It’s not Steve. Not anymore.
But that was only partly true. Steve was in there somewhere, banished to some subterranean level while Trell controlled his body like a mad puppeteer.
I don’t have to kill him. If I can just get the right angle…
The gun boomed like a thunderclap as he squeezed the trigger. Shards of glass flew from the window and billowed out the curtain, giving him a better view into the room. Blood sprayed from Steve’s shoulder, the force of the shot knocking him off balance, sending him stumbling into the wall.
Crystal sprang off the bed and charged into Steve.
“Sarah!” Jay yelled. “Open the door!”
Sarah scurried across the room, but Maria swept the girl into her arms and pulled her back onto the bed like a lioness taking down an antelope.
“It’s me!” Jay shouted. “Open up!”
Jagged bits of glass clung to the window frame like rotted teeth. Jay knocked them loose one by one, smacking them with the butt of the gun.
Inside the motel room, Crystal and Steve grappled for the gun in a sinister ballet.
Tim appeared beside Jay a moment later, his hair sticking up in sleepy corkscrews. It would’ve been comical if not for the scene unfolding before them. “Maria!” Tim yelled. “Open the door!”
To Jay’s surprise, she responded to Tim’s voice and flung the door open.
Jay stepped inside and leveled the gun at his fiancée and his best friend and waited for a clear shot.
Tim rushed past Jay and dipped his shoulder for a tackle.
Steve swung Crystal around, and Tim plowed into her and sent them both crashing into the bedside table. They collapsed onto the floor in a tangle of limbs.
Steve stepped aside and grinned, his eyes gleaming red.
Jay sucked in his breath. They were dealing with Trell now. Not just one of its minions. “Drop the gun!” he yelled. “Now!”
Trell turned toward him, its lips curling into a grin. “You wouldn’t shoot your best friend, would you Jay? Huh, old buddy?”
“You’re not Steve. Not anymore.”
“Steve is not dead. He simply obeys my commands. If you shoot this body, I will abandon it. And who do you think will feel the pain? Who do you think will feel the agony of another gunshot wound? So go ahead and shoot, Jay. It matters not to me.”
“If I shoot, you lose your opportunity to kill us.”
“Do I? You seem so sure of yourself. Don’t you think I’ll find you again? Weren’t you wondering how I found you tonight?” It pointed to the TV. “I brought you a little present. Slightly used, but I don’t think the motel clerk will be needing it now that I slit his throat.”
Jay glanced at the TV. A bottle of Jack sat atop the console.
“Your favorite, isn’t it? Old No. 7. What do you say we make a bargain? Their lives for that bottle. It’s yours if you walk away from here. Whatever happens when you leave is of no consequence to you. What do you say? Thirsty?”
“I don’t drink anymore.” He tried hard to ignore the need raging inside him, the need that urged him to abandon his friends and take a sip.
If I have a swig of that, I probably will leave them, probably will let them die. That’s how messed up I really am.
“Drop the gun, Trell.”
“My, my, did someone grow a spine? It doesn’t suit you. You’re a lousy fighter. Always were. But you make an excellent drunk. Almost as good as your old man.” It pointed the gun from Crystal to Tim and back again. “So who shall I kill first? The bitch who left you or the kid who thinks you’re a worthless loser?”
“How about you kill yourself,” Tim suggested. “See if maybe you can get it right this time.” He rose to his feet. “What kind of monster are you, anyway? You couldn’t even kill a nine-year-old girl in her sleep.”
Trell pointed the gun at Tim. “Why don’t I do us all a favor and shut that smart mouth of yours? What do you say, Tim? Are you ready to die? Or will you wet your pants again like that time in the library?”
Jay cocked his dad’s .45. God help me, he thought, and pulled the trigger.
Steve’s chest erupted in a geyser of blood. The force of the blast sent him stumbling against the wall. He fired a wayward shot into the ceiling before dropping the gun and collapsing to the floor, his back tracing a bloody smear down the wall.
