CHAPTER TWENTY
I awoke to the sound of my window being jimmied. My eyes flew open. It was dark in my room except for my bedside lamp and I was stil in bed, stil tied to the posts. My muscles ached and cried from being pul ed in the same position for so long. I was alone.
Wel , not quite.
The window finally slid open, clattering in the frame. I froze, unsure of who it was, what it was. Did the winged demon babies finally come for me? Was it something worse, like the giant spider?
“Hey, kiddo,” Dex whispered. “It’s just me.”
I heard him hoist himself through the window and land softly on the carpet. He appeared beside me. Like before, he crouched down so he was at my level. I moved my head on the pil ow to look at him.
With blood crusting at the corners of his eye, he gave me a quick, almost shy smile. I hated how it made me feel. His smile stil had the ability to make me feel good.
“Sweet climbing tree you’ve got there,” he said, nodding his head at the outside. He looked me up and down, frowning, then asked, “How are you?”
“How do you think?” I replied, my tongue feeling sluggish.
“Yeah,” he said slowly. “I know. I’m going to get you out of here, OK?”
“Where?”
“I said I had a plan. Your parents never gave me a chance to tel it to them. You just have to trust me.”
My eyes narrowed at him. “How the f*ck do you think I can trust you?”
He winced and rubbed at his thin beard. “I deserve that, I know. And I don’t blame you. But none of that’s important right now. Later, yes. Not now, kiddo. Ada was right. You can’t stay here. Whatever’s inside you, it’s going to kil you.
Sooner rather than later. And a hospital, alone...Perry you don’t want to die in there.”
My eyes flickered in alarm.
He reached over and stroked my hand gently. His touch made gooseflesh appear on my arm. “It’s true. I’m not trying to scare you. In fact, you’re the one who’s scaring me. As usual. But we have to go. Wil you come with me?”
“You’l have to untie me,” I said in a hush.
He leaned in closer. “I’l risk it.”
“Promise you’l tie me up again after?”
I expected him to have some sexy remark to that. But his face was stern, washed with determination. “I don’t want to.”
“But you have to. Or I won’t go. I don’t want to hurt you again.”
“Even though I deserve it.”
“You deserve something. But not that.”
He nodded and took a deep breath. “OK, deal.”
He leaned over me and untied my left arm. He smel ed the same as ever. Old Spice, Nicorette gum. I tried not to breathe it in, just in case it messed with my heart a bit. But it was hard.
My hand came free and I wiggled it as he untied the other one. He paused before heading down to my legs and shot me a wry look out of the corner of his eye. He was waiting for me to attack him.
I smiled quickly. “I’m OK.”
He nodded, and chewing on his lip, he undid the other two legs. As he worked, I stretched my arms and back and reflected on how odd everything suddenly was. Here was Dex, someone I had known in the most personal level possible and it felt like we were almost strangers. Like we were starting all over again. It made me a little bit sad. But I pushed the sadness away because I couldn’t afford to vulnerable. Not only because it made me more susceptible to that thing, but because I didn’t want to backslide, as foolish as that was. Dex had just warned me that I might die because of this but I wanted to hold onto my precious pride.
But what use was pride if you were dead?
When he was finished, he came back to me and gently slid his arm underneath my back, easing me into a sitting position.
“Here, up you go. Easy...take it easy.”
My heart pounded in my head and I pressed down on both temples. His warm hand cupped the back of my head, supporting me. I pointed at the rope, keeping my eyes shut.
“Tie me up,” I said, grinding my teeth against the pain.
“Right now?”
“Please, Dex.”
He sighed and reluctantly tied the rope around my wrists and ankles.
“Do it tighter,” I whispered harshly.
He stopped and tilted my chin up so I was looking at him.
I opened my eyes. His eyes were large and searching mine. I could see my reflection in them.
“What?” I asked. “You saw what I did. Your throat is practical y blue.”
It was now. Blue and purple and ugly. all because of me.
“I don’t like this.”
“And I do?”
But he tied my wrists and ankles tighter, stopping just before the circulation was cut off.
“I’m obviously going to have to carry you,” he said warily.
“Obviously,” I whispered back.
He put his arms behind my back and knees and lifted me up with little effort. I was right. He had bulked up a bit.
