Throughout the forest, the screams grew louder and the darkness grew thicker.
Nodens continued to feed, siphoning off their energies and leaving behind empty husks. With each victim, its mass grew—but its movements were still limited. On the other side, it strained against the walls, felt them weaken. Nodens knew impatience for the first time. It was eager. Ravenous.
Soon.
Ken listened to the screams and stared at the exit. He felt uneasy. Apprehensive. Something was wrong. The shrieks and shouts coming from the Ghost Walk seemed frenzied. There was no laughter, only screaming.
And the exit remained empty.
The tractors had continued taking people to the entrance. Group after group walked into the forest.
But nobody was coming out.
“What the hell is going on? Where is everybody?”
He wondered again where Terry was, and felt the first real pangs of fear.
The screams reached a fevered pitch. Now, many of the volunteers and attendees were beginning to look unsettled. They kept glancing nervously at the woods.
Ken pulled aside some security personnel and asked them to hold off on sending anyone else in. Then he flagged down the tractors and told the farmers the same thing. Grabbing a flashlight, Ken walked toward the darkened entrance.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The line of traffic lessened as Maria, Levi, and Adam neared the Ghost Walk. Cars were still backed up, but at least they were moving now. The majority of attendees had already parked. All that was left now were the stragglers. Blowing the horn and flashing the lights, Maria raced past them and zipped toward the entrance. A volunteer in an orange safety vest waved his flashlight at her, making frantic motions and shouting at her to slow down. Ignoring his protests, Maria swerved around the man and barreled through the field. The car bounced on its shocks, jarring them all. Maria’s teeth clacked together and Levi held on to his hat. In the backseat, Adam squawked, pleading with her to slow down. Something scraped against the bottom of the vehicle.
“There.” Levi pointed at the entrance.
Maria drove toward it, weaving around angered pedestrians. People leapt out of her way, shaking their fists and hollering as she passed.
“Coming through!” she shouted out the window. “Sorry. We have an emergency!”
“All these people,” Levi said, staring at the midway. “There must be several hundred, easily. And who knows how many have already entered the woods?”
Two men wearing ball caps with “Ghost Walk Staff” emblazoned across the front ran toward them. They yelled at Maria to stop, but she gunned the engine, sending mud and grass flying out from beneath her back tires.
“There’s Ken,” she said, pointing to the entrance.
He stood just a foot from the start of the trail. He turned, blinking, as the car shot toward him.
The screams emanating from the woods were now joined by shouts of alarm from those standing in line. Ken cried out along with them, cringing as the car bore down on him. It slid to a stop about ten feet away from the entrance. Two people got out, but Ken couldn’t see who they were. The car’s headlights blinded him. Ken shielded his eyes with his hand. Then the shadowy figures stepped in front of the car.
“Maria?”
“Ken, don’t go into the woods!”
“What?”
She hurried toward him. With her was an Amish man. A third figure slowly got out of the car and trailed along behind them. Ken grunted in bewilderment. Despite the gloom, the second man wore sunglasses. Far behind them, Ken saw two of his security personnel running across the field. One of them seemed to be shouting into his cell phone. Ken briefly wondered if he was calling the police.
Maria stopped in front of him and bent over, holding her sides and gasping for breath. The Amish man stood next to her, seemingly unruffled. The man with the sunglasses approached them slowly, as if afraid.
“Maria,” Ken hollered, “what the hell is going on? You could have killed someone coming in here like that!”
“I’m sorry,” she panted. “We had to find you…talk to you…Jesus, I’m out of shape.”
“Well, I hope you had a good reason. My security guys are probably calling the cops right now.”
“Excellent,” the Amish man said. “They can help keep the crowd back. You mustn’t let anyone enter the forest.”
Ken flinched. “Excuse me?”
“Anyone who enters your Ghost Walk is damned, Mr. Ripple.”
Ken opened his mouth to speak, and found that he couldn’t. Behind him, the screams from the woods intensified.
“You were right, Levi,” the man with the sunglasses muttered. “I can feel it.”
He held his hands up, palms facing the forest, as if warming them over a campfire.
“Look,” Ken demanded. “You people better start making some goddamned sense. Maria, I thought you supported what I was doing here?”
“I do…”
“Then what the hell is this?”
“It’s very simple, Mr. Ripple. You can’t let anyone else go into that forest. If you do, their souls rest in your hands.”
“I’m sorry. You are who, exactly?”
“You can call him Levi,” Maria said.
Ignoring her, Ken glared at Levi. “You’re Amish. What is this, some sort of religious protest? You here to picket me or something?”
“No,” Levi explained. “This is beyond religious dogma. This is something else.”
More screams poured out of the forest.
“Screw this,” Ken said. “I want all three of you to get out of here, now.”
“Ken,” Maria pleaded, “please listen to us. I can explain everything. Something bad is happening.”
“Take a listen.” Ken nodded toward the forest. “You hear those screams? Those aren’t your normal I’m-having-fun-getting-scared screams. Somebody might be hurt. I need to get down there and find out what’s going on. What I don’t need is this bullshit. Now get out of here.”
“Those people are already dead, Mr. Ripple.” Levi stepped forward. “And if you go in there, you’ll only join them.”
Ken leaned toward him, so close their noses almost touched.
“Buddy, I don’t know who the hell you are, but after the day I’ve had, if you don’t get the fuck out of here right now, I will knock you flat on your ass. Do you understand me?”
Levi smiled. “You can try.”
The flashlight slipped from Ken’s grasp. His hands curled into fists. His jaw clenched. He glared at Levi through narrowed eyes.
“It’s true,” Maria interrupted, pulling Levi back. “It’s all true, Ken. Everything they said about LeHorn’s Hollow and these woods. The Goat Man. The murders. I know it doesn’t make any sense. I know it sounds crazy. We just talked about this the other day. But I’ve seen things—things you wouldn’t believe. And I’m telling you that you need to listen to us. Just five minutes, okay?”
Without giving him a chance to refuse, Maria plunged ahead, giving him an abbreviated account of what she’d learned.
“There’s something evil in the forest. It’s a force—a living darkness. It drains the energy from living things. If we don’t stop it before midnight, then it will expand all over the world. This man, Levi, knows how to stop it.”
“And who’s that guy?” Ken nodded toward Adam.
Maria sighed. “This is Adam Senft.”
“Now I know you’re full of shit.”
Maria exploded. “Don’t you take that tone with me, you son of a bitch. I interviewed you. We had dinner together. Now, I know you don’t know me very well, but you damn sure know I’m thorough and skeptical about everything. Everything. I know this sounds crazy, but it’s fucking true! You said yourself that something was wrong. Listen to those screams.”
Adam shuffled forward. “What screams?”
They paused, listening.