“There, I thought so,” the man said, and the knife cut deeper.
The pain was excruciating. Janus’ eyes flew open and he looked at the man already pulling him out.
Janus did not believe his eyes.
“No,” he said, but it came out as a whisper.
Janus felt in no condition to resist. He tried to move, but every limb seemed to be in shock.
The man hefted Janus up and then lowered his body down to the ground away from the Jeep. The pain was unbelievable.
“You can blame this one on your friends,” the man said. “You weren’t on my list until they started avoiding me. It hurt my feelings, Janus. And I think you are the right way to send a message about this.”
Janus wanted to sit up, but the man began dragging Janus across the ditch.
Janus felt himself slipping into unconsciousness. He must have been hurt worse than he thought. A car, Janus thought. He would need a car now. Maybe someone would come by.
But there was nothing.
I’m going to die in broad daylight, Janus thought.
But the man was still talking.
“All those photos,” he said. “I know you faked them. I know because nobody is that good. It’s ridiculous, of course.”
Janus didn’t even process what he was talking about. He recognized his assailant, of course, but everything seemed different than the man he had known before. It was as if the man before and this one was not the same person. They only looked the same.
The man dragged Janus to the BMW.
“I bet you’ve been wishing for a car. I wouldn’t. Unless it was an army, I would just kill them too, you know. Say I found you after the accident, stab them in the back as they looked at you. Easy, you know. People just naturally trust me, always have.”
Janus decided then to give it all he had, before he was in that car and would never be heard from again. He lifted his head up and shouted as loud as he could, a cry into the wilderness he prayed someone would hear.
“PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME,” he yelled.
“Can you see anything else?” Quinn asked her. He could see her vision in his mind. When he tried to call something up, he got nothing.
“Someone was putting him into a car, Quinn, but I couldn’t see who. He looked bad. There is blood on his face.”
She picked up the cell phone.
“911,” a voice answered. “What is the emergency?”
“A friend of mine called,” she said. “He said someone was following him, trying to run him off the road. I lost contact with him. I think he could have been kidnapped.”
“Did he give you his location?”
Kate tried to think. In her mind, she could see a curve in a road. But she didn’t know the county that well. She tried to show the mental picture to Quinn.
“Tell them it’s off Reservoir Road,” he said. “Tell them that curve where a lot of accidents happen.”
Kate relayed the directions.
“What time did he call?” the 911 operator asked.
“A few moments ago,” Kate said, her voice completely calm. She knew how to impart information even while panicking on the inside.
“Did he see who his attacker was?”
Kate didn’t even look at Quinn. They knew nothing about the kidnapper, that was the worst part. She had a vague idea from the image of Janus that he had known who it was, but it was blurry.
“He didn’t know,” Kate said. “He only called quickly.”
“Was he armed?” she asked.
“I have no idea,” Kate said.
But the attacker would have been armed, of course. He would have had a knife.
“Okay,” the operator replied. “A unit is on its way. It should be there shortly. I need to get your name…”
Kate hung up. They could trace the cell phone, but it didn’t matter. She didn’t want to be on the phone. Instead, she looked at Quinn.
“Get out my gun,” she said.
He nodded and grabbed her purse and started looking through it. He pulled out the gun and looked at it as if it were an alien thing. In her mind, Kate showed him how to load it, which Quinn did even as they continued to tear through town.
They ran three red lights before she turned onto Reservoir Road. That distinctive curve was miles away-an eternity, he thought.
As she continued driving, she glanced in the rearview mirror.
“Fuck,” she said, and put her hand on Quinn’s thigh.
Quinn didn’t need to look behind him. He already saw it clearly in his mind.
They were no longer the only thing on the road. Behind them, the figure of the Headless Horseman had appeared. And he was gaining on them.
“Now, Janus,” the man said, and kicked Janus squarely in the stomach. “We don’t like it when people talk too loudly at the table.”
The man kicked him again.
“Goddamned boy,” the man said again. “I’m disappointed. I thought you would put up more of a fight. The last one, well, he was too easy. And you were too. Young kids. You guys these days are so soft.”
Janus said nothing. He thought his right leg was broken, it hurt so much.
And he had a feeling of time loss, so much so he wondered if there was internal bleeding. He felt himself slipping, like he might go unconscious at any moment.
Maybe that was a blessing.
“And shouting like that,” the man said, “Who did you think was going to hear you?”
The man picked Janus up and threw him into the back seat of the car.
He opened the front door, took another look around to see if anyone was watching and then got in the car. It was a clean operation, the man thought. He started the car and began to drive off.
“What do we do?” Kate asked.
“We ignore it and hope he goes away,” Quinn replied.
Kate looked in the rearview mirror and simultaneously sped up. How the hell the Horseman could be gaining on them in a car was insane. Didn’t this thing have to play by the rules? It was a horse after all. Horses cannot outrun cars.
“I don’t think that is a very good plan,” Kate said.
“Got a better one?” Quinn asked.
Kate nodded toward the gun on Quinn’s lap.
“Maybe,” she said.
“You are planning to shoot a headless phantom?” Quinn asked.
