Soultaker (9 page)

She was pleased to see fear bloom in his eyes. The roles they assumed in sex play were reversed outside the sexual arena. Penelope dictated the course of their relationship, because she held all the cards. She had taped their initial encounters
without his knowledge, showing him copies the first time he’d tried to break off their relationship. “I am not going to be a casual fling,” she’d told him, enjoying the sick look that crossed his face. “You belong to me now, and you’ll be mine as long as I want you.”

If he didn’t play ball, copies of the tapes would go out to the mayor and Slater’s wife.

Slater played ball.

And once he accepted the permanence of their relationship, Slater loosened up, embracing it with new enthusiasm. Two wonderful years down the road, Penelope wasn’t sure she wanted it to ever end. She’d lately entertained fantasy scenarios wherein Mrs. Slater, a portly hag inexplicably beloved by the community-at-large, met an untimely demise.

“I’m sorry,” he said again. He rubbed his eyes and sagged in the chair. “I’ve had a very bad day.” He laughed without humor. “And that’s an understatement of epic proportions.” His eyes met Penelope’s gaze. “Penny…do you believe in…demons?”

She blinked. “What?”

“There’s no way you’re going to believe this until you see it for yourself.” Now there was real sadness in Slater’s expression. “I hate it, Penny, but there’s no way to keep you out of this. She’s got plans for both of us.” His eyes welled with sudden tears. “She’s going to make us do the most awful, horrible things, and…and…” Tears coursed down his cheeks as he began to blubber. “…and…there’s nothing we can do about it…oh, Penny…”

Penelope slapped him. “Snap out of it this instant, Raymond!”

But the principal just covered his face with his hands and continued to blubber.

Seeing him this way filled Penelope with disgust. She didn’t like emotional weakness in anybody, but she especially despised it in men. She expected them to be weak in matters of the flesh. They were just dumb, brute animals, after all, a failing she’d exploited many times with many men. But this sort of
thing—this vulnerability—was just vile. For a few fleeting moments, she doubted her devotion to this relationship.

Then she heard his words in her head again and made an association that stirred fresh excitement within her. “My God, Raymond, are you talking about your wife? That’s the ‘demon,’ right? Did she find out about us somehow?”

Slater looked up at her and tried to speak, but his throat was too tight.

Penelope laughed. “She plans to expose us, right? Divorce you and take you for all you’ve got, right? That cunt.” She leaned close to Slater, dropped her voice to a whisper. “Well, we won’t let her get away with it, Raymond.”

Slater’s face was a mask of confusion. “What?”

“Listen to me.” She gripped his shoulders and spoke earnestly. “I know what to do about this, love. But you are going to have to be very brave for me, okay? You’ll have to be braver than you’ve ever been. And you’ll need to accept in your heart that this is the right thing to do. And of course, you’ll need to be able to stand up to questioning.”

“What are you talking about, Penelope?”

Penelope rolled her eyes. “Isn’t it obvious? Oh, Raymond, I’m talking about killing your wife, of course.”

Slater’s eyes went wide with horror. “My wife? My God, Penelope!”

Now it was Penelope’s turn to be confused. “But I thought—”

Slater shook his head. “My wife’s the least of our problems.”

Penelope scowled. “I don’t see how that’s possible.”

A strange calm settled over Slater. His tears dried up. He gently removed Penelope’s hands from his shoulders and smoothed his rumpled shirt. “You have a student named Myra Lewis in your sixth period Senior English class, correct?”

“Yes. So?”

Slater swallowed with difficulty. “She’s our problem. She’s the demon, Penny. And she’s—”

Penelope’s wild laughter surprised him. She threw her head
back and let it peal out. Then she met Slater’s gaze and said, “Raymond, you are a funny man. That little girl may be a bit of a hellion, but she’s no demon. Jesus, men are so threatened by strong-willed females.”

Slater shook his head. “I’m serious. She’s a demon. Literally.”

Penelope gasped when she heard the office door open. She whirled around and shuffled sideways, instinctively putting a socially acceptable space between herself and the principal. She cursed her foolishness. She’d been so certain the door was locked.

And so it had been—Myra Lewis entered the office, the extra key provided by Slater twinkling between her fingers.

Penelope gaped. “Myra, what—”

“Shut up.”

