1 The Bank of the River (16 page)

Steven turned
his vision back to Roy, who was arched on his back in the water, in pain. Lukas
was draining Roy at an alarming rate. He could see there was little life left
in him.

Steven knew
he had to destroy Lukas immediately. He exited the flow, then moved toward
Lukas with the flares, but again the atmosphere around him had thickened, and
it was like trying to move through molasses.
Hold on, Dad,
he thought. He
felt an overwhelming sense of desperation and hopelessness, that there was no
point, that he should just give up.

“He’s dead,”
said Lukas. “You should stop.”

“You lie!”
Steven replied, taking another step. He could sense Roy was still there, far
away, still alive. But he wouldn’t be for long. Steven forced his limbs to
move, concentrating on each muscle.

“You’re too
weak,” spoke Lukas again. “You won’t make it. You should stop.”

“I’m still
coming,” Steven said, and took another agonizingly slow step.

“I’m about
to consume the last of your father. You’ll never see him again. You should
stop.”

He forced
his legs to move again. One more step and he’d be there. “Is this what you said
to Ben?” he shouted at Lukas. “Is that how you terrorized him?”

“Every night
I showed Ben how we tortured, killed and ate his son. We consumed his spirit
and his soul. He watched it over and over. Soon your father will be dead, and
I’ll visit you every night. I’ll show you how I sucked the life out of him, and
how you let it happen! Soon you’ll be cutting your eyes out too.”

When he
finally reached him he brought the flare bundle up to Lukas’ face. Lukas moved
backward defensively, towards the water. Steven followed him with the flares,
moving in an agonizingly slow motion arc. When Lukas’ head slipped below the
surface he felt the thickness in the air evaporate. With all of his might he
used both hands to shove the bundle down into the water and into the flesh of
Lukas’ face.

The water
erupted with bubbles and the spit from the flares. The smell nauseated him as
the flesh from Lukas’ face was burned from his skull.
The flow is still
occurring,
he thought.
He’s still draining Roy. I have to speed this up.

He let go of
the bundle with his right hand, using the left to keep it firmly pressed against
Lukas’s head. With his free hand he removed another flare bundle from his backpack.

The
blowtorch was too far away, and under water somewhere.
How am I going to
light it?
He wondered, feeling panic and frustration well up inside him.
Improvise.
Don’t second guess.

He pulled
the burning flares from the water. They were still sputtering brightly. He
could still feel Lukas’ body shifting under him. He used the burning flares to
light the new bundle, like a chain smoker. Then he returned the first bundle to
Lukas’ face and pressed the new bundle into his chest.

Lukas’ body
reacted strongly to the new flares and Steven felt pressure back, pushing him
upward. But the more Lukas pressed to be free of the burning flares, the more
Steven held them firm. Steven looked over his shoulder at Roy. He was prone in
the water, on his back. His face was just above the water’s surface. There
wasn’t enough light to see if he was still breathing.

He pressed
harder on the bundles, feeling them make progress into the burning flesh below.
Burn, you motherfucker, burn!
he thought.

Then, as
though Lukas had given up, he felt the resistance from the body below him stop,
and he sensed the flow between Lukas and Roy drop. He resisted the urge to drop
the flares and go check on Roy. Instead, he held the bundles in place, moving
them slightly towards other unburned parts of Lukas’ body.

Please be
OK
, he thought. He
hoped he’d finished off Lukas before Roy was gone, but he had no way of
knowing. He held the flares as they continued to burn in the water. As the
first ones started to sputter out, he decided it was enough. He pulled the
flares from the body, and dropped the bundles in the water next to him. Then he
reached down to the corpse, and bent it upward, sitting it back up.

Most of the
hair and flesh from the head was gone. In the torso, two large holes had burned
through most of the body. The shoulders and arms were still intact. He couldn’t
see anything below the waist, where the body was still covered by water.

It wasn’t
moving, and Steven sensed no life – of any kind – in it.

