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In desperation he brought his knees up, put his feet flat against the creature's chest and then shoved with all of his might. The dead man's chest caved in like a rotten gourd, trapping Cyrus's right foot behind a tangle of shattered ribs. |
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At this point, Cyrus realized things were not going well. Black spots were going off like flashbulbs in front of his eyes and his hands felt like they weighted fifty pounds apiece. As his struggles diminished, the dead fingers dug deeper and deeper into the soft flesh of his throat. He couldn't breathehe couldn't swallowand he couldn't break the thing's steellike grip on his throat. |
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Cyrus must have passed out, for the next thing he knew he was down on one knee on the asphalt. He had no idea how he got there, but when he glanced down, he saw one of the creature's hands was still wrapped around his throat. Cyrus jerked the hand loose and threw it behind him. For the moment, he remained as he was. He ignored the dead thing standing in front of him and he forgot about Kyna. He forgot who he was and why he was there. All memory, all pain, all fear were blotted out by an all-consuming rage that coursed through his body in great orgasmic waves. |
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Around him, the night exploded with ghostly green light. The overflow of this mysterious energy rushed into his body, energizing each individual cell and driving it mad. He could see everything: the darkest corners, the night birds staring down from the rooftops. Even the dried-up pores in the dead man's face stood out like the craters of the moon. |
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And it wasn't only Cyrus's vision that was affected. He began to taste the bite of the chilled night wind, and hear the heartbeats of children sleeping in their beds in the houses across the street. Even his own blood on the creature's fingernails smelled as rich and pungent as orange blossoms. As this strange power continued to pour into him, energizing his body like a living voltaic cell, the bones in his back and arms creaked and popped like a giant cracking his knuckles and he began to grow. His calves and thighs ballooned with cords of |
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