Page 10 (1/2)

"Okay, let’s get back to work," Quinn said "We’ll keep an eye on it, see if it changes by the end of the day"

FOUR

50 HOURS

FOR ALL OF his five years Pete Ellison had lived inside a twisted, distorted brain No longer

He had destroyed his dying, diseased, fever-racked body

Poof

All gone

And noas … where? He didn’t have a word for it He had been freed from the brain that hadcymbal

He drifted now in a silent, blissful place No loud noises No too-bright colors No brain-frying coht sensation No blond sister with her bright yellow hair and stabbing blue eyes

But the Darkness was still there

Still looking for hi to him Come to me Come to me

Without the cacophony of his brain Pete could see the Darknessblob at the bottom of a ball

Pete’s ball

That realization surprised hi, his own father in panic, all of it like hot lava poured into Pete’s skull

He had not understood as happening, but he could see clearly the cause of all the panic A green tendril had reached for and touched long glowing rods, caressed thery touch And then that arm of the Darkness had reached for y that flowed from those rods

It would have ht, and everyone except the Darkness would have been burned up

Meltdown That was the word for it And it had already begun and it was too late to stop it by the ti and rocking

Too late to stop the reaction and the meltdown By normal means