Nigh - Book 1 by Marie Bilodeau Read Free Book Online

slowly,” Hector whispered from the back. Al
nodded and shifted Percival in reverse, but the car wouldn’t budge.
The wheels skidded like they were on pure ice.
    A shadow to her left made her jump. A man walked by,
his coat torn on the side. And another, dragging his feet, wearing
only a bathrobe. On the other side of the car, several more walked
by, men, women, even children, dragging their feet, their faces
slack. Some walked to the middle of the bridge. Others stayed
around the car.
    Al stopped pressing on the gas and stared at them.
No one said a word or breathed. Al glanced at the back seat. Hector
was looking intently at the people around them. He leaned forward
and she leaned back so he could whisper in her ear. “We’ll have one
chance. Get ready to move when I tell you to.”
    She nodded and pointed back and forth, raising her
shoulders as though asking a question. He shrugged. It didn’t
matter which way. She shifted to the first gear, one foot on the
clutch and the other on the brake, and waited for his signal.
    He looked intently around him. The people continued
swaying. The mists bookending the bridge shimmered in the sunlight,
translucent wisps dancing toward them. The mists stretched around
the car and around each person, not wrapping them fully but keeping
some distance, as though inviting them to dance.
    Hector narrowed his eyes and looked intently at the
wisps nearest them. Al still held her breath, and Gruff and Molly
were so silent she could easily forget they were there.
    The mists buckled and shapes began to form, gossamer
strings turning into large cloaks and hoods, hands stretched out
toward the people, who still just swayed there. Translucent hands
appeared from misty cloaks and reached for each person. Hector
placed his hand on Alva’s shoulder. She glanced back and he held up
his finger, as though indicating soon.
    Her foot left the brakes and trembled over the gas
pedal. Percival was stuck anyway and wasn’t going anywhere. For
now.
    She fixed her eyes on the man nearest her, the one
wearing a bathrobe and still holding a spilled cup of coffee in his
loose hand. Alva steadied her breath, loosened her grip on the
steering wheel and waited.
    The misty hands reached forward, not for the man’s
face, but for his chest. The moment stretched into eternity at the
hand lingered there, holding the edge of the bathrobe, the
translucent cloak shimmering with tiny rainbows of light.
    The sun grew brighter, rainbows danced in the air
around them, turning beads of water into gems of light. Gossamer
hands tightened on clothing.
    Columns of water exploded up and Molly screamed.
Hector’s hand tightened on Al’s shoulder and she slammed on the
gas, but the wheels were still trapped. The columns collapsed on
the bridge, the metal groaning, streams of river breaking apart to
avoid each beam and support of the bridge.
    The water flashed away and giant dark horses, large
teeth bared, trampled the ground around them. The gossamer figures
clutched clothing as the horses attacked without pause, their
screams echoing against the wall of mist.
    They fell on the people, biting them, tearing off
limb and head, jets of blood interrupting the perfect prisms and
rainbows. The gossamer figures just kept holding the clothing as
they became blood soaked, as the silent bodies rolled out of them,
to be fully consumed, their blood a river on the bridge.
    Molly kept whimpering in the back of the car. Al
could barely hear her over the sounds of the horses, their hoofs
like thunder.
    “It won’t go!” Al screamed as she kept pressing on
the gas, the car spinning its wheels, burnt rubber almost covering
the stench of blood.
    “What do we do?” she looked back to Hector, the only
one who seemed to have any idea what was going on.
    “Don’t get out, but can you open the window a
crack?” He seemed puzzled as he looked down.
    Percival was hardly fancy, with handles to
lower the windows. “Can do from my seat,” Al said.