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Chapter Twenty
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Nameless: The Darkness Comes Chapter Twenty-One
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE“Luna.”I moaned and threw my arm over my face. It didn’t help any.“Luna. Good morning, pretty girl.”“Mom?”A snort. “Nice try, loser.”I blinked and sat up. I was still on the floor in Lydia’s room. Cripes, I hadn’t slept in a normal bed for two nights, and it was starting to get to me. My bones were screaming.The Mouthy Demon lounged in the doorway. “Time to rise, sunshine.”I yawned and stretched. “What are you doing here, Mouth? What time is it?”He flowed over and sat beside me. “It’s time for you to get cracking. I’m here to tell you to quit feeling sorry for yourself and get your butt in gear.”I frowned. “I’m not feeling sorry for myself.” I gingerly prodded at the emotional wounds from the last few days. Missing Lydia, nearly-dead Seth, betraying Reed Taylor. Ouch. Yeah, I was feeling sorry for myself.Mouthy Demon kicked at me with his dark foot. It almost hurt.“Hey! You’re feeling calm and happy again! Look at you, almost fully formed.” I d
Nameless: The Darkness Comes Chapter Twenty-Two
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWOThe shower was always a place where I could think. It was a place where I was truly alone except for once when I caught something peeping out at me from the bathroom mirror. Seth had come running when I had screamed and had assured me it wasn’t a demonic presence but only a particularly bad case of bed head. As if.I let the water cleanse everything away. The leftover malice, the hurt and despair. I tried to imagine the water had healing properties that could wash away all of the misery. But really, I simply had to push it all to the back of my mind. I couldn’t afford to waste my energy feeling crushed. It was time for action.I dried off, got dressed, and combed my hair. I stepped out of the room to see Mouth leaning against the wall, waiting for me.“Hello, Mouth. You’re being particularly stalkerish and creepy this morning.”“Really? I thought I was always this way. Maybe you’re just ultra-sensitive.”“Shut up.”He followed me down the stairs. “You look kin
Nameless: The Darkness Comes Chapter Twenty-Three
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREEWe ended up at a house on the far side of town. I was expecting a crazy, broken down, dilapidated house that screamed, “Haunted!” and, “Demonic!” and, “Hello, I’m your worst nightmare!” But this was a normal stucco house standing shoulder to shoulder with its normal stucco neighbors. There was even a kitschy little lawn gnome in the garden.“Who lives here, the Stepford Wives?” I eyed the neat hedges rimming the cheery yard. “Is this house going to kill me?”“No. It’s just a house. The house itself can’t hurt you.”Mouth was standing ramrod straight. Calm and happy he was not. He was more wispy than I had seen him in a while.“Mouth. You’re freaky nervous. Tell me what’s going on.”He didn’t say anything, which was unlike him. I wanted to kick him, but my foot would just go right through.“Mouth?”He turned and grasped my hands in both of his, but I didn’t feel anything besides a rush of cold air.“Luna,” he said earnestly. “I can’t go in there with you. I
Nameless: The Darkness Comes Chapter Twenty-Four
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOURMy stomach lurched when the doorknob turned easily under my hand. I expected the door to creak, but it opened silently, and I stepped inside.Hazy light filtered through the windows, making it difficult to see the sparse furniture and filthy red carpet. It looked like the carpet had been ripped up, snapped out by a giant hand, and left to lie where it fell.“Hello?” I called. I didn’t expect an answer, but it seemed abnormal to simply saunter in unannounced. My mama didn’t raise rude little girls. That’s what I told myself, anyway. Honestly, I was trying to restore some sense of order to the place. Maybe it would keep me from flipping out.Stop. Get a hold of yourself. I released the breath slowly and realized my fingernails were digging into the palms of my hands. The sound of water echoed, a sickly trickle that inexplicably filled me with thoughts of taint and decay. I was as drawn to the sound of the water as I was repulsed by it. My imagination was already s
Nameless: The Darkness Comes Chapter Twenty-Five
