Amber by Dan-Dwayne Spencer (e book reader .TXT) 📕

my brain. Still, I ignored his warning because everything was exactly as I expected it.

“It’s coming faster than you think. Look around. Look past the surface. Take a serious look at the hippies.”

I scanned the crowd. I saw nothing other than what I would expect. Nothing indicated what Mr. Dark warned about. “You’re being overly protective. You’re as bad as my mother.”

“Do you still have the object Reuwel gave you?”

I pulled out the pocket watch-like thing the Seraphim gave me. He called it an acrocrometer. I pushed the watch-like stem, and the lid popped open to reveal the face of the gadget. The single watch hand spun around and around. I assumed the thing was broken. When I pushed the golden lid shut, it shocked me.

“That should do it. Now, look up.”

I casually glanced up to where Stoney sat on the scaffolding. Sitting beside him wasn’t Kelly from the carnival, but an odd creature. It looked almost human—on its bald head were three eyes with no nose or lips. Strips of flesh zig-zagged across its fang-ridden maw. Scarring from countless victories riddled its misshapen body. Two slithery tongues flicked and caressed Stoney’s face as they slid out from between the fleshy bars. The monster’s wart-ridden arms gripped the metal scaffolding with three-fingered hands. Its back legs looked painfully contorted. The brute, at some time in the past, had ripped its own feet off and replaced them with the hands of one of its victims. I knew instantly the demonic thing came straight from hell.

“Stoney, come down. There’s a demon up there.”

Chapter Twenty-one

Demon Horde

Stoney looked down at me from the tower and shouted back, “Hey, I’m fine. I met someone. You remember Kelly. He’s here and says once the concert is over, he’ll never leave the commune again. In fact, Kelly’s coming back with us when the concert is over.”

The foul demon repeatedly licked Stoney’s face and stretched the fleshy bars spanning the cavernous mouth. Behind the restraining strips of flesh, it gnashed its teeth together, barely missing the flicking tongues.

“Stoney, look out,” I screamed. “Look beside you. It’s not Kelly, it’s a demon.”

By the stage, the crowd all turned toward me. They parted, making a path for a security guard who climbed down from the stage and hurdled over the security railing. His knees popped, and I heard bones breaking. He fell forward and glared at me on all fours. Claws for hands and spikes protruding from his arms and legs, he crept toward me. Reaching up, he ripped the human face away, exposing its six eyes and fangs. The demon roared. I froze.

“Move! Run away.” Dark commanded.

I turned and stumbled into the crowd of people behind me. They didn’t budge. They glared at me. Their heads vibrated, blurring their features. When the motion stopped, they all had the same gaping teeth-filled maws. I cringed.

“Draw yourself into me.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Remember what Phoenix said, I’m not completely separate from you yet. Draw yourself into me.”

“Can I do that?”

“You can try.”

I concentrated on Mr. Dark, but it became difficult to think of him while my parents stared at me from the staging area. I gasped as I watched them change slowly from human to demon form. I heard the cracking of bone as they snapped their knee joints backward. All around me, one person at a time fell forward onto all fours and crept toward me. Others climbed the tower-like cockroaches heading toward Stoney.

“Try harder.”

I closed my eyes and willed myself to merge with Mr. Dark.

“Hurry!”

I opened my eyes in time to see a clawed hand drawback and swipe directly at my face. It passed through me. I glanced down, and there I stood, a shadow version of me.

“I did it. We merged.”

“Don’t get cocky. This is serious.”

The demon creature roared, but something muted the blaring. Everything around me appeared dim. I stood in a shadowy fold somewhere between light and utter darkness. It made me feel small and distant. The demon repeatedly clawed at me, but not one of the powerful blows made contact.

“Now climb up the metal bars.”

I reached for the railing and my hand passed through it.

“No. Glide up. Will yourself up the scaffolding.”

I leaned over onto the metal and focused on moving upward. I skittered up the bars similar to the way Dark dashed into a corner. When I reached Stoney, I had no idea what to do.

“Give him a glimpse of what you’re seeing.”

“How?” I asked.

“Reach into his mind.”

I stretched my hand out to him. As I expected, it literally passed through his skull. I willed my vision of this place through my arm and into his head.

“What’s this supposed to do? Nothing is happening.”

“Now, look inside your mind. Explore all the recessive corners you usually ignore.”

While reaching out to Stoney, I searched my mind like Mr. Dark said. My mental scan, like psionic fingers, felt through my consciousness for something out of place. Flashes of memory—places, events, smells, and sensations flooded over me as I floated through the synapses of my mind. I rummaged through the aether that made up who I am. In the center of my consciousness, stood a framed photo of me. I paused admiring it; I had never looked better. The image was exactly what I thought I should look like. Nothing sent up warning signals.

“Go deeper into your psyche. Use the photo, your self-image, as a doorway to a deeper part of your mind. Hurry, you don’t want to fail Stony like you did Mr. Carter.”

I focused my thoughts on my self-image and stepped through the photo, passing through to my subconscious. There I resumed my search. I had somehow found the ability to create a mental-pass: my mind touching, searching, and