Chapter Three

Tall glass freezer doors that reached up to ceiling stretched as far as I could see and the dark floor was illuminated with the glow of the freezer lights. I hardly dared to look in the frosted windows in fear that I would see the NSK.

Sam pulled at my hand. "Danny? Come on, you're freaking me out, let's get out of here."

But I didn't hear her. Instead, I dropped her hand and took a few steps forward almost as if I were in a trance. My unblinking eyes were staring straight ahead and a voice echoed in my head.

"Come closer," the voice whispered. It was a girl's voice, husky and seductive. "Come to me…"

I could almost see her through my fogged up eyes. She was drop-dead gorgeous with pale skin, short bright blonde hair, and brilliant blue eyes. Her hand was stretched out towards me and I instantly reached out for her. Our fingertips nearly touched when suddenly my name was screamed out and I was tackled to the ground before the girl could touch me.

I snapped out of my trance and realized it was Sam who had barrelled me out of the way. Then something else screamed and I glanced back where the girl was. I only saw her beautiful face for a second before she suddenly contorted and turned into something utterly terrifying. Her skin darkened and looked sunken while her hair turned black and began writhing like it was made of spiders.

"GET OUT!" she screeched in a blood curdling scream and with a flash of light from her hands, she shot two snakes at us which hissed and snapped at our heels as I hauled Sam to her feet and dragged her away.

"Run!" I screamed, keeping a firm hold on her hand as we bolted.

"GET OUT!" the girl wailed again, her voice so high pitched that as she screamed the glass on the doors began to shatter around Sam and I.

Sam screamed in fright and as I glanced at her for a brief second, I saw that the left side of her face was flecked with scratches from the broken glass.

"Keep running!" I urged her even though my own legs were begging me to stop. But it wasn't until I was sure we were far away did I stop and collapse against a shelf, my sides heaving as I gasped for breath. Sam had sunk to the ground, also catching her breath.

"Are you okay?" I asked her once I had found my voice.

Sam glanced up at me, her hair a mess and her face red. "I think so," she said shakily, tentatively dabbing at the gashes on her cheek. Her eyes then drifted downwards and her eyes widened. "Danny, your leg," she gasped.

It wasn't until she mentioned it that a large red-hot pain seared through my lower calf and I clenched my teeth to keep from making a noise. Carefully, I rolled up my pant leg which was stained red and it revealed two small puncture holes which were trickling blood. Through the adrenaline running through my veins when we were escaping, I had hardly noticed that one of the snakes had bitten me.

"It's fine," I lied. "I can barely feel it."

But my words betrayed me when I stepped towards Sam to help her up when my right leg collapsed underneath me.

"Danny!" Sam caught me just in time before I hit the ground.

"I'm fine," I repeated, shrugging her off and attempting to stand with the help of a nearby shelf. Taylore also got to her feet and I felt her worried eyes bore into me as I let go of the shelf.

"I'm fine," I said firmly. "Let's go back to Tucker."

But before I could take one step, fast moving footsteps approaching us from the left and I moved closer to Sam.

"Sam? Danny Where are you?" Tucker's familiar voice cried out.

"Over here, Tucker!" Sam replied and a minute later, Tucker appeared, his eyes wide in the glow of her flashlight.

"I heard screaming. Is everything—Sam, what happened to your cheek?" he exclaimed.

Sam lifted her hand up to her cheek which had stopped bleeding and tried to cover up the scratches. "It's fine," she said.

"What happened?" Tucker repeated.

I began to tell Tuck about what had happened from the voice to the mysterious girl that was most likely the NSK. I told her about how she had attacked us and how Sam got her scratches and my snake bite.

"You got bit by a freakin' snake?" Tucker exclaimed.

"I'm fine," I said.

"You can't walk properly," Sam murmured.

I shot her a glare and applied pressure to my wounded leg. It didn't even feel like a leg anymore. The burning has stopped, but now it was numb up to my mid-thigh area.

"It doesn't hurt—it's just numb," I explained.

"Still…you shouldn't walk on it for the rest of the night. We should just stay here," Tucker said.

"I'll bring the stuff here," Sam offered and vanished a moment later.

When she was gone, Tucker kneeled in front of me and began rolling up my pant leg, setting his flashlight beside him.

"What're you doing?" I asked him, feeling unbalanced all of a sudden even though I was leaning against a shelf.

