Dale began breathing heavily, snorting air out of his nostrils like a bull about to charge. His eyes began to glow a soft blue again. “Kill me before I kill you,” he said, and his words were a mix of his real voice and that of the thing inside.
“Don’t have to ask me twice!”
At the sound of the voice, Dale turned his head just in time to meet the bat.
It connected with his right temple and sent him keeling over onto his side. He hissed like a viper and started to rise, but then the bat came down again, and the crack of his skull was as loud as a firecracker.
“Sonofabitch!” Steve screamed, standing over Dale’s prone form and bringing the bat down again and again. At least a dozen blows. The whole time he was crying and shouting.
“You murderous bastard! I trusted you—I was your friend, you cock-sucking psycho!”
Emilio got to his feet, wobbled for a few seconds, then hurried over and grabbed Steve’s arm as he brought the bat up for another swing.
Steve whirled around and for a moment he looked like he might attack Emilio. But then the rage cleared from his eyes. He swayed as if he might faint then said, “Connie,” and hurried over to where she lay, dropping the bat.
Emilio glanced down at Dale’s body.
A body. That was all it was now. No longer a vessel. And no longer Dale.
He turned away and looked at Steve and Connie. “Is she…?”
“She’s still breathing. I think she just passed out from the pain and the shock, but we have to get her to a hospital right away.”
“I’ll call 911,” Emilio said, searching for his phone which he’d dropped in the scuffle with Dale. He found it in a deep puddle. Snatched it up. It was ruined. “Shit, you have your phone, Steve?”
Steve looked blank for a moment, as if he didn’t understand the question. He hovered over Connie but seemed afraid to move her or even touch her.
“Phone?” Emilio repeated. “Do you have your phone?”
“Huh? Oh yeah, here.” Steve pulled out his cell and tossed it to Emilio, who barely managed to catch it. “I knew something was fishy about this whole situation as soon as Connie told me what you guys were doing. No way I was going to wait fifteen minutes for her to call me back. I grabbed my bat and headed straight over here.”
Emilio wasn’t really listening. He dialed 911 as he walked around the side of the church, staring across the street at the Quarry.
The rain caused the surface to ripple and churn as if an angry leviathan thrashed beneath the water.
He told the operator where they were and asked her to send an ambulance right away. And he wondered if it was truly over.
Epilogue
Standing Guard
October 15, 2010
THE TWO STUDENTS giggled as they made their way past the dining hall, taking the hill at a jog and then slowing down as they approached the gate in the fence.
“Maybe we shouldn’t be doing this,” the girl said, wrapping her arms around herself though it wasn’t particularly cold.
The boy rolled his eyes. “Don’t be chickenshit. It’s not like we’re going for a dip or anything. We’re just going to make out by the lake. What could be more romantic?”
“Romantic? A lake where some crazy guy dumped all those bodies last year?”
“What, scared one of the corpses is going to jump up and grab you? Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.”
“Why don’t we just go back to your room?”
“Because my roommate is super religious. He doesn’t even like me hanging up my Jessica Alba poster.”
The girl looked out at the water, which was smooth as a tabletop. “This place gives me the creeps.”
“You think it’s haunted?” the boy asked with a laugh.
“Maybe. Enough people have died in the lake, that’s for sure.”
“It used to be a mine, you know. Then way back in the forties or some shit, the miners tapped into an underground spring and the thing flooded in minutes, buried all their equipment and trucks and everything.”
“Is that true?”
“If I’m lying, I’m dying.”
“Let’s just go somewhere else, I don’t like it here.”
“Shh, you’re trembling,” the boy said, wrapping his arms around her. “Let me warm you up.”
He went in for the kiss, and she closed her eyes and parted her lips, but then a light shone into his eyes and he heard someone say, “What are you kids doing down here?”
The boy used his hand as a shield and saw the third shift security guard approaching, keeping the light purposefully in the boy’s eyes.
“Nothing, officer,” he said sarcastically. “Just taking a little campus tour.”
“This area is off limits. The Quarry is a dangerous place.”
“Give me a break, man. We’re not going in the water. Just enjoying the view, if you know what I’m saying.”
The guard didn’t say anything for a moment. He was close enough now that the boy could see his expression was hard and unyielding, devoid of humor or warmth. Finally, he cleared his throat and said, “I think you two better get back up to the dorms. It isn’t safe around here.”
The boy laughed, the sound mocking in the night, but he took the girl by the arm and led her past the guard. As they started up the hill he turned to her and said in a stage-whisper, not really caring if the guard heard or not, “Did you hear about that freak?”
The girl glanced over her shoulder at the guard. “What?”
“He was a student here last year. Was friends with that schizo that killed all those people. After it all went down, he dropped out of school and took the job as guard. They say he’s a little batshit.”
The boy laughed again as he and the girl disappeared around the front corner of the dining hall.
* * *
Emilio stood rigid, staring after the students until they were out of sight. Then he turned and walked to the water’s edge. His life had changed a lot since May. His entire existence now revolved around his job, and his job as he saw it was to keep people away from the Quarry, to make sure that thing deep under the waters never got the chance to escape.
His Uncle Rory called him at least once a month, demanding to know why he’d dropped out of school, why he was working a menial job, but he couldn’t explain it to his uncle. Rory would never understand. He had to do this, because there was no one else.
It was a lonely life, consisting only of work and days spent alone in his apartment, a studio in a rundown complex inhabited mostly by people on government assistance.
No friends, no lovers, no family.
Connie and Steve chose not to return to Limestone. They transferred elsewhere.
And Norman was gone.
Sweet Norman…
His body had been found in the church basement, shot in the gut just like the Dale-thing had said.
And a part of Emilio had died with him.
Those who had known Emilio when he was a student avoided him now, even the professors.
It would be so easy to just pack up and leave Gaffney, start a new life somewhere else, try to forget the horrors that had happened here, but his sense of responsibility was too strong.
He was the only one who truly knew what lurked in the Quarry. And his duty was clear.
Eventually it would die.
He’d learned that much from the flashes he’d gotten when it attempted to take control of his mind and body.
But the creature had a lifespan longer than a mortal could really comprehend.
How long?
He didn’t know. But he assumed that his was a life sentence…
…waiting and watching…
Standing guard.
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The Quarry Page 21