CHAPTER FORTY
Gage had been ready to punch Brandt—take him down and subdue him somehow, without anyone’s blessing. But that was before all the commotion. Jess and Allison sat frozen in their chairs, eyes fixed on the far side of the room and screaming. Bryan trained the camera on the mirror. Eurynome or Riley or whatever the hell he called himself stood inside the mirror. Gage didn’t look behind them. The demon’s form wouldn’t appear there. Riley reached out of the mirror and took hold of its frame with slender fingers longer than any human’s. He then ducked down and stepped through the frame, his face hard and malevolent.
They might not make it off the property, but he knew one thing with certainty. They had to get out of the house. Now. Or die.
Think, Gage. Focus.
On what, exactly? Go! The time for thinking is done.
The light from Bryan’s camera bounced off the mirrors, bathing everyone in eerie green. Chairs clattered to the floor as they fled the room. Brandt cackled as the piano began to play.
See how they run! See how they run!
Jess! He pushed her in front of him. “Run.”
They raced down the stairs toward the third floor landing, using the railing and light from the infrared camera to help guide them. Brandt followed, and undoubtedly, Riley wasn’t far behind. They couldn’t hear him, but no one dared look back. Reaching the third floor landing, Gage kept Allison and Jess in front of him, shielding them from whatever, and whoever, was behind them. Doors in the hallway began opening and Allison locked up, causing him and Bryan to crash into her.
“Keep moving!” Gage shoved Allison forward. She was moving again, which was good. She was also screaming, but then he thought they might all be screaming at this point. He was too scared to really notice. Former Siler House inhabitants stood behind the doors, but Gage didn’t want to do more than catch them from the corner of his eye.
The house was alive now, in full swing. Lights out, doors on all floors opening and slamming shut, making them jump. They reached the second floor landing without anyone falling and without a single Riley sighting.
He’s toying with us.
Brandt was still on their heels. “Run! Riley’s coming!”
Driven by fear, everything became a blur. Jess, Allison and Bryan were up ahead, still running down the stairs.
“Run and hide if you can! Riley is coming for us all!” Brandt chanted behind him.
Gage had had enough. He turned and threw a solid punch to Brandt’s face, knocking him backward and on his ass. Gage’s hand throbbed, but the reward had been worth it.
“Gage!” Jess cried. “Gage! Come on!”
“Oh shit, Dude!” Bryan yelled, panning the camera light back toward him. “Gage! Run!”
Gage looked up. Riley scurried down the walls on all fours, his dark hair hanging limply across his face, eyes burning with hate.
And hunger. The demon they knew as Riley meant to do to them what he’d done to Gracie and Emma. He was just taking his time about it. This was it, the moment Riley had waited for—their fear whetting his appetite. Somehow, Gage was moving again, stumbling, but catching himself with the handrail.
Riley disappeared into darkness once more. Bryan shone the light forward again as they ran. But Riley was still close by. Gage could hear him, softly laughing from somewhere above and behind them. Any minute now. Any minute, the demon would reach out and grab him.
They made it down to the first floor. The front door was in Jess and Bryan’s reach.
“It won’t open!” Bryan shouted.
“Try the window!” Gage yelled, running past him.
Jess tried the latch. “It won’t budge.”
Gage grabbed a vase from a table and hurled it at the window. The vase hit, shattering and spilling water and flowers. The window stayed intact.
He blinked in disbelief and cursed under his breath.
“Siler House has locked us in,” Allison sobbed. “We’re dead. We’re dead!”
“The basement,” Gage said.
“Are you nuts?” Bryan snapped. “No one runs to the basement!”
The stairs creaked and Bryan panned the camera back to the stairs. Brandt. He moved slower now and held the left side of his face, but he was still laughing.
“We do if there’s a broken window in the basement. Siler House might be able to lock doors and bulletproof windows, but I hope it can’t create what isn’t there. Brandt said the renovation crew broke a window.”
No one had to say it was a good idea. Without a word, they ran to the kitchen and the basement stairs. Damn! How he wished they’d remembered to bring a flashlight to the séance.
“Where are you, you son of a bitch?” Gage snarled. Riley’s absence worried him. Where was he?
“I don’t know!” Bryan shouted. He spun around in a circle, searching for Riley. The camera’s light spun with him, bringing sections of the room in and out of view. “He can travel through mirrors, scale down walls. What the hell?”
