Page 138 of Endless Terrors
A slant of light falls over her. The monster cocks its head, but it doesn’t move closer. It just stays on the threshold, staring. The girl stirs again, her brow creasing.
By the time she opens her eyes, the monster is gone. Back down the hall, rushing past its uneaten meals. The monster wants to get out of this small space. It wants to avoid being seen. But it’s not quite fast enough, and she appears in the doorway of her room.
The girl glimpses the monster, just for a moment. And for that single breath of time, it can feel her gaze like a ray of warmth in a land of eternal winter.
Then it’s gone again, fleeing this tiny creature as if she were the bigger predator. The monster slips outside. It looks toward the stars, and it’s never seen these before, either. Those red eyes flare with certainty now. The monster knows that is where it belongs.
Just as it spreads its wings, the monster feels the world close in on itself. The monster feels like its entire body is torn apart. It returns to the darkness.
The monster doesn’t expect to awaken again, but it does. It rises and sees that it’s in a cave. One end of the cavern is cast into darkness, and the other is a circle of brightness. The creature can hear the roar of the sea, and feel the water’s cool spray, even from the shadows. It feels a stir of curiosity, and moves toward the light.
At the same moment the light began to brighten, I blinked and realized I was back in my own body. And then I registered what I’d just experienced. Witnessed.
Horror burrowed deep into my stomach, tearing through tendons and organs until the pain was unbearable. I didn’t want to believe it. But then I remembered Lucifer’s words after he’d stabbed me.
And now I will give you a gift, he’d said. The truth about who killed your parents. It’s been locked away all this time.
Locked away inside me. Trapped in the dreamscape. Wearing a freckled face over the winged, dark monstrosity it truly was, like a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
At some point, Oliver had stopped thrusting. He wasn’t even inside me anymore. Instead, he hovered over me, his freckled face the palest I’d ever seen it. I lay beneath him, still naked, my entire body trembling. Salt exploded in my mouth, startling me. I hadn’t even realized tears were streaking down my face. I stared at Oliver and didn’t think to wipe them away.
“My parents. It was you.” I said it with disbelief. With denial. With irrevocable, crushing certainty.
He didn’t deny it.
My stomach gave a violent lurch. Clapping a hand over my mouth, I shot upright and bolted for the stairs. Heat rocketed up my throat. I hurtled down to the main floor and wrenched the front door open.
I got two steps outside before I emptied the contents of my stomach.
I aimed for the ground, but I was so close to the cottage that some of my mess splattered on the stones. Wearing jeans he must’ve hastily pulled on, Oliver appeared in my peripheral vision. He didn’t say anything, and he didn’t try to help me—he just dropped a blanket over my shoulders, covering my nakedness. I dug my nails into the doorframe, swaying. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening. It was a burglar that had killed them, or a strung-out werewolf. Not him. Not Ollie.
I pushed off the doorframe and stumbled down the path. I didn’t know where I was going, didn’t know if I might get struck by lightning, but right now I would welcome it. My mind grappled for a chance at sweet oblivion. Thunder sounded in the distance, and the grass stirred from relentless, angry gusts.
At the point in the path where it drew parallel with Oliver’s frozen shadow, something made me stop. I stared blankly at the creature’s unseeing, hate-filled eyes, then turned my head slowly, looking toward the figure standing farther down the path.
Oliver looked back at me with an expression on his face I’d seen once before, and another memory tore through the ruins of my smoking mind.
I don’t deserve you, I’d said to Oliver once. It felt like a lifetime ago. He had looked at me with that expression I couldn’t name, a fleeting shadow crossing his face.
Guilt. I hadn’t known it then, but it was guilt.
The same guilt that was in his eyes now. He’d known, damn him. He had always known the truth. I gripped my head with both hands and bent down, pressing my forehead against my knees. This couldn’t be happening. This wasn’t real. My best friend couldn’t have been the one who shredded Mom and Dad to ribbons. No, no, no.
Seeing that I was on the verge of a breakdown, Oliver reached for me. His face was even whiter now. “Fortuna, I—”
I recoiled. “Don’t touch me.”
He blanched, freezing where he stood. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
His voice made me think of a child in the dark. He had never sounded like that before. But all I saw was a monster. A monster with Oliver’s sad eyes.
Another wave of nausea rocked through me. I shook my head, once, twice, as if I were arguing with someone. It took all my focus to keep the vomit down. I bent over and closed my eyes,
Behind us, there came a great cracking sound. I shot upright and turned, my heart leaping into my throat. I half-expected to see Lucifer standing there, his hair whipping in the wind, his lips curved in that infuriating, amused smile he reserved just for me.
When I realized that Lucifer wasn’t the source of the sound, there was no time for relief. Because the statue was moving. The part of Oliver that I’d transformed into stone had been dormant all these months, but whatever I’d done tonight had awoken it. It raised its head, and as I watched, the thing’s shape began to change. Before, it had just looked like a severe-faced Oliver, except with wings. Slowly, it became something much, much bigger. Something vaguely … familiar.
The moment I recognized it, I bent over and vomited into the grass again.
