Close your eyes, p.21
Close Your Eyes, page 21
Please heal me, my Lord. Heal your humble servant.
Let me stand by your side as you conquer this world.
Bub didn’t heal him.
Bub ate him.
Starting at his feet, so Jake was able to feel every terrible bite and crunch, every bone splinter, every artery tear, every awful chew until the devil’s fangs finally munched their way up to Jake’s still beating heart and popped it like a steak-filled water balloon.
KATIE
SAME TIME…
Charging up the fire tower stairs, freaked out by the giant insects bombarding her bee suit but determined to get to Duncan, Katie used the boat horn to keep the divebombing horde at bay, forging a path through the wave after wave of buzzing, black horror.
With only one flight left to ascend, Katie’s lungs feeling like burning paper bags, the setting sun making the horizon look like an impressionist hellscape of red and yellow and purple pastels, something went CLANG! on the railing just ahead of her.
The steel structure vibrating under her feet, Katie stared, horrified, as the thing that used to be Lyon vaulted over the guard rail and onto the platform.
Lyon raised herself to full height, spreading out her arms, her bare skin a bloody honeycomb of scuttling, burrowing insects.
Katie dropped the air horn and raised her shotgun, bringing the butt against her shoulder. Her gloved hand found the safety and her finger poked into the trigger guard and began to apply pressure.
Somewhere inside the fear and worry, somewhere beyond the anger and hate, Katie found her voice.
“Lyon… Lyon…” Shit, what the hell am I supposed to say? “Lyon… we can… we can fix you.”
Lyon chortled, spewing blood and wiggling worms. “My whole life, people thought I needed to be fixed. That there was something wrong with me, and the only solution was to turn me into something else.”
“Kelli… you have turned into something else.”
“No, Katie. I’m the same. Only… I’m more. I’m more than I was. I’m more than you’ll ever be.”
Lyon took a step forward, and Katie took a step back.
“Don’t make me shoot you. Let me help you, Lyon. Let someone help you.”
“I tried to make your life hell, Katie. But now I’m going to make it literally hell. The world,” Lyon spread out her pocked, crooked arms. “Everything you see all around you. It’s going to end. I want you to watch it happen. I want you to watch as everything you know, everything you love, is corrupted and destroyed.”
Lyon took another step forward. Something black slurped out of her nose and hung there.
“That’s why I’m going to let you keep your eyes, Katie. To watch the world go to hell. But I’m going to tear up the rest of you. I’m going to rip up that cute little face, and tear off those cute little tits, and strip the flesh off of your arms and legs. You can watch the world end from the intensive care unit.”
Katie shook her head. “Please, Kelli. Stop. Don’t push me any farther. This is a shotgun, for God’s sake.”
“Look how scared you are. You don’t deserve Duncan. You’re weak.”
“I’ll shoot you, Kelli. I’ll—”
Lyon lunged, and it scared Katie so badly she pulled the trigger.
The shotgun boomed, punching into her shoulder, the buckshot striking Lyon square in the chest.
Lyon’s eyes got big.
But she didn’t go down.
A double ought shot to center mass from two feet away, enough to take down a black bear, did not drop her.
Lyon lunged again.
Katie pumped and fired again, buckshot tearing into her adversary’s shoulder.
Lyon showed no signs of dropping, so Katie flipped the magazine selector, pumped in a shell, and fired a full metal slug.
It hit Lyon like a sledgehammer, her chest bursting into an explosion of insects and blood and splinters of bone, and she staggered back, arms pinwheeling, smacking into the same railing she’d vaulted over.
Lyon stood there for a moment, swaying on her feet, her hands touching her own exposed, cracked ribs.
Then, in a move Katie didn’t expect, Lyon began to push her ribs pack into her chest cavity.
“I… I can’t be killed,” she wheezed. “I can’t… I can’t be stopped.” Lyon’s face became ecstatic. “I’m immortal. Duncan is mine. He’s mine!” Lyon’s mouth opened impossibly wide, her jaw unhinging like a snake. “HE’S MINE!”
