The beam picked out a pair of small pink sneakers with fluorescent yellow Nike swooshes. Next to those were a cheaper pair of shoes, these pink also, but faded, with no discernible name brand.
There were still feet inside the shoes. Bare ankles. Calves. Knees.
I tilted the Maglite higher.
Two small faces squinted at me.
“Go away!” Peach yelled.
She’s alive, I thought, my whole body turning to jelly. I realized she couldn’t see me, could only make out a male figure gripping a flashlight.
“Oh my God, Peach,” I breathed, and lurched forward.
I heard her suck in breath. “Will?”
I dropped to my knees and threw my arms around her. Juliet was sniffling loudly, clearly toiling to hold back tears of terror.
Peach was weeping, but her body was as stiff as plywood, her voice frantic. “Will, he’s coming! You have to get out of—”
“He’s dead,” I tried to say, but I was sobbing too hard to make my words clear.
She pushed against me. “Will, no. He’ll come back, he’ll kill you!”
I moved back from Peach, shined the light on her. “Aren’t your wrists tied or something? How did he keep you here?”
Her wet eyes were simultaneously beaten and imploring. “He told us he’d kill us if we tried to leave.”
I bit back a cry of rage. Had Padgett hurt Peach and Juliet?
“Listen,” I said. “We need to get out of here.”
“But he’ll—”
“He’s dead, Peach!” I snapped. I hated myself for the way she shrank from me, but I had to make her understand, had to get them out of the cave. The Children were still lurking. “He’s back there,” I explained. “I killed him with a machete.”
“What’s a ma—”
“A big knife,” I said impatiently and held it up so she could see.
“Is that blood?” she asked, her eyes huge.
“Yes,” I said. “Padgett’s. Now get up, before the Children come.”
“Children?” she asked.
God, I thought. Was this what it was like to be a parent?
Somehow I got her and Juliet to their feet. Juliet was sobbing uncontrollably and breathing so hard I thought her chest might explode. But I finally managed to get them moving.
“Both of you grab hold of my hip pockets,” I said. It was what I always did with Peach when we crossed the street and I had my hands full.
“Why?” Peach asked.
“I have to hold the flashlight.”
“Can I hold it?” Peach asked.
“Grab my pockets,” I repeated.
We neared the place where Padgett’s body would be. I had to be careful. It was necessary for me to probe the tunnel for the corpse’s location; if I failed to do that, we might trip right over him and end up in a puddle of blood. If Peach and Juliet weren’t already scarred for life, landing on a corpse would sure as hell do the trick.
Then again, if I illuminated the body in too much detail, I’d probably send the girls shrieking in the other direction.
“Peach,” I said. “I want you to close your eyes. You too, Juliet.”
“Is it gross?” Juliet asked. They were the first words she’d spoken.
I recalled the way I’d plunged the blade into Padgett’s belly. The brutal shnicking sound. The gush of blood.
“Yes,” I said. “It’s gross.”
Against my hip Juliet shivered. But she closed her eyes.
I checked Peach’s.
Shut also.
We drew closer to where I believed the body would be. I was proud of myself for taking the machete with me. In a horror movie, the good guy would be too relieved after killing the villain to do something as logical as confiscating his weapon.
We inched through the tunnel, the girls huddled against my hips.
Still no sign of Padgett.
I frowned.
“Are we past it yet?” Peach asked.
“Hush,” I said, squinting into the gloom.
Nothing.
Had Padgett escaped?
It was possible, I realized. I had only stabbed Padgett in the belly.
But what about Brad’s body? I had no doubt he was dead, so unless he’d become a zombie or something…
A faint cone of light appeared ahead. We were nearing the entrance of the cave.
I listened for screams, shouts, the sounds of a struggle. But either the struggle with Padgett had already occurred or the others were simply out there waiting.
It didn’t make sense.
“What’s wrong, Will?” Peach asked.
