Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 89023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
“Fine,” Syrsee says. “But that doesn’t tell me what to do.”
Lucia frowns, then throws up her hands. “I don’t know what to do. All I know is—”
But that’s as far as she gets, at least from my perspective. Because suddenly I am yanked back through the water, and then next thing I know I’m in the cave and Josep the Vampire is staring down at me.
He is… angry.
Terrifying.
Evil personified.
He smiles. “You have been a bad, bad, bad Little Baby.”
And then he attacks me.
23 - Syrsee
What a trick he is
There is a scream, the likes of which I’ve never heard before. And in this scream comes understanding.
I have always known the vampire Paul. He’s been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. But it is in this moment here, when Echo is viciously yanked out of the mist and back into her reality, that I finally understand who and what he really is.
A demon.
Evil incarnate.
And the funny thing is, it’s not even Paul who forces this awareness.
It’s Josep. Who is Paul, but worse. Because he’s the one who just pulled Echo out of my mist and as Lucia and I stand in front of the mirror and watch, our mouths open in complete horror, he rips an arm right off her body.
I scream and Lucia slaps a hand over my mouth, leaning in to my ear. “Shhh.”
But it’s too late. The monster called Josep turns towards us, looking down into what must be a pool of water inside his lair, and he is snarling.
In one hand he holds Echo’s bloody limb and in the other, he’s got Ryet by his leg. Thankfully, still attached.
I put a hand over Lucia’s hand over my mouth, just to make double sure I don’t scream. My Ryet. Josep’s got him and he looks dead. He’s not moving, he’s covered in bite marks, and the only reason I don’t freak out about all this is because I don’t think he can die.
Surely, though, there are things worse than death. Even I understand this.
But as I think those thoughts, Josep is in my head, laughing. It’s the most sinister laugh I’ve ever heard. Could ever even imagine. And then he’s got a hold of me somehow.
Not my body, which is somewhere else in the lodge right now, but my mind that is here in the purple and gold mist.
Then we are somewhere else. All the gold is gone and there’s nothing left but the purple.
The magic of vampires.
Josep has given up all his beautiful pretenses. His long, pointed fangs are dripping blood and his eyes are dark, black, empty pits. His muscular blue-black body with fully outstretched wings looms large over me.
It’s not real. He’s not real. At least not here. We’re dreamwalking, Syrsee. It’s not real.
No matter how many times I try and convince myself of this, it doesn’t work. I’m shocked still with fear. I don’t do anything but stare at him, wondering how the hell I got here.
“The truth,” Josep says, his voice deep and rumbly. “That’s how you got here. You started asking questions. Which is a very stupid thing to do if you don’t want to know the answers.” He pauses here to laugh and smile. “Do you want to ask questions, Syrsee? Do you want answers?”
“I want you to leave Ryet alone,” I blurt. “Let him go or else!”
He laughs again, this time louder. “Or else what?”
“Or else… I’ll stop you. I’ll stop everything you’re doing and—”
“I don’t need you!” His response cuts me off and it’s so loud, it shakes the space we’re in like an earthquake. “I don’t need you!” And now he’s growling at me. “I don’t need Ryet either. Paul does. And so…” He lets out a breath, like he’s collecting himself. Pulling back his anger. “And so, Ryet has to go.”
“Go where?” But as soon as the words come out, I know where.
“The endless, eternal nothingness of infinite Darkness.”
And then we’re there.
Or, rather, we’re nowhere. It’s an absolute sucking away of everything. No air to breathe. No lungs to breathe it. No light, no eyes, no sound, no ears.
Just nothing.
I can’t scream, I can’t talk, I can’t move.
It’s like being trapped inside… evil.
That’s the only way to describe it. I’m trapped inside evil.
“No,” Josep bellows. “You are evil, Syrsee. Just like me. Just like Paul. Just like Ryet. You. Live. Here. Inside the nothingness. For all eternity. And there is no way back.”
A vision appears in front of me. Like a movie, but I’m inside it. And I suddenly know everything. All the truth I ever wanted plays out around me. It’s like I read every book in the Guild library, and understood all the meanings of every word, all at once. I see the Darkness, and Josep, and Paul, and Lucia, and Ryet, and me. I see everything about all of them.