Dwight mouthed a reply an instant before one of the girls bit down on his exposed neck. The pink skin of his throat stretched, then red, a deep crimson sprayed forth and soaked the front of his uniform.
End this, Liam’s friend had mouthed just before he was torn apart.
End this.
Chapter 58
“You can’t help him now,” a voice whispered in his ear. It took Liam several moments to realize that the man speaking was Hugh Freeman. “He’s gone.”
Liam sobbed, but allowed himself to be pulled to his feet.
“If we don’t leave now, we’ll be next,” Hugh said quietly. His voice was so lacking in emotion that Liam feared that the man had either developed an affect, or he really didn’t care about anything.
After what he had seen, what he had experienced, Liam wasn’t sure he cared either.
It was all too much.
Except there are three hundred people back in the auditorium that will be next if you don’t do anything about it.
Liam swallowed hard and retreated with Hugh, barely able to tear his eyes away from Dwight’s convulsing body.
They slunk through the trees like criminals avoiding sight lines from guard towers. Liam had to focus so hard on keeping his footing that it thankfully kept his mind off what he had—or thought he had—seen.
They’re dead already…
After an immeasurable amount of time had passed, Hugh finally stopped. The man looked around, but everything appeared the same to Liam: just trees and more swamp.
“It was right here,” he mumbled.
“What? What was here?” Liam gasped, struggling to catch his breath.
Hugh ignored the comment.
“Where the hell did it go?”
“What?”
“It was right fucking here!”
Liam finally reached out and shook the man.
“What the fuck are you looking for?”
Hugh’s face was pale as moonlight.
“The gateway… I’m looking for the gateway.”
Liam let go of the man and backed away.
He had gone insane.
They all had.
That was the only explanation.
“It’s not here,” another voice answered.
Liam whipped around to see a man step from the shadows. He was clutching his side with one arm, but blood continued to seep from a hidden wound.
His entire hand was red.
“Cherry!” Hugh exclaimed. “Jesus, you’re alive!”
“Barely,” the man grumbled. As Liam watched, the man used his free arm to reach into the jacket of his soiled jeans and pull out a flask.
After taking a long haul, he offered it to Liam. As if in a daze, Liam took it and finished it in one swig before tossing it to the ground.
With a straight face, the man who Liam now realized must be FBI Agent Brett Cherry said, “The easiest way to kill them is to light them on fire. I took out a handful back at the house—burned them alive. But I’ve used up all my—”
A whistle came from the forest, and all three of them tensed.
An elderly woman broke into the small clearing in which they stood. Liam gaped as the woman waddled up next to Brett Cherry and, without saying a word, plopped a red jerrycan at his feet. Then, as if nothing had happened, she used her cane to hobble away.
“What in the holy fuck?” Liam asked, but nobody answered.
After all he’d seen today, this was perhaps the least bizarre.
It was most definitely the least threatening.
“We need to burn them,” Cherry repeated, and this time Liam found himself nodding. “We need to burn mother alive.”
Chapter 59
“I’ll do it,” Brett Cherry said.
Liam shook his head.
“It should be me; Elloree is my town, my people.”
Brett winced and pulled his hand away from his stomach. His entire side was red. Blood had not only soaked through his shirt, but had made his trench coat soggy.
“I’m dying anyways… and there’s one person I owe this to.”
Liam couldn’t think of another reason to disagree. If Brett’s complexion was any indication, however, then whatever they decided to do, they had to act fast.
“You sure this will work?”
Brett tried to look confident, but he fell just short.
“It almost worked before,” he said, “years ago.” Then he pulled the gun from his hip and handed it to Liam. “I want you to help me.”
Liam took the gun and weighed it in his palm. It was heavier than his own, which he had since tossed aside after he had emptied the chamber.
While he was inspecting the gun, he caught Brett glance at Hugh in his periphery; he didn’t catch the entire silent exchange, but saw enough to understand its meaning: if he doesn’t do it, you have to.
There was no heartfelt goodbye, no thank yous, the only thing that passed between them was a final word of warning from Brett’s lips.
“If this doesn’t work, I want you to run. Grab everyone in town and just run. Get as far away from the swamp as you possibly can. And never come back.”
Chapter 60
Liam stared from the trees, watching as Brett Cherry mentally prepared himself. The man was standing on the burnt remains of 8181 Coverfeld Ave, the jerrycan at his side, just within reach.
His pacing had become more awkward, less coordinated, and blood had started to soak the front of his jeans.
Come on, we don’t have much time, Liam thought. He squeezed the butt of the gun rhythmically in one hand, shifting his finger from the trigger guard to the actual trigger as he did.
He had just glanced over at Hugh when Brett started shouting.
“Anne LaForet, I’m here! I’m here for you and your daughter!”
Liam held his breath as he waited for a response that never came.
“Mother! I’m here!”
Still nothing.
Seconds bled into minutes.
Brett suddenly staggered, and needed to brace himself with a hand on the ashen ground to avoid falling. He slowly raised his head and uttered, “Mater est, matrem omnium.”
