“No problem,” Tom said.
“Thank you,” Jenny said. She leaned into Sam and sobbed. The poor girl; she’d been through hell tonight, what with seeing her parents and friends murdered. And to top it off, she was a target of that monster. He shuddered. He’d been a target, too, of that jumping man, so he knew how it felt, how helpless he and Sadie had been. He hugged Jenny tight and whispered it would be okay.
Sheriff Monroe’s dead mouth opened and let loose with the most God-awful scream Sam had ever heard. His body twitched and spasmed as every eye turned from the old man to stare at their companion.
“I thought he was dead,” Doc said. He’d been sitting in his car the whole time, watching as the Bone Sniffer was shot and killed. Now he bounded out and hopped over to help the sheriff.
He froze in his tracks and backed away slowly when he got close, his face pale with terror and fear.
“What is it?” Sam said. Doc was standing in their way so they couldn’t see the sheriff. He heard clothing rip and that sizzling sound again, over from where the sheriff had fallen. Yellow liquid foamed at Doc’s feet as he continued to back away from the body.
Then Sam could see what Doc was so afraid of. He turned and puked, bile and bitter stomach acids burning his throat and mouth as he wiped his lips with the back of his shirtsleeve and forced himself to look on the monstrosity that was growing before his very eyes.
“This cannot be possible,” Jacob said. He stared as the dead body of Sheriff Monroe shook and fizzed, yellow foam cracking from his body joints, spitting up through ruptured skin and pouring over every inch of his body.
“What’s happening?” Mandy said. She ran to Jacob’s side.
“It’s just like at my house,” Sadie said.
Sheriff Monroe twitched as his clothing caught fire, burnt, and then with a quick flash, was singed and destroyed. His bones popped and his tendons stretched and he transformed. The group watched, horrified, as a man most of them had known their entire lives became something alien, something evil.
The hair on his body shrank back and his neck stretched as his head expanded and bulged. Sheriff Monroe’s eyeballs burst from his skull like popcorn as the skin stretched back and tight, turning pink as the foaming yellow liquid singed the remaining hair from his body. His arms bent and shrunk as his legs twisted and bunched and grew powerful muscles. A tiny stub for a tail expanded just above his tailbone and with a coughing roar, Sheriff Monroe rolled onto his side and scrambled to his feet, the sheriff no more. He was the Bone Sniffer now.
The creature leaned its head back and howled to the moon above.
“It’s impossible,” Jacob said.
Doc stood in front of the creature, his head shaking from side to side, in complete disbelief. It snarled and he jumped, shocked from his bewilderment, turning to run. The creature snapped its jaws and bit Doc on his ass, tearing out his backside between his spine and his legs. Doc dove forward, blood gushing from the crater where his buttocks had been. He reached a hand up for help as the Bone Sniffer stuck its maw between his legs and chomped down. It wrenched its head back, pulling with it Doc’s testicles and a string of intestines. Doc screamed again as his eyes glassed over. He fell forward, his fingers clawing the concrete as he died.
The Bone Sniffer spat out Doc’s backside and sniffed the air. It turned its big head in Jenny’s direction and, with a bark, launched itself at her, butting her legs with its head, cracking her knees and snapping her tendons. She collapsed with a scream and the creature scooped her up in its mouth and bounded down the street.
Her screams disappeared with her body around a bend in the road.
Nobody moved or said a word.
Sam gaped, blinking rapidly, looking from the dead body that used to be the Bone Sniffer to the pile of yellow foam that used to be where Sheriff Monroe lay. He couldn’t believe it, he couldn’t accept it, but there it was, right in front of him. It couldn’t be denied any more. These truly were creatures from hell, or some other dimension, or aliens or something beyond anything he’d ever conceived as possible. He looked at Jacob.
“You got any more guns like that?” he said.
VI
Jenny
Jenny bounced helplessly in the mouth of the Bone Sniffer, her knees on fire from where they’d been broken and her ribs aching from the jaws that held her tight. Her worst nightmare could not compare to this. She’d watched her family and friends die and then, when it looked like she was going to die, too, she was saved at the last minute. Only to have it all taken away in the blink of an eye.
