Chapter 304

• Black spikes pointed toward the tunnel's center, accepting David and Mia like the mouth of a lamprey, but the walls spread out the further they fell, until the spikes and the screaming bodies between them couldn't reach her. Mia screamed again as movement finally drew her eyes away from the red and black below, to another body beside her. Another falling body, an old woman, emaciated and screeching. More joined them, young, old, phasing into existence below and above Mia, all of them naked, all of them wailing like banshees.
• David pulled Mia in closer.
• "Hold on," he yelled. He'd stopped screaming. She managed to look at him, almost expecting to see his face suddenly valiant with newfound courage. No. He was horrified. His eyes were just as wide as the people growing out of the walls and its teeth, and despite the hurricane winds crashing against her, she could feel his body trembling in her grip.