Goblins (9 page)

With the girl's room clear and still no radio call that the perp had exited the house, Hale moved back into the hall. He quickly cleared the next bedroom and then it was on to the parents' room.

Standing just outside the open doorway, gun and flashlight pointed slightly toward the ground, Hale gave a final warning. “This is your last chance to come out and end this peacefully.”

The stillness that followed was louder than any gunshot Hale had ever heard. His heart was pounding away, palms lined with sweat. He glanced back at Newton. The man's eyes were wide and his lips were parted. He was clearly nervous, but he nodded that he was ready.

Hale took a deep breath. “I'll go in first, you follow. Don't shoot unless you absolutely have to.” He faced the open doorway and sprang into action. He flew into the room, Glock and flashlight leading the way. He scanned the room, his finger itching against the side of the trigger.

The bed was in tatters, the comforter shredded. Feathers littered the floor and dressers, many still floating to the ground like soft falling snow. Visibility was difficult.

“Holy shit,” Newton mumbled as he moved past Hale to the left side of the room.

Hale covered him until he lost sight of the man. He checked the right side and was making his way toward the walk-in closet when a small figure appeared from the darkness. He stiffened, but kept his weapon trained on the person and was ready to empty the gun's magazine if he had no choice. But then, his eyes focused and he saw her, the missing girl. His mouth opened in disbelief. Realizing he was pointing a loaded gun, his finger against the trigger, he lowered the weapon and let out the breath that had gotten stuck in his chest. Flashes from the past reared their ugliness. For a second, he was back in Chicago and saw the dead girl in the trunk of that psycho's car. Hale blinked and was back in the present, but still disbelieved what he was seeing. He quickly shone the light past the girl and into the closet, making sure there was no one else with her, and found that she was alone.

“Daddy,” the girl said.

Hale's eyebrows came together. “No sweetie, I'm a policeman. Here to protect you. Everything's going to be okay.” The girl must be confused, distraught. She was filthy, dressed in a dirt-smudged brown sackcloth kind of dress. It looked homemade.

A horrendous odor hit Hale that nearly knocked him over. The smell of death and decay enveloped him like an invisible python. He cleared his throat and grimaced. “Is there anyone here with you?”

The girl looked at him oddly. Her entire form shimmered and the air around her wavered. For a moment, Hale saw a hideous creature with sharp teeth and long claws. He stared, blinked, and then Kaley was Kaley again. Human.

“Daddy,” she said again, flatly.

Hale was shaking, unsure of what the hell had just happened. His anxiety level was high, he knew, but high enough to see things that weren't real? He was losing it.

“Daddy,” she said again, then tilted her head like a confused canine.

“Something's not right with her, Chief,” Newton said.

Hale jumped before quickly getting a hold of himself. He'd forgotten all about Newton. He glanced at him and nearly choked. The man was pointing his gun at the girl. Hale shoved his sidearm into his holster with lightning speed, then placed a hand on Newton's and lowered it. “Are you nuts?” he asked. Anger coursed through him. “She's a kid.”

Newton's eyes remained on the girl. “I saw your face, Chief. You saw what I saw.”

Hale's fury vanished at hearing the man's words. “What are you talking about?” There was no way Newton has seen the girl turn into that thing.

Newton's face went slack, his jaw dropping. He looked frightened. “Look,” he said, stiffening. “She just changed again. That ain't no girl, Chief.” He went to raise his weapon, but Hale put a hand on Newton's sidearm and stepped in front of him. He couldn't have his officer pointing a gun at the girl, risk her getting shot. No kid was dying on his watch. Not again.

“I want you to wait outside,” Hale said. “That's an order.” He turned around, wanting to make sure the girl was all right, when the breath hitched in his chest. The girl was gone. The creature he'd glimpsed took her place. The thing's body shimmered again and Kaley was back.

Hale had no idea what was going on, but it was clear his mind was crumbling. Newton's, too. Maybe there was some kind of toxic chemical in the air and it was affecting their minds like a drug, like LSD. The girl's face wrinkled into a snarl. She crouched as if readying to leap. Green ooze fell from her lips. The air around her wavered and she was the creature again.

