Eli's Town Read online

  “This is the quickest way out of town,” Tatty whispers, tapping my shoulder and then pointing the other way along the street. “I think we should get out as fast as we can, and then try to put as much distance as possible between us and this place. I don't know how far Eli's mind can reach, but at some point the gap has to be too great for him.”

  Following her along the street, I pause when we reach the next corner. Looking to the left, I realize I can see a few dark figures on the town square.

  “What are they doing?” I whisper. “I mean, what's he doing?”

  “I guess it's a special night,” she replies. “Eli's been keeping strangers out of Tulepa. When he's in my mind, sometimes I feel him reaching out and turning people around if they ever come this way, making them decide to go to Bainesville instead. I think maybe it was different with you, because you're family. Maybe he didn't sense you in time. Or maybe he decided he wanted you here.”

  “He thinks he can train me to be like him.”

  “You wouldn't do that though, would you?”

  “Of course not,” I reply, hurrying through the shadows with Tatty right behind. “This is crazy. If Eli's really doing all of this, it's like a whole new stage of human development.”

  “He's very proud,” she whispers. “He thinks he's a real genius.”

  “Maybe he just had too much time on his hands,” I reply. “He's always been -”

  Before I can finish, Tatty lets out a brief cry of pain, and I turn to see her stumbling toward me. Reaching out, I grab her just in time to keep her from falling, and she manages to keep Robert in her arms.

  “What's wrong?” I ask.

  “Just my ankle,” she hisses, wincing slightly. “I caught it on the curb.” Leaning back against the wall, she lets out a frustrated gasp. “Maybe you should go on without me.”

  “I'm not leaving you here.”

  “Take Robert and go!”

  “Tatty -”

  “Eli's distracted right now!” she continues. “Holly, he could notice you've escaped at any moment, and then he's immediately going to come into my mind to start looking for you.”

  “Not if we're far enough away,” I point out, before looking down at her ankle. “Can you walk on it?”

  She takes a couple of limping steps forward.

  “Let me help you,” I continue, trying to support her.

  “I'm fine!” She pushes me away. “We have to keep going!”

  I check over my shoulder to make sure that no-one has spotted us yet, and then I lead her around the corner and along the next street. My heart is pounding and I'm convinced that we'll be seen at any moment, but we reach the next corner without any sign of people nearby. Just as we're about to continue, however, Tatty grabs my arm and pulls me back.

  “There's someone up ahead,” she whispers.

  “Where?”

  She pauses, her eyes staring into the darkness. “Two of them. I can hear voices, right around that next corner.” She turns and looks back the way we came. She gasps again, clearly still in pain from her ankle. “We have to try another street.”

  “I don't hear anything,” I tell her.

  “This way!”

  She turns limps along a different street, and after a moment I realize I have no choice but to follow her. At least we're still keeping away from the town square, so I figure we have a chance of getting away, but I'll feel much better once we actually get beyond the town limits. To be honest, even though Tulepa is small, I'm starting to feel a little lost in all these dark streets, but I guess Tatty knows exactly where we're going.

  “Wait!” she hisses suddenly, stopping at the next corner.

  “What?” I wait, listening to the darkness all around but not hearing anything. “There's no-one,” I say after a moment.

  “Just wait,” she says again, bending over slightly with her baby still in her arms. “I think the pain from my ankle might have...” She pauses. “Maybe... It made him notice...”

  “Are you okay?” I ask. When she doesn't respond, I step closer. “Tatty, talk to me. Is it your ankle?”

  She whispers something, but I can't quite hear.

  “Tatty, what's wrong?”

  She turns to me, and suddenly there's a hint of anger in her eyes. “I...” she stammers, before holding Robert out toward me.

  Realizing that she wants me to take the baby, I support him in my arms and take a step back, but it's clear that Tatty is struggling with more than just the pain in her ankle.

  “I...”

