The Haunting (27 page)

I couldn’t walk through the glass in my socks, so I backed away from the doorway.

Spinning on my heels, gripping the dagger tightly, I felt the anger beginning to swell. I half expected to feel the warmth in my stomach, but it didn’t churn.

I caught up with Phoebe and the group, passing them as I skidded down the stairs in my desperation to get outside.

“What happened?” Phoebe shouted, panic rising in her voice.

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. What would I even say in the short seconds?

Aidan fought the monster, alone, and there wasn’t time. We had to help him.

If I lose Aidan to this
…I allowed the thought to trail off, unable to finish as I felt the tug inside my chest.

Victor called, “Miss Nora, don’t—”

But I was already out the front door, tearing around the side of the house. Joel and Claire bunched together on the front step, watching me with strained expressions.

Phoebe and Read caught up with me, leaving Robin with Victor on the front steps of the house.

Veering around the corner, I saw the bushes just beneath the balcony had been flattened. Likely in the scuffle. At least they didn’t fall on solid ground, or worse, concrete.

“Aidan?” I called. Despite the torn bushes and dug-up dirt from Aidan’s wolfish claws, they were nowhere to be seen. I tried to build up the energy inside my chest, but it still wouldn’t respond.

I heard a bark, sharp and piercing.

I scanned the tree line and felt Phoebe’s breath on my shoulder. I could see her piecing it together, glancing up at the balcony then to the bushes and trees.

I didn’t spot them first, though.

Phoebe launched herself toward a dark stretch of shadows beneath canopy-like trees. They were much further than I’d expected.

Racing after her, I could see Aidan favoring his front left paw as he circled the monster.

The monster had blood streaking from an open stitch on his temple and wobbled when swatting at Aidan whenever he drew close.

Weary and out of breath, the two circled each other, waiting for the other to present an opportunity to attack.

Following Phoebe, I ran with the knife, holding it so the tip pointed to the earth. The last thing I needed was a “running with scissors” mistake right into Phoebe’s back. Considering my clumsiness, I didn’t think I was being overly cautious.

Phoebe skidded to a stop just outside of the fighting circle with Read close behind us, already panting.

I heard Read cry out a protest as I darted past, running around to the back of the monster.

It seemed the best place to start. With Aidan distracting him, I lunged.

I plunged the dagger deep into the monster’s left side, just beneath the ribs. I couldn’t believe I managed to do it.

The blade slid in with a sickening ease, tearing through the fabric and skin as if I were cutting vegetables. The thought made me hesitate.

The monster retaliated while I stood there stunned at my own violence. A powerful elbow slammed into my shoulder.

The stunning pain sent me stumbling backward, the world tilting.

My hands were slick with the monster’s dark blood, and I lost the knife. I caught a tree before I fell and wiped my hand on the rough bark.

Behind me, I heard Aidan snarl, the sound spotting goosebumps down my spine.

Twisting, I saw the monster pivot, eyes wide, wild, and narrowing in on me.

Gasping, I backed into a narrow tree trunk behind me.

The monster plucked the dagger from his side and looked at it inquisitively before charging. To my surprise, he didn’t drop the dagger.

Aidan jumped onto his back, howling and sinking long canines deep into the monster’s shoulder.

Yelling, the monster twisted back and forth violently, swinging the wolf like a pendulum.

It wasn’t longer than a few seconds before he managed to throw Aidan from his hold.

Aidan soared through the air toward Phoebe and Read. Phoebe shoved Read out of the way so he didn’t slam right into them.

Read tried to catch him but seemed to change his mind at the last minute and side stepped. If Aidan wasn’t a three hundred-pound wolf, I could have blamed Read for the move.

Landing hard on the grass, Aidan skidded for a second before rolling to a stop, unmoving.

Phoebe shouted, jerking me from my worried trance. I refocused in time to see the arm swinging down at me.

Screaming, I ducked and dodged to the right, brushing against Phoebe.

She grabbed my arm and yanked me forward so hard the muscles in my neck popped.

I felt a wind at my back and heard the sharp tear of material, but there was no pain as Phoebe hauled me through the trees. Being so close to having my spine severed was enough to launch me forward with a renewed speed. Fear was a great motivator.

We wove around the branches, looping back to dart out into the open, making a big circle to keep our friends in sight but at the same time distracting the monster.

We burst through the trees onto the mansion grounds again. The open space around the house left us little places to hide.

I could see Victor, Robin, Claire, and Joel making their way around the house to find us.

Aidan was on his side panting but otherwise wasn’t getting up. Read crouched near him and appeared to be talking to the giant wolf while staring towards us as we darted across the manicured lawn.

I glanced over my shoulder to see the monster’s advance.

The knife glistened crimson in his hand.

“
Stoooppp
!”

At first I thought that Victor spoke to us as he darted out in front of the train wreck of a creation.

Phoebe and I kept running until we were far enough ahead we could slow to a plodded, exhausted stop. Leaning over, I panted, trying to catch my breath. My heart raced in my chest, making me feel sick.

Phoebe didn’t appear as worn out, though she wasn’t completely unaffected. She brushed a hand over her shiny brow, and we both turned to watch.

Robin began to shriek. “No, Victor, don’t!”

To my relief, Joel held her back. She thrashed to free herself, shrieking hoarsely.

“What’s wrong with her?” I asked.

Phoebe said, “I think she really believes she’s Elizabeth, Victor’s fiancée.”

