The Demon Conspiracy (35 page)

I looked up suddenly. Mr. Deel glared at me
like he wanted to rip out my heart. I inched backwards to the
van.

You little brat! How do
you
know
? Tell
me, NOW!

The words were inside my head as clearly as
if he’d shouted them. No doubt about it, Mr. Deel was also a
telepath. That meant trouble.

Suddenly, a terrible stabbing pain erupted
in both sides of my head. I pressed my hands against my temples and
bent at the waist.

“Oh....” I staggered against the van as
everything around me went pale. The grass, the trees, even the cars
in the driveway became bright white from burning pain. I looked up
through clouded convulsing eyes and saw Mr. Deel. He seemed to
glow, like something made him light up. He glared at me, clearly
directing the head-splitting pain. My brain was going to explode
and there was nothing I could do.

Travis jumped between the Salesman and me.
He must have sensed what was going on and wanted to protect me. I
tried to tell him no, but I began to lose consciousness.

In an instant the pain stopped. Normal
colors returned and Mr. Deel didn’t glow anymore. For some reason,
he’d backed off from killing me. Was it mercy? I followed Mr.
Deel’s aggravated gaze, from side to side. At his left near the end
of the driveway was Doug One, standing with his three-wheeler. On
Deel’s right was Doug Four, in front of our minivan. Both Dougs
stared at Mr. Deel the way he’d been staring at me. Something was
going on between the three of them, but I was numb from the pain. I
couldn’t pick up any thoughts.

All at once the Salesman scowled and let out
a low curse. He climbed into the limo. A square-jawed, uniformed
chauffeur closed the car door and got behind the wheel. The limo
backed out quickly, then spun the tires and raced away.

Travis helped me collapse into the minivan
seat. My heart pounded, my face was cold and damp. Angie moved
quickly to the seat beside me.

“What happened, sweetie? Are you dizzy?”

“Dizzy…yeah.” I tried to focus on Angie’s
face, but everything around her was spinning out of control.

“Why was that man staring at you?”

“We told you!” said Travis, aggravated.
“He’s the guy in the cave.”

“Oh, come on, Travis, why
would somebody like
him
be in a cave?”

“He was sayin’ stuff to the demons. They
liked it, too.”

Angie shook her head. “Kids, whatever the
problem is, I can’t help you unless you tell me the truth. I’m not
talking about demons, okay? There’s no such thing as demons and
monsters. Besides, you called that man a salesman. What could he
possibly sell to anybody way down in a cave?”

“He was selling victory over humans,” I said
in a low voice. “He said if the demons did what they were supposed
to do they’d win the surface of the earth in five years.”

“And
we’d
all haveta live in caves,”
added Travis.

“
If
we survived.” I finished it and
took a deep breath. At last I could see clearly again. What had Mr.
Deel done to me? Why had he stopped? “You don’t have to believe us,
Angie. But we’re not lying.”

Travis nodded. “Yeah,
we’ve got a video of the whole thing, but the camcorder’s still in
the cave, but
I’m
not going in after it.”

“We’ll talk more about this when we get
home,” said Angie.

I understood. Angie needed proof, like Dr.
Parrish, and the proof was in the cave. Good luck convincing her
that any part of our story was true.

We didn’t say much on the ride back. But
Travis kept looking at me like he expected me to collapse at any
second.

“I’m all right,” I said.

“What’d he do to you?”

“I have no idea. But
it
really
hurt
inside, you know?”

Travis nodded. “He wanted to kill you, I
could feel it. He was gonna, too. Until the Dougs stopped him. I
think they know him.”

“Thanks for trying to help me, Travis. But
you should’ve stayed out of it. He might’ve hurt you, too.”

Travis whispered. “Is Mr. Deel telepathic,
like you?”

I nodded emphatically.
“He’s
way
ahead
of me. I didn’t know you could hurt somebody like that with just
your mind.” A nasty, bile taste rose into my throat, like I might
throw up. I gagged, but fought it off.

