Slash, p.27
Slash, page 27
“We can’t stick him up there and hope we get to Otto before he gets to Jerry,” Sharon protested. “You’ve seen how fast he is.”
“Your concern for me is making me all warm inside, honey,” Jerry said.
Sharon looked at him and rolled her eyes to Todd. “On second thought, what’s the rest of the plan?”
“See those lights?”
“I do.”
“If we sit Jerry right here, Otto should find himself falling through the stage right about here.” He pointed at a weak spot five feet before where they would sit his friend. A few fist-sized holes had rotted through the wood. When Todd touched the tip of his boot to the area, it felt like stepping on wet cardboard. “Once Otto is momentarily incapacitated, we pin him down by dropping the lights on him. I’ll go down there and get whatever may be in his mouth and rip it out.”
Jerry pulled himself up by the back of the chair in front of him. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Your whole plan falls apart if he’s not a golem. And I think it’s fair to say the odds of Sharon being right are pretty goddamn slim.”
She flipped him the middle finger.
“Likewise,” Jerry responded. “Once you’re down there, you’re trapped with him. And if you’re wrong, he’s going to get up and he’s going to do some pretty unpleasant shit to you.”
“I’m willing to take that chance,” Todd said.
“I’m not,” Jerry said. “I don’t mind being bait, but not so my buddy can commit suicide. I say once we have him down there, we dump everything we can on him. Then we get to one of the fire engines or cars outside the front gate and drive the hell out of here.”
“I’m not leaving until I know Otto is dead,” Todd said, his voice rising with each word.
“If he’s a golem, he already is dead. Or was never alive. Shit, I don’t know.”
A steady wind howled across the Hayden. It pushed at the bill of Todd’s ball cap, threatening to flip it off his head.
“Vince was the last one,” Todd said. “No more. You’re with me on that, right, Sharon?”
“I am. Even if it means going in there with you and tearing him apart so we can scatter the pieces everywhere. I want to give Sheri something to smile about.”
Jerry limped to the stage. Todd and Sharon pulled him up.
Todd said, “You know we can’t let him kill anyone else.”
“Here.” Jerry slipped his gun in Todd’s pocket. “I have a few rounds left. Before you go playing dentist in that fucker’s mouth, you shoot it at point-blank range. If there’s some kind of magical whatever in there, maybe you can blast it out.”
Todd clapped him on the back. “Thanks. You ready for your lines?”
A shiver shook Jerry from head to toe. “No. But tell me them anyway.”
* * *
For the first time since Otto had killed the two kids out for a bit of Hayden Massacre ghoulish road tripping, Todd worried about dawn coming too soon. They had to get Otto before the sun came up. He didn’t know if golems had a whole light of day aversion, but he did know that someone would discover the abandoned cop and fire vehicles and it would be near impossible to sneak back in to finish the job. There was also the strong possibility that they would be thrown in jail as suspects for all of the murders if they were here when more help arrived.
He crouched next to Sharon in the dark corner of the stage. The only thing visible of them on the stage itself was their breath, but there was nothing they could do about that. He didn’t know how long he’d be able to draw a breath and was hyper aware of how wonderful the usually automatic act was.
Jerry sat fifteen feet away, clutching his leg and wailing. Todd was pretty sure his friend didn’t have to fake the pain he was in.
“Jesus, it hurts!” he bleated. “Todd! Sharon! Where the hell are you?”
Sharon whispered in Todd’s ear, “You sure this is going to work?”
He swallowed hard and replied, “Not at all.”
“Thanks for the confidence boost.”
“No problem.”
Jerry made sure not to cast even the quickest glance their way. It was vital he not tip Otto off that they were waiting in the wings.
“What if Otto doesn’t fall for it?” Sharon asked. “It looks kind of obvious.”
“I’m betting that a man made out of mulch isn’t a deep thinker.”
“I wish I’d paid more attention in class,” Sharon said, rubbing her hands together to warm them.
“You and me both.”
Jerry continued to rock back and forth, appearing to be getting angrier that he was left on his own. Todd tightened and loosened his grip on the ice-cold framework for the heavy lights. He and Sharon had tested pushing the rigging before slipping out of sight, just to make sure they could actually move it.
“I have a confession to make,” Sharon said.
“I’m not a priest.”
“You’re gonna hear me out anyway. You know, there’s a reason I never reached out to you after…well, you know.”
“You were a kid. I should have been the one to check in on you.”
“That’s not it. When I was younger, I didn’t like Ash very much.”
He slowly turned his head to her.
Sharon continued. “I thought she was a bitch. I worshipped Sheri, and when Ash was around, I didn’t exist. I blamed it all on Ash. And when Sheri died, doing something that was Ash’s idea, and Ash lived, I grew to hate her.”
“I don’t need to hear any more,” Todd said. No matter Sharon’s feelings, Ash was the love of his life. The last thing he wanted was to listen to Sheri’s damaged sister speak ill of her.
“Hear me out. I realize now I was jealous. When I look back, Ash was always nice to me. It’s just that she and Sheri were older and had totally different lives than a kid in grade school. But I couldn’t make all that hate go away. She never forced Sheri to come here. I know that. Doesn’t make it any easier to tear down the thing that you’ve built yourself upon. And I’m sorry for that.”
