The Violet Hour by Whitney A. Miller Read Free Book Online

what was going on with him. He turned and met my stare—the vulnerability in his eyes like an open wound for a split second, and gone just as fast.
    “Maybe it sounds better up front,” I joked.
    “Want to go closer?” he asked, completely serious.
    I glanced in the direction Mercy had gone. There were certain benefits to changing coordinates, namely her inability to find us in the crowd. But the air was feeling tight again and I could almost hear the beat of the voice building in my head. Not now. Not here. I’d been so in control a moment ago.
    “Absolutely,” I lied.
    I didn’t want to be swallowed by a crowd. What I wanted was to feed the current of whatever was happening between me and Adam. I was walking a tightrope; one misplaced step could send me hurtling toward the abyss.
    The moment we immersed ourselves in the knot of bodies, I realized what a huge mistake I’d made.
    Purity.
    Her voice was following me. The walls of the room started to close in.
    Penance.
    I kept moving, as if by some miracle I would be able to outmaneuver Her. The universe would be my friend tonight. This wasn’t happening. I wouldn’t let it.
    Adam showed no sign of pausing as we passed the halfway mark to the stage. I reached out to tug on his shirt. I couldn’t go any farther. I needed to pause and get myself together. Adam turned to me with a question in his eyes, and I pointed down to the nice little island of space I was rooted to.
    Onstage, the singer bent his legs, arched his back, screamed full-throttle into the mic, and then threw it to the ground. Looking out over the crowd, his eyes fixed on the space near me. He leaped headfirst into the crowd. Right toward me.
    Obliterate.
    I turned my shoulder against the impending blow.
    Decimate.
    At the last second, Adam snatched me out from under the incoming missile. I didn’t register the crowd filling in behind me and body-surfing the singer over their heads, the song exploding to its raging climax. I was too busy with an explosion of my own.
    Exsanguinate.
    My eyes met Adam’s. His arms tightened around me, and a feeling like the closing of an electric circuit between us coursed through me.
    Exsanguinate.
    Adam’s head jerked up at the sound of the voice. Like he’d heard Her, too.
    Exsanguinate.
    The vision overtook me.
    The kid standing next to us turned to look at me, clotted blood streaming from his empty eye sockets.
    “ Exsanguinate,” he said, his voice like a howl of rushing wind through some faraway tunnel. A petite girl at his side convulsed as red bubbles formed at the corner of her mouth. She clutched at Adam, then vomited a river of red down the front of her artfully tattered white shirt.
    The entire room erupted in chaos. Geysers of blood sprayed across the room. Through the haze of my vision, I watched as Adam’s eyes followed their arcs in disbelief. Now I was sure. I was like a livewire of horror in Adam’s arms, channeling my visions into him. He was seeing what I was seeing.
    His eyes locked onto mine. The sensation that he was seeing me for the first time washed over me again. Only this time, it wasn’t pleasant nostalgia I saw reflected there.
    It was fear.
    All around us, clubbers fell to the floor in convulsions. Pustules erupted across their skin. Meanwhile, people continued dancing on the edges of the vision like marionettes dangling from strings. It was the only thing that let me know this wasn’t really happening—the normalcy at the edge of my nightmare. Our nightmare. As if Adam and I were the only two people left in the world. Maybe we could pull each other out of it.
    I looked at him. Tried to tell him to run.
    Obliterate. Obliterate. Obliterate.
    I couldn’t tell, but it almost sounded like the words were coming not from Her voice in my head, but from me. Adam’s grip on me went slack. He gaped at me, stumbling back. I reached a hand out for him, pinwheeling blindly in the pitch blackness, searching for a lifeline. I wanted to bring