“Thank God,” he whimpered, as I stared at the door in horror. Jeremy was coming home, but how could he if that thing was here?
“What is it?” Jim was staring, too. “What does it want?”
We didn’t move. The door began to vibrate and wobble as the onslaught renewed. It was outside. “Whatever it is wants in. And it’s angry.” I was living my old nightmare as if I’d never left it.
The door’s wood splintered into pieces and shattered around us. We bowed our heads together and I screamed…once.
Then there was silence.
Whatever had been at the door, had destroyed it, and returned to whence it came.
The relief was so great I wanted to laugh. “It couldn’t get in. It couldn’t break all the way through.”
Jim slumped in a chair. “What happened to you before? Were you in one of your trances?”
I nodded. “It was also a message.”
“From who?”
“Our grandmother.”
“She’s dead,” he stated. When he looked at me I could see the whites of his eyes, the lines in his face that had never been there before. “Why would she appear to you? What did she want?”
“She told me Jeremy was unharmed so we wouldn’t worry.” So we wouldn’t go out looking for him and be in danger ourselves. “She left so quickly, I didn’t have a chance to talk to her. Now I know why.” I cocked my head towards the wrecked door.
“Do you think it’s given up?”
“No,” I laid a hand on his shoulder, “but it won’t return tonight.” He was a small child again and I had to calm him.
Jim’s face had regained its color.
“I’ll fix the door tomorrow,” he said.
“Tomorrow is fine.”
What was left of the door swung open and Jeremy stood there, blood trickling down the front of his shirt. I held him so tightly, he complained I was going to break him. I tilted his chin up. Something had cut his face, but he was being brave.
“How did you do that?” I asked.
“Tripped over a branch on the ground. I’m sorry I’m late. Are you mad at me?”
“I should spank your butt for being out past dark when I told you not to, young man,” I scolded, holding him at arm’s length. “But I’m too relieved to see you.
“In another ten minutes we would have started searching for you.”
Something glimmered in Jeremy’s eyes and as he spoke, I had the suspicion he knew more than he was letting on, things he’d never tell us. Things we’d never know. A shiver went through me and I wondered if my grandmother had felt like this, when she’d looked at me as a child.
“I know, Mom, Uncle Jim. I’m sorry. I ran home, that’s how I fell, honest. The dark beat me here.” He widened his eyes as he noticed the door for the first time. “Wow, what happened to our front door?”
I had to bite my tongue so I wouldn’t tell him the truth. Of course, Jeremy didn’t know about the thing in the woods, and he didn’t know the real reason he had to be home before dark. I’d never told him. Yet, as he inspected the door I again caught that knowing glimmer in his eyes. He was keeping something from us, like we were keeping something from him.
“Someone tried to break in. Pranksters or someone who doesn’t like us,” I slanted the truth, my eyes on Jim.
“Mom,” Jeremy’s eyes narrowed as if he didn’t believe me, “who hates us that much?” He gave me a thoughtful frown. “I mean, the door’s a mess. It must have taken something pretty strong to mess it up this bad. But it didn’t get in, did it?” Something in his voice told me he was hiding something, too.
What did he think had tried to break in? He’d used the word “it”, not “he”, “she”, or “they”. Did he already suspect or know what had happened here since we’d come?
I couldn’t tell by his face. I checked the cut on his cheek with tender fingers and worried eyes. He didn’t flinch. It wasn’t as deep as I’d thought.
“No. It didn’t get in.” How could I explain what was really wrong? I didn’t want to frighten him, I couldn’t bring myself to tell him. “It could have been worse.” I put my arm around his thin shoulders and hugged him close. I could hear his heart racing. So he was afraid, after all? What was I doing to my son? I’d brought him here where he was in danger and maybe he sensed it.
“Sure, Mom. It could have been worse. It could have knocked the house down,” he said sarcastically.
His reply startled me, though I understood he was teasing. Yet it made me ask myself, could it have? What would we do if it decided to try? No. We’re safe here. The ghost had told me so.