  “Tatty, tell me what's wrong,” I continue, glancing over my shoulder to make sure no-one has seen us.

  “Indigo,” she gasps suddenly.

  I turn back to her, feeling a cold shiver run through my body.

  “Indigo,” she stammers again, before lunging at me. I step back and she falls to the ground, but she immediately starts getting to her feet again, and this time her expression has changed. “What are you doing, Holly?” she sneers, tilting her head slightly. “Running from me? I knew you might resist, but that's okay, it's a normal part of the process. You have to give me a chance to teach you this skill, and then you'll accept it as a gift. This miracle can't die with me!”

  “Eli?” I whisper, horrified by the change in her expression. “Give her back!” I shout, holding Robert tighter in my arms. “We'll leave, you can have everyone here, you can have the whole town and no-one will ever come to stop you, I swear, but let me take Tatty!”

  She starts laughing. Or rather, Eli is laughing in her body.

  “Leave her alone!”

  “Oh, I'll leave her alone,” her voice replies. “She's not even one of my favorites, anyway.”

  “Eli, please,” I continue, “you're not a bad person, I know you're not. I remember the real you, the Eli who would never hurt anyone, the Eli who -”

  Stopping suddenly, I realize that there's a strange expression on Tatty's face, as if her complexion is starting to redden.

  “Eli?” I whisper, stepping closer. “Eli, what are you doing?”

  With Robert in my arms, I kneel in front of Tatty, filled with a slowly growing sense of dread. I don't want to believe that it's possible, that Eli would do something so evil, but sure enough, a moment later, I watch her face with a sense of horror as first one blood vessel bursts, then another, and then more as the whites of both her eyes start filling with red.

  “Let her breathe!” I shout, realizing that he's making her hold her breath. “Eli! Stop! You can't do this!”

  She lets out a faint, strangled laugh as a manic smile crosses her lips, but Eli's still slowly forcing her to suffocate.

  “Stop!” I scream, grabbing her shoulders. “Don't do this! I'll give you anything you want, but let her live!”

  “Too late,” a voice gurgles nearby.

  Looking down into my arms, I see that the baby is staring up at me.

  “You'll learn,” Robert whispers. “Soon, you'll love this as much as I do.”

  “No,” I reply, horrified by the sight. Turning back to Tatty, I realize that blood vessels are starting to break around her eyes now, and I can't help thinking about her real mind trapped in there while Eli forces her body to suffocate. “Stop!” I scream. “Eli! Please! I'll do anything you want, but you have to let her live!”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Dean

  “Out of my way, you goddamn freaks!”

  Pushing past a couple of these idiots, I stumble through the doorway and out into the cold night air. I don't know how or why, but a couple of minutes ago my mind suddenly cleared, as if the intruding voice had suddenly turned its attention elsewhere. Now I'm back in control of my shivering, damaged body, trembling like a goddamn pussy but determined to get the hell out of here. Looking across the town square, I see that there are scores of people standing around now, but most of them have the same blank, gormless expression on their faces, as if they've just been left waiting for something.

  Assholes, every single one of th
em.

  “Stop!” a familiar voice screams, far off in the darkness. “Eli! Please!”

  “Holly?” I whisper, looking across the town square. For a moment, I actually considering running after her, but then I spot the car nearby and I realize I need to get the hell out of Tulepa while I still can. Holly'll just have to look after herself. Hurrying through the shadows, I finally get to the car and crouch down. So far, it's as if all the people in this goddamn town have suddenly turned into mindless zombies, and when I lean around the side and look across the town square I realize I can see Brittany and Jordan in the group, with that same dumb, lifeless expression.

  Freaks, the lot of them.

  “Stop!” Holly screams in the distance. “Eli, you have to stop!”

  “Sorry, babe,” I mutter, getting to my feet and taking off my jacket, before wrapping the fabric around my fist and smashing one of the car's side windows. “You're on your own with this one.”

