by Travis, Todd
Chapter Seventy-Three
Darin watched from his hidden spot under the willow tree as the six boys trooped up onto the bridge, laughing and drinking wine coolers. Five of the boys were dressed goth. One boy, smaller and skinnier than the rest, was not, he had on a short-sleeved button shirt complete with a pocket protector, chinos and brown shoes.
“Let the initiation begin!” one of them, the clear leader of the group, shouted. At that, the others tied up the smaller boy, who laughed and went along with it good-naturedly, but with a touch of anxiety, too. The leader of the group took out a piece of chalk and drew a pentagram on the bridge while another one took Polaroid pictures of the event and two others opened a book and began chanting something unintelligible.
Thunder crashed and the boy who was tied up looked a little more nervous. It hit Darin then, what he was watching. He was watching a flashback or a replay from the original event. The leader grabbed the captured boy’s hand, opened the palm and cut it. Blood dripped into the center of the pentagram. Another boy poured black powder over it and lit it. It went up with a poof as their chant grew louder.
They were summoning someone, or something, Darin realized. Summoning something dark and terrible. And whatever it was, it was coming.
Chapter Seventy-Four
“You lied to us, Valerie. Why?” Shakes asked.
Valerie froze and considered for but a second trying to lie her way out of it, but realized that would be futile. She’d never thought her father would text her, he rarely did for any reason, but now that he had, she was screwed. She’d wanted to let them do their thing with the game for a while longer to buy time, but this had forced her hand.
“Well?” Shakes asked.
Valerie cocked her head at Shakes, smiled as if she was about to respond but instead jumped up from where she sat. She snatched Faye’s phone off the couch and darted over and got Shakes’s phone from the bar. Faye tried to get off the couch but because of her size, she couldn’t move quickly, and Shakes appeared shocked.
Valerie grabbed a poker from the fireplace and swung it. Shakes dodged, afraid she was going for him, but she had another target in mind. She crushed the nearby cable modem, hitting it again and again until it was completely destroyed.
“What are you doing!” Shakes shouted.
“Taking you offline,” Valerie said, snatching her phone from the speaker. She dropped all three phones on the floor and stomped on them with her heel, crushing them. Shakes took a step toward her but stopped when she raised the poker at him. It was snatched out of her hand and tossed across the room by Faye. Faye backhanded Valerie to the floor.
“You dumb bitch, trying to betray us!” Faye screamed. “We’ll kill you!”
“What do you think you’re trying to accomplish?” Shakes asked. “We’re going to kill your father anyway.”
“Not tonight, you won’t, not without phones or Internet,” Valerie said and crabbed away until she got to her feet. “And Darin found the bridge, he’s going to burn it down and end this fucking game once and for all. It’s over, Shakes, he’s ending it.”
“No!” Shakes said. “You can’t take this away from me!”
He moved after her and she darted away from them both, knocking chairs and tables into their path, running for the kitchen and the exit to outside. Shakes was faster, however, and cut her off before she could get to the door. He grabbed a knife from the rack and waved it at her.
“You’ll be sorry,” Shakes said, his eyes and manner transformed. “I can’t use the game on you, but I can use this. Maybe Darin will destroy the bridge, maybe he won’t. But you’re not leaving this house alive.”
Valerie nearly didn’t recognize him as she backed away, he looked like a being possessed. “Shakes …”
“My name,” he said, “is Mr. Samuel!”
He slashed at her and she barely got out of the way. She ran for a hallway, only to be cut off by Faye, who grabbed her by the hair and held her tight. Shakes approached, knife ready.
“I am going to cut you to pieces,” he said.
“Go ahead,” Valerie said. “Cutting isn’t anything new to me, so do it! Cut me up! You want to be just like those asshole teachers and popular kids who bleed a little bit of us each and every day, who brutalize us until there’s nothing left but pain and misery, fine. Kill me, because I’d rather be dead than be like them!”
“We’re not like them, we have power now! We were friends and you betrayed us!”
“You betrayed us, you and Faye! We were friends before we ever played that fucking game! We had power without the game! We did the thing at Healy’s service ON OUR OWN! We had a circle without this bullshit fucking game, Shakes!”
Shakes hesitated, blade close to Valerie’s throat.
“Do it, cut her open, Samuel,” Faye said, her voice eager.
“The game betrayed our friendship, and you did, too! I liked you, before, Shakes. I liked who you were before the makeup and the pets and the bullshit power trips, that’s who I liked. You were real, then. What you are now, that’s not real, it’s just a projection of something else, something that’s not you! When you did what you did to Healy for all of us, that’s the guy I cared about, that’s the friend I believe I could have loved. That’s the person who I knew cared about me and would never hurt me. I don’t even know who the fuck you are now, but you’re not and have never been my fucking friend. Shakes cared about and loved me, not you!”
Something flickered in his eyes in that moment, a flash of clarity and recognition. Shakes stepped back.
“Kill her!” Faye screamed.
