Brian Freeman - The Burying Place

Her hands scrabbled on the floor for the gun but couldn't find it. He crawled toward her, and she skittered away from him, bumping against something cold and wet. She wrapped her hand around it, and her fingers sank into dead, decaying flesh. She was among the bodies, drowning in the smell. She kept backing up, using the row of corpses to block him from her, but he came forward, climbing from his knees, towering above her. His right eye was squeezed shut. His left hand dangled at an odd angle. But he was standing, and she was on her back.

Kasey reached the wall and couldn't go any further. He threw aside the chairs, grotesquely tumbling two bodies to the ground and scattering rats. Their eyes met. He smiled and came for her. As he landed, his body crushed her with his weight, forcing the air from her chest in a rush. His good hand locked around her throat like the jaws of a dog and choked off her windpipe. Kasey clawed at his fingers and pummeled his head and body with her fists, but he hung on.

Blood pounded in her ears. Her open mouth sucked for air and found none. She pawed the ground, hunting for a weapon. When she found a shard of glass, she scored his skin in streaks, but the blood and pain didn't dislodge him. His hand was a clamp, crushing the cartilage of her neck.

'You lose, Kasey,' he hissed.

Maggie screamed at her. 'On your left! Kasey, on your left!'

Her left arm swept the floor in a twitching, up-and-down motion. Blood vessels popped like firecrackers on her face.

'Higher!'

Kasey reached backward until her shoulder almost separated. That was when she felt it. Her fingers closed over a jagged block of heavy concrete. She clutched the stone like a baseball and hefted it off the floor. Her arms swayed with the weight, and she nearly lost her grip.

'Yes! Do it! Hit him!'

She took an unwieldy swing and missed. Her fingers grew numb. The brick tottered in her hand. Drunkenly, she swung again, down into the back of his head, and this time she heard the block land with a fierce, satisfying crack as it broke bone.

His hand loosened from her throat. She felt him crumple and become dead weight, unconscious as he lay on her body. Lines of blood trickled through his hair and on to her face. With a heavy thrust, she flipped his body over and staggered to her feet. The world spun. She coughed, gasping for air.

'Kasey!' Maggie shouted. 'Are you OK?'

Kasey stumbled toward the flashlight. She bent down and picked it up, and the beam of light danced crazily in her hand as she steadied herself. She scanned the floor and located Maggie's gun, and she retrieved it and held it tightly in her other hand. She took a tentative step toward the wall and cast the light down on his body.

'Is he dead?' Maggie asked.

Kasey watched Nieman in the light. A dark pool grew under his skull, but she could see his chest rise and fall. She hadn't hit him hard enough to kill him. The nightmare wasn't over yet. He groaned, and his limbs moved. Blood bubbled from his mouth. His eyes fluttered as he began to wake up.

'Quick, help me get free,' Maggie urged her.

Kasey stood frozen. She couldn't move. She stared at him as he slowly regained consciousness. Her own blood ran in streams down her neck. Beside him, sprawled on the floor; she saw the blue skin of one of the women he had killed, and something wriggled in the wound on her neck. Maggots.

'Kasey.' Maggie said, her voice a warning.

His eyes opened. That was what she was waiting for. They opened just enough for him to see her standing over him. For him to realize she was there and for her face to penetrate his mind.

He saw the gun in her hand. He knew what she was going to do. And why.

'You're a killer, Kasey,' he breathed, his lips folding into a broken smile. 'Just like me.'

She nodded. 'You're right.'

Kasey lifted the gun and fired a single shot into his brain.

Serena left tracks in the snow with her boots as she marched up the driveway. The farmhouse was ablaze with light, and through the windows, she saw the shadow of someone moving on the second floor. As she got closer, she found the front door wide open. A moving truck was parked outside, its engine running. Behind the truck, hooked for towing, she saw an old Ford Escort.

It was the car she had seen at Regan Conrad's house, the car that had vanished while she was inside.

Everything made sense, but she wished it didn't.

Serena was conscious of her gun hidden in her shoulder holster under her jacket, but she left it where it was. At the threshold, she hesitated. The house was mostly stripped, but she saw an old television in the family room, tuned to the local network. She heard the breathless voice of Blair Rowe and saw the crawl for breaking news scroll across the bottom of the screen.

POLICE RECOVER CHILD'S BODY NEAR CEMETERY.

The news explained the frantic rush to escape. They knew about the search. They knew what the police were going to find in the woods. After that, it wouldn't be long before someone wound up at their doorstep.

Serena walked silently into the house. The main floor was empty, but upstairs she heard heavy, panicked footsteps in the hallway. As she watched, a burly, bearded man thundered down the stairs and froze in horrified surprise when he saw Serena.

Her heart lurched. The man carried a baby wrapped in a blanket in his arms. She couldn't see the baby's face, which was covered by a hood, but she knew who it was. She had suspected all along what she would find inside the house, even though she hadn't allowed herself to believe it could end this way. The baby's hand reached up out of the folds of the blanket and tugged at the man's beard. The hood slipped off her head, and Serena saw her blonde curls. Her beautiful face with its wide eyes and toothy grin. Valerie's child.

It was Callie Glenn. Alive. Safe.

Serena put up her hands to steady him. 'Stay right there, OK? Let's be calm about this. No one wants anyone getting hurt.'

He didn't move. He didn't say anything.

'Where's Kasey?' Serena asked Bruce Kennedy.

Bruce wilted on to the steps. His head burrowed into his thick neck. 'She's out.'

'Did you two really think you could get away with this?'

Bruce put out a thick finger, and Callie grabbed it and put it in her mouth. His eyes welled with tears. 'I don't know what I was thinking. You have to believe me, I never thought any of it would go this far. But when I saw the news, I knew you'd be coming for us. I knew you'd want to take her back.'

Serena gestured toward the sofa. 'Why don't you come downstairs, Bruce? Tell me about it. Tell me why you and Kasey did this.'

Bruce held Callie like a treasure as he came downstairs. She was a tiny bundle in his huge arms. His eyes shot to the open door behind Serena, and she shook her head.

'Please don't try that,' she told him. 'There are police outside. All you would do by running is put her in danger.'

'I'd never do that.'

He sat on a corner of the sofa, and Serena sat opposite him. She couldn't take her eyes off Callie. The little girl was even more beautiful than she had dreamed. All she had seen until now was a photograph, and for days she had steeled herself to the eventual reality of finding her dead. Or never finding her at all. And here she was, perfect and gorgeous. She wanted to take her in her arms and never let go. She was so happy that she thought her heart would break, and she realized that she was crying herself. The reality of seeing Callie hit her harder than she could ever have imagined.

'Isn't she wonderful?' Bruce said.

Serena nodded mutely. She couldn't speak.

'You can't take her away from us,' he said.

'Tell me what happened,' Serena told him, her voice cracking. 'For God's sake, why would you two do something like this?'