Ghost town, p.20
Ghost Town, page 20
“No,” Leif said. She sounded defiant as all hell, and Blair felt a surge of affection for her. She undid the straps around Rachel’s wrists, frowning at how raw they’d left her skin. He’d done them way too tight.
“You do,” Dr. Edmond said. When Blair looked up, he was grinning a nasty grin at Leif and advancing on her as she backed herself toward the far wall of the lab. “I think you all do.”
Rachel held tight to Blair’s arm. “I don’t like the way he said that,” she whispered to Blair.
Something began to happen, though what it was Blair couldn’t exactly say. It was as though the air in the room had thinned. As if the light was bending toward a certain spot across the room behind Leif.
“The portal,” she gasped. It was opening. She hurried, working faster to free Rachel’s legs and help her to her feet.
“Your belief is strong! Soon the others will be able to come through!” Dr. Edmond crowed, watching in fascination as the portal opened.
“The plan!” Leif shouted. Right. In all of the excitement they’d forgotten the simplicity of the plan they’d made.
“We can’t stop believing,” Rhonda shouted.
“But we can break your tech,” Blair finished, slamming her fist down on the screen nearest to her.
Rachel started pulling out wires wherever she could, while Shae and Tammy kicked and toppled what looked to be a tower of very expensive equipment.
“Hey!” Gen yelled, appearing again behind Rachel. “Stop that!” She struggled against Rachel, trying to stop her, but Rachel was obviously finished playing games. She punched Gen in the face, sending her reeling.
“No!” the thing in Dr. Edmond moved lighting quick and hit Blair hard enough to send her sprawling onto the floor with a yelp.
He hauled her to her feet as though she weighed nothing, pinning her arms to her sides as he wrapped his arms around her torso in a mock embrace that made Blair’s skin crawl.
“You’re too late,” he said into her ear. His breath was freezing cold instead of hot, and his arms were like blocks of ice holding her in place. She shivered, more in fear than from the cold. “Your doctor will never have his wife, but I will have my army. You cannot stop us.”
For a moment he seemed to struggle with himself again, and then in his own voice he replied, “What do you mean? You promised me that you could bring Helen back.”
He shivered, and this time his eyes went black as the demon took back control. “Helen is dead and gone beyond anyone’s reach,” he said. “She was never coming back.”
“What?” Gen said. “What is he saying?”
“Oh my God,” Rhonda said, the horror and awe in her voice was enough to pull Blair’s attention away and back to where Rhonda was staring.
The thing that was happening in front of the wall was changing. Getting more intense. Blair could barely comprehend the way that the physical world was reacting to the portal opening. It looked like she was seeing things through melting glass. Reality seemed to shift, to bend in shapes and colors that couldn’t be real. A single shining spot on the wall opened itself, the air there folding and twisting and shimmering strangely.
Whatever the portal was, it had a gravitational pull. She could feel it, even across the room. Could see it, as every unanchored object in the room flew toward the tear in reality so quickly that everyone had to duck.
Leif was right beside it.
“No!” Blair called out, at the same time the demon yelled, “Yes!”
Leif fell down to her knees, hands grasping uselessly at the white tile of the floor. But there was nothing to grip onto. As the portal pulled her backward, she fell forward in her fight to keep away from it. On her belly she moved backward, as though invisible hands were pulling her toward the portal by her feet. She clawed at the tile, but it was no use.
“No, Leif,” Blair pleaded, trying to break free of Dr. Edmond’s grasp. She fought, lunging and twisting and struggling uselessly at his arms around her middle, but to no avail. “Please!”
Leif looked at her, her eyes wild and terrified as she was dragged inch by inch back along the floor. “Fuck,” she said, struggling to pull herself out of the gravitational force.
There were voices coming from the portal. Calling, cajoling, whispering, and screaming. Blair picked out words like help and run along with phrases like come to us. They scratched at her brain, tearing through her thoughts like they were spiderwebs, until all that was left was the screaming and whispering and pure chaos.
