Requiem Read Online Free PDF Page B

side of me. The sounds
that came from the shadows were indescribable, so loud that my
hands automatically cupped over my ears. I screamed aloud to try to
drown out the evil that saturated the space around me.
    Then it was gone.
    I waited. Sounds from the street below
replaced the deafening roar of Shax and his minions, and my knees
buckled, letting my body fall to the ground.
    “ Please stop,” I whispered,
knowing no one could hear.
    My breathing accelerated. The air seemed too
thin, and the tugging began again. “No,” I pleaded, just as a hole
opened up beneath me. I fell, landing on the wet cement of the
alley.
    A pair of familiar shoes stood before me,
and I followed the tailored suit with my eyes to the face of my
frightened father. His hands were wrapped around the book, his
knuckles white. I closed my eyes, waiting for what would come next.
The sounds of hands exploding through the door, and the audible
shredding of Jack’s clothing and skin were much more vivid when I
refused to watch. The bones of his spine snapped as demons yanked
him through the hole in the door, and into the building to his
brutal death.
    I cried out. Not so much a scream, as a low,
guttural moaning, sobbing for my father. The alleyway quaked, as if
the earth below was trembling in the presence of such evil. Dark
turned to dim light, and I focused as Jared’s warm hands shook me
awake.
    “ Nina?” he said, holding my
cheeks in his hands, waiting for me to look him in the
eye.
    Once again soaked in my own sweat, I tore my
nails from my palms, still clenched from trying to force myself to
stay in one place. Jared looked down, and then left for only a
moment, bringing back two rags.
    “ Jesus, Nina,” he choked
out.
    The white towels hid the four tiny,
half-moon gouges in each hand, but quickly revealed the damage as
they began to turn red.
    Jared placed another rag, this one wet and
cold, on my forehead, wiping away the sweat and tears. My eyes felt
swollen and tight. Although the dream was over, I couldn’t stop
crying. Jared’s expression was heart breaking. It was the same
expression he had when he let go of my hand in the emergency room,
as if I were dying before his eyes.
    “ I can’t fix this,” he
said, his voice breaking. “I don’t know what to do to help
you.”
    “ You’re helping,” I said,
my voice raspy and faint. I left the bloody rag on the blanket, and
touched my hand to his face. Too tired to hold up my own arm, it
fell to the mattress. Streaks of blood marked Jared’s cheek,
prompting me to turn my hand palm-up to see the oozing tears in my
flesh.
    “ I’ll take care of that,”
Jared said, reaching under the bed to fetch the first aid
kit.
    My head rested against the headboard as he
tended to my wounds, kissing my fingers when he finished each
hand.
    “ Jared?”
    “ Yes, Sweetheart?” he said,
thick with agony.
    “ Would you make some
coffee?”
    “ Yes,” he said
simply.
    He left me alone, rushing down stairs. I
looked down to my red-stained hands, and then to the clock. It read
three-thirty. Rubbing my eyes, I struggled to block out the
shrieking that still rang in my ears.
    Jared returned with a steaming mug of dark,
bitter caffeine. He sat beside me on the bed with renewed hope.
“Okay,” he said, carefully passing the cup to me, “let’s talk about
this.”
    “ No.”
    “ No?” My answer caught him
off guard. It took him a moment to recoup. “Nina, there has to be a
reason for this.”
    I took a sip and sighed. “I told you. I’m at
Titan every day. I’m surrounded by Jack and memories for hours at a
time. Think about it. The dreams didn’t start long after I started
my internship.”
    “ That doesn’t add up, Nina.
You should be comfortable being there by now. The dreams should
lessen, not get worse.”
    An attempt at rational thought proved
futile. My mind was clouded by fatigue, and it didn’t take long
grow frustrated and give up. “I don’t want to think about