Banshee Box Set

by Sara Clancy

  Zack shook his head and pushed further back into his seat. “Let’s get going.”

  Chapter 11

  The rising water was quickly swallowing the road, and Nicole was losing track of it. The bus’s steering wheel rattled within Nicole’s grasp. Her fingers ached as she struggled to keep the bus from fishtailing every time the wheels found a mass of water and forced them to shift. With only the dim headlights to judge by, Nicole was never quite sure if she was about to drive them off a cliff. She wanted to slow down but Benton’s low, agonized groans forced her to go faster.

  Benton had pulled himself into a tight ball, but not even all the sheets could help him maintain any of his body heat. Danny had taken pity on him and sat close enough that her warmth might transfer to him. It wasn’t helping. He was visibly growing worse and was no longer able to silence his moans of pain.

  “He’s really not looking so good,” Zack expressed as he came up beside her.

  “I know,” she said breathlessly, sneaking another glance at him in the rearview mirror.

  Meg had come up behind her and leaned against the back of the driver’s seat.

  “What is wrong with him?” she whispered.

  “I think it’s this land,” Nicole whispered back. “Or maybe all the dead people. But we’re almost there.”

  Yanking hard on the wheel, she rounded a blind turn. The high beams swung around, illuminating the falling rain like crystals as the windshield wipers struggled to force the water aside. A white mass suddenly came into view. It filled the road as they hurdled towards it. Nicole slammed on the breaks. The back wheels hit a watery patch and the bus started to swerve, shifting further to the opposite side each time she tried to compensate. For a moment, the earth dropped out from under them and they lurched down. With an intense crack and a bone-rattling jolt, they finally came to a stop.

  Mud and muck covered the mini bus. The lights were off. The engine was dead. Surrounded on all sides by near complete darkness, Nicole lifted her head from the steering wheel. Rain pinged against the windows and streamed over the back of the bus. Slowly, the sounds of rustling, of strangled grunts and shifting material, drifted to her ears.

  “Is everyone all right?” she called.

  Benton growled in answer, sounding more bothered than anything else. One by one, the others announced themselves. Small patches of light flicked into existence and she struggled to see what was happening by their glow. The mini bus was propped up onto a forty-five degree angle, nose deep in a pit. They were sinking. She could tell that much when water began to pull and lap around the cracked windshield.

  There was some more rustling and a bright light carved a vivid narrow tube out of the night. Benton had found Nicole’s bag and retrieved one of the flashlights. He wavered as he tossed it to her without a word. She caught it with fumbling fingers.

  “Okay, well,” she said, trying to stay calm as she drifted the light around the bus, “the important thing is that no one’s hurt.”

  “Right,” Zack grumbled. “And the fact that we can’t get this out of here without a tow truck is coincidental?”

  Danny clicked on the second flashlight Nicole had brought and, after flashing it around for a moment, set it on the windshield.

  “That water’s rising. We need to get out of here,” she warned.

  Zack paused for a moment as he looked at them all in turn. “Do you think it was a ghost that ran us off the road, again?”

  Using the chairs on either side of the aisle as a handhold, Meg pushed herself up towards the rear window. She shone her light through, but couldn’t compete with the rain and reflection.

  “Nicole had been speeding in the rain around tight corners,” Meg pointed out before looking back and adding. “No offense.”

  “There was a car in the middle of the road,” Nicole defended.

  Benton perked his head up at that but didn’t comment. He already looked exhausted, and every breath was a struggle.

  “Make sure your raincoat is buttoned up tight. We need to get you out of here,” Nicole told him.

  With a staggered nod, Benton detangled himself from the blankets and pulled the hood of his coat higher. His silence set off a thousand warning signs in the back of her head. Benton was many things, but silent wasn’t one of them. With everyone’s help it took a far shorter time than Nicole had thought to gather them all just below the rear hatch.

  Zack put his hand on the lever and his shoulder to the door before he hesitated. “What if those things are out there?”

  A scream ripped from them as something smacked against the door. It was met with a sudden light and a high voice.

  “Hello? Is everyone okay?”

