They sat in silence, lost in their own thoughts.
'What do you think happened to Gabriel?' Katelynn asked.
'Something broke into the nursing home and ripped him to shreds.'
The Jake and Katelynn jumped in surprise. They looked up to find Sam leaning against the doorframe, wrapped in the blanket in which he’d been sleeping. On his face was a blank expression and his voice was utterly devoid of emotion.
He’s in shock, Katelynn thought.
Sam went on, 'I went to the nursing home. I managed to sneak past all the cops and got to the third floor in time to see them photographing the scene. What was left of him looked more like raw meat than the remains of a human being.'
He shuffled into the room and took a seat opposite Jake, retreating into silence.
Loki chose that moment to come wandering in, eyed them all, and then settled down on the floor at Katelynn’s feet.
She reached down to stroke his fur in an effort to calm her rapidly fraying nerves. 'So it was Gabriel who was trying to warn us through the Ouija board?' she asked.
Sam nodded. 'I should have known it was him. Only Gabriel called me Sammy. When that message came up, I was simply too stunned to act and then Dana’s seizure delayed us all. By the time I got to the nursing home, it was too late. Gabriel was dead.'
'Then what I am seeing in these visions…'
'Is this Nightshade, Moloch', Jake finished for her.
'What do we do now?' Katelynn wondered.
Jake answered without hesitation, 'We’ve got to stop it.'
She looked at him. 'What do you mean `stop it’? How?'
'Kill it, I suppose. What else can we do?'
'We’re not talking about some rabid dog that you can just track down and put out of its misery. This is a, uh,' She struggled, not quite sure what to call the thing. A beast? A demon? Just what in the name of God was it?
Jake watched her confusion, thinking that while he might not know what to call it, he at least knew what it was.
Evil.
With a capital E.
'What do you suggest we do?' he asked Katelynn in reply. 'Just let it keep killing people?'
'Of course not! I just think there might be someone else better qualified to do the job. Why don’t we tell the cops? They can call in a SWAT team, or the National Guard, or somebody. They’re trained for this kind of thing. We aren’t.'
Jake laughed. 'Yeah, right Katelynn. I can see it now.' He mimed picking up the telephone and dialing a number. 'Yeah, hi. Is this the police? Good. My name is Jake Caruso and I just wanted to let you know that there’s some creature from Hell loose in Harrington Falls and that’s what has been killing people. What’s that? Oh, of course I have a description. He’s red, with cloven hooves and a forked tail, and usually carries a pitchfork.'
Katelynn stared at him for a moment, then sighed. 'Okay. I get the point. But I still don’t think it’s a good idea for us to get involved. We don’t know anything about stopping this thing. We don’t know where it lives, what its weaknesses are, nothing. How are we supposed to kill it? Drive a wooden stake through its heart? Shoot it with silver bullets? Wrap it in iron chains and drop it in running water? What?'
'I don’t know. But there’s got to be some way to stop it, or else there’d be thousands of them out there. The Elders managed to do it, according to Gabriel. So can we!'
'Come on, Jake! This isn’t a game of Swords and Sorcerers where you can drink a healing potion or receive a resurrection spell and everything will be all right again. Wake up to reality. This thing has been savagely killing people, including two cops. And you can bet your ass they had guns and knew how to use them!'
Jake turned to Sam, who’d been silently watching their exchange. 'What do you say, Sam? Are you with me?'
Sam’s gaze met his own, and in his eyes Jake could see a rage that smoldered like a white-hot ember. Sam’s voice was flat and hard, but this time full of emotion, his anger barely held in check. 'I want to kill that motherfucker. I don’t care how we do it. I just want it dead.'
'All right! That’s my man!' Jake said clapping him on the back. 'We’re gonna send this mother right back to whatever hell it crawled out of!' He turned back to Katelynn. 'So? Are you with us or not?'
Katelynn stared at the two of them. They were really going to do it, whether she agreed to go along or not, she could see that. Had they both gone completely nuts? She was convinced they had.
'No.' she said, then once again more firmly. 'No, I’m not going with you. And I won’t sit here listening to you any more. You’ve got to be out of your mind, Jake. You heard what Sam said. This thing ripped Gabriel into little pieces. If he was one of these Elders with their mystical powers and still got torn to shreds, what do you think it will do to the two of you?'
'I guess we’ll just have to take that chance,' Jake replied calmly.
Katelynn could see the hurt in his eyes, but she ignored it. If he wanted to be mad at her for trying to save his life, let him. He’d done dumber things before. 'Then you’ll do it without me.'
Katelynn got up and walked out of the kitchen.
A few moments later the two men heard the front door open and close, then the sound of her car starting in the driveway.
Katelynn wasn’t coming back.
Jake looked at Sam, and then shrugged. 'So be it. We’ll just do it on our own.' He got up, filled a mug with coffee for each of them, then sat back down and started to plan.
Chapter Thirty: Riverwatch Again
Sam awoke to a hand gently shaking his shoulder. In the dim light he could see Jake standing over the bed. 'Time to go,' his friend said.
Sam nodded to show he understood.
As Jake disappeared back into the living room, Sam swung his legs out of bed and quickly dressed. A passing glance at the clock told him it was 4:00 a.m.
He slipped out of the bedroom and moved down the hall to find Jake waiting silently by the front door. Loki stood beside him, but Jake indicated to the dog that he was to stay and the Akita complied. Sam nodded that he was ready, and the two of them left the house and climbed into the Jeep.
They had settled on a simple plan. The two of them would climb the Rock, a tall outcropping of Stone that overlooked the Quinnepeg River and set up a watch. As the highest place in town, and one that overlooked the Riverwatch mansion, it seemed a logical place to start. All of the attacks had been at night, under the cover of darkness. This had led the two of them to hypothesize that the beast either chose not to be out and about during the daylight or could not. Either way, it would attempt to return to its hiding place before the sun came up. The Rock’s height gave them the best possible chance of spotting it in the air and there was always the possibility that it might actually be hiding in Riverwatch, despite the search the police had made of the premises earlier. Jake and Sam intended to be on the Rock before then, so that they would have the opportunity to see it when it returned. That would give them an idea of what they were up against.
After that, they’d figure out the rest of the plan.
For his part, Sam found himself now wondering just what the hell they thought they were doing. He didn’t doubt for an instant that this creature really existed. He’d seen enough in the last several days to convince him of that. He also knew just what horrible acts of violence the beast was capable of committing, and yet, here he was actively going to seek the thing out, to discover where it lived. His anger had cooled slightly and this gave him some perspective on the situation. Katelynn had been right. They had to be nuts to try a stunt like this. This thing could kill them without batting an eye. He turned to voice his opinion to Jake, when his friend said, 'We’re here.'
Sam glanced out the window as Jake pulled the Jeep over and parked it on the side of the road. From where
