Dark Realms Read Free Page B

Tara smacked the wood
with the palm of her hand several times. “Dammit, I just can’t take
it anymore!” she growled, turning back towards us. “I mean, really,
we shouldn’t just sit around here and do nothing! Make it easy for
them? You know they’re not going to just let us go.”
    “Exactly,” I agreed. “Why would they go
through all of this trouble?”
    “Maybe they’ve sent ransom letters to our
families,” said Amy.
    “Is your family rich?” I asked.
    She shook her head.
    “Well, either is mine. I doubt this is for
money,” I replied.
    “My mama is so broke, she can’t even afford
to pay rent next month,” muttered Tara. “If these guys are doing it
for money, they’d better change careers ‘cause they don’t know what
they’re doing.”
    Marie, the girl with the
pink hair, moved next to Tara. “Not to change the subject, but have
you guys tried throwing all of your weight against it at once?”
    “Yes, several times last night,” said
Anna.
    I walked over to the barn door. “Let’s at
least try again. It’s better than doing nothing.”
    “That’s what I’ve been saying,” said Tara.
“We have to keep trying and not just give up.”
    Marie, Tara, and I tried pushing and even
kicking at the door several times, but just like Anna had said, the
door appeared to be impenetrable.
    Marie turned around and stared up by the
loft. “Hey, there’s an open window up there.” She started walking
towards the ladder.
    “No!” I yelled, grabbing her arm. “There’s
something up there. It’s too dangerous.”
    Marie looked at me like I was nuts. “What
are you talking about?”
    “Haven’t you been paying attention?” asked
Tara incredulously. “There’s a dead body up there. Why do you think
it smells so bad in here? Nobody living can produce that kind of
stench.”
    “A dead body?” she asked, backing up.
She stood up on her tiptoes. “Where? I don’t see
anything.”
    I backed up too and noticed in shock that
the body had indeed disappeared.
    “Seriously. Did anyone notice that Gloria’s
body was missing?” asked Tara.
    Nobody answered.
    “Dead body or not, I need to get out of this
place,” said Marie, pacing. “My dad’s going to ground me for a
month if he notices that I never made it home last night.”
    “Marie, if you make it out of here, you’re
going to embrace being grounded,” said Anna, smiling grimly. “And
I’m sure your dad will understand when he finds out that you were
kidnapped.”
    “I doubt it. He’s always yelling and
screaming at me,” she muttered, kicking at some dirt with her
high-tops. “Hell, he’ll probably tell me that I deserved it since I
was out last night and should have been home doing homework.”
    “Nobody deserves this,” I said, trying to
see if I could catch a glimpse of Gloria’s body above. The sun was
shining down into the cracks of the barn and it no longer seemed as
ominous. I wondered if the thing had left.
    “Still, I’ve got to get out of here. Has
anyone seen a pitchfork lying around? The barns in the movies all
have pitchforks lying around somewhere.”
    “Jesus, girl, this isn’t a damn movie,”
huffed Tara, leaning back against the barn door. She folded her
arms under her chest. “Obviously, they didn’t leave us with
anything we could use against them.”
    Marie bit her lower lip and began moving
towards the ladder once more. “Still, we have to try the loft
window. It’s our only chance of escaping.”
    “Don’t, Marie. There’s some kind of animal
up there. It killed Gloria,” said Amy, her eyes wide. “If you go up
there, you’re going to get hurt.”
    Marie began climbing the ladder. “Seriously,
though, I don’t see or hear anything. Whatever was up there is long
gone.”
    I grabbed her ankle. “Please, listen to us.
Even our kidnappers told us not to go up there.”
    She tilted her head. “Well, duh… that’s
because they don’t want any of us to escape,” she said, looking
down