“Even if she tries, she’ll fail,” Kyle said. “Better to live here, find what comfort she can, than go off on this insane quest.”
“Find what comfort she can?” Quinn asked. “What’s that supposed to mean? Find comfort in killing people?”
“Well, what else does she have? Is she supposed to become a nun because you kicked the bucket?” Kyle responded.
In her mind, Kate stood staring at the two of them, so close they could punch each other. Sometimes they did that, coming to physical blows. The Horseman and banshee stood outside their circle, watching and waiting. Kate wasn’t sure, but she thought they knew what was coming.
Kate stepped forward and cleared her throat.
“Kyle, you need to leave,” she said firmly.
He looked at her mockingly.
“Oh yeah, where would I go?” Kyle responded. “I’m here because I infected you. You are what you fear and what you fear is me. You became me, remember? That’s why you killed all those moidin here last year. You finally embraced what you are.”
“No,” Kate said. “You were never what I truly feared. That was losing Quinn. And that happened.”
“So you say now,” Kyle said. “But I see the blood on your hands, Kate. You can’t banish me. I am you.”
“You are a figment of my imagination, created by my guilt, my loss and a thirst for vengeance,” she responded. “It’s time for you to die.”
In the room of her own mind, Kate drew a knife. It was a sharp blade with a blood-red handle — the same weapon that had killed Quinn. She knew instinctively it was the weapon she needed, and so it was how she armed herself.
Kyle stood before her and started clapping.
“Bravo, Kate,” he said. “That’s the solution to everything, isn’t it? Violence. You think you can get rid of me that way?”
“There are probably other ways,” Kate responded. “But I think this is the perfect one to be finished with you."
“Well,” he said. “Two can play that game.”
Kyle reached back and pulled out his own knife. Kate wasn’t surprised at all when she realized it was the same one she held in her hand. It was after all, the knife that had caused her mental breakdown in the first place.
“Shall we play for keeps?” he asked. “If I win, I own you. You’ll give up this mad idea of saving Quinn and go back to hunting for me. Together, you and I will become the ultimate nightmare of Loudoun County. Everyone will be afraid of us.”
Kate nodded.
“And if I win, you’re done once and for all,” Kate said. “No more lies about how I became you, no more whispers about who to kill and why. I will never see or hear you again. You will no longer haunt me.”
“Deal,” Kyle said and smiled. “But your friends here can’t help you. It’s just you and me at dawn on a battlefield. A proper duel.”
*****
The white room fell away and in its place was the real world, the battlefield at Ball’s Bluff.
Kate couldn’t see the sun yet, but she could sense dawn coming. It was all still in her head, but it didn’t matter. The real world and her own mind had finally come together for a showdown.
Kyle might not be real, but the consequences of the fight would be. If she lost… she banished the thought from her mind. She wouldn’t lose. She wouldn’t fail Quinn again.
She moved forward and squared off against Kyle, holding the knife in front of her.
“Good luck, honey,” Quinn said from the sidelines. The Headless Horseman and the banshee watched in silence. This was her battle, the one she supposed she had been fighting since her mother died.
“Your mom tried to fight me too, did you know that?” Kyle said as he took up the position opposite her. “First she tried to scratch my eyes out, then she tried to grab my hair. She fought like a girl, Kate.”
Kate waved her knife menacingly in front of her.
“Wait till you see how I fight,” she said.
She feinted once and then closed in. Kyle jabbed and thrust in a fury, cutting her twice on the face and once on the arm, laughing as he did so.
“You’re my bitch now, Kate,” Kyle said. “You’ll do exactly what I say when I say it.”
He cut her twice more, once on the leg and another time on her side. She knew the cuts weren’t real, but they still hurt.
“You couldn’t have chosen a better weapon for me,” Kyle said. “Do you know how many people I’ve killed with a knife? And this one… it has power.”
Kate ignored his macho talk as Kyle flashed the blade again. She barely dodged it in time. He was playing with her, she knew, confident of his victory.
