Experiment in Terror 05 On Demon Wings (31 page)

bandage, then fingered the edges of my jeans.

“What happened here?”

I looked him square in the eye. “A monster ate them.”

His eyes flitted to Ada then back to mine. “That’s not

funny, Perry.”

He stood up with a groan.

“No,” I said forceful y. “It’s not funny, is it?”

He peered down at me with a strange sense of wonder.

It was almost like he was trying to decide just how serious I

was. Maybe if there was even something worth believing.

But if he was thinking that, he didn’t say it. He walked to

the door and before closing it behind him, said, “Ada, look

after your sister.”

“I’m trying,” she said in a breath of a voice. It was

directed at me.

“I’m so sorry,” I said, twisting around to face her, unsure

of what to do with my legs.

“It’s not your fault,” she said.

“That’s not what my leg says. what my

I thought she’d laugh at that but instead she let out a

whimper and wiped her nose. “Perry, I’m scared. I’m super,

real y scared.”

I scooted closer to her so our shoulders were touching. “I

am too.”

“Did you see that thing?”

“No.” I shuddered. “But I’ve seen other things. And they

aren’t pretty.”

We fel into silence for a while, both of our eyes trained

on the bed.

After a deep breath, Ada said, “I’m sorry I didn’t say

anything about the woman in the hal way. About Creepy

Clown Lady.”

I was no longer angry about it. I understood completely.

Someone had to be the sane one here and it sure wasn’t

going to be me. Especial y not after this, if there even was

an
after
.

“You know,” she lowered her voice. “I heard her say

something to me. In the hal . I heard it in my
head
.” She

sounded incredulous. It was amazing how used I had gotten

to seeing Pippa, I sometimes forgot how supernatural she

real y was.

“What did she say?”

“She said we had to stop them.”

“
We
had to stop them? Who is we? Who are
them
?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. I kind of felt like I
knew

her.”

My mouth twitched. Somewhere in the back of my head

the wheels wanted click on that, to turn and turn until

something made sense. But I was too tired. I yawned and

shivered simultaneously.

“Let’s go to bed,” she said, and careful y hauled me up

to my feet. I stripped off my chewed jeans, put on pajama

pants and turned my back to her to take off my shirt.

“Uh, Perry?”

I paused with the shirt half over my head. “What?”

“Your back.”

I tried to turn and see but couldn’t. I half lowered the shirt

as I felt Ada walk over and touch my mid-back. I winced at

her touch. The spot was raw.

“
His fault
,” she mused.

“More writing?”

“More writing,” she said. “It’s not nasty, though. You’re

not, like, real y bleeding.”

Wel there went that whole theory that I did it to myself.

Now it was
his
fault.

I fished out a t-shirt and put that on and we went to her

room. We left the smal lamp on and she put the radio on

room. We left the smal lamp on and she put the radio on

very low volume, just to calm our nerves. I cuddled up next

to her in bed, like the way she used to do when I was twelve

and she was five and I’d read her my
Goosebumps
stories

and scare her half to death.

Despite the horror that permeated the air around us, the

edginess that something could happen at any time, I wasn’t

scared. I was beyond scared. I was...wretched. Like a

blanket of sadness had rested somewhere in my mind and

smothered me with every reflective, heart-rending fiber.

I felt like this was it. There was no more. And I wasn’t

strong enough to fight it.

“Ada,” I began slowly, softly, “I love you. You’re the best

sister a girl could have and I’m sorry it’s taken me twenty-

three years to say that.”

“Why are you tel ing me this?” she asked, alarmed.

“Because...”

“Don’t be an idiot; real y, Perry.”

“Something’s happening to me. Something’s changing.”

“I’l save you from it. We’l be fine.”

“But it’s coming from inside me. Don’t you understand? I

don’t think I have much time as
me
left. I think this might be

the last night.”

Her mouth dropped open. “How can you just say that!”

“Ada,” I said, trying to find the words to make her

understand the pain that was running through my heart. The

heaviness of it al . “You know when you’re at that point when

you’re crying too much and everything is too much and your

body just...shuts down? I’m shutting down.”

“No,” she said determinedly, her eyes flickering. “No,

you’re not shutting down. You’re not giving up, Perry. We’re

going to fix you. Tomorrow, I’l find a way, I’l fix you.”

I tried to smile at her, to thank her for her perseverance,

in her belief that everything was going to be OK. But I

couldn’t. Because the smile was wiped away by fear.

Complete and absolute fear.

I wasn’t alone. The thing was back.

Back inside me. Inside my mind. Inside my soul.

It was happening again.

“Go!” I yel ed at Ada, panicking. She jumped and her

eyes widened in shock. She wasn’t reacting fast enough.

“Get out of here! Get out of here, Ada, go get Mom and

Dad! Go! Get out of here! Now! Go now!”

Before I could see if she listened, my mind was booted

to the back seat. I was robbed of al control, relieved as

host of my body. The last thing I felt were my hands curling

up into hot little bal s.

Everything went black.

“She’s waking up. Get the bat.”

Not exactly the best words to wake up to.

I groaned and tried to open my eyes. They felt like they

were glued shut. My throat ached from Sahara dryness and

as I moved my mouth, the corners cracked painful y. My

tongue tasted like blood-covered pennies.

Outside, the rain was fal ing. I could hear it on the

window panes and roof. And beyond that I heard the

hushed breathing of a bunch of people trying to be quiet

and failing at it.

