Limbo's Child (Book One of The Dead Things Series)

by Jonah Hewitt

  Somewhere, as if from very far away, someone called her name. She heard it as if from under a thick pillow. Something was tugging on her. It was Yo-yo.

  “LUCY, we have to go!!” Yo-yo yanked on her arm desperately and she came back to herself. She looked back. The pig-goose thing was already clambering down the embankment. The dog monster was right behind it. Yo-yo tugged hard on her hand and dragged Lucy away from the accident scene and into the woods. “He was amazingly strong for someone so small and skinny,” Lucy thought. Lucy didn’t think to look back, she just ran headlong into the woods, Yo-yo leading her on. At first, her heartbeat was pounding in her ears so hard it was the only sound she could hear at all, until she heard the thing crashing through the brush behind her. Ka-chunk barrap, KA-CHUNK BARRAP!! PHAARNT!! She could feel the swishing of the large blade at her heels, and her eyes began to dim. The blade stabbed at her bathrobe and pinned it to the ground.

  “Aach!” She pulled at it frantically. It tore, but it did not break free. Lucy could feel the blade in the bathrobe pulling her back. Everything was becoming dark. In front of her, the woods were disappearing. A swirl of darkness emerged from nowhere and enveloped Yo-yo, completing engulfing him. She looked down at her hand, still clinging desperately to his. Only Yo-yo’s hand was still visible, emerging from the black cloud, the rest of him had disappeared into the darkness.

  “PHAAAARANphhbttt!!” The thing was dragging her back!!

  Yo-yo’s hand gave one last sharp tug forward and the bathrobe tore free! The monster bleated out a cacophony of angry notes. Lucy took one last, deep breath, as if jumping off a pier into deep water and plunged forward into the icy blackness.

  Chapter Thirty

  The Diner

  “Anything?!” Schuyler shouted to Miles as he emerged from the woods.

  “Nothin.’ Not a bloomin’ thing!” Miles shouted back as he made his way down the embankment to the road next to the Impala where Schuyler and Tim were waiting.

  “Sonofa!!…” Schuyler spun around and began a stream of profanities.

  Tim’s shoulders fell. “Nothing? Nothing at all?”

  “Nope, nothin. Nothin’ at all. It’s like they just plum disappeared into thin air.” Miles wiped the dirt on his hands off on his pants.

  “Do you think that thing, the hooting, pig-duck thing, got them?” Miles could hear the fear in Tim’s voice.

  “Nah, I don’t think so.”

  “And why not?” Schuyler had broken off of his reverie of obscenities to turn on Miles accusatorily.

  “Cuz it’s still out there, crashin’ around the bush lookin’ for ‘em. It…”

  Sky barked at him before he could finish, “You’re certain? You saw it?!”

  Miles paused. “Not exactly seen, but…”

  “So you know this how, exactly?!” Sky demanded clarification.

  Miles took a deep breath. “I can see the thing in me head. It’s still raging around out there in a bloody fit. It must ‘ave jus missed ‘em too.”

  Schuyler just blinked. So did Tim.

  “Let me get this straight,” Sky looked down and gestured at Miles with one hand. “You can SEE it, and I quote ‘IN ME HEAD?!!’”

  Miles shrugged, “Aye, I have the sight now, Sky.”

  Sky goggled at him. “You have the sight?!! When did THAT freakin’ happen?!”

  Miles shrugged and raised an eyebrow. “I dunno. Around the time I started turning into a dog, I figure.”

  “You figure?” Sky folded his arms and looked at Miles.

  “See, I told you!!” Tim added.

  Sky looked like he was desperately trying to come up with a good putdown, but nothing came to mind. Schuyler had a lot on tap, but he had obviously never prepared for Miles turning into a smoke-monster-dog creature before. Miles almost felt sorry for him. Seeing some second-rate bloodsucker you never had much respect for suddenly develop serious vampire skills had to be infuriating.

  Sky suddenly blurted out the only thing that made sense to him, “Did Hokharty teach you that?!”

  Miles almost laughed, “Nah, it just sorta happened,” Miles said in a sort of off-hand way rubbing the back of his neck.

  “Really?” Sky said, obviously annoyed.

  Miles said nothing but just stuck his hands in his pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels. He tried to act sheepish, but it was hard not to reveal a secret smile.

