Gnosis: A Psychic Urban Fantasy by Rick Hall

Author:Rick Hall [Hall, Rick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Psychic, Supernaturals, Thriller, UF, YA
ISBN: 9781092661188
Published: 2019-05-08T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER twenty-nine

Iwanted to die.

A swirling cloud of red and orange flames wrapped around me like a swarm of enraged bees, stinging everywhere at once. I fell to the ground, trailed by the stench of hissing, crackling flesh, vaguely aware that I’d curled into a little ball. Hayden’s sneering face, barely visible through the smoke, winked in and out of view. I think she was speaking, but the muffled words turned to smoke and drifted off.

A crushing vise of pain squeezed my ribcage. For a moment, I couldn’t breathe. Bluish starbursts popped before my eyes, and my mind raced, chaotic and terrifying, mashing together agony, rage, and horror into one impossible feeling.

The warehouse disappeared and through a foggy haze, memories replaced it, one after another in rapid succession as my brain short-circuited in its death throes:

Dad’s smile of relief the moment before he collapsed to the pavement. Melvin, huddled in fear at the foot of the stairs in Shot and A Beer. A gunshot, and a dog’s yelp.

Next came Alexander, shuddering with rage, hacking at the prone form of Lucas Parker in a seedy hotel room. The memory lingered, and a rage echoing Alexander’s began to grow inside me.

I seethed.

Alexander would have killed Parker if he could have. Alexander, an innocent ten-year-old boy who loved everyone. Somehow, in that moment, he’d become a stranger. A killer.

The pages of my mind riffled.

A thousand more things I saw, each worse than the last. And in each memory, Hayden Reece’s face prowled at the edges, cackling and rubbing her hands together like some comic book villain.

My anger blossomed, spreading through my brain like a sudden thunderstorm.

Hayden. Freaking. Reece.

The throbbing in my body increased a notch, but I didn’t care. Even thinking about that bitch pushed me past physical pain.

I didn’t want to die. I wanted her to die.

And then I felt Dad. I couldn’t see him, but his presence was unmistakable. He looked down at me, shaking his head. Was he disappointed, seeing hatred consume me in my final moments as completely as the fire? Maybe he was sad to see his little girl dying so soon after him.

Or maybe it was disgust. I’d thrown away his sacrifice, raging headfirst against a pack of proven killers to murder someone I had no chance of beating. I should’ve run away like a rational person.

Like he wanted.

The image should have brought tears, but it didn’t. All this sadness, this frustration and rage, it wasn’t my fault. It wasn’t Dad’s either. No, the fault belonged to Hayden.

And then my anger abated a little, overshadowed by a sudden will to survive. I refused to let it end like this. I had to get up. Do something. Anything. Take Hayden out with me. Rid the world of a monster.

I forced my eyes open.

For an instant, vengeance seemed within my grasp. Hayden’s face filled my eyes, leaning over me in triumph. I reached out. If I could only get ahold of her throat, yank her to me, maybe set her alight with the flames that were already killing me.

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