Inanimate (51 page)

Anne looked up at him tenderly. She did
not have any strong feelings for him, she was just so happy to see
a friendly face. She continued sobbing as Matthew helped her to her
feet and held her.

“
They’re dead.”

“
Who?” Brian asked
gently.

“
My
parents…that…dummy…”

“
I’m sorry Anne but don’t
worry, you’re safe now.”

Anne closed her eyes but a dull thud
and some spluttering forced her to open them. Right in front of her
face was Betsy. She had jumped on Matthew’s back, and crushed his
throat with her solid hands.

“
Hello”

The doll’s ominous greeting pushed a
flight response back into Anne as she pushed him forward, away from
her and ran up the staircase as fast as her bruised body would
go.

CHAPTER 54

Dawn had broken and Frieda
walked towards the light. The large window at the end of the long
west wing hallway was pushing sunlight closer to him as he walked.
He was still a while away from reaching it but the corridor
certainly was lighter than it was when he entered the security
office
.
Frieda took his time walking up the corridor. A chorus of shouts
and wails from woken, deranged patients accompanied him while he
reloaded but he barely heard them. His hearing was only just
returning. Frieda looked through the glass to Connor’s room. He
watched the boy: he looked asleep. This angered Frieda. He expected
Connor to be awake after the shots; he wanted the boy to see this
coming. It didn’t matter, he conceded, he was going to die either
way.

“
Frieda!”

The voice, instantly recognizable to the
young doctor made him stop and turn. Doctor Crass stood only
fifteen feet away; his body language was that of a pleading
man.

“
Frieda what
are you doing? What did Tim do
to you?”

“
He got in my
way!”

Frieda spoke confidently. Killing Tim
gave him power he never knew he had up until then.

“
I need to do this
Doctor Crass! And
you can’t stop me!”

“
I’m not
here to stop you” Crass protested
“I’m simply here to make you think about what you’re doing. Don’t
you see, if you do this, Connor will win. He wanted to get inside
your head; he wanted to make you feel worthless. This is all a game
to him. If you go ahead and do what you’re thinking about doing you
give him all the power. You hand him the win.”

Frieda put his head down. Despite
everything he still found it hard to face Crass, especially
now.

“
You don’t understand what it’s
like to be me. No-one listens, no one cares. I have no wife, no
friends, no future. No hope. I’ve had enough of it.”

“
You’re right doctor; I
don’t understand. So why don’t you tell me. Come on, let’s get out
of here, we’ll get breakfast. We’ll talk.”

Frieda lifted his head, his mood
changed.

“
You want to go for
breakfast with me?”

“
Of course Doctor, come on.
There’s a great little diner by my place, they serve the best
pancakes. We can talk about everything.”

Frieda’s hand went limp, the gun dropped
to his side. He looked back into Connor’s room and sighed. He
almost made a terrible mistake. His mood lightened up from Crass’s
words. He had been longing to hear them all this time. It was all
he wanted. All he needed. He walked to Crass with almost a spring
in his step, he was elated. He stood toe to toe with his boss and
the mentor he had always wanted and teared up.

“
You have no idea how long I
have been waiting to hear those words”

Crass forced a smile as Frieda put an
arm around him and started crying on his shoulder.

“
I mean it Doctor; things
are going to be different from now on.”

Frieda spoke in between
sniffles.

“
I’ve been waiting years for
you to say those words Doctor Crass.”

Crass felt the barrel of a revolver
press into his side.

“
And now that I’ve heard them I
finally realize what a lying son of a bitch you really are. You
have no idea how happy this makes me.”

“
Frieda wait…”

One, two, three. Crass was one the
ground as good as dead. Four, Five, Six. Doctor Crass’s face was
unrecognizable. He was most certainly dead.

Frieda dried his eyes, reloaded and
turned back to Connor’s room.

CHAPTER 55

“
Doctor MacNamee?” Anne called
out

“
I’m in here! In the
office!
Hurry!”

