It was Ashley. Sitting down on the ground, she was cradling her right foot. A slew of four-letter words continued to flow from her lips as I hurried over to her along with Landis and several others. Blood was seeping from her foot and staining the sand.
“What happened?” Landis asked, alarmed.
“Argh,” was all the reply he got from her as she removed her shoe and sock to reveal a deep slice through the sole of her foot. Although it was clearly causing her agony, at least, as a vampire, she would heal quickly. The corners of the gash had already started to close up before our eyes.
“How did you do that?” Rose asked, planting a hand on Ashley’s shoulder and squatting down next to her.
“I stepped on like a… freaking samurai sword,” Ashley panted, wincing and biting her lip.
I was already examining the ground nearby, following the trail of blood.
It definitely wasn’t a samurai sword. But what it was made my heart pound. A long wide dent in the ground.
Rushing over to it, River and I brushed away a thin layer of sand to reveal the metal door leading down into the atrium. Ashley’s foot had smacked into one of its sharp corners.
Relief and yet more confusion filled my mind.
“But if this is here,” she said, “then where is the camel—?”
The two of us had already spotted it before she finished her question. Standing perhaps a hundred feet from us was the camel stable. Just a few seconds before when I’d looked around along with everyone else, it had been nowhere in sight.
What is going on?
As if in answer to the question, my tattoo began to tingle again, and the whispery voice echoed through my head:
“Welcome back, Benjamin Novak.”
The blood drained from River’s face, her lips parting. She locked eyes with me. “Did you hear that?”
I nodded.
“We are inside now?” Micah said, looking around, dumbstruck.
My mind was already racing with the implications of what had just happened. Leaving Ashley, whom Landis was helping to stand up, I darted forward. I was in such a hurry, I didn’t even grab River’s hand to keep her close to me. I just raced forward, desperate to reach the boundary. This time, I did find it. My outstretched hands touched the invisible hard surface. I staggered back.
The boundary. Nowhere to be found on our way in. Up like a brick wall when trying to get out.
A wave of déjà vu washed over me as I recalled the first time I’d realized I was shut in here. Now, it was all of us.
Chapter 9: River
I could neither understand nor believe it. What just happened? It was as though all signs of the boundary had disappeared just to lure all of us inside, and then it had shot up again, like a Venus flytrap.
“So,” Derek said, his jaw tense. “We’re inside.”
Ben pointed to the trapdoor. “And that is the entrance to the atrium.”
The crowd gathered around, eyeing the metal door.
“This place is so different to how I remember it,” Derek said. “All of this above here, it used to be an actual oasis—a basin of water, trees, now it’s just… sand.”
“Well, when the hunters attacked all those years ago, they blew the entire roof off the place,” Sofia said. “They decimated the whole area. Perhaps it’s never been the same since.”
“Whatever the case,” Ibrahim said, “before we venture any further, I want to test the strength of the boundary.”
He and Mona gathered together their fellow witches and then they vanished, reappearing close to the barrier. We watched in silence as they huddled close to each other, and all at once raised their palms—releasing a spell, I assumed.
A blinding flash of light seared my eyes, forcing me to close them. And then came the deafening sound of an explosion.
A powerful force blasted toward me and I found myself thrown backward, landing on the ground. It was as though a bomb had just gone off. I tried to open my eyes when I sensed the light had softened, but particles of sand flew everywhere. I was forced to keep them closed until it settled. Then, when I looked around, it was to see that almost everyone else except for a few vampires, including Ben, had also taken shelter on the ground.
I’d never seen this spell being performed before, so I had no idea whether this kind of reaction was to be expected. But from the looks on everyone’s faces, it appeared not. When my eyes traveled toward the witches, they were nowhere in sight.
“Mona!” Kiev bellowed.
Our crowd raced toward where the group of witches had been standing, the ground now scorched… and empty. Vampires and werewolves looked around frantically, while I headed straight for the boundary with Ben.
My outstretched hands were forced into balls as they brushed up against the barrier—solid as ever.
Everyone was lost for words as they continued looking hopelessly for the witches. There weren’t even any bodies lying around.
Vampires and werewolves began taking turns in testing the boundary—only to be forced back just as Ben and I had been.
“Where the hell did they go?” Kiev said, panting.
As speculations abounded among our crowd, my and Ben’s eyes lowered to the ground. We seemed to be sharing the same suspicion.
“Whatever that explosion was,” Ben spoke up, “I doubt the witches are dead. It doesn’t seem to have been meant to kill them. Otherwise where are their bodies?”
“What are you thinking?” Sofia asked.
“I can’t shake the feeling they’ve been taken down into The Oasis,” he said.
Maybe they’re down there with my family. I hated to think where they might be keeping them. I guessed the most likely place was those prisons again.
“Well, we can’t get out,” Derek said. “That much I think we can all agree on. We have no choice but to go down.”
