Chapter 13

  For the short few minutes of the drive to the bowling alley, Ginny let herself hope she’d been wrong. Reality teased her by supporting that idea, with nothing immediately happening when Grace Period ended. No fire rained from the sky, no monsters appeared around or inside the car they were in to maul them, Venn’Dar didn’t step out of a Depths Door, an army of Stitch Beasts at his back.

  Even the Depths screen that announced the Grace Period had ended was surprisingly brief and to the point.

  Grace Period has ended. Welcome to the Depths.

  After a brief and futile effort to radio ahead to the deputy he’d left at the bowling alley, the sheriff had settled into a tense and tight-lipped silence as he drove, and Norah was still desperately fighting not to nod off. So, as they drove in silence toward the bowling alley where a good portion of the town of Hope Falls had apparently gathered, Ginny let herself hope. She clearly wasn’t the only one worried though. Sheriff Greg had been white-knuckling the steering wheel steadily harder as they drove, and Ginny was going to try to remember to see if he’d permanently bent it out of shape by the time they stopped.

  It felt like this is the point in the story when the hero(ine) should say something comforting and inspiring, to assure their companion that things were gonna be okay, and everyone was gonna get through it. But Ginny only hoped that that was true, she didn’t really believe it, so she wasn’t sure exactly how to go about convincing him. After thirty seconds of indecision, she opened her mouth, still not entirely sure what she was going to say, when she was suddenly cut off before she could even begin.

  Something slammed into the side of the cruiser with a crash of metal bending and glass shattering. The sheriff shouted in surprise, and Norah screamed, as Ginny tried to shove the little girl to the side away from the now destroyed window and drag herself closer to it at the same time. She managed to twist into position next to the shattered window and look out just as they got hit again, a massive four-legged shape slamming into the side of the cruiser with one red, furry shoulder. The squeal of metal twisting came again, and the sheriff cursed, desperately struggling with the wheel to try and keep them from being forced off the road and onto the sidewalk.

  Tangled in the seatbelt with Norah and literally shaken up, Ginny couldn’t get a clear look at the creature that looked like some kind of red bear, and she quickly cast Analyze as she clumsily pulled Blood Drinker’s Bane out of her vest pocket.

  Scary Hairy Bear: It’s a bear! It’s hairy! It’s scary! It’s absolutely going to eviscerate and eat you while you’re reading this, but unfortunately for you, not in that order!

  This creature is a naturally occurring monster with minimum Depths corruption.

  Ginny blinked at the bizarre tone of the Depths Screen that had popped up. What the heck? That was just as unhelpful as usual, but… what the heck? Ginny was roughly forced out of her distraction when the… bear… hit the side of the cruiser again, finally forcing them up onto the curb and the sidewalk, Greg swearing wildly and jamming both foot onto the brakes, just barely managing to stop the cruiser from wrapping around a thick wooden power pole. He quickly threw the cruiser into reverse, but the bear was on them before they could get moving, and the cruiser slid sideways into a metal bench. The wheels of the cruiser spun and squealed ineffectively, as they found themselves pinned between the bear and various destroyed objects on the sidewalk.

  Ginny twisted to the side desperately, the seatbelt digging into her bandaged side and Norah letting out a grunt as she got smashed between Ginny’s back and the center console. She barely managed to get her hands up, Blood Drinker’s Bane clutched in one of them, as the bear shoved its massive head through the broken window, jaws stretched wide as it tried to tear her apart with its teeth. Ginny grabbed the top of its massive muzzle with her open hand, holding it back while she stabbed the silver dagger into the side of its head, slicing a thick chunk of an ear and part of a cheek off, the blood that sprayed forward surprising her with its normal red color. The bear yelped in pain and backpedaled, ripping its head free of Ginny’s grip and back out the cruiser window. A hiss of pain was forced out between her clenched teeth as it did, and when she pulled back the hand she’d been gripping its fur with, her palm and fingers were mangled like she’d grabbed a handful of barbed wire. She winced at the sight and cradled her hand to her chest while bringing up Blood Drinker’s Bane defensively. A few feet away from the car, the bear shook its massive head, sending a spray of hot droplets of blood everywhere, before lowering its head back to the cruiser and letting out an angry growl. Getting her first good look at it, Ginny felt a thrill of fear being repressed by Survivor’s Will. The bear was covered in shockingly bright red fur, and was massive, towering over the cruiser at the shoulder. Its head was big enough that Ginny was pretty sure it had bent the frame of the shattered window to fit inside. Ginny gulped, then shouted over her shoulder without taking her eyes off the creature as it squared up with them again.

