The Devil's Demeanor (37 page)

“Is Conner going to be okay?”

“I’m sure he will be.”

A moment went by before Jordan asked,
“What’s wrong with us?”

“Nothing’s wrong with you.
 
Why do you ask?”

“Because I keep passing out for no reason,
and Conner’s acting crazy, and....”

The boy was suddenly in tears, and Don was
horrified to see his child in such anguish. He ran out of his office, up into
the living room and hugged him.

“Everything’s going to be okay,” he told his
son. “I promise.”

Just as the boy stopped crying, the house
phone started ringing. Don answered.

*
 
*
 
*

It was a little after midnight when Don and
Jordan approached what looked like a white plantation home thirty minutes away.
There were peach trees scattered through the yard, reminding Don of his time in
Florida; his family loved peaches.

There was no paved driveway, so he parked
behind a black SUV. He was nervous and confused; Conner hadn’t given any
details about who he was with or why. He’d simply given the address and asked
to be picked up. Don hadn’t even asked his son if he wanted to come along;
Jordan was just as worried about his cousin.

The two got out of the truck and made their
way to the red front door, but before they got halfway there, it opened and out
ran Conner. He hugged Don fiercely and said, “I’m sorry.”

Don hugged him back and said, “I’m sorry,
too.”

A man appeared at the door. He was old, with
white hair and a round belly. He was smiling. Don let go of Conner but did not
approach this man. He knew who he was.

“Stephen.” Don nodded at him.

“Hello, son,” the man replied.

*
 
*
 
*

Don followed his biological father into the
kitchen while the boys went upstairs to play. Don watched them cross a bridge
into a small play area with a pool table and a TV. When he turned back to
Stephen, he found the old man holding up a glass full of pink-colored drink.
“What’s this?”

“Drink it. You’ll feel much better.”

Don already felt better now that he’d found
his nephew, but he took a sip anyway. A few seconds went by and...nothing
changed. “I don’t feel any different.”

“That’s because you know better.”

“I don’t understand.”

“But I do,” Stephen said with sad eyes. “I
know what’s happening with your boys.”

Don said nothing, only stood there with his
peach drink. Then he said, “You know about the curse?”

“That’s what you call it?” Stephen laughed.
“I suppose it is a curse, isn’t it.”

“But you don’t have to worry about that
anymore, do you?” Don wanted to cut to the chase. His pulse quickened. “How did
you beat it?”

Stephen took a deep breath and said, “I gave
it away.”

Don stared, motionless. “I’m sorry, but I
think I misheard you. Did you say you gave it away?”

“That I did, Donovan.”

Don suddenly laughed at the use of his full
name. “Nobody’s called me Donovan since I was a kid. Except my wife.”

“They never called you Donnie?” Stephen
grinned, going along with the subject change.

Don was instantly reminded of the fact that
the man standing before him—his biological father—wasn’t around for his
childhood. “How did you give away the curse?” he finally asked.

“Reluctantly,” Stephen joked. “I had to give
it to someone who would willingly accept it.”

Don thought about those words. “
Who
did you give it to?”

“My own father.” Stephen suddenly
transformed into a sadder, more bitter version of what he had been before. “He
went insane and died shortly after. To this day, I still wonder if it was the
cancer that killed him or the monsters.”

“I’m sorry,” Don said quietly.

“Thank you, son.”

“How were you cursed in the first place?”

“I was young and stupid back then. I’d
gotten caught up in a paranormal craze, joined a group of other stupid kids
looking for a ‘portal to hell,’ as they called it.”

“A portal?” That struck a chord in Don.

“Yep. It was rumored to be in Destin,
Florida, where your...other father was from. We never found it, though.
Instead, I found something else.”

“The demon?” Don guessed.

“Bingo. I never even saw it when it
attacked. I’d gotten separated from the group in some woods. Something big and
dark bit me; I’d assumed it was a wolf or something.”

“Then you started noticing changes?”

