”No. I saw nothing.”
”You do believe me, don't you?”
”Yes.”
”Because there was this guy, or-or thing with a mouth that was huge and red; its head was misshapen, and the arms? I'm sure there was something-”
”Robyn, hey Robyn,”he hushed her. ”Take it easy. You're trembling.”
”I'm not frightened. I just want you to believe what-”
”I do believe… that guy Benedict saw it, too.”
”What do you think it is?”
Noel hugged her in the dark. ”Robyn. It's four in the morning. It's not the time to speculate on… you know, weird guys. The main thing is he didn't hurt you.”
”You should have seen the eyes. The way they stared at me; they were so cold. You could have-”
He shushed her softly. ”Please, Robyn. Try to sleep. You need rest now; you've had a hell of a shock tonight.”
”Okay.”She turned over so her back was to him. But it wasn't in anger; she needed to feel his muscular presence form a protective barrier close to her. ”I'll stop talking,”she murmured. ”But hold me, will you?”
”My pleasure.”
He put his arms around her and rested his face against the nape of her neck.
”Noel?”
”Hmm…” He sounded half asleep.
”Promise me you won't go hunting anyone with that gun again?”
***
At the same time Noel and Robyn were drifting into sleep with the handgun squatting darkly on the bedside table, Benedict sat in his apartment with the box of videotapes beside him on the couch.
By the time he'd kicked off his shoes, poured himself a stiff one, and started to sort through the twenty or so Betamax tapes, his heart had begun to pound. After Robyn had shown him the tapes she'd found in the Luxor's apartment (she'd been pretty unsteady on her pins after being attacked by that thing on the dance floor), he'd left the building by the hole in the rear door of the building, then driven home faster than was legal or safe. But he sensed he was so close now to learning about what had happened to Mariah Lee. He was certain the key to the mystery lay somewhere in this pile of old videotapes.
Now that the moment to search through the cassettes had come, unease twitched his gut. Because at the back of his mind he'd always anticipated a reunion with Mariah. And that she'd be as lovely and as fresh faced as he remembered her. Now, after hearing Robyn Vincent's account of what had befallen her in the Luxor, Benedict began to doubt that he'd ever see Mariah again. Benedict recalled Robyn's description of what happened to her. How she'd become disoriented on the dance floor in the dark. How she'd found herself running not on timbers but over leaves. How she'd stumbled into a damp, dripping forest peopled by monsters.
It should have been easy for him to down those shots of whisky, then dismiss Robyn's statement about encountering hideous, malformed figures in some alien forest. Only he couldn't. For he'd seen the monster, too.
***
In his dream, Ellery Hann stood beneath gray skies. All around him ran a vast forest. The coming winter had stripped branches of their leaves.
The scene wasn't unlike the scenes he conjured into his imagination as he sat in the armchair in the Luxor. Beyond the forest, mountains rose.
On one mountain stood a city that shone so brightly it could have had a chunk of the sun embedded there. Ellery smiled. That distant citadel called to him. In his bones he knew that was the place he truly called ”home.” It was a city of Persian-style domes and ancient spires.
Clustered below dreaming spires were thousands of houses, each with its garden where grape vines clung to walls, where rose-lined pathways led to orchards of lemon, orange and pomegranate.
Deep down, the sleeping Ellery Hann knew he was dreaming. Even so, he thought, If I could only reach the city before morning, I might actually wake and find myself there.
Ellery began to run. If only he could run fast enough before he woke.
Then he might open his eyes in the shining city instead of waking in an apartment that stank of sweat and stale beer, and the spiky odor that proved both his father and brothers were none-too-accurate when they relieved themselves in the bathroom. Ellery ran harder through wet grass. He plunged into the belt of trees, wove in and out of tree trunks and leapt over root clusters.
If only I can keep running for an hour. I'll leave the forest behind me.
I'll be in the foothills. The city can't be much farther thanMusic jarred him out of his sleep. A lavatory flushed in the next apartment. Bacon smells seeped beneath the door. His father's snore droned through the thin wall. One of his brothers cussed over some irritation or other. Ellery groaned with disappointment. For a second, even though his eyes were open, he could still see the shining city in front of him.
