The Jersey Devil

by Hunter Shea

  The beast hissed back, its eyes locked on April.

  “You’re not taking her,” he said, nodding toward his granddaughter. To her credit, she didn’t seem the least bit fazed by the Devil’s fascination.

  The Jersey Devil turned its deep-set eyes to him. Sam felt a hand squeeze his heart. His vision wavered, but he refused to put his rifle down.

  April started with a low chuckle. She said, “The joke’s on you. You could try, you ugly fucker, but you’ll never get what you want out of me. I can’t have normal kids, and I sure as hell can’t have whatever shit stains will come out of that diseased-looking thing you seem to think is so impressive.”

  In its anger, the Jersey Devil flew at April, stopping just short of bowling her over. Heather screamed, still in its clutches.

  When April moved the Beretta to the Devil’s forehead, it lifted Heather higher so the gun was to her mouth

  “Your mark doesn’t mean shit,” she said.

  There was a loud explosion. Sam staggered, kept on his feet thanks to Norm.

  The Jersey Devil wailed, taking to the sky with Heather. Blood came down in tiny droplets, staining the ground.

  “Shit!” Ben spat, dropping to a knee and aiming at the ascending creature.

  “You n-nailed it!” Norm shouted, staring at the blood.

  “Not good enough,” Ben said, keeping the Devil in his crosshairs. “It still has Heather.”

  The girl was yowling in a mix of agony and unbridled fear.

  Sam heard the desperate wail of police sirens.

  The Devil must have as well, because it hovered over them for a moment, looking where the emergency vehicles would be coming from. The other two creatures came from wherever they’d been hiding, now flying on either side of it. All three took off, vanishing in seconds.

  Ben punched the van’s hood. “Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! I had it!”

  April grabbed his shirt, pulling him to the open door. “Come on, we have to follow them and get out of here before the cops arrive. Once they block us in, we’ll be stuck for the rest of the day, if not the week, trying to explain what the hell happened here.”

  Norm looked in the van and said, “What about L-L-Leeds?”

  Despite the heaviness in his chest, Sam grabbed the dead man’s feet. “Help me get him out. We’ll leave him here with the rest of the casualties.”

  Shooting him a wary glance, Norm said, “I didn’t sign up for disposing of bodies, Sam.”

  “Then you’re free to stay here with him.”

  He didn’t have time to give a rah-rah speech or assuage Norm’s concerns. They had to get their asses on the road and hope they could spot the damned things.

  He could hear Norm’s teeth grinding, but the man wordlessly helped him extract Gordon Leeds from under the interior wreckage and laid him down next to an orderly who was missing his head.

  They made it out of the single road leading to the hospital just as a flock of cop cars and firetrucks came screaming in.

  As they tore down the road, Sam noticed the gunshot wound on April’s arm. “Go back!” he yelled.

  Ben hit the brakes. Everyone fell forward.

  “Did you see them?” Daryl asked.

  “Your sister’s been shot.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” April said. “Keep driving. That thing has Heather and we all know what it’s going to do to her. We have to stop it.”

  “It won’t go back to the old Leeds house,” Norm said. “B-Because we know about it. But that leaves over a m-million other acres for it to lose itself.”

  Ben kept the van idling. “It’s not going to violate Heather.” His face was grim, but there was the beginnings of a smile at the corner of his mouth. “It took Heather knowing we would follow it.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” April said. She looked ready to jump out of her skin.

  Now Ben put the van back in drive. “Because I just shot its dick off.”

  * * *

  Heather watched in horror as the world sped beneath her.

  I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die!

  She didn’t want to end up like Jane and she sure as hell didn’t want her throat slashed like Daniela. Her terror had taken total control. She couldn’t even feel sad for her friend. Not now, dangling from the clutches of this nightmare, hundreds of feet in the air.

  The Jersey Devil emitted a constant stream of rumbling groans. It was hurt. She could see the blood spattering the bottom half of her legs.

