Page 16 of An Inheritance of Monsters

I aimed it at the far wall, panning around the room as I sat up. The bathroom door was still ajar, but nothing was out of place, the spirit box turned off. The closet doors on the opposite side of the room were still closed.

My breathing shallowed as the sound grew louder, impatient.

Right next to my bed.

When I leaned over, shining my phone over the side of the bed, my heart was doing its best to explode right through my rib cage. I was fully wide awake now, a burst of adrenaline already careening through my veins.

There’s going to be a horrific face staring back when you look over, that’s how this works in the movies, Juno…

I ignored my very sensible inner voice and peeked over the side.

The screen light went dim, and I frantically hit it again. The bright light shone on the polished floors, and over…

Pebbles?

I frowned at the sight of the little gleaming rocks, my heartbeat calming a little. Maybe I was a little bit chickenshit, but when I reached down for one, I snatched it as fast as I could and rolled back to the safety of the middle of the bed.

In the light, it was a polished, perfectly round stone. Like a marble made of sparkling granite.

I set it next to me, reaching down to scoop up the next ones as fast as I could.

In addition to the granite marble, there was a small chunk of clear quartz, and a bit of smooth-edged, bottle green sea glass.

I sure as hell had not seen these in my room before, and they weren’t there when I’d gone to bed. They clicked together as I rolled them around in my palm, examining them all as if they’d provide me with answers.

And a moment later, the bed began to vibrate under me. It was like an earthquake tremor, the entire headboard rattling lightly against the wall.

I went still as hunted prey as the bed rattled harder for a moment, and finally came to a halt.

It hadn’t been quite like an earthquake. It had been like an enormous cat purring… but no cat could be big enough to shake the whole room.

I gripped the little sparkly treasures with a white-knuckled fist, waiting for the shaking to start again, but the silence around me seemed pointed.

Waiting for something.

You dropped a pen, so drop something else. Replicable experiments.

Good idea, Me.

I made a neat pile of my new treasures on the nightstand, searching for something else. I couldn’t give up any more pens or pencils, but… a bobby pin might work. I’d left a pile of pins and elastics next to my phone charger.

Pinching one gold bobby pin between my fingers, I crawled back to the edge of the bed, shined the light over, and dropped it.

For nearly five long, painful minutes, nothing happened.

Then I felt it. The sense ofpresence, like a leviathan breaching the ocean’s surface… something rising.

From under the bed.

I held my breath, frantically tapping the phone again to keep the light on.

And something crept out from that dark gap below me.

A clawed hand the color of midnight, big enough to crush my entire skull with one squeeze. Dark hair dusted the back of it, rising along a muscled, furry arm.

My heart had launched back into overtime, threatening to burst as I watched unreality become reality in front of my eyes.

It reached out, hooked the end of the bobby pin on one of those sharp, deadly claws, and retreated under the bed again.

---