Nameless: The Darkness Comes (25 page)

“Don’t go closer,” I warned Seth.
I glared at the demon. “Enough. If you break him, then I won’t have a reason to do what you ask. It’s me you want anyway, isn’t it? Not this toy. Not the girl. Me.” The demon looked wary but didn’t move. “Put the puppet down, and play with me. I’ll be your doll. Remember the sound of my terrified breathing as a child? Remember the magic in the water? I can fear you again. Let me. Let him go, and play with me.” I took a small step forward.

“Luna
.”

I heard my brother call me frantically, but I tuned him out.
This was for Seth. This was for Lydia. This was for Reed Taylor. What’s one life compared to many? Who would really miss me, anyway?

“Games?”
The Tiptoe Shadow asked hopefully. “Twistings and playing and ties?”

“Whatever you want,” I said.
I was closer now. I lifted my arms to show that my hands were empty, that they needed to be filled with nightmares and the dead and whatever horrors he could come up with. “Whatever games you desire. Just put him down, please.”

The demon looked from Reed Taylor to me. “Such pretty dollies.
So many games that we could play,
mmm.
”

This wasn’t going as planned. “
But you don’t really want Reed Taylor. What kind of horrors could you bring him? You don’t know him like you know me. Take me. I’ll be more satisfying. I’ll scream every night. Take me.”

My brother shouted my name again, and the Tip
toe Shadow gyrated angrily from head to toe.

“Enough of brother
. No more,
mmm,
brother. You,” he thundered, pointing at Mouth, “silence brother! Kill, burn, twist, break brother.” The spikes yanked out of Mouth’s body, clattering to the floor. Mouth sank to his knees.

“No
,” I shrieked. I backed away from the demon, standing between Mouth and Seth. “If you hurt him, I won’t stay. I’ll leave you with your broken toy, and I’ll walk away forever, I swear I will.”

“No games?” the shadow asked tearfully. “No stories or songs?”

“No stories or songs or screams. Nothing. Just a toy who can’t see you. No Luna doll. No me.”

The demon
paused. Reed Taylor still hung from the air, his arm lolling grotesquely.

The shadow sighed.

“All right. Go, brother. Goodbye, brother. Come here, plaything.”

I turned to Seth.
“You have to leave now. Just leave this house before he changes his mind.”

He bared his teeth.
“I’m not leaving you here with that…that thing. Luna, I remember. How could I do this to you a second time?”

The Tip
toe Shadow made an impatient sound, fiddling with Reed Taylor’s legs.

“Go, now.
Find Lydia. She needs you.” I hugged him fiercely. “I love you.” I stepped back before he even had a chance to put his arms around me.

“I’m ready,” I said, and walked up to the Tip
toe Shadow. I heard the door close behind me as Seth left, but I didn’t take my eyes from the demon’s missing face.

“Dolly,” he said and ran his trembling hands over my cheek.

Chapter Forty-Eight

Mouth wasn’t happy. I could tell it by his wispiness. I could tell it by the way his lips were set into a firm line.

I didn’t care.

“Dolly, dolly,” sang the Tiptoe Shadow, and he ran his long fingers down my hair, twisted them around my neck. They went around several times.

“Can…can you let Reed Taylor go now, please?”

I wanted to sound strong, but the feel of those dark fingers on my skin made my mouth go dry.

“Reed Taylor, where is Lydia?”

“There’s magic in the water.”

Reed Taylor’s voice, but not his words.
I reached for him, but the demon pulled us further away.

“No, dollies.
Bad dollies.” He shook us, and I choked, grasping at my neck. Mouth clenched his fists, but did nothing.

“
Hey, knock it off,” I growled as soon as I had my voice back.

The Tip
toe Shadow giggled. "You want to talk to the puppet? Hear what the puppet has to say? Okay. Okay, okay. Oh, it will make you cry. Big, soft, sad tears, and I will lap them from your face, and I will be happy."

He pulled his hand away from Reed Taylor's head slightly. The inky furls cleared from the corners of his eyes. They were filled with pain instead.

"My arm,” he gasped.

“
He broke it,” I said, jerking my head at the monster. “I'm sorry. He’s kind of a jerk.”

Sweat dampened his hair.
“You weren’t supposed to see me again. That was the end of it. I was going to live life without you.”

