The Blackham Mansion Haunting (The Downwinders Book 4) (18 page)

They relocated to the living room, moving to the extreme
corner. Winn knelt down and opened the tin, intending to invert it and let the
rest of the powder fall out and onto the floor. As he turned it over, they
heard a thump behind them, and Winn jumped, sending the powder flying.

Shit!
Deem said, as Winn turned to look up and into the room.

Something’s in the kitchen,
Winn whispered.

Deem was busily trying to scrape what powder had managed to
settle on the floor into some semblance of a pile.
Help me!
she said,
and Winn turned back. He began scraping the floor with his fingers, and a small
pile began to reform.

You start with the sparks,
Winn said.
I’ll keep scraping.

Another thump and scuttle from behind them caused Deem to
move into high gear, and she began slamming the rocks together as Winn
continued scraping. A shower of blue sparks fell onto the floor, bouncing for a
few seconds then extinguishing. She struck and struck repeatedly, sending
hundreds of sparks downward. None of them seemed to catch the powder.

Scrape more together!
Deem whispered frantically. Another thump resonated through
the air.

Winn drug his fingers over the wood, unable to see details in
their tight corner, hoping he was scraping together more powder. He felt the
rain of sparks on his hands, causing a prickling sensation.
We’re behind
furniture,
he thought.
We’re near the floor. Even if it comes into the
central room, it may not see us. It will have to come all the way into the
living room to find us in this corner. We can still pull this off.

He smelled the sour odor once again, and stopped scraping,
not wanting to extinguish the budding flame with his hands. It was burning. One
of Deem’s sparks had caught, and the tiny ripple of flame was moving through
the powder, consuming it.

He rolled over onto his back, looking for signs of the
Creepsis. As he did, he saw the house begin to transform around him. The walls
began to drip as though he was experiencing an acid trip. The ceiling peeled
and fell, pieces of wallpaper drifting through the air. He watched one of them
descend, and when it landed on the floor, he noticed all the furniture was
gone, and when he moved his hand on the floor, he felt a sharp splinter stab
his flesh.
We’re exposed now,
he thought.
Nothing to hide behind.

The house was rotting away in front of his eyes, rapidly
becoming the derelict, empty shell that he’d first seen in Paragonah days ago,
when he’d come to find out why Deem had missed her appointment.

He saw Deem standing, and he realized he needed to get up, to
get ready to use the launcher. Three bodies now appeared, suspended from the
ceiling in the central room. At first he thought he saw the Creepsis entering
from the kitchen, but then he realized it was one of the bodies, suspended in
the doorframe.

The house was still morphing around him, and Winn felt like
he was in some kind of dream. Everything seemed muffled and suppressed, moving
in slow-motion.

He got to his feet and reached into his jacket, removing the
Y shaped tube. He positioned it correctly, then placed part of it back inside
his jacket to hide it. He reached with his other hand into his pants pocket and
removed the coal. He saw his fingers shake as he placed the coal above the top
opening in the launcher.

Don’t drop it in before you see it!
he told himself.
You’re shaking
so bad you’re going to lose it!

He saw a figure appear from the left — Lorenzo, his head
swollen and grotesque. Beyond him, in the parlor, Winn could see more bodies
hanging, and one in the front hallway. Lorenzo walked into the living room, and
looked at them.

Winn heard Deem call to Lorenzo. Lorenzo responded by holding
up his hand. Winn couldn’t tell if he was signaling hello or goodbye.

The body hanging in the kitchen doorway suddenly swung aside
as the Creepsis entered the central room. It leapt, and cleared half the
distance between itself and Lorenzo in a matter of seconds. Winn was stunned by
its appearance. He recognized the neck and the long stinger that had emerged
from it. He wasn’t prepared for the grotesque head on the creature’s back. It
was so incomprehensible and fucked up that he found his mind wandering with cognitive
dissonance.

Lorenzo turned to face the creature and began walking toward
it. The Creepsis reared up on hind legs, exposing an underbelly wrinkled by a
hairy exoskeleton, its upper arms much longer than normal. It was poised to
strike Lorenzo.

Winn moved closer, pulling the launcher from his jacket. The
Creepsis was focused on Lorenzo, and would be distracted.
He’s sacrificing
himself to buy us time,
he thought.
Now! Drop the coal now!

