Taking a candle from the table in the enormous hal, I made my way to the foot of the stairs and began to climb. Knowing that Luke hid above in the darkness made me want to run up them, but another part of me wanted to hold back. Murphy's warning that nothing would ever be the same for me made me nervous. Why would everything be different for me after my visit to the 'forbidden' wing? What secrets could it possibly be hiding? And if those secrets were so bad, what was Luke doing hiding amongst them? Biting my lower lip, I continued to climb.
Reaching the landing where the staircase split left and right, I turned and shone the light from my candle up into the darkness at the top of the right-hand staircase. Even with the candle flame flickering before me, it did nothing to penetrate the blackness that lurked at the top of the stairs like a monstrous fog. Taking a deep breath, I started to climb. The stairs seemed to go on forever, each step taking me further away from the world below. With my heart racing in my chest like a trip hammer, and my stomach somersaulting, I stepped onto the landing. With my arm outstretched, I stared into the wal of blackness ahead of me.
Then there was a briliant flash of white light and I closed my eyes. Those flashbulbs popped on and off inside my head like a thousand cameras and in those sparks of light, I could see the twisted shapes of people cowering in the darkness ahead of me, their bodies bent out of shape as if not properly formed. But these visions didn't scare me or make me want to run. The sight of these hideous creatures overwhelmed me with sadness.
I wanted to seek them out in the darkness and tel them that everything would be alright - that I would save them. But who and what were they - they looked half human and half... As soon as they had come they had gone again - those flashbulbs blinking out and leaving me to the blackness that clung to the wals on either side of me.
Brushing the tips of my fingers against the wal to feel my way, I was aware of that tacky substance that coated the wals. Then my hand brushed against something cold, and at first I just wanted to snatch my hand away. But after shining my candle in that direction, I could see that I had come across a big brass door handle. The door that it was attached to was white - nondescript - and if what Murphy had told me was true, than Luke was hiding behind it. Against the wal next to the door was a chair and on it was a silver tray.
Casting my candle over it, I could see the remains of a half eaten fried egg sandwich. Remembering back to The Ragged Cove and how I had first spotted egg on Luke's tie, I smiled to myself. In my mind's eye, I could see him standing in the front office at the police station, his thick black hair dripping rainwater al over his coat, his boyish grin and those green eyes staring at me. As I remembered him, he looked almost kind of vulnerable.
But then I thought of him racing through the night sky, his sturdy arms gripping me, his naked chest cold like iron against me, and he didn't seem vulnerable at al - he was like a god. Twisting the door handle, I pushed the door open.
If I thought the passageway was dark, then the room was a vast open hole of blackness that seemed to reach out and grab for me. With the candle shaking in my hand, I stepped into the room.
"Luke?" I whispered, a slight tremor in my voice.
Then there was movement in the darkness, the light from my candle just catching a fleeting glimpse of something that darted across the room in front of me.
"Luke, is that you?" How I hated that wavering sound in the back of my throat.
The sound of movement came again, but this time from behind. Spinning around so fast that my candle almost flickered out, I could see that the door to the room had now been closed.
"Luke?" I whispered again.
"Why have you come here?" a voice said from within the darkness. Even though I couldn't see him, I knew that the voice belonged to Luke.
"From what Murphy and that clown Potter told me, you guys brought me here," I said into the darkness. "You didn't realy think that you could al keep this pretence up, did you? It was only going to be a matter of time before I figured out what -"
"I mean, why have you come to this room?" his voice came again from the blackness, and it sounded almost angry.
"They told me you were hiding here," I told him.
"And I wanted to see you, Luke."
"I don't want to see you," he said, his voice almost a growl which made me want to cringe away from it.
"What are you scared of?" I said, trying to keep my voice even.
"I'm scared of nothing!" he snapped.
"You're scared of me seeing you," I told him, taking a step closer to his voice.
Sensing my movement, Luke shouted, "Keep away from me, Kiera!' "I can't," I said, moving closer stil. "I haven't been able to stop thinking about you since leaving The Ragged Cove. My life isn't too good either at the moment if I'm to be honest. I became obsessed with finding you - that's al I thought about. Night and day I watched the news for any reports that might suggest you had come up from The Holows. My flat looks like a frigging newspaper, it's covered with so many -"
"Go away, Kiera," his voice broke over mine.
"Forget about me and don't come back."
"Then why bring me here?" And it was my turn to sound angry.
"To protect you - to keep you safe while we deal with -" he started.
"Deal with what?" I demanded. "I'm part of this, Luke; don't you think I know that? I've changed since the Cove. I have nightmares almost every night, I wake up crying blood and I see things. You're not the only one who's suffering. But I figure you're too wrapped up in your own self-pity to see that!" Then with my candle held out before me I raced back towards the door. Just as my fingers curled around its cold handle, I felt a hand reach out of the darkness and grip my shoulder.
"What do you see?" he whispered, his breath hot against my ear.
"Terrible things," I whispered back, not turning to face him. "I've seen the world overrun with..."
"What?" he hissed.
"Vampire bats," I said. "Vampyrus."
Then, slowly, I turned to face him, and however much I tried, I couldn't hide the gasp of air that slipped from my lips as I looked at his face in the candlelight.
The left half of his face was waxy and taut-looking, like Clingfilm that had been stretched too tight. His skin was pale, but the side of his face that had been burnt looked blue and purple - the colour of a ripe bruise. His left eyebrow had been burnt permanently away, and his left ear looked twisted and melted out of shape. My heart ached to see Luke like this.
"Scare you, do I?" he said, and his voice sounded almost resentful - bitter.
"No," I said, puling him close, hoping this would show that I didn't fear him. "This is al my fault. If you hadn't put your own life at risk to save mine -"
Then, placing one finger over my lips, he told me to hush. "You're not to blame for this," he said, his voice now softening, and I guessed that he must have felt some relief that I hadn't run screaming into the darkness to be away from him.
"Why have you been hiding away up here from me?" I asked, puling him so close that my cheek rested against his bare chest. "Were you afraid that I would be scared of you - not want to be with you?"
"Some of that is true," he said, holding me tight against him. "But there are other reasons that I've been hiding - why we've al been hiding out at the Halowed Manor."
"Why?" I asked.
Then, leading me into the darkest corner of the room and sitting me down on a narrow bed that was concealed there, he said, "We're al being hunted and they won't stop until we're al dead."