“Shut it, Peach,” I said.
She didn’t protest, but her body against me was as rigid as a plank.
The cone of light grew brighter. I estimated we were maybe twenty yards from the mouth of the cave, but I still didn’t see Padgett. Had there been a branching off in the tunnel I hadn’t noticed? There had to have been. Otherwise, where could Padgett have taken Brad? Where—
Something slammed against me.
There was a small indentation in the tunnel wall, the space just recessed enough to remain in shadow, and it was out of this space that Brad Ralston’s corpse lurched.
I screamed, a childlike horror of zombies and other monsters flaring in me. Brad’s heavy body drove me against the tunnel wall. I flailed at it, finally managed to thrust it away from me.
It slumped to the floor. Dead, I realized. Despite the stab wound, Padgett had managed to drag Brad’s big body into the alcove and shove it toward me at the right moment.
Then the next shock came, and this one was far worse.
Padgett had grabbed Peach.
They were heading toward daylight.
Towing Juliet behind me, I raced after them.
A nightmare reel of images assaulted my light-sensitive eyes as Juliet and I lunged through the cave opening and into the clearing:
Rebecca running toward us, her eyes huge with fright.
Kurt Fisher beside the rusted blue Studebaker, a hand covering his mouth, his eyes as large and alert as I’d ever seen them.
Chris standing horrorstruck, inarticulate, on the rim of the clearing.
Mia gesticulating toward a pair of figures who’d emerged from the cave just ahead of us.
In the center of the clearing, the two figures.
Carl Padgett and my sister.
Padgett holding a gun to Peach’s head.
“Let her go!” Mia was shouting.
Rebecca was only ten feet away from the pair when Padgett spun toward her, my little sister’s feet actually leaving the ground.
“Freeze!” Padgett ordered.
I cursed myself for my ineptitude, my sloppiness. I could see my mistake even now. The wound in Padgett’s midsection wasn’t in the center of his belly, but nearer his side. I’d given him a nasty but non-fatal stab wound.
No wonder he’d been able to lug Brad’s body into the shadows and thrust it at me. I was a fool, and now Peach was paying for it. Numbly, I took a step in Padgett’s direction.
“Get back!” Padgett shouted. His eyes glowed a dull green.
I had to get him away from Peach.
Lightning strobed in the dreary twilight, the growl of thunder continual now. The rain had diminished slightly, but it was still coming down hard enough to affect vision.
“Come here, Rebecca,” I said.
Rebecca started toward me.
Padgett bared his teeth. “I said don’t move!”
“She’s not going to touch you,” I said.
Rebecca reached me, and I said, “Take Juliet. Get her somewhere safe.”
“No one’s going anywhere,” Padgett said. “Not unless you want me to put a hole in your sister’s head.”
I took a breath, tried to ignore the pinched, doomed look on Peach’s face. “You’re not going to kill her, Padgett.”
“That’s right,” he said, “as long as everyone behaves.”
I took a
step in his direction. “That’s not what I mean.” I nodded toward the gun. “That thing is empty.”
He smiled at me. “You’d bet your sister’s life on that?”
I took another step. “Why didn’t you use it before?”
“I had to be quiet. And I didn’t feel like killing you.”
Another step. Only about ten paces between us now. “Then why would you shoot Peach? She’s only a kid.”
Something unspeakable seeped into Padgett’s eyes. “Kids are my favorite.”
I hesitated. Jesus, I thought. What if the gun really was loaded?
Peach whimpered.
“Let her go,” I said.
“What for?” he asked. “She’s no child of mine.”
“Let go of her!” Chris shouted. We all turned that way. Chris’s eyes were red-rimmed and wet. “Come after me, you bastard—”
“Wait, Chris,” I breathed.
“—I’ll take you on—”
Something appeared behind Chris.
“—but leave Will’s sister—”
Oh God, I thought. No!
“—alone!”