  Zack ducked lower as if to keep himself from being seen. “Can these monsters talk?”

  The sweet voice called again from beyond the glass and the outside emergency latch was wrenched open. The door yanked open, allowing in a flood of water and a howling wind. Nicole’s long hair whipped across her face. With one arm looped around Benton’s and clinging to the flashlight, and the other holding tight onto the back of the nearest chair, she couldn’t clear her face of her hair or the water. She aimed the beam of her flashlight onto the stranger’s face. A second later, she realized that it wasn’t a stranger. Not completely. It was the woman from the McDonald’s line.

  “Oh, thank God,” the woman smiled before turning back to call over her shoulder. “They’re okay. We’re coming up.”

  “Who are you?” Zack asked, cautiously pulling himself out.

  The question remained unanswered as they worked to pull the others up from inside the bus. When Nicole and Benton were the last two remaining, she gently coaxed him before her, careful not to hurt him as the woman reached down to grab his hand. With her hands on his waist, she felt the jolt that ran through him when they made contact. She snapped her head up to see him frozen in place, his eyes wide even as the rain drizzled into them. The woman stared back with a faint smile, urging him to let her help him out. Benton didn’t move.

  At his hesitation, Zack mumbled something about him being sick and reached back in to yank Benton up himself. Nicole could only watch as Benton was pulled from her hands and out into the night. Rain washed over her face, a cold chill that made her cringe back at them. The woman stretched out a hand towards her, but Nicole was looking past it. Benton was staring at her, fear lacing his eyes as he slowly shook his head.

  “Come on, Nicole,” Zack urged. “We have to go.”

  Benton shook his head all the harder but the pace seemed to drain him. She couldn’t refuse, but his warning turned her guts into a trembling mass. Slowly, she reached up. The woman snatched up her hand the second it was within reach. The sensation only grew worse as she was hurled from the bus.

  “Oh, hi again,” the woman smiled.

  Nicole mumbled a hello and tried to pull her hand back. The woman’s fingers tightened and locked her in place. Benton pushed past Zack and latched onto Nicole’s wrist. It made the flashlight in her hand sway and the beam skittered across the area. The glare from his eyes that Benton narrowed on the woman, didn’t hold a hint of the sickness that was pressing down on him. But it startled the woman enough that he could yank Nicole out of her grasp.

  The tension was broken by Zack’s insistence that they move back up to the road. It was a much slower process as water gushed down the steep incline. Nicole deliberately went slower, letting the others move on ahead. Before she could say anything, Benton whispered into her ear.

  “Have you got your gun?”

  “Back of my waistband. What are you seeing?” she asked.

  “Death. It’s following her,” he whispered. “How do you know her?”

  “She’s the one I told you about. The one who was around when Allison grabbed me.”

  After what felt like an eternity, Benton met her gaze. All of her anxieties were mirrored back in his gray eyes and she felt her guts twist.

  “Keep close.”

  She coul
dn’t tell if it was a warning or a plea, but she nodded all the same. They scrambled over the last hump and Benton slumped down over the road. Tremors rippled through him as he clawed at the ground. Nicole instantly dropped down beside him and tried to pull him back up onto his knees. He slumped against her as his chest heaved.

  “Is he okay?”

  Nicole snapped her head up to see the man from McDonald’s standing beside the white sedan that was blocking the road.

  “He’s sick,” Nicole said. “We need to get him back into town.”

  The couple looked at each other and a cold chill swept up Nicole’s spine. There was just something about the exchange that put her on edge.

  “Why don’t we give you a lift?” the woman offered with a sickly, sweet voice.

  It didn’t matter how kindly she said it, the question naturally put each one of them on edge. They all exchanged quick glances, weighing out their options, before Zack answered.

  “That would be good.”

  “Well, we can’t fit all of you,” the man laughed heartedly. It was a pleasant sound, but Benton’s hands still tightened in Nicole’s jacket in response. “It’s not that far into town, though. Why don’t we give Nicole and her friend a lift first, seeing he’s so sick, and then we’ll come back for the rest of you?”

