by Hunter Shea
Every family had their secrets.
The Leeds family had harbored what to most people was an amusing legend.
Until now.
Something was different this time around, though. Even all the Leedses in the world couldn’t sweep this under the rug.
Rocking in his seat, Sam looked to him and said, “You just wanted us to weed out the young ones, didn’t you?”
“Your anger and desperation seemed a good fit to the task that had to be done. Look, I’m sorry about what’s happened to your family. I really am. But you have to remember, this is my family we’re talking about. You can’t erase three hundred years. Things run too damn deep for that.”
Sam leaned in close so the others couldn’t hear, lowering his voice to just above a whisper. “If you were the last of your line, I’d kill you right where you sit, Gordon. Wipe everything clean. Short of that, I’ll just take care of your family’s dirty little secret. Future generations of the Leeds family will thank me.”
Leeds returned a cutting glare. His rifle was safely stowed away. If he made one menacing move, there’d be hell to pay before he could draw a breath.
“You won’t find him now,” Leeds said, leaning back in his seat with a look of grim satisfaction. “He’s smart. He knows enough to hide now. All you’ll find out there are what’s left of his twisted kin.”
“I think you’re wrong,” Daryl said. He was holding his side, a sleeping Jane leaning against him. “This isn’t like all those other times. First, as long as we’re out here, it’ll be drawn to us. We have Jane and the girls, which it wants. And there’s one more thing I saw that I think explains what’s been going on.”
April turned around from the front seat. “What was it?”
“Jane tricked me into falling into this pit. It was deep and filled with all kinds of bones—animal and some human. I think it’s where these things have gone to feed. In that pit, I saw empty barrels, you know, the kind of steel drums that factories use to seal up and transport liquids and stuff. They had all kinds of signs about the contents being toxic. If I’m right, the Jersey Devil and all those other things have been feeding from it. Maybe it’s done something to their brains. The Devil’s never killed before, but that’s no longer the case. I think whatever was in those barrels altered them. It may also be why there are so many of them. You know when doctors mess with women at fertility clinics, a lot of times they have twins or triplets? Maybe that’s what’s been going on here. Whatever was in those barrels is creating multiples.”
“Even with that, she couldn’t have given birth to all of them,” April said. “There’s just no way.”
Jane murmured something, her eyes still closed. Daryl bent his ear closer to her mouth.
“What did she say?” Heather asked. She and Daniela were wrapped in a foil shock blanket April had found in the first-aid kit.
“I said there were five of us,” Jane grumbled. She still leaned into Daryl, looking like she was asleep.
Sam, wanting to seize on one of her lucid moments, asked, “There were five of who, honey?”
“Women. It kept us there. Whenever we tried to escape, it’s like it knew ahead of time. We’d be punished. It got to where we were too scared to even try anymore. But I knew, it was sent for me. For what I did to my husband. I had to endure, to set things straight. Hell is here, not after we die.”
Everyone held their breath, waiting for her to continue. They’d be at the hospital pretty soon. Sam had to know the rest before they let her go.
“Where are the others?” he asked.
She flicked her hand. “Dead. They couldn’t handle it. The babies. So many of them. They hurt when they come out. Sometimes you bleed a lot. Not me. I was stronger. Always twins. One time, triplets. It wasn’t so bad. They didn’t stay in for long. Not long at all. They grow so fast, inside and out, you know? Nursing was harder. Too many mouths. When the others died, it was only me. But I miss them. And I’m afraid of them.”
Her eyes flew open and she clutched Daryl’s arm. “Take me to them! Take me to my babies!”
Heather and Daniela backed as far away as they could from Jane, afraid of what she might do. Norm did his best to pry her hands from Daryl. Sam saw the wild look returning to her eyes. They could take her from the forest, get the docs to patch her up, destroy the monster that had done this to her, but she would never be free. If she was lucky, she’d spend her days in an institution, too drugged up to remember.
