Phantom Eyes

by Scott Tracey

  “Oh, but I am not the threat you should be worried about,” Grace said with a small smile. “I am merely the distraction.”

  “Wha—” But my body was suddenly so heavy, and I felt like I was going to sink straight through the stone floor and plummet down into the earth.

  Grace’s parting shot was dragged out and slowed down until it was deep and demonic. “Give your new master my regards.”

  two

  I didn’t wake up in my bed. Or even in my house. I woke up in the next best thing to a haunted forest.

  Jason’s house was tucked away from the city, and on one side it bordered the massive forest that took up most of the Belle Dam peninsula. The woods behind the house had been my refuge since moving here. I could disappear into them as easily as a whisper and pretend for a while that my life was okay.

  Until now. Because I wasn’t in the middle of the woods. I was already in motion. Running like something was coming for me. “I’m no one’s puppet,” I’d screamed at Grace.

  Now I understood that creepy smirk of hers. My body moved on its own, and I had no control over my movements. Someone else was in charge, with a remote control that charted my course. I couldn’t even move my arms the way I wanted. I was a passenger in my own head. No wonder Grace had laughed at me. Not only was I a puppet, but I didn’t even know who pulled my strings.

  My feet never strayed from the path, the route I was taking was one I’d walked a few dozen times before, but all those times it had been my choice. It was the same path I’d used to run with Drew all the time, which led all the way to the coastline. There was a clearing about a quarter mile from here, an outcropping of rocks that overlooked the bay.

  Something surged through the branches above my head, shaking loose dead leaves that had managed to cling to their branches. An owl’s hoot a moment later emphasized just how quiet the woods were around me. There were no other sounds of wildlife—typically, the forest was a beautiful chaos of noise, but the only sounds were waves in the distance and my own steady heartbeat.

  I was barely breathing hard by the time I reached the clearing, even though it was more than half a mile. I could barely keep pace with Drew when we went running.

  My hearing returned, or at least it became noticeable again. The sound of water crashing against the rocks down below. Seagulls in the distance. But behind me, the forest was still silent. So my senses hadn’t been completely dull. But that didn’t explain where all the animals had gone or why they’d all gone so deathly silent. Forests don’t normally clear out like that unless there was a predator. Of course.

  “Long time no see, boy wonder,” a voice called out from the woods to my left. I turned, expecting any one of the adults who had my death penciled in on their to-do lists. But it wasn’t an adult. It was someone my age.

  I hadn’t seen Ben since that night at the hospital when he’d disappeared with a tissue full of my blood. He’d always been a little weird, bloodplay notwithstanding, but in hindsight I realized that this was a far cry from a little weird.

  He was still dressed like he was on his way to a future business leaders of America meeting, although maybe future sociopaths was more accurate. His dark hair was still carefully disheveled, his suit just rumpled enough to have been on purpose. But his face was leaner, his hair a little longer than the last time I’d seen him. And I couldn’t say for sure, but I was pretty sure his shoulders had never been that wide the last time I’d seen him.

  Jesus, three days ago. It looked like he’d aged a year or two since then.

  He looked towards me like he was waiting on a response, but I decided to wait him out. It was second nature for me to fire back at him with some remark about clandestine hookups under the stars, but I didn’t trust my tongue. And I didn’t want to even joke about the idea of hooking up with some sort of creepy stalker.

  With everyone else in Belle Dam, their allegiances were clear. Or at least it was clear that their allegiances could change at a moment’s notice. But Ben was different. He was an unknown. But he’d made it clear that his appearance in my life wasn’t an accident.

  “Nothing to say?” His smirk widened, even as his disappointment started to show. “I guess I shouldn’t be so anxious, huh?” He held up a hand, almost as though he was struck by a sudden wave of self-consciousness. “Sweaty palms.”

  This was … really not what I was expecting. “Is this the part where I beg for my life?” I asked, because I was honestly curious. Dragging me out into the middle of the woods didn’t seem like it was going to end with a tea party.

