by John Everson
Jenn skimmed the blood-spattered page, looking for words that could save her. Banishment, the page read again in French. Destroy the place the soul calls home.
Then it was too late. She was out of time. He was there.
“Jennica,” Nick said from the doorway. “Don’t run away. I love you.”
Jenn looked at the blank expression on his face and answered, “I don’t believe you.” She lifted the hammer in her hand and felt its weight.
Nick moved closer, and Jenn eyed the stone casket beside her. The casket that had stood atop the hidden heart tucked in the floor of the Perenais house for the past twenty years or more. The hidden heart . . .
Jenn looked around on the floor for the wooden box she and Nick had taken out of the lockbox in the floor. It was just a yard away from her foot.
Nick—or, the Pumpkin Man, really; Jenn stared into his eyes and detected no hint of her boyfriend in the glint of murder that lived there—began to close the gap between them. Jenn took a deep breath and then dove for the ground. She grabbed the box, rolled to her feet and held it out at him in a threat.
“I have it,” she said defiantly. “Stay back.” “What do you think you have?” The Pumpkin Man sneered, still walking toward her.
She opened the wooden box and lifted out the shriveled organ that had once been a heart. It was almost weightless in her hand.
“I’ll destroy it!” she threatened.
The Pumpkin Man kept coming.
Jenn threw the heart on the ground and lifted a foot to step on it. The Pumpkin Man lunged, though, and instead of her foot coming down on the heart, she threw herself to the left to avoid his knife and stumbled awkwardly to the ground. Nick’s lips curved in a smile that crowed victory.
She didn’t give up. As his hand reached for her ankle and his fingers closed around it, Jenn brought the hammer around and slammed it into Nick’s arm. The Pumpkin Man yelled in pain and pulled away.
It was the break she needed. Jenn shimmied to her feet and in two steps was back at the heart. She raised her foot again, and this time nothing stopped her from crushing the ancient organ on the floor of the crypt. When she lifted her foot, gray powder was all that remained. She stepped down again and again, twisting her foot back and forth, grinding the powder farther into the floor.
“Die,” she said to the Pumpkin Man. She grinned in victory.
Instead of slumping to the ground, Nick’s body rose, one arm rubbing the other where she’d hit him. “That wasn’t my heart,” the voice said simply. “Though somewhere I imagine the bones of P. Stephen Gifford are rolling over in his grave.”
Nick stepped closer, and his eyes were slits of dark anger. Jenn felt her heart sink. She’d thought for a moment that she’d won, that she’d broken the secret that let this devil steal people’s bodies. Now, she wasn’t sure what to try, assuming she was ever given another chance.
“You silly creature,” Nick’s voice said, but she knew that it wasn’t Nick talking. Knowing that didn’t make it any easier to hear. “You think you can stop me? Me? I’ve been alive for centuries, and lived in dozens of human shells. Though I must say, your aunt gave me the best story to live up to of any witch who’s called me.”
He twirled the knife in his hand and grinned as he stopped and reversed its spin.
“The Pumpkin Man,” he said. “What a great gimmick. At first, I was just giving George power to carve really good jack-o’-lanterns. With those knives, he tapped into the very essence of that which he wanted to carve. But eventually, I convinced him to dip his knives deeper. That’s when he began to taste their souls. And that’s when he lost his soul to me.”
Jenn backed up another inch. “Why did you make him kill those kids?”
Nick’s mouth laughed. “Because they taste sooooo good!”
“They were just little kids.”
Nick stepped forward. His voice lost its humor. “You should be less worried about the dead and more worried about yourself.”
“Why are you doing this?” she whispered.
“Because I can,” he said, stepping closer again. “And because I want to stay here. Souls are my bridge.”
“Why did you have to kill my dad and Kirstin and Brian? And now you’ve taken over Nick. You’ve taken everyone that was close to me. Why me?”
Nick grinned menacingly. “Because you’re weak. Your life will taste so sweet, seasoned by loss. You always were a pathetic wallflower. You needed everyone else to prop you up. Your father, Kirstin . . . you could never stand on your own, and now you’re about to fall for the very last time.”
