Fallen Souls (2 page)

Ash knew that he’d had more than
enough to drink at the party, but the man’s creepiness was quickly
erasing his buzz. What on earth was someone like that doing at a
high school jock’s party? He wasn’t a jock, and he sure wasn’t a
popular kid at school.

When Ash blinked, the man disappeared
again.

He turned and poked Grace in the
shoulder, hoping she’d been paying attention. “Did you see that
guy?” he asked in a whisper, motioning to where the man had stood.
This time he couldn’t shake the presence off. There was something
very wrong about the guy. And whatever he’d been doing there, it
was all about Grace.

“
Is this your way of
saying you don’t approve of my choice of date for this evening?”
Grace asked incredulously. “I’m not so desperate that you need to
point out guys for me. I can find them on my own, thank
you!”

“
No, seriously,” Ash
mumbled. “There was just a guy standing there and now he’s gone.
There was something seriously weird about him.” Leave it to Grace
to be drunk when he had something important to tell her.

“
Okay,” Grace replied
sarcastically. “No more drinkies for you.”

“
Grace I’m being serious.
Could you try to sober up for half a second?” he asked, his eyes
still scanning the room. Grace snorted and ignored him. “Grace,” he
muttered, grabbing her arm and turning her to face him. “There was
this strange guy and he was staring at you.” He wished she’d listen
to him for once, but a part of him realized that it was a lost
cause; Grace was his best friend, only two years older than him,
but she tended to blow off important things like personal safety.
He’d spent much of his young life getting her out of scrapes and
pulling her out of the road before she got hit by a car. It was a
wonder that she’d survived this long.

“
Oh Ash, stop being so
dramatic,” she laughed. “I don’t know who you’re talking about, but
I haven’t seen him.”

He glared at her. He knew he was being
overprotective, but he also knew that he was absolutely right to
feel that way. She was his only sister, and he didn’t want her
hurt. Besides, if anyone did anything to her, he’d have to kick
their ass, and considering how much bigger the disturbing guy was
than him – not to mention older – that would probably end badly.
Very badly.

“
Grace,” he continued,
feeling like he was trying to reason with a brick wall. “You
haven’t been talking to any strangers have you?” Frustration crept
into his tone, despite his efforts to stay calm. Alienating her
wouldn’t do any good, after all. She’d always been too stubborn for
her own good.

Unfortunately, it seemed he’d already
crossed that line. She stopped laughing and all the humor vanished
from her face. “Excuse me?” she asked, raising one eyebrow in
anger. “What are you, an after school special?”

Ash sighed. No help there, then, and
if she was angry enough, she’d get up and desert him, going off on
her own – probably straight into the arms of the guy he’d seen.
Suddenly, the whole party seemed like a horrible idea. The more he
thought about it, the more convinced he was that the guy meant
Grace some harm. He wanted to get out of there, get his sister home
to safety. The question was how to do it? Grace was already mad at
him, and wasn’t going to leave willingly. He’d have to try and
outwit her.

Suddenly he saw a flicker of something
out of the corner of his eye; bright red, laughing eyes. He could
swear it. Eyes that promised terrible things, and mocked his
inability to do anything about it. Heat and fear spread over him
and his own eyes shot around the room, searching out the owner.
Eyes couldn’t appear without a face – and body – to go with them,
which meant that the guy must be standing right next to them. The
man was nowhere to be seen, but the image of those red eyes
wouldn’t leave him. It was as if they’d branded themselves onto his
brain. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched,
along with his sister.

They had to get away.

“
Can we get out of here?”
he asked abruptly, turning toward his sister. He didn’t care if he
was being rude. Dread was setting in, and if she said no he thought
he’d probably drag her out anyway. The man with the red eyes had
him on edge, and he couldn’t ignore it.

She glanced at him with an incredulous
look on her face, confirming his fear that she’d say no. After she
stared at him for a moment though, her features softened. Maybe she
could see the fear on his eyes. He was her little brother, after
all.

“
Sure.” She yawned. “This
party is getting boring, and I need to lie down.”

Ash almost whooped with relief. He
scooped her off the couch, set her on her feet, and carved his way
through the crowd, holding her hand tightly for fear that she might
be snatched away from him at any moment. He registered the looks
from some of the other guests, and knew that they’d be talking
about them leaving so early, but none of that mattered now. All
that mattered was that he needed to get her out of there. Now that
they were leaving, the pressure that had been building in his head
was getting worse. They had to get out of the house before that guy
found them, or something bad was going to happen; he was sure of
it.

They stumbled out the door and down
the driveway, tripping over each other in his hurry. Grace had
picked up on his nervousness, and now seemed just as keen to leave
as Ash. They’d both had too much to drink, though, and he wondered
how they were going to get home. He drew to a stop by the car, and
looked around nervously. There was nothing for it – the risk of
them dying in a car accident seemed less than the darkness that was
threatening. When Grace went for the driver’s seat, though, he was
quick to grab her hand and take the keys.

“
Hey,” she mumbled, “give
those back!”

“
Nope,” he told her
sternly. He was swaying where he stood, a slight buzz still racing
through his bloodstream, but he was positive that he’d be a safer
driver than Grace. She was barely able to stand up on her own.
Neither of them
should
drive, but they’d be better off with him behind the
wheel.

