From Darkness Comes: The Horror Box Set (185 page)

“No. I meant I
have it on the fridge here with the rest of my business contacts.” Brian slid
the phone back into his pocket before Drew could see it in his hand.

“Excellent,”
said Drew. “Give her a call and ask her to meet you somewhere so you can return
her ring, the one she left at the lanes the other night.”

“Where?” Brian
asked.

“Somewhere
private. I don’t want assholes eavesdropping on our conversation. Our marital
infidelities are our problem, not theirs. Right?”

“Yeah,” said
Brian. “Absolutely.”

“Tell her to
meet you in the park.”

“Why would I do
that, Drew? Why wouldn’t I just drop it off at your house?”

Drew thought. “This
whole shit with me and the police.”

“And during
this I’m insisting that she needs to meet me for her ring? This is sounding
really implausible.”

Drew walked
toward Brian and put his face inches from Brian’s nose. Brian caught a strong
whiff of bleach and gasoline. He felt fear rising in his throat.

“Get her to the
motherfucking park, Brian,” Drew said, pushing the phone into Brian’s ear. “Even
if you have to use the lure of your cock to get her there.”

Brian
let the water run while he made the call. He could not believe his luck. The prepaid
cell phone he used for scoring blow happened to be in the pocket of his jeans
that hung on the back of the door. He held the power button down with shaky
hands. The screen came to life with a full signal but only one line of power.

“911, what is
your emergency?”

Brian paused. For
some strange reason he had not anticipated the outcome, had not thought this
far ahead. “I’m a hostage,” he said, loud enough to be heard by the dispatcher
but quiet enough to be masked by the water pouring from the sink.

“What is your
location?” the dispatcher asked.

“Well, I’m
about to leave. The guy holding me doesn’t know I have a phone. We’re going to
meet his wife at the park and I think he plans on killing her.”

A click on the
line, then a pause before the dispatcher replied. “Who is the man?” she asked.

“Drew Green. His
face is all over the news. You guys are looking at him for the Crooked Tail
River murders.”

“Which park are
you going to?”

“I think the
one on 7
^th
Street. It’s near his house.”

There was no
reply on the other end. Brian looked down at the dark screen. He shook the
phone and pushed the power button again, but the battery was completely
drained. Brian opened the medicine cabinet and shoved the phone behind a tall
canister of shaving cream. He splashed water on his face and ran it through his
hair before getting dressed. Brian did the mental calculations and realized he
had another minute or two before Drew suspected something. He fumbled through
the drawers of the vanity, cursing under his breath at the fact that he was out
of razors and could find nothing else remotely close to a weapon. Toward the back
he spotted a nail file left over from a one-night stand that had dumped her
purse on the bathroom floor. Brian reached down and picked it up, shaking his
head back and forth before shoving it inside the band of his sock.

***

“Ready?”
Brian asked. He stood in the doorway of the bathroom in a black T-shirt and
blue jeans. The frayed cuffs trailed his heel and his knees poked through the
thin denim. Brian slicked his hair back and Drew could smell the conditioner.

“It’s
not a date, fucknut,” said Drew.

“I
know, man. I just got dressed. That’s all.” Brian glanced at Drew’s waist, a
bulge protruding from underneath his T-shirt.

“I
didn’t realize you had to pack when coming to my place.”

Drew
reached down and felt the cold object against his skin. His face twisted in a
puzzled way before he shrugged.

“Me
neither. At least now we both know where we stand.”

“Yeah?
Where’s that, Drew? Where do we stand?”

“You’re
going to get Molly to the park so I can talk to her and straighten this shit
out. And if you even try tipping her off to the fact that I’m with you, I’ll
shoot you both in the fucking head.”

The
words fell out with a natural cadence and calmness that made Brian shiver.

“I’m
your friend. You don’t need that gun to make me help you.”

“If
I don’t need it then it won’t do any harm tucked in my waistband, right?”

Brian
shrugged, convinced he did not want to escalate the situation to the point
where firearms were involved.
The police will spot the crazy fuck long
before he gets near Molly,
he thought. “No. No harm, bud,” he replied.

Drew
followed Brian out of the apartment and down the stairwell, toward the ground
floor. They came through a glass door adjacent to the lobby, which dumped them
into an alley running between the apartment building and a parking garage. Brian
waved at Drew and began walking through the alley toward the end of the block.

