Flesh

  “Did you tear your eyes away from Alison long enough to notice the car?” Jake asked, not bothering to hide his annoyance.

  “A dark blue four-door. I’m not good with cars. I do know that it wasn’t a compact. It had a rather squarish shape along the lines of a Mercedes. It wasn’t a Mercedes, of course.”

  “License number?”

  “I didn’t notice. Nothing suspicious was going on, why would I look at the license plate?”

  “Did you see the car leave?” Jake asked.

  “It was still sitting at the curb when I came in here.”

  “This was about one forty-five?”

  “Give or take.”

  Jake checked his watch. Ten after two.

  Rushing out of Wally’s, he squinted against the sudden glare of daylight and ran to the street. He looked both ways. No blue car.

  He leaned sideways against a tree trunk.

  Twenty fucking minutes.

  If he’d just been quicker.

  Groaning, he rammed his elbow hard against the trunk.

  Evan slowed the car. As he started to turn, Alison glimpsed a sign on the other side of the narrow road.

  The Oakwood Inn.

  He’s taking me to the Oakwood.

  Alison felt herself sinking, going down and down, dropping into an abyss.

  It’s happening, she thought. Oh dear Jesus, it’s happening. It is the thing that wants me.

  I took care of Roland. I can take care of Evan.

  Jesus, I’m going to die.

  Maybe Evan just picked this place by accident, just took the first side road that looked interesting.

  “Look at that,” he said, “a restaurant.”

  Alison nodded.

  “Looks like we’re the only ones here.”

  “It’s closed,” Alison said. Her voice came out a whisper. “It’s where those people were killed.”

  “Really?” He sounded surprised. “Well then, I guess nobody will mind if we use the parking lot.” He steered toward the front of the restaurant.

  Alison lifted the bags of food off her lap. Leaning forward, she set them on the floor between her legs.

  Evan stopped the car no more than a yard from the porch stairs. “So this is where it happened,” he said. “I wonder if we could get inside. It’d be kind of fascinating, wouldn’t it? Explore the scene of the crime?”

  “Maybe after we eat.” She faced him. She stared into his intense, bloodshot eyes.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “I’ve been so rotten to you, Evan. All my dumb nonsense. Not wanting you to…It all seems so stupid and petty, now. I mean, I was almost killed last night. That sort of thing, it makes a person…it made me take a long look at what’s important and what isn’t. All that really matters is caring for another person. Loving another person. So why have I been putting us both through all this…this shit? Will you forgive me?” She put a hand on his shoulder.

  “You’re kidding,” he said, and let out a tiny, nervous laugh. “This part of the test or something?”

  “Forget all that. There’s no test. I want it to be like it was between us.”

  “Really? Really?”

  She eased him closer. Clear of the steering wheel, Evan turned to her. She kissed his mouth. She put her arms around his back.

  The bulge beneath his shirt felt huge.

  Her whimper of despair must have sounded passionate to Evan. He clasped a hand over her breast and squeezed. His other hand moved up her thigh. She opened her legs. Shuddering as he stroked her, she muttered, “I’ve missed you so much, missed the feel of you.” She caressed his shorts. His penis felt hard and big. He squirmed as she fondled it. His breathing was ragged. “I’ll get the blanket, darling. Is it in the trunk?”

  He nodded.

  Alison pulled the key from the ignition. “Bring the food,” she said. “We’ll eat afterward.”

  “You’re something else,” he said.

  “I was such an idiot. I never should’ve screwed things up between us. But that’s over.” She climbed from the car.

  She stepped behind the trunk.

  Through the rear window, she saw Evan lean over to pick up the food bags.

  She whirled and flung the car keys with all her strength toward the weeds at the side of the lot.

  Then she sprinted over the hot pavement, heading for the road out.

  It was like last night, running from Roland, but this time there was no police car nearby as a goal. Alison could only hope to stay ahead of Evan, to reach Latham Road. Maybe, there, someone in a passing car would stop and help her.

  She wasn’t even out of the parking lot, yet.

