“I have a gun pointed at a boy child,” Lizzy shouted. “I’m guessing he’s your son and the brother of the girl standing next to him. Willadean is your Mini Me.” Lizzy giggled. “So I suggest you back away and position yourself where I can see you from the window. What’s the woman’s name, child?” Lizzy asked the slack-jawed Cricket.
“Serena Jo,” Cricket squeaked. The front of his grubby jeans was wet. Poor kid had peed his pants.
The witch raised her voice. “Serena Jo, I will kill both of your children and the dark-haired boy if I don’t see you through the window with your arms raised and your weapons on the ground in five seconds.”
Willa desperately wanted to turn and watch for Mama through the window, but she didn’t dare. Any opportunity to prevail in this situation would require her to remain focused on the psychopath before her.
“We are at somewhat of an impasse,” the witch said, glancing through the window. “But clearly I hold the upper hand. A good mother will do anything to save her children, and you strike me as...competent.”
The witch was certainly right about that.
“Let them go and we’ll all walk away,” Mama said, her voice penetrating the wooden boards.
“Fergussss,” Lizzy said. “I know you’re out there. I sense you, using that talent we both share. Show yourself or I’ll kill them all.”
Willa watched the witch’s face and could tell the exact moment her teacher appeared.
“Where is the old man?”
“You shot him full of enough epinephrine and muscle relaxant to make his heart either explode or stop beating completely, remember Lizzy?” Mister Fergus said.
The air escaped Willa’s lungs.
“And cut off a few fingers as well,” Lizzy said. Her eyes dilated as she said the horrible words. “His trigger pulling days are behind him now even if he does survive the injection.” Another giggle.
Willa barely fought the urge to fling herself at the witch.
“I want to see the two of you start walking away...now. If you don’t, I will shoot one child in the head. Which one shall I start with?”
“You know you won’t do that, Lizzy,” Mister Fergus said. Anxiety nibbled at the edges of the deep tenor.
Willa used her childlike voice again, “Please, Miss Lizzy. You know you don’t want to shoot a kid.”
The witch’s expression was difficult to read, but it looked like Willa had struck a nerve. She actually exhibited a trace of remorse before she swiveled the gun away from Harlan’s head, lowered the muzzle, and shot Cricket.
The world seemed to slow to half-speed after that.
Mama yelled from outside. Cricket fell to the ground like a tow sack of potatoes. The rat-rustling sounds from the corner again started up again, but Lizzy was distracted now. She didn’t notice the subtle noise of a gas mask-wearing Otis as he emerged from the ground behind her.
Willa kept her focus on Lizzy, using only her peripheral vision to watch Otis extricate his arms from the tunnel and take aim at Lizzy’s back.
Whether Lizzy heard Otis or Harlan’s gaze darted to the rat corner, Willa would never know. The witch spun and fired a second round. It exploded through the right eyehole of the gas mask.
Another yell from Mama, then a pounding on the shed door as Willa reached for the Mossy.
“Don’t do it Willadean. I’d prefer not to kill you yet.”
Willa turned slowly. The witch stood in a square patch of weak sunlight. Her gun swiveled to point at Harlan now.
“I have no such qualms about your brother.” The grin unfurled again. A slender finger twitched on the trigger, but Lizzy watched Willadean’s face instead of Harlan. The witch wanted to observe Willa’s horror at the sight of her brother’s murder. She was drawing it out a few seconds longer than necessary. Absolute madness glittered in the poison-ringed orbs.
Willa’s mind rebelled. She’d already lost Cricket. She would never survive losing Harlan too. Flinging herself between the witch and Harlan would only take a second, and she was the fastest kid in the village.
“You’re a monster,” Willa hissed, hoping to distract the witch and give herself the second she needed. Time slowed to quarter-speed as she sprang.
A tendon jumped in Lizzy’s forearm, the one that controlled finger movement.
A thud from above might have been a wind-tossed branch, but a faint whiff of rosemary told Willadean something else had landed on the roof. The next second, crashing glass rained down on them from the skylight.
As Willa landed in front of Harlan, the witch’s head exploded.
Chapter 25
Fergus
“I got the crazy gal!” Skeeter said from the roof.
The shed door swung open. Serena Jo ran inside.
Fergus helped the old man climb down, postponing the moment he’d be forced to look upon dead children.
“I’m fine,” Skeeter said. “Go see if you can help.”
The storm passed to the north. A bright shaft of sunlight broke through the clouds, illuminating the interior of the shed.
Serena Jo’s arms were wrapped around Willadean in an embrace that threatened to suffocate the little girl.
Lizzy’s body lay on the ground, her face a grisly Halloween mask. Light reflected off teeth on one side of her gaping mouth. The other side was a nightmare of blood, flesh, and bone.
Harlan sat on the ground next to Cricket. Little-boy hands pressed against their best friend’s chest which still rose and fell in a shallow rhythm. Golden eyes lifted to Fergus, but they weren’t filled with sadness. They were filled with determination.
“Do you think you can do
