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I scanned the street and sidewalk, seeing nothing but cars I walked toward the corner, sticking close to the large retaining wall I reached the corner and looked around Nothing Nothing at allMy gaze dropped

So I stepped closer, squinting The streetla looked rumpled, but there was a shape to it I breathed in sharply and there was the scent ofof burnt flesh

I jerked back and stumbled to the side That wasn’t just clothes Oh s were stretched at an aard angle A torso twisted to the side, and a aped open, skin charred at the corners Burnt sockets where eyes should’ve been The entire face was charred

I dragged in gulps of tainted air as I pinwheeled backward Horror seized me Oh God, that was a body--a body like Colleen’s and Amanda’s, and the bodies of that faun, but I’d left both of them in my car

Because I was an idiot in the middle of an utter breakdown--

The streetla in a shower of sparks I whirled as the one across the street blew out too One after the other, all the way down the street, la the entire block into darkness

My mouth dry, I backed up and then turned Darkness blanketed the sidewalk, blocking out the cars parked along the road It was so dark, it was like I’d lost hly, and my breath puffed out as a misty cloud in the air Goose bumps spread across my flesh The terees

He was back--oh God, I was such an idiot, and I was going to get myself killed

The darkness suddenly shifted and it--it pulsed, expanding and deepening, reaching out towardthe hair offacrosstook shape right before my eyes

Oh crap

That wasn’t a shadow or darkness I didn’t even think it was the psycho Origin This was sohtmares Was it an Arum? E about the like thes

Instinct flared to life once ave in I spun around and took off, running as fast as I could I darted into the right, utterly blind in the cloaking darkness Panic dug in, but I kept going--

My legs and hips sla s out fro backward I threw out rab on to except cold air

I went down fast,into the sidewalk a second before the back ofthe base ofstark white-hot pain down ht burst behind

29

For the second time in I don’t even kno otten where I was, but I recognized the daht, I scanned the diht I was alone until I saw Luc rise from the couch like a wraith

"You’re awake," he said, his voice flat Distant

I scooted to the edge of the bed "Why am I here?"

"Well" He walked around the couch but stopped at the edge of the raised platforht’ve knocked yourself out byrunning into a parked car"

"I did?" A brief ihed "I did"

"You took a pretty nasty hit to the head" He leaned against the back of the couch, staying to the shadows of the room "You weren’t seriously injured, but II fixed it"

"With your speciallike that"

I pushed my hair back I couldn’t believe I’d actually knockedinto a car God officially hated irl alked out in front of a speeding truck," he said "Well, that’s the story I heard"

Walking out in front of ainto a parked car and knocking myself out "Is that supposed to make me feel better?"