Devils night, p.28
Devil's Night, page 28
Finally, the breathing stopped.
She thought of the baby, still tucked inside the horse’s saddlebag. Most likely someone would find her. And if not, the child would avoid all the suffering that was a woman’s inheritance in this world.
Marian made no move to get up. She doubted that she could.
She wished she could reach that lantern and dash it against the wooden furniture. But no matter. Her body was already on fire. She was in hell—she and Bart, together. Right where they belonged. And together they would burn.
“This is the one I took at the bank,” Jason said.
He rewound the tape and handed me the camera. I put my eye to the viewfinder, my stomach a swirl of anticipation. I watched Penny mount the steps in front of the bank’s double doors. I gasped when the door blew open and Penny was thrown to the ground, even though I knew it was coming.…
Then my daughter vanished from my mind. The shot had now moved forward. Jason had pointed the camera into the open doorway of the bank.
I continued to watch the soundless video. And then, in the background of the shot—far in the shadows of the bank—an outline emerged.
I swore aloud.
“What?” Jason asked. “What’d you see?”
The outline had vanished almost immediately. But it had looked like a woman. Narrow shoulders, thin waist, hair loose around her head.
I held out the camera. “Put the video back about thirty seconds. Then look in the shadows. The background.”
Jason did as I asked. He exhaled with a small moan. “No way. That’s…Hell, Lawrence. I see her.”
Marian. Just as Penny had said. Marian was there.
-from A DEVIL IN EDEN by Lawrence Wright
Chapter Forty-Four
2019
Linden watched the front doors of the bank. Outside, the DJ dropped the beat and the crowd roared. The ground vibrated with the noise.
“Did he say if he’s coming?” Linden asked.
“He will. I know he will.”
But it had been ten minutes. Was Tripp making them wait? Or maybe Anvi’s text hadn’t riled him as much as Linden thought it would. She’d even had Anvi mention the video—a moment of drunken foolishness a year ago that Linden had promptly deleted from her phone. But Tripp didn’t know that.
This is stupid, she thought. It’ll never work.
She looked down at her hands. The handcuffs weren’t especially tight, but the metal chafed her wrists. The skin was getting raw. Linden just wanted this to be over. But as long as Anvi held the gun and the handcuff keys, then she held the control.
“When he gets here,” Anvi said, “we’ll make him admit what he did.”
And then what? How far was Anvi going to take this? Linden acknowledged she’d been a fool about Tripp, but she didn’t want him hurt.
“Couldn’t you take off the cuffs now? So I can help?”
Anvi spun around. “Did you hear something?”
Linden didn’t know how anybody could hear much over the music. The stage was right outside. But Anvi kept hearing “things.” Stopping to listen into the dark. Unlike Penny, Linden had never seen a ghost in her life. Maybe ghosts were real to some people, but to Linden, the supernatural had little bearing upon her experience.
But Anvi’s strange behavior and this blackened, gutted building were making her wonder.
“It’s him,” Anvi said.
Linden didn’t understand. The front doors hadn’t moved. But then Anvi rushed away into the dark.
“Anvi!”
Linden heard a shout. Then a scuffle, and something heavy falling. A scream.
She backed up until she touched the wall. She stepped on electrical cords and nearly fell over. Her wrists pulled painfully against the cuffs.
The lights from the stage pulsed against the black walls. Green. Blue. Green.
Someone was coming.
Anvi came out of the shadows. She held her hands out at her sides. She wasn’t holding the gun. Blood dripped along the side of her shocked face. Green. Blue. Green.
Then Tripp emerged behind Anvi. He held the gun.
“Linden? Where the hell are you!”
Linden cowered against the base of the wall. The electrical cords pressed into her back.
“So you think you’re going to ruin me?” he shouted into the dark.
She had been planning to help Tripp when he arrived. Anvi would be distracted, and Linden had figured she could get the gun away somehow. To end this. But would Tripp ever believe that?