“I knew something was wrong,” Leeds said, shaking his head. “Toxic waste. And here all I thought people dumped in the Barrens were bodies.”
“You still feel the need to protect it?” Sam asked. “Knowing that its brain may be fried?”
“I don’t rightfully know. He comes from a power greater than anything on earth. We’ve safeguarded him mostly out of fear—fear of what he could become if we didn’t keep him to the shadows. Maybe he’s impervious to whatever we can cook up. The same can’t be said for his offspring and, because of that, I hope you can finish what you started. But I don’t think you’ll get him in the end. We’ll be dust and bones before he ever shows his head again.”
“Don’t be so sure,” Sam said. “It appears your rule book no longer applies.”
The van swerved hard to the left.
“We’re here,” Ben announced, coming to a shock-rocking stop.
He pulled right up to the hospital’s emergency room entrance, the front bumper just missing a cement pole. “April and I can get some wheelchairs.”
“I’d prefer to walk,” Heather said.
“It’s better if we wheel you in,” Ben said, jumping out of the van with his sister close behind.
Jane was wide awake now and struggling. “No! No! Take me back! Take me back!”
Daryl tried in vain to soothe her. “You asked me for help. Remember? They’re going to take good care of you and keep you safe. We’ll find your babies. You’re going to be all right now.”
It took Sam, Daryl and Norm to get her out of the van. Sam held on to her wrists. She kicked at his balls, her foot just missing. When the hospital staff saw the struggle, two male orderlies came rushing out.
“She’s not in her right mind,” Sam said. One look at the dirty, wild-eyed woman confirmed it. The orderlies were wide and strong, providing the needed muscle to get her in the wheelchair.
They had just strapped her arms to the chair when the sound of breaking glass brought them all to a stop.
Sam looked to the source of the sound and felt his stomach fall to the floor.
Chapter Forty-two
Heather watched the Jersey Devil smash through the glass enclosure above the emergency room entrance. Its thrashing wings pelted shattered bits of glass at them like studded hailstones. Landing between her and April, the monster emitted a soul-quaking shriek, then cast its horrid gaze to Jane and the men working to keep her in the chair.
A security guard and one policeman burst from the doors, guns drawn, shouting something that she couldn’t make out.
We’ll never get away from it.
Heather’s heart sank. Daniela dropped to the ground, curling up in a ball, head turned away from the creature.
“Don’t shoot,” April screamed. “You’ll hit one of them.”
“Just stay back!” the cop commanded her.
The Jersey Devil slowly stomped toward Jane, its hooves clomping on the hard concrete. The heat of the sun bounced off its leathery skin in undulating waves. Heather saw that a portion of one of its wings had been punctured. It was covered in dried blood.
“Stay away from me!” Jane wailed. “Don’t touch me! Please, leave me alone!”
The orderlies, seeing the image of a true devil from their childhood textbooks, turned to run back into the hospital. The Jersey Devil swiped at them with a wing, clotheslining them at the neck. They fell backwards, their skulls crunching. At the ghastly sound, two of the smaller creatures came swooping down, eager to clamp their mouths on the soft tiss
ue of their faces.
One of them had the face of a miniature horse, the long face shortened somewhat, leather stretched over sharp bone, stained crimson. The other looked almost human, with a flatter face, elongated nose and chin that were the beginnings of a deformed snout. Its eyes were closer together than the others she’d seen. The sight of it made her skin crawl.
“Boompa, Norm, get the hell into the van!” Ben shouted, rushing to the other side of the van.
Daryl took wild shots at the creatures as they sped overhead.
“We can’t leave her,” the old man said, facing the creature. His left hand flexed into a fist.
“What the hell are those things?” the security guard stammered. His gun jittered wildly.
The cop pulled the trigger, the bullet grazing the monster’s shoulder. Specks of blood and flesh filled the air, along with a noxious odor. With lightning speed, the creature spun, diving at the man like a torpedo. It rammed into his midsection, the force so great, he was cleaved in half. To Heather’s eternal horror, the bottom half of the cop spun into her, bathing her legs in gore.
