Nameless: The Darkness Comes (13 page)

Chapter Twenty-
Three

We ended up at a house on the far side of town. I expected a crazy, broken down, dilapidated place that screamed “Haunted!” and “Demonic!” and “Hello, I’m your worst nightmare!” But this was a normal stucco house standing shoulder to shoulder with its normal stucco neighbors. There was even a kitschy little lawn gnome in the garden.

“Who lives here, the
Stepford Wives?” I eyed the neat hedges rimming the cheery yard. “Is this house going to kill me?”

“No.
It’s just a house.
It
can’t hurt you.”

Mouth was standing ramrod straight. Calm and happy he was not.
He was wispier than I had seen him in a while.

“Mouth.
You’re freaky nervous. Tell me what’s going on.”

He didn’t say anything, which was unlike him.
I wanted to kick him, but my foot would just go right through.

“Mouth?”

He turned and grasped my hands in both of his, but I didn’t feel anything besides a rush of cold air.

“Luna,” he said earnestly.
“I can’t go in there with you. I wish I could, but it’s…it’s not allowed. You’re going to have to do this alone.”

He must have seen my horror because he ran his misty fingers through my hair
. “If it’s any consolation, I’m pretty sure you’ll survive.”

I wanted to say something dripping with sarcasm, but my tongue wouldn’t work. The demon smiled.
It seemed incredibly forced. Something in that thin smile reminded me he was a demon, and demons weren’t my friends. I took a step away from him.

“
So I’m going into the gingerbread house to…what, exactly?” The Tracing stung like a hive of wasps. There was definitely activity inside, and I was traipsing in alone. This was so uncool. There wasn’t any other way to explain it.

“
There’s a chance Lydia might be inside. Or if not, maybe something knows where she is.”

“Something.”

“Or somebody.”

I narrowed my eyes at the pleasant looking house.
“I think I’ll stick with ‘something’.”

“That’s probably much more accurate.
This place it’s…it’s a portal, of sorts. A Nexus. It attracts and houses the worst of the worst.”

“Right here in this cute little subdivision?”

He shrugged. “This is where it is now. Who’s to say where it’ll turn up later? It’s wherever darkness gathers.”

“Cheery.”

“That’s my motto.”

I reached for the comfo
rt of the tiny knife in my pocket. It didn’t make me feel much better.

“The worst of the worst, huh?”

The ink of Mouth’s robes flickered.

“I can handle it,” I said with more bravado than I felt.

“Sure.”

It was an awkward mome
nt. I stared at the pleasant looking house and took a deep breath. Demon or no demon, I reached out and squeezed Mouth’s hand. It flashed tangibly in mine for just a second, and then it was smoke again.

“All right, then.
Wish me luck.” I took a step toward the house.

“Wait!” He flowed up to me, grabbed my face with his misty hands and stared directly in
to my eyes. “You’re going to see some things in there. They might be wonderful. They might be horrible. You need to know they’re not fully real. Do you understand that? They’re tricks. Deceit. This place plays with your mind. You need to stay conscious of what truly exists and what doesn’t, got that? No going nuts in there, Luna Masterson.”

He pulled me to him
and pressed his mouth to mine. I tasted anger and misery, a shadow of cool air. Then he stepped through me and disappeared completely.

The demonic bossing me around
. Telling me not to go nuts when I felt most ready to. Story of my life.

Chapter Twenty-Four

My stomach lurched when the doorknob turned easily under my hand. I expected the door to creak, but it opened silently and I stepped inside.

Hazy light filtered through t
he windows, making it difficult to see the sparse furniture and filthy red carpet. It looked like the carpet had been ripped up, snapped out by a giant hand, and left to lie where it fell.

“Hello?” I called.
I didn’t expect an answer, but it seemed abnormal to simply saunter in unannounced. My mama didn’t raise rude little girls. That’s what I told myself, anyway. Honestly, I was trying to restore some sense of order to the place. Maybe it would keep me from flipping out.

