The Disappearance of Katie Wren (29 page)

“But won't there be cameras?” I ask. “Won't there be motion sensors and guards?”

She winces as she adjusts her grip on Katie's unconscious body.

“Do you have a better idea?” she replies after a moment.

I pause, before shaking my head.

“We need to do something that makes the staff run further into the house,” she continues, “rather than having them go out through the back door. Come on, Winnie, you're a smart old bird. Think of a plan!”

“What are you doing?” Katie whispers groggily, before mumbling something under her breath.

“Shit!” Annabelle hisses. “Princess Tippy-Toes is waking up!”

“You're faster than me,” I point out.

“So?”

“So you can run, even with Katie in your arms. I can't!”

“We're not leaving you behind!”

“You have to get Katie out of here!” I tell her, starting to feel increasingly frantic. “If you wait for me, you're taking more of a risk. Maybe I can distract the people in the kitchen for a few minutes, at least while you try to get away. Then I can try to come after you, but the important thing is that you'll be able to take Katie out of Knott's Court! She's better off with you than she is with me!”

“They'll do some pretty dark stuff to you,” she replies. “They'll torture you to find out where I'm taking her.”

“Which is why you can't tell me!” Pausing, I realize that this is actually the only plan that makes sense. “You have to take her,” I continue. “I don't care what happens to me, but you have to get Katie out of here and find somewhere to keep her safe. You always told me you have connections, Annabelle. Now's the time to use them.”

I lean down and kiss the side of Katie's face.

“I love you,” I tell her. “I know the real you is in there somewhere. I believe in you!”

Annabelle sighs. “But -”

“And I might still be able to come after the pair of you,” I add, turning and heading back to the door we just came through. “Give me half a minute and I'll cause a distraction. And then you have to run, and don't look back. I can take care of myself!”

“Winnie, wait!”

I don't give her time to argue. Instead, I slip back out into the corridor and head to the next door. Peering through, I see four bored-looking kitchen staff working at one of the benches. They don't look too alert, and they're arguing among themselves about inane work-related matters. Still, I can't risk the possibility that they might spot Annabelle and Katie, and that they might raise the alarm.

I take a deep breath, before stepping into view.

“Hello,” I say with a smile, “I'm terribly sorry to interrupt, but do any of you happen to know where I can find Mr. Stewart? I seem to have rather lost my way.”

“Who are you?” the nearest man asks, already reaching for his phone.

“I'm just trying to find Dominic Stewart,” I continue, stepping over to the counter so that they'll keep their eyes fixed on me. “My name is Winifred Wren, and my daughter Katie is a guest here. I need to ask Mr. Stewart for his help with a few matters and -”

“Don't move,” the chef mutters, already bringing up a number on his phone. “You're not supposed to be through here! I'm gonna check with security and get them to come help you, okay?”

Behind him, a door in the corner opens and Annabelle sneaks out, carrying Katie to the door that leads out to the yard.

“Please help me locate Mr. Stewart,” I continue, trying to sound like some doddery old fool who just happens to have wandered through the wrong door. “It's frightfully important that I speak to him, and so far he's nowhere to be found. It's a complete miracle that I happened to find you and -”

“Help,” Katie murmurs suddenly.

The cooks turn to her.

“Help!” she yells, panicking as she tries to clamber out of Annabelle's arms.

“Run!” I shout, as the cooks rush over to stop them. “Annabelle, get her out of here!”

“Stop!” Katie screams, falling away from Annabelle and slamming to the ground. Immediately getting to her feet, she has to steady herself against the counter.

“Come on,” Annabelle tells her, “we have to -”

Before she can finish, Katie swings around to her. At the last moment, I see that my poor, sweet girl has grabbed a carving knife from the counter, and she quickly lashes out, driving the blade into Annabelle's chest and then letting out an angry cry as she lunges at her. They fall together, crashing down to the ground as the cooks stand back.

“Don't hurt her!” I shout, hurrying across the kitchen, only to stop as soon as I see blood all over the floor.

“I'm not leaving!” Katie screams, pulling back but slipping in the blood. She falls again, and then she turns and crawls away, leaving Annabelle clutching at the knife that's embedded in her chest.

Too shocked to react, I suddenly feel someone brushing against my arm. Two maids rush into the room and hurry to Katie, grabbing her arms and hauling her away.

“I didn't want to go!” Katie sobs. “They were kidnapping me! I wasn't even awake!”

Hurrying over to Annabelle, I drop to my knees and see that she's still fumbling with the knife's handle. Her hands are trembling and blood is soaking through her shirt, and she already looks pale.

“Don't pull it out!” I tell her, forcing her hands away. “You need a doctor!”

She lets out a gasp of pain as she tries but fails to get up.

