Accidental Evil (43 page)

He was doing it—he kept whispering and felt himself levitate out of the stinking fountain.
 

The demon locked its glowing orbs on Ricky. It closed its mouth and dropped Vernon. The demon rose up too. The others were forgotten.

In his nearly-silent whispers, Ricky spoke directly to the thing in its language.

“I order you to go back to where you came from,” Ricky said.

The thing spoke. Its booming voice was a foreign tongue. The sounds were too odd to come from a human mouth. Ricky heard a softer version in his head. He understood that version.

“You called me, but you do not command me,” it said.

“You cannot survive without me. I will destroy myself and destroy you at the same time.”

The thing grew still and regarded Ricky carefully. Ricky could see the eyes behind the burning light. The thing was afraid, but it was doing its best to hide that fact. It took Ricky a second to realize why—by venturing into this world, the thing had extended itself and become vulnerable. It might be impervious to Vernon’s knife, but it was tied to Ricky. It needed him in order to survive.

“Your parents will suffer twice today,” the demon said. “Let me on my way and I will spare them. I will take my dominion away from here and you can live your life in peace.”

“There is no peace with you in this world,” Ricky said. It was something he had read in Ms. Yettin’s book. The words hadn’t meant much at the time. They made perfect sense now. This creature was not of this world and its presence would bring unimaginable chaos, no matter where it founded its kingdom.

Meanwhile, Ricky’s plan was working. The demon didn’t seem to realize that it wasn’t the only force from its world that could extend fingers into Ricky’s reality. The two of them were rising from the fountain. They were being lifted.

Ricky thought about the magic trick at the park. Something from the demon’s realm had wanted Ricky to die even then. It had tried to take him away and only his parents had saved him from that fate. By saving Ricky, they had doomed everyone. Now Ricky had the chance to set things right.

Ricky glanced down and saw that they were high above the golf course. He could see the whole town spread below them.

The demon saw Ricky’s attention waiver and followed his gaze down. The demon’s shock was short-lived. Its surprise turned to a smile.

“You’ve forgotten my minions,” the demon said. “With help from your cabal, I have an electronic army. The demon raised its hands. Ricky looked down and saw a hundred black dots swarming below. They moved like a flock of birds, flowing like mechanical liquid up towards the demon.

Ricky whispered his last request to the mysterious forces from the demon’s realm.
 

The two of them shot laterally through the air, flying towards the lake. Below them, the flock of drones rushed to catch up. Ricky and the demon moved too fast. They streaked towards the water, picking up speed as they descended. Ricky saw the sunlight flashing off the surface of the lake and prayed that they would hit where the water was deep. He intended to drag the demon down to the depths and hold it there until they were both dead. If he couldn’t hold the demon down, then he would at least kill himself. He was certain that the demon still needed him to survive in this world.

The look on the demon’s face brought Ricky fresh hope. The thing saw that the drones weren’t going to catch them. It urged the flying robots to move faster, but they were going to hit the water before its army could save it.

Ricky put out his arms and willed himself closer to the demon. He latched onto the monster’s torso just before they hit the surface of the water. Ricky’s arms were wrenched free by the impact. The world became a bubbling nightmare of swirling liquid and bones.

[ Swimming ]

Ricky’s body was bent in half by the impact with the water. The air was driven from his lungs and he plunged into the depths. He had no idea which direction was up. Ricky expelled the last of his air through his mouth and tried to force himself to take the water into his lungs. His body wouldn’t obey. He wanted to die so he could be sure that the demon would go back to where it came from.
 

As his body sank, he spun. For the second time that day, Ricky looked up at the dwindling sunlight. Last time, the swimming form at the surface had been Katrina Prescott. She had come to his rescue.
 

Ricky saw something moving up there and didn’t even want to imagine what it was. That’s when the debris began to filter down.

He batted away bones and sinew as it filtered down through the water. Then plastic parts and metal motors sank around him. It was all less-buoyant than Ricky and settled towards the bottom faster than he did.

