Free Through Glass: Episode Four by Rebecca Ethington Page A

they were this close, they would find us.
    So we ran, desperate for a head start
I knew we could never find.
    I squinted through the dark as we ran,
my eyes straining as they tried to see through the pitch black that
shrouded the world. I held the light out in an attempt to make the
beams spread wider—keep us safe, light the way—but it didn’t help
much. I was still merely running into a black darkness that the Tar
had brought on that very first day, a blackness I couldn’t see
into.
    I had spent an entire life in light,
an entire life protected by the monsters that ruled us. I was still
human—my body unchanged. Not like my sister, whose emaciated body
should have died by now, whose eyes could peer into the darkness
and see things that were all but hidden from me.
    I could hear Lex as she walked beside
me, her deep breaths heavy and long as she pushed her tiny body
beyond what I would have assumed her capable of. Her wild red hair
was like a flame as we moved side by side, my subconscious mind
careful to keep myself close to her until I could see again, until
the light had something to reflect off and not just the endless
field of bare dirt we were running through.
    We needed to find a place soon,
preferably an older home with a dry storage, something without
windows that I could set the Carson light outside of and keep us
safe long enough to sleep.
    It was only luck that I had grabbed a
few of the lights. I had built an audible motion detection into
them years ago, now I guess I would find out if it
worked.
    “ We need to find a place
with a basement,” I panted as we ran, my legs aching as I continued
to push them.
    “ There is a subdivision
ahead. There should be something there.”
    I should have found a calm in the
words, it was the first neighborhood we had found since we had left
the compound, it should provide safety. But it also provided
something else, knowledge I didn’t want to accept. I tried not to
cringe as she said it, the words an affirmation of what I already
knew to be true.
    She could see.
    A pain tightened around my heart,
joining the all-encompassing loss that Bridget’s missing piece
filled me with. I tried to push it away, but it only seemed to
grow. It took over as the memory of those last few days with Jason
took over, the way he would stare into the dark and tell me that
they were coming closer.
    The way he had seen things that
weren’t there.
    I saw the same things in Lex now. I
recognized it when she stood in the dark, her scream echoing around
us, even though she didn’t remember producing the sound. I saw it
as she stared into the black, her body swaying like she was being
pulled into it.
    As if it was calling her to
it.
    The pain in my chest swelled until it
pressed against my throat, the unwanted emotion growing until I
clenched my teeth and pushed it away.
    I had risked everything to get her out
of Abran’s hands, something I hadn’t been able to do for Jason. I
had let Abran take my brother, but I wouldn’t make the same mistake
twice.
    Now I was beginning to wonder if I had
made the right decision, and if Lex would be strong enough to fight
the poison that ran through her before we could get to Blood Rose
and into the bright light that could protect her.
    At least that was my hope. Owen would
know for sure.
    We just needed to get there before
anyone found us.

 
    This Novella is part of an ongoing
Novella publication.
    A new episode of The Through Glass
Series is released in timed intervals throughout the
year.
    You can discuss the
stories, cast your vote for what happens next and stay up to date
on release schedules by joining our Through Glass Based Discussion
group: http://
    on.fb.me/1krnvM1
     
     
    Other Books by Rebecca
Ethington
     
    The Imdalind
Series
    Book One: Kiss of Fire
    Book Two: Eyes of Ember
    Book Three: Scorched
Treachery
    Book Four: Soul of Flame
     
    The Through Glass Novella
Series
    Episode One: The Beginning
    Episode Two: The Darkness
    Episode Three: