Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 57184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
“War waits for no monster.” He smiles and extends his large hand.
I climb on, and he lifts me to the door as he unlocks it with his other hand.
“Take good care of him.” Alwar glances at my stomach. “He will be the last of us, you know.”
I start to cry. Alwar is confident he’ll win and hold the wall. It means I won’t ever see him again. Not Bard, not Master either. “I will do my very best.”
He kisses the top of my head and holds his hand to the red door. I step out and look over my shoulder as the bridge pulls me in, and I’m broken into a million pieces. Only this time, I’m not alone.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
It’s lonely here on this big estate. No sounds of Bard chopping wood to prepare for winter. No Grandma Rain yelling at Master to get off her couch or to stop leaving dead critters on the front porch. No howls of No Ones trying to pass through the house, looking for snacks. No deep voices talking to me through the walls, telling me their beautiful lies with their beautiful mouths.
My best friend Sunnie has stopped by a few times to keep me company, but things just aren’t the same between us. She was really hurt when I dropped off the face of the earth to spend time finding myself—a lie—only to return pregnant.
I’ve been back for three months now, and people in town continue to whisper behind my back. Mostly rumors about my ex, Dave, who disappeared without a trace. His family’s been looking for him ever since, and luckily, while I was gone, no one came here. At least, not to search with a warrant. If they had, they would’ve found his blue Ferrari back behind the shed, the GPS disconnected. Now the car is down in a gully off of Rebel Road, a place too steep for anyone to ever find it.
Poor Dave’s family. And poor Dave. Bard, a brand-new No One at the time, chewed his face clean off out in the woods. I think Bard was just trying to protect me, even if he didn’t know why. Bard eventually remembered me and our past, but it took time.
Time. Now there’s a topic I can’t stop thinking about. I slide my hand over my stomach. The giant fetus is the size of a small grape now, right on track for a normal human baby. Thank God there were no issues going over the bridge, but I never imagined being here all alone, pregnant.
Every day I wake in a panic, worried that things didn’t go as planned back in Monsterland, that the invasion of monsters from the future is still coming.
Twice a day, with the obsession of a prison guard, I check all the locks on the doors that seal the bridges leading to Monsterland. As if any of that will help us if the wall falls. They’ll come right through the naked doorways. No wall. No bridge. No filters.
I just wish there were a way for Alwar to send word. What happened? How bad was the attack? Did they win? Is that why he hasn’t sent word because he no longer exists?
Wishful thinking. Because if Monsterland were gone, wouldn’t this place be gone, too? Maybe even I’ll disappear. Erased by a future that never happens.
I don’t know. In the meantime, I have to pretend that life will go on.
It’s summer now, and I’m putting the cash I got from selling Alwar’s diamond to good use. The house is under major construction—foundation repair, new support beams, insulation, and siding. The retaining wall that prevents the estate from flooding is being rebuilt, too. Four hundred thousand dollars just to keep this place from falling apart.
That doesn’t include the grounds that need help, or the new septic and well water pump. That’s going to cost another fifty grand. Plus there’s the demolition of my old house that burned down.
Has to wait until next year.
I need to start thinking about making a home for me and this baby. We have wood stores for the winter to worry about, too. When the snow comes, the propane trucks can’t always get out here to refill our tank, so we reserve that fuel for cooking. For heat we use wood.
“Let’s get some breakfast and go into town to buy bread. Sound good?” I ask my stomach, which gurgles in response. I pretend it’s the baby. “Excellent choice.”
I also pretend I’m at ease with all this because my lies are better for the creature in my belly. Yeah. Like it doesn’t know I can’t breathe or sleep. Or that I have constant nightmares while waiting for the shoe to drop. Or that I’m so lonely I could die. But I can’t stand the thought of bringing anyone here. Ground zero. If I leave, it will be in body only. My mind will still be trapped here. In hell. Wondering if the end is near.