remembered the promise of a good life, of treasures beyond his wildest dreams. He tried to focus on the image-of beautiful girls and orgies and fast cars and drugs and pleasure beyond all expectations.
“Master,” he said out loud, though it came out as barely a whisper. “Will I be rewarded?”
The Monster eased the pain and answered with a silky smooth feeling that radiated throughout his soul.
“Yes, my son. You will be rewarded,” it promised. “Be patient. Your pain will soon be over and only pleasure will remain.”
Seti kept walking; they were almost back at the camp now. The monster’s words sounded good-felt good. But he was no longer sure if he could believe them.
4
Erik comforted Vickie as best as he could, then he and Pastor Mark went out onto the patio.
“I think we should call the F.B.I.,” the Pastor said. “They need to know that Collins is missing.”
Erik handed him the card with Thralls’ number.
“You call him. They already think I’m involved.”
“What should I tell him? That Collins shot himself full of holes?”
“This thing is just too weird to be believed. I don’t know what to say anymore, Pastor. I hate to lie, but no one will believe the truth.”
“I’ll tell them you went into the woods together to look for this altar stone and you were separated. We don’t know where Collins is. They can take it from there.”
Erik nodded. Mark pulled out his cell phone to make the call but Erik was too nervous to listen. He paced to the edge of the back yard and looked into the woods. He could still feel the repulsion of the awful stone, even from here. The thing did have a terrible power. Dovecrest claimed it was a gateway to hell, and he believed him now. It was channeling its power through the cult’s leader-obviously the man Erik had seen in the woods-but the power definitely came from the stone. Erik suspected that the demon on the other side of the gateway was already making its way into this world. That probably explained the growth on the leader’s neck.
He looked back and saw that Mark had finished his phone call. He took his time walking back to the patio.
“They’re sending out a couple of State Troopers,” Mark said. “They’ll pick up the trail from Dovecrest’s place. Thralls is coming here to talk to you.”
“Did he buy it?”
“He thinks something’s fishy. He just doesn’t know what.”
“I guess I should just tell him the truth,” Erik said. “What’s the worst he could do? He already thinks I’m a nut case.”
“I’ll wait around with you until he gets here,” Mark said. “I already told him what Dovecrest told us, so he thinks I’m crazy too for believing it.”
Erik laughed. Misery loves company.
5
Todd put his ear to the wall and tried to listen to what his Dad was saying to the man in the blue suit, but he could only make out parts of it. He heard something about Dad finding the stone in the woods, and he felt good about that. He’d been worried that Dad had thought he was either making the whole thing up, or that he’d imagined it. Now he knew his Dad believed him because he’d seen it too. At least that part had been cleared up.
He also heard something about the sheriff being shot. It sounded like Dad had said he’d shot himself, and he mentioned some strange man in the woods, too. Then he said a whole lot of things Todd either couldn’t hear or couldn’t understand. The man in the suit then talked for awhile, but Todd couldn’t make out what he said either. It was frustrating. He decided to go into the living room and pretend he was looking for something.
Just as he walked in, the man in the blue suit began to raise his voice.
“So, Mr. Hunter, you’re trying to tell me that we have demons lurking in the woods, and they’re making veteran police officers just shoot themselves for no reason. And, oh, yeah, I forgot. There’s this big black stone in the middle of the woods masterminding all of this. Only the stone doesn’t stay in one place. It moves.”
“There is a stone in the woods, Mister!” Todd said. “It tried to get me only I got away. But it got that girl.”
The man’s jaw dropped and everyone turned to look at Todd. No one said anything, and then Dad came and took him by the hand.
“Thanks, son,” he said, leading him up the stairs to his room. “Everything’s going to be ok.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
1
When Erik returned to the living room, Thralls, Mark, and Vickie were sitting in a circle with their heads down. A Rhode Island State Trooper stood by the door.
“They’ve found Collins,” Thralls said.
“Where…where was he?”
“In Dovecrest’s cabin. He’d been shot nine times with his own gun. And his throat was slit for good measure.”
“In the cabin…how’d he get there?”
Thralls shrugged. “Look, I’m not buying your demon story. But I do believe there’s a cult running loose in the western part of the state. We’ve tracked them from California and recently lost them. We’d assumed they went north, to Maine or Vermont.”
“You must know Steve Harvey. The radio talk show host.”
“Yeah. Good friend of mine.”
“I was on his show about a week ago. He told me about these nuts. I bet this guy is the same one who was on his talk show.”
Thralls nodded. “The body of the man found with the missing girl was one of them. And I still think Dovecrest is involved somehow.”
“He is,” Erik said. “He caught them in the middle of their little ritual.”
“That may or may not be true. But our job now is to find and stop these nutcases before they kill anyone else.”
“That’s the first thing anyone’s said that makes any sense whatsoever,” Vickie said.
“Ok,” Thralls said. “Erik, I’m going to ask you to do two things.”
“Whatever you need.”
“First, I need you to give me a detailed description of the guy you saw in the woods. We might have a sketch artist sit with you later.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“And, second, I want you to try and draw a map to where that altar stone was. If it does exist, the cult will be drawn back to it. We can stake it out and be waiting for them.”
“That’s going to be a little difficult,” Erik said. “Like I said, the thing moves.”
Thralls let out a deep sigh. “All right. Would you be able to take us there?”
Erik thought for a moment. Dovecrest said the thing could only be found if it wanted to be found. Yet Dovecrest had no trouble finding it. He guessed it could be found, once you knew how.