“
Ash, stop it,” she
slurred. She held her hand out expectantly, waiting for him to drop
the keys and give up the fight. “It’s my car. You aren’t driving
it.”

He slanted his eyes to the right,
stalling to give himself more time, and gasped. There, reflected in
the car’s window, were the red eyes, highlighted against the
outline of a tall, thin man. The shadow moved, and then he saw the
flash of teeth.

He spun around. To either side of the
house was forest, and nothing else. No one was there, nothing
moved. It could have been an animal, he told himself. Then he saw
glints of red in the forest, where there’d been only darkness. He
turned quickly, grabbed Grace, and, throwing open the driver’s side
door, shoved her in. He jumped in after her, pushing her into the
other seat through some superhuman feat of strength, and slammed
the door behind him. Slammed the locks down.

“
Ash, what’s wrong?” Grace
asked, her eyes wide and frightened.

He glanced in the rearview mirror, his
breath so ragged that he couldn’t answer. There, leaning casually
against one of the parked cars, was the man, his burning eyes
focused intently on them. The man smiled slowly, as if he knew what
Ash was doing, and knew that it wouldn’t work.

Panic shot through him. He threw the
car into first gear and slammed on the gas.

“
We’ve got to get out of
here, Grace,” he muttered. “Hold on!”

As he pulled out onto the road, he
kept most of his attention on the rearview mirror, watching to see
whether the man followed them. Some deep, more rational part of his
mind told him that he was over-reacting and being fairly
ridiculous, but he shut that voice down. Something was seriously
wrong with that man, and he didn’t care what anyone said. He had
stepped out of the pages of a horror novel and Ash knew that if he
caught them, terrible things would happen. The car travelled
forward into the darkness, but Ash kept his eyes on the road behind
them. If the man followed them, he wanted to know about
it.

When a set of headlights appeared in
the mirror, his stomach dropped. This was a well-used road, and
that could be anyone behind them, but the image of those eyes
wouldn’t leave him. He didn’t think that was any human behind
them.

“
Ash look out!” Grace
screamed.

His eyes shot to the road in front of
them. He’d been so focused on what was happening behind them that
he hadn’t noticed when he started to swerve. Now he saw, to his
horror, that he was on the wrong side of the road. The lights of a
semi-truck shone right in front of them, and the horn blared out in
warning. Ash tried to swerve the car out of the way, but he was
going too fast.

His last memory was the sound of his
sister’s scream and the crushing of metal.

The cold night air
swept
through Ash’s hair and across his
face, tugging him awake. His head pounded, and his thoughts were
foggy. They started to come together slowly, but not enough to
recall anything tangible. There was something he needed to
remember, he was sure. Something important. But his head hurt and
he was cold, making it harder to think. He wasn’t even sure where
he was.

He tried to blink, but
couldn’t get his eyes to open at all. There was a ringing in his
ears, and a terrible pounding at his temples.
I must be hung over,
he thought,
though this was far worse than any hangover he’d ever had. He
groaned and tried to move, but a horrible pain shot through his
head and down the entire right side of his body. He’d barely
managed to open one eye when he saw him.

Red eyes stared at him, glowing like
embers. Below them, a wide grin stretched across a gaunt face. Ash
gasped. He knew this man, but the recognition slipped through his
mind like a shadow. There was a solid thought there, but every time
he attempted to pull it to the front, it vanished. He tried to sit
up, desperate to get away from the man and his never-ending gaze,
but his arm gave out and he ended up slamming right back down onto
the … pavement? His mind grew fuzzy again at the thought, but he
tried to focus, to take in his surroundings. Bright lights
appeared, highlighting the landscape around him, and he gasped. The
forest. The road.

He looked up, wiping an unidentifiable
liquid from his eyes, and found that the man was now standing right
over him. He leaned down, his breath falling on Ash’s
face.

Before the man could speak, though,
something distracted him and his head snapped to the side. Ash
turned his head and saw the vague outline of a girl with
honey-colored hair and eyes that glowed a warm hazel. She made him
feel safe and warm, and he smiled. The man, on the other hand,
seemed to find her distasteful. He hissed and disappeared. After a
moment, the girl smiled sadly and disappeared as well, into a soft
white light. Ash lifted his head, looking for her, and saw instead
the flashing of blue and red lights in the distance. There were
voices too, coming quickly toward him.

“
Don’t move. You’re going
to be alright,” someone said. Whoever it was turned and yelled
something to someone else, and then turned back. Ash gasped,
convinced that the man with the red eyes had returned for him, but
when he looked up he saw a policeman above him. A man with normal
eyes. The man pushed him down and stared at him, concern written
all over his face. “Can you hear me? Can you speak?”

The man turned around again, motioning
for someone to come to him. Then a medic came into view and the
policeman moved away, saying something along the lines of “This
doesn’t look good.”

Ash desperately wanted to ask him what
the hell he was talking about, but wasn’t able to get his lips to
form the words. He didn’t even know if his voice would work – if
anything would work again. The medic put his hand against Ash’s
cheek and moved a flashlight in front of his eyes. The light
burned. He tried to bat the man’s hand away, but his body wasn’t
responding to his commands. He was having trouble thinking at
all.

“
Get him to the hospital.
Quickly,” the medic said. “Make sure you call ahead. The girl is
starting to go into shock. She’s going to need to go straight into
surgery to try and stop the blood loss.”