As Rex raised his spear, a squadron of rockets skittered randomly across the ground in the corner of his eye. Then one hit his shoulder, leapt into the air spinning head over tail, and shot into the gaping mouth of the darkling. The creature made a choking sound as Rex rolled toward the bonfire, rising to his knees to scrabble over to where the girls huddled.
“Are you okay?”
“Those things…” Beth sobbed.
“Don’t worry. They’re leaving.” He looked up.
The beast behind him was trying to transform, wings sprouting from its back as the legs were sucked into the body. But then Rex heard a huffing sound—the rocket in its gut exploding—and tasted the beast’s panic in his mind. Its glittering eyes dulled, and a gout of flame burst from the spear wound in its belly. The wings began to crumble….
Rex covered his head as the creature exploded, a mighty rush of scorching heat, the light blinding even through his slammed-shut lids. The earth bucked beneath him, a roar like a jet taking off filling the air.
And then the sound was fading, until all he heard was the screams of midnight creatures retreating in all directions.
When Rex opened his eyes, he saw Melissa kneeling nearby, lighting the highway flares from the remains of the fire. Burning leaves were spread far into the trees, but a few glowing embers and a broad dark patch of ground were all that was left of Cassie’s efforts.
“They’re gone, Rex,” she said. “Looks like you ruined their Samhain.”
He nodded, his vision swarming with glowing spots. “Yeah. I guess bonfires have gotten a lot nastier since their day.”
“We can do even better with the stuff back at the tracks. And we need to get there fast.” She stood, two hissing flares in each hand.
Cassie was already standing, pulling Beth to her feet. They were covered with ash and wet leaves, their faces blank with shock. But Cassie took the flare that Melissa handed her. “Are they all gone?” she asked.
Melissa closed her eyes. “Not hardly. We have to run, girls.” She pointed toward the tracks. “There’s tons more fireworks waiting for us that way.”
“Just give me a minute,” Rex said. His torso was bruised all over, his ankle aching, his vision and hearing swarming with echoes of the explosion. His lungs felt scorched, as if he’d inhaled too much bonfire smoke.
He didn’t hear Melissa’s words at first.
“Rex?” Her hand pulled at his jacket.
“Just a second.”
“We have to go now.”
“I can barely stand.”
“Look.” She reached up and bare fingers brushed his neck, her mind entering him in a wild rush. He saw what was coming….
“Oh, crap.” Rex shuddered. He’d been a fool, all his plans empty gestures. “I never knew.”
Melissa took her hand away and lifted his weight onto her shoulder, pulling him forward. “We can help Jenks, anyway.”
They set off through the trees, Rex’s battered body responding once more to the commands of his will. He didn’t bother to look back, but the jittering of the branches ahead showed that the girls were following, their flares casting wild shadows through the forest. The tracks were only a few minutes away, but it all seemed futile….
Rex shut his eyes and ran, ignoring the pain, trying to erase the image that Melissa had given him. A flood of darklings, a wave that darkened the sky, a vast horde beyond anything in the lore. Their fireworks would present nothing but a trivial detour to the onslaught.
Jessica Day was their only hope.
31
12:00 A.M..-
Long Midnight
LIGHTNING
They bounded down the railroad tracks, following the rip. It stretched out before them, a red arrow pointed at the heart of Bixby.
“Can we make it in time?”
Jonathan nodded. “It’s clearing the way for us, knocking down the frozen rain as it goes. But watch out when we get ahead of it. Water sucks.”
“Jonathan!”
A man stood on the tracks ahead of them, dressed in a bathrobe and wearing an expression of disbelief. They took an extra-high jump so as not to hit him, and his pale face lifted to watch them pass overhead.
“Okay, that was weird,” Jessica said.
“There are more of them. The rip is getting crowded. And not just with humans.”
As they neared Bixby, houses became more frequent. They saw more people wandering around, first alone or in twos and threes, then in crowds gathered on the street. Some of them stared up in wonder at Jessica and Jonathan, but many didn’t even notice as they soared overhead, too dazzled by the blue-red world around them.
“You think Rex is right?” she said. “Can we really stop this?”
“If he isn’t, most of these people are in big trouble. They’re just standing here, right in the middle of the rip.”
“At least the darklings aren’t here yet.”
He pointed ahead. “Some of them are.”
Before them was another of the creatures made of wispy, grasping tendrils. It hovered over a small group gathered in the backyard of a house, what must have been a Halloween party going late. Everyone was in costume—knights and devils and cowboys and even a white-sheeted ghost all standing almost motionless. The darkling thing had a tendril wrapped around each of them, and Jessica saw that their hands were shaking, as if each was trapped in their own silent, private horrors.
“My God, should we stop?”
“No time,” Jessica said. They had to halt this invasion. All of it, everywhere, not just in this one backyard. “But slow down a little.”
She pulled a flare from her pocket and put one end into her mouth, yanking the top off. Then she banged it against the friction pad clenched between her teeth, sparks flying into her face, the first hiss of the flare burning her eyebrows before she could whip it away.
At the top of their next bounce she threw the flare down into the matted center of the thing. It ignited, the scream echoing across the blue time, its tendrils beginning to slip from the costumed people.
Jessica looked over her shoulder as they flew onward and saw that the crowd had sprung to life and were pulling at the thing’s arms with a sudden and terrifying madness, as if trying to rip it apart.
“There’s more,” Jonathan said softly.
Ahead of them two of the old darklings were stretched across the railroad tracks, like hovering spiderwebs.
“Go around them?” he asked.
“They move too fast.” Jessica pulled out another flare, then realized that it was the last one she was carrying. “Crap.”
She yanked off its top with her teeth, managing to light it without burning her face this time. She thrust it out before them as they soared into the joined webs of tendrils.
At the touch of the flame the two darklings screamed, but Jessica felt cold feathers brushing her legs, her arms, her neck—slithering around her waist for a fleeting moment. Fear welled up in her again, a paralyzing horror that she had made the wrong decision. It was crazy leaving Jenks defenseless, her sister doomed. And suddenly she knew: the darklings had opened up the blue time because of her, because they hated Jessica Day so much….
The end of the world… it’s all my fault.
Only the feeling of Jonathan’s hand in hers kept her from giving in to the awesome despair that racked her being. He wouldn’t abandon her, she knew. But they were wrapped around Jonathan as well; she had to fight.
Jessica gritted her teeth and slashed with the flare, carving into the matted tendrils, ripping herself free.
One by one, the fears fell away.
Then the feeling vanished, and she was filled with weightlessness again. The tracks reared up, and she reflexively took another bounding step. She glanced backward; the two darklings lay in a smoldering wreckage, scattered along on the tracks.
“No!” Jonathan yelled, his hand wrenching hers.
“Ow! What’s wrong?” she cried.
“Huh?” He looked at her, dumbfounded. “Wait a second. I caught you…?”