The Summoning (18 page)

And here it was in this bathroom.

He picked up the straight razor and looked down at the word carved into the handle: CUTTER. He opened it and studied the lethally sharp blade. The wood handle looked very old – worn and stained, but the razor blade looked brand new and ready to do its job.

And it was here waiting for him.

He looked in the mirror at his face. That wasn’t his face – he was sure of it. That was a different man’s face that looked back at him, that was Ryan Freeman’s face in the mirror, not his.

Ryan brought the razor up to the top of his forehead and drew the sharp blade across his skin just under the hairline and left a deep red line in his flesh. Then he drew the blade down each side of his face, right beside his hairline, all the way down to his jaw. The cuts were thin and deep, the blade so sharp that the wounds had only begun to bleed now.

He set the straight razor down on the edge of the sink; it made a clinking sound in the quiet house. He probed with his fingers at the line he’d cut around his face. He dug his fingers underneath his skin and began to pull at his skin, tearing it away from his skull in one sheet.

“Ryan!” Amber screamed from the doorway. “What are you doing?!”

Ryan turned and looked at Amber with a big smile on his half-peeled face. “There’s another face under here!” he shouted at her.

And Ryan drifted off to …

White.

Heavy breathing.

The white cloth was taken away and all Cutter could see was the ceiling of wood trusses from the shack from the woods.

And then the red-haired man leaned over into Cutter’s field of vision. He was grinning and holding the straight razor with the word Cutter carved into its old-fashioned wood handle.

“We’ve got all of eternity to find out how you did it, Cutter. But for now, you know what you need to do. You need to cut her.”

You need to cut her.

You need to cut her.

Cut her …

Cut her.

Cut her.

Ryan snapped awake from his nightmare.

He stood at the foot of Amber’s bed with the straight razor in one hand.

Amber slept on the bed in the same place she’d lain down beside him when she stroked his hair and told him to go to sleep.

Ryan stared at her and he could hear the red-haired man’s voice whispering to him from somewhere.

“Cut her. Cut her. Cutter.”

Amber’s eyes popped open and she sat up when she saw Ryan standing at the foot of her bed. “Ryan, what are you doing?”

Ryan felt confused – what
was
he doing?

“Where did you get that razor?” Amber asked in a careful voice.

He looked down at the straight razor in his hand.

“I don’t know,” he told her.

“You didn’t have it with you before?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Are you okay, Ryan?”

Ryan stared at Amber for a long moment. It was quiet in the house. But there was a distant rumbling of thunder from some far off distance.

“You were right, Amber. The dreams would give me the answers I needed. Now I know what to do. I know who I am. I know
what
I am. I’m Cutter.”

Amber got out of bed very slowly, making sure she didn’t make any sudden movements; her eyes were on Ryan the whole time.

“Ryan, you know that’s not possible. We already talked about this.”

Ryan took a step towards the corner of the bed. “I’m not going to hurt you. I promise. I’ve changed.”

Amber stood by the side of her bed, staring at Ryan.

“You’ve got to trust me,” Ryan said. “I need you to go with me to Carol’s house. I didn’t tell you everything. I didn’t tell you what that woman at the gas station was after, what she wanted.”

Amber still watched Ryan, unsure about him for the moment.

“I want you to go with me. Please. I want to give you something.”

The house was very quiet for a moment – quiet enough for them to hear Gary’s truck pull up in the driveway outside.

Jake and Lita turned onto Amber’s street. They drove slowly down the street, both of them searching the driveways with their eyes.

Then a black pickup truck came from nowhere and roared past them, honking its horn. It passed right by them and Lita got a glimpse of an overweight man with not much hair left scowling at them. Heavy metal music poured out of the cab of the pickup. He swerved in front of the Lincoln, cutting it a little too close to the front of their car, and then he sped down the road.

“Asshole,” Jake muttered.

But Lita saw where the truck was speeding to – a small house with a silver Chevy Impala parked in front of it. “Look,” she told Jake.