I took a step toward my best friend. “Chris, look out!”
But it was too late.
The beast had already leapt at him.
¨
Mia screamed. So did the girls.
Kurt took off running.
Padgett hopped up and down, his grin maniacal. “Sweet Jesus! I told you they were real!”
He’d turned toward Chris and the creature, who were now tangled up on the sparse grass. I knew Padgett would only be distracted for a moment, and deep down I knew something else.
I could only save one of them.
Chris or Peach.
My best friend or my sister.
Correction, I told myself in that split second. Chris is more than your best friend—he’s like a brother. You can’t just leave him to die!
I glanced at Peach, who looked up at me, her brown eyes full of terror and hope. I had always been her protector, and now she was looking to me to save her from this monster.
Yet Chris was even now pinned beneath an even more lethal monster. The beast was gigantic, its sparse black hair whipping around as it toyed with Chris, my friend fighting valiantly but only just able to stay alive. Any moment now…
I stood immobile, the moment drawing out. I whimpered, my body racked with anguish. I had to save one or the other right now, or I wouldn’t be able to save either.
I glanced at Padgett’s glowing green eyes, my sister’s hopeful brown ones.
With tears already flowing down my cheeks, I made my decision.
I lunged behind the Studebaker so Padgett wouldn’t spot me in his periphery, then I rushed toward him. He was still spellbound by the sight of the creature, a rapturous gleam in his bestial eyes. That momentary sense of awe was what I was counting on. If Padgett spotted me before I got to him, he’d be able to shoot me, and then Peach would be dead too.
Ten feet away. Five.
I raised the machete.
Padgett whirled at the last second, started to raise the gun.
I buried the machete in his forehead.
Padgett’s arms splayed out as he crumpled, the gun landing softly on the moist soil.
Peach threw herself into my side.
At the same moment, Mia shouted, “Leave him alone!”
I turned, knowing what I’d see even before I saw it.
Mia was sprinting toward Chris and the creature in a desperate attempt to intervene. But she was too late.
The creature was already devouring my best friend.
“NO!” I bellowed.
My heart stuttered in my chest, the rest of my body going numb. I wanted Chris to be alive, but I could see the ruin of his torso, the creature already scooping up gobbets of flesh to dine on. In that moment a hundred memories unspooled in my head. Chris and I sitting together on our carpet squares, our kindergarten teacher shushing us as she read Green Eggs and Ham. Me stepping on a nail in the woods behind Chris’s house and Chris telling me jokes in the waiting room before my tetanus shot. The two of us playing video games, telling each other secrets. The fight we had over a game of one-on-one, me kicking Chris’s basketball down the street in anger. Sleepovers. Looking at naked women on the Internet.
Chris was the best friend I ever had.
My brother.
And this monster had killed him.
“Stay with Rebecca,” I muttered to Peach, my voice dry.
Rebecca grasped both little girls protectively to her sides, said to them in a thick voice, “Close your eyes.”
I bent down and scooped up Padgett’s gun. I had little hope it would do us any good. But like a bad dream, Mia was heading straight for the creature, and I wasn’t going to be able to stop her.
“Get away from him!” she screamed at the creature. She gave it a convulsive kick in the face. Snarling, the creature seized her by the arm and dragged her down. Please God no! I thought. I can’t lose her and Chris both!
“Hey!” I shouted, striding toward them.
The creature looked up at me. I was sure I saw recognition in its huge green eyes. And hunger.
I had the gun aimed at the creature’s face. It showed no fear at all.
Please work, I begged. Please still have bullets.
Ignoring me, the creature jerked Mia’s body closer, opened its mouth to bite her. My breath clotted in my throat. Oh God. My finger tightened on the trigger.
But I didn’t shoot it yet. I had to be sure.
Mia was flailing at the beast, fighting it with a ferocity I admired.
Ten feet away, I stopped, aimed.
The creature’s jaws widened to take a bite out of Mia’s screaming face.