Stacey Weller exited the woods first, her head downcast, her gait robotic.
Liam, who had been holding his breath, suddenly gasped.
They’re already dead, he told himself. And yet, regardless of what he had seen, the notion was so foreign that he couldn’t help but feel guilt course through him.
Was this the same little girl that Officer Jenkins had come to retrieve? Who had been born to parents that once lived in Elloree? Or was she something else?
Others followed Stacey into the clearing now, and when they slowly raised their heads, revealing their pitch-black eyes, and started to chant along with Brett Cherry, any idea that these were normal children vanished from Sheriff Liam Lancaster’s mind.
They’re already dead… please be dead already.
The children continued to march forward, all the while whispering those horrible, foreign words.
“Mater est, matrem omnium, mater est matrem omnium, mater est, matrem omnium.”
Liam’s breathing was ragged and he tried to slow his breathing, but found it an impossible task.
“Yes, come to me!” Brett begged.
The girls continued to march. When they reached the border of the burnt house, however, they stopped.
“Come on! Come on! I’m right here!” Brett shouted. “You remember this house, Anne? The house that Benjamin and Jessie raped you in? The house in which Jane Heath and the townsfolk ripped your child from your womb?”
Liam watched for any reaction out of the girls, but saw none.
Brett extended a blood-soaked finger toward a blackened oak tree by the edge of the property.
“Where they burned you and your daughter alive?”
Stacey Weller took one step forward, then another.
Keep going, keep going, come one.
“Yeah, that’s right. This is the place, is
n’t it? The place that you brought women to, tricked them into believing that you were helping them. Giving desperate women a child only to steal it away again? Huh? Isn’t that right?”
The girls continued forward now, and as they did Liam recognized a snag in their plan: in his diatribe and shuffling, Brett had strayed too far from the jerrycan of gasoline.
The man seemed not to notice, so lost was he in his own world, a mixture of memories and a tale reminiscent of the book Stevie had brought back from the library.
“This is the place that you took my Kendra from me, you fucking bastard,” Brett spat.
Liam’s eyes darted to Hugh, but the man also seemed entranced by what he was seeing.
Brett suddenly threw his arms wide.
“Come to me! Enter me!” he shouted at the top of his lungs.
The girls lunged at him then, and as they did, Brett reached for the gasoline.
Only the girls were too fast, the gasoline too far.
“No!” Liam barked.
Stacey started to claw Brett’s face, as she and the others had done to Dwight.
“Hugh, we have to go, we have to—”
Hugh held up a finger, and it was then that Liam realized this was what Brett had wanted all along.
He wanted to die here, provided he took the demon of the swamp with him. As long as Mother went to hell by his side.
“Enter me!” the man shrieked. “Enter me! Enter me! Enter me! I’m coming Ken-Ken! I’m coming! I got the bitch for you, I really did. I got her and—”
His shrieks degenerated into wet gurgles, and suddenly only his hand was visible.
A hand holding a match.
Brett managed to strike the match and then with something akin to a laugh, he twisted his arm back so that it made contact with his gasoline-soaked trench coat.
The flame that erupted was incredible, but despite its brilliance, the cloud of black smoke was even more impressive.
The girls threw their heads back, and a thick cloud vomited forth, collecting into a black shadow just above Brett Cherry’s head.
“Enter me,” Brett repeated once more, only this time Liam heard it inside his head.
“Now!” Hugh shouted, and the two men sprang from the woods.
As Liam sprinted, he saw the black cloud condense and then force itself down Brett Cherry’s throat.
The fire, once an incredible spire, suddenly died down.
The girls’ lifeless bodies are smothering it, Liam realized in horror.
It was only fifty or maybe sixty paces from his vantage point in the woods to Brett’s body, but as Liam ran, the distance seemed to stretch out, making it feel like three or four times that distance.
Reach for the can, Brett. Grab the can and douse yourself, end this!
But Brett Cherry did nothing of the sort. Instead, he bucked like some sort of wild animal, sending the last of the children’s lifeless corpses flying into the mud. In the process, he extinguished the last of the fire.
The man was on all fours, his back smoldering, his hair gone, his clothes but singed rags clinging to scalded flesh. As Liam neared, Brett raised his head to look at him.
Liam had to wipe the tears from his eyes to get a better look, just to make sure.
The skin on Brett’s face had melted away, but his eyes were still whole.
Only they weren’t his eyes; they were pitch black orbs belonging to someone—no, something else. A demon perhaps, Liam couldn’t be sure, but they most definitely weren’t his.
Liam crossed himself and uttered a quick prayer.
What had once been Brett Cherry opened its mouth and a torrent of steam came forth.
“Mater est, matrem—”
Liam raised the man’s gun and took aim.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, and then fired.
Even before the thing that had inhabited Brett’s body collapsed, Hugh was there, dumping gasoline over top his mangled form.
“I’m sorry,” Liam sobbed.