  After climbing through the broken window, I twist around onto the passenger seat and start searching for the car keys. It's too dark in here to see much, however, so I realize I'm gonna have to resort to a method I used in my younger days. Pulling a knife from the glove-box, I fumble with the ignition for a moment, but I still have that old magic touch and after just a few seconds I've managed to get the wires loose and connected, and the engine starts first time.

  “Finally,” I mutter, tossing the knife aside and then looking out at the town square.

  To my shock, I realize that the freaks have all turned to stare at me, their faces picked out by the moonlight. The sight is pretty crazy, and a moment later some of them start stumbling toward me, as if I've managed to get their attention again. If they think they can corner me and pin me down again, they're about to get a shock. Flicking the car's lights on, I rev the engine for a moment, waiting as more and more of these assholes get closer. My whole body is trembling, to the point that I can barely hold the wheel, but as I watch the freaks getting closer I feel a sense of pure anger rising in my chest. There must be forty or fifty of them now, and they've all got that same grin on their faces as they come toward me.

  “Revenge time,” I mutter, before flooring the pedal and sending the car lurching forward. As I speed toward them, I can't help letting out a scream of pure anger.

  I immediately hit two of the assholes, knocking them aside before speeding into a group of three more, crunching them under the car. The whole goddamn vehicle shudders as I drive right over them, but once I'm clear I manage to change up a gear and speed across the town square, knocking a load more of them down like skittles. I could get out of here right now, but instead I spin the wheel and turn the car, before speeding back across the square so I can take a few more of them down before I leave. The car's headlights pick out their faces in their final moments as one by one they're mowed down under the wheels. I even spot Brittany briefly, smiling at me as the car slams into her and then crunches over her body, and a moment later Jordan is next. After what those assholes did to me, I can't help smiling as the car picks up speed and careers across the grass.

  Spinning the car around again, I come to a halt on one edge of the square. Ahead of me, there are dozens of torn and mangled bodies that have been smeared into my wheel-tracks, but some of the freaks are still alive and still coming toward me, as if they haven't learned their lesson.

  I rev the engine for a moment, before sending the car lurching forward, accelerating toward a group of them and slamming into them at such speed that some of them are dragged under the car while a couple bounce off the windshield and are sent flying through the night air.

  “I don't think so,” a voice suddenly booms in my head, and before I can react I feel something taking control of my arms, forcing me to spin the wheel hard. By the time I've managed to regain control, it's too late and the car has begun to turn and finally the wheels dig into the grass and the car flips, rolling several times and then sliding across the square in a shower of sparks until it comes to a rest at the edge of the sidewalk.

  Letting out a gasp of pain, I clamber out through the broken window and look back across the square.

  For a moment, all I can do is stare at the horrific scene. There are bodies everywhere, crushed and twisted by the car as I drove over them. Some are clearly already dead, while others are badly injured and bleeding, and a few look to have survived with nothing more than some broken bones. None of them are moaning or crying out, though; the ones who are still just about alive are trying to get up, but the only sound comes from their broken bones clicking incessantly as they continue to struggle. Stumbling to my feet, I look down and see Brittany on the grass. Most of her body is fine, but her face and neck have been crushed by the car's wheels and she's reaching up with her hands, feeling the damage as if she's trying to work out what happened to her. After a moment, however, she falls still.

  Nearby, some of the others are moaning, while Jordan is trying to drag himself across the grass toward me, trailing his broken legs. Reaching back into the car, I take out the knife and limp over to him, thinking back to everything he and those other freaks did to me when they had me tied up. I'm not the kind of guy who ever needs to see a shrink, but if I was, I'd be in therapy for the rest of my life after what happened earlier.

  “I don't know who I'm talking to,” I sneer, crouching down in front of him and placing the tip of the blade against his neck, “but whoever's in that melon of yours, I hope this hurts.”

  “Me too,” he stammers.

