The Final Act Read online

  “It's fascinating, in a sick way,” Matt says, staring at me as I continue to retch. “At first I couldn't understand how she could fit inside you. It made no sense. Then I stumbled across a theory about water. The human body is around 60% water, Maddie. You and her are sharing that, and the rest she's managing to fold up and hide inside you. It's miraculous, really. I'd say it's a feat of nature, if I didn't find it so disgusting. One of the books I read described something very similar.”

  “No!” I gasp. “You can't -”

  And then, suddenly, the scratching sensation ends and I feel the fingers slipping back down my throat. At the same time, the pain in my chest stops abruptly and I find I can breathe again. Gasping for air, I tilt my head back and try to find some strength from somewhere.

  I have to fight back.

  “It didn't work,” Matt says, sounding worried. A moment later he comes over with the human liver in his hands, and he holds it close to my face. I pull away, but he moves it around until it's almost on my lips. The smell is awful. “She sensed it, but then something held her back. Something kept her inside.”

  He pauses, before slowly moving the liver away from me.

  “It wasn't fresh,” he whispers finally. “I mean, it was fresh, but it wasn't fresh enough. She wants it to be still alive, so she can really savor the moment when she extracts it from the body. It's sick, but I should have realized that day-old organs wouldn't draw her out.”

  “What was that?” I ask, horrified by the sensation of fingernails clawing at the back of my throat. “Matt, untie me and get me out of here!”

  “She's still hungry, but only for fresh body parts. She wants blood. Maybe she even wants screams. She's starving, though. She was trapped in there for so long. The only remains I could find was a crushed can of peaches, so I guess that was all she had to eat.”

  “I taste peaches sometimes,” I gasp. “At least, I think I do.”

  “That's probably a memory that has survived in your blood, passed down through the generations. It probably gets activated when you're close to the creature. I found mention of the peach taste in one of Doctor Grazier's notebooks, too. I think the creature is so powerful, it affects anyone who gets too close.”

  He hesitates, and then I see a slow sense of horror starting to cross his face.

  “I have to draw her out,” he says finally. “It has to end tonight. It has to be fresh. That's why it was pushing people to copy the Jack the Ripper murders ten years ago, it's why she got people like Nick to kill. While she was trapped in the basement, she at least wanted to experience the thrill of murder, even if she had to do it vicariously by reaching out to the minds of others. Maybe the ones she reached out to were...”

  His voice trails off for a moment.

  “Maybe there were other descendants of Alice Dunn too,” he adds, his eyes widening with a sense of shock. “You're the purest, Maddie, but the others were close enough for her to nudge them to do whatever she wanted. It wasn't enough, though. She still wants pure, fresh, wriggling meat. That's something she won't be able to resist.”

  “What are you talking about?” I ask.

  He doesn't reply. Instead, he stares at me for a moment before taking a step back.

  “What is it?” I stammer. “Matt, what are you thinking? What are you going to do? Please, just untie me and let's get out of here!”

  Reaching into his coat pocket, he takes out a knife, and then he starts unbuttoning his shirt. As he pulls the fabric aside, I see all the scars that we left behind after Nick almost killed him.

  “I knew this might have to be the back-up plan,” he continues. “Again, it's something I'm prepared for.”

  “Matt,” I continue, “please, whatever you're going to do, it's not -”

  Suddenly I let out a shocked gasp as he starts driving the knife into his own belly. After a moment he drops to his knees, but he's still forcing the knife deeper and deeper, until finally a rush of blood starts dribbling down onto the waist of his trousers.

  “It's okay, Maddie,” he gasps, clearly in pain. “I've got a plan. I know here to cut and where not to cut. As soon as she's out, I've got her trapped. Trust me. I just -”

  Before he can finish, he lets out a cry and slumps down, but he manages to twist the knife a little further. A pool of blood is now spreading slowly across the dusty floor.

  “Matt, please stop,” I sob. “This isn't going to do anything.”

