by Greg Herren
I’d have to tell them the truth about me, she thought grimly, and I’m not going to do that unless I absolutely have to.
She glanced back over her shoulder at the window. The wind was picking up. She grabbed her cheerleading jacket off its hanger and walked down the hallway. She didn’t turn off any lights—which would infuriate her mother, who was always conscious about wasting electricity—but she didn’t want to be alone in a house with dark rooms. In the living room, she checked her cell phone to make sure it was completely charged. It was, and she had three bars, which was good. She slid it into her jacket pocket. She looked over at the big bay window in the living room. It was so dark outside.
It almost seemed like the dark was pressing against the glass, trying to get into the house.
Trying to get at her.
She took a deep breath and swallowed. She was scared, terribly scared. Her heart was beating fast and loud.
I should have told them the truth, she thought as she stared at the darkness on the other side of the big window. But how could I tell them the truth? How could I prove to them that I—I’m special? Different? They would have thought I was crazy, had lost my mind, and I’m just not willing to let that happen yet.
She sat down on the sofa and rubbed her hands on her jeans. It just freaked me out so much when they started talking about their dreams, she told herself, and it’s only JUST started happening to them. They’d think I was some kind of freak.
She’d never told anyone about the dreams. For as long as she could remember, she’d had incredibly vivid dreams and nightmares. There had been a time, she remembered, when she was about eight or nine that the nightmares were so bad she woke up screaming every night and was afraid to go to sleep. She’d gone to see a child psychiatrist, been prescribed sleeping pills—and eventually the nightmares stopped. Something happened—she couldn’t remember what, no matter how hard she tried—to make the nightmares go away—either that, she figured grimly, or they’d come true somehow.
That was the scariest part of her dreams—they always came true.
When her older sister Gina had come home from college talking about a boy she’d just started dating and showed Candy a picture of the two of them together at a sorority party, that night she’d dreamed she was at their wedding. And just two years later, she was the maid of honor when Gina married him.
It wasn’t always big things, either. Sometimes it was little things—like seeing her mother drop her bank card into a drawer so she could find it when her mother was looking for it, or where her dad lost his keys.
The little things made the big things that much more terrifying.
The night Laura Pryce’s parents were killed, for example, she’d dreamed about the accident. She woke up, drenched in sweat and her heart pounding, knowing that Laura’s parents were dead. She’d been in the backseat of their car, heading down the highway in the rain, driving slowly because the rain was so heavy Mr. Pryce could barely see the road. Then the back window filled with the headlights of the speeding eighteen-wheeler, and she heard the blare of its horn, and Mr. Pryce tried to swing the car to the left lane but he wasn’t fast enough and the front of the truck slammed into the back of the car, throwing it up into the air, and it flipped several times before crashing back to the highway upside down and still flipping, and she heard their necks snap and she opened her mouth to scream…and then she woke up.
She’d gotten out of bed, not wanting to even try to go back to sleep for a while. It was raining outside that night, raining hard, thunder and lightning and a hard wind, and she walked over to her window and looked out. The Pryces lived just down the street, and as she looked at their house through the rain the flashing red lights of a police car came around the corner. It pulled into the Pryce driveway, and she knew Laura’s parents were dead.
She’d known there was something terribly wrong about Sara Sterling the moment she’d first laid eyes on her at the football game. Her mother had told her Sara would be coming to the game with her aunt and uncle—and would be introducing herself. “I told them you’d be happy to introduce her around,” her mother had gone on, in her I’ve made up my mind what you’re going to do and you’re going to do it voice, which never failed to irritate her and always made her want to do the exact opposite, “so make sure you make her feel welcome.”
Sara had come up to her at halftime, with her pretty face and nice clothes. “You must be Candy,” she said in her throaty, husky voice.
Candy had smiled and held out her hand and opened her mouth to say yes, but when Sara took her hand something happened. Writing about it in her diary later that night, she couldn’t think of the right words to describe what it felt like, finally just writing It felt like my soul had just been sucked down into hell—which was close but not quite right. She’d never gotten a feeling of any kind like that from another person before—and she couldn’t let go of Sara’s hand fast enough. The rest of the night was a blur in her memory—the second half of the game, driving with Sara into Kahola and going into the Vista where they ran into Tony and Glenn.
She didn’t remember anything after they left Vista that night, actually.
That really bothered her, and convinced her she was right about Sara.
She shivered again. She hadn’t really felt warm since she’d met Sara that night. No matter how hot it was outside, or how many blankets she piled on her bed, that cold feeling deep inside never went away. It was almost like Sara had somehow stolen a piece of her soul that night.
Which is crazy, she thought, getting up from the couch and walking over to the window. The bay window was huge and the heavy green and gold brocade curtains were pulled all the way open. The velvety blackness out there almost seemed to beckon to her, and she pulled the curtains closed. You said you would do this, and you know you have to, she reminded herself, and the longer you wait, the harder it’s going to be.
