Her attention distracted, Cass felt the impact of another blow to her body. She hadn’t moved fast enough and the pain was startling. She should be used to it, but each time he landed a hit, it was like her body trembled from the inside out. She slid boneless back down the refrigerator to the floor.
“Call him off, Chris. Block him out,” she urged, thinking that possibly the girl wielded some control.
But she merely shook her head. “I can’t stop Daddy.”
“You can. My grandfather. He tries to come through, too, but I won’t let him.”
“No. Daddy is too strong. I can’t block him out. Not like I can with the others. But now that you’re here he’s not as loud in my head. I don’t feel him like I normally do. He’s distracted by you. That’s good. That’s very, very good. That’s what I’d hoped. That’s why I had to keep looking for you. When I realized you weren’t at the address that was listed in Dr. Farver’s folder, I went to the other place.”
“What other place?” Cass gasped as she backed away from what she saw in her mind as another swing.
“Your home. Where you grew up in Baltimore. But there was no one there. So I thought maybe I would just come back to Philadelphia. Maybe the number of the apartment was wrong. Dr. Farver made mistakes. He made lots of mistakes. He didn’t know about the voices. He thought I could read minds.”
Cass shuffled back against the white wall as the monster moved closer to her. One step, then another. The urge to panic was escalating. She didn’t know what to do. Which one to focus on. The dead. Or the living.
“So I just started walking up and down, up and down on the street where you were supposed to be. That’s when I found the New Age shop. The lady who worked inside was a witch. I thought you could be a witch. Witches have powers, right?”
“Only in books.” Cass closed her eyes as she listened to Chris recount Lauren’s last minutes on earth.
“I followed her home and when I saw she lived on Addison, I thought it could be you. She was so nice. I said I was like her, and she thought that meant that I was a witch, too. She invited me in for tea, but when I asked her if she could hear Daddy, she…she said she couldn’t.”
“You didn’t have to kill her.”
“You don’t know what it’s like!” Chris shouted back. “You can’t understand what it is to hear him every day. Sha-a uh-h-h, Sha-a uh-h-h. You know what he’s saying, don’t you? Shut up. Over and over again. Shut up. I have to take their tongues. It makes him quiet when I do it.”
“No,” Cass countered. In her mind, she focused on the monster that hovered over her, waiting to serve up his next blow. To inflict pain. That’s what it wanted to do. That’s what his daughter had learned from him. “I don’t think that’s true. I think you do it because you liked hurting those women. I think you do it because you want others to suffer like you did. You took that other woman’s tongue while she was still alive.”
Chris shrugged. “She was nasty. I heard her mother in my head. So I did a reading for her. Me reading for the psychic.” She giggled. “But she didn’t like what I had to say. She didn’t like that I had the power and she didn’t. That’s how I knew she was a fake. I had to kill her. Just for that.”
Cass gasped as the beast’s hoof slammed into her stomach. Her body screamed out at the brutal punishment, and for a time she couldn’t see anything at all except his arm swinging at her over and over again. She couldn’t hear anything except for the muted roars of a tongueless beast.
Sha -a uh-h-h. Sha-a uh-h-h.
It was enough to drive a person insane.
You can fight him, Cassie. You can fight him off. You know how. You just need to be strong. I believe in you. I’m so sorry I didn’t before. But I’m here now. I won’t leave you again.
The voice in her head echoed over the muted roars of Chris’s father. It was coming from outside of her white room, just beyond the open door. She had never let her grandfather get through. She’d never listened to him, never let herself hear his pleas for forgiveness. Partly because she didn’t want to forgive him. And partly because she couldn’t forgive herself.
He had been dying and still she wouldn’t go see him. They had buried him, and she was not there. For what? A grudge. In the end it seemed like such a trivial reason.
Gramp ? Cass tried to concentrate. In the room, she shuffled away from the beast toward the open door. It howled, but she closed her mind to it and instead tried to focus on letting her grandfather come through.
You can fight him.
He’s too strong.
He’s not. Only in your head. Only because you let him be.
He’s a monster.
No, he’s just a man. See the man. Remember what you were taught.
Cass looked up at the beast, its foul face moving closer to her with each step it took. There was nothing there that resembled a human. Nothing that she could see. A faint whisper of smoke drifted in front of her, forcing her back into reality.
“We need them to think you’re dead. Burned up.”
Cass watched as Chris dumped a packet of matches into the smoke smoldering on the futon, and suddenly the smoke turned to flames. Flames that were eating up the cushions at an alarming rate.
“This will work,” Chris said. “This will work perfectly. There will be a fire. Nobody will find your body, but they’ll have to think that you’re dead.”
“What does that get you?”
“That gets me you. Forever. We’ll go someplace. Somewhere where we can hide. And you’ll keep Daddy occupied and I’ll be free. That’s all I wanted. It’s all I wanted when I killed him. All I wanted when I went to the institute. And now I have a chance. You’ve given me that chance.”
“People will look for me,” Cass breathed even as she mentally pulled herself into a ball inside the room. It was coming for her again. It wanted to hurt her again. She didn’t know how much more she could take.
