Scribner Horror Bundle: Four Horror Novels by Joshua Scribner (53 page)

The spirit pulled down the visor over
the driver’s side window, and a key fell down into James’s lap.
“Spare key,” the spirit said. “My friend will be inside, drunk and
sleeping hard. We’ll bring it back when were done. He’ll never know
it’s missing.”

The Oldsmobile started on the first
try. They had practiced moving earlier, maneuvering around the
basement, letting the spirit will the muscles. It had taken some
time. It was all a matter of how well James could absorb the
spirit’s will. He’d had to learn to feel what the spirit wanted. It
had become natural. Soon, James had felt as if he could slip into
the background and just go along for the ride. For something else
to will his movement was incredible. James focused on the
sensations of his body as a result of the movements, as the spirit
decided on how to move. It was like floating.

For the first time in his life, James
got to experience driving. In a way, he was not in control of the
car. He didn’t will the movements. But he did make the willed
movements and got to enjoy their results.

James loved someone else making the
decisions, freeing him up to relax and enjoy the outcomes. He felt
almost like a baby being carried around, but with an adult mind to
enjoy it with.

As they drove, the spirit spoke. “I
don’t think most people stick around after they die. Not like I
did. I think you really got to have a good reason and want to stick
around in order to be like me.” James waited for the spirit to
elaborate. It didn’t. But it spoke more. “You can go places when
you stick around, but not many. I can only go to familiar places,
places I went to during my life, and have some memory of. I can’t
go into buildings I don’t know about or even down roads I’m not
familiar with.”

James thought of what that meant. That
was why he had been kept inside. No spirit could have gotten to him
that wasn’t familiar with his basement. Essentially, no spirit
could have gotten to him. James had gone outside to get this one.
Then he had brought it inside an unfamiliar place.

They drove out of town on the main
highway and then turned and drove another mile down a paved back
road before turning again and driving half a mile down a dirt road
to a solitary house. They stopped on the road.

“This house I know. It used to be
mine.”

The spirit got the car rolling again.
They moved a few hundred yards further, before pulling into a short
drive that took them back in the trees. There, the spirit shut the
engine down and turned off the lights.

“We walk from here,” the spirit
said.

They trekked through trees most of the
way. Then, when they came to the outskirts of the property, a dog
barked from the side of the house and they stopped. The spirit
moved them back into the trees and bent down. A light came on in
the house. About a minute later, the dog still barking away, a tall
man came to the side of the house. He shined a flashlight around
but missed where they were squatting. He then moved the chained dog
into an unattached garage.

“Yeah, dumbass,” the spirit whispered.
“Take out the alarm system for us.”

The man went back inside and turned
off the lights. They sat there and waited for what must have been
about ten minutes, before the spirit was satisfied that it was safe
to move. They went to the back of the house. The spirit had
obviously scouted this place as well as he had scouted the friend
they had stolen the car from. It knew just what to do. They pushed
up a window and then, as quietly as possible, crawled
through.

They were now in a dark room. As they
sat there for about a minute, James’s eyes were able to accommodate
enough for him to realize that they were in a bathroom. They crept
out of the bathroom, through another dark room, and then through
another door. Though James could not see well, he trusted how the
spirit willed his movements. He took a few steps and then reached
up. He could tell what his hands had grabbed. He felt the wood of
the stock and the steel of the barrel and knew he now had a gun.
When the spirit willed him to cock that gun, James realized that he
had a shotgun.

Shadows rose nearby and the spirit
willed him to squeeze the trigger. In the light of the blast, James
made out two people, probably a man and a woman. After the
resonance of the deafening blast fell away, there were cries and
moans of pain. It cocked the gun and fired twice more, and the two
on the bed were silent.

“Put me in a nursing home to die and
then steal my home.”

James realized that he’d just heard
more about what the spirit was.

“Some son you turned out to be. Didn’t
think Mommy could do anything about you and your little
whore.”

James actually took complete control
for a few seconds. It was the shock that did it. He had assumed the
spirit had been male. He had suspected there would be an act of
revenge. But mother on son?

James felt the spirit trying to rise.
He let it have control again.

“Let’s get you home and get me out of
your body,” the spirit said.

James had no doubt the spirit would do
it. He was glad to relinquish the control. As exciting as all this
was, he was ready to be home again, safe in his bed.

There was a glitch. They ran out of
the bedroom of the two slain bodies and into a lit room. There,
standing in the living room, by the door, was a woman about James’s
age. She was dressed in a nightgown. A look of shock was frozen on
her face.

“What? Your car isn’t outside. You’re
not supposed to be here.”

The woman obviously couldn’t respond
right now. She didn’t even look like she could move.

“It’s Grandma, baby. You need to go
get in your dad’s car and drive as fast as you can out of
here.”

James became aware that the spirit was
forsaking him. She had hated her son, but she still cared for her
adult granddaughter. She didn’t want her to be in any danger, and
she didn’t want her to see what was in the back bedroom. But this
girl had seen James.

James realized what he had to do. He
thought he probably could too. The spirit had willed the movements
of blasting the other two people, but James had obeyed that will.
All he had to do now was add the will, and he was just as capable
of killing as the spirit.

He heard the spirit protest as he
pushed her under. Then, on his own, he cocked the shotgun, and
aimed it at the hapless woman’s head. On his own, with the spirit
squashed into a small place inside him, James pulled the trigger
and decapitated the woman.

