Read Night Chill Online

Authors: Jeff Gunhus

Night Chill (4 page)

 

NINE

 

Nate Huckley watched with only casual interest as a pair of headlights appeared at the far end of the parking lot. As he predicted, the car turned and parked in the spot nearest the rest rooms, in an area that was better lit than where he parked. With the weather he doubted that the people in the Jeep could even see him.

He leaned his head back and was about to shut his eyes to nap when it hit him.

Like always, it started in his gut, like nausea. Then it burned and spread out from his stomach, hot pain racing up his body. Into his chest and throat, the pain was a claw scratching its way up his windpipe. A gurgling sound escaped from his mouth as his larynx convulsed.

Then it was in his head, a hailstorm of nails driven into his skull. A roar hammered against his eardrums. His hands squeezed the sides of his head to block it out, but it wouldn’t go away. The roar became a voice. The voice telling him what to do. How do to it. His eyes bulged outward from the agony inflicted on every part of his body.

But something was wrong. It never lasted this long. The pain was too intense. He clawed at his ears, willing to tear them from his head if it would just stop the voice. He screamed from the pain.

His body twitched in his seat. Huckley knew he would go insane if it didn’t stop.

Then it was gone. 

No pain. No roar. No voice. Just the incessant beat of rain punctuated by the random bass of the thunder. Nothing of the visitation remained.

Nothing except a new interest in the contents of the vehicle across the lot. And a word. Two syllables that repeated over and over in his brain. He drew in a deep breath to bring the word to life. Exhaling slowly, he hissed the first syllable through clenched teeth, enjoying the way he could undulate the sound. Then, with a burst of air, he let the word out.

Ssaaa - rah.

Huckley knew what he had to do.

 

 

TEN

 

“All circuits are busy. Please--”

Jack snapped his cell phone shut and tossed it on the dash. He knew Lauren would be nervous when they didn’t get home on time but phone coverage was horrible in their area on a good day. Tonight he’d have a better chance sending her a homing pigeon than getting through on the cell. Still, he felt awful about making her worry. He should have thought to call her before leaving the Dahls.

Straight ahead of him, next to the restrooms and a boarded up concession stand, was a pay phone. He twisted around to look at the girls. Sound asleep. He looked out each of the windows, even stretching over to the passenger side to get a better angle. There wasn’t another car in the lot. He figured there wouldn’t be any harm in leaving the girls in the car for a couple of minutes, especially since they’d be in full view the entire time.

He popped open the door and raised his jacket over his head to block out as much of the rain as possible. Hoping not to wake the girls, he didn’t shut his door all the way, but let it rest against the latch so it was closed just enough to keep out the rain. He took off on a sprint to the pay phone, splashing through puddles that came up over his ankles.

The pay phones were under a short overhang but the wind was so strong that it provided little protection. Jack fished around in his pocket for change but came up with only pennies. He dialed ‘0’ for the operator and waited as the phone went through a series of clicks. A computerized voice said, “A,T and T,” and then a tone and more silence.

“Jesus Christ. Come on!” Jack started to glance over his shoulder at the Jeep, but the operator finally came on and Jack turned back toward the phone. He was halfway through giving his credit card number when he heard the blast of car horn behind him. It was followed by the same sound again. And again. Even in the rain it was loud and urgent. The Jeep’s panic alarm.

Jack was always hitting the panic button on the remote by accident. He dug for the keys in his pocket. God, the girls were probably scared to death. He found the keys and pressed the button as he turned around to point the device at the car.

There was a man.

Standing next to his car.

The driver’s door was open.

Jack dropped the phone and ran back to the car. “HEY! HEY YOU!”

The man didn’t acknowledge Jack but just stood and kept staring into the open door. Even over the noise of the rain Jack could hear the girls screaming as he got closer to the car.

How long was I turned away from the car? One minute? Two? He couldn’t have hurt them in that time. Could he?

 “Get back from the car. RIGHT NOW!”

The man finally turned. He raised his hands in the air and stepped back. Jack slowed down a few paces from him. He wanted to check on the girls but he wasn’t about to turn his back on this stranger. Jack sized the man up. Late thirties, decent build, average sized frame, nothing too intimidating. Then again, the man could have a gun in his pocket and then none of his physical characteristics would make a difference.

“What are you doing?” The adrenaline tearing through Jack’s system made it come out more a threat than a question.

“Hi. Sorry about that. I was just making sure everyone was O.K. Bad weather and all.”

 Jack moved to the open car door, putting his body between the man and the open door. Standing closer, he could make out the details of the stranger. Even in the poor light the man’s pale face stood out from the night, like a glowing mask. He might have been an albino except for the black pits for eyes. Jack didn’t like the look of the man’s thin, colorless lips that twisted into a forced smile as they stared each other down. 

Something about the man didn’t seem right. Maybe it was the storm. Or the scare he got from turning and seeing the man unexpectedly appear at the car. Maybe it was that an hour earlier a man had died in his arms talking about the devil. Whatever it was, Jack’s instinct warned him of danger.

He was reluctant to let the stranger out of his sight but the girls screams were too much to bear. Quickly, he turned his head to make sure they were just scared and not hurt somehow. “You girls all right?” he called out. Becky and Sarah looked terrified, but unharmed. Jack relaxed a little. Maybe he was over-reacting. Chances are the stranger was just trying to help. This wasn’t California. It wasn’t so odd that someone would go out of their way to help out on a stormy night. And he knew Albert James had put him in a weird place emotionally. Satisfied the girls were fine, he turned back to face the man, ready to apologize. “Listen, thanks but--”

The man was gone.

