Read Online Hellraisers by Alexander Gordon Smith - Free Book Online Page A

watching the world start to roll past, happy to be cold, to be hard, to be made of ice.

 
    CALL THEM CHOICES?
    â€œHe’s coming around.”
    Marlow rose from a dream of demons and dead things, clinging to the voices like they were a life raft. He wrenched open his eyes, felt like he’d been punched in the brain by the bright white light, screwed them closed again. When he took a breath he heard the familiar rattle and clank of his lungs. He eased his eyes open again, seeing blurred shapes there, two of them. He tried to sit up but found that he was in a narrow hospital bed, rows of thin plastic straps holding him tight. He was almost angry until he remembered his last thought—that he was never going to wake up again.
    â€œWhat the hell?” he said, his mouth dry, his tongue getting stuck to his teeth. He blinked the two figures into focus. One was the big guy from the parking lot, cleaned up now but still covered in bruises, grazes, burns, and scars. He was sitting on a metal chair to the side of the bed, and when he heard Marlow speak he stood up, running a hand through what was left of his gray hair.
    â€œSo,” he said, his voice a low rumble, “you’re back. Wasn’t sure you were gonna make it for a while there. How’s he doing?”
    â€œGood,” said the other figure, stepping up to the man’s shoulder. She was a woman in a red overcoat, in her fifties maybe, white-blond hair pulled back in a severe ponytail. She held a clipboard in her hand, one page lifted. “Couple of lumps and bumps.” She let the paper drop, looked at Marlow with an easy smile. “Nothing that won’t heal.”
    â€œMaybe I’ll heal a little quicker if you loosen these up a bit,” he replied, struggling to lift his arms.
    â€œJust a precaution,” said the man. “You…” He seemed to chew on the words. “You saw a few things, back there. Things we don’t really want you sharing.”
    Creatures, made of rock, concrete, metal, dead flesh. A girl who died, who had a hole punched through her heart.
    A girl who came back.
    Marlow looked past the man and woman, seeing a huge room, easily a hundred feet each way. There were windows on all four sides, flooding the space with sunlight. He squinted, trying to see anything through the golden haze. Was that the Chrysler out there?
    The man followed his gaze, then shared a look with the woman that Marlow couldn’t quite place. She nodded and walked away into the giant space. There were other people there, just a handful, milling between various stacks of boxes and complicated-looking pieces of equipment. One thing in particular caught his eye, something that looked like one of those huge machines they used in hospitals, like a giant tube you slid into. An MRI scanner or something, emitting a loud hum. It was on the other side of the room, but he could make out a pair of legs stretched from it, toes flexing. Was that a scar on the shin? An injury, bone sticking through the flesh. And his heart flipped like a pancake when he realized who it was.
    This time, when the man saw where he was staring, he grinned. Just about the most terrifying grin Marlow had ever seen, with his lips chapped and burned and one of his upper front teeth missing.
    â€œKid, don’t even go there.”
    â€œWho is she?” Marlow said, breathless again. The machine was spitting out light as it did whatever it was supposed to do, but those bare legs still stretched into darkness.
    â€œHer name’s Pan,” said the man.
    â€œPan?” Marlow craned his neck up, trying to get a better look. “Kind of a name is that?”
    â€œPandora,” he went on. “Best you don’t ask why. I’m Herc.”
    â€œHerc?” Marlow managed to tear his eyes off those legs, looked at the man. “Kind of a name is that ? Short for Hercules?”
    â€œNot quite. Herman. Herman Cole. Got called Herc one