Fallen Into Hell: Fallen: Book 2, Layna Snow [the mitten read aloud .TXT] 📗

the ground, which she guessed was to keep the plants at bay.

It crunched under her feet, fragile but sharp.

Taking a step into the darkness was difficult. She didn’t know her way through the thick foliage, and it seemed to swallow her whole as she followed the Demon.

The path was winding. Darting between huge tree trunks and tiny flowers.

Sophie couldn’t help but look around. Enjoying the fragrant air.

Even though she had grown up surrounded by forests, Sophie was never a nature lover. But this place was different.

Long thin fronds poked up from the ground. Delicate pink leaves grew out from the fern’s stem. They seemed to shake and shimmy as she moved past them. As if reacting to her nearness.

But ferns weren’t aware. Right?

It was difficult to keep up with the Demon. He obviously knew the way, and walked quickly, ignoring the small buzzing insects that seemed to swarm around them.

They circled Sophie, buzzing next to her ear.

Sophie smacked one away. The last thing she needed was a venomous bug bite in Hell!

“Owie!” A squeal answered, causing her to gasp. What was that?

Soph shooed another insect, and heard the noise again.

Oh darn! Don’t tell me that even the insects are sentient!

But as she looked closer at one that flew directly in front of her, instead of focusing on the Demon who guided her, she noticed that they weren’t bugs at all. They were little teddy bear-like things, with wings and purple eyes. She never liked bugs before, but these were adorable.

She never thought that things in Hell could be cute.

Sophie wasn’t looking where she was going, too focused on the sweet bugs that zipped around her face. So focused that she tripped over something in her path.

Before she could catch herself, a vine wrapped around her arm, tugging her against a tree.

It was so unexpected. So surreal, that for a moment she had no idea what happened.

It was so quick, her brain scrambled by the movement. And then something wrapped around her torso, so tight that it cut off her air.

Every exhale the vine tightened more, squeezing her until she was sure she was about to die. It didn’t help that she was panicking.

Oh eff! I’m going to die! I’m going to be squeezed by a man-eating tree, and the little bears are going to eat my skin. And the guys won’t know what happened. And my parents will always wonder!

She felt wetness on her face and realized she was crying again. Her eyes stung, they ached and they blurred. She wanted to live! She didn’t come this far to never see her parents again! To miss seeing her sister come back!

“Ssstultusss puella.” She heard, along with other random mutterings. At least she thought it was random.

It was too hard to think. To remember. The air around her drugging her. Taking away her worry. Taking away everything but the need to sleep.

Yes, that’s nice.

She didn’t need to breathe. Not now. Not as she was being lifted up high, and squeezed by this tree.

Then she was falling.

Something grabbed her arm as she hit the ground, tight. So tight.

Pulling her forward. Sophie tried to resist.

“Get up!” The voice called again, the one that was muttering. The one that drew out the ‘S’ in his words.

Sophie took a deep breath, filling her empty bruised lungs. And she opened her eyes, blinking against the tears still blurring her vision.

At first he just looked like a black blob, but then she started to see the blue on his skin, and the orange eyes. And a really sharp knife that was probably used to cut her down.

Sophie let out a relieved breath. She wish that she remembered his name in order to thank him, but she had no idea. So she just signed “Thank you.” Over and over again.

The Demon snorted, which sounded weird coming from his little nose, and shook his head. “Nexssst time, ssstay on bone path.”

And then he pulled her up. It took a moment for Sophie to get her feet under her. Although the forest was beautiful, she just found out how deadly it was. And she didn’t want to get that lesson again. Soph was going to follow his advice and stay on the weird crunchy pathway.

“Now come, getting dark.”

You don’t have to tell me twice! She couldn’t imagine what weird things came out at night. After another breath, she followed the Demon as he set off again.

She didn’t look around, didn’t look at the source of random scurrying sounds. No, this time she would follow him exactly.

Sophie noticed that there were other paths that met the one they were on, smaller ones that wound into the thick trees. They never strayed from the path they were on, just continued as it twisted and turned. It seemed they walked for too long—the cavern couldn’t have been that big—but eventually they made it to the other end, and to a large opening in the wall.

This opening wasn’t like the one that led to the Devil’s room. This one was larger, and had a Doric arch set in.

It was actually very pretty, the white columns made of some kind of marble, with flecks of jewels inside. It looked like an opening to a new world, a darker world.

The tunnel was shadowed, with little pools of light every few feet. It looked spooky and Sophie wasn’t sure that she really wanted to go in there.

However, she had to follow the Demon, she really had no choice.

She put her life in his hands and he had saved her. That had to be enough for now. So Soph trudged along after him, keeping his silhouette in her sight as he passed from blackness back to fuzzy filtered light and back again.