“Fuck!” he swore, tossing it to the ground. It landed with a bang, which was quickly followed by an inhuman growl from somewhere deep in the catacombs.
Cal clenched his teeth.
I’m running out of time! They’re coming! What was the name of the strange place again, the—
“Askergan County was number 2!” he exclaimed. He pumped a fist, then made a conscious decision to head away from Marrow 2 and toward Marrow 6. He wasn’t sure if this was the way toward Sacred Heart, if Sacred Heart was number 6, but he was out of options.
Cal started in that direction, fueled by more of the guttural snarls that seemed to grow louder as he walked.
He hadn’t made it more than twenty paces before a doorway suddenly appeared at his right, and Cal peered inside.
The room was filled with huge tanks that extended nearly to the ceiling. Inside the first tank of several was a man, nude save a mask over his nose and mouth, suspended in the liquid.
Cal knew that he had to keep moving, but there was such an uncanny, almost photographic similarity to his own drawings, that he was hypnotized by the sight.
The face… is it…
Cal had to find out if it was him inside the tank, as bizarre as the idea sounded. He strode forward, and squinted hard.
He had black hair, and a smooth, round face. His—
The man’s eyes suddenly opened wide, revealing midnight black orbs and Cal stumbled backward. His heel caught on the travois, and he fell hard on his ass.
It wasn’t him, he realized, but one of the men from The Pit. Cal didn’t know how he knew this, he just did. His relief, however, at the fact that he wasn’t somehow transposed in two places at once, was short-lived.
As he scrambled to his feet, there was an audible hiss, and the front of the tank, a massive section of curved glass, started to cantilever forward. Water bubbled and spilled from the seams, and the man, previously still aside from his wide eyes, started to twitch and squirm.
Cal didn’t need to see any more; as the lights flickered and dimmed, he grabbed the travois handles, and started to run toward Marrow 6, hoping that they weren’t too late.
Praying that Shelly and Robert’s baby hadn’t been born yet.
Chapter 43
Time puckered. That was the only way Cal could describe what happened next. As he ran, dragging Robert behind him, time puckered.
As did distance.
Within minutes, Cal heard familiar voices echoing toward him.
Chapter 44
Shelly screamed.
“It’s coming! Get it out!”
The room was spinning, and she felt on the verge of losing consciousness before a hand slapped her hard across the face.
“Oh, no you don’t,” Carson whispered. “You’re going to stay awake for this. You need to stay awake.”
Shelly didn’t care about anything but getting the child out of her. The pain was like nothing she had ever experienced before, nor ever wanted to come close to experiencing again.
Her belly tightened, and this time she went with the contraction, squeezing as hard as she possibly could.
There was a tearing sound, and then, finally, some relief in the form of pressure release. She felt more of the sticky liquid coat her lower half, but she couldn’t bear to look.
“The head!” Carson exclaimed, “I can see the head!”
A wave of tension came again, and Shelly shrieked once more. She pushed, and felt both of her legs go completely numb as something big started to crawl out of her.
“Stop!” a voice shouted and at first, she thought it was Carson, or maybe Leland. But when the command came a second time, she realized it was neither. It was Cal’s voice, and at long last, Shelly gained the courage to open her eyes.
Chapter 45
“Stop!” Cal shouted as he stepped into Marrow 6, the room located directly below Sacred Heart Orphanage.
He thought he issued the order again, but was too overcome by the horrifying sight before him to be sure.
Shelly was naked, splayed on a metal gurney like an anesthetized sow prepared for slaughter. Her legs, wrists, and neck were bound with twine, and her upper half was covered in a sheen of sweat.
But this paled in comparison to the mess from the waist down.
Blood was everywhere—thick, dark splotches of congealed blood stained her legs, the gurney, while fresh red smears coated the underside of her burgeoning belly.
And she was crowning, good God if she wasn’t crowning before his eyes.
Cal could see the top of a baby’s head starting to protrude from between her legs, a crop of matted black hair clinging to the deformed scalp.
Carson was standing by Shelly’s head whispering something in her ear, smiling broadly.
Leland, dressed in his patented faded jean jacket, his black hat pulled low and hiding his face, stood against the back wall, his arms crossed over his chest.
“Glad you can make it, Cal. You’ve arrived just in time,” Leland said calmly.
“Stop!” Cal repeated, but this time the word came out as a whimper.
But when Shelly screamed again, he realized that his words were futile. Leland must have come to the same conclusion as he started to laugh.
Shelly had reached the point of no return.
“Too late, Cally-boy. You’re too late. The baby’s here.”
And then, with one final shriek that nearly burst Cal’s eardrums, the baby gushed forth in a geyser of fluid.
Shelly went silent, as did everyone else in the room. Except, of course, for the crying newborn.
Chapter 46
Too late… you’re too late…
After all it had taken to get here, after all he had been through, Cal was still too late to put a stop to the inevitable.
