His username and password didn’t work, no matter how many times he tried. Growling, he went to create a new email when the computer shut black and he saw it wasn’t plugged into the charger.
There was a knock on his hotel door, and he leapt out of the chair. He shoved the laptop under his bed, backed against the far wall, and watched the door carefully. He had a gun in his closet, but that might be too far away.
There was another set of powerful knocks, and the door shook on its hinges. The handle twisted slowly, and then pushed open. But instead of fingers curling around the edge, there was a piece of paper shoved through. Then the door clicked shut and the feet shadows underneath fled to the right.
Steven waited a minute, and then scrambled across the carpet to get the paper. He snatched it off the ground and retrieved the gun from his closet. Hiding in the opposite corner from the door, he finally sat down by the desk and unfolded the paper.
You won’t be able to charge your laptop. I’ve made sure of that. So for now, your words are lost. I apologize. It seemed like such a beautiful piece, judging by the faces you made typing it. Maybe I’ll read it before it burns.
You know what I’m going to ask. We need to meet. I’ll kill the detective and all his family if you refuse. Meet me at the broken bridge in the woods tomorrow. That’s where this story belongs. Bring the laptop. Don’t try to trick me. I’ll know if you do. Come whenever you like. I’ll be there.
If you want Daniel to have a fighting chance, then you will obey me. Or you all will die. Don’t test me. You can’t risk it, Steven.
He stood up from the corner, going straight to his closet. Grabbing a backpack, he thrust the dead laptop into it. If she did manage to get it, she wouldn’t get the charger. He took it into the bathroom and left it in a tub of water, after cutting the cord to bits with scissors. She couldn’t delete the manuscript. At least if she burned it, maybe some tech genius could salvage parts of it
Steven got out his old police holster and put the pistol in it. Then he got the wallet from the desk and opened it to the picture of his wife and his little girl. He kissed them, set it down on the desk, and rummaged in his suitcase for the plane ticket and a pen.
This was all I had to write on. I’m sorry. I love you so much. Please forgive me. I tried to help an old friend. If you read this, it means I died. I lost. But I did it for you, and for us. Because if there’s one thing I learned, it’s that family takes work to build and protect. Friends are worth fighting for. Love is worth dying for. I love you.
He put the backpack on, shoved his feet into shoes, and then stood by the window, peering down at the old woman below. She glared up at him, seeing the straps on his back, and gave him a smile and nod, as if to say, “Good choice.”
The dependable car started immediately, though he’d half-hoped it wouldn’t. He glanced at the gas level, and saw it was over half. Reluctant to move, he shifted into drive and pressed down gingerly, letting the engine purr as he crossed the parking lot and then swiveled onto the main road.
No other headlights were stupid enough to be awake at this time. He was alone, truly by himself, and followed the highway towards that ancient forest in the distance. It was all around their tiny town of Hardy, encompassing them. Even in California, his dreams were tainted by visions of a dark forest. Now he remembered why.
His leg began to cramp as he pulled over, parking near the tree line. The last five minutes went by in a tornado of thoughts. He knew, as he shut off the engine, that he wasn’t coming back. Steven had become the sacrificial lamb, one of many. All too well, he remembered the policeman they’d found dead last time. Daniel described that man’s body in gory detail. He was about to find out in even more.
Steven climbed out, leaving it on the road with the headlights on, pointing towards the trees. He left the second plane ticket by the base of a tree, hoping a creature wouldn’t carry it away. On it was his explanation, his excuse for wandering into the forest.
Then he took a step into the dark shadows, and he heard leaves crunching ahead of him, a bit in the distance. He knew he was supposed to follow, and so he did. The night was overwhelming, the trees were bending low and scraping at his mind, but he remembered his little girl in California and knew that nobody was safe from this woman. Not while the monster was still alive.
He followed on. She watched.