  “She'll come out,” he replies, grimacing with pain. “Once she does, I've got her. She won't be able to resist, even though she can hear me right now. It's the blood, Maddie. Fresh blood will draw her out and then I know the words that'll finish her. Just trust me!”

  “No, you're wrong,” I tell him, pulling harder and harder against the ropes until finally I feel one of them starting to come loose. I quickly start tugging on the rest. “Matt, I know you're trying to help, but you've let this go way too far. You're losing your mind.”

  Another rope comes loose, and now I'm able to roll onto my side. As soon as I do so, however, I see that Matt is struggling to get back on his feet, and that more and more blood is running from his belly.

  “Nothing's coming out of me!” I yell, hoping that this time I can get through to him. “You're out of your mind! You're insane, I'm not some kind of -”

  Suddenly the last rope comes free and I fall forward, toppling off the edge of the slab and slamming hard against the floor. I let out a gasp of pain and roll onto my back as strands of loose rope fall onto me, and then I start getting to my feet. As I do so, however, my right hand touches something warm and wet, and when I look down I see that some of Matt's blood is spread this way. I swear I can even smell the blood right now.

  “You're going to kill yourself!” I blurt out, as I feel a sudden burst of scratching in the back of my throat. “You're just -”

  Suddenly I start retching, vomiting up a torrent of pale gray water that splatters against the ground and mixes with the blood. Before I even have a chance to react, I vomit again, and this time there are chunks of skin and bone in the liquid. Feeling a sharp pain in my belly, I get onto my hands and knees and wait for the sensation to pass, but my throat seems to be expanding and now the scratching sensation is stronger than ever. Finally, as I desperately try to catch my breath, I feel fingers wriggling at the back of my mouth and slowly a hand reaches up and out between my teeth. Just as I think I might never be able to breathe again, the dismembered hand falls down against the ground, followed by a rush of yet more gray liquid.

  “What's happening?” I gasp, trying not to panic as I feel something else coming up through my throat. “Matt...”

  “It's her,” he gasps, reaching into his pocket and taking out a piece of paper which he holds up in his trembling left hand. “Don't worry, Maddie, I know what to do. I've researched this and I'm ready. All I have to do is read this out loud once she's here, and she'll be cast away forever.”

  “That makes no sense,” I tell him, “it's like -”

  Suddenly I vomit again, but this time the pain is indescribable and large chunks of skin and bone come rushing from my mouth. More and more comes, splattering down against the ground, and I can barely keep my eyes open. After a moment, however, I see that sections of the meat are starting to come together and combine, with pieces of bone sliding deep into chunks of pale flesh. I bring up more and more bits of a body, until finally I fall forward and bang my forehead against the ground. I no longer have the strength to sit upright, or even to cry out as I vomit, but skin and bone and flesh are sloughing out of my mouth and spreading out across the floor. I stay like this for several minutes, struggling to breathe through my nose, until eventually the vomit ends and I roll onto my side.

  I blink several times, before turning and seeing that all the chunks are gone.

  Instead, a naked old woman is towering above me. She has her back to me, and after a moment she takes a step toward Matt as his eyes widen with horror.

  Chapter Sixte
en

  Maddie

  “You are commanded to leave this place,” Matt reads from the sheet of paper, as he shivers on the floor. “You are not welcome here and I command you to leave this body and never return.”

  He looks up at the old woman, but she's simply staring at him with a hint of detached amusement. After a moment she tilts her head, as if she finds him somehow curious.

  “You are not welcome here,” Matt continues, “and I command you to...”

  His voice trails off, and it's clear that he's having trouble concentrating.

  “I command you to leave this body and never return,” he manages finally. “Be gone, demon! Leave forever!”

  With that, he looks up at her again. I wait for him to continue, but after a few seconds the awful truth starts to dawn on me:

  He's finished.

  That was the whole plan, and I don't think it worked very well. The woman hasn't really reacted at all, except for continuing to watch him, and finally Matt looks down at the piece of paper again.

