The old woman gaped. “Not until you put that gun down, Eric! What are you doing?”
Eric lowered the gun, slowly. “Did you really bring her back?”
Shay nodded. Tess stared at him them both, her eyes wide.
“Why?” he asked, mystified. “Why would you do that?”
Shay shrugged. “Because she was lost and cold,” he said. “She needed help. And I remember her, Eric. She was good to me when we were growing up. I couldn’t leave her out there alone. She might have hurt herself.”
Eric trembled. “You are trying to trick me.”
Shay shrugged again. “Think what you like, Eric,” he said. “I did what I did. For her. And for the memory of us. The friends that we once were.” He took a deep breath. “You can take me now. All I ask in exchange for helping your mother is that you let Tess go.”
“Shay,” cried Tess. “I’m not leaving you!”
Eric blinked rapidly. He lowered the gun further but still gripped it tightly. He was trembling with some strong emotion that he didn’t seem to be able to control. He stared at them both.
“Yes, of course,” he said, his face twisting. “I should have known you’d want to save her. It was always about her, wasn’t it, Shay? That was the reason you stopped being my friend in the months before I blew it all sky high.”
Shay paled. “What are you talking about? I tried to save you!”
Eric trembled, shaking his head. “No. It was all about her. You never wanted to hang out anymore. Acting as if I was some annoyance you had to put up with. You never understood what I was going through.”
Shay’s lips thinned. “I tried! But you were always in trouble with the cops, and I was getting sick of it.” He took a deep breath. “I tried to talk to you. Tell you that you were going down the wrong road. But you wouldn’t listen to me. And the reason I was even at the Grady house with you that night is I was trying yet again to save you from yourself!”
“Boys,” said Mrs. Thurston, in a soft voice. “You shouldn’t fight. What have I always said about using your inside voices?”
Eric took a deep breath, staring at her. “You need to go to bed, Mom. Shay and I will work things out, I promise.”
The old woman stared at him. “Alright, Eric. But promise me you will try, at least. You don’t have many friends anymore, do you? And Shay was always on your side.”
Eric didn’t reply.
Mrs. Thurston turned to Shay, her eyes gleaming. “Thank you for helping me, Shay. It was so lovely to see you again! Tell me, how is your mother?”
Shay’s eyes softened as he stared down at her. “She’s well, Mrs. Thurston. I go and see her whenever I can. She’s still living in our old house, down the road from where you used to live.”
Mrs. Thurston frowned. “I don’t see anyone now. None of the people I used to know.” She shook her head, as if clearing thoughts. “But I shouldn’t complain! Eric has made me very comfortable here. He’s a very successful businessman, did you know?”
Shay nodded. “You must be very proud.”
She blinked. “Yes. I am. He did everything for me, did you know? That was why he pretended to be dead. So he could take me away from…him.”
She turned to leave then spied Tess, as if she hadn’t noticed her before.
“Tess Nolan?” she asked, her head on the side. “I would recognise that hair anywhere! How are you, my dear?”
Tess smiled tentatively. “I’m well, Mrs. Thurston.”
“Such a pretty girl.” Mrs. Thurston stared at her. “Tell me, are you married yet?”
“Mom.” Eric was beside her, taking her arm. “You need to go to bed.”
He led her to the door of her suite, gently leading her inside. He closed the door behind her, locking it from the outside.
“I should have done that before,” he muttered to himself. “It’s obviously got to that point…”
Shay and Tess stared at him. He saw them and stopped.
“I suppose I should thank you,” he said abruptly. “For bringing her back. I wouldn’t have done it if our situations were reversed.”
Shay gazed at him. “Will you let Tess go?”
Eric smiled. “Quid pro quo, right? You think because you did me a favour, I should do you one, as well?”
“Something like that,” said Shay.
Eric’s smile widened. “It’s a good play, Shay. But no dice, I am afraid. I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time, and I’m afraid that I simply can’t let it go.”
