Page 37 of Echo
“Go fuck yourself.” I tried to smother the words, so they wouldn’t be heard, but I knew he did. At least he didn’t take it personal and walked off without saying anything else.
I turned to face the stupid fucking house, when my eyes landed on the white door. The paint job had been changed yet again. My left eye twitched, and I forced myself to keep perspective on what was actually important.
I went into the house, ignoring the leftover mess in the living room and searched the house, until I found Ranger locked in the bathroom. He glued himself to my heel.
I grabbed my keys and walked out the door. Fuck everything else. This was that creature’s house now.
When I stepped off the porch, I sensed the thing in the woods to the side of my car. My hair stood on edge as I fumbled to unlock the car. Ranger growled and barked at the exact place I suspected my monster was.
Don’t run or rush. Don’t act like you’re food.
Yeah, okay.
I opened the car door.
“I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth, leaving a trail of dead bodies behind us. And when I catch you…” He chuckled darkly, and I could swear I felt the sound inside my bones. “You better be prepared.”
Why did that sound like he would fuck me until I couldn’t run anymore, rather than divorcing my head from my shoulders? A stupid part of me wanted to try, just to see what would happen.
But the smarter parts of me, reminded me that I didn’t know this enemy. That if I played games with a being that had already shown how little he valued life, that I would surely lose.
He let out another chuckle.
I turned, ready to see this creature once and for all, but all I was met with was shadows from the rising sun under the thick canopy.
“Do it, Little Rabbit. I love a good chase.”
That cop said my ancestors had the answers, and I suspected I knew exactly where to find them. If there was anything I knew, knowledge was power.
I didn’t care if he murdered everyone here, but I was getting out whether my pussy liked it or not. And I’d do it without him following me.
He wasn’t the first monster I’d needed to escape from, and I doubted he would be my last.
I slammed the door of the car and trekked my happy ass up the steps of the porch to come up with some kind of plan that would actually work.
“Shame.”
Chapter 14:
IwentintotheDemon Dungeon, as I coined it, armed with a flashlight. I’d tear that room apart until I had the answers. If my family had kept this thing under wraps for hundreds of years, then obviously there was a way to get out.
My eyes fell to the iron dome on the altar. I swallowed, resting my hand on the knob at the top.
“You can do this, Madison.” I took deep breaths and lifted the surprisingly heavy cover. I put it to the side and found a giant skull under it.
The skull was twice the size of a normal human’s with an elongated jaw that reminded me of a moose. Except this was lined with two sets of skin ripping incisors and bone crushing canines. Huge antlers shot out of each side of the top of the head that reminded me of a deer, but thicker and pointy enough to be used like a lance.
The bone itself was browning with age, and I didn’t dare to touch it in fear that the slightest breeze would make it crumble to rubble.
My lungs froze. Was this the same monster that was outside?
Something slinked over the surface of the bone, and I narrowed my eyes trying to get a lock over the bug or whatever was crawling on it. But then skin that was dark like shadows, formed along the skull.
Energy crackled in the air that absolutely reminded me of the one outside.
“Nope!” I picked up the iron dome and put it back over the skull, fizzling the aura out as soon as it was back in place.
I opened the closet door I missed before and found a row of journals of all sizes and a nearly endless supply of herbal candles. On the row of books, one was propped up front with a sticky note with my name scribbled on it.