  “No,” he replied slowly, “this is the part with the screams.” Ben made a motion with his hand, the one not clutching my blood, a simple little crook of the finger.

  The ring finger on my right hand snapped, the bone breaking in a fluid, invisible, motion. The sound of it was drowned out by my scream, but the feel of it raced through my body, heat and shivers as each bone sympathized. My hand was on fire, and this wasn’t like with the visions where the pain was all in my head. This was real. I recoiled, stumbling to keep my balance, my hand cradled against my chest. With each wave of pain the fire dulled, but I’d managed to stay upright. That was the important part.

  Ben was a witch. That was the only thing that could make sense. My head throbbed and a cold sweat had broken out all over my body. “What do you want?” I asked, finally holding in my screams.

  “Isn’t it obvious, Mr. Bond?” he quoted with one of the most truly awful British accents I’d ever heard. “I want you to die.”

  I lunged at him then. I might not have size or strength on my side, but I was still wiry and quick. Maybe if I could knock him off his feet, he’d let go of the things that were letting him control me. Ben stood still, waiting in amusement only to vanish the moment I should have connected with his chest. I stumbled across the clearing, falling once, and then rolling back up onto my feet in a move that was more accident than intention.

  “Don’t you get it?” he demanded, reappearing a few feet away. “You can’t touch me unless I want you to. You can’t hurt me. And you certainly can’t stop me. I can take my time killing you, and there’s nothing you can do.”

  “Nastier things than you have tried and failed,” I said. “Not that it matters. You think Jason won’t tear this town apart coming after you? Do you really want that hanging over your head?”

  Ben threw back his head and laughed. With an absent wave, my feet tumbled out from underneath me and I went down hard. My teeth bit into my lower lip, and I got a mouthful of dirt for my trouble. Ben’s laugh rang in my head the entire time.

  Whatever he’s doing, he’s got total control over me. I should be afraid. The only smart reaction right now would be to be afraid. But my mind was clear. Adrenaline kept me focused and sharp. I eyed the distance to the cliff. Maybe if I could distract him, I could leap off the side. I didn’t know if I could survive a fall like that into the water. Probably. Maybe. I didn’t even know how deep the water was or if there were rocks. But between a rock and a crazy place … I’d take the jump every time.

  “Oh, that was good,” he said, wiping at the corners of his eyes with the end of his sleeve. “Really? What’s Jason going to do? Kill me?” Ben sneered. “That didn’t work out so well the first time.”

  “What?”

  He shook his head to the side, trying to shift the fringe out of his eyes. “Stay down,” he said.

  “Screw that.” I braced myself with my good hand and tried to stand.

  As casually as if he was checking the time on his watch, Ben jerked his wrist to the side—and this time I did crumple to my knees as I howled. My entire left hand seized up, and my wrist felt like it’d been mangled by some kind of wild animal. The way the pain lanced through me it was like my entire arm had been shattered. There was nothing but fire and red haze and the sound of my screaming. As the initial shock started to fade, I realized that the pain was only in my wrist, shooting up through my arm. I couldn’t even feel my hand anymo
re.

  This was how it was going to happen. This was how I would die.

  Ben swept down in front of me, dark hair falling into his face. “Why shouldn’t I take his son away from him? Kill Jason, and his suffering ends. But kill you, torture you, and that’s the thing he curls up against at night and wakes up with each morning.”

  “You don’t have to do this,” I gasped.

  “Oh, of course I do.” Ben’s voice dripped with contempt. “Gods know how long I had to wait. But then she appeared like an avenging angel. All I had to do was watch the town and interfere when she told me to. Pruning the feud like it was some kind of bonsai.” He snorted. “Like I care about any of that. Hannah didn’t care. That little psychopath loved it. She just wanted to fuck people up.”

  Hannah. The ghost girl who had pushed me in front of a bus. Ben was a ghost? But that wasn’t possible. I’d touched him. He’d touched me. Hadn’t he?