The two kept circling each other, with Kyle feinting and slicing at her, and Kate waiting for an opening. She ignored the cuts on her face and body and concentrated.
She watched Kyle move and tried to anticipate what he was going to do. It was difficult at first. Kyle struck with a speed and agility she couldn’t hope to match. He was right — the knife was clearly his weapon.
But despite her cuts, Kate’s mind felt sharper than it had in months. In a way, the wounds he inflicted had helped. They forced her to concentrate and she realized that the voices in her head were now silent. The quiet was invigorating. She found that she could almost distance herself from the fight and watch it objectively.
He feinted to the left and then came at her from the right — and she dodged. He switched hands and tried to catch her off guard with a stab to her stomach — and she moved away. Kyle howled at her, coming head-on, and she parried and pushed him back.
“Stop dancing and fight me,” Kyle screamed and he wasn’t laughing now. She could see the frustration in his eyes, his easy victory slipping away. “You can’t stay on defense forever.”
As Kate watched Kyle fight, she finally understood what a part of her had suspected all along. If he was nothing more than a phantom of her own mind, he wasn’t the real Kyle Thompson. She could predict his actions because he was simply her. The real Kyle Thompson was dead; he had never infected her. It was time to banish this mock image to the oblivion where it belonged.
Kyle once again rushed in — making his first, and last, mistake. He feinted left, but Kate was ready for him. As he switched directions and aimed a blow at her right shoulder, she dodged and then made her own feint, pretending to strike to his left. Kyle fell for it, moving his knife to block her where he assumed her blow would land.
It wasn’t until he saw her smiling face that he realized he’d been tricked. Kyle looked down to see a knife in his stomach.
“No, no, that’s not right at all,” he said.
As Kyle stood there stunned, Kate withdrew the weapon and — with all the power and force she could muster — rammed it into his throat before pulling it out again. Kyle staggered back and blood gurgled from his throat.
“Doesn’t matter,” he said in a rasping voice. “You can’t be free of me. I am you. You’re my…”
Kate rushed forward and put the knife directly in his heart.
“I’m nobody’s bitch,” she said.
Kyle stared at her wide-eyed and then slumped to the ground. He tried to smile at her, a last leer that indicated he would be back, but he couldn’t manage it before the life left his eyes. Kyle lay in the dirt, dead.
For a moment, she waited for him to return, her mind reincarnating him. She had tried to banish him many times before, only to face a stronger and more determined foe. But this time felt different. As she looked at his body, it disappeared into dust. Kate looked up at her three companions standing on the sidelines.
“I’m not him,” she said. “I never was. Sanheim is a liar.”
Quinn smiled sweetly and the banshee gave a slight nod of approval.
“I created him as a way to justify my actions,” Kate continued, almost to herself. “He was a way to give into my own fears about myself. But I don’t have to live with him anymore.”
Quinn again nodded approvingly, smiling at her. For the first t
ime in a long time, she was beginning to feel like herself.
But it wasn’t enough, and she knew it. She smiled sadly at Quinn, the knife still in her hand.
“Quinn,” she started.
Quinn stepped forward and broke into a broad grin.
“You don’t need to fight me, Kate,” he said. “All you have to do — all you ever had to do — was ask.”
“I love you, but I can’t keep living with you in my head,” Kate told him, tears spilling down her cheeks. “Pretending I was you, letting myself believe you were really here, was just a way to pretend you hadn’t died. I have to let you go.”
Quinn walked toward her. Despite what she was about to do, he looked happier than she had seen him during the past year.
“I know, Kate,” he said. “I’ve been hoping for this moment. Whatever happens — whether you succeed or not — I’ll always be with you. But just not constantly chattering in your ear. Can I offer one piece of advice before I go?”
“Sure,” she said, still sobbing.
