Page 61 of A Very Monstrous Desire

“Dozens,” Baku said. “Like cracks in ice. And some of them will grow much larger than this one.”

Abruptly, the image of the rip by his basement flat came to Theo’s mind. He wondered which queen had created it and where she was now. Still in this world or had she moved on to the next one? And if she was in another world, what creatures lived there, how had they responded to the arrival of her and her kin?

He shook his head, his body continuing to vibrate horribly being so close to her. The nightmares between him and her were the same. They were pulsing furiously.

“She’s surrounded,” he said after a moment.

“We have no choice but to walk straight into it,” Baku said. “Eight minutes have passed.”

Which meant that they only had a handful left. Theo straightened up and behind him Baku did the exact same thing. They reached out, squeezed one another’s purple hands, and then moved forwards. This close to the queen they were packed in tight. The monsters moved fluidly, almost gracefully, and Theo and Baku both found themselves responding in the same way. In and out they walked, in and out they moved, and with each step closer to her, Theo’s stomach churned. It wasn’t just that it was her, and he had to kill her, but it was the rip. It felt so absolutely against nature, so abhorrent that he didn’t want to be near it.

A being that ate through dimensions.

Could there be anything worse?

He gripped his knife tighter, sweat pooling down his back as he walked. He could taste the salt in the air, hear the waves crashing on the beach. It was all so surreal, and Theo marvelled out how things had changed so very rapidly to bring him to this point.

They were a few meters away from her now.

She was surrounded by her younger children, by fresh monsters who were circling her as she continued to eat. She was quite a bit bigger than them, bigger than Theo had expected. He opened his mouth, wondering whether he should say something to Baku, whether he should be talking at all. But then, they were almost there, right next to her where she was eating away, directly in front of an outcropping of rock.

A moment, a pause, and then Baku knocked into one of the monsters. The action was so abrupt and so against the synchronicity that even Theo noticed it. He turned just as the muncher did, its eyes focused now on Baku. A moment later and it let out a vibrating screech.

Baku responded instantly. He buried his knife directly in the monster’s head, straight into its brain, and it fell to the floor with a wet sort of splatter. He then grabbed Theo’s hand and dragged him over to the outcropping of rock, pulling them round so that they were hidden from the now chattering crowd of munchers but close to the queen…so close...

She knew something was wrong.

They all did.

The dead body was enough to tell them that but even if it wasn’t they could sense it.

Something didn’t belong.

Theo grabbed Baku’s head and pulled him down, as close as he could, and gasped when his worst suspicion was confirmed. Baku’s serum was wearing off. His skin was no longer that deep, vibrant purple but was fading back to the violet colour that Theo had come to know and to love.

To love…

He shook his head, refusing to even entertain that thought given the levels of peril they were in.

“It’s wearing off too quickly,” he whispered.

“I know.” Baku’s chest rumbled slightly before speaking, and he clearly did not want to say what he was about to say but he did. “A second dose so quickly does not extend but shorten. I have expected it to wear off long before now.”

“They’ll kill you!” Theo gasped.

“Not before we get to the queen,” Baku replied. “Nothing else matters but that.”

Theo’s chest tightened horribly. “You’ll never make it!”

“I won’t but you will,” Baku replied. “We’ll run for it, hard and fast. I will hold them off for as long as I can, just as we agreed, and you will kill her.”

Theo shook his head. “You need to stay here.”

“I’ll do no such thing.”

“Baku—”

“And the longer we talk, the less time I have.” He pulled Theo close. “Breathe now, Theo,” he continued. “This is what you were meant to do. What you were always meant to do. Are you ready?”

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