  “Go, go, GO!”

  Sheriff Greg was way ahead of her, and the cruiser slammed into reverse, the whole car shaking and bouncing as they shot back down off the sidewalk onto the street, the bear stalking after them and breaking into a full-on charge at them. For a creature as massive and bulky looking as the bear was, it was shockingly fast, slamming into the side of the cruiser again and sending them spinning into the street.

  Somehow, the sheriff managed to turn the cruiser into the spin just enough to bring them out of it pointing down the road, in the opposite direction than the one they had originally been going in. The bear continued to charge at them, and just when it looked like they were going to be able to outrun it in the cruiser, the creature leapt at them, stretching out one massive paw to hook its stubby claws through the broken window and into the door, the entire cruiser listing wildly to the side as the monster clung onto them. Ginny reversed her grip on Blood Drinker’s Bane, and slammed it into the paw, driving the blade in deep enough that she was pretty sure the tip was scratching against the door. The bear roared in pain and anger but refused to release the cruiser. Ginny ripped the knife out of its paw, and pulled it back to stab down again, when she felt something yank her backwards, crushing poor Norah against the center console again. The bear’s massive head burst through the window again, snapping at the spot she’d just been. She glanced up at the sheriff, one hand still clutching the wheel of the cruiser while the other one was wrapped around the collar of her vest where he’d grabbed her to pull her out of the way. Pressed as flat against the seat and console as possible with Norah squirming under her, Ginny stabbed Blood Drinker’s Bane blindly at the side of the bear’s head.

  Lucky Strike!

  She cast the ability desperately, and felt the blade sink in, burying itself in the bear’s skull deep enough that her fingers brushed against the bear’s strangely sharp, red fur, fresh cuts and gashes opening all across her fingers. She flinched as the bear roared out in pain, and she felt the hilt of Blood Drinker’s Bane, slick with the blood pouring out of the wound she’d opened, slip out of her hand.

  No! She snatched desperately at the rune-covered hilt; her fingers brushed against the tip as the bear at last released its grip on the cruiser. Time seemed to slow down as she watched her weapon disappear out the window, still embedded in the bear’s thoroughly ruined eye socket.

  Something shifted under her, and suddenly, Norah had managed to squirm out from between Ginny and the center console, and leapt across her, the entire upper half of the little girl’s body disappearing out the window. Ginny felt a spike of panic run through her that seemed to cut right through Survivor’s Will.

  “Norah!” Ginny lunged after the little girl, hear the seatbelt lock snap with a pop as she surged against it, wrapping her arms around the little girl’s legs, which were starting to slide out the window after the rest of her. She pulled back as hard as she could, and both she and the little girl rocketed back into the car, her spine slamming into the center console hard enough to make her grunt involuntarily in pain.

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  “What were you thinking!?” Ginny practically screamed, twisting the little girl around in her lap to face her. Norah blinked, and then smiled widely, her tiny cheeks dimpling.

  “Here you go, Ginny.” The little girl proudly presented Blood Drinker’s Bane to Ginny, the dagger completely covered in blood and the remains of the bear’s eye. Running down the blade and onto the hilt, gore dripped heavily onto the little girl’s hands and arms, the sight an unsettling contrast to the proud and innocent smile on her face. As Ginny stared at her, she felt that strange feeling of pressure in her chest again, that feeling she’d got when she had first seen the sign for Hope Falls. The feeling of weight, like something massive and heavy was settling onto her chest.