Not that it matters, I thought quickly, then tried to concentrate on the task at hand. Mainly, getting the hel out of Dodge without my parents, or Maximus, or Ada, catching us. Stil , as I rested my head in the crook of his sweet- scented neck, I couldn’t help but wonder how I smel ed; my last bath having been days ago. And that was with spiders.
“You OK, kiddo?” he asked after taking a step.
I nodded and breathed into his neck.
“Here goes nothing,” he said quietly. He adjusted my weight on him and quickly opened the door with his hand. It creaked open slowly. The lights in the hal way were on but the ones on the stairs weren’t. I hoped he wouldn’t fal down them; we’d both be hurt and we’d be letting everyone know what we were up to.
He tiptoed (if it’s even possible to tiptoe when you’re carrying someone) to the edge of the stairs and then careful y made his way down them. I wanted to warn him to be extra quiet since Maximus was asleep in the living room but I didn’t want to open my mouth. >
We made it to the hardwood floors and he turned toward the front door.
Then stopped.
There was someone standing there.
We waited until the figure came forward and the light from upstairs il uminated them enough.
It was Ada. She was stil in her clothes, having not gone to sleep yet.
“What are you doing with her?” she hissed.
“I’m taking her. This is part of the plan.”
“Taking her where? You never told me the plan.”
“You guys, shut up.” I hushed them. “You’l wake Maximus.”
I jerked my head in the direction of the living room.
Dex continued, voice even lower, “I can’t tel you the plan.
When your parents find out what I’ve done-”
“They’l cal the fuzz!” she shot in.
“Exactly. And you’l be gril ed until you tel them the truth.”
“I can keep a secret.”
“No she can’t,” I whispered to him.
He nodded. “See, Perry knows. Just trust me, Ada. You cal ed me here for a reason, didn’t you? I’m saving your sister the only way I know how.”
“And how is that?”
“She needs an exorcist.”
Silence fel over us as we sucked on that exotic word: Exorcist. Dex was taking me to see an exorcist. I know I had been half-convinced I needed an exorcist this whole time but when someone else said it, it became real. Like an actual thing you could have done. What did you do today? Oh I saw an exorcist.
I don’t know if the thing inside me was cowering at the mention of that but suddenly I was very scared again.
“An exorcist?” Ada repeated after what seemed like an eternity.
“Yes,” Dex said, his patience being tried. “You know.
You’ve seen the film.”
“Actual y, I haven’t.”
“Wel , you should. It’s very good.”
“Guys,” I whispered again. “Maximus!”
“Please, Ada,” Dex said imploringly. “Just let us go. You know I’l do anything for Perry. She’s safer with me than with anyone else.”
His admission tugged at my heartstrings. Only a little. He was stil a douchecanoe. The douchcanoe who was going to paddle me to safety.
“My dad wil cal the cops the minute you’re gone,” she said. “They’l come after you. For, like, kidnapping or something.”
“I know.”
Ada folded her arms and stuck out her leg in front of her.
“Then I’m going with you.”
“Noooo,” Dex said, shaking his head. “This is nasty business, little fifteen.”
“I don’t care. There wouldn’t even be a dumb plan if it wasn’t for me. I’m going with you. She’s my sister and you need someone to watch over her while you drive. And if you don’t take me with you, I’m just going to march over to your little ginger friend over there and-”
“Fine,” he said swiftly. “You can come. But we’re going now. Right now. Before it’s too late.”
She smiled widely, which in turn made me feel that bounce of hope again. The thought of going to an exorcist was terrifying but it was no worse than being possessed. I just hoped I’d hold on long enough. The thing was always waiting.
Ada crept quietly to the front door and opened it for us.
With quick feet, Dex jogged down the front steps and into the wet, cold night. The rain splashed hard against my cheeks.
With hot breath he whispered into my ear as he ran, “I’m just around the corner, a few more seconds.”
I heard Ada close the front door quietly, and within seconds she was running beside us. We left the driveway and made a turn for the right. Farther up the road was his black Toyota Highlander. What a sight for sore eyes that car was.
It was unlocked, so Ada opened the back doors and Dex gently placed me in the seat. Ada hopped in on the other side, choosing to ride in the back with me.
Dex got in the front and adjusted the rearview mirror. He looked at me and then looked at Ada.
“Last chance to get out and live a normal life,” he said.
“Are you kidding? I gave that up for Lent,” she answered with a rol of her eyes.
Dex started the car and with a powerful purr, we were off.