  “Dude, that was really weird,” Tim interjected, “You looked like that thing Wallach turned into.”

  Sky shot a nervous glance back to Tim, as if something important about that observation had just occurred to him.

  “Really? Go on.” Miles didn’t really like the association, but the comparison made him a little giddy. Wallach may have been a monster, but he was a powerful monster.

  “No seriously, dude, it was cool.” Tim went up for a fist bump. Miles didn’t really know what to do and tried to return with a high five and they mussed it so bad they just let it drop and stood around looking awkward as if it had never happened.

  “Well that was a symphony of dweeb,” Sky rolled his eyes at them and kept pacing.

  “C’mon, dude, lighten up,” Tim whined, “I’m just saying that Miles’ new…trick…is awesome that’s all.”

  “Yeah, dude, because getting our butts handed to us by a mutant duck is soooo awesome.”

  “It’s not THAT bad.”

  “Oh, really?! So far, we’ve been bested by Hokharty and Graber, Ulami and Forzgrim – Wallach’s ol’ goons, (Rest in pieces, rotten...)” he muttered more insults under his breath before going on, “A lawyer in heels, a little girl with a magic finger and now a screeching anteater with a meat cleaver! What’s next?! A troop of zombie girl scouts?!” Sky paused long enough to regain his sarcastic composure. “Do you two give lessons in getting your butt kicked? Because seriously, you really should consider going pro. I on the other hand am SICK of getting my rear handed to me by every freak we’ve met tonight! Now if you two are through?!”

  Miles and Tim tried to look away.

  Sky turned on Miles, “So you’re certain this thing didn’t get them?”

  “Nah, I dunno what the bloody heck it was, but it didn’t care a thin’ about us, only them, and it’s still lookin’. So, I guess they’re still out there,” Miles replied. “But he…it…won’t find them. They aren’t out there. I can’t see them no more. It’s like they have been covered in some kinda darkness.” Miles folded his arms across his chest and bit his lip. He thought of that darkness and where he had seen something like it before, and then he thought of the first time he realized he had the sight and seen Lucy and Yo-yo running in the park.

  “Great,” Sky replied, breaking Miles’ train of thought, “That’s just freaking great. Now what are we supposed to do!?” He didn’t wait for an answer because he was just venting his frustration now. He went back to pacing and muttering curse words to himself, trying to think what to do next.

  Tim stepped back from Sky’s circle of rage and leaned in to speak quietly to Miles, “Dude, I didn’t think it could get worse than that psycho-witch, but that thing scared the living bejeebus outta me. I don’t think I’ll ever eat pork again…or duck…or whatever.”

  Miles nodded consent. It had looked like a set of bagpipes to him, but that was a bit too crazy a thought to share with Tim. Whatever it was, that thing certainly took the biscuit. Miles bit his thumbnail and thought about it. There was still something familiar about it he couldn’t place. The two of them watched Sky wear a rut in the pavement next to the Impala.

  “Do you think that thing was with…y’know…her? That lawyer-witch-ghost-vulture thing?” Tim asked somewhat anxious.

  Miles shook his head. “I dunno. Hokharty said there would be others, but this didn’t feel the same. It was different somehow.” Miles didn’t know how he knew that either, but he could feel it all the same.

  “Well, she’s gotta be out there somewhere, Lucy I mean,” Tim said to Miles quietly. “How
far can she get on foot, really? We know she’s heading for her old house, it can’t be far, can it?”

  “And WHERE exactly do you expect us to start looking?!!” Sky suddenly broke out of his swearing fit and answered Tim’s question himself. He had been listening to them the whole time despite his free verse profanity jam. “There’s miles of farm road out here and she could be down any freaking one of them! By the time we even got through a few of them, she’d be long gone!!”

  “Well maybe they’re in the phone book or something.” Tim was just spit balling now.

  “HELLO!!” Sky pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. “I’ve already checked, MORON!! They aren’t listed!!” He went back to pacing and swearing.

  “Well she’s gotta have hospital records, right? So what if we go back to Harrisburg and see if we can find an address somewhere?”