Final y, I reached over and wiped my eyes. They had

been crusted shut with gross dried fluid.

They fluttered open and I took in the blurry sight of a

spinning room.

My room.

It was daytime and at the foot of my bed were my

mother, my father, Ada and Maximus.

Ada was holding a basebal bat in her hands, holding it

like it was painful to do so. She was turned sideways and

looked as if she were about to leave.

The others were watching me curiously and with bated

breath, their bodies tensed as if they were about to fight. Or

flee.

From me.

I wanted to raise my head to get a better look but it was

too heavy. I could only lie there with my chin dipped and

watch them. Watch them watch me.

Maximus was the first to speak. “Perry. Is that you?”

What kind of question was that?

I cleared my throat a few times before words came out.

“Of course, it’s me.”

Everyone relaxed visibly except Ada. She turned to face

me.

I gasped.

She had a laceration on right side of her forehead and a

band-aid on her cheek near her eye.

I immediately knew why she had the bat. Why she didn’t

want to have the bat.
I
had done that to her. I had done it

when I was something else.

“What else did I do?” I asked. No one said anything.

“Someone tel me what I did!” I screamed, then

col apsed into a coughing fit.

“She needs water,” Maximus said, leaving the room.

By the time my coughing calmed down, he was

approaching me with a glass of it.

“Play nice,” he said with a smile. It didn’t reach his eyes.

I nodded attentively, unable to speak. He put the cup of

water on the bedside table, then quickly backed away. I

frowned at him as I gulped the cool water down.

“I’m not going to bite you.”

“You tried, though,” he answered, rubbing his arm. He

stood beside my parents again.

“Perry, we don’t know what’s going on with you,” my

father said as if I’d just been in a foul mood the last few

days. “Tomorrow we’re taking you to the hospital. To get

you checked out.”

“Dad, I told you that’s not going to work,” Ada said,

shifting the bat to her other hand.

My dad raised his hand at her dismissively. “Ada, I have

heard just enough of this nonsense. It’s ridiculous and

it’s...it’s sacrilegious. Completely sacrilegious. The church

doesn’t even believe in demonic possession.”

“Yes they do!” she said. “I’ve been reading about it!”

“Oh, in that wonderful little tome that your sister brought

home from the library?”

“Yes!” she yel ed. “In there, online, everywhere. Maximus

agrees with me! Tel them, Maximus.”

She gestured at my parents with the bat and looked at

Maximus keenly.

He wiggled his lips and shrugged. “It’s true that some

people, in the church, believe that demonic possession

happens. I certainly ain’t saying it’s impossible. But Ada,

look at Perry. Do you think that’s what is happening?”

She rol ed her eyes and slammed the bat against her

palm. “Holy fuck, yes, you retard! You have some

inbreeding going down there in the South? Is that what’s

wrong with you?”

“Ada!” my mom admonished, stepping closer to my

father.

I slowly placed my cup back down and watched it unfold.

It’s like I wasn’t even there.

Maximus glared at her. “What I’m saying is what your

parents are saying. Perry is sick. She’s il . Like her

shrinkaroo says. And she’s been reading a lot of books.

She’s convinced this is happening to her. It’s not her fault
at

all
. The mind is a powerful thing. I reckon she’s as good as

being possessed by her own self.”

She turned her back to him in disgust and looked

pleadingly at dad. “You can’t take her to the hospital.

They’re going to think she’s crazy.”

My parents exchanged a loaded look.
They
thought I

was crazy.

“It’s not up for discussion,” my dad eventual y told her.

“Dad-” she began to say but was cut off.

By me.

I was screaming.

I had picked up the glass of water and hurled it at them.

My mother ducked and the glass smashed into a mil ion

pieces against the wal .

The control was taken from me again and I was helpless.

I didn’t black out, either. I just watched myself as I leaped

out of bed like a rocket and ran along the bed heading

straight for my mother.

Maximus was faster. As I bounced off the bed and into

the air toward my mom’s sickened face, he tackled me

from the side and brought me down to the ground.

I couldn’t do anything to stop myself. My body was no

longer mine. But I felt the pain from the impact. That wasn’t

fair.

I wailed and moaned and made guttural noises that

made my whole body arch and shudder while Maximus held

me down with al his strength, his muscles twisting, his face

turned red and sweaty as he looked into my eyes. But he

wasn’t seeing me. He wasn’t seeing
me
.

“Pil s,” he cried out. He looked up at my parents while I

tried to lean forward and bite his hand. “Get the pil s! Get

some rope!”

My dad grabbed the rope he had used the other night

from the corner of the room and my mom brought the pil

bottles out from her cardigan pocket. My dad quickly tied

the rope around my arms and legs like he was hog-tying in

a rodeo and trying to beat his best time.

My mother leaned over me with the pil s dangling

between her fingers. I snapped at her.

“Going to be a bit difficult,” Maximus said to her.

She shook her head grimly. “I learned a trick back in the

day. Hold her chin.”

He went for my chin with his large hands. He had the

right to look scared to death of me. I tried biting him again.

But it was a distraction. As I did that, my mother pressed

down on my forehead with one hand and pinched my nose

shut with the other. I clamped my mouth like a vice. I didn’t

want to take the pil s and neither did the thing inside me.

But I had to breathe.

I gasped, my mouth open. I,
we
, couldn’t take it. My mom

dropped the pil s in and kept her grip on my nose until I had

no choice but to swal ow.

Next thing I knew I was slowly regaining control of my