Adam cursed under his breath. Nikki and Eleanor froze in their tracks.
The towering figure of Great-Grandfather Masterson lumbered into the entry hall. Almost seven feet tall, he loomed over the broken corpse of Isaac. He was breathing deep, anger rising from him like waves of heat.
He lifted huge hands to pull back the hooded cowl and reveal his face.
15
It could barely be called a face. Something that once was a face certainly, but to categorize what it had become was something else entirely.
Great-Grandfather Masterson loomed in the doorway of the castle keep. They stepped away from his menacing figure.
His head was bald, and like the other humanoids below, the skin over his skull had a waxen sheen, as if layer upon layer of mottled faux flesh had been melted over the top of it. Both ears were simply clumps of flesh on each side of the awful skull. The forehead was low, the brows like fat, pulsing blisters, and one eye looked as if it had slipped down the side of the face to stare balefully out from a sunken pit where a cheekbone might once have been. His nose was two uneven, slotted holes. His mouth had no lips, and around it were spiked protrusions like the fleshy whisker-like barbels of a catfish. Nikki recalled the glassine tubes the beings downstairs had used to feed off the pods and realized the growths must have formed those grotesque, thin phalanges.
Next to her, Eleanor began to weep. “Oh Grandfather,” she said quietly.
The huge man took slow steps toward them.
They backed away.
Eleanor lost her footing. She fell against Adam, throwing him off balance. Eleanor’s arm slipped from around Nikki’s neck and suddenly Nikki was the only one left standing in the cavernous hall.
Masterson grabbed Nikki by the throat. The odd texture of his touch made her squirm. His fingers tightened on her neck, pinching off her air supply as he lifted her from the ground. She immediately began to get light-headed. Her vision swam. She felt the bones of her neck stretch. A cracking sound came from her spine. She felt it deep within.
Masterson stared at her with that single, baleful eye. She saw cold murder in his black pupil.
I’m going to die.
The elder Masterson pulled her closer to him, the phalanges around his lipless mouth probed the air between them, groping for her face. Nikki’s vision spun. The oxygen to her brain cut off, she started to black out…
She sensed a struggle beyond the wall of thickening fog in her mind. She felt fingers scrabbling at the ancient Masterson’s grip to no avail and realized they were her own. She managed to peel away one finger, then another…and blood and oxygen began to flow again, just enough…leaving her in a dizzy kind of limbo.
Nikki fell hard to the stone floor. She grunted, then shook her head to clear it.
It took a few moments for her vision to return. She realized Masterson’s hand still clamped her throat. Jarred and disoriented, she pulled the smooth, elongated fingers from her throat. Masterson’s severed hand fell to the ground next to her. She blinked at it. Its stump oozed with dark, oily fluid, fingers twitching.
Great-Grandfather Masterson emitted a throaty howl of rage.
Nikki looked up. Adam stood next to the giant, a sword in his hand. He’d drawn it from one of the medieval weapon displays on the wall. The blade shone wickedly in the corridor’s dim light. Masterson’s arm, severed just above the wrist, dripped brackish gruel onto the red carpet.
Eleanor crawled up next to Nikki. She was able to focus on the old woman’s face. She looked overwrought, in physical and emotional pain.
“Come on,” the old woman whispered to her. “He’s lost his mind. We have to escape. He’ll…he’ll kill us all.”
Eleanor tugged on Nikki’s arm, urging her to stand. As she did so, she turned to watch the altercation between Adam and Masterson. She dared to hope that Adam could take him. One more well-aimed blow with the sword and—
Three thin white tentacles slithered out of the ancient man’s severed arm and lashed around the sword, yanking it free of Adam’s grip.
Quickly, things turned uglier. Adam delivered blows to Masterson’s midsection. The only effect they really had was to throw the large humanoid off balance for a moment. Ultimately, his size was too great, and when Masterson bore down on Adam, he did so with a punishing blow to the side of Adam’s head.
