Lori didn’t think. She raised the Gravedigger Special and fired. A tooth discharged from the gun’s barrel, streaked across the yard, and buried itself between Justin’s shoulder blades. She expected him to cry out in agony as the pain stored in the tooth was released into his system. But he didn’t. Instead, he simply fell apart. He collapsed into a pile of tumors – no blood, no bones, just a mound of obscene growths of varying sizes that lay on the grass, getting struck by rain that could never cleanse or purify them.
Lori was horrified by the way Justin died, but she was more concerned for Larry. He was coughing so hard that she feared he couldn’t breathe. She ran to him, forgetting for the moment about Reeny and Brian. When she reached Larry, she put her free hand on his back, as if that would do any good at this point. She looked down at the ground and saw dark blood on the grass, dissipating in the rain. More joined it as Larry coughed, splatters thick as mucus, and that’s when she knew it was too late for him.
His coughing subsided somewhat and he managed to look at her. His mouth was smeared with red, and his eyes were bloodshot, the capillaries broken from the violent exertions of his coughing. He smiled weakly. “I just…wanted to help.”
He coughed one last time, blood spraying the leather jacket of his that Lori wore, and then he collapsed into the grass, bloodshot eyes unblinking as rainwater pelted them.
Lori felt as if she’d been kicked in the stomach. For a moment, she couldn’t breathe, and then she drew in a shuddering gasp of air and released it in a loud sob. She fell on her knees next to Larry, folded her body over his, wrapped her arms around him. His death was her fault, just as Edgar’s was. She hadn’t hurt Larry intentionally, of course, but that distinction meant dick right now. He was dead, and she was to blame.
“You look really sad.”
She glanced up and saw Brian standing close by, smiling at her. Reeny stood next to him, her expression unreadable. Brian’s smile widened.
“I like it,” he said. “It’s funny.”
The Gravedigger Special – which Lori still held – had two rounds left. One for Brian and one for Reeny. Lori’s grief over Larry’s death flared into anger, at herself, the Cabal, this whole damn fucked-up situation, and she saw Brian and Reeny as symbolizing everything that had turned to shit in her life.
The Shadowkin crouched on the rooftops across the street leaned forward, as if eager to see what would happen next.
Lori intended to fire the bone gun two last times, but before she could squeeze the trigger, headlight beams illuminated the three of them. They all turned to look as a BMW pulled into the Dhawans’ driveway. The driver parked, and when he got out of the car and stepped into the rain, Lori saw that it was Aashrita’s father. Saakar Dhawan was a gastroenterologist in his early sixties, a tall man with a goatee that was still primarily black. He wore a gray suit and tie, and Lori assumed he had come home after a long day of seeing patients or performing colonoscopies. He gazed at the carnage spread across his lawn and then looked at Lori, Reeny, and Brian.
“What the hell is going on here?” Dr. Dhawan demanded. “Who are you people?”
“I like you,” Brian said. “You make me laugh.”
The boy fell onto all fours then and began running across the lawn like an animal toward Saakar. The man stood motionless and gaped in disbelief.
“No!” Lori shouted. She started to go after him, but Reeny slammed into her from behind, knocking her to the ground. As she hit, her right knee gave its familiar scream of protest. Reeny then straddled her back, put her hands on her shoulders and pushed down to prevent Lori from rising.
“Dr. Dhawan!” Lori shouted. “Run!”
The man didn’t move, just kept staring at Brian, and when the boy reached him, Brian launched himself into the air, grabbed hold of Saakar and buried his teeth in the man’s throat. Saakar struggled, tried to grab hold of Brian and shove him away, but whatever Brian was now, he wasn’t human, and he was far too strong for Saakar to fend off.
“Get off me!” Lori shouted to Reeny. “I have to help him!”
But even as she spoke these words, she knew it was too late.
Saakar fell to the ground, and Brian kept tearing at the man’s throat in bestial fury, blood jetting from torn arteries. As Saakar bled out, his exertions began to lessen, and he fell still. Brian didn’t stop, though, kept biting and gnawing at the ragged ruin that had been the man’s throat. Lori’s stomach gave a sickening lurch when she realized her nephew was ripping chunks of meat from Saakar’s body and swallowing them.
