by Greg Taylor
Leveling his crossbow as he slowly approached the stairway, Toby scoured the immediate area for any sign of the Tall Man. But all Toby was able to find was the warped remains of the Ghost Buster on the floor of the stairwell. That’s when Toby knew. The Tall Man had sensed the trap. Had passed through the doorway, unharmed. And was now in the basement, going after Calanthe!
Just as Toby was about to run through the doorway to the basement, he felt something grab his ankle from behind. In an instant, he was slammed to the floor and pulled roughly across the lobby.
Toby tossed aside his crossbow and reached out wildly for something, anything, to grab on to, to stop himself from being pulled …
Where? What was this thing that had grabbed hold of him? Glancing down at his foot, Toby saw something wrapped around his ankle. When he realized what he was looking at, Toby recoiled at the disgusting sight. The thing was the rukh’s incredibly long, fleshy black tongue!
The creature was up and standing in the spot where Strobe’s taser had stopped it cold and the monster trap had finished it off. Or so Strobe had thought. The rukh looked unsteady, but also ready, willing, and able to turn Toby into dinner for one. As Toby struggled in the creature’s long-range grip, the thing took another wobbly step toward its prey, at the same time opening its mouth even wider in anticipation of his arrival.
Toby frantically reached for the knife sheath on his forearm plate and undid the strap that held the knife in place.
As though sensing what Toby was about to do, the rukh’s writhing, snake-like tongue reeled him in even faster!
Toby yanked the knife from its sheath. Just as he was about to try to free himself from the rukh’s grip …
The attack was over as quickly as it had begun. The creature teetered from one side to the other.…
Then toppled over and hit the floor with a resounding thud. The creature was finally dead.
But was it? Toby wasn’t completely sure about that. That’s because the thing’s black tongue was still wrapped around his ankle and still pulling him down the hall! Toby sliced right through the tongue with his knife, then watched as the remaining part moved slower and slower down the hall … until it finally came to a complete stop.
Toby immediately pulled down his mouthpiece. “Strobe.”
No answer.
“Strobe! You there?”
Nothing. Toby could hear the sounds of an intense battle down the hall. Yells back and forth between Strobe and Annabel. The pop of a flare followed by a red glow that illuminated darting shapes and shadows. Toby’s first impulse was to help his friends.
But he knew what came first. Above all else, they were here to protect Calanthe. He took a final look down the hall in Strobe and Annabel’s direction, then ran across the lobby and retrieved his crossbow.
Heading down the stairs, Toby arrived at the basement corridor and jogged down the wide passageway toward Calanthe’s operating-room hideout. On his way, he passed the fourth and final trap—another Hammer Down—that he and Strobe had constructed in the corridor.
The trap had been sprung. And it had done some damage. Toby immediately locked in on a path of blood that led away from the Hammer Down and followed it to the operating room. He hesitated a brief moment before entering, then went in, combat ready.
Toby felt the creepy sensation of déjà vu wash over him as he burst into the room. The place had been one of the “visiting hours” destinations in the Shock Corridor attraction, where the Deadly Doctor had done his foul deeds every night for the several weeks leading up to Halloween. Leaping flames and hellish demon faces painted on the walls still remained, which had jump-started a recall of the delighted screams Toby had heard years before in this very room.
But the fun scares of Shock Corridor were obviously bush league compared to this! Taking in the length and breadth of the room through his NVGs and discovering that the room was empty, Toby’s déjà vu feeling was quickly replaced by dread.
Calanthe was gone.
The Tall Man had obviously tripped Hammer Down, but the trap hadn’t been able to finish him. The person who was determined to offer up Calanthe as a sacrifice to his gods was still on his feet.
And he had his offering.
Toby backtracked to the corridor, his eyes immediately locking on the Tall Man’s blood trail, which continued down the hall. Toby was about to head down the passageway when he heard sounds behind him, coming down the stairs. Not knowing if it was Strobe and Annabel, or something else, Toby turned toward the stairway and brought up his crossbow.