He stood and
walked over to Roy, calling to him. Roy was unresponsive. He reached for Roy’s
neck and felt for a pulse.

It was
there, but it was very weak.

He tried to
lift his father’s body, and was able to drag him to the dry area of the cave,
near the lantern. He observed him for a few moments. He was breathing, but very
shallowly. He needed to get Roy out of the cave and to a hospital.

He walked
back into the water and retrieved the shovel. They were not finished with their
plan, which called for removing the body from the water, dousing it with
lighter fluid, and burning off all remaining flesh, then reburying the bones. But
Steven decided it was enough for now. Lukas was dead, and if not dead, he was
too damaged to move. It was more important now to get help for Roy. He could
return and finish later.

Steven
consolidated the contents of the backpacks into one, slung Roy over his
shoulder, grabbed the lantern, and walked out of the cave.

“The doctors
tell me they have to administer all your drugs intravenously because you won’t
swallow any pills.”

“Goddamn
right,” Roy said. “Since when in this country do you have to swallow something
you don’t want to?”

Roy sat
upright in his hospital bed, nervously fidgeting with the TV remote control.

“Doesn’t
matter that the drugs probably saved your life?” Steven asked.

“I know who
saved my life,” Roy said, looking at Steven. Steven looked down, embarrassed to
look back at Roy.

“I’m glad
you’re finally awake,” Steven said.

“How long
was I out?”

“Three days,”
Steven replied. “And you slipped into a coma twice. The doctors didn’t think
you would make it after the second coma.”

“Shows you
what they know,” Roy said. “Am I alone in this room? Any other people in here?”

“It’s a
private room,” Steven said.

“Good,” Roy
said. “Then tell me about Lukas.”

“What’s the
last thing you remember?” Steven asked.

“I remember
lighting the flares you were holding,” he answered. “Then nothing until here.”

Steven
retold the story to Roy, up to the point where he brought Roy to the hospital.

“And then
you went back?” Roy asked.

“Yes, once
you were situated here, I drove back. Went to the cave, intending to dig the
rest of the body out, and burn what was left.”

“It was
gone,” said Roy.

“How’d you
know?” Steven asked.

“Didn’t, it
was a guess.”

They both
sat in silence for a moment.

“So,” Steven
sighed, “I cleaned everything up. There wasn’t much to do. I took the cabin
keys back to John and Debra. John asked me if I had been successful. I told him
I thought so.”

More
silence.

“What do you
think?” Steven asked. “Were we successful?”

“Well,” Roy
said, “I don’t think Lukas got up and walked out. Not without a head or most of
his torso.”

“Everything
is back to normal at the house,” Steven said. “I slept there the last three
nights, and no nightmares, no visions, no Ben. As far as I can tell, no Lukas
either. I don’t feel anything there, I don’t feel like I’m being drained. I
think he’s gone.”

“You’re
probably right,” Roy said.

“Either
that,” Steven said, “or he’s so severely damaged that he can’t make the
connection anymore.”

“No, you’re
right,” Roy said, “there’s no connection. I could feel it constantly before. I
don’t feel it at all now.”

“Might be
the drugs,” Steven said.

“That’s why
I don’t like them!”

More
silence. Steven paced around the base of Roy’s hospital bed.

“There is
one other possibility,” Roy said.

“Yes?”

“Michael.”

Steven
looked at Roy. “Michael? What, he dug up the body? How did he know where it
was?”

“He followed
us,” Roy said. “I felt he’s been watching us ever since we confronted him,
waiting to be there whenever we would eventually find Lukas.”

“You think
he went into the cave after I hauled you out,” Steven asked, “and took Lukas’s
body?”

“Maybe.”

“But Lukas
was dead, it was over for Michael’s plans. Why not just abandon the body?”

“Two reasons
I can think of,” Roy answered. “It could be that he’s able to do something with
what remains of Lukas.”

“Regenerate
him?”

“No, that’s
not going to happen. He might feel that the body still has some power, for some
other purpose. It might act as an ingredient in some other recipe.”

