AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Oh God, Isobel thought as she snatched for the crushed paper butterfly, rescuing it before it could float to the floor with the rest of the demon’s discarded guise.
The paper felt too real in her grasp.
Her mom and dad.
Danny.
25
Disturbances
“Mom!” Isobel shouted, and as she burst through the front door of her family’s home, all around, objects rose into the air.
“Dad!” she called into the solemn emptiness of her house.
Lifted from their hooks, the picture frames lining the wall floated in separate directions. To her right, the empty umbrella stand flipped end over end, drifting lazily by.
She looked behind her, through the open door she’d made in one wall of the white chamber.
The dilapidated ballroom still lay on the other side, making her uncertain whether she’d actually crossed back into reality. If there was a reality left to cross into . . .
Isobel slammed the door shut, blocking out the visual of ash and death. Almost in unison with the deafening bang, the floating objects hit the floor with a collective clomp.
A corresponding thump sounded from the living room, and snapping her head in the direction of the archway, Isobel scanned the space for a sign of anyone.
Miscellaneous mundane artifacts littered the floor: the TV remote, her mother’s paperbacks, a cardboard drink coaster, one of her little brother’s video-game controllers.
But where was Danny? Her mother and father?
Isobel’s gaze locked on the mantel clock, its hands spinning around each other in endless freewheeling circles.
Running fingers through her matted locks, Isobel tried to get a handle on herself, on her surroundings. Yes, the clock was spinning, but the layout of her house wasn’t reversed. So this couldn’t be the dreamworld. Not . . . not unless she really was too late. Not unless the veil had already eroded and the two worlds had merged.
Then again, how else did she think Lilith could have crossed to this side?
Had the attack from Scrimshaw merely been a distraction? A diversion thrown at her for no other reason than to keep her occupied and away from Varen while Lilith used him to finish her plans for destruction?
No. No. It couldn’t be. The butterfly had to have been a lie. Her parents and Danny, wherever they were, they had to be okay.
“Mooooom!” Isobel wailed into the house, her mind spiraling further into chaos as it flipped from one horrible conclusion to another. “Dad! Dan—!”
The sound of the front storm door opening made her whirl around in time to see the inner knob turn.
As the door swung wide, Isobel took a retreating step.
Sunlight flooded the foyer, and with it came Danny, his cheeks red from the cold, his nose rosebud pink. Taking one look at her, he dropped the cell phone he held and rushed her. The phone thudded to the floor, joining the rest of the bric-a-brac, and slamming into her, Danny wrapped his arms tight around her middle.
Automatically, Isobel’s own arms wrapped him back.
“Danny, omigod,” she breathed, squeezing him hard, fingers gripping the nylon fabric of his puffy winter jacket.
Relief poured through her like a drug, numbing her from head to foot as a cold breeze wafted in to cool her heated face. “You’re okay. I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“I hate you,” Danny sobbed into her shirt, and through the thin layer of fabric, Isobel could feel the sudden cascade of warm tears.
This was real, then. Wasn’t it? Of course. It had to be. It had to be.
Glancing through the open door again, Isobel no longer saw the gruesome interior of the corpse-lined ballroom. Only her quiet street.
