Chapter Two: Darkness

Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness. ~Job 30:26

“Tell us where they are,”

I tasted blood on my lips.

Footsteps approached. I tried to scream, but the gag ate my words.

Mother entered first. Devin’s sword caught her in the throat, tracing an evil necklace of blood. She fell to the ground, unable to scream.

In my earliest dream, I was a bat, gliding on huge leather canopies through the velvet night. I still soar with bats in the silver twilight—before I fall asleep.