by Mark Lukens
He had the key in front of him now, right underneath his socked foot. He turned around on the post again and slid down to his butt. He picked up the key in his fingers that were becoming more and more numb by the second. He knew he didn’t have too many more chances until his fingers became useless stumps at the ends of his wrists.
He grasped the key in the fingers of his left hand and guided it slowly to the keyhole on the right cuff. He wanted to hurry, but he couldn’t drop this key again. This time he didn’t stand up. He sat down and stretched his legs out in front of him and leaned his back against the post. He took deep breaths and he tried not to think about Tara inside the house, or Lorie moaning from the other pole, crying that she couldn’t hold on anymore.
The only thing he concentrated on was getting that key into the right cuff.
He felt the key enter the hole and he twisted. For a split second he thought the cuff hadn’t opened, that it had somehow jammed. But then he could feel the blood rushing back into his right hand like a thousand ants dancing under his skin.
And he was free.
He pulled his arms out in front of him and he saw the deep red line around his right wrist. He shook his hand, trying to get the blood back into his fingers and he unlocked the other cuff and let the handcuffs fall to the floor. He stood up on shaky legs and shoved his feet back into his shoes, and then he hurried over to Lorie.
“Hold on, Lorie,” he told her. “I’m going to move the knives out from underneath Mike.”
Lorie nodded as tears flowed from her eyes. “Please … hurry …”
Woods sprinted across the garage and grabbed the edge of the thick square of wood. It was heavier than he expected, but the adrenaline was really kicking in now. He felt the blood and energy surging through his body now. He was going to save Lorie and Mike.
But what about Tara?
Was she still alive?
Could he get to her in time?
For a moment, Woods considered running to the house for Tara, but he couldn’t let Mike die. He couldn’t let Lorie watch her boyfriend plunge face-first down into the knife blades as she was hoisted up into the air from his body weight, swinging back and forth helplessly, screaming as she watched Mike bleed out, his neck snapped in half.
Mike was still unconscious; his face and neck were very red. Woods pulled the panel of wood far enough out of the way and it had let out a squeal as he moved it, a loud screech that filled the air.
Could Jeremy hear that from inside the house?
But he didn’t have time to think about that right now.
He rushed back to Mike and grabbed his shoulders, making sure he had a good hold on him. He looked over at Lorie. He was as ready as he was ever going to be. “Lorie,” he told her, “you have to let go of the pole now.”
Lorie hesitated.
“I’ve got Mike. I’m going to lower him down as soon as you let go. He’ll be okay, I promise. You’ll be okay.”
Again Lorie hesitated, but her arms and legs were loosening.
Loosening more and then …
… she flew back from the post, lifting up into the air as Mike’s body came crashing down onto Woods. He came down faster than Woods had expected, and he was heavier than he looked. But Woods saved Mike from crashing head-first down into the concrete.
Mike’s body was crumpled up on the floor, and Lorie was hanging in the air from her waist. The lengths of rope cut into her waist, choking off her breathing. She clawed at the ropes around her mid-section, but they were too tight.
Woods pulled Mike’s legs down more, hoisting Lorie up a few more feet. He could hear her gurgling, struggling for breath.
Woods’ fingers were tingling terribly now, but at least he had more control of them. He worked the knots loose from Mike’s ankles and almost let the rope slip through his hands as it came loose from Mike. But he caught it in time, holding Lorie there, and then he lowered her to the ground.
He glanced at the open garage door. He wanted to bolt to the house. But he had to get the rope off of Lorie’s waist. It had tightened so quickly and so much that it was cutting into her shirt, folded into her skin.
But she was breathing easier now.
“After I get this untied,” he told her, “I want you to get my phone. Put the battery back in and call the police.”
3.
Tara squeezed the plastic bottle and the clear liquid shot across the table and drenched Jeremy as he held Woods’ gun aimed at her.
“I’m too powerful for holy water,” Jeremy told her. “I’m way past that now. I’m too powerful for your gods and talismans.”
But Tara wasn’t listening. She made sure she squeezed out as much of the liquid as she could from the bottle.
Jeremy smiled in triumph. “And once my transformation is complete, I’ll be a god, a demon, a …”
Jeremy stopped like something terrible had just occurred to him. He sniffed at the air.
“It’s not holy water,” Tara told him. “I had Woods buy two squeeze-bottles, and he switched them. This one has lighter fluid in it.”
Jeremy’s eyes grew wide and he shook his head no in disbelief.
“This is all wrong,” he whispered.
He aimed the gun at her and squeezed the trigger.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
1.
Detective Perry sped north towards Trinity. He had his lights on and a siren wailing, but cars and trucks were slow to get out of his way.
Jackson called and told him that a squad car was being sent out to check on Mike’s house, and that a Sheriff would also be on his way out, too. Perry asked Jackson to get more police out there, whatever he had to tell them, even if it was a lie.
There wasn’t much time, and Perry felt that he was going to be too late.
2.
