by Raythe Reign
Cameron felt a twinge of annoyance though. Riding with Liam was one of his absolute favorite things. He loved holding onto his brother’s waist while the road unfurled before them like a ribbon of pale blue denim. The roar of the motor would be in Cameron’s ears and the thrum of the powerful engine would run throughout his body. He always rested one ear against Liam’s back and he could hear the thump of his brother’s powerful heart, too. He got the best ideas for paintings and sculptures when he and Liam went on rides. Just the two of them. The two of them and the lure of wide open spaces. Sometimes he imagined that his brother just kept on riding down those roads, never turning back to Holten, riding to a destiny that was just out of his power to imagine.
“That’s okay I guess. Do you think I have time to pee?” Carmody asked. He was crossing his legs and doing a little jig suddenly. He had the bladder the size of a peanut or, at least, that’s what their mutual friend Jason had said.
Cameron rolled his eyes. “Pee behind the bushes. Don’t go back into the school. It’ll take too long and Liam will be here any second.”
“I can’t go behind a bush! I have to be in a bathroom.” Carmody turned and raced towards the one-floor school behind them. He called over his shoulder. “I’ll be right back! Don’t leave without me!”
Cameron didn’t say anything. It was useless. Carmody was going to do what he was going to do and Liam wouldn’t mind waiting. Besides it would give Cameron and him some small time to be alone together. Maybe he could hope up on the bike behind his big brother and just put his arms around his waist and rest his head against his back. Hot, strange sensations raced through him as he imagined that. Face flushed and suddenly edgy, he swung away from the school. He was about to turn and look back down the road for Liam when he realized he was not alone. There was a man about fifty feet away down the sidewalk. Cameron straightened, surprised and a little uneasy about the man’s sudden appearance. Was it the perv? Did pervs come out in daylight? Walk openly in the sun?
Despite the heat the guy was dressed in all black. Black long-sleeved button down shirt. Black jeans. Black shoes. His hair stuck up towards the sky and reminded Cameron of a lit match. That hair gave him away. It was Reginald Fox. Cameron’s shoulders slumped. It wasn’t the perv. It was just Reggie.
Reggie was weird, but not scary. His family owned the local bowling alley and Reggie was the one to hand out the shoes after spraying them with deodorant. Because of his job, the kids claims he smelled like dirty feet. He was the same age as Liam, but he seemed worlds apart from Cameron’s cool older brother. He stuttered – when he spoke at all – kept his head sunk down against his chest, turtling in on himself, and never met anyone’s eyes.
Wonder what he’s doing here?
But that was an idle thought that Cameron didn’t really care to know the answer to. He turned away from Reggie to look for Liam. It was then though that Cameron realized how quiet the school was. There were no kids outside playing like there had been before the perv started killing kids. Normally teachers hung out until every student was taken home these days, but today there was some kind of teacher meeting so they were gone as well. Carmody hadn’t yet appeared back from the bathroom. The only sounds were the wind and the faint footfalls of Reggie coming up behind him. Cameron was about to say ‘hi’ to Reggie – not that Reggie would say anything in return – when he heard the thrum of the Bobber.
Excitement lit up inside of him and he rocked back and forth on his feet as Liam and the bike came into view. Heat rose up from the asphalt in wavy lines, blurring everything, but he could see Liam riding the bike, hair flying back in the wind, looking awesomely cool as every big brother should. He hardly noticed that the sound of Reggie’s footfalls behind him had sped up until there was this whooshing sound and there was a sharp, terrible crack.
Cameron was falling forward before he felt the pain in his head. His eyesight blackened to nothing for a time – how long he couldn’t say — before surging back again yet instead of his vision returning crisp and clear everything was shadowed, blurry. That wasn’t the only change. His body wouldn’t work right. The pain in his head was unbearable and he swore his head was going to crack open like an egg and spill his brain onto the sidewalk. He thought he was going to vomit.
Then he realized that he was being carried. He smelled a sharp astringent odor, antiseptic, and his stomach roiled like it was filled with snakes. He realized something else, too. His wrists and ankles were being held together with what looked like zip ties. He stared at them uncomprehendingly. Then he felt something spatter his face and he realized it was spit from Reggie. Reggie was carrying him. Reggie was drooling on him. Reggie had a looney grin on his face as he was running awkwardly towards a black Charger.
