Lilith (14 page)

People started running away from the open deck, trying to swarm through the too small front door of the cabin. People screamed and tripped over ea
ch other. Some yelling profanities while others raced for their cars. Dean and Wes both covered me and pushed me down onto the deck.

“Pace
y there’s someone with a gun.”

I heard the loud cracking sound again and again. Cars burst to life and crashed into each other as they
pushed on the gas and curved down the long gravel road. Rocks rained towards the cabin and deck. I could feel the small pebbles snap and sting as they hit my skin. And then I had a horrible thought, where was Rhiannon?

From the corner of my
vision, I could see out towards the lake and the edge of the trees. A flash of light broke through the darkness again and again. I watched familiar bodies crumble to the ground all around me. Dean and Wes held me sandwiched between their warm bodies like they were living armor. I closed my eyes against the terror and wept.

I
could feel the hot tears stain my face. Lilith was somewhere out in the woods, and she had a gun. This was her sick idea of a game, playing target practice with my friends. Every time I heard a crack, I felt my body shudder in pain. Another friend pierced with lead, another friend’s life hanging in the balance, and all because of me.

After a
while, the screams ended and Wes and Dean both crouched up to look around us. I could hear their voices rumble in shock at the scene. At least seven bodies lay scattered across the ground. Some still twitched with life, but a few, were silent in death. Wherever Lilith was she was laughing, I could feel the horrible pleasure she felt at my grief.

“Want to play a game Pacey?”

Chapter Fourteen

Nursery Rhymes

I repeated the words over and over again in my head.

“Want to play a game Pacey?”

I knew that what had just happened was only one of the many games she planned on playing. The worst part was that no matter how hard I tried to figure out how far she was willing to go I’d be wrong. My mind could not fathom the incomprehensible evil she was capable of.

She’d tried to kill me not once,
not twice, but three times now.

She’d indirectly been the cause of my mother’s death.

She’d helped to convince my asshole father to have me committed.

And eventually she’d also helped in my release.

I knew she was the one behind getting me out. I guess the first time she convinced my father to commit me had been so good she had to go around him when it was convenient for her to have me released. Was what she said right, had my age, had my becoming an adult legally, erased a protection God had over me?

I sat shakily on the couch and listened to the cops
questioning both Dean and Wes.

After the shooting had
stopped, Rhiannon stumbled over to us unharmed. I couldn’t help the questioning glare I shot in her direction. I didn’t remember seeing her anywhere when the shots broke out. She wasn’t on the deck with us or running towards the cars. That left only two possibilities; she either was in the cabin safe, or out in the woods taking aim.

I might
have just been overreacting, I mean I did witness the death to five of my friends, five people that I cared about. Seven people were injured, and five of those were fatal. Three of those five were members of the Bad Girls Club. Avery, our video girl, Candy, our aspiring journalist, and Dawn, the youngest of the three. She was only fifteen, and a freshman.

She was Candy’s younger sister, and the one I felt the worse about. The two other deaths were Avery’s girlfriend Mel
anie, and Candy’s boyfriend Trey. Now six people’s lives were lost because of me. Six people that had nothing to do with Lilith and her crazy ambition to kill me, and own Dean.

“Miss
O’Brien, can you please answer the question?”

I stared at the angry face of the officer in confusion. Of
course, I wasn’t paying much attention to him. How was I supposed to give my undivided attention to anyone after everything that had happened. I rubbed Bitsy’s ears absentmindedly and sighed.

“I’m sorry
officer…”

“Williams.”

“Officer Williams, can you repeat the question?” I watched his face turn a darker shade of red.

“Do you
know who could have done this?”

I jumped a little at the question but tried to calm down. Of
course, I knew who did this, but I couldn’t tell him that, I’d end up back in a padded cell.

“No, I don’t k
now who would do this, this is horrible. I don’t know anyone who would want to do this?” I said.

“I’ve been told by quite a few witnesses that you yourself have been the victim of an attacker two times before this. Do you think that this could be linked to tho
se attacks, to you personally.” He asked.

