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"It's magic," he whispered. "It's been this way for years. It's something Quinton's father and Ty's grandfather taught Quinton. It's considered black magic and is forbidden to be used by the Council. Quinton's father studied everything, no matter it was forbidden or not, he thought he was better than everyone else. He also forced Quinton to learn everything along with him. Sometimes he would even experiment on Quinton to see how well things worked out."

My chest hurt from hearing this news. We were all so damaged by the people who were supposed to protect and love us the most. It was painful to hear about anyone's past, because I cared so much about them that it almost physically hurt me to know how they'd suffered.

"The bodies act as a fertilizer, enriching the earth," he whispered and I gagged.

Did he say bodies, as in plural? Just how many people had they buried down here? That was a scary thought.

"Bodies?"I choked out.

I felt him shrug his shoulders nonchalantly and my body shuddered again for an entirely different reason this time.

"Who else have you buried down here?" I asked in a horrified voice. "How's there... I mean..." I stuttered to a stop, unable to get the words out.

"There are no bodies," he told me. "It's magic. The bodies are swallowed up in the dirt. It's all very complicated. And, as for how many of them there have been, well, that's a question for Quinton, because I think he's the only one who'd know the exact number."

My mind raced over his words.

"Does that mean... So, she's not even down here anymore?" I inquired in small voice. She had to be down here, it was the only thing that made sense to me.

"Nope," he said in a far too happy for my mood voice. "She hasn't actually been here for quite some time. You should feel absolutely safe in staying here from now on, because she's not here to hurt you."

Honestly, that didn't make me feel safe staying here in the slightest bit. I eyed the dirt floor critically. No, that actually made things a whole lot worse for me, in a way.

I took that as my cue to leave and he didn't look surprised when I practically ran from the room after hugging him goodbye. In fact, he almost looked like he was trying not to laugh at me.

I didn't ever want to go back down into that basement again, and I knew I'd have dreams—or more like nightmares—about tripping down there and falling into the dirt. It would suck me under and I’d choke to death on dirt that would somehow magically eat me. I had the worst luck ever sometimes, it could happen. If I had nightmares I was going to blame them entirely on Julian.

On the way home, I picked up a phone call from an apologetic Quinton who felt badly for interrupting my time with Marcus, but still felt the need to ask me what the lunch date had been about.

I lied to him without remorse, and thanks to Julian's magical brew he didn't question me once and bought the whole thing. I hung up feeling smug but worried. I had no idea how long the stuff would stay in my system for and probably should have asked.

I guess there were worse things to worry about than lying to people and getting away with it. I didn't usually make a habit out of lying so I didn't think I really had anything to worry too much about.

Chapter Five

Iscreamed as I dropped down, the air rushing past me. My arms pinwheeled out uselessly at my sides, doing me no good.

The breath left my lungs in a rush as my back slammed into the ground, and for a moment I felt absolutely nothing. There was no pain, nothing but shock.

When I was finally able to suck air into my lungs, the pain hit me full force. I whimpered as I rolled over onto my side and hauled my knees up to my chest. I wrapped my arms around my legs and clutched them tightly.

I squeezed my eyes shut and focused solely on breathing. After a few minutes of just breathing, the pain receded and I could feel something else.

Fear slithered through me as I opened my eyes and took a look around. Immediately, I shut my eyes once again and prayed that when I opened them, I would be somewhere else. Anywhere other than here.

I opened my eyes again and looked around, but unfortunately the scenery remained the same. There was a huge, gaping hole in the earth. Bugs, creepy crawly things that made me gag, were crawling out from it. Crawling out toward me.

Quickly, so as not to let those things touch me, I scrambled to my feet and started scooting backward. From this new angle I was able to see farther down into the hole, which made me wish I had never actually stood up and would have chanced it with the creepy crawlies, because they were less of a threat to me.

Her eyes were what I saw first. They glowed with an unnatural light and were fixated entirely on me. She growled like a wild animal as her broken fingernails clawed at the dirt as she dragged her way up the inside of the hole.

My back connected with something solid, blocking me from moving back any farther as she made it to the top of the hole and her head popped up. It turned to the side at an unnatural angle.

She opened her mouth and a mass of black spiders spewed out. They raced toward me as male shouts rang out through the room.

Her dirty hand raised toward me, and her broken, bleeding finger pointed right at me.

"No," I croaked out. "He said you wouldn't be here anymore. He told me so. You aren't really here. You can't be."