"I didn't know if any of you guys would be hurt or not, so I put some gauze in my pocket that I found on the way here," he replied, taking some of the white fabric out of his pocket. With his flashlight, he found the puncture wounds which looked quite gruesome to me now that they were lit up clearly.

I swallowed hard and averted my gaze to the top of Tucker's head as he wrapped my leg in the gauze. By the time he had finished, Sam came back with the crackers and bread as well as the other two flashlights and a blanket that she had found on the way back.

"What do we do now?" I asked as soon as we were settled. "Just wait till morning?"

"I guess so," Sam admitted, nibbling on a piece of bread. "That, and hope that that girl doesn't come back."

I shivered at the thought. The girls face was so clear in my mind, both the beautiful one, and the twisted demented one that had tried to kill us.

Suddenly, there was a noise from two isles over that sounded like a box filled with screws had been dropped.

I inhaled sharply and Sam gasped.

"What was that?" Tucker whispered.

There was only one answer to that question and my heart sank. It was her.

All three of us prepared for the worst as we waited for her to come at us again with her snakes and demon like appearance. But instead, in the seconds that followed, there was nothing but some faint sobs.

"Someone's crying," I murmured, getting unsteadily to my feet.

"Where are you going?" Sam asked.

"I'm gonna go see who it is," I replied.

"Idiot!" Sam hissed, grabbing my arm and roughly pulling me back down. "You're not supposed to be walking."

I ripped my arm from her irritably. "I'm fine," I said firmly. Although I couldn't feel my leg, there was no pain present. I could walk; it just felt funny. "I'll be back."

This time, no one tried to stop me, but no one came with me either.

I crossed over two isles, looking for any source of movement, but there was no one. Had we just imagined the crying?

"There you are," a voice suddenly purred and I whipped my head to the right. Leaning up against one of the nearby shelves was the girl; her white dress was strangely illuminated which made her glow. Her bright blue eyes looked glossy however, like she had been crying…

"What do you want?" I asked cautiously, keeping my distance.

The girl smiled, then giggled and beckoned me over with a curled finger.

Almost immediately, my body jerked forward and I started walking towards her, though it didn't feel like I was making myself walking. As soon as I was no more than two feet away from her, she cancelled whatever spell had been put on me and I had to grab on to a nearby counter to stop myself from falling over.

"Oopsie, don't fall now," the girl giggled and then noticed my leg. "Oh no, what happened?"

"One of your snakes got me, remember? You attacked me and my friend not even half an hour ago," I grunted, the pain returning to my leg.

"Oh, I wasn't aiming for you. Your friend just took me by surprise, that's all."

"So you tried to kill her."

The girl just smiled, ignoring me. "Hold still," she cooed and then kneeled in front of me, much like Tucker had done before. When Tucker bandaged my leg, he didn't roll my pant leg back down so the bandage was already exposed, but some of the linen had become ripped when Sam dragged me back down.

The girl looked up at me, almost asking for permission, but I just frowned down at her, unsure what she was doing. She then began to undo the bandage on my leg until it had fallen away.

"Um…what are you doing?" I asked her.

She didn't answer me, but instead bent her head lower and kissed where the snake bites had been. There was an immediate coldness that set in, followed by a surge of heat that filled my entire leg. She pulled away and giggled again and I looked at my leg. The bite marks were gone and as I put pressure on my leg, it felt normal as if nothing had ever happened to it.

"Uh…thanks…" I said awkwardly as she stood up. "So…do you have a name?"

"My name is Penny and you're welcome. Besides," she purred, moving a strand of hair from my face, "you have to be in perfect condition for what you're going to do next."

Penny's fingertips brushed my cheek and I shivered.

"What do you mean?" I asked warily.

Penny smiled and leaned forward until her lips were next to my ear. "Let's go find your friends," she whispered, and before I could object, she grabbed my hand and started towing me away down the isles.

"Wait, stop! What do you mean?" I yelled, but all Penny did was giggle.

"You'll see!" she replied.

We rounded another corner and nearly ran into Sam and Tucker who had their flashlights waving around in all directions. They screamed as soon as they saw Penny and directed their flashlights directly on her.

Penny screamed at the harsh light and dropped my hand before changing form into her demon-like figure.

"No!" I screeched, flinging myself in front of my friends. "Penny, stop! They're not going to hurt you!"

