The Bad Ones by Kelly Martin

Author:Kelly Martin [Martin, Kelly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Monster Ivy Publishing

Chapter Sixteen

“What happened?” Nora yelled from downstairs.

Nora!

He’d left her down there all alone. She held the door so the Bad Ones couldn’t get in, and the worst one already had.

“Hold on! I’m coming.” Jesse ran down the hallway and down the steps until he slammed his shoulder into the front door beside Nora.

She flinched. “That was quick.”

“Told you I’d come back.” He winked. Nothing in him felt the slightest bit jovial in the moment, but he felt like he needed to try to lighten the mood, as much as it could be lightened.

“Where did Martha go?”

Jesse shook his head as the door rippled harder from the shadows outside. “It wasn’t Martha.”

“What?” Nora stood straighter, making all the weight of the ripple hit Jesse’s shoulder. The wind nearly got knocked out of him, and he braced himself upright against the wall to keep the door from busting open. “Oh, sorry.” Nora planted herself against the door once more. “Now, what do you mean that wasn’t Martha?”

“It wasn’t Martha. I didn’t know until we were on the stairs, and she dragged me to the bathroom. I thought it was Martha, but she’d changed somehow. Turns out, it wasn’t Martha at all.”

Nora’s eyes went wide. “Then who was it?”

“Ingrid.”

“Fake Nora?”

Jesse saw Nora shake. He wished he could do something to make her feel better or at least lie and tell her everything would be okay. He remembered when she’d first gotten to Reflectionland, after he’d told her not to leave the bathroom, and she did anyway. It was the first time she’d seen The Bad Ones. Nora had seen and heard the scariest things imaginable, and she still talked to him like she wanted to make him feel better. They talked about his family, and though it was difficult to think of them without getting sad, it did make him feel better to have someone to talk to about them. He wanted to do the same for Nora. He thought and thought to come up with something to get her mind off Ingrid, off worrying about her brother. He wanted more than anything, well anything besides getting home and stopping Ingrid once and for all, to help Nora feel better. He wanted to tell her everything would be alright. Maybe he wanted to tell her that as much for him as her. Instead of coming up with anything to tell her, Jesse rubbed her shoulder to let her know she wasn’t alone, and let her know that everything would be okay.

Except it wasn’t. Nothing would be okay again. Not as long as Ingrid was out in the world, and they were stuck in the mirror.

“What did she want?”

“She wanted me. She said my blood was the key to getting out of Reflectionland. I had no idea, Nora. You have to believe me.”

“Out of Reflectionland. Wait … Where did she go, Jesse?”

“She … she used my blood. And she touched the mirror. She’s gone. She’s in the real world.”

Nora blinked a few times as the words sank in.

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