Aunt Katie was in a room off of the living room, it was going to be Mike’s office eventually but it wasn’t quite fully furnished yet because he’d only been moved in for a week now. But there was a computer desk with a laptop on it and an office chair on wheels.
Katie stood on top of the office chair, her hands tied behind her back and a noose tied tightly around her neck, almost cutting off her breathing, but not quite. The rope went from the noose around her neck up to the ceiling where Jeremy had pulled the drywall away to reveal a joist where he had tied the rope. She had to stand very still on the office chair because it not only rolled on wheels, but it also swiveled very easily. One slight turn and she would lose her balance and the chair would roll away from her and she would hang from this ceiling until she died.
Jeremy had stuffed a rag down into her mouth and pasted strips of duct tape over her mouth. The gag was making it even harder for her to breathe along with the noose around her neck, but she held on, and she tried to keep herself calm.
But then she wondered what Jeremy would do to her. Would he skin her alive, cut her up in small pieces, roast parts of her body with a blow torch? Maybe strangling to death would be better. Maybe she should just move the chair a little. It would be quick.
It would be better.
3.
Jeremy squeezed the trigger of Woods’ gun again.
And again.
Click.
Click.
Tara smiled at him. “I had Woods take the bullets out.”
The horror on Jeremy’s face thrilled Tara. He stood there for a moment in utter shock. For once he was a step behind.
“You didn’t see that, did you?” she said.
But Tara couldn’t waste another second.
She leaned back in her chair and kicked the edge of the table as hard as she could with both feet, using all of the strength and skill she’d learned in the karate classes through the years.
The table slammed into Jeremy’s thighs and knocked him backwards into the corner where the flames from the candles caught his robe on fire, the fabric went up with a whoosh of flame.
“You want to be a demon so bad?!” Tara screamed at him. “Here’s you
r first taste of Hell!”
Jeremy tried to pat out the flames, but in seconds he was engulfed by the fire – a human inferno. He slammed into the walls, trying to run, trying to get away from the fire, but he only crumpled to the floor screaming over and over again.
Like his victims had screamed, Tara thought.
4.
Woods ran from the garage to the house. He bounded up the stairs to the wraparound porch and ran down to a sliding glass door. He saw the fire inside. He saw someone burning on the floor. Part of the wall was on fire. He tried the sliding glass door, but it was locked. He beat on the glass.
And then he saw Tara.
Woods hurried around the deck to the open door and rushed through the kitchen. He heard Jeremy screaming from the dining room.
“I have to find my aunt,” Tara told him. “She’s in here somewhere!”
“I’ll check upstairs,” Woods told her. “You check the other rooms down here.”
5.
Katie had been about to step off the chair, but at the last second she heard voices from somewhere else in the house. And one of them sounded like Tara. Hope sprung in her chest and she tried to be as still as possible, but her legs were shaking so badly now.
She heard Tara shouting at someone – at Jeremy?
Oh God, please …
And then she heard screaming, but it didn’t sound like a woman’s scream, it sounded like a man’s scream.
She dared to hope.
And then she began screaming into her gag as loudly as she could.
6.
Tara was in the living room when she heard the moaning coming from the next room. Even over the sound of flames and Jeremy’s dying screams, she’d heard the moan.
And she felt that her aunt was very near.
The next room.
Tara bolted across the barely furnished living room to a closed door. She burst through the door and froze for a split second. She saw her aunt standing on top of a wheeled office chair on a wood floor, her hands tied behind her back, tape over her mouth, her eyes wide and red with fear. A rope was strung from her neck and tied to the rafters through the hole in the ceiling.
“Hold on,” Tara said. She grabbed her aunt’s legs, trying to keep her still, trying to keep the chair from moving, but she couldn’t hold on to her and get the rope off of her neck and wrists at the same time. Her aunt’s legs were shaking too badly and she was afraid to let them go. Tara looked up at her aunt who stared down at her and she saw the relief in her eyes.
“It’s okay,” Tara said, not even realizing she was crying. “I got him. I got Jeremy for what he did to my parents. For what he did to your sister.”
Katie nodded and tears slipped from her eyes.
“Woods!!” Tara shouted. She needed Woods’ help – she couldn’t do this without him.
7.
Lorie untied the ropes from Mike’s wrists and ankles. She pulled the tape off of his mouth and tried to wake him up. His face had been so red, almost purple, and his breathing was ragged.
But he seemed to be coming back to consciousness now. He opened his eyes and stared up at her like he was confused for a moment.
“Mike,” she said. “Can you stand up? We have to get out of here.”
She glanced at the open door of the garage, and then around the garage, looking for a place to hide. But she couldn’t drag Mike with her. He was too big and her body ached too badly from holding on to the post for so long.
If that monster came back …
But Woods said he was going to kill him. And she prayed he would.
And then her heart jumped and her eyes darted towards the open garage door again. She heard a sound in the distance … a car pulling up.
“You wait right here,” she told Mike and she was on her feet and running towards the open garage door with more strength and speed than she thought she had, her muscles functioning on the last of her adrenaline now. She got to the edge of the door and peeked out and what she saw almost made her cry out with joy.
