Page 30 of Monstrous

You’re the one Darkness wants. Your sketches and your power summoned him onto this plane of existence, and now you’re the only one who can banish him back to where he belongs, Zane adds.

“How am I going to do that?” I ask.

The boys glance around at one another before Zane answers.We’re going to have to give you a crash course. We don’t have any time to waste.

Their “crash course” involves a few deep breathing techniques to try and harness the light inside of me and draw in more. In the literal two minutes I have to spare, I’m unsuccessful, and panic sets in even further. Especially when they tell me we’re going to have to travel via the shadows.

It’s the fastest way to get there, Arc argues.

“That might be so, but that doesn’t mean I want to do it.” I slap two bloodstained hands against my chest for emphasis. “I’m human! I’m not…whatever you guys are. I don’t travel by shadow.”

You will now. Vexx isn’t kidding around as he hauls me up into his arms and looks at Zane.

Arc steps up to his other side with a shake of his head.I can’t believe we’re on the way to save a human.

A very important human to Mari, Zane corrects.

Semantics, Arc mutters, and suddenly the shadows surround us.

The shades of gray and black almost have form. They solidify and shift with a mind of their own, tiny ebony supernovas popping in and out of existence around us. If I had any breath in my body, I might have told the monster-men it was beautiful.

Instead, my lungs seize and the scream I have prepared catches in the back of my throat.

The moment my feet are on solid ground again, the dam breaks, and the howl releases from me with a fury I’ve never felt before.

Fury?

It overtakes the fear entirely as the world comes into focus around me and I realize we’re standing on the front lawn beneath the limbs of the towering old oak tree. Inside the house, Darkness has my mom.

And at once I’m done with running.

In a way, I’ve been running my entire life. From what I’d seen the night of the murder, to what I heard in my head. I’ve run from myself and my dreams and pretty much everything.

Had I ever lived authentically since Walker’s death?

I don’t think so.

Now I’ve come to a place where I literally can’t run anymore unless I want to risk the one person who has stood by my side through this entire ordeal. Unless I count the monsters, who are actually standing at my side.

It’s not smart to rush right into the house without having a good idea of where Darkness is holding my mother and what tricks he has planned.

I highly doubt he’ll let us just walk through the door and kindly ask for her back. Sure, that will go over well.

In an unspoken concurrence, Arc heads around the side of the house while Zane heads in the opposite direction.

This is the worst part. The waiting, drawing the troops together, formulating an attack and hoping we don’t get caught before we can get to my mom.

Where does he have her?

Zane returns a moment later and motions with his hand for us to come forward. We follow him around to the rear of the house and the open side patio door.

It’s an invitation. I notice it automatically, because Mom is notorious for keeping all the doors and windows locked and checking them before bed. Twice. All because of her night terrors.

A flicker of fear cascades its icy fingers along my vertebrae. She’s always had trouble living alone, especially after my father left. And no matter how often I urged her to get a dog, she always wrote me off in some kind of unspoken need to prove herself.

Never stopped her from riding me about the same thing, though.

And now she’s up against an actual nightmare and the thought has my heart sinking in dread. It's my fault, and I hope one day I’ll be able to explain things to her and apologize.

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