He collapsed to his knees, his mind turning to Dwight, to Father Smith, to Patty, but most of all to a girl he had never even met: Stacey Weller.
I’m sorry. I’m so, so, sorry for all of you.
Chapter 61
They waited for the fire to completely burn itself out, rendering Brett Cherry a near identical facsimile to the bodies that had been here when Liam had first been called out to the swamp.
Then they waited for a half-hour after that.
“Is it over?” Liam asked at long last.
Hugh took his time before answering.
“This part might be over, but it’s far from done.”
Liam stared off into the distance.
“You’re a good man, Hugh Freeman. And Elloree lost a good deputy today. There’ll be much rebuilding after this, much time for healing. We could use someone like you.”
Hugh turned to him then, and Liam realized that the man was also crying. He held out his hand, and Liam shook it vigorously.
“Thank you, Sheriff. But I’m afraid that I have other friends out there, friends that need my help.”
Liam nodded.
“And I have a town that needs me.”
They held hands for a moment longer, before Liam gave one final, abbreviated pump and disengaged. Then he turned and, without looking back, made his way to his patrol car.
***
The high school parking lot was so packed that Liam couldn’t even get in. Instead, he double-parked and then stepped out into the sun.
“Everyone out,” he said. The four bewildered girls in the backseat did as they were bid, and together they made the slow walk up to the front doors. Even before they reached them, Liam could hear angry voices from inside.
“There’s no car! This is all just a fucking scam! Let us out!”
“Yeah, let us out!”
Liam rubbed his eyes, smearing soot across his face.
He knocked once and was surprised when the door opened immediately. He was even more surprised when he saw Stevie’s lopsided eyes staring back.
“Fffffuuck,” the man moaned. “Sheriff, you okay?”
Stevie reached for Liam, but Liam pushed him away. It wasn’t because he didn’t need the support—god knows he did—but more because Liam knew if the deputy went to hug him now, he would collapse into the man’s arms and never be able to get out.
“I’ll live,” he croaked. Phlegm filled his throat, and he coughed a black wad onto the sidewalk. “Girls, go to your families.”
Liam stepped aside, and the four girls ran into the school, nearly bowling Stevie over in the process.
“You found them! Jesus, you found them, Sheriff!” Stevie exclaimed, his voice cracking.
Liam nodded.
“But… where’s Hugh?”
Liam shook his head.
“Dwight? Please tell me Dwight’s—”
Liam shook his head a second time.
“I’m sorry, Stevie,” was all he could manage.
Tears burst from Stevie’s eyes, soaking his red cheeks.
Cheers erupted from somewhere deep inside the school.
“Is it over, Liam?” Stevie sobbed. “Is it finally over?”
Liam hesitated, then replied using the same words that Hugh Freeman had less than an hour ago.
“This part might be over, but it’s far from done.”
With that, he turned and started back toward his car.
“Where are you going now?” his deputy called after him.
“I’m going to get some sleep. I’ve never been so tired in my goddamn life.”
He was halfway to his car when Stevie hollered after him.
“Sheriff? What about the car? I promised these guys a car, and they’re going to eat me alive if I don’t—”
Liam reached into his pocket and spun around, throwing both Tommy Ray and Bobby Lee’s car keys in the air. They struck Stevie in the chest, and by some minor miracle he managed to catch them both.
“Give ‘em
two,” he said.
Liam Lancaster had wanted to retire without any murders in Elloree during his tenure as Sheriff, but never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that he would still be working after he’d committed one.
Liam pictured Brett’s pitch-black eyes moments before his head exploded.
He was already dead… maybe we all are.
Epilogue
The crooked woman wandered over to the burnt house, leaning heavily on her gnarled cane for support.
The Sheriff had done well, as had Hugh and Brett. That was promising for the future.
And yet this victory was but a small win in the battle between the living and the dead.
For the Marrow.
There was much more death to come.
The witch moved over to where Brett’s burned body still lay. She prodded what was left of the man’s back with the cane.
There was a soft hiss, and a small cloud of gas was released into the atmosphere. She scrunched her pointed nose.
The woman was about to straighten and leave this place, when a groan drew her attention to a spot that had been cordoned off.
Limping, she hobbled over to the location where the sound had come from.
As she watched, a blackened hand emerged from the depths and grabbed onto an invisible ledge.
Another one followed.
The woman grunted and somehow managed to squat despite the audible protests of seemingly every joint in her body.
There was a second grunt, then a blackened, bald head emerged. A moment later, an entire, bloated face came into view. The heat coming off it was immense.
“Hello,” the woman said in a calm and even voice. The man raised his eyes to look at her, revealing a deep blackness within.
There was something on his forehead, red smudges amidst the black. It took her a while to realize what it was.
Two letters in block type: BH.
The man grunted, and the woman brought her cane out in front of her.
“Tell the Goat we’re coming for him. Tell him that Seth Parsons says hello,” the witch said before driving the point of the cane into the demon’s eye. “Tell him that this isn’t over yet.”
Daughter Page 19