With difficulty, she tried to focus. Leif was in danger. She had to cling to her sanity, if only for Leif.
She blinked and covered her ears, but the voices persisted. They were coming from the portal and from inside her head at the same time. She shook her head hard. Leif. She had to save Leif.
Blair could barely believe her eyes as she tried to focus on the swirling thing that was sucking Leif in. But this was happening. Somehow, they’d opened a portal just by believing in it. And she was going to lose Leif because of it.
But maybe that meant…If they could believe a portal open, why not believe it back shut?
She had to test her hypothesis, and fast. Before it was too late.
“I believe I can save you! I believe that the portal is closing,” Blair screamed. Screaming louder than the voices in her head. Louder than the voices that called to her from the portal. She was frantic. Desperate. This had to work. She had no evidence that it would, but she had faith. For the first time in years, she had faith in something other than science. She had faith in how she felt for Leif. She had faith that she wasn’t going to lose someone else. She had to save her.
“The portal is closing,” Rhonda joined in from the other side of the room, catching on. She gripped onto one of the counters as the pull of gravity from the portal did its best to suck them all toward it. Gen was beside her, desperately trying to get to her and stop her from yelling, but the force of the portal was too strong.
“I can see it closing! It’s closing,” Rachel yelled desperately. She grabbed onto Gen and tried to hold her back from Rhonda. Gen cried out in pain as Rachel gripped her too tight, but Blair didn’t care. Gen could suffer. Leif couldn’t.
Leif screamed, her hands still scrambling desperately at the floor tiles. She managed to grip one, but only for a moment. Her fingers left trails of bright red blood as they dragged across the floor. She was gripping so hard it was tearing her flesh.
“Stop! It’s closing,” Blair screamed. And sure enough, the portal seemed to be shrinking around the edges. Like reality was scabbing over in fast motion. It was working!
Soon everyone in the room was yelling, even as Leif’s feet began to touch the shimmering rip in reality.
“No,” Dr. Edmond said. “No!”
“It’s closing,” Blair repeated. She found herself thrown to the ground, hitting it hard on her shoulder. She screamed as it dislocated, struggling to roll back onto her knees. She gritted her teeth to stop herself from screaming again when she moved her shoulder and white-hot agony lanced through her.
She turned to watch as Dr. Edmond rushed forward, reaching for the portal. He wasn’t going to get Leif. It didn’t matter how much pain she was in. She had to stop him.
“It’s closing! You can’t have her,” Blair said, confident and sure. She climbed shakily to her feet, favoring her dislocated shoulder. It was the worst pain she’d ever experienced, but she knew that she had to be strong. She had to keep going or risk losing Leif forever. That wasn’t going to happen. “You can’t take her away from me.”
With a sound like wind ripping through a tunnel, the portal collapsed in on itself.
Leif blinked up at Blair, breathing heavily. “Holy shit,” she said, tapping her foot against the wall as though to check it was solid again.
Blair wanted to sing. Leif was okay! They’d done it!
But a roar cut off her celebration before it could even begin.
Dr. Edmond was still there. And now he was furious. This was a fury unlike anything she had ever witnessed before. Just like when they’d saved Rose, a face appeared in front of Dr. Edmond’s face. Blair was again struck by how the demon’s eyes glowed red, and how looking into them felt like burning.
Glass shards went flying as every breakable object in the room exploded. Every shard of glass was pulled by some invisible force toward Dr. Edmond, embedding themselves into his flesh. Blair had to duck to avoid getting hit by any shards. A shout from Tammy indicated that she hadn’t been so lucky, but Blair couldn’t check. It felt like her eyes were glued to Dr. Edmond’s form.
Bright red blood dripped from the multitude of cuts as the creature inhabiting Dr. Edmond’s body screamed. It was the scream of an animal but distorted with static. Alien and bone-chilling. A dark smoke-like substance began leaking from him, coming out of his nose, his mouth, his eyes, and even the holes that the shattering glass had torn in his skin.