I fired, expecting to hear a sad clicking sound.
Instead, the gun roared and the back of the creature’s head disappeared in a messy haze.
I’d seen the monsters get up before, so I aimed, fired again, and took off the side of its face. I squeezed the trigger again, but this time there was no concussion. My ammo was gone.
I dropped the gun and stared at the creature’s twitching body.
My eyes shifted to Chris. My lips trembled, a high-pitched moan sounding in the back of my throat.
“Will?” a voice said.
I fell to my knees. Rain pattered on my face, dripped from my chin. But the tears, hot and salty and bitter, burned through the raindrops.
“Will?” the voice asked again. I finally identified it.
Mia. I couldn’t face her, couldn’t look away from Chris.
My best friend.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, coming toward me.
I couldn’t speak, couldn’t think, couldn’t stop looking away from Chris’s ruined body, his bloody face, the mouth that would never smile again, the eyes that would never see again.
Chris is dead, I thought. My best friend, my brother. He’s dead.
A small pair of hands twined around my neck.
I looked and saw Peach staring at me. “I’m so sorry, Will,” she said, crying too. She kissed me hard on the temple. Her lips were warm and trembly. “Thank you for getting me,” she whispered.
My chest started to hitch, a molten heat blistering my lungs. I realized I was sobbing, but at that moment I didn’t feel any embarrassment at crying in front of these people. Mia held one side of my body, Peach the other. Rebecca came around to stand in front of us, Juliet Wallace on one hip. Rebecca was weeping, but she looked brave. She was stroking Juliet’s light hair, protecting her.
I had to protect Peach.
Be strong, I told myself. Be strong for Peach, for the others.
Be strong for Chris.
I squeezed my eyes shut, pushed unsteadily to my feet.
We’re alive, I told myself. That was something. We were alive, and though Chris was dead, it seemed that the nightmare was finally over. I’d murdered Carl Padgett. The Moonlight Killer would never kill again.
Then I heard it. A dull, thumping noise, as though the earth were being pounded by mallets.
My heartbeat quickening, I hurried up the short incline to glance at a hill in the distance.
“Run,” I said.
“Will?” Rebecca said. “What’s wrong?”
But I never answered her.
Because that was when the creatures flooded over the hill.
¨
“Get Juliet!” I shouted.
I grabbed Peach, and careful not to slice her with the machete, slung her over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes. I took off with her and from the corner of my eye glimpsed Rebecca running with Juliet hand-in-hand, Mia running abreast of them.
I bolted straight into the woods. Peach bounced on my shoulder, but she didn’t protest at all. I couldn’t blame her. She’d probably been struck dumb by the sight of the creatures.
A weird, screeching war cry sounded behind us, and I knew the beasts were closing. I was a fast runner, but with Peach on my shoulder, I was a good deal slower.
I shot a glance back. The creatures had closed the distance, and they were approaching from several different directions. A few had followed my exact path, only they were navigating it a hell of a lot faster than I had. Others were setting off at a diagonal, perhaps thinking to head me off.
Four of the creatures were closing on the girls.
Rebecca and Mia were doing their best, but I could see Juliet had just about run out of steam. They were gamely dragging her along, but it was no use. The creatures were only thirty yards away now, and soon they’d be on them. I kept moving, but the machete in my hand felt suddenly heavy. How could I keep the weapon for myself and permit Mia, Rebecca, and Juliet to fend for themselves?
“Look out!” Rebecca shouted, and I turned in time to see her throw herself between Juliet and the nasty uprooted stump she’d almost plowed into. Rebecca was able to redirect Juliet, the little girl stumbling but being saved from falling by Mia, who steadied her with an arm.
But in preventing Juliet from an ugly fall, Rebecca had tumbled, her foot twisting at an unnatural angle. Rebecca pushed to her feet right away, but I saw with a sinking stomach that she was moving with a severe limp.
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