The House of Wood (23 page)

Fury filled Nathan’s eyes, as
he turned on his father, grabbing him by the collar and hoisting
him off his seat.

“Don’t you dare talk about Ma.
Not ever.”

“Calm down, son. I never meant
anything by it.”

Sheriff Ross slumped back in
his chair, as his son dropped him and turned to leave. He adjusted
his shirt.

“One more thing, deputy.” He
opened his draw. “I’m going to need your badge and gun.”

“What? You can't -“

“Now I know what you are going
to say, Nate. But I’ve turned too many a blind eye for you. You're
drinking’s out of hand. I can't have a drunk deputy on my team.
It's just the way it is, son.”

Nathan couldn't believe it. His
fist’s clenched and unclenched by his side. He wanted to punch the
old son of a bitch in the mouth. How dare he call me a drunk?
Nathan fumed. Not when he knew damn well there was a bottle of
whiskey almost empty in the other draw.

He reluctantly un-strapped his
gun and took off his badge, slamming down on the table. “Fuck you.”
He went to walk out the door.

“And the keys to the squad car.
You can’t be driving in your condition.”

Nathan threw the keys at his
father before turning to open the door. He stopped halfway through.
“For your sake I hope she's okay.”

***

The door of the house blasted
open, just as David was about to pass out. The breath in his lungs
froze, as the air turned icy cold. The pain in his side was
excruciating. It felt as though his insides were going to fall out.
He could feel the blood oozing out of him. His hands were crushed
behind him, trapped beneath the back of the chair and the hard
wooden floor.

Above him, Rachel stopped.

Something else was in the room.
Watching them. Waiting.

A cawing filled the kitchen.
Was death coming for him? David wondered. He turned his head to the
side. He blinked his eyes, not believing what he was seeing. A
blackbird sat perched on the dining table.

Rachel stood up and turned to
the bird.

“Hello my little princess. Have
you come to help?”

The flames in the fireplace
burst into life, stretching outwards towards the furniture in the
room. David thought he had died and gone to hell. The searing heat
filled his lungs, as the air around him was sapped into the fire.
He began to choke.

The feathers on the blackbird
began to fall onto the floor, as it grew to an abnormal size. Its
skull started to stretch; the black eyes growing bigger. He
couldn’t make out what the bird was doing. He wanted to scream.
Arms began to sprout out of the body and the talons on its feet
turned into toes. Small tufts of black hair began to sprout from
the white skull. David closed his eyes, then opened them.

A young girl was standing by
the table. Her eyes blank. Her face expressionless.

“What are you doing?” the girl
asked, looking down at David.

He couldn't move. Not just
because he was tied to a chair, but because he was petrified. The
soulless eyes looked through him. Into him. He vomited. His mind
couldn't take much more before it would crack.

“I’m getting you a new friend,
Lilly” Rachel replied, sneering. “Now you go out and play on your
swing.”

“No.”

“Go on, I’ve got work to do,
Princess.”

“I won't go,” Lilly
screamed.

“Don’t you speak to me like
that, you little shit.”

The flames in the fireplace
flared again. The shutters on the windows had begun to slam and
bang uncontrollably. Cutlery flew around the room like a swarm of
wasps. Tables and chairs had begun to splinter, sending sharp
needles flying through the air. The flames in the fireplace grew to
an unnatural size, sucking the air from the room. The house was
getting angry.

“I won’t let you hurt that girl
anymore,” Lilly said.

“You were my favourite. But
you're like the rest of them. Now I'm going to-“

Rachel's body was flung across
the room before she had finished her sentence. She smashed into the
cupboards, then slumped to the floor. Lilly was on top of her in an
instant.

“You’ve been a naughty house.”
Lilly smiled. “Now it's my turn to play.”

Her hand disappeared inside
Rachel's chest. Piercing screams erupted from her, as the small
girl rooted around inside.

