Weakness!
What do you want? Though the question was spoken silently, Janet could hear the menacing-yet somehow seductive-voice as clearly as if it had spoken directly into her ear. You can have it. You can have anything you want.
Now the image began to change, the vile face softening until she was looking at Ted.
But not Ted the way he was.
Ted the way he'd been, many years ago.
Except even that wasn't true. The Ted she now beheld hovering above the altar wasn't Ted as he'd ever been; he was the Ted she'd always dreamed of.
Perfect in every way, his features handsome and even, his eyes clear.
Everything about him idealized.
The image of Ted smiled at her. It spoke again with Ted's voice, caressing her, soothing her.
Promising her.
"Anything, Janet. You can have anything you want. Your life can be as perfect as you've ever dreamed…" The voice went on, whispering, murmuring, reaching deep within.
"No," she whispered, but this time it was more a plea than a command, and as the voice continued its siren song, the image's perfect eyes fixed on her. She felt the deep pull of temptation. "Please," she begged. "Don't do this to me… please don't do this…"
But now she was feeling Ted, too, feeling his hands on her body, his warm fingers exploring every part of her, touching her, stroking her. She felt a surge of warmth grow in her groin and begin spreading through her, and her words turned to soft moans of ecstasy.
"You want it, Janet," the voice purred. "You know you want it. Anything and everything. Just give yourself to me, Janet. Open yourself. Let me in. Let me possess you. Let me-"
Suddenly, a single word resounded through the vast cathedral, shattering the seduction. "NOOOooo…!"
For a moment Janet had no idea where the sound had come from, but then she heard it again, from behind her. Tearing her eyes loose from the perfect image of Ted that hung suspended above the candlelit altar, she twisted around.
She saw her elder daughter coming toward her. Kim's face was ashen, her eyes wide with a combination of terror and wonder. Her right hand was clutching the cross that hung from a golden chain around her neck. Her left arm was extended straight out before her, and from her fingers hung the second cross, the one Janet herself had put away for Molly. As Kim drew near, Janet reached out to take the cross, but Kim passed by her, her eyes never wavering from-
– the image above the altar! Kim was gazing at it, and the expression on her face was enough to tell Janet that it wasn't she to whom Kim would offer the golden cross, but to the terrible being floating over the glowing candles. Then, as Janet watched, the visage of a perfect Ted changed again, mutating into something else, something with eyes that glittered with hatred. The soft skin that had been so perfect a second earlier turned red and scaly, and Ted's full lips thinned and hardened until Janet was staring at the mouth of a reptile.
The mouth opened, and a two-headed serpent shot out, each of the serpents writhing individually, each of their maws gaping wide to exhibit venom-dripping fangs.
Whimpering with terror, Janet cowered back from the terrible being.
Kim, though, walked steadily forward.
Both Jared and Ted stood before the altar now, the image of their god looming above them. The dagger vibrated in Jared's right hand, a few inches above Molly's naked breast, and as Kim drew closer, Ted's voice echoed through the chamber.
"Do it," he commanded once more. "Do it now!"
Jared's hand moved, and the dagger's point touched Molly's skin.
"DO IT!" Ted screamed. "Make your sacrifice!"
Not real!
Kim repeated the words over and over again as she moved toward the altar. She tried not to look at the terrifying being that floated above the altar, concentrating instead on forcing her feet to obey the will of her mind instead of the power of her fear.
Not real, she told herself again.
But this time she knew it was real, that what she was seeing was the very source of evil itself, and not merely an image conjured up in some underworld to frighten her away.
She could still hear Jared's voice calling to her, but it was weaker now. She was close enough to feel his mind, and she could sense him weakening as their father railed at him. In another moment or two it would be too late.
The twin serpents flicked toward her once again, their fangs bared, their slitted eyes glowing, but when she moved the cross in her left hand toward them, they veered away, hissing like water splashed on a sizzling griddle.
She moved closer, and now the evil image itself was screaming, bellowing in rage as she drew nearer, then nearer still, until she was next to Jared, standing before the altar, gazing into her brother's face in the light of the flickering candles that lit the area above the altar. The tip of the dagger still rested on Molly's breast. Molly herself was crying, and wailing for her mother.
"Do it, damn you!" she heard her father command, and saw Jared's knuckles turn white as his fingers tightened on the haft of the dagger.
He raised it, ready to plunge it deep into his little sister's chest.
Kim reached out and dropped the chain over Jared's head. The cross fell to his chest.
In the instant the cross touched him, Jared's face contorted with rage, and he lifted the dagger higher. His mouth opened and a screech of fury burst from his throat. A moment later the dagger flashed downward.
And plunged to the hilt into Ted Conway's chest.
Ted staggered, then sank to his knees. Jared, the dagger still clutched in his hand, pulled it loose. Ted gazed up at Jared, his eyes filled with shock, color draining from his face. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but Jared thrust the dagger into his father's gaping face, ramming it through the roof of his father's mouth to sink it deep into the core of his brain.
His life already ended, blood still gurgling from his wounds, Ted crumpled to the floor in front of the altar.
"Get Molly," Jared whispered, but even though his words were barely audible, Kim heard them directly from his mind. "Get Mom. Get out. For God's sake, get out."
Lifting Molly off the altar, Kim turned and ran up the aisle, calling out to her mother to follow her. A moment later they burst through the doors.
And back into the darkness of the staircase.
As the terrible nightmare released her from its grip, Janet stopped short. "I-I don't understand-" she stammered. "What-"
But Kim, still carrying Molly, pushed her up the stairs. "Get out!" she said. "Jared says we have to get out. Now!"
Something in her daughter's voice penetrated the confusion that surrounded Janet, and, taking Molly from Kim's arms, she stumbled up the stairs, through the dining room and entry hall, and out onto the front porch.
The sun was shining brightly, and a faint breeze played in the air.
Janet was back in the perfect morning to which she had awakened.
CHAPTER 39
Father MacNeill's prayers died on his lips as the front door of the house flew open. When Kim burst out onto the porch, no more than ten minutes after she'd gone into the house, he was certain she'd failed. Either she hadn't found the second cross, or, more likely, she had lost her nerve.
He didn't want even to think about the worst possibility, that somehow she had lost the cross that had been hanging around her neck.
When Janet Conway appeared with Molly in her arms, however, he released the breath he'd unconsciously been holding and took a step toward the house. But as he moved off the sidewalk and onto the Conway property itself, the chill of evil fell over him, and he knew that the terrible confrontation inside had not yet ended.
Kim, exhausted by what she'd been through, collapsed into his supporting arms. He held her for a moment, feeling her heart pounding, her body trembling. "It's all right," he told her. "You're going to be all right." Eventually, the throbbing of her heart began to slow, her trembling to ease. "Where is your brother?" he asked, then more urgently: "Where is he?"