Descent 04 - Damnation Marked by SM Reine

Author:SM Reine
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-09-24T04:00:00+00:00

Anthony was sleeping when Hell arrived in Reno.

He twitched awake and almost fell off the couch. Betty’s album dropped from his lap, hit the floor, and bounced closed.

The right side of his face was tacky with drying saliva, and he winced as he tried to wipe his cheek clean. The spot where his head had been resting was a damp circle. His muscles ached, his back cracked, and it hurt to sit upright.

The apartment was dark. Even the microwave clock had gone out, which meant he didn’t have power. But even without the lights, it was too dark, as though the sun had gone into hiding. How long had he been sleeping? It couldn’t have been night yet.

He stumbled to the window, stiff and graceless. He had to press his face to the glass to see the sky beyond the bars and between the buildings behind them.

And he looked straight up into a city suspended over his own. Ash fluttered and wheeled through the wind. The mirror of Anthony’s apartment building was decaying.

For an instant, he felt fear. He registered that something was horribly wrong, and that he needed to call Elise.

Calm blanketed him. It’s just a bad dream.

“Yeah. I’m dreaming again.” He went to the kitchenette sink and splashed water on his face. He had been dreaming of the city a lot—every night, in fact.

He dreamed of being lost among empty buildings on white cobblestone streets, of pulling the shotgun’s trigger and watching brains spray against the wall, of seeing angels wheeling overhead as madness overcame them.

You should go for a walk.

He needed air. The apartment was too small.

Anthony turned to leave.

A young girl, barely a teenager, stood in the center of the room. Her blond hair was looped around her head in a milkmaid’s braid, framing a face that was still round with baby fat. She wore pale blue capris and a white shirt tied at her midriff. And her plump lips were red—very red.

She hadn’t been there a few minutes before, but he was certain that she had been waiting for him in the apartment for a long time.

Anthony realized she had been watching him sleep, and felt nothing.

Her mouth didn’t move when she spoke.

Could you help me?

The question sent sadness lancing through him. She was so lost and alone. She needed his help—needed him—so much more than Elise ever had.

“Yeah, of course,” he said. “Anything you need.”

She followed him to the front steps of his apartment building. Cars were jammed against each other in every lane, bumper-to-bumper, with nowhere to go.

The hellish, rotting mass of the ethereal city loomed overhead. Anthony heard screams—but none of that mattered.

The blond girl held out a hand. He took it.

Together, they walked into the city.

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