by Sara Clancy
“Is he okay?”
Nicole snapped her head up to see the man from McDonald’s standing beside the white sedan that was blocking the road.
“He’s sick,” Nicole said. “We need to get him back into town.”
The couple looked at each other and a cold chill swept up Nicole’s spine. There was just something about the exchange that put her on edge.
“Why don’t we give you a lift?” the woman offered with a sickly, sweet voice.
It didn’t matter how kindly she said it, the question naturally put each one of them on edge. They all exchanged quick glances, weighing out their options, before Zack answered.
“That would be good.”
“Well, we can’t fit all of you,” the man laughed heartedly. It was a pleasant sound, but Benton’s hands still tightened in Nicole’s jacket in response. “It’s not that far into town, though. Why don’t we give Nicole and her friend a lift first, seeing he’s so sick, and then we’ll come back for the rest of you?”
Meg was quick to answer, “This isn’t the kind of highway you split up on.”
“I’ve heard some rumors about this road, too,” the man acknowledged, “which is why I’m not all that comfortable giving four of you a ride at the same time; especially, when it’s just me and my girlfriend.”
The woman opened the car’s back door. “Nicole, isn’t it? Your boy isn’t looking so good. We should hurry up.”
Benton shook his head as the pit in Nicole’s stomach became a gaping hole.
“Something’s really wrong with him, Nicki.” The man spoke it like a general comment, but there was no mistaking the edge that lurked within his words.
Zack stepped in between them, using his bulk to try and cut off the man’s view of Nicole.
“Hey, man,” Zack spoke with that same forced casualness. “Why is your car parked like this anyway?”
Meg and Danny began to edge back, closing ranks with Nicole. The air became a thick swamp of tension as the smiles faded from the couple. Even as the man scowled at her, his voice retrained that warm, all too friendly tone. The disconnection made Nicole’s insides squirm and the twins became less subtle about going back to the safety of the group.
“I’m just trying to be friendly and help you out. It doesn’t seem like you kids have many options right now.”
The man took a step closer. The simple action had provoked immediate reactions. Zack balled his fists. Meg squared off, making sure to keep both strangers in sight. Danny shifted so she blocked the path to the weakened member of their group. And Benton laughed.
It was the strange, strangled sound that always seemed to brew up within him when the seemingly crazy pieces of his life fell into place. Hunched against Nicole with his head hung low and water dripping from his hood, Benton’s barked laughter caught everyone off guard. The couple hesitated, but only for a moment.
“What’s the joke?” the woman asked.
“The white sedan,” Benton disclosed before he summoned the strength to lift his head. “I’ve seen it each time we stopped. Don’t you get it? Allison wants to use me, but she isn’t following me. She’s following them.”
Realization dawned within Nicole like a razor edged wind. “They killed her!”
Her words barely conquered the sounds of the storm, but they instantly grabbed everyone’s attention. Heavy silence claimed each of them as they grappled with all the implications. It was their own silence that allowed them to hear it.
The cackling.
It drifted along the air like rolling thunder. But it wasn’t just one voice. Dozens crowded in the air, mingling with each other, blending in a wild frenzy that made Nicole nearly drown in her paralyzing fear. Holding Benton close, she glanced over her shoulder, the threat before incomparable to what was rushing up from behind.
Midnight darkness held the world tight, refusing to release it to their flashlights. The maniacal, frenzied laughter grew louder. Rushing towards them. Over them.
“Get in the car!” Zack bellowed.
Chaos broke out at the call. Zack charged for the open back door, but the man swiftly cut him off. Meg and Danny burst forth in the same instant, Meg trying to shove the woman aside while Danny scrambled into the car. A moment later, the high beams flicked on, severing the darkness and illuminating a dozen, ghostly pale faces a few feet down the road. Blinking back into the light, the faces smiled at them, their mouths stretching into impossible lengths, revealing row upon row of twisted fangs.
