by JG Faherty
“Wait!” Melanie pushed away. “We can’t do this. I’m not…I’m not into that.”
“Could have fooled me,” Eddie said, running his hand down her arm. She backed away further.
“Kellie, this isn’t like you at all. I think maybe someone spiked your drink. Maybe they gave you roofies. Oh, God, maybe I drank some, too! What if we’ve been poisoned? Should we go to the hospital? Should we tell—”
Eddie couldn’t take it anymore.
“Jesus Christ, shut the fuck up!”
He slapped her across the face. Melanie’s head rocked back and her teeth clacked together, miraculously missing her tongue.
Melanie put a hand up to her cheek, which even in the dim light of the street lamps was already turning bright red. Her eyes went wide, then narrowed to slits as anger replaced surprise.
“You bitch! Fuck you, Kellie Jones.” She turned and stomped her way down the street, leaving Eddie alone and laughing with the half-filled bottle.
“Damn. I was hoping for a girl fight. Well, no sense wasting good booze.” He tipped the bottle up and chugged the remaining wine down. He had just enough time to toss the bottle away before his stomach rebelled and he puked up wine, beer, and half-digested chicken fingers all over his pants, sneakers, and the sidewalk.
“Fucking-a. That should make for interesting breakfast conversation tomorrow in the Jones house.”
Twenty minutes later he was back in Kellie’s room. He got into bed fully clothed and pulled the covers over himself.
“Good night, sweet thang.”
An instant later, he rode Diablo into the night.
* * *
Eddie parked Diablo a thousand feet above Hell Creek, pondering his next move. He was bursting with energy; it seemed like he gained more and more with each body he possessed. Or maybe the younger ones charged him more. Whatever the reason, he knew he couldn’t waste it.
Maybe now it’s time to bust free from this shit hole.
So far he’d had no luck with the mystical barrier that confined him to Hell Creek. He figured he just wasn’t strong enough yet to bash through the invisible wall.
That’s going to change tonight.
Tonight he felt like he could smash his way through the center of the fucking Earth, blow the planet to bits. Nothing was going to stop him.
He rode Diablo all the way to the north end of the town limits, past the last houses, until he reached barren land and the barrier wouldn’t let him move another inch forward. Then he aimed himself south and, with the barrier pressing against his back, let Diablo go full throttle, racing through the night faster than he’d ever gone before, faster than anyone had ever gone on a bike before. Houses and buildings turned into gray, elongated blurs below him, Main Street reduced to a darker gray stripe through their center.
By the time he shot past the trailer housing his mother and Carson, he knew he had to be doing more than two hundred and fifty miles per hour. Then there was only swamp and open road. Four seconds later he reached the south end of the town limits.
And hit a solid force so hard his supernatural form seemed to fuse with the pseudo-metal of Diablo, crushing each non-existent bone inside him and driving steel spears into every piece of his body. He had time for one long scream and then his mind shut down.
* * *
A ground-shaking explosion of sound shattered the pre-dawn darkness, rattling windows and setting off car alarms. Children cried out in their sleep and adults sat up in their beds, wondering what had happened. To the few people still awake in Hell Creek at that hour, it was just one more occurrence of the weird heat thunder that had plagued the town all month, and most of them didn’t even pay attention to it anymore.
In his bed, Carson moaned and rolled over but didn’t wake.
Chapter Thirty-Four
The next day at school was not a good one for Carson. He arrived early, thinking Kellie would want to talk before homeroom. Except she wasn’t on her bus. When she didn’t show for first period, he started to worry. As soon as class was over he texted her, but got no answer. He considered calling, but on the off chance she was sick or something, and resting, he decided to wait.
By lunchtime, he couldn’t take it anymore and called her cell. It went straight to voicemail.
The rest of the school day dragged on. He barely heard anything his teachers said, spent most of his time either secretively checking his phone for messages or staring into space, wondering what could be wrong with her. He considered asking Melanie or Cindy if they knew where she was, but they weren’t in school, either. Dozens of possibilities drifted through his thoughts, ranging from a stomach virus to Kellie trying the séance on her own and ending up getting devoured by a demon.
The moment the final bell rang, he hurried down the hall and out the doors and then ran all the way to her house. By the time he arrived, he was gasping for breath and so covered in sweat that road dust had turned to mud on his neck and arms.
He was all set to march up the steps and pound on the door when he saw Kellie sitting on the front porch.
Crying.
“Kellie? What’s the matter? What happened? Is everything okay?” He mentally kicked himself for his stupid question. Of course everything isn’t okay. She’s bawling her eyes out.
Kellie shook her head but didn’t answer. Tears ran down her cheeks and a handful of used tissues on the floor next to her showed she’d been at it for a while.
Not sure what to do or say, Carson sat down and tried to put a hand on her shoulder, a gesture he figured might be comforting. Instead, she jerked away.
“Don’t touch me!”
