Nightmares (The Coven, Book 1)

by Erica Stevens

  “Rosie, can you use your powers?” Avery asked as she edged away from the encroaching monstrosities. They may only be a foot tall, but they unnerved Avery more than a ten-foot alligator. Avery held her breath as she waited for Rosie to do something to the monstrosities.

  Rosie heaved a defeated sigh. “I’m still drained.”

  The dolls released an earsplitting shriek before rushing them in a maddened frenzy of chattering teeth, dazzling colors, and flickering tongues. Karen screamed and reeled backward. The backs of her knees caught the edge of the trunk and buckled on impact. When she toppled over, she crashed into everyone else and knocked them over like dominoes.

  Avery’s breath rushed out of her when she landed on her ass beneath Rosie. Avery had only a second to draw a breath before the dolls pounced. The tiny Satans screamed with bloodlust as they attacked their prey. Avery clawed at the carpet as she tried to pull herself out from under Rosie, but the weight of the clown horde kept Rosie on top of her. Alex managed to scramble out from under Karen and staggered to his feet.

  The dolls leapt onto him, clutching his clothes while they tore at his skin. When his blood spilled free to roll down his chest, the dolls’ screams became more frenzied. Alex seized one of the tiny beasts, ripped it off his neck, and heaved it across the room where it shattered against the back wall.

  The weight of the monsters shoved Rosie to the side, and Avery used the opportunity to squirm free and stumble to her feet. As soon as she stood, one of the dolls launched itself onto her back; the force of its impact caused her knees to give out. Her left hand hit the floor as she struggled to stay upright.

  If this thing managed to get her down, it would never let her up again. Self-preservation and terror for her friends gave her a strength she never knew she possessed as she shoved herself to her feet again.

  The doll clawing at her neck ripped out handfuls of her hair. Her skull screamed in agony as stars burst across her eyes. When its teeth sank into her nape, Avery shrieked as she batted at the tiny demon.

  Finally, she managed to capture its head and rip it over her shoulder. The clown looked anything but funny as its hands flailed in her face and its face contorted in rage. All the paint had peeled away to reveal its white skull and black veins.

  When its small body squiggled in her grasp, the wires winding through it pricked her palms. Its black eyes rolled in its head, and those hideous, piranha-like teeth snapped at her as it tried to break free of her grasp. With a cry of disgust, Avery heaved the doll across the room. It slammed into the back wall where it shattered into dozens of satisfying pieces.

  “I can’t… I’m still burnt out,” Alex panted as he batted away the dolls leaping at him from their shelves.

  “Avery!” Rosie screamed. “Try your powers!”

  Avery turned back to her friends to discover they were being buried beneath a tidal wave of frenzied clowns. Rosie’s shout alerted the remaining clowns to Avery’s presence, and they spun toward her.

  She was thankful Regan claimed he didn’t want her harmed. Otherwise, she was sure the dolls would have buried her like they had her friends. However, they must have realized she might be a risk to them as, with a loud screech, the clowns rushed at her.

  “Avery!” Karen screamed. “Help me!”

  The desperation in her voice touched something inside Avery. She would not allow Regan to hurt and torment her friends. As she glowered at the attacking dolls, the power swelling within her electrified the air. It pulsed and crackled around her until her hair waved around her face. Like the night she was awakened, she saw every separate particle of air floating around her, and she drew on the power within each of them.

  Lifting her hands to her chest, she shouted as she flung her hands toward the monsters. Released on a wave of fury and terror, her power streamed out of her in a flash of brilliant white light that stunned her. She’d never seen anything like that happen with anyone else in the coven before. Almost as incredible was the force with which the light hit the clowns and hurtled them through the air. They pelted the walls, breaking the plaster, and shattering the dolls.

  Avery almost sank to her knees as she gazed at the broken wreckage. She had no idea what had happened, and though it destroyed their enemies and felt amazing, she wasn’t sure it was a good thing. Her hands continued to tingle with the unleashed power coursing through her.

