Dark Realms Read Online Free PDF

whispered loudly, brushing at a
small spider on my sleeve.
    Where in the hell was Marie?
    Something moved in the bushes ahead of me
and I froze. I stared at it for a few seconds, holding my
breath.
    Probably a squirrel or
small animal, I told myself.
    Hoping that I was just being paranoid and
Marie had also fallen asleep somewhere nearby, I began searching
for her.
    “Marie,” I called out again, my voice
echoing in the night.
    The moon was full but the darkness made it
hard to see much of anything. I called out for her a couple more
times as I walked around, but she didn’t answer. After a while, I
began to wonder if she’d decided to abandon me, or worse – she’d
wandered gotten lost.
    Just then, the sound of twigs snapping made
me jump. I whipped around, but found myself alone.
    I released my breath and told myself to calm
down. It was a forest and there were small animals everywhere. I
began walking again, praying that I was headed in the right
direction, whichever that was.
    “Emily….”
    Alarmed, I stopped and looked around, unsure
if I’d imagined the voice. A gust of wind blew my hair and I
brushed off the sound, blaming it on the wind and my overactive
imagination.
    Shivering, I shoved my hands into my
sweatshirt pockets and began walking through the woods again. After
a few steps, however, something made me look up into the trees. A
pair of reddish-orange eyes stared back down at me and I gasped in
horror.
    That was not an owl.
    Terrified, I began to run.
    “Emily…”
    This time there was no
doubt in my mind that someone or some thing was calling my name. The voice
was eerie, with an almost feminine quality.
    I pushed myself forward, the blood rushing
to my ears as the voice called my name again, this time followed by
mocking laughter.
    “You can’t escape…”
    Scared to death, I choked back a sob and
kept running, my legs moving faster than I’d have ever thought
possible. Soon my eyes filled with tears, making it harder for me
to see, and before I could blink them away, I tripped over
something on the ground and flew forward onto my knees.
    “Emily…”
    I scrambled back onto my feet, trying to
ignore the throbbing in my left knee, but the hot intensity of the
pain was overwhelming.
    “How did that feel?”
    I turned around to find Martin staring at
me, his eyes like hot cinders. He stepped towards me. “Funny how we
keep meeting at night.”
    I backed away from him. “Don’t you fucking
come near me!”
    “Such foul language,” he said with a
chuckle.
    “I mean it, Martin. I’m not afraid of you,
and I’m certainly not going to let you take me back to that
barn.”
    He sighed. “Come on now. You disobeyed,
Emily. Now you have to learn to deal with the consequences.”
    “Look, you can’t just kidnap someone and
expect them not to try and escape.”
    He didn’t say anything, just stared at me
quietly. Expecting me to obey him.
    Fuck it.
    I turned around and started limping away.
Twenty steps later, I found him blocking my path.
    How had he gotten in front of me?
    “Surprise,” he said, grinning smugly. “See,
you can’t possibly escape. So why even bother running? I mean…
limping.”
    Sick of his arrogance, I clenched my fists
and decided that I wasn’t going to go down without a fight. “So now
what?” I hollered. “You’re going to teach me a lesson by killing
me?”
    His eyes glittered in the darkness. “If it
were left to me, I wouldn’t, but...”
    “What’s wrong with your eyes?” I
interrupted. They were beginning to glow an eerie reddish-orange
color.
    He took a step towards me. “You know, your
fire intrigues me,” he said, reaching forward. He put his finger
under my chin and raised it. “It’s… exciting, actually.”
    I felt like I was in a trance as he caressed
the side of my cheek with the pad of his finger.
    “Truth is, I’m not quite sure what to do
with you,” he whispered, eyeing me appraisingly.
    I swallowed hard.
    His lips curved up and