Page 14 of Haunted Heart (Things that Go Hump in the night #1)

FOURTEEN

I don’t want to jump down, but we don’t have to. The cellar door isn’t locked here.

It opens like the hinges are brand new, and the eerie light filtering down shows Dylan, sitting in the dirt, weaving like he’s drunk.

I don’t waste time. Jonas doesn’t hesitate to help me.

I’ve never been in the cellar in the living world. I don’t know what’s different about this version of it. But I do know that Dylan shouldn’t be here, and I am not going to let him stay any longer than I have to.

I start to drag him back up the steps, but Jonas pauses. “What is that?”

In the dirt, in a pile of ash, a heart glows bright. A molten red shimmering beneath the cracked and brittle crust of burned muscle.

“That is Julia’s, don’t touch it.”

He looks up at me, unblinking, but he nods, and follows me back up.

The floor in the foyer is fixed when we come back around, and as if seeing the fully intact floor wakes him up, Dylan starts to struggle.

Cursing under his breath, Jonas does his best to manage him and I just lead the way.

Julia waits for us, the door to the bedroom open again.

When we reach the bedroom, Jonas turns to the portal to the human world as if it tugs at him the same way that his entrance to Hell did.

He loosens his grip, and Dylan turns.

Dylan spits, and Jonas shoves him, snatching his hand back before Dylan tries to bite him.

“Jesus Christ. What the Hell is wrong with him?”

I get behind Dylan and push. He vanishes as soon as his hand touches the portal in the frame, back to the living world.

I shiver, leaning back into Julia, whose hands have gone to my shoulders, stroking my skin. “I think we just saw the real Dylan. He spent the last year lying to me. I guess coming to Hell made lying impossible.”

I push Jonas through and he, too, disappears, but I don’t let Julia send me through first.

“We go together.” I am not about to let something happen to trap her here.

She nods, and we help each other over and through.

The floor feels more solid, and I shiver once we’re finally through.

Before I do anything else, I touch the outside of the frame, letting it burn me. “Fracta.”

The wood splinters where my fingers touched it, the entrance to Hell vanishing as easily as the guys did.

Behind where it was, the paneling of the wall is charred and crackled.

“You still need to deal with him,” she says.

“I know.”

And I hate that it came to this.

Hurrying down the stairs, I try to think of what I’m going to say.

Now that he’s out of Hell, Dylan has to be better, right?

I catch sight of him as he stalks out the door. I’ll go after him in a minute. I need to check on Jonas first.

He’s already upright, blinking and weaving on his feet. “Is this the real world?”

“Yeah, we’re back.” I hold his shoulder to steady him. “Are you okay?”

“He’s soul weary,” Julia says. “It’s done a lot today.”

Jonas doesn’t seem to hear her anymore.

He nods “I think so?”

“Are you going to be okay while I go deal with Dylan?”

He looks toward the doors, grimacing. “Are you sure you want to do that alone?”

“No. I don’t want to do it at all, but… I have to.”

“You could give him a day or two to cool off.”

“I can’t.” I brush his hair out of his face… he looks more like a little kid than any guy as tall as him has the right to. “When I’m done with him, I’ll come back, and we can make you forget all about Hell.”

He nods and glances toward Julia. “What about her?”

She still looks like her terrifying self, and I imagine she will haunt his dreams.

“He’ll see me and other ghosts for a while. When you’ve been to the other side, it lingers with you… that can’t be helped.”

“We’ll figure that out later.”

“No!”

I turn sharply to Julia, but she’s not arguing about when Jonas and I talk. She sinks through the floor, and the house shakes… with panic.

There’s only one thing below us that could induce that terror.

I run out the front door and by the time I round the corner, Dylan has already started to hack at the cellar entrance.

I don’t know where he found the axe and I don’t care.

I tackle him to the ground and it goes flying.

“I’m going to kill her. And then, I’m going to kill you.”

He grabs handfuls of dirt, shoving them at me as he throws me off him. But I grab the axe before he can and hold it tight.

I’m not going to swing it at him, but I’m not going to let him take it away from me either.

I can’t knock him out without touching him, and I don’t trust any of the other spells I’ve dabbled with to deal with this problem.

My education is lacking… I just never thought a friend would want me dead.

“Dylan, stop it.” Jonas sags against the corner of the house, holding himself up. He looks like he’s run a marathon.

“Don’t fucking start with me.” He points at Jonas and then his eyes narrow. “You know what… I’ll kill you too.”

“Listen,” I interrupt, still holding the axe between us. “You went through a lot tonight. I know that you’re probably confused?—”

“I’m not confused. My eyes are wide open.” He smiles at me. My skin crawls. “I know what I have to do.”

Before I can even begin to guess what he means by that, he throws himself sideways, crashing through the splintered cellar door.

“Crap.” I throw the axe away and run after him.

But Dylan hasn’t gotten far.

I would bet he has only managed to stand up, not take a step.

Julia floats in the air between him and her heart. Her skirt and hair billow around her, fading to nothing at the edges.

Her eyes are massive black voids, her mouth more akin to something you would see in the deepest ocean.

She is a creature of the Hell we just escaped. Dylan stares up at her, finally terrified.

He swallows audibly, and I see him look down at her heart. Blood drips from his arm, sizzling when it hits the ground.

I don’t think he realizes how much danger he’s in.

Wood from the floor joists creak and groan, and a hundred splinters burst from it, flying into his skin, peppering him like bullets.

But that isn’t what is going to kill him.

“You aren’t going to want to watch this,” I tell Jonas, but he stays, sitting on the top step of the cellar, like it’s a play.

Dylan’s arm moves, and he stares at it, brows pinched.

“How…” Jonas trails off.

“Julia can interact with her house… her house is in him, and so now, he is her puppet.”

He screams when she wrenches that arm back, and I wince as I hear the bone snap.

“Genevieve was going to let you live,” Julia intones. “I won’t.”

“What did she say?” Jonas leans forward, eyes wide.

“She’s going to kill him.” I glance back at him. “Like I said, you might not want to be here.”

“I mean… I’ve already watched three people get swallowed up by Hell tonight. What’s a fourth?”

He leans forward, elbows on his knees, and makes an ugly sound as Dylan’s wrist rotates completely around.

Dylan’s legs give out, but he doesn’t drop to the ground. Suspended by the wood embedded in him, he floats in front of Julia.

I almost tell her not to torture him. But I remember what he had planned to do to me in Hell, and I wonder if he hasn’t already done the same in the living world… if he would do it to someone else if I asked her to spare him.

Maybe I’ll join Julia when I die and we’ll descend to Wrath together.

Bit by bit, Julia breaks him like a doll in the hands of a sadistic child.

He is a crumpled and crying mess by the time she is done.

“Please,” he whimpers.

But Julia shakes her head. “There is no mercy in you. You’ll get none from me. Go back to Hell where you belong.”

His scream is bloodcurdling this time, but it cuts off when his head snaps cleanly to the side.

I look out into the night sky.

Sound might not have carried in Hell, but these would have. I have to hope no one is out for a midnight stroll.