Jenn felt the lure of his lies. The place in her heart that had always begged her to hide instead of seek opened at his words, threatening to suck her in. But then she thought of Meredith’s words from her journal. Meredith had been brave and had never given up on George. She’d written, There are some things that a woman has to do to protect what she loves. No matter what.
Jenn leaned back against the casket as the Pumpkin Man moved closer, and she felt it shift a little as he crowded her, leaving her no room to run. She could smell the warmth of his breath, he was so close. She thought of Meredith’s strength. And then the words of the Book of Shadows came back to her. Heart and bones, the text had read. She’d already tried to use the heart . . .
An idea occurred as the stone behind her shifted. The heart she’d crushed might have had a tie to Perenais power, but the bones of George Perenais the Pumpkin Man rested here. The bones of George Perenais. The bones that this vengeful soul had taken root in.
If this ancient evil had truly found an anchor in George to tie itself to this realm, then by destroying those bones, could she break the link?
The Pumpkin Man grinned. A cat to a cornered mouse. He knew she could go nowhere now. He had taken everything from her but her life . . . and that was next. He lifted the knife and raised it toward her chest. As he did, she threw herself backward against the casket, forcing it to rock. Then, as he lifted the knife to stab, she darted around the other side and with a running start threw herself with all her might against it from the opposite direction.
The Pumpkin Man gave chase, suddenly looking not victorious but fearful. But he was already too late. The casket shifted, overbalanced. It fell toward Nick’s feet. There was a crack as loud and sharp as a cannon; then the stone top of the coffin opened and crashed to the ground. The bones of a dead man exploded across the stone floor.
The Pumpkin Man stood in shock amid the bones. He backed out of the human wreckage, looking lost, unsure. Jenn edged forward until she stood atop the bones, the ribs and arms and skull of a dead man strewn around her feet.
“What have you done?” the Pumpkin Man whispered.
“Oops,” Jenn said with a false smile. “Looks like I made a mess.”
“You’ll be sorry for that,” Nick said, and he moved toward her, knife in hand.
“Why, are these your bones?” Jenn asked sweetly, bending down to finger the empty eye socket of the yellowed skull.
“No, they’re not mine. But they’re the bones of my host. Don’t defile them,” Nick demanded.
This was the right thing, Jenn now knew for sure. She had grabbed the hammer to fend off Nick, but now she raised it and brought it down on the skull of her uncle. “It’s over,” she screamed at her boyfriend’s face, though it wasn’t her boyfriend currently wearing it. “It’s all over, leave us alone!”
The skull shattered, pieces exploding across the floor. Like with broken porcelain, a tiny cloud of white dust rose from the center.
Nick ran forward and shoved her. “Stop!”
She toppled backward but still held the hammer. Righting herself and seeing the flat expression of Nick’s face just inches from her own she whispered, “It’s over. Now it really is. Go back to where you came from.”
He stabbed at her with the knife, but Jenn pushed away. His blade swished past, a sharp sting down the flesh over her rib cage. Jenn responded with the hammer, slamming it
into Nick’s carving arm with a meaty thunk. He dropped the knife and clutched his biceps.
Jenn didn’t wait to see how long it took him to recover; she brought the hammer down again and again, this time on every bone of the skeleton that lay around her on the floor. She pounded the hammer into each, enjoying the blows that changed each fossil-like bone into piles of fragments and dust.
She looked at Nick again, and saw him moving. He was coming very slowly toward her, as if he moved underwater. With every crushed bone, he flinched. So Jenn slammed the point of her hammer through her uncle’s skull one last time, and now the pieces gave way, fracturing the shell that had housed a demon who had deserved to die centuries before she was born.
When Jennica brought the last stroke down, the one that pulverized the skull into nothing but dust, Nick collapsed, falling helpless to the ground at her feet. Jenn kept bringing the hammer down, though, crushing bone after bone of the skeleton, knowing that with every blow she was eliminating the power of the curse.