I glanced past
the officer out the open window to the bodies covered by sheets on the deck. Paramedics were helping Liv and her boyfriend to the ambulance. They were the two surviving victims. Liv had been shot through her arm, and her boyfriend Sway through his leg.

“I really don’t know, I don’t know who attacked me the first time. So
no, I don’t know anything really. I saw the shots from the woods and that’s all. I didn’t see who it was, and I don’t know why.” I stood and walked away from him.

Clutching
Bitsy in my arms. She jumped down from my tight grip and ran through the door. I tried to reach down to stop her but she descended down the steps and into the darkness of the trees.

“
Bitsy, no.”

Dean came up behin
d me and kissed me on the head.

“Don
’t worry Pace, she’ll be back.”

“But what if...”

He held his finger to my lips and shook his head.

“Don’t think like that, she’s fast, she’ll be back. We
’ll put some food out for her.”

I nodded and felt the tears spring to my eyes. The
victims were being loaded onto stretchers and taken out to the waiting ambulances. Their bodies wouldn’t go to the emergency room, or trauma, their bodies would go straight to the morgue.

I felt the nausea rise up my throat and fill my mouth with the sick acidic taste of vomit. I moved quickly to the kitchen sink and emptied my stomach. Dean came up behind me and rubbed my back, and ran the water. I watched through
tear-filled eyes as the water washed away the signs of my discomfort. I reached shakily into the stream and splashed my face.

“Miss
O’Brien, I know this is hard but we aren’t done questioning you yet.” I sighed and walked back to the couch.

Rhiannon
was sitting next to Wes answering questions softly. She couldn’t remember much of what happened just the loud shot’s and  hiding in the darkness. I watched her from the corner of my eye and shuddered.

I knew it had to be her, although her face and skin showed no signs of possession by Lilith, I knew that if the cops checked her hands for residue, they’d find it there. But it wasn’t really Rhi who had killed them, and she didn’t deserve to go to jail.

“We are going to place two officers here to watch the cabin. We don’t have any reason to believe that the shooter will be back tonight, but just in case, we want to be prepared if he or she does. Wes here has promised to have all of you moved later this morning. This cabin is no place for a bunch of teenagers, even if you are of legal age.”

I looked towards Wes in question. Where in the world did he think we were going to move.

I stared at the squeaky fan moving clockwise overhead. With every rotation, the blades screamed in protest. I sighed, this was Wes’ marvelous plan, some fleabag motel right out of a bad movie. Dean was sleeping in a separate bed beside me. I hated the distance between us, but with psycho demon girl playing peeping tom I didn’t want to push it.

The last time we were
intimate
…Lilith had a crazy breakdown and took over my mom. I wasn’t going to think about that though. After all, of the nasty devastation she’d caused I really did fear her. I had no idea what her warped effed up head was capable of. I felt the tears fill my eyes and cussed silently.
Bitch

It’d been a week since the shootings. Wes told me and Dean to get out of town and stay in contact through phone calls. So we loaded up his truck packed what little we had at the cabin and hit the road. Wes refused to tell Rhi anything about our plan, but just to be safe he didn’t ask where we were he
aded, or where we were staying.

I had a dozen pissed off messages from Rhi. She wasn’t very happy that we’d kept her out of the loop. The
worst part was I knew that this wasn’t even near over, Lilith was just getting warmed up. Whatever was next would just be more horrifying than the last.

I hated that our running away caused us to miss the funerals. I tried to talk Dean into staying behind, but that was never going to happen. He’d thrown me over his shoulder and told me to shut my trap and get in the truck. Wes was staying with his parents. The Cabin had been taped off fo
r an indefinite period of time.

It was a crime scene, and the police were moving slow. I honestly think that if not for
Wes and Dean’s statements they would have thought it was me who was the shooter. Too many bad things kept happening around me, and they weren’t stupid enough not to see the connection.

