Hostage (2001) (39 page)

The scream from the rear of the house cut through the alcohol, surprising Dennis more than startling him. It was high-pitched like a girl shrieking, followed by bumping, slamming noises that came from the far side of the kitchen near the garage. Dennis pulled out his gun, shouting.

'What the fuck was that? Who is that?'

It couldn't be Mars, who had just left, or the two kids, who were both upstairs unless that chickenshit Kevin had taken them. Maybe Kevin had returned.

'Kev? Is that you, you asshole?'

Dennis turned on his flashlight and swept the light beam across the kitchen. No one answered and nothing moved.

'Goddamnit, who's there?'

No one answered.

Dennis flashed the light toward the French doors, paranoid with the notion that the police were tricking him.

'Talley!'

Nothing.

Dennis pushed the gun ahead of him and eased through the kitchen toward the garage.

'Is that you, fat boy?'

Nothing.

'Kevin, if that's you, say something, goddamnit. Mars said you left.'

Nothing.

Dennis stepped into the pantry, shining the light through into the laundry room beyond. The floor was covered with a growing red stain that oozed toward him. Dennis frowned, not understanding. He took a step closer, then another. He saw his brother on the floor. Dennis lowered the gun, and straightened.

'Kevin, what the fuck? Get up.'

A deep trembling started at his center, filling him, growing until his entire body shook and the light beam danced mindlessly around the small room.

'Kevin, get up.'

Dennis walked on mile-long legs without feeling. It was hard to keep his balance. He stopped at the edge of the pool of blood and shined the light on his brother. He saw the open neck, the grotesque white bone within the flesh, the wide, staring eyes. Dennis turned off the light.

The fat boy and the girl could not have done this.

Mars.

Mars lied.

Mars killed Kevin.

Dennis backed out of the pantry into the kitchen, then ran for the stairs.

'Mars!'

He took the stairs two at a time, intent only on finding Mars, killing him. Halfway up, he heard the girl scream.

'MARS!'

Dennis slammed into the girl's door, shoving it open so hard that it crashed against the wall. Mars had the girl by her throat, pinned against her desk. Dennis aimed his gun.

'You're dead, you fuck.'

Mars calmly pulled the girl in front of him, blocking Dennis's aim. Dennis saw the knife and the growing bloodstain on Mars's left shoulder.

Mars smiled at Dennis with wide-eyed innocence.

'What's wrong, dude? What are you so pissed off about?'

Dennis could see the terror on the girl's face, her eyes swollen and red. She managed a word.

'Please.'

Dennis raised his gun. He didn't want to shoot past her, but he wanted that fucker Mars square between the eyes. He wanted to make Mars scream.

'This fuck killed Kevin. He cut his damned throat. There's blood everywhere.'

Like he needed her absolution.

The girl closed her eyes and cried harder.

Dennis should have been ready, but he wasn't. He should have pulled the trigger, but he didn't.

And then it was too late.

Mars lifted the girl by the neck and rushed forward, charging Dennis, crossing the short space in no time at all. Dennis hesitated only a heartbeat because he didn't want to shoot the girl, but that was too long. The girl crashed into him, the full force of Mars's weight behind her, knocking Dennis backwards into the hall. Then the girl was cast aside, Mars was on top of him, and Dennis saw a glint off the knife as it came down.

Rational thought was beyond him; he was filled with a suffocating fear that drove him to run, to get out, to move. Thomas did not know that he screamed. He slipped in the blood, falling hard into the red pool, then slipped again as he climbed onto the washer. He clambered up into the crawl space, cutting his hands and knees as he scrambled across the rafters. He couldn't move fast enough, once banging his head so hard that he saw bright flashes. He had the gun now. He could save himself. His only thought was to reach Jennifer. The two of them would run downstairs and out the door, and neither Mars nor Dennis could stop them. He had the gun!

Thomas heard Jennifer's door crash open as he squeezed through the hatch into her closet. He froze, listening, and heard voices. Dennis was shouting at Mars. Mars was holding Jennifer as Dennis faced him, shouting that Mars had cut Kevin's throat. Thomas drew the gun from his pants, big and heavy and awkward, but he didn't know what to do. Dennis had a gun, too!

Then Mars pushed Jennifer into Dennis, and all three of them sprawled into the hall. Thomas crept into the room. Mars grunted like a pig when it eats, drool streaming from his mouth as he stabbed Dennis over and over. Jennifer was crawling away, splattered with blood.

'Jen! C'mon!'

Thomas darted past Mars into the hall, and grabbed Jennifer's arm. He pulled her toward the stair.

'Run!'

The two of them stumbled away as Mars heaved to his feet. His eyes were wild and darting. He was bigger, stronger, faster; Thomas knew that he would catch them.

Thomas whirled around and jerked up the pistol with both hands.

'I'll shoot you!'

Mars stopped. He was streaked with blood, and breathing hard. Blood dripped from his face. Even more blood painted the walls and floor. Dennis bubbled like a fountain and moaned.

The pistol was heavy and hard to hold. It wobbled, even though Thomas held it with both hands. Jennifer pulled at his shoulder, her voice a frightened whisper.

'Keep going. Let's get out of here.'

They backed away, Thomas trying to hold the gun steady.

Mars walked after them, matching them step for step.

Thomas pushed the gun at him.

'Stay away! I'll shoot you!'

Mars spread his arms as if to embrace them. He continued walking.

