We're All Stories In The End by Megan Rees (book club reads txt) 📕

Luna shook her head with regret, so Ash pushed his way through the crowd, avoiding the cheerful dancers. Luna tried to follow him and got smacked on her hand, which sent a shock of pain through her. “Ash!” she yelled, worried about where he’d disappeared to.

Someone yanked her out of the crowd harshly by her wrist, so she slapped the person round the face.

“Jeez, Luna! That hurt! What the heck was that for?”

Looking up in astonishment that the person knew her name, she felt a bit guilty to learn she’d slapped Ash. One side of his face was scarlet red where she’d hit him. “Sorry.”

Ash shrugged. “It’ll wear off in a moment. Is your hand okay? I saw that person hit you.”

“Stings like anything.” Luna sighed.

“Let me have a look at it.” Ash ordered.

Obediently, she held out her left hand, which was slightly red. Ash ran his hand over gently, before abruptly stopping at her palm. “You’ve got a scar.”

“I got that ages ago and I’d rather we’d come off the topic, please,” Luna replied sharply.

“We’ll discuss it later. Rather than worrying about a few red marks, we should be finding Clarissa,” Ash commented. “We don’t know for sure if there are Demons here, but things are starting to get strange.”

“What about me?”

Ash took a deep sigh of relief when Clarissa appeared. “You brought the Demon Tracker with you, didn’t you?”

“Yeah,” Clarissa replied sluggishly. “So?”

“Luna and I think that our wonderful host is a Demon,” Ash explained. “Has the Tracker picked up something?”

Clarissa shrugged. “Dunno how to turn it on.”

Anger flared in Ash’s dark green eyes. “You are the most useless person I’ve ever met!”

Before Clarissa could open her mouth to reply, Ash shoved her out of the way and stalked off, heading in Steven’s direction. Luna smiled menacingly at her rival. “Aren’t you glad that was only our best fighter you annoyed rather than our geeky leader?”

Clarissa scowled at her. “I can break you with a few simple words. Push me to the edge and I’ll shove you right over.”

Ignoring her comment, Luna strolled out the room and caught up with Ash on the stairs. He acknowledged her with a brief nod and led the way up the stairs, trying not to stand on creaky steps. Luna copied him, dread settling in her stomach.

They halted at the turn of the stairs, watching Steven go into his room and close the door. Ash held out his arm to stop Luna from advancing further up. “We’ll need to do this quietly and carefully. With our powers combined, we should be able to defeat the Demon easily.”

“How do we know there aren’t any more?” Luna pointed out quietly. “Clarissa didn’t have the Tracker on – Steven might not be the only Demon here.”

Ash had a grave expression on his face. “We’ll just have to hope for the best.”

He slowly climbed the rest of the staircase and stood in the corridor, taking a deep breath. Luna stood beside him. “Should I burn the door down?” she asked timidly.

“Nah, I’ll yank it off the hinges.” Ash decided, concentrating on the door. He heard it pull away, so he made it fling back and hit the wall with a loud bang. Nodding at his friend, the two stormed in, sniggering as Steven crawled out from under the door. He had blood trickling down from his head. “Fools! You could have killed me!”

“That was the idea,” Ash replied darkly. “Now, go and stand against the wall with your hands up.”

“Who are you, the police?” Steven hissed, folding his arms. “You won’t make me do anything, Pureblood.”

“See my friend here?” the tall brown haired boy gestured to Luna. “She’ll fry you if you don’t follow my orders. I won’t spoil the surprise on what we intend to do with your body afterwards, but I don’t think it will be such a pleasant experience for you.”

Muttering a curse, Steven backed up against the wall with his hands slightly above his head. Ash checked him over, but the blonde haired boy lowered his hand quick as a flash and pushed Ash over, making him hit his head on the bed.

With a chuckle, Steven suddenly shapeshifted and split into two small Demons that were about the size of an average house cat. They were fat, black fluffy things; with purple eyes, long sharp teeth, four monkey-like feet and long tails that could easily hang onto things. One charged straight for Luna, teeth snapping and saliva dipping down from it’s mouth. The blonde girl was easily able to kick it away with one foot, but then it threw itself at her arm, biting down hard on her wrist. With a screech, Luna tried to shake it off, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Luna!” Ash yelled, wrestling with the other twin Demon. “These types of Demons have sensitive stomachs – punch it there!”

Taking the advice on board, Luna punched the Demon as hard as she could in the stomach, which made it loosen it’s grip on her wrist. She kept on punching it, each strike hitting harder than the last.

Once the Demon had let go, Luna created a fireball above her head and aimed it at the Demon. It hit home and the Demon exploding, releasing splatters of black blood over the room. Luna smiled triumphantly. One down, one to go.

Luna could see the other Demon strangling Ash, it’s purple eyes filled with malice. She wanted to burn it, but she would risk injuring her friend and she didn’t want to hurt him or potentially kill him.

