Intersections Read online

  Mr. Shady landed upon the SUV, and his minions released their grip on the semi. Now the SUV dragged them behind it like some kind of oversized hellish bridal train. The souls shrieked and thrashed as the blacktop throttled them. Bits of arms and legs broke away, turning in mid-air from glistening black to pale grey. I didn’t want to look at what came next, but I couldn’t help myself. The SUV drifted closer. The dark man upon the roof lurked over me, hands outstretched.

  The cold crept into my phantom bones, freezing my joints. I could barely move, and I might’ve actually been grateful. I’d suffered the sun’s hurtful embrace and was terrified of enduring it again. At least with Mr. Shady, maybe I’d know peace.

  Except he smiled, and terror filled me. His black teeth. His black tongue. His black mouth. All so cold and empty. Shannon gripped my hand so hard that something crunched.

  Mr. Shady crouched and leapt, and his followers propelled him across the void. Ribbons of twisting appendages streamed from his heels. He landed upon the Aztec’s roof, trailing a twisted river of black souls behind him like an endless cape. He climbed onto the bicycle on which I was impaled, perched upon the seat and gripping the handlebars. Relentless cold paralyzed me. An eternity away, Shannon screamed, “No! Leave her alone!”

  I looked at her, trying to ignore the shadowy figure inching closer to me. My chest and throat went numb. In the periphery of my vision, his lips parted. The cold washed over me. Into me. My face went numb.

  Mr. Shady pressed closer, his bruised aura smothering my own.

  “Kiss me,” he said, his slippery voice like crude oil oozing out of a jagged crevice.

  I couldn’t answer, but I didn’t obey.

  He shook his head and said, “I’ll take the pain away, Molly. Just kiss me. Let me inside you and everything will be better. The darkness will set you free. The sun will rise soon. Let me in first, and I can save you from oblivion. We can be happy together.”

  All the hurt twitched and flared inside me. So much pain—more than I could endure. His words offered me hope. I’d suffered enough. Slowly, I nodded to him.

  22

  Mr. Shady grinned triumphantly and bowed his head to accept my kiss. I looked to Shannon, wanting her to be the last thing I saw. I tried to mouth my final words to her, “I’ll miss you.” Instead, my numb lips twitched three times, the words shattering on my tongue.

  I was about to let go of her hand and embrace Mr. Shady when a yellowish field washed over Shannon’s aura. It was the color of ancient brittle pages. A familiar tingle ran through the hand holding hers. An unseen force lifted her into the wind, pulling her off the bike. From the way she was smiling, I could tell it didn’t hurt.

  The Ouija board was summoning her.

  She gripped me tight, now using both hands. Tara must’ve received the text. Only she must’ve been more precise with her summoning this time. The Ouija’s field only enveloped Shannon. It was going to leave me behind.

  Mr. Shady snarled and leapt at Shannon, but bounced harmlessly off the Ouija’s protective field. He tumbled back, ricocheted off the kayak, and crashed onto the gravel shoulder. His followers collapsed behind him, and a speeding semi burst them apart. I imagine that their shrieking was terrible, but I couldn’t hear it over the sound of my own.

  Shannon rose into the air and pulled me with her. My body tore free of the bicycle’s frame, the hard metal scraping me out. Hollowing me. Agony swarmed in places that I didn’t know could hurt. The pain nearly blinded me. My innards wiggled and tangled through the air. I howled in agony. My disemboweled body resembled a jellyfish with long tendrils. I was practically turned inside out. When I screamed, globs of ectoplasm and pieces of my soul splattered into the air.

  Shannon pulled me close and hugged me, burying my face into her neck. She wrapped her legs around my waist as the Ouija’s force yanked us down the length of the highway toward the coming dawn. It weaved us between the oncoming traffic, protecting Shannon but not me.

  A passing station wagon slammed into my dangling legs. A semi smacked my trailing entrails. I tried to scream, but there was nothing left inside me. Shannon kept her legs wrapped around my waist, while she reeled in my spilled innards and stuffed them back into my torn torso.

  Her eyes were as black as night, and the eastern sky had lightened to navy blue.

  Late night drivers and early morning commuters passed by us in a blur, oblivious to the two souls soaring through the air. Without warning, the force yanked us off the interstate and into the forest lining the highway. We tumbled and twirled, cutting between trees and over branches. My head wobbled at all the twists and turns. Shannon gripped me tighter to protect me. We darted and whirled through the underbrush. Branches slashed through me. Pine needles raked into me.

  By the time we popped out of the woods and barreled through a cloud of bats, my torn phantom body resembled a handful of crumpled, shredded paper. Only one eye remained.

  “It’s okay,” Shannon said. “I see the van.”

  In the distance, the blue Dodge van rambled down the desolate route that connected I-70 to the airport. A departing plane soared into the air. We’d made it. Oh, hallelujah, we’d made it. I couldn’t help but smile with what was left of my mouth until I realized that the van’s windows were rolled up.

  Shannon said, “How are we going to get inside?”

  We dove through the air until we were soaring beside the van’s driver side door. The force pulled Shannon’s feet inside first, yanking them through the crevice between the door and the frame. It flattened her out so she could slip inside. Her stretched out legs resembled a long ribbon flowing into the van’s interior and piling behind the seats. She clutched me, black eyes as wide as silver dollars.

  “I’m sorry, Molly,” she said, because clearly the field wasn’t going to pull me inside too. She was now halfway inside the van, up to her waist. In the vehicle, her legs reformed out of the tangle of flattened soul.

  I couldn’t answer her with my shattered jaw. So, I nodded. With a loud grunt, she muscled me toward the driver side rearview mirror. I managed to drape my left shoulder over it and lock it in place by gripping my hands. Through the van’s windshield, Cleavage rode shotgun with the Ouija board on her lap. Tara of the Glasses had one hand on the wheel, the other on the planchette. The road below pummeled my dangling feet, knocking my shoe off. The heel bounced away and then flew back. I hadn’t the strength to lift my legs. So instead, I suffered through the hurt.

  Shannon rose between the seats, her face looking a bit like a stretched out accordion. She tried to steady her pancaked head but her arms resembled tangled Slinkys. The velocity forced me down, out of sight of the window. I dangled by my arms, trying to kick my legs away from the road, but gravity soon won. The passing highway cracked at my knees and shins, shredding them like coleslaw. That was how I rode the rest of the way to the airport, all the while wondering why I hadn’t kissed Mr. Shady when I had the chance.

  23

  Mr. Shady

  A single black tear wormed its way down Mr. Shady’s temple as he lay on the side of the road. He’d had Molly. She’d been his, but that bitch Shannon had taken her away. He sat up. Around him, the mess of ruptured souls scattered all along Interstate 70 twitched and screamed and writhed. He trembled with rage and climbed to his feet.

  As he collected chunks of ghosts and assembled them into a crude mode of transport, he shook his head at himself. He’d foolishly thrown himself at Shannon when it was really Molly that he’d wanted. He should’ve bitten Molly when he’d had the chance, but he hadn’t wanted to take her like that. No, she needed to offer herself to him. It wasn’t enough to claim her. She needed to invite him—to open up to him. He loved her too much to force himself upon her.

  Traffic roared past.

  Mr. Shady climbed onto his new mount—a mish-mash of perhaps a baker’s dozen of souls, though the stray pieces only added up to two full body’s worth. The glistening black mess could barely be recognized as hum