Anne limply ran through the main
room
. Her
heart skipped a beat when she saw Jacobs slumped up against the
wall, covered in blood. Without thinking, she stopped in the
doorway and gestured at Jacobs.

“
Is he dead?”

MacNamee didn’t answer right away; instead
he motioned for her to come in with his gun.

“
That damn clown is still
out there!”

Anne ran in and instantly spotted Oates
lying on the floor, strangled with the power cord from the desk
lamp. Anne looked at the Sheriff’s body, stunned despite already
having witnessed so much death.

“
Betsy”

MacNamee whispered to her while Jessica
cuddled into him.

“
But Betsy was
down…”

“
Jacobs is gone too. Where’s
Matthew?”

MacNamee cut her
off; he was trying
to work out a plan in his head.

Anne shook her head: “It was Betsy who
killed him”

“
So it’s just the two of
them left then. And the two of us.”

“
Let’s just
leave”

Anne had to say it; her episode in the
basement had changed her more than blowing off Tony’s head ever
did. She was willing to leave.

“
After all this?”

MacNamee was stunned; there was no way
he was going to leave.

“
Think of the child! We’ve
no hope now!”

“
And then what? They’ll come
after us; they’ll come after her. This isn’t over until one side
loses.”

Anne sighed. He was right and she knew
it.

“
Ok so what
then?”

MacNamee let Jessica go and stood up.
He and Greta wanted to have kids. Jessica reminded him of her and
the hopes they shared together. He would end this, if only for her
sake.

CHAPTER 56

Frieda stared down at the sleeping child
and he had no problem with pulling the trigger, but he wanted to
wait. He wanted to savor this. This was the first time in his life
he had stood up to anyone or anything and he wanted to milk it all
he could. He watched the boy’s chest move up and down in rhythm. He
derived a pleasure from this he never thought he would
have.

“
What
are you waiting for?”

A silky voice from behind startled him,
causing him to change his aim towards it.

“
Don’t
try to stop me! I’ll shoot you too I
swear!”

“
The Eye”
took a little step forward and
smiled. “Yes, I believe you would.”

“
I’m warning you, don’t come any
closer!”

“
You mean, like
this?”

“
The Eye”
stepped forward and Frieda pulled the
trigger. “The Eye” slapped a hand to his chest as if mortally
wounded and then chuckled. He moved his hand into Frieda’s view and
played with the bullet in between his fingers. The doctor stood;
eyes wide, mouth agape. The demon’s eyes flashed red as he
spoke.

“
Don’t worry, I’m not
h
ere to stop
you, if I were, you’d be dead already.”

“
What
are you here for then?”

Suddenly Frieda did not feel as powerful
with his gun anymore.

“
To
observe” “The Eye” said, waving his hand
over the boy, still unaware of what was going on in the room.
Somehow Frieda implicitly trusted the man in front of him so he
turned and put the gun back on Connor. As he watched Connor lie
there, a thick plume of condensation blew past his face. He
recognized the plume along with the breathing from his apartment
and he certainly remembered the face that went with it. Even though
he trusted the man inside the room he did not turn around. He did
not trust the beast.

“
Don’t mind him” “The Eye” said
“He’s with me”

“
He wanted to kill
me
, you
know?”

Frieda was referring to Connor as he
talked, trying to justify his actions. Suddenly, the act of
shooting a child in his bed did not seem to make as much sense now
there was an audience.

“
I
know” “The Eye replied
casually.

“
He will too…if I let
him.”

“
I
know that too.”

Frieda
closed his eyes and held the gun
tight.

CHAPTER 57

MacNamee closed the office door with
Jessica inside. The girl moved to the window and peered through,
curious as to what was going on outside. Under the conscious
direction of the sleeping boy, Basket made his move. With a manic
chuckle Basket bounded effortlessly from desk to desk, taking his
time to attack, allowing Connor the time to enjoy himself. Colorful
yet grotesque, Basket spotted Jessica at the window and smiled. He
liked children. Jessica smiled back. She liked clowns.

