33. Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-two:
Amelia
TW: Mention of feeling like vomitting/Emesis
Amelia crept down the hall, listening for any sound. The massive house was completely void of life. She crept over bodies and chunks of what were probably bodies . It was strange to see the house not thrumming with staff. No sound of Penny and Brayden, no hooves clomping down the halls, no idle chatter between maids and chefs in the doorway to the kitchen. Amelia’s chest weighed a thousand pounds as she pocketed the flask into her pajama pants. The book purred as she stroked it unconsciously.
“Ms. Armstrong?”
Amelia jerked toward the front door, finding Aravis Blightwood the only living thing in the house.
“No, don’t…don’t tell me…” she croaked. Her heart couldn’t take another blow.
“Everyone is safe and sound. We’ve returned Penny and little Brayden back home. I was hoping to find you returned by now.”
Amelia let out a heavy sigh of relief. Her legs bowed and she fell to her knees. The book allowed her to drop it before her as she dry heaved. The fear of hearing they were dead dissipated, leaving only the heartache.
Aravis knelt before her, placing a massive, clawed hand to the center of her back. “Your turn, what happened in there?”
“I…I killed them…” Amelia shuddered. Her head was a bowling ball attached to a bungee cord, barely functioning and too heavy to lift. Shoulders rising and falling, she tried not to vomit all over the eldritch tome. Her stomach was clenched tight, and her mind was a swirling vortex of screaming thoughts. “They got their power from the book, so I gave it back… but now he’s gone. ”
Tears welled up in her eyes. Shivering, she gulped down air, but it only made it worse. Splashes of her misery hit the flesh bound book and soaked into its binding. Amelia cried out, the agony too great. He’s gone and he left me here alone. Aravis rubbed her back in soothing circles as she screamed into the house full of only dead things. Her throat cut out after a long time, leaving just a hoarse, raspy sound as she gasped for air.
“Amelia—”
“The witch told me I could bring him back,” Amelia snapped back from him, glaring at the Lord Commander. “I need to know how to get to the Library of Madness. I need to talk to the Hungry One.”
Aravis furrowed his brows. “How do you know those names?”
Amelia snatched up the book, waving it in front of him. “The book! It’s the whole reason was what he was! He stole it from the library, and it bit him. I made it bite him back. She told me to put the book back, so I’m gonna fucking put the book back. I’m…I’m gonna put the book back… But I need one more person…”
She glanced down at the book. It was suspiciously quiet. Aravis reached toward it and the book immediately growled. Snapping its teeth at Aravis, the book flapped sharp pages at the Lord Commander.
“I wouldn’t do that, Mr. Blightwood, that books pretty bity.”
Both adults glanced to the front door. Gael, shivering under a massive wool blanket, tiptoed into the room. She crept up toward Amelia, kneeling beside her. Her pretty ruby eyes apologized as best they could to Amelia. “I’m sorry…”
“You weren’t in control of yourself, Gael, I don’t blame you.” Amelia brushed tendrils of her hair away from her sweet face. One more person to return to the book. The book snarled in her arms, wrenching back and forth. Aravis slid an inch away from the rotten magic. Gael is the last of his spawn… the last touched by the book. Rick was gone, Buttons was gone, Kyle was gone, and Declan was gone. It was just the sweet teen who never should have been mixed up in it at all.
“Do it,” Gael breathed, shuffling on her knees closer to Amelia.
“Gael—”
“I don’t want to be this anymore, Ms. Armstrong. I don’t want to be a monster anymore. I just…if I can’t be Gael, then I don’t want to be anymore. Please!” Gael cried out, blood trickling down her cheeks as it welled in her eyes. “I’m so tired of hurting people .”
Amelia swallowed hard as she picked up the book in both hands. She doesn’t deserve this. Her hands shook as Amelia twisted to be knee to knee with Gael. The teen girl blinked away the bloody tears, smiling up at the ceiling.
“You know, this is the freakin’ nicest place I’ve ever been. Even nicer than the basement of the casino and that used to be the nicest place I’d ever been. And I just…I just wish I could thank Mr. Zrazduel and Hellen for saving me and doing everything they could. I know they didn’t stop looking and…it’s funny, strangers cared more for me than my parents and my friends.” Gael’s attention dropped to Amelia, ripping her heart from her chest.
Amelia let go of the book and let it lunge forward. Gael closed her eyes as the book flew through the air.
It’s not fair.
Aravis lurched forward but stopped as Amelia snatched his hand out of the air and pushed it to the ground.
