The Burning Time

by J. G. Faherty

  “Actually, Mitch might be our best hope.” John braced himself for Danni’s reaction. It wasn’t long in coming.

  “Our best...Oh, no. There’s no way I’m letting my brother get involved in this any more than he already has. We’ll figure something out, you and I. But leave Mitch out of it.”

  “Leave me out of what?”

  “We have to steal something from Christian.” John stared at Danni as he said it.

  “We don’t have to do anything. I told you. I’ll help you. Mitch stays here where it’s safe.”

  “I wanna help.”

  “And I want this all to be a bad freakin’ dream. Wanting something doesn’t make it happen. I’m not letting you anywhere near that psychopath.”

  “Danni—”

  “Don’t Danni me, John. I’m responsible for him, dammit. I know what’s at stake here. If your spell doesn’t work, a lot of people are gonna die, right?” She continued on before he could answer. “But not everyone. There’s a good chance I can keep Mitch alive, especially if he stays here, where he’s already protected by that magic circle of yours. So why should I let him do something that pretty much guarantees his death?”

  John sighed. Danni thought she had a grasp of what would happen if Christian succeeded in his plan. But she had no idea...He took her hands, ignoring the tingle that went through his flesh and hoping he could convey the seriousness of the situation to her.

  “What Christian intends to do...you’re right, a lot of people will die, but they’ll be the lucky ones. It’s the ones who survive who’ll suffer the most. Creatures will hunt them down, force them to endure horrible things. And the town...well, let’s just say I’ve seen what he can do.”

  “What?” Mitch asked in a hushed voice.

  “Most of the buildings destroyed. Most of the people gone. The few who were left, they were hiding inside burnt-out houses and stores, half-crazy and living like wild animals.”

  There was silence after John finished speaking. Danni slowly pulled her hands from his and clenched them into fists in her lap. Mitch looked back and forth between them, looking like a deer caught between the headlights of two oncoming cars.

  John cleared his throat.

  “Don’t say a word.” Danni stood up, her lower lip quivering, tears threatening to cascade over her lower eyelids. She ran out of the room. Mitch stood up to follow her, but John put a hand on his arm.

  “Let her go. She needs to work this out by herself.”

  “But I wanna help. I can talk to her, convince her...”

  “This is something she has to decide on her own, Mitch. You’re too young to understand, but someday you’ll have a family, and hopefully you won’t ever be in a position where you have to make a decision that puts someone you love in danger.”

  “Have you had to make that kind of choice?”

  Images flashed in John’s head.

  Too many to count.

  “Yes, I’ve had to make some very hard choices in my life. And I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. Sometimes...sometimes life isn’t fair.”

  “This is one of those times. Just like Christian choosing our town.” Mitch spat the words out, his eyes blazing with anger.

  “That’s right. Your sister knows all this. Now she has to accept it and move past.” John stood up. “Tell you what. While we wait, let’s figure out what to make for dinner.”

  John was scooping elbow macaroni onto Mitch’s plate when Danni came into the kitchen. “Something smells good,” she said, giving them a half-hearted attempt at a smile. Her red, swollen eyes told the true story of how she felt.

  “It was either elbows and jar sauce or baked beans and tuna fish.” John waved the ladle toward an empty chair. “Get a plate and sit down before Mitch eats it all.”

  “John...”

  “Not now.” He spooned macaroni onto her plate. “We’ll talk after dinner. There’s bread, too, but no butter.”

  Danni shook her head. “No, let’s get it over with. Otherwise dinner will be nothing but awkward silence.”

  John sat down. “Whatever you decide, I’ll abide by it.”

  “I know.” This time her smile was both sad and grateful. “That’s one of the things I lo...like about you. But you’re right. We have to do whatever it takes to stop Christian.” John started to speak, and Danni raised her hand in a stopping motion. “However,” she said, her voice harder, “that doesn’t mean I want Mitch doing anything too dangerous. Maybe he can, you know, be a lookout or something?”