“I’m so stupid, Travis. I
thought I was the only one who could read minds and nobody could
stop me. Well, Mr. Deel can stop me. Now that
he
knows
we
know about his plans, well, I
don’t think we’re safe anymore.”

“Yeah, we’re just kids,”
said Travis, hanging his head. “But somehow we gotta find
somebody
who can
do
somethin’
about Mr. Deel and those demons!”

27

A VERY NASTY
PLAN

KELLY

“My mom said I can spend
the night Friday,” said Melissa Godwin as she studied her
reflection in the restroom mirror. I stood beside my friend and
watched her make minor adjustments to her long-sleeved, charcoal
blouse and black jeans. Melissa was slender and pale and I thought
she was
so
pretty. Some days when she had on just the right outfit she
looked like a catalog model. This was one of those days. Melissa’s
gaze caught me in the mirror. “What?”

I grinned big. “You’ll be the first friend
I’ve ever had stay over.”

“Well, duh, you’ve only been with the
McCormicks a few months. They kinda had to get to know you.”

“No, I mean
ever
. None of my foster
families would let me have a sleepover. They said there were too
many kids in the house as it was.”

“You’ve never had a sleepover? Not even for
one person?”

I shook my head. “Never been to one, either.
Well, that’s not exactly true. My real parents took me to an
overnight birthday party when I was like six. Three or four girls
were there and my mom stayed to help. Does that count?’

“I think it better.”

“Oh, Angie said don’t eat supper before you
come. She’s cooking burgers and dogs around five. She made potato
salad, too.”

“I
love
potato salad. Wait, didn’t she
almost burn the house down last time she used the
grill?”

“That wasn’t exactly her fault,” I said,
laughing. “Well, maybe it was.”

“Hey, do you think we can sleep in the
basement? It’d be a good place to play with my Ouija board. Or do
you think a Ouija board’s too scary for Travis?”

“Travis is having Mathew Dunlop over for the
whole weekend. With both of them they’ll be fine. I’m sure Angie
won’t care if we’re in the basement. She’ll think it’s cool. So,
Melissa, have you ever used a Ouija board before? Do you know what
to do?”

“No, but I’m sure there’s something on the
internet about it.”

At that moment a toilet flushed in one of
the stalls. I washed and dried my hands as Manson Stanfield emerged
from the stall and smiled at herself in the mirror. I listened to
her thoughts. Manson was nervous about being there with us and she
had no intention of speaking. She pretended to be calm and
unaffected, but I knew she was really afraid.

When Melissa saw Manson, her friendly
demeanor changed abruptly. In fact, she became all out weird. “Hi,
Manson,” she whispered harshly into Manson’s ear. “Seen any good
fights lately?”

I was taken aback. I’d never seen Melissa
act like that before. It was so convincing I wondered if it really
was an act. Melissa had a look of pure madness in her eyes and a
lurking menace in her voice.

Manson stepped back warily
and looked at me. “Get away from me!
Both
of you!”

Melissa blinked and tilted her head to the
side, the way dogs do when hearing a strange sound for the first
time. Then she displayed an idiot’s grin. “Come on, Manson. What’s
wrong? Have ya seen any good fights lately?”

“I’m late for class! You should be
committed!” Manson ran out of the restroom in a hurry. In an
instant Melissa returned to her usual self.

After the door closed I
covered my mouth to stifle a laugh. “Oh my gosh! I can’t believe
you did that. If I didn’t know you so well I’d swear you
really
were
nuts!
Manson sure thinks you are!”

“They both do,” said Melissa proudly. “It’s
the only reason Donnivee hasn’t come after me, too. Like I told
you, she’s afraid of crazy people.”

When we gathered our backpacks and left the
restroom I was happier than I’d been since we’d first gotten to the
McCormick’s house. For the most part it seemed like things were
finally going my way. If only Chris and Jon would come home and be
themselves again my life would be perfect.

MANSON

“Guess who’s having a sleepover on Friday
with her sick little friend in black.” Manson kept her voice low in
English class as she sat with Donnivee. The tardy bell hadn’t rung
yet and the teacher was setting up the data projector.

