Entanglements (28 page)

“To me too.” I offered a sincere smile. Juliette had the tracker around her neck. Thank heavens something had finally gone right.

As new comrades in arms —er sisters—we left the woman’s room together only to find Billy outside arguing with Rom.

“Shut up, jerk.” Billy waved a fist. “I saw you. Don’t bother to deny it.”

“I haven’t understanding of what you wish no denial for,” Rom said.

“You’re stalking my girl,” Billy yelled. “I saw you watching Juliette.”

“Billy.” Juliette's lips widened into a pleased grin. “I didn’t realize you even liked me.”

“Course I do,” he said with his recognizable Billy bluster. “You’re the most beautiful girl in this school.”

Juliette giggled sidling up to him. “And you’re the most handsome guy.” She simpered with a pretty blush that made me want to gag.

“Hey. What’s that?” Billy fingered the locket. “You weren’t wearing that earlier.”

“No. It was a gift—" Juliette began before she was cut off.

“You don’t need gifts from anyone but me.” Billy grasped the star and tore the chain off her neck. "Certainly not from this guy.” Billy pointed to Rom.

“It was from—" I began. Before I could finish the sentence with “me.” Billy threw the locket down. Rom made a grab for it but Billy stomped on the star and flattened it, almost getting Rom’s hand in the bargain.

“Are you kidding me, you a-hole,” I yelled. “The locket was from me.”

“Sorry, Kizzy, but he was jealous.” Juliette glanced from me to Billy with an appeasing smile while still simpering.

“I’m gonna ignore the insult since you’re Juliette’s sister,” Billy said.

“You are just the tool of the universe aren’t you?” I wanted to strangle him.

Rom straightened and the red rage I’d seen earlier returned to his face.

“You shall pay for your action." Rom said.

He drew his arm back and then punched forward with the palm of his hand flat, fingers scrunched back. The butt of the palm struck a blow that hit Billy in the stomach blasting the air out of him and knocking him off his feet. Billy flew back about two feet before landing. Juliette screamed and rushed to his side, crouching down to coo at him.

Before the bully could get his wind, I tugged at Rom’s arm.

“Come on, Bruce Lee,’ I said. “Let’s get out of here. It’s over.”

Rom, stumbling, allowed me to lead him away.

Without a car it was going to be difficult for us to get to Zen’s house.

“Let’s run over to my dad’s house,” I suggested, glancing over my shoulder to see if any authorities from the school were following us down the front walk. “He’ll be asleep by now and since he works tonight he’ll sleep all day. We can borrow his car and go over to Zen’s to see if he has another tracker.”

 
“Only one and one half hours remain of the four Zen allotted.” Rom still seemed to be struggling with his anger.

“Do you have a better idea?”

Rom shook his head.

* * * * *

The spare key to Dad’s house was hidden, just as I’d expected, under the garden gnome in the row of hedges along the wrap around porch. Lifting it, I tossed it up in the air and caught it again as I skipped up the steps two at a time to the front door.

“Wait here,” I said to Rom. “I’ll get my dad’s car keys and we'll be off.”

Rom’s face was still a ruddy and angry red, but he held in his temper. As I unlocked the door, he paced away to a bench on the porch and sank down on it hard before resting his head in his hands.

Pushing the front door open slowly, I tested the noise it would generate and found just a minor squeak so I tiptoed forward. The car keys would probably be tucked in Dad’s abandoned pants from the day before. Softly padding along the wood floor of the entrance hall, I made my way to the back of the house, toward the master bedroom. Once there, I nudged the door open carefully. As it swung wide, a figure came into view crouched on the bed.

Crap
, I thought,
my dad was still awake
.

The door opening widened and the full reality of the scene before me slowly registered in my conscious brain. At first, I thought I’d come upon Dad having sex with one of his girlfriends since a female figure was straddled on top of him above the sheets. Gradually, I realized the woman had white blonde hair flowing down her back. Suddenly, I knew Namia, the female ghoul, not a woman, was crouching over my dad.

The scream that met my ears could probably be heard in seven surrounding counties and by all the ships at sea. The scream came from me.

The ghoul started and sat up as she turned toward me. A gaping bite wound on my father’s chest seeped blood. My father’s blood coated the ghoul's row of jagged teeth and dripped down her chin in heavy rivulets. In a macabre way she reminded me of the way Adam’s face looked after he had eaten a particularly delicious ice cream sundae.

“Demon,” my father groaned out, his eyes mere slits.

No, it's a ghoul
, I thought.

The ghoul hissed at me and she leaped off my dad. At that moment, Rom appeared behind me and I saw him take in the situation. He charged at Namia. Desperate, I scanned the room for a weapon. A bottle of whiskey, a pack of cigarettes and a book of matches sat on the dresser within a few steps. I grabbed for the whiskey and twisted off the cap.

Rom wrestled with Namia, one hand on her neck keeping her teeth from him. The ghoul’s screams of fury echoed in the room. He held her off but seemed to be weakening.