  “Actually, that’s the role I had in mind for us. Have you ever heard the military expression ‘divide and conquer?’”

  Danni and Mitch both nodded.

  “What I propose is that you and I create distractions to get Christian and that unsavory handyman of his out of the church for a while. That will give Mitch time to sneak in and take something of Christian’s. Anything will do. A pen, a sock, even some hair from a hair brush. As soon as he’s out and safe, we’ll meet and return here.”

  An excited look came over Danni’s face. “I think I have a better idea. Hang on a sec.” Before anyone could speak, she left the table. A moment later, John heard footsteps on the stairs.

  “What’s going on?” Mitch asked.

  John shrugged, wondering the same thing.

  They didn’t have to wait long. Danni came right back, a large folder in her hands. “I was pretty sure I still had this,” she said, placing it on the table. “It’s the volunteer package we all got when we signed up to help with the church’s events.”

  “This will help us?”

  She pulled out a sheet of paper and handed it to John. “A schedule for the whole month. Look. Christian’s got a meeting tomorrow with the school administrators and business council. And Billy will probably be collecting money or setting things up at the park.”

  “Excellent!” John smiled. “You and I can watch Christian and Billy, and Mitch will have plenty of time to get in and out of the church.”

  “What if someone comes back early?” The nervous look was back on Danni’s face. “I’ve got the only cell phone.”

  “Leave that to me,” Mitch said. “I’ll get my old walkie-talkies from my closet.”

  “Those things still work?” Danni’s eyebrows rose in disbelief.

  “As long as we have batteries,” Mitch said. “I’ll go check.”

  Alone with Danni, John suddenly felt uncomfortable, as if something in the room had changed. Or something between us, he thought, noticing the strange way she was staring at him.

  “Something’s on your mind.” He made it a statement rather than a question.

  She placed her hand over his. Although he had a strong suspicion of what she was about to say, and he dreaded hearing it, and what he’d have to tell her in return, he didn’t stop her.

  “John, if...if something happens to me tomorrow, or even after tomorrow, if you can’t stop Christian, I want you to take Mitch and get the hell away from here.”

  John’s prepared speech faded away. She wanted him to take care of Mitch? He’d thought...well, it’s better this way. The two of us could never...“Danni, nothing’s going to happen.”

  She gripped his hand tighter. “You keep saying that, but you don’t know for sure. We don’t have any real family left, at least not anyone I’d trust to raise my brother. He looks up to you. And I know you’d be good for him. It’s not like it would be forever. Just until he’s eighteen and can take care of himself. Promise me.”

  He wanted to refuse. After Clara and Jack, the only time he thought about family was when he cried at night thinking about what could have been.

  “I promise.” The words scared him, because he couldn’t imagine a world without Danni in it.

  “Thank you.” Her smile sent a rush of warmth through him, and he knew that, win or lose, he couldn’t stay in Hastings Mills a day longer than he had to. The temptation to give in to his feelings was getting too strong. He pulled his hand away.

  �
��I’ve got to go to my room and...prepare for tomorrow. Good night.”

  He hated the quizzical, slightly hurt look in her eyes as he hurried away. She’d spend the rest of the night wondering what she did to offend him. But better a tiny hurt now than a much bigger one later.

  However, it was one thing to hide his feelings from Danni, and another to keep them from his own mind. Long after he’d gotten into bed, John lay staring at the ceiling and wondering why Fate continued to play her cruel tricks on him.

  Chapter 30

  Deputy Carl Bonaventura slammed down the phone, which immediately started ringing again. “What the fuck’s going on tonight? We’ve got another jumper at the Five Mile Bridge. Three bridges in this town, and people jumping off every goddamn one of them at the same time. Who should I send out there?”

