Tommy Nightmare (Jenny Pox #2) (24 page)

It wasn’t Jenny, though. His Blackberry
identified it as WOOLY. That was Chris Woolerton, one of Seth’s
friends from Grayson Academy. They were friends on Facebook, but
Seth hadn’t actually spoken to him in person in a couple of years.
Wooly’s family lived in Charleston.

“Hey, Wooly,” Seth said.

“Seth! What’s up, man? What have you been
doing?”

“Just hanging out.”

“Yeah? That’s great, man, that’s great! Hey,
I saw on Facebook you’re coming to Charleston for school.”

“Yeah. Where are you going to college,
Wooly?”

“Right here, man. We’re going to be freshmen
together. Where you pledging?”

“Huh?”

“What fraternities?”

“Oh,” Seth said. “I don’t know if I’m doing
all that.”

“Come on, you don’t want to miss out,” Wooly
said. “We’re all Sig Alphs in my family. I can get you in, no
problem. We got a phat, phat mansion, right off-campus so we can do
what we want. The best parties. Puss, puss, pussy all over your
face.”

“Okay, thanks. I’m still not sure—”

“When are you coming down for
orientation?”

“On the website, it says I can go any weekend
in June, July, early August—”

“Yeah, you
can
come any weekend,”
Wooly said, “But you
have
to come two weeks from today. The
Southeastern Funk Fest. All weekend, in the streets. Blink
18
2
’s gonna be there,
Incubus
is gonna be there,
Willie fucking
Nelson
is gonna play—
everybody
. I’m
taking four tabs of ex and a thermos of vodka. We’re gonna get
crunked like skunks, chipmunk.”

“Sounds pretty good,” Seth said. Wooly had
always gotten under his skin a little, but most people seemed to
love him.

“Fuckin’
A
,” Wooly said. “And you can
meet my Sig Alph boys. I’m basically already a brother ‘cause I’m
so legacy. I’ve been going to their parties all year and
damn
. Just
damn
.”

“Okay. I’ve got finals this week, but I’ll
call you—”

“Come on, man. Two weeks from
today
.
And check it out—maybe I can set it up so you can crash at the Sig
Alph house. Like I said, pussy, pussy, pussy.”

“My girlfriend’s probably coming with me,”
Seth said. “Probably just get a hotel room.”

“Yeah, if you want to make it lame, make it
lame, bring your girlfriend,” Wooly said. “Oh! Okay, sorry! Um, I
mean, don’t do that, man. We need to hang out and catch up. Bunch
of Grayson guys will be around, too. This is a very bros-before-hos
situation.”

“I’ll see, man,” Seth said. “But we can
definitely hang out when I’m in town.”

“What’s this
I’ll see
shit?” Wooly
asked. “You’re coming. You
are
coming. I’m telling people
you’re coming.”

“Okay, I’ll come that weekend.”

“Fuck yeah,” Wooly said. “And you gotta let
that high school pussy go, man. Repeat after me: I am
not
fucking married.”

“Nah, we’re pretty serious—”

“I am
not
fucking married. I’m not
hanging up until you say it, bro. I am
not
fucking married.
I am
not—
”

“Okay!” Seth said. “I am not fucking
married.”

“Fuckin’
A.
I will see you in two
weeks. If you don’t come, you’re a fucking dead man.”

Seth laughed. “All right, Wooly. I’ll be
there.”

Wooly hung up the phone. “Okay? Was that
okay?” he asked.

The man standing over him gave an evil grin.
“That was fine.”

Wooly shuddered. The man’s voice sounded like
a razor cutting through ice.

The man had come in through Wooly’s French
doors, which led out to his balcony overlooking Charleston Harbor.
Wooly had been sitting at his desk rolling a fattie of kush for a
concert that night. Pink Floyd’s “Learning to Fly” was thumping his
subwoofers, and the room was lit only by his black-light
posters.

The man had stepped in from the darkness,
dressed all in black, with that crazy grin. His freakish gray eyes
locked onto Wooly instantly. Wooly had started to stand up and yell
for help—maybe his brother would hear him downstairs—but the man
grabbed his forearm and squeezed it tight, making Wooly spill the
bag of bright green, eight-hundred-dollar-an-ounce kush all over
the carpet.

And that was when things got fucked up.