A police car.
Lorie rushed out of the garage to the car as the officer got out.
“There’s a killer in the house!” she screamed at the cop. “He’s trying to kill us!”
The officer didn’t even try to calm her down or show any disbelief, he pushed a button on his shoulder mic and called for backup.
“Where is he?” the cop yelled at Lorie after he called it in.
Lorie looked towards the house and she saw the smoke coming from the other side, black smoke spiraling up towards the blue sky. “Oh God, what has he done?”
“You wait right here, ma’am,” the older officer told Lorie as he pulled out his gun. “Paramedics and backup are on the way.”
8.
Woods rushed into the office. He began untying Aunt Katie’s hands while Tara held on to her legs.
“Hurry,” she whispered.
Woods reached up for the noose around Katie’s neck, but he couldn’t quite get enough leverage to loosen the knot. He could go back into the burning dining room and get a chair, but he didn’t think he had time for that. Smoke had filled the dining room, and now it was filling up the living room, and drifting into the office.
“Hold this chair as steady as you can,” Woods told Tara. “Try to find something to block the wheels with.”
Woods climbed up on the chair beside Aunt Katie, very close to her body, both of their feet on the seat of the chair. The chair wanted to spin, but Tara held on to it, with her feet lodged in front of the wheels on the chair. Her muscles ached from the position she was in, but there was no way she was letting go.
Woods grabbed the knot on the rope at the back of Katie’s neck, the noose was tight, and he had to get his sore fingers dug into the knot and pull, but he also had to move as slowly as possible and not make any sudden movements. If the chair moved, he wasn’t going to be able to hold her up. He tried to reach up to the rafter, but it was too high above him. He wished he had something to cut the rope with.
He finally got the noose loosened and he pulled it up over Katie’s head. She ripped the tape off her mouth and pulled out the saliva-soaked rag.
And then they all heard a voice.
“Hold it right there!”
9.
Woods and Katie were still standing on the chair together, with Tara on the floor beside them, hugging on to her aunt’s legs. They all turned as one to the doorway and saw the older police officer standing there with his gun aimed right at them.
“What the hell are you doing!?” the officer yelled at them.
“Wait a minute,” Woods said in a slow and even tone, trying to keep the police officer calm. “I’m not the killer.”
“You two get down off that chair very slowly.”
“I’ll go first,” Woods told Tara. “Hold on to her.”
Woods got down off the chair as Tara held on to her aunt’s legs which were shaking even worse now.
“Just take it easy,” Woods said. “We’re not the bad guy. He’s in the dining room.”
“That guy who’s burnt to death is the killer?” the officer smirked, and it didn’t seem like he was convinced.
Tara was about to tell the police officer that Woods was telling the truth when Jeremy materialized out of the smoke – he tackled the older police officer, knocking him to the ground, knocking the gun out of his hand.
Jeremy was burnt, much of his skin black and smoking. His eyes were wild, like he couldn’t even feel the pain, like he’d moved beyond the pain and the only thing he felt now was rage. He pounded his fists down into the police officer’s face and knocked him out. And then he went for the gun on the floor.
Woods bolted from the chair out into the living room, knocking Katie backwards off the chair. She let out a small scream, trying to keep her balance as best she could.
Tara managed to break her aunt’s fall and then she spun around on the floor and watched as Jeremy grabbed the gun from the floor with his burnt hands,
he stuck a blackened finger through the trigger guard. He turned towards Woods.
Woods slammed into Jeremy like a linebacker sacking a quarterback. They both fell down onto the floor, Jeremy’s body making a sickening crunching sound.
The gun went flying.
Even though Jeremy seemed supernaturally strong with rage, Woods was just as possessed. He squirmed around and was on top of Jeremy in a second, straddling his torso with his legs.
Woods punched Jeremy in the face.
He punched him again and again.
Jeremy raised his hands, trying to protect himself from the flurry of punches pounding his face, but there were too many.
“Your brother,” Jeremy said so low that only Woods heard it.
Woods stopped punching the monster, and he stared down at Jeremy’s burnt face as he heaved with quick breaths.
“What did you say?” Woods growled.
“Your brother screamed and screamed when I killed him. He begged for his life. He cried like a little baby.”
Woods hit Jeremy again. And again.
“Woods!” Tara yelled. She was already on her feet, standing in the doorway. The room was filling up with smoke from the fire in the dining room. They needed to grab the police officer and get out of here.
Jeremy lay on the wood floor underneath of Woods who still had him pinned down with his knees like an MMA fighter. Jeremy was only seconds away from passing out.
Woods looked at Tara with tears in his eyes.
“It’s enough,” Tara said. “It’s over. We have to get my aunt and that cop out of here.”
Woods nodded.
Aunt Katie bolted out of the office past Tara and ran to the kitchen.
“Where are you going?!” Tara shouted at her.
Aunt Katie didn’t have time to answer. She searched the cabinets in the kitchen until she found what she was looking for underneath the sink – a fire extinguisher.