  She pumped her arms. She flung her legs out. Her bare feet slapped the pavement. She knew she was moving fast. She could feel her hair flying behind her, her shirttails flapping.

  She could hear Evan’s shoes pounding behind her.

  He had chased her before, always in fun, always catching her easily. But she had never run from him like this. She felt as if she had never run so fast in her life.

  Now she heard not only his shoes but his huffing breath.

  He’s gaining on me!

  Tucking her chin down, she pistoned her arms and tried to hurl out her legs even faster than before.

  She made it past the parking lot entrance, onto the road that led to Latham.

  Evan was tight on her back.

  “Leave me alone!” she yelled.

  He smashed her between the shoulder blades.

  Alison plunged forward in a crazed dance of flinging arms and wild legs. Then she was off her feet. She slammed the pavement, hit it with palms and knees. It knocked away her arms and legs. It punched out her breath. She skidded to a stop. She couldn’t get air and her skin burned, but she started to scurry up again.

  Evan kicked an arm out from under her. She landed hard on her side. Evan grabbed the numb arm and pulled.

  He lifted her. He swung her over his shoulder, turned around, and headed back across the lot.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  Jake sat in his car in the parking lot of Wally’s, his forehead against the steering wheel.

  Don’t just sit there, he told himself. Go after her, damn it!

  Sure thing. Go where?

  Try Evan’s apartment.

  He wouldn’t take her there. Not enough privacy for what he has in mind.

  Eating her.

  God!

  Think!

  The apartment is out. He’d take her someplace secluded, where he wouldn’t have to worry about neighbors hearing anything, where he could work on her secretly for a long time. A field, maybe, or an abandoned building.

  And which abandoned building would that be, you dumb asshole?

  You could’ve been there by now!

  Evan’s shoulder bounced against Alison’s belly as he rushed up the restaurant’s porch stairs. He stopped in front of the door. One of his arms went away from Alison, but the other stayed clamped like a tight bar across the backs of her knees, pinning her legs against his body.

  He got the door open and carried her inside. The door banged shut. He took a few steps, then bent at the waist to unload her. Alison felt herself start to fall. When she flopped off his shoulder, she reached up fast and clutched the back of his head. For a moment, she held herself up. Then Evan knocked her arm away. He kept her legs pinned until her back slammed the floor. Her head snapped down and hit the hardwood.

  Evan bent over her. He tore open her shirt, spread its front, and stepped back. He stared down at her. His mouth hung open. He was panting for air.

  Alison lay there, stunned from the blow and straining to breathe. She wanted to close the shirt. She couldn’t lift her arms.

  “Beautiful,” he gasped. “Gotcha now, huh? Beautiful deceitful cunt.” He suddenly flinched. Squeezing his eyes shut, he grimaced. His back stiffened and he writhed as if possessed by a terrible ecstasy. He swayed and moaned. Saliva dribbled down his chin. He rubbed his pe
nis through the bulging front of his shorts.

  Alison gazed up at him.

  He was out of it, caught up in his frenzy.

  Now, she thought vaguely. Before he comes out of it. Move!

  She found the strength to roll over. She thrust her burning hands and knees against the floor and pushed herself up.

  Evan grabbed her ankles. He yanked her legs straight. Her belly slapped the floor. Still holding her ankles, he crossed them and twisted them savagely. Alison flipped onto her back.

  “Oh, you’re not going anywhere. No party without you.” He took a step backward. He wiped his slick chin with the back of a wrist. Then he unbuttoned his shirt. He shrugged it from his shoulders and it fluttered to the floor.

  He wore a patch of gauze and tape just to the left of his navel. A band of purple skin at the edge of the patch angled across his belly and around his side.

  On his belt was a black case. Alison watched his hand move to the case. He popped open its flap. He slid out a folding knife. He pried out the blade. It locked rigid with a metallic click. Staring down at Alison with half-shut eyes, he licked a flat side of the blade. “Do I taste Celia? Yes, I believe I do. A saucy wench, but tender.” He lapped the other side of the blade.