Jay tossed the gun onto the dresser and sank to his knees beside Steve. The glimmer of red had vanished from his eyes. Jay pressed a hand over the wound and could feel hot blood soaking through his fingers.
“Hang on, Steve. We’re gonna get you some help.”
It seemed like an effort, but Steve lifted his eyes to meet Jay’s gaze.
“I’m sorry,” Jay said.
A ghost of a smile touched Steve’s lips. “Not your…fault. Should’ve … listened …” And then Steve’s head dropped to his chest and his eyes stared at nothing.
Jay lowered his head into his hands. What had he done?
“Jay look out!”
Crystal’s warning caught him off guard. He didn’t have time to react, didn’t have time to think about what could be wrong. All he could do was throw his arms over his head and wait for the danger to pass.
He heard a creak of bedsprings, followed by a muted whump! as something heavy struck the carpet. He whirled around and saw Sarah sitting on the edge of the bed, her chest heaving, the bedside lamp gripped in her hands like a club.
Maria lay sprawled on the floor beneath her, a gun just beyond her reach. After a moment, she dragged herself into a sitting position, but Crystal jumped on top of her and pinned her to the ground.
“She tried to shoot you,” Sarah said. “She had a gun hidden under her pillow.”
Tim shook his head. “I don’t understand it. When could Trell have gotten to her?”
Jay grabbed his gun and stood up. “I don’t know,” he said. “But we’d better get the hell out of here.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Sarah turned away from the glare of oncoming headlights and rested her head against the door. She wished she could fall asleep, get even just a few minutes of rest, but every time she closed her eyes she saw Daddy or that man Steve all covered in blood.
She’d probably have nightmares because of it. But it would be nothing compared to if Daddy died. Because who would help with her nightmares then? Who would sit by her bed and hold her hand until she drifted back to sleep?
Rain fell from the sky, and had been since they left the motel. Fat drops pelted the car, beating against the windshield like a drum. Sarah glanced out the window. There were no lights or buildings—just trees. Thousands of them crowded the road, whizzing by in a blur. She imagined them coming to life like the trees in the Wizard of Oz. Except instead of throwing apples, these trees would drag the car off the road and smash through the windows with their spindly branches. They’d reach inside to grab her and—
She turned away from the window and tried to clear her mind by picturing Jenny sitting beside her. But she couldn’t recall Jenny’s face in enough detail to really bring her to life. Her features were all blurry, like looking through Daddy’s glasses.
She hated to admit it, but Jenny was gone. She wasn’t real anymore. And probably never would be again.
I think I’m growing up. But not in a good way. Not in a way that Mommy would have wanted.
A tear slid down her cheek.
Please let Daddy be okay. Please don’t let him die.
Crystal turned around in the front seat. “Are you okay, Sarah?”
She nodded, even though it was a lie.
Maria leaned forward, her hands cuffed behind her back. “Your Daddy’s dead, Sarah. I bet his corpse is stinking up the hospital already.”
Tim clamped a hand over Maria’s mouth and held her against the seat. “She doesn’t mean it, Sarah. Trell is controlling her.”
Sarah stared down at her feet. “I know.”
“Do we have anything to gag her with?” Jay asked.
“Like what?” Tim said.
Crystal pulled opened the glove compartment. “I’ve got some masking tape in here.” She tossed it to Tim, who caught the roll on his finger.
Jay glanced into the backseat. “Don’t listen to her, Sarah. Your father isn’t dead. The nurse said he was heading into the recovery room.”
Tim ripped off a few strips of tape and pressed them over Maria’s lips. “She won’t bother you again. I promise.”
“Thanks,” Sarah said.
No one spoke for a moment, and then Tim said, “I thought she’d snap out of it after awhile, you know…the way Frank did.”
“A lot of time has passed since Trell took control of Frank,” Crystal said. “You guys said yourselves it’s gotten a lot stronger since. I guess that means its control over people is stronger too.”
“But I still don’t get it,” Tim said. “If Trell was controlling her, why did she open the door for me?”