“We have to at least try, right?” she asked.
“But we will need that ammo if we catch up to Janus,” Quinn said. “We need something to fight off his attacker with.”
“I know, I know,” Kate said. “But we are going to have two problems at that point instead of one.”
Quinn looked at the speedometer. The car was at 75 miles an hour now. They would be at the curve in two or three more minutes.
“We have to do something,” Kate said. “He’s gaining on us.”
Quinn turned around in the seat and looked behind them. Even in broad daylight, the Horseman was a terrible apparition. If anything, he looked worse. You could see the decay on his cloak and the horse looked as if it was being tortured in an effort to make it move faster. The only difference from the last time Quinn had seen him was what was in his hand. It wasn’t a sword.
“He has a pumpkin,” Quinn said.
“Well, that’s better than a sword,” Kate shot back.
But this was not just a lump of orange vegetable. Instead the thing had a hideous grin carved on it-a demonic face-and it was on fire.
“It’s on fire,” Quinn said. “The pumpkin is on fire. I think he is trying to catch the car on fire.”
How the hell could the Headless Horseman know about flammable gasoline? It was absurd.
(He’s us, remember. He has our knowledge.) Kate thought.
Quinn looked in front of him. Just another minute or two down the road. But Quinn could see they were not going to make it. The Horseman appeared ready to throw and he was in good distance to do it.
(Take the wheel) Kate thought.
; (Are you insane?) Quinn asked.
(Do it now, Quinn.)
Quinn grabbed the wheel and tried to keep the car steady. Kate rolled down the window and grabbed the gun from Quinn’s lap. He saw she must have put the car on cruise control to keep it going at a steady pace. That would have to change before they hit that curve or there wouldn’t be much left of their car.
(You ever done this before?) he asked.
(No, but I saw it in one of the Terminator movies.) she replied.
(How reassuring.)
Kate aimed the gun carefully, trying to balance it even while the wind ripped around her and threatened to yank the gun out of her hand.
She decided to aim for the horse, by far the bigger target. She fired off the first shot with her pistol, but the shot went wide.
Quinn tried to keep the car steady.
Kate waited and watched. She had to block out everything. She could see the flaming pumpkin in the Horseman’s hand, a ball of fire that would be unleashed at any moment. She had to stop it. She concentrated on nothing but the horse. She blocked out the Horseman and his echoing laughter that seemed to be in her head more than anywhere else. Only the horse. Please let this shot count.
She fired again and the horse or its rider seemed to know it was coming because it leapt into the air.
But the horse was not quite fast enough. Instead of being hit in the chest, the horse was hit in the leg.
The Horseman appeared about to throw his pumpkin, but then suddenly he was gone. The horse and its rider vanished.
Kate shouted out in triumph, before feeling the car swerve beneath her.
She nearly fell out of the car, but grabbed on to the hood and brought herself back in.
“Quinn?” she asked and looked at him.
Kate had to grab the wheel and quickly slid back into the driver’s seat as she looked at Quinn. He was looking at her in shock. His left thigh was covered in blood.
“Your shot… Your bullet… It hit me,” he said.
Janus didn’t know where the car was headed and he felt like he was coming in and out of consciousness.
“I’m going to enjoy this,” the man said. “You know that right? It’s good when people are strangers, but friends, true friends, are so much more satisfying.”
Janus opened his eyes. He was in the back seat of the car. There was blood on the seat-his, he thought.
But on the floor there looked like more dried blood-and it definitely was not his.
The man didn’t seem to regard Janus as much of a threat and he could see why. His leg was certainly broken-he felt only pain there and blood seemed to be coming from his forehead. He felt dizzy and confused.
I’m going to die here, Janus thought and grimaced. Die like a fucking ponce begging for his life.
The man kept talking.
“You know I had to wait 12 long years to do this. Do you know how hard that is? To see the vermin all around you, every day. To talk to them, smile at them, act like you are one of them. But I’m not one of them, Janus. No, no, I think I’ve proved that. I’m invincible. I’m unstoppable. I am a force of goddamned pure fury bent on hell and fire.”
I wish you would fucking shut up, Janus thought. Dying would be preferable. He moved on his side slightly and felt on the bottom of the seat.
Nothing. Fuck, he thought. I will not die like this. I will not die afraid and in pain. He would finish this his own way, not on this asshole’s timetable.
His hands continued to search the seat.
Nothing. Janus wanted to cry in despair.
Concentrating, he felt his own pockets, hoping desperately for something he could use. But there was nothing but a couple of crushed cigarettes and his silver lighter.
Maybe I could have a smoke before I die, he thought. Or maybe…
He felt a surge of hope course through him.
Janus tugged at his jeans to pull out the lighter and hoped to God it would be enough.
Kate tried to keep the car steady as Quinn pulled a stack of McDonald’s napkins out of the glove compartment and began pressing them to his leg.
“Oh my God,” she said. “I’m so sorry.”
“It hurts,” Quinn said. “Jesus, who the hell knew it could hurt so much?”
The blood seemed to practically pour out of his leg.
“How the hell did that happen?” Quinn asked.
“I shot the horse. I shot him in the leg.”