Myra closed the door and locked it. A thin, sly smile dimpled the corners of her mouth. She pocketed the key and dropped into the seat in front of Slater’s desk, draping herself over it the way she had earlier in the day.

Penelope looked at Slater. “Why does she have a key?”

Myra chuckled. “Because I wanted it.”

Penelope’s head swiveled back toward Myra. “That’s absurd. The principal doesn’t just hand out keys to any student who wants one. You do not belong in here, Ms. Lewis.”

Myra sprang out of the chair and clamped a hand around Penelope’s throat. Penelope struggled for air. The strength of the girl was astonishing. She tried to pry Myra’s hand loose, but to no avail. Myra only squeezed harder.

“Are you going to obey me now? Are you going to shut up?”

Penelope was beginning to feel light-headed, but she managed a nod. Myra loosened her grip, allowing her to suck in a lungful of air. Penelope felt better, but the girl was still holding her by the throat.

“I have something to show you,” Myra said. “Something simply amazing, Ms. Simmons.”

Slater groaned.

Penelope managed a weak smile. “Okay.” Anything to appease this strange, violent girl. “I’d love to—”

Myra’s flesh began to ripple and stretch, its smoothness shifting to a rough, scaly texture. Then she grinned. Only it was really a hideous, hellish parody of a grin. Her mouth doubled in size. Tripled. Quadrupled. Her teeth grew and multiplied, became sharp like razors, glistened with saliva. The expansion continued until it seemed the interior of the Myra-thing’s mouth encompassed the whole world. There was something at the back of the mouth, something yellow and pulsating, something obscene.

A voice inside Penelope’s head said:
Here it comes.

Then it did.

Penelope fainted.

The clock on the digital cable box showed the time as 2:59. Jake felt a rush of anxiety. He needed to be at his mother’s house by three thirty. Rockville was a small town. A drive from one end of town to the other would take perhaps fifteen minutes. The Zone was a mere ten-minute drive from Washington Heights. Under normal circumstances, he would be able to hop in his car and get there with plenty of time to spare.

These were not normal circumstances.

He was in bed with Stu’s sister. In the guest bedroom in Stu’s house. They hadn’t made love. Not yet. Still fully clothed, they held each other in the middle of the bed, limbs entwined in the intimate manner of lovers. Jake moaned with every slight shift of her body, enjoying the way her thigh pushed against his erection. Every so often, she cupped the crotch of his jeans and gave him a gentle squeeze.

No. Definitely not normal circumstances.

Kristen breathed softly in his ear. “I don’t know why we’re fighting this.”

Jake, who hadn’t been laid once in the four months since breaking up with his latest ex, could think of at least one reason to fight it. This was not the normal course of adult relationships, with the exception of the one-night stand variety, but this didn’t feel like something so meaningless. He expected females to maintain a safe emotional distance, a gentle aloofness, at the outset. There should be dates. Dinners and movies.
A natural progression toward that initial sexual encounter. He should not be on the brink of that within hours of meeting someone he liked so much. Not at this point in his life.

Fuck.

So this is how it happens
, he thought.

How you know you’re getting old.

You turn into a fucking prude.

The cable-box clock now read 3:04.

“I don’t want to fight it. I truly don’t,” he said. He cupped her cheek with a palm, and she smiled broadly, making a noise of pleasure and turning her head into the caress. His heart fluttered. “But fuck, I don’t have a choice.”

Kristen frowned. “I want this.” She put a hand to the back of his neck and drew him to within kissing distance. Her soft lips met his, and the slow kiss that ensued was nearly enough to melt what remained of his resistance. “This is fate, Jake. One of those meant-to-be things.”

Yeah. Okay. She had a tendency to make sweeping pronouncements, a willingness to be swept along by sheer emotion. Which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, if tempered by a healthy dose of realism. They had known each other five hours and already she had them cast as the leading roles in some great, epic romance. Jake liked her. An understatement. But he was a more a look-before-you-leap type. He hadn’t always been that way, but age and bitter experience had a way of changing things. Sometimes he mourned his loss of youthful optimism more than anything else.

The digital cable box taunted him: 3:07.

Kristen pinched the tab of his zipper between thumb and forefinger, tugged gently at it. “You want this as much as I do.”

“Yeah. You’re right. But I still have to go.”