  “In the name of all that's holy,” he reads aloud, evidently having decided to start from the beginning, “I declare you to be -”

  Suddenly the old woman starts laughing. Matt looks up at her, and I can see from the look in his eyes that he's terrified.

  Slowly, the old woman reaches down and takes the piece of paper from his trembling hand. She turns it around to look at the writing, and her laugh continues for a few more seconds.

  “What is this?” she asks finally. “Where did you find this... nursery rhyme?”

  “It's an old decree,” he replies, “commanding you to leave. It was used by the Vatican to banish demons. No demon can refuse to obey.”

  “They can't?” She pauses, before dropping the piece of paper and letting it fall into the pool of blood. “Then it's a good job I'm not a demon, isn't it?”

  With that, she kneels next to him and places a hand on the side of his face. There's something almost tender about the way she's touching him, but at the same time her smile is growing.

  “Leave him alone!” I gasp, trying to reach out and stop her, only to freeze as soon as I see that my own right hand is withered and dry. It's almost as if Matt was right when he said that the creature was taking moisture from my body.

  “Was this your plan?” she asks, running her hand down to Matt's neck. “Cut yourself until you bled, and then try to read me to death? How could that ever have seemed like a good idea? Or were you just too desperate?”

  Slowly, she leans closer to Matt and starts kissing him on the lips, causing a rush of thick, dark blood to start oozing from his mouth. He tries to push her away, but he's powerless as she leans him down against the cold stone floor. Silhouetted for a moment against the far wall, and against the hundreds of carved symbols, the old woman seems to be drawing blood from Matt's body and letting it run down onto the ground.

  “Stop!” I shout, trying but failing to crawl over to help. “Don't hurt him!”

  The old woman pulls back from the kiss, although strings of blood briefly hang between their mouths before she slowly turns to me.

  “What do you want?” I ask, struggling to sit up. “Tell me and I'll give it to you. I'll give you anything you want, just leave him alone and let him go!”

  “You know what I want,” she replies, as Matt's blood runs down her chin.

  “You want me, is that it?” I continue. “You want to be in me? You want to somehow hitch a ride in me, and you think you can do that because we're...”

  My voice trails off, and for a moment I feel as if I can't get the word out.

  “Family,” she purrs finally.

  “I let you out,” I reply. “That means this is my fault. If I'd just realized that what I was doing was wrong, you'd still be in that room and no-one else would have been hurt.” Looking past her, I see Matt slumped against the ground. “If you let him go,” I continue, “and let him live, then you can have me.”

  “I can have you anyway,” she says calmly, and then she starts slowly crawling toward me through the puddles of blood.

  “I'll fight!” I shout, pulling away.

  “That won't help,” she replies, still grinning at me. “Blood is strong. Blood is a bond. Blood can't be broken.”

  “You can't make me help you!”

  “Blood gives strength where strength was not,” she continues, reaching out to touch me. “I've already made you help me.”

  I pull away, but I'm too weak to get to my feet so all I can do is crawl around to the other side of the nearest pillar and then watch as she continues to come closer. At least I seem to have distracted her from Matt, which gives me time to come up with a plan.

  “Do you know what it's like to die?” she asks. “To be pulled away into the void of nothingness? Millions of souls go that way every day, but I refused. I clung on and I found a way back. Not into my own body, but into this... wretched, rotten husk. That barbarian doctor had already carved the body up so badly, it became next to useless, but you... Your body is so much cleaner, and so much more complete. Once we're together properly, we'll be as one, and it's all thanks to our blood. Then we can do whatever we want.”

  Suddenly she lunges at me, but I kick her hard in the face, sending her thudding back. As soon as she turns to me, I see that I've knocked a chunk of skin from her cheek. She snarls for a moment, before her smile returns.

  “You can feel it, can't you?” she continues. “The strength. The power. That's your blood, reacting to me. Those foolish rhymes and symbols might have possessed some power, but they were never going to hold me forever. Now you've come to save me -”

  “I'll never save you!” I shout.

