“Yeah, I’ve seen your so-called toys, they are all broken.”
“I know!” she cackled merrily. “It was so much fun breaking them, too.” She sidled up next to him, and inhaled deeply. “I will have so much fun breaking you as well…just wait and see,” she hissed.
“You won’t find her you know…”
“Oh really...” She didn’t seem surprised.
“Yes, Adriane has her and it will be too late, just like that last time, and then guess what?”
“I’ll bite…what?”
“You will be the one broken.”
“Do I look like I’m worried?” she asked and widened her eyes.
Simon glanced at her shadowed reflection. His heart sank.
“You see Centurion…I will win this time, and you, well…” She paused as if searching for the right turn of phrase. “When I get through with you and your little friends, you will wish I made you one of my toys,” she promised.
“I’m not afraid of you.”
She laughed again, seemingly pleased. “You will be.”
“I won’t ever be afraid of you.” He jerked the chains.
“My goodness,” she said and patted his cheek. “So much venom you have stored up inside for little ole’ me,” she tittered. “And here I thought we had come to an understanding. You help me and I will help you. Did you forget our arrangement?”
Simon shut his eyes and with it a memory flooded back.
‡
Fog crept forward, covering everything in a white blanket. The tears streaming down his face, he was unable to stop. It was wrong…all wrong. This was not how it was supposed to be.
“Why did you leave me?” He felt hopeless and so alone.
Images of Lola swam before his blurry eyes. “Hush now…don’t cry,” he heard from some distant place, echoing on the wind. He jerked his head around, looking for the source.
“Who’s out there? Show yourself, coward,” he yelled into the darkness.
He heard a throaty laugh and then an image emerged from the shadows.
Utterly speechless, he watched as a beautiful redhead emerged from the folds of the swirling mists.
“You poor dear,” she cooed. “Come to me…let me show you another way…”
He laughed. It was empty and hollow, just like his insides. He ran his hands over his face. “I don’t mean to be rude but I’m at my limit.”
She waited a beat. The swirling mists receded. “Oh, but I am not here to cause you more pain. I am here to help take it away. I can show you things…give you things you have never imagined.” Her voice was eerily soothing, captivating.
Simon contemplated her invitation for a minute. “Why the hell not?” He walked directly into her awaiting arms. It never occurred to him to wonder why she was alone in the alley or how she seemed to appear from nowhere.
Lifting her long fingers, she caressed his face. “You are a pretty one, aren’t you? I like pretty things,” she purred. “I am a collector of pretty things. You can be more than you are now. I can give you everything your heart has ever desired.”
He shut his eyes and images of Lola tumbled through his mind again. He still couldn’t believe what he had seen. Lola sucking Vincent’s cock was burned into his mind, the memory fresh and completely wrong. How could she? Simon didn’t know how to push that sight from his mind. Betrayed by his fucking best friend. How he hated them all. And now, when he was ready to forgive her, she had the last laugh. She died and left him all alone.
“She didn’t deserve you,” she cooed sweetly, her voice husky, enticing. “How could she pick him over you?”
“Why did she have to die?” He tried to feel something other than the pain that was ripping his guts apart.
“That’s it. Let me see…your hatred.” Her voice transformed.
He realized too late what a terrible mistake he had made. He didn’t want this. He wanted Lola. No, he wanted someone to love him the way he loved Lola. His body trembled, trapped in her embrace.
She breathed in his scent and smiled warmly down at him. “This will only hurt a bit,” she promised, hissing softly.
He opened his eyes and her beauty faded. She was turning into a monster before his very eyes. He screamed, struggling, fighting with everything he had. “I don’t want this!”
“Too late!” Her vile breath surrounded his face as she dragged him along, screaming.
A horrible sound filled the air, bringing a blustering, brutal wind that gained in strength as blue, ethereal light filled the area.
59-TWISTED CYCLE
Like a vise, pressure closed in on all sides. Forcing my eyes open, I looked up. Winged creatures hovered above. I braced myself for the bone-chilling fear to creep in, but it didn’t come. Was I dead?
