Mary looked back at her son and shook her head. She reached across his body, picked up Romeo’s wrist, and let his hand flop back down. Then Mary motioned to the right of her own face. Once she made that gesture, Amber looked closer at Romeo and she thought she understood. The far half of Romeo’s face was slumped and unresponsive. That’s why he was so difficult to understand. He looked like he had suffered a stroke.
“Don’t open the house,” Romeo said. “The ivory switches open the window locks.”
“Too late,” Ricky said. “How do we shut them again?”
“You can’t,” Romeo said. “They know how to turn off the lights upstairs.”
Ricky and George exchanged a glance.
“What’s so special about Prescott?” Alan asked. “Why do you say that nothing can stop him?”
“He’s not one of them,” Romeo said. After a long pause, he swallowed and said, “he’s the father of all of them.”
“That doesn’t explain anything,” Amber said. “We know how he found the original lizards and probably how he got infected. We know that he spread it to his family. Why would that possibly mean that he can’t be stopped?”
“He’s not a person or a creature anymore. He’s a spirit,” Romeo said. “He channeled that evil energy from some other realm and it infused his soul and took over. He’s a giant well of power that the others tap into to fuel their own evil. Turn me over to them. I deserve it.”
After saying this, Romeo seemed to fade out. His muscles became slack and his mouth fell open. His eyes looked up at nothing.
“Hey, Romeo, where’s your phone?” Mary asked. “You have to have one around here.”
George began searching around. “Over here, Mom.” Over near the workbench, he picked up a handset from a cradle and put it to his ear. “It works.”
Romeo blinked, startling Amber. She had thought he was already dead.
“No. You’re lying,” Ricky said. He reached out and squeezed Romeo’s shoulder. “You just don’t want us to succeed because you know we’ll kill them all. Now that your life is ending, you want to go join them and live forever as a monster.”
Romeo shut his eyes again, squeezing out another tear.
“No,” he said. The word came out like a slow groan.
Shaking him more, Ricky became convinced that Romeo was done speaking. Ricky straightened up and Amber went to him.
“You think he’s lying?” Amber asked Ricky.
Ricky nodded. “About being able to end Prescott—yes. About the rest, I’m not sure.”
Ricky continued. “We know he harbored some of them here, and it seems like we were right. He was their human servant.”
“Because he felt a duty to them,” Alan said.
“Duty, or guilt, or love,” Amber said. “Doesn’t matter.”
“And he tipped his hand when he said he deserved to be taken by them. I’m guessing that’s the bargain he cut with them. He would protect them for as long as he could and then when he was too old they would take him into the fold.”
“He would have to be crazy to believe them,” Ricky said.
“And we would have to be crazy to believe any of it,” Amber said.
Mary and George joined their circle.
“If we assume that everything was a lie, then maybe there is a way to activate the lights upstairs,” Ricky said. “George and Alan, can you see if you can figure that out?”
“I’ll see what I can find to fight with,” Amber said.
Ricky nodded and turned to his mother. “Did you call for an ambulance for Romeo?”
She shook her head. “Of course not. You think I would risk anyone’s life by bringing them into this? He made his bed. Let him lie in it.”
“Who did you call then?”
“Your father,” Mary said. “He was headed to Jan Libby’s house. I told him to come here instead.”
# # #
Amber used the tools from the workbench and some of the wood that was laying around. She was able to make a half-dozen good stakes and spears of different lengths. She found a couple of flashlights as well. She lined everything up near the stairs.
“Okay,” Alan said. “We found the panel for the locks and lights. We think that we have all the upstairs windows locked out, and we’re certain that at least some of the lights are on.”
Amber cocked her ear to make sure that the white noise was still coming through the speakers upstairs. The sound seemed to fade into the background noise when she wasn’t specifically listening for it.
“How’s he?” George asked, pointing at Romeo.
“Unconscious,” Mary said. “Pulse is weak. It’s just a guess, but I don’t think he has much time.”
“If he really did have a deal with them,” Ricky said, pointing upwards, “then they may try to get to him before he dies.”
Amber opened her mouth to ask how the creatures would know of Romeo’s fate, but then decided not to say anything. It wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility that there was some connection between the monsters and Romeo.
“Did anyone find his zapper?” Amber asked.
Ricky shook his head.
“I would feel better knowing where it is,” she said. “Even if we can’t use it against them, I don’t want any surprises.”
“We’ll keep our eyes open upstairs,” Alan said. “So what’s the plan on getting out of here?”
“Vernon should be here in fifteen minutes,” Mary said. “When I talked to him last, he was just pulling out of cellphone range, so we won’t know for sure until we hear him honk his horn.”
“We might not hear it with the white noise,” George said.
Mary nodded. “So maybe we give him a little extra time. In case Alan’s car has been disabled, we all might have to squeeze into our SUV. It will be tight.”
“Especially with two dogs,” Ricky said. The look he gave his mother suggested that it wasn’t up for debate whether or not they
