Darkness Falls (20 page)

He looked up to see the demon stumble back into the light of the beacon.

Her scream grew even louder as she exploded . . .

So it ended.

This had not been the climax she had wanted for her story.

But the ending was precisely what she had come to expect.

Perhaps this would truly end it, as it had not ended before.

Before, she had died but had not been permitted to rest.

She had been able to exact revenge for the wrongs done to her in life. She had been left childless by her husband, so others would be left childless. She had been denied the right to live in peace, so she took that right from those who harassed and murdered her.

Now, though, it was over.

At last.

Now, Matilda Dixon, the Tooth Fairy of Darkness Falls, could rest.

Kyle turned off the switch.

The demon that once was Matilda Dixon had exploded into a million pieces.

With any luck, this time she’d
stay
dead.

Kyle, Caitlin, and Michael stood in the now-darkened lighthouse chamber.

It took Kyle’s eyes several moments to readjust to the darkness after the place had been so flooded with light.

Caitlin stared at him with those same beautiful eyes that he had fallen in love with as a screwed-up ten-year-old.

“Is it—”

He nodded.

“It’s over.”

“Matt?”

He shook his head. “No.”

She lowered her head.

Then she looked up again. “Is Michael okay?”

Kyle shrugged. “Other than the next twenty years he’s gonna spend in therapy, yeah.”

A chuckle started to escape Caitlin’s mouth, but she held it in, as if she were trying to hold back a vomiting binge. Then a laugh escaped her mouth.

“I’m sorry, I—”

Then she burst out laughing.

So did Michael.

Kyle surprised himself by joining them.

He hadn’t known he was still capable of laughter. It was a good feeling.

A few minutes later, they worked their way downstairs. Matt’s SUV was still parked outside the lighthouse.

The sun was starting to come up, painting the sky a burst of oranges and purples.

Every day of his life, Kyle Walsh had always been the most grateful for sunrise more than any time of the day. It was when the darkness finally ended and he could feel safe.

But he’d never noticed how pretty a sunrise could be before.

He looked down at Michael.

“You’re a hero now, Michael. You killed the Tooth Fairy. All the other ones are gonna be scared of you now: Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny . . .”

Michael smiled.

Then he ran for the car. “I call shotgun!”

Kyle winced, remembering Matt. An okay guy for a cop. He had deserved better.

They all did.

As Michael climbed into the passenger seat, Kyle moved toward the backseat.

“That’s fine,” he said. “I’m gonna take the back and pass out from blood loss.”

Caitlin opened the door for him and helped him in.

Then she kissed him.

Golden raspberries.

Only better.

“So where do you want to go?” she asked.

It seemed an odd question. There would be some kind of inquiry. After all, five cops, a doctor, a lawyer, two nurses, and a drunk were all killed by a supernatural demon reincarnation of a kids’ fairy tale. If nothing else, there’d be paperwork.

Kyle tried to imagine telling this story to someone.

Then he imagined what would happen next.

It wouldn’t be pretty. For him, or for Caitlin and Michael. Who would believe them? All the other eyewitnesses were dead.

They had a car. True, it belonged to the Darkness Falls Police Department, but they wouldn’t miss it, being dead and all. It also had two shattered windows, a dented roof, and a broken siren, but no car was perfect.

MacDougan had probably raided Kyle’s Vegas apartment of its nonexistent furnishings and valuable items and made a deal with the landlord to rent it to someone else.

Still, even if one removed Las Vegas and Darkness Falls from the equation, there were plenty of places to go.

So where did he want to go?

He looked at Caitlin.

“Anywhere but here.”

She smiled.

“Anywhere but here coming right up.”

She got into the driver’s seat, turned on the ignition—she had never bothered to give Matt his keys back, which showed remarkable prescience on her part, Kyle thought—and started driving down the hill.

Instead of turning left into town, she turned right.

Leaving Darkness Falls, home of the famous Tooth Fairy, behind.

Darkness Falls, five years later . . .

The boy was already half asleep.

His father tucked him into bed, making sure to place his freshly ejected baby tooth under the pillow.

“Just leave this here, young man,” the father said. “You’re going to go to sleep now?”

The boy yawned.

“Yes, Dad.”

The father nodded and pulled the covers up to the boy’s neck.

“And remember
—
don’t peek.”

The boy fell asleep almost instantly. The father kissed him on the top of his head and left the room.

A moment later, the mother came in.

No doubt sensing the presence of another person in the room, the boy woke up.

“Tooth Fairy?”

The mother smiled. “It’s just Mommy. Go back to sleep.”

Rolling over to his other side, the boy did so.

Then the mother performed the ritual: the tooth was removed and replaced with a coin under the pillow.

The mother stroked the side of her son’s head gently, then departed.

As soon as the mother left, the buzzing started . . .

About the Author

Keith R.A. DeCandido
is the author of numerous novels, short stories, e-books, nonfiction books, and comic books in the milieus of
Star Trek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Farscape,
Spider-Man, the X-Men,
Young Hercules, Xena, Magic: The Gathering,
and
Doctor Who.
Current and forthcoming work includes
Star Trek: The Brave & the Bold,
a two-book series covering all five
Star Trek
TV shows, and
Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda: Destruction of Illusions,
the first novel based on the hit series. His first original novel,
Dragon Precinct,
will be published in 2004, and he is also the editor of the original anthology
Imaginings: An Anthology of Long Short Fiction,
coming in summer 2003. Learn more than you really need to know about Keith at his Web site at
www.DeCandido.net
.