Had he done something to upset her? Try as he might, he couldn’t think of what it was, but that didn’t surprise him. In TV shows and movies, guys were always doing dumb things without realizing it. Why should he be any different? He certainly didn’t have much experience with relationships. He stood up, figuring it would be better if he left her alone.
“No, don’t go.” Kellie snuffled back snot. “I just don’t want to be touched right now.”
“Okay.” Carson sat down again, making sure to keep some space between them.
“Carson, something happened last night. Something bad. I did bad things. Or maybe I didn’t. I don’t know. I…I can’t remember.”
A cold chill crept over Carson, even though the day was hot and sunny. “You don’t remember? Do you think…do you think it was Eddie?”
She shook her head, paused, and then shrugged her shoulders. “I sure hope so. I don’t want to think I could have ever done what I did, not on my own. Either way, though, it doesn’t matter. Everyone thinks it was me and I can’t prove it wasn’t.” Kellie hid her face in her hands, leaving Carson to wonder exactly what it was that had happened. How bad could it be?
He asked.
And when she told him, he knew the answer to his question.
Bad. Very bad.
* * *
Up to that point in his life, the hardest thing Carson ever had to do was comfort his mother after Eddie’s murder. That had been a terrible time and he’d always figured nothing could ever be worse, other than his mother dying before he graduated high school, meaning he’d have to go live in a foster home where he’d probably get beat up all the time by the other kids.
But leaving Kellie alone on her porch was pretty close. He couldn’t stay, because he had to get home to check on his mother and get her dinner ready. Kellie refused to leave, saying she just wanted to be alone so she wouldn’t have to deal with anybody. And Carson understood that; after what she’d been through, it would be impossible to act like nothing was wrong around other people. But he also worried that his leaving would make things worse. More than once while telling the sordid details of her night – all relayed to her by Melanie and other people who’d been at the party – she’d stopped, unwilling to go on
because she thought that when he heard the whole story he’d never want to be around her again. As if that would ever happen. But it was how she felt, and he respected that, even if he didn’t agree.
In typical high school fashion, rumors were already flying. If Carson had hung out with a different crowd he might have heard them. Not that it mattered. Kellie’s phone was blowing up with comments, people saying she’d passed out in bed with a guy, that she’d offered to do the whole football team, that she’d been wasted on ecstacy and ran through the party naked.
All she really knew was that she’d been in a room with someone and freaked out when he got naked, and then she’d tried to make out with Melanie. She’d woken up in bed with puke all over her clothes and no memory of anything.
Carson had done his best to convince Kellie it wasn’t her fault, it had to be Eddie who’d done those things, and that he didn’t think any less of her. But he was pretty sure she didn’t believe him. And as bad as he felt for her, all of his emotions were currently crushed under the weight of his hatred for his dead brother. If it had been possible to kill Eddie for good right then and there – douse him with holy water, drive a stake through his heart, cast his soul back to hell – he’d have gladly done it without a moment’s hesitation.
Instead, he had to act like nothing was wrong in front of his mother, fix her dinner, and make sure she took her medications, all while seething so badly inside it took every ounce of his control not to scream and punch the walls and kick furniture over.
As soon as he could, he escaped the house and called Kellie to check on her. They’d been texting each other every fifteen minutes or so, with a secret code. If either of them responded wrong, the other would know Eddie had possessed them.
“I’m on my way,” Carson said. “Jello.”
“Meet me behind the house,” she answered. “Pizza.”
Carson shoved his phone in his pocket and got on his bike, hoping that even if Eddie saw their messages, he wouldn’t figure out the code was their favorite school lunch foods.
Kellie’s house was a ten-minute ride, and during that time Carson went over their plan in his head again and again, trying to find any possible flaws. Before leaving Kellie earlier in the afternoon, they’d agreed that the only way to be sure Eddie wasn’t watching them while they conducted their séance was if they knew he was up to trouble somewhere else. That trouble could be anything, but they figured it was a safe bet that if something strange or violent was happening in town, Eddie was involved somehow.
Which was why he and Kellie planned on spending the evening with one of her father’s old police radios, a handheld unit the size of a sneaker. As soon as they heard a police call that sounded like Eddie’s doing, they’d immediately start their séance.
Seated on an old blanket in Kellie’s backyard, the radio crackling sporadically between them, a warm breeze delivering the soft scent of roses from the garden and fresh-cut grass from the neighbor’s lawn, Carson was almost able to forget why they were there and imagine them on a romantic date instead. In fact, the temptation to put his arm around her was so strong he actually found himself about to do it more than once and had clench his fist to keep his arm still. He was afraid that if he touched her she would flinch, and then the spell would be broken. As much as she’d insisted earlier that she just wanted to be alone for a while, and that she didn’t want him to think bad of her, he worried there might be something else wrong. That she might not want to be around him right now because he was Eddie’s brother.
What if he was right? Would things ever go back to the way they were? Could they? He wasn’t sure, but he hoped destroying the monster Eddie had become would be a good step in that direction, that maybe it would remove some of the distance between them.