He wasn’t going to shoot either of them, though. It wasn’t possible. Tripp wasn’t violent that way.
“You think you can intimidate me? Scare me? Blackmail me?” He raised the gun, pointing it at the ceiling. “Or were you actually going to use this? You’re that much of a basic vengeful bitch?”
She stood and stepped out. Tripp’s head whipped around, the gun now aiming at her.
“This has gotten completely out of hand,” Linden said. “I never meant—”
A series of loud pops made her jump. For a fraction of a second, she thought Tripp had pulled the trigger. But then, black, rope-like shapes shot out from behind her. They wrapped around Tripp’s wrists. He screamed and dropped the gun. More of the black things circled his waist. His neck.
Linden’s eyes strained in the low light. But this was happening. It was real. The electrical cords had broken away from the wall and attacked him. Anvi looked on impassively.
The cords lifted Tripp into the air. His mouth opened, emitting a strangled, desperate scream.
Chapter Forty-Five
Through the window, Penny watched Matthew dash around the side of the hotel. Some of the festival crowd had broken off to stare. Her dad came and put his palm against hers on the other side of the glass.
“We’re getting you out.” Her dad’s voice was muffled.
She nodded, struggling not to cry again. She’d never expected to see her father here in Eden, but right now, she was past feeling shock. Her eyes were bleary and tired already from crying.
There was a crashing sound. She spun to look. It had come from the back of the building somewhere.
“Penny!”
She ran through the dining room and straight into Matthew’s arms.
“What happened?” he asked. “Are you hurt?”
“I’ll be okay.” She put her face against his chest, just breathing him in. The warm, solid weight of him. She looked up at him, though she could barely see him in the dark.
“I really missed you,” she said.
“You saw me this morning.”
This morning? Penny thought. In her mind, she’d been trapped here for so much longer.
He kissed her forehead. “Why are you in here? June was the one who called and said nobody had seen you. I don’t understand what’s going on.”
“It was Tripp.”
“What?”
She waved the question away. Penny would deal with that asshole later. More important things were happening.
“Where’s Linden?” Penny asked. “Has anyone found her?”
“June said she’s missing, too. Tripp supposedly went to look for you—maybe both of you—but I have no clue where he is. What did he do? Did he hurt you? I swear, if—”
“We just need to go,” she said. “This isn’t over yet.”
Penny’s Uncle Harry had arrived, and he forced the security guard to unlock the hotel’s front door. Penny’s dad hugged her the moment she got outside.
She asked again about Linden.
“I haven’t seen her all night,” Uncle Harry said.
“You’re looking for Linden?”
Deputy Ray limped up the steps beside Harry. He looked ragged, like he’d been through his own drama while Penny was trapped in hers.
“I saw her last night,” Ray said. “Anvi too, unfortunately. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell everyone.” Quickly, he told her how Anvi attacked them both, how she’d taken his gun.
“A gun?” her father said. “Somebody’s got a gun up here?”
Penny tugged Matthew’s hand, pulling him close to her side. “Listen, please, Dad. Uncle Harry, Ray, you too.” They stood in a semi-circle in front of Penny, huddled together to hear over the music.
“Something terrible is happening at the bank. I think Linden and Anvi are both in trouble. But everybody in Eden could be in danger, too.”
She saw the fear in her father’s eyes.
“It’s her, Dad. It’s Marian.”
Her dad knew, maybe better than anyone else, what that meant. I was wrong, Penny thought, from the moment I came back here. But she’d told the truth when she was a little kid. Marian was different. She was like no other ghost Penny had ever encountered, even Anabel.
Marian was awake.
“Then we’re leaving,” her dad said. “Right now.”
“I can’t. All these people are in danger because of me.” Penny had seen the black fog hanging over the bank. Anvi had already been pulled into that rage and confusion, Penny was sure. But Marian’s anger was growing still.
“You’re not going to that bank. Matthew, you agree with me, don’t you? She has to come home.”