“How is she?” Dex asked.
I felt the car rol to a stop and opened my eyes. Dex was turned around in the front seat, looking at me with concern.
Ada leaned forward until her face fil ed my vision. The only light came from a nearby street lamp. We had pul ed along the side of a road, a gas station in the distance. The far-off roar of cars told me that the highway was close by.
“Perry?” she asked.
“Yes?” I replied groggily. I tried to move in my seat but found it impossible. I looked down. Forget the rope, now my arms and legs were bound to me in a layer of duct tape. I looked like a silver worm.
I looked up at them. “Seriously?”
Dex chewed on his lip for a few seconds and glanced at Ada.
“Perry, it was real y bad,” she said gently. “We had to stop at a gas station and buy out their rope and duct tape.”
“They definitely thought we were doing some kidnapping,” Dex said.
“What did I do?” I tried to adjust myself; the duct tape was so tight and binding and pinched at my sore skin.
“You broke out of your ropes somehow and opened the car door. You were about to jump out.”
My mouth dropped open.
“Dex did some Need for Speed- style maneuvers; you fel back in the car before you could. I grabbed you...shit, you real y need to cut your nails, Perry.”
She rolled up the sleeve of her striped shirt. There were long, scraggly scratches on it.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, feeling worse than ever. “I don’t remember any of it.”
She shrugged. “S’Ok. But we didn’t want to take any more chances. Now you can’t do anything except bite us.
But a piece of duct tape should fix that.”
I shook my head. “Please don’t. I’l behave.”
But it was a promise that thing wouldn’t keep.
I turned my attention to Dex. His face was dark in the shadows of the car.
“Did I do anything to you?”
“Except for a killer kick to my chin? Naw,” he said, rubbing it dramatical y.
“Sorry.” It seems that’s all I’d be saying.
“Kiddo, I’d let you brand me with a hot iron if you wanted to.”
“Stil a sucker for punishment?”
He grinned. “Something like that.”
I felt Ada’s eyes boring into me. I gave her a sharp glance. “What?”
She eyed Dex, then smirked. “Nothing, nothing. Just thought maybe you two could stop this Booth and Bones bantering thing so we could talk a bit about where we’re going and who this exorcist is and all that. You know, before her head starts spinning around?”
“Ah ha,” Dex pointed his finger at her. “You have seen The Exorcist!”
“No, that’s from Scary Movie,” she protested.
“Where are we going?” I asked Dex before he could tel Ada she had terrible taste in film.
“Idaho,” he said. “Hope you like potatoes.”
I didn’t understand. “Why Idaho? There’s an exorcist in Idaho?” I looked out the window at the blackness. “Where are we now?”
“We just passed The Dal es. Heading straight through Wal a Wal a and then Lapwai. That’s where he is.”
“Where who is?”
“The medicine man.”
Ada and I exchanged a look. Medicine man?
I snorted. “Uh, Dex, I don’t think a medicine man is going to-”
“Perry, listen to me,” he said curtly, his eyes growing dangerously hard. I listened. I was wrapped in duct tape, I had no choice. “As weird as this might sound to you, this is our only option. Exorcists aren’t exactly in the phone book and the people I did cal yesterday were all too quick to tel me to f*ck off. You’ve seen what medicine men can do. You saw that in Red Fox. We both did.”
He paused and eyed my wrapped legs and arms. “I couldn’t just sit back do nothing. I couldn’t just give up on you. I cal ed Bird. He said he knew of a guy close by; I knew I wouldn’t be able to get you on an airplane or anything like that. He said this Roman, a Nez Perce medicine man could help us. That he’s done this kind of thing before.”
“He’s performed an exorcism?”
Pause. “Yes.”
“And did it work?”
Dex sucked on his lip. “Not exactly. The boy that was possessed? He kind of died.”
I gasped. Dex quickly continued, “It had nothing to do with Roman. He got the demon, spirit, whatever it was out of the boy. Bu the boy died a few days later from heart failure. He was too weak. This is what Bird said, anyway, and he said if you were stil you, stil Perry, stil strong little Perry, then you’d have a fighting chance. It’s our only chance, kiddo. I don’t think you realize the consequences of just leaving this.”
I raised my brows incredulously. “You don’t think I know the consequences?! I’m f*cking covered in duct tape, you’re both treating me like I’m a monster...and I am a monster. I know it! That’s the worst part!” I felt the tears coming and blinked hard to cul them back. If I started crying, there’s no way I’d be able to wipe them away.