“Is it gone?”
Kate looked in the rearview mirror.
“Yes, but…”
“How the hell did a bullet end up in my leg?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” Kate said. “Evidently, when I hit it… it must of…”
“This is just great,” Quinn said. “How the hell are we supposed to defeat this thing if hurting it means hurting me too?”
“The bullet must have severed the connection,” Kate said, and she put her free hand on him in an attempt to stop the bleeding. “It jarred it somehow. Just like you falling and becoming unconscious did it.”
“Fuck,” Quinn said again and held on to his leg. It felt terrible.
“We have to get you to a hospital,” Kate said.
“No time. We need to find Janus or we may never find him.”
As he said it, he saw the bend up ahead.
“Up there,” he pointed.
Kate slowed down and brought the car to a halt.
On the side of the road was Janus’ Jeep. He dreaded finding him in there. But worse, he dreaded that he wouldn’t.
“Look,” Kate said, and pointed to the side passenger door of Janus’ car. It still stood open.
“He must have pulled him out of there,” Quinn said. “Can you check it out, but quickly?”
She looked around the car, found an extra t-shirt in the back seat and handed it to him to put against his bleeding leg. She got out and looked around the wreckage, glancing inside the front door.
“There’s blood,” she called out.
All the windows were shattered and glass lay everywhere. Getting down on her hands and knees, she looked through the vehicle for anything that stood out. Fluttering down at the bottom of the wreck, she saw a yellow note. She didn’t pick it up, for fear her fingerprints would contaminate it. But she could guess what it said.
She crawled out of the wreck and could hear the sounds of sirens far away.
“Come on,” Quinn yelled from the car.
“Where do we go next?” she asked.
“I don’t know. We drive.”
“What if we don’t find him?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he replied. “I just don’t know.”
Janus gripped his fingers around the lighter.
God, he felt weak. He saw more fresh blood on the seat. Whatever the wreck had done to him, it clearly was serious. And maybe that was the best thing, he thought. Better to die this way than in whatever fashion this psycho had in mind.
“God, I’ve enjoyed this,” the man was saying in the front. “It’s been a load off my mind, I can tell you. Always having to think about it, seeing it in your dreams, that’s the worst part. But actually acting again, letting the emotions free. Nothing beats that, Janus, old boy.”
Janus held the lighter like he was holding on to an edge of a cliff. Things were blurry now and he had this kind of sickish feeling all over.
So this is what it feels like to die. Some part of him rebelled against it. He could just lie there, true, and hope to go peacefully. But he wanted something more than that. He wanted to hurt this bastard, maybe stop him for good.
He decided he would settle for just surprising him-stopping that sanctimonious laugh of his. Janus didn’t have to be the victim that got away. He would settle for being the one who helped even the score-just a little.
“You were the icing on the cake, you know what I mean, good buddy?” the man said. “I’ve been looking for a way to win back your friends’ attention. When I heard you were heading out to see old B
uzz… man, it was perfect. Today is ripe with blessings, Janus old boy. Not for you, of course, but you don’t matter.”
Janus could feel the car moving at a more reasonable speed now. He felt it turn left at some stage and wondered where they were headed. Somewhere remote, he thought. Somewhere nobody would hear Janus screaming.
He held the lighter, moving his hands to the switch that would turn it on. He had always been proud of this little silver thing, engraved on the back with his initials. His uncle had given it to him for his 18 ^th birthday. His parents had hardly approved, but that made it even better. It was a real smoker’s lighter, the kind that you lit once and stayed burning until you capped it. For him, the acrid smell of the burning oil had been nearly as addictive as the smoking.
“They’re going to talk about this for ages, you know,” the man said. “I’ve got big plans. I’ll take care of your little cronies on Halloween or before, and once I do, I’ve got a show-stopping number planned. Little kids in a row. I can’t say much, but I can say crucifixion is involved.”
“You’re insane,” Janus managed, not sure if he should just stay quiet or not.
“Oh, you’re awake, are you?” the man said and turned to look at him. His look was one of pure disgust. For a moment, Janus worried that he would see the lighter and know what Janus had planned. But he turned back around again.
“God, I’m disappointed in you. Thought you would put up a fight. But you are such a dumb ass, you didn’t even know your brakes were cut.”
He laughed a dry chuckle, more to himself.
“I’m thinking I will save your buddy Quinn for last. You know his girl and I go way back, don’t you? I should have gutted her after I killed her mom, but I thought it would be more fun to come back later. I stand by that decision. I really do. She’s had years to think about what I will do to her.”
Janus grimaced and started to feel some strength come back as cold fury rose in him. They had trusted this guy, called him one of their own, and instead he was cutting them down one by one. And in his mind he could see Quinn hanging on a cross.
With tremendous effort and nearly crying out in pain, Janus pushed himself up slowly, gripping the lighter in his hand.
“Maybe he will fight a little better than you,” the man continued. “I’m a little worried I drove him crazy. Him and his little girlfriend. What was that obtaining power on Halloween? But it ends on Nov. 1? Well, that is inconvenient, isn’t it?”
A Soul To Steal Page 33
