The Demon's Grave (17 page)

Why did I have to choose? I suppose it would be easier than having the death of a friend on his own head. I ground my teeth together. The one closest had blocked me from the books. Would the Other Aidan do that to trick us?

I opened my mouth to answer, but instead I yelped. Alongside Aidan’s temple a spine-like bone rippled up into his hairline, stretching skin until it was white. Within the confines of his arms I could see movement as if something were laced with his muscles, changing shape. His chest even arched up as if his heart were pulsating on the outside of his chest.
Thump, thump, thump.

“That one!” Read pointed to the Aidan furthest from me.

“No!” I shrieked, holding out my hands as the Aidan nearest me collapsed. Well, they both collapsed, but I caught mine.

He was heavier than I thought and I fell, cradling his head as best as I could so it wouldn’t hit the floor. I landed on my tailbone and stiffened. The paralyzing pain tore through my back, but I didn’t drop his head. My fingers dug into his scalp, real bone instead of something shifting. Looking down on him, I realized nothing could have prepared me for what I saw.

His mouth was hanging open, as if the jaw had been broken. It was unhinged and slightly lopsided. His open mouth and eye sockets were empty. No eyes, teeth or tongue to be seen; there was nothing, just darkness.

Read hovered over the two bodies, inspecting both while Robin inched toward the Aidan nearest Read, balancing on the discarded books.

I wanted to be angry with Read, but I couldn’t. He asked me to choose and I waited too long. Aidan was suffering and I hesitated. This wasn’t like losing Phoebe or Cody. They just disappeared I didn’t have to see them…‌like this. The Aidan closest to Read moaned, his feet twitching.

Feeling the tears sting the corner of my eyes I looked back down at my Aidan and screamed.

Scrambling away I dropped his head, wriggling out of reach. The body didn’t move to grab me, but the head lolled to the side to face me again.

An oversized eyeball had been peering at me through the opened mouth. It filled the entire gaping jaw. The large eye was white except for the pupil, which had dilated upon focusing on me. It rolled around as I scurried away, peering around the room before arching up to focus on me again.

A stabbing terror streaked up my body when the eye suddenly disappeared into the hollowed darkness of Aidan’s skull. His chest pumped and the writhing skin slowed before the body stopped altogether, lying perfectly still.

The dreaded silence didn’t remain long before I heard Aidan curse.

He was sitting up with Robin’s aid. Clutching his chest with one hand, he stared at the monstrosity in his…‌suit. “Just like that fucking dream I had,” he choked.

I remembered he hadn’t indulged the details of his dream before our trip. I suppose I wouldn’t want to talk about it either.

Read chose right, I suppose.
If this was the real Aidan
. Read helped him to his feet and I felt relieved that I hadn’t had to choose.

Crawling to my feet, I realized my legs felt like I’d spent the last half hour doing jumping jacks. Aidan was helped to his and nodded to me. I tried to smile when I saw everyone was looking at me…‌no, past me.

Twisting, I saw the black door again. It hadn’t been there before.

Our way out!

As I took that first step the rumbling alerted us to the bookshelves all around the living room.

“Get down!” Aidan shouted.

No one hesitated this time. I landed hard on the floor between the coffee-table and the couch. I wheezed for a breath, staring at the floor as the entire room erupted with the sound of flapping paper and raucous crashes.

The heavy hardcover books slammed against the opposite walls. One hit the back of my thigh stabbing a Charlie-horse sensation through my muscles. One skidded over my head, slapping up against the couch. I was lucky to be relatively sheltered between the table and couch this time. I tried to lift my head to see where the others where, but couldn’t make them out. I could just hear Robin’s shrieks over the explosion. A book knocked me in the back of the head, shooting blackened stars through my vision and forcing me to duck again.

It seemed to last a lifetime, longer than the last assault, before the explosion faded.

Lifting my head guardedly, I croaked. “Is everyone alright?”

Aidan’s eyes were open and he was breathing, but he was grimacing.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Read said sarcastically, having been hit by a few himself. As he sat up, several books toppled off of him.

“Robin?” I asked, standing again, the Charlie-horse had turned into a cramp and I tried to rub it out.