Ada put her arm around me and squeezed me against her. “You’re not a monster. We know who you are.”
“I’m just so scared,” I said so softly that the words seemed to evaporate in the car. One tear blinked out of my eye and landed on my t-shirt. I watched the damp spot spread.
Dex tensed up, his dark eyes observing careful y, like he couldn’t decide what else to say or if he should come in the back to comfort me. Part of me wanted him to stay where he was. Part of me could have used his strong arms around me. No wonder it was so easy for an entity to come and divide me. I never real y knew who I was to begin with.
He didn’t do it, either. He just started the car and pul ed the car out into the road, doing a U-turn.
“Next stop, Idaho. Hang in there, kiddo,” he said.
I’d hang in there as long as I could. But I was hanging by a thread.
We fel into a silence as we sped along the highway. The cars out there were few and far between and Dex was driving as fast as he possibly could, sensing the urgency with each passing second. I felt curiously fine at times, then I’d see a shadow lurking in the corner of my mind and I was reminded that “fine” was only an il usion. I wasn’t tired at all and that was good because I wanted to have all my power available to fight back the final takeover when the time came. Because I knew it would come. There would be a time when I wouldn’t be able to get back and I would be ousted, to who knows where, for all eternity. The thought did my brain in, as did everything else. So I didn’t think about it.
I tried not to think about anything. But I knew.
Dex put a Stone Temple Pilots greatest hits album on his mp3 player and I was struck at the shade of normalcy it gave to things. It could have been any other trip for us. Dex putting in his music, me staring out the window, heading somewhere unknown to explore some strange thing. But everything had changed. Our relationship was different – it was barely even a relationship at all . The man wasn’t my lover, he wasn’t even my friend. There was no show anymore either, no ghosts to hunt. Yet here we were, stil together, in his Highlander, preparing to fight our demons.
This was another thing it seemed I couldn’t escape in my life. Only this time, I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
I watched the back of his head, the way his dark hair stuck out to the side, like he’d left his house in a hurry and didn’t even bother looking in the mirror. I wondered about his place. If he was stil with Jennifer. If he stil had the dog, Fat Rabbit. What he’d been doing for the past few months.
If what Rebecca said was true, that he was as destroyed as I had been, if he missed me at all and if the guilt weighed down on him. He looked handsomer somehow, stronger, healthier. It didn’t seem like I’d had much of an effect on him at all .
As shal ow as it was to admit, it bugged me. I mean, it real y, real y bugged me. He came all the way to help me, to possibly save my life, and yet I wanted more from him. I wanted him to suffer. Not in a physical way and certainly not at my own hands. Suffocating him hadn’t helped anything. I was stil angry. And that’s when I realized time hadn’t help anything either. I was stil angry. I was stil spurned and embarrassed and devastated over what happened. I thought I had gotten over him, that it was all in the past. I thought I was ready to move on. But just staring at the back of his head made me realize I wasn’t over him at all . And if I ended up getting out of this thing alive, if Roman could save me somehow, I was going to have to work extra hard at getting Dex Foray back out of my life again. Loving him had been the biggest mistake I ever made.
I looked over at Ada. She was sleeping in a bal against the door and snoring lightly, her blonde hair splayed all over her head. Poor kid. She had never asked for any of this. I thought she would have been spared the trauma I faced when I was exactly her age. But it looked like things were doomed to repeat themselves.
I thought about what my mother had said about things “running in the family.” Then I thought about how little I actual y knew about my family. They seemed so foreign to me now.
I looked at the rearview mirror and, sensing my gaze, Dex lifted his eyes to it.
He smiled, just a quick twitch at the corner of his lips. >
“Did you get any sleep?” he whispered.
I shook my head. “I’m in and out. But I wasn’t sleeping. I don’t think.”
“No. You weren’t. Or maybe you were. Do you speak in tongues and sleep with your eyes open now?”
“No...”
“Didn’t think so.”
“Dex...” I started. I was almost afraid to continue. To find out the truth.
“You want to know about Declan O’Shea,” he answered.
He always knew what I was thinking.
“Yes. How do you know my parents?”
He looked back at the dark road, the headlights cutting through the wavering night.