She was so innocent…just another innocent person Declan destroyed.
Amelia tore her eyes away from the book as it wrapped its pages around the teens head.
Knox would have done anything to get Gael revenge against Declan…Knox would have wanted her to win in the end.
Silence filled the foyer as the book thudded to the floor. Amelia inhaled sharply, staring through watery eyes at the blood-soaked floor.
“Amelia,” Aravis breathed.
Amelia shook her head vigorously.
“Amelia…” Gael murmured.
Eyes wide, heart stopped, Amelia jerked to look at Gael. Red eyes gone, fangs gone, skin full of reds and pinks and life. Gael had brown eyes and chocolate hair with a sweet cluster of freckles across her cheeks and throat. Amelia’s lips flapped open and shut in confusion. “What…what how?”
That one’s different…like she’s not infected like the rest of us… Everyone’s eyes dropped to the book as it flipped open. Red soaked pages covered in sharp letters, gibberish flew past their eyes as it fluttered quickly. Then, with a jerk, it stopped in the middle.
A spell was described on the page in swirling ink. Arcane glyphs and sigils sprawled across the page with strict instructions underneath. Delicately, Amelia picked it up and flipped across a massive section that seemed dedicated to a ritual. “This must have been what Declan stole the book for. This book…it’s promising all a person’s deepest desires in exchange for something I can’t parse but, that’s typical. Any adventure novel would tell you the exchange is worse than the power it promises. Declan fell for an eldritch horror and paid the price…”
She stopped on a final phrase at the bottom of a page. The book wanted her to read it. Like it pulled her mind by a string and forced her to focus on it. She read it over and over while trying to parse why it was important.
“ Beware descendants of madness ?” Amelia blurted out.
“Gael,” Aravis sighed, eyeing the teen beside Amelia. “Your family…you don’t happen to have a Nightmare in the family?”
“My grandmother was a wight…why?” Gael blinked in confusion at the two of them.
Amelia and Aravis shared a look, “Descendant of Madness.”
“What?” Gael grimaced.
“Declan didn’t read the final print. He fed from someone with Nightmare realm in their ancestry. It’s why you were able to break away as much as you could, and why he couldn’t control you as well as he did Rick and Kyle. It was just enough to give you an advantage. It…it also looks like you were his downfall.” Amelia closed the book and tucked it under her arm.
“But I didn’t kill him, I basically stabbed Knox and tried to fight you?” Gael grimaced.
“Yes, but if he hadn’t bitten you and Knox didn’t find you in Kyle’s basement…Declan might have gotten away with this, might have won. But you kept leading us where we needed to be. The book buried in the woods, Buttons, all of it; if you weren’t there we might not have figured it out.” Amelia put a warm hand to Gael’s shoulder cap and squeezed it. “Come on, let’s get you home. You deserve to finally see your own bed.”
Gael frowned, picking at the wool blanket around her.
“What?” Amelia blurted out.
“Could I stay with you? With Penny, Brayden, and you?” She peeked up with puppy dog eyes. “It’s just, when I went to hide from Declan, my parents freaked out at me and my friends got me so angry I ate them…but I haven’t felt that weird homicidal rage when I was with y’all. So, maybe, I could sleep on the couch or something?”
Amelia snorted, nodding. “I can confirm it’s quite comfy and ready for sleeping. Sure, let’s get you to Penny’s. I can’t think of a nicer place to be for you to be in order to come down from all that’s happened.”
“Really?” Gael nearly vibrated out of her skin.
“Really.” Amelia smiled, climbing slowly to her feet. “Besides I think Brayden might cry if he didn’t get to continue to impress you with video game lore.”
Gael giggled as Aravis motioned for her to lead toward the door. He glanced back to Amelia as she hugged the book to her chest again.
“Where are you going now, Ms. Armstrong?”
“Unfortunately?” She glanced down at the book before up at him, “The Nightmare Realm, I think? Someone’s got to put the book back.”
And as a Book Guardian, it was now her responsibility.
She just needed to figure out…how…to do that…exactly.
“Good luck, Ms. Armstrong.” Aravis bowed his head, “It goes without saying, but this will be the last time I aid you or Mr. Zrazduel, and any shenanigans that happen going forward are none of my concern unless it’s a crime. I will bring Gael home but after that…if you break a law…”
Amelia snorted, rolling her eyes. “Don’t worry, Lord Commander, I have no intention of getting caught.”
He scowled as he slipped out the door. Amelia hugged the book, slowly turning to look toward the house. Time to put the book back…