Devil's Throat (The River Book 6) (21 page)

“I just do it naturally, I don’t think about it. So, he
invited us to come along, tonight. What do you say?”

“You go,” Deem said. “I’m really not interested.”

“Oh, come on!” Winn said. “It’ll be fun. Bus leaves at three
from St. George, we’ll be back by ten. The bus is big enough for fifty, and
Dave says there’s not even ten reservations, so it won’t be crowded. Maybe
we’ll get to see it!”

“See what?” Deem asked.

“The man who runs by the bus!” Winn said. “Weren’t you
listening? He said the guy’s got yellow-green eyes, and they shine in the
dark.”

Deem had to admit it sounded intriguing, but she wasn’t
really inclined to help anyone who ran a tour outfit. The tourists were always
interfering with the places where she tried to work, and she didn’t like the
idea of anyone profiting off ruins.

“Come on,” Winn begged. “It’ll be fun.”

“If this is the best you can do to replace St. Thomas work,
I’m not impressed,” Deem said. “Seems kinda lame.”

Winn furrowed his brow. “Don’t be that way,” he said. “I’ll
reach into my shorts and scratch myself again.”

“Alright!” Deem said, a small smile cracking her lips. “Don’t
reach. I’ll go.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear!” Winn said. He stood up and
smashed his cigarette into an ashtray. “Be at their place on Bluff right at
quarter to three.”

▪ ▪ ▪

As Deem approached the tour office, she saw Winn standing out
front, looking for her. Winn’s smile quickly faded when he saw that Deem was
not alone.

“Mom, I think you know Winn,” Deem said, making
introductions. “Aunt Virginia, this is my friend Winthrop James.”

Deem’s aunt held out her hand to Winn. “Nice to meet you,”
she said. Deem could tell she was taken with Winn’s good looks. He was tall and
his hair was cut short in a military style. He had put on a t-shirt that showed
every muscle in his chest.

“Guess we’ll need two more tickets,” Winn said, forcing a
smile. “I only bought two, sorry, I didn’t know you were coming.”

“Oh, that’s no problem,” Deem’s mother said. “I’ll go get us
another two.” She stepped away and walked into the tour office.

“So,” Virginia said, “Deem tells us we’re going on a tour to
some ruins?”

“Yes,” Winn said, “it’s Anasazi ruins in northern Arizona.”
He smiled, not really wanting to make small talk, and wondering why Deem had
brought people along.

“Margie shouldn’t have to pay for my ticket,” Virginia said.
“Let me go give her some money. If you’ll excuse me.”

Winn stepped aside and let Virginia walk into the tour
office.

“What the fuck?” Winn asked Deem.

“She’s visiting from Arizona,” Deem said.

“So?” Winn asked. “Why are they here?”

“My mom asked me what I was doing tonight, and I told her
about this tour,” Deem said. “Next thing you know, they were coming along.”

“You couldn’t dissuade them?” Winn asked.

“I mentioned there were only ten reservations for a
fifty-person bus,” Deem said apologetically. “And I think my mom was looking
for something to do with her sister. She’s been in town for a week and they
haven’t done much. She insisted.”

“Did you tell them I was coming along?” Winn asked.

“I did,” Deem said, knowing where this was going. Deem’s mom
wasn’t a big fan of Winn, and Winn knew it. Winn was a smoker, a swearer, a
drinker, promiscuous, and, worst of all, non-Mormon.

“So she’s here to keep an eye on me,” Winn said.

“Yup, make sure you don’t corrupt her daughter.”

“Well, won’t this be fun,” Winn said sarcastically.

“Buck up,” Deem said, walking to the tour office. “I think my
aunt likes you.”

▪ ▪ ▪

They re-boarded the bus after a brief stop at Pipe Springs.
No matter where Winn sat, Deem sat across from him, and Deem’s mother and aunt
sat behind them.

