Night Terrors

by Mark Lukens

  38259 Pine Woods Run. Trinity, Florida.

  How had she missed that?

  And why had she written Mike’s address down a little at a time during her night terrors? She’d written some of the words and numbers down before Lorie had even given her the business card with Mike’s address on it.

  She had glimpsed the future. She used to only be able to see flashes of murders as they were happening, but now, in the last few days, her power had gotten stronger or changed somehow. First she saw the gun that was going to kill Miss Helen before Jeremy killed her. And then she’d written down pieces of Mike’s address because she couldn’t see the whole picture in her dreams yet.

  But there it was – Mike’s address. Jeremy was there right now. He had taken her Aunt Katie and he was there with Lorie and Mike. He was at Mike’s house with all of the people she loved in the world.

  And Woods was going to be there, too.

  Mike’s house. The final showdown. Jeremy hadn’t been able to sacrifice her at the abandoned house where he’d set it up, so he was going to complete the ritual at Mike’s house.

  Tara wanted so badly to call the police, but she couldn’t; Jeremy had told her to come alone – no police or Lorie, Mike, and her Aunt Katie were dead. And even if she could call Detective Perry, he wouldn’t believe her. He never believed her. And she had no proof that anything was wrong at Mike’s house. Jeremy had promised that they were still alive, he even let her speak to Aunt Katie for a few seconds, and he promised that he wouldn’t butcher them if she did exactly what he wanted. He didn’t want them, he didn’t need them. He only needed her.

  Her life for their lives.

  2.

  Woods found most of the stuff on the list Tara had drawn in her sleep inside Wal-Mart. There was one other crucial item they needed on the list, but they would have to stop somewhere else for that. He waited in the checkout line with the odd assortment of items.

  He couldn’t really believe he was doing this, that he was trusting Tara’s psychic abilities this much. But he knew they were real. He had believed in her from the very beginning.

  He paid for the items with cash and left the store. He walked back to his car and put them in the trunk.

  His handcuffs were stuffed down inside his pants pocket and Tara had asked him to hide the key to the handcuffs on his body somewhere and not tell her where it was. It was a strange request, but he went along with it. He knew the request must have something to do with this plan of hers, this plan that included these items he’d bought at the store, a plan he couldn’t see fully yet.

  He got in the car and started it. He backed out of the parking spot. They still had two more stops to make before they went up to Trinity, before they faced the monster.

  Woods hoped to hell that these crazy things Tara had written down were going to work. He would go along with her plan as long as he needed to, but when the time came, he was going to kill Jeremy for murdering his brother. And for murdering Tara’s parents. And for all of the other people who’d had their family members ripped away from them by this killer.

  3.

  Their next stop was a Catholic Church.

  Woods got out of the car without a word and he took out one of the items from the Wal-Mart bag in the trunk – a plastic squeeze bottle, the kind of bottle a bicyclist would use to squeeze water into his mouth as he rode; Woods had found it in the sports section of Wal-Mart. He got back in the car and sat down in the driver’s seat and closed the door. He handed Tara the plastic squeeze bottle.

  “What’s this for?” she asked.

  “The instructions on your paper say that you’re supposed to fill this up with holy water.”

  Tara didn’t question it. She took the squeeze bottle and got out of the car. She walked up the walkway of the big church and pulled one of the massive doors open and slipped inside.

  Holy water, Woods thought as he watched her walk inside the church. Did Tara really think holy water was going to do anything to Jeremy?

  But it didn’t matter. Woods would play along. Because when he got to Mike’s house, he was going to take over with his plan of killing Jeremy.

  They only had one more quick stop to make, a stop where Woods was supposed to complete the last instruction on the list – something Tara couldn’t know about, something for him alone.

  4.

  And now Woods drove down the small narrow road only minutes away from Mike’s house according to his GPS. They passed open fields with woods in the distance; they drove over rolling hills and descended down into valleys. The houses were far apart from each other out here in the country, some of them situated on acres and acres of property. They drove underneath the canopy of ancient oaks as the woods around them thickened.

  Moments later they saw a wooden sign up ahead on the right hand side of the road.

  Engraved on the wood sign was Mike’s address.

  Woods stopped the car and let it idle for a moment. There were no vehicles on the road behind them, and none coming towards them from the other direction.

  He stared at the entrance to Mike’s property – the wood sign marked the beginning of the dirt trail that led down into the pine trees and palmetto plants and brush that looked too thick to even walk through.

  Woods and Tara locked eyes for a moment.

  “You can drive to the house,” Tara told him. “He already knows we’re here.”

  5.

  As Woods maneuvered his car down the bumpy dirt road that meandered through the thick trees and brush, Tara took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

  She let herself reach out to Jeremy, and she could almost feel the link between them, the sibling link that they’d shared all of their lives without her even realizing it. He had always been a dark presence to her, an evil and unstoppable force, a faceless monster in the darkness searching for her, coming for her. But now she’d seen him, and she’d gotten away from him. He wasn’t a monster, he wasn’t superhuman – he was just a man.

  But he had been a step ahead of them the whole time. Even though they got away from him at the abandoned house, he had this backup plan the whole time.