Then, as a baby began its thin cry on the landing, the beautiful vision faded.
Ellery groaned again. This time the groan formed a name: ”Logan.”
***
Ellery turned left onto Fairfax, a quiet street. There were a few stores selling secondhand furniture, a couple of derelict commercial buildings, not much else. The sun burned hot against his back as he walked. On TV that morning the weatherman had said he'd never seen a Chicago April as warm as this one. ”So toasty it proves the world's gone weird,”he'd added.
Not that the state of the climate concerned Ellery Hann on that Tuesday morning at a little after eight-thirty.
You can never tell with Logan, he thought. At school he wasn't your typical bully. He'd explode some guy's nose one day, then talk to him the next as if nothing had happened. Logan'd work himself into a rage, then threaten to mutilate you, but then he'd get distracted (short attention span for sure) and go kick some other guy instead.
But what Logan was never short of was an appetite for violence.
Sometimes it didn't really matter whose face he was bloodying, as long as he was getting high on punching someone. Yesterday, he'd threatened to splinter Ellery's leg bones, but overnight Logan might have redirected his violent urges at some other innocent victim.
And it complicated things that since leaving school Logan'd decided to build a career in petty drug dealing (not to mention rumors that he mugged the elderly for both fun and profit). A weight settled in Ellery's stomach as he walked along Fairfax. Ahead stood the work189 shop where he worked. In less than four minutes he'd be safely inside.
The problem was that there were alleyways running off at either side of the street. You only saw who was in them when you actually walked by the entrance.
But then, maybe Logan wouldn't be there? Or maybe he'd be stoned and just glassily stare at Ellery as he walked by? Perhaps the cops would have caught up with the thug? Maybe he was locked down tight in jail?
Maybe a rival dealer had slit his”Ellery… what did I promise to do to you if I saw you on my territory again?”
All the maybes vanished from Ellery's mind. He turned to see Logan standing in the open gateway to a derelict warehouse. Logan's tattooed fists hung loosely down by his sides. He wore a red bandanna down so low over his forehead it covered his eyebrows. A cigarette jutted from the side of his mouth like it was a bone white nail hammered into his teeth.
The guy stood framed by the brick archway-a looming giant of a figure that oozed menace. He used one of his big muscular hands to draw the cigarette from his mouth in a swirl of blue smoke.
”I'm going to keep my promise. Enjoy the use of your legs while it lasts, buddy? ”I-I-th-thar-”Ellery began.
”What the hell made you come back here, when you knew I'd cripple that skinny little bastard body of yours?” Logan glanced to his right and Ellery saw that he'd brought along a whole pack of his bodies to enjoy the show.
”You should have stayed away Eh-Eh-Eh-Ellery," Logan mimicked Ellery's stammer with a smirk.
”I w-wer-work here. I've g-got to come.”
”You should've quit; then you'd have avoided all the hurt. Now…” He shrugged. ”It's pow-pow
time.”
Ellery glanced along the street. Unless you counted an old guy walking a dog and a couple of school kids, there was no one to help Ellery. Trucks rumbled by but no way would they stop and save Ellery's skin if the drivers saw some kid they didn't know being bounced around by a street gang. The best Ellery could hope for was that a stranger might summon an ambulance to scrape his busted bones up from the pavement. Damn, this is it…
Ellery thought: Run!
OK, I run, I get away from them but I'd only have to walk down this street tomorrow to work… Like dozens of times before, a sense of acceptance of the inevitable ran through him. Might as well let them do some shoe work on my face and legs. They're going to get me in the end anyway…
The younger kid called Joe circled behind Ellery and shoved him forward into the courtyard of the old warehouse. Now he wasn't even in plain view of the street. Ellery noticed a row of aluminum baseball bats lined neatly against a wall. They'd planned this. Now they were going to execute the plan.