Steven
hadn’t considered this; there was so much about Roy’s world he didn’t know.
“What, continue the transformation? Michael complete the ritual himself?”

“No, he
can’t do that,” Roy said. “Michael is human, he doesn’t have the DNA Lukas had.
It could be some other process, to reclaim some of the power left in Lukas’s
body. That, or the other possibility, he just wished to honor the remains.
Fifteen years of waiting, he was obviously attached to the guy. He might have
just wanted to give Lukas a better resting spot than the watery grave Ben
arranged.”

Steven
considered this. “Do we hunt down Michael?” he asked Roy.

“Why? If the
hauntings and the draining have stopped, it’s over.”

“But,”
Steven protested, “four young kids were killed. He was involved.”

“True,” Roy
said. “What do you propose?”

“We could go
to the cops.”

“Let me tell
you something,” Roy said. “In our line of work, you never go to the cops.
Never, unless what you’re taking to them meets their idea of how things work,
and you’re sure of how they’ll handle it, based on their rules, not yours.
Otherwise, they will peg you as a lunatic and you’ll never be able to use them
when you need them. Remember that. In this case, what would you do, tell them
Michael kidnapped those kids?”

“Yeah,”
Steven said, “but you’re right, I have no evidence.”

“Exactly,”
Roy said, “you have to think like they think. It would be your word against
his. And when the cops start asking why you’ve targeted him with these
accusations, you won’t be able to tell them how we found out without coming off
like a crazy, unless you make something up, and then they will catch you in the
lie. Trust me, I know how this works. Only deal with the cops when you’re sure how
they will react.”

“We could
take Michael on ourselves,” Steven said.

“Why?”

“Because he killed
those kids,” Steven said, “and he has to pay. Because he’s pissed that we killed
Lukas, destroyed his grand plan, and he’ll come after us for revenge. Because
he’s a bad man and needs to be removed from society, and if the cops won’t do
it, someone needs to. Are those reasons enough?”

“You’re
forgetting how he caused my gun to jam,” Roy said. “Are you prepared to deal
with that?”

“Doesn’t
your book have a death spell or something? Something we could use on him
surreptitiously?”

“No, it
doesn’t,” Roy answered. “Nothing like that. I don’t see why we need to pursue
Michael. All your reasons are fine, they’re good reasons. But I don’t think
he’s coming after us. And there are more threats to society than you and I can
do anything about. Sometimes things don’t wrap up cleanly, like in a movie. I
keep trying to tell you this, you have to go with what happens. It’s over, we
did what we needed to do. You can go back to living a normal life, your house
will leave you alone. I can sleep at night without the fear of being drained.
We’re good. Accept the fact that you won.”

“It seems
like a loose end,” Steven said. “Like a dangerous loose end.”

“I’ve got a
lot of those,” Roy said. “All over. It’s not always a clean victory. Most of
these situations wind up with some kind of stalemate. If Michael decides to
come after us, then we can deal with him. But for now let the sleeping dog
lie.”

-

Once he was
awake, Roy recovered rapidly, and Steven drove him home from the hospital in a
couple of days. Roy bitched about the hospital in the car all the way home. He
seemed to be able to move around and function normally, and Steven developed
some comfort watching him walk around his home as though nothing had happened.
Apparently once the batteries were recharged, Roy was right back to normal.

Steven sat
at the kitchen table while Roy puttered around the house arranging things. The
book was still there, opened to the last page Roy had been reading. He could
see the instructions on the preparation of the wood that was used to pierce
Lukas’ eye. It made sense to him. He realized there was more to the act than
just blinding Lukas. The wood itself was damaging to him, would have dampened
his ability to attack.
If it had stayed in long enough,
Steven thought.

He flipped
through the book again. He found the section on protection, and yes, he could
read some of it. He found the recipe for the potion Roy had given him. There
were several items on the ingredients list he did not recognize, but none of
them looked like rat shit. He was grateful.