Chapter 13
Diamond
Daniel pulled his car up to the thin, single-story building. There were three doors on the side facing him, each of them leading to a different apartment. The place was cheap, moldy, and two of the doors had “For Rent” signs hanging from the knobs. In the middle, however, the door was freshly painted, and a shabby-looking car sat in front of it like a cat.
“Daddy, where are we?” Lucy asked nervously, peeking out from the backseat of the minivan he drove.
“Still in Indiana. We’re alright,” he said without much conviction.
He got out of the car and opened her door, helping Lucy clamber out from the cluttered van. There were cups everywhere and McDonald’s bags, along with the stench of fast food and alcohol.
“But why are we here?” Lucy begged to know, clutching at his hand.
“You’ll understand one day,” Daniel muttered, “but I’m trying to help you. Save you. I know the last few days have been especially bad, but it’s gonna get better. It has to get better.”
Lucy stared at him unsurely. “I miss Mommy.”
Daniel felt a tear build up, but shook it away. His heart sunk and a lump rose in his throat. “We’re okay. We’re gonna be okay.”
He left the minivan unlocked and led Lucy to the middle door. Daniel took a deep breath and then knocked three times. He heard movement from within. He heard a gasp from the other side of the door, just faintly, and noticed there was a peephole stuck in the door.
She must have recognized me.
“Open the door,” he demanded. “I need to talk to you.” There was no movement. “Please,” he begged, putting both hands on the door and lowering his head against it.
There was a click, and then the door pulled inwards until she was standing directly in front of him. Her hair was black now and cut short, not quite to her shoulders. There were dark bags under her eyes, with the residue of makeup from last night. Her clothes were dirty and smelled like sweat, but when she saw Lucy her eyes brightened. Daniel noticed her fingers and the sides of her hands were covered in ink, and there were numerous books strewn around the apartment behind her.
“Crystal…”
“Hi, Daniel,” she muttered. “It’s been a long time.”
“Twenty years.” He felt a buildup of emotions in his throat and struggled to breathe.
She stepped forwards and hugged him tightly, letting a single tear fall. “I don’t want to know why you’re here, but I already do. I’ve had this summer marked on my calendar for twenty years. I knew I would see you again. That She would come after you.”
“Crystal, it isn’t like before. I… The pattern isn’t working. She’s changed, or something. There are too many deaths, too many kidnappings. No pattern to any of it.” He bowed his head. “Casualties I never counted on.”
“Come in, sit down,” Crystal said, moving out of the way. “We’ll sit and talk.”
Daniel nodded and trudged past her, holding Lucy’s hand. She entwined both of hers with his one, and they went in to find a living room completely trashed, with books everywhere and grime covering every surface. There were bottles of soda and alcohol, along with cheap snacks and empty buckets of cheese balls.
Crystal sat down in the lone armchair, so Daniel and Lucy went to the couch. When everybody was seated and Lucy was hiding against Daniel’s chest, they began to talk.
“We went back to Hardy,” Daniel started. “Don’t look at me like that. I know it was a mistake. We got a rental house, and then things started happening and we can’t leave now. She took my daughter’s boyfriend, and then my daughter. Now she… Are
you okay?”
Crystal was shaking visibly, hunched in her chair.
“What happened to you, Crystal?”
She brought her feet up and curled into a ball. In that moment, she looked like a child again, just a teenager in over her head. Tears began to fall from her eyes, and she glanced up at Daniel. He could read shame on her face, and guessed what she would say next. He’d seen it a lot as a cop.
“My family moved after that summer in Hardy. I was in high school, with no friends, and I was depressed. School was hard for me, but I managed to pass with some cheating. Then my parents started talking about colleges, and it killed me because I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to do anything. They thought I was okay, because I acted like it, but really I just wanted to die. I started cutting myself, and I guess I became emo, or whatever the word is now.”
He nodded. “Keep going.”