“I don’t, real y. I barely remember them. I think I met them once. I wouldn’t have remembered at all if Pippa hadn’t said anything on the EVP recordings.”
OH, GOD. I had forgotten about what else was said on the recordings. My eyes went wide.
“Don’t worry,” he said, noticing, “I don’t care about the medication thing. You did me a favor, actual y.”
“Dex, I’m sorry. Look, that was low of me-”
“I don’t care, Perry. I could never hate you for that. You were right to test it. You did it because you cared about me.
You did care about me, didn’t you?”
There was a rare shimmer of tenderness in his voice. I didn’t let myself dwel on it.
“So why would Pippa mention my parents?”
He breathed out through his nose slowly and shook his head slightly. “I think that’s something you need ask her.”
I almost spazzed at him. I was so sick and tired of playing the vague game!
“I’m not trying to be a dick,” he explained hastily.
“No, that just happens natural y with you.”
“I mean it. I don’t want to be the one to tel you. This involves you more than you’d think.”
“Oh, so that makes it easier to just ignore? I don’t think I like that you know something that I don’t, especial y something that ties you and Pippa and my parents together!”
Ada stirred from beside me and I immediately regretted raising my voice. But I was mad. I was so mad.
“What’s going on?” she asked sleepily. “She demonic again?”
“Yes,” Dex said.
“ “No!” I yel ed, and squirmed in my duct tape cocoon.
“Ada, he’s holding out on me. On us. On how he knows our parents.”
“What?” she leaned forward and punched him hard in the shoulder. “You asswipe! Spil the beans.”
“Hey, Ali, I’m driving here,” he said, shaking his shoulder.
She jabbed her index finger in his face. “Tel us. Why do you know our parents? They never lived in New York.”
“I guess they were visiting,” he said, eyeing her finger warily.
“Visiting who?” she demanded.
I wanted to ask that question too but I suddenly had this insane tickle in my throat, like the kind I’ve gotten from my kiwi fruit all ergy. My throat felt like it was swel ing, stretching, spreading. A buzzing fil ed my brain and my stomach churned angrily. It moved. Something was happening.
Dex sighed. “Visiting my nanny.”
“Guys I-” I was interrupted by my own coughing fit. I felt like something terrible was crawling up my throat, as if I’d swal owed something stil alive and it had to get it out. The duct tape didn’t all ow my lungs to expand; I couldn’t get enough air to push.
“Phfff, as if you had a nanny,” Ada said. “What was her name, Mary Poppins?”
I coughed louder, harder, unable to get their attention.
Final y, Dex brought his eyes up to the mirror and asked, “Perry, are you OK?”
I shook my head, my face turning hot as I strained against the convulsions. I was going to throw up. I had to throw up.
“Are you gonna vom?” Ada backed away from me slightly.
I felt something makes its way past my tonsils and onto my tongue. A piece of food, maybe?
Nope. It started crawling slowly in my mouth, tiny pinpricks brushing my palate.
Revolted, I spit with all my might and a black bal shot out and onto the middle seat.
Ada and I peered down at it, disgusted but curious.
The black bal unfurled itself and I could see it wasn’t black at all . Just black and yel ow. And moving.
A wasp.
“What’s going on?” Dex asked frantical y, trying to drive straight and see behind him at the same time.
“Ewwwww,” Ada said. The wasp buzzed its wings in an attempt to fly but Ada was faster and she smashed it into the seat with one of her shoes she’d taken off.
There was a hush of relief among us. Then the sick feeling intensified, like an entire nest of wasps was crawling out of the recesses of my stomach and scurrying up my esophagus, blocking me from precious air. I was drowning in them.
I tensed and writhed in my constraints while Ada and Dex watched me with horrified eyes. My mouth flew open and I heaved up a mass of wriggling wasps that landed on my lap in a sickening heap.
Ada screamed. I heaved and heaved, unable to get them all out of me.
And Dex was deathly all ergic to wasps. It was he who panicked first. I couldn’t blame him. He yel ed and flailed and tried to drive but it was too much.
In slow motion, like a scene from a movie, the car careened off the highway.
We bounced down an embankment, the sound of tires grinding asphalt, then gravel, then grass, and we coasted along flatness for a few seconds; time that slowed us down.
A tree appeared in the headlights, fol owed by a magnificent crunch.
There were screams.
Bodies flying forward.
Wasps.
Blood.
Then it was over.