Fortunately, it was Strobe and Annabel, who emerged from the cloud of dust that still hung in the air from the explosion on the first floor. The two looked like they’d just been through the worst fight of their young MCO careers. Their body armor was scratched, gouged, and covered with the dekayi’s black-tinged ooze. Their expressions were alert to the current situation, but still carried the shock and intensity of what they’d just been through.
“Those dudes were able to move their hearts around,” Strobe said as he and Annabel approached. “Totally hit-and-miss time. We finally hit.”
“Where’s Calanthe?” Annabel asked.
“Gone. She’s been taken this way, down the hall.”
The trio immediately headed down the corridor. Several turns in the passageway led them to a ladder set in the concrete wall, the metal rungs leading upward to an opening in the ceiling. When the group had checked out the hospital earlier to decide where to put their traps, they had discovered the ladder, which led to a separate utility building about fifty yards away from the hospital.
The three quickly scaled the ladder to the building, then followed the trail of blood—barely visible now—outside. The utility building was behind the hospital, which is where the trail suddenly went cold. The Tall Man’s wound had apparently stopped bleeding. Which meant he could be anywhere.
“I’ll go around this side of the hospital, check out the front,” Strobe said.
“I’ll take the other side, head back into the building. Could be he’s in there, thinking we’ll just search outside.” This from Annabel.
“Okay. I’ll take the rear of the hospital,” Toby said.
“Keep in touch.” Strobe was immediately off, jogging toward the side of the hospital.
Annabel and Toby exchanged a worried look, gave each other hopeful nods, then headed in separate directions to try to find Calanthe before the Tall Man could accomplish what he had come all this way to do.
10
The Tall Man looked down at Calanthe. His eyes were hard, unyielding. “It saddens me that you do not realize what an honor this is for you, Calanthe, to have been chosen for this.”
Calanthe wasn’t even trying to struggle anymore. The Tall Man had her in a grip that prevented her from doing much of anything, except what her captor wanted her to do. Calanthe had been about to turn into her serpent alter ego back in the operating room to defend herself, but the Tall Man had descended on her too quickly. Even with his traumatic injury—the Hammer Down had sliced through his shoulder—the Tall Man had been able to apply a firm grip to Calanthe’s wrist that had paralyzed her. Frozen her in place.
As it turned out, the Tall Man didn’t need to turn into his alter ego to paralyze people with the black numbing ooze. He could impart paralysis with one hand.
So Calanthe had meekly allowed the Tall Man to lead her out of the hospital and into the woods, their final destination being a clearing by a cliff overlooking a river. This is where they were now. This is the place the Tall Man had chosen to perform the ritual that would take Calanthe’s life.
“You are such a tool,” Calanthe suddenly said. The Tall Man glared at Calanthe, then he smiled a cold smile. “An expression you learned in your wonderful new world, no doubt.”
“You have no idea how much I have learned in the little time I’ve been in this world. It eclipses the so-called wisdom you claim to possess.”
“Yet still you don’t understand that
this is your destiny.”
“No. Just because you say it doesn’t make it so. Everyone has a right to make his or her own destiny. And it is in our power to do so. This is one of the important things I have learned.”
The Tall Man listened to Calanthe’s blasphemous words, then he shrugged. “Ah, but I’m the one with the knife, Calanthe.” In a sudden movement, the Tall Man raised his knife high over his head. The knife had a long, curved shaft and a simple wooden handle. The knife appeared to be very old. Its shaft had foreign markings etched in the metal along its length. Its handle was speckled with dark stains. Just as the arc of the knife reached its zenith …
Zzzzzwwwwwwwaaaaakkkkk!!!
The Tall Man cried out in alarm as the knife blade was suddenly struck by a flashing arrow, the two connecting metals causing an intense fiery spark in the darkness. The impact of the arrow blasted the knife from the Tall Man’s hand. It twirled end over end and landed in the dirt at the edge of the cliff.