  Chief Harry Showalter leaned back in his chair, a toothpick jutting from between his lips, and put his feet up on his desk. “Nobody. Why bother? By the time someone gets there, the body’ll be gone anyways. Not like some crazy bitch is gonna wait for the cops to show up so they can talk her down. Best thing to do is pray the bodies wash up far enough down river that it’s someone else’s problem.”

  Bonaventura’s eyes darted between the ringing phone and his boss. He couldn’t believe what he’d heard. Showalter’d always been a sonofabitch to work for, but he’d never shirked his duties. And how had he known the jumpers were all women?

  Well, if the chief wasn’t going to do something, Carl would. If he could save just one of them... He grabbed his hat and stood up. “I’ll take it myself.”

  “I wouldn’t do that if I was you,” came Showalter’s voice from behind him. Bonaventura turned and found himself looking down the barrel of Showalter’s pistol.

  “Chief?”

  “Guess you haven’t noticed we ain’t running things in town no more, Carl. And that means either you’re dumber than a coma patient or the reverend’s words ain’t taken hold on you.”

  “The reverend? What’s he got to do with this?”

  Showalter nodded. “Guess that answers my question.”

  Carl Bonaventura felt a sledgehammer blow to his chest at the same time he heard the explosive sound of the Beretta. He fell backward over his chair, a fire burning in his lungs and heart. The chief’s face appeared above him.

  “He’s got everything to do with it, Carl. Too bad you couldn’t see that.”

  A black circle replaced Showalter’s face.

  This time the explosion brought darkness.

  * * *

  Cyrus Christian stood on the steps of Our Lady of Perpetual Hope Church and stared out at the town. My town, now, he thought, even though it wasn’t quite his yet. But it will be in a few days. And that’s what matters.

  Under the night sky, Hastings Mills bore little resemblance to its former self. The sounds of sirens, howling dogs, gunshots, and screams had replaced the usual quiet. The flickering red glow of house fires made Christian laugh as he pictured the town’s volunteer fire department struggling to put them out. At least a few men would go to the hospital tonight, their skin charred and peeling, their lungs scorched, their scalps blistered and hairless.

  He cast his unnatural gaze to the east, where Town Hall sat dark and quiet. Showalter and his remaining men were concentrating on what Christian deemed most important, keeping Hastings Mills as isolated as possible. Thanks to a well-aimed truck taking out a critical junction box, no outside calls were possible. If he could have taken down the cell towers, he would have. Instead, Christian had settled for the spotty, static-filled reception caused by the storm clouds cloaking the town.

  Christian clapped his hands and a bolt of lightning arrowed down with a thunderous roar. On the south end of town a massive oak, its trunk split and flaming, tumbled over, setting a field of corn ablaze. By morning, the farmer’s entire crop would be nothing but steaming ashes, driving him to beat his loudmouth brother-in-law into oblivion.

  Letting his mind flow out farther, Christian drank in more of the town’s despair and anger and fear. People huddled inside dark houses, shaking children clutched in adult arms unable to promise protection from the invisible evil creeping through the night. Elderly men and women cried out as their hearts seized and their bowels loosened. House pets and family members alike turned on each other in sudden fits of senseless violence.

  Nothing can stop me now. “Do you hear that, John Root?” he shouted at the night. “You’re too late! The town is mine!”

  * * *

  John, Danni, and Mitch sat in the living room in shorts and T-shirts, drinking glass after glass of cold water and watching the glow of fires brighten and dim at different points across the town.

  “He wants to destroy everything,” Danni whispered.

  John didn’t respond, afraid of saying too much. While Danni was correct in her statement, he knew there was more going on, even if he didn’t know the specifics. Safe to say, though, whatever came next would be far worse.

  “I want to be there when you kill him.”

  John turned toward Mitch. “You shouldn’t think like that.”

  Something in his tone must have alerted Danni.

  “John? You do intend to kill him, don’t you? That’s the point of us risking our lives tomorrow.”

  “It’s not that simple.” He didn’t want to get into a long philosophical discussion on good and evil, alternate realities, and gods and demons. They deserve some kind of explanation, though. He took a sip of water and hoped he had the right words.