“Katie didn't know what she was doing,” I continue, trying not to panic. “Please, you have to understand, she was just scared!”

Annabelle grunts as she tries again to get up. She reaches for the knife's handle, but she's starting to shake now and more blood is spreading across the kitchen floor, forming a dark red pool that has already reached the legs of the counter by the door. She tries to roll on to her side, and I see that the tip of the blade is poking out through her shoulder.

“Harry!” she gasps.

I look back across the room, but all I see are the cooks, who seem frozen by the horrific sight unfolding before them.

“Get Harry!” Annabelle hisses.

I turn back to her. “Why would you -”

“Make him pay!” she adds, as a trickle of blood runs from one corner of her mouth. “Get that fucking -”

Suddenly she starts coughing, spraying me with blood as her entire body convulses.

“You'll be okay!” I tell her, even though I'm frantically trying to work out how to save her. “Annabelle, Katie didn't mean to -”

Before I can finish, I'm grabbed from behind and dragged away. I try to get free, but two maids are hauling me across the kitchen. Once I'm out in the corridor, they shove me to the ground and the door slams shut, and I turn just in time to see Dominic Stewart marching this way with two more maids behind him. He stops and towers over me, and for a moment I see nothing but pure disgust in his eyes. A few seconds later, however, he starts to smile.

“Congratulations,” he says finally. “Thanks to your little stunt, any last doubts about Katie's true loyalties have been cast aside. The prophecy said she'd been given one last chance to prove herself, and she's passed with flying colors!”

“You have to help her!” I stammer, turning and crawling back to the kitchen door, only to find that it's locked. I try the handle a few more times, before stopping as I see that my hands are covered in Annabelle's blood. “She's bleeding to death!”

“Ms. Churchill will receive the medical attention she deserves,” he explains calmly.

“You have to get her to a hospital!”

“That will not be possible.”

“There's a knife in her chest!” I shout, trying the door again and again.

“I know.”

I turn to him, and it's clear from his untroubled demeanor that he has no intention of lifting a finger to help Annabelle.

“As I said a moment ago,” he continues, “she will receive the medical attention she deserves. And I shall be the one who determines what that might be. Unfortunately, she's hardly our biggest priority right now.”

“You can't let her die!” I stammer. “Please, you have to help her!”

“I'm afraid our focus is elsewhere,” he replies. “Your intervention has triggered one of the prophecies in the ancient text. It's clear to us that Hiirux is poised to return, and Katie herself has demanded to be put to the test again. Ordinarily we would have let her rest until tomorrow morning, but the High Priest believes it might be wiser to push her past her current point. After all, she's the gateway, and it may be the case that she must be further weakened before Hiirux is able to force his way through.”

“No,” I whisper, struggling to my feet. “You have to let her go!”

“You should be proud,” he tells me. “Your daughter is about to let a god enter her body, and then he will use her as he sees fit. So few people ever achieve their destiny. Katie is one of the lucky, lucky few. Two thousand years of patience are about to be rewarded.”

Chapter Thirty-Nine

He Lives

“Wait!” I shout as soon as I reach the chamber, but I'm already too late. Stopping in the doorway, I see that Katie's naked, bloodied body has been re-attached to the chains above the altar. “She can't take any more of this!” I yell. “You're going to kill her!”

“We're not forcing her to do this,” Dominic says as he steps up behind me. “Katie is submitting herself willingly, and it is Hiirux himself who will fill her body and turn her into his agent here in this world. She knows exactly what's going to happen next, and she welcomes it. In fact, I honestly don't think she'd let you stop her.”

Hurrying down the large stone steps that lead to the base of the altar, I look up and watch as the chains start to haul Katie higher and higher. Fires are burning in large bronze bowls all around us, while huge red curtains hang down to cover the chamber's stone walls. Finally I stop at the foot of the altar and stare up at my poor girl.

“We are here!” Harry calls out, from his lectern behind the altar. “Hiirux, we await your return! We have been loyal to you for millennia now, our ancestors passed down the gift of faith from generation to generation and our belief has only grown stronger in that time! Now we make this offering, so that you can return to the world! But before that can happen, we understand now that we must weaken the gateway and make it easier for you to pass through! The flesh must be made more welcoming!”

“Do it!” Katie gasps, clearly in pain.

“Leave her alone!” I shout, as Harry steps out from behind the lectern and makes his way to where Katie is still hanging naked from the chains.

“Let me be the one!” Katie gurgles, begging Harry as he stops in front of her writhing body. “I can feel him! He's so close! Let me be the one who lets Hiirux through!”

Harry stares at her for a moment, before slipping a large, serrated dagger from beneath his robes.