“My
Jeep is down here. We’ll take that.”

Drew
followed behind Brian, remaining within an arm’s reach of his friend. They
walked to the curb where Brian unlocked one door and then hit the power-lock
button to release the other.

“Shotgun,”
said Drew.

Brian
started the Jeep and made a tight circle so that they came back around to the
street. He put his blinker on and turned left into traffic.

“Stay
calm,” said Drew. “Keep with the flow of traffic.”

Brian
nodded.

“How
long do we have?” Drew asked.

“You
heard, right?”

“Would
I have asked if I knew the fucking answer to that question?” responded Drew. He
bared his teeth and slid a hand between the waistband of his underwear and
skin. He glanced into the side-view mirror and saw the gray, withered frame of
Gaki in the backseat. The creature stared at him, unmoving.

“Sorry,
man. Ten. She’ll be there in ten minutes.”

Drew
turned his scowl from Brian and looked back into the mirror. Gaki was gone. “I
don’t want you getting out of the Jeep.”

“You
want me to wait while you talk to Molly?” asked Brian, shaking his head.

“Well,
I don’t see any need for you to be in the middle of marital affairs. It’s not
like you have a relationship with her.”

Brian
smiled through the fear. “Okay. Makes sense. Don’t you think she’s going to
think something is going on when I pull up and you get out?”

Drew
ignored Brian and looked at the traffic light turning red. “Don’t run it,” he
growled at Brian.

The
brakes of the Jeep squeaked as the pads gripped the rotors on all four wheels.

“You
don’t have to do this,” Brian said.

“Do
what?”

“C’mon,”
said Brian. He huffed and tapped his fingers on the wheel. “You’re not right in
the head and I’m afraid you’re going to do something you’ll really regret.”

Drew’s
eyes lit from within. He reached across and pulled the seat belt up on Brian. The
edge of the nylon covered Brian’s throat, and Drew pinned the edge to the seat.
He pushed as hard as he could toward the headrest until Brian’s hands came off
the wheel and grabbed instinctively for his neck.

“Don’t
fucking tell me what I have to do. You’ve been fucking her. If you want to cut
the shit, let’s cut the shit. You were in my house, in bed with my wife when I
came home. The Jeep was on the curb, asshole. You didn’t even have the brains
to park on the next block.”

Brian
wheezed and slapped at Drew’s hands. Drew released the seat belt, sending
Brian’s head down to his chest in a rattle of coughing and wheezing. He peered
up at Drew through his bangs and shook his head.

“You’ve
lost it, bro.”

Drew
snarled again, turning to face Brian. Horns raged behind them as the lane to
the left moved through the green light. Brian shook and began a low, ragged whimper.
He fumbled for the wheel and started the Jeep moving. Drew looked at the light
and then at the traffic moving through, motioning Brian to drive through the
intersection and toward the park.

“I’ll
deal with you after her.”

Brian
coughed, gasping and rubbing his neck with one hand. He caught a glimpse of the
flashing red and blue lights in the rear view mirror a split second before Drew
did. He laughed and stroked the seat belt that had almost choked him to death
minutes before and was thankful that it was still securing his body.

“Ain’t
gonna happen, Drew.”

Brian’s
hand came across the seat with the nail file in his palm. It struck Drew in the
chest and the tip snapped like a dry twig. Drew laughed and hurled a fist into
the side of Brian’s head. The blow knocked his jaw askew and the impact
shattered the window. Brian shook the pebbles of safety glass from his hair. He
sat with both hands on the wheel. Drew looked down at the middle console to see
a gray tube of flesh oozing forward. It slithered down toward the floor on the
driver’s side, and a split second later the Jeep launched forward and through
the intersection.

Drew
screamed like a child on a roller coaster. The Wrangler squeezed through two
openings, a wall of horns and angry drivers on each side. Brian looked down,
stomping his foot on the floor.

“What
the fuck? The brakes aren’t working!” he yelled.

Drew
snickered and threw both hands in the air, waving and shouting with glee.

The
vehicle careened off a line of parked cars, throwing a shower of sparks into
the air, covering the passenger side of the Jeep with a golden blanket. The
sirens that had been silent on slow approach now blared as they pursued the
suspect and his hostage. A sedan trying to parallel park backed out and clipped
the Jeep in the rear quarter panel on the passenger side. The Wrangler spun
clockwise while careening across the lanes and smashing into the cars parked at
meters facing the opposite direction.