And then Katie finally snapped.
Katie shot and pumped and shot and pumped and shot and Lyon went back over the rail, spitting bugs and blood and screams until her scream faded while she fell and then abruptly cut out.
Katie stared at the empty space where Lyon had been standing, and then pumped another round into the chamber.
“Get your own damn boyfriend,” Katie muttered.
Then she hurried up the last flight of stairs to get to Duncan.
SUN
SAME TIME…
Her AR-15 slung tight and shouldered, Sun navigated between the trees while keeping five meters parallel to the shoreline, sweeping left to right, rock-steady as she walked heel-to-toe, moving slow and stealthy toward the fire tower.
She and Andy had been drilling for years. It became part of the weekly routine, like exercise and yoga and cold water baths. Practice lockdown. Practice shooting. Practice walking with a firearm and keeping steady.
I don’t like doing it, but I appreciate the end result.
Sun kept quiet, but she stopped every fifteen steps to listen, and to sniff. Demons had an odor, a sort of mixture between livestock and the sulfur dioxide of a lightning strike. While she hadn’t truly been expecting Bub to be on Lake Niboowin, in his full-sized demonic form, the smell was unmistakable.
The odor is definitely here.
That, and a coppery smell.
Blood.
Ahead of her, she spotted something reddish.
A human leg. Wearing the same boot Leo was wearing.
Rather than call for him, Sun paused again, keenly listening for any movement.
She heard nothing. No insects. No forest noises. Even the sounds from the fire tower—the boat horn and shouting—had stopped.
I should go back.
I came here to help Duncan and his friends. I’m not currently equipped to deal with something as powerful as Bub.
I thought this was a rescue mission dealing with mutated bugs and a mutated stalker, not a full-fledged demon hunt.
Through the bee suit, Sun felt something lightly tap her shoulder.
A leaf falling, or a drop of rain. Maybe a bug.
It was none of the above.
She looked up, and saw what was left of Leo, tangled in the branches ten feet above her.
Then the stench hit, burning her nostrils. Not the stench of poor Leo, but of something much larger.
“Bub,” she said, her heart launching into a drum solo.
“Hellooooooooooooo, Suuuuuuuuun.”
Trees parted, and the devil stepped out into the path. Smaller than his usual version, only two meters tall, perhaps three hundred pounds.
Still large enough to tear through a stadium full of people.
Still too large for me to handle.
Bub had fine red fur on his upper body, black fur on his lower body, and had horns and claws and hooves. He resembled an evil version of the Greek god, Pan.
Sun aimed for his left eyeball. She knew Bub’s anatomy. Long ago she spent an extended amount of time studying him. His eye socket was one of his few vulnerable spots.
But her hands kept shaking, and she couldn’t get a clean shot.
I need to make him stand still until I can get my panic under control.
I need to stall.
“How many times are we going to do this dance, Bub?” Sun tried to keep her voice steady, but a tremor still crept in. “You keep finding ways to come back. You make some insane new plan. We stop you. It always ends the same.”
“Not this tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime.”
Bub suddenly sprang at her, and Sun stood her ground, remaining planted while she aimed best as she could. She put four in his head before he swatted the gun out of her hands and picked Sun up by her shoulders, claws digging in under her armpits, dangling her several feet above the ground.
She stared into his red eyes. Goat’s eyes. The right one soaked with blood.
I hit his eye.
But I didn’t hit his brain.
At least, not yet.
Surprised by her own calm, Sun raised both feet, pressing them against Bub’s chest as if trying to shove him away, but instead reaching for Mr. Drummond, the KA-BAR knife in her ankle holster. She drew it and brought the fixed blade up, stabbing with all she had at Bub’s eyeball—
—and missing when the demon flinched, plunging the knife into his snout instead.
