St. Louis. She was in St. Louis.
Rhyn was still gone.
A tremor of dread slid through her. She'd had an impending sense of doom since meeting Gabriel on the street outside the faux police station, but this feeling was…defined.
"Rhyn? Can you hear me?" she called, feeling foolish when nothing happened.
She rose. As she bent to tie her shoes, a gory vision made her stagger. It was her dream all over, the flashes of light, darkness and blood, the scent of sulfur and death. She landed on her knees, horrified yet knowing something was very wrong. Rhyn was in trouble.
She glanced out the window and spotted the Arch. It flashed, silver glinting off its graceful curve. She closed her eyes, and dampness slid through her, over her. She opened her eyes and froze, recognizing the shadow world. Portals to other places glowed around her.
"Rhyn?" she whispered, close to panicking.
One of the portals flickered as if in response. Terrified of what she'd find on the other side, she stepped through and tripped. Grass tickled her hands, a chilled wind nipped her neck, and the scents from her vision intensified until she was near gagging.
She pulled her shirt over her nose and mouth and sat back on her heels. She sat on the river bank across from a series of wide, large steps leading up a hill to the park where the Arch stood, framed against a black sky.
Death. It was everywhere. She rose, trying hard not to look or touch anything. The grass, the road, the steps…all were littered with bodies and soaked in blood. She didn't know what kind of massacre had occurred here --was it even real or was it a dream? She stepped through masses of flesh and body parts, holding her mouth, until she reached the road. It was less cluttered with bodies. Some of the tattoos of the dead still glowed, the eerie red tribal patterns punctuating the landscape.
She didn't feel cold inside; she felt frozen. She'd grown up never having seen death, and in the past week, she'd seen it in its most gruesome forms. She felt something squish beneath her shoe and almost vomited.
The sounds of heated discussion made her look toward the river. Three forms with glowing tattoos were moving slowly toward the road, stopping to sift through the dead bodies. One grabbed an arm and took a bite.
"Not here."
The words were loud. She looked around, panicked, and darted to the massive stairs. Keeping along the long wall, she inched her way upward, sticking to the shadows. The three creatures continued to hunt through the fallen, sometimes eating, most of the times pushing body parts aside in search of something.