David didn't know what to do.
Time had stopped. Any moment now it had to be over. He kept
repeating it over and over in his head. He couldn't take any more.
The screams became louder and louder. He could hear them mix with
the small girl’s laughter. Had his brother gone through the same
horror? He wondered. No, deep down he knew his brother hadn't felt
a thing. Justin had been the one possessed. But Rachel. His heart
went out to her. She had been through this twice. If only there was
something he could do.

Then it occurred to him.

The new gas pipes hadn’t been
properly finished. The mains pipe ran straight through the living
room.

The same room that was now in
chaos.

***

“How the hell are we going to
get there?” Becky asked, following close behind the deputy, as they
walked across the almost empty parking lot. She yanked on his arm.
“Nathan, will you just stop and tell me what's going on.”

He spun on his heels. “All I
know is we've got to get to the house. I just know he was taking
her there. Why else would they have driven past in that
direction?”

“But why? Why would he want to
take her up there? I don't understand.”

“He owns it. This was his plan
all along. To recreate what his brother did in the past. Don't you
see? He's going to kill her.”

“His brother?” Her mouth slowly
dropped. Her eyes widened in horror. “Oh my God.”

Nathan pretty much dragged her
the rest of the way across the parking lot. He stopped beside a
clapped out old Volvo.

“Is this your car?”

“Nope, it's the Sheriff's.”

Nathan bent his arm at a
forty-five degree angle, turning the elbow in to a point. Becky
yelped. The driver’s window smashed into a thousand tiny
fragments.

“What the hell are you doing?
We need to leave this to the police.”

“Fuck the police. They couldn't
give a damn when it happened before and they’re not going to now.”
He got in the car, his head disappearing under the dashboard.

Within seconds, the engine
choked into life.

Becky stood there, tears
forming in her eyes. “What if we're too late?”

Nathan quietly prayed to God
that he wouldn't be too late. He had to get there.

“Sweet Jesus,” Becky said, her
eyes growing wide with fear.

Tiny tendrils of grey smoke had
begun to float into the air above the hilltop. A cloud of
blackbirds circled.

It was coming from the
house.

***

The heat from the house was
intense. Rachel thought David had the heating up too high in the
car. Her eyes flickered before opening. The full horror didn't hit
her straight away. Her mind took a few seconds to register. She
wasn't in the car. She was in hell.

The house raged all around her.
Black smoke seeped into her lungs, as she tried to stand. Her legs
were pinned beneath her. She moved her head slightly to get a
better look. Lying on the other side of the kitchen was David. He
wasn’t moving. Oh my God, she thought, please don't let him be
dead. What had she done? One minute she had been in the car,
finally reaching the end of her story. And then…Nothing. It was as
if she had slipped into a void. Being possessed was like being
stuck behind a sheet of Perspex; she could see everything going on,
but couldn't stop it.

Footsteps to her left, grabbed
her attention. She tried to scream, but nothing would come. The
ghost of Hiram grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and yanked her
free. Her shoulder sprung from its socket with the force.

“Think you could get rid of me
that easily, you little slut,” Hiram spat at her. “I can be any of
them, whenever I choose.”

Rachel just stared in horror,
unable to say anything.

“Oh yeah, maybe this one would
look more familiar.”

He slung her through the air,
her body flying through the flames. She screamed, as fragments of
the house bit in to her flesh; shards of glass, wooden splinters,
anything the house could use for its deadly purpose. As her body
hit the floor, she rolled as quickly as she could, away from the
danger. She had to get out, or he would kill her. But what about
David?

She looked back over at the
embodiment of the house. Its features bucked and twisted, its hands
covering the face. The long grey hair slowly shrunk, turning to
brown. The hunched shoulders broadened out. The skin became taut
and firm. It stopped. Everything stopped. He looked up. Familiar
brown eyes stared back at her.

“You let him kill me.”

“I didn’t, Tim.”

Rachel closed her eyes. It
wasn’t possible. She squinted as hard as she could, hoping he would
go away.

“You were supposed to be my
best friend,” a familiar voice said.

Rachel’s eyes snapped open. She
was staring in to the bloodied face of Chelsea.

“How could you let him do it to
me?”

“Chelsea, please, I couldn’t
stop him. There was nothing I could do.”

