Page 101 of Lust

I continue fighting my body. Even with how burned Luke is, I have to believe there’s still a chance. If I can just get him away from the Slasher.

My struggle takes me to my knees as I claw at the earth, trying to pull myself even an inch, but my body won’t allow it.

“Seth!” I turn to him, and his gaze meets mine as tears well in his eyes.

“I’m so sorry, Brad,” Seth says before turning back to the fire.

“I’ll never forgive you for this!”

But he doesn’t reply, and when I look back to the fire, I see Luke’s victim has finally stopped moving, and Luke looks as though he’s been painted black.

Just like in the vision.

His haunting, strained cry fades with the flame, until both cease.

“Seth, let me go! Let me gonow!”

“You can go to him,” he says. “I’ll call the police.”

The release from this psychological bondage clicks. I crawl to my feet, but then get quickly back on my knees as I reach Luke’s charred body, now lying on top of a pile of ashes the monster has become.

Luke’s body’s a fit of shivers. I want to grab him, to hold him, but I don’t want to cause him any more pain than he’s already in.

“Why did you do that?” I ask, tears streaming down my face.

This can’t be!

Not my beautiful Luke.

His chin shakes, and he opens his mouth like he’s trying to say something, but all that comes out is a choking sound.

“No, God no!” I cry out.

Is this really how we end?

I refuse to believe it! I refuse to lose him.

27

LUKE

Am I dead?

Is this darkness the afterlife?

I vaguely recall bright white lights and faces—maybe the light was heaven and the faces were angels. If that’s the case, why haven’t I seen Mom or Dad?

And why do I keep hearing Brad’s voice?

I still hear it now, calling to me, and my eyes flit open.

The light’s so intense, it takes me a few moments of blinking and wincing to adjust before I can scan the room. I’m lying on a bed with rails along the side, a TV mounted on the wall across from me. Brad sits in a chair next to the bed, reading out loud from a book.

It comes to me—I’m in a hospital room, and while I can’t recall being here before, I have a feeling I’ve seen it, maybe coming in and out of consciousness.

I run back through the moment I followed the light in the woods to Brad and Seth, who were confronting the Slasher. I knew what it would do to them. And though I’d only just discovered this power, I had to believe my instinct was right—I had to use it to destroy the monster.

As I charged, this primal instinct, a connection to the Rift, moved through me.

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