Rotting Souls

by Sara Clancy

  He screamed.

  It happened in an instant. The steel before his face buckled. Glass rained down and the horn sputtered and died as the massive vehicle bucked, thrown to the side as if hit by a solid force. The scent of burning tires filled the air as the driver tried to compensate. With an earth-rattling crunch, it toppled onto its side, sliding for a few yards before the front end dipped into the trench that ran the length of the road.

  Benton’s scream cut off, but he didn’t close his mouth. Panting hard, he stared at the truck. At the patch of mangled metal that looked as if it had been struck with a wrecking ball. Nicole squirmed in his arms, reminding him of the greater threat.

  The skinned man still stood in the middle of the road. He wasn’t smiling anymore. The empty pits of his eyes slowly turned from the truck to meet Benton’s gaze. That alone was enough to bring forth the sensation of being hunted. The undeniable knowledge that he had grabbed the attention of a predator. What was worse, however, was that he felt known. Crimson red sparked within the skinned man’s skull. Just a second. A crackle of pure electricity. And then it was gone. Vanished. In the stunned silence, Benton could hear the soft click and rattle of its bones, but he couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Soon enough, it fell away.

  “Are you okay?” Nicole asked, snapping him out of his daze.

  “Uhm, yeah. Are y–”

  “The driver!” She ripped herself from his arms without a moment of hesitation.

  She was scrambling down the embankment by the time help started to arrive. Helpful hands brought Benton back to his feet. A dozen questions were thrown at him but he barely heard any of them. His attention was fixed on the endless expanse of nothingness that surrounds Fort Wayward. A gentle breeze turned it all into a shifting sea, whispering a thousand secrets, but showing nothing.

  Chapter 8

  The instant Doctor Young Eagle closed the door behind him, Dorothy burst forward to engulf her daughter in a crushing hug once again. Nicole sighed, the sound a mixture of contentment and pain, and hugged her back. “I’m okay, mom.”

  “You could have been killed.”

  Until now, the Constable had shouted the words. Lowering her volume had to be a good sign. At the very least, Nicole was determined to convince herself it was.

  “What were you thinking?” Dorothy said with a particularly tight squeeze.

  “I was trying to catch the ... dang it, I still don’t know what it is. I need my files! They’re in my backpack.”

  “The backpack that’s currently at school?” Dorothy asked.

  Nicole pulled back slightly to look her mother in the eyes.

  “I feel like this is a trick question. But, yes.”

  “I’m just wondering why exactly you aren’t with your backpack. At school. Where I told you to stay.”

  Nicole cringed. “I knew it was a trap.”

  “Nicole,” Dorothy said with a warning.

  “But it’s actually really good that I took a temporary hiatus from obediently following your suggestions.”

  “We’re going to circle back around to discuss how it was an order, not a suggestion. Right now, however, I’m interested in where you’re going with this.”

  “Right. Well, if I had been at school, I never would have seen ... whatever that was. Now that I have, I’m sure that I can identify it.”

  “Also, Amy might not have survived this second encounter,” Benton added from his position beside the closed door.

  Nicole jumped and clapped her hands together. “Yes. Good point. Solid point that backs up my theory. Love it. Thank you, Benton.”

  “Nicole, settle down. Benton, stay out of it,” Dorothy commanded.

  Benton hunched his shoulders and leaned harder against the wall, as if he were trying to blend into it. The small examination room didn’t offer any places to hide. Nicole was sure that Dr. Esther Young Eagle was getting suspicious of them. It seemed that she was always on duty when they needed a post monster encounter check-up. It had reached a point that the doctor no longer tried to separate Nicole and Benton, instead seeing them both at once with little more than a resigned sigh. It had helped that both of them had escaped with little worse than road-chafed skin and hard bruising. Dorothy obviously wanted to have this conversation in private but wasn’t willing to kick Benton out just yet. So, instead, she stared at him until she was sure that he wasn’t about to speak again, then turned back to Nicole.