Nick screamed. It was a horrible sound, and he rolled back to his feet. He rushed her, knife raised, but Jenn brought the hammer around and caught him in the shoulder. He swore and was knocked back, but he didn’t stop. Instead, he brought the knife around and tried to drive it into her chest.
Jennica moved just in time. Nick missed. Off balance, he fell to his knee.
“Let him go,” Jenn said softly, not to Nick but to the thing inside him.
Nick’s mouth opened, and the Pumpkin Man’s voice simply said, “No.”
He began to rise. Jenn was prepared for that. She brought her hammer down and struck the hand that held the knife, and the weapon went clattering across the floor. The Pumpkin Man gripped his hand to nurse the pain.
“Let him go,” she repeated, this time with more determination.
“No,” Nick refused, this time wearing a smile that didn’t look at all happy. He rose, and his eyes glared at her with such fire that she knew he would kill her, even if it was his last act. He came at her with both fists raised.
Jenn dove and grabbed the knife from the floor. As she picked it up, she felt his weight upon her. His arm reached around to grab her in a choke hold. She gasped, and stars shone behind her eyes. His arm only tightened further. She could feel the blood pounding in her head like a jackhammer. He was squeezing. Her head felt as if it would explode as she gasped to try to suck in even a little bit of breath, but she couldn’t, he was going to strangle her with the crook of his arm.
Jenn closed her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she whispered silently. “This isn’t you.”
She flipped the knife in her hand so that it pointed behind her, and then she stabbed backward as hard as she could. Her heart sank as she felt it connect.
Nick fell to the ground, clutching the knife. His expression was clearly one of surprise. “What have you done?” he whispered, and then his eyes fluttered closed.
Jenn pushed herself away, kept herself crouched in a defensive stance. After a few moments without seeing Nick move, she rose, wary of the strength of the spirit. But her boyfriend did nothing. She could see his chest rise and fall, a stain of blood seeping wider across his shirt with every breath. But who knew if she’d obliterated the Pumpkin Man? Who knew what exactly would send the evil spirit back to wherever it had come?
She took her hammer to the rest of the bones, attacking any shards larger than an inch. When she was done, the floor was covered with white powder and shrapnel. And the body of her boyfriend lay motionless in the middle, one arm extended in her direction.
CHAPTER
FIFTY-ONE
On the tile floor of the crypt, Nick moaned. His voice was different. More familiar.
“Nick?” Jenn asked. She stopped hammering the small shard of bone she was pulverizing and moved next to him.
“It hurts,” he wheezed. “I can’t breathe.” His voice was definitely warmer, fuller. Even riddled with pain it sounded more like her Nick, not the monster that had taken him over.
“I’ll go call an ambulance,” she promised. She leaned over and kissed his lips.
“No,” he said, his hand clutching her shoulder. “Don’t leave me down here.”
“I don’t think you should move,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”
“Help me up,” he insisted.
Carefully, slowly, Jennica wrapped an arm around him and helped him to his feet. He grunted and moaned with each movement, but at last he was leaning on her for support as they walked out of the crypt, through the basement and one by one up the stairs. Jenn looked at the jars of blood and dead things at the base of the stairwell as they passed and wondered if something there would help right now, if she only knew how to use it. In the back of her mind she vowed to study the things that Meredith had left behind.
She helped Nick to the couch and laid him back. He was gasping in pain. Sweat rolled down his forehead.
“Do you remember anything?” she asked.
He shook his head. “We were trying to use the Ouija board to talk to your aunt and then . . .”
“Then the Pumpkin Man came,” Jenn finished. When he moaned, she kissed his head. “Wait here a moment.”
She ran into the kitchen and ducked through the pantry. Inside the hidden room, the body of Travis lay motionless. Jenn grabbed it by the ankles and dragged it into the kitchen. She grabbed a large spoon from the sink and then ran back. She found the eyeballs lying there on the floor, and with the side of a finger pressed them onto the spoon.