When Wooly was a little kid, there was one
movie that scared him more than any other.
Pumpkinhead
. A
witch summoned a demon to carry out revenge against some teenagers,
and that demon, with his swollen wrinkled head, his evil sneer, and
his blank eyes, had given Wooly nightmares and wet beds for
months.

The guy’s gray eyes reminded him of that
demon’s eyes. And this guy’s face seemed to flicker a little, and
Wooly could swear he kept glimpsing Pumpkinhead’s sneering face
underneath.

His grip on Wooly’s arm was definitely as
tight and strong as a demon’s.

“Okay,” Wooly whispered. “Okay. I called him.
I did what you wanted. Right?”

“You will welcome him,” the guy growled. “You
will keep him with you.”

“Okay.”

“You won’t say anything about me to anyone.”
The gray-eyed dude put a finger on Wooly’s ear, and Wooly tensed,
thinking he might tear it off. “No matter where I am, I can hear
when someone is talking about me. Do you understand?”

“Yeah!” Wooly gasped. “Yeah, man, no way
would I tell anyone.”

“Good,” the guy said. He finally let go of
Wooly’s arm, and Wooly cradled it in his other hand. “Do what I
told you. I’ll be watching.” He stepped out onto the dark balcony,
and he closed the French doors behind him.

Wooly didn’t dare go and peer out through the
glass onto the balcony, or turn the light on to see whether the
demonic guy was gone. He felt like the guy was just standing out
there, watching him, and might pounce on him and kill him any
second. He was too scared to move.

Alexander had tracked the girl all the way to
Fallen Oak, South Carolina, which made him smirk. He’d spent a
previous lifetime here, infusing the place with his energy, really
having fun with it. It only made sense that it would attract others
of his kind. He should have checked up on this place. But he was
into bigger things now, bigger experiments far south and west of
here. Things he needed
her
to power.

He sat inside the empty, never-sold house in
Ashleigh’s cul-de-sac, watching out through the window curtains in
the master bedroom. He could watch them through the side windows.
He’d been occupying this house a couple of days, curious to watch
the convocation underway.

There was the fear-giver and his opposite,
the love-charmer.

And then the third person. Esmeralda,
Alexander’s opposite, the one who could listen to the dead, while
Alexander could command them. He watched her closely.

She was infatuated with the fear-giver, it
seemed. Alexander had watched them in the kitchen. When they’d
finally gone upstairs together, he guessed they would be distracted
for a while, especially with the stereo blasting downstairs.

So he’d crept into the house and planted a
couple of tiny microphones here and there. Since then, he’d sat
here in the empty house and listened to their conversations.
Interesting stuff.

Tonight, the fear-giver had left town on an
errand, but the two girls were here.

He tore open a yogurt-granola bar—he’d bought
a case of them, and he’d been living mostly on those and some
cheese crackers while he spied on the others. He stretched out on
the bare hardwood floor, closed his eyes, and listened over his
headphones.

“What’s all that?” Esmeralda asked.

Ashleigh was coming down the stairs with a
big wicker basket stuffed with lotions, gels and big, fluffy pink
towels rolled up inside.

“Since he’s off doing his thing, I thought we
could really girl out tonight,” Ashleigh said. “I’ve got stuff for
your feet, face, and hair, and I’ve got every single Hugh Grant
movie on Blu-Ray.”

Esmeralda laughed. “Whatever you want to
do.”

“This is what I want to do.” She dropped onto
the couch next to Esmeralda and put a hand on her, and poured the
love into her. “I want to thank you for bringing me back to life,
and keeping me alive. I don’t even know how to say how much I
appreciate it, and how deeply grateful I am to you.”

“It’s okay,” Esmeralda said. “I’m glad I
brought you back. It’s been a great time.”

“You may not know this, but there are some
real benefits to my touch, and I want to share them with you.”
Ashleigh said. She stood up and unrolled one of the fluffy pink
towels across the couch. “Lie down on your stomach.”

Esmeralda looked puzzled, but she was still
smiling. She stretched out facedown on the pink towel. “What are
you going to do?”

“You’re going to get the best thing in the
world.” Ashleigh uncorked a bottle of expensive organic lotion. “An
Ashleigh massage.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I know. People used to beg me for these.”
Ashleigh lifted the back of Esmeralda’s shirt and hiked it up to
her shoulders.

“Hey!” Esmeralda said.

