[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.You look a little shaken up Layla, right? Why don t you sit down?She just couldn t believe psycho killers sat around a pretty kitchen eating bucket chicken anddebating wine over beer.Why don t I? I m probably not really here.She sat, dropped her head in herhands.I m probably in some padded room imagining all this.Imagining all what? Fox asked.Why don t I take it? Quinn glanced at Layla as Cal got out wineglasses.Then you can fill in asmuch of your own backstory as you want.Fine.That s fine.Layla checked into the hotel this morning.She s from New York.Just a bit ago, I was in the hoteldining room, considering ordering the green salad and the haddock, along with a nice glass of white.Layla was just coming in, I assume, to have her own dinner.I was going to ask you to join me, by theway.Oh.Ah, that s nice.Before I could issue the invite, what I d describe as a sluglike creature thicker than my auntChristine s thigh and about four feet in length oozed its way across the dining room, up over the tablewhere a couple happily continued their dining foreplay, then oozed down again, leaving a revoltingsmear of God-knows-what behind it.She saw it.It looked at me.It looked right at me, Layla whispered.Don t be stingy with the wine, Cal.Quinn stepped over to rub a hand on Layla s shoulder.Wewere the only ones who saw it, and no longer wishing to dine at the hotel, and believing Layla felt thesame, we booked.And I m now screwing my caloric intake for the day with this drumstick.file://C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temp\Rar$EX03.813\Nora.3/3/2008 BloodBrothers Page 91 of 257You re awfully blithe.Thanks.Layla accepted the wineglass Cal offered, then drank half thecontents at one go.Not really.Defense mechanism.So here we are, and I want to know if either of you have everseen anything like I just described.There was a moment of silence, then Cal picked up his beer, drank.We ve seen a lot of things.The bigger question for me is, why are you seeing them, and part two, why are you seeing them now?Got a theory.Cal turned to Fox.Such as?Connections.You said yourself there had to be some connection for Quinn to see it, to have thedreamDreams.Layla s head came up.You ve had dreams?And so, apparently, have you, Fox continued.So we ll connect Layla.Figuring out how they reconnected may take a while, but let s just go with the hypothesis that they are, and say, what if.What if,due to this connection, due to Quinn, then Layla being in the Hollow, particularly during the seventhyear, gives it some kind of psychic boost? Gives it the juice to manifest?That s not bad, Cal replied.I d say it s damn good.Quinn cocked her head as she considered.Energy.Most paranormalactivity stems from energy.The energy the well, entity or entities, the actions, the emotions thereof,leave behind, and the energy of the people within its sphere, let s say.And we could speculate that thispsychic energy has built over time, strengthened, so that now, with the addition of other connectedenergies, it s able to push out into our reality, to some extent, outside of its traditional time frame.What in God s name are you people talking about? Layla demanded.We ll get to that, I promise.Quinn offered her a bolstering smile.Why don t you eat something,settle the nerves?I think it s going to be a while before food holds any appeal for me.Mr.Slug slimed right over the bread bowl, Quinn explained.It was pretty damn gross.Sadly,nothing puts me off food.She snagged a couple of cold fries.So, if we run with Fox s theory, where isits counterpoint? The good to its bad, the white to its dark.All my research on this points to both sides.Maybe it can t pull out yet, or it s hanging back.Or the two of you connect to the dark, and not the light, Cal added.Quinn narrowed her eyes at him, with something glinting between her lashes.Then she shrugged.Insulting, but unarguable at this time.Except for the fact that, logically, if we were more a weight onthe bad side, why is said bad side trying to scare the living daylights out of us?file://C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temp\Rar$EX03.813\Nora.3/3/2008 BloodBrothers Page 92 of 257Good point, Cal conceded.I want some answers.Quinn nodded at Layla.I bet you do.I want some serious, sensible answers.Thumbnail: The town includes an area in the woods known as the Pagan Stone.Bad stuffhappened there.Gods, demons, blood, death, fire.I m going to lend you a couple of books on thesubject.Centuries pass, then something opened it up again.Since nineteen eighty-seven, for sevennights in July, every seventh year, it comes out to play.It s mean, it s ugly, and it s powerful.We regetting a preview.Gratefully, Layla held out her glass for more wine as she studied Quinn.Why haven t I ever heardof this? Or this place?There have been some books, some articles, some reports but most of them hit somewherebetween alien abductions and sightings of Bigfoot, Quinn explained.There s never been a serious,thorough, fully researched account published.That s going to be my job.All right.Say I believe all this, and I m not sure I m not just having the mother of allhallucinations, why you, and you? she said to Fox and Cal.Where do you come in?Because we re the ones who opened it, Fox told her.Cal, me, and a friend who s currentlyabsent.Twenty-one years ago this July.But you d have been kids.You d have had to have beenTen, Cal confirmed.We share a birthday.It was our tenth birthday.Now, we showed some ofours.How about seeing some of yours.Why did you come here?Fair enough.Layla took another slow sip of her wine.Whether it was that or the brightly litkitchen with a dog snoring under the table or just having a group of strangers who were likely to believewhat she was about to tell them, her nerves were steadier.I ve been having dreams for the last several nights.Nightmares or night terrors.Sometimes I dwake up in my bed, sometimes I d wake up trying to get out the door of my apartment.You said bloodand fire.There was both in the dreams, and a kind of altar in a clearing in the woods.I think it wasstone.And there was water, too.Black water.I was drowning in it.I was captain of the swim team inhigh school, and I was drowning.She shuddered, took another breath.I was afraid to sleep.I thought I heard voices even when Iwasn t asleep.I couldn t understand them, but I d be at work, doing my job, or stopping by the drycleaners on the way home, and these voices would just fill my head.I thought I was having abreakdown.But why? Then I thought maybe I had a brain tumor.I even thought about making anappointment with a neurologist.Then last night, I took a sleeping pill.Maybe I could just drug my wayout of it.But it came, and in the dream something was in bed with me.Her breath trembled out this time.Not my bed, but somewhere else.A small room, a small hotfile://C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temp\Rar$EX03.813\Nora.3/3/2008 BloodBrothers Page 93 of 257room with a tiny window.I was someone else.I can t explain it, really.You re doing fine, Quinn assured her
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Tematy
IndexBogaty Ojciec Biedny Ojciec dla młodzieży Robert Kiyosaki i Sharon L. Lechter full
008. Robert Jordan Koło Czasu t4 cz2 Ten, Który Przychodzi Ze Œwitem
010. Robert Jordan Koło Czasu t5 cz2 Spustoszone Ziemie
Roberts John Maddox Nova Roma 01 Operacja Marka Scypiona (2)
07. Robert Jordan Koło Czasu t4 cz1 Wschodzšcy Cień
012. Robert Jordan Koło Czasu t6 cz2 Czarna Wieża
002. Robert Jordan Koło Czasu t1 cz2 Oko Œwiata
001. Robert Jordan Koło Czasu t1 cz1 Oko Œwiata
W.E.B Griffin Więzy honoru 2 Krew i honor
Jones, Diana Wynne Wizard's Castle Omnibus (bks 1 & 2)