Thinking quickly, Luna rushed over and squeezed the Demon’s stomach tightly, but it scratched her hand and leapt onto her face, it’s tiny razor-sharp claws raking down her cheek before grasping it’s hands round her throat, cutting off her air supply. She tried to gasp for air, but nothing came.

She suddenly saw a knife flying towards the Demon, going through it and flinging it against the wall. Black blood spilled from it’s chest, making it weakly writher about before letting it’s life ebb away, it’s sightless purple eyes fixing hatred on Luna. She took a few deep breaths, glad to be able to breathe normally again.

Getting to her feet, she saw Ash standing beside the wall. He had a weak grin plastered on his face. “That’s the second time I’ve saved your skin in a single day – you have my excellent knife-throwing skills to thank for that incident.”

“Are you injured?” Luna questioned.

“That little monster destroyed my good looks, but otherwise it’s all good.” Ash sighed, pointing to a long cut from his forehead down to his cheek. It went slightly through his eyelid, which made Luna wince uncomfortably. “Did that not hurt?”

Ash shook his head, his concerned green gaze fixed on her. “You’ve got blood on your wrist.”

“One of them bit me. Luckily those ones weren’t poisonous, or that attack would have been quite messy.” Luna remarked.

~

They’d left after the Demon attack. It was very cold as they left, so Atlas sat in the truck on the floor while Luna and Ash sat outside. Rune had healed their wounds, but Ash had a scar where the Demon has scratched his face.

“That was certainly an eventful night,” Ash commented, gazing up as storm clouds began to gather in the velvet blanket of night. “It’s not every day the party host turns out to be two mini Demons.”

“You didn’t do any dancing, so I don’t quite see how just that was eventful,” Luna pointed out. “Demon attacks are common: you just don’t know when or where they’ll strike. You don’t know what injuries they cause either – you’ll have to wait to discover that yourself.”

“Speaking of injuries, you still haven’t told me how you got that scar on your hand,” Ash said, raising an eyebrow. “Care to enlighten me?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Luna mumbled.

“We’re friends. We aren’t supposed to keep secrets,” Ash pointed out. “If it’s understandable, I won’t tell a soul.”

“Can we discuss this tomorrow? I’m not in the mood right now.” Luna groaned.

“We’re going to discuss it now,” Ash replied sharply. “You can’t hide the truth forever. Tell me how you got the scar.”

“Why are you so interested in my injuries?” the blonde haired girl retorted back.

“Why won’t you tell me?”

“Stop that.”

“Stop what?”

“Answering a question with a question. It’s not sophisticated, it just sounds ridiculous.”

“I’m not trying to be sophisticated.”

“Then what are you trying to be?”

“That’s none of your business. Tell me the truth.”

“I might not want to tell you!”

“Be that way then. I don’t care.”

Ash turned away from her, not looking at her. Luna hunched up in the corner in silence, gazing up at the sky. Mum, Dad, if you’re up there, please help me. Ash now hates me, we’re all terrified and there’s more responsibility resting on our shoulders than we first thought. Please, just guide us and help us complete our quest in peace.

As usual, there was no reply. Luna wondered why she even bothered.

“So, we’ll head to the River Salt today. With any luck, we should be able to find one of the Treasures, which will enhance our mission and enable us to find the other two.”

“Sounds like a plan, Atlas. I’ve sorted out the truck – it’s going to rain today. Who will be sitting outside today?”

“I would like to.”

“I’ll go with you then, Rune. What about you, Clarissa?”

“Sure.”

“So Ash and Luna are inside today. Okay with you two?”

Luna nodded her head. Ash just grunted, not meeting Atlas’ gaze. Since the argument yesterday, he hadn’t spoken directly to anyone properly apart from Jason.

Atlas rolled the map up and gave it back to Ash. “Then we’re sorted. We’d better get going before we loose valuable time.”

“Actually, would you guys mind if I sat outside and someone swapped with me?” Isabelle asked.

“I’ll swap,” Rune offered politely. “But I call shotgun on outside on the way back!”

Luna exchanged an amused look with Jason, who seemed to notice his sister’s actions towards Atlas. “That’s all good then. Let’s go.”

As they climbed into the truck, Ash headed for the front seat where Isabelle usually sat, while Luna and Rune sat in the back. Rune looked rather freaked out. “I have a feeling Atlas will be hard to bring back when our mission finishes.”

“What makes you say that?” Jason inquired, fiddling with the radio.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Rune sighed, raising her eyebrow.

“Not to me, no,” the black haired boy replied. “Did he not like your world?”

“You Normals are so oblivious,” the Pureblood sighed. “I might tell you later, unless you miraculously figure it out.”

“Oblivious is the word, my friend,” Jason commented. “Anyway, Izzy and I have been very curious about all your pasts. We’ve told you about our parents, so we were wondering about you guys? If you’re comfortable with sharing your stories, of course – we don’t want to pry into places we’re not wanted.”

“My parents disowned me when they found out I was a pacifist, so Atlas’ dad took me in. They aren’t my biological family, but I consider them my true family.” Rune explained.

Jason’s eyes widened in surprise. “No way! I thought Atlas was actually your brother!”

“I consider him