A wave of sleepiness washed over him just as he let the rock
slip from his fingers.
Starting to pass out!
he thought as he heard it
bounce on the floor.
What happened to David is happening to me!
He
looked down, searching for the rock.
I can’t pass out now! I must stay
awake!

He knelt quickly, running his hands over the ground, feeling
splinters.
What if it rolled away?
he found himself thinking, and
becoming sick to his stomach at the idea of having lost it.
Everything’s
starting to go off rails,
he thought, feeling the splinters enter his skin
as he scraped the pads of his fingers over the old wood. Then he brushed
against the rock, and he wrapped it up in his hand, grasping it tightly. He
looked at the launcher as he placed it into the tube, making sure it entered
the chamber.
It takes a few seconds to work,
he thought.
Now stand
back up and aim it.

When he rose, the Creepsis had already landed on Lorenzo.
Winn felt the launcher surging, building to some type of explosion. He aimed
the open end at the Creepsis, and saw it shaking in his hand. Another wave of
sleepiness hit him. He grabbed the launcher with both hands, trying to steady
it.

Then he heard Deem cry out, and out of the corner of his eye
saw her begin to move.
What are you doing, Deem?!
he thought.
This
thing is about to detonate!

Winn saw the long proboscis extend from the neck of the
Creepsis, rising in the air before plunging into Lorenzo.

He heard Deem scream again, and felt the rising force within
the launcher. Another wave of drowsiness hit him suddenly, and he felt himself
drifting, almost ready to pass out.

It expelled. The power of the launch caused him to waver,
just slightly. At that exact moment, Deem stretched her hand forward toward
Lorenzo, calling out to him again, trying to gain his attention, trying to stop
his sacrifice.

It was just enough.

The bright red netting hit her hand first, and rather than
proceed on toward its intended target, Winn watched as it swung through the air
around Deem’s arm and encircled her body. Deem stiffened as the netting pulsed
and tightened around her, and it kept collapsing until there was nothing left
and Deem was gone.

Deem!
Winn screamed.
Deem!

The Creepsis reared up off Lorenzo, withdrawing its stinger
from Lorenzo’s chest. Winn saw streaks of blood on the proboscis as it slid
back into the creature, and shuddered as its head turned to look at him. In his
peripheral vision he saw the bodies in the central room detach from the
ceiling, landing on their legs and stumbling toward him.

Deem!
he called, but there was no response. She was gone.

He left the River just as the Creepsis leapt through the air.
As he saw the long stinger reemerge from the creature’s neck above him, Winn’s
reality changed, and he found himself in the empty and silent living room of
the house in Paragonah.

He reached to his chest. His heart was beating a million
miles an hour, but there was no wound. He was whole.

Deem’s body was lying quietly next to him, her eyes open and
unmoving, staring blankly at the debris that littered the floor.

“Pick up, goddamn it!” Winn screamed into his phone. He was
racing down Interstate 15, headed back to Leeds. Deem’s body sat strapped into
the passenger’s seat. If she had a pulse, it was too weak for Winn to detect.

He knew he was at risk of being pulled over for speeding. Explaining
Deem’s condition to a highway patrolman would be the end of anything useful he
could do for her, so he slowed down a little, hoping to stay under the point
where he’d be nabbed. He was doing eighty-five.

He called Carma again. No answer.

“Goddamn it!” he said, throwing the phone down.

When he finally reached the house, he pulled Deem from the
Jeep and hauled her to the front door. He kicked at the door with his foot
until Carma appeared and opened it.

“Oh my god!” Carma said, seeing Deem. “What happened?”

“The weapon Lyman gave me,” Winn said, feeling emotion rise
in his throat. “It hit her.”

Carma opened the door wide so that Winn could bring Deem
inside.

“I have to see Lyman, now!” Winn said, and took Deem to the
door that led to the basement. He waited for Carma to open it for him.

Carma raced to his side and pulled the knob. He ran down the
stairs and through the family room until he reached the doors that led to the
tunnel. Carma was right behind him, opening those doors too, and then Winn’s
feet hit solid rock as he entered the passageway. Carma reached for the
overhead lights, and Winn took off down the tunnel as quickly as his feet would
carry him.

When he reached the chamber with the table, he laid Deem on
it and began calling for Lyman to appear.

Carma caught up with him, and Winn saw that she had entered
the River. He dropped in too, and heard Carma calling Lyman, urgency in her
voice. He saw Deem disappear from the table.

Lyman appeared at the entrance to the tunnels that led deeper
into the caves.