Ricky didn’t seem to be sinking anymore.

His body convulsed. It fought against itself—he wanted to take in the lake water, and his lungs burned to fill themselves, but some part of his brain wouldn’t let that happen. An undeniable instinct kicked in and Ricky’s muscles moved on their own. He pulled his way towards the surface. He couldn’t seem to stop himself.
 

Finally, with the last molecules of air in his body, Ricky screamed, “NO!”

His voice was bubbling nonsense under the water.
 

Ricky’s diaphragm spasmed and then drew in the water. The cool liquid burned his insides and brought him peace.

[ Freed ]

Swallowed by the monster, George was alone in the hot darkness. His solitude didn’t last long. He could hear voices of others below him. Some were whispering little secrets to each other. Some of them laughed. Every now and again, one of them moaned in pain.

George hugged his knees to his chest and tried to keep perfectly still. He couldn’t breathe, but it was okay. He didn’t need to breathe. He wondered what would happen next. He wondered if the monster would start to digest him and what it would feel like. If he was in some sort of acid, he figured that he would feel it in his eyes first. That might be the most sensitive part.

A foot kicked him in the head.
 

It was too dark to see anything.
 

An instant later, the second form slid down his body. He heard the girl whimper in the dark.

“Lori?” George whispered.

The voices below them stopped whispering, laughing, and moaning. George knew that they had heard him. He wondered how long it would be before they found him. Lori seemed to know better than to answer. George reached out and pulled her to him. They hugged each other in the hot darkness.

Their black world shook with terrible earthquakes. George waited for the stinging in his eyes or the burning on his skin that would indicate they were being digested by the monster. When it didn’t come, he started to wonder if maybe it had eaten them in a different way. Maybe it had simply sent them to hell.

Below, the whispering commenced again.

Most of the voices were saying gibberish, but now and again George caught a word he understood. They were little portals into conversations that he didn’t understand. Each time a new voice joined the whispers, Lori hugged him even tighter. George didn’t mind. He hugged her back just as hard. In that horrible place, they only had each other.

He wanted to comfort the girl—to tell her that his dad would surely find a way to free them. But George didn’t dare open his mouth. He didn’t want to guide those voices any closer.

It didn’t matter.

A hand found his ankle.

It was the same place that the thing disguised as his mother had grabbed him. George’s ankle was still sore from all the abuse. His foot felt like it would burst with any more pressure.
 

He kicked with all his strength and dislodged the hand. It was replaced quickly by new hands, grabbing at his arms and legs. They were trying to pull him away from Lori. The whispering grew louder, as did the moaning. George realized that one of the moans was coming from himself.
 

A child laughed.

Desperate to hold onto something, George pulled Lori even tighter. She didn’t say a word. He had a terrible thought—what if it wasn’t Lori in his arms? What if it was one of them?
 

They plunged deeper into the darkness with another jolting shift.

“George?” Lori asked.

“Shhh!” George hissed, but he was relieved by her voice. More hands came. Instead of pulling at them, the new hands were pinching and grabbing, like they were trying to tear his flesh away from his bones. One probing finger hooked its way into George’s mouth. He bit down and tasted sour blood.
 

Biting was another mistake. Maybe the two things weren’t connected, but as soon as he bit down on the finger, he felt teeth biting at his shoe. The first was just a nibble. The next one meant business.

The world flipped and George felt weightless.

More teeth clamped down. It felt like the ones on his calf broke the skin.

Lori screamed. George screamed as well.

The darkness exploded into blazing red.

George took a mouthful of lake water and felt it rush up his nose. He lost his grip on Lori as he rolled and flipped in the lake. He was tangled in bones. He spat out water as soon as his head breached the surface. George looked up to the sky and plunged himself back under the water. The black drones rained down from above. As he descended, he was pummeled by bones and debris.
 

