It deliberately turned its head until I was looking our way. White slits for eyes bore into my own. I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think.
We were going to die.
I was going to die.
That’s all I knew and I knew it like I knew the sun rose in the east and set in the west.
You need answers.
I wasn’t sure if I thought it or the phrase just was plucked from the air. It was a voice with no voice.
You need to find the answers.
Start with your past.
“I thought this was a nice hotel,” Perry’s dad grumbled, his disgruntled tone bringing me back into reality. The beast at the end of the hall was still standing there, but black red blood began to flow from its bull nose, created a river of crimson tar that sluggishly moved down the hall toward us.
I could barely bring my eyes away from it to look at her father. He was jabbing the button again and for a moment I thought maybe he just needed to look up, maybe he needed to look up and he’d see it.
And then he did. He glanced right down the hall and his face never changed. He went back to the button, hitting it harder this time. To him, there was no beast, just a hotel that was getting on his nerves.
Now, the elevator doors finally began to close, shutting the creature and the blood from reaching us. But it didn’t erase the image from my mind. It didn’t take away that blanket of evil that I felt settle around my feet, like blackened dust.
I looked down at Perry, my mouth open slightly, trying to take in air, like I’d forgotten how to even breathe. She was dead still and staring at her mom.
Her mom had her hand to her chest, a look of utter horror on her face.
Daniel looked to her. “What’s wrong dear?”
Her mother slowly turned to look at him, blinking fast, her mouth opening and closing, trying to find the words. “You didn’t see…”
He frowned. “What? That the health code in this building probably isn’t up to par? Damn New Yorkers, always cutting corners. You remember that building we used to live on 32nd, right? My goodness, that was a cause for concern.”
Though it was hard to forget what I saw, I was watching her very closely now, as was Perry. She had seen something. She had seen it. The demon on the sixth floor.
I knew Perry must have been losing her shit inside her head. This was big fucking news, the fact that her mother saw the very supernatural thing that her daughter did. It meant so many things.
And yet, I was going to have to let Perry deal with that. I had other things I had to deal with. Mainly, the voice in my head that told me to find answers, to go back to the past. It was like everything was clicking into place, the satisfying snap of puzzle pieces being fit together.
I needed to go find my childhood home.
Then everything, everything, would make sense.
***
After Perry’s parents put their bags away in Ada’s room and got over the fact that she had to share a room with Maximus last night (naturally, Max would have his own room going forward), we all headed out to lunch like one big fucking happy family.
Understandably, Perry and her mother were on the quiet side, while Ada was overjoyed at my suggestion we hit up H&M. It’s not that I enjoyed shopping at a store that was catered to European metrosexuals with pre-pubescent chests, but I needed to get something.
Luckily, I found jeans that didn’t show off every curve of my dick nor taper into my toes and a few plain t-shirts that didn’t have a cat wearing sunglasses on it. If I hadn’t already seen a beast from Hell that morning, I would have sworn I was in Hell itself. Hell & Metrosexuals, that’s what H&M stood for, right?
It was hard to keep my mood up, however, because every single time I caught my reflection, whether it be in the changing room mirror or the gleam of the floors or the glass on the buildings, I saw the same fucking thing.
My face, frozen in a scream, eyes open in horror. It got to be so unnerving that I started flinching every time I saw a reflective object.
“What’s wrong?” Perry asked as we strolled down Fifth Avenue, Ada scampering into every single high-end designer store. She grabbed my hand and held it tight, pulling me back a bit. Maximus was up ahead, talking to her father, while Ada was trying to convince her mom of something.
I ran my tongue over the tip of my teeth. “Well, I think I might be going crazy.”
“You’re not,” she said, keeping her voice low. “I saw the beast too. And you know what, I think so did my mom. She’s acting like she hasn’t, but I know it, I know it.”
I nodded. “Yeah I picked up on that. But that isn’t why I think I’m going crazy.”
Her brows furrowed. “That isn’t? Dex, I’m pretty sure we just saw Satan on the sixth floor. What else could be more than that?”