With much regret, Jake began the process of disengaging himself from Kristen, who sighed heavily. He sat up and looked down at her. “I’m sorry. But I can’t think straight right now. I have to get over to my mother’s house in about twenty minutes. If I lay here any longer with you, I’d never get over there.”

Kristen glanced at the cable box and gasped. “Oh, shit!” Something in her wide-eyed expression made him want to climb atop her. “I’m so sorry! I had no idea it was so late.”

Be strong.

He forced a smile. “Time flies when you’re…” He fumbled for the right words. He’d been about to say “in love,” but that was ridiculous at this stage. Wasn’t it? Saying those words to someone as intense as Kristen would be a mistake. He coughed and finished lamely: “…having fun.”

There was a knowing quality in her expression. Of course. She knew precisely what he’d been about to say—and wouldn’t be forgetting it anytime soon. Damn.

“Fun. That’s one word for it.” Her eyes widened again. Jake felt drawn into them. They burned with a kind of rare and magnificent spark, an ineffable quality he’d only glimpsed once or twice in his life.

I am fucking done for
, he thought.

He knew then he was completely at her mercy.

He wondered if she knew it yet.

She said, “Hey, I could go with you.”

Jake thought about it. He wouldn’t mind the company.

Going to his mother’s house wouldn’t be any more pleasant than his last visit. Shit. “No. I’d love to have you along, but I’m afraid your being there would make my mother behave so badly I’d puke.”

Kristen’s brow furrowed. “Is she really so bad, Jake? You make her sound like Cruella De Vil’s illegitimate white-trash sister. Oh. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“What?”

“I shouldn’t have said ‘white trash.’ I’m sorry.”

Jake snorted. “Don’t be. The term ‘white trash’ was invented for families like the McAllisters. Let’s put it this way. After my dad died and my mom remarried, she didn’t have to change her last name.”

“You’re kidding. Tell me you’re kidding.”

“I wish.”

“Damn.”

“Yep. Hubby number two was my dad’s second cousin. Or third. I don’t know. It’s hard to tell with the McAllisters. It sounds sick, but that’s only because it is. Listen, I’ve really got to be going. I’ll swing by with Trey later. Maybe we could all do something together.”

She smiled. “Sure. I’d like to meet him.”

They kissed good-bye and Jake hurried out of the house. Then he hopped in his car and headed toward the Zone. The old neighborhood was livelier at this time of day, with groups of school-aged kids loitering on corners and playing in pickup baseball and basketball games. It was a bright, sunny day, and the Zone looked as wholesome as any other slice of suburbia. He was glad things had changed for the better here, and he again felt embarrassment that his family’s home remained such a blight on the landscape.

He parked at the curb and walked to the front door, taking note of the red Camaro parked in the driveway. Trey’s car, he guessed. It looked to be an early ’80s model, the kind he’d coveted when he was Trey’s age. He again felt the passage of time like a weight pressing against him. To Trey, the Camaro was likely just an affordable junker, maybe even a little embarrassing.

Jolene stood framed in the open front door, watching him as if she’d been expecting him. She’d changed clothes since that morning, losing the tank top and denim cutoffs in favor of low-rider jeans and a cropped purple T-shirt that showed off her flat midriff and accentuated her bust. Jake’s stomach curdled as he noted a navel piercing framed by a tattoo of the sun.

He looked her in the eye, nodded, but didn’t smile. “Mom.”

His mother smirked. “Ain’t you the friendly one.”

Jake counted slowly to ten, then managed a tight smile and said, “I can play nice if you can. Look, I’m here to see Trey. To help. So let’s be civil.”

Jolene’s smirk gave way to a cold glare. “For Trey’s sake, I’ll be sweeter than sugar, but just between you and me, you can shove your superior attitude right up your tight ass. Treat me with respect in my house, boy.”

She turned and stalked away from him, the screen door flapping shut behind her. Jake felt some of his old anger coming back. His mind treated him to an array of images from his past, beatings and other cruel punishments. Blood roared in his ears. He wanted to scream.

He counted to ten again and entered the house.

Jolene was pouring herself a glass of Wild Turkey, diluting it with a minimal splash of Coke from an almost empty two-liter bottle. She nodded at an empty glass on the table. “Want some firewater, son?”