Logan grinned at his buddies. ”Some of you know Ellery here. Some of you don't. He can't speak… not like a human anyhow. He yabbers like a monkey…”
Ellery thought about the Luxor, about the woman and the man he'd met there, and giving them a place of safety in the apartment…
”Funny thing about Ellery is,”Logan was saying, ”he never ducks a punch or tries to run. Show 'em, Joe.”
Joe threw a punch at Ellery catching him on the cheekbone. Ellery staggered but regained his balance.
Ellery thought about the city he dreamt about, the one that shone as bright as the sun on the mountainside. He wished he were there right now. That was his home… not this town. And in the shining city lived his real family ”Hey Beanie.”Logan nodded at a guy with a shaved head. ”Take a poke at Mr. Ellery here.”
Another punch split Ellery's eyelid. Blood ran like crimson tears down his cheek. These guys were Logan's new recruits. This was more than just sadist playtime. There was an important purpose to all this. First, Logan was tying the partnership bonds with his new buddies by indulging in this illegal blood ritual. Also, when they left Ellery with broken shinbones and a busted face, Logan's new team members would be thinking, Jesus Christ, I'm glad that didn't happen to me… then realizing it would happen to them if they disobeyed Logan.
Ellery began the retreat deep into his skull, where they couldn't hurt him. Another guy stepped up to the mark to punch Ellery in the stomach.
He doubled, gasping. A crimson bolt of pain surged through his abdomen.
”This is a neat trick with Ellery,”Logan grinned. ”Grab him by his hair with one hand. Then use the other to break him up around the eyes a bit.
Good short jabs. That's all you need.”Logan grabbed a handful of Ellery's hair at the back of his head.
Please, Ellery thought. Vanish into the back of your mind. They can't hurt you there. They can't reach you…
As he searched through his mind for an image to lock onto so it would distract him from the beating, he found himself thinking about Robyn Vincent. He remembered how convinced he'd been that they'd met before.
She was important to him… but why? He couldn't remember meeting her before.
The hand tightened at the back of his head, ripping hairs out from the scalp.
”Ten bucks says I can break the fuck's nose bone with the flat of my hand.” Logan glanced around, looking for takers for the bet. His buddies grinned, then nodded.
Come on, disappear into yourself. Ellery tried, only he couldn't. His heart pulsed in painful squelches. Dear God, he was going to feel every blow. For some reason he couldn't hide inside his imagination. For some reason his mind kept going back to Robyn Vincent. She had hair as fine as a baby's. Her features were delicate. And there was some light in her eyes that Ellery had felt so compelling. When she'd first entered the dance floor with her boyfriend, Ellery had experienced something like electricity crackle through every nerve in his body.
She's special…
But why is she special?
What had he identified there in the light of her eye, or in the arrangement of delicate, otherworldly features? ”On the count of three.”Logan raised his open hand so the palm would snap Ellery s nasal bone. Behind him the other thugs chose their baseball bats. ”One…”
She's so special… because they need her baby.
Logan smiled cruelly. ”Two.”
The words soared up from somewhere deep inside of Ellery When he spoke there was no stutter. ”She needs my help.”
The clarity of his voice made Logan pause. A puzzled frown twisted the skin between the thug's eyes.
”Hey, Logan.”Joe laughed. ”Monkey man spoke properly He jabbed Ellery in the side with the end of the baseball club. ”Who needs your help, monkey man?”
They all laughed. Logan's lip curled. ”It's you who needs help, Eh-Eh-Ellery.”He lifted his hand, ready to deliver the nose-breaking slap. ”Ten bucks says I do this, right?”
”Right!”they chorused.
”Three.”
Between the start of Logan's hand moving and contact with Ellery's face, Ellery knew that Robyn needed him. He didn't know why. It was as if he'd been given important information years ago. For a long time it had been hidden in mists of forgetfulness; now the reason why he needed to be close to the stranger, Robyn Vincent, began to emerge. He needed to go there now. Even now might be too late. But nothing-nothing]- could get in his way Nothing should delay him a moment longer. The urge to run to the Luxor blazed in his bones, a fire of urgency that meant he couldn't stand there as limp and passive as a corpse. He twisted to one side as Logan's open-handed blow sliced through the air. Even though the thug held Ellery by the hair, he turned his head far enough so it was his cheek that took the force of the blow.