  “Oh, yeah, little boy blue’s trying to put all the pieces together?” Ben crossed the path to where I lay on the ground. “It’s not like the stories. I’m not bound to haunt the scene of my greatest remorse, dressed all in white.” He sat down on the dirt next to me, resting his arms on his knees like we were just a couple of friends hanging out in the woods. “Lucky for you.”

  “Let me guess. You haunt the girl’s locker room like the weirdo perv you are?” I said. “Classy.”

  Half of Ben’s mouth quirked upwards, and he reached over as casual as anything and tapped one finger against my abdomen. I screamed again, spasming away from him. I don’t know if he’d followed up on his threat and broken my ribs, or if it was just pain, but the entire left half of my torso was an electrified minefield of radiating pain. Every time I shifted, every time I even breathed, it was like tripping the sensations all over again.

  “It doesn’t have to be bones, I can break anything. Make it fester, burn, decay. As far as I can take my imagination.” He leaned in, and despite being a ghost, I could smell a sharp tang of sweat. “And I’ve had a lot of years to decide exactly what I’d do.”

  “Oh dear, this isn’t the yellow brick road,” a new voice called out.

  three

  Matthias emerged from the wooded path in his perfectly groomed three-piece suit, all black as usual. There wasn’t even a hint of dirt on his shoes. Another benefit of being one of the few real demons roaming around Belle Dam. “There’s a thought,” he gasped, as though struck by sudden inspiration. “You should ask the wizard to pull that stick out of your—”

  “Stay out of it,” Ben snapped, holding up the bloody napkins. “And stay where you are. I’m finishing this tonight. You can’t stop me. You wouldn’t dare.”

  “I’m afraid you’re going to be as disappointed as your date was on prom night.”

  I squinted at Matthias through the reddish haze, trying to figure out if he was just another hallucination. The demon sauntered forward, one measured step after another. Like he had all the time in the world and I wasn’t a broken mess on the ground.

  “Are you kidding me?” Ben looked down at me. “You just got rid of one demonic godmother and now you’ve got another one lining up to take his place? Haven’t you learned anything?”

  “I’d say the boy’s learned a touch more than you,” Matthias responded easily. “Then again, you were never the brightest star in the sky, were you? The rebel with the secret insecurities. Such a forgettable cliché.”

  “That reminds me,” Ben continued, his attention returning to the demon. “I’m pretty sure I told you not to move.” He flexed his fingers and made a sharp twisting motion.

  My ankle snapped, but this time I bit down on my wrist. If he wanted my screams—if hearing me suffer was part of what was getting him off—I wouldn’t let him have it. Breathing became more difficult, something in my chest stealing the air out of my lungs. But I bit my teeth into my uninjured wrist, adding a thimble full of pain to the flood that was already coursing through my body.

  It took minutes for the pain to recede enough to pull my mouth away from my hand. Minutes that Ben was more than happy to wait. I muttered under my breath.

  “What’s that?” he asked brightly, leaning closer.

  “I said no wonder Jason killed you,” I repeated, my voice hoarse. “But it must run in the family.”

  Matthias kept walking forward, slow and even. “What’s that, now?”

  “Killing people that don’t stay dead,” I said.

  Well, it made the demon laugh, at least. I noticed something from my position on the ground. Matthias approached … and Ben backed away from me. Not noticeably at first, but the closer Matthias got to his space, the further back Ben shifted. Until he wasn’t close to me at all.

  “You know him?” I finally asked, when Matthias came to stand over me instead of the crazy guy.

  “Knew him,” he corrected gently. “Though I should point out that when I knew him before he wasn’t such a … how can I put this delicately?”

  “Troll-faced psychopath?” I suggested weakly, then gasped as the pressure inside my stomach intensified.

  “I think deviated little shit-stain covers it better,” Matthias offered.

  I inhaled, and inhaled again, but couldn’t get enough breath into my lungs. The squeezing sensation increased, and it felt like hours before even the slightest bit of air seemed to reach my lungs. My body was screaming for oxygen, and despite my best efforts, I couldn’t seem to get any in.

  “Oh, stop that,” Matthias said over me. “The boy’s no part of this. Your quarrel is with Jason.”