  “Wow,” Karen breathed as she rose to take in the carnage; her soft voice was oddly loud in the unnerving quiet following the destruction. “How did you do that?”

  When Rosie and Alex rose, their eyes were distrustful when they met Avery’s.

  “How did you do that?” Karen demanded again, planting her hands on her hips. Blood trickled from the gashes marring her legs and arms. A claw mark sliced her cheek, but Karen was oblivious to it as she stared at Avery.

  Avery couldn’t speak as she concentrated on trying to understand what was happening with her.

  “We’re witches,” Rosie finally said.

  “What?” Karen gasped.

  “It’s true,” Avery said in a strangled whisper. “We’re witches, and we have powers. I didn’t know until I visited my mother; she told me. I thought she was crazy, but she’s not.”

  Karen’s eyes traveled questioningly over the room before settling on Avery. “Well, that explains a lot of recent events. I guess you didn’t get contacts?”

  “No.” Avery stared at her feet, but even if she couldn’t see them, she still felt Alex’s and Rosie’s eyes burrowing into her.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Rosie muttered.

  Avery lifted her head and spotted the door behind Karen. “Come on,” she said. She clasped Karen’s arm as she studiously ignored Rosie and Alex.

  “Where does the door go?” Karen inquired while they walked toward it.

  “No idea,” Alex replied. “That’s part of the fun.”

  Karen was unfazed by this piece of information as she threw back her shoulders and marched forward. “Who else do we have to find?”

  “Reid and Lila,” Avery answered.

  “We’ll do it,” she said with a decisive nod. “You can fill me in on everything when we get out of here.” Karen kicked aside some of the broken clown remains. “After seeing Poltergeist, I made my mom get rid of them.”

  Avery remembered when that happened. They’d snuck the movie from Tina’s older brother and watched it during a sleepover at Tina’s house. When the movie finished, Karen had burst into tears and went from loving clowns to despising them. She begged her mother to get rid of the dolls she’d spent years amassing, refusing to enter her room until they were gone.

  As Avery stared at her shy friend, she marveled at the inner strength she hadn’t known Karen possessed.

  CHAPTER 31

  “Amazing,” Karen said when they finished filling her in on everything.

  Avery focused on the wounds on her legs as she worked to clean them. They’d just left Karen’s room behind and had stopped to sit while they attempted to take care of their injuries. Rosie had two gashes near the bruise on her right cheek, and another one along with the welt on her leg; she also had dozens of claw marks oozing blood. The wound on her arm had stopped bleeding, but it was red and sore looking.

  Alex’s neck and face bore at least five scratches and a few bites. More scratches and bites marred his arms and legs.

  Blood smeared her torn clothing as Avery used the edge of her shirt to dab ineffectively at her cuts. She didn’t bother with the bite on her neck as it had stopped bleeding.

  “You’re taking this well,” Alex said to Karen.

  “Well, if I wasn’t stuck here with you and recently attacked by psycho clowns, I might not believe you. However—” Karen waved a hand at the empty hall. “—it’s impossible to doubt anything you say when I’m standing here with you. I could freak out, but what good would that do any of us?”

  “None,” Rosie said.

  “Exactly,” Karen said. “Who is this Regan g
uy anyway?”

  “We don’t know,” Alex answered.

  “I’m not sure I want to know,” Rosie mumbled.

  Avery had to agree but still refused to look at Alex or Rosie. Their intense stares hadn’t lessened over the past ten minutes, and she was growing more uncomfortable by the second.

  “How are you feeling, Avery?” Rosie asked. “Are you burnt out yet?”

  Avery knew she should lie and say yes, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. They would only distrust her more if she lied and they found out, which they would if she were forced to use her powers again. “No,” she admitted. “If anything, I feel stronger.”

  Rosie frowned and looked at Alex; they seemed to share some silent communication with each other. Instead of feeling like she’d done something wrong again, Avery felt her irritation with them mounting.

