Page 49 of Monstrous Travels as Wicked as Sin

H E L P M E

“We will,” said Joe. “Your body. Where can we find it? Are there others?”

C O M I N G

The anxious tingle quickly transitioned to a hammering of adrenaline in Percy’s veins, and he announced. “It’s time to go. End it.”

As if by design, the entire upper level of the house gave an almighty crack, tumbling a shower of ash over everything beneath.

H E L P M E

“Goodbye.” Percy tightened his fingers to move the glass to ‘Goodbye’, only to find Joe’s grip fighting him. “We have to go. What are you doing?”

Joe shook his head. “Let her talk.”

Percy relaxed his hold as requested, allowing the increasingly swift trail of the makeshift planchette to pick out its letters, but he said softly, “It’s lying.”

“What do you mean, she’s lying?” Joe replied, eyes hard at work, reading. “You can’t know that. She’s just a girl.”

“And you can’t know it’s just a girl.”

C O M I N G P L E A S E

Another great shudder from above and a splintering of wood at the top of the staircase.

Percy’s wary eyes went to the lower portion of stairs, visible from their position.

H U R T S M E H E L P

A series of bangs flew across the walls of the room and a scream shot out from nowhere. A scream in the voice of a teenage girl.

“Fuck,” Joe whispered, then louder, “What’s coming? Where is it?”

B E A S T

Percy pulled Joe’s arm, hard, but Joe’s fingers were white with their chill grip, his eyes dark and intent, his brow deeply lined in troubled thought.

Taking a hand to his cheek, Percy tried to break Joe’s insistence. “Darling, listen to me. I don’t think Cleo did this. Not alone anyway. Whatever you’re talking to?—”

Another crash sounded on the stairs, drowning out Percy’s words. Another shower of dust hit the floor, only this accompanied by an ungodly howl from the creature below.

P L E A S E

Joe’s eyes remained on the floor, and he said, “We have to get her out.”

Another crash on the stairs, the sound of the bookcase shifting by the hole in the wall, the glass scraping.

H E L P H E L P M E H E L P

Percy’s eyes swept the empty hall, then fell on Joe’s far too stricken face, watching the frantic movement around the board, reading, always reading. “Move the glass to goodbye now, or I’ll drag you out of here without closing this séance.”

“Percy.” Finally Joe’s eyes met Percy’s. His spare hand fell on Percy’s arm and squeezed. “I’m taking her out.”

The faintest narrowing of Percy’s eyes signalled his too-slow understanding, which only hit when Joe dropped the briefest of kisses on his cheek, his slightly shaky voice saying, “Whatever happens, I trust you.”

Like lightning, Percy’s flat hand shot out and slammed against the glass, flinging it free of Joe’s grasp a millisecond after Joe uttered the fatal words: “Take me.”

Before Percy’s horrified eyes, Joe’s head flung back, eyes rolled up so far only the whites showed beneath the open, fluttering eyelids.

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