Unreal City Read Online Free PDF Page B

treat for a moment, then looked back to me, the black slits that were his pupils fixed with unwavering precision.
    “Not this. I need something else—something more alive ,” he moaned in a voice that was as demanding as it was tortured.
    “I don’t have anything else,” I admitted.
    “You’ve got hair. You’ve got skin. You’ve got nails…and lovely eyelashes, and eyeballs, and blood. Any of those things would be simply scrumptious …” he murmured, his long pink tongue licking at his jaws and his eyes narrowing to burning slits.
    I worried I might vomit. “You wanna eat—no way! Get away from me! Go on, leave me alone! ” I shrieked, wishing he would move so I could escape from this miserable cave without having to touch the demonic little beast.
    Just as I thought it was going to turn into a struggle, he complied, slinking around me while tracking me with those bright eyes. He headed deeper into the cave, still watching me over his shoulder.
    “All right, Sarah, I’ll go, but you’d do well to remember how I’m suffering down here. Remember how I’m waiting down here for you. I’ll settle for other things, you know. If you happen to have a change of mind or heart, just set a bowl of milk outside your window tonight; that will do. Give me some milk, and I’ll bring you the thing you desire most in this world,” he purred, the hideous grin still fixed on his face.
    I squinted at him, halting my crawl out of that dismal cavern. “And what exactly is it that I want most?”
    “To escape.”
     

 
     

     
     
    I HOISTED MYSELF up out of the cave and over the stone block, then set off at the fastest run I could muster. My legs didn’t last long though, and I slid on the sandy pathway and lost my balance. Covered in clay and dirty water, shaking from head to foot, I felt like I was floating miles above my head. Whatever presence I had encountered down in those caves—familiar spirit, ghost, or figment of my imagination—the feeling of energy that surrounded it had dissipated. It was gone. I was safe for now, but I wasn’t sure whether it would come back looking for food.
    Blood.
    I rose to my feet with a moan and scaled the hill. The meadow seemed miles wide, and I staggered over to the bus stop to await the next ride back to Merrill. I must’ve looked as shaken as I felt, because the bearded student next to me kept glancing over. He opened his mouth to ask what I assumed was going to be “Are you okay?” but when my wide, frantic eyes met his, he looked away. His reaction sobered me, and I was reminded of something that had occurred the week after Lea died. My parents were both away that afternoon, and it was one of the hottest, stickiest days of summer. I had awakened late, around one, and right away the anguish had hit. The realization that Lea had been moving around, laughing, talking with me, lying on her bed and thinking—all just a week ago—and now was so abruptly and completely gone ruined any chance of a normal day.
    I had plummeted into one of the most acute bouts of sorrow that I’d ever experienced and ended up collapsing on the couch. I’d gotten it together long enough to know that I needed help, and called who I’d thought of as my best friend at that point. Annie had been watching some show— Supernatural , I think—with our other friend, Jess, but when I called them, they drove right over. I don’t know what I expected. They’d patted me on the back for a while, then just sat on the floor while I lay there, my eyes open and leaking tears. They stared, shaken by the intensity of my reaction.
    “What do I do ?” I had croaked. They looked at each other, at a loss for words.
    “Stay busy, I guess. Just get your mind off things,” Annie suggested without any conviction, as if she knew the best she could do wasn’t very much at all. They were quiet for five minutes longer while I continued to cry, paralyzed and staring. Then one of them—I can’t remember