Someone screamed but Nicole couldn’t tell whom through the crushing laughter. The demons scattered into the darkness, their yowling cackles testifying that they didn’t have a face. Nicole pulled Benton onto his feet with shaking hands. He moved with all the speed his adrenaline rush would allow, and they lumbered towards the car. The wind whipped at them, pushing them back from the safety of the vehicle. The car now seemed an impossible distance away.
The woman was still grappling with Meg. Clawing her hands into Meg’s short hair, the woman tossed her to the side, propelling the teenager out across the road. In the light pouring from the open car door, Nicole caught a glimpse of metal in the woman’s hand. And then she was gone. Shock slowed Nicole’s movements but Benton kept urging her on. The woman was gone. The space she had once occupied, suddenly empty.
Meg picked herself up to race across the now vacant space and dive in through the open front passenger door. She twisted around instantly and reached back outside, screaming at Nicole to hurry up. The man roared as he lunged at Zack. He was strong, but Zack was stronger and refused to yield an inch. Nicole dragged Benton past them and had just flopped him onto the back seat when an earsplitting crash shook the car. The rear window became a spider web of cracks as the metal of the roof buckled. Nicole threw herself back, shielding her face from debris with both arms as she dropped to the pavement.
A limp hand flopped down over the side of the car. Bloody, rainwater drizzled from the fingertips as the air became deafening with the sound of panic and laughter and the ever present thunder. Forcing herself back onto her feet, Nicole aimed the beam of her flashlight to the roof of the car. The woman stared back at her with lifeless eyes. At the sight, the man’s fury grew and he pushed past Zack, his fueled rage apparently focused on Benton. The car shook as the man hurled himself onto Benton and flattened him against the back seat.
Nicole sprinted for the car. Even through her raincoat, she could feel the cold rush of air grazing across her back as something swooped at her. Zack had already gone around the far side and slipped in behind Benton. With the closed door to his back, he was trying to shove the man off of Benton and out of the still open back passenger door. But there wasn’t time. She could feel claws slashing through the plastic of her jacket as she reached the car. With one hand, she slammed the back passenger door shut, trapping the man in with them, but keeping the ghostly demons out. With the other hand, she grabbed Meg’s waiting hand.
Meg’s grip was as solid as stone as she leaned back, throwing her weight behind the task of dragging Nicole into the car. Nicole’s shin hit the door a second before a different hand had grabbed her leg. It pulled hard, and if it weren’t for Meg’s firm grip, Nicole would have been flung back out. Danny reached across her sister and grabbed Nicole’s sleeve. Together, they tried to pull her back in while the grip on her ankle dragged her violently into the air.
The car was filled with a frenzy of screams. The twins shouted for help, while Zack was torn between wanting to rescue Nicole and trying to pry the man’s hands from around Benton’s throat. Nicole could feel the claws shredding her jeans, slashing at the skin underneath. It wrenched her up until her back slammed against the top of the car. The twin’s grip was failing. The rain that covered her jacket was making the material too slippery to hold onto properly. Her attempts to hit the creature that was on her leg only made it harder. Over the tops of the seat, she could see the man’s knuckles turn white as they tightened around Benton’s neck. It didn’t matter what
Zack did, the man refused to release his grip. Benton had one forearm pressed across the man’s chest, trying to force him back, while the other reached for Nicole.
The flashlight fell into the car seat as Nicole slipped her hand under her coat. She found the handle of the gun easily, flicked the safety off with her thumb, and whipped it free. In her heightened position, the angle was easy enough. A thunderous crack rocked the car and the man’s head erupted in a splatter of brain and skull fragments. Shock made the twin’s grip falter. Nicole was yanked back an inch before Benton latched onto her outstretched arm, the move saving her from being pulled free, but also stopping her from re-aiming the gun.
His hand was weak. His scream wasn’t.