  As much as she wanted to be free from its grasp, freefalling to her death was even less of an option.

  All she could hope for was that the wound was so severe, it would have to drop down to land either out of exhaustion or the inability to keep flying.

  I hope you bleed out!

  The ability to speak her feelings aloud had been robbed by cold fear. She wished there was some way to see where it had been hurt. Maybe, if she could apply a little pressure to the wound, it would force the creature to land.

  Or let me go.

  No, that wouldn’t do. Unless it flew low enough over some trees that could break her fall, if not her neck.

  The two smaller creatures swooped back and forth, snapping at her, just missing taking portions of her flesh.

  And then she heard something that seemed so out of place, she wondered if she was hallucinating.

  Music.

  It sounded like a live concert, or someone with some really big speakers out to piss off the neighbors.

  When she looked down, her head spun. The Devil had climbed even higher. Vertigo punched her in the solar plexus. She was sure she was going to black out. It would be a mercy.

  But she stayed conscious, long enough to see they were soaring over a shore, blue waters stretching on for as far as she could see.

  And on the shore, there were tons of people milling around the green grass of a giant park. She saw the stage, heard the clapping and cheering as the music cut off.

  What she wouldn’t give to be down there, a cold beer in one hand, maybe a corn dog in the other, jamming out to any kind of music—all that mattered was that she was safe and surrounded by people having a good time.

  She had to look up. If she stared down at the event any more, she’d vomit, and she wasn’t sure she had anything left to come up.

  Something flew just ahead of them. It wasn’t another creature.

  It looked like a giant Frisbee, but one powered by four propellers, like a helicopter.

  The Jersey Devil banked hard, heading for the flying object the way a hummingbird went after insects.

  When the object dipped away, making a fast descent, the Devil and its minions followed. The ground rushed up toward her. Heather closed her eyes and screamed, wondering who would be waiting for her on the other side when she died.

  * * *

  Norm’s body buzzed from head to toe, so much so that his ears even felt stuffed, the steady thrum of his heightened heartbeat drowning out most of what was said around him.

  He kept looking to the cooler, remembering what was inside. That was going to be small potatoes compared to everything that happened. If the Jersey Devil did manage to slip away once again, at least they had proof right here, and back at that bar. And it would be hard to explain away the massacre outside the hospital.

  I hope Carol’s holding up. I can’t imagine the look on the faces of the police when they walked in that bar. I’m sure the same thing is happening right now at the hospital, only there are no creature corpses left behind to lay blame. Just the frantic words of all the witnesses.

  Witnesses who would alert them about the van full of crazy people who pulled out a cache of weapons to drive the monsters away—or attracted them in the first place.

  He buried his face in his hands, wishing it all away.

  I should never have come.

  But you did! And you proved you’re no coward. It’s gone beyond the Willet family needing you or any notoriety that will surely come af
ter all of this. As long as those things are out there, crazed and angry, every innocent person in New Jersey is depending on us whether they know it or not. With Ben disabling its ability to procreate, Lord knows what state of mind it’s in.

  April had her head out the window again, searching the sky for the Devils.

  He shook the pill case out of his pocket, contemplating tripling his dose of anti-anxiety meds. The way his heart was hammering, he could sure use them.

  But the damn things made his head feel like cotton, dulling his senses. He needed to be clear. If they got another shot at the creatures, he needed to see straight.

  He threw the small case across the van. It bounced off the dented wall, hitting Daryl.

  “What was that?” Daryl said.

  “Pharmaceutical courage,” Norm replied, chewing on his lip.

  Despite all they’d been through, Daryl Willet smiled.

  He said, “Bet you never thought it would be like this, did you?”

  “N-no, I certainly didn’t.”

  “We’re gonna kill it.” He wiped his nose with the back of his hand. “If not for us, then for my dad. That mark doesn’t mean a thing to me. I just won’t pass it on. And you heard April, she can’t. No, it’s all going to end here and now. And you have a front-row seat. You’ll be famous after this.”

