The Never-Ending Scene (Cliffhanger) Blogfest

Thank you, Brenda of Brenda Drake Writes... for hosting the Never-ending Scene Blogfest (or cliffhanger - whatever). Should be fun to read what everyone comes up with!

The Challenge: Write a new scene or post a scene from your current project that is no more than 500 words, which has a rocking cliffhanger (pun intended). It can be any genre. Just leave us hanging, craving more, and cursing your name for making us want to turn a page that isn't there.

Setting the scene: Kera was being taken through the forest against her will. She has escaped from that person and since bumped into someone who assures her he can show her how to get back home - Seth.

  She stumbled as her foot caught on a large root sticking out of the ground. Seth’s hands shot out to catch her before she could fall.

  “Thanks,” she said. “I’m clumsy at the best of times, and right now…” She didn’t finish, distracted by the way his hand trailed down her arm as he let go of it. She shivered slightly. “Uh… well, exhaustion isn’t helping,” she finished, hoping he couldn’t hear the uneven gallop of her heart.

  “How do you know your way through this place anyway?” she went on. “Everything out here looks the same to me.”

  “Don’t worry,” he said reassuringly. “I’ve roamed this forest for years; I know exactly where everything is, even in the dark.”

  As he spoke she noticed the night becoming blacker around them. She looked up to see the stars disappearing one by one, erased by a blanket of cloud being pulled across the sky. She drew her jacket a little closer.

  “Hey, what’s this?” she asked in surprise. They had suddenly come upon a clearing in the trees filled with what looked like ruins.

  “Oh, this is what’s left of Mythonene’s castle.”

  “Really?” She looked back at Seth to see if he was joking. “But he lived here centuries ago. I didn’t know anything was left of it.”

  “Well, there isn’t much left really.”

  Seth was right. It was mostly just an outer wall, crumbling in many places, with a few of the inner walls left standing. Long grass grew in patches where the once-tiled floor had given way to the penetrating fingers of the forest.

  Kera walked slowly through the ruins, trailing her hand along the cold, moss-covered stone.

  “It can’t have been a very big castle,” she noted.

  “I think much of it was invisible. After all, he was a master of Dark Magic.”

  “Invisible?” Now that part she certainly hadn’t heard.

  She stopped and leaned against a wall. There was something different about this place. It was alluring in its mystery, and yet something tugged at her heart, urging her to run and never look back. She could feel a lurking presence, as if the Dark Magic once used here had left scars in the air.

  She shivered, glad to feel Seth’s warmth as he leaned against the wall next to her.

  “I’ll be happy to see the suns again,” she whispered.

  “Oh.” He frowned. “I suppose I should apologise then.”

  “Why?” she asked, confused.

  In a movement as fast as lightning his hand was tight around her throat, and his eyes, blue a moment ago, were glowing a fiery red that pierced through the darkness.

 
   “Because you’re never going to see the light of day again.”

~

Ta daa! Hope that's cliffhangery enough.
You should go read the others. They'll leave you wanting more!