***

James learned exactly who he had
killed on the five-o’clock news. The two the spirit had shot in the
bed were Gus Harold and his wife Lita. The woman he had shot was
Gus’s daughter, Pam. They were found shortly after the stolen car
was reported.

Having forced the now belligerent
spirit from his body, James had walked home last night, cutting
through fields, staying low. As far as he knew, no one had seen
him. Logically, James didn’t think he could be traced. His
fingerprints would be in a few places, but that didn’t matter,
because the police wouldn’t have his prints on file. There were no
witnesses, and he had no motive. As far as anyone knew, he was down
in his basement asleep at the time the three people were murdered.
Besides, the owner of the car the spirit had stolen had been a
family acquaintance. The police would be looking first at the owner
and then for someone else familiar with the family. So logically,
James was safe. But that didn’t stop his nerves from jumping. He
avoided contact with his parents, not wanting them to sense his
anxious state. He simply claimed to be feeling a little under the
weather, and they let him be.

James wondered about the spirit. He
had no idea what happened to it after it left his body. He wondered
if there was some kind of revenge it could exact upon him. For
that, he would just have to wait and see.

It was on Tuesday morning when James
felt the cure for his anxiety. He awoke with the urgency from
before. He hadn’t anticipated this. He would have thought his
psyche had learned its lesson about spirit possession. But that
didn’t seem to matter. His mind became overwhelmed with memories of
what it had been like to be possessed, to be willed by another as
he watched on. He forgot about what it was like to know he had
killed an innocent bystander for his own safety. He forgot about
the fear he’d felt coming home, worrying that someone would spot
him and at any moment he would see police lights or hear dogs
barking. He forgot about the tension of waiting for the news to
come on yesterday so he could see if the police had any leads that
pointed to him.

James went to his hill, where he sat
and waited for another spirit to come.

***

The intensity of Celeste’s urges was
nearly unbearable. She couldn’t stop thinking about what it was
like to be with another person, about being touched, about being
entered, and feeling the incredible heat.

She hadn’t done well at her job today,
bringing the wrong drinks, failing to write down the order right
the first time, so she had to go back to the table to get it again.
She knew this was costing her tips, but it was hard to care. She
just wanted out of this place. She felt smothered. Frequently, she
felt a slight heat, like a remnant from the last time she had been
touched, but it was only enough to tickle her, to wet her appetite
for more. She had to have somebody.

Tiffany had asked her what was wrong.
Celeste had told her she was just a little preoccupied with
something that had happened in therapy, and that she would be fine.
Thank God Kendra, who would not settle for such a simple
explanation, had the day off.

Paul was working today, but he wasn’t
really speaking to her, aside from the words they had to share as
part of the job. He did stare at her a lot, though. But it wasn’t
the covetous look she would have expected. His look was cool and
calculating. It was as if he were studying her, as if he were
suspicious of something.

That evening, Parker Swinson, the
young attorney Celeste had shocked by sitting on his lap, came in.
He sat alone in Celeste’s section. Parker showed interest in
Celeste, talking to her a lot more than usual, drinking a little
more than he usually drank on a weeknight. When he finally
suggested they get together sometime, maybe later this week,
Celeste told him tonight would be good.

“Well, do you want to meet somewhere?”
Parker asked.

“We can meet at your place, if you’d
like,” Celeste responded, abruptly.

Obviously shocked, Parker said, “Sure.
We could have some drinks and watch a DVD.” He scribbled his
address on a napkin and handed it to her.

Celeste went there right after work,
not even bothering to clean up. Parker’s house looked nice on the
outside, two levels, one half-sunken in the ground.

Parker opened the door, wearing jeans
and a T-shirt, and casually said, “Hey. Come on in.”

Inside, Celeste found two wine glasses
set out. Parker had the flat-screen television and his DVD player
set to go. They had a couple of drinks on the couch, before Celeste
kissed him once then straddled him.

Parker slowly took her clothes off,
and then kissed and licked her all over. He stuck his tongue in
places she didn’t think people stuck their tongues, and she liked
it. Then he entered her from many different angles. Her favorite
was when he bent her over the arm of the couch and rammed into her
from behind. She thought it must have been his favorite position
too, because that was when he was the biggest and the hardest. He
slapped her hips, like she was a bronco, but that was
fine.

The heat was way more intense than it
had been last week with Paul. Parker was no doubt better at this,
but Celeste didn’t think that was the main cause of the increased
magnitude. No, the increased heat had more to do with her and her
barrier.

Finally, the heat maxed out. Celeste
felt as if she could take no more from Parker and waited for him to
finish. He did finish, but he didn’t finish like Paul. He didn’t
cum at all. Instead, he just pulled out of her.

She sat naked on the couch beside him.
She was satisfied, but there was something wrong with him. His
breath was broken and his face was pale. He looked as if he might
be sick.

He said, “I guess . . .”

Parker didn’t finish what he had to
say. He just lay down.

“Are you okay?” Celeste
asked.

Parker motioned with his hand and
nodded. Celeste waited with him for a little while longer, until he
went to sleep. Celeste went back to his bedroom and took a blanket
from his bed. She covered him up and then left. She went home and
tried to go to bed. But she couldn’t sleep. She got up and cleaned
around her apartment. Then she got a book to read. She felt calm
but energized. Her thoughts were quick and crisp. She finished the
entire book before going to bed and sleeping a few
hours.

The next day at work she was back to
her old self, only better. She didn’t even have to write the orders
down. She just remembered them. In the back of her mind she thought
that this was just all too weird. But she liked it.