The Blood by D.J. MacHale

Author:D.J. MacHale
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

18

“He ate people’s sins?” Coop asked, incredulous. “Like … munching on a turkey leg?”

“The power of the human spirit has few limits,” the Watcher answered. “I don’t know if the whole feasting cere­mony was necessary other than to help Brennus believe he was actually taking on the negative history of the dead. But he thought it worked, so it did.”

Cooper and Marsh were sitting in the dwelling of the Watcher. They had crossed the rickety footbridge to the island, where a small door at the base of the clock tower opened to reveal a narrow set of circular stairs leading down. The Watcher led them to a subterranean room that was decorated with bits and pieces taken from many ages and visions. Most of the furniture was wooden and heavy as if it belonged in a mountain cabin. The artwork looked as if it had come from a museum, with works by past masters that the boys recognized from field trips to New York. Classical Greek busts stood next to a bronze pirouetting ballerina that danced beneath an alien-looking mobile. It was an eclectic oasis that showed no signs of the sad decay that characterized every other aspect of the Blood. It wasn’t at all what Marsh and Cooper expected.

Neither was the Watcher. He sat in a chair with his boots up on a desk, flipping a basketball back and forth, looking every bit like somebody’s youthful dad.

Or uncle.

Marsh asked, “And he kept on eating sins in the Black after he died?”

The Watcher nodded. “It destroyed whatever shred of humanity he had left. When he was finally sent to the Blood, he was in his element. He rallied thousands of desperate souls with the promise of escape.”

Unlike the Watcher who had sent them there, this man spoke normally with his words coming from his mouth.

“But you stopped him,” Marsh said.

“Many spirits didn’t go along with him. A good number fought back because of the trouble he was causing.”

“Trouble?” Coop exclaimed with a laugh. “How can this place get any worse?”

“You have no idea,” the Watcher said. “With no true order, the visions overlap.”

“We’ve seen that,” Marsh said. “You don’t know when you’re moving from one to the next.”

“Exactly. Spirits try to maintain some sanity by keeping to their own personal vision, which is bad enough, but when you pile on the horror of other visions, it makes being here unbearable. Brennus agitated the spirits and moved them around, which created chaos by jumbling multiple visions together and making it impossible for any spirit to stay within their own space. So yes, he made the Blood worse than it already was.”

“He made it hell to be in hell,” Coop said.

“I guess you could put it that way,” the Watcher said. “A group of spirits banded together to try to return some sense of balance. They captured Brennus and put him in a place where he can’t use his influence. He’s in a prison within a prison.”

“Why didn’t you just destroy him and be done with it?” Coop asked.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.