“I think Trell was afraid of blowing her cover,” Jay said. “If we managed to get away from Steve, it didn’t want us to get away from her too. It wanted to save her until the time was right. If Sarah hadn’t hit her with that lamp, she probably would have killed us all.”
Everyone fell quiet after awhile, and Sarah sank back into her thoughts. Mom was out there somewhere, doing all kinds of bad things for Trell.
Does she know what’s going on? Does she see all the things it’s making her do?
She hoped not. She hoped Mom was asleep while Trell moved her body around. She tried to remember what she and Mom had last talked about before Trell took over. But she couldn’t do it. They hadn’t spoken much these past few days. Ever since Mom began to feel sick, Sarah had tried not to get in her way.
If only Sarah had known then what was happening. Maybe she could have stopped it. Maybe she could have warned Daddy.
Then he wouldn’t be hurt, wouldn’t be in the hospital.
But that probably wasn’t true. Even if she had warned him, Daddy wouldn’t have listened. He didn’t believe in anything like that—not ghosts, not monsters, not invisible friends, nothing. He would have told her it was all her imagination, just a nightmare that seemed real, but wasn’t.
I wish I were home. I wish I could wake up and see that none of this really happened.
She kept picturing Mom wandering around in the woods, talking to herself like a crazy person, her nightgown stained with blood. She thought back to the night that Mom had come into the house all covered in mud, remembered the trail of footprints climbing the stairs. But most of all, she remembered the way Mom had looked at her when Sarah opened the bedroom door. Mom’s face wasn’t just angry—it was scary. But it was even more than that, more than she liked to admit.
Evil.
She didn’t like thinking something like that about Mom, but it was true. Every time she thought about that night, she pictured Mom’s eyes and how they had seemed to turn red as Sarah closed the door. She’d thought it was her imagination then, but now she knew better.
The car continued through the rain. Sarah could feel Maria watching her. She didn’t dare turn around, didn’t dare look Maria in the eye.
I want to go home, she thought again, and pictured her special place by the stream. She could almost feel the spongy moss beneath her fingers, could almost smell the scent of the woods. She imagined dipping her toes into the water while Mr. Whiskers chased a bug in the grass.
I hope he’ll be okay by himself.
She felt the car begin to slow down, and when she looked up she saw that they had turned off the highway. A few minutes later, Jay pulled into the parking lot of a 7 Eleven. It looked like it was still open.
“Why are we stopping?” she asked.
“To get some food,” Jay said. “Aren’t you hungry?”
“A little bit.”
“I’ll wait with Maria,” Jay said. “You and Tim can go inside with Crystal to pick something out.”
Sarah nodded, anxious to get out of the car.
“I can stay with Maria,” Tim said. “I don’t mind.”
“You sure?” Jay asked.
“Yeah. Don’t worry. Go ahead.”
“All right,” Jay said. “Just be careful.”
***
Tim cast a sidelong glance at Maria, who sat still as a statue beside him. Her eyes were open, but they seemed vacant, and he feared that Trell’s withdrawal may have left behind nothing but an empty shell. Earlier, as they got ready to leave the motel, Maria had thrashed around the floor like an animal, and the evil he glimpsed in her eyes was so intense he could barely stand to look at her. It was such a stark contrast to the sweet, pretty girl who had kissed him on the lips outside of history class.
The attack at the compost dump had brought them closer, and being with her felt natural, without any of the awkwardness that usually came with a new relationship. She was interesting to talk to and actually appreciated his sense of humor. He was falling for her, and he had a feeling that she might be falling for him too. Unfortunately, in the last twelve hours, she had gone from making out with him to trying to murder him, which definitely introduced a level of complexity to the relationship.
At this point, he really wasn’t sure what to say to her. He had zero experience when it came to dating girls possessed by demons, so he was at a loss for typical conversation starters. In the end, he settled for resting his hand on her thigh, which drew no reaction whatsoever.
