by Brian Keene
Terry couldn’t tear his gaze away from Alicia. She leaned closer, her lips pursed.
Kiss me, Terry. Kiss me like you did that night…
“Get away!”
“Terry!” Tom shrieked. “Stop him! He’s going to put his thing in me again! Oh, God, help me.”
As their fears peaked, their ghosts laughed. Then the darkness lunged forward and consumed them, leaving behind only withered husks.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“There.” Adam pointed at a garage two houses away from his former home. “Behind Merle’s wood shop.”
The three of them huddled together in the driveway, hiding behind the blue minivan. Levi had convinced Adam to pull himself together.
Maria frowned. “That doesn’t look like a wood shop.”
“It’s not anymore,” Adam whispered. “After Merle died, he left everything he owned to his ex-wife, Peggy. He sold antiques out of the house. She put all of it up for an estate auction—the house, his antiques and personal belongings, the wood shop. Everything. I’d left LeHorn’s book in there the night we confronted Hylinus. I got it back that same night. After what happened with Tara, I buried it behind the wood shop.”
Levi groaned. “You buried the book unprotected?”
“No. Give me some credit, dude. I sealed it in a plastic freezer bag and put it inside a cigar box. Then I duct taped the box shut. It should still be okay.”
Maria stifled a yawn. “Why did you bury it?”
“Because of what it was. What it had caused. I couldn’t just get rid of it. I’m a writer. I can’t throw a book away, even a book like that. But I didn’t want it around, either. So I buried it, just in case I ever needed it again. I hoped I wouldn’t, but I guess now we do, right?”
“You did well,” Levi whispered. “You did very well indeed. You were guided by the Lord.”
“God?”
Levi nodded.
“Fuck God,” Adam exclaimed. “Fuck Him in his all-powerful, all-knowing benevolent ass!”
“Adam.” Levi’s voice was like ice. He grabbed Adam’s arm and squeezed. “That will be enough.”
Adam pushed Levi away and laughed. The sound carried down the alley.
“Be quiet,” Levi hushed him. “You don’t believe in God?”
“Hell, yeah, I believe in Him. And I hate the motherfucker.”
“I said that’s enough! I’m not going to let you blaspheme like this.”
“You want to kick my ass? Go ahead. I don’t give a shit. What—just because He’s always been nice to you, you’re required to kiss His holy ass? Well, screw that, Levi. Maybe He’s been good to you, but the only thing God’s ever done for me is shit all over my life. This whole thing was His fucking fault, man. Do you understand that? I prayed to Him. Begged Him. I fucking begged. And God just laughed. He took everything from me. I’m not Amish like you. I’m not one of the favored ones.”
“I’m far from favored,” Levi protested. “And I’ve had plenty of unanswered prayers. You think I don’t know about suffering or loss? You think I haven’t questioned God? You know nothing about me.”
“I know that you still love Him, even if you’re not Amish anymore. And I know that I still hate him—more and more every day. All I want to do is spit in His fucking face. You want the truth? I wish the motherfucker was standing here in front of me right now. I’d fucking say it then, too.”
“Then I pray that your wish never comes true.”
“Look,” Maria whispered, quieting them both. “I’m going on well past twenty-four hours with no sleep here, and I’m about to fall over. Can we please get on with this? You two can argue theology and steal lines from Pitch Black later.”
Levi appeared confused. “Pitch black?”
“It’s a movie, and it doesn’t fucking matter. I need some sleep before we do whatever it is we’re going to do with this book. Let’s just sneak over there and dig it up and go home before we get caught. Tired as I am, I really don’t feel like sleeping in a holding cell tonight.”
“You’re right,” Levi agreed. He looked at Adam. “I am sorry.”
“I’m not. I meant every word of it. I fucking hate Him.”
Levi tugged on Adam’s arm. “Maria is right. Let’s go retrieve the book. We’ll discuss the rest later.”
“Hey!” Adam yanked away from him. “Let go of me or I’ll wake up everybody in this fucking neighborhood.”
