R. Stine - Red Rain

“We came to kill you,” Daniel repeated, his face blank, eyes trained on hers.

Autumn giggled. “Why would you kill me ? Is this a game? Something for school? No. A war game?”

“You did bad things with Pa,” Daniel said, taking a step toward her. “We saw you.”

Autumn didn’t giggle this time. Her face creased as she narrowed her eyes at Daniel. She was beginning to realize he was serious.

“You-you two were watching us?” She stood up, awkwardly on the tall, spiked shoes. Grabbed the taped arm of the couch for support. “Really? You’re serious? You were spying on us?”

Samuel blinked as the red before his eyes pulsed and began to sizzle.

“We saw you,” Daniel said quietly. “You did a bad thing with Pa.”

Autumn’s mouth curled in anger. “That’s none of your business. How is that your business? You’re a kid. You don’t know anything about grown-ups. Did you really come all the way here to tell me you were spying on me?”

“Now we have to do a bad thing to Pa,” Daniel said.

“Listen, you don’t know what you’re saying,” Autumn told him, hands on the waist of her shorts. “You’re just a kid. You don’t have to worry about any of this. You got yourself all stressed out over nothing.”

She started to walk past him toward the front door. “I think you two have to leave now. And don’t tell your parents-”

She stopped midsentence when she saw Samuel’s eyes, and her mouth dropped open. Startled, she stumbled and backed into the wall.

“Samuel? What’s wrong? Your eyes-”

“We have to do a bad thing to Pa,” Daniel repeated. “It’s important. You have to burn.”

“No-wait! What’s going on? What are you doing ?” She pressed her back against the wall and raised her hands as if preparing to fight as Samuel moved close.

He raised his eyes to her and steadied his fiery gaze on her throat.

She uttered a cry. Grabbed her throat with both hands.

“Stop it! That hurts ! Are you fucking weird ?”

She pressed her hands around her throat. Samuel raised his eyes to her forehead. The heat crackled like electric current.

Still gripping her throat, she ducked her head. Slid down against the wall, struggling to avoid the painful attack.

“Stop! You fucking weirdo! Damn it! Damn!” She sank to the floor, covering her face.

Samuel aimed the red beam at the top of her head.

Beside him, Daniel watched, unblinking, his smile gleeful, hands balled into fists, thumping the air as if cheering his brother on at some kind of sports event.

“Damn! Damn! You’re hurting me! Damn it! Stop! Fuck you!”

Samuel the Punisher, the Fire Man, Samuel the Avenger aimed the beam at the part in her hair. He saw a line on her scalp darken, saw the hair along the part blacken in the scorching heat. Saw the darkening skin start to peel open.

So sorry to make a big hole in such a pretty head.

Autumn, you are the prettiest one yet. So sorry it didn’t help you survive.

You were so pretty and so bad.

Rolled into a tight ball, Autumn had stopped screaming. When she made her move, it was a blur of motion to Samuel. He stared down at her through the thick, pulsating curtain of red. He could see vague shapes and the direction of his heat beam. But he didn’t see clearly enough when Autumn suddenly untucked herself.

Grunting like an animal, she made a wild grab at her foot, slapping at it, fumbling frantically. With a hoarse cry, she tugged off one of the red shoes.

Then she rose to her feet, her hair smoking, thrusting the shoe above her head.

“Look out, boyo!”

Daniel’s warning came too late.

Samuel’s vision was a blur of red.

Eyes wild, hair burning, Autumn lunged toward Samuel. She gripped the shoe by the toe with the spiked heel pointing out.

Like a sword blade. That was his thought as she swung it down on him. Plunged it down with all her strength, aiming for his eye.

He saw the long spike driving toward his face. And then felt Daniel push him, shove him back. He stumbled.

The heel missed his face-and she drove it deep into his chest.

Samuel saw it in slow motion. Saw it puncture his shirt. Felt it dig into the skin. Felt it. Felt it. Felt it slice into the tender spot just below his rib cage.

He dropped to his knees. The red curtain faded from his eyes. Everything went black for a moment, then his vision quickly returned.

The shoe hung tight to his chest. The spiked heel had been driven all the way in. He gripped it in one hand and watched Autumn stumble to the front door, staggering on one shoe.

Daniel made a grab for her. Missed. She hurtled through the screen door and dove screaming into the street.

The screen door slammed behind her.

Daniel started to the door, then thought better of it, and turned back to his brother, Samuel on his knees on the carpet. Daniel’s eyes were wild. His whole body trembled.

“Sammy, what are we going to do? She got away.”

“No, she didn’t,” Samuel told his brother. “No one escapes me. She’s as good as dead, boyo.”

He saw the panic on his brother’s face. He knew he had to be brave, put on a good front. Daniel had never encountered failure. It frightened Samuel to think how his twin might handle such disappointment.

Samuel could still hear her screams out in the street. He motioned with his head to the shoe. “Help me.”

Daniel hesitated for a moment, his face locked in horror. Then he wrapped his hands around the heel of the shoe-and pulled it out of his twin’s chest.

It slid out easily, making a sssllliick sound like pulling a spoon out of a jelly jar.

Daniel tossed the shoe across the floor. Then he smoothed down the front of Samuel’s T-shirt. “Afraid you’ve got a hole in your shirt, bruvver.”

Samuel jumped to his feet. “Let’s go.”

“Whistle while we work,” Daniel said. He whistled a short tune.

Daniel being Daniel.

They burst out through the screen door together. Jumped off the stoop. Samuel saw Daniel remove something from his jeans pocket and drop it beside the steps.

The morning sun was high over the shingled roofs of the little houses that lined the street. Houses not much bigger than cottages. Each with a trimmed square lawn. An SUV parked in the driveway.

Not a fancy Hamptons neighborhood, Samuel thought as they took off running in the direction of the shrill screams. This is where the workers live.

Saturday morning and everyone must be sleeping in, for there was not a person in sight. Oh, yes. A man in khaki shorts watering his flower garden with a hose in the next block. A small brown dog sniffing around him.

Samuel saw Autumn pounding frantically on the front door of a small brick house down the block. No one answered. She leaped off the front stoop and, screaming all the way, fled into a sandy, pebbly alley lined by wooden fences that snaked behind the houses.

“Nice of Autumn to scream like that and let us know where she is going,” said Daniel, trotting beside his brother, eyes straight ahead.

“She’s a nice girl.” Samuel’s earnest reply.

They caught up with her behind a stack of blue and yellow boogie boards tilting against a wood picket fence. The boards formed a low tent. Autumn probably thought she would be hidden by them.

They found her huddled behind the boards, her body hunched and shaking, her breath coming in loud wheezes.

Panting like a dog. Like a cornered dog.

Samuel set his eyes to glowing. He felt anger now and new dedication to the task. No hesitation.