The Devil circled around, landing in front of Jane, who was strapped to the chair.
Ben emerged from the side door of the van, brandishing the biggest gun Heather had ever seen.
“We have to get out of here,” Heather said to Daniela, trying to lift her up. “Come on. We’ll be safer inside!”
The sound of a man screaming in pain brought Daniela back to her feet. Ben’s arm was in the Devil’s grip, the gun on the floor. It twisted his arm, bringing him to his knees. April brushed past Heather, almost knocking her down. She let out a guttural cry, launching herself onto the back of the creature, taking it by surprise. It spun in a circle, wings extending, hitting April, trying to break her free.
Of everyone out here, the crazy woman, Jane, was in the most danger. For one, the creature was fixated on her. If what everyone had been saying was true, it would need her to make more of those horrible monsters. Second, she was tied down to the chair, unable to defend herself or even run away.
Heather had to help her.
“Stay right here,” she said to Daniela.
While the creatures were distracted, she ran to Jane, getting behind the wheelchair.
“What are you d-doing?” the TV crypto guy said. He had a rifle aimed at the spinning Devil, but didn’t dare take a shot.
“Getting her inside!”
Heather pushed the chair around the struggling monster, April still on its back, now biting at its neck like a wild animal.
When Daniela saw her coming, her face hardened with lucidity. She ran to hold the emergency room door open. To both their disappointment, the way was blocked by a throng of people—patients, doctors, nurses and other personnel—all of them too stunned to step aside and let them in.
“Get the hell out of the way!” Heather screamed.
No one moved. Not a single one.
Shots were fired. She jumped, twisting to see if the heavily armed Willets had done what they’d come to do.
The old man and the TV guy were on the ground, pinned by the smaller creatures. Daryl was bounced off the hood of the van by one of the creatures, holding his head, dazed. April was on her knees as well, blood running down her arm. The Jersey Devil turned to Ben, who had broken free and now stood in the doorway of the van, holding a gun with his left hand. The beast rocketed into the van, it and Ben disappearing from sight. The van tilted, close to landing on its side from the impact.
In a flash, the creature was back, leering at Jane, Heather and Daniela.
It walked past April without giving her so much as a passing glance. She swiped at it, missing.
“Let me out of here!” Jane screamed, her arms struggling to be free. Heather backed away, her eyes never leaving the advancing creature, but avoiding its dead eyes.
“Everyone move aside!” Daniela shouted at the people clogging up the entrance to the emergency room.
But it was too late.
* * *
April watched, helpless, her arm numb from the bullet that had passed through her bicep, as the Jersey Devil grabbed the wheelchair with Jane in it. It shot straight up, high over the hospital while people poured from the building to see where it had gone.
Jane’s cries faded the farther it flew, until they couldn’t hear her at all.
The smaller ones left Boompa and Norm, circling around their father in the sky.
It was eerily silent around the emergency room entrance ramp, despite being crowded with terrified people. April saw one old woman, holding a bloody bandage to her hand, totter and almost fall from craning her neck so far back to watch the creature. She got up to steady the woman.
“You need to go inside and sit down,” she said.
“It . . . it took that poor woman.”
“And it’ll take you, too, if you don’t get to safety.” April spoke sharply to the crowd. “That goes for everyone. You need to get inside before it comes back.”
Ben placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry, sis. I thought I had it.”
He took a rag and tied it over the wound. The pain wasn’t as bad as April thought it would be. “You could have shot me in worse places.”
“Look out!” someone shouted.
Suddenly, people were running in every direction.
Boompa looked up and muttered, “Christ in heaven.”
The wheelchair, with a screaming Jane, came plummeting back to earth. It landed on top of several people scrambling to get out of the way. They came apart like overripe fruit, juices squirting everywhere. The wheelchair, and Jane, flattened. The loud crunch of bones sounded like a lumberyard of wooden beams snapping at once. Jane’s head landed in her lap, still attached to her body, no longer encumbered by a solid bone structure to keep it in place. Both eyes had exploded from the sockets.