“He gets so hungry after school,” Reeny said, her voice distant, dreamy. “We didn’t have time to go home, so he didn’t get a snack. We stopped and had ice cream with our new friends, but that was just sugar and empty calories. A growing boy like Brian needs something more substantial in his belly.”
Hearing her sister talk like this filled Lori with a profound sense of loss. The Reeny she knew and loved was gone, destroyed by the power of the Cabal and replaced with this lunatic who didn’t care that her undead son was a flesh-eating monster.
Lori still held the Gravedigger Special, and now she shifted hard beneath Reeny to free her gun hand. She raised the weapon and pointed it backward at Reeny. She didn’t squeeze the trigger right away, though, didn’t know if she could do it. Sure, she and Reeny squabbled sometimes, like all siblings do, but they’d been there for each other all their lives, offering love and unfailing support. Even if Reeny’s mind had been warped by the Cabal, she was Reeny, wasn’t she? Her real self was still in there somewhere – it had to be. It might still be possible to heal her mind and bring her back to herself. But that wouldn’t happen if Lori killed her – especially if she couldn’t bring herself to pull the goddamn trigger in the first place.
But lives other than Reeny’s were at stake. Everyone in Oakmont, maybe the entire world, was in danger as long as the Imbalance between Shadow and the real world existed. She had to confess her sin – it was the only way to fix the problem – and now that Saakar was dead, there was only one person left who she could confess to: Rajini. And she had to do it fast before the Intercessor arrived. Because once it did, she feared nothing she could do – nothing anyone could do – would be able to stop it.
I’m sorry, Sis.
Before Lori could fire, the Shadowkin across the street starting leaping off the roofs, landing on yards, running toward the Dhawans’ yard. Lori didn’t know why they’d waited this long to act. Maybe the scent of Saakar’s blood was driving them, or maybe they’d enjoyed watching the humans fight for a time, but now they were bored and intended to get in on the action themselves.
As the Shadowkin dashed into the street, Lori shouted, “They’re coming!”
Reeny looked at the rapidly approaching Shadowkin, but she didn’t react.
“Brian’s in danger, Reeny. If those creatures get hold of him, they’ll tear him apart!”
That got Reeny moving. She reached out, yanked the Gravedigger Special from Lori’s grasp, and sprung to her feet. She started running across the lawn toward Brian, who still had his face buried in Saakar’s neck. “We have to go, sweetie,” she called. “Now!”
The boy was so occupied with his grisly feast that he paid no attention to his mother.
Lori got to her feet and watched as the Shadowkin, perhaps attracted by Reeny’s sudden movement, veered toward her. As swiftly as the creatures moved, Lori was certain they’d catch Reeny before she could reach Brian. And while Reeny had the Gravedigger Special, the weapon only had two rounds left. Even if she successfully struck two of the Shadowkin with the remaining tooth-bullets, there were at least a dozen more she’d have to contend with.
She was as good as dead.
“Lori!”
Lori turned to see Rajini standing in the open doorway of her house.
“Hurry – inside!”
Lori didn’t need to be invited twice.
Moving as fast as she could with her injured knee and ignoring its protests of pain, she headed toward the house. She heard Reeny fire the gun’s last two rounds, but she knew it wouldn’t do her any good, not against so many Shadowkin. Once Lori was inside the house, Rajini slammed the door shut and locked it. Lori ran into the living room to look out of the picture window, Rajini joined her, and they watched as the Shadowkin flooded over first Reeny and then Brian. Reeny disappeared beneath their claws, but Lori heard her scream. Thankfully, it didn’t last long. Brian never stopped feeding on Saakar, even when the Shadowkin’s claws began tearing into him. He made no sound as the monsters killed him, maybe because he’d already died once that day, and doing it a second time meant little to him.
Lori turned away from the window to face Rajini. She felt tears threatening, but she couldn’t let them come, not yet. She still had work to do. She reached out and took Rajini’s hands.
“I’m so sorry about your husband. But I’ve got something very important to tell you. Something I should’ve told you a long—”