“It’s late. First, go clean up, then supper, then bedtime, son,” I said a little too harshly. “Tomorrow I’m enrolling you in school. I think you’ve had enough of a vacation.” I prodded him away from the door and towards the stairs.
“Ah, Mom,” he protested. “I’m not tired. Can I stay up a little longer?”
“No. I want you to take a bath before you eat and afterward I’ll tuck you in once I doctor up that cut of yours.”
“A bath? Ah, mom.”
“No back talk. Look at you, you’re a mud ball, not to mention the blood.” Then the one nagging question I’d held in, popped out. “Where were you all this time?”
His eyes slid away. Once more he was hiding something. “Oh, out exploring. I’m sorry about making you and Uncle Jim worry. I promise I won’t do it again.”
He was attempting to make it up to me in his own way.
“I’ll take a long, hot bath. I’ll get so clean, you won’t even know me.”
“No way. If I can recognize you under the dirt then I can spot you no matter what you do.” I offered him a forgiving smile. I couldn’t stay mad at my son.
Jeremy was about to go upstairs when someone knocked on the door. This time it was a human. “It’s Ben.” Suddenly I felt foolish. Jeremy was safe and I’d gotten Ben out of bed for nothing.
I opened the door.
“He’s home,” I said simply.
Jeremy peeked out from behind me. The cut had begun to bleed again and I turned around, bent over and dabbed off some of the blood.
“I see.” He seemed relieved and stepped inside. “It’s all right, Sarah. I don’t mind being dragged out of bed if there’s a happy ending. I’m a sucker for happy endings. I’m thankful the boy’s safe.” He reached out to ruffle Jeremy’s hair. “Looks like you fell in with ten pounds of wildcat, huh?” Jeremy laughed as Ben examined his cut.
“I’ll see to it. I have a lot of practice,” he said, and took over, asking me to fetch a few things. I went for bandages and antiseptic and he carefully attended to the wound.
Seeing Ben Raucher’s tender side made me look at him in a different light.
“How did this happen, son?” The question was inevitable. Jeremy flashed me a quick glance.
“I…fell over a branch on the ground.”
Ben looked like he wanted to believe the story, but didn’t.
“You be more careful from now on, ya hear?”
“Yeah, okay. Thanks, Detective.”
“Jeremy, your bath?” I reminded him. After he went upstairs, I dealt with Ben.
“Thank you for coming over here. It meant a lot to us to know you were there if we needed you. You’re right. Better safe than sorry.” The worry and lack of sleep were visible. The shadows under his eyes were more pronounced than earlier. “I don’t want my son to turn into a statistic.”
“Well, under the circumstances, Sarah,” he spoke my name softly as if he liked saying it, “if I were you I’d be sure to lay stricter ground rules for him from now on. Keep your son closer to home until we can catch this killer. Will you do that for me?” He smiled wearily and I felt sorry for him, knowing what I knew and he didn’t. �
��I don’t want to have to jump out of my bed like this too often. Almost gave me a heart attack.” He yawned.
“You look tired, Detective. Go back to your bed and get some sleep. I’m sorry I woke you.” I felt myself blush, and knew Ben noticed. His expression changed. He looked at me with gentle eyes and it made me blush even more.
“I told you, call me Ben. Please and it was really no problem. It’s what I’m here for. If you need me again, for any reason, you call.” His eyes twinkled.
Was that an invitation? I wondered.
“Well, I’ll try not to drag you from dreamland next time,” I promised. “Would you like some coffee?” I was only being polite. The man looked as if he was about to fall asleep standing up.
“Thanks, but I’ll pass on that for now. Can I take a rain check?” He was serious. “I’m bushed to the bone. I’m going home to crawl back into bed. The first nap wasn’t enough.”
“Sure, you deserve it. Have only good dreams.” Under the circumstances, I was immediately sorry I’d said it. No one could have good dreams after what had happened in the woods.