I took a gulping swig of the whiskey and held it in my mouth. The liquid burned the innocent tissues and some trickled down my throat leaving a fiery trail. Lighting a match, I angled myself around in back of her. Rom saw me and tried to hold her further away from him. When I drew close enough, I spewed the alcohol on the ghoul and it drenched the gauzy material of one shoulder of her white dress and a bit of her upper back. I tossed the match. The lit end landed on her shoulder and the fire sparked a blue flame like the flambé we’d had last Christmas. The fabric burned away first and then the skin. The smell of singed and burning rotted meat almost made me vomit.

The ghoul screamed. Pulling away from Rom, she ran around the room trying to see over her shoulder and beat at the flame. Her hair caught fire and she dropped to the floor. In a few seconds I suspected it would be too late to save her.

Billy might have been an ass, but I didn't want him dead dead, so I snagged the blanket off the foot of Dad’s bed, wrapped it around her thrashing form and dampened out the flames. Namia lay, eyes closed and unmoving, beneath me. But her breathing seemed strong.

“Find rope to secure her,” Rom said. “Allow me to guard.”

After searching the house, I returned with a variety of objects including rope, extension cords, Christmas lights and one more thing: a pair of silver cufflinks.

“Stuff these in her mouth,” I suggested. “And gag her with this."

We knotted her in as best we could, with the blanket covering her completely. I turned to Dad. He seemed to rouse a little when I poured hydrogen peroxide in the wound before applying an antiseptic. A futile gesture, but I couldn’t just leave him, doing nothing.

“Kizzy,” he said in a groggy voice. It was as if the ghoul’s bite had drugged him. “What are you doing in my dream?”

“Go back to sleep," I whispered.

“Why are you crying?” Dad asked, before his eyes drifted shut again.

“I’m not.” I scraped at the moisture on my cheeks and crawled off the bed. After watching my dad’s even breathing for a few minutes, I left the bedroom to join Rom and the mummified ghoul in the hall.

“Time has run,” Rom said. “We must go.”

“Yes.” I couldn’t meet his eyes and I could barely speak past the nausea clogging my throat. I held up the keys I’d fished out of Dad’s pocket. “You drive.”

We put Namia in the trunk and drove the short distance to the wormhole house. Fortunately, we were able to park directly in front. After opening the trunk, Rom handed me the keys and I placed them under the driver’s side mat. Rom hoisted the ghoul over his shoulder so she hung half down his back. We made our way to the spiral staircase and then to the veranda, before crawling into the window of the bedroom.

The ghoul began to struggle, almost toppling Rom over. I struck the blanket with my fist as hard as I could, once, twice, three times before the moving stopped. The violence of striking her did nothing to vent my feelings.

When we opened the door of the bedroom to the hall we found a beam had come loose. One end had fallen and rested on the floor blocking the way while one end was still attached to the roof joist above.

Rom dropped the ghoul to the floor. He crawled under the beam. Once he was on the other side, I pushed the ghoul through to him and ducked under the beam myself. The floor’s sway and swing made it impossible for Rom to pick the ghoul up again. He tried, but a pitch to the right sent him to his knees and Namia’s blanket bundle crashed down. The already rickety floorboards cracked under her and for a moment a spike of fear shot through me. What would happen to the wormhole if the floor broke open completely?

After that we were more careful. By tacit agreement, Rom pulled on one end of her while I pushed at the other.

The walls appeared to be expanding and shrinking at a more rapid rate than when we’d passed through the wormhole four hours earlier. Hunks of ceiling rained down on us regularly this time and the groan of the wormhole had heightened in pitch to a constant whine.

Rom reached the midpoint of the hall when I saw a massive crack expand in length and it started to open just ahead of him.

“Hurry,” I urged, pushing the blanket bundle with all my strength.

Rom glanced over his shoulder at the ceiling. His face was almost purple with exertion, twisted.

If he freaked out on ghoul bite right now we would never make it out of here.

We’d been able to push the blanket around or through the chunks on the floor until we came upon a pile near the end of the hall. The height and width of the rubble pile blocked our way completely.

“Lifting is required,” Rom shouted.

Stopping, we each hoisted an end. Rom placed his part of the bundle on top of the rubble pile while keeping the ghoul's midsection supported on one hand. I walked my end of her forward to feed her over the pile. As I placed my right foot down, the plank of floorboard beneath me broke and my ankle twisted violently, sending me toppling into the undulating sidewall. Rom grabbed for me and I clutched at his hand but missed as I hit the wall and it disintegrated around me.

I found myself with my right side hanging through the broken wall. On the other side, I didn't see a room or even the outside cityscape. Instead, I glimpsed a black airless void and I knew that to fall into it meant my death.

A strong hand seized my arm in a vise grip. Rom dragged me back from the void and into the hall.

After helping me stand, we hobbled to the rubble pile and crawled over to the other side where the ghoul lay. The blanket had been pulled off her head but the gag remained in place. Namia’s eyes were tightly shut and with the movement around us I couldn’t tell if she was breathing. But whether she was alive was the least of my worries.

Zen became visible standing at the head of the stairs with his hand outstretched to us. Rising, I began to inch forward as Rom followed pulling the ghoul’s bundle. The distance to Zen expanded and what had seemed like a few steps away turned into ten then twenty. Finally, Zen grasped my hand and tugged me out of the hall and into his arms. Twisting, he set me on the step below before helping Rom drag the ghoul out.