The demon form of Penny just screamed again and writhed in what looked like pain in the harsh light of the flashlights.

"Put your flashlights down!" I ordered Sam and Tucker.

"But, Danny—" Sam started.

"Just do it!" I yelled.

Without any objections, the two of them lowered their flashlights and flicked them off. I stayed in front of them until Penny stopped screaming and changed back into her normal form. She sank to the floor and moaned, smoke rising off her pearly white skin as if the light had burned her.

"What do you think you're doing with her? She tried to kill us," Sam hissed in my ear.

I ignored her and went over beside Penny. "Are you all right?" I asked her cautiously.

Her blue eyes met mine and they were filled with pain, but she nodded. I smiled slightly and helped her to her feet.

"Penny, this is Sam and Tucker. Guys, this is Penny, the NSK," I introduced them.

Tucker stood there with his mouth gaping open while Sam was staring warily at Penny as if she might attack again.

Penny nudged me. "Do they talk?" she asked in a whisper of a voice.

I looked between my two friends, motioning silently for them to say something.

Tucker's mouth twitched and the only two words that came out of his mouth were: "You're really hot."

Sam waved nervously at her and murmured a "hello."

Penny wagged her eyebrows and Tucker and purred; I had to jab her in the side to make her stop.

"So, what do you need us for?" I asked once I had her attention.

"Oh, right," Penny murmured, but before she could explain, Sam interjected.

"Wait…so you try to kill us, and now you want us for some sort of favour? How does that work?" she asked, glaring at Penny who returned the glare.

"Because you three are the only ones who can help me," she said.

All three of us stared at her, shocked, except for Tucker who was eying her more with a look of lust in her eyes.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"When I died, my soul wasn't able to escape this world," Penny explained, her voice strangely calm. "There's this creature called the Pravus and he guards my soul. Anyone who has ever tried to help me in the past has perished. But I have faith in you three. There's just…something about you guys. I had a dream not too long ago that told me you three were coming. You guys are the only people who can help me now."

"And if we don't?" Sam asked.

Penny's beautiful blue eyes clouded over. "Then I'm doomed to wander in the place between the afterlife and this life. I'll never be at rest…"

My mind swam with the possibilities of what could come out of this. Either we helped Penny and defeated the Pravus, or we let her wander in the world between worlds. But helping her also had the possibility of us dying in the process and if there was one thing in the life that I was terrified of, it was death.

I gulped nervously before I spoke. "I'll help," I said, then glanced at my friends.

Tucker nodded. "I'm in," he said.

Sam looked wary, but eventually sighed and solemnly nodded. "I'll help."

Penny smiled gratefully at all of us. "Thank you. Now come with me," she said.

We followed after her and she led us back towards the ice cream isle where Sam and I had first encountered her. I took these silent moments to look around the deserted warehouse. As much as I hated it here, the thought of never seeing it again sent a lump of sadness to my throat and I suddenly didn't want to do this anymore; the risks were too high.

But before I could say anything, we had arrived and the look of joy on Penny's face made me close my mouth.

"I can't tell you how grateful I am that you're doing this for me," she said, smiling down at us. Even Sam managed a small smile in return.

"No trouble at all," Tucker said.

"Now remember," Penny said, her tone growing serious, "there's only one way to defeat the Pravus and it requires a special weapon."

"What is it?" I asked.

Penny smiled, and then closed her eyes and her body began to glow. A tingling sensation shot through my arm and then my hand grasped the handle of something cold and metallic.

When the glowing faded, I looked down at my hand and was shocked to see a solid gold gun.

"A gun?" I gasped in disbelief, looking the small pistol over and over again as if this were a dream. I was only fourteen years old—the only gun I had ever handled were the ones I used in paint ball and video games.

Penny nodded. "This is a special gun though. The one you're holding releases souls. If you defeat the Pravus, it will release my own soul," she explained.

She only gave us a moment to look them over and get used to the holding of them before she walked over the broken glass and opened one of the freezer doors.

"Come," she said.

"Wait," Sam suddenly said, her voice panicked, "aren't you going to give us any advice before we go?"

"I believe in learning as you go," Penny said with a sly smile, then began glowing again.

A strong wind picked up and before any of us could run away, the wind kicked out our feet and we went soaring into the freezer. The last thing I heard was the slam of the freezer door as we descended into the inky blackness.