Bub shook his head like a wet bear, yanking the knife from her wrist, and snorted it out of his nose followed by a gooey trail of blood and snot. Then he full body trembled, a grumbling sound of thunder coming from deep in his ribcage.
He’s laughing.
He’s laughing at me.
And he’s going to keep laughing while he rips my arms out of their sockets.
Sun had one more trick to try. One last chance to distract him and maybe escape.
I need to keep him talking until I see my chance. This monster loves the sound of its own voice.
“So you came all the way to the Northwoods just to take revenge? I didn’t know Andy and I were that important.”
“Yooooooou think… I aaaaaaam heeeeeeeeeere… for yoooooooou?”
He laughed again.
Sun’s forehead creased.
Bub’s not here for us?
Then why is he on Lake Niboowin?
She pushed the thought back and did a quick body twist and grabbed Mrs. Garrett.
Mrs. Garrett was, literally, a garrote; a metal bracelet containing a retractable metal wire with a steel ring on the end. Sun had initially been put off by the idea of any weapon that strangled or choked, but Andy had shown her how quickly the wire could slice through a watermelon, and Sun decided it couldn’t hurt to have one extra layer of self defense protection,
Sun pulled the ring and wound the wire around Bub’s index claw, cinching it tight, pulling on it with her full weight.
The garrote cut into his skin, but his fingers were as wide as her wrists, and rather than cut the claw off it just seemed to mildly irritate him.
That’s it.
I’m out of moves.
Sun set her jaw, refusing to cower.
“I was gooooooooing to maaaaaake you my slaaaaaaave.” Bub belched, bathing Sun in the warm stench of rotten eggs. “But I am huuuuuuuuuuuuungryyyyyyyyyy.”
Sun tried to settle on a happy place in her head, a memory of Andy and Francis.
I’m sorry, my beautiful boys. I blew it.
All of this time to prepare, and I still blew it.
Forgive me.
Maybe we’ll see each other again…
Bub lifted Sun higher and opened his mouth wide, like a drawer full of serrated steak knives, and Sun began to kick and scream as all calm and hope and pleasant thoughts left her body, replaced by the wild, hysterical, animal panic of her horrible, inevitable, messy death.
LEO
SAME TIME…
Damn. That guy can hit.
Leo woke up tangled in a tree, minus two legs.
Directly beneath him, Bub held Sun, ready to shove her directly into his gaping, ugly mouth.
Awful way to go.
But that’s not my fight.
The Tug wants me to keep going west.
I can hide out up here until Bub finishes eating, hunt for my legs, and get to wherever I’m supposed to go without having to get killed by the power-mad demon trying to conquer the world.
So that’s what Leo decided to do. Nothing at all.
And then his brain did one of those stupid movie montage clichés where he remembered specific moments from the past few days.
Or more precisely, specific people who said specific things.
Mary Streng: “We can solve every problem in the world with kindness.”
Katie: “Just try to be a decent person, okay?”
Andy: “Protect them. We’re brothers. We were both possessed by Bub. We’re possessed bros.”
Francis: “Do something good. Be the good guy.”
Sun: “Die saving our lives. Then we’ll trust you.”
And while those memories moved Leo, they didn’t prompt him to action.
Then his brain dredged up an old scene of Leo with his stepdad. Bringing up a memory of childhood. One of the only good memories he had, playing a game of catch on the front lawn. He kept dropping the baseball, getting more and more frustrated with himself. And Leo’s adopted father, usually an abusive asshole, gave him the advice he’d shared with Katie earlier.
Sometimes you climb the hill. Sometimes you slide down the hill. As long as you’re staying on the hill, you’re doing okay.
So…
So maybe we can solve every problem in the world with kindness.
Maybe I can be a decent person.
Maybe I can protect Sun.
Maybe I can help my brother.
Maybe I can be the good guy.
Even if I die trying.
I’m staying on the hill.
I’m staying on this hill.
I may die on this hill. But I’m staying.
Leo looked at the grinder, still attached to his wrist by the strap, and stared down at Bub.
