Hellrider

by JG Faherty

  Gotta pretend everything’s gonna be okay.

  “Hey. What time is it?”

  “A little after nine. Guess you were tired. You hungry?”

  He was, but he shook his head ‘no’. He hadn’t intended to sleep so late; they’d wasted a lot of time.

  “We should get going. Eddie—”

  “Isn’t anywhere, from what I can tell.” Kellie held up her phone. “I’ve been checking the news every fifteen minutes. No more fires or…anything else since last night. Maybe demons need to rest, too.”

  Carson frowned. Something she’d said…. “What do you mean, or anything else? What else did he do last night?”

  He knew it had to be bad from the way she paused before answering. “He killed a bunch of people. A fireman from Homestead. Mr. Powell and some others at the movie theater. And…he did something to Mr. Gunderson. Made him hurt his wife.”

  “We’ve got to find him right now!” Carson made a fist and then didn’t know what to do with it. He felt helpless. Useless. And he hated that feeling, despite being well acquainted with it from gym class, from having a dying mother, from having a brother who always ended up screwing his family – first by getting in trouble, then by dying.

  And now he’s going to destroy the entire town. Way to go, Eddie. Real good memories to leave me with.

  “We need to eat.” Kellie took his hands in hers, looked into his eyes. Her calm was cool water washing over his fire, dampening his anger so he could think clearly again. “We might not have the chance later, and I’m hungry. Then we’ll take care of Eddie.”

  “Okay,” he said, believing her even though it seemed an impossible task. “But how?”

  She smiled. “Simple. Instead of looking for him, we just make sure he comes to us.”

  * * *

  The morning of Eddie Ryder’s ultimate revenge dawned warm, clear, and less humid than most September days in southern Florida, but Eddie never noticed.

  He was too busy being insane.

  At some point during the previous night – he couldn’t remember when – he’d run out of ideas for people to use and things to destroy. He’d spent some time – again, he wasn’t sure how long – blasting holes in the highway and blowing up alligators in the swamps. He’d only stopped when his energy ran out.

  With exhaustion came some momentary breaks in his lunacy. Faces had appeared in his head without bringing on red rages.

  Carson. Mom.

  After resting for a few hours at his grave, he’d ridden out to the old house just as the sun’s first glow appeared on the horizon and looked in on her, seen her sleeping. Out of long-ingrained habit, he’d checked her nightstand to make sure she’d taken her medicines.

  And saw the note Carson left.

  Ma,

  Don’t be scared that I’m not here when you wake up. I had some important things to do. Things that will make this town normal again. I’ll explain everything when I get home. In the meantime, be sure to take your medicine.

  I love you,

  Carson

  BACKSTABBING BASTARD! Seeing evidence of Carson’s continued treachery had sent Eddie into another fit of madness. He’d roared off into the sky, an invisible comet trailing fire and thunder as he headed back toward the conflagration that was the center of town. He never noticed the sparks landing on the lawns and roofs below him like molten fire seeds.

  Or the flames that sprouted from them.

  * * *

  Carson and Kellie arrived at the hospital just before eleven, after a harrowing walk through a town that seemed more like a war zone. They’d both been stunned by the amount of damage Eddie had wrought in only one night.

  “Are you sure this is going to work?” Carson asked. Her plan seemed deceptively simple. Maybe too simple.

  “Absolutely.” Kellie’s voice sang with confidence. “We know he wants to kill Hank. That means he’ll have to come to the hospital. He’s also mad at you and me. So either he’ll take over Hank and come after us, or he’ll use one of us to go after Hank. Whichever he does, we have him trapped.”

  Carson shook his head. “That’s all well and good, but we need him inside me. If he takes you over, I sure as hell won’t bind him to you. And if he takes over Hank, he could beat the crap out of both of us before we finish the spell.”

  “You don’t have to kill me, or Hank. Just knock me out and Eddie will leave, go to another body. We’ll do the same to Hank. We’ll keep knocking people out until Eddie goes into you.”

