Conduit (24 page)

The wait was finally over. Stephanie’s
fear spilled out from the basement, seeped through the walls, and pulled him
toward her. David caressed the sharp blade of his knife with his fingertips and
descended the steps to the basement. He ran his tongue across his dry lips and
tried to contain his excitement. For two days, he resisted the urge to kill
her, and now he could savor the way his knife would dance across her skin and
slice through her.

Cowering in a corner, Stephanie looked up when he entered
the door at the bottom of the steps. As he neared, he showed her the knife, and
her eyes filled with tears, exactly like so many others before her. She appeared
to have been expecting another plate of food, not pain and death.

She stood up and pushed her back up against the wall, as if
trying to become part of it.

David stopped walking. “Feel free to sit,” he said. “Let’s
talk for a bit.” He sat down on the floor, shifted into a cross-legged
position, and encouraged her to do the same.

Her eyes darted between his face and the knife. After a long
moment, she followed his lead. She took a couple steps toward him and sat back
down on the tiles. When he brought her lunch earlier, she no longer asked
questions or screamed at him. She continued to maintain her silence now,
despite his invitation to talk.

“Do you still want to know who I am and why you’re here?”

She nodded.

“First, I have a question for you.” He gestured with his
knife as he spoke. “Why are you so nice?”

Bewilderment sparked in her vacant eyes, and David sensed her
fear taking a backseat to confusion. “I’m sorry?”

“Everywhere you go, you’re friendly to people. You were
friendly even to me, and I’m going to kill you tonight.”

At his words, Stephanie scrambled backward until she
crouched against the wall.

David laughed at her actions. “Well, what did you think the
knife was for, if not to kill you?” She didn’t respond, so he gave her the same
nugget of hope that he enjoyed sharing with his other victims. “Your answer to
my original question might change my mind about killing you.”

As a peace offering, he laid the knife down by his right
side. He propped his elbows on his knees and leaned forward.

Stephanie’s eyes darted around the room, as if searching for
either her answer or for her escape. “I-I never really considered m-myself ‘nice’
or ‘n-n-not nice’ or anything else. I’m j-j-just myself with p-people.”

Her sudden stutter surprised David. “I haven’t heard you
stutter yet.”

“I st-stuttered as a k-kid. I haven’t d-d-done it for years.”

“It’s because you’re really scared now,” David said. “Think
out the words before you say them and think about how they sound. The stutter
will go away again.”

“Okay,” Stephanie said.

“Kids who stutter usually are teased a lot by mean kids. Did
that happen to you?”

“I w-w-w...” Stephanie paused and took a deep breath, focusing
on her words just as David suggested. “I was teased a lot,” she said.

“If you know how cruel people can be, why are you so nice?
Why invite cruelness into your life?”

“I never wanted to treat p-people the way those kids treated
me. I d-didn’t want anyone else to feel what I felt.”

David rolled her explanation around in his mind. “That’s the
most honest thing I’ve heard someone say when they’re sitting where you are
now. I’ve heard a lot of lies, a lot of stories, a lot of exaggeration. Why is
it when someone is facing death, do they feel the need to lie? It’s never made
much sense to me.

“You’re such a nice person that I wish I could tell you this
will be painless and quick. I just don’t want to lie to someone as honest as
you. You almost make me want to be a better person.” A vicious smile grabbed
his lips and he held up the knife. “Almost.”

She lifted her hands and covered her face. Her shoulders
heaved with her tears. “Please don’t,” she said through her hands.

“You and I both know that I’m not going to let you go. But
since you’re such a nice person, you should take some comfort that all the pain
you experience is for a really good cause. You’re going to help Emily and I
become part of each other. That’s the only way I can get her to come to me.”

Stephanie lowered her hands away from her face. “You want me
to help you t-trick someone to come here so you can k-kill them?”

“No, Stephanie,” he said in his softest voice. He stood up. “I
love Emily. I could never hurt her, but the only way to bring her here is to
hurt you. Unfortunately, I have to hurt you a lot to make that happen.” He
pulled her up by her shirt as gently as he could.

As she got to her feet, she gave a preemptive yelp and
scream. “No, no, no, no, no.”

