Penny Dreadful Read Online Free Page A

if he was thinking of her tongue. His eyes were gentle, perhaps. But the whites of them were laced with blood. Careful, she needed to be careful and now the Redeemer sighed. Who am I speaking to? he said.
    Goo, she said. But she knew she sounded doubtful and he just stared at her.
    This is getting silly, he said.
    What do you mean?
    Eve, he said. Don’t you know me?
    It was hard to swallow, to breathe. She wanted to get away from this man.
    It’s okay, he said. You can be two people at once.
    No, she said. I don’t want that.
    Disappear, he said softly. Walk outside and disappear from the game.
    Her left eyelid began to twitch, to blink uncontrollably. And she felt sick, she felt dizzy because that only happened when Eve was nervous, when she was paranoid and sleepless.
    This world isn’t real, he said.
    My boyfriend would disagree, she said.
    Theseus was glaring at them from maybe fifteen feet away and she wondered when he had slithered so close, and how much he had heard. She knew that he disapproved of the Redeemers and tolerated them only because they were necessary.
    Her belly was exposed, her weak half.
    She couldn’t stand to look at him now. She backed away from the bar and dragged herself off to the dressing room, where Adore reclined on a mound of dirty pillows, rigid and bony. She often reminded Goo of a dead praying mantis. Adore had a headache, it seemed. She wore a woven silk ice pouch over her eyes and the room smelled of roses. The only light came from a green lamp that glowed like a fat firefly behind lace. Goo stood in the doorway, feeling like a wayward daughter. Her hair was a wreck and her skin itched as if she were covered in dry white soap. She was short of breath and confused. The Redeemer had not tried to kiss her, to take her tongue. And his advice had been very unorthodox.
    No one ever suggested that you leave the game, no one.
    Adore made a clucking sound. Gather yourself, girl.
    I’m sorry, Lady.
    Adore removed her ice pouch and regarded Goo with bloody eyes.
    Don’t be sorry, girl. You are an Exquisitor.
    You flatter me, Lady.
    I do not.
    Goo cast her eyes away, embarrassed. She was only an apprentice. Adore laughed at her, a delicate and fluttering sound. She held out her hands and Goo moved to help her up.
    Shall we take the stage? said Adore.
    I found myself sitting on the floor of Eve’s empty apartment, eating eggdrop soup in bright, unflinching silence. Eve apparently owned no television, no stereo. The only sound was my own manic slurping. At some point I must have thrown open the windows, praying for a little breeze or the distraction of traffic noise, but I couldn’t really remember doing so. It was odd, but Eve didn’t seem to have a telephone, either. Though I could have sworn she did have one. I had used it to order the food, hadn’t I? And that was an hour ago, maybe two. But now I couldn’t find a phone anywhere. It was a little maddening. I looked around and around, my head swiveling like a puppet’s. I rubbed my eyes, disgusted. She didn’t have a coffeemaker, a toaster. There were no electrical appliances at all. Maybe the food was delivered by fairies. Or else the phone was stolen by them.
    I was alone in the apartment. Chrome and Mingus the Breather had apparently taken their leave. Faded from the scene without word or gesture. I could barely remember their faces, now. I wasn’t so confident that they were real. They were too similar to the freaks that regularly populated my dreams. But if I closed my eyes, I could see Chrome in distorted flashes as he speared a dumpling with one yellow fingernail and fed it rather graphically to Mingus. There was fried rice scattered on the wood floor, as if I had been feeding imaginary squirrels. There were two untouched bowls of soup on the floor, and two spoons. I was Goldilocks, then. The soup is too hot, too cold. I wanted to write it all off as unexpected weirdness, nothing more. But I was dizzy, numb. As if I had suffered