CHAPTER 28

“Maxine… it’s time…”

“Release me…”

A loud cry kept echoing in Maxine’s head.

The world was hazy to Maxine, a blur of color and sound. Her vision swam, her body was wracked with chills, and the pain from the previous night’s ordeal still lingered. “We need to wake the darkness within you” seemed to ring in her ears, but the hazy words got jumbled up in her brain. Her eyes struggled to focus, and she could only make out some general shapes moving around her; everything else was a muddled blur. She heard her mother’s and stepfather’s voices through the fog, but their words were just a murmur.

Maxine opened her eyes to blurred vision and a body covered in sweat. Her head pounded within her skull, and she could swear her fever-ridden skin was aflame. She remembered one thing: the man with the burned face and what he had said. Now, she lay in bed surrounded by the comforting yet disorienting sound of her mother’s and stepfather’s voices.

“Maxine, are you okay?” her mother asked, her con