“He saved your mother!” gasped Tess. “She could have wandered into the woods or fell into water. Anything!”
Eric considered this. “But she didn’t, did she? She’s safe and well in her suite. So, everything is exactly as it was.” He raised the gun.
Tess took a deep breath. “She wants you to be friends with Shay again. She pleaded with you!”
Eric’s face darkened. “My mother is confused,” he said. “She still thinks we are boys.” He laughed. “She always was sentimental. But I think that you must understand by now that I’m not.”
Shay stared at him, hard. “You know, when I saw that it was your mother out there, I thought perhaps that there was some hope for you. A demon who is evil to the core would never rescue his mother and take care of her. A demon who was that evil would leave her to rot in her situation and take joy in it. Why did you do it, Eric?”
Eric scowled. “That is none of your business! And she’s just an old woman who will die soon anyway. She’s already losing her mind.”
“You are still there,” whispered Shay. “Somewhere, deep down, you are still there.”
Eric’s eyes were filled with fury. “There is nothing left of the old Eric Thurston,” he hissed. “That boy was weak and impulsive. I burnt him to the ground! Just like I am going to burn the two of you.”
Shay and Tess both gasped.
“Guards!” Eric shouted. He pointed the gun at them, his eyes narrowed.
Three guards rushed up the stairs, securing them again. They both struggled, but it was useless.
“Take them to the woods,” Eric growled. “Tie them to the stake. I will be along shortly with the torch.”
The guards pushed them down the stairs roughly. Shay stared back at him.
“Eric,” he called. “For the sake of the friendship we once had, don’t do this! I don’t care about myself, but let Tess go!”
Eric stared at him. “No,” he coldly replied.
The guards took them away. Eric stood for a moment, staring after them. Then he heard the banging on the door, from inside the suite. His mother hadn’t gone to bed yet. She must have heard all of it, and she was distressed.
“Eric,” she pleaded. “Why is there so much yelling? Let me out!”
Eric’s face started twitching. It was too much. He couldn’t listen to her pleas anymore. He should never have brought her here. He took a deep breath and walked down the stairs, ignoring her.
Shay was wrong. The human Eric didn’t exist anymore, not in the slightest. And he was about to show them both in the most spectacular way.
Chapter Twenty
Eric walked into the monitor room. He poured himself a glass of whiskey then sat in the chair, staring at all the cameras.
The party was still raging upstairs. The society folk were getting messy now, stumbling slightly. His eyes flickered to the camera on the observatory deck. Several of them were dancing, falling against each other. If they weren’t careful they would topple over the edge and fall to their doom. Eric smiled. He wished that it would happen. It would take his mind off everything.
Ivan Davies. Billionaire entrepreneur. A man who had everything, including many of the world’s artistic masterpieces hanging in his basement. A man who hosted wonderful parties, but who none of his guests knew. A recluse.
He should feel satisfied. He had achieved everything that he had ever dreamed of. Including finally having the opportunity to tie up loose ends from all those years ago. He ha
d Shay and Tess in his grasp, and he was going to make them pay.
His mother’s voice flickered into his mind. You don’t have many friends anymore, do you? And Shay was always on your side.
His friend. His only friend. His best friend from when he was so young, he couldn’t remember a time without him. The only person who had known the truth about what his life was really like.
Eric gulped his whiskey, feeling the liquid empower him. The most expensive whiskey in the world.
He had everything. And he had nothing.
Restless, he stood up, pacing the room. They would be there by now. The guards would have secured them in place. All that was needed was for him to go there and light the torch. Put an end to them both. He was tired of playing with them. It wasn’t fun anymore, and he needed them gone forever. Maybe then these thoughts and doubts would stop tormenting him, once and for all. He should have done it on that night all those years ago, if he had have realised how they would rear back into his life like this.
Shay was wrong, he thought, increasing his pace. So wrong. Just because he had rescued his mother, it didn’t mean that there was any shred of humanity left in him, did it? It was just an old debt that had to be paid. His mother had protected him, and so now he was protecting her. Just an old score that he had settled. Nothing more.
