Radley's Labyrinth for Horny Monsters by Annabelle Hawthorne (highly recommended books .txt) 📕

before. Was it possible this was all a dream? In the distance, she heard her mother calling her. She was going to be late to school.

“Mom, I’m tired.” Beth’s words were nothing more than grunts, but the sentiment was there.

“Beth! Get out!” Lily shouted, then slapped her across the face. The sting snapped Beth out of her trance, and she opened her eyes.

“You hit that guy…,” Beth replied, her words barely coherent. “With the car.”

“And if we were lucky, we killed him. Hurry up!” Lily unbuckled Beth, pulling her across the driver’s seat. Part of the porch’s roof had collapsed on top of the car, shingles sliding out onto the grass. Beth staggered in small circles before Lily’s steady hand pushed on her lower back.

“Are those sticks?” Beth asked, staring at the large number of squiggly lines that were coming to the surface of the yard. No, not sticks. These things hissed and had teeth. Definitely not sticks. Maybe she had fallen back asleep? She was going to be so late to class.

“Inside, now!” Lily shoved Beth up what was left of the stairs, the wood cracking beneath them. Together, they pushed open the front door and collapsed into the front entryway.

Panting on the hardwood floor, Beth heard footsteps coming toward her.

“Beth?” Mike knelt in her field of view, one hand behind his back. His face was full of both hope and doubt, and she noticed he was keeping his distance.

“This one’s the real deal,” Lily said, getting to her feet.

Mike stared at the intern, his mouth agape.

“Hey there, Romeo.”

“Lily?!” In an instant, Mike’s body language changed. He wrapped his arms around Lily, pulling her into a tight embrace. Beth noticed the hesitation, but Lily eventually gave in and returned the affection. “Oh my God, Lily, I’m so glad to see that you’re okay.”

“I’m okay too,” Beth groaned. Her head felt like it had cracked on the inside and her brains were starting to flow out her forehead. If enough fell out, she was going to fail her algebra test. She tried to stand, but the room dimmed, and she lost her balance and fell back on her butt. She looked at Mike, then Lily, then noticed movement by her own feet. She looked down and saw the creepy doll that Mike had given her.

The doll gave her a little wave.

“Oh, fuck it,” Beth muttered, letting the darkness in. She fell backward, dimly aware that someone was calling her name.

Kali stared at the car that had been rammed into the front porch of the house. Steam came from the hood, a mist that floated into the air and bounced off the protective spells on the home. She laughed, walking toward the wreckage. Her snake slithered behind her, curious if there would be something to eat.

“Clever boy,” she said, kicking at what was left of a pile of sand. Her phone rang, and she pulled it out of her pocket.

“Un-fucking-believable!” Sebastien screamed in her ear. “What just fucking happened?”

“You got hit by a car,” Kali said, trying to hide the mirth in her voice.

“How? By who?”

Kali wondered if Sebastien’s mustache was twitching, his face red like a cherry. “The estate agent. She got pulled out by someone else, and they are both inside now. I’m guessing that your homunculus failed?”

“I can’t fucking tell from here. It’s been so long since I’ve been in my own body that I’m all disoriented.” She heard the clatter of furniture being scattered. “I’ll be back as soon as I can get the necessary ingredients together to recompose myself. I need you to scoop as much of the sand back together as you can.”

“I’m sure you’ll be back soon enough.” Kali kicked lightly at the sand, scattering it even farther across the yard. “I guess I’m curious how you could have gotten so sloppy. You cloned the agent but left her alive?”

“I pushed her into the mirror demon’s prison,” Sebastien hissed. “There’s no way she should have escaped.”

“Then I guess Elizabeth was right. Mike Radley does possess the devil’s own luck.” Kali looked up at the house, suddenly hungry. “I’m going to enjoy taking him apart and finding out how he ticks.”

“Don’t you do anything without me!” Sebastien hung up.

Kali grinned at the sandy mess in front of her, then turned away. She had better things to do than gloat. Cracking her knuckles, she set to work once more on undoing the geas. Before Sebastien had arrived, she had found a particular flaw in the magic, a giant metaphorical crack that she felt like exploring. Focusing her magical energy, she drove it forward like a wedge, pushing hard against the fabric of reality itself.

Her phone rang. Letting out an exasperated sigh, Kali answered it. “Yes?”

“Did it work?” Daryl asked. It sounded like he was inside a car. Daryl typically rode in the back of a town car, his driver a zombie. Where Sebastien was gifted in making life from nothing, Daryl was equally gifted in returning life to dead flesh.

“Of course not.”

A soft chuckle over the phone. “Well, then I guess I will move ahead with a plan of my own.”

“Do what you must. If you don’t mind, I’m busy.” Kali hung up the phone and slid it into her pocket. She had no idea what his plan was and didn’t care. She focused her attention on the magical crack once more.

This time, when she struck it, it sounded like thunder.

THE LABYRINTH 

Daryl stood outside the apartment, staring up at the windows above the garage door. A quick phone call had gotten him Mike Radley’s phone records, which showed that he had ordered pizza from a local place. It had been no easy matter tracking down the delivery girl. Luckily, she worked several jobs around town and was well known by name at more than a few establishments.

Those who knew her also knew her story. Apparently, her girlfriend had died in a terrible motorcycle accident. They had scraped what was left of