Without thinking, I sprint out into the night.
21
I pump my legs as fast as they’ll go. Screams shatter the air, interspersed by long gaps of silence. I imagine people holding their breath so they won’t be heard by the monsters. My skin breaks out in goose bumps at the thought of what might be happening.
My plan, if you can call it that, is to run like hell away from the school and find a vehicle with keys.
There ought to be plenty right in the parking lot. Obi and his men have been working hard to make sure all the cars have their keys in the ignition and are fully gassed up for emergencies like this one. Well, maybe they didn’t predict a situation just like this, but close enough.
Once in a car, I plan to honk that horn like nobody’s business and drive as far away as I can. Hopefully, the hellions will follow me.
I have no idea what I’ll do if they don’t. Or if I get caught on the way to the car. Or how to escape once they’re swarming around me. But that’s too much to think about in this panic.
And what about Paige and Mom and Raffe?
I shake my head. Focus.
A man starts screaming to my left.
If I keep running, the man will probably die. If I stop to help him, I’ll lose my chance to draw hellions away from everyone else. No good choices left in the World After.
I hesitate but keep on racing into the parking lot. Pooky Bear bumps against my leg on her straps, as though demanding to be part of the action. But I need to get to a car as soon as possible and start drawing the hellions my way.
I throw open the door to the nearest car. I can’t help but look behind me.
There are shadows already flying after me, getting closer with every heartbeat. Behind them, people are running every which way near the building.
I jump in the car and shut the door, hoping there’s a key. Hellions slam into my door and windshield.
Thank everything left that’s good in the world for Obi’s paranoia and preparation. The keys are there.
The little red Hyundai starts immediately. The engine roars to life.
I screech out of my parking spot, dislodging the creatures on my car. More pile on, though, as soon as I stop.
I honk the horn.
The hellions who hadn’t noticed me before stop chasing people to look my way. I’m tempted to run them over and smash their creepy bat faces under the tires.
But my job is to draw them away, not to waste time playing with them. I crack open the windows and scream, ‘Hey, you! Dinnertime! I’m over here, you scabby rats! Come and get me!’
The Hyundai is rocking with hellions as they pile on. I’m about to screech out of the lot – or at least make donuts until all the hellions head my way and leave the rest of the people alone – when I feel a thump. The car drops on one side. Then I see the shredded rubber of a tire being flung over the hood.
That was the front tire.
I stare dumbly at the ripped-up tire as it flops and wobbles to a standstill in the parking lot.
Then so many hellions pile onto my car that I can’t see the tire anymore.
I stroke the fur of my teddy bear. It’s all I can think to do.
Pooky Bear can’t help me in a vehicle. Not a lot of room to slice and dice.
That means I need to exit the car if I want a chance at getting out of this.
I sit in the car.
I wonder how long a person can stay in a vehicle.
But then, of course, the hellions begin pounding on the windshield.
Their bat faces and needle-sharp teeth scrape against the windows. How much force can a windshield take?
If they pound their way in, I’ll be in close quarters and won’t be able to use my sword or run. If I open the door, they’ll be on me before I can get my foot on the ground.
One of the hellions hops onto the hood, shoving the others aside. It’s one of the beefy ones who followed me from the Pit.
He’s carrying a rock.
He heaves the rock above his ugly head and smashes it against the windshield. The glass cracks into a million lines webbing across my vision. I take a deep breath as he lifts his rock again. I put my hand on the door handle and get ready to sprint my way out of here.
As the rock smashes down on the windshield again, I slam my door open as hard as I can.
All the hellions’ attention was on the rock, and I catch them by surprise. I manage to smack several creatures out of the way with my door. That gives me a sliver of room to run.
As soon as I get my foot on the asphalt, claws grab me. All teeth and spittle, it’s the side of hellions I haven’t seen in my sword dreams. They run from Raffe. With him, they are the victims. With me, they are the killers.
A hellion’s teeth scrape my cheek. Hands grab my arm and then claw at my chest. I hear myself screaming.
I grab its chin, shoving the head and mouth as far back as I can. For such a skinny little thing, it’s extremely strong. I’m twisted as far away from it as I can be while trying to snap its neck backward.
Its head is frantically moving back and forth, gnashing at me. It gets closer to my face, so close that I can smell its rotting-fish breath.
It gashes me with its claws, not even trying to save its own neck. It must be insane. I’m not going to win this battle.
My back is to the car. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see two others climbing past the door to get at me. I frantically look at one, then the other. No gun, I can’t draw my sword, and I’m trapped in the wedge of the car door.
The best I can hope for is that people get a few minutes to run while the hellions are busy tearing me apart. It’s a Penryn party.
Suddenly, they all stop.
Their bat-like faces lift into the air, their ugly nostrils sniffing madly. One of them shakes its head like a dog shaking off water.
The one that was about to reach my neck with its claws backs off, letting me go. The ones climbing over the door can’t back off fast enough. All around me, I sense terror.
They all run away.
It takes me a second to realize that I’m free and still alive.
In the headlight beams, a pair of legs walk toward the rush of hellions who are running from the car. The beam of light creeps up the person’s body as the legs move toward me until I can see who it is.
It’s my mother.
The hellions run. Away from the school, away from the people, and especially away from my mother.
‘What the hell?’ I stare, dumbfounded.
Then the smell finally hits my awareness. It reeks here. The windshield is splattered with Mom’s rotten eggs. Old yellow-and-black goo oozes across the windshield like a giant bird dropping.
The smell.
They’re running from the smell. They’re running with the same terror that the hellions did from the demon in the Pit when he hissed at them. Does the smell remind them of their evil bosses? Do they assume an angry demon lord is coming when they smell rotten eggs?
I stare at my mother as she walks toward me with eggs in each hand.
She may be insane, but she has seen and experienced things. Things that other people haven’t understood.
By the time she reaches me, the hellions have all run off.
‘Are you okay?’ she asks.
I nod. ‘How’d you do that?’
‘It does stink something awful, doesn’t it?’ My mom wrinkles her nose at me.
I stare at her, speechless, before I let out a weak laugh.
22
I walk into the grove with my mother. Another woman follows us a few steps behind.
I turn to her and say, ‘Hello.’
She bows her head slightly. She looks about the same age as my mom and wears a midlength coat with a hood that covers her head. Beneath the coat, a dress falls to her ankles and drapes over her slippers. There’s something familiar about her dress, but the thought flitters through my mind and gets pushed out by bigger things.
‘She’s with me,’ says my mom. I’m
not sure what to make of her. My mother usually doesn’t have friends, but it’s a whole new world, and maybe I don’t know as much about my mom as I thought.
The grove is quiet except for the crunching of our feet and the sound of someone running toward us. I look back and see Raffe fast approaching on foot. He’s almost invisible with his dark trench coat and cap. He must have come running when he heard me scream during the hellion attack.
Both my mother and her friend freeze when they see his figure, but I put out my hand and nod to show that he’s with me. They continue into the grove while I drop back to wait for Raffe.
My mom looks back to keep an eye on us and doesn’t even try to be polite about it. She’s fully vigilant, scanning the shadows. Good for her.
‘You all right?’ His voice is soft, almost apologetic. I wonder if he thought that it would be better for me if the hellions didn’t see him fighting for me. There were too many for him to kill them all, so a lot of them would have escaped and told other hellions. Or maybe he couldn’t afford to have Obi and the others see him fighting full force.
‘Yeah, I’m fine. Those ugly bullies were more afraid of my mommy than any warrior angel anyway. She’s far more scary.’