  And now Jeremy had everyone Tara cared about in the whole world right in one place. What could she do? She couldn’t let her aunt die. She couldn’t let Lorie and Mike die. Or Woods.

  She was sure Jeremy hadn’t seen what she’d written down in her sleep, but it didn’t matter now. It was too late. She was going to have to change the plan – she couldn’t let all of them die because of her.

  Woods drove his car out of the stand of trees and they saw Mike’s house in the clearing. It was a two story wood cabin built on stilts with a wraparound porch on the second level. Thirty yards to the right of the house was a two story, free-standing garage that looked big enough to park a school bus inside. The large double doors on the front of the garage were closed.

  Woods parked his car in the large dirt parking area between the house and the garage. Mike’s black, fully-loaded pickup truck was parked closer to the house. It was the only other vehicle there. He assumed that Jeremy must’ve ditched his pickup somewhere in the woods on the property, or even on the way here, and walked the rest of the way so he could sneak up on therm.

  Tara stared at the garage as Woods shut his car off and took the key out of the ignition.

  “They’re in the garage,” she said.

  “I know,” Woods answered.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  1.

  For a moment Tara’s heart froze and her breathing stopped. What did Woods mean? How did he know they were in the garage? Was he a part of this? Had he been a part of this the whole time?

  “I have some slight psychic ability,” Woods said after seeing the horror on Tara’s face. “That’s how I know. I believe everyone has some psychic abilities whether they realize it or not, whether they want to believe it or not.”

  Tara let a breath out; it felt like the air had been burning in her lungs for a moment. Woods’ explanat
ion reminded her of her aunt’s theory; she too believed that everyone possessed some degree (a rare few were definitely stronger than others) of psychic energy, it was just a matter of whether that person wanted to explore that ability or not.

  “But my abilities are nothing like yours,” Woods continued quickly. “Or his,” Woods added, nodding towards the garage. “That’s why I needed your help.”

  Tara nodded.

  “Thank you,” he said and held her hand. “Thank you for helping me. For coming this far.”

  “It’s not over yet.”

  “We just have to stick to the plan, stick to what you wrote down in your sleep, and we’ll get through this. We’ll save your aunt and your friends. I promise.”

  Tara nodded, but she felt the pit of fear aching in her stomach.

  “We have to go,” Tara said. “He knows we’re here. He’s waiting for us.”

  And then they heard a noise. They both looked at the garage doors. Somebody had just slid one of the doors back, opening it just enough to allow a person to slip inside. From the car all they could see was darkness inside the garage.

  “I guess that’s our invitation,” Woods said and looked at Tara. “You ready?”

  “Yes.”

  And then he surprised her with a kiss.

  And for a moment, she surrendered. For a split second she was lost in a cocoon of bliss and security. She felt safe in his arms again, as she had earlier this morning when he’d walked her back to their motel room with his arm around her shoulders. If she was going to die soon, then she was going to allow herself to enjoy this kiss, this feeling, for just a moment.

  He pulled away and stared at her. “You are the most amazing and strongest woman I’ve ever met. Now let’s go kill this motherfucker.”

  2.

  Tara and Woods entered the garage through the large double doors. Woods went in first, his gun aimed into the darkness. And Tara followed right behind him.

  It took a few seconds for Tara’s eyes to adjust to the gloom inside, but then she could see everything clearly.

  The garage was vast inside, and now she thought that more than one school bus could be parked inside. The ceiling of exposed rafters was two stories above them, and there were eight thick wooden posts situated around the cavernous room to help support the massive ceiling. At the far end of the garage was a second story loft with a set of ladder-like steps on one side of it that led up to the platform. The garage looked more like it could be an additional living space if fixed up rather than a typical garage. The floor was concrete, many of the walls were paneled, and the upstairs level of the loft was finished with expensive woods and adorned with a few pieces of furniture.

  Fifteen feet in front of the loft, Mike hung upside down from the rafters by his ankles which were tied together. His hands were tied behind his back and blood from his severed finger had dribbled down his back and onto the floor. His mouth was taped shut with several lengths of duct tape wrapped around his head. His body twisted slightly and the rope creaked in the silence. His face was dark red from being upside down and his eyes bulged so badly that they looked like they were going to pop out of his face. He looked close to passing out. His dark hair hung down towards the concrete floor where a large panel of thick wood laid right underneath him. Affixed to the wood panel in neat little rows were dozens of kitchen knives, all of the blades pointed up towards Mike’s hanging body. Some of the knives were from Mike’s own house, some of the other knives were from Jen’s house, some from Miss Helen’s house, and a few of the blood-stained knives had been used to peel the skin from Greg’s body.

  The thick rope attached to Mike’s ankles went up to the rafters where it was looped around, and then it ran back down to Lorie, tied around her waist. She hugged a thick wooden support post and if she let go, the weight of Mike’s body would yank her up into the air away from the post and he would crash head-first down onto the rows of knives. The loops of the rope around the rafter took a lot of the weight off of Lorie, but she still had to hold on to the pole.

