Darkness Falls (9 page)

Kyle seemed to resent the question. “I came to see if I could help Michael.”

Laughing a
yeah, right
laugh, Larry said, “You don’t look like you can help anyone.” He stared at his cousin, and he caught sight of a charm on a necklace Kyle was wearing. Larry shook his head. “Kyle, you know, she’s got a whole life now.”

“Who?”

“Caitlin,” Larry said, though he was sure Kyle knew damn well who he meant. “This thing with Mikey has been a big burden. She hasn’t been able to work. She was supposed to get third grade this year.”

That got Kyle’s attention. “She’s a teacher?”

Larry nodded. “Yup. And a good one. The kids respond to her better. It’s like she hasn’t forgotten childhood the way most of us adults do, so the kids feel like they can
talk
to her, y’know?”

“Yeah,” Kyle said. “Yeah, I know.”

Kyle had put a lot of weight into those words, which confirmed what Larry had believed from the beginning.

There was only one reason Kyle had come back to Darkness Falls, as far as Larry was concerned, and her name was Caitlin Greene.

Ray Winchester gulped down his whiskey, then chased it with that swill from the tap that Dave called beer. He couldn’t afford the good stuff—of course, strictly speaking, he couldn’t afford the whiskey, either.

But what else was he supposed to do? His life was in the crapper anyhow.

Every time life kicked him in the ass, he thought it was the worst thing that could happen, and then life would turn him around and kick him in the balls.

Bad enough he flunked out of college. That got Dad all hot and fucking bothered, that his son wasn’t going to carry on the Winchester tradition of lawyers. Ray had always thought that to be a crock of shit. He never wanted to be a phony-ass lawyer—he left that to punks like Fleishman. No, he wanted to work with his hands.

So he did. Until he got fired. “Laid off,” they called it. “Budget cuts,” they called it.

Really, though, he was just fired.

Then Marie left him. Not even to hook up with some other guy—in fact, as far as he knew, she was still single. She just didn’t want to be with him anymore.

So he spent his afternoons and evenings in Bennigan’s, his nights sleeping off his afternoons and evenings, and his mornings hung over. It was a nice routine, though it was eating up most of his unemployment check.

And now, the icing on the fucking cake, Kyle Goddamn Walsh comes back to town.

One of the reasons
he
was laid off, as opposed to someone else at the plant, was that Ray was “limited” in what he could physically accomplish. That was because of a back injury he had suffered when he was a kid.

Thanks to Walsh and a fucking protractor.

Next to him, Joe Tormolen must have noticed Ray tense up, since he asked, “What’s wrong?”

Ray pointed at Walsh, who was sitting with Fleishman. “That guy stabbed me in the back.”

“What, like with a girl?”

Joe could be such a fucking moron. “No, he
literally
stabbed me in the back.”

He gulped down the rest of his beer, got up, and headed toward their table.

The rest of Ray’s life may have gone to shit, but he was going to get
something
back tonight, dammit.

“Hey, jackass!” he yelled when he was close enough to be heard.

Fleishman and Walsh looked up at him.

“What’re you doin’ back here, man?”

“Do I know you?”

Ray felt as if he’d been punched in the gut. After all that, the bastard didn’t even recognize him?

“Think protractor, asshole.”

Fleishman, at least, got it. “Oh boy.”

“I thought they locked you up for killing your mother.”

It got a lot quieter in the bar all of a sudden.

“I don’t want any trouble,” Walsh said.

“Tough.”

Two beers sat on the table, one full, one half-empty. Ray grabbed the full one and splashed it on Walsh.

Walsh got up and stared at Ray for a second. Ray figured this was it—finally, after more than ten fucking years, after all the physical therapy and the bullshit from the doctors, and after Marie and the job and Dad and everything, Ray was
finally
going to get a little payback.

Then the son of a bitch turned around and walked out of the bar.

Ray couldn’t believe it. He turned to Joe, who was right behind him. “You see that?”

“Fuckin’ pansy,” Joe said.

“Yeah, well, he don’t get off that easy.”

