First Soul by Keeley Smith

  His fingers gripped solid rock. How he’d managed to grasp anything in the aftermath of that was beyond his understanding, but he was thankful all the same. He remembered throwing his whole body at the cliff and hitting the hard rock. His shoulder was screaming at him but the pain was on par with his chest which had taken the brunt of his landing. The pain was worth it because he was alive.

  The burning bridge had crumbled with the yelping dogs still on it. He’d craned his neck to see its descent; the fire had lit some of the way below them. It was a long way down, he knew that much. He didn’t believe any of the dogs could survive that, if they’d been alive in the first place.

  One fearless dog had taken a good long leap from the bridge, its jaws snapping, eyes crazed with anger. Stephen had pushed his body so close to the rock he was sure he’d become a part of the cliff face. The dog had nearly latched those razor sharp teeth around his ankle but luckily it had failed and had followed its brothers into the darkness below.

  He didn’t dare move, one small, incorrect shift in his weight and he was going to fall through the darkness and feel his legs crumble into his chest when they finally hit the floor. He couldn’t think about it. He knew, however, that they could only be travelling through the pits of hell because everything about this place was evil.

  Trying not to think about whether this was hell or not, he focused on keeping his fingers firmly dug into the edge of this cliff. He would not end his life this way. Deyna was hanging rather precariously next to him. Her lengthy fingernails would not help her here, in fact he could imagine that they would impede her. Feeling the nail pulling away from your bed couldn’t be such a nice feeling. Surprisingly, she didn’t scream. For once he believed she feared the energy it took to scream may take away the energy it took to hold onto something that would save your life.

  They’d both made it.

  Well, sort of.

  The perfect ending would have been for them to hit the flat floor and to be completely safe. But they weren’t dead. That was positive thinking at its best.

  The next problem for them was actually getting onto the flat part. Stephen didn’t have the upper body strength. His shoulder was singing, the ripped, damaged muscle strained to keep him there. He knew he couldn’t get up without help.

  Lester’s face appeared over the edge of the cliff, grim determination set in his features. Stephen could feel it, knew the exact moment Lester blew his energy into that one touch. His hand wrapped around Deyna’s arms and he began pulling her up. His internal light flickered with the effort to touch something that was unreachable in his spirit world. He knew that Lester wouldn’t have the energy to pull him up.

  A hand reached for his. Stephen took a deep breath, and keeping his good hand on the edge of the cliff, he gave his hand with the bad shoulder to the person waiting. Within seconds he was being pulled up. He used his lower body strength to kick his feet in to the hard rock and try to help get his heavy body over the edge of the cliff. The rock wouldn’t even give an inch, all he wanted was a little room to place his foot and propel himself to safety. He wasn’t asking for much.

  The puppet master had a lot to answer for.

  His trainers were useless. He felt a toe go numb as he kicked against the hard rock again. It wouldn’t even chip, it was like impenetrable rock or something. Nothing like the headstone that had been as consistent as mushy peas. He looked down at his feet trying to find a ledge but Lester’s light was dimming making it difficult to see. He looked back at the hand that grasped his and willed them to keep going.

  He felt a weight lift off his shoulders when the hand dragged him over the edge. He lay, flat on his chest, panting on the hard, cold floor. He looked up and grinned.

  “Thanks!”

  “No problem,” Phillip grinned back. “Although I should have let you fall just to see the look on your face.”

  Phillip punched him on his good arm but couldn’t do anything further as Deyna flew at him enveloping him in a snot filled, teary hug. Phillip’s soft reassuring murmurs to Deyna made Stephen feel somewhat guilty.

  He’d done what he’d had to to save Phillip’s life and he would do it again in a heartbeat. Phillip continued whispering to her telling her that it was all part of a plan. That was good of Phillip because Stephen had failed to tell him the details of the plan.

  A shimmering hand reached for his. He stood and nodding in response to Lester’s expression which held one question, he instantly felt his own supply of energy leak out of him, like his batteries had run instantly flat.

  Before his legs crumbled beneath the sudden weight of his body, Lester let go of his hand and Phillip was there to help him back to the floor. He wasn’t bothered that he was emotionally and physically drained, he was just happy to see the light within Lester flicker and resume its full glow. His energy would come back soon enough.

  “I’m hungry,” Deyna moaned.

  “You’re hungry after what we’ve just been through? How can you even think about food?” Phillip spluttered the shock was evident on his face.

  “I don’t know,” she said shrugging. “Stress makes me eat.”

  “We haven’t got any more food, maybe we should have saved one of the furless dogs as we seem to like eating the things that have attacked us.”

  Deyna looked at him, a scowl placed firmly on her face. He grinned liking his own response, he usually did. Deyna’s mood swings could be judged on how hungry she was. That scowl was a definite nine out of ten.

  “Well, we have nothing to eat so we will have to keep moving and see what we find.”

  Even as the words left Stephen’s mouth he knew he’d only said them to try and comfort her. They weren’t going to find food. They hadn’t so far and they’d been very lucky to eat the dead eagle which as a thought sounded odd. Eating an eagle wasn’t lucky, but it had helped at the time.

  “I will see what I can do,” Lester whispered before turning and floating into the darkness.

  Stephen sensed he was going somewhere and nearly opened his mouth to stop him. He didn’t want the ghost risking anything for them.

  He sat in the darkness but could still see the man float away, the deep set of his shoulders told him that Lester was going to a place that brought more trouble than they needed right now.

  j

  CHAPTER TWENTY