The girl looks like a deer in the headlights, and I can't help but feel a little bad for her. Out here in the middle of Monster Hell, I wonder if she knows what exactly is going on. Noah looks around nervously, and yells suddenly, his gaze on a small slip of paper perched on a railing.
A fortune from a cookie.
The girl rushes over to it and picks it up. "Follow the path with the girls, Noah."
"How the hell does that thing know your name?" I ask.
"It's Firebrand," he says darkly. "That fucker is always, always on my case. He knows where I'm gonna be before I do because he's a version of me."
"Noah? They're coming, Noah," says the book in his hand.
"Shitfuck!" he exclaims. He breaks into a run, and y/n and I run after him.
Suddenly, I hear laughter behind us.
"Where you going, Noah?"
"Can't run forever, Noah!"
I grab the girl's hand and we sprint to catch up with him. Just as we make a turn in the path, a huge spiderlike creature drops down from above, and I freeze as y/n screams. It's the faceless man. He holds out a hand and my head fills with that godawful static again and y/n shrieks and falls to her knees.
"Leave us the fuck alone!" Noah yells.
But it doesn't seem like the thing is going to listen to his demands.
It raises its hands and tendrils of darkness shoot out all over us, and I'm thrown to the ground hard. I shriek and run-crawl to her side. She's holding her hands over her ears, her necklace bobbing against her throat. I clutch my cross and, despite not being one to pray, I pray that they will make this swift.
I'm going to die here.
And Habit?
He's gonna find my corpse.