She knew she was headed to her death. She knew it as certain as she knew the moon was full and shining. She gazed up at it as her head jostled from side to side and realized this was probably the last time she was ever going to see the moon again.
So she stared at the moon as it stared back, uncaring as to her plight. Oddly, Brad popped into her mind. She thought of him and wondered if he was dead like everyone else. He would have loved this whole deal, all the monsters and the terror. The moon beamed on her face and she remembered a night she snuck off and met up with him. They sat on a hill and held each other, staring up at a moon just like this one. He loved the moon. He was such a dark person, always into weird things. Tears rolled out of her eyes as she realized she’d never see Brad again, or hear his songs, or smell the clove cigarettes he smoked, or feel the touch of his pale body next to hers. She’d never go to college, either. Her life was over.
Jenny screamed, all the anguish from a life lost and never lived scratching her vocal chords, shredding them with her pain, as the Bone Sniffer ran into the woods and to the ceremonial site to dump her with the others.
VII
Tom
Tom turned the keys in the ignition and the engine cranked but wouldn’t catch.
“Goddammit!” he said, pounding his palms on the wheel. He tried again and this time the engine shrieked, sputtered, and then died. He leaned his head forward and rested it in his hands.
“It won’t start.”
Dolores reached over and ran her hands through the hair on the back of his head.
“It’s okay, honey,” she said.
She was so strong, impossibly strong. Dolores had kept it together back at the house when he was falling to pieces. She’d saved his life, dragging him from the house and getting them to town where they thought they’d be safe. But there was no place safe now, he realized. He wanted to be strong for her, to stand up and be her man and protect her, to drive her from this God-awful place. But he couldn’t. The car wouldn’t start and he was at the end of his rope. He simply couldn’t take anymore.
“We can take another car,” Sadie said. She was in the back seat with Mayor Reed, both of them just as upset.
“My car is over there,” Mayor Reed said.
They piled out and walked over to where Sam, Jacob, Aggie and Mandy were standing, all gathered around the trunk of Jacob’s car. They were staring inside, examining weapons and talking amongst themselves.
Tom caught the middle of what Jacob was saying.
“…I did not know they could regenerate. This changes things considerably,” he said. “The literature did not mention this ability, although the more I think about it, the more sense it makes. These creatures have perpetuated over decades, long after any human host would have rotted and decayed.”
“What I don’t understand,” Sadie said, taking her place by Sam’s side. “Was why regular bullets wouldn’t kill that creature? Only your special slugs worked. That doesn’t make sense.”
“They had those ingredients, crucial to destroying evil,” Jacob said.
“But me and Sam, we shot our attacker—the guy that jumps around a lot—what’s his name?” Sadie said.
“Spring-Heeled Jack,” Jacob said.
“Yeah. Whatever. We shot him dead just fine. Why was it different with the Bone Cruncher?”
“Bone Sniffer,” Jacob said. He put his finger to his lips and thought it over for
a moment. Tom listened to them, watched them, and ultimately didn’t give a damn. He wanted to go, to get far, far away. All this jibber-jabber was infuriating.
“Perhaps because the Bone Sniffer is made of sterner stuff. He is more enchanted, the strongest of all of the Men of Perdition. That may be why regular bullets can kill one of the others, but only blessed ones can kill the Bone Sniffer,” Jacob said.
“Who gives a shit?” Tom said. All eyes turned to him and he felt a little embarrassed, but his rage overrode any feelings of discomfit. “Why are you standing around talking about things that don’t matter? My car won’t work! We need to get out of here, not stand around blabbering.”
“Some of us are not leaving,” Jacob said. Mandy moved to his side. “Some of us are staying to fight.”
“Hey, your funeral, pal,” Tom said. He looked at Sam and Aggie. “I thought you were going to get some guns and follow us?”
“We are,” Sam said. “We just got caught up a minute is all.”
“We don’t have time!” Tom said.