A macabre grin stretched across
her face. “Well, baby girl, it’s your turn now.”

The body bucked and twisted out
of shape, Chelsea’s flowing red hair dropping to the floor in
clumps. Rachel couldn’t take it. Her hands covered her eyes.

“No more, no more, no
more.”

“Hello, Rachel, did you miss
me?”

Rachel’s hands slowly dropped,
as she backed away from the figure, sliding along the floor. “No,
no you can't be, I saw you die. You died in the fire.”

“Like I told you,” Justin said.
“I can be any of them.”

Loud screams filled the night
air, as the fear inside Rachel took hold. The fireplace blazed, as
the house roared in triumph. There was no way out, she realised,
closing her eyes. The house was finally going to get its wish. They
were going to die.

Chapter
Twenty-Two

The house had taken on a life
of its own. The orange flames in the fireplace had shrunk. The
furniture now still. It wasn’t real. It seemed as if the house was
waiting for something, taking a deep breath before its final
onslaught. The calm before the storm.

Rachel lay prone in the corner,
her face contorted with the terror coursing through her veins. This
couldn’t be happening, her mind screamed, not again. The pain in
her battered body was almost paralysing. She tried to push herself
up. The agony flooded her system, causing her vision to blur as if
she was underwater. Gentle groans emanated from the kitchen. She
realised David was still alive. She gritted her teeth. No one else
would die for her.

A muddy boot pressed down on
her broken shoulder. She screamed, tears burning her eyes.

“You’re pathetic,” Justin said,
his voice unnaturally low. “This time you won’t get away.”

He picked up her limp body. Her
eyelids flickered, as he carried her to the sofa. A deep groan came
from her, as she was thrown on to the plastic covered surface. In a
semi-unconscious state, she was dimly aware of a raucous outside.
It sounded like some beast hitting the house.

Justin licked his lips,
noticing Rachel’s growing fear. She gasped. His eyes were no longer
blue. The subtle light in the room, bounced off the now onyx
surface.

“Can you hear them?” he
asked.

“W-what is it?”

“It’s my children, come to
play.” His eyes pierced deep inside her. “They want you to say
hello.”

He sprung towards her, pulling
her towards the window.

“No, no. Get off me you sick
freak.”

He smashed her head against the
glass. A single crack crawled down the pane, her blood running
alongside it. She remembered the dolls upstairs, their faces
cracked and broken.

“Open your eyes, sugar
pie.”

“No.”

“Open your fucking eyes.”

“I won’t do it.”

He smashed her head again.
“OPEN THEM!”

Slowly, she gave in. Blood
mixed with the tears giving everything a red tint. Then she saw.
Blackbirds, hundreds of them, circling overhead, their caws like
macabre cries of joy.

“They’ll eat your bones, sugar
pie,” Justin said. “I owe you.”

The next thing Rachel knew, she
was being dragged out of the house by her hair. Towards her
death.

***

Please don't be dead. Please
don't be dead. Please don't be dead.

The words were like a mantra
rolling around Nathan’s brain. It matched the rhythm of the
windshield wipers, which could barely keep up with the downpour. He
couldn't see a thing, except a black smudge on the skyline in the
distance. It stood out in stark contrast to the grey clouds above.
His heart was racing. All he wanted was to get to the house. But
part of him wanted to turn back; to run away from his worst
nightmare, instead of heading straight for it.

Lightning overhead illuminated
his path. He was almost there. If only she could hang on for a few
more seconds. The trees would thin out any minute and he would be
there.

As the car reached the crest of
the smaller hill, the full extent of the situation hit home. It was
like nothing he had seen before. The blackbirds swarmed around the
house like sick blowflies. Unnatural. Unholy.

For the first time in three
years, he covered himself with the sign of the cross.

From out of the nearby trees,
black shapes darted towards the car. The bird’s bodies smashed in
to the vehicle, the sheer number of them almost ramming him off the
road. The car swerved left and right. The windows smashed, allowing
vicious beaks to poke through. Blood, guts and feathers covered the
car. Nathan was struggling to keep control. There was only one
thing left to do.