Part 54 (1/2)
Chapter 22.
”You're going to get arrested, you know.”
Martha almost screamed in surprise. The last thing she'd imagined finding in Andy's room was a man coming from the shadows.
”Who are you? What are you doing here?” she demanded.
”Who I am doesn't matter. What I'm doing does. Why are you trying to kill Andy?” the man demanded.
”Kill him?” Martha said incredulously. She shook her head. ”I don't want to kill him! I want to find out where my niece is!”
”Oh?”
She backed away from the man uneasily. ”You-you-haven't hurt her, have you?”
”She's safe,” Martha was told.
Martha crossed her arms over her chest, afraid, but more afraid that night would be coming again, far too quickly.
And it was Halloween.
”Do you have a name?” she demanded indignantly. ”Who you are may not matter, but if I am to address you, a name is handy.”
The man smiled. ”Beaudreaux. Rick Beaudreaux.”
”And you're from New Orleans?”
”Yes.”
”How did you get in here?”
”I was a cop-once.”
Previous Top Next”And that's supposed to make everything all right?”
”No... it just means that I know some procedure, how to get in... and out, of certain places. I've been guarding Andy. I don't think that you intend to guard him, Martha,” Rick said.
”I have to get him to talk!”
”It's my understanding that you were here before. And that you meant to harm him.”
Martha sighed impatiently. ”I might have been here... but I wasn't really here. Not willfully. Not to hurt Andy. I mean, really, he'd do me no good dead!”
”So... ?” Rick said, leading her onward to an explanation.
”I don't know you,” she said pointedly.
”No, you don't. But since you're the one who just attacked the nurse, you're going to have to trust me.”
”You don't even begin to know what's going on here-”
”Trust me on this for sure-I do.”
Martha let out an aggrieved sigh. ”They think that Megan and Finn might have caused that terrible fire,” Martha said. ”But she didn't-she would never do such a thing. And Finn... well, no matter how strange things may be, he wouldn't do it either. Not purposely, anyway.”
The fellow in the room was strange. And frightening. Something about him wasn't quite right. Martha inhaled deeply. ”She's safe, you say?”
”Yes.”
Martha walked past him to Andy's side. ”I... don't believe it. I don't feel it. I've been such a fool all these years. Insisting that nothing out of the ordinary can be true when I've... sensed there was something... going on. All these years. I thought that Morwenna was such a ninny with all her hok.u.m hocus-pocus, but...”
She looked at the stranger standing closer to her now. He looked like the boy next door. The tall, blond, star quarterback-looking spic-and-span clean boy next door. She knew she'd never seen him before, but he seemed to know who she was, and it was true, he definitely seemed to know what was going on. She swallowed hard, not knowing who to trust.
”Andy has always talked. He's told his stories for the tourists, of course. But... he's been convinced, for years, that something was coming. And with all the various things that he's hinted at... I'm afraid. And afraid that it has to do with Megan. And some of it may be my fault. When they were married, she and Finn, of course, I was proud as a peac.o.c.k. I went around showing everyone the pictures. And Andy got mad at me! I thought he was crazy as an old coot at first, and I wanted him to be crazy. I ignored him and got mad at him every time he tried to talk to me. He knows something. I'm not here to hurt Andy-though I came before, and didn't know it. One of your other friends was here before, apparently! That's why I had to come back. If I can get him to wake up, he can help.”
”I told you-Megan is safe.”
Martha shook her head vehemently. ”I don't think that she is. You may think that she is, and that you and your friends can protect her. But there's something that's not right yet.”
”We'll never let them hurt her,” Rick said flatly.
”You don't understand. I don't think they want to hurt her.”Rick Beaudreaux frowned. ”You think they mean to kill Finn, and not Megan?”
Martha shook her head. She inhaled deeply, then exhaled. She looked out anxiously into the hall, but it was still quiet.
”They don't mean to kill either of them physically,” she said softly.
”What are you saying?”
”I don't know... exactly. Oh, even with Megan and Finn here, and at odds, and feeling strange, I just refused to believe any of it!
But now, since Andy was attacked-and I'm certain he was attacked!-I've started going over everything that he's said, and what it could mean. I don't know if I believe any of this myself, but when Andy rambled... it was something about Bac-Dal wanting Megan, but the point is, Bac-Dal must come back in a human form. They plan to kill Finn, yes, his essence, his soul, whatever you would call it. And allow Bac-Dal to become Finn. I think that the demon has already seeped into his skin, that he has caused the dreams, that... he will become Finn. And then I'm afraid that...”
She paused, tears flooding her eyes.
”I'm afraid that then, Megan will either be his initial entertainment, and then a sacrifice to him, or...”
”Or?”
”Someone else, someone who wants to serve Bac-Dal, will take over her human form as well, and the Megan that I know and love will die upon the altar, just the same as if her throat were slit there, and her blood flooded the earth.”
From darkness, Finn came to in another world.
A world of fog.