The Bleed: Book 2: RAPTURE by David Moody (best selling autobiographies .txt) 📕

right?” It was a useless question, as no one had an answer. It was impossible to know the unknowable. Sam was startled when Maddie and Kalandar were launched into the air. “They did that to us too! Is he trying to crush her?”

“I think he’s trying to protect her.” Thistle was watching intently. “Something’s wrong.”

“You think?” Sandra’s question was dripping with sarcasm. “Two days ago, I was drinking a mimosa, reading a good book. Now we’re in the middle of whatever this is.”

“You see that?” Sam was trying to show Thistle something, but the image was jostling about so violently it was difficult to see. “I think it’s a crack or something. Whatever they are in, looks like it’s about to break.”

“Oh, the horror of it all,” Sandra said. “What?” she asked innocently. “I’m genuinely concerned.”

“I wish Maddie were here; she’d tell you the only thing you were genuinely concerned about was your skinny ass,” Sam said defiantly.

“We’re going to need to do something, Sam. That shell is getting ready to go, and by the way those things are attacking it, we can clearly see that neither of those people inside are friends of theirs.”

“The rings,” they said in unison.

“But what do we do?” Sam asked.

“Like two monkeys with sticks,” Sandra scoffed.

“We should be able to lift them out and to us.”

“How, though? Maddie was the one running the controls.”

“How hard could it be?” Thistle asked.

“Said monkey number two. You do realize that those very words are uttered before almost every calamity, right?”

“Mother, shut up!”

“Just trying to be helpful.”

“As if.”

“No time, Sam.” Thistle was hesitantly working the controls, gesturing above the rings and focusing on lifting. “I think I’ve got it.”

“The abounding confidence is reassuring. Are you sure you’re not getting ready to blow this hotel up?” Sandra was watching as the rings began to glow like television tubes.

Thistle stopped what she was doing. “You know, I’m not really sure. Perhaps you should find someplace safe to stay while we’re doing this.”

“Really? Where’s safe?”

“Outside might be the best option,” Sam said.

“Oh, you’re both hilarious. I’ll be sure to remind you of this conversation when we enter the spirit realm.”

“Doesn’t matter; we’ll be going in opposite directions.” Sam was helping Thistle as best she could, although she was less sure of her actions than the other.

“We need to hurry. The crack is getting worse.”

Sam and Thistle faced off against each other, passing power between them. It grew with each transfer until, finally, it felt strong enough to meld with the rings. Thistle heaved the illuminated bundle; it struck the first ring and instantly swirled around the entire of it, making it glow a bright purple. It flared strongly enough that the whole room was washed out in a flash of brilliance. The light was so intense, Sam was concerned they were about to be vaporized. She could see through Thistle, as if she was standing in an x-ray machine. It somehow grew brighter, then, just as quickly, the room was plunged into relative darkness. Sam’s eye’s struggled to adjust; she could not see much more than the ghostly afterimage of Thistle, burned into her retinas.

“You all right?” Sam asked.

“We’re still alive?” Thistle wanted to know.

“I think so. I mean, I don’t really know.”

“I wonder what your stick swinging did.” Sandra had come closer.

“We must be, otherwise there’s no way she’d still be around,” Sam said. “Can you see the monitor? Are Maddie and Kalandar okay?”

“All I see are large purple blobs.”

“They’re gone,” Sandra said. “I kept my eyes closed; one tends to do that when they believe they are about to be blown up.”

“They’re dead?” Sam wailed.

23

THE MOON

“Are we dead?” Maddie’s vision was obscured by the thick smoke that swirled all around her. The only thing she could make out with any clarity was Kalandar, and that was because he was only three feet away and even he had a hazy effect to him.

“Not dead, but perhaps we will wish we were. Stay close.”

“I was just wondering if I should venture off on my own or stay near the fifteen-foot tall bodyguard.”

“Sarcasm?” Kalandar asked. Maddie nodded. “I enjoy sarcasm. Don’t get much of that where I’m from. Most demons take everything too literally; have to be very careful what you say. For instance, if you have to choose whether or not to do something you would rather not do and you answer with you would rather have your teeth pulled…you see where I’m going with this?”

“I think I get it.”

“We are,” he paused, “somewhere else.” Kalandar had squatted down and placed his hand on the ground.

“I thought you said you couldn’t take both of us.”

“I did not do this. It is likely that Thistle and Sam saw that we were in trouble.”

“Where we are, it’s bad?”

“It’s not good.” He stood and wiped his hands together, letting the scorched earth fall back to the ground.

“So, they saw we were on fire and doused us with gasoline?”

“For sarcasm, that is a good analogy. The Bleed has been here and recently. This is what remains once it has consumed all life.”

“Is this Earth?”

“No. Though I don’t know where we are; I can answer with certainty we are not on Earth.”

“How can you be so sure?”

As Kalandar pointed, a small breeze parted the smoke, revealing an enormous skeleton. It was larger than an elephant, though it more resembled something bipedal. It dwarfed Kalandar.

“Giants? What chance do we have if they lost?” Maddie could only shake her head.

“Let us see if we can find something to eat.”

“We’re just gonna go traipsing across the countryside? What about the Bleed?”

“They do not occupy; there is no sense in it. The Bleed leaves nothing behind to rule, unless it wishes to be worshipped. They will have torn this place asunder and moved on.”

“So, where are we going to find food?”

“We must find a habitat of some sort and hope that whatever these beings were, they understood the benefit of preserving food.”

Maddie was skeptical; even