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

exploring the hidden resources of my secret-self; the person I am, but don’t want to face. This mental-pass moved over a sensitive corner. I flinched. There in my subconsciousness existed a fragile, tender recess—too painful for my psychic touch to put pressure upon.

“Bingo, you found it. Press on that part of your mind.”

“No. It hurts. It feels raw; it feels like a wound.”

“Press it. Don’t wait. Do it now.”

I did, and Stoney blinked before vanishing. “Where did he go?” I asked.

“He’s okay for now. These creatures can’t harm him where he went.”

Did you send him away?

“No Arland, you did. Now find the others.”

I scurried through the crowd as easily as I had glided up the scaffold. Demon after demon tried to gnaw at me. Each jab and bite passing through my shadowy form. Across the field, the demons piled one on top of the other and merged into one gigantic demonic monster. With each demon it absorbed the thing bulked up. It mutated into a bald, three-eyed mountain from hell, fifteen-feet tall. Its arms reached to the ground, where it lumbered along on its knuckles. Fingernails like broken glass tipped each digit. Its mouth slightly extended into a mock-muzzle, and its jaw could dislocate far enough to swallow half a man. The resulting beast stood fifteen feet tall and turned dark as night. It started running toward me, passing through people just as Mr. Dark and I had done.

“Oh no, we’re in trouble now. The big one can rip us both to shreds. Hurry, find Roger.”

I ran toward the hill where I left Jimmy and Rose. Off to my left, Roger sat playing in a puddle, covered with mud and slime from head to toe. He stood laughing before he ran and slid through the muck and crashed into other people like bumper cars at a fun park.

The giant shadow beast reached for me.

“Merge and melt.”

“I can’t. I don’t know how.”

“Think about melting like a hot stick of butter and give over to me. Hurry, kid!”

I instantly sank into the blob shape, and for a moment, even I had no idea where Dark had taken me. The giant demon-beast looked one way and another, searching for me. My shadowy-self ascended from the blob shape, appearing beside Roger. I reached out to him, and with my fingers through his skull, I forced my vision of the demons through my arm and into his mind. Roger went wide-eyed and gaped. Twisting in one direction and then another, a horrific expression on his face. Then I dived deep into my own mind for the tender place in my subconscious.

“That’s it. That’s the trigger we’re needing. Press on it.”

I pressed on the hurtful part. He vanished.

“Now for Jimmy.”

“And, Rose too.”

“Arland, Rose is still being held captive by the Sheriff’s men.”

“Then who is—”

“It’s a demon.”

“Can you take me there faster in the melted form?”

“Do you trust me?”

“Now is not the time to talk about trust.”

“Then, focus, melt, and merge.”

Instantly, Dark and I became one. When I resurfaced, the first thing I saw was Jimmy biting into a worm-filled sandwich. I blinked and for a moment the thing sitting next to him was some kind of insect and woman hybrid with five arms and no legs. It turned toward me and hissed through its tooth-ladened mandibles. Without hesitation, I reached into Jimmy’s head and meditated—searching within—I found the same trigger that had revealed my vision and touched it. Instantly Jimmy disappeared. The creature sitting on the blanket went insane, thrashing and clawing at me. One claw made contact before Dark dematerialized my form; every other raking blow passed through without connecting, but not this one. My left arm ached, but there was no time to hesitate. The shadow beast crested the hill.

“Dark, take me to Flower.” In my excitement, I think I yelled.

The next instant, I arose from the blob shape standing between Flower and the bearded man. Reaching up to her head, I stood in shock. My hand didn’t go through her like it did with everyone else. All I managed was to slap her forehead.

“What’s happening to me? I need to reach into her mind.”

The insect creature leaped at me, clawing at my arm.

I jerked back. The claws didn’t pass through but grazed my flesh. I jerked away from the searing pain flooding across my left forearm. Blood ran from four-inch-long scratches and dripped blood onto my shiny shirt and vest. Totally unarmed, I turned toward the mauling creature, and bravely screamed, “Back off.”

To my surprise, the thing stepped back, inhaled deeply, and hissed a gale of demon spit in my face—Its breath foul enough to raise the dead. Maybe my unexpected bravado caught it off guard, but for whatever reason, it hesitated enough for me to refocus.

“Concentrate harder. They know I’m here and they are trying to separate us.”

Flower kept dancing, totally unaware of the supernatural havoc playing out amidst the crowd of hippies. She turned to me. “Why did you hit me in the head?” She took my hands. “Dance with me.”

Making physical contact with Flower rejuvenated me slightly. The gashes on my arm began to heal. Then I looked up as the creature drew back two of its five arms. With flared claws, it prepared to hammer down on me.

I closed my eyes and concentrated. Flower’s hands passed through mine and I reached out to her head. Focusing my vision clearly in my mind, again I forced the image of the demons through my arm and into her mind. It was time I found the trigger deep inside myself. With each pressing, it became more painful than before. I gritted my teeth and when I touched it; she vanished.

Futilely, the creature continued to rip at me. The giant demon lumbered up and materialized.