“Yes, yes, yes,” he said. “Now, I want you to scream her
name.”

Emily used her toes to rotate the
faucet in the bathtub until the water slowed to a drip. Not for the first time,
she wished she had whirlpool jets in her tub to massage the stress of the day
away.

That was the wine’s job, she thought, and lifted her glass
to her lips. Where she usually opted for one glass at the end of the day,
lately that one glass had turned into three or four.

The day hadn’t been all that bad. After she returned to the
office from interviewing Lindsay Alcott, Emily managed to catch up on most of
her paperwork. Cassie finished the background check on Gina Cobalt, and Emily
had the privilege of calling to offer her the job.

The excitement in Gina’s voice when she accepted the job had
been the high point in Emily’s day, until she saw Jake an hour later. Spending
time with him trumped everything else in her life. They enjoyed a late dinner
at a pizza and beer place near her office, and reluctantly parted ways after a
long, sensuous kiss goodnight.

Dealing with the growing darkness all day had drained Emily’s
energy. She enjoyed the reprieve from it while with Jake, but it returned once
she left his side. Though she intended for the bath and wine to relax her and
help her ignore the presence in her mind, the nausea that came with the
darkness curdled her stomach, making it difficult for her to focus on the
paperback mystery novel she tried to read.

She set the book down on the edge of the bathtub next to her
wine glass and closed her eyes. She leaned her head back and the ends of her
hair fell into the warm water. If only she had stayed later with Jake. He had
invited her back to his house for a drink and to spend more time together, but with
an early morning fast approaching, she decided to be responsible and go home.

Now she wished they were still together. He was the only one
that made the darkness disappear. She didn’t know why he kept it away, except it
stemmed from the night they met, when he broke into her mind without trying. Because
of that night, they had an incredible connection. It was the only explanation of
why he could override the entity that wanted to take over her mind.

Tomorrow she planned on taking Cassie to see Marta Mendez to
see if she could help Emily with the darkness. When Aunt Susan was alive, Emily
had spent a lot of time at Marta’s flower shop with Aunt Susan, where the
longtime friends helped her explore her talents and hone her abilities. After she
passed away, Emily’s visits became less frequent until she stopped going
altogether. Marta reminded her too much of Aunt Susan, and the painful memories
prevented her from seeing Marta.

Emily climbed out of the bathtub and dried off with a fresh
towel. She retreated to her room and put on a pair of pajama shorts and a
camisole. As soon as she finished dressing, the throbbing in the side of her
head worsened and her stomach cramped from overwhelming nausea.

Looking around her room, she realized Bob had disappeared
while she was in the bathtub. She called his name, but he didn’t run into the
room. Even if he had, he wouldn’t be able to cure her of her physical ailments.
Only Jake could do that.

She grabbed her cell phone off her dresser and pulled up
Jake’s number. Tomorrow was a long time away, and she wanted some help before
she spoke to Marta. Jake might know something that could help once she told him
what was happening to her. Even if he didn’t, he could repel the darkness and
provide her some relief.

Emily!

A violent cramp seized Emily’s midsection. She grasped the
phone and doubled over in pain. The voice came again and weakness seized her
limbs. Her legs failed and she crashed to the ground. The darkness slithered
through her mind, expanding until she felt nothing else. The cell phone slipped
out of her hand, and she lowered her head into her hands. She couldn’t handle
much more. With Stephanie Price still missing, it had to be her calling out to
Emily. She didn’t want to hear Stephanie die in the same torturous manner as
the women before her.

Another cramp gripped Emily’s stomach and a vise tightened
around her head. “Stop it!” she cried out. The longer Stephanie suffered, the
closer she got to death. Emily closed her eyes and gave into the pain. “Tell me
what you want,” she whispered to the entity within the darkness. “Just stop
hurting her and tell me.”

Emily!

Bile filled the back of her throat and she crawled into her
bathroom. She lifted the toilet seat lid just in time to throw up her dinner. Her
throat turned raw from the regurgitated pizza sauce, and she wretched into the
toilet until her stomach was empty. After several dry heaves forced her to
throw up stomach acid, the cramping in her abdomen subsided just enough for her
to sit up.