  Crouching, he leaned over Alison. The blade was cool and wet on her thigh. He turned it over and wiped the other side on her skin. With a flick of his wrist, he nicked her. She flinched. “Aw, did that hurt? For shame. Poor, poor Alison.” He rubbed her cut. The back of his hand came up smeared red. He licked it and sighed.

  Alison felt blood trickle down her inner thigh.

  Evan stood up. Twisting at the hips, he threw the knife behind him. It thunked the floor. “Plenty of time later for that,” he said. “Gotta ream you with something else, first.”

  He opened his belt buckle. He unbuttoned the waist of his white shorts and lowered the zipper. The shorts dropped around his ankles. He was wearing tight, red briefs. The front jutted with the push of his erection. He slid his thumbs under the elastic at his hips.

  Alison lashed out with her foot, catching his left shin. Evan staggered backward, arms waving, feet tangling in the shorts. He started to fall.

  Alison flung herself over. She shoved at the floor, got to her hands and knees and scurried up, staggering. In front of her was the bar. She threw her hands against its edge to catch herself. She spun around. Evan had freed himself of the shorts. He was crouched. He sprang at her.

  Alison lunged to the right. Straight ahead was the main dining area. Straight ahead, at the end of a long stretch of bare floor, was a window. Crash through it? That might kill her. But better the window than Evan. Too far, anyway. Evan was already too close behind her, shoes thudding the floor, breath hissing.

  She dodged around the corner.

  Had a moment to see the clutter on the floor: cans, rags, toolbox, vacuum cleaner, ladder. A moment to wonder if she could leap clear.

  Evan hit her.

  His head pounded her rump. His arms wrapped her thighs. His diving tackle drove her forward and down.

  She cried out as her body crashed to the floor. Cans overturned. One stayed under her hip. Another pushed at her belly. The edges of the open toolbox dug into her chest. Her left breast was inside the toolbox, pressing cold steel.

  Evan squirmed off her. He pulled her by the ankles. As the edge of the toolbox scraped the underside of her breast, she hooked her left arm around the box. It skidded along the floor.

  Evan stopped dragging her. He clutched her hips. Growling with effort or rage, he lifted her off the toolbox, swung her sideways, and dropped her. Falling, Alison hugged her belly and turned her face away from the floor. The impact wasn’t as bad as she expected.

  For a few moments, nothing happened. Alison lay there, gasping.

  Evan was nearby, but out of sight as long as she didn’t turn her face the other way.

  She heard him move closer.

  A hand curled over her right shoulder. Another hand hooked her right hip. He tugged at her. She rolled onto her side, rolled onto her back. And kept rolling, opening the arms folded across her belly as she came up onto her left side, facing Evan who crouched on the floor naked, who was staring at her breasts and not at her right hand, not at the screwdriver she’d taken from the toolbox.

  She rammed it into him.

  It hit him just under the sternum and punched in deep. The force of the blow sent him tumbling backward. Knees in the air, he stared bug-eyed at the ceiling. His mouth was a rictus of agony. He made whiny sucking noises struggling to breathe. A palsied hand pulled at the screwdriver. Its blade started to slide out, but was still deep inside him when his hand gave a spastic jerk, wrenching the screwdriver sideways. His body lurched, heels driving against the floor, thrusting his pelvis high and higher as he yanked the blade the rest of the way out.

  Alison had begun to get up while she watched his contortions. She was still on the floor, turning his way, braced on a stiff arm, drawing in her legs, when Evan freed the screwdriver and hurled himself over, twisting, trying for her. She lurched back. Even’s arm swung down as his side struck the floor. The tip of the screwdriver buried itself in the wood an inch from her hip.

  Alison scooted farther away. Turning over, she crawled toward the toolbox. She watched over her shoulder and saw Evan yank the screwdriver from the floor. He was flat on his belly, writhing.

  She took a claw hammer out of the box.

  Evan still squirmed on the floor.

  She crawled back to him. His twitching arms and legs shuddered against the floor as if he were trying to push himself up.

