Chapter 15

Alcina awakens to a room that is not her own.

In the light of day - sunlight streaming through wide-open windows, bathing the entire floor in a warm glow - it's almost unrecognizable. 

The entire room was immersed in the ghastly, inky blackness of earlier. 

Every inch of the four walls, the entirety of the floor, is bathed in that horrifying pitch darkness, gaping and impossible to comprehend, terrifying.

Slowly, still caught in between consciousness and that shadowy world of dreams, Alcina sits up, the silken sheets pooling at her waist.

It's then that she notices she's laying under the covers at all and frowns blearily, trying to recall-

Brendan's hand, wrapped loosely around her neck, his thumb resting just above Alcina's pounding pulse, his index finger tapping gently against the side of her neck in time with her beating heart-

Alcina's eyes spring open, the memories of the night before returning in a