“I moved here, to Indy, because I guess it was close but not too close. That was about ten years. I couldn’t get a job to save my life, and eventually I… I got into prostitution and I started giving people ‘favors.’ My…” Crystal lowered her head again and started sobbing openly. “It all went downhill from there, and I ended up living here when I wasn’t pretty enough anymore. But I was afraid people would recognize me, so I cut my hair short, dyed it black, and I wear hoods out everywhere I go so nobody will see me again and remember. I’m sure somebody will. I did lots of jobs. It was just…”
“It’s okay, you can move on,” Daniel said. “What are you doing now, though? All these books?”
“I went to see my parents, and I told them I wanted to go to college. I’m taking classes at IUPUI right now. It’s not far from here. They agreed to pay for my first two years and my rent, until I get things together.”
“So you’re doing better, some?” Daniel asked hopefully.
She nodded, mumbling something indistinguishable.
“Crystal, I… I really don’t want to drag you back into this, especially now when you’re getting everything together. But… I really can’t just stop. I don’t have anything anymore. I told you that the pattern’s broken, and I think it’s like freedom for her. Now She can do anything she wants. She’s killing at will, and She’s changing everything. I don’t know if you’ve been back to Marcy, but it’s entirely different. Everything’s changed, and everyone’s changed.”
“The past hasn’t let go of me either, Daniel. Everything’s that happened is because of her. She isn’t here” -she motioned her arms around the room- “but She’s here.” Crystal tapped her head. “She’s always here.”
“Crystal, I need your help. I don’t have anyone else to go to!”
“What about Brandon?” Crystal asked. “I’m sure you can find him if you found me. Or maybe you think he went through more than me, that he somehow was hurt worse by it all.” She crossed her arms defiantly. “So why won’t you go see him?”
“I… Crystal, I would rather have both of you. And I was gonna see him, but I wanted to get out of the town. I needed to get away from Hardy, so I came here.” A tear welled up in Daniel’s eye, and he straightened his back. “Too many people have been hurt because of me. I understand if you don’t want to come. I’ll give you my address in case you change your mind.”
He pulled out a receipt from the mess inside his pockets and wrote down the street and number of the house where they were staying. His hand was shaking as he handed the slip of paper to her, then he and Lucy walked towards the door.
“I’ll be at this area in a couple days once I move out, and then I’m gonna stay in a hotel.”
“Wait!” Crystal said, jumping up. “I thought you were staying in a rental home? This isn’t a home. It’s a street.”
Daniel closed his eyes and turned back to face her. “It was the day after I went to meet an old friend. His name was Steven, and he helped us with the woman the first time around, if you didn’t know. Well, the morning after, we woke up and Emma, our baby, wasn’t in her crib. My wife started screaming, and I tore the house apart. But she wasn’t anywhere. About an hour later, I got another text on my phone from the woman, who was using our teenage daughter’s phone. It was a picture of our baby, and there was a match just inches above her head. She was screaming, I think, and it was dark.
“My wife spent the entire day locked in our bathroom with a bottle of whiskey. That evening, I got the news that Steven’s body had turned up near the bridge. He was dead. I knew it was all very wrong, because the woman doesn’t kill people unless they come to her. She doesn’t hunt them. I went to his hotel room, and his laptop was missing. I left Lucy at home, and she called me to say that my wife hadn’t come out of the bathroom yet and she was hungry. I went home to make Lucy dinner and then I went up to get my wife and talk to her.
“I knocked on the door and she didn’t open.” Daniel’s voice began to choke up. “I… I hit the door and I banged my shoulder against it and I finally kicked it in. I walked in and I saw the bathtub was full of water, but it wasn’t water anymore because her wrists and her legs were cut and there was blood everywhere. She was leaning back against the wall, wearing all her clothes, with a peaceful, pale expression. I ran over yelling, and shouting at her to stop, and I said I loved her and to please stop it as I dragged her out of the bathtub. But… but she was gone. And I just cried over her. Lucy… Lucy saw her and me. And she called the police. They came in and took her… took her away. And she’s gone. They’re all gone.”