Jack spun around. He didn’t see him anywhere. Then a voice came from the other side of the car, across the hood on the passenger’s side. “Pretty girls you have there. Very pretty.”

Soaking wet, Jack still felt the hair rise up on the back of his neck. All the tension returned. “Listen buddy. I think it’s best if you get out of here. Maybe you’re trying to help out, but you’re scaring my kids.”

The stranger leaned back to look through the Jeep’s rear window, then back at Jack. “Scaring them? Or scaring you?”

“Look, just get out of here. All right?”

“These girls don’t have anything to worry about from me.” The man rubbed the hood of the car with the palms of his hands. “I want to be their friend. Especially the little one. She’s very special. Sarah. That’s it, isn’t it? Little sweet Sarah?”

 “Get the hell out of here right now,” Jack yelled over a thunder clap. Jack had only been in one fight as an adult but if the car hadn’t separated them he would have taken a swing at the bastard in front of him.

The man slapped the hood of the car in a slow beat. “Bam, bam, badda, bam, bam,” he murmured as he thumped out a rhythm, his eyes locked with Jack’s, a grin spread across his lips. “Feel helpless Jack? You don’t mind if I call you Jack, do you?”

“How the hell do you know our names? Who are you?”

“Oh, I know more than that about you. I know what you dream about at night. I know the secret you keep from California. That dark detail about yourself you don’t want anyone else to know.”

“I don’t know what--”

 “Jack, you don’t really think you can stop the devil, do you?”

Jack froze. “What did you say?”

But the man wasn’t listening. He continued to beat out a rhythm on the hood, striking the car harder with each beat.
Badda, bam, bam
. He paused and held both fists out toward Jack. “Let’s find out, shall we?” His fists crashed into the hood.
BADDA, BAM, BAM.

On the last beat, he ducked down behind the car and was gone. 

“Shit.” Jack scrambled into the car and shut the door. He dug at the controls on the armrest to make sure the doors were locked. They were. He looked across to the passenger side. The door shook from the man tugging on it. The girls screamed. Jack dug his hand into his pocket, desperate for his keys. Nothing. He looked on the floor, on the seat. He pressed his face against the window and looked on the ground outside. They weren’t there. When did he have them last?

Dreading what he would see, he raised his head to look through the windshield at the building in front of him. There, on the ground next to the payphone, were the keys to the car.

 

ELEVEN

 

Jack beat his fists into the steering wheel. He had searched everywhere in the car he could think for the spare key. Nothing. He looked back up at the keys on the concrete not more than thirty feet from him.  He must have dropped them when he first saw the man next to the car. The girls choked back on their sobs, more scared by their dad’s outburst than anything. He noticed the silence in the back seat and turned around in his seat to face the girls. “Hey, easy now. I didn’t mean to scare you. Everything’s O.K.”

Becky spoke first. “Who is that man?”

 “Listen, that man was probably someone who doesn’t have a home and he was caught in the rainstorm. He doesn’t want to hurt anyone.”

Sarah whispered something. Jack leaned toward her. “What did you say, sweetie?”

She didn’t answer him but just stared out of the window, shaking her head slowly.

“Sarah, honey. It’s O.K. Talk to me.”

The little girl kept looking out the window. She whispered, “No, I don’t want to.”

Jack was confused. “You don’t want to talk to me?”

Sarah turned away from the window. “Not you Daddy. I wasn’t talking to you.”

Jack leaned into the back seat to look out of her window. There was nothing there. “What do you mean, sweetie. Who were you talking to?

“The man. I was talking to the bad man.” Before Jack could say anything she turned to him and whispered. “And you’re wrong Daddy. He does want to hurt us. Especially you.”

“Sarah, honey, that’s not true. Why would you say that?”

“But it is true, Daddy.” Her eyes welled up with tears as she pointed out the window. “The bad man just told me so. He said he’s gonna take me with him. Is it true, Daddy? Is he going to take me?”

“No honey. It’s not true.”

“He said I should open the door or I’d end up like Melissa. Who’s that, Daddy? Who’s Melissa?”

For a few seconds all other noise faded from the world. The only sounds Jack heard were his own breath and the blood pounding in his temples. He stared at Sarah trying to understand how those words could have come from her mouth. Becky stared at her little sister and then back at her dad, her eyes wide. Thunder tore through the sky above them, so close that it felt like an earthquake. The girl’s squealed and Jack jumped in his seat.

“All right, we’re getting out of here. Girls, listen. I left the keys on the pay phone over there. I have to go get them.”

“Noooo. Don’t leave us here.”

“I’ll be right back. I promise. The car will be locked. No one can get in.”

“I want to stay with you,” Becky pleaded.

“Don’t leave us here.”

Jack looked at his terrified girls and then back to the pay phone. He could be there and back in half a minute. If he took the kids with him it would take a lot more time and leave them all exposed.

He hadn’t seen the stranger since he tried to force the passenger door open more than five minutes ago. Maybe he realized there was a problem when Jack didn’t start the car right away. He felt a surge of panic. What if the man saw the car keys on the ground by the payphone? He’d be able to open any door. Jack wasn’t worried about fighting the man, but if the stranger had a gun, or even a knife, there would be no contest. The man could shoot him through the window if he had a gun.

If he kills me, what will he do to the girls?

Jack knew he had to get them out of there. Waiting in the car was not an option.

“I’ll be right back, girls.” He checked to make sure the man wasn’t crouching outside. Nothing. Blocking out his daughters’ screams, he threw open the door and burst out into the storm.  

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