Hostage - Страница 51

Then Mars pushed Jennifer into Dennis, and all three of them sprawled into the hall. Thomas crept into the room. Mars grunted like a pig when it eats, drool streaming from his mouth as he stabbed Dennis over and over. Jennifer was crawling away, splattered with blood.

'Jen! C'mon!'

Thomas darted past Mars into the hall, and grabbed Jennifer's arm. He pulled her toward the stair.

'Run!'

The two of them stumbled away as Mars heaved to his feet. His eyes were wild and darting. He was bigger, stronger, faster; Thomas knew that he would catch them.

Thomas whirled around and jerked up the pistol with both hands.

'I'll shoot you!'

Mars stopped. He was streaked with blood, and breathing hard. Blood dripped from his face. Even more blood painted the walls and floor. Dennis bubbled like a fountain and moaned.

The pistol was heavy and hard to hold. It wobbled, even though Thomas held it with both hands. Jennifer pulled at his shoulder, her voice a frightened whisper.

'Keep going. Let's get out of here.'

They backed away, Thomas trying to hold the gun steady.

Mars walked after them, matching them step for step.

Thomas pushed the gun at him.

'Stay away! I'll shoot you!'

Mars spread his arms as if to embrace them. He continued walking.

'Remember what I told you when I tied you to your bed?'

Thomas remembered: I'm going to eat your heart.

They reached the landing. Jennifer started down the stairs.

Mars walked faster.

'I'm going to cut out your heart. But I'm going to cut out your sister's heart first, so you can watch.'

'Stay away!'

Fear amped through Thomas like electric current. His body shook with it, and his bladder let go. He didn't want to shoot; he was scared to shoot, scared that it would be wrong even though he feared for his life, scared that he would be punished for it and would burn in hell and branded a bad person who had made a terrible awful mistake, but Mars came on and he was too scared not to shoot, too scared of that awful knife and the blood that dripped and ran over everything and that Mars really would do it, would cut out his heart, and Jennifer's, and eat them both.

Thomas pulled the trigger.

Click!

Mars stopped, frozen at the sharp sound.

Click!

The gun didn't fire.

All the things that his father had showed him at the pistol range came flooding back. He gripped the slide hard and pulled back to load a bullet into the chamber, but the slide locked open and did not close. Thomas glanced down into the open action. The magazine was empty. The pistol was unloaded. There were no bullets. There were no bullets!

When Thomas looked up again, Mars smiled.

'Welcome to my nightmare.'

Jennifer screamed, 'Run!'

Thomas threw the gun at Mars and ran, following Jennifer down the stairs. The air was thick with the smell of gasoline and vomit. Jennifer reached the front door first, and clawed at the handle, but the door would not open.

'Open it!'

'The deadbolt is locked! Where's the key?'

The key wasn't in the lock. Thomas knew with certain dread that it was probably upstairs in Dennis's bloody pocket.

Mars pounded down the stairs, closing the ground between them. He would be on them in seconds. They would never reach the French doors or garage before he caught them.

Jennifer grabbed his arm and pulled.

'This way! Run!'

She pulled him toward their parents' room. Thomas realized that she was taking him to the safest place in the house, but Mars was getting closer, off the stairs now and out of the entry and right behind them.

Thomas raced after his sister down the hall, through their parents' bedroom, and into the security room. They slammed the steel door and threw the bolt in the same moment that Mars crashed into the other side of the door.

The world was silent.

Thomas and Jennifer held each other, shaking and scared. All that Thomas could hear was his own heavying breath.

Then Mars pounded on the door, slow, rhythmic thuds that echoed through the tiny room… boom… boom… boom.

Jennifer squeezed Thomas, whispering.

'Don't move. He can't reach us in here.'

'I know.'

'We're safe.'

'Shut up!'

His father had told him that the door could stop anything.

The pounding stopped.

Mars cupped his hands to the door and shouted to make himself heard. His muffled voice came through the steel.

'You're bad. You're bad. You're bad. Now I'm going to punish you.'

Mars hit the door once more, then walked out of the room.

Thomas remembered the cell phone.

He clawed it out of his pocket, and turned it on.

The cell phone chimed as it came to life.