  “My quarrel is with Jason’s son,” Ben snarled. “And since he was sweet enough to provide his blood on a silver platter, I couldn’t help myself. It’s almost like he was begging for it. The powers were a problem, of course, but he was kind enough to get rid of those for me, wasn’t he? And then all that blood on his face. Blood is always potent, but that night it was especially so. But you didn’t tell him, did you? Didn’t warn him or anything. So why are you here now, Matthias? This is between Braden and I.”

  “Braden and me,” the demon corrected. “But actually, this is between you and Jason. Though even that isn’t quite right. You know who was ultimately responsible, weren’t you? The man behind the curtain. He pulled Catherine’s strings just as easily as she pulled Jason’s. And she got you out of the way without even lifting a hand to help.”

  “And I’m not stupid enough to go after either of them,” Ben said, vaulting to his feet. “But I can take out the town pariah no problem. Maybe I’ll even follow it up with the Lansing golden boy. Put a nice dent in this feud of yours.”

  “Oh, it’s not my feud,” Matthias demurred, ducking his head down as if he was too embarrassed to take the compliment. Though how the feud was a compliment, I would never understand. “But as I’ve said, I’m afraid you’re going to walk away disappointed today. You’re operating under the assumption that the boy is no longer on the board. But I’m afraid he’s still very much in play.” He turned back to the path expectantly, like reinforcements would be arriving any moment.

  There was a hushed moment where our eyes followed the demon’s, waiting to see who next would be joining this insane menagerie.

  But the joke was on us, because the woods were silent. Help, or whatever it was that Matthias had been expecting, wasn’t coming. “Where is that thrice-damned girl when you need her?” Matthias snarled, looking upwards. “Always right where she’s not wanted, but then the moment she’s supposed to be somewhere, she’s distracted.”

  “Girl?” Ben asked, almost like he couldn’t help himself.

  “Unimportant,” the demon responded crossly, waving it off. “I’ll have to take care of this myself.”

  Matthias extended a hand, and shadows swirled against his fingertips. At his feet, a pool of black began to ink up, seeping up from the ground as though there was always a well of demonic oil lurking under the surface of the world. He whispered a word, although his mouth didn’t move, and anothe
r voice—an inhuman growl of a voice—repeated the same word, which sounded somehow much more proper in a guttural tongue.

  The creature that dug itself out of the darkness was as much like a hellhound as a Doberman is to a German shepherd. For one thing, where the hellhounds had fur that was more like spines, this creature looked hairless, cast in shades of ashes and soot. It was almost skeletal, bones protruding visibly at the top of the spine and near the tail. Its eyes were a solid, murky cataract gray. As soon as its feet were underneath it, the helldog’s muzzle turned sharply towards Ben.

  “Another hellhound?” he scoffed. “You should know better than that, demon. You can’t hurt me. No one can.”

  Matthias held up a finger, his face schooled into impassiveness. “Barghest.”

  Ben shook his head. “Bar guest? The hell is that?”

  “Barghest,” Matthias repeated. “Not my particularly favorite breed, but surprisingly useful under the right circumstances.” He held up a second finger. “Would you like to know what those circumstances are?”

  All it took was a single click of Matthias’s tongue and the barghest sprang forward, snarling. Ben didn’t flinch—and why should he? He was only as corporeal as he wanted to be, which meant he couldn’t be hurt.

  At least that’s what I thought until the barghest slammed into Ben’s chest, jaws snapping for his neck as the pair tumbled to the ground. From where I was, I had a perfect view of the look of shock in Ben’s eyes, the white-eyed panic as he tried to scramble out from underneath the devil dog.

  “They’re an accident, of course. Hellhounds are remarkably resilient creatures—I’m rather proud of them—but even they can be put down. But if the hound is pregnant, the litter refuses to die. They’ll continue feeding off the mother, growing stronger through her death until the body finally is sucked dry of anything nourishing. The pups all die, one by one. And then, curiously enough, they come back, clawing their way out to the surface. Dead, but not dead. Alive, but not alive. Sound familiar?”