“
Here he comes!”

MacNamee and Anne were pressed against the
wall with their guns poised. Round after round they fired. Some
hit, most missed. The ones that hit were only slight, doing little
damage. With a colossal leap, the clown landed right in front of
MacNamee, catching both of them off guard. Anne, armed with Jacobs’
shotgun got a round off, forcing the full spread on the clown but
because she was caught off balance, the recoil sent the gun towards
her head again. This time the barrel was driven straight into her
face, putting her back on the ground, bleeding again. Another hole
in Basket’s body, but he was still going strong. The pistol in
MacNamee’s hands was not doing much to change that. Basket used a
powerful backhand to slap the pistol from MacNamee’s hands and then
leaped on him, clawing at his face and chest. Jumping off of him he
pulled MacNamee down onto the floor and kicked him in the ribs in
an over-the-top comedy fashion. Beaten badly, MacNamee opened his
eyes just in time to watch Basket sink his teeth into Anne’s head.
After biting off a large chunk of her skull he swallowed, licked
his lips and moved towards the doctor. Basket flipped him onto his
back and looked deep into his eyes, dripping Anne’s blood all over
him. MacNamee saw Connor’s eyes staring back at him, not the
clowns. He saw a child’s eyes where a monster should have been. He
saw innocence when he should have seen a monstrosity. It was at
that moment when he realized he could do nothing but accept his
fate. He closed his eyes just as the clown’s mouth opened and the
world shut itself off to him.

CHAPTER 58

The police arrived just in time to hear
a gunshot. No sooner had they got out their car and into
Hallcombe’s parking lot did they hear one single shot. That was all
they heard that day.

CHAPTER 59

MacNamee had his eyes closed for quite
some time. He wondered if he was dead. He wondered if he was about
to see some sort of light. But he wasn’t and he didn’t. He opened
his eyes. Basket was simply slumped on top of him, motionless. With
great hesitation, MacNamee lifted its head to see its eyes. And
then there they were, black as night, plastic, inanimate. He stared
at the eyes for a long moment in shock when his cellphone burst
into song, startling him.

“
Hello?”

MacNamee answered the phone as a
reaction without realizing his face was covered in blood. He
painfully got to his feet and walked to the water cooler while
talking.

“
Hello Greg? It’s Bryce. I have
something to tell you.”

MacNamee
listened as one of his colleagues
explained what happened in Hallcombes. MacNamee was splashing cold
water on his face when Bryce told him Crass was dead. His grief
turned to shock when he was told it was Frieda who killed
him.

“
I should
have seen it coming”

MacNamee was stunned. Just when he
thought nothing could be more unbelievable than killer dolls he
gets this news.

“
Frieda?”

“
Yeah, Frieda.”

Bryce was just as shocked as MacNamee;
no-one saw it coming. No-one cared enough to notice.

Taking Jessica by the
hand
,
MacNamee finally left the station. The sun was about to come up and
he wondered what his next move should be. He knew he had to let the
rest of the Staunton police department know it was all over but for
now he simply enjoyed the quiet. He sat outside in the warm air and
Jessica skipped around the parking lot. He watched her with a
smile. He knew she must be traumatized, probably experiencing some
kind of mental disorder. Witnessing so much brutality at such a
young age had to have affected her. In his mind he refrained from
diagnosing her with a host of potential mental illnesses. Instead
he watched her, on some level envious that she could just be that
happy after what happened. He hoped she stayed that way forever.
MacNamee’s life was well and truly over as he knew it; the once
happy, dedicated psychiatrist would most likely never go back to
Hallcombes again. He sat outside as the sun tried to shine,
unwilling to look towards the future. He was living there, in that
moment. And that was where he wanted to stay.