The taste in her mouth made her want to get sick again. She
used the edge of the bathtub to get into a standing position. At the sink, she
rinsed her mouth with water and brushed her teeth. Her reflection in the mirror
alarmed her almost enough to call Cassie to take her to the emergency room. A
yellow tint highlighted her ashen skin, while dark circles encompassed her eyes,
as if she hadn’t slept in days. As bad as she looked, her insides were far
worse.

Stephanie’s voice in her head was louder than any of the
others before her. Emily prayed it wasn’t in her final moments, that there was
still a chance to save her. Hope flickered in the back of her mind. If Stephanie
could make contact with Emily, then maybe the connection worked both ways.

She held onto the edge of the sink, bowed her head, and
squeezed her eyes shut. She focused every bit of energy she had left and peered
into the black hole eclipsing her mind. “I’m here, Stephanie,” she said. “You’re
not alone. If you tell me where you are, I can send the police.”

Emily!

She had to make contact with Stephanie, had to get her to
say more than her name. She tried again. “Stephanie, I need you to listen. I
can help you, but you have to tell me where you are.”

A shrill, inhuman scream responded. Emily steeled her mind against
the horror, focused her thoughts inward, and again spoke into the darkness. The
screams continued. Emily repeated her words, and the sound of Stephanie’s
screams pierced through her heart.

Emily! Make him stop!

The screams resumed and Emily couldn’t stop the tears from
flooding her closed eyelids and rushing down her face. She pressed forward into
the darkness, calling Stephanie’s name, letting her know she could help.

Suddenly the entity that lived in the darkness embraced Emily,
as if he were standing behind her. She no longer heard Stephanie, but a much
deeper voice, soothing yet excitable. He spoke several words, but Emily couldn’t
understand anything he said other than her name.

Emily’s body shook. Much too late, she realized the danger
in what she did. This whole time she thought she was connecting with Stephanie,
but she was really connecting with Stephanie’s killer. He used Stephanie and
the others to lure Emily into opening up her mind to him, and it worked.

In an attempt to sever the connection, Emily opened her eyes
and raised her head. She sucked in her breath. In the mirror, standing over her
right shoulder was Stephanie Price, her face bloodied with knife wounds.

Help me, Emily!

Emily screamed.

Jake raced up the driveway and across
the grass toward Emily’s front door. Emily sat on the dark porch wearing a
thin, baby blue camisole and black shorts. Her bare feet were planted on the
concrete, unaware of the low temperatures kissing her skin.

Emily looked at him with the pale, frightened face of a
child. Though she shivered with violent tremors, she didn’t have her arms
wrapped around her body to keep warm, as if she had no idea she was freezing.

The torture in her reddened eyes and haunted face confirmed the
fearful words she spoke to him on the phone: “He’s killing her.” Jake didn’t
understand what she meant at the time, and still did not fully comprehend.

Jake held out his hand, but Emily only stared at it. Either
she was in shock or she didn’t want to leave the perceived safety of her front
porch. He thrust his hand out further, making his intentions clear without a
word. She was going inside whether she liked it or not.

Her trembling hand reached out and transferred the ice cold
temperature of her skin to his. Her fear latched onto his heart and he helped
her to her feet. Whatever he was about to encounter, he could not let her fear
overcome him.

Emily’s wobbly legs stumbled on the steps, and Jake steadied
her with his arm and walked her back inside the house. After he secured the
locks on her front door, he guided her to the living room and sat her down on
the couch. He went to the rocking chair and removed the quilt from the back. He
laid the quilt over her body, covering her arms and legs.

Emily glanced at him with gratefulness in her eyes, but did
not speak.

“I’m going to make you some tea,” he said.

Emily nodded and looked away. Her brow creased and she returned
to her lethargic state.

After fixing her a hot cup of tea, he sat on the couch next
to her and handed her the mug. She pulled the quilt down to free her hands and
accepted the mug. Their hands touched, and he was glad to feel her skin had
warmed. She blew ripples across the tea in order to cool the liquid.

After she took a few sips, Jake dared to speak. “Tell me
what happened.”

Emily’s face tensed again. “He’s killing her.” She turned
her head to him and her damp eyes pleaded with him. “She may already be dead. I
can’t hear her anymore.”