Levi took a deep breath. “Adam, look over there, beyond the playground. Do you see those trees?”
Adam turned away from him, sulking.
“Do you see them?” Levi insisted, wrenching the man’s arm.
“Yes. Now let go. You’re hurting me.”
“You know where those trees go, don’t you, Adam? You remember where that forest leads to. What it’s part of.”
“Leave me alone.”
Levi leaned close, breathing into Adam’s ear. “It leads to LeHorn’s Hollow. Sure, we’re on the far side. There are many miles between us and that place, and the fire destroyed a great portion of the woods between here and there, but it’s all still connected. It’s all part of the same net. The energies that make that place what it is don’t rely on trees or undergrowth or property boundaries. They run through the ground. I can feel them, you know. Pulsing. Turning. Vibrating far beneath our feet. And you can feel them too, I’ll bet. Because they’ve touched you. You’ve been poisoned by that place.”
“Stop it,” Adam whispered.
“That’s enough, Levi. You’re hurting him.”
Maria stepped forward and tapped Levi’s shoulder. He brushed her away and continued.
“But the energies aren’t the only thing brewing there, Adam. Something else is growing in those woods. It’s searching for a way into our world, and it’s found one. It’s seeping through right now, a little bit at a time. Gathering strength. But it’s almost to the boiling point now, and tomorrow night, those floodgates won’t be able to hold it back any longer. It will swamp the Earth, extinguishing everything that lives, smothering the planet in darkness.”
“No…”
“Oh, yes. You fought one of its minions before. Fought it and defeated it. Hylinus. But now we have to stop the rest of it. We have to stop the thing that Hylinus served.”
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can. You have no choice, Adam. You owe it to your friends. To your wife. It’s time to finish this once and for all.”
“Okay!” Adam shouted. “You win! You’re right. Just leave me the fuck alone!”
Maria ducked down behind the minivan again, gasping. She started to speak, but Levi held his hand up, listening. They waited, but heard nothing.
“Shit,” Maria breathed. “If that didn’t wake anybody up, then nothing will.”
“It didn’t,” Levi said.
“Then this town could sleep through a nuclear bomb attack. Or the Second Coming.”
“Perhaps. Or maybe the Lord is with us.”
Adam started to speak, but they both silenced him. After making sure his outburst hadn’t attracted any late-night attention, they crept out from behind the minivan and snuck across the yard, single-file. The grass was wet with dew and showed traces of their passage. Maria kept glancing at the houses around them, looking for lights, but the homes remained dark and silent.
“Don’t any of these people have dogs?” she whispered.
Levi shrugged.
“I did,” Adam said. “Big Steve. He was my best friend.”
“Where is he now?”
“Hylinus killed him, too.”
They crossed over the second yard and then into the third, darting quickly behind the former woodshed. The corrugated steel structure hid them from the view of the other houses. Now all they had to worry about was someone driving down the alley unexpectedly, or the fire siren going off.
Adam moved to the center of the building’s wall and stood with his back against it. Then, staring at the ground, he counted off twelve paces, putting his feet togethe
r, heel to toe. He stopped and crouched down.
“It should be right here. Which one of you brought the shovel?”
Maria and Levi glanced at each other. Levi closed his eyes and shook his head in frustration.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Maria whispered. “You didn’t prepare for this?”
“Well, I didn’t know he’d buried it, now, did I?” Levi protested. “We’ll just have to use our hands.”
Kneeling next to Adam, Levi began digging at the earth with his hands. After a moment, Adam joined him. Together, they tore up clumps of sod and tossed aside rocks, then pawed through the softer dirt below. Earthworms wriggled in annoyance, disturbed by the intrusion. They’d only dug about eight inches when their fingers grazed the surface of the cigar box.
“See? I knew I didn’t bury it too deep.”
“I’ll be thankful when I get what we need,” Levi said.
Adam started to dig again, but Levi gently pushed him back.
“Allow me.”
“I can help.”
“I know you can. But trust me, it’s for the better. With all the pain this book has caused you, do you really want to touch it again?”