Todd wasn’t sure to do with Sharon’s strange apology. On the one hand, he couldn’t blame her for feeling the way she had. On the other, he was too preoccupied to care.
He said, “Does that mean when we get out of here, you’re going to have to reevaluate everything you think you knew? Maybe get out of stripping, get back to school?”
She shook her head. “Hell no. You know how much money I make in the clubs? I don’t do drugs or drink, so I’ll have enough money to retire, especially if I invest it right, by the time I’m thirty.”
Todd was about to ask her how much she made when he saw movement down by the seats. He put his finger to his lips and used that same finger to show Sharon that Otto had arrived.
Jerry stopped his complaining for a beat. He’d seen him too.
Todd’s heart went into overdrive. He licked his painfully cracked lips. It hurt to swallow.
The shadow of the hulking golem was brought to light by a sliver of moon as it peered out from the clouds. Otto’s pale flesh, or whatever it was, had been charred black as the night. His white eyes were in stark relief, like boiled eggs, against his charcoal face.
“No!” Jerry said, his eyes locking on Otto. He pushed back on the stage, but not too far. They’d tested the section where he’d been set up and were confident he had some wiggle room, but not much.
Otto held something in his right hand.
He raised it into the moonlight.
Todd nearly cried out.
It was Vince’s arm, still covered in the sleeve of his gray coat.
Jerry shouted, “Stay the fuck away from me! You want to get shot in the face again?”
In response, Otto kicked the seat in front of him. It came unmoored from the floor and flew a good forty feet into the lip of the stage. Jerry recoiled, holding his arm over his face as if it would protect him from a rocketing metal chair.
Don’t look over here, Todd thought. Keep him coming.
Otto stepped into the space he’d made.
“Stay back!” Jerry reached into his pocket.
Otto kicked another chair. This one sailed to the left and clanged against the stage. At this rate, he wouldn’t need to make it to the stage to kill Jerry. The seats were like missiles and Jerry had nothing to defend himself with.
“I said stay back!” Jerry kept his hand in his pocket. Todd wondered if Otto considered the possibility that he had a gun in there. Even if he did, it didn’t look like he cared.
More chairs were launched, one of them just missing Jerry’s head by inches. Otto cleared a path through the rusting seats like a thresher in a wheat field.
“This isn’t gonna work,” Sharon said.
A seat sailed over the stage and onto the sheared roof. This time, Jerry did turn his head their way, but only for an instant. Todd saw real fear there. He couldn’t just sit here and wait to spring a trap that had no chance of being sprung.
Sharon was thinking the same thing. She whispered, “You think you can move this all by yourself?”
Todd was honest when he replied, “I don’t know.”
“Well, you’re gonna have to.”
Before he could stop her, Sharon had crawled out of their hiding spot and slipped off the stage, out of Otto’s sight line. Running in a crouch, she popped up between two of the rows of seats to the stage’s left. “Oh God! Jerry!” she shrieked.
Otto turned his entire body toward her.
Sharon stepped into the aisle.
“Sharon, get out of here. Run!” Jerry blurted.
She didn’t move.
Otto plowed through the chairs in his way, heading for the aisle.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“Come at me, motherfucker,” Sharon spat.
Otto was only twenty feet away.
Todd dug his heels in, ready to shove the light rigging across the stage.
Jerry got to his feet, bouncing on his good leg, ready to leap off the stage and get Sharon out of Otto’s path. Todd stopped short of shouting at Jerry to stay where he was.
The Nazi golem started striding down the empty aisle.
Sharon yelped and turned toward the stage.
She’d almost made it to the stage when Otto threw Vince’s arm at her. It spun through the air like a rogue helicopter blade. Sharon had her back to the monster and didn’t see it coming. The arm whacked her in the back of her head and she went down.
Otto paused to admire his work, his head cocking to the side.
There was no stopping Jerry now. He bounded across the stage on one leg, dropping to his ass at its edge and jumping down beside her prone body.
Todd unleashed a slew of curses under his breath. There was no point hiding anymore. He burst from the shadows and leaped off the stage. He looked up in time to see Otto running toward them.
While Jerry struggled to get Sharon into a sitting position, Todd ripped the gun from his pocket.
Otto was upon them in seconds.
Todd opened fire.
The first shot hit the golem in the shoulder, his body jerking to the right.
Todd adjusted. The next pull of the trigger produced a deep furrow in Otto’s head.
Lower, dammit, lower!
Otto’s hands swiped at the air, just missing them.
Not knowing if he had any ammo left, Todd pulled the trigger again. This time, the bullet punched through Otto’s mouth. The golem staggered backward, hands at his ruined face. It was hard to believe this monstrosity once passed for a human being. If he was a golem, he was one that had come undone, his mask rotting off his face while he’d moldered in his grave.
Todd rose up, ready to shoot the golem again. He squeezed the trigger, but nothing happened. His ankle rolled and he nearly fell. He looked down and saw he was standing on Vince’s severed arm.
Otto fell to his knees, his disfigured head turned away from them.
