“Ice is water,” Jerry muttered, and that was enough to snap him out of his daze.
Felix turned off the faucet and climbed into the tub. He got his hands under Jessica’s arms and started to lift. “Grab her legs, Jer,” he said, straining. “She’s fucking heavy for a kid.”
The bathroom was large, with a window over the tub, spacious enough for both of them to move around without getting in each other’s way. But before Jerry could step forward to help, the water in the bathtub suddenly leaped up in a wave and slammed into Felix with enough force to knock him out of the tub and smack him into the nearby wall. He slid to the floor groaning in pain.
That’s twice today, Jerry thought. If he’s angry now, he’s going to be positively pissed later.
Assuming there was a later.
Jessica’s body had slid back into the tub. The water level had lowered after the wave leaped out to strike Felix, but it was still high enough for her to slip completely beneath the surface. She was going to drown if they didn’t get her out of there.
Jerry froze as a sharp hissing sound filled the room. The floor was covered in water from the wave attack, and as Jerry watched, it began to race around like quicksilver, joining to form puddles, puddles combining to form a single large pool between him and the tub. As Jerry stared, the pool curled into a tube that writhed around on the floor like a worm. Several smaller appendages sprouted from the main body to form slender, jointed limbs. The back end elongated and swung up to hang in an arc over the main body like the tail of a scorpion.
That’s what it was, Jerry realized. Some sort of giant scorpion made of water.
He tried to step around it, and the water scorpion skittered to the side to intercept him. Despite the fact that it was composed entirely of water, the stinger at the end of its tail still looked incredibly sharp. Jerry wondered if it would explode like a water balloon if it struck him, or if it would skewer him like meat on a kabob. He decided he didn’t want to find out.
“The chair!”
Jerry managed to tear his gaze from the creature to look over at Felix, who was rising slowly to his feet. The water scorpion turned in his direction, then turned tentatively back to Jerry, seemingly conflicted about who presented the greater threat.
Felix held one hand to his head, which was now bleeding freely from his second trip into a wall, and pointed with the other. “The chair!”
Jerry turned and saw the straight-back chair that had been propped under the closet door. He went into the other room, grabbed it, and came running back with it raised high over his head. The water scorpion saw him coming and retreated a few steps. Jerry followed through with the momentum of his charge and brought the chair down in a heavy overhand blow.
The scorpion exploded in a huge spray of water that shot out in every direction. Jerry flung the chair into the bedroom and turned back to the bathtub.
Felix was already there, pulling Jessica out of the water. He laid her down on the floor and leaned his head close to her mouth.
“She’s not breathing.”
Felix tilted her head back, used his hands to squeeze her mouth open, and started performing CPR.
Jerry stood over him and watched, feeling a chill that had nothing to do with his wet clothes. When Jessica let out a cough, along with a burble of water, he almost cried out in relief.
Felix sat her up and gave her a couple of firm swats on the back. “That’s it, get it all out.” He looked up at Jerry. “She’s going to be okay.”
“Thank Christ,” Jerry muttered. He sat down on the edge of the tub and caught movement out of the corner of his eye.
The water. It was moving again. Sliding across the floor like dozens of translucent worms.
“Oh shit. Felix!”
Felix followed Jerry’s gaze and saw the large pool of water forming again on the floor. He pulled Jessica to her feet and passed her off to Jerry. “Get her out of here,” he said.
Jerry put an arm around her waist and helped her into the bedroom. He started toward the door that led out into the upstairs hallway, then stopped and turned back. Felix had the chair in his hands, raised high over his head. The pool of water was jumping, not like it was boiling, more like an electric current was running through it.
Jerry called out: “Hey, Felix, maybe we should ca—”
Then the water leaped off the floor like a miniature geyser. It went shooting through the air in a glistening spear, and Jerry thought this was it, now he was going to find out if it was going to splash him or skewer him.
It did neither.
The water struck Jessica in the middle of her gaping mouth like a blast from a high-pressure fire hose. She made a choking, gurgling noise and flailed her arms, knocking Jerry to the ground. He propped himself up on his elbows and watched as the entire torrent disappeared down her throat. It was like watching someone vomit in reverse. Her stomach began to push against the front of her nightgown again. Even though the water had been concentrated in a shot directed right into her mouth, the spray still should have doused her. But when it was over, her body was completely dry.
“Mine,” she said in a deep, burbling voice.
“Oh, Jess.”
Jerry and Jessica turned in unison at the sound of the other voice. Tom Page stood in the bedroom doorway, a large axe gripped in his hands like a soldier with a rifle at port arms. He was staring at Jessica like he’d never seen her before. Jerry supposed that was true in a way.
Jessica regarded her father with an unreadable expression, then, as Jerry watched, one of her eyelids dropped in a wink. Turning on her heel, she went tearing off across the room, back toward the bathroom. Her halting, stiff-legged gait was gone. She ran with the speed and grace of an Olympic sprinter, and it was all Felix could do to jump out of the way as she leaped off the ground and went smashing through the window over the bathtub.
In the shocked silence that followed, Jerry decided the next time someone asked him to perform an exorcism, he would tell them to try the Yellow Pages.