Stunned into silence, Jake watched her take more sips of her
tea. The fluidity of her movements told him her body was coming alive from the
cold, but emotional pain and frustration controlled her. “Who is being killed
and who is killing her?” he asked.

Tears stormed her cheeks and she squeezed her eyes shut
against them, as if trying to stop the flood. “Stephanie Price.”

Her frantic voice cut through Jake. “Is that the girl who’s
missing? Emily, what makes you think someone is killing her?”

“She called to me, just like others before her. She screamed
my name and cried for help. And then...” Emily stopped speaking before finishing
her thought.

“What?”

Her bottom lip quivered and she fell silent again.

Jake decided to try another route. “Do you know who’s killing
her?”

Emily’s eyes deadened. “Him. He’s killed them all and he’s
not stopping.”

The blood drained from Jake’s face, and he made the
connection to the case Emily and Cassie were working on with the police. “Do
you mean the serial killer?”

Emily nodded.

“You’re hearing his victims?”

“They call my name. They scream for me, but I can’t help
them. I can’t stop them from dying.”

“Are you sure that’s what you’re hearing? The victims of the
serial killer as they are being killed?”

“I wasn’t sure until tonight. I thought it might be, but now
I know it is.”

“Why do they call your name and how do they know who you are?”

Emily shook her head. “I don’t know. I just want them to
stop. I can’t help them.”

“How long have you been hearing them?”

“A couple of weeks. At first they were quiet voices saying
my name. I didn’t know who was calling me because I didn’t hear the voices
until a long time after they died. Then came the writing. I wrote the words ‘hear
me’ without realizing what I was doing. Those same words were carved out on
their skin by the killer, each victim with a different letter. Why would they
call to me and tell me to hear them? Why would they scream my name and make me
write words that are not in my handwriting?”

Jake sat speechless at her revelation. The moment they met,
he knew she was a powerful psychic, but what she was saying, while possible,
was beyond all bounds of anything with which he was familiar.

“Then tonight,” Emily said, “I saw Stephanie.”

“Where did you see her?”

She lifted her hand and pointed to the hallway. “In my
bathroom. In the mirror. Her face was cut up and there was so much blood.” She
turned to Jake and grabbed his hand, frantic again. “Don’t you see he’s killing
her?”

Jake took the mug from her other hand and set it on a
ceramic coaster on the coffee table. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and
took her hand. “I’m here now, and everything is going to be okay. We will
figure this out together, but to do that, I need you to show me where you saw
her.”

Emily responded with a nod and shed the quilt from her lap.
He followed her down the hall, through her bedroom, and into the master
bathroom. The lights were still on from when she had been in there last. It looked
innocent enough. The walls were not streaked with blood and no dancing ghosts appeared
in the corners. He peered into the oval mirror that hung on the wall, but only
his reflection stared back. For a moment, he wondered if Emily had hallucinated.

He turned to say something to her, but stopped. Emily clung
for life onto the door frame. One glance at the terror on her face told him she
had seen something in the reflective glass. Something sinister enough to cause
her to run away without turning off the lights and sit outside in the cold to
wait for his arrival. She had been so spooked by the sight in the mirror that she
had not cared enough for her own wellbeing to take the time to put on a robe or
even socks and shoes.

Jake took her hand once more and led her to the bed. He sat
her down on the edge of the bed and kneeled before her. He lifted her hand and
kissed her fingers. “Emily, I’m not leaving you. If these victims are reaching
out to you, it may be a warning of some sort. We need to have Cassie come by in
the morning so we can coordinate having someone with you constantly. You are
not going to be left alone for a second until it’s over.”

Relief washed over Emily’s face and a few stray tears
dampened her cheeks. “Thank you, Jake. I wasn’t sure that you’d believe me.”

He used his thumbs to wipe away her tears. “I would never
doubt you. But we have to find out why this is happening and stop it. We should
call your Uncle Leo and tell him—”

“No,” Emily said, with a strength in her voice that she had
not exhibited since he arrived. “We can’t tell him, not until I can figure this
out.”

“I don’t agree with you,” he said. “I will, however, respect
your decision, but only for a very short time. I reserve the right to change my
mind and call him myself. I’m not knowingly going to leave you at risk.”