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVEThere wasn’t anything else I wanted to see here. I stepped over the shrieking, crawling starfish and headed deeper into the house of horrors. What was it Mouth had said? This house was full of illusions and deceptions. Starfish didn’t scamper around like that. Water didn’t turn into blood. This wasn’t real.Still, I wasn’t going to chance fate by standing around and declaring shenanigans. I was here to find Lydia, and that’s what I was going to do.Blood wet my boots with every step. The carpet was no longer merely soggy but was drenched with more liquid than it could hold. The place smelled like a slaughterhouse. I pressed on.There were two doors on the back wall. One was painted yellow and one blue. I hate yellow, quite honestly, so I reached for the blue door.“I wouldn’t do that,” said a voice. I whirled around.“Who said that?” I demanded angrily. I couldn’t see anybody.“It’s a trap. Both doors lead to Hell.”A small girl appeared out of the gloom and
Nameless: The Darkness Comes Chapter Twenty-Six
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIXI woke up with something long and leggy skittering over my mouth. I sat up, spitting and sputtering, and the dark thing faded into the darkness. There’s nothing like tasting demonic viscera when you’re coming to. My life rocks.The hateful necklace of death was charred, blackened, and crumbling around my neck. I tore it free and threw it against the wall. Whatever that thing in the other room had been, it apparently didn’t have any hold here. Now whether that was because the prize truly was behind Door Number One or because there was something even scarier in here, I had to find out. I staggered to my hands and knees, still unable to get to my feet. My head was killing me, but the frantic pounding in my chest hurt even worse.It seemed quiet enough. I squinted through the dim light, taking in the small room packed to the gills with junk. Old bureaus and broken chairs were covered in so much dust that I instinctively covered my nose and mouth with my arm. Several m
Nameless: The Darkness Comes Chapter Twenty-Seven
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVENThe picture fell from my hands. I heard glass shatter as it fell to the floor, but I was busy trying to keep myself in check. Was this it? Was I finally going crazy like my father? Was Seth going to find my body next just as he had found Dad’s?I heard my name again, slightly muffled. I closed my eyes, but it was distinctly my father’s voice.The demonic me grinned from the mirror, reaching a hand from the glass, almost brushing my hair with groping fingers.What was a demon compared to my real fear? Demons were nothing, just sad beings that had it in for the living. But the things that lurked inside of my own brain were what scared me the most. My outer toughness was a lie. It was a shell. I was horrifyingly vulnerable underneath.I looked down at the shattered glass around my feet. The shards glistened like stars. I had never seen anything more beautiful.“Luna!” My father’s voice was a sharp command, and it brought me back to myself.Demonic Me had steppe
Nameless: The Darkness Comes Chapter Twenty-Eight
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHTI have to admit I was taken aback.“Help me, huh? That’s a new one. And why would you want to do that, demon? Picking up some brownie points for the afterlife?”He snorted. “That’s a good one. It would be nice if I could do that, but no. Truth is, I was a friend of your father’s.”Now it was my turn to laugh, but it sounded ugly to me. “A friend, huh? I’m sure you were. You were all lovely friends, weren’t you? Hanging around Dad until he couldn’t stand it anymore. Taunting him and luring him until it was easier to take his own life than to listen to you any longer. Some friend. No thanks.”I dropped the picture on the ground and turned away. Although I was loathe to head back into the room with the burning girl and the two doors, at least it was better than being here with this nutcase who claimed to pal around with my father. Ho ho, that’s rich.“Luna!” he shouted from the floor. In his desperation and fury, all former trace of my father’s voice had disappe
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Nameless: The Darkness Comes Epilogue