“No, everything will be gone. This building will be gone. Everyone will think you’re dead.”
The flames continued to feed off the wood frame, and Cass could see Chris watch the fire growing, her attention for the moment occupied. Cass needed to act now. She tried to make a break for the apartment door, but when she rolled onto her knees to get to her feet, the beast struck again. Mentally and physically, she was once again down.
“I have friends. I have friends that are coming.” Dougie was coming, wasn’t he? Cass thought numbly. And Malcolm would call again soon. She was sure of it. All she needed to do was hold on.
“We’ll be gone before they get here,” Chris assured her. “I just want to watch the fire. It’s so pretty. I didn’t used to like it. Daddy one time burned my hand with a match. He wanted to teach me that playing with fire was bad.”
“I’m sorry,” Cass said. “I’m so sorry he hurt you. That doesn’t mean you have to do this. Help me. Help me stop him.”
Chris turned away from the fire that had now consumed the futon and was moving onto the old rug. The apartment was quickly full of smoke, and Cass felt the heat in her throat. Chris started to cough, too, but she didn’t seem to be in any hurry to escape.
“I told you I can’t. He’s too strong. You’ll just have to learn how to deal with the pain. Me and Mommy did. We were one big, happy family. One big, happy, hurting family.” Chris coughed again as the smoke became that much thicker. She reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out a worn and tattered piece of paper. She held it out for Cass, who was still on the floor.
It was a picture. A picture of three people.
“See, just one big, happy family. Of course you can’t tell from this, but Daddy had beaten me up pretty good the night before. I have all sorts of bruises under my dress.”
Cass squinted against the smoke and looked hard at the photo. Not at the girl in the dress with the sad expression on her face. Not at the fragile woman standing just behind her. She looked at the man. He was short and pudgy. Balding with a weak chin and beefy hands that he had
clenched into fists.
He was just a man.
Instantly, the beast inside her white room transformed. The tusks receded. Hooves turned into hands. The snout was gone, to be replaced by a broad nose and a weak chin, and suddenly Cass found herself confronted with nothing more than a man.
A man she could fight.
She pushed herself back onto her feet and slid out from the corner of her white room.
You’re not so tough now.
Sha -a uh-h-h! Sha-a uh-h-h!
Internally, Cass moved closer to him. She felt strong. She felt…invincible.
It’s your room, isn’t it? You can do anything you want inside it. Malcolm’s words returned to her, as did his instructions. Stay on the balls of your feet, keep your target in sight and swing from your gut.
Cass swung her fist in an arc and felt contact with the man’s face. He was taller than she was but not by that much. She landed a right and left to his head and then an uppercut into his soft, fat belly.
Dancing around him, infused with a power that she was only starting to comprehend, she raised her foot and sent it into his backside. He toppled over onto his belly, and she moved on him with a swift kick right to his groin. He squealed and then he was the one curling himself into a ball.
What’s the matter? You can dish it out, but you can’t take it?
At her feet, he actually whimpered.
Shut up.
He did. The door to the room opened, and the mist beyond it looked sinister and cold. She turned back to the pathetic figure huddled on the floor and as abruptly as he had broken through the barrier and made contact, he was gone.
The room was empty now. Cass closed the door.
“Come on, Cass. It’s time to go.”
Cass could feel Chris tugging on her arm and lifting her to her feet. With the man/monster gone, she was able to give all her attention to his daughter.
“I’m not going anywhere with you.” She hurt, but for the first time since making contact with the beast, she felt as if her body was back under her control.
“Don’t make me use the knife,” Chris pleaded, digging the sharp blade against Cass’s side. Cass knew that with just a little more pressure it would slide through her sweater into her ribs. “I really don’t want to hurt you. But if I have to, I will.”
Cass turned her head and saw the fire moving in on them. With the knife at her side and the fire growing more threatening, the smoke practically robbing her of breath, Cass decided to let Chris lead them out of the apartment. She would stand a better chance of confronting her once they were on the street.
Together they made their way to the door, where Cass saw her cats waiting, she knew, for their mother to save them from the fire.
“My cats. I have to take them.” Pretending she was worse off than she was, Cass reluctantly let Chris tug her along, allowing her knees to buckle from time to time to show Chris how weak she was.
“No, you can’t take them. Daddy doesn’t like pets.”
“I’m not leaving them to burn.”
“They can get out when we open the door.”
Chris let go of Cass and made a move to unlock the door when a loud knock came from the other side.
“Cass! Cass, are you in there! There’s smoke coming out from under the door and near your window!”
It was Malcolm. Oddly, Cass found herself wondering what he was doing there and then realized she’d just been saved.
Chris pulled away from the door as if stunned that something wasn’t going according to plan.
“No. No, we have to leave. We have to escape. Everyone has to think you’re dead.”
The girl stomped her foot and stood glaring at the door as if it were the enemy. Struggling to hold her breath, Cass used the distraction Malcolm continued to provide by pounding on the door. The knife practically dangled from the girl’s hand.
