We turned the corner of the hall, and we both outwardly screamed.
“Fancy running into you here,” laughed Jack, who was haughtily leaning against a locker just around the bend.
“Then again, that’s a new one,” declared Ian, taking notice to the black orbs in Jack’s eye sockets.
“Unfortunately, I’ve already been acquainted with that one,” I said, yanking Ian back down the way we came.
Jack laughed. “Oh, what’s the hurry?!”
Ian and I sprinted down the hall, but an invisible force suddenly ripped between the two of us. The pressure slid me over to the side and I clipped a couple of lockers as I braked to a halt, but Ian was propelled all the way to the end of the hall. He crashed full tilt into the lockers facing us from the connecting perpendicular corridor, and his slight frame dropped limply to the floor.
“Ian!” I bellowed.
“Sorry, Callaghan, but I need a word with the young lady here,” said Jack, flicking his finger forward.
A nearby classroom door yanked open and Ian desperately tried to grab onto anything he could, but the unseen force threw him effortlessly into the room and bolted the door shut upon his clearing.
I rushed over to the classroom and frantically hurled my weight into the door in an attempt to pry it open again, but it was no use.
“Get out of here!” Ian yelled, recovering to his feet.
“I’m not leaving you!”
“Cassie, listen to me! Go!” he demanded, looking over my shoulder through the laminated glass window built into the door.
I turned around to see all the lights in the hall bursting behind Jack as he strutted towards us.
“Cass, you’re the one he wants! Go!” yelled Ian.
I looked back at him in desperation.
“I’ll be fine,” he mouthed.
I hesitated, but the sight of Jack was enough motivation for my body to overcome my emotions. I charged through the corridor, leaping down and jumping up the split level stairs of the third story.
Eventually, I reentered a stairwell that took me to the second floor and I found myself back in the west wing. All the classrooms were locked and the only windows in the hall overlooked the parking lot, so the hope of jumping to safety was ruled out.
A pair of footsteps could be heard trampling down the stairs, so I ducked into the adjoining hallway. Then I saw it. Locker 392. My answer was just twenty-six lockers away. I scampered over to 418, quietly pulling up the faulty latch and crouching down inside. I held the clip up on the interior and closed the door behind me just as the footsteps entered the hallway.
“Cassssiiieee, Cassssiiieee...” Jack teased in the most sadistic, raw tone. “There’s really no use in hiding. I can sense you. I can smell your fear.” He took a deep inhale, and paused before releasing the breath. “It’s intoxicating.”
Each locker door on my side of the hall clanged as it sounded like they were being pried open as Jack made his way deeper into the corridor and closer to me. Then, just two lockers down, the noise stopped. I held my shallow, ridged breaths, seeing a shadow cast upon the slats at the top of my door.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are...”
He remained in place for a moment, but then continued on with only his footsteps resonating in the distance until even those became inaudible.
I refused to move though. I didn’t have a course of action, and my mind continued to conjure up all the worst case scenarios in regard to what would happen to Ian.
“Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me,” I mouthed to myself, finding only the verses from Sunday services left in me to find comfort. “No weapon formed against me shall prosper... No weapon formed against me shall prosper-”
A subtle daft suddenly fell onto the back of my neck, and I froze.
“Oh, if only you knew the irony of that,” laughed Jack, his voice igniting directly behind my right ear.
I fought to find the interior latch and yanked it up and forward, my body falling out of the locker and onto the vinyl tiled floor. Looking back up at the empty insides of 418, I hysterically scrambled to my feet and rocketed down the hallway, noticing that every other locker as well was still intact.
Bolting around the corner to the connecting corridor, I blindly crashed right into Jack as I took the turn. He grabbed hold of me and tightened his grip, nailing my arms to my sides. I couldn’t even muster the ability to verbalize my anguish. I simply relinquished all the air inside my lungs, emitting it into a deafening cry.
