There were also theories of a man that had been stabbed in the parking lot of the carnival, and then ran over also being the victim of Johnny, but there wasn't enough evidence of that supposition either.
They did speak of the tragedy of Drew and Jenny, which Jake kept silent about. There was also mention of Kara, and how she was in counseling for the trauma and rape she had been victim to at the hands of Johnny. Things weren't going well for her recovery, but there was still hope. She was lucky she survived that night at all, nearly dying of alcohol poisoning that resulted in a stomach pumping and a lot of hard work on both the EMT personnel as well as the hospital staff.
"Once again the demon covered his tracks perfectly," Frank thought to himself.
Frank thanked them for coming to visit him, as Steve and Sarah climbed back into the SUV; mentioning he was going to go take a nap. Lloyd and Frank shared a glance that was all that was needed for the coming storm, and then the small dog curled up in the back seat of the SUV, closing his eyes with a sigh. Jake wheeled Frank back to his room.
"Anything else I can do before I take off?" Jake asked.
"I'm ready for a nap, so if you could help me into my bed, I'd appreciate it."
"No problem."
Jake was fully aware of Frank's damaged leg, and was quite cautious as he sat him down.
"There ya be," Jake said, sitting Frank down.
Frank held onto the young man for a moment. "You make sure you take care of your girls."
"Of course," Jake replied, slightly confused.
"Lloyd can help you more than you could ever imagine."
"Okay," Jake said, guessing Frank was in some serious need of shut eye. "I'll see you soon."
"Goodbye, Jake," Frank replied, already drifting off to sleep.
Jake nodded his head, leaving the room in silence, wanting to get the hell out of this death house as quick as possible. To get back to the bike, he had to leave the same way he had come, which meant he might have to cross paths with Drew's demented grandmother, which was the last thing he wanted. Luckily for him, the hallway was empty as he made a beeline to the exit. In a nearby room, there seemed to be an emergency that some nurses were working on to revive a patient that could quite likely be Drew's grandma by the close proximity of where she had been previously. Jake didn't make the effort to look in the room, he just got the hell out of there, it's not like he could make a difference either way, at least that's what he told himself.
Frank drifted off into sleep, knowing full well the demon was waiting for him.
Frank opened his eyes, knowing he was in dreamland. The fiend sat on the chair next to his bed.
"Are you going to try and delay the inevitable yet again, or can we finally finish this?" The monster had changed his form to the truck driver with the farm implementation ball cap for some unknown reason.
"No, you're right, this needs to end right here and now," Frank replied.
"Are you sure? You're not going to try and blink out at the last minute again because you don't have that little rat dog of yours to back you up. Without him, you don't have a chance against me."
"That's a somewhat bold statement," Frank replied, pulling back the sheets, getting ready to get up. "I've always been able to hold my own in a fight. Take a look at what I did to your boy, Jack."
"There is a big difference between that washed up soldier and a hound of hell like me, old man."
"That's true," Frank replied. "But I've got to say I'm surprised you don't know the rules better than this, after all, you've been doing this a lot longer than me."
"What are you talking about?"
The fiend's question was answered by the clicking of nails on the linoleum behind him. Turning back, the demon saw Lloyd walking into the room.
"What the hell?" the monster asked.
"Just because we're sleeping in different places, doesn't mean he can't show up for the fight," Frank explained.
"No fucking way!" the monster growled as his claws and fangs started to show.
Lloyd replied by showing his own teeth and going full speed at the monster.
The demon's growl came from the very bowels of hell as it moved toward Lloyd, fully intending to rip the dog to shreds, completely forgetting about Frank, who hit the monster from behind like a linebacker, sprawling them both to the floor.
Lloyd's teeth snapped at the monster's face as it sliced at the dog with its claws, forcing him to back up. Frank drew back his fist and slammed it into the demon's jaw, breaking off one of its incisors.
The creature replied by kicking Frank back across the room with its supernatural strength. The monster flew toward him as he crashed into the wall, the air knocked out of him.
The beast's mouth was open wide, its claws coming towards Franks face as it flew towards him. For a moment, Frank thought it was the end until he saw Lloyd also flying through the air, clamping his jaws down on the side of the demon's throat right before it reached Frank.
The fiend's claws quickly reversed back towards Lloyd, trying to rip the dog loose of its throat.
Frank brought both of his fists forward into the demon's face, trying to stop it from ripping Lloyd apart.
The monster slashed out at Frank's face with one of its clawed hands, slashing Frank's face and neck, knocking him to the floor.
Frank's vision blurred as he crumpled to the floor, pain burning across his face as his lungs still tried to draw in oxygen. From the looks of the fight between beast and dog it appeared that either the demon was going to rip Lloyd loose from its neck and kill him or they were going to die together as they ripped each other's jugulars out.
Lloyd couldn't die. He had to live to protect the child. Frank found the strength to raise up off the floor, grab the IV pole, raising it up and slamming it into the demon's skull like a baseball bat.
The demon lost grip of Lloyd as the back of its skull was caved in, which allowed Lloyd to rip the fiends throat completely out.