His human jaw underneath the mask-like face cracked, bone splintering as his mouth opened wider than should be possible, exposing teeth and tongue and the dark hole of his throat. As he moved, his bones seemed to crack, making every movement slow and jerky, like a broken puppet, as he advanced upon them.
Whatever was inside Dr. Edmond had killed him. There was no possible way that he could have survived that.
“Fuck,” Rhonda said, when the screaming stopped.
Blair was inclined to agree.
“Oh my God,” Rachel said.
Blair noticed that she’d let Gen go. That was fine. It didn’t matter anymore. It wasn’t like Gen could do anything to them worse than what this demon was going to do. Gen scuttled off to the side, as though she thought she could hide from whatever this thing was. But he was between her and the door. She was just as trapped as the rest of them.
The group backed up, but there was nowhere to go. The door was behind him, and there was no other exit.
Blair reached out and found Leif’s hand. “At least we’re going together,” she said.
“Together,” Leif repeated, squeezing her hand.
Dr. Edmond suddenly stopped, his ruined body jerking as though he’d hit a wall. The demon’s lips curled up into a snarl as he stared intently at the air in front of them.
“I will kill them,” he said. “You cannot stop me.”
Blair blinked, her eyes unfocused. In front of the demon was a shimmer of light. It almost looked like the outline of a person. No. Two people?
She suddenly felt herself at a diner. Jamming out in a van. Hanging out in a living room for a horror movie night. Watching awed as someone climbed a ladder with a ton of camera equipment in his hands.
“Abe?” she said.
“Erik!” Leif cried out.
The feeling in the room had shifted. It was as though Abe was giving her a hug. She could have sworn she could even smell his cologne. As though he was reassuring her that everything was all right. He was there and everything was going to be okay.
A scream that was very human and full of rage pierced the air as Gen lunged across the tile and stabbed a pair of scissors deep into Dr. Edmond’s neck. Blood trickled out of the wound, but there was no arterial spray. Dr. Edmond was dead for certain, then.
“You killed him,” she sobbed. “You killed him!”
The demon turned to face her, screaming that inhuman scream again, so loud that Blair had to cover her ears.
“By wind, fire, water, and earth, I banish you,” Gen yelled. Her voice was hoarse and tears were streaming down her face. “I banish you.”
The demon grabbed her by the throat, lifting her into the air. She choked, her legs kicking, but she finally managed a hoarse “I banish you.”
Dr. Edmond collapsed into a heap, his lifeless body making a loud bang as it hit the tile. Gen hit the ground with him, wailing in pain and sorrow. Then her eyes locked on Blair, and the next thing Blair knew Gen was lunging toward her, scissors in hand.
Before Blair could move a muscle, before she could even think to run or fight or do anything, Rhonda stepped forward and bashed Gen on the head with her frying pan. Gen stumbled backward, right into Tammy’s arms.
“Let me go,” Gen demanded, struggling in Tammy’s grip. Rhonda grabbed her arm and brandished her frying pan threateningly.
“I’ll bash your head again, don’t test me,” Rhonda said.
Gen ignored her. Her eyes were on Blair. Blair had never seen such hatred on someone’s face before. If looks could kill, Blair had no doubt that she’d be dead. But she didn’t look away. Gen had betrayed her. She’d killed Jessica and Ivan, kidnapped Rose and Rachel. She’d let Johnny get possessed. Gen had killed Abe—if not herself, then by facilitating his murder.
Blair hated her. She hated Gen just as much as Gen hated her.
“How could you do this to him. To us! He was going to choose you. Do you have any idea how lucky you were?” Gen screamed. She struggled harder against the grip that Rhonda and Tammy had on her, but she barely moved them. “Now it’s all been in vain. All of the people who died, all of the sacrifices we made. You ruined everything. Abe died for nothing now!”
Blair moved without thinking and slapped Gen hard across the face.
“Abe died because you killed him,” she shouted. “You and Dr. Edmond killed him. Fuck you!”