The launcher you gave me,
Winn said.
She stepped in front of it just before
it went off. The red thing that came out of it hit her. Is there anything you
can do?
Winn was close to tears as he begged. He saw Lyman close his eyes
in disappointment.

Probably not,
Lyman answered.
But bring her here.
Lyman turned and
went further down the tunnel.

Winn dropped from the River. Deem appeared on the table once
again. He picked her up and followed Lyman, Carma bringing up the rear. When
Winn reached the second room, he dropped into the River again.

Set her down, over there,
Lyman pointed, and Winn dropped from the flow once
again. He walked Deem’s body to approximately where Lyman had indicated, and
set her down on the rocky ground. Her body seemed as cold to him as the cave.
Then he jumped back into the River.

Lyman was next to him, holding a small glass aquarium, filled
with a substance that looked like water. Something was swimming inside.

When you drop from the River,
Lyman said,
I’m going to make
this creature available to you. You will use it on Deem.

How?
Winn asked.

It has tubes on its underside that you will thread into
Deem’s nose and mouth. Once it’s firmly attached, come back.

Winn dropped from the flow and looked for the creature. Carma
was at his side. She was holding a small glass tube that was emitting a faint light.
It was dim, and only lit the area immediately around them. He looked for the
tank, but couldn’t see it.

“There,” Carma said, pointing. “It’s on the ground, there.”

Winn looked down where Carma was pointing. The creature was
lying still on the rock, almost camouflaged. It looked large and slimy, like an
octopus.

Winn reached down to grab it, and felt a sting of electricity
as he touched it. He ignored the sting and lifted the creature. Its head
ballooned up, flapping back and forth, and he saw its eyes roll as its
tentacles began to slip out from its bottom, wrapping up and over his hands in
an attempt to pull itself from him.

“Move quickly!” Carma said, and Winn stepped to Deem,
bringing the creature down by her face. With horror Winn saw a large, white
flesh tube emerge from its underside, snaking to Deem’s mouth and pressing its
way inside. Deem’s body convulsed as it moved within her, half of its mass
disappearing down her throat. What remained was the head, which seemed to be
very thin skin, flapping back and forth in the air, growing in size as it
inflated, then reversing and shrinking. Two long, dark green tendrils that
looked like electrical wires flowed out of its side and plunged into Deem’s
nostrils. The eyes on the side of the creature opened once again, and looked at
him. Deem’s body shook, and he stepped back in response.

“Take off your shirt,” he heard Carma say, but he was
transfixed on the horrific sight in front of him. He felt Carma hit him in the
arm. “Take off your shirt.”

“Why?”

“You need to wipe that stuff off your hands and arms,” she
said, pointing to the slime that the creature had left on him as he transported
it.

Winn pulled at his shirt and slipped it over his head, and
then began to wipe the mucus from his hands. When he was close to finished, he
dropped back into the River.

Do you know what’s happened to her?
Winn asked Lyman.

She was captured and transferred,
Lyman answered.
Her physical body
is barely alive and could die at any second. The rest of her is trapped.

Where?

In the soul cage,
Lyman said.

Winn turned to look at the little Asian man, sitting in the
chair at the other end of the room, next to the tunnel.

In there!?
Winn asked.
Where he went?

I’m afraid so,
Lyman said.

What will happen to her?
Winn asked, becoming more upset with each word.

It’s likely that she’ll die, and her soul will remain with
the others in the cage.

How can that be?
Winn asked.
What is in the soul cage?

Some of the worst people to have walked the earth in the last
hundred years,
Lyman
replied.
Murderers, rapists. People who committed atrocities. The worst of
mankind.

How do we get her out?
Winn asked frantically.

We don’t,
Lyman said.
It’s a soul cage. Nothing comes out.

Then why did you have me put that thing on her face?
Winn asked.
What was it supposed
to do?

It’ll keep her body alive,
Lyman replied.
She was close to death. Another
couple of minutes and she would have been gone.

So, what, she’s on life support? Some kind of fucked up life
support? With no hope of ever coming back?”

Probably,
Lyman said.
Likely.

Winn fell down to his knees, crying.
What did that gun do?
Exactly?

It captured her soul,
Lyman answered.
Transferred it to my soul cage.

Why?
Winn asked, crying, not really sure what question to ask next, but
knowing he didn’t feel satisfied.

You tell me why,
Lyman said.
You were to point it at the spider, not at
Deem.

