The Skull Ring (34 page)

Creep
, her mind screamed at her as she ran.
Creep, creep, creep. Devil made flesh.

She ran toward the high rocks along the peak. The granite protruded from the Earth like the bow of a sinking ship, its gray mass cracked by eons of wind and weather. The trees blurred by, branches slapped at her face. Her breath burned in her lungs and she was dizzy, in danger of collapsing at any moment. Fear served as fuel, though, and kept her legs moving.

She reached the rocks and peered back through the bare trees. No one was chasing her. Had she imagined the voice, the figure in the cabin? Oh, God, she wasn't going to start having delusions out
here
, was she?

She hugged the backpack to her chest, fighting for breath. Below her, the rocky slope dropped off a hundred feet or more, broken only by moss and a few stubs of pine that sprouted from cracks. She leaned against the sun-warmed stone and closed her eyes.

Two steps forward into the air and she would be rid of them. Now and forever. Satan couldn't chase her beyond the grave. The pain, the past, the tricks and lies, nothing would be able to touch her.

But that would be a different surrender, and she was sick of surrender. She was a mountain. They couldn't break her.

And she didn’t know what lay waiting on the other side. A ceaseless darkness promised peace, but that suicidal leap might end in the roasting pit of the one who had owned her all along.

She edged along the granite shelf, pushing the panic away from her mind. The wind was stronger here, shaking the stunted balsam trees below. A few clouds had spun their gray threads together, with another storm pushing in from the west. It was as if Satan were controlling the weather just to play with Julia's moods.

And why shouldn’t he? Even God and Jesus acknowledged Satan was the master of this world, according to Luke’s little chapter in Walter’s Bible.

Voices came from somewhere in the forest. She ducked into a crevice and eased back into the shadows. She held perfectly still for what might have been minutes or an hour, hardly daring to breath, thinking that at any moment the shadows would swell and turn into the fingers of panic, to clutch her heart until it stopped.

Her legs were asleep from crouching, so she stood and leaned against the walls of the narrow cave. Julia pressed her back against the granite as footsteps came up the rocky trail.

Walter
.

She stepped out of the crevice, but the footsteps had faded. The wind between the black trees was the only sound.

Except for the harsh breathing behind her.

She spun, dropping the backpack. Snead stood there, wearing a crooked smile.

"Are you ready, Judas?" he said.

He had crept up on her without a sound. Or else popped out of thin air. How could she fight the master of the world?

"Did you find her?" shouted a man's voice from somewhere below. Julia recognized it from her house, from the cabin, from the night her father disappeared. Hartley.

"She's here." Snead tugged her arm. "Come along, Julia. He's waited far too long. You've made him very angry, you know."

As if to support Snead's words, thunder rumbled over the far hills. The sky had gone from sunny to dismal in scarcely half an hour. The wind gained force, and branches creaked on the slopes below. More clouds massed overhead, black and gray rags torn in anger.

Julia allowed herself to be led along the cliff. She was numb, as if her blood had stilled itself in her veins. A lamb to slaughter.

They squeezed between two large boulders and emerged into a flat clearing. Hartley was waiting, dressed in a brown wool robe, the hood thrown back to reveal the dome of his bald head. His eyes were set deep in the bones of his face, condemned to always look out at the world from shadows.

"Anybody follow you, Lucius?" Hartley said.

"Nobody," Snead answered. "Triplett ought to be in custody by now."

"Should have put him out of the way a long time ago."

"Don't worry. I'm sure we can arrange a little 'accident.' A chase through the woods, he falls from a cliff trying to elude arrest, nobody will think twice about it. Not with his past."

Hartley pulled a gun from his robe. “Unless the Triplett whore’s bones turn up. And the bones of the baby she gave us. Then somebody else might start snooping around, like Judas Stone here.”

The Triplett whore? Walter's wife. Oh, God, no. What kind of woman could give up her infant as a sacrifice?

