“They're dead,” Stephanie said.
She meant Randy and Leslie, Jack thought. It was hard to believe. Staggering.
“What about Susan?” he asked.
“I don't know.”
“Who was she?”
“I . . . I don't know.”
“But she was real, right?”
“I think so. We saw her blood.”
They didn't know. What they did know was that they'd come face-to-face with themselves and with evil and perhaps with Lucifer himself and survived only because of her.
They were quiet for a few seconds, awash in the effects of the reality that had presented itself to them in a dark corner of the world.
A hundred miles from here, Tuscaloosa was waking up to one more day of traffic, and appointments, and soap operas, and a thousand other mundane trivialities that consumed the world. Here the authorities were about to be confounded by unbelievable events. Unless they believed in haunted houses and killers filled with the power of darkness.
“Are we sure this really happened?” Stephanie asked.
Jack blinked. “It happened. Like the game of life, it happened, all in one night.”
“Game of life?”
“You live your life, and in the end you either live or die, depending on what choice you make.”
She said nothing.
Movement on their left filtered into Jack's vision. He looked over and caught his breath.
A girl had stepped out of the trees and was walking toward them.
Susan
. . .
Jack released Stephanie's hand and stepped forward. “Susan?”
“It's her!”
The girl was still dressed in the same tattered white dress, now stained red with blood. Jack glanced back at the house, where three of the officers had just entered. The fourth was making a sweep behind, weapon drawn.
Susan stopped in front of them. A gentle smile softened her face.
“What happened?” Stephanie asked, dumbfounded.
“I knew you could do it,” Susan said. She winked.
Jack was unsure of what his eyes were seeing. He asked the same question. “What happened?”
“Light came into the darkness,” Susan said. “That's what happened.”
Jack caught a glance from Stephanie's wide eyes.
“You . . . who are you?”
“Susan.”
“But you're real, aren't you?”
“Of course I'm real. Just as real as the day he locked me in the basement. Although I will admit that I came willingly.”
“So . . . so you're an . . .” Stephanie stopped short of the question.
“What?” she asked.
“An angel?” Jack said.
“An angel? You mean a real angel that walks on the earth and looks like a regular person? Think of me as someone who's shown you the way by shedding a little light on the situation.”
Jack looked up at Stephanie. He'd heard of such a thing. Angels walking among humans. But he'd never given them a second thought.
The radio in the closest cruiser hissed to life.
“We only have two bodies in here, Bob. Do you copy? Two bodies. A male dressed in what's left of a green shirt and jeans, and a dark-haired woman. Copy?”
Static. “Can you verify that?” More static. “They said there was a killer in there, dressed in Lawdale's slacks.”
“Roger that. No sign of a third body, not in the basement.”
“Copy. Proceed with caution.”
“How . . . how's that possible?” Stephanie said.
“There's something else you should know,” Susan said. “White's not finished.”
One of the windows to the attic drifted open.
“I thought we beat him, beat the house!” Stephanie said.
“You beat the evil in your heart.” She nodded at the house. “Look closely.”
Jack and Stephanie stared.
At first Jack saw nothing. It looked exactly the way it had a moment ago, except now all the windows were sealed shut again.
Then he saw the faint gray shape in the attic window. It was a person, staring down at him without moving.
A bald person. Stewart.
And next to Stewart, Betty. And Pete.
He heard Stephanie gasp; she'd seen it too. The undead stared out the window, faint, so faint but there, really there.
Stewart moved away from the window and disappeared into the house.
“They're still there?” Jack asked.
“For a while,” Susan said. “They'll find the place a bit too clean for them now. They'll move on.”
“Why let them? We could walk in there and wipe them all out,” Jack said. “Couldn't we?”
“Yes, I think we could,” Stephanie said.
“They'd probably run out the back the moment they saw us coming,” Jack said.
“After what we did? They're afraid just looking at us.”
Stephanie took two long steps toward the house and shouted so that her intention was unmistakable.
“Shoo!”
The window emptied.
Amazing.
“What do you think, Susan? Are they gone now?”
She didn't answer.
“Susan?” Jack turned around. “Susan?”
But she was gone. He scanned the clearing. “Susan!”
“She's gone,” Stephanie said.
“So she
was
an angel?”
“Maybe.”
Stephanie looked around and let the silence stretch.
Jack caught a glimpse of a Stewart in one of the windows. “They're not gone yet.”
Stephanie turned around, looked at the Stewart for a few moments, then threw up her hands and lunged forward.
“Shoo!” she cried.
It shooed.