I frowned.
He didn’t have to sound so miserable that I was here. The Tiptoe Shadow giggled and his fingers tightened around my throat.

Reed Taylor’s eyes cleared and he looked at me, took in the demon’s ghostly fingers.

“No,” he said.

“
It's okay,” I whispered, and tried my best to grin. “It saved Seth. It's worth it. I'd hoped it would get you out of here, too, but now I'm not so sure. The Tiptoe Shadow here seems pretty fond of its pretty little puppets.”

He looked at the shadow.
“You’re breaking the deal. You weren’t going to hurt her.”

“You…made a deal?”

Reed Taylor winced. When he opened his eyes again, the cloudy whorls were back. “He’s laughing. He lies. We’re forgetting his true nature.” His body seized, jerked, and he reached for me with his good arm. I pulled away automatically.

The Tip
toe Shadow hadn’t moved. He just stood there, grinning eerily at us.

“He’s not saying anything,” I pointed out to Reed Taylor.
Maybe the pain was getting to him more than I thought.

He shook his head.
“He’s thinking it. He’s in there with my thoughts. There isn't room in my head for both of us, so sometimes it's mostly him, and sometimes it's mostly me. He's pulling back right now because he wants me to tell you some stuff.” He spit on the ground. “He wants you to cry. He hates you, you know. He thinks it’s love.”

The demon's thumb caressed my neck.
I closed my eyes against the oily feel.

“
His thoughts make me sick,” Reed Taylor told me. His beautiful greens were full of sorrow. “I don't have to tell you what he’s thinking. I'm pretty sure you know.”

“I always knew.”

The shadow half purred, half growled. “He doesn't want to tell you to your,
mmm,
face. He wanted to fade away and disappear, become something other than what he is. Oh no, he is ashamed, that's what he is.”

“Shut up!”
Reed Taylor yelled at the Tiptoe Shadow, who began chortling wildly.

“
I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait,” he started to chant, rocking himself in glee. Both Reed Taylor and I swayed with his movements.

“
She doesn’t have to know,” Reed Taylor told the shadow flatly. “It’ll only hurt her.”

Mouth surged forward.
“It’s too late. There you go. You went and screwed up, just like I knew you would, and now here you are. Here you both are. Luna, you should have listened to me. You should have stayed away.”

The shadow eyed him shrewdly.
“She should have what, hmm? Listened to a,
mmm,
betrayer? A demon who only befriended her so he could bring her to me? Yes,” he said to me, twisting down to meet my eyes. It looked like his body had to break in half to do it. “That's why this one approached you. And you, Luna doll. You were so eager to hate, and so eager to say mean, hurtful things that wounded his little soul, and then you felt sorry, but you were,
mmm
, right. He has a way with words, my little one, but in the end,” his voice hardened, “he serves. Don't you, child?”

Mouth dropped his head again.
“Of course.”

I could hear the anger and hatred in that voice.
So could the Tiptoe Shadow, who screamed with laughter.

“
Oh, you are so upset. Oh, how you wish to yell and rend and banish me to the dark places. But you can't. You can't even tell her, can you? Because then what will happen?”

I turned to Mouth the best I could.
“What will happen? If you try to go against him?”

I could hardly hear him. “
I die. Forever. You can't turn against the ones who...you can't even say anything against...”

“I created him,”
squealed the Tiptoe Shadow, and he clicked his tongue with an insect-like glee. “The one he prays to and the one who tucks him in at night, when I'm not watching you. Dreaming of you. Running my tongue against your window and wishing you would let me in. Why won't you let me in? Why let my little one in? Not me? I was so,
mmm,
disappointed.” His laughter sounded like choking. His head turned slowly on his neck. “That isn't nice. That isn't nice at all.”

“
You...came because he asked you to?” I didn't know whether I wanted to hit Mouth or cover my face and scream.

Mouth flowed over, put his hands on my cheeks.
I could barely feel them. “At first. It was like that at first, but you have to believe me when I say—”

“
I don't have to believe anything you say,” I spat.

He backed away, eyes averted.

“You’re a demon, and demons lie. I knew it from the beginning. I…I made a mistake when it came to you.” My eyes burned, but I wasn’t going to cry over a demon.

“But you trusted him
?” Mouth yelled, and his voice echoed in the room. Even the shadow had gone silent, listening. “You trusted Reed, and what did he do? He can’t even tell you.”

