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When we reach the surface, we walk out under a diagonal awning, and I glance up at huge electronic signs posted all around us. All of them are pitch-black squares that wrap around the edges of the moldering skyscrapers. There are oversized posters too, four times as high as I am tall. Now, the words are so sun-bleached that they're unreadable, and many of the posters have been shredded by teeth who like scratching posts.
Those signs stretch along the buildings as far as I can see, stacked up on top of one another, extending over remnants from when humans ruled the world. I can only wonder what important things flashed across those screens. Did news? Did the first emergence of monsters make it up there? If it did, it didn't help.
We skirt around rusted-out taxi cabs left on the street from the final invasion, searching for a spot we can hole up and hide.
When we reach an overhang that has the letters AMC in busted-out plastic on top of it, Creep points at the glass doors. "Let's go in here."
He grabs my hand, and I follow behind him, wondering what kind of building we're heading into. We've just reached a littleglass cube set outside the main building when Creep pauses, staring at a neatly printed sheet of paper that looks fresh and clean, unlike nearly everything else on this street.
Creep's blue claws snatch up the paper, and his eyes darken in fury as he reads, his fingers curling and crumpling it. "Do you see this?" His voice trembles with fury, and the light-hearted monster, the teasing brat of a male, is nowhere to be found. They radiate unadulterated fury.
He passes the note to Tesq. My gargoyle stares down at it in silence.
Chase gets it next, standing on Tesq's right side. The note is passed down into his hands, and I can tell the moment that Empty wrests control away from him because his head tilts and his eyes light up, an evil grin spreading across his features.
"What is it?" I ask.
But Dev rips the paper from Empty's fingers, tearing it as he reads. A growl rumbles up his throat, and I can see his entire body tensing—he's getting ready to roar.
"Shut up!" Creep tells him, glancing around the abandoned street. "Let's get inside."
The guys pile ahead, pushing through the glass doors. We enter a huge lobby with rundown patterned carpet, a tall ceiling, and moldy posters on the wall. There's a lingering scent of salt and something else in the air—I'm not quite sure what. It's foul.
A long counter runs along the back wall of this room, and it's covered in spiderwebs and dust. Off to the right, a hallway extends into darkness. Of course, Creep's drawn to the shadows and heads in that direction.
"Hey! What the hell did the note say?" I ask.
My hackles rise when the only answer I get are Dev's claws sinking into the wall and dragging a huge scratch across it. Since the fuckers won't tell me, I reach to swipe at the paper myself, determined to see what has all of their panties in a twist. Dev lifts the paper out of reach.
When I smack him, his eyes turn my way, glowing, his wolflike form primed and ready to fight. Or fight and fuck, as is our tendency together. But I'm not hot and bothered right now. Merely bothered.
I cross my arms and say, "Give me the paper,mate."
"It's a lie," Dev snarls.
"No. It's his version of reality," Creep retorts as he yanks open a door into a dark room.
"Whose version of reality?" I ask as all the men follow him into the pitch-black space as if they can see just fine.
Even Chase strides in confidently. My anger grows as I follow behind and am forced to drag my hand along the wall as I walk up a ramp so that I don't trip and fall. Who knows what's in this room?
Tesq's hands light up with tiny veins of lava, letting me see circles of light as Creep leads the way to a long line of chairs. The blue monster sinks into one, and for a second, his features soften in sadness, mouth tipping down at the edges with a pain I haven't seen from him before but immediately recognize as a deep-seated wound. It calls out to something inside of me and propels my feet forward, even though I can hardly see.
I reach out and stroke one of Creep's antlers, my fingers trailing over the tiny bumps of moss and miniature flowers blooming on them. His gaze tilts up to mine, and for a second, I'm lost in his eyes, in the soft glow of them in the magma's light, in the pain swimming in their depths.
"Creep. What is it?" I ask softly.
He pulls me down onto his lap and buries his nose in my neck, inhaling my scent for a moment. I feel the rapid beat of his heart against my side as he holds me close and breathes deeply. Though patience isn't my strong suit, I wait because Creep struggling is not a normal sight.
But when my monster pulls back, there are no tears in his eyes. None of that sadness is left.
There's only violent ferocity as he snarls, "My father has declared himself the new king of Ebony Kingdom.”
22
THE EMPTY MAN
King.