Chapter Seventy-Five
Darin felt the air grow heavy as the boys on the bridge kept on with their chant. The one who was tied up started whimpering, told them he didn’t want to do this anymore, that he didn’t want to play their game or be in their group, he didn’t want to do the initiation after all, but they ignored him. One of the boys took out a rope and tied one end around the railing of the bridge. The other end was fashioned into a noose that was then dropped over their sacrifice’s neck. He began to kick and scream, wanting to be let go.
His captors only laughed cruelly and kept on going. They pushed him toward the side of the bridge as he screamed. Lightning flashed in the sky as the smaller boy begged for his life. He grabbed onto the rail, crying. The bigger boys hammered at his fingers and pried him loose, about to toss him over.
Darin stepped out from his spot under the tree.
“Hey! Let him go!” Darin shouted.
They all stopped, turned and stared at Darin. And he noticed, for the first time, that their eyes all uniformly white, no pupils, no color, just white spaces. They looked at him and then continued with their spell and their sacrifice.
“I said, let him go!” Darin ran toward the bridge, right at the boys.
Chapter Seventy-Six
“What are you waiting for?” Faye said. “Fucking kill her, gut her!”
Shakes raised the knife, about to stab, and then a change came over his face. His eyes changed and softened. He stepped back.
“Samuel, what are you doing?” Faye screamed again.
“I’m so sorry, Valerie,” Shakes said. “I can’t hold the beast off for very long. But I wanted you to know that I would never, ever hurt you, never. I loved you.”
Shakes raised the knife up and brought down quickly into his own belly, twisting the blade once it was in deep. He gasped and fell to his knees, blood and intestines spilling out on the floor.
“Samuel!”
“My name,” Shakes gasped, “is Samuel Maynard Hobart. But …. my friends … my very good friends … call me Shakes.”
He fell forward into his own mess. Faye screamed again. Valerie brought her foot up and stamped on Faye’s instep. She grunted in pain and released Valerie, shoving her away and to the floor. Faye rushed to Shakes, rolled him over, screaming his name. Shakes was very clearly dead. Faye grimaced, grabbed the knife and yanked it out of his body. She t
urned toward Valerie.
“You’re not getting away with this,” Faye said.
Valerie got to her feet, turned down the hallway and ran back to the rec room. Faye lumbered after her, knife in hand.
Chapter Seventy-Seven
“I said fucking leave him alone!”
Darin ran right at the five goth ghouls, who turned to meet him. They pushed their sacrifice off the side of the bridge and he howled until the rope caught and choked him off. Darin could hear him gurgle and struggle for breath.
The five ghouls hissed and rushed him. He swung at them but they weren’t seemingly solid, like they were made of smoke, and his hands went right through them. They howled and screamed and pulled at him and it felt like a fierce wind rending his limbs, knocking him to and fro on the swaying bridge. They brought him to his knees and battered him. Darin raised his eyes and crawled for the side of the bridge, for the rope.
The air became electric as the demon they called began its approach to their sacrifice. Darin kept crawling. The goth ghouls screamed and tore at him even more.
Chapter Seventy-Eight
Valerie stumbled through the house, searching for a way out. She realized Faye probably knew the layout of the place much better than she did and she had to be careful or she’d end up trapped. Once back in the rec room, she turned back around and circled, the couch between them. Faye’s face was unrecognizable, a mask of fury. Valerie picked up a lamp and threw it at her. Faye just batted it away.
“This isn’t you, Faye!” Valerie screamed. “You don’t want to do this anymore than Shakes did! Something evil’s gotten hold of you!
Faye just kept coming forward, knife held out. She jumped up on the couch and climbed over it with much more agility than Valerie would have given her credit for. Valerie grabbed a cushion and held it up at the last second, just blocking a cut from the knife. Foam went everywhere as Faye reduced it to nothing.
“Faye, stop!”
“We are not Faye any longer,” Faye said in a voice not her own. “We are something more.”
Valerie tried to back away from her, but tripped over an ottoman. She fell to the floor on her back and rolled away as best she could.
Faye just kept on coming, slashing at Valerie with the blade. It caught her on the thigh and on the forearm. Blood splattered. Faye stopped, touched it with a finger and brought it to her lips to taste it. Then she grinned at Valerie.
Valerie knew that whatever this was, it wasn’t Faye any longer.
Chapter Seventy-Nine
Darin got to the rope as the ghouls screamed and tore at him, ripping and tearing at his clothes, hair and skin. Darin stood up, wrapped the rope around a fist and pulled it up, slowly, hand over hand, until he yanked the choking boy back onto the bridge. The boy’s face was blue and veined, and for a moment Darin could see another face overlaying the boy’s face. But the second face wasn’t human, it was something else. Darin realized that this was the face of the beast that had been summoned.
The five goth ghouls backed away in fear when that appeared.
He quickly worked on the noose, loosening the rope and releasing him from his bonds. The boy just lay there, his face contorting as the beast tried to find a home. Darin looked up, saw the ghouls backing away and also realized that the boy was bound to lose this battle unless he did something about it.