  “I told you to stay at school to keep you safe. You didn’t listen and you almost died. If you can’t bring yourself to care about that, how about the poor driver?”

  Nicole instantly deflated. “They said he’s going to be fine.”

  “His arm is broken in two places and he has three fractured ribs. I don’t even know where to begin with the property damage.”

  “That was Benton,” Nicole blurted.

  Benton’s jaw dropped. “What the hell?”

  “Sorry. I’m just feeling really cornered right now. I needed a distraction.”

  “So you throw me under the bus?”

  “At least it’s not a truck.” Her smile vanished as both Dorothy and Benton glared at her. “Too soon?”

  “Maybe wait at least a day before joking about it,” Benton said.

  Dorothy’s sharp sigh severed their conversation and instantly put the teens back on the defensive. Benton pressed hard against the wall as Dorothy studied him from head to foot and back. Nicole felt bad that he had once again taken the brunt of the damage. Hitting the road hard scraped some of their skin off. Most of the damage had come from the recoil of the banshee wail. It had ground them against the road, and Benton’s gym gear had offered little protection. From knee to ankle, his outer right leg looked almost skinned. It was pretty much the same for his right arm. Constable Chuck’s training gear hung loosely off of Benton’s leaner frame, covering the stark white bandages that now covered his limbs.

  “You moved the truck? It wasn’t this newest creature?”

  “I think so,” he said.

  “Think?” she pressed.

  Benton glanced to Nicole before he swallowed. “I think it was me. I have no idea how I did it and am not entirely sure if I could do it again.”

  Dorothy’s eyes narrowed in scrutiny as she looked him over. Benton squirmed under the weight of her focused gaze and threw a nervous glance at Nicole. She shrugged one shoulder. I don’t know what she’s looking for, either.

  “That truck has to be at least 40 tons of metal,” Dorothy said slowly.

  Nicole couldn’t keep in her low whistle. “That’s a lot of tons.”

  Dorothy looked at her, blinked, and then continued, “So, what are we saying here? That you can create sonic booms now? With just your voice? In a split second?”

  “Psst,” Nicole hissed between her teeth. “Hey, mom. He doesn’t like those kinds of questions.”

  “I don’t know the answer to those kinds of questions,” Benton corrected with an edge of annoyance.

  “Psst, mom.” Nicole leaned forward and waved her hand to draw her mother’s attention. “I think he can hear us.”

  “Yeah, I can.”

  Nicole pouted. “Why don’t your ears ever hurt after these screams?”

  “There’s a slight ringing,” he offered.

  “Can we please focus back on the fact that you can knock over a moving 40-ton vehicle with just your voice?” Dorothy snapped.

  “Do we really know that I did?” Benton countered. “Seriously, the driver was trying to avoid us. We had that rain last night and there’s that ditch. I’m not that great at physics, but I’m pretty sure there’s a way to explain it all without drawing me into it.”

  Nicole couldn’t help but join her mother in staring at Benton in disbelief. Confronted with the combined incredulous looks, he skirted his gaze to the side. Nicole could see by the lock of his jaw that he was clinging desperately to his conviction. She understood why. Everything was changing so fast. She couldn’t imagine how hard it
was for him to keep up, to deal with the knowledge that the list of things he knew about himself to be true was quickly dwindling. At the moment, she was only dealing with one major identity crisis and she wasn’t handling it well. He needs some time.

  Unfortunately, Dorothy wasn’t of a like mind. Absently placing one arm protectively around her daughter, she pulled her mobile phone out of her pocket.

  “Janett was filming her grandchild at the time of the accident,” she started.

  “Oh, how’s the baby doing? Have they settled on a name yet?” Nicole looked to Benton before continuing. “He’s super cute. He has knee-dimples.”

  “Sweetie,” Dorothy said. “I know it’s hard for you right now, but I’m going to need you to focus.”

  “Right.”

  “And not talk.”

  Nicole popped her lips. “That’s going to be harder.”

  Dorothy decided to continue as if Nicole hadn’t spoken. “She sent me the video.”

