Soul Bound by Mari Mancusi

Author:Mari Mancusi [Mancusi, Mari]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Juvenile Fiction, Fiction, Girls & Women, Horror
ISBN: 9781101577110
Google: 2v6r-JgRH9QC
Amazon: B006LU1PAW
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2012-03-06T06:00:00+00:00

17

During the summer, New Jersey’s Seaside Heights is a bustling beach community, home to a boardwalk, amusement park rides, cheesy clubs, and sometimes an MTV reality show. But in the chill of winter, it’s very much a ghost town, with only a few shady locals wandering down the otherwise empty boardwalk of boarded-up shops and bars. A fittingly gloomy location, I suppose, for the entrance to Hell.

We park outside a small nondescript cottage, like hundreds of others lining the narrow streets, a few blocks away from the beach. Prim exits the limo first, pulling a long, golden key from his pocket. He’s changed from his hipster drummer duds to the more fitting “black gown of death” uniform, complete with requisite giant scythe.

“Right this way, folks,” he says in the low, menacing voice he’s adopted since beginning the tour. “To the gates to Underworld!”

I guess it’s all part of the show, but still, I can’t help it as a small shiver trips down my back. The gates of the Underworld. It sounds so ominous. And the magnitude of what we’re about to do is starting to kick in big time. We’re leaving the world—the Earth as we know it—to purposely travel into the fiery pits of Hell.

Where I plan to make a deal with the devil. Literally.

I glance over at Jareth, wishing I could reach over and slip my hand into his as I so often used to do. But he’s barely acknowledged my presence since we left the underground vampire encampment and is currently staring vacantly off into the night sky, an empty shell of the boyfriend I love so much. And as much as right now I want to bury myself in his arms and find comfort in his cool, strong embrace, I know for a fact that if I reach out, if I try to make a move toward him, I’ll only end up pushing him further and further away. For now, I must content myself with the fact that he is here—at least a part of him—ready to help me save my sister. Anything beyond that will have to wait.

Prim opens the cottage door and leads us through a dusty, cobweb-draped living room, the seventies-style, flower-patterned furniture all wrapped up in plastic. Guess no one has used this particular gateway to the Underworld in quite a while. We step into a dark and silent kitchen, then through a creaky screen doorway leading out onto the cottage’s back patio. There, amongst the requisite glass-and-wicker furniture, my eyes fall upon a large Jacuzzi in the center of the yard. Unlike everything else in the cottage, which has clearly sat unused for years, the Jacuzzi is lit up with rotating red, green, and purple lights, the steam from the hot water rising up into the night air. I glance over at Prim.

“Hot tub time machine to Hell?” I query.

He chuckles. “Something like that.”

“Classy.”

“Well, it does help people warm up to the idea,” Race says with a laugh. “Get it? Warm up?”

I roll my eyes.

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