She bowed her head. “Okay.”

“Now, where are your sleeping pills?”

Emily lifted her eyes to his face. “How do you know about
those?”

“People like us don’t sleep very well. You need some rest,
so you’re taking a sleeping pill.”

“There’s a bottle of Ambien in the medicine cabinet in my
bathroom.”

He rose from the floor and kissed her forehead. In the
bathroom, he retrieved a pill from the prescription bottle in the medicine
cabinet, added water to a short glass next to the sink, and took them back to
Emily.

She swallowed down the pill without hesitation. She handed
Jake the water glass and slipped down under the covers in her bed. He sat on
the edge of the bed and stroked his fingers through her hair.

“I don’t want you to leave,” Emily said.

“I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here.”

“I don’t have an extra bed. The couch isn’t that
comfortable, either. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I’ll sleep on your floor. I’m not going to leave
you alone in here.”

“There are some extra pillows in the hall closet, and some
blankets, too.”

“I’ll take care of it, and I’ll also check the locks.”

Jake walked through the house, ensuring every door and
window was locked up tight. As he started toward the hallway, he noticed her cell
phone on the dining room table next to her purse. He picked up her phone and
went into her contacts. Finding Cassie’s name, he pressed the send button and
waited for Cassie to answer. The call went to voicemail, and he left a short
message asking Cassie to come to Emily’s house first thing in the morning.

In the hallway, Jake opened the closet and found a couple
pillows, an extra blanket, and two pillow cases. In her dark bedroom, he pulled
the cases over the pillows and arranged them on the floor. After removing his
shoes, he took off his jeans.

“Jake, I don’t want you to have to sleep on the floor. You
won’t be comfortable at all.”

He laid his folded jeans on his tennis shoes. “Don’t worry
about it. I’ll be fine.”

“The bed is big enough for both of us. I need to know you’re
close. I need to feel you next to me to make it all go away.”

Jake hesitated. With their vow to avoid intimacy until they solidified
their relationship, it was hard enough keeping his hands off her. She also struggled
with their mutual agreement. Now he was in her bedroom in the middle of the
night, halfway undressed, and she was in skimpy enough clothing to make his
thoughts stray.

Under different circumstances, he would be concerned about
sleeping next to her, about being in such close proximity in a place where it
would be easy to ignore everything they discussed, but not tonight. Emily was
terrified by what she saw and heard, and he wanted to stay close to not only keep
her safe, but to make her feel secure. At any moment the Ambien would take
control of her and force her to sleep. There was no danger that they would be tempted
to cross the line.

Jake walked around the bed to the other side with pillows in
hand. He lifted the comforter and climbed into bed, on top of the sheet.
Despite the knowledge that nothing would happen between them, he did not want even
the slightest temptation. He rested on his back and listened to her quiet
breaths, assuming her to have already fallen asleep.

Emily rolled over and faced him. She scooted over in the bed
until she was next to him. He turned on his side and, through the shadows,
stared into her tired eyes. He brushed her hair back from her face.

“I called Cassie from your phone and left her a message to
come by first thing in the morning,” he said. “She needs to know what’s going
on, and I think it will help to talk it out with her.”

“You read my thoughts, as usual. Thanks for calling her.”
She moistened her lips and smiled.

Jake wanted to tell her how he felt about her, but he was
unsure how to even begin to share those emotions after knowing her only a short
time. He didn’t want words to rush out unchecked, and possibly not be
reciprocated, so instead he leaned in and gently kissed her.

When they parted, her eyelids fluttered a bit. “Are you
getting tired?” he asked.

“It’s starting to kick in.”

“Those pills don’t make you sleepwalk or sleep-eat, do they?”

“The only thing they do is make me sleep,” she mumbled.

Jake caressed her face. “Then just close your eyes and sleep,
Em. I’ll be right here when you wake up.”

With her eyes closed, her breathing evened out. Her hand
reached for her pillow, and he wrapped his hands around it, interlocking his
fingers with hers. Serenity claimed her face, softening her creased brow and
allowing the corners of her mouth to relax. Knowing the rest of her night would
be peaceful and calm, Jake closed his eyes and drifted toward sleep.