To block out the unnatural sight, I shut my eyes again. Not real. Not real. When I reopened my eyes, I realized I wasn’t looking up at angels, but instead at gargoyles. At least that’s what I thought they were. They were ugly, gray, and had wings. Yep, totally gargoyles, and yet somehow, for once, I wasn’t afraid. Instead, I was freakishly at peace.
What is wrong with you? my mind screamed.
Yes, what is wrong with me? I wondered absently. Shouldn’t I be screaming right now? It was weird. The winged creatures didn’t scare me. Actually, I felt less afraid with them close by. Were these the protecting ones? The ones Barnaby had told me about? I hoped so. Heaviness settled on me and my eyes closed again. I was so tired. The pressure I felt wasn’t suffocating. It actually was more like a hug, a really good, Barefoot Contessa hug. Like a baby snuggled down in the comfort of a mother’s embrace. My eyes drifted shut.
“Don’t go to sleep,” a brusque voice shouted and my eyes jerked open. This time I didn’t feel the pressure. Fully expecting the trio of gargoyles to be hanging out above me, I sat up and looked but they weren’t there.
“Did I imagine them?” I rubbed my head. A dull ache pushed out from behind my eyes and a low hum vibrated softly over me. Over in the far corner of the room a group of figures in cloaks came into focus and they were chanting. One of them stepped into the light.
“Coach Gibbs?” I shook my head and rubbed my eyes, not believing what I was seeing. It had to be a trick of the light.
“I told you, we aren’t alone, Evie…”
My entire body tensed. I was hoping pod-Hanna was gone. I turned around. “What are you talking about now?”
Pod-Hanna swung her feet back and forth, like a little kid. “Gosh, Evie,” Hanna said and made a face. “Such hostility,” she said and made a face.
“What do mean we aren’t alone?”
“Oh, Evie,” Hanna sighed. “Did someone hit you on your head or are you always this slow?”
I did a double-take.
Hanna smirked.
“I thought you were talking about aliens!”
Hanna laughed. “You are funny, Evie, and not just looking.”
“Bitch!”
Hanna shrugged. “You shouldn’t throw stones, Evie.”
“Whatever.” I tried to move, but once again I felt like I was being held in place. When I looked down, I realized where I was. I was sitting on the slab of stone all of my friends had been standing on. And on closer perusal, I could see the stone was covered in a dark reddish-brown color. I swallowed hard. It was the color of dried blood. “Where am I?” my voice quivered, betraying me.
“This,” Hanna said and lifted her hands to encompass the room, “is where all the magic happens. Spectacular, isn’t it?”
“What is that?” I pointed to the big hole in the ground that was glowing blue.
“That’s the Cragmire,” Hanna said simply.
“Cragmire,” I repeated. It seemed familiar, saying it, like I had heard about it before or said it before. “I don’t understand.”
“Geez, Evie, what is the big deal,” she sighed. “We all know about it.”
“Wait. What!” I shook my head. Surely I was hearing things. “Who’s we?” An ima
ge of my friends popped into my mind.
“Um…” Hanna frowned and stared intently at me and then smiled as if she just latched onto something. “Ah, pretty much everyone who has lived here.” She gave me a fake smile. The same kind I always gave Heather when she came into the coffee house.
“I live here.”
Hanna shrugged and kicked her feet back and forth, faster. She braced her hands at her sides, flattened them on the pedestal, and leaned forward. “Yes, but your family is not from here, per se…”
“What the hell, Hanna? What difference does that make?”
“It makes all the difference in the world, Evie,” Hanna sing-songed. “We have all been here since the beginning.”
“Since the beginning of what exactly?” I asked since I was clearly in the dark.
“Oh, Evie,” Hanna exhaled. “Since they found the Cragmire.”
“Who?”
“The Curators.”
“Who the hell are they?”
“You know most of them.” Hanna widened her eyes.