Jake slowed the car down even more, and then pulled over to the side of the road; they were still a few houses down from Amber’s house. They sat in the car with the engine running and watched the black pickup whip into the driveway. The truck nearly skidded to a stop and it rocked for a moment as the large man got out.

“That’s Ryan’s car,” Lita whispered.

Jake could see that. He could also see that there was going to be at least one other person in the house when they paid Ryan a visit.

The radio was on in their car, but it was turned almost all the way down. But Jake could still hear an announcer talking about a storm coming that was going to dump buckets of rain. He could see the buildup of clouds in the sky, and lightning on the horizon.

“This storm’s going to be a doozey,” the radio announcer said.

Yep, Jake thought, a storm is definitely coming.

“He seems angry,” Lita said with no emotion as she watched Gary march across his lawn. He looked at the silver Impala as he went to his front door, and he was cussing, he definitely seemed upset about Ryan’s car being there.

Jake checked his gun; he checked the clip and made sure there was a bullet in the chamber. “It’s show time.”

Lita looked at Jake. “What about our friend in the pickup?”

“Looks like it’s his unlucky day,” Jake said as he put the car in drive and rolled slowly down the street to Amber’s house.

Amber didn’t know what to say to Ryan’s request. He wanted her to go with him to Carol’s house and give her something – something that the lady at the gas station wanted, something that other people wanted. Could she trust him? There was something wrong with him mentally; she had to admit that to herself now. She had tried her best to help him, tried her best to show him that he couldn’t be the serial killer called Cutter. But somehow Ryan believed he was this man, or the reincarnation of this man, or possessed by this killer. And now he had a straight razor with him.

She didn’t know what to do.

And then she heard Gary’s truck pull up in the driveway.

For a moment, she thought that Gary would come in and protect her from Ryan if he tried to do anything to her – like take a swipe at her with his old-fashioned straight razor.

But Ryan hadn’t opened the straight razor yet, he just held it in his hand.

“I had some more dreams,” he told her. “I think I understand everything now. I’ve seen the missing pieces of the puzzle. And I know what I need to do now.”

Amber glanced at the straight razor in his hand again.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Amber,” Ryan said and he slipped the razor into his front pants pocket. “I swear I won’t. I want to help you.”

Amber heard the front door explode open out in the living room. Gary slammed the door shut and yelled for her.

“Amber, you fucking whore! Where the fuck are you?”

She felt her skin tingle with fear at the sound of her brother’s voice. She’d never heard him so angry before.

He sounded drunk. And he sounded crazy.

Is Gary as crazy as Ryan is?
her mind asked her.
That’s what you’re gambling on
here.

“You and that pussy you’re with had better come out right now!!” Gary screamed from the living room.

She’d made her decision. “I’ll go with you,” she told Ryan.

Ryan smiled. “Thank you.”

Amber went to her bedroom door and locked the twist lock on the door handle. That was one thing she had spent her money on, a lock for her bedroom door.

She grabbed Ryan’s shoes, wallet, car keys, and money and brought them to him. He slipped his shoes on and took his keys, money, and wallet from her. She watched him stuff the wallet into his back pocket, the wallet that was empty except for his driver’s license, a driver’s license that stated that Ryan’s eyes were brown, not blue.

She needed to ask him about that, but they didn’t have time right now.

As Ryan stuffed his money and keys into his front pants pockets, Amber hurried over to her bedroom window. She ripped the dainty curtains apart and opened the window (she always kept the window unlocked in case Gary changed the locks on the front door again).

She looked at Ryan. “Come on, we gotta go.”

Amber crawled out through the window with ease – she’d had plenty of practice over the years. Ryan followed her out the window.

They were at the back of the house, standing in the tall grass that needed a mow. There were some truck parts and other items stacked up against the back of the house in some places – all of it was Gary’s stuff. Their backyard wasn’t very big and it was only a few quick strides to a wooden fence that separated their backyard from their neighbor’s backyard. The neighbors had put up the fence to block the sight of Gary’s growing collection of junk that he refused to throw away.

