“Your mom will be so proud,” I said. “Another death courtesy of her golden child.”
The worms pulsed under his skin, stretched out his flesh.
“My mother will never know.”
“Of course she will. If my dad doesn’t tell her, Nancy will.”
“I’ll kill them right after I’m done with you.”
“Craig will tell her.”
He loomed over me, put his face close to mine. “She won’t believe him.”
“She will,” I wheezed the words. “He knows things about you, things no one else does. Things about her that he couldn’t know unless you told us. All those nights you visited her and came back to talk about it. All the searching we did for your killer. All the crying you did. He’s going to tell her everything. And she’ll know you slaughtered me, Nancy, and my dad. Then what?”
He grabbed my throat.
“She has no friends, no family. She’ll be all alone in her grief. There’ll be no one she can talk to about you. No one will want to listen to her mourning over a drug dealer.”
His fingers tightened.
“What do you think she’ll do with those meds, when she’s all alone and hurting?”
“I’ll watch over her, make sure she doesn’t hurt herself.”
“Think she’ll want your guardianship? Think she’ll even visit your grave? Her murdering son?”
“Stop it!” He shifted his weight, raised his hand to punch me.
It was all I needed. I rolled with his movement, spun out from under him. Scrambling, I planted my hands and feet in the snow, crawled away and clawed for air.
I didn’t know where he was, didn’t know what he was doing until I felt his foot make rib-cracking contact with my torso. He kicked me so hard I thought I was going to vomit.
“I tried to do right.” He stood over me, grunted the words. “When Dr. Pierson came to the city with the shipment, I tried to end it, but he wouldn’t let me.”
“That was the fight Courtney saw. You told her you were fighting with your dad.”
“He was like a father to me.” Kent’s voice went to the legion’s chorus. “I trusted him with everything. He knew my life, my passwords. He murdered me then humiliated with the email to the registrar. He betrayed me. It’s time to even the score.”
“And you’re going to make him pay with Rori?”
“He left a mother without her son. I’m leaving a father without a daughter. Fair is fair.”
“But what about Rori? Think of her!”
“Sacrifices must be made for justice to win.”
“And adding child-killer to your roster. Your mother will be so proud.”
Grabbing me by the back of my head, clutching a fistful of my hair, he hissed, “At least I have a mother. You have nothing. Some whore your father knocked up who bailed the moment she pushed you out.”
He brought his hand back to drive my head into the ground. I reached back and clawed his skin.
He grunted, let go.
I spun around, kicked out his legs as I rolled to my butt.
Kent went down, landed on his stomach, and I crawled on top of him. Hooked my legs around his waist as he struggled to get up, locked my arm around his throat, and squeezed.
“You had a mother.” My voice didn’t sound like mine, anymore. “She loved you, cared for you. And what did you do? You got yourself killed.” I tightened my grip. “And turned her into a drug addict. Isn’t that ironic? The boy savior destroys his mother’s life”
He tried to claw himself free, but I had rage—and fear for Rori—on my side. “We both know it’s not a coincidence that she went on the pills after the Thanksgiving weekend. What happened? When she found you that night, it was around the area you grew the drugs. Did Dr. Pierson see her? Did you tell him? Did you sic the man who murdered you on your mother, too?”
He gasped for air. When that didn’t work, he threw himself back, slammed me to the ground. Tomorrow—if I lived through tonight—that was going to hurt. But tonight I was too focused on separating Kent to notice the pain.
“Did you tell him about your mom being in the park? Good old Doc Pierson. I bet she opened her door when he knocked. Her son’s favourite role model. Of course she answered the door. Of course she listened and believed every word when he lied and told her you’d taken him into your confidence. That you were worried about her anxieties. I bet he’s been the one feeding her those meds. Lovely little samples, just like the Tylenols Nell’s dad gave me. No prescription to fill out, no records to keep. Just quietly dosing her until she’s too stoned to worry about her missing son. You want to kill me? You’re just going to murder your mother.”
Kent went still. His hands fell to the sides and he started crying. His body wriggled, his skin bloated, and I heard the sound of flesh ripping.