“Reggie, what … why’d you hit me?” Cameron’s voice sounded like it was coming from a long way away. He was certain that Reggie had smacked him with something — maybe a pipe? — on the back of the head. Or at least that’s what it felt like. Who was he kidding? It felt far worse than that.
Reggie didn’t answer. He was breathing hard though the grin hadn’t left his pale lips. The whine of Liam’s bike was louder now. Cameron thought he heard Liam shouting at Reggie to stop. Cameron tried to turn his head to look over Reggie’s shoulder to see his brother.
“L-Liam?” his voice was so soft. His brother wouldn’t be able to hear him. He had to yell, but he couldn’t draw in enough breath.
Then Reggie was opening the door of the Charger and dumping him into the back sea. Cameron’s head hit the seat and unbelievable pain flared inside of his skull again. He shouted. Shrieked. His voice working again. Liam definitely was calling his name now, a howl, hardly indistinguishable from the roar of the bike’s motor.
“CAM! CAM!”
“LIAM!” he screamed back, wanting — no, needing — his brother so badly that it was a physical ache.
But Reggie had the car in gear and he punched the gas, letting out a strange maniacal giggle as the car slalomed down the street before he got control of it. Then he punched the gas again and pulled away from Liam and the Bobber.
Cameron felt sick and stupid. His thoughts were sluggish like they were dipped in molasses. He blinked a few times before he thought of doing the obvious and opening the door and rolling out of the car. But when he lifted his head he saw that the ground was just whipping by. If he got out of the car at that speed he would be dead. Road kill. But maybe Reggie would slow down. Surely he would put on the breaks when he took a turn.
Cameron decided that he had to free his wrists and ankles. He tried to frantically work to undo his hands from the zip ties. His skin was chafed raw, but the he could not get the zip ties over his hands. . The glare from the desert sun kept coming through the car’s windows, blinding him and confusing his aching head. The pain now in his wrists centered him. The same thing happened when he tried to free his ankles. He was tied tight. He wasn’t getting out of these without scissors or a knife, neither of which was available in the back seat of Reggie’s car.
He remembered this car suddenly from the times that Reggie had brought it over for his brother to work on. Reggie thought he knew cars, but Liam said he really didn’t. Reggie was so protective of the Charger that he had insisted on being there nearly every time Liam worked on it. Cameron had wondered if Reggie just wanted to hang with Liam, but though his brother had tried to get Reggie to talk during those hours long work sessions, Reggie had only answered in monosyllables and kept most of his attention on the black Charger.
“He thinks it’ll make him cool,” Cameron had told Liam later. “It won’t. But he thinks its will.”
Liam had been putting away his tools and said, “Reggie’s just a sad guy. I feel bad for him. You should, too.”
“Why?” Reggie had taken away some of Cameron’s time with Liam so he wasn’t looking on the guy all too kindly.
“Because he’s always going to be an outsider, Cam. He doesn’t have anybody like you and I do to not feel so …
different.”
Cameron had scuffed the garage with his foot. “Yeah, I guess. I mean we have each other, right?”
Liam had given him a smile. “Right.”
Now after Reggie had bonked him on the head and was taking him who knew where, hatred again flared in Cameron’s chest.
“Reggie, what are you doing?” Cameron got out as the man took a sharp turn and Cameron’s body slid over the back seat.
So much for slowing down on the turns!
He sort of knew the answer to his question. Reggie must be the perv, the “Desert Killer”. Reggie that everyone ignored or, if they did pay attention to him, made fun of him. Reggie who stuttered and wouldn’t meet anyone’s eyes. But he did meet Cameron’s gaze in the rearview mirror and, for a moment, his eyes were black pits. It was like his eyes had been carved out and Cameron was seeing into his soul and it was pitch black, no light, no goodness, just everlasting darkness.
“Scared?” Reggie asked, not stammering, not sounding like himself at all.
“What are you?” The words had just pushed their way out of Cameron’s mouth. It wasn’t just fear he felt, but horror.
