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Nameless: The Darkness Comes Prologue
PROLOGUEThe demonic love the taste of little girls. Luna Masterson went to her first sleepover when she was six, armed with a Superman sleeping bag and a pink pillow, pigtails and sour candies. Before she left, her dad pulled her onto his lap.“Sweetheart,” he said and looked worried. Even though she should have been too young to tell, Luna could see the anxiety running under the lines of his face. “You’re sleeping somewhere other than home tonight. And I know you see things in the dark . . . ”“You don’t want me to talk to the Tip-Toe Shadow tonight.”His face broke a little. A man’s face isn’t designed to carry so much emotion at one time.“Sweetie, I never want you to talk to the Tip-Toe Shadow. He’s a bad thing, and he lies. But especially tonight because I’m not going to be there with you. Do you understand?”She understood. Her mother didn’t see the shadows, and neither did her brother, Seth. But for some reason, her Daddy could, and it made her feel better. Even a child k
Nameless: The Darkness Comes Chapter One
CHAPTER ONE“Dude, that guy has a demon,” I said to my brother. We were sitting side by side on the front porch, but he wasn’t looking at me. I nudged him in the ribs and pointed at the guy discreetly.“What’s it doing?” Seth asked, still flipping through his Runner’s World. He never even looked up. I wasn’t surprised in the least. I squinted at the guy across the street.“Well, the guy’s carrying groceries into his house, and it looks like the demon’s trying to open the door. And you’re not listening.”“I’m listening.” Flip flip flip. He wasn’t even looking at the pages, he’s flipping them so fast. Trying to keep his cool, as usual. Sometimes, his calmness was maddening. I wanted him to get excited sometimes, to stand and shout at me until the veins pop out of his neck like Dad’s did. But he’ll never be Dad. He’d die first.“There’s a demon, Seth. Hanging around the guy next door. And you’re completely unfazed by this?”“Completely.”“Of course,” I muttered and took a bite out
Nameless: The Darkness Comes Chapter Two
CHAPTER TWOI’m sort of a jack of all trades, I guess. I do a little bit of everything, and all of it is mediocre. Except sticking people with needles; being stabby seems to be the only thing I really excel at. So when I blazed into town full of glory and good intentions, I snagged a phlebotomy job, no problem. Something about siphoning healthy-looking blood soothes me. I’m sure a psychologist would have a field day with that one.I was busy prepping my station for a routine blood draw when a shadow fell across me.“Hey, hotshot, I’m not ready for you yet. Wait for me to call you, okay?” I said, not looking up.The shadow didn’t move. I bit the inside of my cheek in frustration and raised my eyes.There was nothing there. That I could see, anyway.Well. This was new. There was always a person or a demon, but an invisible presence? Something unseen casting a shadow? I don’t know much about physics and its laws, but I’m thinking they’d have a hard time accepting this.“So . . . ”
Nameless: The Darkness Comes Chapter Three
CHAPTER THREESeth slammed the milk down on the table. The Raisin Bran followed suit.“So tell me about the demons,” he said. He sounded frustrated.I smiled to myself and scattered some Cheerios on Lydia’s high chair tray. She chirped and dove for them with pudgy hands shaped like stars.“It’s such a lovely day, big brother. Why do you want to botch it up with talk of the dark side?”“The dark side?” He flopped down in his chair and rubbed his hand over his unshaven face. Not a bad looking guy, all in all, but he was looking particularly harsh this morning. Worn out. Maybe he had more dreams about the Elusive Miss Sparkles. Like I said, I think the nightmares were hereditary.I sat down next to him, stole the milk for my own bowl of cereal. “Seriously, Seth. You haven’t believed me in years. Why the sudden interest now?”He leaned back in his chair, covered his eyes with his hands. “Gar. Just tell me already. I might never ask again.”I sighed and pushed my bowl away. I was ne
Nameless: The Darkness Comes Chapter Four