Glancing to her right, Cass saw her single frying pan sitting on the stove where she had left it the last time she made an egg. Praising herself for being the lousy housekeeper she was, she reached for the pan and swung it with all her might at Chris’s right arm just at the elbow.
Chris screeched and reached for her arm, but, more importantly, dropped the knife. Diving for it, Cass felt her hand wrap around the wooden handle. But as soon as she did, Chris was falling on top of her, pulling at her short hair with enough force to tear it from its roots in an attempt to get Cass to drop the knife.
“No! Give it to me!”
“Cass!” This time it was Dougie shouting from the other side of the door. “We’re here, Cass. Open the door! Now!”
How typical, she decided, for a man to be giving her orders at a time like this. Rolling from side to side, Cass struggled to unseat Chris from her back. But the girl had the talent of a bull rider and held on with all her strength. She let go of Cass’s hair but only to reach over her to try to wrench the knife from her grasp. Together their hands grabbled for the sharp blade, vying for control of what really wasn’t much of weapon. But to Cass it felt as if all the power rested with the knife and the first person to gain control of it would win the deadly battle.
“If you don’t give me that knife, I’m going to cut out your tongue!” Chris growled in her ear.
“It’s over, Chris,” Cass tried to reason even as she used her elbow to jab at the girl’s ribs. She heard a whoosh of breath, but Chris fought back, using her feet to kick any part of Cass she could reach. “Can’t you hear them? They’re waiting for you on the other side of the door. You can’t escape now.”
“No! I have to. I have to get away from him. You have to help me.”
Cass heard the panic in her voice and in just that second, she tore the knife away from Chris’s hand. Cass rolled to her side and brought the knife closer to her chest. At that moment, Chris leaped on her, and without having a second to think, only to react, Cass pushed the knife out in front of her and sank it deeply into Chris’s chest.
The first thing that registered was the girl’s eyes. They were dark and brown and filled with both pain and sadness that seemed hauntingly familiar.
“No,” Cass gasped even as she turned and let Chris roll off her. The base of the knife stuck morbidly out from her chest directly over where her heart beat. It had cut through the thick sweatshirt and had sunk in all the way to the hilt.
Scrambling to her knees, Cass leaned over the girl and contemplated the harm or benefit of pulling the knife from her chest. Instinct told her to get it out. Get it out quickly and maybe it would be like it hadn’t happened, but reason took hold.
“Chris. Just stay still. Don’t move.”
Cass tried to stand. She needed to unlock the door. Dougie was still hammering away at it. She could hear him shouting. She didn’t know where Malcolm had gone, but if she could get the door open and get some air, she could pull Chris free.
The sound of breaking glass registered, as well as the call from another voice, but she was too focused on getting to the lock. Smoke clouded her vision and the air in her lungs felt heavy and hot. What had seemed like such an easy thing at the time, reaching and unlocking the door, now felt almost impossible. The lock was so far away, and standing up, where the air would be so much thicker, didn’t seem like a good idea at all.
In front of her, she saw her cats moving around each other, pawing at the door, sneezing in the way that cats do when something smells horrible.
“Cass!”
She didn’t know where the shout was coming from this time. From the other side of the door, from inside her head. It was hard to keep it all straight. She looked down again at Chris, whose eyes were open and focused on Cass. Smoke swirled around them, but Cass could still see the desperation in Chris’s face. She was going to die and she knew it. Cass felt the weight of what she had done, what she had taken. Chris had come looking for someone to save her, but Cass wasn’t sure that she could anymore.
Worse, she wasn’t even sure she could save herself.
“I
’m sorry,” Cass whispered to her. The last bit of oxygen left her lungs and she slumped down to the kitchen floor.
“Don’t be sorry,” Chris wheezed. “You saved me. I don’t hear Daddy anymore.”
Don’t worry, Cassie. He’s coming. It’s going to be all right.
Her grandfather’s voice might have been reassuring if she weren’t so certain that he was wrong. Cass tumbled over Chris’s body as consciousness quickly slipped away. Her last thought was that she hoped one of the guys would be able to get through the door before the fire got too bad so that at least Spook and Nosey would make it.
Chapter 19
Cass blinked her eyes open and quickly closed them. Everything before her had been a blur, but it had also been white. All white. For a second, she feared she was back in her room with a monster there waiting to pounce. Then she realized her mind was quiet. Free from voices, human or otherwise. Was this death? It didn’t feel like it. She was too conscious of the aches in her body.
She opened her eyes again. Yes, the room was white, but it was real. Solid. She turned her head and saw a machine that beeped steadily to her right. She saw that there were bars on the bed, and she felt the outline of a mask covering her mouth and nose.
She tried to inhale and instantly started to cough. Her lungs seized until it felt that someone was sitting on her chest. Eventually the spasms stopped and her chest eased a bit.
Okay. Breathe gently.
A hospital. She was in a hospital. Which meant somehow she had survived.
She blinked again, and this time a looming figure moved into her view. She pushed herself back into the bed, but when her eyes finally adjusted to the light, she could see that it was Dougie.
“What happened?” she whispered. But with the mask over her face she had no idea what he might have heard.
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