Darin jumped to his feet, ran to the pentagram on the bridge and kicked the powder, candles and markings away. The ghouls hissed and howled and backed away more. Darin turned. The boy now stood up, his eyes completely black and calm.
Chapter Eighty
Faye grabbed Valerie by the foot and dragged her body close, within killing range. Faye raised the knife up to stab her in the chest. Valerie screamed. Before Faye could bring the bloody knife down, however, she froze, unable to move.
Valerie watched as something dark and alien passed over Faye’s face. It was a second face, the face of the demon-beast. A battle ensued as Faye dropped the knife and staggered backward, tearing with her fingers at her own eyes and cheeks, howling.
She ripped at her own skin like a rabid dog, fell down and rolled on the floor, screaming and cursing. The bloody fit ended as quickly as it began, leaving Faye lying on her back on the floor, panting, each breath a labor. Valerie got to her knees and slid over next to her. Her face was torn apart into bloody chunks.
“Faye?” Valerie said.
“Valerie, I’m … so very sorry,” Faye said. “So, so sorry.”
“It’s okay, I understand. It’s not your fault.”
“I … I can’t see … I can’t feel my left arm or my legs. I think … I’m dying.”
“Hold on, I’ll get help,” Valerie said.
Faye grabbed at her with her right hand. “No, don’t. Just stay with me, please? I don’t … want to go alone. Please?”
Valerie took Faye’s hand and held it in her own. “It’s okay. I’m here with you.”
“You were my friend, Valerie, right? Just for a little while, we were friends?”
“We were and we still are, Faye. I promise you.”
She stayed with Faye, right up until her breathing finally stopped and she died.
Chapter Eighty-One
“It’s okay, the demon is gone now,” the boy with the black eyes told Darin.
“If it’s gone, what are you and them?” Darin asked, panting, pointing at the goth ghouls who stood on the other side of the bridge, hissing at them. They took cautious steps in Darin’s direction.
“We are remnants,” the boy said. “No spell is ever clean. There are always remnants. That’s what we are. But we’re free of the beast and the spell is broken.”
Darin looked up at the night sky. The thunder and the clouds were receding.
“No one has ever stood up for me before, never,” the boy with the dark eyes said. “I have lived this terrible night, time and time again, for thousands of days, and no one has ever stepped forward to help me. No one ever did even before this night, before this cruel spell was cast. Never. Thank you.”
Darin nodded. “What about them?”
“Don’t worry about them. They are mine,” the boy said and walked toward his former tormentors. As he got closer, they shrank in fear. The boy ran and tore into them. Darin walked off the bridge as they battled, and once he reached the path, he dug into his pocket and pulled out the lighter. He flicked the flame and tossed it onto the bridge. This time the fire caught and the whole bridge burned while the specters from a spell cast decades ago clawed and bit and battled each other.
Darin waited until it burned completely before walking back to the car and beginning the long drive back home.
Chapter Eighty-Two
“I visited Linda Sue today,” Valerie told Darin as they held hands as they stood before the graves of their friends in the cemetery. Valerie laid flowers down before each.
“She’s still in the pysch ward?”
“Yes, but not for much longer. They’re letting her out any day now. I was surprised she agreed to see me, but she did.”
“What’d you tell her?”
“I told her that we’ve all done things we’re ashamed of, everyone, and that I’d really like for us to be friends, after all. Everyone can use a friend.”
“Friends are good.”
“They are.”
They both turned and walked back toward her car.
“And my father wants to take us to dinner tonight,” Valerie said. “Can you?”
“Now that I’ve been officially cleared of arson, I can go out to dinner anywhere and anytime I want. Freedom is good.”
“It sure is,” they stopped before the car, pausing for a kiss.
“I’ve been wondering something,” he said.
“What’s that?”
“Whose name did you enter in the game? When they made you kill someone?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It doesn’t?”
“Not anymore.”
; She kissed him again and they got into her car and drove away.
Chapter Eighty-Three
“LENNON KILLER MARK DAVID CHAPMAN TAKES OWN LIFE IN JAIL!”—headline from an online news site.
Chapter Eighty-Four
Stanley was getting sick and tired of the tweets and the taunts online, but he didn’t know what to do about it. Ever since he’d had the anxiety attack at school, it’d been relentless, the teasing. He didn’t want to shut down his profiles, but the harassment was giving him nightmares and migraines and he had bad thoughts all the time.
When he got the e-mail, he thought it was spam or a joke at first. But once he dug into it, it seemed like it could be fun.
“WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY?” read the subject heading.
He was already thinking of four other kids just like himself who he might be able to get to play. It was a big school, over three thousand students, after all. There were lots of bullied kids just like himself.
This game might be a cool way to take their minds off of the other bullshit, he thought. He couldn’t wait to get it going.
Also from TODD TRAVIS …
THE LIVING AND THE DEAD
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