grabbed onto one of his talons—long and bony—and snapped it backward, hard as she could, so quick and violent that his knuckle split the skin and popped out to say hello.
Lanz immediately released her head—
—and shoved his bleeding finger into his mouth.
As the creature cannibalized its own hand, Jenny scurried off to the side, got her feet under her, and sprinted toward the closet door. She reached for the knob, yanking hard.
The door didn’t move.
It must have closed shut on its own.
Jenny glanced back at Dr. Lanz, who was sitting on the floor, rocking back and forth, chewing on his hand and shuddering with either agony or ecstasy. Or maybe both. His misshapen, angler-fish teeth were shredding the appendage to hamburger.
She stuck her head into the window.
“Kids! Open the door and let me in!”
The children didn’t reply.
“Come on! Open the door!”
When she got a response, it was tinged with tears. “I’m scared.”
“I’m scared too. But you need to let me in so I can protect you.”
Jenny stuck her arm through the window, waving the glow stick and peering inside. The four children were huddled together on the far side of the closet.
“Come on, kids. Please open up.”
She glanced over her shoulder toward Lanz. He was still chewing on his hand, but it wasn’t as frenzied. He’d grown calmer, almost contemplative about the task. As if deciding which part of the turkey leg to bite into next.
Even if Jenny made it past him, where could she go? No doubt the hospital was crawling with draculas. The closet was the safest place. Besides, she couldn’t leave the kids.
She stuck her head through the broken window. No way she’d fit through. Maybe ten years and twenty pounds ago, but all that would happen now was she’d get stuck like that monster had.
Another quick glance at Lanz.
He was no longer eating himself.
Instead, he was standing, staring at Jenny, a line of bloody drool stretching down his chest.
She banged on the door with both fists. “Open this goddamn door now! Right now!”
Jenny chanced another look behind her.
Lanz was holding his hand—now a ragged stump—up to his mouth. His misshapen, hideous tongue gave it a long, slow lick, like he was enjoying a popsicle. His black eyes bore into Jenny.
Then he took an easy step forward.
“JESUS CHRIST JUST OPEN THE—!”
Lanz broke into a run, and just then the knob turned. Jenny slipped into the closet, managing to get the door closed and to brace her back against it just as Lanz hit full force. His claw—the one he still had—shot through the window and latched onto Jenny’s throat. She twisted away, crabwalking backward, watching in helpless terror as Lanz tried to force himself into the square window.
He got his arm in.
He got his head in.
But that was as far as he could go.
Jenny feverishly looked around for a weapon. Besides the art supplies, there was medical equipment, but none of it formidable. Bandages, sutures, iodine, splints, tape. Where were the scalpels? Where were the syringes? Where was the—
Crash cart! Why hadn’t she thought of that before?
The cart was a set of aluminum shelves on wheels, stocked with everything needed to resuscitate and treat life-threatening conditions. She crawled to it, yanking open a drawer, looking for something, anything, to hurt Lanz with. Her mind was thinking syringes and drugs.
But her eyes locked onto the defibrillator.
It was a manual model. Perfect. She flipped it on, cranked it to 970 joules, and grabbed the paddles while the battery charged the capacitor.
“You want something to eat?” Jenny said, pressing the electrodes on either side of Lanz’s head. “Eat this, you son of a bitch.”
The unit beeped, and Jenny pressed the button to deliver the jolt. Lanz screeched, then immediately pulled out of the window. Jenny charged the unit again, waiting for him to return.
The bastard did, jamming himself into the tight space, his outstretched claw swiping at her head. Jenny ducked it, brought up the paddles, and juiced him once more.
He jerked away, but this time he had the presence of mind to take a paddle with him. Jenny pulled on the other end of the wire, struggling not to lose it, but Lanz had weight and strength and he ripped it from her grasp, pulling it out of the defib unit.
One paddle wasn’t enough to complete the circuit, so the weapon was useless. But it didn’t seem to matter.
A minute passed.
Then two.
Dr. Lanz didn’t reappear.
“Is the monster dead?” one of the children wailed.
Jenny didn’t think so. The shock he got was no doubt painful, but probably not fatal.
“I don’t know.”
And she had no desire to check. If he was lying outside the door, dying, that was fine with Jenny. But she wasn’t going to risk peeking through the broken window and getting her face bitten off because Lanz was playing hide and seek.
Better to wait and see.
“Who let me in?” Jenny asked the children.
“I did.”
“What’s your name?”
“Tommy.”
“Tommy, you’re a brave boy. When we get out of here, I’m taking you to the Camp Kookyfoot Waterpark.”
“Can I come too?”
The other two also chimed in the chorus.
“Okay,” Jenny said, “I’m taking you all to Camp Kookyfoot.”
“Is your husband coming too?”
Jenny’s thoughts flashed to Randall. She pictured him trying to balance on an inner tube far too small for his massive frame, that goofy, perpetually confused look on his face.
“Yes. Him too.”
She closed her eyes and prayed the big lug was okay.
RANDALL was all in favor of the crippled. Not in favor of them
Not a belly laugh or a “laughing and pointing” type of thing, but it was still a very definite laugh. He couldn’t help himself. The creature just looked so…
As the dracula reached him, Randall stuck out his good foot, stopping the chair from bashing into him, and then gave it a nice big shove. The dracula wheeled backward, jaws snapping.
Randall laughed again.