“That’s a set of pipes you’ve got on you,” he laughed, still wincing from my declaration. “You just couldn’t resist.”
“Yeah, neither could I,” called out a voice from behind. “Cassie, duck!”
I dropped my head down, and Jack abruptly let go of me as he slumped to the floor following the sound of a heavy, metallic thump.
“You okay?” said Ian, appearing behind him with a fire extinguisher wielded in his grasp.
I leapt over Jack and tackled Ian, wrapping my arms around him as tightly as I could.
“I’m fine,” I said, upon releasing my grip.
“Come on.” Ian took my hand and we started running back down the hall as Jack remained slouched on the ground.
I suddenly stopped dead in my tracks. “Oh my God... Jack!”
“What?” Ian tried to drag me further, despite his completely bewildered expression.
“Did you just hit him in the back of the head?”
“Your point being?”
“He already injured it!” I ripped my hand out of his grasp and turned around.
“It’s not him, Cassie!” shouted Ian as he grabbed my arm again to pull me away. “This is the part where we’re supposed to run!”
“You don’t get it,” I said, breaking free from his hold and returning to Jack’s side. “The gauze on his arm! It’s from an injury he sustained last night. Look at it! He popped the stitches just now. I thought whoever was behind this was like a shape-shifter or something, but this is actually Jack’s body!”
A profuse stream of blood was coursing down the nap of Jack’s neck, the crimson fluid matting the back of his hair. His whole body had slackened with the exception of his hands that were pinned to his head as he grasped it aguishly.
“Cassie... get out of here,” Jack muttered.
“What?” I lifted up his head, seeing the unmistakable presence of dread in his eyes. “Jack?”
“Go!” he belted out, crumpling down on the floor.
A tremor pulsated across the ground, all the lockers jittering from its vibration.
“Ian, get her out of here!” Jack yelped.
Suddenly, the whole hallway rumbled, and I shot up to my feet as Ian took hold of my hand. The ground began quivering, and we both sprinted down the hall. Taking a sharp turn into the next corridor, we could see everybody still incapacitated below in the gymnasium through the glass overlook.
“Watch out!” demanded Ian, rushing between me and the locker doors that burst open to our left.
Every last item inside them came hurtling out at us, Ian taking the full brunt as he shielded his body over mine. He pulled me away from the line of fire.
“Ian, move!” I screamed, yanking him back just as we came to the entrance of a classroom where a filing cabinet flew out through the doorway, crashing into the wall on the other side of the hall.
We bolted around it and charged down the corridor, hearing a splintering crackle creep across the glass overlook to our right. Instinctively throwing our hands up to shield our faces for protection, we dropped to the floor as countless fractures pierced across every last plate in the hallway’s windowpanes. Nothing more than a pop! and razor-sharp fragments of glass imploded through the air, blasting just above our heads. The debris ricocheted off the lockers to our left and rained down on us. Shaking ourselves out, we regained our footing and continued run
ning, until...
The whole floor rumbled. Before I could process another thought, what felt like the blast wave to an explosion rocketed through the corridor. My next footstep didn’t even connect to the ground as Ian and I were catapulted down the hallway, now completely airborne. Once the surge dissipated, our bodies crashed back down to the floor with a violent blow.
Chapter 31
The Kill
Water trickled from afar, and the overwhelming scent of moss woke me. I was laying flat on my stomach, sprawled across a stone pathway. It was hardly visible with the exception of tiny glimmering lights that twinkled in the distance over the night sky. It was also cold. I realized where I was. In the woods. I didn’t think to call out, still uncertain as to who else could be out there. There were ruined stone fences on each side of me. Rising to my feet, I headed cautiously down the trail towards the lights where a veil of weeping willow branches covered the opening. I put my hand through, feeling a tug on the other side. Suddenly, I was ripped across the threshold.
Stagnant air swallowed me back up as the yank on my hand wrenched me down the school hallway. At first, I put the brakes on, unsure as to what the hell had just happened, but my eyes trailed to my hand where my fingers were interlocked with Ian’s. I turned to look behind me, and bits of papers still whirled about the hall.