  With that, I slice the knife across his flesh, cutting his throat open and then pulling back as blood pours from the wound. Getting to my feet, I turn and look across the moonlit town square, where thirty or forty dead bodies are laid out, some crushed and dead, some still struggling to keep going despite their injuries.

  “Jesus Christ,” I mutter, momentarily shocked by the sight. It's like a war-zone out there. “Are you happy?” I scream. “You hurt me and I hurt you back twice as hard! That's how it goes! That's what I -”

  Suddenly I feel someone grabbing my hand from behind, and I turn just as the knife is pulled free from my grip.

  Brittany is standing right behind me, or what's left of her. Most of her body is fine, but her head has been crushed and the car's tires smeared most of her face away from her skull. Her eyes are gone, too, crushed along with most of her face, so I have no idea how she can know where I am. I guess it's just a fluke that she's next to me.

  “If you -”

  Suddenly I spot another body on the ground, grinning as it watches me intently.

  “I see you,” the body hisses.

  Before I can react, Brittany falls against me and plunges the knife into my chest, driving the blade straight toward my heart. I fall back, but she's still holding onto the knife and finally we drop down together onto the cold grass, and I feel the blade's tip slicing between my ribs.

  “I thought I wouldn't enjoy your death,” the voice whispers in my head, as I stare in horror at Brittany's cracked skull, with fluid dribbling between the gaps on her face and splattering onto my cheek. “I was wrong.” With that, the front of her skull falls apart, flooding my face with blood as her eyes and brain slop out onto me and I feel the knife digging deeper into my chest.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Holly

  “I can breathe!” Tatty gasps, falling forward and dropping onto her side as she clutches her neck. She rolls onto her back, staring up at the night sky as she desperately tries to get air into her lungs. “I can breath again! He's gone!”

  “Where?” I ask, looking around but seeing no-one.

  “Something distracted him,” she stammers. “He was in my head, he was laughing while I was dying, and then suddenly he was torn away as if something else had caught attention. I've never felt that happen before.”

  Hearing a cry of pain coming from somewhere along the next street, I hurry to the corner and see that something seems to be happening on the town square. In the pale moonlight
, I can just about make out bodies on the grass, and some of them have dark patches on them, as if they've been injured. A moment later, a scream fills the air, and I'm not certain but I can't shake the feeling that it might be Dean.

  “I have to find him,” I stammer, before looking down into my arms and seeing that the baby is sleeping once again.

  “Come on,” Tatty stammers breathlessly, hurrying over to me. “We won't get a third chance. We have to get out of here.”

  “I can't leave Dean,” I reply, handing the baby back to her. “Take him and run! Run as far and as fast as you can, I'll be right behind but I have to see if Dean's still here.”

  “Are you crazy?” she asks. “If you stay a moment longer, Eli'll get you!”

  “I can handle Eli,” I tell her, “but you can't, so get the hell out of here!”

  “I'm not leaving you!”

  “Eli doesn't care about you,” I continue, “not really. It's me he wants. You have a better chance of getting away if I'm not with you.”

  “I -” She pauses, before looking down at Robert. After a moment, she turns back to me with tears in her eyes. “I have to get him out of here. You understand, don't you?”

  “Run!” I hiss.

  “Holly...”

  “Run!”

  As she turns and stumbles along the street with her child in her arms, I head the opposite way, making my way toward the town square until I reach the corner and finally witness the true horror of the scene. There are dead bodies everywhere, some of them with terrible injuries, their limbs crushed and torn, some of them even ripped apart. A moment later I realize what must have happened: my car is nearby, resting on its roof, and although some of the locals are still standing and apparently unhurt, they seem to be completely mesmerized by something, as if Eli has left their bodies abandoned. It takes a moment before I realize that with so many of the bodies having been killed, Eli must be flooded with the sensation of death. That's what distracted him.

  “Dean?” I call out, taking a few faltering steps forward. “Dean, are you here? Dean, where are you?”