Your Turn to Suffer by Tim Waggoner (the ebook reader .txt) 📕

away from being a big city, and the people who lived there weren’t used to this level of violence. She thought of the final vision Aashrita had shown her, Oakmont lying in ruins, everyone dead. If the town’s residents thought the Shadowkin were bad, they would be in for one hell of a surprise when the Intercessor arrived – unless she could find a way to stop that from happening.

The Driver and Goat-Eyes had claimed the Cabal had no choice but to operate the way they did. Maybe that was true, but she didn’t care. Not only had they fucked with her, they’d assaulted her friends and family, transformed them in monstrous ways, all in an attempt to force her to realize what she’d done to upset the Balance and what she needed to do to fix it. Edgar had tried to help her, and he’d lost his life doing so.

She reached up to touch her head, felt the hard bump of the beetle nestled in her hair. At least something of Edgar remained, however small.

“You said you felt you’d made peace with Aashrita in the Garden,” Larry said.

“Yes. I hope so, anyway.”

“But that didn’t prevent the Intercessor from waking up and hitting the road.”

“Which is why I think reconciling with her wasn’t enough. It might’ve been an important part of the puzzle, but there’s still a piece missing. I think I need to tell her parents what I did, let them know how ashamed and guilt-ridden I was – and still am – for what I said to her that day on the porch.”

“So if you confess to them, does that count as atonement?”

“I don’t know. Maybe? I can’t think of anything else to do.”

“All right, let’s go home so you can grab some clothes and—”

“There’s no time for that. We need to see Aashrita’s parents as soon as possible.”

She didn’t know how long they had before the Intercessor managed to break through into their world, but whatever time they had, she knew they couldn’t afford to waste it.

“Okay. Tell me where to go.”

Lori did, and Larry executed a U-turn in the middle of the street – almost hitting a delivery truck – and pushed the Kia’s gas pedal to the floor, roaring back in the direction they’d come from. Lori hoped they weren’t already too late.

* * *

“You sure this is where you want to stop?”

It was after five p.m., and Reeny had parked her Altima in the lot of a small shopping center, near an ice cream shop called Sprinkles. The wipers moved back and forth in a steady rhythm, keeping the windshield clear enough to give her a good view of the place. The lights were on inside, and three people sat at a small round table – two women, one man. Since the spots directly in front of the shop had been taken, she’d had to park a couple of rows back, and she couldn’t make out any specific details about the trio. She’d never been to Sprinkles before. Brian’s favorite ice cream place was the Cold Stone near where they lived. She hadn’t even known there was an ice cream shop here until Brian had told her to pull into the lot.

“This is the right place,” Brian said. “They’re inside. I can feel them.”

She didn’t know who they were, and she really didn’t care. She was becoming increasingly concerned for her son. His voice had a strange, flat quality to it, and his manner seemed older than his years. Quite a bit older. Then again, she supposed being resurrected was bound to mature a person.

Without saying another word, Brian unfastened his seat belt, opened the door, and got out of the car. He shut the door behind him and started walking toward Sprinkles, oblivious to the rain. Reeny had an umbrella in the car, and she wished he’d waited for her to grab it, but then again, the rain would hopefully wash away the worst of the blood from his neck wound, so that was good. She decided to forgo the umbrella as well, for the same reason. She got out, shut the door, and started running after Brian. Even if she’d carried the umbrella, she still would’ve run. She always did, and her husband Charles never failed to tease her about it.

Are you afraid you’re going to melt? You might get a little cranky sometimes, but you’re hardly the Wicked Witch of the West.

After the…incident at the mall, she and Brian had gone looking for Lori. But they hadn’t been able to find her. Reeny tried calling her, but she didn’t answer. They drove to Get Moving! and found the place swarming with police and reporters. Then they tried Lori’s apartment, but when they knocked, no one answered the door.

As they drove away from the apartment complex, Brian said, “I don’t understand. I should be able to sense her. It’s why I’m here. But I can’t.”

She hadn’t been sure what he was talking about, but it didn’t matter. All she cared about was that she had her son back, and together they would punish Lori for her role in causing his temporary – she didn’t want to think the word death, didn’t want to engage with the awful reality of it, so she let her thought drift away. She wasn’t certain exactly what Lori had done to contribute to Brian’s…current condition. But Brian insisted his aunt had done something, and as much as Reeny loved her sister, she believed her son. She had to. She was his mother, after all.

But after failing to find so much as a trace of Lori, Brian said that they needed help. She could tell by the irritation in his voice that this was galling to him. She didn’t like it either, would’ve preferred to continue searching with Brian, just the two of them. Keep it in the family, you know? But Reeny didn’t object. If Brian wanted something, it was her job as his mother to make