“Don’t get rid of the big guy,” Quinn said, jerking a thumb toward the Headless Horseman. “You may need him. But that doesn’t mean he’s here to give you advice. He’s a tool, to be used or not used.”
As if on cue, the Headless Horseman strode forward and knelt in the dirt.
“I serve the last,” he said. As it always did, his voice seemed to come from within and beyond him.
Kate looked at the banshee. But unlike watching Kyle or Quinn, the image before her didn’t move of its own accord. As she stood on the battlefield, she realized that the banshee was nothing more than a reflection of her. When she moved, it moved. When she nodded, it nodded.
“She is you,” Quinn said. “She doesn’t have a will of her own.”
A bright light seemed to blind her and Kate was startled to find it was the sun rising. She looked over the battlefield. It would always be a place of sadness — it had been for more than a century — but she didn’t have to be trapped here any longer, like those restless spirits she was supposed to set free.
“Nice timing for an epiphany,” Quinn said, his tone joking. “A new day dawning and all that. A bit much, though, don’t you think?”
“What can I say?” Kate responded. “I’m a writer.”
Kate wanted to hug him, but she knew that was impossible. She might even feel it, but it wouldn’t be real, like the cuts on her arms and face that had disappeared once Kyle died.
“Save it,” Quinn said, reading her mind. “For when you find the real me.”
Instead, Kate raised her hand in a farewell gesture.
“Goodbye, my love,” she said. “Thank you for helping me.”
Quinn smiled, waved his hand in return, and faded away. Kate was tempted to call him back, say it had all been a mistake, but she didn’t. She watched as Quinn disappeared.
She opened her eyes and found herself still sitting on the battlefield. In the real world, she had never moved. But she was finally alone. The banshee and Horseman were within her, but just as different forms of Kate herself. Her mind had only a single voice in it now. Kate stared at the place in front of her where Quinn had died. She was sad, angry, and hopeful all at once.
Time to find you, Quinn, she thought. Time to bring you home.
She understood without thinking what must be done. As the sun rose in the east, she closed her eyes and began to call out with all her psychic energy. Last year, as she faced Sawyer and Elyssa, it had been a desperate call to arms to those who had given their lives to defend their homes. This time, it was a call for the lost and weary souls of the world — like Kate herself had been only a few minutes before.
Come to me, she called out. Come to me and be free.
And through the early morning fog across the battlefield, the spirits responded.
Chapter 15
Lord Halloween stood grinning down at Quinn and Elyssa from atop the makeshift platform, still holding Janus at the edge. He was flanked by two other scarecrows who stood motionless behind him.
“What do you think of my congregation, Quinn?” Lord Halloween asked. “When I first came here, many were weak, wondering what they had done to deserve their fate. But I gave them purpose. I culled the unworthy and challenged them to worship a new god. Me.”
The scarecrows shouted again, the torchlight casting strange shadows from their pumpkin heads.
“Isn’t it ironic?” Lord Halloween continued. “When I watched you become that... thing, I didn’t understand what true power was. But you had to become a demon to kill me, when I was just a man. Now I’m a demon, about to kill you, while you’re just a man. The tables are turned. The universe is once again in balance.”
“Some demon,” Quinn snorted. “Did you tell your followers that you’re just a lackey? Sanheim set you up to take me out. And when I’m dead...”
“I'll continue to rule,” Lord Halloween replied. “I know a con man when I see one, Quinn. Don’t you worry about me when you’re finally sent packing to oblivion. Worry what I’m going to do to Kate when she gets here. And she will get here. The boss has a very nice surprise coming her way.”
The torches illuminated the hate in Quinn’s eyes.
“I won’t let you touch her,” he said.
“How are you going to stop me, hmm?” Lord Halloween asked.
Quinn looked around the circle of enemies for anything he could use. His eyes seized on the torches. Perhaps he could grab one and throw it onto the tower.
“Save the heroics,” Lord Halloween said. “You’ll never have time to get that torch. Even if you could, would you be willing to kill Janus here? Poor Janus. I get to murder him not once, but twice.”
