Deceived

by Lynda O'Rourke

  “Are you all right, Kassidy?” asked Max.

  I breathed in deeply and turned to face him. “I’m okay… just exhausted.” That wasn’t a complete lie. I was tired. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had slept.

  “You should try and get some sleep,” said Robert, looking at me from the rear-view mirror. “While we’ve got the use of this car, it would make sense for you all to catch some sleep.”

  “I’m not sure that I can,” said Raven, leaning forward. “Not inside a haunted car.” She shuddered and rubbed her hands up and down her arms. “And besides, how can any of us sleep when we’ve got so many evil demons after us?”

  Turning the car left onto a lane, Robert said, “We’ve got some space now between us and the Cleaners. As long as we keep moving, we’ll be all right. As for the two who stayed behind, well, let’s hope we don’t have to see them again.”

  Feeling angry at Robert, I leant forward and said, “What do you mean?”

  “Well, they’re not exactly good company to keep now, are they? We stand a better chance without them. The sooner we destroy all those coffins, the better. And if we had them with us… they would only stand in our way.”

  “What are you trying to say, Robert?” I asked, feeling panicked. Was he assuming that when we reached Broken Cove that we were going to destroy all of the coffins? “Are you trying to tell me that we are going to kill Quint and Eras, too? You said at Doctor Langstone’s that we would destroy the coffins that meant us harm.”

  “All demons mean us harm, Kassidy,” said Robert, his green eyes peering at me through the rear-view mirror.

  “No!” I snapped. “You’re wrong! Eras won’t hurt us, and I’m sure that Quint won’t either.”

  “You’re sure, you say?” answered Robert. “Sure isn’t good enough. I’ve been on the run for so long now. I’ve only just got my brother back, and you want us to risk all the lives in this car for two demons? I don’t know you, Kassidy, but what I do know is that you must be fucking insane if you think those demons care about you.”

  “They do!” I shouted. “Tell him, Max.”

  Max shrugged his shoulders and looked nervously from me to Robert. “Well… I don’t know if I’d go as far to say that they care…”

  “Max!” I shook my head and glared at him. How could he say that?

  “Sorry, Kassidy… but… if it wasn’t for Ben and Jude—or should I call them Quint and Eras—then we wouldn’t be in this mess. They put us in danger the moment they met us. Not once did they try to stop us from having VA20 injected into our veins. You can’t really sit there and convince us that they care.”

  “Eras stayed behind with Quint so we could escape the Cleaners. They were fine about us destroying the other coffins. They’ve been helping us… I can’t believe you’re saying this?” I looked at Raven. Was there really any point in asking for her back-up? She hadn’t exactly been one for embracing anything that wasn’t human. But as I stared at her, I could see by the expression on her face that she wasn’t sure if she agreed with Max and Robert.

  “Raven… what do you think?” I asked, hoping I hadn’t read her wrong.

  Raven shrugged her shoulders and stared at her black twisted nails. “It’s true that Jude and Ben helped to get us into this and we weren’t the first volunteers, either. But I think they’re different now. I think they want to put right what they’ve done wrong… at least… I think that Jude does. Not sure I trust that demon inside Ben, though.” Raven paused for a moment and looked out the window at the passing fields and trees. “But we shouldn’t forget that they’ve been responsible for many deaths of innocent people either. They are killers… they are evil, killing demons.”