The last shot had bought them the time they needed.
“Come on,” Todd said. He grabbed Sharon and hoisted her over his shoulder. He handled her weight easier than he thought he could. She moaned close to his ear. He helped pull Jerry onto the stage.
With a sharp glance, he noted that Otto was still turned away from them, nursing his wounded mouth.
“We still doing this?” Jerry said breathlessly.
“I don’t think that’ll keep him down for long.”
“You can’t move that shit by yourself,” Jerry said, eyeing the tangle of lights and metal. “Hope Sharon won’t mind being my bait understudy.”
Todd didn’t like the idea of leaving a semiconscious Sharon on the stage for Otto, but Jerry was right. While Jerry hustled into the dark wing, Todd laid Sharon down. “We’ve got you, Sharon. You’re going to be all right.” He smoothed back the hair from her face, looked over at Otto who still hadn’t recovered, and dashed to his friend.
He’d just settled into position when Jerry said, “Looks like tall, dark and ugly is back in the game.”
Otto faced the stage. His mouth was a shattered ruin. It looked like he’d tried to mash his malleable flesh back into place. The result was a lower face that had no mouth, just a solid, misshapen lump.
If something was in Otto’s mouth that would need to be extracted to stop him, it would be very hard to remove it, if not impossible.
Otto’s head jerked when he spotted Sharon.
With his superhuman speed, he sprinted down the aisle and bounded onto the stage. The old flooring cracked and shivered, but held steady.
Jerry nudged Todd with his shoulder. They flexed their grips on the rigging.
Otto didn’t waste time going for Sharon. He took two quick strides. His third step found him plummeting through the stage.
“Now!” Todd shouted.
He and Jerry put all of their weight into the rigging. For a terrifying moment, it didn’t budge. Letting loose with a primal scream he didn’t know he had in him, Todd painfully ground his molars and shoved. The rigging began to move, and then it slid across the stage, wood curling up as the sharp edges cleaved a path. It teetered on the edge of the hole and Todd almost didn’t let go in time. At the last second, he pulled his hands away and watched it flip over the edge. It landed with a thunderous crash.
Jerry flashed his light and shouted, “Yeah baby!”
Todd scrambled to the hole’s edge and looked down.
“Holy crap, it worked.”
Otto lay on his back, the heavy rigging over his chest, tackling him down. He lay there, eyes closed, motionless. His arms were spread wide, the heavy steel bars of the light rig keeping them pinned.
“Is he down there?”
Sharon was sitting up, massaging the back of her head. Jerry wiggled the light over Otto to show her. “He’s down.”
“But not out,” Todd said. He wasn’t going to be fooled into thinking Otto was completely incapacitated. He also knew that rigging wouldn’t hold him down for long, not after the way he’d witnessed Otto laying waste to the theater seats as if they were made of cheap plastic.
“Shit, what happened to his mouth?” Sharon said.
“Todd got him right in the pie hole. That’s Otto’s attempt at fixing his face.”
Sharon scooted away from the hole. “Or protecting the one thing that can hurt him.”
Todd still wasn’t fully convinced that Otto was a golem. It wasn’t as if any of them were experts on the matter. He could be jumping into that hole to his death if they were wrong.
Then again, he was going to die tonight anyway if they didn’t stop Otto.
Jerry swung his legs so they hung into the hole. Todd pulled him away.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“You’re not going down there. You’re too hurt to get back up if anything goes wrong. I’m going,” Todd said.
“Dude, no—”
Todd jumped down, his feet landing on a landslide of debris. His ankle twisted but held and he managed not to fall on top of Otto.
“You okay?” Sharon said.
Todd waved his hand over his head.
As he stared down at the Nazi golem, Todd’s flesh wanted to crawl off his bones. Otto was a hideous sight to behold, his face and head resembling a child’s failed attempt at sculpture. Todd searched for signs of life, not sure if Otto even needed to breathe to exist and kill.
Every second that passed was a second lost.
Todd dropped down and grabbed hold of the monster’s lower jaw. It was like plunging his hand in the waters of a frozen lake. The vile odor coming off the giant in such close quarters had a physical weight to it. It felt like trying to press through a wall of thick, cold molasses to even get close to him.
Holding his breath, Todd plunged his fingers through the solid clay of Otto’s mouth. His fingertips brushed against something hard an inch deep.
Teeth.
Otto’s teeth were clamped shut.
He tried digging around them, but no matter which way he went, he was eventually met with something hard and unforgiving, as if there were some sort of makeshift bone structure beneath the fetid loam that comprised the killer.
The harder it was to break through, the more he thought Sharon was right. There must be something precious in there for the golem to protect it so well.
“You feel anything?” Jerry called down.
“You don’t wanna know,” Todd said, turning away from Otto so he could expel his held breath and take another. His eyes watered and his resolve was beginning to flag. Prodding farther and deeper, he desperately sought a way in. The wet, squelching sounds his ministrations made didn’t make things any easier.
“Did you find it?” Sharon asked nervously. Her dark hair hung in loose strands around her face as she leaned down to see what he was doing. He worried the wood might give way and send her tumbling.