“If I know most of them why not simply tell me who they are?”
Hanna smiled.
I gulped. Hanna’s hair looked like it was moving. I shut my eyes and looked again. This time it looked normal. I was starting to think I had been drugged and was hallucinating. That was actually preferable to the alternative, which would mean I was either losing my mind or this shit was actually happening. “Who are they?” I repeated.
Hanna waved her hand to the figures in cloaks. “See anyone you recognize?”
I looked across the room and glimpsed a bright red color when one of the cloaked figures moved. It reminded me of Mr. Bixby’s tracksuit. “Mr. Bixby?” I called out. The figure sank back behind the group. I felt like I was starring in one of the horror movies I watched. “I don’t understand.”
“Why would you,” Hanna said, happily. “We haven’t told you anything.”
“For God’s sake, Hanna,” I snapped. “Could you just spit it out already?” I was at my limit.
Hanna shook her head back and forth and again I saw her hair move. This time I ignored it.
“Are you like immortals or something?” It was the most impossible, far-fetched thing I could think of.
“Oh heck no, I wish.” Hanna smacked her knee. “We are pretty special though,” she boasted. “Our bloodlines are the same as the Originals.”
“Who are the Originals?”
“They are/were the Curators, the ones who protect the Cragmire and control the guardians…” She trailed off.
“Oh my God, what are you talking about?”
“Well, if you would stop interrupting, I would tell you. Geesh.” She rolled her eyes and they kept spinning.
I shut my eyes.
“Evie, stop that,” Hanna snapped.
“No.”
“You afraid?”
“No,” I lied.
“You are really sucking the fun out of this.” Hanna exhaled loudly.
Good. When I reopened my eyes, I was relieved to see Hanna’s eyes had stopped spinning. “Where are these so-called Curators now?”
“Oh, they are floating around somewhere, I suppose.” She kicked her feet faster.
I was hoping she would lift off since her feet were moving too fast to be sitting down. Once again, I tried to move but I still felt melded to the stone. Great. Now she was a captive audience to pod-Hanna as she blathered on.
“Of course, we all have to take turns. Granted, there are a few who leave.” She gave me a pointed look.
“What?” I frowned.
Hanna ignored me and waved her hand in the air. “Who wouldn’t want to be part of this?”
I looked around the room. It was cold, dark, and smelled like a combination of brine and sulphur. It burned my nose. The rest of the room actually had beautiful stonework with fluted columns that soared into the air and gave way to a domed ceiling with a big fat hole in the middle. Along the sides were niches where I supposed statues used to reside but were now vacant. Not surprising, the slab of stone I was stuck on was directly beneath the hole in the ceiling. I rubbed my head. “So let me see if I got this straight,” I said. “You are one of these people who guard a hole?”
“Bravo, Evie!” She clapped her hands and shook her head back and forth, really fast. Her head blurred.
“What is wrong with your head?”
“Nothing,” she snarled. Her head slowed and twitched strangely, like she had a nervous tick.
“Is this about the curse?”
Hanna’s head snapped. “Who told you about that?”
“Just a lucky guess,” I lied, not wanting to tell her what Adriane had told me.
“Oh,” Hanna said and her eyes narrowed into slits.
“What do I have to do with all this?”
“Hmm…” Hanna wiped at a dark smudge on the toe of her boot. “That’s the tricky part. Your parents may not have always been here, but you were born under a blue moon so you really are quite special in your own right.”
“I don’t get what you are saying. What difference does it make when I was born, and what the hell does a blue moon have to do with it?”
“Oh Evie, your naiveté astounds me. I swear you are the most gullible person I have ever met. I’m going to miss you.” Hanna’s stud sparkled in the dim light as her lip curled into a slow smile.
It took a moment to comprehend the ramifications of what Hanna was saying. “Why are you going to miss me?” Once again, I began to know fear. It was becoming a close friend. I suddenly felt like I was trapped in the back of the bus like Patty Duke in the sequel to Rosemary’s baby...trapped, by a bunch of demented psychos.