“I’m going to use my best lotion, too.”
Ashleigh unhooked Esmeralda’s bra. “It’s got royal bee jelly, and
like twenty South American herbs.” She spread the lotion on her
fingers and began to rub Esmeralda’s back. She poured her special
energy into it, infusing Esmeralda’s deep muscle tissue with
love.

Esmeralda gave a deep sigh.

“I told you, I’m awesome at this,” Ashleigh
said.

“Yeah,” Esmeralda said.

Ashleigh rubbed her way up Esmeralda’s back,
feeling the girl relax under her fingers.

“So, did you have fun with Tommy last night?”
Ashleigh asked.

“Oh, yeah.”

“What did you guys do?”

“We made chili.” Esmeralda giggled.
“Vegetarian chili.”

“Yeah? Was it good?”

“Oh, yeah. It was hot.”

Ashleigh moved her hands down to Esmeralda’s
lower back and started over, working her way up to Esmeralda’s
shoulder blades. “Then what did you do?”

“We danced. I showed him how to salsa.” She
giggled again. “He was funny.”

“Yeah? Don’t you get scared when he touches
you?”

“Oh, yeah,” she sighed. “So scared. But I
like feeling scared.”

“Oh?” Ashleigh said. “That’s
interesting.”

“I like your touch, too. Keep touching
me.”

“Take your shirt off.”

Esmeralda slowly tugged away her shirt and
bra, moving at half-speed as if tranquilized. She dropped them on
the floor and snuggled into her thick pink towel.

“Then what else did you guys do?” Ashleigh
rubbed her shoulders and neck.

“We played around.”

“Did you kiss?”

“Yes.” Esmeralda giggled again, drunk on
Ashleigh’s energy.

“And he played with your tits?” Ashleigh
rubbed her hands up along Esmeralda’s sides.

“Yeah.”

“And then you had sex?”

“No,” Esmeralda held up a finger and wagged
it. “No, no. But I sucked his dick.”

“And then what?”

“He came in my face and fell asleep.”

Ashleigh snickered. “Turn over,
Esmeralda.”

Esmeralda turned over. Ashleigh looked at her
old finger bone, resting between Esmeralda’s erect nipples.
Esmeralda held too much power over Ashleigh to be trusted.

“You’re so important to me,” Ashleigh said.
“I can give you a massage like this every day if you want.”

“Oh, yeah?” Esmeralda looked at her with
dilated pupils and languid eyes, and gave her a drugged smile.
“That would be perfect.”

“I know.” Ashleigh tugged down Esmeralda’s
pajama pants, and the girl didn’t even protest.

Ashleigh slid a finger into the damp between
Esmeralda’s legs and rubbed the girl’s clit. Esmeralda gasped.

“Do you love me?” Ashleigh asked.

“Yes, I love you.” Esmeralda’s eyes
closed.

Ashleigh rubbed her faster, and she turned
her love-energy way up, pumping it into her. Esmeralda’s body
quivered, and her hips hitched up off the couch.

“Do you love me more than you love
Tommy?”

“Yes, more!”

“A lot more?”

“So much more!” Esmeralda cried out.

“You belong to me, don’t you?” Ashleigh
asked.

“Yes.”

“Say it.”

“I belong to you…I belong to you…”

“That’s right,” Ashleigh said.

The day of Jenny's high school graduation was
overcast, but the Weather Channel said it wouldn't rain, so
graduation was outside on the football field as usual.

Jenny stood in her rented cap and gown on the
temporary bleachers set up on the field. The graduating class was
sparse and scattered on the bleachers, as were the groups of
parents watching from the permanent concrete bleachers. With so
many people dead or missing, it was a gloomy day in more ways than
one.

Jenny found her father among the parents.
He'd dressed in his best suit, which was a brown corduroy artifact
of the 1970s. His girlfriend June sat beside him in a flowered
church dress.

A few rows away from them, she spotted Seth's
parents. Mr. and Mrs. Barrett were dressed quite a bit better than
Jenny's dad, but they all looked equally miserable.

“Hey, Jenny!” Seth called to her as he
climbed up the bleachers toward her. “Did I miss anything?”

“Just a lot of standing around.” Jenny
welcomed him with a hug and a quick kiss. She noticed his eyes
glance warily towards his parents.

“Have you talked to your dad about Clemson?”
Jenny asked.

“I wish I could go there, Jenny. But he's
like iron on this one.”

“But you know I can't live in
Charleston.”

“You can!” Seth said. “It's not even a big
city like Atlanta.”