back—into the monster’s waiting jaws.

It howled with delight, filling the place with such painful noise that their ears began to bleed.

“Hold on!” yelled Anitra. “Don’t let it fool you! We are at the light! Don’t fall back! It’s just an illusion that it has made for us. Believe in the light!”

Anitra, realizing the magic of the place, seemed to stand on flat ground in mid-air while Todd and Lucas tottered downward. She held out her hand to Todd, who was nearest.

“Take my hand and stand with me!” she commanded him.

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