  “Yes… I’m not disputing what they’ve done… but…” I looked at Max. “We have to remember that it’s Ben and Jude inside there. We’re not just dealing with Quint and Eras. There are two people still hanging on in those bodies. How can we kill them?” I slumped back in the seat. I felt sick. I felt deceived. Deceived by Robert. And as I stared out the window, I began to question what Robert’s true motives were. What did he have to gain by killing all the demons? What if that wasn’t Robert sitting there in the driving seat? I shuddered. What if Robert was actually Doshia? He would have everything to gain then by having us destroy the coffins. And what would become of Raven, Max, and myself? We would become the Cleaners’ hosts. As I stared at the back of Robert’s head, I began to wonder what he’d been up to over the past three months since he went missing. Where had he been? We only had his word for it that he’d been in hiding and had travelled back to Strangers Hill on several occasions where he had found out about the coffins being moved to Broken Cove. I looked at Max. Surely he would have noticed if his brother didn’t seem quite right. But then again, we hadn’t exactly had much time with Robert since he’d appeared at Doctor Langstone’s. We’d been on the run. There hadn’t been time to really talk to Robert at all. So if there was anything different about Robert, it was possible that it had gone unnoticed by Max. We had, after all, been caught up in a mad panic to escape the Cleaners. Was I just being paranoid? After all, I had, at different stages of our escape from Cruor Pharma, believed that all of my friends had maybe been Doshia, or at least been possessed by a demon. My trust had been broken on so many occasions; Jude, mainly, when I’d found out the truth about him and the role he’d played in my mother’s death. Everyone and everything seemed out to get us. There was no wonder, really, why all I felt was suspicion. Especially for someone new to our group. But still, I didn’t like Robert’s plan and I knew now that when we reached Broken Cove, I would do everything I could to stop him from killing Ben and Jude. I had to. Demons or not, I cared about them and I believed that they cared about us.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Ben

  Now I leave you. Those words bounced around inside my head like a ping-pong ball. My body rigid, lay flat to the cold ground, held down by Eras. I could feel Quint move. My insides seemed to be shifting in all directions like sand being washed away by a wave. I tried to move, but still had no power over my limbs.

  “Quint! I gasped, please… you can’t do this… you can’t leave me. Not now… you can hold back the Cleaners with Eras… and then… then… we can all leave together. We can catch up with Kassidy… we can destroy the coffins together. You and Eras don’t have to die, and neither does Etta.” I closed my eyes as I felt my legs go numb. Quint was moving out. I could feel him in my stomach, shifting in my chest, crushing my lungs, and I could hear him in my head. I could see what he was seeing in his mind. Etta—Kassidy—Etta—Kassidy. His head was consumed with the love he had for Etta and the desperation he felt at catching up with Kassidy. And then I saw him as Mathew; standing with his brother, Adam. Mathew looked no older than ten. Adam clung onto his brother’s arm; a small suitcase beside him and a teddy bear clutched in his other hand. I could see the tears in Adam’s eyes as he looked upon a large stately manor. It was their new home, their uncle’s home. And then the scene changed again. A dark room—maybe some underground crypt or perhaps a basement. There were people standing in a circle; a chorus of chanting echoed off the stone walls. Flaming torches were held high as an older Mathew and Adam were pushed into the centre of the circle. A man stepped forward. I could hear Mathew pleading for his brother; begging for him to be let go. “No, Uncle… please… leave Adam… take me… just leave Adam.” And then it was gone as quick as it had appeared. Quint shut down his memory. He didn’t want to remember—didn’t want to feel that pain again.

  From my waist down, I could feel nothing. It was like I had no legs—no stomach. My life was almost finished. Quint was going.

  I felt a sharp pain in my chest as I tried to talk. Straining for breath, I gasped, “Do you think Kassidy… will have anything to do with you… if you destroy me and turn up in another body? Do you… think she will spare your coffin… and Etta’s if you kill me? And what about your brother, Adam? Are you really going to disappear on him…
leave him here to deal with the Cleaners, alone? Are you really that empty and void of all empathy… that you could turn away from Adam?” My chest wheezed as I stared out into the fog. I was tired. So tired now. My eyes felt heavy, as my life seemed to slow. It felt as though my veins had been cut open and my existence was draining from me. My thoughts and my inner voice were slipping away. I could do no more than to let Quint go. This wasn’t a fight that I could win. This wasn’t my choice to decide. I couldn’t stop him.

  “I won’t let you leave,” shouted Eras, still holding my body down. “You have a duty. A duty to stand by your brother and do the right thing. Please… I still love you, Mathew… I always will. Don’t leave me…”

  “Mathew!” sneered Quint. “Mathew’s gone… he was taken. There is no Mathew left.”

  “I don’t believe you,” cried Eras. “I can still feel Adam in me. He’s still here… so is Jude. They live on. Somewhere deep inside… their souls linger and I know you feel the same. I know you still hear who you once were.”