Before the Tall Man could react, Toby charged out of the darkness. His expression was set. Fierce. Just like he had in Central Park, Toby was about to take on the Tall Man in hand-to-hand combat. But he knew this time there would be no retreat. This time he was taking the fight all the way to its conclusion.
The surprise attack gave Toby quick advantage over the Tall Man. A bruising tackle. Several well-placed martial arts moves that elicited gasps of pain from his enemy. But the Tall Man was simply too powerful and was able to quickly gain the upper hand in the struggle. Turning his defensive mode into an awesome offensive assault, the dekayi slapped aside one of Toby’s moves, grabbed his smaller opponent, and slammed him onto his back near the edge of the cliff. Before Toby could even catch his breath, he found himself instantly paralyzed by the Tall Man’s wristlock.
Toby couldn’t believe it. Just like that, he was completely powerless. He couldn’t do a thing to defend himself. But Toby had done the important thing. He had freed Calanthe to do what she needed to do.
The Tall Man was reaching for his knife where it had fallen near the cliff’s edge when Toby heard a hissing sound. And then … the dekayi’s neck was suddenly in the grip of a serpent’s tail. The powerful serpent muscles lifted the Tall Man up and away from Toby, shook him like a rag doll—snapping his neck in the process—and threw him far out over the cliff!
Toby was stunned at how fast all that had happened. He rolled onto his stomach and watched as the Tall Man’s lifeless body fell to the river far below. When it hit the water, there was a distance-delayed split second before the sound came to Toby. By then the body had already disappeared underwater and was being swept away downriver by the strong current.
Toby still felt numb from the Tall Man’s wristlock, so it was a bit of a struggle to get to his feet. He took a moment to steady himself, then pulled down his mouthpiece and said, “Guys. I’m with Calanthe. The woods. Back of the hospital.”
When Toby turned to Calanthe, she was transforming back into her human self. Toby kept his distance, allowed Calanthe to do what she needed to do. By the time Strobe and Annabel arrived in the clearing at the edge of the cliff, Calanthe was herself again.
Standing together in the clearing, the foursome looked barely able to stand upright. But they were able to manage a collective smile, happy and relieved that the battle was over.
Just then the first light of day made its appearance across the river. Toby, Annabel, Strobe, and Calanthe instinctively turned toward the light. The tops of the trees suddenly looked aflame, sparked by an unseen sun.
After such a brutal fight, a perfect, peaceful moment.
And a beautiful Halloween day had begun.
EPILOGUE:
GOOD-BYE
Toby, Annabel, Strobe, and Calanthe stood in the back alley of Killer Pizza. A street lamp shone down on them, circling them in a pool of light. It was as though they were on a dark stage, a single overhead spotlight highlighting them for an unseen audience. Steve Rogers stood a respectful distance away, near the black sedan he just driven in from New York.
I can’t believe this is happening, Annabel thought.
What was happening was that Calanthe’s bags were packed and already in the trunk of Steve’s car. A week after Calanthe’s prayer to survive the Day of Days had been answered, she realized that she could not stay in Hidden Hills. Living with Annabel, hanging out with Toby and Strobe, going to school, and acting as though nothing had happened? No, Calanthe knew it was her duty to go back to New York. And help Harvey in any way that she could to locate the missing MCOs. It was the least she could do, after everything the KP crew had done for her.
“I will be coming back,” Calanthe said.
Annabel nodded. She felt terrible about Calanthe leaving. She felt like a part of her was going away. Whatever you do, don’t cry, Annabel urged herself.
It’s all reversed, now, Toby thought as he looked at Calanthe. It’s like she’s the grownup, telling us everything’s gonna be okay.
Toby was right about that. Since the group’s epic battle at Shock Corridor, Calanthe did look much more grown-up. And, for the first time, really, very much relaxed in her new world.
What Calanthe didn’t look like anymore was the doomed heroine Annabel had once compared her to. It was in her eyes. Calanthe’s haunted look, the one Toby had tried to capture in his drawing … it was no longer there.