Deem reached out her hand,
Winn replied.
She wasn’t standing in front of it.
It hit her hand and wrapped around her. I wasn’t pointing it at her.

Perhaps I should have warned you,
Lyman said.
It’s indiscriminate.
First thing it hits, it takes. Like a shotgun that can redirect all of its
pellets to the first thing the first pellet touches.

Why did Deem reach out?
Carma asked.
She must have known you were going to
fire the launcher.

She saw Lorenzo,
Winn said.
He walked right up to the Creepsis, gave
himself up to it. It was stabbing him, and she was calling to him. I think he
was trying to buy us some time, so I could load the launcher. I don’t think she
even realized she was reaching into the line of fire. And…

Winn stopped.

I was shaking,
he finished.
When it shot, I tried to hold it still. I
felt weak. It had a huge kickback, even before it launched. I must have let it
drift just enough to hit her arm.

He lowered his head into his hands and began to sob.

Take him back upstairs,
Lyman said to Carma.
There’s nothing that he can
do down here.

And there’s nothing to be done for Deem?
Carma asked.

She’s in the soul cage now,
Lyman replied.
It can’t be opened yet. You know
that.

Winn raised his head and stood back up. He wiped away the
tears from his eyes.
Give me another charge,
he said.

Another charge?
Lyman asked.

Another charge for the launcher,
Winn replied.
David is still
trapped in that house with the Creepsis. It isn’t dead. I have to go back there
and finish it off.
Winn pulled the Y tube from his jacket and handed it to
Lyman.

Lyman looked at him. Winn gave Lyman his best determined
face. It was hard to do, with the knowledge that he might have killed Deem
racing through his mind.

Lyman silently took the launcher from Winn and walked back
through his sanctum, stopping at the man in the chair. Winn watched from a
distance as the man rose and robotically lumbered into the tunnel.

▪
▪
▪

Now 4 AM, Winn observed the skyline as he pulled his Jeep
once again next to Blackham mansion. His eyes were heavy, and he knew he was
running out of time.
It’ll be light soon,
he thought, and grabbed the
launcher from the passenger seat. The wax Lyman had used to seal the bottom
tube was still soft, and he took care not to press on it.

Turning to the house, he realized how much he hated the
place.
Not much longer,
he thought.
I’ll be taking care of you soon.
Just one more thing to do.

He walked inside, the strapped-down cinderblocks giving him a
moment’s pause.
The house is collapsed, he thought. Just don’t go out any of
the doors. Let’s find this fucker and blow it away.

He stepped inside and walked through to the living room,
sitting down in the same spot he’d been at earlier when he went in with Deem.
Let
this be the last time,
he thought as he took a deep breath and closed his
eyes.

Then he slipped into the River.

The bodies in the central room hung still; they were no
longer swinging as they had been before. He looked all around him, and was
startled to find a corpse strung up behind him, in the corner right over the
spot where they’d burned the matura.

Didn’t notice that one before,
he thought.

He listened, but there was no sound. The house was dark and
quiet.

He looked into the entryway and parlor, seeing the bodies
there. He imagined them coming to life, but they didn’t move.
Perhaps it
doesn’t know I’m here,
Winn thought.
Yet.

He stood and walked slowly, quietly. He went to the kitchen
first. Another body was hanging there, in the far corner. He walked to the door
and opened it.

It seemed so surreal. He’d been used to seeing duplicate
houses with Deem. The duplicate cinderblock he saw strapped down in the front
hallway across the threshold gave him the creeps.

One step, and I’d be trapped,
he thought. He closed the door, a
shiver going up his spine.

He made his way back through the kitchen and central room,
taking care to not disturb the hanging corpse in the doorway. The floor underneath
him creaked a little as he walked, something he couldn’t avoid. He tried to
lighten his step and move more slowly.
There’s only one house to explore,
he thought.
Don’t have to rush. Just need to find David before the Creepsis
does.

He walked slowly through the living room and to the entryway.
He glanced in the parlor, counting the bodies.

Twelve, just in that one room,
Winn thought.
Maybe that was his
favorite spot to hang them, not the master bedroom upstairs.

He walked down the hallway. When he reached the landing to
the stairs, he decided to complete the lower level before going upstairs. He
walked to the hallway that led to the outer door, checking the rooms. With each
door he opened, he readied the launcher, aiming it directly in front of him,
ready to drop the coal. Each room was the same — hold breath, open door, sigh
in relief. On to the next.