by Jeff Strand
So when she screamed, he reacted.
He spun around.
A Giggler had leapt onto her shoulder, knocking her to her knees.
Before Mark could make a move to save her, Booth twisted the gun around in his hands.
There was a white-hot burst of pain as the bullet tore through his right ear.
The soft cartilage was not enough to slow its velocity, and the bullet punched into Hannah's forehead.
She dropped face-forward onto the ground.
And then, in what seemed like a conscious attempt by the Haunted Forest to mock him, a tree burst through the ground directly underneath her, carrying Hannah and the Giggler that feasted upon her away from him.
* * *
Christopher broke through branch after branch, hoping one of them would slow his fall without impaling him. He struck an especially large one, and his blood rained down upon the forest floor.
He lay in the branches and wondered what kind of creature would get him first. Maybe another panther.
"Christopher!"
He looked down. Nope. Not a panther. Pestilence.
The demon was not grinning.
* * *
One clip left.
Lee had no plans to save a final bullet for himself. If he had to get eaten, he'd get eaten.
* * *
The helicopter smashed through the treetops, coming to a sudden stop as it wedged between two trees. All of the glass shattered on impact, spraying everybody on board.
The passengers remained silent for a long moment.
"I told you there was a dragon!" the pilot shouted.
Eddie looked around. "Is everybody alive?"
Barbara plucked some glass out of her arm. "I think so."
Tina, Tommy, and the reporter all acknowledged that they, too, were still alive.
One of the trees couldn't handle the weight and began to bend. The helicopter popped free and fell the remaining distance to the ground with a crash that completely crumpled the underside of the vehicle.
"What now?" Eddie asked.
* * *
Getting the gun away from Booth was easy. So was breaking his arm to make sure it didn't happen again.
Hearing Booth's screams was not, since the gunshot had deafened Mark, most likely for good.
Tears streamed down his face as he returned to the trunk of his car. Tears for Hannah, not for what he was about to do.
He grabbed the jumper cables.
Raised the front hood of the car.
Hooked them up.
Used the X-ACTO knife to cut away Booth's pants while the man screamed silently.
Cut away his underwear.
Hooked up the other end of the jumper cables.
And then turned on the engine.
* * *
"I see that you didn't get out of the forest, Christopher," said Pestilence. "Pity for you. I think I'll make you my own personal toy. Doesn't that sound like fun?" Despite the demon's words, there was no trace of the playful nature from before.
"Is that supposed to scare me?"
"Yes, actually. Doesn't it?"
"What I've seen of you is that you can kill an old lady. But, of course, you have to catch her off guard and make sure she wants you to kill her. Tough demon, huh?"
"So what is this, Christopher? The part where your words anger me to the point where I make a foolish mistake?"
"Nah. Just making conversation."
"Babble all you want. The forest continues to grow. Things did not work out exactly the way I planned, but they worked out well enough. You'll get to swim upstream in vast rivers of blood, Christopher."
"Why would I swim upstream? Is that just part of your effort to make things sound scary?"
Now Pestilence grinned. "I like you. I like Lee, too. Both of you would've made excellent hosts. Oh well. Instead I'll have to kill you. Why don't you come down from that tree and fight?"
Without hesitation, Christopher leapt upon him.
* * *
"I'm alive," said Tina.
"Me too," Barbara added.
The pilot gave Eddie the finger, which he interpreted as another negative comment about the fact that they hadn't heeded the dragon warning.
"So am I," said the reporter, seconds before clawed hands dragged him out of the aircraft and turned that statement into a lie. His blood splashed into the open door as Eddie shot the multi-mouthed creature that had taken him.
Tina fired a shot through what had been the windshield.
More and more forest monsters approached, seeking a feast.
* * *
Lee had two bullets left. Should he shoot the spider, the Medusa-looking thing, the imp, or the giant ant?
He shot the Medusa-looking thing, but missed the imp.
* * *
Booth shrieked and sobbed and begged for mercy, but as Mark crouched next to him again, Booth's eyes widened in realization that no mercy was coming.
Except in the form of the gun that Mark gently placed in his mouth.
