Unreal City Read Online Free Page B

cool. In there it was safe. The trees almost wanted me to wander in, come into the shadows, to the light-falls that shone in points of dappled clarity on the forest floors, to the disordered kingdom of humming insects, to the place where everything was simultaneously growing and dying at each other’s hand. In those trees I could hear peace calling. I could hear something beckoning, offering a way to pierce my anger and rip it out, leaving me neutralized but tranquil.
    Tormented by my jumble of furious, desperate thoughts and yearnings, I made it into the row of pines and away from the eyes of the world. Though there was a view of the freeway from here, it was quiet at last. The sun’s rays didn’t beat down quite as intensely while I was hiding in those woods. I took a moment to catch my breath and let my gaze fall to my shoes, so caught up in lamenting how poorly I had treated Joy that I became oblivious to the danger nearby. I didn’t have an inkling that I was being watched until I glanced up to see the heart-stopping, unearthly face of a creature I then had no name for.
    That was the first time I lay eyes on the nightmare that I would come to know so well.
     

 
     

     
     
    I YELPED. I couldn’t help it. That instant was like those moments in dreams when you realize everything around you is a façade, except I knew that it wouldn’t fade like a dream—what I was seeing was real.
    At the end of the narrow dirt trail sat a black-furred animal a little larger than a fox. I thought at first glance that it was a rather large cat, but its face proved me wrong. Those eyes were too bright and fiery green in color…and too aware . They were intelligent, sentient, and curious. Its skull was misshapen too, with a toothy mouth that curved up at a terrifying angle in an unmistakable grin. Its ears twitched slightly as it regarded me, those little needle teeth glinting all around its dark lips. It struck me then why the creature’s face disturbed me so: it looked human almost—a hideous crossbreed of primal, animalistic rawness and human understanding.
    In my horror, my foot slipped on the loose earth of the hill and I almost slid down the slope, causing my heart to pound even harder. My hand shot to my forehead as my vision refocused. That thing was really there. No matter how many times I blinked, it stayed there.
    Terrified yet mesmerized, I stared at that ethereal abomination as it did the same to me—that mocking, dangerous grin still stuck to its face. Then without warning, with all the grace of a feline and more, it turned its bushy tail, skittered down the path, and was gone. I watched it go, my heart slamming against my ribcage.
    What the fuck was that?
    I wanted to leave, to run away from that unnatural, ungodly thing, but I couldn’t. I don’t think anyone could have. How could I continue on as if that hadn’t just happened?
    It took me a good long while to take a single step down the path where it had disappeared. But after that gargantuan effort of courage had been taken, the steps that followed came with rising momentum. I remained terrified as I hurried around the narrow bend on the forest path after the creature, but I needed to know. I needed to at least see it once more, to ensure that it had in fact been real.
    The dirt trail began to slope downward to a little clearing. In the gulch below sat a large cement box with a square hole cut into it. I was just in time to see a little tuft of black fur disappear down into that hole. I knew what this place was. I’d heard the other students talk about it: Porter Caves.
    All too aware of my recklessness, I slid down the sandy slope and climbed with shaking legs onto the box. I could see the edge of a rickety metallic ladder dropping down into the dark, but even after just a few feet, I could see nothing but darkness so deep that anything below it seemed to have disappeared from the Earth altogether.
    “He-hello? Are you—is anything down there?” I’d