She murmured something noncommittal, but lifted her head with a groan. She was fine. I reached out to help her to her feet.

Staggering upright, she helped Read. I reached down for Aidan.

He accepted my hand, staring at the black door at the other end of the room. Unbalanced, he wobbled away from me and toward Robin and Read.

The body of the Other Aidan was completely obscured by layers of books, or he had disappeared, just like the Other Nora. The old shag carpet wasn’t even visible anymore.

“Skinwalkers.” Aidan whispered, eyes wide and searching.

I blinked at him. “Sorry?”

“Nothing,” he murmured, avoiding my stare. He had barely made eye contact since coming to. Was it really our Aidan?

“The door,” Robin sniffled, smiling a little. She pointed toward the black door that appeared on the opposite wall from where we came in.

Aidan produced that irritating polite smile. “I’m telling my parents to buy paperbacks from now on.”

Read chuckled. “Screw paperbacks. E-books, man. Then the next Challenge might not be so painful.” He reached for his back, the humor slipping as he winced.

The four of us stumbled and wobbled over the debris of scattered books without a backward glance.

Aidan reached the door first. “This is the same symbol, but look,” he mused, reaching out his hand to trace the waves and triangle. There had been three watery lines and now there were two.

“A countdown?” I asked, reaching forward to grab the doorknob. The motion cracked a stinging pain through my shoulder.
This will bruise
, I thought.

Twisting the knob, I pushed the door inward. I didn’t want to stay any more than Read. The idea of seeing my angry doppelgänger again made me squirm. The image of that eye staring at me from Aidan’s opened mouth was bad enough.
No, the Other Aidan’s mouth
, I corrected myself. At least I hoped it was. Aidan said a skinwalker was a monster that could reside within your skin? Someone that looks like you, talks like you‌—‌that sort of thing? The idea made me feel a lingering betrayal. What if the skinwalker was still here? And he looked just like Aidan.

The Other Nora said that Aidan felt as uncomfortable around me as I did him, but he had felt nauseous? Sick?

Shuddering I stepped back, hugging myself.

I didn’t have to look up to know Aidan was staring at me from behind Read. I could feel it.

Leaving Aidan’s deranged living room behind, I couldn’t see anything at first, only vague outlines in the dark.

Dread itched in the back of my mind as I wondered what might be watching us, waiting for someone to notice it crouched in a corner.

Shoving the unpleasant thought to the side, I fidgeted in place and waited for my eyes to adjust.

Read squeezed my hand and I pressed mine against Robin’s, knowing she was looking up at me. I was grateful that it was dark, she wouldn’t be able to see my smile waver.

The small window to our right allowed a little moonlight.

Blinking away the surprise I saw the squared, heavy-set chairs sitting back to back in the middle of the circular room. Dark brick walls curled around us but the little marble door wasn’t in the room anymore.

Robin tugged at my hand to catch my attention.

With my vision filtering the dark I could just make out her wide eyes. “Have we won?” She asked, her voice rising with a false hope.

I had to be strong for Robin. Maybe she was the only reason I hadn’t run screaming, it reminded me of when Mona would get scared. I had to be the adult, the one in charge, the one with all the answers. Sighing patiently, I said. “I don’t think that guy would give up so easily.”

“Five Challenges left,” Read told her and I felt her shoulders sag beside me.

Detaching himself from the group, Aidan jogged to the arched doorway leaned as far as he could without tumbling down the steps. “It’s really dark, but if we keep to the wall, we should be able to get to the second floor.”

“Maybe we should see what’s outside first,” Read whispered.

Still attached to one another, Read, Robin, and I shuffled to the window. The moon, half hidden behind a cloud slowly emerged from the gloom. I waited to see the pond that had been behind the house but could only see the outline.

As the full force of the moonlight shone into the circular room I heard a distant scraping. Startled, I instinctively pulled Robin closer.

Her head jerking from side to side, she hissed. “What was that?”

Holding up my fingers for her to see I whispered. “It’ll be‌—‌”

Aidan grabbed Robin by the arm and yanked. Still attached to me, Robin jerked me back to the wall fast and hard and I choked back the rest of the words. Hell I forgot what I was about to say.

