John Saul - The Right Hand of Evil

Sickened, Kim reeled away. As she turned to flee back up the aisle, she saw Luke Roberts.

Naked, he lay before one end of the altar, sprawled atop Sandy Engstrom, whose arms and legs were wrapped around his glistening torso as she writhed ecstatically beneath him. Stunned into frozen immobility, Kim stood rooted to the spot as her brother's best friend and her own twisted and flailed on the floor before the altar. Then, as if feeling her watching him, Luke looked up, and his eyes locked on hers.

He smiled.

Once again Kim saw the face of the demon-eyes running with mucus, skin turned into a reptilian hide erupting with pustules. Now the twin serpents burst forth from his mouth, along with a terrible, high-pitched laugh that crashed against Kim like shattering glass.

Her gorge rising, her throat filling with the burning fire of vomit, Kim turned away from the grotesque scene on the floor, and now the grinning visage of the demon loomed above her once more, both his hands outstretched, his fingers growing into curving talons that dripped with blood. Just as the creature's claws were about to sink into her flesh, she turned one last time and raced back up the aisle of the cathedral. The aisle seemed to stretch away from her as she ran. The taunting laughter she'd heard boiling from Luke's throat was joined now by other cackling voices, the peals striking her back like the stinging tips of a lash, driving her on despite the exhaustion that threatened to overwhelm her.

Finally she came to the doors and burst through, pulling them closed behind her. In an instant she was plunged into darkness, but she bolted ahead and a moment later stumbled headlong into the bottom of the stairs.

Screaming, she threw her hands out to break her fall and-

Kim jerked awake, a scream still rising in her throat. She choked it back just before it could smash the silence of the night, and then she lay still, her heart pounding, her mind reeling as the last fragments of the nightmare faded away.

She became aware of the faint throbbing of music then, and a glowing point of light in the darkness surrounding her.

Oh, God, was she still caught up in the nightmare?

But no-she couldn't be. If she were still in the clutches of the dream, would she even be wondering if it was a dream?

She must be awake!

She willed her pounding heart to slow, and as her pulse eased, so also the terror that gripped her began to ebb. Disoriented, she looked around.

The library! That's where she was! And the glowing point of light was nothing more than the stand-by indicator on the television set!

She sat up. "S-Sandy?" she stammered.

Silence, save for the muted rhythms of the music.

The music from the dream?

She got up and switched on the floor lamp at the end of the sofa on which Sandy Engstrom had been sprawled while they watched the movie.

The sofa was empty; Sandy wasn't there.

The details of the dream loomed once more in her mind, and she whimpered softly as she saw again the vision of her friend, her body glistening in the candlelight, her limbs entwined around-

No!

It hadn't happened! She hadn't seen it! It had only been a dream.

Then where was Sandy?

The question hanging in her mind, Kim moved out of the library and through the living room to the entry hall. The house seemed to have grown in the gloom; the huge rooms appeared more immense than ever. She crossed the entry hall, moved into the parlor and the dining room.

Nothing.

She was passing the door to the basement stairs when she paused. The music-the music she had thought was only another vestige of the nightmare-was louder now.

Her terror mounting once again, and wishing she could just turn away, Kim reached out and pulled open the door.

The music blared.

She stepped through the door so she was standing on the landing at the top of the stairs, gazing down into the darkness.

The darkness, and the faint point of light that leaked through the keyhole of the door to Jared's room.

Just like in the dream…

Don't, Kim told herself. Just don't go down there.

But even as the words filled her mind, her feet began carrying her down the staircase. With each step she took, the rhythms of the music reached deeper into her, and the point of light drew her steadily onward. At the bottom of the stairs she stood before the door to Jared's room.

She paused, listening.

Now she could hear more than just the music itself.

Whispered voices, and faint, mocking laughter.

And moans.

Moans of ecstasy.

She was in Jared's room! Sandy was in Jared's room!.

Kim's hand reached for the knob, but she stopped herself as the memory of the pagan cathedral she'd seen in her dream-the cathedral that had turned into a chamber of horror-rose in her mind. What if it wasn't a dream? What if everything she'd seen were somehow real? What if Sandy really was-

Unable to finish the thought, Kim turned away from the door and hurried back up the stairs, then shut the basement door behind her and leaned against it.

What should she do?

Should she wake up her parents?

Sandy would never forgive her!

But if she was with Jared and Luke-

Kim felt as if she were caught in another nightmare, but this time she knew it wasn't a dream. This time it was real. From behind her the music reached through the door, and she could almost feel its tentacles sinking into her once again, as it had in the nightmare, trying to draw her back down into the basement.

Just as in her dream, her fingers closed on her aunt's tiny cross, and as she felt it in her hand, her resolve strengthened. She left the door to the basement and made her way back to the entry hall.

As she started up the great staircase toward the second floor, the waves of music receded, loosening their grip on her.

At her parents' door, she hesitated.

Whatever was going on in Jared's room wasn't any of her business.

No one had forced Sandy to go down there.

And if she told on her, Sandy would never speak to her again.

Silently, Kim made her way around the mezzanine to her own room, easing her door open just far enough to slip inside, praying it wouldn't creak. Just as she was closing it behind her, she realized her room wasn't empty.

Kim froze, listening.

Breathing! She could hear the sound of breathing!

Once again her heart began to race, but even as her fear built, she moved her hand slowly toward the light switch on the wall. When she finally felt it beneath her fingers, she drew in her breath and held it.

She flipped the switch, and the chandelier in the middle of the ceiling glared into brilliant light, washing the darkness from the room.

Sandy Engstrom sat bolt upright in Kim's bed, clutching the sheets around her neck. For a long second the two girls stared at each other in shock, then Sandy collapsed back against the pillows, giggling. "What are you doing?" she asked when she finally subsided. "You scared me half to death!"

"I didn't even know you were up here," Kim began. "I thought-" She was about to blurt out the truth when she caught herself. "I woke up, and you were gone, and I thought you must have gone home or something. How come you didn't wake me up?"

Sandy rolled her eyes exactly as Kim had when she herself had been frightened by watching Scream. "I tried," she said. "When the movie ended, I tried to wake you up, but finally I just gave up and came up and went to bed." She looked at the clock. It was just past three A.M. "Do you always sleep that hard?"

Kim shook her head. "I thought-" She hesitated, then shrugged helplessly. "I don't know what I thought," she finally finished.

She got undressed and slid into bed next to her friend.

Should she tell Sandy about the nightmare?