“Could you just do it and shut up already?” Janus asked. “I was tired of you before we died. All you ever did was prattle on about wrestling, fires and how you should set your watch ahead three minutes. Seriously, do you ever get tired of hearing yourself fucking talk?”
Lord Halloween’s head swiveled in Janus’ direction. He put his face close to Janus.
“Careful, Janus,” Lord Halloween said, “or I’ll rethink the relatively quick death I have planned for you and eat you alive, limb by limb.”
Quinn saw his moment. With Lord Halloween focused on Janus and his followers watching events unfold up above, Quinn rushed to the nearest scarecrow and grabbed the torch right out of his hand. The scarecrow was so absorbed in watching his leader, he never even knew what hit him. Quinn plunged the torch right into his chest, and the flannel and straw immediately went up in flames.
While the other followers were still stunned, Quinn turned and tossed the torch to Elyssa, who caught it in mid-air and immediately went on the attack. Quinn rushed the next scarecrow and wrenched the torch out of his hand as well.
The two plunged into the mass of scarecrows, throwing punches and lighting several on fire. Quinn tried to fight his way through to the platform.
“Freeze!” Lord Halloween yelled. “One more move, O’Brion, and Janus will be a spot on the ground.”
Quinn looked up to see Lord Halloween holding Janus off the platform. Quinn didn't think the fall would be far enough to make him a “spot,” but he was reasonably sure it would kill him.
Quinn stopped fighting.
“Tell your girlfriend to call it off too,” the pumpkin said.
“Elyssa,” Quinn said.
She stared at him in horror.
“This may be our best chance,” she said.
In response, Lord Halloween dangled Janus further off the platform.
“Not for him,” he responded.
Elyssa looked unhappy, but she stopped fighting.
“Drop the torches,” Lord Halloween said.
Both Quinn and Elyssa dropped them on the ground, where they sputtered briefly before going out.
“Grab them,” Lord Halloween called to his followers, a few of whom quickly surrounded Quinn and Elyssa.
Satisfied they were captured, Lord Halloween plac
ed Janus back on the platform and pushed him backwards to the two scarecrows standing at attention behind him.
“Make sure he doesn’t move,” Lord Halloween told them. “I’ll save him for later.”
The two scarecrows stepped up to hold Janus. He struggled for a minute, but with his hands behind his back, there was little he could do. Quinn did spot something strange, however. Just as Lord Halloween turned his full attention back to his prisoners on the ground, Quinn saw one of the scarecrows on the platform give him a wink.
“Ready your weapons!” Lord Halloween ordered his crew on the ground.
Two scarecrows behind Quinn and Elyssa drew their knives.
“If it takes you a few times to hack off their heads, don’t feel badly,” Lord Halloween said. “In fact, I will personally reward the executioner who makes it the most painful.”
Quinn kept his expression carefully neutral as he saw activity behind Lord Halloween. He didn’t want to tip anyone off.
“You may have killed me once,” Lord Halloween said, “but ultimately, the game was mine.”
Quinn started smiling, and his expression clearly caught Lord Halloween off guard.
“Oh yeah?” Quinn said. “Is that part of your game?”
Quinn looked meaningfully behind Lord Halloween, who whipped his head around — but it was too late.
“You know what my favorite part of Halloween was?” Janus said as he appeared just behind him. “Pumpkin smashing.”
Janus gave Lord Halloween a hard shove. The giant pumpkin tried to keep his balance, his hands flailing in their attempt to grab on to something. But he caught only air and fell off the scaffolding, screaming as he plummeted to the ground.
A dozen scarecrows jumped out of the way as their leader collided with the dirt, his head exploding in a mass of pumpkin mush, seeds and blood. His body twitched for a few seconds more, flailing, before it lay still.
There was no question of their master’s fate. Lord Halloween was dead.
*****
Janus started dancing on top of the tower.
Give the Devil His Due Page 13
