Chapter 58
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
Oscar pushed himself upright, looking around for something to break the lantern with. There wasn’t anything—they hadn’t brought any physical weapons to fight ghosts, and the lantern room had no furniture or other fixtures.
Lightning crashed, terrifyingly close, and Ullman swelled with power. He loomed over Gloria, her wrists still bound by tendrils of fog. More tendrils emanated from his form, crawling toward her ankles.
“Disobedient girl,” he said. “I am your creator! Obey me or suffer the consequences.”
Tina heaved herself out through the trapdoor, a canister of salt in her hand. “You might have created her, but she doesn’t owe you shit, fuckface,” Tina yelled, and scattered a wide arc of white crystals through the air and into the black smoke.
He screamed and released Gloria, tendrils shriveling and smoking. She was free—but with lightning crashing all around them, it would take only seconds before Ullman recovered the energy the salt had stolen.
Tina glanced over her shoulder at Oscar. “If you’re going to do something, for god’s sake, do it now!”
This was going to hurt, but unlike Ullman, it probably wouldn’t kill him. Oscar yanked off his shirt, wound it around his hand, and punched the glass of the lantern.
Not hard enough. It cracked a little but didn’t give.
“No!” Gloria rushed at him, and her hands seemed to shift into claws. “I put them in there to keep them safe. Stop!”
He braced himself for the tulpa’s attack. But before she could reach him, another form materialized in between.
Robin’s long hair floated about her, as if charged by the electricity in the air. A soft glow seemed to emanate from her skin, in stark contrast to Ullman’s black smoke. Her expression was sad, but the gentleness of her presence soothed nonetheless.
What a medium she would have been, had she lived.
“No,” she said to Gloria. Her killer. “It’s okay. It’s time for us all to finally be free.”
Whether Gloria agreed or not, Oscar didn’t know, because he didn’t take the time to find out. Seizing the moment Robin had given him, he drew back his fist and put every ounce of his weight behind smashing it through the glass.