She looked up at the sky above them. It was growing dark quickly. The clouds were churning above them, gray clouds bloated with rain, ready to pour down on them.

“This way,” she whispered and hurried to the corner of the house. She was going to hurry around this side of the house to the front yard and make a mad dash to Ryan’s car while Gary went to her bedroom door and beat on it. By the time he realized that she had gone out the window, they should be in Ryan’s car.

They hurried down the side of the house. Amber was in front of Ryan and she froze when she came to the corner of the house.

There were two people walking up the walkway to the front door. A man and a woman, both of them were dressed in dark clothing that hugged their athletic bodies, and they both wore sunglasses. They both looked very determined, Amber thought. She didn’t know who the man was, but she recognized the blond woman from the gas station. She was the same woman who had been looking for Ryan. They wanted something from Ryan.

“What’s wrong?” Ryan whispered from behind her. “If it’s Gary, I don’t care.”

“Ssshh,” she whispered as she turned to look at him, at his blue eyes even though his driver’s license clearly stated that his eyes were brown. “The lady from the gas station is out there,” she whispered into his ear. “And there’s a man with her.”

Ryan changed places with her and he peeked around the corner. He saw Jake and Lita walking up to the door. They were both slipping on pairs of thin, black gloves as they walked.

He couldn’t remember them, but he knew what they wanted, and he knew that they would do anything to get it.

“Wait a minute,” Ryan told her.

Jake and Lita had their gloves on now. Jake rapped on the door with the edge of his fist. The door was thin and it seemed to be rotting in some places. He pounded on the door again and it sounded very loud in the growing darkness.

He was sure Ryan heard the knock.

Gary ripped the door open and filled the doorway. His scowl of anger morphed into a look of confusion. “Who the fuck are you guys?”

Jake pulled his gun out and pointed it at Gary. He used his other hand to shove Gary back inside his house. Gary moved easily from Jake’s shove even though he was a big man; his fear of the gun had turned him into a mass to gelatin.

Lita glanced around outside, making sure no one was watching them, and then she entered Gary’s house and closed the door. She stood by the door, waiting.

“What the fuck are you guys doing?” Gary shrieked as Jake pushed him back into the center of the cluttered living room.

“Shut the fuck up before I blow your fucking knee caps off,” Jake said in a calm and even tone.

Gary seemed about to blubber out more questions, but he glanced down at the gun pointed at him, and nodded his head yes to show them that he understood.

“I’m going to ask you some questions, and I want answers immediately,” Jake told him.

Again Gary nodded.

“Where is Ryan?”

“He … he’s in the back of the house. He’s in the bedroom with my … with my sister. Her name’s … she’s Amber.”

Jake looked at Lita and he gestured with a nod of his head for her to check the back of the house.

“Her door’s locked,” Gary informed Lita as she darted across the living room towards the hallway.

Jake turned back to Gary. “Did I tell you to say anything?”

“I … I’m sorry,” Gary said and tears spilled from his eyes.

Lita hurried down the dark hallway, past a bathroom with its door open, and then she came to a closed bedroom door. She pulled out her gun and attached a silencer to it. She reached down for the door handle with her gloved hand and gave it a gentle twist.

It was locked like Gary had said.

“Ryan,” she said through the door. “Amber?”

She didn’t get an answer.

Ryan looked back at Amber and he nodded at her. “I think they’re both inside. Let me run to the car and I’ll give you a signal to follow me. Okay?”

Amber nodded.

Ryan didn’t waste any time. He knew it wouldn’t be more than a minute or two before they figured out that they were outside. He was surprised that one of them wasn’t waiting by his car. Maybe one of them was at the windows watching, waiting to pick him off like a sniper as he ran.

But there were no gunshots as he ran across the front lawn.

He got to the back of his car and the world was nearly dark now, which provided some cover. He moved around quickly to the driver’s side of his car so he couldn’t be seen from the living room windows, then he shot his arm out and waved Amber forward.

Amber bolted across the weedy lawn.