Daniel fell to his knees on the ground, burying his face in the back of the couch and sobbing. He punched the ground with a fist until Lucy came up and hugged him tightly, and her fell into his little daughter’s arms.
“I can’t help you,” Crystal mumbled, her own eyes full of tears. “I… I just can’t. I can’t get into this. I’m so sorry, Daniel. Ask Brandon. Maybe he can help.”
She walked away, into the depths of the house. Daniel got shakily to his feet and led Lucy out of the house, closing the door behind him. He heard someone crying from the interior of the house.
<><><> <><> <>
Daniel sat on his couch in the dim light, taking a swig of the whiskey beside him. He set the bottle down and gripped his shotgun tightly, his eyes alert and darting around the room. Sunlight snuck in through the windows, where boards were nailed. It lit up dust and dirt flying in the air, and cast it’s thin, harsh rays on the dusty carpet. There was quiet all around him, but every sound of settling sent a shiver up his spine.
The front door was bolted shut, and wood covered that as well, with just a slit for mail. Their kitchen was overrun with non-perishable foods, and nearly everything they ate came from a can. Lucy had a bed in the living room, directly in front of Daniel, and she was still asleep.
They never went outside or saw the sun, so her sleep cycles were messed up. Lucy slept when she was tired, and stumbled around the house when she wasn’t. The previous day, she’d asked Daniel for a drink of the bottle beside him because they were out of juice, and he made her sit in the corner of the room for hours.
“It’s been almost a week, Daddy,” she had said to him. “Can we go outside now? You promised we would.”
“We’ll go outside when it’s safe,” he’d mumbled angrily. “When She’s dead.”
The shotgun was rigid on his lap, sawed off at the end. There was another gun in the holster at his side, from his days in the police force, so that when She came for Lucy there would be no hope of her escape. There was no chance for the woman.
All the lights in the house were off, and during the day a dusky darkness overtook the whole place. At night, the home became pitch black, and Daniel listened intently for any sounds. He’d set up an alarm system that blared noisily if anything came inside the house, because he had no doubt She would find a way in. It was impossible, but She would do it.
“What are we hiding from?” Lucy asked him.
Daniel’s head snapped in her direction. She was laying on the floor, but wide awake, staring at
the ceiling where a beam of sunlight came through the window. She watched the dust particles fall to the floor, quietly and deathly.
“You know what we’re hiding from,” Daniel growled. “Don’t be stupid.”
“I just want a normal life!” Lucy began to cry. She buried her face in the pillow and started shaking as her tears soaked the pillow. “This was supposed to be a vacation!” she screamed, lifting her head.
“I know.”
“Where’s Mommy?” she shouted. “Where is she? What have you done with everybody!”
“They’re gone!” Daniel yelled, jumping to his feet. “Mommy’s dead! She killed herself, and the woman took your sisters and now everybody’s gone because I was right and they wouldn’t listen to me! It’s not my fault!”
“You killed Mommy!” Lucy scrambled to her feet and ran to the time-out corner where she sat for hours.
“Come here!” Daniel stomped over to her.
“No!” Lucy hid against the wall. “You killed Mommy!”
“I didn’t-”
Lucy let out a high-pitched, terrible shriek. “You-”
There was a sudden crack of skin against skin as Daniel reached down and hit her across the jaw with his open hand.
They stared at each other for a moment. Lucy began to sniffle, and then she cried outright and ran away upstairs, where she hadn’t gone for weeks. She climbed over the barricade Daniel had made at the bottom of the stairs and then sprinted up to her room.
“I didn’t kill Mommy,” Daniel sobbed, stumbling towards the steps. He knew Lucy would go into her room and slam the door, so he grabbed his shotgun and climbed up the stairs.
He sat outside her room with the gun in hand, trying to be attentive but also choking on tears. Lucy was on the other side of the bedroom door, screaming and crying and throwing things around. She yelled, “It hurts! You hurt me, Daddy!” and Daniel slammed his head backwards against the door.
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