Bitsy
was still missing. Wes went back every day to fill up her food bowl and water, but he had yet to actually catch a glimpse of her. If Lilith…I shook my head and rolled over to stare at Dean through the darkness. I could hear his even breathing, my one solace in a world full of horrors.

He’d never once questioned me or made me feel crazy. He believed whatever I told him with a kind of unfathomable trust and loyalty I never knew existed. I knew that in this life he was the b
est I’d ever have or ever find.

Before we left
Rhiannon and me had a huge fight. She’d told the cops all the empty unimportant details that she overheard from everyone else. After they left she started complaining about how the Bad Girls Club was disbanded now, and her little plan for Lexie was probably off.

I lost it. Of all the things to say at that time, all she cared about was how the loss of members would affect her little revenge plan. I called her a number of bad name
s and told her to go to hell. As much as I hated how she was acting, I didn’t really mean it. And now knowing that Lilith was nowhere near done, I wished to God I could take it back.

If anything happened to her I’d feel responsible. I was responsible. I was still going over in my head how to get Lilith to leave Dean alone. Even if I killed myself she’d still go after him, and anyone else she felt was in her way. Suicide was not an option.

The cell phone beside me vibrated violently and made me jump in shock. I reached for it blindly and stared at the lit up screen.

Want to play a
game Pacey?

I could feel my heart
pounding and the nausea roll in my stomach.
Only a week and she was already planning something else. I jumped out of bed and reached for Dean.

“Dean, hey babe, wake up…Dean.”

He jumped out of bed and rushed to turn on the light and grab for his bat. I stared at his naked body wide eyed.

“What’s wrong…Pacey
?” His voice barely registered in my mind.
My eyes traveled down his muscled chest to his defined stomach, I swallowed and followed the trail of hair---

“Pacey.”

My head snapped back up to his face and I felt the heat rush to my cheeks. I was caught.

“What happened?”
He said.

I swallowed hard and handed him my phone.

“Do you know this cell number?” He asked.

I closed my eyes against the pain.
“Yep.”

“Who?”

I took a ragged breath. “Rhi.”

“Shit.”

“Yea…
” I felt the terror run down my limbs and I shook with fear. Dean took a seat beside me and put his arm around me.

“Dean.”

“Yea babe.”

“Can you put on some clothes please.” I felt him shift and look down, then chuckle softly.

“Why?”

“Dean.”

“Come on Pacey, life sucks, but it isn’t over. Should we really let this demon freak affect everything we do?”

I
sighed and shook my head in frustration. He didn’t get it. Anything we did could cause more people harm, could cause more death. I didn’t need to add any more blood to my hands.

“Yes
, I will not be responsible for another person’s death.”

Dean groaned and stood up and pulled on a pair of ratty shorts. “You are not responsible for her actions Pacey. You didn’t do anything wrong. This is ridiculous, if she wasn’t killing our
friends, she’d be killing somebody else’s. It’s not your job to save us all. She’s crazy, you can’t reason with a psycho.”

The phone vibrated again and I groaned. Dean reached for
it and sat shakily on the bed.

“Oh God.”
He whispered.

I ran a hand through my tangled
hair wincing at all the knots. “What now?

Dean’s face was pale and his mouth opened and closed without speaking.

“What’s it say.” I asked.

He shook his head and handed me the phone. I felt the tears in my eyes before I’d even finished reading.

“Oh where oh where has my little cat gone,

oh where oh where can she be,

With her soft silky hair and her little black paws,

Oh
where oh where can she be.”

I dropped the phone and ran to the bathroom. Below the text was a
picture, a horrible picture I couldn’t even describe. My little kitty, my beautiful birthday present from Dean was dead. I tried to block out the images in my head.

“I’m so sorry Pacey.” Dean was standing in the d
oorway opening his arms for me

I ran into them and nuzzled my face in his chest. I heard the phone vibrate again and I sobbed. What more could she possibly do?

Dean picked the cell up off the floor and held me again tightly. I could feel his voice rumble in his chest as he recited the words.

“
Boys and girls come out to play,