The fact that Ellery had moved at all when normally he stood there still as a scarecrow to take the kicks and punches surprised Logan into releasing his hair.
”So you want to dance, Ellery? I figure I can still nail you down with a couple of jabs.”Logan said this to his buddies as if it was all part of a performance. He wanted to look good in front of them. The worm Ellery Hann meant nothing to him. He'd be crushed soon anyway.
Ellery knew he should go to the Luxor now. He needed to find Robyn now.
At that moment he was only half-aware of his actions. A remote but powerful intelligence pulled the strings. Looking up, he saw Logan towering over him. The underside of his jaw was black with stubble. A smear of yellow egg yolk from breakfast gummed the hairs. The big Adam's apple bobbed as he boasted about how he'd break Eh-Eh-Ellery's kneecaps.
Jesus, no. Ellery willed himself not to, but he couldn't stop what he did next. With all his strength he jabbed his fist upward at the underside of the thug's chin. So hard was the blow that it sent a lightning bolt of pain cracking along Ellery's forearm.
Just for a second Logan jerked his head down to lock his gaze onto Ellery's frightened eyes. The big man couldn't believe what Ellery had just done. All these years the stammering jackrabbit of a kid had taken abuse without a whimper…
Ellery tensed, expecting a flurry of fists to beat him into an early grave. But Logan stared at him with absolute wide-eyed surprise. Then the man's eyes clouded as for a split second the force of the uppercut made itself felt. Logan staggered back, tried to recover his 194 balance… failed… then dropped backward to land butt first in a sitting position in the courtyard dirt. The others could have mashed Ellery into the ground in one second flat, but they were so surprised to see their boss knocked from his feet by the ninety-pound kid, all they could do was stare with stupid expressions on their faces.
The all-important split second passed. Logan's eyes sharpened as full consciousness kicked back in. He glared up at Ellery. ”That's it, Hann, you bastard. You've made your last mistake. You are a dead man!”
Ellery turned and ran. Joe went to block his way, but the force that had driven the uppercut to topple the thug flashed through Elle
ry's muscles again. He ran straight at Joe, shoulder-charging him into the wall. From the corner of his eye Ellery saw Joe double up, winded. Ellery Hann knew he couldn't stop running now. Somehow he'd have to make it to the Luxor.
But even as he ran he heard feet drum against blacktop. Logan's gang wasn't going to let him escape so easily.
CHAPTER 19
RUN!
The word was more than a word. It was a command. A need. A lightning strike bursting in his brain, igniting his nerve endings. RUN!
Ellery blasted along Fairfax, his legs pounding. Already his heart surged against his ribs; the sound of his panting filled his ears.
Glancing sideward into a store window, he saw his reflection. A thin nineteen-year-old with an elfin face and black hair, running so hard his limbs were a blur. He saw Logan's gang, too. They were running hard.
Some carried baseball bats. And in that furious pack would be Logan, urging them to shatter Ellery Hann's bones.
The day job meant nothing to Ellery now. He knew his destiny lay at the Luxor. Somehow it was wrapped up in the teen runaway Robyn Vincent. He had to lose the gang, then get to the Luxor as quickly as possible.
Ellery ran past the entrance of the repair shop. At that moment he had no plan. All he knew was: RUN. Keep running. Don't let the thugs catch you. Okay, so those guys bulged muscle, but they were heavy. Wet through, Ellery weighed a hundred and sixty pounds. Lean and nimble, he wove around parked cars. All the time he scanned ahead, hoping to see some way of evading Logan's buddies. For they had the blood lust in them now. They yelled insults. Promises of revenge flew from Logan's lips.
Ahead, a few cars cruised along Fairfax. Traffic lights ran through their sequences. A light scattering of pedestrians ambled to work at the cheap stores.
A pain stabbed into Ellery's side. Exhaustion began to drag at his legs.