The man lifted his head and looked in her direction. Blood coated his face from forehead to chin, and he peered across the short distance through badly bruised eyes.
Harrison.
She always wondered what had happened to him after she pushed him out of the car. Now she knew.
Gaby keyed her radio. “That’s Harrison.”
“Yeah,” Will said in her ear.
“You’ve met him before?”
“No.”
“How did you know who he was?”
“It’s a long story.”
“The guy from Dunbar?” Danny asked.
“Uh huh,” Will said.
“What’s it doing with him?” Gaby said.
She had no love for Harrison. She hated the man’s guts. He had killed Peter, all because he “had to make sure.” That phrase haunted Gaby. They were such simple words, but there was nothing simple about the result.
“They like to play,” Will said through her earbud. “They played with Lance and Annie’s friends last night. And they were toying with us back in Dunbar, too. They called off the dogs when they had us trapped just so they could have more fun. It’s all a game to them. A sick, bloody game.”
“I’ve been telling Willie boy,” Danny said, “that if they like games so much, we should introduce them to Parcheesi or Monopoly. All the fun and none of the fatality. Win-win.”
The other blue-eyed monstrosities in the yard hadn’t moved. The one on the roof of the shack continued to stare in her direction while the other two remained perfectly still, as if waiting for the show to begin. There was an effortlessness about the way they just stood that unnerved her, as if they could stay in that pose all night and never have to move for even a second. It was so…unnatural.
“Here we go,” Danny said softly.
The ghoul tugged on the leash, and Harrison stood up obediently. Gaby braced herself for what she thought she knew was coming when the creature beckoned its captive toward it. Long, delicate fingers reached toward Harrison’s throat, and when they pulled away seconds later, the leash was no longer attached. It had freed him.
Why?
When Harrison realized this, he groped at his neck to make sure. He stared at the creature, then around the front yard, before finally up at the second floor. She wondered if he could see her and Danny peeking back at him through the slits. Maybe just her eyes. Was that enough? Did he know she was up here? For some reason, she hoped he didn’t. The prospect of her name being shouted out loud in front of those things made her shiver.
The blue-eyed ghoul opened its mouth and said something to Harrison. Its voice was too low for her to hear from up here.
Its voice.
It’s talking!
“Oh yeah, apparently they can talk, too,” Danny, seeing her reaction, said from across the window.
Harrison was backpedaling in the yard now. First slowly, then quicker, while glancing wildly around him. Then he did what she knew he would do — what she feared he would: He ran toward the farmhouse and straight to the front door. He disappeared under the window and a second later she heard loud banging from below.
Then Harrison’s voice, pained and panicked. “Open the door! Please, open the door! Let me in! You have to let me in!”
The ghoul tossed away the rope and watched Harrison. There was a look on its face, something she had never seen before on the creatures. It looked amused. She turned slightly and saw the same look on the faces of the other three.
They’re enjoying every second of it.
The loud banging continued for a while along with Harrison’s voice. “Please! For God’s sake, open the door! You have to let me in!”
Like hell, Gaby thought, when the banging suddenly stopped.
Harrison reappeared outside her window for a moment before whirling around, expecting an attack at any second. So did she. They were both surprised that none came. Harrison turned and fled up the yard. Then he stopped, seemed to be trying to get his bearings, before taking off again, this time running alongside the house and disappearing.
The creatures hadn’t moved. They simply watched him go. Waiting.
For what?
“There he goes,” Danny said.
“Are they just going to let him go?” Gaby asked.
He shook his head, and in a voice that was odd for Danny, he said solemnly, “No.”
The first ghoul to move was the one perched on the shack. It leaped off the building and darted off in the same direction that Harrison had gone. Then a second one took off, followed quickly by a third, until all four had vanished from the yard.
There was just silence again.
“What are they going to do to him?” she whispered.
Danny shook his head and didn’t answer.
A minute passed, and she was only aware of her shallow breathing.
Five minutes…
She looked across at Danny again, hoping to find some answers from his expression. There weren’t any. He was waiting and listening like her. Maybe he knew something more, but he didn’t say it. She was going to click her PTT and ask Will when a scream pierced the night air.
Harrison.
It was shrill and loud and seemed to go on and on and on.
She had never heard that kind of scream in her life. It wasn’t just that he was in pain. There was mortal terror in every second of it.
And my God, did it seem to keep going, and going…
She had difficulty reconciling that voice with the hardened man who had beaten Peter half to death (or if he hadn’t done it himself, had ordered it), then later tossed Donna out of the car to die on the highway. She wanted not to feel sorry for him, but she did anyway.
Gaby didn’t know how to interpret her feelings. Was it weakness? He was her enemy. She shouldn’t care what was happening to him. Or was it strength? Was courage being able to feel empathy even for your enemy? She didn’t know. She only knew that no one, not even Harrison, deserved what was happening out there at this moment.
No one…
She looked back at the girls huddled in the corner. Annie had placed her hands over Milly’s ears and the girl looked half-asleep in her lap. But it was Claire’s eyes that Gaby saw. The thirteen-year-old’s face was placid, unmoved by Harrison’s cries.
Click. “Gaby,” Will said in her ear. “I need you back at the stairs.”
“On my way,” she said, and walked quickly across the room.
She was glad to leave the window, because the further she moved away from it, the harder it was to hear Harrison’s continued screams. Until finally she was back in the hallway, and she couldn’t hear the dying man anymore.
Lance looked over at her. “They’re doing it again, aren’t they? Like last time. Back at our house. They’re doing it again…”
She didn’t reply. Instead, Gaby sat numbly back down at the head of the stairs, then flicked the fire selector on her M4 from semi-automatic to burst fire. She longed for her own weapon, or at least something with full-auto capability. At least she had silver bullets in her rifle again, so there was that.
“Remember: shoot them in the head,” Will had said.
Right. Shoot them in the head.
Easy enough…