So why couldn’t he stop the vision of his mother, staring at Shay, with so much love? Hearing her entreating them to be friends. Just like she had when they would fight over toy trucks when they were four.
Stop it, he told himself. Stop!
He took a deep breath, sitting down again. There was a camera in the woods. He would just check in and see that the guards had done their jobs properly. He flicked to the monitor he wanted and stared.
Yes. Shay and Tess were tied to the stake, back to back. He could see Tess weeping. What was Shay doing? He zoomed the camera in on his face, studying him.
Shay wasn’t crying. He was talking to Tess. Trying to calm her down. And then, he saw one of Shay’s hands gently reach for her own and grasp it.
Eric’s face twisted. He really did love her. He always had.
He stood up. He had made his decision. He needed to do a few things now, before he went to them. Stuff that he couldn’t do afterwards. Stuff that would make sure everything was taken care of. Eric was nothing if not methodical.
He took out his wallet and stared at the old photo again. His mother had been beautiful when she was young. And the toddler sitting on her lap had no idea of what was ahead of him. The monster that he would one day become.
But it was alright. Everything was going to happen exactly as it should.
He put the wallet away decisively. He wouldn’t be looking at it again.
***
Tess shivered in the cold night air. The tears kept welling up, drying in the wind almost as soon as they left her eyes. This was it, then. They were both going to die.
The guards had taken them out to the woods, beyond the border of the property. It was dark, but she had seen the pyre in the distance. The stake. They had been roughly tied to it, so tightly that the rope was cutting into her wrists. Back to back, so that they couldn’t see each other.
“Tess.” Shay’s voice was so soft, she could barely hear it. “Don’t cry. I will find a way out of this, I promise you.”
“Change,” she entreated. “Turn into the wolf!”
She heard his soft intake of breath. “I can’t. The guards have their guns on us. They will have been told to shoot you if I do it. And they will shoot the wolf dead, as well.”
She sobbed. “This is it, then. The end of the line.” She stopped crying abruptly. “At least my last moments will be with you. I love you, Shay. So much.”
He strangled a sound. “I love you, Tess. So much that I am crazy with it.”
She felt his hand, touching hers. They grasped each other’s hands, clinging as if to a life buoy in a wild and choppy sea.
They stayed that way for so long she wondered if they were going to be left there all night. But then she heard a jeep coming towards them and saw headlights dipping in the darkness.
Eric was coming. To kill them, once and for all.
The jeep pulled up, and Eric got out, carrying an unlit wooden torch in one hand. As he alighted from the car he took out a gun, holding it in the other hand. Another man stepped out, as well. Tess strained her eyes. It was Mr. Gee, staring at them impassively.
They walked slowly towards them.
“Fresh night, isn’t it?” called Eric. “I do hope you both aren’t too cold.” He smiled. “We will have to find a way to warm you both up.”
“You’ll pay for this,” yelled Shay, twisting on the stake. “I’ll see you in goddamn hell for what you are about to do.”
Eric laughed. “With pleasure, Shay. I’m sure it’s going to be my favourite place, once I get there.”
He turned to Mr. Gee. “Light?”
Mr. Gee complied, taking a lighter out of his pocket and flicking it on. The flame burned bright in the darkness. Eric leaned towards him with the torch. Mr. Gee lit it, and suddenly it caught fire. Eric walked closer, the torch in one hand and his gun in the other.
“Any final words?” he called, as he leaned towards the kindling at the bottom of the stake.
“I pity you,” growled Shay.
Tess was silent, grasping Shay’s hand tighter.
Eric leaned closer to the kindling.
This is it, thought Tess.
“I love you, Shay!” she called out. She couldn’t take her eyes off the torch, so close to the wood.
Suddenly, Eric turned. He raised his gun, shooting Mr. Gee cleanly in the head. The man toppled forward, a look of surprise on his face. And before Tess could comprehend it, Eric had shot all the guards. They crumpled to the ground like felled trees.