I thought he was going to leave, but he stood there expectantly as if he were waiting for something.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
His grin was half-serious, as if he knew a funny secret. “Isn’t there something you want to tell me?” he insisted, studying me. I saw his eyes shift sharply towards the door.
“Oh, you mean what happened to the door, right?” Should I finally tell him the truth? I saw the look in his eyes and knew I couldn’t lie and fool him. He was too smart and too good a cop. It was about time I told the truth or, at least, part of it. Besides I was sick of lying.
“Bingo. Give the lady a prize. You’re going to tell me what happened?”
Jim walked up. “I’ll tell you what happened. Something, not someone, tried to break it down. As you can see by the damage, whatever it was nearly succeeded. But it didn’t get in and we don’t know what it was or why it did it, except,” and here he glanced over at me, “something has had it in for us ever since we came here. Something wants us out of the way, or dead.” Jim’s voice was cold, his eyes haunted.
“You expect me to believe you? You mean to say you don’t know what it is, never seen it, or know why it’s trying to get at you? Only that it is?” Ben seemed incredulous.
“You’ve got to believe us, Ben.” Jim sighed, looking old and tired himself. “We haven’t got a prayer unless someone does, and helps us. Look at the odds we’re dealing with, we’re the only two left out of nine. Not very encouraging, huh?”
“What do you think this thing is?” Ben asked me point blank.
I sighed. Here we go. “I can tell you what I believe it is, but you’ll probably think I’m nuts. I know I would if I was you and you told me the same thing.”
“Go ahead. I’m listening.”
“You’d better sit down, then,” I warned and gestured him to a seat. “It’s a long story and not a particularly pretty one.”
After he’d settled in a front room chair, he said, “You sure you want to tell me this?”
“Oh, I don’t really want to, but I see no other choice. It’s time. We need an ally. Even if you can’t accept what we believe has been happening to us since we were children, it’ll do me–us–good to confide in someone else.”
Jim lowered himself to sit cross-legged on the rug. He looked like the ghost of the Jim I knew and loved.
I told Ben about our family and our childhood, about the entity we believed lived in the woods and what it had done to all of us. Everything from the first summer’s night in those woods until a few minutes before when the door had been damaged. Ben stared at me until I was finished, his expression unreadable.
“You think I’m plain crazy, don’t you?” I sighed after I’d said everything.
“No. I don’t know what to believe. Everything inside of me rebels at the whole idea of a supernatural creature that kills children out of evil spite. It doesn’t make any sense. I’m a realist. I’ve never been faced with anything like this. If it hadn’t happened to you, would you believe it?”
“I suppose not. But you asked for the truth and I gave it to you. Or the truth as I’ve seen and known it. It’s the only truth I know,” I apologized. Most likely it’d been a mistake to try to explain our lives to a stranger. There were many times I still couldn’t believe what had happened to us, and was still happening. So often I was afraid I was going crazy.
“On the other hand,” Ben posed cautiously, “I can’t argue the fact you do have this psychic ability. It’s in the records. It’s real, as fantastic as it is to me. I don’t think you’re lying or trying to con me. What I think,” he said, rubbing his chin, “is the some very disturbed person has had a terrible personal vendetta against your family all these years. He’s clever enough to have tricked you into believing this supernatural crap, so you’re too damn afraid to go to the police. That’s what I think.”
“You really believe that?” I asked, pitying him for his ignorance. How long had I tried to believe it was only the diabolical machinations of a deranged mind, and not anything unearthly? Too long. By the time I’d awakened to the truth my family were mostly dead and what was left of us were trapped, right where it’d always wanted us. Here.