  “Stay down,” Alison gasped. She raised the hammer overhead. “Stay down or I’ll bash your fucking skull.”

  She stared at the bruise that curled around from his side to his back. The discolored skin over his spine, all the way to the nape of his neck, bulged out almost an inch.

  It’s that thing, Alison thought.

  She remembered Jake’s warnings.

  If Evan dies, the thing will come out.

  And come after me.

  Well, he’s not dead yet.

  The screwdriver dropped from his hand. He tried to pick it up again, but his jumpy fingers flicked it and sent it rolling.

  Alison got to her feet. She was trembling badly and her legs threatened to give out. Ready to fall, she staggered backward to the ladder, dropped the hammer, and grabbed one of the upper rungs to hold herself up.

  Evan still writhed on the floor, but not so much anymore.

  She would need to go around his body to reach the front door. He was in no shape to stop her, now. She let go of the ladder, took a single step and flinched rigid as blood exploded from the nape of Evan’s neck.

  The creature surged up through the red spray, sliding out of Evan, darting across his shoulder blade, dropping to the floor, streaking toward Alison’s feet.

  She lurched backward. Bumped the ladder. Got a heel onto its first rung. Grabbed the side rails behind her with both hands and climbed. The ladder wobbled. She was only two steps up by the time the creature reached the foot of the ladder. Gazing down at the monstrosity, she moved one rung higher, then clung there, gasping.

  The creature slowly circled into a coil.

  It resembled a snake, but with its slimy undulating flesh, to Alison the thing looked more like a two-foot length of intestine. Where Evan’s blood had rubbed off, it was pale yellow and webbed with veins.

  One end of the thing rose from the center of the coil. Not a head so much as an opening. A garden hose with teeth. The opening flattened shut, and Alison saw the dull gray globs of its eyes.

  The eyes seemed to gaze up at her, seemed to desire her.

  Alison’s skin crawled. She glanced at herself. The open shirt hung off one shoulder. She had never felt so naked, so exposed, so vulnerable. She ached to close the shirt and clamp a hand between her legs but stood frozen, clutching the sides of the ladder.

  The creature stretched upward, uncoiling, and h
alf its length dropped onto the ladder’s bottom rung. Its lower end squirmed and flipped. In an instant, the entire length of the creature was stretched along the aluminum step.

  Whimpering, Alison climbed higher.

  As Jake’s car shot over the crest of the road, he saw the Oakwood parking lot. A blue car was parked near the restaurant’s front door.

  Let me be in time! Please!

  His car flew and dropped, pounding the downgrade.

  Let me be in time! his mind shrieked. Please.

  It had taken so damn long. He’d driven as fast as he could, sped through intersections without regard for red lights or stop signs, twice barely avoiding collisions. But it had taken so long!

  Five minutes? Closer to ten.

  Oh, God, please. Let her be all right!

  The thing kept coming. It kept coming.

  Alison climbed higher, but so did it. And it seemed to get better at swinging itself from one rung to the next.

  Alison sat on the head step, at the ladder’s peak, and clutched its edges and stared down between her knees.

  She was sobbing. The thing was a vile, jaundiced blur through her tears.

  It flopped onto the next rung.

  With a whine of despair, Alison carefully let go of the edges and stood up. She climbed backward, arms out for balance. One step, then one more. Then she was standing on the very top of the ladder. She teetered as it wobbled from side to side. When the motion eased, she spread her feet apart and bent her knees just slightly to keep herself steady.

  Peering down, she watched the creature mount the rung where her feet had been only seconds earlier. One more, and it would be on the step below the top. From there…

  Alison heard the roar of a car engine.

  A car! It was coming here! It had to be!

  Somehow, Jake had figured out…God, I hope it’s Jake! He’ll burst through the door in the nick of the time and blast the fucker to hell.

  Brakes squealed.

  The corner of the wall blocked her view of the front door.

  “Help!” she yelled.

  Then she looked down.

  The creature was already on the next step. The ring of its mouth flattened shut and its gray phlegm eyes seemed to peer up between her legs as its head rose.