  Quint fell silent and the movement inside my body lay still. I closed my eyes and waited. Was Quint finally listening to Eras? Was he at last hearing the voice of who he once was? Was Mathew speaking out to him? Were the pleas from his younger brother, Adam, finally breaking into his heart of stone? I opened my eyes and saw that Eras now knelt beside me. His shadowy form had shrunk back and he looked more like Jude.

  “Are you still with me, Ben?”

  “Huh?” my eyelids fluttered. The churning of the fog, and the twisting and shifting in my head confused me. “Who’s there?” Had that been Jude asking, or had that been Quint? All I knew was that I felt tired. My life was slipping through my fingers as I lay on the cold ground; fog swirling around me.

  Touching me on my shoulder and shaking me gently, Jude, or maybe it was Eras, whispered, “Can you hear me, Ben? Are you still there?”

  I nodded my head. It seemed all I could do. My strength had waned and it appeared that I hung somewhere between life and death; waiting on Quint to either leave me or stay.

  Moving closer to me, he continued to speak, “I wish I could stop Quint from doing this. If I could, I would take on your body and let you live on, Ben. Even if I do get jealous of you. But I can’t. I’m not a strong enough demon to live on inside two bodies.”

  Trying to muster up what little strength I had left, I whispered, “Don’t give up… keep pleading with… with Quint… I don’t want to die… I need to be with Kassidy… I promised…I promised her I would meet her… at Broken Cove… I…” I trailed off. My breathing was heavy and my chest constricted.

  “He won’t listen to me,” said Eras. “I could be Jude, I could be Eras… I could be Adam… but still… my pleas fall on deaf ears.”

  “Please… you have to keep trying,” I wheezed. “Think about Kassidy. She’ll want to know why you didn’t save me… she’ll never forgive you… if I die.” I broke off, but not because of my vanishing strength this time. It was because of the fog behind Eras had changed. The white swirls had darkened and the silence was broken by the sound of creaking. “Eras!” I gasped. “They’re here… the Cleaners… they’ve come.”

  My body seemed to convulse as Quint, who had remained dormant inside of me, decided to move again. Was he staying or was this his final move to leave me for good?

  Eras sprang up and spun round on his heels. His dark shadow stretched and twisted until he looked more like black matter shifting amongst the fog. His movements seemed unstable as the thick, black shadows swiped through the mist. The Cleaners stepped out from their lair, creaking as they came. Eras reached out and knocked them back. But within a second they were back, undeterred by Eras.

  “For fuck’s sake, Quint!” I rasped. “Help him… help Eras… help your brother!” I stared wide-eyed at the Cleaners as they came forward like ghosts on the air; arms stretched out and covered with gloves to above the elbows. Their black leather aprons were wet, and I swallowed down hard as the liquid that dripped from them left puddles of blood on the ground. They had just killed. I felt my heart leap up into my throat. Who had they killed? “Come on, Quint,” I urged. “That blood could be Kassidy’s or one of the other volunteers’!”

  I flinched as a Cleaner came toward me. It leant over me as I lay paralysed on the ground. Drips of blood fell upon my face as it stared down at me over its surgical mask. But as it reached out, Eras, swiped at it with one of his shadowy tendrils whilst holding back the rest of the Cleaners. But to my dismay, I stared in horror as Eras was lifted up off the ground and smothered in gloved hands, pulling and tearing at him.

  “He’s gonna die!” I called out. “Quint, he needs you… I need you!”

  All of a sudden, my legs had movement. My lungs could breathe. I felt myself stand and could only watch as a bystander as Quint finally stirred into action. My limbs seemed to expand as I watched my own hands wrench Eras from the grip of the Cleaners. I saw Eras tumble to the ground. The very earth seemed to tremble as the Cleaners flew back into the fog just from the stare of Quint. I felt anger; Quint’s anger surge through me. The fog turned black and the air seemed to scream. The dead cried out; the ground appeared to come alive with the Cleaners’ victims as they crawled and dragged their limbs over the cold earth to escape their captors. I felt my stomach knot as a dismembered head came rolling out from the fog, its headless body scuttling after it. It was Cropper.