The dreams had all been nightmares since she met Sara, too—something else she couldn’t tell Tony and Laney about.
She slid her arms into her cheerleading jacket and picked up her keys out of the dish just inside the front door where she always left them. She opened the front door and stepped out into the cold darkness.
The Sterlings only lived a couple of blocks away, but she hesitated.
She cocked her head and listened.
She heard nothing out of the ordinary, just the regular night sounds she always heard when she was outside.
She knew somehow that Sara wasn’t with the Sterlings. She could sense their house, even from a few blocks away, and that was equally weird. The house itself seemed to radiate evil now. When she’d come from the hospital the day before, she’d cruised by the Sterling place after dropping off Laney, and the house didn’t look right to her. She’d driven past it any number of times before—Mrs. Sterling had, after all, been in the same class as her mother at Southern Heights—and it had always seemed like nothing more than a standard ranch-style house built in the 1960’s.
Now, though, she could sense darkness within and evil radiating outward.
Maybe I should have just asked Mom more about Sara. She shivered again as she walked down the front steps. But she would have wanted to know why I was asking, and what was the point of getting into it with her? Well, Mom, I think Sara’s a demon of some sort, pure evil from hell, so I was wondering what else you might know about her?
That made her smile. The look on her mother’s face might have made it all worth it.
She paused at the foot of her driveway. Whatever Sara was, she wasn’t home right now, which meant it was okay for her to go talk to the Sterlings.
She wasn’t sure what she was going to ask them, what she could possibly say, but she had to go over there. She’d promised Tony and Laney, for one thing.
But even if she hadn’t, she knew she had to do something. She’d known ever since she first laid eyes on Sara she was going to eventually have to do something about her. Maybe if I’d done something soon
er, Randy and Noah and Zack might still be alive, she thought as she started walking to the corner.
You can’t think like that. Besides, what could you have done?
I knew she wasn’t human. There had to be something I could have done.
But who would have listened to her? Certainly not her mother.
Maybe Tony?
She smiled when she reached the corner, and turned to the right.
She’d known Tony her entire life and had never really noticed him. She’d always kind of thought he was cute, but he was always on the periphery of her life. He had those pretty green eyes, that olive skin, and the dark hair—but she’d never really noticed until this summer how attractive he was. She’d been driving past his house and he was out in the yard mowing the lawn with his shirt off. The sun had glistened on his sweaty skin and she’d caught her breath.
Has he always had that body? she’d asked herself, looking back in the rearview mirror. How did I not notice it before?
“We can have a real date when he gets out of the hospital,” she muttered under her breath as she walked. A pickup truck drove past her, but she didn’t pay it any attention, just kept her head ducked down against the cold wind that seemed determined to blow her right off her feet. Maybe I should have driven, she thought, cursing at herself for not even thinking about it. But they lived so close, it seemed lazy to drive the short distance.
You didn’t drive because you wanted to keep putting it off as long as possible, that’s why.
She shivered again. The Sterlings’ house was the last one on the way out of town, just past where the street became an unpaved county road. The Sterlings technically didn’t live in town, being just over the city limits. There was an enormous cornfield almost directly behind their house that continued around to the right side. They didn’t have any children—her mother told her once that Nancy Sterling had suffered several miscarriages before they’d given up on being parents.
There wasn’t a moon in the dark sky above her, and it seemed even darker than usual.
She fought down the terror creeping into her brain.
She’s stronger after the sun goes down, you know. She draws power from the night.
“Stop scaring yourself,” she scolded.
The dark makes her powerful. That’s why she only operates at night. Zack, Noah, and Randy all died at night, you know. Do you really think you can stop her?
Sara was something dark and evil.
“Stop it,” she said out loud as she passed a dark house. She stopped and looked around. Every house on the street was dark.
That was unusual.
Not a single light was on anywhere.
In the distance a dog began howling.
She felt the scream rising in her throat and choked it down. Where is everyone? Someone has to be home somewhere!
She stuck her hands in her jacket pockets and looked around again. There wasn’t even the telltale flickering light from a television set to be seen.
Everything was quiet, so still, except for the rustling wind, and that horrible dog howling in the distance.
Her teeth started chattering, and she clenched them. Go home, a voice whispered in her brain, just go home, Tony and Laney will never know you didn’t go over there, no one ever needs to know, just turn around and start running and you’ll be home before you know it, and you can turn on every light in the house and lock every door and no one will ever know any different.
“Just stop it,” she whispered to herself. “She isn’t there, you know it. You’re just going over to ask them a few questions.”
She reached the foot of the Sterlings’ driveway. She’d never noticed how far back from the road their house was. She stood next to the driveway, staring at the house. The wind rustled the corn in the field behind the house.
The house was quiet and still. A single light burned in the living room window.
The driveway was about a hundred feet long.
But the house seemed like a hundred miles away.