I started to protest when I found myself staring at Robin. Her face was streaked with new tears as she wrestled for freedom. The white nightgown twisted around her tiny body in a tangle. She sobbed and screamed, fear coating her like a second skin. She didn’t know who we were.

Victor’s voice snagged my attention again. He stood before the monster, arms outstretched. “I cannot let these people pay for my mistake.”

For the first time, the monster spoke. “A mistake? You had your chance to make it right. To even the scales.” His voice was booming, fury seething in each word.

“I cannot make another,” Victor protested. “I will not make another mistake. I was foolish.”

“I warned you I would make you pay!” the monster bellowed, arms akimbo as he took two steps toward Victor. “I got all the parts so you wouldn’t have to. I did all the dirty work so you could live with a free conscience.”

“There is no free conscience when playing God!” Victor shouted righteously. “For that I’m damned.”

“You destroyed my work!” the monster shouted.

I remembered the bodies that Claire had watched him collect and cut to bits. Victor must have disposed of them.

“As melodramatic as this all is,” Phoebe said and pointed to the duo, “if the monster kills him, who will kill the monster?”

“Crap.” Grumbling, I stood up straight.

Before we could think up a plan, the monster grabbed Victor with one oversized hand, engulfing his entire shoulder.

The movement shook Victor like a stuffed doll. With his other hand, the monster grabbed Victor’s head and twisted it as if he were opening a jar of pickles.

The crack was loud and telling, and was followed by Robin’s high-pitched screams. Anguish ripped from her throat she sagged in Joel’s arms.

Phoebe grabbed my shoulder, stunned. “We need fire,” she stammered, her words a whisper.

“The house. We can trap it in the house. There was plenty of lanterns in there,” I answered.

Without a word or motion of agreement or disapproval, Phoebe began waving at the monster. Stepping in front of me, she shouted, “Hey!” I understood this as a signal that she liked my idea.

Read stood, his face scrunched in horror as Phoebe began to hop up and down and shout obscenities. “I’m already a dead girl! Pick me, you fuck!”

Somewhere amongst her swearing and provoking, the monster took notice.

He’d been staring at his maker, the man’s body limp in his arms, his head angled strangely.

The monster reluctantly dropped the corpse and stared at it for several heartbeats. Remorse creased its deformed facial features.

Victor landed, limp, face embedded in the grass and body twisting impossibly. It was the end of the monster’s maker.

Aidan rolled onto his stomach slowly, watching but not moving, his eyes trained on Victor. I swore I saw him lick his chops.

“What the hell are you doing?” Read shouted at Phoebe the moment the monster tilted its oversized chin up to stare at her.

Ignoring him, Phoebe darted closer. “Come on. Think you’re a tough guy because you can choke girls?”

Robin’s free hand moved to her reddened throat. “Don’t,” she protested in a wail. “Please.”

From what I could tell, Victor’s death hadn’t snapped her out of her trance.

The monster turned its back to us. To all of us.

It was so unexpected I found myself frozen.

Even Phoebe quieted as she lowered her arms in shock. Glancing over her shoulder at me, she raised her eyebrows.

Read sprinted toward us.

The monster reached the trees and kept walking away. He didn’t turn around, glance back, or make any move to return—yet. He just kept walking, leaving Victor’s body behind and the rest of us watching in amazement.

Catching up to us, Read said breathlessly, “Let him go. He’s probably going off to die.”

“Like in the book?” Phoebe asked.

Read blinked. “Did the fake-me say that?”

“Yeah,” I answered and glanced towards Robin. “She’s still like that.”

“Can Aidan move? We should round up,” Phoebe suggested.

I automatically volunteered by walking towards the large roan-colored wolf. Read and Phoebe started towards Joel, Claire, and Robin.

Kneeling near him though not touching him, I whispered, “Can you walk?”

He turned his wolf-ish head and did a dog-like gesture by lolling his tongue out and panting at me with a lop-sided grin.

I smiled back at him. “Come on, this can’t last that much longer.”

“I found the door!” I heard Claire yell.

“See,” I said to Aidan, as if I had planned it all along.

He started to stand, staggering and favoring his front left paw again. In fact, he didn’t put any pressure on it at all, hobbling on three legs instead of four.

I walked alongside him until we reached the house.

The front door was no longer red but black. Nailed to the front was a slip of white paper, the edges curled as if it had been hanging there for hours.

Still holding Robin, who shook but otherwise didn’t seem eager to run away, Joel leaned forward and read the note.

“Say it out loud,” Phoebe suggested when she saw Aidan and I come around the corner.

“It’s a riddle,” Claire said to us as we neared.

Robin eyed the limping wolf suspiciously and seemed to press herself closer to Joel.

I saw Claire roll her eyes, but she didn’t start any confrontation.

Reading, Joel began:

“What is considered good and bad?

“What is dark and deeply sad?

“What effects species of different kinds,

“And different types of different minds?

“This will never leave your world, Earth,

“And it shan’t have anything to do with birth.”

I grimaced. I hated riddles. “Okay, something considered good and bad, but it’s dark and sad?”

“Never will leave Earth,” Claire said, eyes rolling up as she mulled it over in her head.

Robin asked timidly, “The ocean? If I answer your riddle for you, will you let me go?”

Ignored completely, Phoebe pointed out, “Sounds like it effects everything and everyone. Could be the ocean.”

“Everything
living
,” Read corrected.

Aidan growled, making Robin squeal and nearly flip around Joel. If he wasn’t still holding onto her, I would think she’d be hiding behind him. She started babbling under her breath, but I couldn’t make out the exact words; she spoke too fast in that thickened accent.