The Serophim Breach (The Serophim Breach Series) (7 page)

He held up the cereal box for his brother to see. “Got it,” he said flatly.

Brandon nodded. “Good. Let’s get the hell out of here,” he called back, looking down at the rearview mirror. Kai was still a few feet from the truck when an eerie cry lifted into the air, echoing from the next street over. The sound stopped Kai in his tracks, and Brandon swung around to look behind them, his eyes wide.

“You hear that?” Brandon said quietly. “Someone keeps screaming. Then it gets quiet. It’s making my skin crawl.” He put his hand on the back of his neck to demonstrate, chuckling nervously. Kai watched his brother and listened for a long moment with his breath held. After a few seconds, he realized that it was almost completely silent in the neighborhood. The approaching storm was tangible in the atmosphere, making it feel heavy, pressurized; the only sound came from bits of trash scratching down the sidewalk, pushed by a temperamental breeze.

When the scream came from behind Trent’s house, Kai felt as though an electric current passed through his body. One moment everything around them was quiet, almost anticipatory, and then the same shrill cry ripped through the air. It was as though the sound knocked the wind out of him, the sound of an animal caught in a trap—a wail of confusion, fear, panic, and wild pain. Kai turned to face the house just as Trent appeared at the side gate.

His old friend’s eyes rolled in his head, and his shirt was covered in dark filth. He shivered like he had just stepped out of an ice bath, and the right side of his head, neck, and chest were covered in dark red blood; his right eyebrow and the skin around it had been ripped violently away, exposing the bone.

Kai’s mind was empty for a moment. Dimly, he heard himself yell, “Trent?” but he neither felt the vibration of his voice in his throat nor understood why he had called his friend’s name. He took a few lurching steps away from the truck, putting his hands to his head. Something in his head told him he should call an ambulance just as the wounded man issued another howl of pain, but he was finding it difficult to move. Then Trent charged.

He came sprinting across the lawn, face contorted in pain and rage, eyes locked on Kai. Kai retreated with faltering steps, and a quiet voice in his head wondered why he was reacting so slowly. As the distance between them closed, he saw that Trent’s left eye bulged out more than his right, and a gaping wound ran from the right corner of his mouth to his nostril. Several teeth were missing from bloodied gums, as if he had been in some horrible fight. Kai was frozen in horror, unable to react to the tiny part of his brain that screamed at him to run. In his peripheral vision, he saw Brandon come scrambling around the back of the truck and lunge toward him as well.

Trent was only a few feet away when Brandon grabbed Kai by his shirt and hurled him back against the driver’s side door. Searing pain exploded in Kai’s rib cage where he struck the mirror, sending him crumbling to his knees, his lungs contracting savagely against the pain. Above him, Trent tackled Brandon, grabbing him by the neck and arm and slamming him into the side of the truck. The dealer was taller and heavier than Brandon, and pinned him in place easily. His brother swung his free arm at his attacker trying to break his hold, but Trent absorbed the blows as if they came from a child. One blow landed squarely on the bigger man’s nose, and Trent screamed in Brandon’s face, his eyes lolling in his head; then he sank his teeth into Brandon’s cheek. Kai heard his brother’s cry of pain mingle with Trent’s growls as he scraped his teeth across Brandon’s forehead and a strip of flesh came away, allowing a thick stream of blood to pulse out over his brother’s eyes. Brandon’s struggling turned to panic, and he thrashed against his attacker blindly, screaming for help. Kai watched from his knees, paralyzed, his own body screaming for oxygen.

Finally, the first gulp of air reached his lungs, and he flopped forward onto his stomach. Brandon’s screams were getting louder, desperate; they nearly drowned out the sound of the metal truck caving to the weight of their bodies, Trent’s guttural howls, and his own gasping breath. Kai focused on the cries, shoving aside the searing pain in his chest as he reached out for the dealer’s leg; he wrapped his hands around Trent’s ankle and yanked with all his strength. A huge weight collapsed on top of him, and Trent’s skull cracked sickeningly against the curb.

The air coming more steadily now, Kai heaved Trent’s body off him and scrambled to his brother, who was sinking to the ground against the truck. Blood covered his face, droplets hanging on his lips, quivering as he sobbed. Kai wiped some of the blood from Brandon’s eyes, trying not to panic at the sight of the horrific wounds.