He made an attempt at eye contact and saw that the tape he’d applied earlier had lost its stickiness. Half of it now dangled from her lips and fluttered as she exhaled. He was debating whether to press it back on when she suddenly turned toward him, her eyes blinking.
“Tim? What happened, where are we?”
Tim jerked back in surprise. He fingered the door handle, ready to make a quick escape should it become necessary. “We were attacked at the motel and had to leave. We’re in the car now.”
She struggled to raise her arms. “Why am I handcuffed?”
“You don’t remember? Trell got a hold of you somehow. It must have happened after I left your house. Also, you tried to kill us.”
“Oh my God, Tim. I didn’t hurt anyone, did I?”
“No, but it was close.”
“I’m sorry, Tim. I didn’t know what I was doing. I swear.”
“I know,” he said. “It’s not your fault.”
Maria bit her lip and blinked, as if fighting back tears. She glanced down at the space between them. “Are you afraid of me?”
“No, it’s just—”
“You are, aren’t you?” She began to cry.
“I’m sorry. Don’t cry. Please?” He slid his body next to hers and draped an arm around her shoulders. “It’ll be all right. I promise.”
She looked at him, her eyes brimming with tears. “I’m scared, Tim.”
“So am I,” he said, and kissed her forehead. She raised her lips to meet his. He pulled away the tape and kissed her long and hard.
She broke away for a moment, kissed his chin, and then slid down to his neck, her breath blowing hot against his throat. She kneeled on the seat and straddled him, arching her back so that her breasts pressed against his face.
“Let me out of these cuffs, Tim.”
“Uh, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Please, Tim. We might never get another chance.”
“I don’t know …”
“I need my hands, Tim. I want to make you feel so good.”
She used her body to push him against the door. He pulled up his shirt and she trailed hot, wet kisses down to his naval. “The cuffs, Tim.”
He reached into his pocket for the keys. “How about I move them to the front?” She nodded, and he re-cuffed her hands in the front. Then he slipped the keys back into his pocket.
Maria pulled down the neckline of her blouse and exposed her breasts. “Do you like what you see?”
“Yes,” he gasped.
“I think you�
��re going to like this even more.” She unzipped his pants and wriggled them down to his knees, taking his boxers with them. “Close your eyes, Tim.”
He felt her lips on his inner thigh, and his whole body shuddered.
“No peeking,” she said. “Just lay back and …”
Tim opened his eyes at the tinkling of metal and saw that Maria had escaped from the cuffs. Her right hand was drawn back over her shoulder, clutching the hilt of a hunting knife.
Tim swept out his arm as she brought the knife down, deflecting it so that the blade only grazed his shoulder. He shoved Maria onto the floor, threw open the door, and dove into the parking lot. He landed headfirst in a puddle and rolled onto his back as cold rain pelted his face. He tried to stand, but tripped over his pants and fell down again.
Maria jumped out of the car and pinned him to the ground, her right foot pressing down on his groin. “What do you think, Tim? Which head shall I cut off first?”
“Drop the knife!” Jay shouted.
Tim let out his breath in a gust of relief. Thank God, he thought, as Jay ran toward them with his gun drawn.
Maria lowered the knife and backed away.
“Get out of here,” Jay yelled. “Go!”
Maria snarled at them before withdrawing into the street.
Tim hiked up his pants and climbed into the car.
“Nice job on watch,” Jay said.
Crystal shook her head. “Looks like he fell for the oldest trick in the book.”
“Why were his pants down?” Sarah asked.
Tim pressed a hand over his shoulder. “Can we change the subject, please?”
***
The first traces of dawn brightened the sky as Jay navigated Crystal’s battered Volvo past the skyscrapers of downtown Boston and checked them into a motel near the airport. With two double beds and a sleep sofa, they were able to squeeze into a single room. And with the blackout curtains drawn tight, everyone was asleep within an hour of check in.
Everyone except for Jay.
His ears still rang from the exchange of gunfire earlier in the night, and even with his eyes closed and the pillow covering his head, the phantom echo of the night’s fatal gunshot still haunted him.
Colony of the Lost Page 20
