On the wake of their sprint down the street, another figure materializes on the sidewalk across from us. Rollick peers after the fleeing humans with one eyebrow arched and then contemplates the rest of our surroundings, including the blended rhino-bat creature that’s currently snorting at its legs in their new icicle-esque state.
“It looks like you’ve been dealing with quite a few not-nice ones,” the demon remarks in his usual droll tone. Despite his emotional control, tension streams off him like black coffee poured to overflowing. “Good to see the humans are moving in the right direction, though. Those few, anyway.” He lifts his chin toward the half-frozen beast. “You’ve been showing your powers in front of them?”
“We had to,” I insist. “It’d be too hard to protect the mortals otherwise. Even with that… It’s taking too long.”
My gaze veers toward the vast sprawl of the city ahead of us. We’ve barely penetrated the suburbs.
One of Rollick’s assistants who’s continued trailing behind us pipes up. “I tried to tell them you wouldn’t approve?—”
I spin toward him, setting my hands on my hips. “Well, I don’t approve of all the humans drowning in some weird rift’s shadow-vomit.”
Rollick sounds as if he’s stifled a guffaw. “And it’s a good thing I don’t either. Desperate times… We can feed them some kind of story afterward. They’ll probably be too bewildered to trust their memories anyway.”
Jonah clears his throat. “Should we keep going, then? It seems like the rift is up overhead now—is there any sign of it sucking the flood back in like it did the smaller ones before?”
“No. Not yet.” His former boss hesitates for a moment—a very un-Rollick-like thing to do. Even the demon’s confidence has been shaken.
He drags in a breath. “Keep sending off as many mortals as you can. And I think I’d better summon some assistance.”
He gestures to his assistant. “Get me the numbers for every shadowkind contact I have in a hundred-mile radius. We’re calling them all in.”
3
Mirage
I’ve never seen so many bewildered beings.
The shadowkind creatures that pop out of the murk here and there don’t seem to know whether they’re coming or going, heading up or down, forwards or backwards.
Over here, one pounces on a mailbox and squirms inside it only to thrash at the metal box until the beast tears straight through the middle, as if it was offended at finding itself inside.
Over there, another creature careens through a second story window, thumps to the ground in the middle of the road, and immediately spins around and scrambles to the doorway to yowl at it like it’s demanding to be let back in.
We pass a gaunt, goat-like creature rubbing itself against a telephone pole to the point that it’s bleeding essence in smoky puffs from its raw flesh. Then a squishy thing that might be made out of living marshmallows chewing chunks off a tire between wheezy gagging sounds.
Around a corner lies another poor human who’s been cut up by a beast. The beast in question is sprawled out across the bleeding body like a dog on a mat. As we approach it warily, it nuzzles the woman’s lifeless face as if trying to prod her awake.
It’d have more luck with that goal if it hadn’t killed her first.
“They’re even more topsy-turvy than usual,” I remark as Raze shoos the bloody hound away from the corpse. “Inside and out. Act like a lout.”
The rhyme doesn’t give me even the brief flicker of comfort they usually do. I find myself nibbling at my lower lip, which is generally a bad idea when you have non-removable fangs.
Peri touches my arm with a waft of mingled concern and reassurance. “The rift is a gazillion times more warped as it was before, so it makes sense that the creatures are too. We just need to figure out how to help them.”
Hail grimaces. “Or put them out of their misery as quickly as possible, if that’s what absolutely has to be done.”
His pained expression shows how much he dislikes that idea. But we have a lot more pain to worry about.
“Time to come out, everyone!” Peri calls to the buildings around us. Her own weird creature squirms around her feet with its puppy-ish tongue flopping around, but thankfully it doesn’t seem to be in an eviscerating mood. “Hide-and-seek isn’t a safe game right now. We’re going to play follow the leader and get out of this place.”
To punctuate her words, a nearby store awning partly collapses. One end smacks into the sidewalk while the other flips upward. It wobbles there on its side like a fabric sapling swaying in a breeze.
The shadowy substance around us ripples against my skin. My nerves wobble just like the toppled awning.
Everything about this strange flood of darkness itches at my being. I can’t shake it off, but I can’t settle into it either.
These aren’t the same sort of shadows we’re made out of, not exactly. There’s something a little too sticky-solid about them.