Adam stumbled, dazed.
Masterson gripped Adam’s face with his tentacle lashes, then wrapped the entire palm and waxy, pointed fingers of his other hand over Adam’s face and head.
“No!” Nikki yelled. She was tempted to run for him, but fear kept her in check. She was still light-headed and hurting from her own encounter. Eleanor gripped her arm as tightly as the old woman could, given her own state of health.
Nikki saw Adam’s eye flick down between the creature’s fingers that held him. It was wide, but as full of determination as it was of pain.
“Go…go!” he yelled.
Eleanor drew up next to Nikki’s ear. “Come…don’t let his sacrifice be in vain.”
“No, I won’t leave you behind again!” Nikki said, tears blurring her vision. And just as she took a step toward the giant that held Adam captive, he screamed.
The slender tentacles wrapped Adam’s neck as Masterson’s pointed fingers plunged into Adam’s eyes. The white orbs popped and slid out as wet shells, oozing fluid. As Adam’s screams intensified, the fingers sank deeper into his skull. Pinkish gray brain matter pushed out around the deadly grip, lined with the sticky mix of blood and fluids.
Masterson pulled Adam’s head toward him. The mouth phalanges went eagerly to the gored eye sockets, small, wormy mouths opening at their ends to drink the foul emissions of mutilated eyes and brain matter.
Smoke from the fire in the catacombs had begun to choke the air and roll down the entry hall toward them when Nikki gripped Eleanor’s hand. Both of them, even the old woman, ran like they had wings, fast and fleet out the front doors of the castle, across the courtyard, past the fountain, and into the bitter night air, fresh with the scent of salty sea.
They ran through the castle gates and down the hill toward the forest and shore beyond. It was dark but for the glow of moonlight, and Nikki, blinking away tears, faltered only to look around, to find a path. Finally the tears got the better of her and anguish swelled until she felt she would explode. She reeled in the night air, in the wash of the bitter cold wind from the roiling ocean. She wanted to drop to her knees and scream at the heavens.
The grip of madness brought her to a staggering halt. She covered her face with her hands. Tears flowing freely, she rubbed her palms down her cheeks and stared at the starry skies. Everything inside of Nikki wanted to scream, but all she could do was moan.
From the castle at the top of the slope behind them, they heard the enraged yells of Masterson. It was the sound of pure fury. And she knew he was coming for her.
16
The old woman drew up close beside her.
“This way,” gasped Eleanor. She reached down and touched Nikki’s shoulder. She looked up at the old woman, grief plain on her face, and Nikki instantly felt guilty. She had to pull herself together and keep moving.
Eleanor led them down a path worn through a copse of trees. It came out on a rocky shoreline.
At the edge of the water stood a small boathouse, black in the night. Next to it was a small dock, the water from the ocean slapping the beams of the pier. The wooden door of the boathouse was unlocked. Eleanor pulled it open and led the way inside.
They went into deep shadow, black as pitch, surrounded by the scents of wet wood, oil and gasoline.
“Is there a light?” Nikki said quietly.
“A flashlight,” Eleanor said. Nikki heard her rooting around near the door. A click was followed by a yellow beam of light that lanced the darkness, illuminating the interior of the place. One side of the boathouse was a workbench with an organized rack of tools, two large cans of gasoline, several cans of oil, and assorted engin
e parts. A spare outboard engine was attached to the top of a thick board propped against the wall.
The other side of the boathouse was open to the water. In the dock was a nicely maintained, fairly modern motorboat. They climbed in, helping steady each other as they got over the side and untied the mooring ropes from the cleats. The boat began to drift.
They heard another subhuman roar of fury from the hill above.
Masterson, she thought. He’s coming.
Eleanor stood next to Nikki near the driver’s controls. They scanned the cockpit with the flashlight, looking down at it all blankly. They looked up at each other.
“Unfortunately,” Eleanor said, “I don’t know how to drive it.”