  Meg was quick to answer, “This isn’t the kind of highway you split up on.”

  “I’ve heard some rumors about this road, too,” the man acknowledged, “which is why I’m not all that comfortable giving four of you a ride at the same time; especially, when it’s just me and my girlfriend.”

  The woman opened the car’s back door. “Nicole, isn’t it? Your boy isn’t looking so good. We should hurry up.”

  Benton shook his head as the pit in Nicole’s stomach became a gaping hole.

  “Something’s really wrong with him, Nicki.” The man spoke it like a general comment, but there was no mistaking the edge that lurked within his words.

  Zack stepped in between them, using his bulk to try and cut off the man’s view of Nicole.

  “Hey, man,” Zack spoke with that same forced casualness. “Why is your car parked like this anyway?”

  Meg and Danny began to edge back, closing ranks with Nicole. The air became a thick swamp of tension as the smiles faded from the couple. Even as the man scowled at her, his voice retrained that warm, all too friendly tone. The disconnection made Nicole’s insides squirm and the twins became less subtle about going back to the safety of the group.

  “I’m just trying to be friendly and help you out. It doesn’t seem like you kids have many options right now.”

  The man took a step closer. The simple action had provoked immediate reactions. Zack balled his fists. Meg squared off, making sure to keep both strangers in sight. Danny shifted so she blocked the path to the weakened member of their group. And Benton laughed.

  It was the strange, strangled sound that always seemed to brew up within him when the seemingly crazy pieces of his life fell into place. Hunched against Nicole with his head hung low and water dripping from his hood, Benton’s barked laughter caught everyone off guard. The couple hesitated, but only for a moment.

  “What’s the joke?” the woman asked.

  “The white sedan,” Benton disclosed before he summoned the strength to lift his head. “I’ve seen it each time we stopped. Don’t you get it? Allison wants to use me, but she isn’t following me. She’s following them.”

  Realization dawned within Nicole like a razor edged wind. “They killed her!”

  Her words barely conquered the sounds of the storm, but they instantly grabbed everyone’s attention. Heavy silence claimed each of them as they grappled with all the implications. It was their own silence that allowed them to hear it.

  The cackling.

  It drifted along the air like rolling thunder. But it wasn’t just one voice. Dozens crowded in the air, mingling with each other, blending in a wild frenzy that made Nicole nearly drown in her paralyzing fear. Holding Benton close, she glanced over her shoulder, the threat before incomparable to what was rushing up from behind.

  Midnight darkness held the world tight, refusing to release it to their flashlights. The maniacal, frenzied laughter grew louder. Rushing towards them. Over them.

  “Get in the car!” Zack bellowed.

  Chaos broke out at the call. Zack charged for the open back door, but the man swiftly cut him off. Meg and Danny burst forth in the same instant, Meg trying to shove the woman aside while Danny scrambled into the car. A moment later, the high beams flicked on, severing the darkness and illuminating a dozen, ghostly pale faces a few feet down the road. Blinking back into the light, the faces smiled at them, their mouths stretching into impossible lengths, revealing row upon row of twisted fangs.

  Someone screamed but Nicole couldn’t tell whom through the crushing laughter. The demons scattered into the darkness, their yowling cackles testifying that they didn’t have a face. Nicole pulled Benton onto his feet with shaking hands. He moved with all the speed his adrenaline rush would allow, and they lumbered towards the car. The wind whipped at them, pushing them back from the safety of the vehicle. The car now seemed an impossible distance away.

  The woman was still grappling with Meg. Clawing her hands into Meg’s short hair, the woman tossed her to the side, propelling the teenager out across the road. In the light pouring from the open car door, Nicole caught a glimpse of metal in the woman’s hand. And then she was gone. Shock slowed Nicole’s movements but Benton kept urging her on. The woman was gone. The space she had once occupied, suddenly empty.

  Meg picked herself up to race across the now vacant space and dive in through the open front passenger door. She twisted around instantly and reached back outside, screaming at Nicole to hurry up. The man roared as he lunged at Zack. He was strong, but Zack was stronger and refused to yield an inch. Nicole dragged Benton past them and had just flopped him onto the back seat when an earsplitting crash shook the car. The rear window became a spider web of cracks as the metal of the roof buckled. Nicole threw herself back, shielding her face from debris with both arms as she dropped to the pavement.