The windows exploded into shards in the wake of the shrilled wail. The sound hovered on a point that made her ears ring as the deeper tones penetrated within her chest. Through it all, weaved within the tapestry of impossible sounds, was the hint of a human’s fearful scream. The laughing creatures scattered back into the darkness. Only the one on her leg remained. She could feel it trembling as the pain in her ears intensified. She could feel it melt. Its skin dribbled over her own, rotting away until she was dropped with a sudden jerk.
Benton’s grip failed as Nicole fell. Her knees collided with the pavement as the edge of the seat drove into her stomach. She was vaguely aware that the gun had slipped from her grasp, but the notion was lost as Meg and Danny scrambled to pull her inside. The windows were gone, but Danny still reached over her and pulled the door shut, locking it instantly.
Rain showered in through the empty space, where the window once was, drenching the back of her legs. It was that pattering sound that she first heard when the ringing in her ears subsided. In the jumbled position she was in, Nicole could see between the two front seats into the back. Panting heavily, Benton propped himself against the corpse on his lap to keep himself upright. Behind him sat Zack, with his mouth open, his eyes wide and unblinking. She could feel the twins shaking as they held her tightly. No one said anything. It was in that silence that Nicole truly realized what she had done.
Benton was the first to recover, at least from his shock. With a weak turn of his head, he sought out Nicole’s gaze.
“Are you okay?” he asked with a slight gravel to his voice.
Nicole nodded although she wasn’t quite sure. Physically, mentally, she was still too stunned to know how deep the wounds went.
“Thanks,” Benton said with a weary smile. He waited for her to nod again before continuing. “We should go. This car isn’t going to keep them out if they come back.”
“What the hell just happened?” Zack burst into motion and rage. “We were almost killed. Nicole shot that guy. And you’re some kind of…”
“You can say it,” Benton said as he shifted uncomfortably under the dead weight. “It’s not a derogatory word.”
“How are you so calm?” Meg weakly asked.
“I’ve been around a lot of dead people,” Benton shrugged.
“In your dreams!” Zack snapped. “That’s kind of different.”
Benton rolled his eyes and the gesture made him waver. The others broke into a thousand words, but Nicole couldn’t understand them. All she could see was Benton quickly fading, and the corpse she had created. A patch of blood stained the seat just to the side of his face and her gut wrenched at the sight of it. Still, even as her internal organs seemed to melt into a boiling tar, she didn’t feel a blinding despair crumbling down on her.
Benton lifted his gaze to meet hers and his body went rigid. It took Nicole a second to realize that he wasn’t looking at her. His eyes were focused out on the shattered windshield. The same expression soon covered everyone else’s face. They were all focused on the windshield. Feeling the aches in her body, Nicole pushed herself up to follow their gazes. Allison stood before them. The edge of the high beams only just illuminated her feet. Mud bled out from her, mixing with the rain and pooling around her. Lightning sparked the sky and, within that moment, she could see a dozen other spirits hidden within the shadows. As one, they all began to edge closer.
Nicole scrambled back from the door as Allison stalked past. She jerked and jolted. Even the storm couldn’t drown out the way her flesh squelched with every step. She stopped at Benton’s door and turned. Lightning cracked again and they were suddenly surrounded by the rotting woman. The back door popped open and Nicole snapped around to see Benton nudging the door open with his foot. Zack balled his hands in Benton’s shirt, but it didn’t stop Benton from nudging the door again.
Slowly, Allison crouched down. Sludge dripped from her matted hair and smeared across her face. The darkened smears turned her eyes into luminous milky pools. Allison’s hand twitched as she reached out and closed her hand around the man’s leg. She began to drag the corpse out of the car, all the while keeping her eyes locked with Benton’s. She slipped the man out onto the road with a whack. The other spirits closed in around them and the car began to shake. The suspension squealed and the rain poured in from every angle. Nicole’s hands reached out as she searched for something to hold onto. With one last tremor, the woman’s body was dragged from the roof. Then the spirits retreated back into the darkness, taking the corpses with them, and leaving the stunned teens alone to the driving rain.
