My sister ended up fighting to get me on that plane, in all actuality. Perhaps she felt bad about not believing me, though she had yet to mention anything close to an apology to me. Aaron had also been quick to jump on board, and I don’t think Elliott had to do anything at all. It was my parents who seemed to think it wasn’t a good idea. Ultimately, my sister could be pretty convincing when she wanted to be, and they both insisted on driving me to the airport to meet the plane as it made a quick stop on the way from KC to Philly.
I had an overnight bag packed, but I honestly thought my days in Shenandoah were done. Part of me wished I’d realized my last day in high school had been my last day. Maybe I would’ve said something a little snarkier to Liam or Jessica. I definitely would’ve said more to Wes and Milo—though I knew I’d still be seeing them whenever possible. It was weird to think I may never grab a book out of a locker again o
We arrived at the hotel around noon. I’d be sharing a room with my sister, which I wasn’t exactly thrilled about. She still hadn’t apologized for not taking me seriously the day before when I’d contacted her to let her know what I’d heard about the Klondike, and something told me she’d already decided she didn’t need to say she was sorry. I disagreed. I dropped my stuff on my bed and wandered back into the living space.The Guardians didn’t sleep much, and neither did some of the Hunters, but we still had quite a few rooms in the hotel. So I was a little surprised to see so many people had deposited their bags in their room and then chose to congregate in our living quarters. There was just a couch, a couple of chairs, and a television. No kitchenette or anything like that, though I thought one of the cabinets under the TV was probably a refrigerator. Still, by the time I walked out, Brandon, Elliott, and Aaron were already ther
As we walked, we passed Cale and Morgan, not only still next to each other, but she had her arm around him. My eyes enlarged, and I looked at my sister who looked just as surprised as I felt. I almost laughed. I’m not sure why I thought it was funny, but I did.We walked out into the brisk February air, headed back to the hotel, which was close by. “How are you feeling?” Brandon asked.“Good,” I replied. “I’m a little nervous, but I think it’ll be fun.”He chuckled. “I guess that’s one way to look at it. Especially since nothing remotely dangerous is going to happen to you.”“What do you mean?” I asked as one of the cars driving by honked loudly, apparently at nothing.“You’re going to be surrounded by an army of Healers and my dad. There’s no way in the world Gibbon’s getting within a hundred yards of you.”I nodded, thinking th
My sister came back a couple of hours later. She looked exhausted and headed almost immediately for the bedroom. Aaron and Elliott were with her, and they both sat down without saying anything, aloud anyway, and Brandon and I exchanged glances. We had been watching The Goonies, but now real-life monsters seemed much more important than the ones on the show.“Everything okay?” I asked, looking from one of them to the other.“Yeah, she’s just tired,” Aaron said. He looked a little tired himself.I glanced at Brandon, and he gave me a reassuring smile. With a deep breath, I stood, deciding it was now or never, and headed for the bedroom.Cadence was sprawled on the bed she’d claimed earlier. Her eyes were closed, but when I sat down on the other bed across from her, she opened them. “What’s up, Sis?” she asked, forcing a smile.“Do you have a minute?” I asked. “I wanted t
Eastern State Penitentiary was enormous. Standing outside the massive stone wall and looking up made waves of despair wash over me as I tried to envision what it would be like to stand on this threshold as a prisoner, knowing the moment your feet crossed the boundary, you could be locked up here for years, maybe even die behind this block of stone and steel.From the outside, I couldn’t even see the building itself, but I could imagine how immense the structure must be. I tried my best to take deep breaths and remember we needed to take this one step at a time. I’d wait until I was inside to worry about the darkness I could already feel emanating from the building, threatening to suck me in. I knew immediately that Gibbon was here and had no doubt he was pulled here by the blackness I felt tugging at the edges of my thoughts as well.We’d parked several blocks away so that Gibbon wouldn’t be tipped off that we were nearby. I didn’t think t
I was relieved to see Jamie and Cale already in position. Jamie made me feel safe, and he smiled at me, though I could tell he was busy. My attention was pulled in another direction as Brandon tugged on my arm.“I gotta go get in position,” he said, leading me away from his dad a little bit.“Okay,” I replied, feeling butterflies in my stomach, mostly of the Vampire variety but also because I was looking into his green eyes.“Be careful,” he warned.“You, too.”He smiled at me and leaned down and kissed my cheek before he headed off toward his spoke. I watched him for as long as I could before I returned my focus on Elliott and Jamie who seemed to be involved in a conversation I wasn’t privy to.Jamie nodded while Elliott continued to talk to someone as he looked around, and then he nodded before turning to me. Elliott took me gently by the arms and loo
Something inside of Gibbon was calling out to me. It was as if he knew I was here, someone like him. And I wanted to answer. But I knew that Cadence would destroy me even more quickly than the Vampire if she knew I’d beckoned him, so I waited.The overwhelming feeling that darkness was descending upon us took over, and my eyes began to dart from one spoke to the next, searching the darkness in the distance for some sort of an indication as to where Gibbon might be, where he would approach us from. Flickers of shadows in the distance played with my eyesight, and I didn’t know if it was our team readjusting, a leaf casting shadows as it disrupted the moonlight straying through the windows, or something far worse.Gibbon was like a soulless void, a being that sucked energy and light from the world. In life, he’d been a serial killer, claiming innocent lives as the Jogging Path Killer, but he hadn’t started off that way. Steven Gibbon was once someo
Gibbon was beginning to sense that I was here. I wasn’t sure how I knew this, but it was a fact. He was starting to draw me into his mind, and I fought against it, trying to decide how best to help the team, which was quickly falling apart.I switched my IAC to Cale who got two shots off before Gibbon reached him. The Reno Area Leader dropped to the ground and rolled into a nearby cell as Gibbon’s beastly form rained down on him. Cale pushed the door closed with his boot and held it there, and I knew that Gibbon could easily have torn that door from its hinges if he wanted to, but the sound of other footsteps coming down the hall toward him drew his attention, and I began to sense fear in Gibbon. He wasn’t capable of understanding what was happening. He only knew he needed to get out if he was going to survive.My sister and Aaron would come into contact with the monster next. The human security guard hardly sensed their presence as they whooshed by h
I stepped away from Christian, hopping he hadn’t detected anything nefarious. He seemed a little embarrassed that I’d hugged him, so I crossed my arms and tried to seem nonchalant, stepping out of the way of his pacing. When he wasn’t paying attention to me again, I shifted and put my hand in my pocket quickly without him detecting what I was up to. I then refocused my attention on my sister.Cadence had her Glock in front of her and was walking slowly along a catwalk. A railing ran along her left side, a row of empty black cells to her right. On the other side of the railing was a steep drop into the blackness and the first story. Across from the abyss, I could see the same setup mirrored on the other side and assumed there would be a place down at the end of the narrow walkway where Cadence could turn around and come down the other side. If she made it that far.“Got anything?” Aaron asked Cadence. I doubted either of them were