Nikki’s heart jumped into her throat but she didn’t give up. She took a closer look. A steering wheel, a stick shifter like an automatic transmission, a keyhole…
“Where’s the key?”
Eleanor looked panicked for just a moment, and then shone the flashlight at the workbench across the boathouse.
A small silver flash reflected from the pegboard where all the tools hung.
The key.
“I’ll get it.” Nikki jumped out of the boat. It swayed under her feet and pushed slightly away from the dock, drifting. She went across the boathouse to the workbench and reached for the key.
Outside the boathouse, she heard the huffing sounds of labored breathing. Grunts of exertion.
The door, which had fallen closed again after they’d come inside, crashed open.
Masterson stood framed in the doorway.
Nikki plucked the key from the pegboard and gripped it in her hand.
The ancient man lurched toward her, lumbering with heavy steps. She could see the shadows of the waggling phalanges around his mouth as he growled and came for her.
Nikki grabbed a hammer from the workbench. Without hesitation she swung it at the oncoming creature. Eleanor screamed. Nikki’s swing went wide, throwing her off balance.
Masterson grabbed her by the ankle, lashing her with tentacles that had sprouted from his gory wrist-stump, pulling her to the ground. Nikki fell face-first to the boathouse floor. Air whooshed from her lungs. The key bounced out of her hand.
The abominable figure of Masterson growled deep in his chest as he dragged her closer.
Nikki could smell his odious breath and see the shimmer of moonlight glancing off the water over his hideous features. His lipless mouth opened and the feelers fluttered toward her.
She swung the hammer one last time.
It smashed into the top of his head. The sound was like an axe driving deep into wood.
Masterson dropped instantly, facedown onto the wooden floor. The whole boathouse shook with the weight of his fall. She felt the fleshy lashes around her ankle loosen.
Nikki scrambled for the key, snatched it up, and then made a jump for the drifting boat.
She made it. The boat rocked crazily under her as she staggered forward into the cockpit, jammed the key into the ignition, and turned it.
The engine fired up on the second try. Nikki thanked God, dropped into the captain’s seat, and made quick work of deciphering the controls. One lever put the engine in gear, a second lever served as an accelerator. She put the boat in reverse to back out of the dock and gave it gas. As soon as they were clear, she shifted into gear and accelerated, steering them clear of the pier and out into the open waves of the ocean.
The wind was brisk, the night bitter, and the waves choppy. As they reached full speed, they hopped the waves, but the feeling of the wind, while achingly cold, was a blast of freedom and Nikki found herself giggling uncontrollably as they left Blackrock Island and Masterson Castle behind.
Once again, she managed to gather her wits about her enough to calm down. Frigid, she focused on the lights of the inland shore and steered toward them. She didn’t realize she was crying until Eleanor came up beside her with a blanket and wrapped it over her shoulders, sitting on the co-pilot’s seat nearby.
They both stared at the distant lights, lost in their own thoughts. Nikki knew that Eleanor must be devastated, and how no matter how much Nikki struggled with everything that happened, her own inner conflict would never match the grief Eleanor had to cope with in days to come. How much had been hidden from her? How much had she really known?
Without a doubt, Nikki felt that she had left a big part of herself behind on that island. Even now, heading toward freedom, she felt like a new woman, but only because a part of her that had been filled with so much desolation for so long was now filled with nothing at all. She felt the emptiness in her like a void, a feeling almost like a vacuum, waiting to pull anything into it to fill her again. And she thought after all of this…after Adam Ross, and her experiences here, that she had better be damn careful about what she chose to fill it with.
None of this was in vain.
She said it to affirm to herself that what everyone had given tonight was worth it, but the grief that welled up in her was hard to turn. It was up to her now. To make sure that none of it had been in vain, it was up to her to make the right decisions, to play the right keys.
She’d been given a new chance, the proverbial new lease on life. She intended to make the best of it, even if she didn’t know where to start.
Time enough to figure that out.
Yup. All the time in the world.