“What are you doing with that?” I shout, scrambling up toward him before two hooded figures grab my shoulders and force me to my knees. I try to get up, but they're holding me too firmly. “Stop!” I scream, still struggling. “Katie, you have to stop them! Tell them you don't want this!”

“Free me!” she yells, tilting her head back and laughing. “Let Hiirux into my body!”

Harry steps toward her and raises the tip of the knife to her collarbone.

“No!” I shout. “Don't -”

I let out a horrified cry as the blade slices into her body. Katie is still laughing, even as Harry drives the knife deeper and carves through her breastbone and all the way down to her belly. No matter how hard I struggle, I can't get to my feet, and the hooded figures continue to hold me down as Harry forces the knife through Katie's stomach and out through her crotch. Blood is pouring from her, dribbling down onto the stone floor, and Harry calmly turns the knife so he can begin slicing a horizontal cut across her navel.

“No!” I scream, watching as the torn flesh slips aside and Katie's intestines slop out onto the dry, dusty ground.

She's still laughing, and her body is shuddering as her guts spill from her belly.

I try to call out to her, but waves of shock are rushing through my body and all I can do is stare as my daughter falls still. More and more blood is gushing out, and finally I drop down to my knees and bury my head in my hands. I know it's too late now, and I know I've failed. Shuddering as I weep, I can hear the hooded figures stepping around me, but it takes several minutes before I finally have the strength to lift my head again.

Harry is removing the chains from Katie's body. As soon as she's free, she drops dead to the stone floor.

“Her screams were heard far and wide,” Harry announces calmly, stepping around the mess as blood dribbles down the sides of the altar. “Not just here, but in the realm of Hiirux as well. He has surely found his way back to us, and now we must simply wait. The girl's destiny is complete, and she will always be remembered for her sacrifice.”

Sobbing, I try to get to my feet, but my legs are trembling. When I start crawling forward, I feel hands on my shoulders again, and they gently but firmly hold me back.

“Please no,” I whimper, barely able to see anything as tears fill my eyes. I reach out with a shaking hand, but I know there's no hope. “Katie, come back to me. Katie, I love you!”

“Soon he will stir,” Harry continues, walking around my poor girl's body and staring down at her bloodied, lifeless corpse. “There is nothing holding him back, not anymore. We are ready to welcome him as he sees fit.”

A figure makes its way up to join Harry, and I watch in horror as Dominic Stewart takes the bloodied dagger from Harry and carries it behind the altar, where he starts washing the blade in a bowl of water.

“Come to us, Hiirux!” Harry shouts. “We are waiting for you!”

“Come to us!” the other figures repeat, dropping to their knees and bowing their heads.

I start crawling toward the altar, and this time no-one tries to stop me. I slow as I get close to Katie, and I see that her bloody guts have been spilled across the stones. Finally I reach out, taking her cold dead hand in mine.

“I tried to save you” I sob, squeezing her hand tighter. “I tried but I couldn't!”

“He comes to us through the void! Our great and mighty lord!”

“I did everything, but it wasn't enough!”

“The gateway is ready for him! He only has to step through!”

“I love you! I love you so much!”

“He is here!”

Squeezing my eyes tight shut, I lower my head until my cheek is pressing against Katie's cold hand.

“He is here!”

I let out a low, pained whimper.

“He is here!”

Her hand moves.

I hold my breath, convinced that I must be mistaken, but it moves again. And again. I lift my head and open my eyes, just in time to see her fingers flexing. I'm still holding her hand, but I relax my grip and stare in numb disbelief as she straightens her fingers. A moment later, I see that her shoulders are moving too, almost as if...

She's trying to get up.

“He is here,” Harry says solemnly, bowing his head down to the stone floor.

“He is here,” the others murmur.

“Katie?” I whisper, as she slips her hand from mine. I don't dare believe what I'm seeing, not yet. I keep telling myself that this is some kind of trick, that I'm being taunted by these monsters. “Katie, are you -”

Suddenly she turns her head and looks straight at me. Her eyes are open wide with shock, but they seem darker somehow, and her pupils are huge. A moment later, her lips start to tremble.

“Katie, it's me,” I continue, still not convinced that this is real. “Katie, say something.”

She stares at me for a few seconds, showing no hint of recognition, and then she slowly gets onto her hands and knees. Her chest is still open and her guts are still hanging down, glistening and staining the stones deep red. Nevertheless, after a moment longer she starts getting to her feet until finally she's wobbling but standing on the altar, albeit with her intestines still hanging down from her ruptured body.

Staring up at her, I can't help thinking that I must be imagining this, that her death has pushed me over the edge. I'm hallucinating. I have to be.

Suddenly she looks down, and she starts running her fingers against her intestines. She shows no sign of pain, or even discomfort; instead, she simply seems fascinated, and she even starts squeezing her guts together as if she wants to understand more about them.