Fleishman put a hand on Ray’s arm. “Ray, don’t—”

“Fuck you, Fleishman.” Ray yanked his arm away. “He didn’t come after you with any sharp objects.”

“You were
kids,
for Christ’s sake!”

Ray ignored the lawyer and headed for the exit.

It took his eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness of the parking lot, which was adjacent to the forest. Bennigan’s was literally on the edge of town. Once it had been the last stop before you went into the wilderness. Now it was just a nice, out-of-the-way spot for the locals to hang out, away from the dumbass tourists.

Walsh was standing under one of the streetlights that (barely) illuminated the lot, right on the far end.

“Hey!” Ray cried out as he ran toward the punk.

As he got closer, Ray saw that Walsh was holding some kind of pill bottle in his hand. Somehow it didn’t surprise Ray that Walsh was a pill popper. Probably on Prozac or lithium or whatever it was they gave to psychos who stab people.

Ray ducked his head and rammed right into Walsh just as the punk said, “Ah, shit!”

The pills fell out of his hand and all over the dirt of the lot. Dave never bothered to pave the lot, figuring that the grass and dirt of the forest worked just fine.

As a result, Ray’s tackle had the two of them rolling around on the ground for several tumbles—right into the underbrush.

They collided with some kind of shrub or other, and both of them clambered unsteadily to their feet.

It hadn’t taken much for them to get deep enough into the forest that it was pretty much pitch dark. Still, Ray could make out Walsh’s shape.

What was weird was the funny sound that suddenly started up. It wasn’t the usual outside noise—crickets or seagulls or any of the other noises you heard outside at night in Darkness Falls. This was something weird.

Ray figured it was maybe a plane or something. Or maybe he was so drunk he was hearing things. Whatever.

All that mattered was beating the shit out of Kyle Walsh.

As Ray charged toward Walsh, a bright light shone in his face. Walsh had whipped out some kind of fucking Maglite or some other damn thing, and it hit Ray’s eyes like a blow.

But Ray was already committed and leaped at Walsh, who swung at Ray with the flashlight.

They struggled for a few minutes like that—Walsh trying to bean Ray with the light, Ray trying to strangle Walsh.

Finally, Ray managed to knock the light out of Walsh’s hands and off into the shrubs.

Walsh, though, scrambled away. He went straight for the light.

What the fuck?

Ray had no idea what the big deal was about that light, but he wasn’t about to let Walsh have it. He dove for the punk and tried to wrap his arms around the bastard’s neck. Walsh tried to kick him off, all the while going for that light.

That damn noise wouldn’t stop. And now it was getting louder.

Walsh kicked Ray off him and got over to the light.

Then Ray saw the look in Walsh’s eyes.

His eyes looked dead.

Then he saw something else.

The noise got louder.

Ray Winchester had been many things in life. He’d been happy, he’d been bored, he’d been pissed off—mostly pissed off. He’d been in love, he’d been consumed by rage, he’d been hurt.

But he’d never really been scared of much of anything.

Until now.

Until he saw the decaying
thing
that flew straight toward him in the night and ripped his chest open.

Ray Winchester screamed until he could scream no more.

His last thought was disappointment that he hadn’t got to kick Walsh’s ass one last time. That would’ve made everything worthwhile . . .

ten

1841

William Ames sat in back of Malachy’s General Store, forcing himself not to be afraid.

On the one hand, he didn’t want to disappoint Emma. On the other hand, he’d been hearing stories for the last year about the crazy old Tooth Fairy. He still remembered that fire up at Lighthouse Point. And he heard the grown-ups talking about how they didn’t trust that lady up there, even if the other children liked her.

William was just sorry that he never got any treats from the Tooth Fairy.

His father, of course, kept saying that she wasn’t a fairy of any kind, that it was just stuff and nonsense. She was just a crazy old woman who was corrupting the youth of the town, whatever
that
meant.

Father thought she should have just remarried and had children like a proper woman. Mother usually muttered something after that and changed the subject.

All William knew was that he was never able to get any treats.

“William?”

He looked up to see Emma, her pretty red curly hair sticking out from under a kerchief. The late afternoon sun shone on her curls, making her look like an angel.

