Rayleigh Mann in the Company of Monsters by Ciannon Smart

Author:Ciannon Smart [Smart, Ciannon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2023-07-22T00:00:00+00:00

Sixteen

Thunder and Lightning, Oh So Frightening

He lunged for them and yanked. Two pieces of wall swung open; the clouds faded into wood. Instead of the houses on Terror Tower’s street, behind them was a dense knot of grass, trees, low-hanging vines. It was—

“A jungle!” Marley charged across the room to stand beside Rayleigh.

Something chittered inside; the call echoed through the large banana leaves. They hung low, weighed down by their sheer size and raindrops. Though the sun wasn’t visible, it shone with a brightness that made everything vibrant, even the brown of the earth. Something fast skittered through the low bush.

“Animals?” Marley’s tails fanned out around her protectively. “Don’t alligators live in jungles?”

“I don’t know. This reminds me of a picture my nana has of my dad in Jamaica. It was green like this, and wild and full. But the island doesn’t have jungles.”

“Is this Jamaica?” Marley asked, leaning across the doorway.

“I don’t think the tower transports you to literal places. It re-creates them, like memories or safe places. My room is my happiest memory, down here. Mary’s is a castle, and she’s kind of closed off, mysterious, grand. I can’t explain it, but the tower knows us. That’s what my uncle said.”

“Okay,” Marley said, with an understanding softness. “But on the chance the tower has created alligators, we should probably hold this door open with something.”

“Maybe my dad went somewhere with a jungle and liked it enough that the tower recreated it for him.” Rayleigh grabbed several thick books from his bed. Door wedged, he braved a step inside. Heat was instant against his skin, like a physical thing he could touch. Something buzzed past his ear; remembering what Nana said about large flying bugs and mouths that attracted them, Rayleigh snapped his jaw shut.

“You coming?” he asked through clenched teeth.

Taking a deep breath, Marley stepped through the doorway. “It’s humid. Wow. I can’t believe this is a floor in a house—look, bananas are growing over there!” Fat and yellow, the bunch of fruit looked good enough to pick, to eat. “Are they edible?”

“I don’t know. Wouldn’t risk it. Come on. I don’t know how many Terrors are in the tower. We need to find my dad’s room quickly to look for any clues before anyone comes looking for us.” Gasp was always foisting hot chocolate on him. It was only a matter of time before he came around with an offer of refreshment.

The duo ventured through the bush. With a simple thought, Rayleigh asked Terror Tower for a large stick with which to beat back plants and poke vines that looked too similar to snakes. Something fell against his leg. Emitting a high scream, Rayleigh all but leapt into Marley’s arms. He was buffeted back by one of her tails, right between the eyes. She’d been laughing already, at his scream, but her sentient tail sent Marley over the edge.

“I thought you couldn’t control them?” Rayleigh asked, rubbing his eye.

“That wasn’t me,” Marley wheezed. “But that scream definitely came from you.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.