Felix came out of the en suite holding a hand towel to the back of his bloody head.
“That’s two—two!—walls I’ve been thrown into today.”
“Maybe you should stop counting,” Jerry said.
Felix started toward the bedroom doorway. Jerry moved to keep up with him.
“Where are we going?”
“The creek,” Felix said. “You said there’s one in the woods out back.”
“Yeah,” Jerry said. “So?”
“The thing inside the girl is going to try to kill her again. It was trying to drown her in the tub. Now it’s going for the creek.”
They moved past Tom Page, who was still standing in the doorway, completely stunned.
Jerry stopped and said, “Should we bring the axe?”
“It’s an animate,” Felix said.
“A what?” Jerry said.
They were outside, running toward the woods at the far end of the property. Felix was moving at a good clip, breathing quickly but steadily, while Jerry struggled to keep up, sucking in rapid breaths of air and huffing them out again. There was no sign of Jessica, but there was nowhere else she could’ve gone.
“An animate,” Felix said. “An entity that takes control of—”
“Inanimate objects,” Jerry finished. “I know. But that doesn’t make any sense.” His words came out in rushes between gasps of air. “Animates don’t possess people.”
“It didn’t possess Jessica. It possessed the water that possessed Jessica.”
Jerry thought about this for a moment, then said, “I’ve never heard of that happening before.”
“Me either,” Felix said.
“That’s going to be a problem.”
“Probably.”
“So what are we going to do?”
“I’m not sure yet. But we need to find her before she finds the creek.”
“It’s back here somewhere,” Jerry said. “Isn’t there something about Black Lands entities and running water?”
“You’re thinking of vampires,” Felix said. “Supposedly they can’t cross running water.”
“You think that’s true?”
“Who cares? Jessica Page isn’t a vampire.”
“I know that,” Jerry said, “but what do you think? Can vampires cross running water?”
“I don’t know, Jerry. I’ve never gone boating with one before.”
They slowed down as they got closer to the edge of the woods. Jerry said: “An animate. I guess that explains why my exorcism didn’t work.”
Felix looked at him. “Yeah, I’m sure that’s it.”
They considered splitting up in order to cover more ground, then decided it was probably safer for both of them if they stuck together.
“Have you ever seen an animate before?” Jerry asked.
Felix nodded. “I saw one take control of a mannequin this one time. It moved the way the girl was moving at first, all stiff-legged like that. They don’t know how a body works. It’s probably a bit more complicated than putting on a new pair of pants.”
“It seemed to get the hang of things pretty fast.”
They moved quickly through the trees, trying to look in every direction at once. The leaves had fallen and the unobstructed view was the only thing they had going for them. Jerry had never actually been to the creek, but he knew there was one back here somewhere.
“Swimming lessons,” Jerry said.
Felix looked at him. “What?”
“Jessica’s mother said she’d recently started a job teaching swimming lessons at the rec centre. Maybe she picked this thing up at the pool.”
“It isn’t athlete’s foot,” Felix said. “This is a dangerous supernatural entity.”
“Animates are similar to possessors, right? They find a host and take it for a joyride. They don’t tend to stick around for very long unless they want something.”
“I think it’s clear what this one wants.”
“It’s the pool,” Jerry said. “I bet if we looked up the records, we’d find an unusually high number of drownings have taken place there.”
“Perhaps,” Felix allowed. “But that doesn’t mean—”
Jerry shushed him, holding up a hand for silence.
They both heard it, off in the distance, like a bright babble of laughter.
The creek.
They burst through a screen of pine trees and almost went over the edge of a bank that dropped steeply to the rushing water below. The creek was swollen with autumn rain. Jessica stood waist-deep in the water, looking up as if she’d been expecting them. She had a rock in her hand, broad at the base with a pointed tip that she held pressed against her throat.
“Don’t come any closer,” she said in her burbling voice. “I’ll slit this pig’s throat.”
Jerry froze for a moment, then took a step forward. “No you won’t,” he said.
Felix said, “Jerry!” and tried to pull him back, but Jerry was already halfway down the bank.
“It’s not going to kill her,” Jerry said loudly. “Not with a rock. She was locked in a closet with a bunch of wire coat hangers. She could’ve slit her throat with one of those if she’d really wanted to.”
Jessica smiled at him—an odd, crooked smile that caused one side of her mouth to tilt up higher than the other.
Jerry smiled back. At least until Jessica took the rock away from her throat and chucked it at his head. It struck him above the right eye, on the broad end rather than the pointed tip, and an explosion of light and pain went off inside his head. His legs were suddenly wet from the knees down, and he realized it was because he’d slumped into the creek.
Felix came charging down the bank. Jessica saw him coming and dived under the water. Felix went in after her. Jerry watched, one eye squinched shut against the blood that oozed out of the cut on his forehead, as they struggled beneath the water, the strong current trying to pull them downstream.
Felix managed to get hold of Jessica by the upper arms and dragged her toward the opposite bank. Jerry thought he was going to pull her up onto shore, but instead, Felix swung her around and plunged her back under the water.