The driver of the bus, Winn’s friend Dave, had chatted with
Deem while they were letting the tourists explore the Windsor House at Pipe
Springs. Deem asked him about the man they had seen running by the bus, and he
became quite agitated describing what he’d experienced. He said it appeared
twice, both times on the drive back to St. George, just after sunset.

“It wasn’t a hundred percent dark yet, so you could see it
was a guy, not an animal,” Dave said. “And the thing that made him stand out was
his eyes. They glowed. You might not have even noticed him out there if it
weren’t for the eyes, moving along so fast.”

“How do you know they were eyes?” Deem asked.

“’Cause they blinked,” Dave said. “Once you focused on them,
you could tell it was a man. And the creepy thing was, he was running so fast,
but it didn’t look like he was struggling. I mean, I was going sixty down the
road, and he’s keeping up with the bus!”

“Other people saw it too?” Deem asked.

“The second time, yeah,” Dave said. “They all took pictures,
but nothing turned out. Too blurry.”

Deem thanked Dave and walked to the dusty parking lot,
waiting for the others to finish. She’d seen Pipe Springs many times, and
didn’t enjoy walking through it while rubbing elbows with other people. Eventually
the stragglers made their way back to the bus and they departed for their next
destination on the tour.

Deem listened as Dave spoke over the intercom. They were
twenty minutes from their final stop, the Anasazi ruins. Deem leaned over to
Winn, sitting across the aisle.

“Dave seems nice enough,” Deem said.

“Told you,” Winn said.

“Do you think the tour office might be rigging something?”
Deem asked. “To build an audience for a ghost tour or something?”

“How do you rig a man running that fast?” Winn asked.

“You’re right,” Deem said. “I guess I just need to see it to
believe it.”

“Your aunt felt me up back there,” Winn said, “when we were
alone in one of those rooms at Pipe Springs.”

“Eeww!” Deem said. “She did?”

“Yup,” Winn said.

“You realize she’s not a spring chicken,” Deem said, “like
your usual.”

“She’s what, in her mid-fifties?” Winn asked. “They’re
usually the horniest.”

“Stop!” Deem said. “She’s my aunt!”

“Grabbed my ass,” Winn said. “Just telling ya.”

“You will not have sex with her, do you understand?” Deem
said. “I don’t care if she throws herself at you. Promise me.”

“Why?” Winn asked. “She’s kinda hot.”

“’Cause she’s my aunt!” Deem said as she reached across the
aisle and pushed his arm. “And I introduced you. I don’t want to be blamed if
she catches something.”

Winn pushed her back. “Nothing to catch. I’m as clean as a
virgin.”

“Hardly. And I don’t want my mom thinking anything is up.”

Winn turned to Deem and gave her a big smile, widening it
until Deem picked up on the innuendo. Her face contorted in revulsion. She saw
him look back in the bus to where Margie and Virginia were sitting, then glanced
back at her aunt just in time to see her give Winn a wink.

Bringing them along was a bad idea,
Deem thought.

▪ ▪ ▪

Deem felt Winn’s hand on her knee, and she woke up. The sun
had set and it was dark inside the bus.

“Wake up,” Winn whispered to her, shaking her leg. She turned
to look around the in the bus. Her mother and aunt were several seats back,
napping. There were a few more people behind them, many of which had fallen
asleep.

“Look!” Winn said, pointing out the window. Deem turned to
look, trying to focus her eyes.

At first she saw only brush whizzing by at sixty miles an
hour, hills in the distance. The landscape was dark.

“Is it out there?” Deem asked.

“A hundred feet straight out,” Winn said. “Dave was right.”

Deem struggled to find what Winn was looking at. She couldn’t
locate anything unusual. “I don’t see it.”

Winn sat next to her and pointed. “It’s there. Keep looking
right where I’m pointing.”

Deem continued to focus out the window, searching the
landscape for any sign of movement.

Then she saw one speck of light become two as it turned to
look at them.