  Lorie had several pieces of duct tape plastered over her mouth and her eyes and nose were red from crying. She moaned into the tape and her arms trembled from the strain of holding on to the post.

  Jeremy stood right behind Lorie with a knife to her throat.

  Woods took a few more steps inside the garage and aimed his gun at Jeremy.

  “Let her go right now, Jeremy!”

  Jeremy just smiled. “I’m helping her hold on. If I let her go, Mike will fall down onto those horrible knives.”

  Tara glanced at Mike’s face which was turning purple now. His eyes had rolled up and only his whites were showing now. He didn’t struggle anymore, his body twisted slowly on the rope – he had passed out.

  Woods took another step closer, his gun still aimed at Jeremy.

  “Woods, wait!” Tara screamed at him.

  He glanced back at her.

  “Where’s my aunt?” she asked Jeremy.

  “She’s alive. She’s safe for now. But you’re going to have to hurry if you want to save her. She probably doesn’t have much time left.”

  “What have you done to her?” Tara growled at him.

  Jeremy stared right at Tara with his dark eyes. “I only want you, Tara. I’ll let the rest of them go after I have you, I swear.”

  “You’re a sick motherfucker,” Woods grumbled.

  Tara was afraid she was losing Woods for a moment. She didn’t want Jeremy to slash Lorie’s throat, and she knew he would – she could see it in his eyes; she could feel it coming from him. If Woods tried to attack or shoot, then Jeremy would kill Lorie and Mike, and then he would run. And eventually Jeremy would find her again.

  And she still needed to find her aunt; she had to be sure she was still alive. She could only imagine some terrible place he was keeping her in.

  “There’s no choice,” Jeremy said and he pressed the blade of his knife even harder against Lorie’s throat, drawing a few drops of blood. “We don’t have a lot of time. Your friend here can’t hold on forever. I can feel her body trembling; I can feel the strength draining from her …”

  Woods took another step towards Jeremy.

  “Woods …”

  Woods turned and looked at Tara.

  “Please …” Tara moaned.

  Woods’ shoulders sagged. His gun arm dropped.

  This was going exactly as she and Woods had planned it so far, but everything was going to have to change soon – Tara didn’t have a choice now.

  “Good,” Jeremy purred at Woods. “Now throw the gun over here to me.”

  Woods hesitated for a moment and then he crouched down and slid the gun across the vast concrete floor. It stopped right at Jeremy’s feet.

  “That’s good. You’re doing so well.” Jeremy let go of Lorie and she hugged the post even tighter. He crouched down with lightning quickness and picked up the gun and then slipped his knife into a sheath on the side of his belt. He was back up and behind Lorie’s body again, still bracing himself against her, but now he aimed the gun at Woods.

  “Why don’t you just let them go?” Tara pleaded. “You can have me. I’ll go with you wherever you want, just let them go.”

  “I will let them go. I promise. But I need some insurance first.”

  Tara glanced at Lorie, at her body which trembled with the effort to hold on to the pole. She thought that Jeremy’s body might be taking some of the weight of Mike off of her, but when Jeremy moved away, it was going to be difficult for Lorie to hold on much longer.

  They had to hurry if this was going to work.

  “I’ll go with you,” Tara said in a soft voice, but the words sounded so loud in the garage.

  Woods turned and stared at her with horror. “What? This wasn’t part of the plan!”

  Jeremy aimed the gun at Woods. “I knew about your plan the whole time. Now get over there by that post.”

  Woods hesitated.

  Jeremy pointed the gun at the side
of Lorie’s head. She squeezed her eyes shut and sobbed into the tape over her mouth. Her body seemed to be weakening by the moment, like she was on the verge of giving up.

  “I’ll shoot her,” Jeremy said and his polite tone had turned mean, like he was losing patience. “She’ll die and fall back. Her lover boy will crash head-first down onto the knives and break his neck. And then I’ll kill you, Woods. And I’ll have Tara. But it doesn’t have to be that way. I don’t want it to be that way.”

  Woods hesitated only a few seconds longer, and then he walked over to another wooden post, thirty feet away from Jeremy and Lorie. He stood by the post waiting for Jeremy’s instructions.

  “Good,” Jeremy said, and he sounded more relaxed now.

  “Turn around. I want to make sure you don’t have any other weapons on you.”

  Woods turned around, his hands raised a little. His cell phone was hooked on his belt.

  “Okay. Take the cell phone and your car keys out and throw them across the room.”

  Woods did as he was ordered. The cell phone broke apart when it hit the floor, the back of the phone flying in one direction and the battery in another.

  “Now take out your handcuffs.”

  Woods hesitated.

  Jeremy smiled. “I know you have them. Part of your little FBI disguise.”

  Woods took out the handcuffs from his pants pocket.

  “Handcuff yourself to the post with your hands behind your back.”

  Again Woods hesitated, but he sighed and backed up to the post. He wrapped his arms behind him, around the post, and snapped the handcuffs over both of his wrists.

  “Go check them,” Jeremy told Tara.

  Tara went over and pulled on the cuffs.

  “Where’s the key to the cuffs?” Jeremy asked Woods.