CHAPTER FOURThe encounter with Sparkles rocked me more than I’d care to admit. How could somebody so vile have a child as sweet as Lydia? She’s definitely cute, I can tell you that much. And smart. And astute. I can tell she has my genes in there somewhere.And, like me, after a few minutes swabbing at the counters with a washcloth and the like, she was bored.“Right, let’s go shopping,” I told her, and then I sprayed her down with sunscreen. Hey, even out here in the Northwest, you can’t be too careful. Demons and sunburn and cancer, oh my. Not my little girl.I ran a dark red lip stain around my mouth, pulled tall boots up over my jeans, and threw on my sunglasses. Suddenly, I was a femme fatale, a woman of mystique. And all under ten minutes.Lydia had pulled out her pigtails, so we did them over again, and that took nearly ten minutes right there. She has a knack for yanking beautiful doodads out of her hair. For this, I blame her father.“Ready, Princess Pretty Fingers?” I
Nameless: The Darkness Comes Chapter Five
CHAPTER FIVESomebody was saying something indecipherable, and it was much too loud. I groaned and tried to put a hand to my head, but the effort made my stomach heave.“Cleanup in frozen foods,” the muffled voice shouted again. It sounded slightly hysterical.“Cleanup. That would be you,” said a different voice. A calmer voice.I managed to force open one eye. It was teary from the effort.“Bartholomew? Are you back with me?” Bland-haired Reed Taylor was kneeling over me, peering at me with his fantastic eyes.I groaned and shut my eyes again. Suddenly, I shot up into a sitting position. It made my head spin. “Lydia!”Reed Taylor put his arms around me. “Calm down. She’s okay, just sitting right there in the cart. Can you see her?”Lydia peered down from her seat and smiled at me. “Mama,” she exclaimed.Reed Taylor’s arms loosened around me. He stood up and started to pull me off of the floor.“She’s my niece,” I said a bit too quickly.“What’s going on around here?” A red-
Nameless: The Darkness Comes Chapter Six
CHAPTER SIX“So I have a date tonight,” I told Seth over the phone. He was eating at his desk as usual. Noisily. In my ear. Brothers never change.“You? A date? With who?” He slurped loudly from his drink. Obviously, his body was crying out desperately for hydration.“Well, his name is Reed Taylor and has awful, blah-colored hair. And he was a user way back, so he says. And he has this invisible thing that hangs around with him all of the time. It kind of gets in my way, but it has its uses. Like today when the demon attacked me in the middle of the hamburger section—”“What’s wrong with his hair?” Seth asked. “I mean, what is it exactly that you don’t like?”And that’s Seth for you. He has this amazing mind, right? Quick, eager. His brain has tentacles and is always waving them around, ready to grab something interesting and suck it all in to its brain-mouth, or whatever. But the things Seth finds interesting, well. They just baffle me. I mean, I am boggled.“His hair, it’s like
Nameless: The Darkness Comes Chapter Seven
CHAPTER SEVENI was still freaked out by the demon’s change in personality when Reed Taylor came to pick me up. On a motorcycle, nonetheless. He roared to a stop in front of my house and pulled off his helmet. I couldn’t feel the invisible presence anywhere, and that might not be such a bad thing.“It’s me,” he said helpfully.Thank you, Captain Obvious.I eyed the bike. I was standing there in a filmy, light blue skirt and top. Ethereal looking, even. He was so killing my mystical vibe.“Do I, uh, need to come in and . . . meet your brother or something?”I’d filled Reed Taylor in on the phone earlier. “Come pick me up, and oh yeah, I live with my brother. And be sure to kick the demons in the face when you come. In the face.”Okay, so maybe I made that last part up.I blew my hair out of my eyes. “Nah, he’s my brother, not my warden. Besides, if you really want to say hi, you can wave from here. Most likely he’s peering at us discreetly through the kitchen blinds.”Reed Tayl
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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
