Destinata (Valguard) by Nicole Daffurn

the room they crouched in was empty – just as it had been the day Mrs. Henderson had told Charlie of its existence. There wasn’t much room for error down here; it was just one straight line from the hidden door to the small closet in the main foyer of the building. Still, they moved slowly and cautiously through the enclosed space, weary of anything that slithered or bit and eventually came to the other end. Using the same key in the small lock Charlie opened the door into the closet. Standing and stretching out, she found the cord to the light in the tiny space and pulled. The light flickered momentarily before staying on. She moved to the door leaving Ford to seal the hidden doorway they had just clambered through and listened for sounds of anyone ready to start their day at work. She heard nothing but silence.
    Deeming it safe , she reached out for the internal knob that would let them out into the foyer, only once her hand connected with the cold metal, she was overcome by the sudden onset of nausea. Crippling over and retching, she vaguely felt Ford’s hand in the middle of her back and heard him distantly asking if she was ok. She didn’t answer because when the rolls of nausea subsided, the sound of tornado-like winds erupted in her ears; she couldn’t hear a thing now, but she could see. What she was seeing though wasn’t the closet that she was standing in, she was in some kind of dank underground cellar.
    In the far left corner she could see a cell containing a slight frail woman with dark blonde hair. It was her mom, but surely she couldn’t have deteriorated that quickly! She reached out her hand to try and get Eva’s attention but as she did a big hand clamped over her own, twisting her arm backwards and holding it firmly behind her back she screamed in agony. Turning to see her captor she realized it was Mayor Reynolds.
    “Charlie! What are you doing here?”
    She twisted and pulled but she couldn’t get free. She was no match for the bulk of a man standing behind her.
    “Bastard! Let me go!”
    “Now, now Charlie, is that anyway to speak to your Mayor? Your mother will be let go just as soon as she learns her lesson.”
    She turned and spat in his face with as much hatred as she could muster, frantically looking around for Ford while the Mayor was preoccupied with wiping her sputum from his cowardly face. She saw the blood first. Closing her eyes hoping that it wasn’t Ford lying in the corner covered in blood, she took a deep breath before opening them once more.
    She let out a blood curdling scream worthy of any banshee when the realization hit her that it was Ford, and from the looks of it he’d had his throat slit. His lifeless eyes rested on Charlie’s face, his arm outstretched as if to warn her. A moment later she felt a blunt blow to the back of her head and everything was black.
     
    The retching started again, only this time it wasn’t from the warning of an oncoming vision, it was in terror. The Mayor? How could he? He was one of them! Human! He killed Ford in cold blood and it was fairly clear that her fate was to be the same.
    “We need to get out of here Ford. Now!!”
    “What? We just got here. Don’t you want to get your mom out?”
    “Not now. I need to think first.”
    “Wait! Charlie, are you ok?”
    “No. We need to go!”
     
    Frantically clambering back through the tight crawl space , Charlie became all too aware of the sheen of cold sweat that had broken out across her forehead and was running directly into the tears that had already tracked a path down her cheeks.
    Throwing caution to the wind, not waiting for the flicker of Ford’s lighter, the journey back through the dank tunnel was quicker by far. Once at the end she gave the entrance door an almighty shove, scrambling out to gulp in the fresh air. Letting the still pouring rain wash away her sweat and tears she waited close by for Ford to join her.
    “What the hell ?”
    “I’m sorry, I… I…” She knew