The boat hummed beneath them, vibrating with power as it surged through the waves. Nikki looked over at Eleanor, and the elderly woman looked back at Blackrock Island with a wistful sadness, then met Nikki’s gaze. She gave Nikki a smile heavy with woe.
I feel it, too.
Before they reached shore, it began to snow.
Epilogue
Two years later.
Nikki spent the day with Audrey. She bought the teenaged girl lunch, gave her some encouragement, and told her if she needed a place to stay, don’t hesitate to call. Audrey was hardheaded, but she knew the road she was on and was smart enough to know where it ended, too, so she was open to hear what Nikki was saying.
Nikki touched the girl’s heart and spoke the truth. Audrey knew it, and she respected that above all the other people who’d ever tried to get through to her. She looked to Nikki like a big sister. She’d been there.
Oh Lord, have I.
She was haunted by thoughts of what Audrey did the rest of the day.
That night, Nikki tried to let loose and have a little fun. She went to dinner with a guy she knew from Pierce College. Nikki was still making decent royalties from some of her films, and since college had always been a dream for her, she got a part-time job to supplement her income and finally went for it.
They had a Saturday P.E. class together. It was hard for her to work out in front all those younger adults. Some of them still looked like kids. One guy in class was about her age, so they hit it off pretty quickly. The guy was a handsome Hispanic named Royce, divorced, with one daughter. They had some normal conversations in class and around campus. He didn’t seem like a lecher, but she knew he was interested and it took him a while to get up the nerve to ask her out. She hadn’t been on a date in over a year, and while she wasn’t wildly attracted to him, he was interesting and a pleasure to talk to. That counted for a lot.
Now, walking into her apartment after dark, she dropped her keys on her table and thought back on the date. It had been nice, if a little awkward, being together for the first time outside the school environment. She guessed all dates with folks her age were going to be a little weird when you had an interest and knew so little about each other’s past. Every conversation was a minefield, and you just hoped one thing you said didn’t blow the whole thing up. Fortunately, he did a lot of the talking, and all Nikki really talked about were her plans to go into counseling and do something worthwhile with her life.
Not that she hadn’t already started.
Despite how well the date went, ending with a shy but nice kiss on the doorstep of her apartment, Nikki’s thoug
hts went back to Audrey. She only hoped the teenager hadn’t gone back to her old boyfriend’s house tonight. He’d lead her into disaster and she knew it. They were already into amateur porn and professional drugs and making pretty big money from both endeavors combined. Audrey hadn’t said it, but Nikki was pretty sure he was abusing her, too.
Nikki took off her coat but didn’t turn on the lights in her apartment. They’d had a heavy meal after a pretty full day. Exhaustion overcame her.
Nikki walked through the night-shadowed apartment by memory. She closed the blinds in the living room, then went into the bedroom. She shed clothes on the way, finished her night with a toothbrush and mouthwash in the bathroom, removed her makeup, then slipped on a satin nightgown and crawled beneath the fresh sheets of her bed. Not long and she was fully asleep.
The room was remained quiet and still around her for almost two hours, save for the sound of her measured breathing.
The phone rang once. Twice.
Nikki awoke, groggy, blinking at the dresser across the room. The clock said 12:02. Midnight.
The face of her phone glowed from the nightstand. She picked it up, wholly expecting the caller to be identified as AUDREY.
It wasn’t Audrey.
It was an area code she didn’t recognize. She almost let it go to voice mail, but now she was awake and her heart was slamming in her rib cage like something was wrong.
She answered.
“Hello?”
The line hissed for a moment, as if there were a bad connection.
“Nikki Lane?”
The voice was that of an elderly woman, vaguely familiar. Then it came to her, and when it did, it left her shocked and full of questions.
“Eleanor? Eleanor Masterson?”
“Yes, dear. It’s good to hear your voice…” And despite the thrill Nikki felt, the deadpan tone of Eleanor’s voice made her ill at ease.
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