Nigh - Book 1 Read Online Free PDF

moving shadow.
    “What the...” she began to say, but before she could
finish, Gruff shouted.
    “Look out!”
    She swerved and narrowly avoided someone who ran
screaming past. The fog swallowed him.
    “I should check on him,” Alva said, but Gruff put
his big hand on hers to stop her from putting the car in park.
    “Just keep going, Al. Let’s get to the shop.” Al
nodded, the movement feeling slow and clunky. Her mind was trying
to process everything that was happening around her, but it seemed
to leave her with some detachment from reality. She forced herself
to focus on driving. The shop wasn’t far. Just a couple of blocks
away.
    Parked and crashed cars lined the side of the road.
Something ran by in the fog, followed by a scream. Alva looked in
the rearview mirror. She saw something large pass right behind
them, silent, huge, dark. She pressed harder on the gas, but she
only dared go so fast. She was glad for that as she skirted an
abandoned car. Squeezing beside it proved a challenge that cost her
paint on the right side of her car.
    “Don’t worry Al. We’ll get Percival a new paint
job.”
    “I ain’t worried about that, Gruff. What’s going
on?” Her voice was barely a whisper above Percival’s engine. She
feared speaking too loudly would draw even more attention to
them.
    “Al,” Molly said from the back. “I can’t get through
to anyone. The phone lines aren’t playing along.”
    “We’ll be safe at the shop,” Gruff said with enough
power that Al allowed herself to believe him. For now.
    Al glanced back. Molly was alternating from looking
puzzled at her phone to staring up, her already big eyes now
impossibly large.
    The mists licked Percival’s hood and caressed the
windshield. Al felt like she was driving through a deranged car
wash, everything seeming so close and intent on coating her
car.
    The shop was coming up on the left. The cemetery
loomed on the right, the breaking mist now surrounding the
tombstones, as though dancing with the dead. A shiver ran up Al’s
spine.
    “Al?” Molly said in a strangled voice.
    Al glanced at her in the rearview mirror
and then followed Molly’s gaze toward the cemetery. She didn’t notice
anything at first, but then saw that the tombstones seemed to be
moving. Nothing overt, but a tall obelisk shifted to the left. A
smaller tombstone fell forward until it was at a forty-five degree
angle, as though greeting the body it covered below.
    “Is the ground shifting?” Al asked, Percival
practically stopped now as she looked more closely. That might
explain the damage to the road, but certainly not to the tow
truck.
    “I don’t think the angel would do that just for
shifting ground,” Molly said, pointing to an angel statue. Al knew
it well – it looked up to the sky, arms stretched out, wings spread
out, as though greeting the light of day, even though trees had
long ago ensured only shadow would reach it.
    The angel’s wings shifted and cracked down, its arms
curled in and its head lowered.
    “Al, get us to the shop,” Gruff said calmly but
sternly. “Now.”
    Al stopped staring at the statue, closed her mouth
and loosened her grip on the steering wheel so that she could turn
it. The shop looked quiet from the outside. No lights were on. The
mists licked the great bay doors and infiltrated them. The doors
were open, blocked by a car that had been driven halfway in and
then abandoned.
    The lights flickered on and then off again. Al
spotted an oil spill leaking out of the shop. At least she hoped it
was an oil spill.
    Not one of them made a move to get out. Gruff
breathed hard beside her. She glanced at him. Sweat beaded on his
brow and he was pale. He needed some attention for his wounds. She
needed to get him to the hospital, but he would never leave without
making sure every technician and apprentice was okay.
    She let go of the steering wheel and turned Percival
off.
    “Molly, I’m going to go in and check it out. You
stay here with