Stephen looked at him steadily. “I had
nightmares, heard a voice telling me to do awful things to people. Not random
people, either—certain kinds of people. Like a hit list.”

“Did you ever do anything bad?”

Stephen nodded sadly. “Yes. I hurt someone I
truly loved. She was pregnant at the time, and I...

“And then I met your mother in college. We
were just friends; I was still heartbroken about my previous love Lucy. Then
Hilda’s dad got sick around the same time as mine, and I spent some time with
her, to comfort her. We, uh.... If I’d known the curse could be passed on to
children...I never would have....”

“I know,” said Don, trying to comfort the
old man. “I did the same, and so did my brother.”

“Ethan.” The man said the name quietly. “I’m
sorry about what happened to him. It wasn’t fair.”

“I know.” Don didn’t want to talk about
Ethan, and he couldn’t help wondering if Stephen knew that it was Don himself
who had killed him.

“I don’t want the same thing to ever happen
to one of your boys,” Stephen went on.

“You seem to care more than I thought you
would,” Don said bitterly. “Considering you’ve been absent for most of their
lives.”

“Just because you haven’t seen me doesn’t me
I wasn’t there.”

Don thought about that for a moment. “You’ve
been watching them?”

“All of you,” Stephen corrected. “Almost
your whole life, Donovan.”

Don found the air growing thick. “I don’t
know what to say to that. I...think I’ve seen you a few times. Up in
Connecticut, on the playground....”

“You don’t have to say anything.”

“I’m...upset about this, though.”

“I know,” the old man said. “I can feel your
rage from here.”

Don was startled by that. “You can?”

Stephen nodded. “You were always an angry
kid—you got that from me. The curse somehow turns that into an almost physical
manifestation. Anger comes off of you in waves of energy.”

“Conner is the same way.”

“I know.”

“That means we’re both definitely cursed,”
said Don. “You have to help us get rid of it.” He felt a thrill of
anticipation; the cure was in his grasp.

“I can’t,” Stephen said, completely
deflating his son’s hopes.

“What do you mean you can’t?” Don asked.

“I’m not going to pretend I’m a brave man,
Donovan. I’m not like my father, who was the bravest man I’ve ever known, aside
from you. He took the curse upon him, and it destroyed him.”

Don wanted to be mad at his father, but he
couldn’t. He didn’t know the man, so how could he expect him to take on such a
burden? Even though he started all of this in the first place.

“Tell me how to do it, then,” Don finally
said, coming to a decision. “I’ll take the curse away from my boys and....”

“Kill yourself?” Stephen finished for him.
“Because that’s what will happen, having all that bad stuff in you like that.”

“I have to do something. For my boys.”

Stephen sighed. “I don’t even know how my
dad did it. I felt a weight lift from me.”

Don was shocked and angry. “What if he
didn’t take anything? What if he just made you think the curse was gone?”

“You’ve just touched upon an interesting
point. Before you got here, I did a similar thing for Conner. I made him think
I took his curse, and I can do the same for Jordan, if you want.”

“I don’t just want them to think they’re
cured; I want to actually cure them.”

“Well, then, I don’t know what to tell you.
Though I wouldn’t completely discount the power of suggestion. It’s a powerful
thing.”

“So is a father’s love,” Don said, and he
knew at once that his words had hit home.

Stephen cringed. “I do love you, Donovan.
I’ve been there for you, even though you didn’t know it. I was there when you
tried to kill the creature in its cave.”

Don instantly remembered that night. A freak
thunderstorm manifested—

“I have the gods on my side,” Stephen said,
as if he’d read his son’s mind. “Whenever I begged enough, they brought their
lightning down on the monster.”

“Did you beg them to kill my mom?” Don found
himself asking.

“They didn’t kill her; your other father
did.”

Don remembered something else. “The night I
confronted the demon...was that you? Did you help?”

Stephen nodded. “That was incredibly brave
of you, going into its lair like that.”