That had Reggie pausing then smiling and nodding. “I hoped. I mean I thought you had enough of his blood in you, but I wasn’t sure. At least you’ll know what this is all about, because you’ll see.”
“W-what’ll I see?”
Another grin that showed black gums and teeth turning gray with rot. It was like Reggie was a corpse, the walking dead, but no one saw that but Cameron. “You’re seeing it now.”
Cameron looked away from the rearview mirror. He couldn’t look at Reggie anymore or he’d puke or worse. Panic beat inside of him like a bass drum. Fear wanted to overwhelm him, keep him from thinking of acting. His mouth was dry while his palms were slick with sweat. His heart felt like it was trying to get out of his chest. It was adrenaline. Flight or fight. At least that’s what his father would have told him.
“Don’t let your base emotions rule you, Cameron,” his father had said after Cameron had lost his temper and lashed out. “They’ll play you for a fool every time.”
But it was so hard to think clearly! Cameron had never imagined what he would do if the perv caught him. Other kids had laid out elaborate plans, because it made them sound like big heroes, but Cameron knew better. Heroes died. His father had died. He wasn’t a hero like his father. He was a kid. An artsy, bookish kid. Not in sports or anything like. His brother was built like a linebacker, but he was slender, almost delicate. What could he do against Reggie. He had no plan.
Liam. Liam is coming after me. Just look out the back and I’ll see him. He won’t let Reggie kill me!
He got up so that he could see out the rear window. His heart leaped into his throat as he saw that Liam was indeed still following after them. Liam leaned over the bike’s handlebars, reducing the wind drag of his body to increase his speed. But the Bobber wasn’t as fast as the Charger. His brother’s work on it had seen to that. Reggie let out a tittering laugh.
“I know he’s there. He’s not going to save you, you know,” Reggie said.
“He will too!”
“I want him to catch up with us. Two for the price of one,” Reggie drawled. “He’ll die trying to save you and I’ll make a most beautiful tableau out of both of your bodies together. I can just imagine your mother’s face. First her husband and now both her sons. I’m betting she’s eat a bullet.”
“BASTARD!” Cameron’s rage surged up in his and he slammed his bound feet against the back of Reggie’s seat. To say that about his mom and Liam was just wrong. He might be slender and bookish, but suddenly he felt fierce. He wasn’t scared of Reggie. He would kick the bastard’s face in.
“Don’t do that or we’ll crash and then you’ll die anyways.” Reggie winked at him.
The thought of them crashing cooled Cameron. He could imagine the car flying end over end and him being mangled. Not the say he wanted to go. Reggie was going to stop the car at some point. And then Cameron would act.
Abruptly, Reggie took another turn onto a small road that was dusted over with sand. Once again, Cameron was sent flying to the other side of the car. They had crested a hill just before the turnoff and he wasn’t sure that Liam saw them turn. He hoped that his brother glimpsed the tire tracks and followed.
He looked out the back window, but didn’t see Liam anywhere. Reggie was going over one hundred and twenty miles per hour, hurtling down this sandy road and it seemed like the wheels were hardly touching the pavement. There was nobody and nothing around. They were out of town, somewhere in the surrounding, unforgiving desert. Cameron didn’t recognize the place at all. Panic fluttered in his chest. Had he lost Liam? Was he trapped along with Reggie?
After a fifteen minute drive, Reggie was turning off the road and onto a gravel track, which he followed for half a mile before the track deadended.. There were three buildings all the color of burnt umber around them. The buildings looked like many of the abandoned ranches Cameron had seen when he and Liam went riding. Reggie parked the car in what looked like a large stable. The sunlight that had kept blinding Cameron was replaced with shuttered light that seeped through the slats that made up the stable’s walls. The air inside the stable was still and hot.
The stable no longer contained any horses, but there were still stalls lining one wall. Reggie got out of the Charger and came around to the back door. He foolishly opened the door by Cameron’s feet. Bound or not he was still able to kick and kick Cameron did. He raised his feet up and slammed them into Reggie’s face. There was a satisfying crunch and blood sprayed everywhere. Reggie let out a howl of pain and rage. One of his hands went up to his face to stop the geysering of blood and he curled forward. Cameron kicked him again and he fell back from the car.
