Nodens quivered in anticipation, feeling the walls thin around it.
Soon…
The forest shuddered.
“Look at this,” Maria exclaimed. “It’s unbelievable!”
She’d driven the same route she’d taken the night she interviewed Ken, from the city to the suburbs and then onto the rural back roads. That was where the trouble began. Southbound, there was more traffic than normal, and the closer to the Ghost Walk they got, the more congested the narrow roads became. Maria grumbled, forced to drive the speed limit, then below the speed limit, and then reduced to a crawl. Finally, traffic stopped altogether. A few drivers tried passing the congestion by driving south in the northbound lane, but after a few near misses with oncoming traffic, nobody else dared. One impatient driver honked his horn, but the rest sat patiently—families, couples, and carloads of teens, all on their way to the Ghost Walk, anticipating an evening of getting the shit scared out of them.
“Got to hand it to Ken,” Maria said. “He’s going to rake in a lot of money for charity tonight. I don’t think he had any idea it would be this big.”
“They may make a lot of money,” Levi agreed, “but they’ll never get to spend it if the living darkness is freed.”
Maria turned on the radio and switched it to a local news station. They listened to a commercial for a vacuum cleaner service and another for a steak house, and then the announcer came back on.
The top news story was Adam’s escape.
“Shit,” Adam said. “Well, I guess we knew this was coming. Wonder what they’ll say about me?”
“Listen,” Maria whispered, silencing him.
According to the newscaster, neither the local authorities nor the White Rose Mental Health Facility’s staff had been able to determine how Adam had escaped. Nor had they been able to locate him. The authorities did not know if he was still in the area, and were advising residents to be cautious. Adam was considered dangerous.
“I’m not dangerous,” he muttered in the backseat.
The announcer made a joke about how this was the perfect news story for Halloween, and then gave the weather and traffic report, including a mention of the traffic jam they were currently sitting in.
“Now he tells us,” Maria moaned. “Very helpful.”
“I’m not dangerous,” Adam repeated. “They act like I’m fucking crazy or something.”
Maria glanced in the rearview mirror. Adam’s left eyelid was twitching and his lips were pulled into a scowl. She turned the radio off and tried to calm him.
“We know, Adam. It’ll be okay.”
Levi grabbed the door handle. “Come on.”
“You have to piss?” Adam asked him.
Levi didn’t answer. Maria activated the power locks a second before Levi opened the door. He turned to her in annoyance.
“Unlock the door,” he demanded. “And the trunk, as well, please.”
“Where are you going?”
“To the Ghost Walk,” he said. “Leave the car right here. We’ll hike there.”
“Are you crazy? We’re still five miles away.”
“I’ve walked farther.”
“I haven’t.”
“Me either,” Adam said. “I didn’t exactly get a lot of exercise in the hospital.”
Levi pawed at the door handle. “Unlock this. We’ll leave the car here. That might help slow down this progression of traffic.”
“No way,” Maria balked. “I’m not abandoning my car in the middle of some country road, especially with all these people around. If you want to make an even bigger traffic jam, then you get out there and conjure up a demon or something.”
Before Levi could respond, traffic began to move again, albeit slowly. Maria eased her foot off the brake and the car rolled forward.
“Look,” she said. “We’re moving again. See? No worries.”
“Unlock the door, Maria.”
“Levi, we’re
“Not fast enough. We don’t have a choice, Maria. Look at the sun.”
She gazed out the windshield. The yellow orb was just beginning its slow descent beneath the horizon.
“Sunset. I know. But it will be another hour and a half or so before it’s dark out, and you said the walls won’t thin until midnight.”
Levi gritted his teeth. “No, I said that they’ll be