When Benton broke the silence, his voice was numb. “Please tell me someone has the car keys.”
Chapter 12
The air had shifted the moment Danny had driven the car, careening off of the highway and back onto the main road. Hurricane winds still slammed into the sides of the vehicle and the rain still drove down like hail, but Benton felt the change. His spine arched and his lungs gulped down air as if he had been drowning. The chill that encased him remained, but no longer dug into him like daggers of ice.
Lights flickered across the horizon, barely concealed by the typhoon and the swirling masses of darkness that surrounded it. Danny didn’t hesitate to push the car to its limits. How she managed to keep the battered vehicle on the road in such conditions was beyond him. But she never wavered as she veered around the slippery patches that were quickly coming up to flood the roads. The tires created walls of water as they cut through the unavoidable patches.
As they drew closer to the town, streetlights became a common sight. Shadows raced through the patches of light that polluted the air. A howling trail of malignant laughter rushed towards them and slammed against the side of the car. The metal dented under the assault and the tires squealed, forcing the car into the other lane. Danny hardly had the time to right the car before another strike sent them careening back.
Thrown around in the back seat, Benton tried to keep from getting too close to any of the gaping places where the glass had once been. The demonic laughter rose, and into it rivaled the roar of a hurricane. Claws reached in towards him, grasping and slashing. Covering their heads, Benton and Zack vied for safe space, trying to get out of the way of the demonic talons and Nicole’s shots. It didn’t take long for the onslaught to tax her remaining bullets, leaving them with no protection beyond Danny’s driving.
As if sensing this, the demons centered their attacks on ripping their way towards the car’s engine. Chunks of metal were torn from the hood, left to bounce and slash their way through the empty space of the windshield and into the car. Without looking up, Benton knew that the water was rising. The engine roared and strained as the water pushed back. It wasn’t enough to bring them to a stop but enough to be felt.
Knowing exactly where they were going, Danny ripped through the few streets of Fort Wayward. The water caught the wheels and drove them into a sideways slide. The car diverted and swung wildly as Danny yanked the wheel and slammed her foot down onto the gas pedal. Benton was prepared for the crunch of splintering wood and the jarring jolt that brought them to a jerk. Already huddled, Benton slacked against the door as the car’s engine sputtered and died with a hiss. The wind and laughter became distant but without the deluge striking the roof,
the world seemed suddenly quiet.
“You just drove through a historical monument,” Nicole gasped weakly.
Danny’s voice echoed the shell-shocked tone. “We’re in a hurry.”
Benton had only just begun to straighten when he heard the front passenger door open. A second later, the door behind him yanked open and Nicole began to gently remove his hands off of his head.
“Benton,” she eased, “you have to move now. Can you get up?”
“I’m okay,” Benton promised. He was still frozen and his every movement felt like he was about to crack, but thinking had become clearer and he felt like he could move again. “Are you okay?”
Nicole nodded and helped him out of the car and over the surrounding rubble. It was his first time within the actual fort that had given the town its name. The streetlights washed in through the rain and windows, casting a honeyed glow over the long room. Taking it in, it seemed that the building had a square design with a courtyard sheltered within the middle. The hysterical creatures circled like vultures, casting shadows over the illuminated space and smacking against the sides of the building as if they were trying to find their way in. They seemed to be within a rustic gift shop, with rows of low aisles dividing the spacious room, and the actual museum beginning at the corner ahead of them.
“Where’s the speaker system?” Zack asked.
“The tower,” Nicole instantly replied as she pointed out across the courtyard. Grabbing Benton’s hand, as if unsure that he could make the distance, she began to drag him forward. “We can get to it through the museum.”
“How do you know this?” Meg asked as she followed.
Nicole didn’t stop looking at the room as she hurried them through the gift shop. “They let me watch the parade from the control room a few times.”