Julia’s anger revived her, and she fought against Snead’s grip. Three more hooded figures emerged from the trees. It was as if Satan had summoned them out of earth, wind, fire, and water. They surrounded her, rough hands groping and clutching her limbs.

“Tie her,” Hartley ordered.

Julia struggled but was overpowered and forced to the ground. Her hands were yanked behind her and her feet bound with rope. A faint scent of perfume crossed her nostrils, and a slender hand touched her cheek. The whispers went into her ears and through the lost rooms of her soul.

“You’re one of us,” Dr. Forrest said. “You’ve always been one of us.”

“You bitch,” Julia spat. “I’ve never been one of you.”

“You were born one of us,” Dr. Forrest said. “You belong.”

“The master is ready,” Hartley said, looking around, the gun pointed at the turbulent sky. The wind had risen, now was chattering and screaming through the trees. “He’s given us the signs.”

“What do we do after we finish her?” Snead asked Hartley.

“Let Satan decide.”

“There are too many loose ends, Hartley. Satan’s supposed to blind the weak. But bodies have turned up, and sooner or later somebody’s going to link us to Memphis.”

“Are you doubting, my Brother Judas?”

The hooded figures stood around Julia, watching the confrontation. Julia noticed two of them wore patent leather shoes. Cop shoes.

Snead said, “He has truly blessed us. I’m just thinking about it from a law-enforcement perspective.”

Hartley’s voice rivaled the low thunder that crept over the hills. “There’s only one law, and only one enforcer.”

Julia looked up at Snead, saw the man’s aquiline face redden in anger. “That’s easy for you to say. You make the messes, and I have to clean them up.”

Hartley raised his left hand as if addressing the sky. “Even the book of fools acknowledges the master of this world.” Hartley smiled at Julia. “Four-oh-six, Judas.”

A gunshot echoed over the hills, coming from the rocks near the peak of the ridge. Julia's heart clenched.

Walter. They must have found him.

She pictured him slumped in the leaves, blood pouring from his chest. Shot while trying to escape, they’d say. But Julia would know the real truth: that he had given his life trying to protect her. And she had doubted him and his God.

Hartley had ducked at the sound and now motioned Snead to investigate. Snead and two of the hooded figures disappeared among the boulders. Hartley whispered, “Watch the whore,” and then slipped into the trees. Julia lay on the ground, tied and helpless, alone with Dr. Forrest.

The doctor knelt beside Julia, gently stroking Julia’s hair. Julia cringed from the contact, sickened by the possibility of Walter's death. She sobbed.

“Hush, Sister Judas,” Dr. Forrest said to her. “You’re nearly healed.”

What was this crazy woman saying? How many others had she polluted in her role as a therapist? How many other vulnerable victims were led to this wicked end by Dr. Forrest’s manipulation?

Dr. Forrest smiled down at her, like a Madonna upon a child. “If only your father could see you now.”

“What about my father?” Julia managed to ask through her confusion.

“He was weak, a fool. He lost his courage just when he was about to enter the Inner Circle. Imagine the power Satan would have bestowed upon him if only he’d have had the strength to seize it.”

“No,” Julia said. “You told me—you made me remember that he molested me.”

Dr. Forrest laughed, a sound as sinister as the whipping of the rattlesnake’s tail. “Douglas Stone couldn’t molest a lamb, much less a living human being. Your mother was the strong one, the one willing to sacrifice everything. Then, when it came time to deliver you unto the master, Douglas stole you.”

Dr. Forrest’s face grew dark and her eyebrows made arrow tips. "But
nobody
runs away from the Brotherhood. And the Master doesn't suffer fools.”

“What did you do to him?” Julia fought against her bonds, but now, just like 23 years ago, she couldn’t break free. She was angry at these monsters, a rage that almost drove the colors of her mind from black to red. But she was even angrier at herself, to think she could have let someone else build false memories in her head, to have allowed someone to own her so completely.

