The Butcher's Masquerade (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #5)

by Matt Dinniman

We were done. I suddenly felt very, very tired. Our only, meager chance of survival was if someone broke the seal at the correct moment. I looked down at my hands, and then I looked over at Eva. The others would have a chance. Donut would have a chance. I opened the chat window. I closed my eyes for a second, just a second, and I pretended like everything was all right. The world had never ended. My mother and I had never left Texas. I was outside right now, sitting in the shade of a tree I’d planted years before. Everyone here, all my friends, never met each other under these horrific circumstances. Donut was fat and happy, sitting in her cat tree somewhere warm, growling at a cocker spaniel. I’d never heard the water running through the pipes. Or gone down into the basement to investigate the noise. I’d never found the note followed by my mother a minute later. I let the dream live within me. Just for a second, and I returned to the chat window.