Shelly and Robert’s baby was born, and now it was only a matter of minutes before they took the child and bound it to the living and the dead. And then the gates of Hell would open, and quiddity from the Marrow would be able to flow back into this world.
There was only one thing that Cal could think of to do, one final, desperate play to put a stop to this horror.
“Give me the baby,” he hissed.
Carson was cradling the child now, cooing at its blood covered face, all the while the cord was still attached to its belly button and the placenta buried deep inside Shelly.
Leland pushed himself away from the wall.
“Yeah, good luck with that.”
As he spoke, the Goat tilted his head back slightly, revealing hundreds of tiny, pointed teeth that reflected the incandescent lighting above like razor blades under moonlight.
Cal felt fear course through him, but he thought he still had time. After all, they still needed to kill someone to fulfill the triumvirate. But when Leland laughed, a dry cackle like crumbling driftwood, Cal realized that he had again made a fatal error.
The bastard was going to do it himself—Leland was going to act as the dead as, technically, he had died long ago at the hands of Sean Sommers.
“Give me the child, Carson. You hold one arm, and I’ll hold the other. Let’s open the gates, son. Let’s finish this.”
Carson nodded, and stepped around the gurney, cradling the crying child tightly in his arms.
Cal’s heart sunk. Even if he managed to get to Carson and somehow subdue him, that would still leave Shelly and himself as possible living components of the holy trinity.
“I’m too late,” he whispered, to which Leland responded with another grating laugh.
“Finally! After all these years,” Leland exclaimed as he reached up and grabbed the brim of his black hat between two talons. “After all—”
“I’ll take it from here, Cal,” a voice from behind him suddenly interrupted. “This is, after all, a family matter.”
Chapter 47
Robert ignored the shock on Cal’s face and after briefly surveying the scene, he confirmed his decision. He had come to the moment that Cal had pulled him into the roo
m, into Marrow 6, and while playing possum, he had weighed his options.
There was only one move that made sense to him, only one act that could save the world, at least for the time being.
Robert just hoped that Cal knew what to do after he had played his role, but given that his friend had brought him this far, he had little doubt.
It was Cal’s show now, and he was absolutely, unequivocally okay with that. For all his shortcomings, Cal was a good, honest man.
And the world would do well with him in charge of protecting the living from the dead.
“Robert! Robert, you’re… awake!” Cal exclaimed.
Robert nodded briskly and strode forward.
“Ah, son, I’m so glad that you’re here to see this. I’m so glad that we’re together again!”
Robert turned to Carson, who was gently tickling the baby’s blood and vernix covered chin.
“Welcome back, brother,” he said with a grin.
Leland yanked the hat off his head and threw it to the floor and Robert instinctively cringed.
Chloe Black’s face had been mangled, scarred, deformed, but it had at least been recognizably human. Leland on the other hand… the man’s face was one of pure blackness, like oil at night, broken only by thousands of tiny pointed teeth that ran the width of his demonic grin.
In the place of eyes were two glowing red pits.
The sight of the Goat’s face was so horrible, so evil, that Robert nearly reconsidered his decision.
But he didn’t.
It was his turn to make the ultimate sacrifice.
He lunged not at the baby as both Carson and Leland, and perhaps Cal, expected but at Leland himself.
For Leland was the dead third of the trinity, and if he could reach him, if Robert could just graze his dead flesh, they would both be sent back to the Marrow. Because despite what his father said, he meant something to the man, and should he just make contact they would be intrinsically bound, the way James Harlop had been bound to the wrought iron poker that he had used to brain his wife and Dr. Andrew Shaw had been bound to his notebook.
“No!” Leland roared, finally realizing what Robert was intending to do. But his understanding came too late.
I’m coming Amy! I’m coming!
Robert didn’t want to look at his baby, given that he had lost one already, but he couldn’t help it. As his body, launched like a projectile, passed his brother, he turned his head and laid his eyes on his child for the first and only time.
It was a girl, he realized. A beautiful, perfect baby girl.
I love you Shelly, he managed to think just before he made contact with Leland. Please, look after our child.
“No!” Leland roared again.
Yes, Robert thought as tears spilled from his eyes. Yes.
Arms outstretched, he grabbed his father.
Only he never touched him.
Just before they made contact, Robert felt something inside him break.
Chapter 48
Now, Helen! I need you now! Come forward! Take over Robert’s body now!
Chapter 49
Cal watched the scene unfold before him with morbid fascination.
It wasn’t him who had to make the ultimate sacrifice, her realized, but Robert. He knew that now, much like he knew that he was going to grab the baby from Carson even before the man dropped it.
And yet while he managed to catch the baby before it struck the gurney, the other part of the equation—Robert’s sacrifice—simply failed to materialize.
Cal heard Leland shout, but this quickly transitioned into a laugh.
Shelly grunted and delivered the placenta, and Cal, using the distraction to his advantage, stepped forward and with his free hand reached beneath the table. Her bindings were connected by a central tether, and with one yank, he managed to snap her free.
