Nowhere Blvd: A Horror Novel (16 page)

“Ahhh Spencer,” said Jack.  His voice was soft, and he wore a look of happy rapture on his human-masked face.  “How I wished and wished you would come.”

So close,
thought Spencer. 
I was so close.
  He’d expected fear, but instead only felt a final depression.  It had all been for nothing.  And yet...

And yet there was a spark of hope still.  Jack was a long ways away, and Spencer was halfway home.  He had more of a lead now then he had when he’d run this same hallway with Mr. Buttons on his trail.  He’d had less weight then, but maybe.  When Jack started calmly walking forward, Spencer began matching step for step backward.

“You’re the only one Spencer,” Jack said as he cast his arms wide in a gesture of both amazement and welcome.  “The only one to ever escape.  After all I’ve fooled, you were the one that fooled me.”

Just a little further,
Spencer half-thought and half-prayed. 
Just keep walking
.

“The things I could do with you Spencer,” said Jack.  A distant look of hunger smoldered in his alien eyes even through the mask.  “The things I could
make
of you.  After all these years, after
ages
Spencer!  You could be the one.  The real Perfect one.  The child so Perfect that I can finally...”

But Jack had stopped walking.  Spencer stopped too, unsure if he would somehow break the spell of escape if he kept moving.

“Come here Spencer,” Jack said.  It wasn’t a request, it was an order.

“Jack,” said Spencer.  “You’re out of your fucking mind.”

Spencer turned and ran with every bit of the uncanny speed that he’d learned in the streets and forests of Nowhere Blvd.  He was sure he’d make it, even with Suzie slowing him down he was already three fourths of the way towards the Grand Closet.  And Jack was twice that distance away from him.

Spencer didn’t even come close.

Jack moved with all the preternatural speed of a jumping spider.  His very movements a blur.  Spencer was overtaken as if he’d been doing no more than calmly sleepwalking.  Jack dealt him a glancing blow as he shot past.  Spencer lost his balance and went sprawling, losing Suzie in the process.  She landed with a thump and rolled away, too dazed by the impact to cry.

Spencer landed at a half roll and was on his feet in a second, the hunting knife drawn and readied on the way.  He attacked by reflex, not giving Jack time to think as he slashed at the smiling face. 

Jack deflected the knife and whipped it away with such grace and speed that one of Spencer’s fingernails was caught and torn away with it.  In the same moment Jack slammed a fist into his chest that sent him flying across the hall into a pile of toys.  Spencer landed in a heap, arms clutched around his chest.  His breath had been knocked out of him and his attempts to suck in more only ended with a wretched choking sound.  He’d never been hit like that in his life.

He was out of his league here, he knew it now more than ever.  For the first time in a long time he felt like a little boy caught by the monster under the bed.  All his long nightmares were about to come true.

His vision began to fade, replaced with a swirling bluish black haze.  He saw Jack look away from him, still smiling in scorn.  The last thing he saw was Jack start to walk towards Suzie.  He could still hear though, could hear when she started screaming. 

Spencer beat at his chest, trying to force his lungs to work as his mind shut down piece by piece.  And miraculously at last they did.  He breathed again, and found when he came back to full consciousness that he was already standing, having somehow dragged himself back up without realizing it. 
I’ve got more knives.  Maybe while Jack’s back is turned to go after Suzie.

But he saw now that Jack wasn’t looking at Suzie, or at him.  He was looking down towards the entrance of the long hallway. 

Spencer followed his gaze and saw something both monstrous and wonderful.  The hallway was filling with creatures out of a nightmare, but they weren’t
Jack’s
creatures any longer.  The Rejected things had seen the firelight in the sky, had remembered the way out of Nowhere Blvd. 

They moved tentatively forward, not sure of what to do.  Clearly Jack was alone, and yet they all still knew fear of him. 

Spencer pointed one of his claws from his right hand towards Jack.  He drew in as much breath as he could, the better to speak with.

“Now’s your chance,” he said in a breathy croak.  “He’s weak, and alone. 
Kill
him.  Now or never.”

He wasn’t sure if they heard, but in the streams of moonlight Spencer could see their eyes.  Eyes filling with enough rage to push out the fear.  Their slithering and crawling and stalking was that of the predator, trapping its prey.  Jack’s smile subtly turned from one of surprise to one of apprehension.  His eyes betrayed fear for the first time that Spencer had ever seen. 

But only for a moment.  Then he turned that horrible smile upon Spencer, and there was triumph in his eyes.

“See you around Spencer.”

Smiling Jack ran for the closet door, moving infinitely faster than even the closest of the Rejected Things.  Spencer ran after him desperately, knowing that if Jack escaped now it was only a matter of time before he found Suzie again. 

Only a matter of time before Spencer fell asleep.

As he ran after Jack he thought-prayed over and over,
Don’t see it in time, don’t see it in time.

And Jack didn’t.  He opened the closet door and took one glance back as he stepped through.  The POP of the metal spring and SNAP of the steal was loud enough to echo down the long hallway.  Instead of sliding into the liquid darkness of the closet, Jack fell to the ground.  Clawing at the bear trap that now crushed his ankle.

Jack had found Spencer’s present. 

He'd meant it to be a deterrent, had meant to jump over it on his way into the closet if anyone was following him on the way out.  Spencer didn’t pause to appreciate the irony of it.

Instead he charged straight towards Jack, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in his chest.  The Rejected Things charged to, sensing the inherent weakness of a downed foe. 