  Silently, she reached out and took the dagger from Norah’s hand, and the little girl giggled slightly.

  ***

  They quickly left the bear behind. It seemed much less interested in chasing them after the loss of an eye and was slinking around the side of a building when they turned the corner away from it. Having forcibly shoved the whirlwind of thoughts around Norah and her unnerving behavior to the back of her mind, Ginny resumed scanning around the outside of the cruiser, the little girl returning to quietly riding in her lap.

  “How far away is the bowling alley?” She asked the sheriff tensely. Her grip tightened on the carved handle of Blood Drinker’s Bane, as she warily stared out the cruiser window into a dark alleyway. Four pairs of eyes, glowing a sickly yellow, stared back at her from the shadows, and just before they disappeared from sight as the cruiser drove past, Ginny caught a barest glimpse of something massive shifting in the alley, and all four pairs of eyes swung to the side in a way that made the knot of fear that Survivor’s Will was currently repressing in her stomach tighten up. Four pairs of eyes, one… something with four pairs of eyes. Regardless of what it was, it didn’t venture out of the alleyway to follow them, and Ginny turned back to the sheriff as he grunted in response to her question.

  “Woulda been there by now on the main road. Don’t want to risk leading that thing to the people there.”

  Ginny frowned in response, glancing back out the window, trying to part the darkness with narrowed eyes and see just what was out there. “I think there’s a lot of things out there. Kind of everywhere.” Including probably at the bowling alley. Ginny didn’t say the last part out loud, but from the way the sheriff’s already white-knuckled grip on the cruiser’s steering wheel tightened even further, it was clear that he heard it anyway. He pressed down harder on the gas, and the cruiser lurched forward.

  “Just gotta take a right up by Hank’s here, and we’ll be coming up right behind it.” Ginny nodded, examining the wide windowed building that she assumed was Hank’s, as they came up on it. It looked like as stereotypical a diner as one would expect to find in a small town like Hope’s Fall. The interior was only dimly lit, and Ginny couldn’t see any sign of movement from within. She hoped that it was just because it was closed and empty, but a long smear of blood that ran across the entirety of the building wide windows from one side to the other, made her think that wasn’t very likely.

  The sheriff clearly saw the blood as well, and the cruiser slowed as he stared at the bloodied window, his face clearly showing the inner struggle between getting to the people holed up at the bowling alley and investigating the diner further. After a brief pause, and a glance over at Ginny and Norah in the passenger seat, the sheriff shook his head and sped back up, pointedly avoiding looking into the rear-view mirror as he went. As they turned the corner, the sheriff released the cruiser’s wheel from one hand’s death grip and pointed at a large building a few blocks ahead of them on the left side of the road. Ginny looked at it, then glanced back at the sheriff.

  “That’s it?”

  He nodded quickly in response. “Ah-yup.” He visibly relaxed slightly. It seemed like the fact that the bowling alley was even still standing was a bit of a relief to him. As far as Ginny knew, that was an entirely valid thing to be relieved about with everything going on. He relaxed even further when they turned into the parking lot, and another figure in the dark brown sheriff’s office uniform stepped away from another cruiser they’d been leaning against.

  The sheriff rolled down his window and stuck his head out as she approached. “Sarah. How are things here?” While his expression was clearly happy and relieved to see her, his tone and words were all business. The answering smile on the face of the deputy, a petite woman who looked to be in her mid-twenties, with dirty blonde hair pulled back into a tight ponytail, indicated that this was her boss’s usual way.

  “Sir. It’s been quiet for the most part. A couple more people trickled in over the last hour.” She hesitated and leaned down to look past the sheriff at Ginny and Norah in the passenger seat. Norah waved at her cheerfully and Ginny gave her current best attempt in her ongoing effort to deliver comforting and confident smiles, while silently triggering her Analyzer ability.

