Battle of Bones (Anomaly Saga #5)

14

Vincent had traveled through several dimensions before, and this one was quickly becoming one of his least favorites.

Everything was made of yarn, and Vincent was ready to look at just about anything else. He traveled across grassy plains, yarn grass swishing in the yarn wind, and it was a long while before he found anything interesting.

But finally, he managed it. He peered over the top of a high hill at a train that was stopping at the bottom. He ran down, almost stumbling over himself, and threw himself onto the train.

A scarecrow wearing a conductor's outfit stared down at Vincent from his seat. "Well, this is new," the scarecrow said. "Another human! Haven't seen one of those in a little while. Call me Stitches. Who are you?"

Vincent brushed his hair, about to speak, but then he got rifted away yet again. This time, a dark purple energy surrounded him, and he quickly emerged in a very small room with a golden throne as its centerpiece. Sitting on the throne was a purple skeleton who was wearing a pirate hat and an offsetting smile.

"Welcome to my prison," said the skeleton. "Now, Vincent. I need to tell you something important. See, you've been chosen to defeat and probably kill a group of . . . phony stars. A team of people who will unite to defeat me-so, if they want to gather a squad, I have to do the same, right? Only logical choice here."

Vincent was baffled. This had to be one of the strangest Mondays in his entire life, and that was saying something. He had just been in the yarn world, now he was here. It was bizarre, but he was listening.

"Okay. I'm in, I guess? But what are we going to do, exactly? And who even are you?"

The purple skeleton let out a deep, sinister, malicious laugh. "Chaos is my name, young mortal. And our mission is to destroy the core of the universe, where realities collide, so that all transportation between them will be cut off forever."