“I’d probably be dead right now if you
hadn’t helped,” said Don. “But you can’t keep hiding behind the ‘gods.’ If you
knew the demon was dead, why did you stay hidden?”

Don wasn’t even sure if he believed what the
man was telling him, though it did explain a lot. Don always wondered where
those storms came from, right when he needed them.

“I tried to prevent your brother from
killing those people. That demon used him to kill others like us, others who
could bring about the monsters’ downfall. The demon is dead now, Donovan,” said
Stephen. “It can’t hurt you anymore.”

Don shook his head. “It may be dead, but
it’s not gone. It spoke to me tonight, told me it was possessing someone I
knew. It said it was looking for a way to return.”

Stephen looked shocked. He opened his mouth,
as if to say something, and then closed it again.

Don left the kitchen. “If you’re not going
to help me, then there’s no point in us being in contact with each other
anymore.”

“I
did
help you,” Stephen
said, grabbing his son’s arm to stop him. “You’ll see. Conner won’t act up
anymore. The power of suggestion—don’t discount it.”

Don shook his father’s hand, gathered his
boys and left.

Diedre landed at Augusta Regional Airport at
Bush Field early in the morning thinking about the story that would make her
famous. It had been over a decade since she’d returned to her native Augusta.
After her interview with Mr. Scott, she knew she was getting closer to
something special. She also knew she would get nothing from the man himself, so
she had to get it from someone else.

Ivy Peterson had been convicted of murdering
her boyfriend a decade ago—right in front of her young son, who just happened
to be Mr. Scott’s nephew. That was a story in itself, but it had already been
written. Several times. Diedre was more interested in the connection the murder
had to the author she was investigating. She knew there was a connection.

She arrived at the mental institute and went
through all the procedures before being escorted to the patient’s room. A woman
sat by the window, a woman who almost looked more animal than human. Her hair
was frizzy and black, with streaks of gray. Her face was tight, lean and mean.
Her almond-shaped eyes made her look feline. The same eyes of little Conner
Peterson.

“Ms. Peterson, thank you for agreeing to see
me.”

“Please, call me Ivy. I wanted to meet the
woman snooping around in Don’s life.” She grinned, causing the hair on Diedre’s
neck to stand on end. She hadn’t mentioned Don to Ivy, yet the woman had seen
right through to the truth.

“Well,” said the reporter, “he is a
fascinating man with a complicated past. He’s very secretive.”

“Everyone has the right to be secretive,”
said Ivy, losing the grin. “You probably know more about him than I do at this
point.”

“That’s probably true,” Diedre said as she
got out her recorder. “However, you are his sister-in-law, so to speak. You
never married his brother Ethan. Is that correct?”

“That’s correct.”

“But you and Don spent many years around
each other before your...imprisonment?”

Ivy tilted her head to the side. “Are you
implying that I hooked up with him?”

“Not at all.” That wasn’t what she was
thinking, but it was interesting that the woman went there. “It’s just that you
two had to have spent significant time together. You had to have come to know
him fairly well.”

Ivy grinned again. “What are you after, Ms.
Marshall?”

“Just the truth. Mr. Scott is a local
celebrity who has come under public scrutiny lately.” Diedre decided to cut to
the chase. “There have been several murders committed near his home, and I’m
the only person who doesn’t see them as merely coincidental.”

“Ah. I see now.” Ivy laughed. “Do you think
Don is a murderer?”

“I don’t know what to think.”

“Oh, come now, yes you do. Otherwise, you
wouldn’t be talking to a convicted murderer like me.”

Diedre decided to change tactics. “Why did
you murder your boyfriend?”

“Because he posed a threat to my child.”

“You mean Conner?”

Ivy twitched at that name.

“Doesn’t it bother you that your son is
living in such a dangerous environment?”

Ivy looked worried now.

“I’m just trying to figure out what’s going
on,” Diedre continued. “Something dangerous is going on over there, and there
are innocent people involved who could get hurt.”