Stop. Get a hold of yourself.
I released the breath slowly and realized my fingernails were digging into the palms of my hands. The sound of water echoed, a sickly trickle that inexplicably filled me with thoughts of taint and decay. I was as drawn to the sound of the water as I was repulsed by it. My imagination was already starting to run away with me. A gigantic, grotesque fountain? An undead demon with a river of human blood pouring from its mouth? Sweet Lydia drowning in a bathtub, just like her father?

That last thought nearly broke me.
The paralyzing fear that kept me hovering near the front door was nothing compared to the vivid picture I had painted in my head. I nearly flew over the rumpled carpet, following the liquid noise.

“Lydia?” I called.
“Baby girl?” I didn’t care who heard me; I just needed to get to her. The despair and panic clawed its way up my throat. I tripped over a wrinkle in the carpet and nearly fell, but quickly righted myself. “It’s Luna Mama, sweetheart. I’m coming!”

A faded red curtain hung over a doorway leading to an adjacent room.
The weak sound of trickling water came from behind it. Now a cautious Luna would take a second and think about her options. She would silently approach the curtain, listen for sounds of movement, and then warily peek through to see if it was safe to proceed to the other side.

Cautious Luna had been thrown by the wayside the second I saw Lydia’s pale, cherubic face in my mind. If something happened to her, I wouldn’t want to live.
I’d yell at my brother for being selfish and hogging that suicidal bathtub when he should have shoved over and given his horrible sister some room to do herself in, as well.

I finally saw the water and stopped abruptly.

It wasn’t Lydia.
It wasn’t Lydia.

I
sagged against the wall, waiting for my heart to start beating again. My eyes were full of tears, which surprised me, and I wiped them on the back of my leather jacket. This newfound fragility was irritating. I scowled and did a quick scan of the room for any sign of life, but I couldn’t see anything except for the bizarre sight in front of me.

In the center of the room, resting on the disheveled red carpet, sat a large
fish tank. It was tilted heavily to the side, and water was running out of the top and soaking into the carpet underneath. I looked down at my combat boots and raised one foot. The carpet was soaked. It had absorbed far more water than the tank had would have been able to hold. Strange.

My eyes caught a flash of color, and I carefully stepped forward.
The floor was littered with starfish. All sizes. All colors. I reached down and tried to pick one up, but it adhered to the carpet. Still alive.

With a sharp plop, a starfish vaulted from the
fish tank and landed on the carpet. I blinked and felt my mouth twist. There was something so off and vicious about the movement. Was it escaping? Was it being tossed? Starfish are charming little things, but seeing it do something that shouldn’t be physically possible was making my hackles rise.

The tank vomited out another starfish
, and I had to look away.

Enough o
f this. Get in, find out if anybody knows where Lydia is, and get out.

“Keep it to
gether, Luna.”

I wished Reed Taylor was here.

The thought struck me right in the face like a fantastic left hook. It nearly dropped me to the floor, too. Why on earth would I be thinking about Reed Taylor when what he had done was so unforgivable? Man, I
must
be freaking out.

I shook my head
. Stepping over the silent starfish, I made my way to the cracked fish tank and peered inside. The smell that emanated from it was unholy and disturbingly familiar. Sweet with a slight metallic tang. My instincts demanded I run, but I only straightened up and turned my face away, my eyes still focused on the water. It wasn’t a fishy smell at all. I struggled to place it. Then I had it, and my stomach dropped.

“It’s blood.”

Almost like my words had conjured it, the clear water turned cloudy. The unceasing water began to run red, and the thick, sticky blood was quickly swallowed by the carpet. The starfish on the ground lifted themselves like spiders onto their legs and struggled to crawl away. The starfish in the tank began to scream. One sailed out of the bloody water and smacked into the side of the tank. The glass cracked and the starfish slowly slid back into the depths, leaving a bloody trail behind.

