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"If what?" Quinn asked

"If you come with us," Caine said with a cruel smile "You’ve been a pain in my ass, fisherman It’s because of you I had a beef with Penny in the first place So it’s real dark out there, and most likely Drake and maybe even our old friend Penny are out there Not to lancing out toward the utter darkness within which he knew monsters hid

"He’s a fisherhed "Have you been to Perdido Beach? It’s a nice little town Not much food, no entertain we do have And he’ll need one"

"I don’t even kno to shoot," Quinn protested

Caine laughed cruelly "It’s not for you to shoot Drake or Penny, let alone the Darkness, if he’s actually co," he ger if any one of theets hold of you"

THIRTY-SIX

18 MINUTES

AFTER HOURS AND hours of total darkness, the soft glow of her baby’s skin allowed Diana to ith ht in the darkness

Gaia Her baby

She felt still the horror at seeing the green pixels, that swarhter’s nose and mouth She would never, ever be able to block that out

So ainst it all was this person This soft, chubby little girl, who looked up at her with eyes so absurdly blue and so unnaturally aware

She seeh the ghost town beneath the mine shaft Soon Gaia would not need to nurse Already Diana could feel tiny teeth biting

And then ould Gaia do with her mother?

"Doesn’t matter," Diana whispered "It doesn’tin eagerly to see Gaia’s face Brittney wore the expression of an ecstatic believer Diana knew that if Gaia somehow spoke and told Brittney to leap off a cliff, Brittney would do it

But Gaia spoke through Diana now

She spoke through herinside her own Not the aiaphage, either The tere becoether, and the resulting entity ht be more than or less than, but definitely not equal to, either the baby or the h, that Diana couldn’t dis The way Gaia reached into Diana’s h a picture book Like she was looking for so the baby sensedfor soainst Gaia She could hide nothing from her Diana could only watch as her s past And of people

Gaia was studying the people Diana kne Brianna Now Edilio Now Duck and Albert and Mary

Not Panda No

Caine Gaia lingered long on pictures of Caine A firstThe way Diana had made him want her The dark ambition she had seen in him The first tis they had done Battles