Page 56 of Fed By Fear

Burning, peeling. I’m flayed in the void. My heartbeat alerts me to danger.To her. When she appears, it’s like some death goddess rising from the darkness. A mirror ripples before me. She looks as she did when she emerged from that game. Midnight hair hangs over her face. Bony limbs twist and rise. I’m choking on my fear, grabbing at my throat in an attempt to breathe. She reaches a hand out.

Backing away sends me falling. I drop into the abyss, mymemories flashing past me on either side. The darkness beneath me is endless.

My many victims’ screams blare. One after another, I hear them as they die. Some part of me is dying too.“Help.” “Please stop.” “Save me.”Over and over I’m forced to hear and see and say, all while I plunge deeper into the eternal black. Guilt shackles me. The weight of it drops me faster.

“I’m a murderer.” The words are vicious, blistering as they tear free from my throat. “I’m a monster. I’m a monster.I’m a monster.”

Refusing to fall any longer, I reach out my hand.Shetakes it.

We are a monster.

Her grip sinks beneath mine, infiltrating my cells. My uncertainty crumbles, snapping against my teeth as it exits my body. A chill creeps through me, starting at my toes and rising higher. Cold turns to comfort.

A burst of air swells in my lungs, then rushes out, leaving me gasping and breathless. My vision doubles as two sets of eyes merge. Two sets of thoughts entangle. Two soulless beings unite.

A clearer awareness than I knew existed settles upon my thoughts. Like glitter dusting my mind, the guilt and terror brush away. A moment of peace brings a genuine smile to my face.

Sparkling in the pitch black, a tiny bit of light floats before me. My cupped hands draw it in. So bright and wondrous. The last piece of my soul. How fragile a thing it is. I stroke it, my fingertip tingling in its wake. “You no longer have a place here,” I whisper. It blinks. A dying star. I have to let it go.

Goodbye.

I smash it like a firefly between my palms.The light snuffs out. My hand pulses, then calms. A hollowness that empties me entirely takes the place of everything I’ve ever felt.

Opening my eyes is like staring at the constellations underwater. It takes a while to focus. Hands are on me. Voices praising and consoling. Madness’s words settle in as truth. I am more myself than ever before.

The hollowness thrums, drawing my attention to something new and all-consuming.

There is one thing I desire above all else. A need I cannot ignore.

The need for souls.

Chapter 13

Hunt

She’s not a necromancer.She’s a soul-eater. Looking back, there were obvious tells. It’s not like we have much experience fucking either one. The signs were there. The ghosts were misleading. That game didn’t grant her the abilities of that thing it released. She became it. It’s been growing, fusing to her for the last twelve years. A transformation that, in this moment, is complete.

Madness knew what she was after he peeked inside her mind. Gator knew what she was after she blacked out. Still, this is not what I expected.

Based on the shocked glances we’re all sending one another, none of us knew just how powerful or dangerous she would become.

The pale blue that’s been spreading across her skin now dominates her complexion. Coffee-brown eyes have deepened to black voids. Swirling, pupilless, and inhuman. There’s a foggy depth to her gaze, so different from my glassy eyes. A depth that could drag you into a place there’s no coming back from.

Drag you in, exactly the way she’s dragging souls to her right now.

Every ghost in a twenty-foot radius gets sucked straight into Githany’s orbit. Her mouth widens, jaw unhinging until the bottom of her chin reaches the center of her bare chest. The wailing spirits are funneled between her gaping lips. A vortex of souls disappearing into the belly of our newly released beast.

The ghosts are merely appetizers. I can see the disappointment in her dark gaze as she finishes every spirit in the room. She needs more than the dead can give her. She’ll be craving the living.

“We need a plan.” I keep my voice low in an attempt to avoid Githany’s attention.

“More like a fucking exorcist.” Gator is grinning. His tongue swipes across his lower lip. “I’ll bet she can regenerate limbs.”

Asshole. Githany is about to massacre this entire city and he’s indulging in fantasies about biting off her arm in the bedroom.

“Madness.”

“We know, we know. Githany is about to go full devil. What do you want us to do?”