The New Neighbor

'Why don't you come inside, George?' she purred, her voice the only sound in the world. 'Come inside… relax… with your wife… and me… the three of us, George… together… '

It wouldn't be too difficult to climb through the window. He'd just have to avoid the spikes of glass stuck up in places. Then he'd be inside… he’d be a part of the comforting darkness that surrounded Lorelle and Karen… and all of the horrible things that had been happening would be over… all the confusion and anxiety and anger and pain would end… but -

– he smelled the gasoline again and jerked his head back with a gasp as the mad voices and sounds of destruction rushed in on him once again. He turned from Lorelle to Karen again, held out his hand and pleaded with her, 'Come with me, Karen, please, the kids need you, I need you, please Karen, I love you and I'm not gonna leave you here, now come out the window right now Karen, right now right -

He stopped because he saw her eyes brighten for a moment. They opened wider and the dull, drunken look left them and she looked at the pieces of glass sticking up along the bottom of the window and said, 'But I… I’ll cut m-myself.' Her voice was weak but clear and, suddenly, afraid.

George saw that as a good sign and moved forward quickly using the butt of his flashlight to knock the pieces of glass out of the way.

He put an arm on the ledge and prepared to hoist himself up through the window so he could bring Karen out, but -

– Lorelle grinned and hissed, 'Yes, George, come in. Come inside with us.'

He froze, watching her as she took a few steps to stand behind Karen. She wrapped both arms around Karen's midriff, placed one hand over her groin, the other over one breast, and smiled at George over Karen's shoulder. But that wasn't the worst of it.

Karen smiled, too, then threw back her head and laughed hard.

George slid away from the window, horrified and sick. He felt as if the center of him had been hollowed out. In a heartbeat, all the events of the past days ran through his memory and he thought about what he'd done to Karen, about his infidelity and cruelty, his hateful thoughts toward her, and he felt crippled with regret. Suddenly, it didn't matter that Karen had been guilty of some of the same things. In fact, it didn't even occur to George.

“Please, Karen,' he said, his throat thick with gathering tears. 'I'm sorry for the things I've done and I promise that if you just come with me, I'll make up for all of it. We'll be fine. I swear. Please, we need you, honey, we -'

'I couldn't bear to look at your ugly cock one more time,' she sneered.

George's words crumbled into a small, pathetic sound in his throat as he stared in open-mouthed horror at his wife.

'Dad! Dad!'

He heard Robby's voice but didn't turn. He couldn’t. He knew he was looking at Karen for the last time… and she was laughing.

The smell of gasoline was thick in the air and George glanced to his right and saw Weyland walking toward him along the front of the house, splashing gasoline onto the front wall.

'Dad,' Robby shouted, grabbing George's arm, 'we've gotta get outta -'

'Mom!' Jen cried, hurrying past George toward the window, but -

– George swung an arm out and pulled her to him.

'Let me go!' she snapped. 'Mom! Mommy, what're you doing in there, you've gotta come out right now you've gotta -'

All three of them were shoved out of the way by arms that snaked out of the small mob like tentacles. George and Robby fell to the ground, but Jen just stumbled backward, still calling for her mother.

'Everybody back!' Weyland shouted.

Lorelle began to laugh and her laughter rose above the manic voices.

The crowd backed away from the house and George got to his feet with Robby. 'Run back to the house!' he shouted.

Robby hesitated.

'I said run!' Once the boy was running, George looked for Jen. She had disappeared in the crowd. He spotted her shouldering her way through to get to the house, still calling for Karen, who was now gone. The window was dark and empty. 'Jen! Jennifer!' he screamed.

She ignored him.

George drove forward, knocking people aside, and wrapped his arms around her from behind. He lifted her from the ground and turned to carry her away from the house when -

– someone threw a lighted kerosene lantern at Lorelle's house and -

– the lantern smacked against the wall beneath a window as -

– George dragged Jen away from the house, shoving people aside again, horrified to see that they were grinning in anticipation, and Jen began to shriek as -

– a bone-cracking whump lit the night a bright orange and what sounded like the screams of hell rose around them as -

– the crowd of people was blown apart by a powerful rushing wall of burning air. Bodies burst into flames as they were thrown to the ground. George realized he was screaming, too, as he and Jen went down because -

– flames had burst from the left side of his face and his shoulder, and the sound of his own skin sizzling drowned out the cries of the burning people around him. He pushed his face into the damp grass beneath him and rolled his head back and forth, still screaming, but the searing pain that spread over his jaw and neck and over his shoulder as the fire burned quickly through his jacket was unbearable and his mind shut down. George lost consciousness.

* * * *

Robby had run when his dad told him to, but not all the way back to the house. He stopped in the street by the white pickup where Pastor Quillerman was pulling himself laboriously, painfully to his feet. Robby turned and faced Lorelle's house, walking backward the last few feet as he watched the crowd. He spotted his dad and Jen and kept his eyes locked on them.

'Whuh-what's happening?' Pastor Quillerman croaked. His face was dark with blood, his mustache caked with it, and the flesh around his glass eye was swollen and dark. But he seemed to have little interest in his own injuries.

Robby wasn't sure what to say at first, then answered as simply and accurately as he could; 'They've all gone crazy.'

'Yes,' Quillerman said. 'That’s what she wanted.'

Robby watched his dad drag his sister away from the house and through the crowd, but his attention was caught by the kerosene lantern that was thrown into the air. He cried out when the flames went up.

For a moment the air caught fire and -

– bodies flew with arms and legs splayed and -

– Robby was running before he even realized he'd moved, screaming for Dad before he knew he'd made a sound, because Dad had fallen to the ground with his face and shoulder in flames.

Jen knelt beside him, screaming, trying to help but too confused to do any good.

Robby tore his jacket off as he ran to Dad with the jacket held out before him. In seconds, he'd smothered the flames, but he could not smother the nauseating, clinging stench of burning flesh. He made shrill, childlike sounds as he snuffed out the fire. When he was finished, he was afraid to lift the jacket away from his dad's face.

Jen screamed, 'Daddy Daddy Daddy Daddy,' over and over again, but stopped when Robby pulled his jacket away and revealed what was left of their dad's face. His right eye was open wide, but the left was buried in blackened, glistening meat.

Robby lifted his head to shout for help and tell someone to call an ambulance, but his throat was hot and sore and his voice was nothing but a hoarse croak… Sobbing, he turned toward Lorelle's house.

It was an inferno. Bodies were scattered on the lawn, some burning, some smoking, while some were up and