  “You already did,” she adds, tilting her head slightly as she starts crawling once more toward me. “This time, I won't leave your body again. I'll stay in there and we can be as one. Soon neither of us will even be able to tell the difference. One body. One mind. One blood. One -”

  “I'd rather die!” I hiss.

  “I won't let you! And there's a ghost here too, and he won't let you either.” She looks around. “I can sense him, you know. The ghost of that pathetic wretch Charles Grazier is watching us now. Such a miserable failure of a man. He hides down here, away from the ghost of his wife. She's at the top of the house and he's at the bottom. She calls out for him at night, she rings her bell to remind him that he should go up, but he's too ashamed.” She turns to me again. “He was a good man once, but he did some very bad things toward the end of his life. He can no longer face his wife, so he lurks here, horrified by his own actions and hoping for redemption. That's why he saved you so many times. Such a sad way to end up, but I promise that you'll never even have to die. You and I can live forever.”

  She reaches for me again, but again I pull away.

  She's going to lunge at me again, at any moment. I have to be ready.

  “I always knew I wouldn't die,” she continues. “When he killed me in that meadow, I knew that somehow I'd survive. It took longer to come back than I ever expected. I spent so many centuries fighting to survive. It's difficult to keep your mind together for so many years, but I managed. More or less, anyway. I don't like this old body, I want to be young again. And you're young, aren't you? Young enough, anyway.”

  I flinch as she tries again to touch me.

  “You're only delaying the inevitable,” she continues. “Why fight? I won't hurt you. On the contrary, we'll both be better off.”

  Again she reaches toward me, and this time I'm too weak to pull away. Her hand touches my arm and moves up to my shoulder, as if she's starting to pull me into a slow embrace. I'm trembling with horror and shock, but I can't find the strength to even turn my face. I feel as if the last ounce of strength has drained away from my body and all I can do now is wait for the inevitable.

  “Blood is the strongest bond,” she purrs, leaning closer to my ear. “You must know that. It's a bond we share, and a bond that can never be broken. My blood made its way th
rough generation after generation until it reached you, my dear. And now that you're here, now that you're ready to accept who and what you are, we won't have to fight anymore. You won't have to fight anymore.”

  Looking past her, I'm shocked to see the ghost of Charles Grazier leaning over Matt, apparently trying to help him.

  “Look at me,” the creature says, tilting my head until I'm staring straight into her rotten eyes. Slowly, she starts grinning, revealing two rows of rotten teeth. “This body is running out now,” she explains. “It's time for us to be as one. Your blood and my blood will become our blood. I had to wait until you accepted the truth, and finally tonight you do accept it all. We won't have to hide, not anymore. We'll be able to do whatever we want, whenever we want it, and nobody will be able to stop us. And after all these years, I shall finally have a proper body again.”

  “No,” I whisper, “you won't. Not mine.”

  At the same time, my head is starting to dip and I can feel myself losing consciousness.

  “I dreamed of this moment,” she continues, “when I was all alone in the void, searching for my way back. You can't imagine what it's like there, all alone in the land of the newly dead. It's a wondrous place, a never-ending expanse of rock set against a vastness that the human mind can't comprehend. The dead arrive there. Some of them have their eyes open, and they see the truth. Others are lost in private paradises in their minds, paradises that feel as if they last forever. Most of the dead simply scream as they're pulled away into the void, where they either spin forever or fall into the jaws of the over-gods and the under-gods. I saw those gods with my own eyes, I saw their great glowing faces with their wide-open mouths. Some poor dead souls cling on for as long as they can, before they too are drawn away. Very few manage to stay and search for a way back, and fewer still find that way. Charles Grazier helped me, but I know I'd have found a way eventually.”

  She wraps her arms tighter around me, hugging me here on the floor in the basement.

  “I can smell your blood,” she whispers. “In a moment I shall go back inside you, never to leave again. We shall become one.”