Lovely, Dark & Deep by Megan Stockton

Author:Megan Stockton [Stockton, Megan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-02-09T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter eighteen

Landon

Landon sat outside of the funeral home for several long moments. The windshield wipers had all but stopped working halfway down the road; the amount of debris that collided with the vehicle, combined with the strength of the wind, was just too much. He had expected Chris to be on him, but even as Landon lingered in the UTV, Chris never emerged from the building.

Before going inside, he tried to combat the emotions that were flooding his senses. He was unnerved by what he had seen, upset and betrayed that Lyra didn’t believe him. But if the situation were reversed, he wouldn’t have believed her either, and he knew it. That bothered him too. He knew how crazy he had sounded, but he could still see the creature in his mind. He could still hear the sounds of it as it fed on Barbora, and he could still hear her voice as she pleaded with it… not to stop, but to keep going.

His stomach did a nervous, sickened flip, and a gust of wind rocked the UTV so hard that Landon gripped the seat for security. After the incident, he had known better than to ask if he could take his gun with him, but he still had a baton, flares, and a pocket knife. Honestly, he wasn’t sure he had it in him to fire the gun again… even if he came face to face with one of those things again.

Landon banged on the door. No one answered, so he let himself in. The interior of the building was illuminated by rows of dimly lit yellow bulbs: the emergency lights that were powered by the generator. He could hear the gas-operated machine working loudly outside, clunking like an overfilled dryer. The back door led immediately into a mudroom, then coolers to the right, through a door that Landon assumed was locked. Chris wouldn’t have any reason to be in the cool room at this time of night, anyway… especially not in this storm.

“Chris?” he called, voice echoing down the hallway ahead of him.

A thumping was the only sound that he heard in return. He edged down the hall towards Chris’ office, his hand on the baton at his side as his pulse skyrocketed. For a brief moment, he thought he might turn around and leave. He had never experienced the urge of flight like this before: that intense and innate need to flee for the purposes of self-preservation.

He rounded the corner and found the office to be empty, but the thumping sound was persistent. A rattling of metal led him to the filing cabinet beside the desk. He removed the baton from his duty belt and clutched it with white-knuckled fear, using his other hand to carefully pull open the drawer.

The red cat leapt out of the drawer in a fury, hissing and spitting as it landed on the floor between Landon’s feet.

“What the—“

The cat oriented itself, looking around the room with several purring huffs, and then it gently rubbed Landon’s left leg.

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