“Ew,” she said to herself, but took them anyway. She tossed them on the tile floor near the body when she got back to the kitchen. Then she backed up and locked the hidden room before closing the pantry. The police didn’t need to know about that room, she’d decided. Not until she knew more about it herself.
After a survey of the kitchen, Jenn nodded, returned to the front room and picked up the phone to dial 911. “There’s been a murder,” she announced when a woman answered. “And another man is gravely hurt.”
“Someone will be right there,” the woman replied. She sounded bored.
Jenn had barely hung up when a knock came on the door. “She wasn’t kidding,” she mumbled.
Officer Barkiewicz was there when she answered. He immediately asked, “What happened? I’ve been outside all night. I didn’t see anyone around, but I just got a call on the radio—”
“You missed all the fun,” Jenn agreed. “The Pumpkin Man was here, but I think we’ve sent him away for good.”
“There’s an ambulance coming,” Scott said. “Who . . . ?”
“Nick’s been stabbed,” Jenn explained. She pointed to the couch where Nick lay with his hand holding the knife protruding from his chest. “But Travis, from the grocery . . .” She pointed to the kitchen and shook her head.
“Oh no,” Scott said, and walked past her to look. When he came back, his face was white. “But I was outside the whole time.”
Jenn shrugged. “I’m afraid you missed the action.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. Then his face changed as he realized the connotations of what she said. He spoke fast. “Did he get away, or is he still here in the house?”
“No and yes,” Jenn said. She pointed to the kitchen. “The Pumpkin Man was Travis.”
Scott looked shocked and confused. He opened his mouth to say something but then shook his head. “Let me check on that ambulance.” He disappeared out the front door.
Jenn knelt by the couch and kissed Nick’s head. “Hold on, okay?” she whispered. “Just hold on.”
Nick coughed. “I’m not giving up ’til I get another chance at seeing you on Baker Beach.”
Jenn smiled. “I’ll go there every week if you want, so you need to stick around to see. And you have to get naked. In front of the gay guys. Not a problem for me, really.”
Nick started to laugh but then choked. “Deal,” he managed.
Jenn brushed a piece of hair from his eye and leaned down to kiss his forehead again. She
felt horrible that she had done this to him, but he hadn’t been himself at the time. She wondered where the devil that she’d stabbed had actually gone. And was he really gone? She hoped that destroying the bones he’d used as his anchor was enough. Jenn vowed to throw the dust into the sea as soon as she could.
Nick closed his eyes, and she leaned back on her heels and looked around the room. Her aunt’s interests were everywhere, and she was just beginning to understand their power. Statues of Maldita snakes and books of the occult, candles poured from bee’s wax mixed with virgin blood . . . Jenn suddenly realized that she wanted to know more. She needed to know more. There are some things that a woman has to do to protect what she loves. No matter what. She was going to make sure she would never be powerless against something like the Pumpkin Man—or any man—again. She had the house. And the library. She just needed to study and practice.
If only she could talk to Meredith one more time. If only she could understand just a little bit more about what could be accomplished here.
Maybe she could.
Her days as a teacher were done, she knew. She knew it suddenly and with complete finality. She would call Sister Beatrice. She would not be going back home to teach the kids in Chicago where the capital of Nebraska was. No, she needed to become a student herself again. Her new schoolroom was here, in this house. And she was the sole student.
Jenn felt wetness on her side where Nick had slashed at her with the knife in the basement. She slipped a hand under her shirt and traced the cut. It didn’t feel deep, but her fingers still came back red. She took them and touched Nick’s forehead, tracing a smudge in the shape of a sickle.
“My love to blind you, my blood to bind you,” she whispered, repeating a line she’d seen in Meredith’s journal.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she replied.
She stroked Nick’s hair once and stood up. She kissed him quickly and then walked into the kitchen, and from there, into the pantry. Unlocking the secret room. She didn’t slow as she walked, because for some reason she no longer had any fear of the hidden room or the dark. She just hoped Officer Barkiewicz didn’t return while she was in here.