Booth allowed him to push it in.
Mark kept a firm grip on the weapon so there could be no further issues, but Booth curled his finger around the trigger and squeezed, spraying blood and brain matter all over Mark's car.
Mark Harper tossed the gun aside, buried his face in his hands, and wept.
* * *
Pestilence did not let out a grunt as Christopher smashed into him, but the demon was clearly surprised. Christopher attacked like a rabid animal. He had nothing to lose. Might as well fuck up this demon as much as he could.
He threw blow after blow against the demon's chest, until Pestilence favored him with a punch to the face that knocked Christopher back at least ten feet and onto his ass, though it thankfully did not take off his head.
"What are you trying to accomplish, Christopher? You think you can beat me in a fistfight?"
It took every ounce of strength he had, but Christopher stood up. "Maybe. Or maybe I'm just trying to piss you off."
He could imagine how pathetic he looked. Beat-up, covered with blood from head to toe, legs wobbling as he tried to keep from falling back on his ass. But he had determination. The demon killed his mother. It was going to pay. Maybe not pay a lot, but it was going to pay.
"I admire your spirit, Christopher," said Pestilence. "Unfortunately, I think it's time to end this little comparison of penis sizes and..."
The demon trailed off.
The tree next to him sunk into the ground.
"Oh, no..."
The tree next to that one did the same thing.
"Oh, no...no!"
All around them, trees began sinking into the forest floor. Pestilence let out a howl of fury and then wrapped his arms around one of them, as if he could keep it upright through brute strength. It slipped through his arms and vanished.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
* * *
The giant ant sunk into the ground as if it were quicksand, followed immediately by the imp and the spider.
Lee watched the trees around him sink into the ground and decided that maybe he wasn't quite so screwed after all.
* * *
Eddie and the others scrambled out of the helicopter, only to be greeted by the sight of the dragon hurtling down directly toward them. The pilot screamed and covered his face, while Eddie fired a couple of useless shots into the air.
The dragon slammed into the ground next to them and disappeared, leaving an enormous hole.
"What the hell...?" Eddie asked, as the trees around him began to sink.
* * *
Mark watched the tree in front of him sink into the ground, bringing Hannah down with it. The Giggler took one last bite out of her neck before it disappeared with the tree.
Hannah's corpse did not disappear.
Mark crawled over to her. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "Oh, God, I'm sorry."
He'd saved the world, maybe. But right now, he didn't give a shit.
* * *
Pe
stilence roared as his foot sank into the forest floor. Most of the trees were already gone, but the demon yanked frantically as his other foot began to sink as well.
Christopher walked toward him. For a moment he thought he was going to lose his balance, but he managed to keep going.
"You know who this is for," he said, punching the demon so hard that the bones in his hand broke with an audible snap. Christopher didn't care. What was one more injury?
The demon sunk to his waist and grabbed for Christopher's leg. Christopher stepped back out of the way, and this time he did lose his balance. He fell, and then watched the shrieking demon disappear from sight.
Christopher hurt everywhere, but he felt good.
* * *
And even more quickly than it had sprouted, the Haunted Forest disappeared.
EPILOGUE
Christopher walked down the hallway, ignoring the stares.
Under his clothes, he was covered in gauze from his neck down to his feet, making it look like he'd gone on an eating binge and put on a shitload of weight.
The process of cleaning out the cuts sucked almost as much as receiving them in the first place, but they'd heal. His body would be Scar City, but they'd heal.
Lee wasn't going to get out of the hospital anytime soon. He talked excitedly about the new book he was going to write, and had even asked Christopher to proofread the first few pages. Christopher suggested that he wait to write the book until he was no longer on morphine. Lee promised to consider that advice.
Barbara was doing fine. Milking the publicity. She'd probably become an actress or a model after all this. He was pretty sure that "tour guide" was off her list of career aspirations.
Eddie was milking it even more than Barbara. Christopher was genuinely grateful to the ex tram driver for saving his life and stuff, but he was also a bit sick of seeing him on every freakin' channel. There was word that he was in talks to endorse the same brand of grenade that had saved their lives. Christopher didn't even know that grenade brands had endorsements. Still, he couldn't begrudge the guy his fifteen minutes of fame.