  “I guess.” He still wasn’t sure about it. It also wasn’t pleasant contemplating his own death sentence. Something Kellie didn’t seem to mind talking about, which struck Carson as kind of odd. Not that he thought she didn’t care if he died.

  But something’s going on. She’s been acting weird all morning. Too cheerful. She’s not telling me everything.

  What could it be? They’d practiced the spell again just to be sure they had every word right. Then they’d sprinkled the last of the holy water on Carson’s clothes and arms and poured the salt into his pockets. That had been Kellie’s idea. She’d thought that by already having the salt and holy water on him, it would make casting the spell that much faster when Eddie took him over.

  They’d even spent some time making out after breakfast, right on the living room couch where her father could have caught them if he’d come home. Those fifteen minutes had probably been the best in Carson’s entire life, and while he hated the fact that he was going to die a virgin, at least he could go knowing he’d felt a girl’s breast. His hand still tingled from the memory of it.

  Of course, that only made him want to live even more.

  However, try as he might, he couldn’t think of any other solution.

  “So, should we go inside and wait by Hank’s room, or just hang out here?” Carson pointed to a bench next to the main doors.

  Kellie’s body did a weird twitch and then she gave him a smile that was most definitely not pleasant.

  “How about you eat shit and die, traitor?”

  Then her foot connected with his balls and all he knew was stars and pain.

  * * *

  The nearby windows shook from Eddie’s laughter. Carson lay curled on the ground, his hands clutching his nuts and a puddle of vomit near his mouth. Eddie toed him with one foot and Carson let out a moan.

  “Get up, you little pussy. What the hell do you care about your balls? You never let a girl get near them anyhow.”

  “Leave her alone.” Carson’s words came out in halting gasps. “Take me instead.”

  “No way, little bro.” He prodded his brother again, harder. “Making your own squeeze kick the shit out of you is too much fun. Now get the fuck up or this whole building is coming down.”

  Just to make sure Carson believed him, he released a small energy blast and shattered the glass doors of the hospital. Inside, several people screamed.

  Carson, strings of drool still hanging from his lower lip, rolled over and got to his knees. Tears ran down his cheeks.

  “You’re an asshole, Eddie. Why are you doing this? You killed the Hell Riders. Now go away and leave the rest of us alone.”

  “What the hell do you know about anything, you little piece of shit?” Eddie drew back his foot and Carson cringed. “I could kill you right now. I could burn this whole damn town down. And maybe I will. Maybe that’s why I came back. I’m the motherfucking Angel of Destruction, riding wings of fire to start a new world!”

  Eddie shouted the lyrics so loud Kellie’s throat cracked at the end from the force of it.

  “This isn’t one of your stupid songs, Eddie.” Carson stumbled and groaned as he stood up, but he stayed on his feet. “Go back to hell or wherever you came from.”

  “Bite me. Hey, what do you think?” He squeezed Kellie’s hands over her breasts. “Pretty nice, aren�
��t they? You get to touch them yet, you little wuss?”

  “Fuck you!” Carson slammed both hands into Eddie’s shoulders, sending Kellie’s smaller body against the bench. He drew back his fist, prepared to knock her out like they’d planned.

  “Carson Ryder! Move another inch and I swear I’ll shoot you.”

  * * *

  Johnny Ray Jones had only been a block away from the hospital when the call came in that someone had just set off a bomb in the lobby. With everything that had gone on in town the past forty-eight hours, he’d thought nothing would surprise him when he got there.

  He’d been wrong.

  Pulling up, he’d immediately seen Carson and Kellie. Although he couldn’t hear them, it was obvious they were arguing. And then the sonovabitch actually hit Kellie. Knocked her down.

  No one did that to his daughter, especially not a crazy fuck like Carson Ryder.

  Although the threat to shoot him had sprung from his mouth, Johnny Ray knew better than to pull his gun on a kid, especially in broad daylight in front of dozens of witnesses. He unsnapped it, but instead of drawing it he took out his Taser and aimed it at Carson.