He tried to reassure his brother, but his mind was empty of words. All he could do was gape back as Brandon watched him with wild eyes, hyperventilating. His hands were shaking, clutching for Kai’s shirt, his mouth working as he let out tiny, terrified moans.

“It’s okay,” was all Kai could manage to croak hoarsely.

He didn’t hear Trent get back up, but suddenly the weight of another body crashed into him, pinning him against Brandon and Brandon against the truck. The sound of the dealer’s mouth next to his ear was terrifying; he snapped his teeth and growled like a rabid animal, flecks of saliva and blood spattering along Kai’s cheek. His brother screamed into his face as he screwed his eyes shut, and a fresh welling of blood oozed down his cheek. Trent latched onto Brandon’s neck as Kai set his hands against the truck and shoved, throwing Trent back onto the sidewalk. His brother screamed again as a piece of skin on his neck tore away in Trent’s jaws.

Kai scrambled up to see Trent in convulsions on the ground, a choking sound coming from his chest. Whimpering, Brandon’s eyes rolled back, and he slumped to the ground as well, curling into a ball. Suddenly, another voice lifted in a howl of rage, and Kai fell to his knees next to Trent’s convulsing body, clasping his hands into one fist and slamming them against the dealer’s skull. The impact sent a jolt of electricity through his hands, rocketing up into his wrists and elbows, but the part of his mind that felt pain had separated away from the rest, and suddenly he was lifting his clenching fists again.

When his vision cleared, he was kneeling between two growing pools of blood. To his right, Trent’s body lay still, the left side of his skull caved in. To his left, Brandon was shivering on the ground, his face pressed into his arms.

From the kitchen, Sarah heard the couch creaking when Lani shifted her position. Chuckling to herself, she thought of all the snide remarks her brothers would make. As she scraped the last of her chow mein into the garbage, she glanced at the kitchen clock again and wondered briefly when Kai and Brandon would be coming home. It had been nearly five hours since they had left the house to drop her father off at the airport.

“Hey, Sarah?” Lani whispered from the front room.

She stepped out into the doorway to look at her friend. Lani was kneeling on the couch, peeping out the front window down at the driveway.

“Why are you whispering?” Sarah asked in a full voice.

“Shhh. I’m serious,” Lani whispered again. She lifted her face a little higher for a better view and pointed. “There’s a weirdo outside.”

Sarah’s stomach tightened involuntarily, and she picked her cell phone up off the TV before walking quietly to the couch. Leaning forward cautiously, she peeked over the windowsill just enough to see where Lani was pointing. Out on the driveway she recognized the jogger that Paul and his friends had nearly run over earlier in the day. The heavyset man stood facing their barn, his face in profile to the window. What little hair he had was plastered against his scalp with sweat, and his chubby face shone from sunburn. It looked as though his legs were shaking, and Sarah wondered if he might be having some kind of stroke. He began jabbering loudly to himself and swiping at the air as if he were standing in the middle of a gnat cloud.

“What’s he doing?” Sarah whispered.

They watched for a few more moments; the display had become almost comical when suddenly all his muscles contracted at once, and a thin line of spittle welled over his lip and dribbled down his chest.

“I don’t know,” Lani replied, chewing on her lip. “Call your brother.”

Sarah opened her cell phone and dialed Paul. As the phone rang in her ear, they watched the jogger take a few paces forward, then wrap his arms around himself and hunch over, as if his stomach hurt.

“Do you recognize him?” Sarah asked quietly.

“No, I don’t think so. He looks gross,” Lani answered in a shaky voice.

A realization dawned on Sarah, and she frowned. “Is he drunk?” she said, her voice getting louder.

Lani looked up at her and said, “I don’t know. He’s been barfing.”

“He’s drunk,” Sarah decided. She had seen Jones black out drunk more than once. Standing up, she cracked the window open and shouted, “Hey! Get off my property!”

She knew she had made a mistake as soon as he turned his head. The motion was quick and unnatural, and his eyes narrowed as he searched the wall of the house for her voice. It was clearly difficult for him to focus his eyes as they rolled and shuddered in their sockets, and he staggered slightly to the left as he turned to face the house. He ground his teeth together, letting out a strange keen; something in the noise sounded lost, like a child trying to find his bearings. Gripped by the sound, Sarah ducked an instant too late, and the jogger caught sight of her; he shouted, both gleeful and enraged, and charged straight for the house.

