M. L. Rhodes - Into the Woods by Rhodes M. L

Author:Rhodes, M. L [Alchemy, Elemental]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

Shaun’s dreams were full of darkness.

And pain.

He couldn’t outrun either. He’d tried, but over and over again,

they chased him through the shadows, finding him in every corner, down every path, where his subconscious mind tried to hide. He felt like he’d been running for hours, days, weeks—he didn’t know because it all bled together. Yet no matter where he’d been or what he’d seen in this place of illusion, he always circled back around to where he was now, teetering on the brink of some deep abyss. Afraid to stay where he was, but even more terrified to jump into the murky unknown of whatever lay below.

Ghouls and demons, monsters and fiends had led him from one horrific nightmare to the next, taunting him. And just like it had been when he was younger and had devoured all the horror novels he could find in spite of how much they’d scared him, he felt like he was searching for something. Some elusive something that might offer up a grain of meaning, that might help him understand. But just like the novels, all he’d found here so far was confusion and paralyzing fear.

As much as he despised it here in this dark land of horrors, he couldn’t bring himself to return to the other side either. The nondream side. Because there, the light that seared into him like a piercing and jagged bolt of lightning, that revealed him for what he really was, held nothing but more pain.

There, everything he’d ever known had grown hazy, taken over by a new, sharp-edged reality that cut through him to the core, tearing him apart to his very cells, and putting him back together as something he didn’t even want to contemplate. A Frankenstein, created by the humorless genius of his own genetic code.

There, on the side with the light, the sharp edges hurt too much. And all he had to look forward to, and to offer, was more pain. And not just for him. His presence there threatened… someone…

He grasped for the ephemeral thread that would tell him who the someone was, but missed it as it floated just out of reach. He just knew it was someone important. Someone he couldn’t bear to put in danger.

Except therein lay the problem. Because it appeared that no matter which side he chose, danger stalked him anyway. It was all around him. And no matter what he did, he couldn’t escape it. Just like the pain.

And so he sank into a new nightmare…

* * * The noise woke him. Something loud and clanging. It sounded like the big bell, the “dinner gong” Mama always called it, hanging on the back porch.

For several seconds he lay still, rubbing his favorite blue blanket against his cheek. He liked how the satin edge of it felt. He used to hold it against his face while he sucked his thumb, but the first day of kindergarten last month, when Matty Jablonski told him only babies sucked their thumbs, he’d come home and informed Mama he was done with it.

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