“He has nothing but time on his side,” Jess reminded them, voice trembling.
“He’s tasting our fear,” Allison said in a high-pitched tone. “Demons do that.”
The basement stairs were narrow and steep, and they had to be more careful running down them. Bryan panned the camera, giving them light, however dim. The basement seemed more menacing than the last time they’d visited it. The stone walls and darkness reminded him of catacombs.
The light from the video camera made the cobwebs appear ten times their normal size. The jars that had once contained pickles, spaghetti sauce and other items now appeared to contain other things. Insects swarmed inside one jar, while several others contained dead birds and rats. Gage tried not to look at them. He clenched his jaw and forced himself to keep moving.
They’re not real, Gage repeated to himself. These were all visuals Riley and Siler House had conjured in order to frighten them. Nothing more.
Yeah, well, it’s working.
Keep going. The douchebag is resorting to special effects. That’s all it is. Keep moving!
Bryan panned left and right, checking out the area in front of them. To the left was an opening between the shelves. It was the route they’d taken the first time down here with Brandt. Gage wondered what was taking him so long to get down here after them. Was he searching for a weapon? Was this a trap?
Brandt had lost it—totally given in to Siler House. Siler House might have been influencing them all, but Brandt had allowed it to completely consume him.
Damn it! Why hadn’t he thought to grab a knife from the kitchen? You’re not thinking, Gage. And it’s going to get you and everyone else killed.
Allison shrieked when light from the camera illuminated jars containing human body parts—eyes, ears, fingers. Jess wretched as one of the fingers in the jar twitched.
Gage took her hand, pulling her to him. “Don’t look at them. Stay close.”
Bryan went ahead, shining light into the storage room. The furniture was still there. The worn chairs, the toy chest, the dresser with the creepy dolls.
And Riley’s crouched frame. He hunkered by the dresser, dirty white shirt with dark stains, dark pants and black boots. He grinned, revealing teeth that didn’t belong to any human. They belonged to a demon—one that ate corpses.
They weren’t corpses yet.
Gage kept Jess close to him. Allison ducked behind Bryan.
“Allison is right, you know,” Riley drawled. “I can taste it. Your fear and the stink of your sweat. I salivate thinking of how salty your skin will taste. How the fear will have flavored your flesh.” He scratched at the packed dirt of the basement floor. “After it’s been properly tenderized, of course.”
His tongue snaked from his mouth and wriggled, as though sampling the air. “But not yet. A little more seasoning, I think.”
Allison shrieked. “There, there!”
Bryan panned the camera right a few feet and then back to Riley, who watched them with beetle-dark eyes. “Go on,” Riley coaxed. “I don’t bite. Yet.”
Bryan swept the camera right again. Mrs. Hirsch’s body had been propped up against the broken and moldy furniture.
“I didn’t kill her, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Riley said.
Bryan panned back to Riley, who absently picked at his nails. “Dr. Brandt was kind enough to do that. I watched. Death is a fascinating spectator sport at times. Although I must confess, his execution disappointed me. He stabbed her from behind, right above the kidney. Sort of anti-climatic. However, watching her bleed out was gratifying. He had to leave her locked in one of the rooms. He was so afraid you’d find her, but you’d stopped exploring by then.”
He cocked his head to the side, the movement unnatural, as though his neck were broken. “You remember the room, don’t you, Jess? It’s the room where you and Gage were getting to know each other beneath the sheets. I listened, hoping you two would do it then and there. Gave me the biggest hard-on. But, you didn’t finish. I had to wait. So worth it. Soon, it’ll be my turn, Jess. Allison, too.”
Trembling, Jess pressed against him and Gage wrapped his arms around her. Never going to happen, asshole.”
“Gage, Gage, Gage,” Riley tisked. “You can watch if you’d like.”
Thrashing and the sound of jars crashing to the floor erupted behind them. Brandt. Bryan shone the light toward the direction of the noise, then back again. Riley was gone. Gage didn’t know what was worse, knowing where Riley was, or not knowing where he was. The basement was huge, much larger than he’d originally thought.
Once more, Gage cursed himself for not grabbing a knife from the kitchen. He didn’t know if Riley could bleed, but Brandt could.
This is what happens when you lose your head. You’re on the run now. On the house’s terms.
Which was exactly where Siler House wanted them.