EPILOGUEI wish I could say I had imagined everything. For once, I wished that I was crazy, but that isn’t how life ends up. I’ll tell you how it ends up: It finishes out in its own fine way.After Seth bailed out of the House of Horrors, he headed straight for the police department. Half of what he said didn’t make sense, but they managed to piece together something about the mother of his child being totally strung out and unresponsive, and his daughter was missing, and demons were frickin’ everywhere. “Demons everywhere” is usually code for “Holy crap, everybody has gone nuts in that crack house” so they loaded up their gear and came. They made Seth wait outside while they came in and found me sobbing over Cecilia’s boyfriend, who had overdosed on heroine. Poor little me, I was absolutely traumatized by seeing death so up close and personal, they thought. They carted Reed Taylor off and took Sparkles away in an ambulance. Then they turned their attention to Seth and me. Good, hard
Nameless: The Darkness Comes Chapter Fifty
CHAPTER FIFTYI opened my eyes and gasped. The stabbing between my shoulder blades was too much to take. Every nerve was raw, a silver blade raked down each centimeter of skin. It felt right somehow, like hitting somebody on the head and killing them felt right, like running your car into a retaining wall felt right.“Let me die let me die let me die!” I screamed. I writhed on the floor, trying to cover my head and curl my body into a protective ball.“I have you,” Reed Taylor shouted to me over the noise. Wind roared and howled. No, not wind. The Tip-Toe Shadow. The shadow and somebody else.Mouth.My eyes were rolling up in my head. Reed Taylor gently shook me.“Luna, stick with me. I have to tell you something, okay? Okay?”My lips were pulled back from my teeth and my body convulsing from the agony, but I struggled to meet his gaze, blinked.He tried to smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Baby, I’m sorry. About everything. All of it. But I have to tell you something very
Nameless: The Darkness Comes Chapter Forty-Nine
CHAPTER FORTY-NINEIt hurt me to see the ones I loved damaged like this. Seth chased away, Reed Taylor broken, Mouth angry and helpless. All of these people brought together involuntarily because they cared about me in one way or another. Each, in their own way, only wanted to help.“Luna,” Mouth said, and he sounded worried. “Why are you looking at me like that? What are you thinking?”I reached for his hand, smiled. I ran my fingers down his cheek. “Thank you for everything, Mouth. I hope you know how special you are to me.”“Luna,” he said warningly, but I had already turned to Reed Taylor. “Reed Taylor, I . . . ”There wasn’t anything more I could say. His wild hair, his gorgeous greens that had gone frightened and worried and were now narrowed with resolve. He was perfect. He was my everything. How can you explain that to someone?“I love you,” I said simply, and then I turned to the Tip-Toe Shadow. “Demon!” I screamed and spread my arms wide. “Taste The Mark! I invite you i
Nameless: The Darkness Comes Chapter Forty-Eight
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHTMouth wasn’t happy. I could tell it by his wispiness. I could tell it by the way his mouth set itself into a firm line.I didn’t care.“Dolly, dolly,” sang the Tip-Toe Shadow, and he ran his long fingers down my hair, twisted them around my neck. They went around several times.“Can . . . can you let Reed Taylor go now, please?”I wanted to sound strong, but the feel of those dark fingers on my skin made my mouth go dry.“Reed Taylor, where is Lydia?”“There’s magic in the water.”Reed Taylor’s voice but not his words. I reached for him, but the demon pulled us further away.“No, dollies. Bad dollies.” He shook us, and I choked, grasping at my neck. Mouth clenched his fists but did nothing.“Hey, knock it off,” I hissed as soon as I had my voice back.The Tip-Toe Shadow giggled. “You want to talk to the puppet? Hear what the puppet has to say? Okay. Okay okay. Oh, it will make you cry. Big, soft, sad tears, and I will lap them from your face, and I will b
Nameless: The Darkness Comes Chapter Forty-Seven
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVENSeth was crouched over somebody on the floor. My heart sunk. It’s Reed. It’s Reed. It’s Reed.“It’s Sparkles,” Seth said, checking her pulse and breathing. She looked like she was barely conscious. Her demon twined around her arms and legs. “I heard her moaning in the back room.”I narrowed my eyes at the sight of her and spit on the ground. “What’s she doing here?” My eyes widened. “Wait, if she’s here, where’s Lydia? Is she here too?”Seth shook his head. “I didn’t see her. I looked everywhere.”I knelt by Sparkles, tried to make her eyes focus. “Sparkles! Where is Lydia? Lydia?” Her eyes rolled. I slapped her in the face, but she didn’t even react. Even her demon was moving slower than usual.What was going on here? Suddenly I had a thought. I yanked up the sleeve of her shirt. Fresh track marks. She was using. Disgusted, I let her arm fall to the ground with a thud.“You’re useless,” I spat. “You’re a waste of a person and a mother. You deserve everything
