Free The Nightmare Inflictor by Ginna Moran Page B

separate from me and if I don’t fight it off it will take control of my life. I’m afraid one day I’ll give up and let it happen and let it destroy my humanity. Maybe then I won’t feel so guilty.
    You won’t feel anything at all.
    The sun sets and I run outside and sit on the soft grass. I can’t risk sensing people sleeping in the dormitory. It’s against the rules to stalk the dreams of the unwilling at the compound. So, I wait outside until well past midnight before heading in the direction of the guest apartments, where Paul Weston, an enchantress’ son from South Carolina, waits for my arrival. He was the only volunteer on the new list Roxanne gave me and I can’t risk missing my opportunity because he leaves tomorrow. It could be several days before another volunteer arrives and I don’t think I will last that long.
    I glide through the opaque glass door and into the lobby of the guest apartment building. It’s dead-quiet, the television blank, and all the books and magazines are neatly shelved in their home against the wall.
    I pass six empty rooms and stop outside the one closed door at the end of the hallway on the right side. Next to the door is a small decorative table with an empty vase and I grip the edge of the table as burning hunger rushes over me. Paul is deep asleep on the other side of the door and it only takes me a second to turn the knob, open and close the door, and glide the three foot distance to the twin bed.
    Paul sleeps on his side, facing the wall, and has the burgundy comforter pulled halfway over his head. I turn him on his back and stare into his young face. His round cheeks puff out when he breathes and pink lipstick is smudged across his chin. His short blond hair has hair gel clumped in it and he’s fully dressed in jeans and a hoodie. It’s like he just passed out on the bed without a second thought.
    I suck in my bottom lip as the pain of hunger clutches my stomach and then press my cool fingers to his temples. The world fades and my stomach flips, and I open my eyes to pitch black darkness.
    A low moan echoes through the air and I realize I’m underground in a tunnel or a cave. It’s hard to tell with the lack of light, but with the way sound bounces around, I know it’s somewhere cavernous.
    “Did you hear something?” A male voice whispers. It echoes around me and I turn in the direction of the noise.
    I bend down and touch my hands to the hard ground and it softens under my touch. It smells like wet dirt and decay, and I slowly step forward in the direction the whispers came from.
    Footsteps echo and then a feminine voice says, “I found the spare battery. Here put it in the flashlight.”
    I grin as a mixture of fear and curiosity drifts through the air. As I navigate the darkness, my shin hits something solid and a squishing sound echoes as whatever it was melts away and drips down my bare legs and pools around my feet.
    The woman gasps. “Paul, we’re not alone in here.”
    He curses and the woman screams and then a bright flash of light blinks through the darkness as the woman snaps a picture to light the darkness. She snaps another picture and in that split second I take in my surroundings. I’m in a cavernous cave with giant stalactites dripping from the ceiling. Paul and a brunette woman stand near the opening of a dark tunnel and at least twelve corpses lie on the ground around them.
    Another flash.
    The woman screams.
    Paul clicks the flashlight on and I blink a few times. Paul and the woman are surrounded by reanimated corpses. Some crawl on the ground, rotting flesh hanging from bones with hollowed eyes, gaping mouths, and dirty tattered clothes. Guttural moans escape their mouths as they push their decaying, broken bodies closer to the couple.
    “They’re going to kill us!” The woman yanks the flashlight from Paul’s hand.
    I make my way through the herd of reanimated corpses and step between Paul and the woman. His eyes widen, but he looks past