Tina...well, she'd thanked him for coming to Brad's funeral, and she cried when he told her how proud Brad would've been of the way she handled herself, and they never really spoke after that.
Tommy was with his parents. Christopher had talked to the little boy on the phone, and Tommy had told him all about the new Transformers action figure they'd bought him. His mother confided that Tommy screamed in his sleep, and he didn't much like his counselor because she "smelled funny," and he clearly wasn't the same little boy they'd sent on a fun tour with his aunt and uncle, but he'd be okay. They hoped.
H.F. Enterprises was in complete disaster-recovery mode. The last Christopher heard, they were trying to blame the entire thing on an employee named Mark Harper. He'd apparently tortured and shot Martin Booth, the owner of H.F. Enterprises, and also shot his co-worker Hannah Chambers. Nobody had found him yet.
Christopher had told the authorities, the government, and everybody else who questioned him the entire story, leaving nothing out. He didn't know what would happen to Mark if they did catch him, but he'd stated everything he knew about Pestilence for the record. If things had really happened the way Christopher suspected they did, the man was a hero, even if he'd achieved it in a rather stomach-churning fashion.
They'd recovered his mother's body and buried it next to his father. Her tombstone said "Happy Halloween."
Christopher knocked.
"Come in," said Mr. Tylerson.
Christopher stepped into his boss's office. Mr. Tylerson looked surprised to see him. "Christopher! I didn't expect to see you anytime soon!"
"Sorry I missed our Monday meeting. I've been kind of busy for the last week."
Mr. Tylerson didn't seem quite sure how to respond to that, so he merely fidgeted with his tie.
Christopher leaned across the desk and spoke very clearly. "Mr. Tylerson, thank you for allowing me to slave away at Novellon for all these years, but as of now, I quit. Oh, and fuck you."
He walked out of the office, feeling good.
Damned good.
Other Books by Jeff Strand
Stranger Things Have Happened
An Apocalypse Of Our Own
Cyclops Road
Blister
The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever
Kumquat
Facial
I Have a Bad Feeling About This
Pressure
Dweller
A Bad Day For Voodoo
Dead Clown Barbecue
Dead Clown Barbecue Expansion Pack
Wolf Hunt
Wolf Hunt 2
The Sinister Mr. Corpse
Benjamin's Parasite
Kutter
Faint of Heart
Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary)
Single White Psychopath Seeks Same
Casket For Sale (Only Used Once)
Lost Homicidal Maniac (Answers to "Shirley")
Suckers (with JA Konrath)
Gleefully Macabre Tales
The Severed Nose
Disposal
Elrod McBugle on the Loose
Out of Whack
How to Rescue a Dead Princess
Draculas (with JA Konrath, F. Paul Wilson, and Blake Crouch)
For information on all of these books, visit Jeff Strand's more-or-less official website at http://www.jeffstrand.com
Subscribe to Jeff Strand's free monthly newsletter at
http://eepurl.com/bpv5br
Other Books by James A. Moore
Under the Overtree
Serenity Falls: Writ in Blood
Serenity Falls: The Pack
Serenity Falls: Dark Carnival
Little Boy Blue
Vendetta
Cherry Hill
Smile No More
Seven Forges
The Blasted Lands
City of Wonders
The Silent Army
The Last Sacrifice (Tides of War)
Blind Shadows (with Charles R. Rutledge)
Congregations of the Dead (with Charles R. Rutledge)
Subject Seven
RUN!
Possessions
Newbies
Rabid Growth
Vampire: The Eternal Struggle: House of Secrets (with Kevin Andrew Murphy)
Werewolf: Hell-Storm
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds
Fireworks
Blood Red
Bloodstained Oz (with Christopher Golden)
Bloodstained Wonderland (with Christopher Golden)
Deeper
Slices
Harvest Moon
The Wild Hunt
Homestead
Alien: Sea of Sorrows
For information on these books, visit James A. Moore's website at
http://jamesamoorebooks.com