  “Daddy!” Kellie sprang up from the bench and ran over to him. Wrapped her arms around him in a big hug. “Thank God, you saved me!”

  “It’s okay, sweetheart.” With his free hand, Johnny Ray patted Kellie’s head. To Carson, he said, “You. Sit down on the bench and put your hands in the air.”

  “Oh, Daddy,” Kellie murmured into his chest. “You’re such a fucking dick.”

  Surprised by Kellie’s words, Johnny Ray didn’t notice her pulling his gun from its holster until she’d already stepped away and aimed it at Carson.

  “Kellie! No, don’t—”

  The rest of his words disappeared as the gun went off.

  A second later, Carson screamed and fell off the bench.

  * * *

  Eddie couldn’t see the expression on Johnny Ray’s face as he took the cop’s gun and aimed it at his brother, but he was sure it couldn’t be more priceless than the shocked look Carson gave him just before the bullet hit home. Eyes wider than Eddie’d ever seen them, his mouth hanging open like a nutcracker waiting for a pecan, Carson would have been right at home in a slapstick horror movie.

  The only thing that spoiled the moment was seeing the little prick holding his arm when he hit the ground.

  Damn bitch’s hands are too small to aim properly. I’ll take care of that.

  Holding the pistol in both hands, he walked toward Carson, who was crying and shouting, “Ow! Ow!” over and over. Blood dripped from between his fingers.

  Eddie pointed the gun at Carson’s chest. “Sayo-fucking-nara, little bro. Let this be a lesson to you. Never—”

  Something hit him from behind, knocking the air from his lungs and sending the gun flying.

  Shit. Forgot about Jones.

  Then his head hit the concrete.

  * * *

  Talk about a cluster fuck. Johnny Ray Jones stood in the ER, watching the doctors tend to Carson’s arm and Kellie’s head.

  “You’re going to be fine,” a doctor said to Carson. “The bullet only grazed you. A few stitches and you’ll be as good as new.”

  While the doctor sutured Carson’s wound, one of the nurses who’d examined Kellie approached Johnny Ray. “It’s just a bump, Chief Jones. She was perfectly coherent when she woke up. I doubt there’s a concussion, but we’ll keep her here for a few hours to make sure. If you want, we can run a head CT as well.”

  “Please.” Johnny Ray tried to see past him, where Kellie was now sitting up and talking to a nurse. She looked alert, but there was something in her face….

  Fear? Confusion? Embarrassment? It’s so hard to tell with teenage girls what the hell’s going on in their heads.

  He realized the doctor was still staring at him. “Can I talk to her now?”

  “Of course. I’ll go schedule—”

  KABLAM!

  Compared to all the noise and destruction of the previous night, the explosion wasn’t loud, but it startled everyone all the same. Johnny Ray’s instincts took over and he immediately went into action.

  “Stay here!” he yelled at the doctor, and then ran out to the ambulance bay. He didn’t know exactly where the detonation had occurred, but it had come from somewhere outside the building and the bay was the closest exit.

  Shouts from around the corner sent him to the front of the building, where the flaming, upside-down wreckage of an SUV sat right in the drop-off circle by the hospital’s entrance. Through the smoke and fire, the words Police Chief were still visible on the doors.

  My car…? How…?

  Kellie!

  Johnny Ray rushed back into the hospital. He didn’t know how the car was related to his daughter, but he knew down to his core, in the center of every bone in his body, that she was in trouble.

  Big trouble.

  * * *

  The moment he heard the explosion, Carson knew it had to be Eddie causing more problems. He slid off the bed and hurried to the next curtained area, where they’d taken Kellie.

  And nearly ran into her halfway there.

  “I didn’t mean to—”

  “I’m so sorry—”

  “It wasn’t me—”

  “I know.”

  They hugged each other and, for Carson at least, everything was okay again. The pain in his arm didn’t matter. It had been Eddie, not her, who pulled the trigger. As far as he was concerned, she didn’t even have to apologize because there wasn’t anything to forgive.