  Tugging at the end of his goatee, Norm replied, “Or infamous. Not many cryptozoologists go out killing the very things they’ve spent their lives trying to prove were real.”

  Daryl tapped him on the leg. “When this is over, everyone will see the truth, and they’ll know it had to be stopped. Then you get to write it up in some textbook, probably get a movie deal, too. Make sure Chris Pratt plays me.”

  Norm watched the youngest Willet, in obvious pain, shift in his chair, wiping down his rifle. His wasn’t the calm before the storm—it was the calm in the eye of the hurricane.

  Sam looked pale and haggard. He was thumbing through a box of old cassettes. Handing one to April, he said, “Can you please pop this in?”

  Frank Sinatra’s smooth as silk voice crooned from the van’s speakers. It was jarring, listening to him sing about the summer wind after all they’d been through. Sam closed his eyes, his head resting back. Sweat trickled down his face. Norm thought he heard him mumble, “One last time.” He was about to ask what he meant, but thought better of it.

  Besides, there was something that had been nagging at him. Norm thought hard before speaking. “When it spoke, I started to re-rethink every single theory about the Jersey Devil. If it can talk, it can think and reason. That, in a way, makes it human. If we k-k-kill it, does that make us murderers?”

  Daryl’s expression turned stony.

  “No, that makes us saviors. Whatever doubts you have in your mind, bury them deep. We can’t have that getting in the way of doing the right thing when the time comes. And you know what the right thing is.”

  Norm looked to the rifle on his lap, images of Bill Willet, Jane, Daniela and so many others paining him. The boy seemed years beyond his age, a hardened man who had accepted a fate that would crush most others.

  “I do,” Norm said softly.

  April slapped on the door.

  “I think I see it!”

  “Where?” Ben said, his forehead almost pressing against the windshield.

  “Not far ahead of us. I saw something big swooping down real fast.”

  When Norm moved forward to look for himself, his foot slipped in something slick. It was Gordon’s Leeds’s blood.

  All he saw was blue sky and a few puffy clouds.

  “You sure?” Sam said.

  “I’m pretty sure.”

  There was a break in the trees lining the road. Ben slowed down, easing the van to the side of the road. He and April opened their doors, scanning the horizon.

  “Is that music?” Daryl said.

  “Yeah,” April said. The bullet’s blackened exit wound on the back of her arm looked horrendous. Norm didn’t know how she was still functioning. At least most of the bleeding had stopped. He realized that the Willet kids would stop at nothing now to avenge their father. It was no longer about proving the Jersey Devil was real or discovering the secret to the mark that had forever altered their family’s fate.

  Now, it was simply a matter of an eye for an eye.

  Chapter Forty-four

  “Erik, get the hell over here!” Darren shouted, his eyes transfixed on the monitor, hands working the controls for the drone.

  “What?” Erik had a headphone covering one ear. The steady thrum of the ska band on stage forced Darren to shout until his throat hurt.

  “I said get over here now! You have to see this!”

  Handing the headphones over to their friend Taylor, who was helping run the soundboard, Erik sidled up to Darren.

  “What the heck’s got you all excited?”

  Nodding his head toward the monitor, Darren barked, “Look!”

  At first, there was nothing but sky. Darren forced the drone out of its dive, gaining altitude and banking to the right.

  “I don’t see anything,” Erik said.

  “Just hold on a second.”

  Darren looked up. The sun was so bright, it made seeing anything difficult without his sunglasses.

  But it didn’t make it impossible, especially for this.

  The three objects he’d seen before were in pursuit of the drone. The camera was mounted on the front. He had to turn it around so Erik could see. His thumbs worked the toggles, legs tapping to the beat of his nerves, not the music.

  “Almost there,” he said.

  “Look, man, I got a ton of shit to do,” Erik said impatiently.