Walking up to where he was sitting, she said, “William Ames, I’ve been looking all
over
for you!”

“I—I’m sorry, Emma. I’ve been waiting, like you said.”

“I said to meet me in
front
of Malachy’s, not behind it.”

William looked down at his feet. He thought she had said the back, but he couldn’t bring himself to say that, as it would make him feel even stupider.

“Is everything all right?”

“Uh-huh,” William said quickly.

“Well, since no one’s watching, can I see it?”

She smiled as she said it. Emma had the prettiest smile in all the town.

“If you’re sure it’s okay,” William said, taking the item in question out of his pocket. “I kept it safe, just like you said.”

He held the baby tooth out, and Emma took it, holding it up to the light.

“Oh, William, this is perfect!”

William smiled a gap-toothed smile. “Thank you, Emma. I’m glad you like it.”

Emma handed William his tooth back, then grabbed his hand and led him toward the coast.

“Now, we won’t be very long at all. Back in time for supper, by my estimate.”

“It doesn’t matter,” William said happily. He would gladly spend as much time with Emma as she wanted.

It was certainly better than going home to Father.

“What about your father?” Emma asked, as if she could read William’s mind. “Won’t he holler and raise hell if you’re not home before—” She cut herself off when she saw the look on William’s face. He had cast his gaze downward. The last time he was late, Father—

He cut the thought off.

It was best not to think about Father. That would just make him unhappy and scared.

The trip they were taking was making him scared enough.

“Oh, William,” Emma said, “I’m sorry. I heard about what your father did the last time you—”

“It’s okay,” he said quickly, not wanting to dwell on it.

“No, it isn’t.” Emma sighed. “We’ll just have to hurry, then. We’ll head over to Matilda’s house, collect our reward, and be back before anyone knows we’re gone.”

William was just glad to spend time with Emma. And away from Father.

“Tell me the story again. I like—” He hesitated. “I like the way you tell it.”

Emma rewarded him with a smile again. “All right, but only if you hurry. We don’t want to keep the Tooth Fairy waiting!”

And so Emma once again told William the story of Matilda Dixon and how she tragically lost her husband at sea, then how she became known to the children of Darkness Falls as the Tooth Fairy, rewarding the children who lost their baby teeth with delicious cakes, pies, and breads.

This time, though, William interrupted the story. There was one thing he never understood.

“Nobody ever
talks
about the Tooth—about Matilda. And they get all strange whenever she’s brought up.”

Emma shrugged as they wended their way up the path to Lighthouse Point.

“From what I hear, folks in town thought there was something off about Matilda Dixon before her husband died. After that, they say, things just got worse.”

William was about to say something else, when he suddenly lost his footing and fell over. “Hey!”

His jaw hit the dirt hard enough to hurt but not so hard that it felt like he’d broken anything.

A familiar voice said, “Look out, Willie! Why don’t you watch where you’re going?”

That was followed by the awful laughter.

“George Delacroix!” Emma yelled, confirming William’s fears. “You know it was
you
who bumped into
us!”

William had spent much of his life being tormented by George. He was just about the last person William wanted to see right now. He always made William feel like an idiot, and the last thing he wanted to do was feel like an idiot in front of Emma.

“Come on, Emma,” George said in a much nicer voice, “I’m only foolin’ with you. Besides, I came to see if you might want to come with me to the fair. It’s just outside of town, they got lots of stuff, too. Candy, even a freak show.” George looked down at William. William, for his part, tried to sink into the ground.
“You
might like that,” George said with a sneer.

Then George suddenly reached out. William flinched—

—but George was going for something on the ground next to William.

With horror, William realized that it was the tooth, which had come loose and rolled onto the ground.

“Anyway,” George said, holding up William’s tooth, “somebody’s gotta save you two from all this Tooth Fairy talk.”

William got to his feet. He was
not
going to be George’s victim again, especially not in front of Emma.

“Give it back!”

He lunged for the tooth, but George dodged out of the way. William fell to the ground again. This was getting worse.

“Aw, go on! You gonna tell your papa on me again? Little mama’s boy is what
you
are.”