“Hey! Asshole! I got something for you to eat!”
Bub looked up—
—and Leo pushed himself off the tree and plummeted like a skydiver, his grinder whirring.
Bub immediately dropped Sun and moved to swat Leo away, but Sun clung to the demon’s wrist by the garrote long enough for Leo to land on his horns, impaling himself through his stomach. Stuck there, Leo attacked with the angle grinder, carving up Bub’s bloody eye, then working his way to Bub’s upper lip and down the side of his huge mouth.
Bub howled, trying to shake Leo free, but Leo continued to tear into the flesh under Bub’s jaw, then up the opposite side, and his original crazy intention actually worked.
I cut his mouth off.
I cut his goddamn mouth off.
Try eating without a mouth, motherfucker.
Bub managed to get free of Sun and yank Leo off his horn while his other hand felt around for jaws that were no longer there; they were on the ground in two large chunks.
The demon howled, his black tongue lashing through the air, and then Sun was firing her rifle into Bub’s face and Bub dropped Leo and went bounding into the woods.
Leo hurt.
He hurt bad.
But that didn’t stop him from cracking the biggest smile of his life.
Sun knelt next to Leo, her expression one of amazement. “Holy shit.”
“That’s what happens,” Leo said, “when you go running off at the mouth.”
Sun didn’t laugh. But she did do something totally unexpected.
She touched Leo’s cheek. And her eyes, for the first time since he’d arrived, were kind.
“You saved me, Leo. You saved my life. Thank you.”
Leo blinked.
I’ve never saved anyone before.
It feels pretty good.
“Your… oh God, your intestines are coming out.”
“It’s okay. Push them back in. I’ll heal.”
“Doesn’t it hurt?”
“It hurts.” Leo winked. “But I’ve got a lot of guts.”
Sun, showing herself to be a lot braver than Leo would have guessed, helped him fold up his large intestine, colon, and something dark that looked like it could be his liver, and put them back into the hole in his gut.
“So you trust me now?” Leo asked.
“Yes.”
“Then help me find my legs, so we can hunt down that demon son of a bitch and finish him off.”
LYON
SAME TIME…
Pain.
Pain pain pain pain pain.
But pain means life.
I’m alive.
I’m still alive.
Lyon opened her eyes, seeing the world upside down.
Upside down and swaying oh so slightly.
She tried to understand why, and realized her body was tangled up in the barbed wire fence top surrounding the fire tower. When she craned her neck to look, she found one wire cutting deeply into her side, and another hooking her legs, which she couldn’t feel because her back seemed to be broken.
But I’m alive.
And I can heal.
I’m immortal.
I just need to get myself free, then I can—
A sound caught her attention and she stared as something emerged form the woods.
Something big and red and black and…
Beautiful.
It’s Him!
It’s the Master I serve!
The demon was injured. Bleeding.
But also magnificent. Muscular. Powerful. Badass. Like an 80s heavy metal mascot come to life.
He stomped right up to Lyon and cradled her head in His claws.
Lyon’s heart filled with a most buoyant, fanciful, unreal surge of love. Something beyond what she felt for Duncan. Something akin to euphoria.
Suddenly, it all makes sense.
I finally know my place in the world.
I finally know—
Bub grabbed her chest and her legs and tore off her lower body, shoving it into the bleeding hole where his mouth once was. Lyon tried to scream, but couldn’t seem to breathe, probably something to do with her diaphragm no longer being attached, or that her her lungs had flopped out of her ribcage and were dangling like two wet plastic bags.
Why, Master? Why aren’t you helping me? Why aren’t—
Then Lyon was shoved, face first, down Bub’s throat, the space tight and warm and dark and wet and she couldn’t see or breathe or understand how this could be happening and then the burning began, the full body agony of Bub’s stomach acid beginning to dissolve and digest her while she was still alive, and it kept getting worse and worse and for the first time in her life Lyon prayed to God.