Adam shook his head, then stood up and wiped his dirty hands on his hospital smock. Levi clawed at the dirt feverishly, throwing it to the side until he could slip his fingers around the edge of the box. Then he hauled it upward and brushed the soil from the lid. He ripped the duct tape away and then opened the box. Inside, just as Adam had told them, was a slim, brown leather book wrapped in a plastic freezer bag. Levi unzipped the bag and held up the book. Maria leaned forward, reading the tiny gold lettering on the front cover:
The Long Lost Friend
A Collection
of
Mysterious & Invaluable
Arts & Remedies
For
Man As Well As Animals
With Many Proofs
Of their virtue and efficacy in healing diseases and defeating spirits, the greater part of which was never published until they appeared in print for the first time in the U.S. in the year of our Lord 1820.
By
John George Hohman
I N R I
“Wow,” she whispered. “That looks really old.”
Levi flipped it open and glanced at the bottom of the title page.
“It’s a 1916 edition. Not the complete translation, but not as bad as some of the later editions. Certainly better than the abridged versions available on the Internet.”
“Is it worth anything?”
“Quite a bit, actually. An antiquarian book collector would pay several hundred for this. A powwow practitioner would pay even more.”
Holding the book by the front and back covers, he turned it upside down and fanned the pages. Six folded sheets of paper fell out. Levi closed the book and picked them up. He glanced through them quickly, then settled on the final sheet. His eyes glinted in the darkness as he scanned it. Then he smiled.
Maria tried to read over his shoulder, but the words were in another language. She tried to figure out what it was, but couldn’t. The words weren’t typeset. They’d been written by hand. There were also several hand-drawn diagrams and figures. When Maria focused on the drawings, her vision blurred. She chalked the occurrence up to her lack of sleep, and rubbed her eyes. When she opened them again, Levi was folding the sheets of paper again. He tucked them carefully in his shirt pocket.
“The book is valuable,” he repeated. “These pages from Nelson LeHorn’s Daemonolateria are priceless.”
“Can we go now?” Maria asked, shivering in the damp air. “Do we have everything we came for?”
“Oh, yes. This is exactly what we needed. We’ve got one more stop to make, but it will be quick.” Levi stuck his hand out to Adam. “Thank you, Mr. Senft.”
Maria groaned upon hearing of yet another stop.
Adam stared at Levi’s hand for a moment, his expression timid. Then he shook it.
“So this really will help you?”
“You’ve helped me a great deal,” Levi said. “I’ve got one more thing I’d like you to do for me, but we’ll talk about that later. For now, this is enough.”
“What is it?”
Levi walked out into the alley and headed for the car. “Something small. Just some closure. But not now. Like Maria, I’m exhausted. We all are. Let’s talk about it in the morning, after we’ve all had some sleep.”
“But it is morning,” Adam said. “It’s just not light out yet.”
Levi glanced up at the sky. The moon was shrouded in clouds again. The stars seemed dim and cold, and the darkness between them was vast and impenetrable. He turned back to them. His expression was grave, his eyes bloodshot.
“Then let’s just hope that when the dawn arrives in a few hours, it’s not for the last time.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Levi had Maria drive him back across the river to his home in Marietta. She’d protested. It didn’t make sense, driving all the way to Lancaster County at this time of night, especially when they were currently at the far southern end of York County. But Levi said there were items he needed for the confrontation. Reluctantly, she conceded. When they finally arrived, Levi grabbed his wicker basket and got out of the car. He asked her to wait while he went inside. She’d wondered aloud why they couldn’t just sleep at his place and then go to the Ghost Walk. He didn’t explain his reasons, but Levi was adamant that she and Adam couldn’t come inside. He offered to let her wait outside on the porch, but insisted that they not cross the threshold. Fuming, Maria told him to hurry up.
They waited in the car. Maria seethed, fighting to stay awake. Adam snored softly in the backseat, still dressed in his sweat-soaked hospital clothes, now covered with dirt and grass clippings. She was amazed. In the space of a few hours, he’d escaped from a mental hospital, seen a black magic spell almost backfire, tasted freedom, been confronted with his past, and had a near nervous breakdown in his former hometown. Despite this, he’d fallen asleep soon after they’d retrieved the book, and had slept undisturbed ever since. Like a baby—innocent and carefree.
