An Inner Darkness Book 5 Bay City paranormal

window and go in that way.”

    Bo nodded. “I wish I knew where in the house they are. I—” Bo’s eyes went wide, a horrified gasp escaping his lips as Janine’s house came into view ahead. “Sam, oh my God.”

    Sam looked, and his stomach knotted with cold dread. A grayish fog shrouded the house, smoky tendrils creeping across the yard and reaching toward the sky. The house bent and wavered, distorted by the strange miasma.

    “Shit.” Pushing the accelerator to the floor, Sam sped halfway over the curb and onto the lawn of the house. He cut the engine, jumped out of the car and ran toward the house as fast as he could, with Bo at his heels.

    The fog was freezing cold, turning his breath to white mist. The frozen grass crunched beneath his feet. Taking the steps two at a time, he grabbed the doorknob. He felt the metal freeze to his palm. “Sean!” he shouted. “Adrian! We’re here, we’re trying to get in.”

    A faint wail, high and desperate, floated from somewhere upstairs. To Sam’s left, Bo hefted one of the wrought-iron chairs sitting on the porch and threw it through the bay window. Glass exploded everywhere. Bo plunged through the opening.
    Cursing, Sam tore his hand from the doorknob, leaving a strip of bloody skin behind.
He leaped through the broken window, ignoring the sting of glass slicing his arms and face. “Bo! Where are you?”
    Bo’s voice called back to him, faint and muffled, but Sam couldn’t tell where it was coming from. He looked around. The walls curved in ways they shouldn’t, the hallway twisting into blackness. Sam felt as if he were standing in a carnival funhouse.
    Panic seized him. He stood frozen with indecision. Where was Bo? Where were the boys? Were they even still alive?
What the fuck do I do now?
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Ally Blue
A deep, wordless sound rasped through the air. In its wake came a childish scream.
Sean.
    The sound broke Sam’s paralysis. Opening his mind, he braced himself for the onslaught of malicious intent from beyond the dimensional barrier. When it hit, he nearly buckled under it. Gasping for breath, he forced himself to his feet and followed the thread of searing energy up the stairs.
    The creature crouched in the middle of the upstairs hall, a hulking mass of shadow.
Watching it was like staring at a black light. Its form blurred, moved and shifted.
Except for the claws. The serrated claws, black and gleaming in the weak illumination of the hall light.
“Sean!” Sam called. “Where are you?”
To Sam’s relief, Janine’s voice cut through Sean’s renewed cries. “Here. God, help me, I c-can’t stop it.”
    Keeping his mind focused on the horror in front of him, Sam bounded up the last few stairs and stopped a few feet short of the creature. This close, the cold was enough to numb Sam’s fingers. His heart jumped into his throat when he saw Sean curled in the corner, whimpering pitifully. Janine stood between her son and the creature, white-faced and plainly terrified, a kitchen knife clutched in one shaking hand. Her panic-glazed eyes cut toward Sam. “S-Sean. Sean.”

    Sam knew what she was trying to say. Save Sean. Don’t let it hurt him.
    Sam wanted to answer, to tell her that he’d die before he let that thing hurt anyone else. But he felt the thing’s attention shift, felt its awareness of him, and knew there wasn’t a second to spare. It knew who he was, and what he could do. Its malice thumped through his blood. He had to act, before it butchered Sean and Janine for no other reason than just because it could.
    Closing his eyes, Sam found the umbilical cord linking the creature to its own reality and focused every ounce of his concentration on it. He felt the thing’s resistance, felt the bloodlust that drove it. Its presence spread like a dark stain through Sam’s consciousness, 164
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An Inner Darkness
    driving him to hands and knees in the hallway, and he realized in a burst of unwelcome insight that he wasn’t strong enough to send it back. The portal— portals , he understood suddenly, feeling the multiple open gateways in his mind—were too powerful.
    His eyes flew open. He was about to fail. Again. Despair washed over him.
Maybe you can’t beat it, but you can hold it back for a little while. Long enough for them to get away.
    “Run,” he gasped. “Find Bo and Adrian, and Lee, and get out. I can’t hold it long.” Through his darkening vision, he thought he saw