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I looked up at Laylen and he reached down In his hand was a golden handled, silver bladed knife

"If soht for their heart It ive you a chance to run away"

I reluctantly took the knife, the handle feeling cold against my skin "And where exactly I’m I supposed to run?"

"To the car The key’s in the ignition Try to find your way back to Adessa’s She’ll be able to help you, at least until soets there"

Yeah, fat chance that was ever going to happen, seeing is hoas dark e’d driven out to Vegas, and I had a really bad sense of direction

A loud thud It sounded close--maybe even inside the house

"Don’t come out until you know it’s safe," he whispered, before dropping the door shut

Darkness suffocated me I reached up and fuet the key in it, but IThe cold had crystallized the air and was biting against my skin I shivered and chattered and every one of my senses felt hyperaware I couldn’t see the outco well--Laylen up there alone, trying to fight who kno many Death Walkers without the Sword of I to death Even if the Death Walkers didn’t kill me, the cold probably would

Okay, so I don’t know if you’ve ever hidden in a trapdoor before, but let me just say, for those of you who haven’t, considered yourself lucky With absolutely no light, and no way to see aboveon There was a lot of thu, and all I could do was stay hidden, crossingthat by some miracle Laylen would suddenly throw open the door and tell me it was okay to coh

The noises did start to dwindle dohichback up I mean, what other option did I have? I couldn’t just hide down here forever Laylen had said to wait until it was safe Quiet had to ht have been a little bit of a stretch, but I was going with it

I took a tre to calm my nerves My hand quivered as I felt around and found the lock, the n I slid the key in and unlocked the door Okay, you can do this I let out a breath and pushed on the door It didn’t budge I tried again Nothing So I put the knife into the back pocket ofboth runting and cursing, until the thing finally flew open, hitting the floor with a loud thud, which was so not a good start My gut twisted, and I could feel the eggs I’d eaten earlier on the verge of forcing their way back up I waited a second, listening for any warning sounds, but everything had grown eerily still A good sign or bad one, I wasn’t sure But there was only one way to find out With shaky arms, I heaved myself out of the hole and scrambled to my feet I did a quick scan of the roo inside Books were strewn about the floor, but Laylen had done that early The , long and pointy and sharp

The Death Walkers had to be close

I needed to come up with a plan And quick I knehat I was supposed to do--run out to the car and go to Adessa’s--but the thought of leaving Laylen behind was gnawing atreally stupid I started for the door to go find Laylen

I took the knife out ofout into the hall, I could seein a cloud in front of n

I inched the door open and glanced up and down the hallway The coast looked clear I opened up the door the rest of the way and stepped out

The floor was glazed with ice, giving it an ice-skating rink effect Now as you all know, I am not Miss Coordinated by any ainst the wall as I slowly crept down the hallway toward the back of the house,with every step I made it about halfhen it occurred to me just how dumb of an idea this was Why, you ask, was it a dumb idea? Well, because a Death Walker had suddenly appeared at the end of the hallway, and at the pace I wasto take a heck of a lot of time for me to make it anywhere

I spun around as quickly as s would allow me to I lost my balance for a split second and alh, but not quite Keeping lided across the icy floor,my way back down the hall

The front door wasn’t that far off, but when I turned to check on the Death Walker, it was darting effortlessly toward, I o back inside the room I’d just come out of I sla full well that locking it wasn’t going to do much to stop the monstrous beast All I could hope for was that it would slow it down enough for e

But I onlyin I took off, running as fast as I could I made it to theand started to cli sound float up froed to Ice And it was crawling up fro its way toI had to jump back or else I’d have been frozen over with ice myself

Seconds later, the as co away at the ice with my knife, but it was useless The ay too thick I was trapped

A cold chill shot up my spine, and I slowly turned around The Death Walker towered o faltered out as I stared my death in the eyes--its yellow, soulless eyes that held the passion to kill

My death was coive up Not with the fate of the world resting in my hands Or inside me I should say I had to save myself in order to save the world

I could feel the cold handle of the knife pressing into the pal it forward, aiht at the Death Walker’s heart, just like Laylen had toldto lie and say that I wasn’t the least bit surprised when the knife actually dove into the monsters chest

The Death Walker let out an ear clawing shriek, and its eyes fired up beneath its black cloak before burning out into to black holes