“Did you just see that?” I muttered.
“No, I experienced it,” said Ian, pulling me away to the nearest stairwell.
“You didn’t see the forest?”
“What?”
Another low rumble coursed through the air, and I dropped the subject as we bolted away.
Galloping down the grand staircase, Ian and I limply reached the ground floor. We tried all the exterior doors, but everything was locked.
“Break the glass,” I said, pointing at the full-length sheet windows beside the main doors.
We grabbed a steel trash bin from the office, but just as we were about to fling it through, Ian stopped.
“What are you doing?” I bellowed.
“We have to make a stand.”
“Are you crazy?! No!” I said, motioning for him to help me.
“Cassie, this may be the only chance we have at him. After this, there’ll be no knowing who that thing will turn into next.”
“We can’t hurt it, not while it’s possessing Jack. Besides, we don’t even know what we’re up against here.”
Ian dropped his end of the garbage bin. “I have a pretty good idea.”
“And if you’re wrong?”
“Only one way to find out. But we need some things first. Check the computers. Hopefully, we still have the internet.”
Groans echoed down the hallway, doors repeatedly prying open and hammering shut again as Jack came stumbling down to the main entrance by the gymnasium. I remained ducked behind a pillar in the main cafeteria, slowly sliding my way around the bulk of the column to avoid him seeing me as he headed straight across the lunchroom. The entire floor was doused in layers of loose confetti, and banners hanged droopingly overhead. I had turned off most of the lights to ensure the best coverage, but it did little to soften my nerves.
Halfway across the room, Jack froze right on mark. He turned to see me stepping out from the corner of his vision. “What did you do?”
“Don’t look at me,” I said, just as a growing drone ignited in the far end of the room.
“Having a little trouble moving there?” called out Ian, walking out from behind another pillar beside an industrial fan.
As the massive propeller blades reached full force, all the bits of confetti blew across the floor, revealing what Jack feared most.
“Seems you figured it out,” he said, looking down around himself.
“Wasn’t easy, but the eyes were a bit of a giveaway,” replied Ian, heading closer to him with a piece of paper in his hands.
“And you’ve gone old-school.”
“Yep, good ole Devil’s Trap, from the Lesser Key of Solomon,” Ian replied, admiring the star contained pentagram drawn across the floor in which Jack was now ensnared in the middle of. “Ideal for confining demons.”
“You need to release me, now!” Jack sneered.
“No, we need answers,” I said, taking several steps forward.
“Cassie, listen to me. If you don’t let me go, you could die. You’re in danger.”
“Thank you, Einstein. As if I hadn’t already figured that one out myself,” I rebutted. “But as far as I can see, you’re the only threat here. So if I let you out now, it’ll only be a matter of time before you come back to finish the job. If I’m going to die, I at least deserve to know why you wish me that way.”
“This isn’t a negotiation, Cassie. You have to break the line!” Jack barked, looking down at the illustration.
“I don’t have to do shit. Now, talk.”
“No, not until you release me.”
“Fine, have it your way,” said Ian. He unfolded the paper in his hands and started reciting a prayer.
“Oh, how cute,” Jack scoffed. “Where’d you get that from? Google? It’s gonna take more than that to exorcise me, and even then, I will be back. I don’t belong in Hell. All that little incantation there would do at best is waste my time in forcing me to climb all the way back up out of the pit, not to mention losing possession of this fine specimen.”
“All the more reason,” I said, nodding to Ian for him to continue.
Jack’s eyelids began to sink, and he looked faint as he mumbled, “Sorry for this, Callaghan, but my options are running kind of low here.”
“You don’t have any power inside that,” said Ian, calling his bluff.
Jack scoffed exhaustedly. “See, that’s where you’d be wrong. I may be confined in here, but that still doesn’t stop me from doing this.”