George dragged himself down farther. His ears popped. He saw something familiar in the depths. George forced himself deeper even though he sensed he was approaching the point of no return.
 

It was his brother. Ricky’s blurry face was down there. His hand was extended, but dropping. George kicked frantically and grabbed his brother’s hair. It was the only thing he could reach.

Turning back for the surface, they were pelted by more sharp parts from the broken helicopters.
 

[ Shore ]

George broke the surface and took in a welcome breath. He pulled his brother’s head up over the surface and smiled at Ricky.

His smile vanished rapidly. Ricky’s face was all white—even his lips were white—and he wasn’t moving. George jostled his brother and water and spit oozed from Ricky’s mouth.
 

“Thanks a lot, George,” Lori said behind him. “You could have helped me. I almost drowned.”

George didn’t acknowledge her. “Ricky!” he yelled. “Wake up, Ricky.”

Lori swam to George’s side. She reached under the water and grabbed Ricky’s hand.
 

“Come on, George,” she said. She started swimming. George grabbed his brother’s other hand and rolled to his side so he could kick freely and tug at the water. He saw where Lori was headed. It was a good idea. There was a diving float not too far away.
 

George looked back at Ricky. His lifeless head rolled around. There was nothing George could do about it.

Before long, Lori was leading the way. She was a stronger swimmer than George. When they were still a few feet from the float, she dropped Ricky’s hand and swam off.

“Hey!” George yelled. He figured out what she was up to. Lori didn’t bother with the ladder. She put her hands up on the planks of the float and wriggled up, kicking like a dolphin. She turned and put her hand down. George gave her Ricky’s arm and she pulled as George pushed.

It was impossible, but they did it. He was twice as old and twice as big as they, but the two managed to roll Ricky’s waterlogged body up onto the float. George swam around for the ladder and climbed up as Lori flipped Ricky onto his side.
 

The water ran from George’s clothes, hit the planks of the float, and then made a chorus of drips as it returned to the lake below.

Lori was working hard. George didn’t know what she was doing. Water gushed from Ricky’s mouth and nose as Lori manipulated his arm and pressed on his back.

“I don’t think that’s what you’re supposed to do,” George said.

“Shut up!” Lori said. “Get over here and help.”

He moved to Ricky’s other side and knelt down. He followed instructions. Lori rolled his brother onto his back and started to do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. George recognized that. She showed him how to help.

While they worked, George looked around. There had to be an adult somewhere. There had to be someone more qualified who could fix this situation better than two kids.

“George! Faster than that,” Lori said. She counted out a rhythm for him.

After a minute, Lori pushed him away and put her head to Ricky’s chest. George knew what she was going to say, but he didn’t want to hear it. He put his hands over his ears and closed his eyes as he sat back on his heels. His brother was dead and he should have been able to save him. He would never forget this moment.
 

When he opened his eyes, he saw Lori shaking his brother.
 

George’s hands went to her shoulders.

“Stop!” he yelled. “Leave him alone.”

She looked up at him like he was crazy. George looked down and saw little bubbles on Ricky’s lips.

George shoved her aside and started shaking Ricky himself.
 

“Ricky!” he yelled in his brother’s face. “Ricky!”

His brother’s eyes opened.

[ Boat ]

Lori wanted to swim for the boat, but George made her stay. Ricky was sitting upright, but if he passed out again, George knew that Lori was better qualified to take care of him. George stole a little dinghy and rowed out to get them.

It took a lot of delicate coordination to maneuver Ricky onto the boat. He was weak and his balance was totally shot. When Ricky spoke, he sounded like a goose honking. He had so much water in his skull that he could barely form words.

Also, Ricky kept looking out at the lake. They all did. There was no sign on the surface of the bones and machines that had sunk, but they knew they were there. All three of them wanted to get to shore as fast as possible.

Ricky slumped on the seat as George rowed back. George kept his eyes locked on Ricky’s chest, verifying that he was still breathing.