'Thomas! Look!'

Jennifer was watching Mars on the monitors. He was in the entry by the front door. He picked up the two containers of gasoline, then walked through the house splashing gasoline on the walls. He smiled as he worked.

Jennifer said, 'Ohmigod, he's going to burn us.'

The cell phone chimed again, and Thomas glanced at the display. The battery indicator flickered.

The cell phone was going dead.

CHAPTER 24

Saturday, 2:16 A.M.

MARS

Mars turned off the remaining lights as he passed them. The entry hall turned black. The office followed, then the den. Mars knew that the police would see the rooms fail like closing eyes, and wonder why the house was dying.

Mars went to the kitchen first. He found matches in a jar by the range, then blew out the pilot lights. He splashed gasoline over the range top and gas line, then moved back toward the master bedroom, carefully pouring an unbroken trail of gas along the walls. He loved moving through the house. Shadows gave him the power of invisibility; darkness was his friend. Mars regretted that he would never see his mother again, but only because he enjoyed torturing the rotten bitch. He heard her voice even now, alive in his head:

I hate to see a boy do bad things! I hate to see a bad boy, Marshall! Why do you make me punish you this way?

I don't know, Mama.

This will make you a better man.

She didn't like to see a boy do bad things, so now he made her watch all the bad things, and sometimes even made her participate. He regretted that she wasn't with him now; he would have enjoyed introducing her to Kevin and Dennis.

Mars emptied the first bucket of gasoline, then used the second, continuing the trail of gas into the bedroom. He splashed the bed and the walls and the security door. Then he took out the matches.

THOMAS

Thomas dialed Talley's number and pressed the button to send the call.

The phone died.

'Thomas!'

'The battery's low! You never charge it!'

Jennifer snatched the phone from him and pressed the power button. The phone chirped as it came to life, but once more failed.

Jennifer angrily shook the phone.

'Piece of shit!'

'Do you think he's really gonna do it?'

'I don't know!'

'Maybe we should run!'

'We would never get past him!'

Thomas watched as Jennifer pried off the cell phone's battery. She rubbed the copper contacts hard on her shirt sleeve, then licked them before snapping the battery back onto the phone.

'What are you doing?'

'Thomas, I live on this phone. I know every trick in the book for making it work.'

Mars grinned at the monitors, then lit a match. He held it up to make sure that they saw it. The tiny flame was a glob of flickering white on the monitor screen. He let the flame grow, then brought it close to the door.

Thomas grabbed Jennifer's arm.

'He's going to do it!'

Jennifer pushed the power button. The phone chirped again as it came to life, and this time it stayed on. She jammed the phone into his hands.

'Here! It's working!'

Thomas punched in Talley's number, then glanced up at the monitors. Mars was staring into the camera as if he saw directly into their eyes and hearts. Then Thomas saw his lips move.

'What's he saying?'

Jennifer grabbed Thomas and pulled him away from the door.

'He's saying good-bye.'

Mars tossed the match.

The room erupted in flame.

TALLEY

When Talley heard the first scream from the house, he took a position behind a Highway Patrol car. The CHiPs in the cul-de-sac shifted uncomfortably because they heard it, too. Talley couldn't tell if the voice was male or female, but there had only been the one scream. Now the house was still.

Talley moved to the nearest Highway Patrol officer.

'You on the command frequency?'

'Yes, sir. You heard that in the house? I think something's going on.'

'Give me your radio.'

Talley radioed Martin, who acknowledged his call without comment. Talley moved down the line of patrol cars, listening hard for something more from the house, but it was silent.

Then, room by room, the lights went off.

Talley saw Martin approaching, and moved out to meet her. The scream had scared him, but the silence now scared him more. Jones was too far away to have heard.

Martin huffed up, excited.

'What's going on? Why is the house so dark?'

Talley was starting to explain when they saw a dull orange glow move inside the house at the edges of the window shades. He thought it was a flashlight.

His phone rang.

'Talley.'

It was Thomas, incoherent from shouting and from a weak connection.

'I can't understand you! Slow down, Thomas; I can't understand you!'

'Mars killed Kevin and Dennis, and now he's burning the house! We're in the security room, me and Jennifer! We're trapped!'