Tess screamed. What was happening?
Eric calmly lowered the gun, staring at them. The torch still burnt fiercely, its flames licking the air. He tossed it, suddenly, into the trees behind them. Tess could see it burning the shrub.
“What are you doing?” cried Shay.
Eric didn’t answer. He walked up to the stake, and untied the ropes binding them. They were free. They turned to each other. Shay grabbed her, and they were in each other’s arms. Tess could feel him shaking against her.
“Why?” whispered Shay, turning to Eric.
Eric’s face was calm. “It was cowardly,” he said. “You are a wolf, Shay. And I am a demon. We should battle to the death.”
Shay nodded. “I respect that.”
“Shay, no!” screamed Tess, staring around wildly.
He gazed at her gently. “Tess, this is between Eric and me.”
Eric smiled. “Just so.”
And suddenly, he was changing. His face seemed to be melting before Tess’s astonished eyes. The demon had come out to play.
She could hear Shay growling. And then he was changing, too. His clothes were ripping apart, his skeleton straining. The wolf was emerging.
Tess backed away, slowly. The demon and the wolf circled each other, both growling. Before her astonished eyes, they suddenly threw themselves on each other. Scratching and clawing.
Tess started trembling so hard she thought she might collapse. It was terrible to watch. And yet, somehow, fitting. The fight intensified, until she couldn’t make out which was which. They were a blur of colour and fury.
***
The demon snarled, flexing its long talons towards the wolf. It drew blood, and the wolf yelped in pain.
They tumbled together, down a slight hill. Suddenly, the wolf had the upper hand. It pinned the demon to the ground. The demon snarled at it, gnashing its teeth. The wolf prepared for the onslaught.
But it never came. The demon suddenly grew limp, its black eyes staring into the wolf’s blue eyes. The wolf stared at it, confused.
The demon closed its eyes in surrender. The wolf whined, as if in pain. And then the demon turned to its sid
e, exposing its neck.
The wolf hesitated, just for a moment.
When it pierced the jugular, and the blood from the demon started spurting onto its fur, the wolf kept whining. It shook the demon for a few more times, just to make sure. The demon heaved like a rag doll against the ground.
The wolf stopped. It raised its head to the moon and started howling, its cry so mournful that others in the woods beyond started singing back to it.
***
Afterwards, Tess couldn’t seem to remember what had happened next. She knew that the demon was dead. She watched the wolf shaking it, before he howled into the sky. She heard the answering calls of wolves all around.
Blood. Death. And a chorus of wolf howls, almost like an elegy for the demon lying dead on the ground.
The wolf was gone. It sprinted off into the woods, so fast that she could barely discern it through the trees. She heard a soft hissing. The demon was melting into the ground. Before her astonished eyes, it disappeared in a cloud of smoke, until nothing was left.
The woods were on fire. All around, flames were licking the air, growing stronger. Where was the wolf? She didn’t know what to do. How could she leave when he was still out there? But she had no choice, not if she wanted to live. She knew that very soon the flames would encircle her, and there would be no way out.
She turned, running blindly. Instinctively she headed in the opposite direction of the house. Who knew what was happening back there? It was all madness.
Eric had killed his own people, before sacrificing himself. She had seen it all. She saw when the demon had surrendered, offering itself to the wolf. The demon had made a choice to not fight anymore.
Tears blurred her vision as she ran wildly through the trees. She understood, now. Eric had meant for it all to go the way that it had.
He had saved them. Why, she still didn’t know.
She kept running, stumbling in her haste to outrun the flames. She could still hear the howls of wolves, tapering off slightly. Her heart froze with fear. Would he be able to outrun the fire, or would he be consumed by it?
She sobbed, panting. Where was he?
***
Tess climbed down the scaffold, trying hard to keep her balance on the rickety old poles. She had rented it through a cheap company, and it seemed like the old saying that you got what you paid for was right.
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