Matthew had said nothing yet.
“I trust Penny. We need to do what she tells us.”
“Wait.” Ray touched her shoulder. “Anvi has my gun. I called this in. Backup’s on its way, and we’re not doing anything until they get here.”
“I’m not waiting. It’s really Marian who’s causing this, and nobody else can stop Marian but me.”
“Then we’ll send every security guard with you.” Her father’s voice was pleading. “To protect you.”
“You know that won’t work. They’ll just get hurt. Please. I can do this.” She hugged her father again and spoke directly into his ear. “Convince Harry and anybody else you have to, but get all these people out of Eden. I’m begging you, Dad. Tell me I can count on you.”
Tears streaked her dad’s face. “You better come home. And Matthew—you take care of her.”
Ray insisted on coming. He, Penny and Matthew approached the bank from the rear, passing the concessions and picnic tables. They carried flashlights, borrowed from the security team. Penny looked at all the people who still had no idea anything was wrong. She wanted to yell at them to go, run. But she’d have to trust her father and Harry and the security team to handle that.
Penny’s knees weakened, and she stopped. Some kind of surge had passed through her. The hair on her arms stood on end. It had felt like a flash of lightning at the head of a storm.
“You okay?” Matthew asked.
Marian. Penny felt the ghost drawing on the energy of the crowd. Drawing from Penny herself. She never had imagined any of this could be possible. But this was Bloody Marian, and tonight was Devil’s Night.
What have I done?
“We have to hurry.” Penny ran.
They rounded the side of the bank, coming up behind the stage. The DJ still played, the crowd oblivious. A sound engineer sat before a console, and he barely glanced at them as they passed.
Then a few of the overhead stage lights flicked off. The music dropped in volume—a speaker had stopped working.
It’s her, Penny thought.
The sound engineer stood. “What’s going on? Is somebody messing with our electrical?”
“I’d get out of here if I were you,” Ray said to the man.
“But—”
Penny dashed toward the bank’s doors, which were in the shadow of the stage. The padlock hung loose.
“I should go in first,” Ray said. “My weapon—”
“It has to be me.” Penny mounted the steps. The right-hand door swung wide before her.
Marian knew she was here.
Matthew rested his hand on Penny’s waist. “I’m right behind you,” he said in her ear.
Someone was shouting, but the music was still loud enough that it muddled the sounds. The beat pulsed like a racing heart. Boom. Boom.
Penny stepped over the threshold. The interior was dark. She swept her flashlight over the space. Her light found someone, but it wasn’t Linden.
Tripp hung in mid-air, black cords circling his neck and chest.
“Let him go.” Penny walked forward.
The force of Marian’s rage hit her, pushing her back. Matthew caught her before she fell.
He won’t hurt anyone else, she heard in her head. Ever again.
“Penny, do something!” Linden was to her left. Anvi was here, too, standing a few feet away.
Tripp’s legs kicked. His face was turning red. He was going to die, just like Fitzhammer did so many years ago.
Penny pushed herself upright. “Marian. Let him go.” Whatever he’d done, Tripp didn’t deserve this.
She flinched as Marian’s voice again entered her mind, sharp and cold as a knife.
The guilty will be punished. I won’t suffer them to live.
“This man is not Bart Adams. He’s innocent of those crimes.”
The flashlight flew from Penny’s hand and broke into pieces against a wall.
They’re all guilty.
“But Fitzhammer wasn’t guilty. Was he?”
Marian screamed. Penny fell to her knees, holding her hands to her ears. But the awful sound was inside her head.
Abruptly, the scream ceased.
Tripp collapsed onto the ground, the cords retreating. Then one of them darted at Penny. Wrapped around her wrist. Pulled her forward, toward the dark recesses of the bank.
“No!” Matthew grabbed hold of her other arm.
“Just let me go, I’m okay,” Penny said over her shoulder. “Get everyone out of here.”