“None of them are innocent,” Ivy whispered.

“What does that mean?”

Ivy suddenly looked at her with different
eyes. A strange jackal-like grin appeared on her face. “I suggest you drop this
story, bitch. You’ll die if you pursue it further.”

Ivy’s voice had changed.

“What do you mean?” Diedre tried to stay
professional, despite the fact that she wanted to piss her panties.

Ivy’s eyes grew glossier, as if a light
source was shining on them alone. Everything else grew dim around her. “I know
you’ll never back down from this story, so all I can do is warn you. None of
those boys are innocent. They’ve all done something evil and will do even more.
That’s exactly what I want, that’s the one way I can venture forth from this
prison for good. They’ll kill you if you get close enough. Your best bet is to
stay away.”

Suddenly, Ivy’s eyes returned to normal and
the jackal’s grin vanished, only to be replaced by a confused expression. “What
just happened?”

Diedre didn’t know what to think about what
she’d just seen.
 
But she knew she
had
seen something, a change not only in appearance but in personality.

She had just spoken with an entirely
different person.

“Um, thank you for taking the time to speak
with me, Ivy.” Diedre grabbed her recorder and left as quickly as her feet
could carry her.

*
 
*
 
*

Don stood on the front porch, staring up at
the stormy sky. It was only afternoon, but it seemed later. Everything was a
bluish gray, and the air was cool. Lightning and thunder traveled through the
clouds every now and then.

Much to his surprise, Don was actually quite
comfortable. Despite the disturbing conversation he’d had with his real father
the night before, his mind was at ease. Perhaps it was because he knew of a
cure to the curse. Unfortunately, he didn’t know how to use that cure.

He doubted that power-of-suggestion nonsense
would do any good, though he couldn’t deny the conviction in Stephen’s voice.
The old man had truly believed that would be effective. Don wondered if
Stephen’s father had simply done that to him, or maybe performed an “exorcism.”

And then there were the “gods.”

Don looked up at the dark sky again. Thunder
rumbled as if in response to his thoughts. “Are you real?” he asked the sky.
“Will you help me?”

No thunder. Nothing.

No, not nothing. A car was coming up the
street toward his house. He didn’t recognize it, but he did recognize the
driver.

He walked toward the car as it parked next
to the mailbox. “Monica, what are you doing here?” He wasn’t unhappy.

She smiled at his smile. “I missed you, and
the kids.”

She looked tired but happy.

“Do you mean what I think you mean?” he
asked.

“I want to start over,” she replied. “Can we
just start over?”

Don hugged and kissed her. “What brought
this on?”

She looked around the gloomy neighborhood.
“All of
this
, believe it or not.” She laughed. “Being
here with you and the kids. I missed being a wife and mother. I never realized
how much until I gave it all up.”

“The old-maid life just wasn’t for you,” Don
joked.

“Watch who you’re calling old.”

They laughed again. And then they kissed.

*
 
*
 
*

The family spent the whole day together. The
weather improved greatly, allowing them to picnic in a park nearby. It had
seemed a cheesy idea at first, but everyone enjoyed it.

Don and Monica discussed the idea of selling
the house. Considering all the terrible things that had gone on in and around
the place, Don was more than willing to make the decision.

This discussion, of course, led to
speculation about what had happened to the previous owner. All Don had heard
was that the man had passed away. Don assumed it was natural causes, due to old
age, but Monica encouraged him to open his mind to the possibility that he’d
been murdered.

Don called his realtor the next day to get
the full story. She informed him that the man had died in his sleep and that no
foul play was suspected. Don was surprised to find himself disappointed with
this news. If the previous owner had been murdered, then the killer could have
been the one committing these current homicides.

Alas, the suspicion still fell upon Conner.

*
 
*
 
*

Jordan was running the track at school when
he felt a presence next to him. Erin was keeping pace with him, barely sweating
at all. Jordan, on the other hand, was sweating buckets.