I panicked the instant he snapped his fingers, but there Ian stood, unaffected.
“Huh...” Jack huffed. “That’s... strange.”
“Performance problems?” Ian satirized.
“No, this should still work, unless...” Jack actually chuckled with a sickly expression as he looked Ian over. “You’ve got to be joking. My, my, I really did underestimate you, Callaghan. Oh well, there’s still other means to divest myself of you.”
He waved his hand forward and Ian suddenly hurtled across the dining hall, slamming hard against the brick wall at the other end.
“Ian!” I cried out, running over to him.
“Break the line, Cassie!” demanded Jack.
“No!” coughed Ian. “Finish him!”
“Yes, Cassie. Please do. Perhaps Callaghan, here, won’t suffocate to death beforehand,” replied Jack, closing his fist.
Ian began gasping for air as Jack lifted his clenched hand, dragging Ian’s frame up the wall as if the ties to an invisible noose were slowly strangling him up from the ceiling.
“Stop!” I screamed.
“You already know what you have to do,” said Jack, his breathing suddenly stifled.
He clutched his head again with his free hand, and the remaining confetti on the floor started to sweep about the room by rapid cyclonic gusts of wind. All the folded lunch tables pulled up against the other wall rattled as the banners above ripped off their hooks and flew away.
“You better make up your mind here, because Callaghan hasn’t much time left,” said Jack wincingly.
I looked up at Ian hopelessly, his hands clenching at his throat in desperation. No, I still had one play left in me.
“Put him down, or this demonstration will be the last thing you ever do in that body!” I demanded, charging over to Jack.
I headed right into the Devil’s Trap and tackled him. He didn’t budge, but that wasn’t my intention.
“Do you have it in you, Cassie?” said Jack tensely, taking notice to his own pocket knife now pressed firmly against his throat. “Can you take another’s life?”
“Spare Ian,” I hissed, “or we’ll just have to find out, won’t we?”
He studied me for a few seconds and then unclenched his fist. As soon as Ian’s body dropped back to the floor, I lowered the blade and prepared to run over to him.
“He’s fine,” said Jack, grabbing hold of my wrist. “Just unconscious. Like everyone in the gym over there.”
I tried to wrestle out of his hold, but he secured me in before I could manage to leave the pentagram as he pried the knife away.
“You really would have done it,” he finally said, studying my eyes. “He’s a lucky guy, to have someone so dedicated to him that she’d kill on his behalf.”
“How did you do it?” I said. “Brian Hanover and Justin Tither were both rendered unconscious when they were possessed. How did you get to Jack?”
“Severe trauma.”
“What did you do to him?!”
“Me, nothing. Blame the drunkard who broadsided him at fifty miles an hour.”
My heart dropped. “How long have you been possessing him?”
“Let’s see,” he said calculatingly. “Today’s Thursday, so... one year, three weeks, and six days.”
I couldn’t move. I simply gawked at him in utter disbelief.
“This whole time...” I muttered.
I felt sick. No, not sick. Disgusted. Violated. Damned.
“Oh, sweetheart, you actually thought you were talking with the real him?” he huffed exhaustedly, letting me go. “Sorry, love, but he’s been out of commission for a while. Can’t say that’s too great of a loss though. He was a bit of a dick actually. You would’ve hated him.”
“He was a dick? He was?!” My body sprang back to life, and I ran at him with the fists of fury. I started hitting him as hard as I could, as many times as I could. At first, he took the beating, but he eventually grabbed hold of my arms and pulled them away once I nailed him in the face.
“You son of a bitch!” I cried out, thrashing about. “So how does this work? You get to go along wearing this poor guy like a glove, doing God only knows what, defiling him... only to toss him like a drained battery once you’ve finished having your fun?!”
“Firstly, I haven’t done anything to this ‘poor guy’ that he hadn’t already done himself. Take my word for it; he wasn’t exactly an altar boy.”
Divine Vices Page 28