She started walking up the driveway.
She began to hum to herself, a cheerful song, trying to keep her nerve from failing to keep from turning and running home as hard as she could. One foot after the other, she thought as she trudged up the driveway, her stomach bunching up into knots.
Why didn’t I tell Tony and Laney the truth?
I must be crazy, if anything happens to me they won’t know, I should just take out my phone and call Tony and tell him everything.
She started to pull out her phone, but stopped herself. She took a deep breath and steeled her nerve. She had nothing to fear from the Sterlings.
And Sara wasn’t in the house—she knew that as sure as she knew her name was Candy.
Think happy thoughts about Tony, she told herself. She closed her eyes and remembered him the way he was the last time she saw him. He’d been pale, and the bruise on his cheek was alarming, but he was still the good-looking guy she wanted to go out with. Even in that ridiculous hospital nightgown she could see how strong his chest was, how developed the muscles in his arms were. She began humming and started walking again.
What exactly am I going to say to the Sterlings? she wondered again. Hi, is your niece a demon from hell? That made her giggle.
She’d come up with something. She’d known Mrs. Sterling almost her entire life.
The dog howled again.
It sounded closer.
Stop it, she commanded herself. You’re being ridiculous. The dog canNOT be closer than he was. Your mind is playing tricks on you, and you’re already all keyed up.
She took a deep breath as she reached the end of the driveway.
The steps to the front door were right there, just a few yards away.
She hesitated.
“Looking for someone?”
She whirled, her heart in her throat, and she stared into those glittering eyes she remembered so well from her dreams.
Act casual. She forced a smile onto her face and shrugged. “I was bored and thought I’d come over, see what you’re up to.” She resisted the urge to turn and run.
Sara moved toward her so smoothly it was almost like she was gliding over the ground rather than walking. She was wearing a long black cloak with a hood pulled up over her head. The wind caught the bottom of the cloak and it billowed out. She raised her hands and pulled the hood back. “Were you now?” she purred. “What a coincidence. I was thinking about you.”
“Y-yess.” Candy looked toward the front door. She felt cold inside, like she had the first time she’d met Sara, the way she always felt around her. “Do you mind? Can we go into the house? It’s kind of cold out here.” Somehow she managed to keep her voice steady and calm.
Sara laughed—and it was the laugh she remembered hearing in her nightmares. “We don’t want to disturb the aunt and uncle, now, do we?”
“I—”
“Why don’t you and I have a little chat?” Sara took her arm. Her hand was cold, and the cold seemed to spread from Sara’s hand into Candy’s arm. She resisted the urge to pull away from Sara, to turn and run down the driveway, to get away from her as fast as she could.
“What about?”
“Why don’t you tell me.” Sara smiled, and her teeth glittered in the faint moonlight. “Don’t you and your little friends have questions for me? Aren’t there things about me you want to know?” Her eyes glittered in the light coming from the window, and Candy resisted the urge to scream.
“What are you talking about?” she asked, watching Sara’s face as the horror continued to build inside her. Run, run as fast as you can, you need to get away from her!
“You know exactly what I mean.” Sara leaned in so their faces were close together. “You, Tony, and Laney. Did you think I didn’t know?”
“I—”
“Where do you think those dreams come from? From God?” She laughed again. “I sent those dreams to the three of you.”
“Why?”
She lau
ghed that horrible mocking laugh again. “Maybe I like to play games. But the stakes I play for are high. Are all of you prepared to pay the ante?”
“I—”
“I play for keeps, Candy.” Sara let go of her arm. “I play for keeps. Are you afraid to die?”
“Isn’t everyone?”
“Noah was, that’s for sure.” Sara laughed again. “And Zack, and Randy was, too.”
“Why didn’t you kill Tony, too?”
“Now that would have hardly been sporting, would it?” She laughed again. “You’re going to die, though, Candy. Poor sweet Candy. It’s your turn now. Are you ready?” She leaned in closer. “Have you made your peace with God?”
Chapter Fourteen
The nurse was taking away my dinner when the door to my room opened and Mr. Lockhart walked in. The nurse nodded to him and he smiled back as she walked past him.
I’d always envied Glenn his father. My dad was a worthless jerk who couldn’t be bothered to send support checks on time or even spend the time with me and my brother the judge had awarded him when Mom divorced him. Even when my dad lived with us, most of the time he couldn’t be bothered with us. I’d thought maybe playing football would spark his interest, but that wasn’t the case. He was only interested in his second wife and the kids he was having with her. It stung for a while, but I finally reached the point where I could just shrug and say, his loss. But Glenn’s dad was great. He took an interest in Glenn’s life and was always there, always supportive. He was a nice-looking man, and he was younger than most of the Southern Heights parents. Glenn had told me once his father was only thirty-three—that his mom had gotten pregnant when they were both in high school.
That was about the only thing he’d ever said about his mother—other than she was dead.