He looked over and saw that Leland was indeed hugging Robert, but when he caught sight of his friend’s eyes, they were completely back.
Helen, he thought miserably. Helen had come forth.
He had seen her do this once before, in the orphanage above. Robert couldn’t bind to Leland when Helen was in charge of his body, because she, like the Goat, was dead.
How long she could maintain her hold, however, Cal wasn’t sure. But he knew it wouldn’t be long.
With the baby cradled in one arm, he leaned over and reached behind Shelly’s head. In one swift motion, he managed to hoist her to a sitting position. Her eyes rolled forward, and she seemed to awaken.
“What’s happening?” she whispered.
Cal shifted her off the gurney and was surprised that despite the blood loss and having just delivered a child, that she was able to shuffle with him.
Her eyes fell on the wailing baby in Cal’s arm.
“Is that… is that my child?” she sobbed.
Cal nodded as he lowered her onto travois. Then he pressed the newborn against her bare chest.
The black fabric that made up the base of the travois was longer on one side, and he flipped it over Shelly and her baby. For a second, it covered her face, and he was reminded of Chloe and the cloak she used to wear.
Before running from the room, Cal turned back one final time to say goodbye to his friend.
Leland was still holding Robert, but now Carson had embraced them as well. Robert’s eyes started to lighten as Helen descended back into the depths of his mind. When they went completely clear, Cal heard Leland’s laughter again.
Then he turned and fled Marrow 6.
Robert, like the baby clasped in Shelly’s arms, was also a child of two guardians, and sandwiched between the Goat and Carson, the holy trinity was complete.
Cal was partway down the white hallway when everything was suddenly bathed in an impossibly bright light.
And then the gates to Hell opened.
Chapter 50
When the lights flickered, Director Ames turned his eyes skyward, his lips pressed together into a scowl.
They stabilized and he lowered his gaze to the man performing the operation.
Dr. Simon Transky stood with a scalpel poised over Landon Underhill’s exposed brain, a look of confusion on his face. He lowered the scalpel, but then pulled back before making contact. He repeated this action several times before shaking his head and stepping away from the operating table.
He placed the scalpel in the plastic kidney shaped disc and then pulled the mask from his face with a gloved hand.
“Ames? I see both enlarged anterior and posterior cingulate cortexes, and also—“
An eruption of light, as if a flashbang grenade had been tossed inside the operating room stunned Ames and he staggered. The only thing that prevented him from going down was the large oak desk to his right.
“Si! Si! Get down! They failed!” he shouted, gripping the sides of the desk as the ground beneath his feet began to quake. “They fucking failed!”
Epilogue
Amy Watts turned her eyes upward just as the sky above started to hiss and burn. She had seen this before, of course. She had seen it each and every time that her grandfather came to visit.
But it had been a while since Leland had taken her on the boat to the island and left her there. He promised that he would return, that he would come back for her, but she was beginning to have her doubts.
She liked her grandpa. Not as much as daddy—oh, how she missed daddy—but grandpa was nice to her. Which was why when the sky erupted into flames, instead of being scared as she normally was—the faces in the flames were frightening, what with them screaming all the time, screaming and yelling and changing—she was a tad excited.
Amy looked down and stroked the miniature turtle in her hand. The creature craned its neck and looked up at her and then it seemed to nod.
“Grandpa’s coming,” Amy said quietly.
The turtle blinked.
There was a crack, like dry lightning, and Amy turned her gaze skyward once more.
Her heart sunk.
Grandpa wasn’t coming.
No one was.
In fact, everyone was leaving.
There was a hole in the sky, a giant gaping chasm that started to swirl, rippling along the edges like the eye of a tornado.
And then the faces, the faces that scared Amy so much that she hadn’t slept in what seemed like forever, started to form in the fire, only to be swept up into the vortex and whisked away.
With a sigh, she turned her gaze back to the turtle in her palm. It was looking up at her with gold-rimmed eyes.
“No, he’s not coming,” Amy Watts said, fighting back tears. “No one’s coming for us. No one.”
END
Author’s Note
Robert tried.
Cal tried
Shelly most definitely tried. And in their own way, so did Chloe and Aiden.
This is not the end of the journey for The Haunted Series family, not in the least. But it is the end of this arc of the story.
In its essence, The Haunted Series is a journey of a man and his friends coming to terms with who they are, and the difficult decisions they have to make as they transition from being normal individuals into something more. It’s also about the idea of the self and what it means to be you and how important that is to your life.
Ah, shit, who am I kidding? It’s also about ghosts and demons and the devil and hell and all that good stuff. I’m not going to lie… it’s a whole lotta fun writing about Rob and his gang, about their often botched adventures.
I hope you’ve enjoyed these exploits, because I have. One year and six books later… it’s been an exciting ride. There’s plenty of more in this world to explore, including Ed and Allan’s adventures in the Marrow and, of course, the consequences of Robert’s actions at the end of the book.
Shores of the Marrow (The Haunted Book 6) Page 15