Prologue
There’s a fork in the road and even though I see it, I can’t avoid it.
One road goes left, one goes right
, and neither of them ends well.
I feel it in my bones,
In my bones,
In my hollow reed bones.
He grabs my hand and we walk…through a tunnel…through a hall… through the dark.
“It’ll be ok,” he whispers.
Will it?
“We have to do this,” he says. “But I’m with you. I won’t leave you.”
I nod because I believe him, because no matter what else, I know that much is true. He won’t leave me.
The room is shrouded in shadows, in flame, in secrets. I step inside, and peer around, and the heat from the fire warms me, warms my blood, and the blood pumps through my heart.
I sing a song of nonsense, and it sings back. The notes echo and twist in the air, and I swallow them whole.
“Come out,” I call behind me, because I know they’re there.
I can’t see them, but they’re always watching.
The eyes appear, inky black, and glistening, and they blink once, twice, three times.
“I can see you,” I announce and it growls and then I’m crushed beneath the dark, beneath the weight, beneath the oppression.
“You don’t scare me,” I lie.
Because it does scare me. It’s followed me my whole life, and finally, finally, I’ll find out what it is.
Why it’s here.
Why it wants me.
Because above all, I know it’s here for me.
I know it
I know it.