Nameless: The Darkness Comes Chapter Forty-Six
CHAPTER FORTY-SIXSeth opened the door from the inside.“I don’t see him,” he whispered. “I thought maybe he’d come to investigate the window.”I stepped inside and was immediately assaulted by the stench of rotting meat. Flies buzzed around the room in a swarm, blackening the broken window.“Ugh,” I said and covered my nose with my hand.“What? What is it?” Seth peered around me anxiously. “What do you see?”Something that looked suspiciously like entrails hung from the walls. Spider webs made out of skin covered the ceilings. I noticed my feet soaking in the familiar, bloody carpet.“I see a slaughterhouse. How about you?”He touched the walls gingerly. “This wallpaper is atrocious, but that’s the worst of it. That’s it. It’s not real, Luna. Let’s go.”I nodded and removed my hand from my nose. If it isn’t real, it isn’t real.A small boy swam through the air. He kicked his feet and splashed in nothingness. His dark eyes ran over Seth curiously.“Soul surfer?” I asked and
Nameless: The Darkness Comes Chapter Forty-Five
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVEThe sun was starting to rise by the time we bailed out of the hospital.“I am so tired,” Seth told me. He yawned as he got into the car. “I can’t wait to go to bed.”“Spill,” I demanded. “You said I wasn’t astute about Reed Taylor. What was I missing?”“Cripes, Luna. You sure you want to do this? You’ll be wound up, and we’ll never get any sleep.”I grabbed the lapels of his shirt and yanked him halfway out of his seat. “Seth Masterson, if you don’t tell me right this minute, I swear I’ll . . . ”“He was high, okay? He was high. Or coming down from it. That’s why he couldn’t bring you in or risk the ambulance. They would have known.My fingers went slack. Seth pulled himself gently out of my grip. “Listen, maybe now isn’t the time to talk about it. We already have a lot on our plates, and there’s nothing you can—”“He’s using again.”“Looks like it.”“After being clean for so long.”“It happens. I’m sorry, Luna.”“Because I broke up with him?”He shrugge
Nameless: The Darkness Comes Chapter Forty-Four
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR“Oh, Luna,” Reed Taylor said and squatted down beside me. I was too dazed to move. I noticed the blood running from my face and soaking into the porous stone steps. Nice color, good body. I wasn’t as iron deficient as I had told the counselor.“Sorry,” I tried to say, but the word came out funny.Reed Taylor cupped my face gently, turning it tenderly this way and that. I closed my eyes.“I haven’t seen you attacked on the street like this before,” he said finally. I missed his hands when he pulled them away.“They usually don’t . . . ” I stopped talking, tried to touch my mouth. The mere thought of my own searching fingers made me cringe, and I blinked tears out of my eyes.Reed Taylor stood up. “You need to go to the hospital. Is Seth home? I’ll give him a call, tell him to pick you up.”“Can’t . . . you take me?”My words were slurred. I suddenly felt very tired and cold. I shivered, and Reed Taylor looked away.“I can’t,” he said. “And I can’t have an amb
Nameless: The Darkness Comes Chapter Forty-Three
CHAPTER FORTY-THREEMy thoughts were going wild as I drove to Reed Taylor’s house. Anubis had very nearly stolen my soul as well as breaking my face, and I was still cursing myself for that. I had misjudged him. I thought about Seth’s confession about the Tip-Toe Shadow, and my eyes narrowed. I had misjudged everything.Well, if I was so great at misjudging, perhaps I had misjudged Reed Taylor.I pulled into his driveway and felt like pulling right out again. His house was perfect. His lawn, although more overgrown than I had ever seen it, was a thing of beauty. The flower bed was blooming with more flowers and . . . wait, are those actually weeds? Real weeds dared to invade Reed Taylor’s yard? Suddenly, every sense was alert. I slammed the car door and scanned the area. Something creepy and relatively harmless hovered around the backyard, yes, but that wasn’t alarming. But weeds? And the too-long grass? For such a cool, laid-back guy, Reed Taylor usually kept things surprisingly ti
