Remember the Stars Read Free Page B

with his prize.
    The sobs she had valiantly tried to hold back, now broke through. She should have never left the safety of the funeral home.  All she wanted to do now was lie down and never wake up again.
    But that wasn’t an option. Summoning all of the strength she could muster, she trudged on through the open gate, and back onto the street, determined to make her way to her family home.
    As she shuffled along the lonely street, she tried to sum up her situation: Despair. Panic. Paralyzing fear. Mortality.
    She didn’t know how much time had passed when she finally reached the foot of the old trestle bridge. She paused and took in the impossible amount of steps she needed to climb. Even if she could make it all the way on to the bridge, more steps followed.
    She considered her situation. If she could just lie down for a little while, enough time to rest and regain some strength, she could finish her journey. She walked behind the steps hoping to be hidden from the view of anyone or anything that might be lurking.
    Just a few minutes, she thought as she sunk to her knees, and lay down on the bed of hard stones. She looked up into the night sky and the blanket of twinkling stars that provided a strange sense of comfort. The stars were so close, as if she could reach out and touch one.
    And then Leah was sucked into the black void.
                    ***
    It was always the smell that got to him .
    Remy Moreland stepped out of the safety of the funeral home and immediately covered his nose and mouth with his hand.
    The stench of iron, and smoke, and God knew what else, made him wretch uncontrollably.
    “Damn woman!” He hissed into the night.
    And his mother always wondered why he would never settle down with a good girl and get married.
    “Because women don’t listen to me,” he muttered to himself as he slipped the key into the lock on the front door of the funeral home and turned it.
    Maybe locking the door was stupid. If any of the abominations that existed in this hell wanted in bad enough, they would find a way. Still, blocking the door, signified that the property and what was inside belonged only to him, and that brought Remy a small sense of comfort in a world he could no longer control.
    Why had Leah run away from him? Didn’t she fathom the danger she was in ?
    Of course, his calling her a bitch hadn’t helped the situation. Then again, Remy had no clear idea what Leah actually was.
    Sure, on the surface, she looked like an angelic, curvy brunette, with doe-like espresso brown eyes who had been thrown into a horrific, nightmarish world she could not understand. Yet, his years here warned Remy to never, ever trust anything he saw. In reality, Leah could very well be some type of malevolent force that would tie him up and torture him with teeth and fingernails for years if he got too close or too comfortable near her.
    Staying on his guard was paramount to his own safety. Still, on the off chance she was like he was, his conscience and guilt drove him out of the safety of his flat and into the darkness to find her and bring her home.
    Damn him for having a conscience .
    But where to start looking? he sighed. He knew where to look; he just didn’t want to pay the price. The Playground Magician . The nightmarish little man-thing who smelled of gasoline, with  zig-zagged rows of razor teeth, who guarded the playground and held you hostage until you paid him a ransom. Lord, how he hated that guy—or thing, or whatever the hell it was.
    Remy twisted the gold band on his right ring finger as he walked along the sidewalk looking for shadows of what might be hiding in corners or behind buildings. The ring had been left to him by his paternal grandfather. Not only a valuable heirloom, but something he was meant to wear when he finally married.
    An ache filled his chest.
    Sentimental fool . 
    And to think he fancied himself a cynic.
    If he could take it all back, he would have married the first nice girl he