Levi’s home was unremarkable—bland and perfunctory, and smaller than she’d imagined. In the backyard, visible from the car, were a small dog house and a two-car garage. The buggy was parked next to it. One half of the garage had been converted into a stable. She saw Dee peering out the door. Maria rubbed her eyes, struggling with fatigue. She rolled down the window, hoping the chilly, damp air would wake her up.
If I fall asleep now, she thought, I’m not waking up again. Still need to drive home.
Levi emerged from the house twenty minutes later, carrying a small canvas bag with the drawstrings pulled tight. Maria noticed that he’d changed clothes. Wet curls stuck out from beneath the brim of his hat. He opened the passenger door and sat the bag on the floor.
“I won’t be much longer. Just need to get one more thing, and then check on Dee and Crowley. Give me five minutes.”
“Okay,” Maria sighed.
He went around the side of the house and disappeared into the garage. Then he emerged again, fed the dog and the horse, and then returned to the garage. When he came back out, he was carrying a bag of something over his shoulder. It was heavy, judging by his posture.
“Can you open the trunk?” Levi asked as he neared the car.
Maria pulled the lever at her feet and heard the trunk latch click. Levi loaded the bag into the back. The car sagged on its shocks and then bounced back up. Levi closed the lid and then got into the car.
“There,” he said. “All finished. Now we can go back to your place and get some sleep.”
Maria didn’t reply. She just stared at him.
“What?” Levi asked her. “Are you okay to drive?”
“I’m fine. Just wondering if you were going to tell me what’s in the trunk?”
He shrugged. “Salt. You know, like what you put down on your driveway in the winter. It’s just a bag of salt.�
��
“We drove all the way out here for a bag of salt?”
“Yes…”
Shaking her head, Maria drove away.
“I hope you know what you’re doing, Levi.”
“I do,” he said. “I only pray that it actually works. The Lord fed hundreds with one loaf of bread. I’m hoping He will do something similar with one bag of salt.”
“What? Like a dump truck load?”
He shrugged.
“If it’s that important, why don’t we get more?”
“Because we’re already running out of time. I would if we could, but you and Adam are both exhausted, and you need to sleep. You need your strength for what is to come. Otherwise, the entity can take you easier. And I need to prepare. There are many hours of study, memorization, and meditation ahead before we can confront it. And prayer. Believe me, I’d rather not stop at your home. I’d rather go straight to the hollow. But we have no choice. I only pray the delay doesn’t cost us.”
Rather than responding, Maria stared straight ahead, watching her headlights beat back the darkness.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Ken awoke at seven, mumbling and incoherent. The hazy vestiges of a dream departed—he tried to remember it, but failed. Something about Deena. She’d been at the Ghost Walk. The last remnants vanished as his alarm clock blared. Ken fumbled for it, knocking an empty bottle of Stella Artois beer off the nightstand. It hit the floor without breaking and rolled under the bed, coming to rest against more empty bottles and some dirty socks. Ken pressed the snooze button and fell back to sleep for another ten minutes. When the alarm went off a second time, he sat up and stretched.
Yawning, he slid out from under the sheets and put his feet on the floor, flexing his toes in the thick, red carpet. Deena had picked it out, just like the rest of the home’s furnishings. Some of Ken’s friends had suggested that he redecorate now that she was gone—one step toward moving on with his life. But Ken balked at the idea. Things like the carpet were all he had left of her. Everything else had long since waned—her hairs in the shower drain, her scent on the pillow, lipstick-stained cigarette butts in the ashtrays. These things were fleeting. He was left with her sanitary napkins, still sitting beneath the bathroom sink. Her shampoo and conditioner, sitting lonely and forlorn in the shower caddy. A half-empty bottle of water, still wedged in the back of the refrigerator. Even after all this time, he clung to them, refusing to throw any of it out.