Chapter 1 I n the week since the bruise-colored cloud had appeared over the tiny coastal town of Mist Falls three mothers had disappeared The first while riding her bicycle down a leaf-swept street the second while sitting in a parked car drinking a cup of coffee and the last from her bedroom while her new baby napped beside her Not a single person had witnessed the cloud take the women but Nell Perkins knew it was true Even now as she piloted her bike along the damp streets she felt the grim cloud watching everyone from above One had only to glance up to see that this cloud was different It didn’t float along aimlessly like other clouds but moved with slow scheming purpose and while it had first appeared over the trees wispy thin it had grown fatter with each passing day like a bloated tick filling with blood Nell rode carefully keeping a watchful eye on the leafy shadows on the cracked sidewalk making sure to stay within their protection She tried to tell herself that it was silly It’s just a cloud But another voice inside her whispered for her to stay hidden from its dark wisps which reminded her of a ball of cotton candy lying burnt and alone in an abandoned fairground The truth was this wasn’t the first time people had disappeared from their small town Over the years almost a dozen people had simply vanished Most were young women though one was a boy Nell’s age named Max They had just started to become friends when he vanished four weeks ago He was funny and daring and liked to play the trumpet They had the kind of friendship built on nothing more than a love of weird jokes and an obsession with chocolate He didn’t vanish in the same way though it felt the same to Nell One night he went to sleep and he didn’t wake up He had fallen into a coma They took him to the hospital where he was still asleep As Nell pulled her bike into the schoolyard she had the strangest thought Maybe the
cloud was behind it Maybe it had drifted over his house while he slept and kidnapped a part of him The thought sent a shiver up her spine and she quickly locked up her bike The normally busy yard was empty A few teachers were hustling the late students inside Attention students and staff Principal Green’s voice crackled over the loudspeaker as Nell entered All students and faculty are not to go to their classrooms Report directly to the school auditorium for a special assembly Nell’s stomach was tight with nerves The assembly was her chance to tell everyone what she knew to be the truth The cloud had kidnapped the women and maybe Max as well I am going to look like an idiot she told herself but it was too late She had decided she did not have a choice Nell had seen a crime and the town needed to know about it no matter how strange it would sound It had happened quickly and was so weird that even remembering it now caused her heart to beat loudly and her breath to quicken She recounted the facts as though she were telling them to a policeman A few days ago Nell had been at the town library until nearly dinnertime reading about whales and secretly eating chocolate-covered raisins Perhaps she would leave that part out when she told it but she reasoned it did show that she was thinking clearly and had an eye for detail When the library closed Nell walked outside The sky was free of clouds and the streets empty of people She got on her bike and headed home As she rode she felt a great burst of happiness like she was the last person on earth and free to do anything Summer was coming and she had books to read and the ocean to dash into The mist was drifting off the sea caressing her cheeks and dancing across her lips Nell liked the briny taste of the salty air She stopped her bike at the corner of Sea View and Stone Lane Road and was taking in the view of the waves violently crashing upon the black rocks of the shore when a high-pitched shriek rang out in the sky Looking up she caught sight of a strange purple cloud rising quickly from behind the large Victorian house at the end of Stone Lane Road The horrible cloud rose with a rumble as if it were an animal Nell had surprised in the act of feasting on a fresh kill All was still and utterly silent Nell wanted to turn away to ride as fast as she could in the other direction but her eyes were locked on the cloud as it rose higher and higher
As she stared Nell wished for several things She wished to be home she wished she wasn’t afraid she wished she wasn’t alone and in a few seconds she would wish forevermore that she had closed her eyes But her eyes were open and Nell watched as from out of the purple cloud fell a woman’s shoe bright white and dotted with red marks that could only be blood Alone A single shoe and nothing more spit out as if it were a part not worth eating The shoe dropped slowly twirling as it tumbled through the air and without a sound disappeared into a clump of leafless trees Without thinking to look for it Nell raced home trying to understand how a bloody shoe could fall from a cloud No plane had flown overhead No giant bird There was only one conclusion Someone was trapped inside the cloud The secret weighed on her for the next several days and she told no one How could she It was ridiculous Insane Clouds don’t kidnap people They don’t eat young women Keeping quiet seemed like the best choice But when the principal announced the special assembly Nell knew it was about the disappearances and she knew she had to tell Suddenly as she walked through the halls she felt everyone’s eyes on her as if they knew she had a secret But they look at me anyway Nell reminded herself That much was true On any day Nell Perkins was hard to miss She was an uncommon-looking twelve-year-old girl with hair so blond it almost appeared silver large amber eyes and a slightly crooked smile that seemed to be hiding something But it wasn’t the way she looked or her smile or the slightly determined way she walked that made people look No People looked because Nell Perkins was well known in her small town for claiming to see things that did not exist Not things exactly but creatures Inner animals Rose had called them when they first began making themselves known to Nell They appeared right around the time Nell’s father had gotten sick and passed away Most of the creatures had human bodies and animal heads though others had no human parts at all and could be a frightening mixture of animal and machine Nell had begun talking to them when she was four The first one to speak to her had the body of a man and the head of an elephant Being so young Nell didn’t think this was unusual His name was Jim and he delivered the mail Nell would get excited and jump up and down when she saw Jim walking toward the house His trunk would swish from side to side his great ears twitching and
his white tusks looking fierce and dangerous in the bright sun Nell had also discovered that if she blinked her eyes and said her name the person would return to normal The mask which had suddenly appeared would drop away Without his inner animal Jim was quite bald and had a face filled with freckles As Nell grew older she accepted the fact that almost everyone she knew except her family had an inner animal that would sometimes appear to say hello It was fun for Nell to see who was hiding what Gentle-looking old ladies could suddenly turn into alligators tough men on motorcycles could have the faces of soft rabbits Nell never talked about her rare skill for she thought it was normal Then during her first day of kindergarten Nell Perkins learned the truth All the children were sitting on the rug with eager excited faces trying not to squirm Nell wasn’t sure she liked kindergarten and longed to be at home in her pajamas The boy next to her a redhead named Tommy Jenkins was digging relentlessly into his nose with a pudgy finger and the whole place smelled like lima beans Ms Rook the teacher was another story She was the prettiest person Nell had ever seen She was explaining that good students could win gold stars and candy by following the rules when suddenly her inner animal appeared In an instant Ms Rook’s pretty face disappeared and her head was replaced not by the head of an animal but by the head of a giant doll with a cracked skull and a missing eye Nell screamed loudly and wouldn’t stop screaming as the doll stood over her Nell was so gripped with terror that her mind felt blank She couldn’t remember how to make the terrible dead-eyed face go away Other teachers came rushing in to help and their faces were just as frightening Faces of stone faces of tangled thorn and worst of all a face made of burning flames You’re special Nell Don’t forget that and it will all be okay her mother told her when Nell explained about the inner animals For everyone else the answer was simple Nell had an overactive imagination that encouraged her to see things that weren’t there The cause of her condition they concluded lay in the fact she didn’t dream Her nights were dark and dreamless All that imagination has to go somewhere said Wellington Miles a famous doctor who began to study her He attached multicolored wires to her head and watched her as she slept Despite what he said about their nonexistence the doctor’s own inner