Spinning us around, Aidan’s pale eyes screamed but his voice whispered instilling a fear all the way down to my knees. “Something’s coming.”

Read stood near the chairs and craned his neck to look through the darkened archway. “What could it be?”

No one answered, leaving only Robin’s whimpering to fill the void. Robin and I found the wall and stood with our backs to it. Aidan stood in front of us and I had to duck my head to look past his shoulder.

Robin’s body hunched as she pulled her hand out of mine to put them to her face. “I can’t take anymore of this.”

Aidan warned Robin to keep quiet and she clamped her hands over her mouth hard enough to leave dents in her cheeks.

In the stillness, I listened.

At first it was just a shuffling or swishing sound. Gradually it grew louder, closer.

It reminded me of a straw-bristled broom against concrete, except it was coming up the stairs.

I almost didn’t hear Robin. “…‌to get out of here. Someone think of something.”

Her panic was infectious, the opposite of what I needed.

Aidan hissed at her to be quiet again and Robin began to whimper behind her hands.

Unable to take it anymore, I moved to hug her when they burst in like oily floodwaters.

Dozen of the arachnids, no hundreds, maybe more rushed into the room. There were large hairy tarantulas and smaller spiders of all shapes and colors and sizes. I recognized a few daddy-long-legs but they weren’t small. This particular variety was as big as the tarantulas.

Aidan must have seen that peculiar spider at the same time.

“You know what I heard?” His voice shook as we backed to the wall beside me. “The daddy-longlegs spider is the most poisonous spider in the world, but their mouths are too small to infect people.”

“Very reassuring, Aidan but that’s a myth.” I almost sounded calm and received a side-ways glance. I wasn’t calm though, I felt the panic shaking in my guts. My dream, the nightmare that haunted my youth had showed itself into reality; there was no waking up from this. I needed something to do or some avenue of escape to turn to.

I scraped at every available corner of my mind hoping for a hero moment but found only fear caving in whatever logic and common sense I have left.

Robin, who I thought would be screaming by now, had frozen stiff, staring at the eight-legged mob without uttering a sound.

Read batted at his pant-legs as he danced his way toward us, dark little spiders clinging to his jeans.

The hero moment was passing, fast.

Aidan and I pressed our backs against the chilled bricks.
We could run past them, squish a few; they won’t all attack at once, right?
In the childhood dream however, they all attacked when I ran.

A black, hand-sized scorpion propelled its way over the sea, moving with it and even squishing some of the smaller spiders under foot.

There was a whimper and I looked to Robin. She was still frozen against the wall and it took me several seconds to realize it was me who’d made a noise.

The spiders crawled all over each other to reach us. I felt the little tickles near my ankles, then my arms and shoulders by those that had taken to the walls.

My skin crawled without their assistance and I tried to focus on the facts. When I was suffering from the spider nightmare as a child my mother thought it would be a good idea to learn about them.
You can’t fear what you know
, she said.

Though right now, I could argue that point.

Some spiders could produce milk. Ok, that was distracting enough for a weird fact. What about that spider in the South Pole that could withstand a lot of heat?

There was a tickle in my ear. Every thread of willpower prevented me from moving. I took a deep breath through my lips before closing them and thought,
They have disjointed limbs to move fast and no spinal cord
.

The venomous scorpion skittered past Read and over Robin’s boots, then over my sneakers before stopping.
Scorpions are considered arachnids too
, I thought.

Arching its intricate, segmented body, it almost appeared to be looking up. The tail wobbled with the oversized stinger.

One pointed foot drew itself down my shin, the tiny hairs on its legs tickled mine and almost made me flinch.

Go away
, I pleaded in my head while at the same time trying to stay a statue.

I couldn’t take my eyes off the curled stinger, sharpened and ready to strike. I realized it would be comparable to a pocket knife.

“Guys,” I struggled to keep every limb from shaking. I didn’t want to startle my new friend. My hands, legs, and body were beginning to constrict to the point where I had to struggle to stay upright.
Please don’t fall,
I begged my legs.
Please don’t fall.