Silly Girl Read Online Free Page A

honey moving to bold inspiration, the power to be fearless. Amanda Dear was magma, leaving molten paths of jealousy behind every door.
    “Second deaths don’t scare me! I’ve asked murderers to lead me to dance! I don’t trust anyone else!”
    It came down to strength, nothing more. Amanda Dear was getting a handle on this life after death thing. She was starting to enjoy it!
    Even the grandest of them all—the One, the Almighty—must be dethroned at some time by some apostle! Who said a woman couldn’t do it?
    Amanda knew her capabilities. Strength of spirit and female vitality were her most powerful allies.
    She smiled in the cool air of space. White, blonde hair trailed behind her, ribbons of silver, sparkling nebulous lights.
    How much was she capable of creating or destroying, she wondered?

    *

    Instead of stars, she moved through another plane of solid black. Amanda stood in the middle of it. For the moment, she had feet and legs. Unable to see the ground, she could feel it under her naked feet. Amanda Dear wondered why death seemed timid to show her anything else.
    A carriage emerged from the dark several feet to her left. She didn’t know how she was able to see because the scene had no light to illuminate it, but she saw the carriage now. Maybe death granted magic eyes.
    The carriage looked as if it had traveled through flame: charred, flat black and smoking. It slowed just before Amanda and came to a stop. Four naked, hairless, human forms pulled it instead of horses. Like the carriage, they looked as if they’d been roasted: blistering crusts of flaking black skin; yellow pus oozed. The harnesses were contraptions of steel spikes, hooks, rods, and wires driven under their skin, connecting them in an organized quad. The smell of raw, roasted flesh and burning blood hung in the air.
    The solely occupant leaned his head out the carriage window and smiled at Amanda. “Welcome,” he said, his voice strangely elegant. “It’s good to have you home.”
    It wasn’t a surprise coming from him. This was the last place Amanda would ever call home.
    He opened the door, and Amanda Dear stepped inside. She wasn’t afraid.
    As death had granted her feet when convenient, Amanda noticed she was wearing a thin, white nightgown.
    Inside the carriage, she could observe the entirety of his bulk. Huge black horns, like a yak, curved, angling out from each side of his head. His scarlet flesh was a mirror of flame, changing from yellow to orange, then from black to red. His tail was huge and thick; it snaked up behind his back and disappeared out the carriage window. His claws and toenails were manicured points of polished black, matching his horns.
    Lucifer’s mouth contorted in a demented smile. He endeavored to ooze charm. Heat and flame emanated from his flesh. To Amanda Dear, the devil looked less impressive than how she imagined.
    “How are you, Amanda darling?” he asked.
    “Amanda Dear,” she corrected. She smiled, not wanting him to get the best of her. “And I’m fine, thank you very much.”
    The carriage lurched forward. The air grew thick with suffocating heat.
    “I’ve been looking forward to this moment,” the devil said. “It’s so good to see you. You know why you’re here, don’t you?”
    “Why don’t you enlighten me,” she said.
    “Amanda, Amanda,” Satan said, shaking his head. He ran a huge index finger along the frame of the window. “You were always good at pretending to be dim-witted. Just giving you a bird’s-eye view of what to expect before the choice.”
    “Choice?”
    “Of course!”
    Satan said nothing more. Amanda Dear wanted to laugh; he seemed so smugly sure of himself. There had to be more to death than this!
    Walls of flame loudly erupted on both sides of the carriage. Was this the Lake of Fire?
    “It is the continual Nile, so to speak,” he said.
    She must’ve said something. She knew the devil couldn’t read her thoughts.
    “You know it?” he said. “You