Matthew held on. The cord kept pulling. Penny’s joints popped as she was jerked in one direction, then the other.
“Please!” Penny cried.
Ray dashed forward, took hold of Tripp beneath his shoulders, and dragged the man toward the door. Anvi ran out after them. Linden remained, crying and shouting Penny’s name.
“Take Linden and go,” Penny screamed. She looked back at him. “Matthew, please.”
With a look of anguish on his face, Matthew let go of her arm. Penny flew forward, landing on her knees.
She heard them running. Then the bank’s doors slammed closed. Matthew and Linden were gone.
The cord unwound from Penny’s wrist and slithered away.
She stood, panting, staring into the dark.
“Marian. I know you’re still here.”
Outside, the beat of the music suddenly died. Shouting came from the sound system.
Something moved in a corner, and Penny spun to face it. Then the noise echoed from a different corner. She heard the electrical cords sliding along the floor, just out of sight.
What do you know about Fitzhammer? Marian whispered. About anything?
This wasn’t like experiencing Anabel’s memories. Penny didn’t see Marian’s past in images. But she knew. She felt the truth inside of her, like the memories already belonged to her. A terrible knowledge that she could not escape, much less deny.
“I know you killed him. You didn’t understand it was Bart Adams who was to blame. But Bart’s dead, too. You saw to that long ago. You’re the one who’s trapped here, Marian. Just like Anabel was.”
Penny felt something brush her neck, and she whirled again. Her chest moved up and down as she breathed. The room was cold. Things rustled and whispered indistinctly in the dark.
“But you could be free,” Penny went on. “I could…I could help you.”
You know nothing.
The cords still slid across the floor. One touched her shoe. Penny tried to force herself not to move, but her entire body trembled, waiting for them to strike at her again. To grab hold.
You’re afraid.
A cold fingertip—she swore it was a fingertip—traced down her back. She tried to stay still. But finally she turned, desperate to bat the thing away.
But she wasn’t in the bank anymore. At least, not that gutted ruin.
A plush carpet lay beneath her feet, a tin ceiling over her head. Polished wood lined the walls. A high desk sat before her with huge, leather-bound books stacked on its top. A stairway led to a lower level, its balusters intricately carved. Soft, flickering light came from a lamp which hung from a hook on the wall.
A woman strode toward Penny from the back room of the bank. She passed the desk, leaning an elbow against it. Her dark hair was braided but loose around her face. Her features were attractive and youthful, if solemn. She wore slim pants made from rough material; tall, scuffed leather boots; a stiff shirt and vest. A gun belt peeked from inside the woman’s coat.
“Bart is not dead. He’s here in Eden still. But we can stop him. Together.”
Marian held out her hand.
Chapter Forty-Six
Lawrence didn’t know how to make them listen. His brother Harry was arguing with a thick-necked man in a dark blazer—apparently, the Devil’s Fest head of security. Some puffed-up, pseudo-military type. Lawrence wanted to give him a swift kick in the ass.
“No way,” the security man said, “I’m not shutting anything down until I hear from Mr. Sterling.”
A few minutes ago, Penny, Matthew, and Ray had crossed Main Street and disappeared. Yet Lawrence and Harry were still in front of the hotel.
“Sterling is missing, can’t you get that through your head?” Harry shouted back.
It was a massive load of bull crap. Penny was risking her life right now. They couldn’t just stand here.
My daughter gave me a job to do, Lawrence thought, and by God, I’m going to do it.
Lawrence turned and jogged down Main Street.
Ever since Penny left home after high school, he’d regretted writing A Devil in Eden. But never so much as the past week. Once, he’d believed he was doing a public service by telling the world about his experiences here. But that was just another steaming pile. Penny knew it, and Lawrence knew it. He’d written the book for his own ego—he was proud of his family ties to Marian, and even prouder of his daughter’s talent. He’d wanted to claim some small part of that luster for himself. But he’d driven his daughter away from home. He’d given her something to prove.
