F Paul Wilson - Secret History 02 (61 page)

           
"It's me, Rob! Really me! I'm
free of him!"

           
God, it was wonderful to speak her
own words, have control of her own limbs. But for how long?

           
She, picked up a piece of glass in
her good right hand and stared at the left's bleeding palm. There might be a
way to hold Gabor off. She clenched her teeth and drove the point of the glass
into her injured hand. She screamed with the burst of renewed pain.

           
"Kara!" Rob shouted. He
was inside the window now, staring at her with horrified eyes. "What the
hell—?"

           
"It'll keep him away!" she
said, gasping through her teeth. "God, it's got to!"

           
"Then it's true? Gabor is
behind this whole thing?"

           
His eyes were wild, as if he still
didn't believe any of this was really happening. But he'd mentioned Gabor. That
meant he knew!

           
"Yes! Gabor—the monster!"

           
"Where is he?" he said.

           
Kara could hear Jill behind her,
sobbing, scared half to death, calling her name.

           
"In the basement," Kara
said. "Behind the paneling. Get down there, Rob. Kill him!" Those
words sounded so alien, but she knew it was the only way. "Kill him before
he comes back. Don't ever let him do this to me again!
Please
!"

           
She plunged the glass into her hand
again.

           
Rob's gut churned as Kara screamed
again with pain.

           
"Christ, Kara! You won't have a
hand left!"

           
He glanced around the room. There
had to be something he could do. And then he saw it. The velvet tie-back from
the side drape he had hung onto when he was falling lay on the floor amid the
shattered glass. He grabbed it and held it up.

           
"What are you going to do with
that?"

           
"Tie you up."

           
She frowned, then smiled with
relief.

           
"Yes! Oh, thank you!" She
looked down at the bloody glass dagger in her hand. "I don't know how many
more times I can do this!"

           
Rob wasn't sure he could stab
himself even once. He was sure, however, that he was in the presence of the
bravest woman—the bravest
person
—he
had ever known.

           
He helped her over to a ladderback
chair that was set against the wall by the record shelves. Kara dropped into it
and pushed her hands around the back of the chair.

           
"Good knots, Rob. I don't want
to get free."

           
As he looped the cord around her
wrists and arms and through the rungs of the back, Jill began screaming.

           
"What are you doing to my
mother? Stop it!"

           
"It's okay, Jill," Kara
said in a soothing voice. "I asked him to do this."

           
"But you're
hurt
!"

           
"I know. But I did that to
myself. Rob's not hurting me. He's doing this so I don't hurt myself any
more."

           
"But
why
?"

           
"There's a bad man in the
basement who's making me hurt myself. Rob's only going to tie me up for a few
minutes while he makes the man stop, then he's going to let me go. Right,
Rob?"

           
Rob kissed her on the forehead. He'd
never loved her more than he did at this moment.

           
"Right." He looked Jill
right in the eye, hoping she'd see no threat in him. "And then I'm coming
back upstairs and letting her loose. And then we're all getting out of here.
For good! But whatever happens, don't let your mother get loose till I get
back!"

           
He could tell Jill wasn't buying the
whole package, but at least her panic seemed to be under control.

           
"He's right, Jill. Don't let me
get loose. Okay?"

           
Hesitantly, she nodded.

           
Rob pulled the cord as tightly as he
dared around Kara's wrists. He didn't want to cut off circulation, but he
didn't want her getting out, either. Not after what she'd done to him a moment
ago.

           
Rob shuddered at the memory of that
fall. If the drape in his right hand hadn't caught for that second, allowing
his left hand to grab hold of the cornice—

           
He stepped over to the record
cabinet and pulled his revolver and holster from his leather jacket. He looked
at Kara and nodded once, then ran for the stairs.

           
"There's a lever up among the
pipes by the wall. Pull it down!"

           
"Got it!"

           
He took the steps down three at a
time.

           
You keep thrusting but you can't get
back into Kara. Twice you've tried and each time you were rebuffed by blasts of
pain. But the third time is lucky. You are back in. There's sunlight, cold air
from the broken window, pain in the left hand but not enough to break the bond.
As you snatch the reins of control, you hear Kara cry out.

           
No!
Not again!

           
"Yes! Again! And this time—"

           
You can't move her arms. A chair—you're
in a chair.
Tied
in a chair! You pull
frantically on the cord that binds you. And the detective is nowhere in sight!

           
"Where is he?"

           
In
the basement, Gabor. Getting ready to riddle your filthy little body with
holes!

           
Her rage, her hatred of you is an
angry surf, it pummels you, swirls around you and tries to drag you under. Too
strong, this one. Too angered at having her life taken over. But you hang on to
control and continue to struggle with the cord that binds your wrists. They
loosen slightly, but not enough to make a difference. You can get free of them
eventually, but eventually will be too late.

           
No! This can't be! You fight the
panic. You can't let them beat you! Not these two inferiors. You must think!

           
And then you notice Jill standing
before you, tears in her eyes, looking frightened and confused.

           
"Jill, honey," you say, remembering
her mother's pet terms for her. "Untie me, bug."

           
You feel Kara's rage and desperation
beating against you anew.

           
No!
Leave her out of this!

           
"You said not to," Jill
says. "Not until Rob comes back from stopping the bad man in the
basement."

           
Those deadly words are all the more
chilling from the mouth of a child. You search for a plausible reason for Kara
to have changed her mind.

           
"I know, bug, but I forgot to
tell Detec—Rob something very important. There's a dangerous trap in the
cellar. The bad man set it. And if we don't tell Rob right away, he'll get
hurt! You don't want him to be hurt, do you?"

           
"No," she says, her eyes
and voice filled with uncertainty.

           
"Then untie me. Quickly!
Please, bug! There's no time to waste if we're going to save him!"

           
Jill's face is tortured for a
moment, then she runs around to the back of the chair.

           
It's
too late, Gabor
! Kara says.
He's
found you by now! Any minute now and I'll be free of you forever
!

           
You realize that she's probably
right but you must try.

           
The child whimpers as she struggles
with the knots. You feel something pull free. There's a little extra room
around your wrists. You yank them free of the cord, leap up, and grab Jill by
the arm. Terror propels you down the stairs, dragging the frightened child
after you.

           
What
are you doing, you monster? Leave her out of this!

           
You could drop Kara into limbo to
shut her up but that would distract you for a moment, and you need every
second, every ounce of concentration at your disposal if you're going to have a
chance of surviving.

           
On the first floor, you stop in the
kitchen and pull one of the carving knives from a drawer, then head for the
basement.

           
It's
too late, Gabor! Too late!

           
But you know that as long as you're
still alive and still in Kara's body, it's not too late.

           
You begin shouting as you enter the
stairwell.

           
Rob had been pounding on the paneling,
reaching up among the pipes, but had found nothing. There was an empty space
behind the panels, he could hear that, but his questing hands hadn't come in
contact with anything that felt like a lever—

           
Until now.

           
His hand closed around a short
length of L-bar. He pulled down on it and heard a click inside the paneling. A
section sank inward. He was pushing on it, trying to find a way in, when he
heard someone shouting on the stairs.

           
Kara's voice! How did she—?

           
"Don't do it Harris! I've got
your daughter and if I die, so does she!"

           
Rob heard Jill's terrified sobs
before he saw her. And when she came into view, Kara was holding a knife at her
throat.