Hale found it hard to remain upright. His legs wanted to give out. His entire body was shaking. His mind was foggy, too. Coherent thought was impossible at the moment. Nothing was making sense. Newton was pushing against him now, yelling.

“It's not the girl. It's not her.” The young officer finally shoved Hale aside and trained his weapon on the thing.

“Daddy,” it said.

Hale snapped out of his daze and swatted Newton's gun arm. The weapon went off, the shot deafening. Furious and needing to put his officer down, Hale wrestled for Newton's gun. But Newton was quick and elbowed Hale in the face before shoving him away. Hale lost his balance and crashed to the floor. His mind screamed at him to get up and stop Newton from doing something horrible.

“What the hell is that thing?” Newton asked, shouting. He was pointing his gun at the girl-thing.

Hale stared at it and rubbed his eyes, hoping he'd see the girl again, but the creature remained. Its green, leathery skin seemed to absorb the moonlight coming in through the broken window. It growled and bared its pointy teeth. Green ooze continued to fall from its mouth, like thick pea soup from an overflowing pot. Hale remembered the other crime scenes and the green ooze.

“Fuck,” Newton shouted, still aiming his weapon at the creature.

Hale got to one knee. “Don't, she's just a girl.” He wasn't sure he believed his own words, but the alternative was too ridiculous.

The thing sprang at Newton. He fired his gun. Hale saw a chunk of the creature's shoulder disappear where the bullet clipped it. Then it was on Newton, the claws on its feet buried in his chest. Its clawed hands latched on to his head as it lowered its huge mouth over his face, covering him from forehead to chin. Newton's gun went off, the shot firing wildly into the headboard. The weapon then fell from his grasp as he attempted to pry off the creature. Hale barely heard the man's screams. Blood gushed from where the monster's teeth bit into flesh. The scene was like something out of an Alien movie, where the extraterrestrial life form attached and wouldn't release.

Hale stood watching. He was frozen in place. His eyes went back to where the girl had been. He hoped to see her there, the thing on Newton's face only something conjured up by his warped mind. But the space was void of her.

Newton stumbled back and fell to the floor. The creature remained attached, growling like a Pitbull latched on to prey. Wiry muscles bulged in the thing's neck as it worked to remove Newton's face. The young officer's hair and sides of his head were a sheen of glistening red. He flailed his arms and beat at the creature, but the act seemed fruitless. The thing showed no sign it was bothered.

Something clicked inside Hale and he came out of his stupor. His officer needed help. It didn't matter if this was real or impossible, it was happening. One thing he was certain of was that Kaley was not there. No girl could do what the creature was doing.

Hale drew his sidearm and aimed it at the thing on Newton. The flesh along the side of Newton's face and jaw was ripping, shiny muscle and skull revealed. He'd waited too long. His officer was in serious trouble.

“Get off him or I'll blow a hole right through your fucking brain,” Hale yelled. He aimed to do just as he promised, but was afraid he'd wind up hitting Newton either directly or from ricocheting off the monster after it bounced around the inside of its skull. He thought about trying to pull the thing off, then decided on shooting it in the side. If he missed, Newton still had a chance on living, where a head shot left much less of one.

Hale pulled the Glock's trigger. The gun fired and a hole appeared in the creature's muscular thigh. The thing sat up as he'd hoped, but it took Newton's face with it. The flesh tore completely free in one ragged-edged piece. It howled and the face skin that was caught in its upper row of teeth came loose and dangled from its lower jaw.

Newton was pawing at his raw, fleshless face. Both of his eyes dangled off to the sides by optical nerves. In his frantic state, a few of his fingers caught the right eye and yanked it free. The eyeball shot across the room where it disappeared in the gloom.

Hale felt bile rise and his legs go weak. The creature turned and faced Hale. It tore the dangling flesh from its maw and tossed the meat to the side. It hissed, then ran at him. Strange sounds came from its mouth as if it was cursing him.

Hale fired his gun again.

And again.

And again.

Holes appeared in the creature's stomach and chest, but didn't stop it, and the thing crashed into Hale. Trained in street fighting tactics, which included Aikido, Hale used the creature's momentum against itself and managed to throw the thing to the side. He then backed away a step and aimed his gun at it.