“Oh right.” Hanna slapped her knee. “You don’t know.”
“No, I don’t know,” I snapped. “Crazy bitch.”
Hanna laughed harder, the sound echoed eerily throughout the room.
I didn’t mind her laughter this time. At least it drowned out the strange hum from the kook’s chants in the corner.
“I’ve been called worse…”
“What does Adriane have to do with this?” I clenched my fists, wishing I could pummel Hanna’s face until she stopped laughing.
“He is a gargoyle, silly.” She widened her eyes.
“Can he be changed back to human?”
“Why would he want to do that?” She frowned. “He is immortal, or will be after the sacrifice.”
“What sacrifice?” My heart jumped into double time…not a good sign. It was as though my body knew something my mind didn’t.
“Why, yours silly.”
“What?” I gaped.
“Oh Evie, don’t look so surprised. Even you aren’t that stupid.”
“You are outta of your ever-loving mind.” I shook my head vigorously. “I’m not going to be sacrificed.”
“How are you going to stop us?”
“I can, I will…Adriane will save me,” I said, not sounding nearly as sure as I wished I did.
Hanna gave me a look of disbelief. “Oh, please. Not likely.” She rolled her eyes at me like I was stupid. “Why do you think he was with you?”
“Because he wanted to be...” My stomach twisted.
“Oh, come on,” Hanna said. “He was using you.”
I didn’t know what to believe. Was Adriane using me? “Screw you, Hanna. I’m not going to be your sacrificial lamb. You whack jobs can find someone else!”
Hanna leaned back. “Geez, Evie, don’t be so melodramatic. It’s not like anyone really cares about you,” she added with a smug ‘I-know-something-you-don’t-know’ smile.
“Adriane does?” Tears clogged in my throat.
“Does he?” Hanna asked. “If he cares so much, where is he? Hmmm?” She widened her eyes. “Immortality is a heady mistress.”
“I don’t believe you!” I covered my ears. I didn’t want to hear anymore.
“Don’t be a fool Evie. He led you here and left you all alone.”
“Led me h
ere?”
Hanna looked at me like I was pathetic and stupid, all at the same time and my heart sank as the truth behind Hanna’s words sunk in slowly and making me feel even more inadequate. “Moriah cares,” I tossed out, grasping.
“Really?” asked Hanna. She raised a perfectly arched brow. “Don’t you think it’s funny she picked you out of all the girls in the town to hang with? You’re not really in her league, you know.”
I felt sick. It was true. Why would Moriah want to hang out with me? Everything seemed so hopeless suddenly. I felt useless, and alone.
“You see the truth, don’t you?”
A bone-crushing sadness closed in on me and I found it hard to take a breath. “Why are you doing this to me?”
Hanna exhaled. “It’s not rocket science, you know. You give up your life and we get to live on.”
“But why me?” I asked. “Why can’t you get someone else?”
“Because you are…” she trailed off and looked behind me.
“What am I?” I yelled.
“You are…”
“What?” I screamed. I felt like I was about to lose my mind. I looked up and spotted the other guy, the one Adriane had been talking to before we ran. He was across the room staring at me. His lips were moving like he was talking to me. I focused. “Come find me.” I heard in my mind. Just then my vision narrowed and blackness closed in on me as I felt myself falling backward but I couldn’t stop it and then everything turned black.
60-WAKING NIGHTMARES
When I opened my eyes, I had no idea how much time passed. The darkness that had me surrounded began to slip away and revealed a star-filled sky. A full, blue moon slanted down through the treetops and across the clearing, and covered everything in an ethereal blue light.
When I inhaled, fresh air filled my lungs. I exhaled and the sound vibrated in my chest and a cloud of white swirled around my head from the coolness in the air. I had no idea where I was or even how I’d gotten here. Everything was totally messed up.
Granted, I was not complaining, really. It was a hell of a lot better than hanging out on a slab of rock about to get sacrificed by a bunch of whack jobs.
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