Mindy didn’t move. She glanced beyond us, up the stairwell. Her eyes were wide and teary.
“Where’s Mike?” she asked.
Before I could answer, she pushed past me. I reached for her, but she slapped my hand away and ran out into the rain. I heard her scream—followed by the terrible sounds of tentacles slithering across the roof. Another appendage wound through the doorway and groped its way down the stairs. The mouths inside the suckers worked silently.
“Let’s go!” I shoved them forward. We raced down the steps and regrouped in the lobby. The tentacle didn’t follow us.
“I don’t think it can reach us here,” Sarah panted, breathing heavily. “We should be safe.”
Ducky wiped the water from his brow. “Yeah, until it rips the motherfucking roof off this place.”
“Which should be any minute now,” I said. “Shit. I don’t know what else to do, you guys.”
“So we just give up?” Sarah asked.
I sighed. “You’ve seen the size of that thing. How the hell are we supposed to fight it? There’s no other way out of the hotel. And we can’t swim for it or take the boat. Not with that monster outside. So if you have any bright ideas, now would be a good time.”
She didn’t answer me, so I continued.
“Listen. Maybe it sounds weird, but I’d like to go find Lori. If we’re going to die anyway, I’d like to be with her when it happens.”
“I can’t believe this.” Sarah shook her head. “Have you lost your mind?”
“I hear you, playa,” Taz said. “Kevin’s right. We might as well go out with a bang.”
Sarah continued shaking her head.
Taz grabbed Lashawn’s arm. “Come on, baby. Lets go.”
She took two steps with him, then turned and looked at Ducky over her shoulder.
“Lashawn…” His voice cracked.
She broke free of Taz’s grip. “Wait. What about Ducky?”
Taz whirled around. “Ducky? What the fuck? He’s my homey, yeah. But shit—we all gonna be dead in ten minutes. I want to spend it with you, baby, not Ducky! You cool with that, right, Ducky?”
“Yeah, dawg,” Ducky sighed. “I’m cool with that.”
I could hear his heart breaking, and apparently Lashawn could, too. She walked toward him.
“Where the fuck you going, Lashawn?” Taz’s face was a mask of confusion.
She flipped her wet hair from her face. “I’m staying here with Ducky.”
“Why?” Taz took a step toward her.
“Because I love him, you asshole!”
Taz gaped at them both. Slowly, he raised the assault rifle. His hands were shaking.
Ducky took a step backward, distancing himself from Lashawn.
Taz’s voice was ice cold. “You what?”
“I love him. We’ve been knocking boots behind your back for months. I’m sorry that you found out like this, but it’s true. If I’m gonna die, I want to be with both of you.”
“This is not good,” Sarah whispered in my ear. “Do something.”
The hotel shook as Leviathan continued his assault.
Ducky held up his hands, feigning ignorance. “Yo, Taz, listen. That bitch is crazy! Come on, man. We boys. How long we been boys? We rolling with the same crew and shit. Druid Hill for life. Remember?”
Taz shook his head. “Druid Hill crew my ass, you low motherfucker. You were sleeping with her this whole time. You were knocking boots with my girl!”
Sarah intervened, placing herself between them. She held up a hand. “Think about what you’re doing, Taz. This isn’t the time. We need to work together right—”
“Get the fuck away from me, bitch.” Taz brushed past her.
I grabbed Sarah’s arm and pulled her away.
“Come on, baby,” Lashawn begged Taz. “Calm down. It don’t have to be like—”
He shot her in midsentence. It happened quickly, and for a second, I didn’t understand what had just occurred. The rounds punched through her breasts and abdomen, and lodged in the wall behind her. The white plaster turned red. Lashawn looked surprised as she slipped to the floor. Ducky screamed and Taz whirled around, aiming the rifle at his friend.
I stepped in front of Sarah and called Taz’s name. My ears were ringing.
“Stay the fuck out of this, Kevin.”
“Come on, man,” Ducky pleaded, hands held out in front of him. “Don’t do this. The bitch ain’t worth it, Taz.”
“You fucked my girl, punk! Did you think I would just let that shit slide? You were supposed to be my boy.”
A tear slid down Taz’s face as he squeezed the trigger. Ducky jittered like a marionette as the bullets struck home. He fell to the floor, glassy eyes staring at nothing. I squeezed my trigger a second later, aiming at the center of Taz’s shaved head. It blew apart like a rotten pumpkin, splattering the wall with brains and shards of bone.
“Oh God…” Sarah gasped.
I pried the assault rifle from Taz’s fingers, took a step backward, and then collapsed to my knees. My stomach heaved, and the bile burned my throat as it rose. I crouched there, vomiting until there was nothing left inside of me. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.
“You okay?” Sarah asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, I think so. I—I’ve never killed somebody before.”
“What now, Kevin? What are we going to do?”
I slowly rose to my feet. “I’ve got to find Lori.”
“But she could be anywhere.”
“I know. That’s why I have to find her.”
“But what about—”
Above us, the roof shook as the thing outside slammed against it. Cracks spider-webbed across the ceiling. My feet sloshed as I took another step and I looked down to find myself standing in a puddle. Water was beginning to trickle down the stairs from the roof.
“Shit.” I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples. In less than an hour, our ranks had dwindled from eighteen to eight. I figured the rest of us would take about half that time.
It turned out that I was right.
I ran, determined to spend my last moments with the woman I loved.
“Kevin,” Sarah called after me.
Not stopping, I shouted over my shoulder, “If you’re coming, then move your ass.”
She glanced back at the stairway. The trickle had turned into a torrent and the cracks in the wall were widening.
“Wait for me,” she said and then followed.
We found Lori in the lobby on the nineteenth floor, cradling Anna’s head in her lap. Lee, Danielle, James, and Malik lay nearby. There was blood everywhere—on the walls and the carpet and even the ceiling. A kitchen knife jutted from Lee’s throat and his eyes stared sightlessly. None of the kids were moving. They’d been stabbed. As I followed the trail of blood, I noticed that the walls and ceiling on this floor were beginning to crack, too. The building shook beneath our feet as we ran towards them. Plaster fell from the ceiling.
Sarah knelt beside Anna. “Anna? Can you hear me?”
Anna turned her head and coughed; blood leaked out of the corner of her mouth.
I crouched down beside Lori. “Hey, you okay?”
She looked up at me, her face glistening with tears. “Kevin…”
I took her hand. “What happened? Who did this?”
“Lee—he found Anna and the kids here in the lobby, while I was looking for more weapons. When I showed up, he was acting crazy, talking about sacrifices and how the Satanists had the right idea. He-he said we had to sacrifice one of the kids. That if we did, that thing outside would let the rest of us live.”
Anna coughed again, spraying us with blood.
“Jesus Christ,” Sarah said. “He completely lost it.”
“What happened next?” I prodded Lori gently.