  “He can’t be killed, not the way we think of it.”

  “Then what are you going to do?” Danni’s tone said, in no uncertain terms, that it had better be something worth the risks they were taking.

  “I’m going to try and force him out of our world for a while, send him someplace where it will take him years, maybe decades, to get back from.”

  “What if it doesn’t work?” Mitch asked.

  “Then I can at least drive him away from this place. Keep the town safe.”

  “But wouldn’t that mean he’d just start over somewhere else? Kill other people, in some other town?”

  The boy is too smart. “Yes, Mitch, that’s possible. But if I do my job correctly, it will be a long time before he’s strong enough to return to our world.”

  “How will you know if your spell works, and he’s really gone?”

  John shrugged, knowing his answer wouldn’t please Danni or Mitch. “I won’t. I’ll have to spend the rest of my life waiting and watching.”

  “You’ve had to do this before, haven’t you?” Danni’s expression held more empathy than curiosity.

  “No. But my mother battled him on several occasions. The last time...killed her, like her mother before her. I was there when it happened.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  In the darkness, her hand found his and he gripped it, allowing himself this one small moment of intimacy.

  “John?” Mitch’s voice, on the other side of Danni.

  “What is it?” He moved ever so slightly, but Danni understood and let her hand drop away. Back to the real world, where there was no time for personal feelings.

  “I still hope you kill him. I think it’s okay for me to say that, ‘cause he’s not human.”

  “I agree,” Danni said.

  Although he hated hearing the boy talking so casually about killing, John didn’t argue the point further. “I’ll do my best.”

  Unspoken was the question in everyone’s mind.

  Would his best be good enough?

  Chapter 31

  Billy Ray was pouring his morning coffee when Cyrus Christian entered the kitchen. For Billy Ray, it’d been another exhausting night filled with nightmares of flaming eyes and strange beasts that rose from the oceans to devour entire cities. Each time he woke up, sweating and shaking, the howling of dogs and the tortured wail of sirens greeted him, letting him know the separation between dreams and reality might not be so great.


  So he was already on edge when Christian’s voice, only a foot or two behind him, startled him into spilling the coffee.

  “Billy, I have a list of things for you to do today.”

  “Jesus Christ!” Billy Ray put down the pot and shook hot coffee off his hand. “Don’t sneak up on a—”

  Without warning, Christian’s face was next to his. Something moved deep within the black pools of the man’s eyes, making Billy Ray think again about his dreams. He tried to back away, but the counter blocked his way.

  “That’s not a name to speak around me, Billy. Understand?”

  “Uh, yeah, sure, no problem. Sorry.” Billy Ray leaned back and the eyes seemed to move with him, even though Christian stayed in place.

  “Good.” Christian stepped away, his eyes once more only dark, lightless circles. He held out several sheets of paper. “Here’s what I need you to do at the park today. I’ll join you after my meeting with the booth committee.”

  “Yeah, okay. I’ll get right on it.”

  “Do that.” He started to walk away and then turned back, a sly smile on his face. “You look tired, Billy. Having trouble sleeping?”

  Billy Ray said nothing as Christian gave a short bark of laughter and left the kitchen.

  I don’t know how much more of this I can take.

  Once more, the image of the money in the downstairs closet rose up in his mind, and he forced it back down. Not the kind of thing to think about with Christian so close.

  Instead, he chugged his coffee and hurried out into the roaster oven of another summer day.

  * * *

  “Christian is leaving the building, right on schedule.”

  John winced as Danni’s voice came over the walkie talkie, accompanied by a burst of static. Even on the lowest setting, it sounded frighteningly loud as he crouched behind a tree on the hill overlooking Riverside Park.

  A hundred yards away, Billy Ray Capshaw was marking off squares of land with sticks and colored tape. Several booths were already up, with more under construction. Although the pattern seemed haphazard, something about it made John feel queasy.