Frank used the IV pole as a cane, leaning down to the dying fiend.
"Your last chance to finish me off, and you botched it."
The demon looked up at Frank, Lloyd hovering over him like a hungry wolf. "Don't matter," it somehow rasped through its mangled throat. "This fight has caused you to have a stroke that will end your life. You are out of this fight regardless, which was the primary goal."
Frank nodded his head, feeling his life fading out, like a dimmer switch slowly being turned down.
"You know," Frank spoke through dry lips. "If you would have just let me be, instead of killing off my family, I never would have got back in the fight."
The fiend glared at him, saying nothing.
"Your job would have been so much easier without us involved, don't you think?" Frank smiled. "Without Lloyd and I involved in this little ruckus, this would have been an easy slam dunk for you. That's got to chew at you."
The demon coughed up dark blood. "Don't matter, you'll be gone now, and the baby will be easy pickings without you around to protect her."
"True," Frank agreed with a nod. "But Lloyd will be here, and he was always the one you were really scared of."
Frank reached over, rubbing Lloyd's ear. Lloyd returned a quick lick to his hand, still keeping an eye on the demon. Frank's vision went into black, as the stroke killed him.
Epilogue
"This has to be the last funeral," Sarah thought to herself, watching Frank's coffin slowly being lowered into the ground. "This town has hit its death quota for the rest of the year in just the last month."
She dabbed at tears for Frank, her mother, her friends and herself as well.
"Stupid girl," she scolded herself, touching her stomach. "Stupid girl that has ruined her future. Might as well stop filling out college applications and just go get a job at Joe's Cup. What's the point of even finishing high school now?"
She felt a hand rubbing her back, she turned, seeing that it was Jake, genuine concern seemed to be in his eyes.
Tu
rning away, she barely concealed a sigh of annoyance. In all honesty, Jake had stepped up to the plate to the best of his limited ability. He had a part time job working at the grocery store, had been going to school regularly and had even pulled his grade point average up to a C plus, right on the edge of a B. He was respectful to her dad to the point of servitude and was constantly thanking him for letting him stay in their home, always asking him if there was anything that needed fixed or worked on around the house.
"I'll be honest with you honey," her dad had said to her one night when Jake was at work. "I knew that boy was going to drive me nuts living here, but I was completely wrong on how he was going to make me crazy."
"How's that," she had asked, still uncomfortable with Jake's new residency in their home as well at that time.
"I thought he would just be sitting on his ass all day, doing nothing, but watching TV and thinking he can smoke in my house. Instead he is constantly thanking me and asking what he could do to earn his keep here."
"That's a bad thing?"
"Of course not, but I'm running out of ideas. The next thing you know, he's going to ask me if I want a foot massage."
She had replied with a fake, almost forced laugh, cause even though it should have been funny, it wasn't. Nothing was anymore.
She wasn't uncomfortable about Jake living at the house anymore, now she was just annoyed. Even though he was doing everything he could to make things work, all she saw was the cause of everything that went wrong. It seemed like he was able to completely destroy her future in a blink of an eye. A part of her knew it wasn't right to blame him for everything, but she just couldn't get it out of her head. It's all she seemed to dream about at night. She kept trying to climb out of a sewer manhole, but Jake kept pulling her back down. She would look down at him, screaming to let her go, and there he would be, only now he was some strange green slime monster, clinging to her like a parasite.
"Stay," he would demand, as his face slowly oozed away to sludge. "This is where you belong now."
Most of the dreams weren't that bad, but occasionally she would have that one, forcing her awake, wrecking the rest of the night for her as anxiety crawled over her heart like a swarm of spiders.
She forced herself to just breath. Things were tough right now, but she'd get through it. She was going to graduate and go to college. She was going to show this baby that there is nothing that can't be accomplished, if you set your mind to it.
She looked back at Jake, giving him a fake smile. She had her mind set on being a good mom, but as much as she tried to give Jake a chance, every day she wanted him gone more and more, whether it was right or not. He was bad news, and it was only a matter of time before this facade he was carrying on would eventually crumble.
The demon watched Sarah from a distant tombstone, leaning on it. "We'll, we're half way there," it said to itself. "Once Jake is completely out of the picture I can focus on her doubts at motherhood."
The slime dream had worked wonders on her already troubled feelings with Jake. The damn dog was in the house with them as well, and it was limiting his access to Sarah's dreams, but nowhere as well as when Frank was around. From what the demon could discern, Frank seemed to be the one with the skill of finding the path to get in the demon's way into the dreams of others, while the dog was the warrior that made it so hard to get by. Without Frank, Lloyd was having a hell of a time finding him before he slipped past into dreamland. At best, Lloyd was catching him half the time.
"Just like the old days, when Franky was solo," the monster said. "Separately, you two just ain't much concern."
The demon let out a big stretch. "Now this is going to be like taking candy from a baby." He chuckled, looking at Sarah's stomach. "Only I'll be taking a whole lot more than just candy."
The Damned Summer (The Ruin Trilogy) Page 24