Deem gasped and strained her neck to see better. Around the
eyes she could see a shape, a head. Below it was the dark body of a man, moving
incredibly fast. Now that she’d made out the man’s outline, she could see it
fine.

“I understand why the photos didn’t turn out,” Deem said.

“What?” Winn asked.

“Dave told me they tried to take pictures last time,” Deem
said, “and they didn’t turn out. I don’t think you could get a picture of that.
It’s too dark.”

Deem watched as the man occasionally turned his head to look
in their direction.

“How could anyone run that fast?” Deem asked.

“I don’t think it’s human,” Winn said. “Or, not completely.”

“It’s getting closer,” Deem said. “It’s angling in toward
us.”

The silence of the bus was pierced by the scream of a woman
in the back. Deem turned to look, and a woman sitting behind her mother and aunt
was looking out the window, observing the running man. A woman sitting next to
her raised her camera to try and take a picture. The flash from the camera lit
the inside of the bus. People on the left side of the bus got up and walked to
the right, trying to see whatever had caused the woman to scream.

“Please stay in your seats,” Dave announced over the
intercom. “We’ve got to have everyone seated for safety.”

“Do you see that, Deem?” Virginia asked. “Do you see it?”

“Yes,” Deem answered. “I do.”

Virginia got out of her seat and moved into the seat directly
behind Deem and Winn. “What is it?”

“It’s a man,” said Winn.

As they watched, the running man closed the distance between
him and the bus by half. Now he was easier to see.

Deem’s mother followed Virginia and moved up behind Deem and
Winn. “Is he going to attack the bus?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Winn said.

“How could someone run that fast?” Margie asked. “It’s not
possible. It’s got to be a trick.”

The man running beside the bus angled in again, and now was
just ten feet from their window. They could see his face, which was dark and
featureless. Deem gasped again as the man’s eyes locked onto hers, and he
lifted from the ground and moved toward the bus as though he was flying.

The woman in the back of the bus screamed again. Dave began
to slow the bus.

“Don’t stop!” Winn yelled. “Speed up!”

The man was hovering four feet off the ground and moving
quickly to Deem’s window.

“Get back from the window,” Winn said to Deem. Then he
yelled, “Everyone! Back from the windows!”

The man landed at Deem’s window and pressed his face against
the glass. Winn backed out of the seat next to Deem and pulled Deem with him.
Virginia and Margie moved across the aisle, behind them.

The man’s head passed through the glass without breaking it,
his body attached to the outside of the bus. His head extended inside the bus,
looking like a mounted trophy, but moving. He looked down at Deem. She saw his
eyes center on her, felt his gaze deepen. Then it shifted its head and looked past
Winn at Virginia and Margie. The woman in the back of the bus screamed again.

The head slid along the inside of the bus, its body moving on
the outside. It stopped when it found the woman who had screamed. It studied
her, staring at her as though it wanted her to scream again. She obliged and
let out another piercing shriek.

Dave flipped a switch, and white fluorescent bulbs kicked on
overhead. The light seemed to bother the head, and it pulled itself out of the
bus. It continued to hang onto the outside, staring in. It moved back to where
Winn, Deem, Virginia, and Margie were huddled further up the bus. It stared at
them.

“What does it want?” Virginia asked.

Deem could feel something emanating from its eyes. It was a
kind of heat, something that was making a connection. She felt it sink into
her, and for a moment she felt light-headed. She lost her peripheral sight as
tunnel vision took over and the only thing she could see was the man’s head
outside the bus, staring at her. She gripped the side of the seat, afraid she
might fall over. Then she saw the man detach from the side of the bus, falling
backwards into the dark.

The others in the bus rushed back to the right side, trying
to see where the man had gone.

Deem turned and saw that Virginia had passed out. She was
lying next to Margie in her seat, her head hanging. “Mom,” Deem said, trying to
get Margie’s attention. Margie was straining her neck to see out the windows on
the other side, along with the others in the bus. “Mom!” she repeated.