The Devils plunged within the melee, raking at heads, biting at limbs. In seconds, the area had been turned into a bloodbath. Boompa grabbed April’s good arm, dragging her into the van.
“We can’t hide in here,” she said.
“We’re not hiding,” he replied, handing her a Beretta. “We have to clear those bastards out of here.”
She noticed Gordon Leeds on the floor of the van, blood leaking from his ears. Boompa felt his neck for a pulse.
“He’s dead. Must have borne the brunt of Ben and the Devil’s weight when they crashed in here.”
One of the seats had been ripped from its mounting, half of it on Leeds’s chest.
“One less person to defend that damn thing,” April said. As much as she wanted to hate Gordon Leeds, there was a part of her that pitied the man, sworn to a family oath that was bigger than he’d ever be.
April, Boompa, Daryl, Norm and Ben emerged from the van with enough firepower to turn the Devils to paste.
The only problem was getting a clear shot would be next to impossible. The Jersey Devil was fast, unnaturally so, making quick work of everyone around it. Heads were twisted ninety degrees, throats slashed, limbs torn off. All the while, its mad children took turns feasting at the human buffet.
April could swear they were getting bigger the more they ate.
Heather and Daniela were on the ground, dazed. It looked as if they’d been swarmed over by a stampede. The doors were closed tight, others pounding on the glass to be let inside. Whoever was left alive ran up the ramp, screaming, casting wary glances behind them, waiting for the monsters to pursue them.
Norm took a shot at one of the smaller ones, but it jumped away, taking to the sky. The bullet buried itself in the cooling carcass of a woman in a bloodstained nurse’s uniform, most of her face missing.
“Dammit!” he cursed, aiming for the other, the one that looked like a cross between a child with Down syndrome and a goat. It took to the sky, disappearing over the hospital.
The Jersey Devil remained grounded, savaging anyone in its path. When it spotted Heather and Daniela, it bounded atop them, dragging
them to their feet by their hair.
They raised their guns at the creature, not daring to pull the trigger lest they hit the women. Both twisted under its grasp, trying to pull free. Daniela went limp. The weight of her body, married with gravity, caused her hair to pull out at the roots. The tearing sound set April’s teeth on edge. Daniela rolled free, the bloody ends of her scalp dangling in the Devil’s grip.
Instead of running, she faced the monster, bringing her knee up hard into its groin.
It didn’t affect the beast in the slightest.
Instead, it smiled, revealing hideously rotten teeth, before tearing out her throat.
Daniela staggered back, hands at the raw meat of her neck, blood hissing between fingers.
“No!” Heather screamed, reaching out for her friend.
Daniela’s eyes turned up in her head and she collapsed, her life pumping out of her in syncopation with the last beats of her heart.
Boompa and Ben opened fire at the right side of the monster, now that it no longer held Daniela. With an easy flick of its wings, it zipped aside unscathed.
It clutched Heather directly in front of its body.
What April saw next made her throat burn with volcanic bile.
The Devil’s coarse, mangled penis rose from between Heather’s legs. She was lifted inches off the ground by its turbid protrusion.
Boring its vile gaze into April, it said in a voice as deep as a canyon and old as time itself, “For you.”
Chapter Forty-three
Sam Willet felt lightning bolts of pain arc across his chest.
Not now, you son of a bitchin’heart!
The Jersey Devil spoke!
Maybe Gordon Leeds was right. It was as much human as it was monster.
The poor girl in its arms looked about ready to faint, and he couldn’t blame her. They were at a standoff. At this close range, with five people with their fingers on their triggers, even by chance, one of them was going to hit their mark. And it knew it, which is why it was using the girl as a shield.
“Put the girl down,” Sam said, his voice even, stronger than he felt. He didn’t know if it was possible to will a heart attack away, but he was damn well trying his best right now.