on his face and arms. His neck was bruised. The purple blotches looked like finger marks. There was no sign of the ghoul. Next to him, Karen threw up.
Timmy patted her back, unsure of what to do. 'You okay?' Gasping, she nodded. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Timmy crawled over to Barry. Despite his injuries, Barry smiled.
'You're rescued.'
'What happened?'
Groaning, Barry struggled to his feet. 'The ground caved in. I couldn't jump off because my old man'
His eyes grew wide. He turned around quickly; then looked back to Timmy.
'Where is he?'
Timmy frowned. 'The ghoul? I don't know. He must have took off when you came crashing through.'
'No,' Barry shook his head. 'My old man. He was on the backhoe when it fell.' They searched through the wreckage. The backhoe had landed on its front, and the scoop was imbedded in the tunnel floor. The dirt had piled up around it, burying the entire front end. The rear scoop jutted through the crevice in the ceiling and out to the surface. They clambered over the mounds of earth, searching. Timmy gasped. 'Is that…'
Barry knelt in the dirt. His father's hand jutted from the soil. Dane Graco' s freemason ring was still on his finger. Without a word, Barry pulled the ring free and tossed it to Timmy.
'There. You should have this.'
'Thanks.' Timmy put the ring in his pocket. 'Are you gonna be all right?' Barry shrugged, his eyes not leaving the hand. 'Yeah. I mean, maybe I should be sad, because he was my father, but I'm not. I don't even feel happy. I' m just… empty. Does that make sense?'
Timmy nodded.
Barry ran his hands through his hair, shaking out the dirt. 'He said I wasn't any son of his. Right before we fell.'
'That's not true.'
'Yeah, it is. He may have been my old man, biologically, but I ain't his son. No way. I'm nothing like him, and I'm never gonna be. I swear it.'
Karen stepped forward. 'Can we go?'
'What about the other woman?' Timmy asked. 'Deb? We can't just leave her down here.'
'Where is she?' Barry stared at Karen's breasts, then quickly looked away.
'Back there somewhere.' Timmy pointed past the pile of dirt choking the tunnel.
'We'll have to dig through that.'
'With what,' Barry snorted. 'Our bare hands?' Karen climbed up the backhoe. 'We'll get help. They can send a rescue squad in to dig her out, just like they do when a mine collapses. I' m not waiting for that thing to come back. She might not even be alive anymore. She was pretty… out of it. I think her mind went after the first time the ghoul…'
Rather than finishing the sentence, she turned her face skyward. Timmy and Barry watched her climb. Barry leaned close and whispered in his ear.
'Do you think the ghoul is dead?'
'I don't know,' Timmy said. 'My eyes were shut. I didn't see where it went.'
'What about Doug? Did you find him?'
Timmy lowered his head. His lip quivered. 'Yeah. He's… I don't want to talk about it right now.'
'Shit.'
'Yeah.'
Karen shimmied up the rear scoop's arm. When she reached the ceiling, she looked back down at them.
'You guys coming?'
Nodding, the boys climbed onto the backhoe. Barry started up first, followed by Timmy. Timmy had only ascended a few feet when he heard a soft rustling noise. He glanced down at the mound of debris. It was moving.
'Shit. Go, go, go!'
'What is it?' Barry stopped, looking down in concern.
'Just go,' Timmy screamed. 'Hurry!'
A clawed hand erupted from the dirt, followed by another. Several of the ghoul' s talons had been ripped away, and its fingers were bleeding. Its arms thrust forward, followed by its pointed, oversized head. Its yellow eyes smoldered with rage. Screaming, Barry began climbing again. Timmy pushed on his feet, urging him to go faster.
The ghoul sprang from the mound and shook off the dirt. Then it rose to its full height.
'My bride!' It beckoned to Karen. 'Return now, and I shall not hurt you.' With a shriek, Karen pulled herself up to the surface and out into the light. Barry and Timmy climbed higher.
'No,' the ghoul roared. 'No, no, no, no, no. I will not allow this. My kind must live again. You will not take away my chance at parentage.'
It leaped onto the backhoe. The scoop arm rocked back and forth, and both boys had to cling tight to keep from falling. Like a spider, the ghoul raced up the side of the machine, its long arms and legs scrabbling for purchase. Barry reached the top and heaved himself over the side onto solid ground. He extended his hand down into the hole and Timmy grasped it.
'Hurry,' Barry shouted. 'It's almost on you.' Timmy pushed with his legs and reached the top. The ghoul was directly beneath him. He could feel its breath on his ankles; hear it hissing with rage. Then it howled but this time, the sound was different.
Timmy crawled out of the hole and glanced back down. The dim sunlight had touched the ghoul' s arm, and the pale flesh sizzled. The slime coating the appendage bubbled and popped, and a thin line of smoke curled upward.
'Come on.' Barry grabbed Timmy's arm and pulled him to his feet. Timmy shrugged him off and stared in horrified fascination, absolutely transfixed as the ghoul's arm continued to smolder.
'Timmy, let's go!'
Barry shoved him forward. Timmy stumbled, and then followed. They ran between the tombstones. Karen sprinted ahead of them, heading for the church. The sun 's upper half had cleared the treetops now, and the blue light of predawn had given way to the red glow of sunrise.
'No. My family…' The ghoul emerged from the crevice. Smoke billowed from its body as the light touched its flesh. Even as they ran, the boys heard it sizzling behind them. Still, it pursued them with determination, screaming for Karen to come back. As they neared the church, the creature 's shouts faded. Timmy turned and stared.
The ghoul writhed in the grass, its body contorted with pain. Timmy had once found a slug on his parent' s sidewalk, and had poured salt over the unfortunate creature. He was reminded of that now. The ghoul ' s pale flesh sloughed away each time the monster moved. The muscles and tissue beneath bubbled and burned. A layer of white foam covered everything. Timmy expected the ghoul to explode, like in the movies and comic books, but instead, it simply pawed at the earth, making pathetic mewling sounds and watching Karen race away. Even after its eyes had melted and run out onto the ground, its head remained upright and pointed in her direction.
'My… family…'
The boys watched until there was nothing left but a bubbling puddle. And then Timmy began to cry. He thought about their attack on Catcher, the guilt and shame he'd felt after the fact. Like Doug had said, the dog wasn' t a monster. It was just doing what it was supposed to do. What it had been bred to do. Protecting it 's home. When they' d attacked, and Catcher had run around in a circle, yelping and whining and pawing at his eyes, he hadn 't looked like a monster. He'd looked pitiful. Timmy stared at the stewing remains of the ghoul. It didn't look like a monster anymore.
'Didn't it realize? Didn't it know what the sunlight would do?'
'It must have wanted Karen that bad,' Barry said. 'Nothing else mattered.'
'Family,' Timmy whispered. 'It was trying to save its family.'
'Come on,' Barry said. He put his arm around Timmy's shoulder and led him away. Behind them, the sun rose into the sky. A new day had begun.
Epilogue