The hideous beast lay still. Green ooze leaked from the bullet holes.

Hale hurried to Newton and knelt next to him. The officer's body was saturated in crimson, blood gushing from the puncture wounds in his chest where the creature's foot claws had been. The man coughed up blood. He gurgled something and then his body went limp as his head lolled to the side. Hale gently shook him, Newton's body like a rag doll. Hale pressed his fingers to the man's throat and checked for a pulse. “Hang on, son.” He couldn't find one. The young officer's chest didn't appear to be expanding and contracting. Hale pulled the radio from his belt. “I need a bus now. Officer down. Officer down.”

“What's happening?” Levy asked.

“Get that bus here now.”

Hale didn't think Newton was going to make it. And even if he did…the man had no face. He supposed if he found it, put it on ice, the surgeons could put it back on. Maybe even reattach his eye. He couldn't believe he was thinking such things.

Lowering his head to start mouth to mouth and chest compressions, Hale heard movement from behind.

Hale spun and had his gun out in one fluid motion and saw the creature disappear out the window. A pool of green fluid remained where the monster had been. Hale ran over to the window and peered out. The creature was pushing itself up off the ground.

“Someone just jumped from the second floor,” Levy said over the radio.

Hale didn't know how to respond—what to call the thing—and simply said, “It's the intruder. Don't let it escape.”

The creature was up and heading away from the house, running and staggering as if drunk. Hale had shot it point blank a number of times. It had to be on its last legs.

Hale turned back to the room, numb. He'd stumbled upon a nightmare. Fiction made real. He couldn't hesitate. Couldn't start pondering about any of this. He had a job to do.

Gunshots sounded from outside.

Hale flinched. His radio barked. “Officer down. Officer down. That fucking thing…It—it tore his throat out.”

Hale bolted from the room, radio in hand. “What the hell is going on out there?”

“The intru—that thing got away,” said Levy. “We shot at it, but it moved so fast. It came right at Dalton and attacked him like some rabid dog.”

“What the hell is going on, Chief?” Keller asked.

“Don't let it get away,” Hale hollered, hoping Officer Dalton was all right. He flew down the stairs and made it out of the house within seconds. He spotted a group of his officers by the tree line and ran over to them. Dalton lay with his throat torn out to his spinal column, his head barely attached. A splattering of puke lay a few feet from the corpse. Officer Hank Fuller was still bent over.

“Which way did it go?” Hale asked.

The man pointed into the woods and puked again.

Hale grabbed his flashlight and hurried past the man and into the woods. He wasn't sure which direction to go until the light caught a shiny substance on some leaves. It was the creature's blood, the stuff like radiator fluid. He followed the blood trail and heard his officers' voices ahead. Breaking branches and shouting. He hurried onward, ignoring each time a branch whacked or scraped his flesh.

Shots were fired. Muzzle flashes lit up the woods ahead.

Hale moved faster, took a poke to his right eye. The pain was skull piercing, but he ignored it and trudged on until he came upon the scene. Three officers stood around the creature, the thing lying on the ground. One of its eyes had been blown out and a number of holes riddled its body.

“It stopped and attacked us,” Levy said. “We had no choice.”

“‘No choice is right,” Keller said, still pointing his gun at the thing. “What the fuck is it?”

“I've got no idea,” Hale said, breathing heavy. “But we need to keep a lid on this until we get some answers. We have no idea what is going on and we don't want a panic or a ton of weirdos or news vans showing up.”

Hale pictured his island overrun with media. News outlets from across the country. Hell, the globe. Everyone wanting to see the monster. UFO people would flock here, too, wanting to see the alien. His town would be turned upside down. The National Guard would have to be called in. State troopers, too. The real tragedy of the missing kids would be lost. No one would care about that. His resources would be used up and by the time things calmed down, the kids might never be found.

Hale couldn't allow any of that to happen. Once the creature was identified—if it was identifiable—he'd gladly hand it off to the feds or whoever wanted it. Finding out what it was, might help lead them to the missing kids. Then the government scientists could cut and prod it to their hearts' content.