Her attention returned to Reid when he rested his hand on her shoulder. His silver eyes were sad and knowing when they met hers. “How are you feeling?” he asked.
“A little sore, but I’m good.”
He bent to kiss the top of her head as a knock sounded on the back door. Karen jumped up to open the sliding glass door for Landon and Rosie. Avery’s eyebrows shot up when they entered the kitchen. Their faces were drawn, their eyes bloodshot, and it looked as if they hadn’t brushed their hair.
“What happened to your face?” Avery asked Rosie.
Rosie’s hand fluttered to the bandage on her cheek as she sat at the table. “Oh,” she said dully. “The neighbor’s cat scratched me.”
Rosie had no reason to lie, but Avery didn’t buy it. Something wasn’t right with them. She hadn’t talked to Landon since they got in a fight over her breakup with Reid, and she’d barely spoken to Rosie, but she knew them both well enough to know something wasn’t right.
“How are you—” Landon yawned as she sat next to Rosie. “—doing?” she asked Avery.
“I’m fine,” Avery said. “What about you? You look tired.”
“I didn’t sleep well last night,” Landon admitted.
Rosie stared questioningly at her before turning back when Karen slid a plate in front of her and Landon. Landon yawned again and rested her chin in her hand. She glanced at Alex before turning her attention to the ocean. Alex leaned back in his chair, stretched his legs out, and folded his hands behind his head.
“You should get some sleep,” Reid said. “You look awful.”
“Thanks,” Landon muttered.
“Sorry, but you do.”
Landon turned to glower at him; hostility vibrated the air as it hummed through her body. Rosie remained unusually quiet as she stared at the plate in front of her.
“Regan is back,” Mario said.
When Rosie and Landon flinched, Avery exchanged a look with Reid.
“Yes,” Avery said. “And it doesn’t seem like he’s all that interested in keeping me around anymore.”
“I don’t think he was trying to kill you,” Alex said.
“Why?” she asked.
“Because if he wanted you dead, that thing would have killed you.”
“I agree,” Reid said.
“Then what was he trying to do?” she asked.
Reid settled onto the chair next to her. “I don’t know.”
“That’s our response to everything he does,” she muttered.
“I hate him,” Rosie whispered, and the vehemence in her voice turned all their heads toward her. She glanced up at them before focusing on her hands again. “I just hate him.”
“We all do,” Eric said.
Rosie didn’t reply.
“You’ll find the skull and put an end to him,” Karen said.
Avery was glad Karen sounded so confident because she didn’t feel confident. Looking around the table, she didn’t see a whole lot of hope on the faces surrounding her.
Landon pushed away her untouched pancakes and rose. “I’m going to take a nap. We can discuss this later.”
Avery watched her shuffle out the door with her shoulders hunched up as if she were an eighty-year-old man. Rosie lifted her fork and started picking at her pancakes.
CHAPTER 15
Mario nodded to the people who called out to him while he strode down the crowded hall. He turned down another hallway and brushed past a group of girls who giggled as they watched him head for the gym. He considered going back to talk to them, but the impulse died away as his thoughts turned to Karen and he smiled.
The problem with dating anyone outside the coven was they didn’t know the truth of what he was, and he had to keep it secret from them. The problem with dating anyone inside the coven was kissing one of them would be like kissing his sister.
But Karen was different; she already knew what he was, and despite everything that happened to her, she’d stuck by them all. She could have run away from Avery, but she’d stayed and fought with her.
Karen already knew the truth, and he liked her; not only was she pretty and tough, but she was also fun. They’d talked on the phone for almost an hour after she returned home last night, and he was already looking forward to seeing her again this weekend.
Shoving open the door to the locker room, he ignored it when it banged off the wall. The sounds of slamming lockers and laughter greeted him. The stench of sweat and BO hung heavily in the air as he passed the other guys.
Arriving at his locker, he spun through the combination and pulled the door open. He removed his gym clothes and closed the locker. He really didn’t feel like dealing with gym class today, but he didn’t have a choice.
He slipped his sneakers on and bounced on the balls of his feet as he stretched his arms over his head. He was contemplating what to have for lunch when he realized the locker room had become eerily silent.
Mario lifted his towel from the bench and headed down the row of lockers. A loud bang caused him to jump and spin to the right. A few feet away from him, a locker flew open with a screech of twisted metal. Mario stepped back as he gawked at the open, empty locker.
“What the…?”
His voice trailed off as he grasped the locker door. The cool metal pressed against his palm as he examined the bent door, but he saw nothing to explain why it opened like that. A few feet away from him, another locker twisted and bent inward before flying open. He jumped back as the sound reverberated through the air.
Before he could inspect the second locker, another one swung open and crashed against the other lockers. Then another and another until the entire room of them was flying open. Mario flinched and resisted throwing his hands over his ears when the sound became a deafening crescendo.
He didn’t know what was happening, but he wasn’t sticking around to figure it out. He believed in ghosts, but he preferred to think of them as more like Casper and nothing like Poltergeist. If a ghost was causing this, then it wasn’t a friendly one, and he’d prefer not to meet it.