  A limp hand flopped down over the side of the car. Bloody, rainwater drizzled from the fingertips as the air became deafening with the sound of panic and laughter and the ever present thunder. Forcing herself back onto her feet, Nicole aimed the beam of her flashlight to the roof of the car. The woman stared back at her with lifeless eyes. At the sight, the man’s fury grew and he pushed past Zack, his fueled rage apparently focused on Benton. The car shook as the man hurled himself onto Benton and flattened him against the back seat.

  Nicole sprinted for the car. Even through her raincoat, she could feel the cold rush of air grazing across her back as something swooped at her. Zack had already gone around the far side and slipped in behind Benton. With the closed door to his back, he was trying to shove the man off of Benton and out of the still open back passenger door. But there wasn’t time. She could feel claws slashing through the plastic of her jacket as she reached the car. With one hand, she slammed the back passenger door shut, trapping the man in with them, but keeping the ghostly demons out. With the other hand, she grabbed Meg’s waiting hand.

  Meg’s grip was as solid as stone as she leaned back, throwing her weight behind the task of dragging Nicole into the car. Nicole’s shin hit the door a second before a different hand had grabbed her leg. It pulled hard, and if it weren’t for Meg’s firm grip, Nicole would have been flung back out. Danny reached across her sister and grabbed Nicole’s sleeve. Together, they tried to pull her back in while the grip on her ankle dragged her violently into the air.

  The car was filled with a frenzy of screams. The twins shouted for help, while Zack was torn between wanting to rescue Nicole and trying to pry the man’s hands from around Benton’s throat. Nicole could feel the claws shredding her jeans, slashing at the skin underneath. It wrenched her up until her back slammed against the top of the car. The tw
in’s grip was failing. The rain that covered her jacket was making the material too slippery to hold onto properly. Her attempts to hit the creature that was on her leg only made it harder. Over the tops of the seat, she could see the man’s knuckles turn white as they tightened around Benton’s neck. It didn’t matter what Zack did, the man refused to release his grip. Benton had one forearm pressed across the man’s chest, trying to force him back, while the other reached for Nicole.

  The flashlight fell into the car seat as Nicole slipped her hand under her coat. She found the handle of the gun easily, flicked the safety off with her thumb, and whipped it free. In her heightened position, the angle was easy enough. A thunderous crack rocked the car and the man’s head erupted in a splatter of brain and skull fragments. Shock made the twin’s grip falter. Nicole was yanked back an inch before Benton latched onto her outstretched arm, the move saving her from being pulled free, but also stopping her from re-aiming the gun.

  His hand was weak. His scream wasn’t.

  The windows exploded into shards in the wake of the shrilled wail. The sound hovered on a point that made her ears ring as the deeper tones penetrated within her chest. Through it all, weaved within the tapestry of impossible sounds, was the hint of a human’s fearful scream. The laughing creatures scattered back into the darkness. Only the one on her leg remained. She could feel it trembling as the pain in her ears intensified. She could feel it melt. Its skin dribbled over her own, rotting away until she was dropped with a sudden jerk.

  Benton’s grip failed as Nicole fell. Her knees collided with the pavement as the edge of the seat drove into her stomach. She was vaguely aware that the gun had slipped from her grasp, but the notion was lost as Meg and Danny scrambled to pull her inside. The windows were gone, but Danny still reached over her and pulled the door shut, locking it instantly.

  Rain showered in through the empty space, where the window once was, drenching the back of her legs. It was that pattering sound that she first heard when the ringing in her ears subsided. In the jumbled position she was in, Nicole could see between the two front seats into the back. Panting heavily, Benton propped himself against the corpse on his lap to keep himself upright. Behind him sat Zack, with his mouth open, his eyes wide and unblinking. She could feel the twins shaking as they held her tightly. No one said anything. It was in that silence that Nicole truly realized what she had done.