My breathing was coming much too fast.
I should sit down and put my head between my knees, but couldn’t bear to touch the damp carpet. Was it always red, or had the blood simply stained it this color? Blood pooled around my foot as I shifted my weight, and I thought I was going to be sick right there.

I had seen demons my entire life, but this was something beyond that.
There was something going on in this house that was more twisted and evil than anything I had ever experienced. I needed to be strong if I was going to overcome it. Suddenly I understood Mouth’s angry and despairing kiss and, for the first time, I realized I genuinely might not make it back out.

Chapter Twenty-
Five

There wasn’t anything else I wanted to see here. I stepped over the shrieking, crawling starfish and headed deeper into the house of horrors. What was it Mouth had said? This house was full of illusions and deceptions. Starfish didn’t scamper around like that. Water didn’t turn into blood. This wasn’t real.

Still, I wasn’t going to chance fate by standing around and
declaring shenanigans. I was here to find Lydia, and that’s what I was going to do.

Blood wet my boots with every step. The carpet was no longer merely soggy but was drenched with more liquid than it could hold.
The place smelled like a slaughterhouse. I pressed on.

There were two doors on the back wall.
One was painted yellow and one was painted blue. I hate yellow, quite honestly, so I reached for the blue door.

“I wouldn’t do that,” said a voice.
I whirled around.

“Who said that?” I demanded angrily.
I couldn’t see anybody.

“It’s a trap.
Both doors lead to Hell.”

A small girl appeared out of the gloom and stood before me. Her eyes glowed in her dirty skin.
Dried blood was smeared across her face like bruises.

Part of me wanted to sweep her into my arms and run with her out of this house.
But the saner part of me pressed myself against the wall.

“Who are you?” I asked. I felt my eyes narrow.

When she spoke, her lips didn’t move.
“I am just someone. I am not to be feared, not like the others in this house.” She cocked her young head to one side and a pink ribbon flopped into her eyes. “Don’t touch the doors, Luna. You’ll regret it.”

She knew my name. I shouldn’t be surprised. I also didn’t see another way out except the way I came in. “So what am I supposed to do? I can’t just leave.”

“Yes, that’s exactly it.” Her strangely glowing eyes were earnest.
“Leave. Go outside and breathe the fresh air. Leave this place and its evils alone. You’re not supposed to be here. It’s unsafe.”

I snorted. “Like I
don’t know that? Listen, creepy little girl, I appreciate your help and all that, but I can’t just run, you know? I need to save my niece. Do you know where she is? Her name is Lydia. She was taken by a woman named Spark…er, Cecilia. Cecilia has a demon, and—”

Suddenly the little girl’s nostrils quivered, and her eyes widened.
“You have…the Mark? I can smell it on you.” Her eyes went wild, which was even more disconcerting because her pale mouth didn’t change expression at all.

I pressed my back closer to the wall and looked around for something to use as a weapon.
I was afraid this was going to go badly.

The girl closed her eyes and sniffed the air again like an animal. When she looked at me, her eyes seemed to be smiling.
“Ah, you are not alone. He doesn’t come with you, I see, but still he is here. This is good.”

I reached behind me, groping for the doorknob.
“Okay, Miss Child of the Corn, I really don’t have the time to chat. I’ve got some demon to fry.”

The girl looked sad. “I wish you could win, Luna. For his sake more than yours.”

I bristled. “What do you mean? Of course I’m going to win. This,” I said, drawing a circle around my face with my hand, “is the face of a winner. And don’t you forget it.”

I thought the girl nearly smiled then, but it faded quickly. She rolled her eyes to the ceiling and was quiet for a second. I didn’t dare look away from her, but I felt behind me for the doorknob again.

Her shining eyes pinned me against the wall, and her words were loud in my ears. “They know you’re here.” Her voice was heavy with sorrow. “I so wanted you to have a chance.” She started to tremble and then went into full-on convulsions.

“Hey. Hey!
Are you all right?” I reached out to grab her, but her skin was hot, like flaming metal, and she burned my fingers. I gasped and yanked my hands back. The girl fell to the ground, and I knelt down beside her on the bloody carpet.