Cameron turned and got his hands on the other door handle behind him. The door wouldn’t open! It was locked. He went to pull up the lock when he realized that the back door’s lock had been tampered with. There was no way to open it. It was at that moment when Reggie was grabbing his legs. Cameron let out a squeal of fright and kicked again, but Reggie had a hold of him and simply pulled him out of the car. His head bashed against the kickboard and stars of blackness blossomed in his vision.
Reggie was saying things, cursing him, “I’m going to fuck you until bleed, you little shit! You’ll see all the dark places before I eat you whole! Your brother will watch as I drain the life’s blood right out of you!”
Reggie’s face with its broken nose looked even more monstrous than before. Cameron knew he had to fight, but his arms and legs wouldn’t work. Reggie picked him up and tossed him over his shoulder. He couldn’t understand how Reggie was so strong. The guy was a pipsqueak, but he wasn’t acting like one now. He seemed to have preternatural strength and a part of Cameron’s mind wondered if it was because he was a zombie and the thing inside of him, the thing animating him, was what was strong about him.
Reggie carried him out of the stable, heading towards one of the other buildings, but then the sound of a motorcycle’s engine filled the air and Liam came roaring in. His brother didn’t exactly stop the bike so much as leap off it and let it slide on its side until it stopped ten feet away.
Road dust covered his brother’s face. Liam wore sunglasses, but he pulled those off as he strode towards Reggie on tree-trunk sized legs. Rage burned in his blue eyes like gas lamps. The massive muscles in his arms flexed under the tight t-shirt stained with oil and grease from fixing cars. Cameron could almost smell his brother’s cologne mixed with motor oil. It was a comforting scent.
“LIAM!” Cameron screamed, thrashing around over Reggie’s shoulder, but the man held him tight and didn’t release him.
“Let go of my brother!” Liam roared as he stormed forward.
Reggie did let Cameron go, dropped him like a sack of flour. Cameron’s right shoulder broke his fall and pain had his eyes watering with tears. Something had broken. His wrist maybe. He squeezed away the
tears and tried to get up but he couldn’t. Everything was swaying precariously.
Liam was just a few feet from Reggie when the man took out a long bladed hunting knife. Liam jerked to a halt, blue eyes wary, but not afraid. He turned the blade and it glinted in the sun.
“This is the blade I used on the others. It’s been bathed in the blood of innocents so it’s much stronger now,” Reggie tittered.
A vein in Liam’s forehead throbbed even as he growled, “Get away from my brother, you sick fuck.”
“No, he’s mine and so are you.”
Reggie moved like a striking adder. The blade cut the air where his brother had been just half a second before. Liam had moved even faster. Reggie laughed, that strange high-pitched tittering laugh, before dancing forward, slashing and stabbing. Liam was moving backwards, his eyes fixed on the blade, trying to anticipate where it would next be so that he wasn’t there. One time he wasn’t fast enough and the blade skimmed his side.
“Liam, no!” Cameron croaked as he saw the thin t-shirt part on the left side of his brother’s ribs and a line of red appeared.
Reggie laughed as if delighted by the blood on some terrible primal level. His brother’s breaths were coming in grunts as he had to keep up the frantic pace. Suddenly, his brother lunged forward instead of back and grabbed Reggie’s wrist. Reggie let out a thin, shrill cry as Liam bent the hand holding the knife backwards. There was a snap and the knife fell to the ground with a clatter. Both men froze for a second, looking down at where it lay, and then both dove for it. Cameron held his breath, waiting to see who would get it.
Liam scooped the knife up at the last second and he thrust it into Reggie’s stomach. Reggie made this oomphing sound as the power of Liam’s thrust drove the air out of his lungs even as he slid the nine-inch blade inside of him. Reggie’s eyes – still black as pitch – widened. Then Liam was pulling the knife out and plunging it back in again and again and again. Reggie was letting out a whine like an animal through his clenched teeth. He was leaning forward, into Liam, and then his brother was pushing him back, pushing him off of him and Reggie toppled over onto his back onto the steaming asphalt, unmoving.