I shoved him up, crawled out from under him.
His eyes rolled back in his head, froth poured from his mouth, as The Family ruptured his stomach and poured out of his body in a mass of worms.
The souls crawled away from the husk of Kent’s body. I backed out of their way, preparing for another round, but they seemed more focused on regrouping with the others than dealing with me. When they’d gone, I crept to the skin.
“Kent?” I spun in a slow circle, checking out the worms to see if I recognized any. But the worms all looked the same, sickly pink, sparse hair covering, sightless, with gaping mouths. They slid along the snow.
Serge was dealing with one Kent and the worms headed to it, which meant the legion was trying to conserve energy. Good. We were gaining ground.
My team had their sections under control. Time for me to step up and find Kent. Which meant checking the skin tent. Pushing down the rising nausea, I moved toward it. The flesh had taken on the consistency of a deflated balloon. Wrinkled, stretched out.
“Kent, are you in there?” I got down on all fours, picked up a section of the flap in my thumb and forefinger, and lifted. And gagged. The smell coming out of the flesh bag was a combination farm fertilizer, boys’ locker room, garbage, and decomposition. I dropped the flap and scuttled backwards.
The skin wriggled. A small bump, the size of a rodent, moved up from Kent’s stomach to his head.
I got on my knees, ready to either deal with Kent or another one of the legion.
The rodent-thing pushed from under the skin and as it emerged, it turned into a full-sized Kent. He crawled on his hands and knees. “Maggie?”
“Yeah.”
“I feel like crap.”
“You should. You’ve been a Class-A jerkface.”
“It’s not my fault.” He coughed, gagged, and vomited up a thick, green mass.
“You lied to me and now a little girl’s missing.”
“That wasn’t me, I didn’t want—”
“God, Kent, stop! Just stop! It’s not your fault you decided to make and sell drugs, it’s not your fault The Family inhabited you, it’s not your fault they took Rori!” I jabbed my finger at the burning skeleton of the tree, now burning with a psychic fire of purple-black flames, tinged with white. “That’s your fault. The only way you could have known about the snow on the bark is if you had a connection to her.” I took a breath, trying to calm the rising hysteria. “You talk about betrayal, but what have you done to that little girl? You saved her life. Her dad called it a medical miracle but it wasn’t. It was you. She hurt herself, you fixed it.”
“I could see the brain injury,” he said. “I could see how to fix it.”
“How can you save her life only to take it from her? How could you violate her trust?”
“I didn’t—”
“You did! You’re nothing but a liar! The only way—the only way for you to have fixed her injury was through energy. You knew you were dead. You’ve always known you were dead. You lied to me the first moment we met, and you’ve been lying the whole time. No wonder The Family loves you! What did you do? You lied about going home or doing loops around the town, and you went to visit Rori. Practised your ability to manipulate energy. Rori couldn’t hear Serge or see him clearly after her accident. But the only way you would know how she really felt about her family, the only way you’d see the snow on the tree was if you’d spent time with her.”
“I just wanted to see her, to see if I’d done a good job. She woke up and when I realized she could see me…”
“You befriended her. But this—” I swept my hand at the destruction burning all around us. “This is how you repay her love for you?”
“I didn’t mean to. I didn’t even know The Family was inside me—”
“Liar—!”
“No!”
“Your skin was peeling, you were shedding. That could only happen if you had combined. You had to agree to the joining, which meant you believed whatever they were telling you…Is that why you left the house that night? Told us you had the flu, but really you wanted privacy for you and your new friends?”
“They offered me a place to belong! Told me I could get justice from Pierson.”
“It’s a lie, Kent! Rub your brain cells together—it’s not justice to kill a child. That’s revenge. Do what’s right. Separate from them so Craig can come in.”
He started to cry. “I can’t. I can’t.”
“You have to! I can’t help Rori until you do!”
He kept crying.
“Is this what you want? This is the legacy you leave your mother? Kent the Child Killer? Kent the Murderer of Little Girls?”
“No! No!”