  But there was something they had to do.

  “This is our only chance,” he said, reluctantly pulling away from her.

  “Hank’s room.” Kellie pointed at the door that led to the main hospital. “Now, while everyone’s occupied and before Eddie comes looking for us again.”

  They’d only gone two steps when the door opened and Kellie’s father shouted at them to stop.

  Then every piece of glass in the ER shattered.

  * * *

  Eddie had been about to take over Kellie again when she mentioned Hank’s name. He paused, trying to decide who he should kill first.

  Traitor friend or traitor brother?

  It should have been an easy decision, but his mind wasn’t focusing properly. Jagged fragments of heavy metal songs filled his head until it felt like he’d wedged it between the speakers at the loudest headbanger concert ever. His body vibrated with energy, as if all the electricity in the hospital had been poured into him by some unknown force, turning him into some kind of human engine that threatened to explode at any moment.

  No, not an engine. A fucking nuclear power plant.

  Then Chief Jones entered the room and Eddie burst into laughter. Random energy escaped like super-charged electrical farts, shattering glass and shorting out medical equipment.

  Yes! Kill all three of them now and save Hank for last.

  He saw a face he recognized, a man moaning from the shards of glass embedded in his arms and chest. I know you, motherfucker. You were the cocksucker who called me beef jerky in the morgue. Let’s see how you like getting burned to a crisp.

  He dove into the man’s body.

  The pain was as sharp as the glass causing it, but Eddie drowned it in a billion-decibel music mix that shielded his brain from the worst of it.

  “Sweet home Ala – Fire flowing through my veins – Devil gonna get ya – Highway to hell – Voices within the walls – Seasons don’t fear the – Hours of execution I must repeat – Hell Rider, riding through the night!—”

  He turned and faced Chief Jones. “Hey, Chief Suck-my-dick! Check this out!”

  Eddie opened his mouth and let loose the music in his head. Carried on waves of supernatural energy, it exploded from the wall speake
rs positioned throughout the hospital.

  “Dark clouds from above, bring darkness and doom

  Effortlessly shattering, what lies in its course

  A deafening roar, it feels no remorse!”

  The music rose in volume until it turned into an ear-splitting wail of feedback. Jones ran to Kellie and Carson, wrapped his arms around them as if he could protect them from the aural barrage. A second later the speakers in the ER blew.

  The supernatural din grew even louder. Dark lines appeared in the walls as the wiring inside them superheated.

  “Wrath of Satan

  Reigns o’er all!

  Evil consumes the meek

  People cower in the field

  As vengeance he does seek

  Hell Rider!

  Taking their souls

  Hell Rider!”

  Flames sprouted from the walls, filling the air with smoke. Screams from elsewhere in the hospital were evidence of similar occurrences on every floor.

  “Jesus!” Jones pushed the children toward the door. If he could get them outside—

  “Close, but you still don’t have a clue, do you?” Eddie let out a laugh and the ceiling bulbs popped and sparked, sending the ER into a gloom lit only by the emergency lights and lines of fire.

  Eddie aimed his hands at the closest wall. White-hot bolts of lightning shot from his flaming fingertips and danced across the paint, blistering and melting it. When the smoke cleared, jagged letters spelled out a single sentence.

  Eddie Ryder lives!

  “What in the fuck is going on?” Jones asked, speaking to no one in particular.

  “I tried to tell you—” Carson began, but Eddie cut him off.

  “You tried to tell him, but he was too stupid to believe you, little brother. Chief Jones, I am the re-in-fucking-carnation of Eddie Ryder. Do you believe me now? I’ve been the one fucking with your town, asshole. Me! Not my dickless little brother, not your prissy-ass daughter, and not those fat fucking Hell Riders. Me! Eddie Goddamn Ryder! And there isn’t a thing you can do to stop me.”

  “Guess again.” Jones lifted his hand and fired his Taser.

  Eddie smiled as the twin electrodes sailed out and struck his chest. He could have fried them in the air, but his present body was getting too painful to control anyhow.