“Tell me what I can do to help
.” I tried to touch her again, but her clothes were starting to smoke and flame. I scooted away and covered my face with my hands. This was too much. It was too horrible.

“You give up too easily.”

I jerked my head up at the sound of the girl’s voice. Her body was charring and melting in front of me, but her voice was just as calm as it had been when she had first spoken to me. I looked around, but I couldn’t see any other source for her voice.

“How are you speaking to me?” I looked away from the tiny smoldering body.

I practically heard the voice shrug. “I am here. In this place. I didn’t want to scare you so I chose the body of a young girl to speak to you. You humans are all so fragile.”

I surged to my feet.
“You
what?
You chose to look like a little tiny burning girl? What are you, some kind of sicko?” My hands were on my hips, and I was ready to give this disembodied voice a piece of my mind. The voice interrupted me mid-rant.

“There’s no time. Check my body.”

My mouth dropped open. “Check your body? There’s no way I’m going to get close to that thing! Are you insane?”

The house shook
, and I nearly dropped to my knees. The voice sounded angry.

“The body. Now.”

“Bite me.”

“Don’t you want your little niece back?” the voice
cooed. “I thought that you would do anything to save her. Perhaps not.”

“Wait,” I said.
The desperate hope in my voice shamed me. “Is she here? Do you know where Lydia is?”

“I’m trying to help
you. For her sake as well as yours, please do as I’ve asked.”

I crawled over the b
loody carpet to the smoking body. The smell made me a little bit hungry, and that just made me sick. “Ugh, I’m disgusting!”

“Luna.”

“All right, all right.”

I gingerly rolled the bones and tatters of material over until I saw what I was looking for. A shiny blue stone hanging from a chain around her neck.
“This?”

“Put it on.”

“Not a chance.”

“Do you want to find the girl or not?
I can’t help you if you don’t wear the pendant.”

“What does it do? Shine with a holy light or some crap? I don’t steal jewelry from dead girls. Just isn’t my style.”

Suddenly I heard them. Lydia’s screams. They came from inside the room and out, looping round and round like terror itself set on repeat.

“Baby girl!”
I looked around, but of course she wasn’t there.

Her screams became louder and nearly drove me to my knees. Over her wailing, I heard the disembodied voice of the burning little girl.

“You’re killing her! You’re killing her! Quick, the pendant.”

I snatched the chain
and ripped it from around the corpse’s neck. I put it on and tucked it under my shirt.

“Okay.
Now what?”

Lydia’s screaming stopped abruptly. The silence rang uncomfortably in my ears.

“So fragile,” the voice said, and the chain around my neck tightened.

I gagged and clawed at it with my hands.
It had seemed like such a delicate thing, but I couldn’t manage to break it. I was hyperventilating but no air would come in.

I was going to die like this, here in this room.
No Lydia. No Seth. No Mouth and no Reed Taylor. This made me infinitely sad.

I fell to my knees, my hands tearing ineffectually at the
necklace.

“You don’t know how you smell,” the voice said.
It was right by my ear. I felt something slide down the back of my neck and come to rest on the Tracing. “It’s absolutely divine, and we don’t get a lot of divinity in this place.” I felt pressure on the Mark increasing as the voice probed the area.

Oh no
, it di’n’t.
That kickstarted the rebellion in me. I swiped at the air and connected with something that offered a familiar resistance: demon. No demon was sticking its dirty finger into my soul; not if I could help it.

I needed a way out.
My vision was going spotty and my initial panic was starting to die down into a dull haze. I was sitting right next to the blue door; the one the demon had initially stopped me from opening.

If the demon wanted me to stay away from the door, then there must be a reason for it.
I grabbed the doorknob and pulled it open.

“No!” gasped the demon, and the chain pulled even tighter around my neck.
I was already out of air so what did it matter? I pulled myself to the door, saluted, and dragged myself over the threshold.

Then I was falling, and everything went black.