  “What does that mean?” Karen demanded.

  “We don’t know,” Alex said. “None of us have ever been able to use our powers so often, or so strongly. And since Avery is still new to them, she should have burnt out already.”

  “Well, isn’t it a good thing that she’s not burnt out?” Karen asked. “It sure helped us with the deranged circus freaks back there.”

  “I guess,” Rosie said, but doubt clouded her voice.

  “Come on,” Avery said as she pushed herself up the wall. Her battered feet wailed in protest of having weight on them again, but Avery couldn’t handle the suspicion from Rosie and Alex anymore. “Sitting here isn’t helping anyone.”

  Rosie and Alex exchanged one more look and rose too. Avery stretched her legs before continuing down the hall. Her stomach rumbled loudly, and she tried not to think about how much she would love some food as she walked. When she got out of here, she was going to have a feast, drink copious amounts of water, and take the longest bath in history.

  She threw open the first door she came to, revealing another barren room. “This is ridiculous!” Rosie snapped.

  Avery didn’t bother to shut the door before continuing down the hall. Thrusting open another door, Avery froze when she spotted the large, cedar trunk in the middle of the entirely white, sterile room. She hadn’t come across anything like this yet.

  Inching into the room, her gaze darted over the walls and vents lining the ceiling. She didn’t know why the vents were there, but she had a feeling it wasn’t good. Everyone filed into the room behind her and glanced anxiously around when the door closed.

  They stood immobile before Alex strode across the floor and threw open the trunk lid. For almost a few seconds nothing happened, and then Avery let out a delighted cry when Reid’s head popped up and his silver eyes landed on her.

  “Reid!” She raced across the room and ignored the thudding of her knees against the tile floor when she dropped beside him and removed the gag from his swollen mouth.

  “Avery,” he breathed.

  Smiling at her, he leaned forward and rested his forehead against hers. She inhaled the scent of him mingled with sweat as the heat of his body warmed her. Then he kissed her nose before his mouth fell on hers. Unlike Regan’s overwhelming kiss, this one didn’t make her feel like it was stripping away everything she was and turning her into something else, something mindless. Instead, Reid’s kiss made her feel stronger and capable of doing anything.

  “Reid,” she breathed when the kiss ended.

  Her fingers curled into his nape; holding him helped to erase the lingering evil of Regan’s touch, but her guilt flared back to life. She would tell Reid about what happened in the blue room; she couldn’t live with herself if she kept it from him. She didn’t want to lose him, but that was his choice to make, and she would bear the consequences of her actions.

  “I’m glad to see you,” he said before sitting back to look at the others. “All of you. Though you look horrible.”

  “You’re not looking so great yourself,” Alex said. “And it’s about to get worse.”

  When they helped Reid to his feet, his knees popped from the hours he’d spent crammed in the trunk. “How could it get worse?” he asked as he eyed the room. “And how long have I been asleep?”

  “You were asleep?” Avery asked as he wiggled around so Avery and Alex could untie him.

  “Yeah, or at least I assume I was. The last thing I remember was standing with all of you by the stairs, and then Alex was opening this trunk. That’s when I woke up.”

  Avery glanced at the others. “Were all of you asleep until you were found?”

  “I wish,” Alex said.

  “Me too,” Karen said. “It was hot as hell in that chest.”

  “I recall the closet clearly,” Rosie said.

  So why had Regan put Reid to sleep and not the others?

  Avery glanced around the room again as Reid’s ropes fell away. When he turned back around, Avery flung herself into his arms and sighed when he hugged her against his chest. Her tension eased as she clung to him.

  “It’s okay,” he whispered as he stroked her tangled hair while hugging her.

  “I hate to break this up, but what are you afraid of, Reid?” Rosie asked nervously.

  “Why?” he asked as he pulled slightly away from her.

  “Because it’s about to burst into this room,” Alex said. “And we’re all going to have to deal with it.”