“Bishop?” said Donnivee. When Manson smiled
Donnivee began chewing on her lower lip. “I know where she lives.
My boyfriend took me by her place last weekend. There’re only two
houses on her street and the other house is empty. Lots of woods
around and plenty of places to hide.”

Manson’s eyes lit up hungrily. “What’re you
gonna do?”

“I don’t know, but it’s
gotta be good. I mean
real
good. I wanna scare ‘em so bad they pee in their
pants.”

“They’re going to be alone in the basement
playing with a Ouija board. I think the only other person in the
house will be the foster mom, and maybe her little brother and his
friend.”

“Ouija board, huh? Maybe we can use that to
scare ‘em. And I wanna beat the snot out of Bishop again, but this
time I’ll do it right.”

Manson shuddered when she thought about the
way Melissa had acted in the restroom. “What about Melissa? She’s
crazier than we thought.”

“We’ll distract her, you know? Kinda get her
out of the way for a while.” Donnivee punched her palm hard. Manson
drew back fearfully. “Kurt doesn’t like ‘em either. He got in a
fight with their older brother once.”

“Who won?”

“You’re kiddin’, right? Kurt said he kicked
that guy’s butt so bad they put him in the hospital. That’s why
Kurt wore a cast for a while. He smashed their brother’s face in
and broke his hand.”

“I wish I coulda seen that. I can’t believe
your dad lets you go out with Kurt. I mean he’s nineteen! You’re so
lucky.”

“If my dad knew I was
datin’
anybody
,
he’d beat me worse than usual. Hey, do you still have those masks
we used last Halloween? The really gross ones with all the extra
eyeballs?”

“The demon masks? Yeah, you want ‘em? Do you
want the demon hands, too?”

“Yeah. If they see some demons while they’re
messin’ with a Ouija board they’ll freak. It’ll be better if they
don’t know who we are. But I wanna do a lot more than just scare
her and beat her up. I wanna take something from her. Something she
really wants. But what?”

They thought about it for a while as their
English teacher closed the door and began taking roll. Manson got
an idea.

“Maybe her dead parents gave her something
she really likes, you know? If you could steal something like that
she’d probably die.”

“Yeah, that’s good. Scare her, beat her up,
and steal her memories. You’re a genius, Manson. We’ll plan the
attack tonight.”

TRAVIS

Travis got off the school
bus more excited than he’d been since Chris had first told them
they were going to Pandora’s Cave. He hastily took the cell phone
out of his backpack to see what time it was. Four-fifty-two.
Sometime in the next twenty-four hours Mathew Dunlop would come
over and they were going to have a blast. He waved to his friends
on the bus as it pulled away, then looked at Dr. Parrish’s house. A
pale green van with the words
Mac’s
Heating and Air Conditioning
printed on
the side was just backing out of the driveway. Travis put his phone
away and watched the van follow the school bus up the road.
That truck’s been there all week,
he thought to himself.
Did they finish?
He decided to go
next door and find out before going home.

Dr. Parrish’s front door was unlocked so
Travis knocked and went inside. The first thing he noticed was how
warm it was. Usually when he came in he shivered because it seemed
colder in the house than it did outdoors. The second thing he
noticed was the odor of fresh paint. Travis sniffed deeply. He
loved that smell. He scanned the living area and saw that the walls
and trim had been painted. In fact, except for the unfinished
floors the downstairs looked ready to move into. Parrish and Granny
had gotten a lot of work done in the last weeks.

Granny’s voice called out from upstairs.
“That you, Travis?”

“Yep! Can I come in?”

“Sounds like you
are
in.”

“Come on up,” said Parrish.

Travis put his backpack down and ran up the
stairs. At the top of the stairs he passed another stairway that
led to the third story bedroom in the tower. He was about to go
that way when a miter saw screamed from a second floor bedroom. The
noisy saw shut off as Travis peeked into the room and discovered
Parrish and Granny putting down baseboard trim.