I tried not to get angry. Reminded myself he’d been vulnerable and The Family had manipulated him. Reminded myself I had a part to play in this drama. I’d believed him, taken his words at face value and that made me responsible, too. “As long as The Family is in this plane, they can come after anyone they like—including Rori. Especially Rori. As long as you’re linked with them, they can use your knowledge. They’re linked to you and that means on a psychic level, they’re linked to your mom. You don’t think she won’t dream of this, that on some level, she won’t know?”
“Don’t you understand! I can’t separate! Once you join The Family, you can’t get out.”
The fires raged, throwing heat and flame, but I went ice-cold. “They have you?”
He sobbed, nodded.
“You can never transition and I can’t help Rori. Not unless Craig destroys you.”
“I didn’t know—” Behind him, a wave of worms rose up. Swallowed him.
“We are family,” said the legion. “We don’t leave our own.”
“I think he’s trying leave you,” I said, rising to my feet. A quick look in Serge’s direction confirmed what I knew. They’d gone back to one form.
Serge struggled to his feet, wiped the blood from his face and ran to help.
Behind him, Craig followed.
“We are family. We don’t leave our own.” They melted into each other, formed a transparent glob with Kent at the centre, struggling for air and escape.
I grabbed a branch burning with the psychic fire and plunged it into the creature.
It screeched and shrieked as I shoved it deeper and twisted a ragged opening big enough to pull Kent out.
He coughed and spat the sticky phlegm of the legion. “As long as I’m here, Craig can’t come through. I melded The Family’s energy with mine, and I made sure it’s not reversible. If Craig hurts them, he hurts me.”
“It’s time, Maggie,” said Craig. “You had your chance—”
“Just a second!” Serge had died at his lowest point but had found redemption. If Kent died like this, there would be no redemption, there would be no chance for him to save himself. “Are you saying there’s no way to separate you?” I glanced over to the legion and Serge who held them at bay with the psychic fire.
He started to shake his head, then stopped. “There is one way.”
“What is it?”
“I have to die first.” He crawled over to the fire, took a torch, and held it out. “End me, you end their connection to me.”
“But you die—re-die—at your lowest point. That—”
“It’s too late for me,” he said, “but not for Rori. I can’t let her die. Not for my mom, either. Not for who I thought I could be.”
I wasn’t sure I could do it—I was supposed to cross him over. But there was a kid’s life on the line. I reached for the stick.
“How did it all go wrong?” The torch in his hand trembled but he didn’t let it go. “Save Rori. You’ll find her in the glades, on the northeast side of the forest. Tell her I’m sorry. Tell my mom I tried to be good—” He took the torch, ran it into his stomach, and set himself on fire.
Once Kent had killed himself, The Family couldn’t stand against Craig. A blur of fire and screams, them breaking into their individual souls and scaling him like demonic Lilliputians, him heating his skin, turning his scales to knives and slicing them into jagged, bloody pieces, then tossing a net over them, trapping them, and disappearing.
Serge, and I sped to the open field where Kent said we’d find Rori.
He texted Nancy and Nell.
I spent the entire drive hoping Rori would be okay and trying get the memory of Kent, on fire and screaming in agony, out of my head.
I parked the car and we took off running. Serge saw her first. She sat in the glow of a supernatural light, a circle of emerald grass under her, her red coat the only other colour amidst the background of hazy sky and snow. Her hand rested on the back of a large grey wolf.
“Hey Rori,” I said, my breath puffing into white clouds. “I see you found a friend.”
She turned. “Hey Maggie.” Her breath fogged the air. “Isn’t she nice? Mom and Dad won’t let me have a dog. I’m calling her Sabrina.”
The wolf watched me, panted quietly.
“She’s beautiful.” Serge sat beside the little girl and rubbed Sabrina’s head. “Has she been keeping you company?”
Rori nodded. “She knew I was cold and alone. She came and kept me company. I feel warm ’cause she’s here. She said the wolves always come to the lost. They protect us from anything that might try to hurt us. She’s a good girl, isn’t she?”
“The best.”
“I love her.”