“Perhaps the witches here hold more power than we estimated,” Sofia said. “These residents of The Oasis, they must have sensed our presence in the desert and allowed us to enter the boundary. I guess they also sensed we had our own witches and wanted to take them out…”
“Let’s go down,” Kiev said impatiently, running toward the trapdoor.
Ben caught my hand and pulled me after him.
“Vampires and werewolves, that’s all we have now,” I said to Ben as we ran. “And even when those dragons arrive with your grandfather, it’s not like they could even get in through the boundary. Our witches couldn’t. I can’t see how the dragons could. Are we left with enough force to stand against The Oasis?”
“I don’t know,” Ben said heavily. “But now we’ve no choice but to keep moving.”
He bent down and along with Kiev, his father, and Xavier, heaved at the trapdoor and forced it open.
A chill formed at the back of my neck and crept down my spine as I found myself looking down at the familiar sight of the atrium. It felt like everyone was holding their breath as we listened for any signs of life from within.
My own ears could pick up nothing but the sounds that had been echoing in my head the past weeks ever since I left. The sounds of The Oasis had previously been in my mind, now I was experiencing them live again. Except the grinding of the machine… I couldn’t hear that right now.
Derek and Kiev were about to begin descending the staircase when Ben stopped them. “Wait. I want to go down first.”
Ben didn’t wait for the men’s response. After I had slid onto his back, he pushed through the crowd and moved down the steps with me. Then he paused, looking up toward his father, who was about to follow after us with Kiev. Ben shook his head. “No, don’t come yet. Wait until I say.”
I sensed the guilt in Ben’s demeanor. He hadn’t wanted anyone accompanying him here to begin with, and now that things had gone so wrong and we had lost our witches, he was feeling the weight of responsibility.
Kiev looked like he was about to ignore Ben’s request and come down anyway, but Derek gripped his shoulder and held him back
. “We’ll do as Ben says,” he said. “But we won’t wait more than five minutes.” Derek shot a stern look at his son. “Come back by then, or we’ll come down.”
Ben nodded curtly, then continued down the staircase with me. The familiar scent of jasmine drifting up from the gardens below filled my nostrils. Arriving on the topmost platform of the atrium, Ben and I paused, looking down and taking in The Oasis’ sinister beauty.
Ben’s grip around my calves tightened. Despite the fear clawing at my chest, his hold on me brought me a sense of reassurance I hadn’t thought possible in this terrifying place.
Chapter 10: Ben
I wasn’t sure exactly what I was going to do now that I was down here with River alone, with my family and everyone else waiting up in the desert, but after what had just happened, I wanted to be the first down here to see what the situation was.
When I looked around, there wasn’t a person in sight. Even as I listened, I could barely make out a sound. But this shouldn’t have been surprising. The Oasis was known to be quiet in the morning, because its residents had a habit of staying up late into the night. The familiar quiet noises of the atrium filled my ears—the distant dripping of a tap, the occasional splashing of fish in the ponds, the whistling of the draught from the desert above.
After observing the upper layers of the atrium for a minute, I entered the elevator with River and we made our way down to deeper levels.
River’s soft mouth brushed against my left ear. “Where do you think everyone is?” she breathed.
“I guess asleep,” I said.
Though clearly somebody was awake. And that somebody was the person we needed to seek out. The person responsible for taking our witches and causing the boundary to clamp down on us.
We traveled down several floors and stopped halfway down.
“So what now?” River whispered. “We only have a few more minutes before they come down.”
I didn’t answer, and instead kept moving swiftly but silently around the verandas. Then, reentering the elevator, we moved down to the ground level, which appeared to be as empty as the others. Once I was satisfied that there appeared to be no immediate threat, I didn’t see another option but to return to the others. Kiev had been chomping at the bit when I’d left him, he wouldn’t be held up much longer.
As I motioned to retreat, River suggested, “You could send me back, and you could stay down here to keep watch?”
“No,” I whispered back. “I don’t want you separated from me.”
We took the elevator together back up to the top level, where I hurried up the staircase. Reaching the top, I poked my head out.
River gasped.
And I instantly felt like a fool for not guessing this might happen.
There wasn’t a single person in sight.
It felt like someone had just driven a knife through my chest. As if the guilt wasn’t already hard enough for me to bear…
Shock soon turned to anger.
River insisted that I check the camel stables just in case, and I did, but of course, they were filled with nothing but camels.
No. Something, someone, in this place was messing with us.
“We’ll go back down,” I said, trying to steady my breathing. I raced across the sand and reentered the trapdoor with River. My hands closed even more tightly around her calves. She was the only person I had left, and I sure as hell was not going to lose her. They’d have to pry her from my dead hands.
Arriving back on the topmost level, I was about to rush toward the elevator when River said, “Look!”
She was pointing to my right. I turned my head to see a large leopard with a rich silky coat, standing perfectly upright. His forelegs were tucked neatly in front of him as he watched us through orange eyes.
“A leopard?” River whispered.