As he
continued to flip through the pages, some items jumped out at him. Many seemed
to be related to creatures that transform. He read about a few of them. Some
mimicked insects, and Steven wondered how many might be crawling or flying
around in the world right now. Several were about small animals, the size of
mice, that eventually formed a type of cocoon and slowly faded into
invisibility, emerging as a ravenous bird that went about devouring other
invisible creatures in the river. A couple of them were about entities that
looked like humans, but evolved into something more evil, like Lukas. The idea
that there were more Lukases out there, waiting to be dealt with, chilled him.
There
are an awful lot of children that go missing every year,
he thought.
How
horrible if any are consumed by these things.

He shut the
book, exhausted from just the short time he’d spent in it.

“Not for the
weak hearted, is it?” Roy asked.

“No,” Steven
replied, “it isn’t. There’s some horrible stuff in here.”

“And some
good,” Roy said. “You just haven’t run into those parts yet. You will.”

“Really?”
Steven asked. “Is this something you think I should learn?”

“I don’t
know, you tell me. Should you?”

Steven
thought this over. He didn’t think this was a take-it-or-leave-it moment, but
he knew Roy was hopeful he’d say yes. He didn’t want to disappoint him, but at
the same time he was unsure. There were a lot of questions.

“Tell me how
you decided,” he said to Roy.

“OK,” Roy
said. “Sure.” He pulled up a chair next to Steven.

“I first saw
this book when I was fourteen. I discovered it in my father’s closet when I was
trying to find his guns, which weren’t in the closet because he kept them
locked up in a cabinet, but I didn’t know that. I stole it out of his room and
took it to my own. I was fascinated by the workmanship of it, and its age. I
couldn’t make heads or tails of any of it, but there were a few drawings that
caught my attention and I knew I was drawn to it. I forgot to put it back.

“He figured
I had taken it, and he came into my room one night to confront me about it. He
was as kind as could be, and when I confessed I’d found and taken it, he wasn’t
angry. He sat down next to me and asked me why I’d taken it, and I told him I
thought it was impressive, and that I just wanted to browse through it. He
asked me if I could read any of it, and I told him I couldn’t. He asked me if
I’d like to be able to read some of it, and I told him that yes, I would like
to. A big smile spread across his face, and he told me he’d help me.

“My mother
knew all about it. She didn’t have the qualms that Claire had. She was
supportive. I think she might have married my father because of it, to tell you
the truth.

“That week
my father showed me how to jump in. He didn’t push me, it was my choice. He
taught me what you could do in it, and how to maneuver. He had a few tricks that
he showed me. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. None of my high school
friends could do what I could do. But he taught me to keep it to myself, and I tried.”

“Did you
confront any entities together?” Steven asked. “Like we just did with Lukas?”

“Yes,
several. The first was a ghost that inhabited a barn. A friend of Dad’s had a
barn that always spooked his horses. He had to fight with them to get them
inside, and he asked my dad to take a look. Even though he always kept quiet
about his gift, close friends always seemed to know. They could sense it. They
wouldn’t talk about it openly, but when there was a problem that needed
solving, they would ask my dad. He always helped them.”

“What
happened with the ghost?” Steven asked, intrigued.

“Oh, the
barn ghost. Well, sure enough, we saw what he meant. In the field these horses
were passive and gentle. You could pet them, feed them, lead them around, no
problem. But if you tried to take them into the barn, they’d rear up. They
would not go in.

“My dad took
me back to the barn one night, and sat a chair in the middle of it, kind of
like I did with you in the hallway. He had me place a blindfold on his eyes,
and gave me instructions not to interrupt him until he was done, but to make
sure he didn’t walk into something and hurt himself. He went into a trance and
I watched him for an hour in that dark barn, and let me tell you, it was
spooky. Good fun for a teenager, but still scary as hell. After a while I
noticed the body, swinging from the rafters. It was the top half of a woman,
hung by the neck. The bottom half was missing. Grisly sight. Gave me nightmares
for weeks. But that was the information he needed to sort it out. Within a few
days he’d solved the problem and the horses would go into the barn on their own.”