“Did you hear that Leo killed himself?” she
asked him.

Jordan nearly tripped. “When?”

“Yesterday. I guess he couldn’t handle the
nightmares anymore.”

“I let him down.” Jordan stopped jogging.

“What do you mean?” Erin asked.

“I should have been trying to help stop the
nightmares by figuring out how Conner started them in the first place. I
thought I’d find something at my grandpa’s—”

“Your grandpa’s?” Erin interrupted.

“Oh, yeah, I met my long-lost grandpa the
other day. Unfortunately, he didn’t tell me anything.”

“What about Conner?”

“He told
him
stuff, but I don’t
know what. Conner wouldn’t share.”

“There was nothing you could’ve done,” Erin
tried to assure him.

The rest of the P.E. class passed them.

“I could’ve asked Conner to undo what he did
to Leo.”

Erin didn’t respond. She was clearly
thinking the same thing, which made him feel worse.

*
 
*
 
*

Diedre tried to go about her regular routine
after returning from Augusta a few days ago, but the interview with that Ivy
woman still rattled her bones. Before, she had only a strong hunch that the
mystery surrounding Donovan Scott was worth investigating. Now, she
knew
. The question now was whether or not she wanted to continue that
investigation.

She thought of the people who’d been
murdered near Mr. Scott and was afraid of ending up like them.

But what did Ivy have to do with anything?
Were she and Don part of some homicidal cult or something? Did Ivy have
multiple personalities? What did she mean about “venturing forth from this
prison”? Did she mean the mental hospital?
 
Diedre didn’t think so, not really. There was no doubt in her mind that
she had spoken with two individuals that day, but was Ivy aware of that other
personality? She’d seemed confused when the other voice went away.

Diedre decided there and then that she would
continue her investigation.
 
The answers
to this compelling mystery would be worth the risk.

*
 
*
 
*

Dad had made the announcement during dinner
one night that he and Mom were getting back together. Jordan figured as much
since she’d returned a week ago and stayed in Dad’s room. Also, she was slowly
moving all of her belongings into the house, which was a huge tip-off.

Jordan was happy about this because he
missed his mom. After all the terrible things that had happened over the past
year, he wanted things to go back to normal. Mom and Dad getting back together
was a huge step in achieving that.

Things did seem to improve after meeting
Grandpa, Jordan also realized. Conner and Dad were getting along better, and no
one else had been murdered in or around the house. Progress.

Dad also announced that he was selling the
house and buying a new one. That news excited Jordan; he liked
new
things with their new smells and relished the thought of a house in
which nobody passed away. He harbored the belief that the previous owner’s
ghost resided in the walls.

All in all, life was pretty good. Jordan
still felt guilty about Leo’s suicide, but there was nothing he could do about
it now. The boy had suffered those nightmares for so long anyway that he
probably would’ve been insane for the rest of his life.

At least he would’ve been alive,
a voice reminded Jordan.

No amount of rationalization would change
the fact that Conner had done something supernatural to Jack and Leo. Conner’s
nauseating vibe seemed to vanish after talking with Grandpa, however, and no
one else brought it up, so Jordan decided to ignore it as well. Hopefully, this
peace would last forever.

*
 
*
 
*

After another week, Mom was fully
transferred to Texas. She was still in the process of selling her house in
Georgia, but all of her belongings were here. She even had a job at the
hospital in downtown Fort Worth.

Dad said the two of them were getting
remarried, but they weren’t having a fancy wedding. Jordan found that sad
because their first wedding hadn’t been fancy either—Mom had been super
pregnant with him at the time. Jordan wondered if he would ever get married,
and if so, would he have a traditional wedding or just go down to City Hall
like Mom and Dad were going to do?

He was mulling this over in the cafeteria at
school when Erin suddenly joined him.

“You look happy,” she said.

“Things are going great, so why shouldn’t I
be?”