Losing Hope | {BOOK 4}

45| The Darkness is Coming

"Have you guys ever seen the iced tea commercial?" Sydney asked. "Where the lady is lying along the inflatable raft and she's just drifting along a sparkling pool? That's what it was like! Being with Amos. Bliss. No hurting. No sadness. No memories."

"So you don't want memories?" Sam asked.

"Did you have nice parents, Sam? Because my parents treated me and my sister like human ash trays."

Sydney lifted her shirt up so we could see many cigarette burn scars on her stomach.

"I used to have to drink myself blind to even look at these. Let alone show anybody. And now I don't know what Amos did to me, but it's just skin."

"Right," Sam nodded. "Well, that's really... good for you."

"No more waking up screaming from nightmares. No more flashbacks. Amos took away the pain. He lightened something in me."

"Except now you're an ax murderer," I pointed out.

"I'm free," Sydney corrected me. "Before there was always this constant voice in my head. 'You can't do that. It's wrong. What if you get caught?' And now it's quiet. It's just me and what I want. And when you can do whatever you want you don't have to get caught. And then you can really fly."

"Were you flying when you diced up that couple at the inn?"

"Oh. When I found out that... puss-hole was taking another girl to the B&B... that's his deal closing move. I didn't have to sit at home and cry about it."

"And what about the innkeeper's mom?"

"That piece of jerky. She screwed me out of two weeks' pay. I used to fantasize about killing her and now I'm living the dream."

"So that's how you got in and out," Sam realized. "You worked there."

"Just for one summer," she confirmed.

"What about Jordi's parents?" I asked. "Huh? What? Did they screw you over, too?"

"Not me. Jordi. Where to start?" she scoffed. "Meth dealing dad. Slut mom. No, I saved Jordi. And I'm going to take better care of him than they ever did."

"Well, you said that we were, uh, we were on offering," I continued. "Well, how do you plan on bringing Amos here? Don't tell me that boy's got a cell phone."

"I've been praying," Sydney explained. "And I know he can hear me. I can feel it. He's close. He hasn't left me."

"Well, bring him out. We've been hunting that bastard for weeks."

Sydney hit me with the butt end of the shotgun and I groaned, seeing spots.

"He is a god!" she hissed at me.

Sam used that moment to reveal that he'd gotten loose. He jumped up to attack Sydney and she fired at him with the shotgun, but missed. Immediately after, she dropped to the floor. Len was standing behind her holding a bloody ax.

"Holy crap," Len swore. "I just did that."

"Hey. Hey," Sam told him. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Take this away."

As he took the ax from Len, Sydney spoke from her place on the floor.

"The Darkness is coming," she breathed. "It's so peaceful. It's coming for all of us."

⁘

Sam and I made a pitstop for some food before we could head back to the Bunker.

"Still can't believe Len turned himself in," I said.

"I mean, it kinda makes sense, you know?" Sam looked over at me. "People have different reactions to losing their souls. I did. Everyone's got their own history, right?"

"Len loses his heart. Sydney loses her head. What, are we looking for the cowardly lion next?"

"You know, I get this pit in my stomach ever time I think of him. The Darkness. Like we only know the tip of what he is. What he does to people. You know, Len was freaked out by him. But Sydney. Sydney couldn't get enough. The bliss she was talking about, you know? What was it like for you? Did you feel that with Amos?"

"No," I shook my head. "No, I mean, it was quiet. Until, uh, he started hatching killers and rallying monsters to raise armies."

"So, that's how we have to find him. Follow the bodies."

"You got a better idea? We could follow the crazy you've been seeing. Look, at the rate Amos's growing, sucking souls and getting stronger. He may not be that hard to find. Come on."

Sam and I climbed into the Impala with him behind the wheel, and we drove off.

⁘

"I thought you were coming home."

"Well, we were planning on it, but I wanted to stick around and make sure Amos wasn't still in town sucking people's souls, Dean."

"Ellie, it's been a week. Zep misses you," Dean told me. "I miss you."

"Look, there haven't been any good leads lately, so we think Amos might have skipped town," I replied. "So, it shouldn't be much longer, I promise. How's Cass doing?"

"He's resorted to watching 'Jenny Jones' reruns."

I smirked, able to picture the exasperated eye roll that would accompany Dean's words.

"I'm going to try and get him to get out of the Bunker. We need him back in the game with these new developments with the Darkness."

"Yeah, sounds good. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Alright. Love you."

"Love you, too."

I hung up, looking over at Sam, who was just finishing up a phone call of his own.

"I get it," he was saying. "Yeah, well, thanks for letting me know. We'll- we'll head out there right now. You got it."

"What's up?" I asked as he hung up.

"That was Detective Madsen. Remember our friend Len?"

"Uh, weird as hell, soulless, took-the-rap-for-all-the-murders Len?"

"Yeah. He's dead."

⁘

Sam and I followed the detective out of Len's cell, a man wheeling the body away on a gurney.

"Thought maybe a relative of Len's victims, but it doesn't feel like a revenge killing," Detective Madsen informed us. "Too clean, like an assassination."

"Detective," a man gained his attention.

"Excuse me."

The detective walked away into an office while Sam and I remained out in the hallway.

"You smell that?" I asked him.

"Yeah," he nodded.

"Yeah, either the detective needs to change his diet, or, uh-"

"Sulfur. Len was killed by a demon."

"Yeah, but why would a demon order a hit on a guy with no soul? It's like a Cracker Jack but not a prize."

"Hands off, Deputy Doody!" a boy's voice carried out of the office.

We both turned to look as an officer grabbed the boy who'd spoken, who was in handcuffs, by the arm and pulled him past us.

"Who's the kid?" Sam asked the detective.

"Griffin Schmidtlapp. Was a normal kid, snapped this morning- tried to kill his mom with a frying pan."

I rolled my eyes as I looked over at Sam.

"First the ax murders, then Len, now this?" Madsen shook his head.

"We're gonna need to talk to the kid," I informed him.