“He’s in a better place now,” Dr. Forrest said, a vacant smile on her face. “The master surely saved one of the hottest pits of hell for that pathetic worm. I was one of those who came for you that night. Douglas had called the cops, and we could hear the sirens. If Snead hadn't been there to protect us—"

Dr. Forrest closed her eyes as if to control her rage. After a moment, she opened them and continued. "Your father broke the window and tried to shove you through. Your belly was cut on the glass. There was so much blood, so much magic. And Douglas wasted it.”

The scars on Julia's abdomen. They weren’t the beginnings of a pentagram after all. They were wounds, not the brand of a possessor.

She knew Dr. Forrest couldn’t resist talking, so she decided to learn as much as she could. “Why me?”

“Your mother believed enough to offer her own flesh and blood and breath. But Douglas betrayed us. A Judas among Judases. You must come to Satan to pay for your father’s betrayal.”

Julia’s eyes filled with tears. “Wasn’t killing him payment enough?”

Dr. Forrest had returned to the soothing tones she’d used in their therapy sessions, adopting her familiar role. “You’re still so confused, Julia. Don’t fight the truth. Just giving your life isn’t enough. You have to give him everything. You have to
believe
.”

Believe. In a belief system crafted to teach morality, but also offering an alternative to those who didn’t want to wait a lifetime before receiving eternal rewards. Satan wasn’t a snake, a silver ring, or anything that wore flesh. It was only a symbol for the naked human lust for power. For selfish gratification and twisted indulgence, no matter the ultimate cost.

And she had paid all her life in their sick coin. Now Walter had cashed out, too.

“We wanted you to come unto Satan in willing innocence. After all these years, the only way to do that was to make you see his power and accept it. Satan demands a total surrender from his whores.” Dr. Forrest gave a leering grin. “That’s how I serve him.”

Someone shouted in the forest, and another shot rang out. Julia’s heart leapt with hope.
Walter must still be alive!

And if he were willing to keep fighting, so was she. She didn’t have a gun, but she had a different weapon. Dr. Forrest craved one thing greater than an imaginary master’s blessing.

For years, people have tried to make me someone I'm not. So maybe it's time to 'become' that person. Let's see what Judas Stone can do.

“I . . . I was willing,” Julia said. “You’re right. I was confused. But you and Dr. Danner have helped me so much.”

Dr. Forrest beamed with approval. “Lance thought it was best that we get you away from Mitchell. Lucius thought so, too. I’m glad they sent you to me. I feel that I understand you. We’re the same.”

“Yes,” Julia said. “I couldn’t have made it without you. I would still be so lost.”

“The truth will set you free.”

“I want to be free.”

The doctor's eyes shone with a manic gleam. “Embrace him, then. Surrender yourself.”

More shouting came from the high rocks. The wind was roaring now, clouds colliding like the ragged sails of warships, the sky nearly solid black in the late afternoon. One of the hooded Satanists emerged from the trees and came into the clearing. It was Hartley.

“Bring the whore,” he said, anger in his voice.

“What’s wrong?” Dr. Forrest asked.

“Triplett has a gun. We have to hurry. Bring her to the altar.”

Hartley disappeared into the forest again. Julia fought an urge to scream, “If Satan’s so almighty powerful, why can't he stop bullets?” But in every religion, even the ones predicated on evil instead of good, faith was blind, frail, and ultimately human.

“I want to give myself,” Julia said. “I’m healed now.”

Dr. Forrest frowned. "But you were angry—"

"Only at myself," Julia said, imitating the blissful drone that Dr. Forrest had instilled in her during dozens of sessions. "But now I see. The Master has gone to so much trouble. I am honored."

"You are his favorite," Dr. Forrest said. "And I've helped bring you to him."

"Please. Untie my feet, so that I can go with a willing heart."

Dr. Forrest hesitated.

“You heard Brother Hartley,” Julia continued. “We don’t have much time, and I don’t think you can carry me, even if the Master lends his strength.”