The rise and fall of sirens screech in the distance.
A soot-skinned demon crawls past Maggie on its belly. Its eyes roll around in its head, looking for some poor soul to devour. Maggie pushes her hands into her pockets to keep them from shaking.
Maybe her imagination is getting the best of her. She closes her eyes and shakes her head, ridding her mind of the vision. She snaps her eyes open. A man stumbles past, with a bulgy-eyed beast clinging to his back.
She nudges Eli's arm. "Can you see that?" She lifts her chin to the man stumbling across the street.
"The drunk guy?" Eli says.
Maggie nods. "Do you see anything else?"
"There's a demon stuck to his back."
Maggie gasps. "I can see it."
"You can?"
"They're everywhere!"
From rooftops and down alleyways, black bulbous eyes stare at Eli and Maggie.
Maggie lets out a shaky breath. "I don't know how you've lived this way for so long –- seeing what you see, Eli."
"As much as I hate taking Dr. B's meds, they do tune them out." He grasps her hand. "Don't let them get inside your head, Maggie. They're just trying to scare you."
"Right. Don't let them get inside my head." She takes a deep breath. She peers down an alley way, doing her best to ignore the demons crawling past her. "Let's cut down here," she says.
They pace down the narrow, dark alley past dumpsters and graffiti-covered buildings. "We'll take the subway to North Station and then we'll walk to Dr. B's building from there."
Eli stops short and drops Maggie's hand. "And then what?"
"We'll find a way in."
"How are we supposed to find a way into a locked building? Our spidey senses will kick in and we'll scale the building straight up to his office?"
Maggie's mouth slips sideways. "Ha Ha, Mr. Sarcasm. I don't hear you coming up with any solutions to getting us out of this mess."
A high-pitched scream echoes through the alley.
"What was that?" Maggie whispers.
Eli points up ahead. Two boys are shoving a girl back and forth, batting her around like cats toying with a mouse. Their bright orange jumpsuits practically glow in the dark.
Eli sneers. "It's Peanut and Chummy from the Hall."
The girl looks familiar too with her beastly shape and flaming red hair. "Bria," Maggie says with a tremble. Her pulse quickens. Her instincts kick in, and before she realizes it, she's sprinting in the opposite direction creating as much distance as she can between her and the oafy beast.
"Maggie, wait up!" Eli shouts, chasing after her.
Bria lets out a hollow cry.
Maggie halts in her tracks.
Eli's eyes widen. "What are you doing? Why'd you stop?"
Peanut shoves Bria to the ground so hard, the crack of her head hitting the concrete echoes through the night.
Bria curls into a ball, shielding herself from the blows.
"She sounds scared. We can't just leave her in the street. They'll kill her," Maggie says.
YOU ARE READING
Blue on Blue
ParanormalSixteen-year-old Maggie Krane is tormented by sleep terrors and debilitating panic attacks. When she discovers that the people she believes to be her parents are really her aunt and uncle, her entire world is turned upside down. The news is just eno...