  Sky stopped dead mid-pace. “Let me get this straight.” Sky pinched his nose bridge in thought. “You want to drive the whole way back to Harrisburg, more than an hour away, in an Impala that was nearly involved in a hit and run, in front of dozens of witnesses, right in front of the hospital lobby and then walk into that same hospital, where you two trashed a whole floor I might add, and ask them for the file of a missing girl, who was last seen with the person driving that aforementioned Impala?!”

  There was a long pause before Tim said, “Well when you put it like that.”

  Sky threw the cell phone at him. It bounced off Tim’s forehead and landed in the dirt giving a faint beep of protest.

  “Ow!”

  “Think, doofus!!” Sky yelled. “That whole hospital is going to be crawling with cops asking questions because of the trashed floor, the hit and run, and the missing girl!! That’s the last place we want to go!”

  “Well I was just trying to help!” Tim said, rubbing the small red spot where the phone hit him.

  “Hokharty told us to be discreet. What part of stealth do you two not understand?!!” Sky said nothing more but just sighed and joined them leaning against the cream colored seventies sedan as if resigned to defeat. “The whole thing certainly was sideways,” thought Miles. Hokharty was going to make mincemeat of them for sure, but right then, oddly, Hokharty’s punishment was the last thing he was worried about. Miles was mostly worried for the girl. Lucy was all alone with that boy, and terrible, TERRIBLE things were after them; things with butcher knives and bloody tongues, not to mention lawyers that could turn into screaming phantoms, or…vampires. Miles sighed. They had been just as bad to her. They had lied to her, kidnapped her and told her it was the end of the world. Now most folk would turn to jelly right then. Yet somehow despite all of that, she still had the nerve to tell them to go jump and shove it up their…well shove it anyways…and then…well…then she jacked their ride and drove off! Nearly wrecked it too, she did. Miles laughed a little. Sky shot him an ugly, suspicious look. Miles composed himself and kept thinking. That Lucy, she was a tough one she was. Miles smiled a little, and then he thought of the witch and that crazy monster that were still after her. She wasn’t that tough though, and those things, whatever they were, were still after her. Then Miles had a thought.

  “Hey…about a mile up the road is a all-night truck stop. I saw it while I was crashin’ around the woods.”

  “Yeah, so?” came Sky’s petulant reply.

  “Well…they’re local, aren’ they? Maybe they know where the girl’s house is?”

  Sky looked impassively to Miles and then to Tim.

  Tim’s mood brightened a bit. “Dude, I haven’t had a meal in fifteen hours, and even then I lost most of that after the whole mutant pickled baby fetuses thing,” Tim said that last part as if mutant pickled baby fetuses were an everyday part of his routine.

  “He must be getting used to the whole undead lifestyle,” Miles thought.

  “I know you guys don’t go for, y’know, food, but I sure could go for some pancakes.” He smiled brightly at both of them optimistically.

  Sky stared at each of them in turn. He breathed hard through his nose a few times, flaring his nostrils in agitation.

  “Fine!” he said at last, throwing up his hands. “Might as well, but I’m wearing the blazer, I don’t care if this place has a ‘no-shirt no-service’ policy.”

  “Fine by me,” Tim said.

  Sky walked around to the passenger side and pulled off the “Han Shot First” t-shirt. As he went, he tossed it over the car to Tim who was already taking off the dirty blazer that had once been spotless white. Sky took the blazer and brushed it off as best as he could and Miles thought he saw Sky’s lower lip tremble a little in despair of it every being pristine again. Miles crawled into his usual spot in the back and plopped down in the middle of the bench seat. Tim was already in the driver seat, struggling to get the car started. “Darn kid,” he said under his breath.

  Sky pulled the door shut with a heavy “tchunk” as the car finally started. From the rear-view mirror, Miles could see Sky’s numb face. Schuyler sighed and spoke, “I just hope Hokharty kills both of you first so I at least get to watch.”

  Lucy walked down the dark, single-lane road in her bare feet. There was a thin sliver of moonlight. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to walk by. They were on an access road that connected a few dozen farms that were sandwiched between Ephrata and Reamstown. The road was lined with trees. Once it had been open farmland, but most of the farms were being cut up into lots for McMansions these days, so they had allowed the land to be reclaimed by the woods.