A moment later, she kneels down and starts gathering the mess into her arms. When she stands again, she pushes part of her intestines back into her body, feeding the bloody pile slowly but steadily through the slit in her belly, even as more blood runs down her bare legs. It's as if she's trying to undo the damage that was caused by the knife, and she's still showing no sign of pain or fear. She's simply putting herself back together with a calm, patient expression on her face.

All around us, the bowed and hooded figures remain completely silent, as if they dare not say a word. They don't even dare look at her.

Katie holds her hands against her ruptured belly, before slowly moving them aside. Immediately, her intestines slop out again, dropping to the ground and splattering blood across the stones. She stares down at them for just a few seconds, and then she kneels, gathering them once more and then getting to her feet. Again, she carefully pushes them back into her body, ignoring the fact that flecks of grit and dust are stuck to the glistening surfaces. This time, however, she pauses once she's done, and I see to my horror that her hands seem to be burning her flesh, as if she's searing the wound shut.

“Praise be to Hiirux,” Harry whispers nearby. “Praise him. Let him lead us. Praise his eternal wisdom.”

I stare up at Katie, but she seems not to even notice me as she suddenly takes a stumbling, lurching step past the edge of the altar.

“Praise Hiirux,” another hooded figure stammers, and the others quickly follow suit.

Soon, I hear voices all around me, offering their prayers to this Hiirux monstrosity. It's as if they're really think that somehow he's inside my girl's body.

“Katie,” I stammer, getting to my feet as she steps toward me. “Katie, what -”

“I am here,” she replies, her voice sounding so weak and pained as fresh blood trickles from one corner of her mouth. Now, for the first time since she rose, her eyes are fixed on me. “I have come to you.”

“Katie, you don't know what you're saying,” I continue. “We have to leave. Do you understand? We have to get out of this awful place!”

She stares at me for a moment longer, before suddenly tilting her head to one side.

“Leave?” she whispers. “When my followers are already in place? Why would you suggest such a thing?”

“No, Katie, listen,” I stammer, “you're confused, you're wrong! We have to go home and get you some help. You've been brainwashed, you've been made to believe some awful things, but we can save you. Do you understand? We can put you right and fix your head. It'll take time, but we
have
time. All that matters is that you come home with me. Please, sweetheart, stop playing this awful game!”

“You're not like the others,” she replies. “You don't bow before me.”

“Katie, you -”

“Who is Katie?” she asks. “Is she the girl who called to me? The girl I put in my place?”

I open my mouth to reply, before realizing that she must have truly lost her mind. I can't explain what happened when I saw her intestines spill out, but I have to assume that some kind of illusion was employed. Special effects, maybe mirrors, something like that. Stepping forward, I reach out to take her hand in mine, although she seems a little confused as I slip my fingers between hers.

“You're going to come home with me now,” I tell her, as my voice trembles with shock. “Home, Katie. Do you remember home? I'm going to take you to Shropley. Away from this place.”

“I have so much to do,” she replies.

“We're going to be very busy setting your head straight,” I tell her.

“My head?”

“We'll get the best doctors money can buy,” I continue, squeezing her hand. “We'll spare no expense. We might have to sell the house to pay for it, but that's okay. Whatever it takes. All that matters is that we get you back on the straight and narrow. Please, sweetheart, you have to be sensible here. You have to recognize that you need help. Lots and lots and lots of help.”

“I need assistance.”

“You need more than assistance,” I tell her, forcing a smile even though I'm absolutely terrified. “Katie, you -”

“Why do you keep using that name?”

“Katie, please -”

“I have waited so long for this,” she adds, interrupting me. “I have traveled so far through the cold, dark places. This body in which I find myself... I must make it heal. This will take time.”

“You're delusional!” I say firmly. “Katie, you're mixing fantasy with reality! You've been listening to these awful people and you've let them take control of your thoughts!”

“They brought me back to this world.”

“You'll be fine,” I continue, as fresh tears roll down my cheeks. “I promise, sweetheart. We'll get you the help you need.”

Behind her, Harry Plume is finally getting to his feet.

“Hiirux,” he says after a moment, with fear in his voice. “I have led the efforts to bring you back to us. You were away for so long, but we never stopped believing. Our knowledge was passed down over the centuries from generation to generation, and we ensured that we'd be ready for your triumphant return to this world. I am the High Priest, but I am merely the latest to hold this office. Many, many carried the torch before me. Now we stand prepared to serve you in whatever way you see fit. We merely await your word, and then your commands shall be followed.”

“Commands?”

Katie pauses, and slowly a faint smile crosses her lips.

“We are your servants, Hiirux,” Harry continues. “We -”

“Don't call her that!” I hiss. “Never use that name around her! This is all your fault!”