“He’s right,” Jacob said. He peered off into the darkness in the direction that the Bone Sniffer had gone just moments before. “They have three of the four they need for their ceremony. At least, that we know of. They could have all four by now, or the fourth could be amongst us. In any case, you need to flee and we need to attack, for time grows short.”
Jacob looked up into the sky and cocked his head to the side as if he was listening to the moon and the stars speak to him. Tom stared at Jacob. The guy was weird. Not that he wasn’t grateful for all Jacob had done to help, to sort through this mess and to help make some sense of it, but he was odd. And Tom wanted to be as far from that man as possible. Something about the guy made him queasy. In fact, the whole situation made him sick to his stomach and he wanted to be gone, gone, gone.
“Let’s get your car,” Tom said to Mayor Reed. The Mayor nodded and pulled out his keys as Tom and Dolores followed him to the car. Sadie lingered, staring at Sam.
“Get the gun and get me one, too,” she said. Sam nodded and hesitated. Then, out of the blue, he leaned over and kissed her full on the lips.
Tom turned when they reached the car and saw Sam kiss Sadie and he thought it was swell and all, but kind of stupid. They could do all the making out they wanted in the back seat of the car, as far as he was concerned. Hell, they could have sex right next to him and he wouldn’t say a word about it, as long as they just hurried up and got into the damned car.
Sam broke off the kiss, smiled at Sadie, and turned back to Jacob and his weapons. Sadie, all grins, ran to join the others at the Mayor’s car.
Down the road, the sound of springs stretching and snapping drifted on the breeze as the ground thundered under their feet.
“It’s coming back!” Sam hollered. He dove into the trunk and came out with a pistol in one hand and a wooden stake in the other.
Tom spun to see a man dressed in black Victorian clothing sailing through the air, two long knives gleaming in his gloved hands. Spring-Heeled Jack fell to the ground and bounced, the springs at the bottom of his feet glinting in the moonlight. Tom’s jaw fell open and he gaped as, right behind Jack, the Bone Sniffer thundered down the road.
“They’ve come for the fourth!” Jacob said, raising his shotgun.
But it was all too quick, Jack jumping through the air and flying towards the group at the back of Jacob’s car, and the Bone Sniffer, hot behind him. Jack was on them before they had a chance, blades slicing the air. Jacob threw his shotgun up at the last second, blocking the knives as Spring-Heeled Jack landed next to him. The force of the blow shattered the shotgun and knocked Jacob to the ground. He skittered and rolled, smacking into the wall of the police station and coming to his feet, his face red and belligerent.
Sam raised his pistol but Spring-Heeled Jack spun, slashed his blades, and carved two long X’s into Sam’s torso. Sam screamed and fell to his knees, blood spraying from his wounds as he dropped the pistol. Jack spun again, this time whizzing the knives around in a circle. They swished through the air and sliced through Sam’s neck, severing his head from his body. His head slid off and fell to the pavement as the stump of his neck spurted blood high up into the air.
Sadie screamed. Her legs gave and she fell flat onto her face. Sam’s head landed and rolled onto its right ear, his eyes meeting hers. He blinked four times and then blinked no more.
The Bone Sniffer, right behind Spring-Heeled Jack, leapt and slammed its giant head into the side of Jacob’s car just as Jack was slashing Sam’s torso open. The car skidded and tilted as the Bone Sniffer rammed it again, this time tipping it over onto its side, the contents of its trunk spilling out at Jacob’s feet.
And as Sam was having his head cut off, the Bone Sniffer jumped forward and chomped down on Mandy’s right arm, breaking it and slinging her so that she flew up over its head. She crashed to the ground behind it, cracking her ribs. The creature turned, scooped her stunned body up into its mouth, and ran off, back the way it came.
“She was the last!” Jacob said, dropping to his knees and grabbing two long knives that had fallen from the trunk of his car. He stood to his feet and jabbed them in the air at Spring-Heeled Jack, who laughed and backed away. He jumped up with a twirl and bounced off in the direction the Bone Sniffer had gone. Within seconds, they were both completely out of sight.