His heart beat so rapidly he could feel his pulse in his fingertips as he jogged down the aisle and turned right. The lockers he passed came to life and started opening and closing like they were the hungry jaws of a wild animal looking to consume him.
The door out of the locker room loomed before him as all the lockers came alive. The wind they created with their motion blew back his hair and ruffled his clothes. Giving up on not bolting out of the locker room like a scared rabbit, he broke into a sprint.
Mario didn’t care how stupid he would look when he burst into the gym panting like a racehorse, he had to get out of this room. He was almost to the door when a full-length locker on his right flew open and bashed him in the cheek. He reeled backward until his knees caught on a bench and he fell over the back of it.
Mario jerked awake. His heart beat so fast it vibrated his chest and sweat beaded his forehead. The echo of slamming lockers still sounded in his head.
“What was that?” he muttered as he glanced at his phone and saw it was only eleven thirty. He’d just hung up with Karen an hour ago.
Sitting up, he beat his pillows to fluff them up before plopping back down. He winced when his right cheekbone connected with the pillow. Bolting upright, his fingers flew to the knot on his cheek. He lurched out of bed and rushed down the hall to the bathroom.
He flicked on the switch and stepped in front of the mirror. Though he’d been expecting it, his mouth still dropped when he saw the bruise already forming on his cheek.
• • •
A sinking feeling settled in Eric’s stomach as he stared around the dimly lit tunnel. Part of his mind knew he was dreaming, but the other part was already starting to freak out. He hated this nightmare. It had been a reoccurring part of his life since he was a kid, but ever since Regan made him live through it in the maze, he hadn’t experienced it again. He’d mistakenly believed it was over.
The cold, damp air of
the metal tunnel caressed his skin as the crushing feeling of being trapped underground squeezed his chest. The water trickling down the walls pooled on the ground. Water beaded on the ceiling before plopping onto the floor.
Sighing in resignation, he decided he might as well start walking. The sooner he faced this, the sooner it would end, or so he hoped.
His feet slapped against the floor and reverberated off the walls when he strode forward. As he progressed, the lights grew dimmer and farther apart until he was walking through large sections of tunnel enshrouded in shadows.
The glow of the lights created a dull orange circle on the metal surface. He found himself walking with increasing speed through the dark sections of tunnel and pausing in the patches of light as he tried to calm his racing heart.
Making it to another circle, he leaned against the damp wall. He didn’t know why his mind insisted on keeping him in this nightmare, or why it was more realistic than usual, but he couldn’t escape it.
He pinched his arm and flinched, but the tunnel didn’t disappear. Is this real? Maybe I’m not dreaming.
Straining to see, he spotted the next light fifty feet away. He couldn’t stay here, but the idea of stepping back into the darkness made his skin crawl. Taking a deep breath, he threw himself over to destiny and plunged into the gloom.
His fingers skimmed the wall to help him keep his bearings as he ran. His harsh breath rebounded off the walls as he ran for the beckoning circle. This light was dimmer than the last one, but at least it was something.
He was twenty-five feet away from the light when something small and hard skittered away from his hand. He jumped and ripped his hand away from the wall as he spun to face it. His eyes bulged, and he strained to see what he’d touched.
Please let me wake up.
Something made a chattering noise behind him, while something else created a slithering sound. He held his breath as he strained to hear or see anything, but there was nothing. When his lungs started to burn, he released his breath.
The rustle of something behind him sent a rush of adrenaline through him, and he broke into a sprint. He was ten feet from the light when it grew brighter. When the shadows withdrew, Eric threw his hand up to protect his eyes as he skidded to a halt.
So many cockroaches coated the walls they covered the metal with their skittering, brown bodies. Their antennae and legs clicked as they climbed over each other. A loud screech drew his attention to the rats racing down the tunnel toward him on a tidal wave of red and blue eyes.
When a cockroach fell off the ceiling to land on his face, he slapped at it and squished it beneath his palm. Then the insects were pouring onto him as they crawled over him. He stumbled back while he hit at the tiny, creeping bodies.
They adhered to his skin as they crawled down his shirt, through his hair, and poked at his ears. A scream echoed in his head, but he didn’t dare open his mouth as they covered his face. If one of them got into his mouth, he would lose it.
He barely saw the rats through the brown mass covering his face. Five feet away… three… two…
They crashed into him. Reeling backward, the heavy weight of the roaches made it impossible to keep his balance, and he fell on his ass. Pain radiated through his bruised tailbone as the rats poured over him. Their claws tore into him as they scrambled for purchase. Terror paralyzed him as he lay beneath the growing pile of cockroaches and rats.
When one of the roaches tried to burrow into his ear, the feel of it broke him out of his paralysis. He lifted a hand to slap it away, but something latched onto his palm, and he instinctively screamed. That was all the roaches required to pour into his mouth until they choked him. The rats screamed louder as the scent of his blood created a frenzy.
Choking and wheezing, Eric woke with a start. His hands flew to his constricted throat as he struggled to get air into his tortured lungs. Finally, his throat relaxed, and he gasped in a breath.
Cursing himself, he switched on the reading lamp over his head. He raised a hand to wipe back his sweaty hair and froze when he saw the blood on his palm. Twisting his hand back and forth, he stared in disbelief at the blood trickling from a wound the perfect imprint of rat’s teeth.
