Unsoul'd (31 page)
Authors: Barry Lyga
"I just did. I saw it at a bookstore and I liked the cover, so I bought it."
"No one gave it to you? No one recommended it?"
"No. I told you -- I saw it there and I liked the cover--"
"And you bought it. Right. So, totally random. Total coincidence."
"Totally random," she agreed.
She sounded depressed.
"You know the problem with your books, Randall?" she asked.
"Tell me." My hand shook, and I couldn't hold the phone steady, so I used my headset and leaned back in the bath Kiki had drawn for me.
"They're too right. Life really is a downer, you know?"
"What happened?"
"I just feel stupid. Do I really think I can make this work? Can I make crazy people get help? No one else ever has."
"One thing I know for sure... Actually, the
only
thing I know for sure, Lacey, is this: Anything can happen. Anything."
"I guess. What have you been up to?"
I laughed. "I think I saved the world."
I didn't know what response to expect, but it certainly wasn't what she said: "No one saves the world."
"Like I said: Anything can happen."
A moment passed. And then she asked, "How long do you think it'll last?"
Wherein I Win
After the bath, I was still shaky. I would be shaky for most of my life, I somehow understood. But I dressed and I found my way back to the balcony, where Kiki stood, staring at the scorchmark.
"Was it worth it?" she asked quietly.
There was no way to know.
My laptop still sat -- open -- on the table. I hobbled over to it and did something I had never done with any of my other books.
I typed "THE END."
After a moment, I opened a new, blank document and called it
Untitled Manuscript.
Acknowledgements
I want to take just a moment to thank some folks for their help...
- Sarah Maclean and Paul Griffin, who read an early draft and loved it. Man, did I need that early encouragement! Thanks, guys!
- Lisa Amowitz, who took my rough mock-up of a cover and turned it into something magnificent.
- Carolyn MacCullough, who found typos and a niggling logical flaw.
- Chuck Wendig and Bella Andre, who answered questions about ebooks.
- And last but never, ever least: Morgan Baden, who read that first draft and didn't blame me for all of the horrible things Randall does and says...even though every last one of them is my fault.
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 Barry Lyga LLC
All Rights Reserved
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead or infernal, is entirely coincidental. (The devil made me put that part in.)
Cover design copyright © Lisa Amowitz (
Cover art from
About the Author
Barry Lyga is the
New York Times
bestselling author of
I Hunt Killers
, as well as ten other novels for teens and kids. Funny thing, though -- most of his books end up with lots of adult readers. So, it was long past time for something aimed at them, right?
Ta-da!
You can find Barry online at