Tom fell against Mayor Reed’s car, his stomach heaving. He stared at Sam’s head and body, blood pooling underneath both, before turning and vomiting. He slid down the side of the car, tears pouring from his eyes as he looked around for Dolores. He spotted her, sitting on the hood of Mayor Reed’s car. She was hunched over and crying. He wanted to get up, to go and comfort her, but he’d never felt so lost and helpless in his life. These things, these monsters, they came and attacked so fast, here and gone, taking what they wanted and there wasn’t a damn thing that anyone could do about it. Even Jacob was too stunned and powerless to do much of anything.
He looked down at his watch. It had been ten after ten when they stepped outside of the police station with the idea of getting in their cars and fleeing town. It was only twenty after ten now. Ten minutes. That’s all that had gone by. Ten minutes and four people kidnapped and three murdered. What chance did they have?
Tom looked at Dolores again and hung his head in shame. There was no more hope. They were all dead.
VIII
Mandy
Like the others, Mandy hung from the mouth of the Bone Sniffer, limp and beaten. Her arm burned with pain where it had broken, her ribs were screaming at her, and the skin around her stomach where the monster bit and carried her dripped blood. But as horrible as the agony was in her body, it was nothing compared to what was eating at her mind and soul.
What had gone wrong? Hadn’t she been called by God—the Wrath of God, her father had said—in a vision to come here and save this town? How could it have changed? How could she be one of the anointed, as Jacob put it, one of those with the blood type the demons needed to complete their wicked ritual? Had God deceived her? Had she been brought here under false pretenses?
She couldn’t understand why any of this was happening. She thought of her Daddy, dead two weeks now, and how much she missed him. If he were here, he’d help her make sense of it all. He was gone, though, and soon she’d be joining him.
Leaves wet with blood slapped her cheeks as they entered the forest. A few seconds later, they plunged into a clearing criss-crossed with intestines. On the ground, arranged in a circle, were the unmoving bodies of Jenny, Hazel, and Martin. They looked up at Mandy, their faces grim and twisted with pain. The Bone Sniffer carried her over and set her in the empty space next to the other three so that each of their bodies faced in one of the four directions, North, South, East, and West.
The creature backed off and the Mad Gasser stepped forward. He carried a large metal tank strapped to his back. It looked like something a scuba diver would use, but there was no breathi
ng apparatus attached to the top of the tank, just a long rubber hose. The Mad Gasser took the pack off his back, stretched, and set it next to the four people lying on the ground. He turned a small wheel at the top of the tank and the hose hissed as the smell of burnt rubber and lemons filled Mandy’s nose. She gagged as her body went limp.
She couldn’t move. Neither could the others. They were paralyzed, frozen there on the ground. They couldn’t get up, they couldn’t try to get away, but they could still think and see, they could feel the throbbing pain of their injuries.
Mandy watched as the Mad Gasser turned the tank off, picked it up, and stepped back. Joining his side were a batch of three wild looking children with black eyes, Spring-Heeled Jack, and the Bone Sniffer. Moments later, another figure appeared next to them, a woman in a shimmering white dress that glowed in the moonlight.
“It is time to begin,” the Weeping Lady said.
PART SEVEN
I
Mayor Reed
Mayor Reed paced back and forth, his mind going in a million different directions as everyone else, everyone still left alive, sat on the pavement, dejected. Even the chubby guy with the big mouth and bigger words was despondent. He sat on the curb by the spilled contents of his trunk and stared at them, miserable. Mayor Reed watched everyone for a moment, feeling just as lost and depressed as they were. But now was not the time for this. Something evil had indeed come to his small town, just like the fat girl with the perm had warned, and now they had to do something about it.
“People,” he said. His voice cracked and his words came out as a squeak. He cleared his throat and tried again. “People,” he said. “We have to leave.”
Dolores and Tom looked up at him, eyes filled with tears. Aggie was holding Sadie, both of them by the dead body of Sam; neither looked up—they were inconsolable. Jacob, over by his car, sneezed and glared at the Mayor. He looked so weary.
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