I nodded slowly, maintaining eye contact with the creature. I wondered what he wanted. When he hadn’t budged after ten seconds, I grew tired of waiting and continued toward the elevator. But as soon as I made to move, the leopard let out a low purr and moved from his spot. Bolting across the floor with alarming speed, he planted himself directly in front of me, blocking the entrance to the elevator. Irritated by the distraction, I was about to force him aside. But then the elevator doors slid open and he stepped right in, making room for me. I followed him in, keeping a close eye on him as we descended in case he took a liking to River’s flesh.
Pushing aside thoughts of this animal, I tried to organize my panicking mind. I had to be calm and collect my thoughts, or there would be no hope for any of us.
I decided that my first stop should be Lloyd’s apartment. Despite the way we had parted, he always had been friendly to me, and besides, he seemed to be the weak type—possibly the easiest to scare and get information out of. I hit the button for his level—the same level my apartment had been on.
To my aggravation, although I’d hit the button twice to make sure it registered, the elevator continued descending right past the level.
This had never happened before in all the time I’d spent here. That it should happen when I was in the worst of hurries was just my luck…
I tried to stop us on the next floor down, but the elevator didn’t stop there either. I kept pushing the buttons for each of the levels we passed by, but the elevator doors remained tightly shut. We were forced to remain inside until we reached the lowest level, when finally the doors slid open. The leopard sprang from his spot in the corner and padded outside before me. Not bothering to see if the second elevator that ran parallel to this one would be working, I hurried out toward the gardens, intending to just leap up to Lloyd’s level.
“Brace yourself,” I muttered to River, as her arms tightened around me.
Another purr came from behind me—much louder than the last, it bordered on a growl. I looked back to see that the leopard had followed us. He sat in that same neat position only five feet away.
I was about to ignore him again when he did something with his head that arrested my attention. He moved it sharply to the right, toward the opposite side of the atrium. I could have sworn that he was nodding. Then he began moving toward the direction he’d indicated, but only walked six feet before stopping, turning around and making eye contact with me again.
“He wants us to follow him,” River whispered.
Since I wasn’t exactly overloaded with alternative ideas, I began to follow the creature. He led us into one of the orchards, then across it toward the other side of the atrium, along the veranda, until we reached the small room that held the entrance to the prison down in the basement.
The leopard approached the door to the room and nudged it with his head. It had been ajar, and now swung open slowly. He stepped inside, and I followed, maintaining about three feet between us. The small bare room was dark, as it usually was. The leopard stopped in front of the heavy door on the opposite side of the room that led to the prison and perched on his hind legs.
“What’s he doing?” River whispered.
I had no idea, but I was beginning to regret following this animal. I feared that we were just wasting our time.
The door was locked, as it always was. There wasn’t any sign of the key in the room. I didn’t know why this animal wanted to lead us down into the human dungeon. For all I knew, he wanted us to feed them.
“Let’s go,” I said, breathing out in frustration.
There was a sharp click the moment I turned my back on the creature.
“Look,” River gasped.
She craned her neck behind us. I turned around to see the door had clicked open, and was now being pushed against by the leopard. He nudged the door, then pushed it open wide with his agile body, before sitting on the other side of the doorway, resuming that same calm, patient position.
Now this cat had my full attention.
I had no clue how the door had unlocked like that. I half expected to see someone standing on the other side as we stepped through, but there was no on
e. Just the leopard. Once we had stepped through the doorway, the animal began heading down the staircase, leading us down to the basement.
The scent of human blood consumed me. I was about to reach for River’s wrist to breathe her in when she anticipated my move and pressed it against my nose.
We weaved around the cells, following this odd animal, through chamber after chamber. I didn’t dare to look through the windows of the cells as we passed by them. I didn’t want to make the temptation any greater to burst into one of the rooms and embark on a murdering spree.
I’d explored this place a few times before, but I’d never had time to venture so deep into this huge maze of tunnels. Soon we had reached an area that I’d never been in before. Even though I’d suspected that there was a lot more to this prison than I had seen, I hadn’t expected it to be quite this large. The leopard’s pace quickened, enabling us to pass through quicker. Finally, once I began to doubt that we could even go any deeper, the leopard stopped outside another door. Again, there was a click and it popped open.
We entered after the leopard into a small storage room of sorts. There was a trapdoor in the center of the room, and a pile of sacks heaped in one corner, with an odd sprinkling of white powder on the floor. Otherwise there was nothing too remarkable here, just some brooms, mops and other cleaning equipment, and a cupboard fixed against the opposite wall. The leopard crossed the room and walked right up to the piece of furniture. He moved around to the back of it. Squeezing his head between the gap between the back of the cupboard and the wall, he made it larger as he pushed against it before squeezing his whole body through the crevice.
At this point, I put River back down on her feet because we both wouldn’t fit through. Positioning myself sideways, I moved through the narrow gap after the leopard and was amazed to see that behind the cupboard was another door that the leopard had just disappeared through. I slipped through it myself and found myself at the top of a dark, winding staircase. I caught sight of the leopard’s tail disappearing around a corner a few flights down.