Your Turn to Suffer by Tim Waggoner (the ebook reader .txt) 📕

to hurt them, but at the last instant, Reeny veered off and hit the brakes. The Altima slid on the wet grass, tires churning the ground to mud. Melinda braked abruptly too, but she managed to maintain better control of her vehicle, and it didn’t slide nearly so badly.

“What in the hell?” Rajini said.

Lori wanted to tell her to run inside and call nine-one-one, but she doubted anyone would come to their aid. Oakmont’s police force was doubtlessly overwhelmed dealing with the Shadowkin attacks throughout town.

The passenger-side door of Reeny’s car opened, and Brian stepped out. Lori already knew what to expect since Aashrita had shown her visions of the transformations her nephew, her sister, and the others had gone through. Larry did too, in general, since she’d told him about the visions. But knowing what to expect and experiencing it were far from the same thing.

Brian’s clothes were covered with dark stains that Lori knew were blood – some of it his, some of it not. His skin was a pale grayish white, and he moved with awkward, stiff motions, as if he was having trouble remembering how to operate his body. But worst of all was the expression on his face. His mouth was twisted into a cold, mirthless smile, and his eyes were flat and unfeeling like a doll’s.

“Hi, Aunt Lorlee!”

His voice was awful too, a hollow echo that sounded as if it came from very far away.

Reeny got out of the car next, but other than being soaking wet, she appeared normal. For an instant, Lori hoped that Reeny had escaped being changed by the Cabal, but then she saw the raw hatred contorting her sister’s features, the sheer loathing that burned in her eyes, and Lori knew that while Reeny looked unchanged on the outside, she had been transformed within. Reeny walked over to stand next to her son, put a hand on his shoulder, and together they stared at Lori.

Melinda, Katie, and Justin got out of the Cherokee and joined Reeny and Brian. They too fixed their gazes on Lori, but their faces displayed different emotions – amusement from Melinda, hungry excitement from Katie, and jealous resentment from Justin. All three of them were covered with blood, and their bodies had been transformed in different ways. One thing about the Cabal: you couldn’t fault their creativity. Melinda’s braid had been animated with a life of its own, and it whipped the air behind her like the tail of a restless animal. Katie was an animal, or at least she possessed aspects of one – a cat, Lori judged. It made sense. Her personality had already been like a feline’s in many ways. And Justin…. Jesus Fucking Christ, poor Justin! If she hadn’t already known it was him, she never would’ve recognized him. His body was completely covered by tumors, so many that his nose was no longer visible, and his mouth was a thin, barely perceptible line. His eyes remained unobstructed, though, and somehow that was the worst of all. She saw no love for her within them, only blazing anger that was growing hotter by the moment. His breathing was rough and labored, and when he coughed, it sounded as if his lungs were filled with wet gravel.

“Oh god,” Rajini said, and then she slammed the door shut and locked it, leaving Lori and Larry to face the others on their own.

Smart woman, Lori thought.

Larry didn’t take his gaze off the five nightmares confronting them as he spoke in a hushed voice. “What do we do now?”

Lori didn’t answer him. Instead she addressed the others.

“You’ve come to deliver a message to me,” she said. “I already know what it is. I damn well ought to by now. I’ve heard it enough. But you might as well get it out of your systems. So get on with it.”

The five spoke in unison, as if they’d rehearsed. “Confess and atone – or suffer.”

Lori clapped.

“Bravo. Message received loud and clear. That’s why I’ve come here to the Dhawans’ – to fix the Imbalance I created. That means there’s nothing left for you to do. You’ve played your parts and played them well. Now go away and let me play mine.”

Melinda smiled. “We don’t care what we were supposed to do, and we don’t give a fuck about the Imbalance. We’re writing our own script from now on, and in this next scene...we’re going to kill you.”

“And worse,” Katie said, rough cat tongue licking an elongated incisor.

“I’m going to eat your heart,” Brian said. “I bet it’ll taste like candy.”

“And you’ll eat every bite of it,” Reeny said to her son, “just like the good boy you are.”

Hearing her sister speak like that hurt Lori more than all the tortures the Cabal had put her through combined. This was Reeny, not just her sister but her very best friend.

Not anymore, she thought.

Justin spoke next, pausing every few words to catch his breath.

“You know what…the best thing about…cancer is? It spreads. That makes it…the gift that keeps on giving. I’m going…to pass it along to you.” His gaze flicked to Larry, and his tumor-covered brow furrowed. “And to him – your emotional crutch…of an ex-boyfriend.” His voice changed then, became a chorus. “We join with you. Much-much happy.”

The Cabal had turned Justin and the others into monsters in order to goad her into discovering the nature of the Imbalance she’d created and then fixing it. But the Cabal had done their job too well. Reeny, Brian, Justin, Melinda, and Katie were like machines that had been created to perform a specific task, and they intended to keep performing it, even if it was no longer necessary. They wouldn’t stop until she was dead – and if she died, so did everyone in Oakmont.

Lori drew in a deep breath, released it.

“Let’s get started then. I’m on the clock.”

She drew the Gravedigger Special from the leather jacket’s inner pocket and stepped off the porch and into the rain.

Chapter Fourteen

The Gravedigger