  Lucy knew exactly where she was. She was less than a mile from Grandma Holveda’s home, from her home, the one her mother had moved her to from Texas more than a year ago, but what she didn’t know, was how she had gotten here. She remembered Sky and Tim and Miles, those loser vampires, stealing their car and nearly crashing it, and that thing chasing them with the butcher knife, but then she had slipped into darkness and then…nothing. Nothing at all. No feeling, no sensation, just emptiness and blackness, like she had fallen down an elevator shaft but never hit the bottom. She had simply ceased to exist. The next thing she knew, she was walking on the road home. Walking silently beside her was a pale and haggard boy, skinny and frail looking, wearing shorts, a striped shirt and a baseball cap. He was walking a few paces ahead and to the left of her, numbly pumping a yo-yo over and over again, but he wasn’t looking at it or her, he was just walking. So Lucy walked on beside him silently. The two walked on quietly for a long time before Lucy had the nerve to say what had been on her mind the last fifteen minutes.

  “You have powers too, don’t you?”

  The yo-yo dropped to the ground. Yo-yo had to pick it up and rewind it, but he didn’t say anything. Lucy skipped a few steps ahead ‘til she was side-by-side with him and could look at his face. He still didn’t look at her but just rewound his yo-yo over and over again like he had when he was in the hospital.

  Lucy pulled her hair behind her ears and stared at him.

  “That’s how you can get around so fast isn’t it?” She looked at him, but he just tried to avoid looking at her and wound the yo-yo again.

  “That’s how you can hide so quick, isn’t it? I’ve seen you do it before.”

  He looked at her with a mixture of horror and shame and she immediately tried to soften what she meant to say. “I mean…I haven’t seen you, not really, but I’ve seen you disappear, like, one second you’re there and the next you’re just gone.”

  He said nothing but just stared at the ground.

  “That’s why no one saw you after the accident, and that’s how you got around the hospital so fast. That’s how you got to Harrisburg so fast. I knew it didn’t make sense. I couldn’t see how an eleven-year-old boy could hitch all the way from Scranton without getting picked up.” She tried to get him to look at her, to let him know it was okay, that she didn’t hate or fear him, but his gaze remained fixed on the yo-yo he was winding over and over again.

  “Are you a necromancer too?” she asked.

 
; He just looked at her like he didn’t know what she was talking about.

  “That’s what I am...a necromancer,” she said the word like she was confessing to picking her nose. She hated the word and still didn’t know what it meant exactly. “Amanda…that woman I was with? She’s the one that told me. She’s a necromancer too. Apparently, we have control over the dead. She told me I can talk to the dead and make…meat golems. Whatever those are,” Lucy shuddered. She didn’t really want to know. “And it seems I can knock vampires across a room with a touch too. So, I suppose it’s not all bad.”

  Lucy looked at Yo-yo. He was looking at her a little less nervously. Maybe it helped him feel less like a freak if he knew she was a freak too.

  “So maybe you’re a necromancer too? Huh?” Lucy asked, but Yo-yo just shrugged. “I only just found out today,” Lucy went on, “How long have you known you’ve had powers? How long have you been able to do…whatever it is you do?” she asked in as tender and motherly a voice as she could muster.

  “Forever,” he said flatly. Lucy was a bit envious. She had only just found out she had powers and she still didn’t know the first thing about them. He was still treating his powers like a dirty secret and didn’t feel like talking about it, but at least she had gotten him talking.

  “How do you do it? I mean…what is it…exactly?” Lucy gingerly prodded.

  He shrugged, “Don’t know,” he said at last, “I just think about it and then the shadows come, that’s all.” He stopped winding the yo-yo and started doing some of the incredible tricks Lucy had seen him do back in the hospital. It seemed to help him somehow. “I can’t go for very far or very long. It’s hard to tell where I am, but when I’m there…no one can see me. That’s the only thing that’s really good about it.” He paused. “I don’t really like it. It’s scary,” he shuddered. “That’s why…” He paused. “That’s why my Mom didn’t want me.” He rubbed his nose on the back of his hand. Lucy reached out a hand to touch his shoulder, but he pulled away. “That’s why no foster parents want me. Things…happened and they’d think I’m…they think I’m…I’m evil or something.” He looked like he was on the verge of crying. Lucy had to scrunch up her face to keep from crying herself after he said that.