Her hand stung from the slap, but that little bit of pain was good. Grounding.
“I was trying to help him get his wife back,” Gen said, tears running down her face. “He loved me. We were going to make history together.”
“Gen, he manipulated you. And look at what you’ve done. You’re a monster,” Blair said.
Gen began to speak, but a sound made all of them pause. It was a strange, wet sound.
And it was coming from Dr. Edmond’s body.
Chapter Seventeen
Video Recording Tape 3
I know it’s kind of sick, but I guess I’m a little bit disappointed that we came to the most haunted town in Ontario, and instead of something supernatural, we’re dealing with some kind of serial killer.
Hate that you said that, but honestly? Agreed.
July 18, Masonville
The bloodied heap began to move. At first Blair couldn’t understand what she was seeing, but then it became clear. Something was ripping its way out of Dr Edmond’s flesh.
It was semi-transparent and glistening with very real blood and viscera as it clawed through his chest and rose up onto four eerily long, trembling legs. Chunks of Dr. Edmond’s flesh and insides were hanging from its neck as it stood. It screamed, shaking its head back and forth like a dog with a bone, its elongated jaw open to reveal a line of razor-sharp teeth.
It was the thing that they’d found the drawing of in the library.
Blair’s vision swam as her mind tried to force her to faint. But some part of her knew that if she let herself fade into the dark, she’d never wake back up.
Whatever the thing was, it tried to take a step toward them. Its knee bent backward with a sickening crack that made Blair feel like she might throw up. But it moved forward despite sounding like its bones were breaking, loping toward them with its eyes burning like hot coals.
“No,” Gen whispered. “I…I banished it. This can’t be happening.”
The sound the thing made was somehow both high pitched and low and deep at the same time. It flailed while its eyes trained on the group of them frozen there in fear.
“Don’t think it worked,” Rachel said. Blair would have laughed if her brain didn’t feel like it was melting out of her ears.
“Um, Abe? Now would be a really great time to reappear,” Blair said out loud.
“Erik too,” Leif chimed in.
“Hell, I’d even take our agoraphobic granny’s ghost right now,” Tammy said weakly.
But nothing appeared, and Blair didn’t feel Abe at all. All she could feel was terror.
The thing’s too-long limbs were growing more and more steady as it wobbled across the lab toward them. And it was becoming more solid. More real somehow.
Blair’s knees felt like jelly, and she let herself sink to the floor. Leif went down with her, and wrapped her arms around Blair.
“It’s okay,” Leif whispered to her. “I’ve got you. My Valkyrie.”
She looked into Leif’s eyes, and really took her in. The green of her irises, the cute long nose. Her beautiful lips. If Blair was going to die, she’d die looking at the most beautiful woman she’d ever met.
She felt a hand on her shoulder, then, and caught the faint whiff of Abe’s cologne. She knew, somehow, that he couldn’t help her anymore. He’d done all he could protecting them from the thing while it was still inside Dr. Edmond. But his touch was comforting, though fleeting. It was like a promise. She’d be okay, even if this thing killed her. Abe was waiting for her.
“See you soon,” she whispered as his touch disappeared.
“You will all fall before me,” the thing screamed, the sound of multiple voices overlapping each other. “I will tear your souls apart.” Dr. Edmond’s blood was dripping down off it, pooling on the floor. His intestines were white and shocking against the red. There was so much red.
There was a creaking sound off to the right. It was almost unnoticeable amid the wails of the creature. Blair didn’t want to tear her eyes away from Leif’s face, but the creak only grew louder.
Blair turned to look, just in time to watch a straining Shae topple a huge block of computers. The demon turned to look as well, just as the whole block smashed down on top of it. There was a wet squelch, and a pitiful scream, and then silence.
Blair blinked. A blueish black slop trickled sluggishly out from under the mess of technology on the floor. They all stared for a long moment, but nothing moved. Nothing made a sound.
Then Shae fell back against the wall, laughing hysterically.