Calanthe suddenly approached Annabel and gave her a hug. Annabel was surprised and touched by the gesture. In spite of her insistence to herself not to cry, Annabel couldn’t help it. A stifled sniffle gave her away.
Now Calanthe walked to Toby and Strobe and held up her hand for a high five. Strobe slapped Calanthe’s hand, then said, “You’re cool, girl.”
“So are you, Strobe. And you, Toby.”
Toby smiled, completed the high five, then stepped away. Before getting into the car, Calanthe turned back to the trio. “I don’t know the proper thing to say now. It feels like there should be something, something final, before I leave.”
“You’ve already said it, Calanthe,” Annabel replied.
“Take care of yourself,” Strobe said.
“And come back,” Toby added. “To Hidden Hills, as soon as possible, okay?”
Calanthe held up a hand in farewell, then got into the car.
“See you all,” Steve said as he came around the car. “And need I say it? You did a great job. Again.”
“Thanks, Steve.” Toby and Annabel and Strobe waved to Steve as he got into the car and started it up. The car’s windows were tinted, so the trio weren’t able to see Calanthe as the car moved off down the alley. Then, just before the car disappeared around the corner, the passenger-side window opened and Calanthe reached out a hand for a final good-bye.
The trio stayed in the middle of the alley after Calanthe had gone. A light drizzle had begun to fall.
“I didn’t see it ending like this,” Toby said.
“I’m not sure I did, either,” Strobe said.
“It’s not ending, you guys. Calanthe’s coming back.”
“Yeah.”
Everyone knew the dangers Calanthe would be facing up in the wilds of Canada.
“Well, as much as I’d love to stay here and commiserate about all this, Toby and I have a pizza shift that’s about to start.” Strobe turned and headed for the narrow alley that ran between the Killer Pizza building and the dog-obedience school next door.
“Hey, wait for me,” Annabel said.
“What do you mean, wait for you?” Toby had joined Strobe and was walking toward the front of the building.
“I’m back on the payroll.”
“Since when?”
“Since right now. The only reason I quit was because I had to, remember? Now that Calanthe’s gone, my agreement with my dad no longer applies.”
The excuse Annabel had come up with to explain Calanthe’s sudden departure was a complication in her diabetic condition. Annabel had told her parents that Calanthe felt it was be
st to return home, until she was better.
“Let me ask you something, Annabel,” Strobe said.
“Yeah?”
“Your dad doesn’t like you hanging with us, does he? That’s the main reason he doesn’t want you to work here. He doesn’t think we’re good enough for you. That’s what I think, anyway.”
When Annabel didn’t respond right away …
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
“Listen, Strobe. You and Toby are my friends. My best friends. And nobody’s going to tell me who my friends can or cannot be. Okay?”
Strobe looked at Annabel. He was pleased by Annabel’s declaration of independence. “Okay.”
The trio had reached the front of the KP building. A small crowd was gathered there for the final Monster Mash-up of the season. For this important event, Toby had chosen Tremors, one of his favorite creature features.
Unfortunately, it had started to rain harder and the crowd was quickly dispersing. Instead of following Strobe and Toby into Killer Pizza. Annabel stopped under the small awning that stretched across the length of the shop.
Annabel wasn’t sure how long she had been standing there before Toby came back outside and joined her. A group of kids who had been watching the movie were retreating down the street, laughing crazily as they zigzagged through the rain. “I’m gonna miss her, too.” Annabel nodded, then gave Toby a bittersweet smile.
Just then Strobe opened the front door. “Hey, c’mon, you two. I just got two phone orders for the All-Nighter Horror Special.”
Which meant a total of six specialty pizzas and eight side orders, to go along with a total of six horror DVD rentals that were stocked in a case by the ordering counter.
“Okay,” Toby said.
“By the way, one of the orders was from your sister, Tobe.”
“No way.”
Strobe shrugged.