Smiling Jack screamed, and there was no pretense of humanity in that sound.  It was what a spiders scream would sound like it you burned it in its own web, only it was loud enough to rattle the very windows in their frames.  Everyone in the room stopped, frozen by that sound.  Spencer paused only for a moment though, knowing Jack was still only inches from escape, that this would be his last chance.  But the Rejected Things cringed in place, unsure of attacking anything that could make that sound.  It was truly a terrible thing. 

Spencer ran up behind him as Jack pried open the trap by brute strength alone.  He couldn’t let go to deal with Spencer without letting the thing clamp shut on his ankle again, and Spencer knew it.  He wasted no time, using his bear claws to tear and maul at Smiling Jack’s face.  The fake skin tore away, revealing again the dead gray fleshy substance beneath.  Spencer tried to tear at that too, but it was very tough even for all its looseness.  Thick and leathery.  He scratched at the black eyes but they wouldn’t puncture, were hard like crystal.  Jack almost had the bear trap off.

Finally in desperation, Spencer grabbed with both hands at the thin metal wires that held the hooks at the edges of Jack’s smile.  He pulled as hard as he could, yanking that joyless smile into a rictus grin.  He put his feet against Jack’s shoulders for leverage and strained and jerked at the wires until reddish black blood began to froth at the corners of Jack’s mouth.

It was enough for the Rejected Things, who had been moving closer the whole time.  The sight of blood was enough of a signal to attack any fallen foe.  They swarmed on Smiling Jack, tearing at him with tooth and claw and tentacle.  Jack killed what he could get his hands on, ripping out a throat or crushing a skull that fell within reach of his flailing arms. 

Spencer didn’t flee, but instead pulled a knife from his ankle holster and joined in, stabbing down with both hands on Jack’s face.  Finally he landed a blow hard enough to crack through the shell of one of Jacks black eyes.  Again and again he stabbed at that weak point while the Rejected kept Jack’s hands too busy to defend himself.  A final savage blow with all his strength and he penetrated the eye all the way up to the knife’s hilt.

Jack spasmed, a seizure of death ripping through him.  He jerked around for a time, then was still.

Spencer crawled away, gasping for breath.  He went over to Suzie, who sat quietly.  She was awake, her eyes wide and filled with tears.  She didn’t cry though.  Perhaps in too much shock, he thought.  She didn’t look
too
badly hurt.  He lifted her into his arms and looked around the room.  All eyes were on him.

“You’re free now,” he said wearily.  “But you can’t go through that closet.  You’re monsters.  That’s not your home anymore.  Your home is here now.”

He told them because it needed to be said, and didn't have enough humanity left to care about whatever sense of loss they might experience from the words. 

They can’t go back
, he thought as he looked up at the Grand Closet door and prepared to leave.  
Not like me.

But can I?

Spencer looked around at the things before him.  Could
he
go home?  It hadn’t felt like home when he’d been there before.  What was waiting for him?  A life of growing up, learning to pretend to be like his parents?  Working a job and buying a house and living like he was part of a world where the true sun shown down from the heavens, when he alone knew of a world where it didn’t?

He didn’t care about his parents, missed them less than ever because he’d seen what life with them would be like now.  The only person he really cared about was Suzie, and she could stay here with him. 

I can take care of her just as well here,
he reasoned
.  There’s no one left here who can stand against me.  Nanny Gurdy wouldn’t dare, and my army of Rejected Things can take care of any Hollow Men.  We can steal our food from the real world, and I can do whatever I want with the Perfects.  Maybe even another Perfect Girl Julie...

Spencer stood there thinking.  Weighing his options, deciding his fate.  The claustrophobic comforts of the real world, or the terrifying wonders of Nowhere Blvd.  It wasn’t a decision to take lightly.  He was finally free to do whatever he wanted. 
Go
wherever he wanted. 

Anywhere except home, because for Spencer Williams there was no such place.

Maybe stay,
he wondered. 
Maybe go
.

"Mommy," said Suzie quietly, head leaning against his chest. 

It was enough.  Without a glance back, he stepped over the remains of Smiling Jack and into the closet.

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Thank you for purchasing
Nowhere Blvd.
  I hope you enjoyed it, and now have to sleep with the lights on for a week.  If so, please consider posting a review.  It's the best way to ensure you keep getting access to indie books, instead of just what big house publishers think you should be reading.  And you'd be surprised how much stock a stranger puts in your opinions. 

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About the author:

Ryan Notch lives in Centralia, Pennsylvania, a town evacuated by the Federal government due to a coal mine fire burning beneath it since 1962.  The only town in America ever to have its zip code revoked.  During the day he wanders the empty streets and houses as if in a dream, looking for something he lost but can't remember where or what it was.  At night he writes his horror stories by lying down next to a burning fissure along main street and placing his ear to the ground, transcribing what he hears coming up from below. 

Discover other titles by Ryan Notch at

www.smashwords.com/profile/view/RyanNotch

Or look at his photography at
www.areographers.com/

Or see a trailer for his feature length horror movie at
www.lastnightofapril.com/

Or read his comics at
www.themsgoodcomics.com/

Or just say hi to him on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/people/Paulie-Gatto/1697635947

Check out these other terrifying titles available from Ryan Notch!

Praise for the epic novel
The Abyss Above Us
,

"There is almost never a moment in which the reader is not compelled to ask himself, 'Yes, but what happens next?'"

-
Albert Berg's Unsanity Files

"Effective hybrid of science & cosmic horror."

-
Cameron, Good Reads