  Name: Sarah Williams

  Race: Human

  Age: 26

  Conditions: Alert, Anxious, Resolve of the Blue

  The deputy in turn took in the blood staining both of them, then looked back at the sheriff, clearly hesitating. He gave her a nod, gesturing for her to speak with one hand. “It’s all right. These two have seen enough tonight to hear whatever it is.”

  Sarah shrugged. “If you say so, sir. It’s been quiet here, like I said, but… there are things moving around out there.” She glanced around at the surrounding buildings, her eyes lingering on corners and alleyways. “Nothing I can get a good look at, but there’s definitely something out there. Something that’s not responding to me calling out to it, and going out of its way to not let me shine a light on it.”

  The sheriff and Ginny both nodded, unsurprised, and after a moment and a glance up at Ginny, Norah followed suit, nodding along with Ginny. The sheriff jerked a thumb over to the passenger side of the cruiser. “You’re not wrong about that. Ran into something big on the way over. More like it ran into us, but the point is, you’re right. There are things out there. Real bad, real mean things.”

  The deputy jogged around to the other side of the cruiser and sucked in a hiss of air through her teeth as she caught sight of the ruined door and window on the passenger side, the long gouges left behind by the bear creature’s fur and claws running deep through the metal.

  “Holy shit. Sir.” She amended the last hastily, and Ginny frowned at her.

  “Nothing’s tried to get inside?”

  The deputy shook her head, still studying the gouges in the metal. “No ma’am. Couple of the boys inside have been talking about it. Seem to think there’s some rules to how all this craziness works. Said a lot of stuff about safe zones. I just figure whatever’s out there, it’s not eager to try and force its way into an area with that many people in it.”

  Ginny’s frown deepened, turning that over in her mind, while the sheriff talked to the deputy. Rinaxis had explicitly said that there wouldn’t be things like ‘safe zones’, not as Brendon had suggested there would be at least. Had he been wrong? Or was this something different? Ginny let out a heavy sigh, as she tried to not dwell on the idea that the best source of information about all of this was a talking watermelon in a top hat that had been actively trying to drink itself to death while explaining things to them.

  “Doug? Yeah, he’s here. That idiot showed up a couple minutes ago. Parked around the side and snuck around the wall instead of just driving up to me. Damn near shot him when he jumped out.”

  The sheriff shot her a reproachful glance, and Sarah bowed her head apologetically. “Sorry, sir. He had Brendon with him, and Amos Miller’s boy.” The deputy’s already annoyed expression got even more sharply annoyed when she mentioned Brendon, and Ginny resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Her companion was apparently three for three on being well known to law enforcement in the town. “They headed inside. Their dad is here too, showed up trying to get someone to come back and pick up his kids. Belle was getting ready to head out with him when the son walked in.” She nodded at Norah, who was listening to all of this quietly, her reaction to her dad being found surprisingly subdued. “Went right from hugging the boy and saying how glad he was to see him, to damn near boxing his ears for leaving his little sister behind. Probably would have too if he hadn’t said that she was with you, sir.”

  The sheriff nodded and smiled, stepping out of the cruiser, closing the door surprisingly gently, as if he was worried a slam would be the last straw for the poor abused vehicle, and the whole thing would fall apart down to the axels. “Let’s get her in there then.” Ginny followed suit, having to shove the door that had been torn up by the bear open with some force. She stepped out, smoothly transitioning Norah from her lap to being held against one side, resting on her hip. Ginny absently noted how light the little girl felt, as she briefly tried to close the mangled passenger side door, before settling on just shoving it at close to being shut as she could and snagging the harpoon from the back seat through the broken window. The deputy didn’t bat an eye at the harpoon, and the three of them quickly made their way to the front doors of the bowling alley, bright light from inside spilling onto the sidewalk out front.

  It felt warm and inviting, and Ginny could faintly hear voices and occasional laughter from inside the building. Stepping into a warm, well lit, area, filled with other people, with police on hand taking charge of the situation, should have been a relief, a sign that she was out of the metaphorical, as well as literal, dark and spooky woods.

  In the pit of her stomach, the knot of anxiety being held back by Survivor’s Will grew bigger.