Chapters (79)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sixty
- Sixty-One
- Sixty-Two
- Sixty-Three
- Sixty-Four
- Sixty-Five
- Sixty-Six
- Sixty-Seven
- Sixty-Eight
- Sixty-Nine
- Seventy
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Praise for Destroy All Monsters
- Books by Sam J. Miller
- Back Ad
- About the Publisher
Bright light lit up the back of the screen: a loading bay door that opened onto the alley behind the theater. A good potential escape route . . . except getting to it would involve fighting through a crowd full of people who hated us.
A priest appeared beside the bonfire, and blew through a parasaurolophus crest, signaling the start of the Unmasking Day ritual. A cheer went through the crowd.
We threaded our way through the press of people. A wandering holy man in burgundy robes, with chalk and ash and pigment streaked across his face, handed us each a mask, and waved incense smoke at us, and talked us through the familiar prayers for filling the mask with the parts of our selves we did not love. Bad memories, bad attitudes, weaknesses and sins and anger. It all went into the mask, which would be thrown into the flames at the end of the ceremony and destroyed.
That was the theory, anyway. I didn’t imagine my own bad parts would be so easily burned away.
Ash and I put on our masks. Children ran past us, little make-believe monsters.
“We pray,” said the holy man, and he led us in the Song of Burning.
And then the Shield appeared, and the crowd went wild. A sweet-faced old woman standing beside me had tears in her eyes, she was so happy. Nausea overtook me.
“Citizens of Darkside!” the Shield called. “Today is the day when we finally reveal the truth. The day we all take off our masks.”
Sixty-Five
Ash
Connor’s street was full of children in masks. Little make-believe monsters. There’s a real monster on this street, I wanted to shout.
But that wouldn’t stop him. I had to trust that my mom and dad would be able to do something about Mr. Barrett. Stop him somehow. I had to hope.
I parked the car down the block, where Connor was waiting for us. Solomon waved to his stepbrother, through the windshield.
“I’m sorry,” he said, when I unbuckled my seat belt. “I just can’t.”
“Don’t be sorry,” I said. “Every great escape needs a getaway driver.”
“But I can’t drive.”
“Well, then, every great escape needs somebody to sit in the car and wait.”
“You’re stupid,” Solomon said, grinning. “Just call me if things get scary, okay? I’ll kick down the door if I have to. Punch his face off.”
I didn’t doubt that Solomon could do so. He was taller and stronger than Mr. Barrett. But in Solomon’s mind the man would forever be the biggest, most frightening monster in a world that was full of them.
“Hey,” Connor said, when I got out. And then he hugged me so hard I wanted to cry for him.
“Is he . . . ?”