TWENTY FIVE
***
Lenore had screamed as long as she could, but finally Cowles – or the demon that was pretending to be Cowles – hit her on the head with his gun and she fell insensible to the ground.
She woke in a dark place. Bound and gagged, and she couldn’t see where she was. She glanced around and then screamed around her gag as she saw Cowles, staring at her. The man pressed his knife on her cheek, and leered. "Don’t worry," he said. "I won’t kill you…yet." He licked his lips again with that strange, black, diseased tongue. "Like you all said, waiting is part of the fear. Knowing what will happen. It makes you…delicious."
***
Jason wandered, lost among the mist-wraiths that moved all about him. He reached out to touch one of the ghostly apparitions. The shadow passed right through him, or he passed right through it. One or the other.
"Lenore," he shouted. But it was no use. He had lost her.
A dark shape blossomed ahead of him, and he realized that it was the general store. The destroyed window and his truck were still there. One of the signs that had been affixed to the window flapped gently in the slight eddies of mist that whirled around the window.
It was a child’s sign. Written in black crayon.
go BaK to THE BegINIng
Jason stared at the note for a long moment, then realized what he had to do.
He got in his truck, praying it would still start. It did, and he pulled it out of the store with a screech of ruined gears and growls from a shredded chassis, then began to drive.
***
Cowles grinned at Lenore. He touched her bound arm. Caressed it. "Almost time, my beauty," he said, and again pressed his knife against her face. This time, however, he broke skin: she could feel a trickle of blood drip down her cheek.
"Almost time."
***
Jason rushed dangerously through the mist. He knew where he had to go, but did not know if he could find it.
Ahead of him, two shapes appeared in the mist. A small shape holding hands with a larger one. A voice whispered, "Please, Daddy."
Jason closed his eyes and drove right through the apparitions.
Two shots rang out.
He refused to be deterred, though, driving until he reached the house. Little Sean Rand’s house. The place where this had all started. The beginning.
He got out of his truck and went into the house, his gun drawn.
He knew he was in the right place: he could hear muffled screams somewhere.
He followed the sound into the kitchen.
***
Cowles licked the blood – her blood – off the knife. "I think you’re scared enough to eat," he said.
He fumbled with his pants.
Lenore screamed.
"No?" asked Cowles in mock surprise. "No loving, my dear?" He raised the knife high over his head. "That’s all right, I guess. You taste fine as you are."
And he plunged the knife down.
***
Jason rushed down the stairs in time to see Cowles stab at Lenore with the large knife he held.
"No!" screamed Jason, and shot. Cowles jerked once, the knife missing Lenore and embedding itself harmlessly on the wooden work bench he had tied Lenore to.
Cowles, bleeding but still smiling, pulled the knife free and raised it to again attempt to skewer Lenore.
This time Jason took no chances. He emptied almost his entire clip into the rapist’s body, the demon’s body. "You…can’t…have her!" he shouted. Cowles jerked and jittered, a marionette with cut strings.
The madman took a step toward Jason. Another. He held the knife high.
"I will have her," said Cowles.
"No," said Jason, and shot again. The man fell. Jason went and stood over him, then fired one more time, point blank into the rapist’s face. "I won’t let you," he said as the clip popped, the last bullet spent.
Jason pulled his pocket knife from his belt. Lenore was shaking in clear terror at how close she had come to dying, shaking her head in denial.
"It’s okay," said Jason as he sliced off her cords. "It’s okay, you’re safe now." He removed her gag. She was still shaking her head.
"No," she finally managed as soon as the gag was off.
"It’s okay," Jason repeated. "I got him this time."
"No," said Lenore, and looked at him with shining eyes. "You can’t kill my fear."
And as soon as she said that, Jason heard Cowles rise up again behind him. Jason spun and shot, but the gun simply clicked on a dry chamber.
"Out of bullets?" said Cowles in mock pity. "So sad." And he stabbed Jason. Nothing fancy, just directly into his chest, an upward stab that reached through his body cavity and pierced Jason’s heart.
Jason had only a moment to be surprised before he fell.
***