The Beast House

“Fat chance.”

Janice squeezed her throat. “Okay, lie still. Don’t even think about moving.” She climbed off Sandy’s body. Kneeling beside her in the darkness, she felt along the T-shirt to the waist of the pants. She fingered a belt. She opened its buckle and tugged it free. Draping it around her neck so she wouldn’t lose it, she patted the pants’ pockets. They seemed to be empty. She unfastened the waist button, slid the zipper down, and yanked the pants down Sandy’s legs. The girl wore shoes. She pulled them off, set them nearby, and finished removing the pants.

She tried to put them on. They were much too small. After a short struggle, she gave up.

She slid her hands up Sandy’s legs and hooked her fingers under the elastic of her panties.

“Hey!”

“Shut up.” She drew the panties down. She tried them on. The filmy material had enough stretch to allow a snug fit. She clutched Sandy’s thigh. “Okay, sit up and take off your T-shirt.”

She waited for it.

“Here.”

She swept out a hand and took the garment. Spreading it against herself, she could feel that it was far too small. A tight fit would hurt her wounds. She stretched its neck, yanked until it tore, then split the fabric all the way down. She put the shirt on easily, like a smock, the opening at her back.

Using the belt, she bound Sandy’s feet together.

The hands were still free. A bra might be useful for binding them. She moved her hand up the girl’s belly and paused at the feel of tape. “You’re bandaged?”

“I hurt myself.”

Her fingers glided over Sandy’s skin, touching two more bandages: one on the side, one on a breast. The girl wore no bra.

“How’d you get hurt?” Janice asked.

“The same as you.”

“What?”

“You know.”

“The beast?”

“Yeah, the beast. He gets rough sometimes when we’re getting it on.”

“You let him?”

Janice’s wrists were suddenly clenched in the dark.

“You’ll let him, too. Just wait and see if you don’t. You’ll get so you can’t wait for him to come to you.”

Janice jerked free of the girl’s grip. “You’re nuts,” she said.

“You’ll see. Even Mom loves it. She won’t admit it but she loves it.”

“That’s why she tries to escape.”

“She just does that ‘cause of the baby. She’s afraid they might kill it, but they won’t. See, they think she’d try to kill herself if they hurt Jud, and they don’t want that. They want her alive.”

“What for?”

“Same reason they want you alive. They want you. He wants you. To make babies.”

Janice felt a cold tightness inside. “Babies?” she murmured. “Whose babies? Wick’s?”

“Don’t be silly. Wick isn’t allowed to touch us. He tried to screw me once, and Maggie beat the crap out of him. Nobody touches us but Seth or Jason.”

“Who are they?”

“Sons of Maggie and Xanadu.”

“Xanadu?” A chill scurried up Janice’s back as she recognized the name from Lily Thorn’s diary.

“He was murdered last year. Mom’s boyfriend killed him and Zarth and Achilles, but he paid for it. Maggie nailed him.”

“My God,” Janice muttered. “Those were all…beasts?”

“Zarth was Maggie’s, and Achilles was Agnes’s. Xanadu was the father of both. Rucker killed all three, but Maggie nailed him before he got Seth or Jason.”

“So…there are two beasts in the house? You said before there was just one.”

“You said there’s one.”

“You didn’t correct me.”

“Why should I?”

“You little shit.”

“Look, why don’t you get off me? We can be friends. You’re gonna be here a long time, and it’ll be nicer for you if I like you. I can bring you up special stuff.”

“How do I get out of here?”

“I already told you, it’s impossible.”

“Why?”

“They’ll get you.”

“We’re upstairs?”

“Yeah, but…”

“Which way’s the staircase?”

“That’s for me to know, you to find out.”

Janice straddled the girl again, and pinned her arms down. “You said they’ll be up here soon. They’re gonna find you dead if you don’t give me answers. Now which way are the stairs?”

“It doesn’t matter. You can’t get out anyway.”

“Tell me, damn it.”

“The door locks on the inside. Even if you…”

“Where’s the key?”

“I’ll never tell.”

Janice slapped her hard. The girl yelped with pain and twisted under her.

“Go ahead,” Sandy sobbed. “Do whatever you want. I won’t tell.”

Janice wondered where she’d lost the broken lightbulb. Somewhere nearby probably. But she doubted she could force herself to cut up the girl anyway. She considered tearing off Sandy’s bandages and digging into her wounds. The thought of it repulsed her.

“The key you used to get in here,” she said. “Does it open the front door?”

“No,” Sandy murmured.

“Maggie must keep it with her.”

The girl sniffed, but didn’t answer. Janice knew she must have guessed right. In that case, she would need to subdue Maggie to get the key—maybe take on the entire household. It seemed hopeless. “The beasts,” she said. “They’re in the house?”

“Maybe.”

“If they’re not here, where are they?”

“Sometimes…” she sobbed, “sometimes they’re in Beast House.”

“What do they do, wander back and forth?”

Sandy didn’t answer.

“How do they get from here to there? They can’t just go walking across the street?”

“Yes, they do.” She said it too quickly.

And Janice suddenly knew.

It seemed crazy, but so did the rest of this, and it appeared to be the only possibility. The original beast, Xanadu, had burrowed from the hillside and come up in Lilly Thorn’s cellar. Why not another tunnel—one connecting the two houses? It would have to be a couple of hundred yards long, but why not? A tunnel leading from one cellar to the other. How else could the beasts move freely between the two houses? They certainly couldn’t travel out in the open, walk across Front Street and through the gate without someone spotting them sooner or later. There had to be a tunnel.

And she would find it.