Hudson dashed to the truck and hauled out the thick hose, pointing it toward the melee. The tank’s capacity was a thousand pounds. Hudson hoped it was at least half-full.
“Get down!” Hudson shouted to his crew.
He secured a solid grip and a wide stance and opened the nozzle. A good kick—then the stream was smashing into the rioters like rocket thrusters, sending them off their feet and sliding backward.
Hudson choked down on the pressure, maintaining just enough to keep the parade-goers off their feet once they were clear of his friends.
“You’re the man!” Pedro shouted to Hudson, as he turned to check Dennis.
Hudson said a quick prayer that Stella would be along soon—and that DeShaun and his friends were all right.
* * * *
At the church’s entryway, the crucifix that McGlazer had thrown at Ruth began to smoke—then twisted and contorted on itself, becoming a meaningless lump.
In the sanctuary, the wooden cross over the pulpit creaked, then disintegrated to a pile of splinters.
The cross on the roof broke off from its own weight and fell to the ground, where it exploded in a cloud of dust.
* * * *
Stuart and DeShaun watched Candace, fearing she had cracked from the strain.
“She’s trapped too,” Candace murmured.
Ruth came to the door and kicked its broken pieces out of the way. She stalked inside. “Silly sinners. Don’t you see? Yahweh is guiding my hand. He’s driving me.” She poked her crucifix again. “To destroy all of you blasphemers.”
Stella pushed the kids together behind her. “Leave them alone, Ruth.”
“Oh, no, no, Jezebel.” Ruth’s smile was rapturous. “I shall bash their heads against the rocks! It is the will of the Father.”
Candace stepped from behind Stella, glaring up at Ruth without fear.
“Candace, no!” Stella tried to restrain the little girl, but Candace pulled free and strode toward Ruth, stopping only when the zealot lowered the pistol to her face. “Ah, ah, ah!” mocked Rag Doll Ruth. “What’s your rush to die, little sinner?”
Stella pleaded, “Ruth, please! Take me inst—”
“You are no martyr!” Ruth screamed at her. “But you can be first, little witch.”
Candace didn’t care about the gun. She just peered into Ruth’s eyes. “I tried.” She was sad. “I know I was too late, but I tried to warn all of you.”
Ruth cackled. “What are you babbling about?”
Candace lunged, her hand like an arrow, and snatched Ruth’s crucifix necklace, ripping it from her neck.
Ruth pistol-whipped her to the floor—but Candace barely reacted. “He won’t ever stop,” she said.
Ruth was perplexed by the strange girl’s enigmatic words. Then, perhaps smelling burned flesh and plastic, she spun, breathing the word no.
In the doorway stood the silhouetted, devil-horned form of Everett Geelens, damaged child, Halloween enthusiast, and mass murderer.
“You…you can’t be!” Ruth croaked.
She reached for the necklace that was no longer there. Turning, she tried to take it back from Candace, who scooted out of her reach. Everett was behind Ruth, his hammer held high. “Trick!”
He brought the hammer down, breaking the wrist of her gun hand.
The gun clattered to the hardwood floor. Her hand went limp, hanging at a sickening angle. Ruth cried out as she fell to her knees, then rolled to a fetal position.
“He doesn’t know dying is real,” Candace said, though no one could hear her over Ruth’s scream.
Everett knelt beside Ruth. He raised the steak knife he had used to kill Cordelia just minutes before and drove it through Ruth’s ruined wrist, pinning her to the polished wooden floor. The pitch of her wail became higher, harsher. With the hammer, Everett drove the knife deeper.
Ruth reached across to remove it, but Everett sat on her torso, grabbing her good hand to pin it as well. He took
another long knife from his bag, then hammered it into her left hand. Ruth’s cries filled the room with anguished madness.
Everett took off his devil mask, hissing as it pulled melted plastic from his burned flesh. He positioned it on Ruth’s face, then drove in tiny finishing nails, his rasping laughter growing louder.
Everett drew from his pocket the bag of orange-and-black-wrapped candy that Angelo had left for the Outlines at the spooky old house. He unwrapped one piece “AND treats!”
He stuffed the candy in her mouth, then another piece, and ten, twenty more, till her cheeks were swollen, her cries of horror reduced to muffled gasps.