  Reid focused on the vents, and Avery’s heart sank when she spotted a darkness gathering behind them. “I hope you guys can handle being buried alive and bugs,” Reid said.

  “Buried alive?” Karen croaked.

  “Yes.”

  “Why?” Rosie moaned.

  “The Hearse Song creeped me out as a kid and got me thinking about things I probably shouldn’t have thought about. I had nightmares for years afterward about being buried and eaten alive by insects after hearing it.”

  “What’s The Hearse Song?” Avery asked.

  “You know the song where the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, the worms play pinochle on your snout. They eat your eyes, they eat your nose, they eat the jelly between your toes?”

  “Yeah,” Avery said.

  “That’s The Hearse Song.”

  “Crap,” Alex said.

  “That’s why Regan put you to sleep,” Avery realized. “Otherwise, you would have gone insane locked in the trunk, and it wouldn’t be any fun for him unless we all got to experience your nightmare.”

  “We’ve escaped the others by using our abilities,” Rosie said. “When it starts, you can fight this one off, Reid.”

  Reid nodded, and though he hid it from the others, Avery felt the tremor that ran up his spine before he stepped from the trunk. Reid kept his arms around her as he led her over to the others. When they arrived at Rosie’s side, Reid released her.

  Avery had only a second to squeeze his hand before the darkness behind the vents spilled free in a tidal wave of dirt. Mixed in with the soil was a swirling mass of insects so thick and intertwined, it was almost impossible to differentiate one species from another.

  The bugs squished and clicked as they poured onto the floor in a swarm of slippery bodies. Avery gaped as spiders, cockroaches, slugs, earwigs, worms, ants, flies, maggots, and so many other insects separated themselves from each other. The bugs rolled over the top of one another as they skittered away from the rising dirt.

  Nausea swept through Avery, and her gaze traveled to Reid, who stood frozen beside her. When Avery opened her mouth to tell him to use his powers, the vent above her burst open. Her teeth clicked together, and she bit her tongue when she snapped her mouth closed against the dirt and bugs pouring over her.

  She slapped frantically at her arms, but as soon as she brushed some away, more rose up to replace them. Bugs squirmed into her hair, slipped down her shirt, wiggled inside her shorts, and into her sneakers as dirt rose to encase her ankles. Avery tried to ignore the bugs oozing and squishing against her when she beat at herself.

  The bugs tried to crawl into Avery’s ears and up her nose as the dirt pil
ed up to midcalf. She longed to scream, but if one made it into her mouth, she would lose her mind. She took shallow breaths through her nose as she wiped frantically at it to keep it clear.

  The insects left a slimy trail over her skin while their wings beat against her. She tried to block out the sensation of the tarantula’s scratchy legs, the thousands of squirming bodies, and the rising dirt encasing her knees.

  Her heart pounded against her ribs, and any moment now, she would start screaming. The second she opened her mouth and the bugs crawled in, she would lose all hope for maintaining her sanity. She pushed aside her rising terror as she tried to draw on her powers. It would be better if Reid handled this himself, but she couldn’t take much more.

  Before she could conjure an image of destroying the bugs and stopping the dirt, a strong gust of wind caused her to sway, but her feet remained locked in the earth. The wind did knock the bugs off her, but although they were gone, she still felt their bodies squirming all over her.

  Their remaining slimy ooze adhered her clothes to her skin, and she couldn’t stop slapping at herself. Her skin crawled as she dared to crack open an eye. Scattered all around her were thousands of dead insects. Bile rose in her throat, but she gulped it down as she opened her other eye.

  “Sorry that took so long,” Reid said.

  “Nice job,” Rosie muttered as she wiped at her skin. “But couldn’t you have done it a little sooner? That was disgusting! There aren’t enough showers in the world to rid me of the feel of those things.”

  Karen leaned to the side, doubled over, and vomited. Avery’s stomach heaved in response to Karen’s retching.

  “I’m sorry,” Karen whispered when she finished and wiped her mouth with the back of her arm.

  “Don’t be,” Alex said.