Jerry came splashing across the creek. “What are you doing?” he yelled. “You’re killing her!”
“It’s the only way to get it out of her,” Felix said.
Jerry stood next to him and looked down at Jessica Page. Her body jerked and spasmed beneath the water. She tried to kick her legs, but Felix had his knees firmly planted on them. She stared up at them through the water, eyes wide with panic, mouth opening and closing in her desperate need for air.
“When will we know if it works?” Jerry asked.
“When she’s dead,” Felix said.
Jessica made another attempt to heave herself up. Felix readjusted his position, shifting his weight so it was more evenly distributed on her body. “Hold her shoulders down,” he said. “She’s really strong.”
Jerry hesitated, then got down in the water and gripped Jessica’s shoulders, pressing them deeper under the water.
“They’re going to put us in adjoining prison cells for this.”
“Not if we do it right,” Felix said.
“There’s a right way to drown a teenage girl?”
“If she’s possessed.”
As Jessica’s struggles became weaker and her eyes started to flutter shut, Felix began to rise slowly from his crouch. “The moment this thing is out of her, you have to do whatever you can to keep it away from her. Okay?”
Jerry nodded. “What are you going to be doing?”
“Bringing her back to life,” Felix said.
Jessica’s mouth snapped wide open and a powerful burst of water came geysering out.
“Here it comes!” Felix said.
Jessica’s body gave a violent shudder, then went limp.
“That’s it,” Felix said, climbing off her. “Pull her out.”
“But how do we know it’s out of her?” Jerry asked.
A bolt of water that looked amazingly like a human fist came bursting out of the creek and struck Felix full in the face, sending him sprawling.
Jerry got his hands under Jessica and started dragging her toward the shore. Translucent tentacles of water clutched desperately at her legs, trying to pull her back in. Jerry struggled to get a firmer grip on Jessica’s shoulders, but it was made difficult by the fact that she was wet and slippery. He would’ve lost the tug-of-war battle if the strong current of the creek wasn’t pulling the watery hands away as quickly as the entity could make them.
Jerry caught a blur of movement out of the corner of his eye—Felix flying past him to land in a huge splash at the water near Jessica’s feet. Jerry tightened his grip, gave a tremendous heave, and pulled her completely out of the water. He dragged her up the bank, laid her down under a tree, and turned back to the creek.
Felix was still struggling with the animate. Or at least Jerry assumed that’s what was happening. All he could see was Felix’s arms and legs flailing about in the water.
He looked back at Jessica. She wasn’t breathing, and he didn’t know how to perform CPR. Like so much else in life, he’d seen it done in movies, but he’d never had to do it himself. But, like performing the exorcism, he figured there was a first time for everything. Although he hoped the CPR went better than the exorcism.
Tilting Jessica’s head back, Jerry used one hand to open her mouth and peered inside to make sure her airway was clear. Then, with a short prayer to a god he didn’t really believe in, he bent down, pinched her nose shut and placed his mouth over hers. He blew air into her, glancing down at the same time to make sure her chest rose with the exhalation. He counted off two seconds, then did it again. And again.
Nothing.
�
��Felix!” he shouted. “I need help! Right now!”
Jerry was leaning down to try again when Jessica let out a deep gasp and coughed out a mouthful of water. Jerry turned her on her side and pounded her on the back to help her get the rest of it out.
“Holy shit,” he said in a small, astonished voice. “It worked. It really worked.” He looked back at the creek. “Felix, I did it. She’s—”
Felix was in trouble. He was twisting his body around, thrashing from side to side, like he was wrestling with the creek. Hands of water reached out to grab at him, only to be shattered apart as Felix smashed them with a fist or kicked out with one of his feet.
Jerry went down to the water’s edge and followed Felix and the entity as the current pulled them along. His attention was focused on them so intently that he almost tripped over a fallen branch that lay on the ground. He picked it up and ran into the water with it.
The entity had managed to wrap a number of its water-hands around Felix’s mid-section, and pulled him under the surface. His legs stood straight up, kicking madly.
Jerry reached out with his free hand and, after a few attempts, managed to grab hold of one of Felix’s legs. He gripped it tightly by the ankle and pulled. There was a slight sense of give, and Felix started to come up out of the water, then the entity responded with a powerful yank, plunging him in deeper.
Jerry was trying to get a better grip on Felix’s leg when a water-tentacle leaped out of the creek at him. With his other hand, Jerry swung the branch in a sidelong arc. It struck the tentacle which exploded. Seeing this, Jerry raised the branch and brought it smashing down into the water around Felix.
Water splashed in a wide spray, and Felix struggled to the surface, coughing and gasping. Jerry was bringing down the branch again, and couldn’t stop his downward momentum in time. The branch struck Felix on the side of the head, then glanced off his shoulder.
“Fuck!” Felix cried out. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Saving you!” Jerry cried, and swung the branch again.
The water-hands that were reforming around Felix shattered. Jerry gave him the branch. “Hold them off,” he said, and grabbed onto Felix’s legs with both hands.
Possession Is Nine-Tenths of the Law Page 3
