Voices – Page 51
“Stand right where you are and don’t move, or I’ll shoot one of you.”
The voice was male, and seemed reasonably young. It filtered down from the shadows above. John glanced up, unsurprised.
“You’re not him,” he said.
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, so I guess not.”
“We’re not looking for trouble with you,” Jen said. “If you’re not the guy who’s been killing people and eating them.”
“Lady, I don’t even eat meat and don’t you fucking take that step, asshole! I will put a bullet between your pretty friend’s eyes.”
John had been thinking about moving. Now, with Jen in danger, he stopped.
“So, what…” said Brian. “Do we just stand here until all four of us starve to death?”
“First you tell me why you’re here. Then you turn around and walk away,” said the voice. Its owner moved into a shaft of light on a balcony above the doorway, giving the group their first good look at him. He was young, probably still a teenager, and thin, wearing a pair of baggy cargo pants and an olive-green t-shirt. He had long brown hair that he kept in a ponytail. He was holding a mean-looking six-chambered revolver.
“I told you why we’re here. We’re looking for Dr. Jackal,” said Jen.
“He doesn’t want to be found,” said the kid with the gun. “Now fuck off.”
“What are you, his bodyguard?” Brian asked. “Why are you protecting that lunatic?”
“What part of ‘fuck off’ did you not understand? I don’t need to justify myself to you. Go on. Get the hell out of here and don’t come back.”
“Oh, fuck this action,” Jen said, her voice exasperated. She had not come all of this way to turn around simply because some random kid was pointing a gun at her. She waved her hand in the direction of the gun, and the young man gave a startled shout as it was torn from his grip and thrown across the room.
John was in action even while it was happening, racing toward the stairs. He wasn’t sure what he planned to do when he reached the kid, but he expected that there would be a chase, and wanted a head start. This wasn’t Dr. Jackal, but it was the next link John needed in order to find the murderer.
The kid didn’t run. He turned instead to face John, head tilted, and John was surprised to see that their adversary was actually grinning. He raised his right hand, and John had time to think, something is definitely wrong here.
When the bolt of lightning flashed from the young man’s extended palm and struck John in the chest, it blew him backwards off the stairs as if he’d been hit by a car. There was a crackling, sizzling noise and for a moment all that Jen and Brian could see were white streaks across their vision. Jen was screaming, looking around frantically, trying to see where John had landed. Brian had instinctively changed forms.
His vision cleared first, and he looked up in time to see the kid disappearing through the door at the top of the stairs. Brian shouted, and began to run after him, when there was another flash and the sizzling of sparks. The wooden door began to burn, and the fire spread quickly to the heavy support beams that framed the room.
“Well, fuck…” Brian said, pausing in the middle of the stairs. By the time he could have reached the hallway, it had become a blazing inferno.
“Brian!” Jen was calling him. He turned and looked down at her. Jen was kneeling over John’s body, which was lying on its back. Trails of smoke curled up from John’s chest, swirling in the flickering orange light. Jen turned to look at Brian, and he could see the fire reflecting in the tear tracks on her cheeks.
“Brian, he’s not breathing,” Jen said. “Brian, he’s not breathing. Brian, he’s not breathing.”
Over and over, as Brian raced down the stairs, Jen said this, her voice growing faster, more hoarse and hysterical with every repetition.
Brian dropped to his knees and slid across the dirt floor, coming to a stop next to John’s body. In the background, Jen was now sobbing. Brian looked at John, trying to fight the panic threatening to overwhelm him.
“Brain he’s not breathing!” wailed Jen. She was clutching John’s right hand to her chest.
“No,” said Brian. “No, he’s not.”