Maybe they could even be boyfriend and girlfriend.
The radio spat out static again, drawing his attention.
“Chief, we’ve got a disturbance reported at nineteen Palomino Trail Road. That’s one-nine Palomino.”
Kellie bit her lip as she turned the volume up on the radio.
“On my way. Who called it in?”
“Neighbor. It’s Jenny Gunderson’s place. I tried calling, but no answer.”
“Okay. I’ll be there in five. Send Wilbur as backup.”
“My brother didn’t like Mr. Gunderson,” Carson said.
Kellie nodded. “Remember what happened at Rosie’s the other day?” She put the radio down and grabbed the brown paper bag sitting next to her.
“I think this is it.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Eddie’s slow return to consciousness brought no relief from the throbbing agony in his head or the total darkness surrounding him. How long he’d dwelt in his semi-awake state, he had no idea. Minutes, hours, days – there was no way for him to tell. Eventually, the pain subsided to a steady ache, worse than a hangover but not quite as bad as the time he’d slipped on some grease in the shop and fallen head-first onto the arm of the pneumatic lift, resulting in a concussion and fifteen stitches.
What worried him more than the pain was the blindness.
Had he finally overdone it? Had his attempt to leave Hell Creek driven him from the Earth, left him trapped in some kind of limbo, awaiting his final judgment? Or was he somewhere else, a place where the mind just floated through empty space forever?
He tried flexing his arms and legs, felt more than a little relief when it resulted in a sensation of movement, although he could tell he still had no physical form.
Which means I should be able to move my whole body, then.
He tried it, commanding his self to rise up. His incorporeal body responded, and an instant later he found himself rising through the ground to hover above a place that by now was as familiar to him as his own bedroom.
His grave site.
That explained the darkness. Back to where it all started. Or ended. Or started again, depending on how you look at it. Grave site, birth site, wish I may, wish I might.
I wish I could kill someone tonight.
Why, I think I will, stank you very much.
He laughed, but the sky stayed silent, his supernatural battery drained to near zero from his breakout attempt. He let himself slip back down to the ground, resting atop the sprouting grass of his plot.
So peaceful. Relaxing.
To the west, the setting sun was minutes away from dipping below the horizon, telling him he’d been out for an entire day. Wide strokes of deep purple and red painted the clouds, and the nearby gravestones cast long, darkening shadows across the neatly manicured lawn. Too weak to move, Eddie watched the sun complete its journey, finally sinking out of sight in a blaze of color. When the first stars of the evening made their appearance in the not-yet-black sky, he tried to stand up, but couldn’t muster the energy to do so.
Can’t stay here forever. Got a job to do. He couldn’t quite remember what that job was – something about revenge? – but he knew he had to do it. Knew the memory would come back as soon as his strength returned.
Need to recharge.
That meant finding someone he could possess, draw strength from. Somebody he didn’t give two shits about. But they also had to be close by, because he didn’t think he could move his body very far. Maybe the night watchman? Or a gravedigger? Someone had to still be around. Otherwise he’d be stuck in the graveyard all night.
Just then, two circles of light came around a corner and quickly resolved into the headlights of a car heading for the exit.
A car Eddie recognized from the several times he’d worked on it at his garage.
Todd fucking Gunderson.
Just thinking the name sparked the embers of his anger, although he couldn’t recall why he hated the man so much. Just that he did.
It took all his remaining strength to push himself up and glide into the car as it went past. The slight bre
eze threatened to send him spiraling off to the side but Eddie managed to keep himself on course and slip into Todd Gunderson’s body. It wasn’t his most graceful entry; Todd’s hands jerked the wheel hard to the left and the old Volvo clipped two headstones before Eddie got control and guided it back onto the path.
Having solid form seemed to bolster his energy levels a bit, and except for a couple of brief dizzy spells, he managed to make it back to the Gundersons’ house without any trouble. Grateful to find the place empty, he went into the bedroom and immediately fell asleep.
Eddie woke to the sound of a woman’s voice in the other room calling, “Todd? Are you home?” He glanced at the clock, and saw with some surprise he’d only been asleep for an hour. Yet he felt ten times better. So much so that when Jenny Gunderson walked into the bedroom, he immediately felt himself growing hard. And jealous.
How did a wuss like Todd Gunderson manage to snag a piece of ass like Jenny?
It was just another part of Eddie’s life that didn’t seem fair. Girls like Jenny would never date someone like Eddie. Oh, sure, they’d sneak around and enjoy a fling with a ‘bad boy,’ but a serious relationship? Never. Not in a million years. No, they preferred men they could wrap around their fingers, men who would gladly fork over their paychecks and let themselves be led around by their dicks. A stuck-up bitch like Jenny Gunderson wouldn’t know what to do with a real man.
But she was going to find out.
“Todd? What are you doing home so early?” Jenny asked, tossing her purse on a nightstand. “I thought you were going back to the school after the cemetery.”