I feel the same way about my dog.” Sitting down, I scratched Sabrina under the chin. “They’re loyal and protective.”
“Uh-huh.” Rori moved closer to the wolf. “I’m going to love her forever.”
Sabrina’s muzzle parted in a smile.
“I’m glad she’s here to keep you company. Your mom and dad are really worried about you,” I said. “You need to come home with us.”
Rori shook her head. “I like it here. It’s quiet.”
“It’s cold here,” said Serge.
“Out there it is. But it’s warm here with Sabrina. If I go home, I can’t stay with her.”
“Maybe she’ll come visit,” said Serge.
“You know that’s not true.” Rori hugged the wolf close. “I won’t get to see her if I go home. I like her. I want to take care of her. She wants to take care of me, too.”
“Rori—”
She shook her head. “It’s quiet here.”
I watched the wolf. The cold was seeping into my clothes, leaving my jeans wet, and time was running out.
“It’ll get quiet at home.”
The little girl shook her head, again. “It’ll be a bad quiet. I feel it.”
“Rori, you’re a smart kid,” said Serge, “but you’re still just a kid. And I don’t mean that in a bad way—”
“I know—”
“—you need your mom and dad.” Serge raised her hands in a pleading motion. “You need to go home.”
“They don’t need me.”
“Of course they do,” I said. “Their lives won’t be the same without you.”
“They fight all the time. They don’t see me.” Rori hugged the wolf. “Not like Sabrina. She sees me.”
The wolf rose, circled Rori, then lay down.
“See?” asked Rori. “She wants me to stay with her.”
“Are you sure about this?” I asked. “You’re still here—”
“I was waiting.” Rori stopped talking as Nell ran our way. “I knew you’d call her. I didn’t want to go without saying goodbye.”
Nell screamed Rori’s name, again and again. She slid toward us, collapsed into the snow, grabbed the little girl’s body and held it tight. “I can’t feel her pulse! No! Rori!”
“It’s too late, anyway.” Rori watched Nell holding her body.
Serge transcribed her words for Nell.
Nell dropped her phone but kept clinging to Rori’s body. “Please don’t. Give me another chance to help you—”
Rori got to her feet. “You know that.” She lifted her face as the steady beat of wings came our way.
A ferrier—Rori’s ferrier—touched down. In her supernatural form, she looked like Craig, except bigger and darker.
Rori smiled up at her. “I’m ready.”
The little girl wrapped her arms around Nell’s neck.
“She’s not supernatural,” I said to the ferrier. “She can’t tell what Rori’s doing.”
The ferrier put her hand on Rori’s shoulder. White light surrounded her spirit and turned her visible to Nell.
When Nell realized the spirit of Rori was hugging her, she let the little girl’s corpse slip gently to the ground. Sobbing, she threw her arms around Rori’s spirit. “Please, Rori. I love you—”
“I love you too, Nellie.”
“I can make it better.”
Rori pulled away. “No you can’t. Where I’m going is all better. It’s going to be quiet and sunny. There’s peace there, Nelly.”
“I know but —”
Rori turned to me. “Tell her, Maggie. Tell her all the things you see when you’re on this side.”
“But I won’t see you, ever again,” said Nell.
Rori hugged her. “But you’ll feel me all the time because I’ll think of you all the time.”
Nell cried and tightened her hold.
Rori gently pried herself free, took the ferrier’s hand, and called Sabrina to her.
A rectangular portal opened. The love and peace of the other side surrounded us in a halo. A bright light enveloped the group and they disappeared from this plane.
I stood off to the side, holding Nell, and watching as Nancy led Mr. Pierson—his hands handcuffed—and Mrs. Pierson to the location of Rori’s body. Mrs. Pierson fell to her knees beside her daughter, cradled her, and keened her name.
The yearning, the loss, and the heartache in her voice made my hair stand on end, gave me so many goosebumps my skin hurt.
Mrs. Pierson’s voice stabbed my heart and in the rising octave of her mourning, I had a flash of memory, a shocked moment of understanding, and I knew it was something I could never tell Dad. The Voice was my mother.