inch of rubber on the road to make it in time. And I still don’t know how to lock the gate or where it is, exactly. But the way to calculate the coordinates is here. It’s got to be. I can’t stop. Not right now.”
I stood up and wavered for a minute. God dammit. Weren’t you not supposed to split up in horror movies? Finally I headed back to the entrance, wriggled a two-by-four loose from the hastily-made barricade, making sure it still had a nail in it, and set off to find the source of the sound, hoping it was just a stray cat that had gotten in. I didn’t want to smack it or anything, even one of the Society’s nark cats, but I was so jittery that anything seemed possible.
My feet sounded very loud on the slick tile, tempting me to take my shoes off and walk in my socks. But whoever was in the library with us was at least as loud, though it sounded like they were heading away from the Room of Protection. They wouldn’t know how to get in there anyway.
I stalked towards the noises, board raised over my shoulder like a baseball bat. Never split up in a horror movie. Something is always going to get you. Who didn’t know that? Even the kids had already watched movies where that lesson was taught. It didn’t have to be Evil Dead or whatever. Like, this was Land Before Time territory.
Worse yet, while I was bumbling around in the pitch blackness, following whatever I should have been running away from, Johnny was alone, head down, not listening for danger, surrounded by those weird books and scrolls, some of which had seemed to be faintly flickering or not really there, or had hissed at her from their chains, or were definitely moving slightly. Dammit.
Maybe it was a decoy, meant to lure me away from her, as if she were not the one compared to a dog and a snake and an ant, all things that could defend themselves. As if I had ever been able to defend either of us.
I wavered. Still. Still. She was the thing we had to protect, not me. Finally I turned away from the noises and walked swiftly back to the room—just in time to spot a shadow emerging from a corridor, heading for the secret door. Though briefly silhouetted in the moonlight, I knew who it was at once—the face was blinding in its whiteness now, as white as a mushroom, as if not even a trace of blood could be persuaded to move in the veins.
“Hey!” I yelled. “Get away from there!”
He growled, a prolonged, deep-throated noise that made the hair on my neck stand up. And then he was shambling towards me so fast I barely had time to get a hand up in front of my face, feeling his fist sink into my stomach. He hadn’t hit quite low enough to wind me, but I staggered back and—well, you swung first, pal—tagged him with the two-by-four, aiming for his head, managing a glancing blow off his shoulder instead.
He screeched, an inhuman noise of insult and pain; thick, clotted drops of something spill to the floor. I must have caught him with the nail. But he was coming at me again, roaring. I backed up, swinging the board in warning. “We don’t want trouble!” I shouted. “Just leave! Leave us alone!”
He grabbed my shirt, getting a handful of skin; I blinked in shock. How had he gotten inside the swing of the board without my noticing? It was like Drozanoth in Ben’s room.
But it didn’t matter; his hands had found my throat and we fell thrashing to the slippery floor. His fingers were icy, strong and slick, but weirdly unformed, as if the bones were embedded in wax. Cold battled the burn in my throat as everything went dark.
Fading... dying?
She’s not going to come get me
She’s not coming for me
Do something
But it was dark, and warm, and the pain was fading into the distance like an echo, and...
Didn’t think
Got caught
Do s—
I jammed a hand under his chin and shoved, feeling something grind under my palm. His grip loosened; I rolled free, weakly grabbed the board, and clocked him in the head.
He flopped onto his back, more clotted grey stuff flowing from his mouth onto the intricate tiles. I stood panting for a second to make sure he wasn’t going to get up, then ran back to find