  “Just keep your eyes on the screen, dude.”

  Darren forced the drone into a near ninety-degree turn, sailing over the pursuing objects until it was right behind them.

  “Holy shit!” Erik squealed, jumping back from the monitor. “What the hell are those things?”

  “I don’t know, but I think that’s a woman the big one is carrying.”

  Moving the drone closer, his stomach felt like lead had been poured into it when he saw the struggling woman. Her mouth opened in a scream he couldn’t hear. The thing that held her looked like a bat, until it turned to face the drone.

  That face! No, it couldn’t be!

  Erik’s finger wagged at the screen. “No way. No freaking way. You know what that looks like?”

  Darren had lived in the Pine Barrens, though on the southern, outer edge, all his life. If there was one thing he knew, it was the creature leering at the drone.

  “That’s not possible,” Darren said, having to move the drone away quickly as the three creatures altered their trajectory until they were hot on its trail.

  Both boys looked to the sky.

  And there they were, streaking over the fairgrounds. Darren noticed other people casting glances skyward, some pointing.

  “You have to get them away from here,” Erik said, looking at the crowd. “They want that drone for whatever reason. Let them have it, but not right here.”

  “What about the woman? Shouldn’t we tell the cops or something?”

  Erik slapped his back. “Right. Right. I gotta go find someone.” His friend was breathing hard, his face gone pale despite the sunburn that had been creeping up on him all day. He stood frozen in place, eyes on the monitor.

  “Hurry, dude. Get the cops over here,” Darren said, breaking Erik from his paralysis.

  Erik ran. There were cops everywhere, so it wouldn’t be hard to find one.

  Darren looked back at the monitor and saw clouds spinning.

  What the . . . ? Clouds don’t move like that.

  Glancing up, his mouth went dry.

  One of the creatures had gotten to the drone. It spun, powerless, heading to the area around the stage, the very place that had the highest concentration of people.

  The rest of the world thought people from New Jersey had been off their rockers, cla
iming to be the home of the Jersey Devil, a creature spawned not far from here.

  Darren wondered what they would say when this was all over.

  * * *

  Heather flinched when one of the smaller monsters nipped the speeding drone, tearing off one of the propellers. That seemed to put the entire craft in a stall. It fell in long, looping arcs. The Jersey Devil’s hell spawn followed it as it made its helpless descent.

  As the children went, so did the father. Heather’s stomach did backflips as the Devils rushed to the falling drone.

  Seeing all those people directly below them, she was helpless to warn them to get out of the way. No matter how hard she screamed, they would never hear her.

  But some did spot them. More and more faces turned toward the sky, hands blocking out the sun, fingers pointed their way. As they got closer, Heather could even begin to see their expressions, happiness turning to curiosity, then abject fear. Bodies jostled to get out of the way. In seconds, panic had taken control. She saw people fall in their mad desire to flee, others trampling over them, the next wave of humanity dropping in turn.

  The drone was on a direct trajectory toward a family trying to get a small girl to her feet. If they didn’t move, it was going to land right on top of them. She knew what would come next.

  She twisted as much as she could, making it difficult for the Jersey Devil to keep its hold on her. Her only hope was that she could somehow break free as they got closer to the ground.

  The music stopped, the band casting their instruments aside. Heather saw the girl and her mother screaming, but couldn’t hear over the fervent cries of the dispersing crowd. She wanted to close her eyes and save herself from witnessing what would happen to the family, but she needed to be aware of her proximity to terra firma.

  To her dismay, the Jersey Devil slowed its descent, using its powerful wings to buffet the air, pulling them back. They were at least a hundred feet up. If she fell from here, she would die for sure.

  Heart thrumming, she shouted in vain. A half-second before the drone would have crashed onto the family, one of the creatures zoomed over their heads, snatching it from the air. The other one joined its sibling, both of them tearing the drone in half as they soared over the crowd.