Lani screamed and fell back onto the couch. There was a loud thump as the jogger threw himself against the house directly beneath the window. Frightened, Sarah watched as he dug his fingernails into the wood siding; it looked as though he wanted to climb up to the window. He scrambled at the wall, fingernails shredding and beginning to bleed as he tried to yank himself up to no avail. Furious, he pounded the side of the house with both fists and screamed up at the window. Then he stumbled back, his head swinging wildly from side to side, his unfocused eyes searching the house for a way in.

Sarah gasped, horrified, as she realized she had never done as Paul asked.

“The door isn’t locked!” she cried.

Lani cowered on the couch and shouted, “Lock it!”

Just then the jogger slammed his full weight against the front door, pounding manically against the wood with his fists. Terrified, Sarah scrambled for the door, leaving Lani screaming on the couch. She braced one foot against the wall and shoved her shoulder against the door, feeling it shudder under the force of the jogger’s body on the other side. She slammed the deadbolt into place and wrapped her hands around the knob. He was hurling himself into the door again and again, and Sarah heard the frame crack near the lock. He snarled ferociously, as if he knew the door would give way.

Looking over her shoulder, Sarah yelled, “Lani! We need to brace it!”

The larger girl was a huddled mass in the corner of the couch, screaming every time she heard the crash of the jogger slamming into the door.

“Lani!”

A sob escaped Lani’s throat as she finally hoisted herself up from the couch and ran toward Sarah, collapsing against the door; it shook once more under the jogger’s weight. Lani shrieked, and Sarah sucked in a quick breath, holding it as she waited for the next devastating impact. It would only take a few more like the last one to break the lock through the jamb. Outside, the jogger growled quietly, his sneakers squeaking softly as he paced along the front porch. Finally, miraculously, Sarah heard him pad down the steps and out onto the gravel, heading away down the driveway, his snarls and ranting trailing behind him. They waited for a moment before taking a few steps back, and tears began to well in Sarah’s eyes.

“Holy crap,” she breathed, and began looking for her phone.

“Who was that?” Lani whimpered.

She scooped her phone up off the ground and dialed 911; her limbs were beginning to feel prickly from the adrenaline, and she was finding it difficult to keep herself from collapsing onto the floor. A busy tone sounded in her ear, and she whispered, “Dang it.”

Lani was watching her with wide eyes. “What’s wrong?” she murmured.

Holding up the phone, she answered, “Nine-one-one is busy,” and dialed again.

“I heard that happens a lot with cell phones. Someone told me that it’s easier to get through on a landline for some reason,” Lani offered, her voice shaking.

After glancing out the window one last time, they headed for the kitchen phone, which hung on the wall next to the refrigerator. Sarah lifted it from the base just as Lani jumped and grabbed her arm.

“Did you hear that?” she hissed.

They stood quietly for a moment, listening; a wave of terror swept through Sarah at the sound of scuffling in the cellar, followed by muffled growls. She remembered in a sudden haze of panic: a few weeks ago, the rusted hinges on the door leading from the yard to the cellar had finally given out as Kai and her dad were storing supplies. They had decided just to set the door over the opening and fix it that weekend, and then forgotten about it. The door leading into the house was kept locked, but it was only an interior door and not as strong as the heavy wooden front door.

“Lani, I think he’s in the cellar,” she whispered. “We have to block the door.”

Her friend nodded, her eyes huge and her face pale. Looking around, Sarah decided the best option was the fridge, since it stood only a few feet from the door. They heard a muffled jabbering come from the cellar, and Sarah motioned to her friend to head for the fridge.

They had only managed to shove the fridge a foot when the cellar door exploded open and the snarling jogger tumbled into the room. Lani leaped back into the kitchen, knocking Sarah into the table. Yelling savagely, the man bared his teeth like a rabid dog, his unfocused eyes scanning the room. Sarah scrambled desperately for the hallway stairs, with Lani close behind her. Just as they rounded the corner, she caught a brief glimpse of the jogger lunging from behind them. Lani screamed in panic as he knocked her to the ground and clambered on top of her.