Death. What happens after it? What lies beneath the surface?
Poor Arielle Daniels stumbled through dangerous hoops to figure this out. She wakes in a new place--the Void--and discovers that what waits after death are layers, dimensions, and sadly...
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Arielle wanted to pretend like Penny's taunts had no effect on her, yet with every sneaky sentence out of her mouth, she paralyzed her. This was Penny—the creature that haunted Jade, that bullied Stella, that killed Arielle. And she floated overhead in absolute calmness, aware of her dominance, aware of her excess of knowledge that would easily overpower Arielle should she try anything. Aware of her deadly claws and her ridiculous strength.
I'm useless.
"Okay, then... tell me this: why are you killing humans? Why Jade, why Stella, why me? And... how?" She gulped; in truth, she wasn't sure if Penny had anything to do with Jade's suicide or Stella's house-fire, but the signs seemed to point at her being the culprit.
Penny scratched at her chin with the tip of her gruesome claws. "Don't flatter yourself; you were random. Wrong place, right time, I suppose?" She pursed her lips, gaping out the window above the door. "And how, you ask? A special talent of mine. I'm an evolved being, after all, not a simple ghost like you or Penelope. Though she has developed her own abilities in time, but I... am more powerful."
"Fine, but why? Why kill?" Arielle squinted up at the monster, worried she'd suddenly drop and slash through her face with her talons. "For amusement? Or do you have... an actual purpose?"
Penny lowered her chin and sneered. "Balance. My realm needs souls, and the Void rarely coughs them up, since most specters find their unfinished business, at some point, and swim on to that other dimension. And most don't trespass into the zones outside of their perimeter, which means they don't trigger the alarms to draw me here. But I... need them. I need souls."
"Your realm?" Arielle shivered, wishing she didn't know what was coming, wishing she hadn't already identified the answer.
"Terror, of course. Penelope mentioned it, didn't she?" Penny pirouetted, pride in her demeanor, an ominous glow in her features. It was clear she loved her dimension.
"She did, but... she didn't seem too keen to talk about it." Arielle scoffed. "To be honest, she didn't seem keen on talking about anything. Always so vague... but yes, she mentioned Terror." She recalled how Penelope had flinched, how she'd dodged deep questions, how she always rushed off when Arielle needed her most. And this whole time, she knew. Penelope was friends with the disgusting demon that had murdered Arielle, and she'd lied about it.
Penny's posture shrank as she gripped the banister. "Penelope is a breed of her own. But she and I have agreements, and her end of the bargain is to deliver to me the souls she thinks are... defective."
"Defective?" Arielle placed a hand over the left side of her chest and inhaled. "Am I... am I defective?"
"She wouldn't have summoned me if she didn't think so." Penny's lips twisted into an eerie, almost hungry smile, as if her tongue would soon swirl out and wrap around Arielle and drag her into her mouth to be devoured. "And defective means they don't quite fit in the Void, and they don't seem too open to the idea of that other realm." She flinched and made a face, as if she'd swallowed a nasty dose of medicine and struggled to let it swish down her throat. "The issue is... my current defective souls are fighting me. Fighting the realm. Learning how to fix themselves, and understanding the realm better than they should. Meaning I need more to counter-attack them, to ensure they stay where they belong. With me."