CHAPTER 16
Karen smiled as the birthday cake with vanilla icing was placed before her. In pretty pink lettering, Happy 9th Birthday, Karen was written across the top of it.
She glanced up at the pink crepe paper wrapped around the maple tree in her backyard. Pink and white balloons and more crepe paper decorated the railings of her white back porch. The sun beat down on them, but the summer breeze offered some respite as it caused her tire swing to sway and ruffled the grass.
“Make a wish! Make a wish!” Lila urged.
Karen looked up as Lila bounced on the bench seat. Lila’s hair was pulled into pigtails, and her tiny face glowed as she smiled at Karen from across the top of the picnic table. Taking a deep breath, Karen closed her eyes and blew out all the candles on her first try.
“Yay!” Avery cried. “Now it will come true.”
“I hope so,” Karen replied as her mother cut and passed out pieces of the chocolate cake.
“This is good,” Lila said and opened her mouth to reveal a mush of chocolate and vanilla.
“You’re gross,” Tina said, and Lila laughed.
“This is a great party, Karen,” Avery said.
Karen smiled as she took a bite of cake. It was a great party, but for some reason, she felt a little out of sorts. She dimly realized she was dreaming, but it was an odd dream as this birthday party had happened.
Lifting her hand, she saw that what should have been a little girl’s hand was an adult one. However, her friends didn’t notice anything odd about the situation as they continued to talk and laugh while eating their cake.
“I can’t wait for you to open your presents!” Lila gushed. “Wait until you see what I got you.”
“I’m sure I’ll like it,” Karen assured her, and she realized her voice was more mature and older.
“Let’s open them now,” Avery said.
“Presents can wait,” Karen’s mother said firmly. “We have a surprise for Karen.”
“Really?” Lila asked and chocolate cake sprayed from her mouth. “What is it?”
“Hold on. I’ll go get it.”
Her mother went into the house, and Karen stared at her friends. She’d almost forgotten what they looked like as children. As strange as this dream was, it was comforting to be surrounded by her friends and memories.
“Here we go!” her mother called.
Eager to see what the surprise was, Karen turned on the picnic bench. Alarm filled her when her eyes met the twinkling, vivid blue eyes of a clown. He wore a red, white, and blue costume with yellow frills around his neck. His face was painted white with big red circles on his cheeks, and he sported a blinking red nose. When he grinned at her, he revealed his yellowed, razor-sharp teeth. There were so many of them they barely fit in his jaw.
“Oh, a clown!” Lila clapped her hands. “Karen, you love clowns.”
She hated clowns, absolutely loathed them. They scared her to death. Lila, Tina, and Avery knew that. Then her mind flashed back to the birthday cake and the number nine on it. She had loved clowns at this age, and her mother had gotten her a clown who did magic tricks and balloon animals for this birthday. They didn’t frighten her until a little later.
She didn’t know what was happening, but it wasn’t good. Her odd but pleasant dream had become a nightmare, and she was ready to wake up. However, some cosmic joke kept her firmly planted on the bench.
“Are you going to make balloon animals?” Avery asked. “I love balloon animals!”
The hideous, distorted, guttural laugh the clown released sent chills down Karen’s spine. His teeth chattered in his overstuffed jaw as his eyes twinkled. From somewhere inside, Karen found the strength to stand up and edge around the picnic table.
“Can you do magic tricks?” Tina asked.
This may be a dream, but it was her dream, and she couldn’t understand why her friends couldn’t see there was something really wrong with this clown. Shouldn’t they be on her side? She should be able to control her dream and their reaction to this monster. Wasn’t this her world?
“I do all kinds of tricks,” the clown answered. “But Karen has to see them first.”
When his eyes landed on her, she jumped. If looks could kill, she would have been dead ten times over.
“Of course she gets to see them first. She is the birthday girl,” Lila said. “Right, Karen?”
Karen felt a stab of annoyance at her traitorous friends. If she had to suffer through this, then she should have some allies here. She turned her attention to them, determined to yell at them for being traitors.
Her words strangled and her mouth fell open when she saw the three figures sitting at the picnic table. The youthful glow of their skin had become withered, graying flesh. Flakes of their skin now speckled the cake, but they didn’t notice as they shoveled more into their mouths. Avery ignored the tooth that popped out and landed on her plate.
More flesh peeled away to reveal the white skulls beneath while the whites of their eyes yellowed. She gawked at the nine-year-old corpses before her.
“Go see a trick.” Gone was the youthful exuberance of Avery’s voice as it came out dry and cracked.
“Yes, Karen, come see a trick,” the clown said in a voice reminiscent of rattlesnakes.
Her eyes flew back to the clown as he moved steadily closer to her.
“I can do card tricks, balloon animals, and make things disappear.” His hideous teeth chattered together when he spoke. “But my very best trick is going to be swallowing you whole.”
Those words jolted her out of her paralysis, and Karen stumbled back as her mind spun. She trembled with fright and an onslaught of adrenaline. She didn’t know what was happening, but she wasn’t sticking around to find out.
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