“You think a person arranged those freak accidents to my family, which to this day can’t be explained? My father died of a heart attack. They said, off the record, he’d been frightened to death. On the record it was a massive heart seizure. His heart couldn’t take the strain anymore and I’ll tell you why. Leslie, the oldest, died in a horrible car accident on a beautiful spring day. It arranged it somehow. Our mother was brutally murdered by ‘person or persons unknown’ with a baseball bat. No arrests were ever made. Samantha, the baby, was found dead in her crib one morning and…I can’t go on,” I moaned. “You know the rest. I can’t stand to think about it anymore. These murders weren’t done by anything of this earth. It’s the truth, and we don’t know why it’s doing this or how to stop it.”
I could see the conflicting thoughts warring on Ben’s face.
“You know what I think? You actually believe this. Your version is too fantastic, otherwise. But I believe the perpetrator is nothing less than a clever sadistic psychopathic murderer. So what if you did go to the police originally? It’s not surprising they had a hard time swallowing your stories. There are cases we can’t solve. Cases which defy human understanding. It doesn’t mean it’s been done by something supernatural.”
“What you think doesn’t matter. The only thing is my family’s dead. Another neighborhood child, now, too. There’ll be more. This thing isn’t human. It has such power, and you don’t understand.”
“Perhaps, because of grief, you truly believe it.”
“No!”
“Sarah, you’ve gone through a lot. But this killer can be fought and stopped.”
Of course, he still thought of it as a person. A person could be arrested, put in prison. Killed. So much easier, neater, than believing in the unnatural.
“If you know how to fight it. We haven’t been able to find the secret to that little mystery yet. But we will,” I said, looking up towards Jeremy’s room. “We’ll have to find a way to get it,” I was thinking of Jeremy and the other innocent victims that might be its next prey, “before it kills again.”
“You leave that side of it to the police, Sarah.” Ben was serious, looking at the door. “Obviously, you’re in danger the way it is. I want the three of you to be more vigilant from now on. Promise me you’ll stop this nonsense about evil manifestations and leave the matter to the police. Keep your head down and lay low for a bit until we can catch this bastard. He’s clearly out to scare or harm you.” He tilted his head towards the mutilated door. “I’ll make a report on this tonight.”
I w
as shaking my head slowly. He still didn’t understand. Probably he never would. “Can’t you see that what we’re up against isn’t human? Look at the condition of the door and imagine the strength it must have taken.”
“It’s human.” He ground out the words, trying hard not to waver. Something I’d said had touched home, I sensed it, but he still couldn’t accept what we believed.
I felt sorry for Ben. At least, he wasn’t in immediate danger and because of that there was no real need for him to believe. Yet. I couldn’t imagine there was anything he could have done anyway to help us. Enough that he was forewarned, hopefully it would save him, if not us.
“It’s a human foe we’re facing, Sarah. It’s beatable, or there’s no sense in going on. I can’t fight shadows and bugaboos. I’m only a down-to-earth cop. I know criminals and disturbed people are often cruel and clever in committing their crimes. Ghosts and demons, I don’t know anything about. If I can’t see it, it doesn’t exist.” He was gently firm. “I think it’s somebody very cunning who hates your family for some unexplainable reason and has been out to get all of you. I’ve seen things you wouldn’t believe. There are things done to human beings you’d never imagine could be done by a human hand. Merciless, gruesome atrocities that make your heart weep at the inhumanity of it.”
“Like the child last night?” I prompted.
“Yes. Someone very evil, I’ll admit, did that, but it was a human evil, not an evil entity.” Ben stood up. I could tell he felt sorry for us, for what we’d been through. Sorry we’d been terrorized and butchered over the years. But he wouldn’t allow himself to accept the offender was not of this earth.
I wished more than anything in the world I was still as innocent as he was, that I didn’t know the bare truth. I wished I was an innocent child again. Better yet, I wished I were someone else. There are times in my more whimsical moments, I imagine our whole lives are merely a made up fantasy and our dreams are the reality.
In those dreams, lately, I’m a child again, running and playing with my brothers and sisters along the dusty summer streets of Suncrest, and they’re all still alive and smiling.
Evil Stalks the Night Page 18