Enter, Night

Christina shook her head almost undetectably at Billy, who understood. “No, I’ve got it, thanks,” she said, brushing the ash off the sweater herself.

“Of course,” he said politely. “Yeah, that’s it. There, you’ve got it.” She smiled, grateful for his understanding.

“Billy. What happened to you? When you weren’t here, we took the key from the front office. Mr. Marin wasn’t there-no one was there. The whole place is empty.”

“Marin is down at the old hockey arena,” he said. “The one on Brandon Nixon Road. So are Elliot and Sergeant Thomson, and about thirty other… residents of Parr’s Landing.”

Christina was confused. “What do you mean, they’re at the arena?” She shook her head. “The old arena? The Takacs one? Is that even still standing? Elliot and Jack used to play there. It burned down. It’s a ruin.”

“It’s more than a ruin, Christina,” Billy said. “It’s a grave.”

“Billy, what are you talking about?”

He glanced at Morgan, then back at Christina. “Maybe not here? Outside?”

From the bed, Morgan’s voice was surprisingly strong and clear. “Dr. Lightning,” she said. “Finn’s dead. Uncle Jeremy’s dead. I saw it happen with my very own eyes. Please tell my mom what you’re talking about. I’m never going to forget the things I saw tonight, and words aren’t going to scare me.”

Billy sighed. “OK, fair enough. I found the place they were all… uh… sleeping. The… uh…” He faltered, looking helplessly to Christina for help, adult to adult.

“The vampires,” Morgan finished impatiently. Her face was pale and hard, her mouth set in a steely line Christina had never seen before. “Finn said they were vampires. He knew what they were, but nobody believed him because we all thought he was just a dumb kid who read Tomb of Dracula comics. And now he’s dead,” she added flatly. “And it’s our fault. And now we believe him. And now it’s too late.”

“OK, vampires,” Billy said. “I found them there. It was everything Finn said it would be. Also, I found Richard Weal. I was right. He killed my father and stole his manuscript. Weal said he came here to wake someone up, someone who had been sleeping here in the caves. Those ‘voices,’ in 1952? He wasn’t imagining them. They were real. Probably all the people who heard them were really hearing them.”

“The priest,” Christina said suddenly. “He looked like a priest. The one who carried Finn away.”

“What priest? What are you talking about?”

Christina replied, “They killed Jeremy, him and Adeline. When we found him in Adeline’s room, there was someone else there. An old man. I’d never seen him before. He was in a long black robe. I remember thinking he looked like a picture of one of the Jesuit martyrs in the church here. The ones who came here to settle. The ones who died here three hundred years ago.”

Billy said, “Figures it would be a goddamn priest.”

Morgan watched Billy carefully. She said nothing, but every nerve in her body was stretched as taut as wire. Something about him wasn’t right. He was different. Maybe not different like Adeline was different… afterwards. Not quite, anyway. But she wished he wasn’t standing so close to her mother.

“We need to get you two someplace safe,” Billy said. “At least until dawn. Then you have to leave. You have to leave Parr’s Landing. You have to drive to Toronto and you have to not look back. Never, ever come back here, Christina. I mean it.”

“I don’t think the car will survive the trip, Billy. Adeline’s chauffeur has the keys to her car, and he and his wife are missing, too. And Jeremy said he found some money in Adeline’s room, but he didn’t give it to me before he… well, before what happened.”

Billy fished in his pockets and handed Christina the keys to his truck. “Take the Ford,” he said. “It’s practically new. It’ll get you home to Toronto. And there’s about seven hundred dollars in the glove box. Take it. Just promise me you’ll go. Get Morgan away from here.”

“You mean ‘we,’ don’t you? You don’t mean without you, do you, Billy?”

Billy’s expression was unreadable. “I can’t leave,” he said.

“What do you mean you can’t leave? Are you kidding me?” Hysteria made Christina’s voice shrill and jagged. “You can leave. You have to leave! There’s nothing here for you! Nothing!”

“Weal came here because of my father,” Billy said. “All these people are dead because of him. We brought Weal here in 1952 and put this all in motion. The arena was full of those things when I got there tonight. Who knows how many of them there are here, or what they’ll do. I can’t leave. I have to fix this. I have to find the one who did this and make it right. For my father’s sake, at the very least. But I won’t be able to do it unless I know that you and Morgan are safe, and a long way from here.”

When she started to protest, Billy put up his hand. “No more talk,” he said. “Get Morgan ready. I’ll bring the truck right to the entrance here. I’m taking you to the church. When the sun comes up, leave. Don’t look back.”

“Dr. Lightning,” Morgan said. “May I ask you a question?”

“What is it, honey?”

“You said that they were in the arena when you got there. How did you get away?”

“I burned them,” Billy said. “I burned their bodies. Just like Finn said, fire hurts them.”

Morgan sounded dubious. “You don’t smell like smoke. And… they just let you?”

“They weren’t awake yet,” he said vaguely. “Not all of them, anyway. I guess the sun wasn’t all the way down. Don’t worry, I took care of it. Now,” he said. “No more talking. We need to get you two to the church.” He held up his hand again. “I mean it, no more questions,” he said gruffly. “It’s time to go, ladies.”

He’s lying, Morgan thought, but Christina was already pushing her out the door of the motel, and Billy had sprinted ahead and was standing by the door of the truck.

Billy drove the short distance between the Gold Nugget and the church in complete silence, looking neither left nor right. The beams of the truck’s headlights carved a tunnel through the shadows and the snow, which had grown thick and heavy in the hours since they’d arrived at the motel. On either side of the road, houses like empty husks took momentary shape, then vanished back into the night and the falling snow.

Billy parked the truck in front St. Barthelemy and the Martyrs. The steps leading to the front door and the sanctuary were packed in wet snow. Gusts of it capered in the yellow light above the entrance to the church.

“End of the line,” he joked. “This is where everyone gets off.”

“Billy-?”

“Mom, come on,” Morgan’s voice was urgent. She didn’t look at Billy. She opened the side door of the truck and jumped out. She grabbed at her mother’s arm and practically pulled her out. “I want to be in the church. Right now. Please.”

“Morgan, you go on inside,” Christina said, shaking off Morgan’s hand on her arm. “Wait for me. I want to talk to Billy for a minute.”

“Mom, no! Now!” Morgan shouted. “I’m not going in without you! Don’t talk to him! We don’t have time!” Morgan stared defiantly at Billy. He looked back at her. Wordless communication passed between them. Then Billy looked away.

“She’s right, Christina,” Billy said finally. “Go inside where you’ll be safe. It’s open. Get some sleep. Then, tomorrow, take my truck and go.”

Christina pleaded. “Stay with us. Come inside and wait until sunrise. Then leave with us in the morning. There’s nothing for you here.”

“Mom, please!”

“Goodbye, Christina,” Billy said. “I have to go back.” He stepped away from the church, out of the ring of light, and walked into the shadows beyond it.

A trick of the lamplight, Christina thought. I can still see his eyes. Then Billy Lightning was swallowed wholly by the darkness.

Morgan woke to the sound of rocks falling on the stained glass windows.

The sound startled her and she sat up. Then she remembered. Oh yes, she thought. We’re in the church. They can’t get us here. That’s why we’re here. She looked at her watch. It was four o’clock in the morning. Dawn was still three hours away.