“I’m warning you,” Reed Taylor said.

Mouth roared and screamed a word I didn’t understand. It wasn’t of this world.

“You’re
warning
me? You’re warning
me
?” He surged forward, grabbed Reed Taylor’s good arm and yanked up his sleeves. “Do you see this, Luna? Do you know what’s pumping through his veins right now? Do you have any idea how much?” He pointed at the Tiptoe Shadow, sharing Reed Taylor’s body. “Enough to affect this guy, right here. And do you see Sparkles over there? Where’s Lydia, huh? Where is she, when the person who is supposed to be taking care of her is passed out on the floor?”

“I did this for Lydia
,” Reed Taylor yelled back. His eyes were burning with a fury I hadn’t seen before. His body writhed against the hold of the Tiptoe Shadow. “I did this for Lydia, and I did it for you.” He looked like a wild man. I tried to move away.

“Oh, tell
her,” the Tiptoe Shadow cawed. “Tell her how you and the mother lay together at night and talk about her. And you laughed, and laughed, and laughed. And in the other room, the New Luna cries in loneliness and fear. But who comes to her? I do. I don’t leave her alone, no. There are,
mmm,
songs, and
stories
and things to
tell
her. About the dark places, and the
fun
we shall have, and why nobody loves her but me, the one who crawls under the covers with her when she hides and—”

“St
op it, you monster!” I screamed and tore at the hands around my neck. “You’re disgusting and vile, and I don’t want anything to do with you! Uninvited! Uninvited!”

“You are all alone
,” howled the shadow. The pits where his eyes should be burned brightly. “This one, he betrays you for another woman. That one, he betrays you for me. Who is here with you? I am, I am, I am. Who has always been by your side? Me, me, me!”

“I was there, too,” Mouth said, and it was so quiet that I barely heard him.
The shadow sucked in a breath. “I was always there. Your father let me. Me and one other, the demon you met in the House of Horrors. We watched you grow up. We were careful. We were respectful and kept our distance. I wanted a friend. The other demon wanted to see what life was like for the living. We—”

“They watched when I killed your
father,” the shadow wheedled. His voice had thinned and wormed its way into my ears. “They watched and didn’t say a word, didn’t help him. The way he kicked, and his eyes bulged, and his fear was so delicious. And that second when he thought, ‘I’ve made a terrible mistake’…Oh, oh! I could feast on that moment for eternity.”

Tears were running down my face.

“Is it true?” I asked Mouth. “Were you there when my father died?”

“I was.”
His voice was so quiet that I had to hold my breath to hear it. “I was there. I didn’t want him to go alone. I wanted him to know I’d take care of you.”

That squeaky voice again.
“He wasn’t alone. He was never alone. We were together, he and I, and when he struggled and his tongue swelled and fell from his mouth, I held his hands. I wrapped myself around his body good and tight so he could,
mmm,
feel
me, and know how
together
we were…”

“Stop it
,” I screamed. I covered my ears with my hands. “I don’t want to hear anymore.”

Mouth flowed up to me
again, and his voice was very kind. “Your father loved you and Seth very much. It didn’t work out like he had hoped, but he took his life in order to save you. Just like…just like Reed is planning to do.”

“What are you talking about?”
I looked at Reed Taylor. “What’s he saying?”

Reed Taylor’s eyes were still full of green fury.

“I joined up with this demon because I wanted to help you. I thought, if it’s a part of me, I’ll be able to sense the rest of them, right? Only I can hear what it’s thinking. And I overhear it think that if you kill yourself while connected to it, it dies too.”

My father.

“Your father. I know his death wounded you inside, made you fracture in a way that can’t be healed. It’s
never
going to fully heal, Luna,” he said when I tried to interrupt. “But now you know why. He was hoping to kill the Tiptoe Shadow, take it with him. Only it didn’t work.”

The Tip
toe Shadow giggled madly. “He tried and tried.”

I felt my face go pale. “You were planning on killing yourself?”

Reed Taylor shrugged his good shoulder.

I didn’t know what to say.
I felt like crying.

“After everything I said?
You were willing to do this for… Are you frickin’ crazy? How am I supposed to live without you?”

“You’ll do just fine, babe.
You always land on your feet.”

He grinned, broken and battered and torn almost beyond recognition.
My eyes traveled from him to Mouth, who looked stricken, his body slowly healing itself.

I made a decision.