  “No time to be squeamish, Ben,” spoke Quint, as he reached down and snatched Cropper’s head.

  I stared, repulsed at the sight of Cropper’s head, my own hands holding onto the sides of his face. I wanted to drop it. Cropper’s eyes bulged out at me; his scalped head with its flaps of flesh hanging over my fingers sent sheer terror right through me. If this wasn’t hell, then I could only begin to imagine how terrifying the real place was.

  “Get rid of it!” I yelled to Quint. “Drop it, I don’t want to hold it!” I closed my eyes as my stomach continued to twist. I knew all about the hellish things that Quint had done. I would usually come back to myself, hands covered in blood, but not remembering what had happened. But this was the closest I had ever been to seeing the hell that Quint lived in. I was awake; I was here and this was now. How Quint could be amongst a nightmare and it not faze him at all was beyond me. But he was the demon and I wasn’t. I snapped open my eyes as the head seemed to move. I heard myself yell out as Cropper rolled his eyes around in their bloody sockets. I tried to hold my arms out to keep the head as far away from me as possible, but I had no control over myself. As Eras came and stood beside me, the Cleaners came back. I could feel myself smile and my eyes narrow. Whatever Quint had in mind, it seemed to be amusing him. I watched, helpless, as my arms stretched out and smashed Cropper’s head with such force onto the ground that it crunched and splattered like an egg. Lumps of grey brain sprayed up onto my trousers; my right leg lifted and then it came down fast and crushed what was left of Cropper’s head. I gagged as the skull splintered even more and my foot suddenly felt the squashy mixture of brain and blood.

  Turning to Eras, Quint said, “That should keep the Cleaners happy for a short time. Now we leave. There’s no time to waste.”

  The Cleaners came back, but this time, they weren’t interested in us. The crushed head, scattered across the ground, seemed to drag them in like a pack of wild dogs. They huddled close to the ground and began to feed upon the remains of Cropper’s head. I felt myself turn and walk away as Quint left; Eras close beside me.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Kassidy

  We had been on the road for some time. Robert had stayed off the main routes and kept to the back roads and lanes. I had drifted in and out of a troubled sleep. My dreams had been unsettled with dark images and figures, and no matter how hard I had tried to escape them in my sleep, I hadn’t been able to outrun them.

  Feeling uneasy, I tried to focus on our surroundings as we drove through a small country village with its thatched cottages and church. The locals we
re going about their business, maybe some were heading home as the evening drew in and I shook my head in disbelief that no one seemed to have a clue as to what was really happening—how there could be demons and dead people existing alongside us. I wanted to lean out of the car window and scream at them all, Open your fucking eyes… can’t you see what’s really happening? Don’t you see it…? It’s not just us living here… there are monsters… demons… and they’re coming for you! But then my eyes fell upon the grisly sight of my hands and nails. Who would believe me? Who would take me seriously looking like I’d just come back from some drug-injecting mad session? And then I turned to look at Raven. No. No one would believe us. And even if they did—what would they do—what could they do? And it wouldn’t take them long before they turned on us, believing us to be demons, too. I shrunk back in my seat. I didn’t want to see those people anymore. I didn’t want to look upon their happy lives when mine was in ruin—teetering on the edge of going under. I couldn’t bear to see their smiling faces and listen to their conversations about what holiday they were going on and how big a house they owned and what wonderful parents they had. No. It made me feel sick. It made me feel bitter. Why couldn’t I have that? Why couldn’t my life be so happy? Why couldn’t I at least have parents? Surely that wasn’t too much to ask? I felt like screaming. I had nothing.

  That’s right, Kassidy. So you should feel like that. Those people deserve to die. They don’t give a shit about you. They’d sooner spit on you and throw you to the dogs than have their lovely lives disrupted.

  I closed my eyes and inwardly groaned at the voice that had spoken. They had been silent for a while, and I’d kind of hoped that I’d left them behind at Doctor Langstone’s. But no, they had followed me, or rather travelled inside of me. It seemed there was no escape from their poison. Ignoring them, I stared ahead and looked out the windscreen at the road ahead. I already felt bad enough—resentful. I didn’t need more of that seeping into my thoughts. But the voices continued to eat away at me.