  Starting the video, she turned the screen to let Benton watch. Nicole slowly edged closer to him so she could watch as well. She realized her attempts weren’t as subtle as she thought they had been when she ended up with both of Benton and Dorothy watching her. Still, she continued until she was pressed against Benton’s good side. He shifted to give her some room, sparing a moment to brush aside her hair and check on the ravaged skin of her jawline. The scream brought his attention back to the mobile screen.

  It didn’t sound human. A mangled hybrid of an animalistic roar and the wails of a cyclone. The phone’s speaker crackled with strain, threatening to break as the pitch swiftly rose. There wasn’t much else to see because, by this time, Janett had realized what was happening and was racing forward to help. Nicole caught glimpses of the main event. The truck rocketing off the ground, toppling to the side with a bone-rattling crunch before sliding in a hail of sparks and screeching metal.

  Benton’s eyes widened slightly, his jaw dropping. “Huh.”

  Nicole reached out and poked at the phone to replay the video. After it was done, she repeated Benton’s ‘huh’ and followed with, “That’s both terrifying and impressive. I won’t even be mad that you let Janett have a recording of your scream even though I’ve asked you repetitively.”

  “I didn’t let her,” he said. “And even if I did, you don’t have any right to my screams.”

  “Well, if you want to be all logical about the situation.”

  “There is an upside to this,” Dorothy cut in.

  “Yeah,” Nicole grinned up at Benton, “your hair looks great on film.”

  “What is with you and my hair today?” Benton blurted. “And what is wrong with you?”

  Nicole shrugged a shoulder and was in the process of reaching up to poke his hair again when Dorothy sharply cleared his throat.

  “As I was saying, the upside is that no one has actual footage of Benton in action. People either didn’t get their phones out fast enough or the wheels obscured their line of sight. Whatever it was you were chasing, no one else saw it. We do have the scream to deal with, of course. I don’t think most people will jump to the conclusion that Benton made it. There’s going to be a lot of people with a lot of questions.”

  Benton nodded, swallowing down the bile that was working its way up his throat.

  “Great. Just as my ‘new kid’ status was wearing off.”

  Nicole giggled. “You’ll always be the new kid. Everyone else was born here.”

  “Yeah, but I finally got them to the point where all decided I was boring and were starting to leave me alone.”

  “You get invited places.”

  “No, you do. I get an afterthought invitation because they realize I’m standing next to you.”

  Completely unknown to her, Nicole had reached for his hair again. He smacked her hand away.

  “Are you two done?” Dorothy snapped. “This isn’t a game. We actually have some important things we need to discuss. People could die. You both almost died. Can you give me the dignity of keeping your focus for five seconds?”

  “Sorry, mom.”

  “Sorry,” Benton mumbled at the same time.

  Dorothy waited a moment to ensure that neither of them was about to go on another tangent before she continued. Then she purposefully pulled out her note pen and notebook.

  “This thing you saw. Give me a description.”

  Nicole clamped her mouth shut and fixed Benton with wide, pleading eyes. Dorothy noticed it instantly and leveled Benton with a demanding stare. Confronted with both women, Benton wavered on who to respond to first. Eventually, he gave Nicole a small, reassuring smile. She was so relieved that he was going to handle it that she almost missed the look he threw her mother.

  What’s going on? she screamed in her head. Normally, Benton was good at picking up on her vibes. So she could only assume that he was deliberately avoiding eye contact with her. A moment later, Dorothy did the same. Are they actually hiding something from me? The idea threw her off enough that she struggled to keep up with the conversation.

  Benton’s voice remained flat and emotionless as he described the monster. Sticking only to the facts. Refusing to elaborate. It made it easy to pinpoint the exact moment tension entered his voice. Even the mysterious drug in her veins wasn’t enough to blind her to the shift. With a stunned blink, she looked over to find Benton and Dorothy having a silent conversation. Okay, something is definitely going on here. She barely managed to keep the words from coming out of her mouth.

