that last onset Archive

Chapter Nineteen I rested my head against the frigid ground. It wouldn’t be much longer now. I was numb all over. My breathing had slowed. My heart was barely pumping. I’d fall asleep here, and that would be the end. “I’m…glad…you’re…here…Graham.” Talking was difficult. I...

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Chapter Eighteen I’d never been inside something so black. I couldn’t see anything. It wasn’t the way it is when you close your eyes and patterns swim in your vision. It wasn’t the way it is when you lock yourself in a room with no...

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Chapter Seventeen I stood over the body of Graham in the interrogation room at the police station, exactly at the moment after I’d been taken out of the first test of the Light. Graham’s face was purple from strangulation. His swollen tongue was protruding from...

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Chapter Sixteen I stole a glance down at the pool, which was dark and still now. Azazel was staring off into the distance. She looked defeated. Graham shoved his hands into his pockets again. I walked away from the grassy hill, back to the place...

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Chapter Fifteen Azazel pulled her hand from mine. She walked away from me, over to the couch where the old version of her had sat. She gazed at the blood stains. She covered her mouth with a trembling hand. “I would never do that to...

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Chapter Fourteen Azazel sat down on the floor of the stone room. “That’s what they want, Jason. That’s what this test—what all of these tests—are all about. They want us to decide to die. And maybe we should.” “No,” I said. “No, I should die,...

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Chapter Thirteen “All I’m saying is that the guy’s a total wuss,” I said, pushing around my home fries on my plate with my fork. I had an accent, something vaguely twangy, as though I was from Texas or something. Azazel took a drink of...

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Chapter Twelve There was an annoying beeping noise. I opened my eyes a little bit. I was lying down in a narrow bed, covered in a bland blanket. There were big blinking machines surrounding me. A hospital room? I pushed myself into a sitting position....

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Chapter Eleven My mother was cutting up raw meat on a cutting board in our kitchen. Candles flickered from the chandelier overhead. I slouched in the doorway, watching my brother Jude clear the plates from the table. We’d just finished dinner. Mother turned, wiping her...

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Chapter Ten Azazel and I stared out at the field of bodies. They were baking in the hot sun. They smelled putrid and rotten. She wiped at tears on her face. “I did this. I killed all these people. They told me that everything I’d...

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