'Remember what I told you when I tied you to your bed?'

Thomas remembered: I'm going to eat your heart.

They reached the landing. Jennifer started down the stairs.

Mars walked faster.

'I'm going to cut out your heart. But I'm going to cut out your sister's heart first, so you can watch.'

'Stay away!'

Fear amped through Thomas like electric current. His body shook with it, and his bladder let go. He didn't want to shoot; he was scared to shoot, scared that it would be wrong even though he feared for his life, scared that he would be punished for it and would burn in hell and branded a bad person who had made a terrible awful mistake, but Mars came on and he was too scared not to shoot, too scared of that awful knife and the blood that dripped and ran over everything and that Mars really would do it, would cut out his heart, and Jennifer's, and eat them both.

Thomas pulled the trigger.

Click!

Mars stopped, frozen at the sharp sound.

Click!

The gun didn't fire.

All the things that his father had showed him at the pistol range came flooding back. He gripped the slide hard and pulled back to load a bullet into the chamber, but the slide locked open and did not close. Thomas glanced down into the open action. The magazine was empty. The pistol was unloaded. There were no bullets. There were no bullets!

When Thomas looked up again, Mars smiled.

'Welcome to my nightmare.'

Jennifer screamed, 'Run!'

Thomas threw the gun at Mars and ran, following Jennifer down the stairs. The air was thick with the smell of gasoline and vomit. Jennifer reached the front door first, and clawed at the handle, but the door would not open.

'Open it!'

'The deadbolt is locked! Where's the key?'

The key wasn't in the lock. Thomas knew with certain dread that it was probably upstairs in Dennis's bloody pocket.

Mars pounded down the stairs, closing the ground between them. He would be on them in seconds. They would never reach the French doors or garage before he caught them.

Jennifer grabbed his arm and pulled.

'This way! Run!'

She pulled him toward their parents' room. Thomas realized that she was taking him to the safest place in the house, but Mars was getting closer, off the stairs now and out of the entry and right behind them.

Thomas raced after his sister down the hall, through their parents' bedroom, and into the security room. They slammed the steel door and threw the bolt in the same moment that Mars crashed into the other side of the door.

The world was silent.

Thomas and Jennifer held each other, shaking and scared. All that Thomas could hear was his own heavying breath.

Then Mars pounded on the door, slow, rhythmic thuds that echoed through the tiny room . . . boom . . . boom ... boom.

Jennifer squeezed Thomas, whispering.

'Don't move. He can't reach us in here.'

'I know.'

'We're safe.'

'Shut up!'

His father had told him that the door could stop anything.

The pounding stopped.

Mars cupped his hands to the door and shouted to make himself heard. His muffled voice came through the steel.

'You're bad. You're bad. You're bad. Now I'm going to punish you.'

Mars hit the door once more, then walked out of the room.

Thomas remembered the cell phone.

He clawed it out of his pocket, and turned it on.

The cell phone chimed as it came to life.

'Thomas! Look!'

Jennifer was watching Mars on the monitors. He was in the entry by the front door. He picked up the two containers of gasoline, then walked through the house splashing gasoline on the walls. He smiled as he worked.

Jennifer said, 'Ohmigod, he's going to burn us.'

The cell phone chimed again, and Thomas glanced at the display. The battery indicator flickered.

The cell phone was going dead.

Chapter
24

Saturday, 2:16 A.M.

Mars turned off the remaining lights as he passed them. The entry hall turned black. The office followed, then the den. Mars knew that the police would see the rooms fail like closing eyes, and wonder why the house was dying.

Mars went to the kitchen first. He found matches in a jar by the range, then blew out the pilot lights. He splashed gasoline over the range top and gas line, then moved back toward the master bedroom, carefully pouring an unbroken trail of gas along the walls. He loved moving through the house. Shadows gave him the power of invisibility; darkness was his friend. Mars regretted that he would never see his mother again, but only because he enjoyed torturing the rotten bitch. He heard her voice even now, alive in his head: I hate to see a boy do bad things! I hate to see a bad boy, Marshall! Why do you make me punish you this way?

I don't know, Mama.

This will make you a better man.

She didn't like to see a boy do bad things, so now he made her watch all the bad things, and sometimes even made her participate. He regretted that she wasn't with him now; he would have enjoyed introducing her to Kevin and Dennis.

Mars emptied the first bucket of gasoline, then used the second, continuing the trail of gas into the bedroom. He splashed the bed and the walls and the security door. Then he took out the matches.

Thomas dialed Talley's number and pressed the button to send the call.

The phone died.

'Thomas!'

'The battery's low! You never charge it!'

Jennifer snatched the phone from him and pressed the power button. The phone chirped as it came to life, but once more failed.

Jennifer angrily shook the phone.

'Piece of shit!'

'Do you think he's really gonna do it?'

'I don't know!'

'Maybe we should run!'

'We would never get past him!'

Thomas watched as Jennifer pried off the cell phone's battery. She rubbed the copper contacts hard on her shirt sleeve, then licked them before snapping the battery back onto the phone.

'What are you doing?'

'Thomas, I live on this phone. I know every trick in the book for making it work.'

Mars grinned at the monitors, then lit a match. He held it up to make sure that they saw it. The tiny flame was a glob of flickering white on the monitor screen. He let the flame grow, then brought it close to the door.

Thomas grabbed Jennifer's arm.