  Dorothy crossed her arms over her chest and schooled her features. It was the only reaction the constable allowed herself as she listened to Benton’s tale. The only thing he left out was who the man was. Or, more precisely, how they knew him. Nicole almost wept with relief when he came to an end and she knew for sure he wasn’t about to reveal that bit of information. A heartbeat after he fell silent, Dorothy sucked in a deep breath and nodded absently to herself.

  “What are we dealing with here?”

  “Yeah, Benton,” Nicole said.

  He jerked with surprise and looked between the two women. “I don’t know! No matter how many different ways you ask me, the answer’s not going to change.”

  “We don’t mean anything by it,” Nicole said. “It’s just that he’s one of your people.”

  “I don’t have people,” Benton snapped. “Quit trying to put my fingerprints on this train wreck.”

  “It was a truck,” Nicole said with a slight frown. “Oh, I get it now. Never mind.”

  “Unbelievable,” Dorothy hissed under her breath.

  Nicole turned to her mother with a flick of her long hair. “If you want to change the subject, can we talk about Amy? Is she okay? What happened to her? What was it doing to her?”

  Dorothy shifted her weight from one foot to the other and licked her lips. Uh oh. Those were two tells that the constable only showed when she was about to have a very uncomfortable conversation.

  Dorothy regained her composure and looked Nicole in the eyes. “She hasn’t regained consciousness.”

  “And?” Benton pressed.

  The constable looked to the side then forced out, “Her kidney had been removed.”

  “Say again?” Nicole instantly shot back.

  “You heard me.”

  “There’s wasn’t any blood,” Benton said.

  “Did they find the kidney?” Nicole asked at the same moment. The looked to each other and she shrugged. “They’re both legitimate questions. You can pick the order you answer in.”

  Dorothy let the comment slide. “No, they didn’t find it. And yes, there was no blood.”

  “Okay, I can’t express how much effort it’s taking me to keep calm right now,” Nicole said slowly. “I’m going to need way more information than you’re currently giving me. And I’m going to need it soon.”

  “The wound was clean.” Dorothy’s eyes grew troubled, her voice distant. “I’ve never seen anything like it. None of the doctors have. It cut her open l
ike a jack-o-lantern. No blood. No redness. No hesitation or struggling cuts. Just this hole in her stomach.”

  Recognition shot through Nicole like a bolt of lightning. I know this! I’ve heard of this! Her hand latched onto Benton’s, squeezing until he let out a sharp hiss. Of course, Dorothy was instantly suspicious. She threw a quizzical look at her daughter. Then at their joined hands. Then Benton.

  “What am I missing?”

  Play it cool. Don’t let her know, Nicole told herself. Dorothy was one small push away from trying to cut Nicole out of this altogether. There was no way she was about to let her run down any leads.

  “Nicole,” Dorothy warned. “I’m waiting for an answer.”

  Play it cool.

  “Nothing, mom.” Nicole snorted, before falling into a little giggle. “What a question.”

  Nailed it.

  Dorothy sighed heavily, pressing her lips tight before leveling a cool look at Benton. “What isn’t she telling me?”

  “Mom, I’m hurt and offended that you’d think I wouldn’t answer you truthfully.”

  “You’re jerking his hand around and eyeing the door like you’re about to make a run for it.”

  “What?” Nicole droned out slowly, stretching the word out as she began to bounce with contained energy. “That’s crazy.”

  Annoyance flashed across Dorothy’s face. Her mouth opened but, before she could say anything, there was a sharp tap on the door. An instant later, Chuck poked his head inside.

  “Hey, guys. Glad to see you’re okay. Dorothy, we kind of need you out here,” he said.

  “I’m with my daughter.”

  “I know. But now we’ve got traffic control duty on top of everything else. We need all hands on deck.”

  “I’m not leaving my girl again.” There was no anger in Dorothy’s voice. It was a simple, indisputable fact.

  “We can keep her at the hospital.”

  “Because we’ve kept this place so safe,” Dorothy said.