“You
thought you had me, eh?” Drew asked.

Brian
moaned as the vehicle slid to a stop. The driver’s side of the Jeep kissed a
parked vehicle, sealing the door shut on that side.

Drew
looked over a shoulder and saw the patrol cars only a block behind and
approaching fast. Another joined them, turning out of an alley.

“They
can’t take me yet,” Drew said to Brian. He reached over and turned the
ignition. The engine that had stalled during the collision came back to life
with a throaty roar. Brian’s eyes glassed over and a thin line of blood crept
from beneath his shaggy hair and crawled down the side of his face.

“If
you want something done, you gotta do it yourself,” said Drew. He unbuckled
Brian’s seat belt and grabbed the man by his shoulders. Two slender, gray hands
slid underneath Brian’s arms and the man shot through the opening between the
two seats until he lay across the backseat.

“Go,”
said Gaki.

Drew
hopped over the gear shift and landed in the bucket seat of the driver side. With
a glance in the rearview, he thrust the Jeep into first, dropped the clutch to
the floor, and pounded the gas pedal until the tires squealed. The Jeep
exploded from the tangle of parked cars and vaulted across traffic to make a
right turn into an alley on the opposite side of the street.

The
patrol cars passed the entrance to the alley. The drivers slammed on the
brakes, threw the cars into reverse, and then turned in pursuit. Drew shifted
into second gear, the front grill bursting through boxes and bags of garbage
left in the alley for collection. A brick wall faced the Jeep at the end of it.
Ten feet before impact, Drew whipped the wheel to the right and burst through a
chain-link gate and into the back of a parking lot. He heard the sound of
Brian’s body bouncing off the seat, along with the groans of his injury. Drew
downshifted to first gear as he maneuvered through the rows of tightly parked
cars. He reached the exit, accelerating as much as he could before slamming
through the gate. The attendant in the booth leapt from the door as he saw the
patrol cars coming through the other end of the lot.

As
Drew hopped the Jeep over the curb and turned left to double back toward the
park, he heard a voice from the backseat.

“He
must die,” said Gaki.

Suddenly,
Drew no longer sat in the driver seat of his best friend’s Jeep, being pursued
by the police as he raced to a park to murder his wife. He was now in a cave,
deep and dark. Drew felt the damp wind as it whistled through, punctuated by
the occasional, muffled thump. Gaki stood against the wall next to a pair of
shackles. Brian lay on the floor, his wrists and ankles bound.

“Not
part of our deal,” said Drew.

“He
fucked your wife,” replied Gaki.

“Her
for my children, that was the arrangement.”

“I
have created time for you to deliver justice to the man who fucked your wife,”
replied Gaki.

Drew
screamed and pounded a fist against the slimy wall of the cave. He mumbled to
himself and looked at Gaki through teary eyes. “He looks dead already.”

Gaki
lifted a tubular arm. He waved his hand back and forth with a spindly index
finger extended. “Let the jealousy consume you. Feast on the violence.”

Drew
shook his head back and forth. He collapsed to the ground with his knees drawn
up. Drew rested his elbows on his knees and cradled his own head, squeezing his
temples to keep them from exploding.

“A
reminder, perhaps?” asked Gaki.

Drew
lifted his head, realizing he was no longer in the cave. He sat on a chair in
the corner of his own bedroom. The gray light of a winter morning streamed
through the blinds. He saw 10:37 displayed on the bedside clock. Drew saw that the
door was shut, but movement on the bed caught his attention.

He
looked up and saw the blankets and comforters torn from the bed. The tangle of
flesh forced him to pause, then dry heave into his sweaty palms. Drew saw the
dark, hairy legs of a man. Protruding from underneath those were the white,
smooth legs of a woman. He recognized Molly’s groan, the one she uttered as the
first hint of orgasm came to her. She was facedown and spread eagle on the bed,
her hands grasping handfuls of sheet at its corners. Molly’s dark hair lay
splayed across her back and cascading over her breasts, pushing out from her
sides. Brian increased his thrusting, his hands grasping her shoulders. Drew
closed his eyes and reopened them, hoping to dispel the image Gaki gave him,
but it did not disappear. Brian moved faster and Molly’s groans morphed into
cries of pleasure.