All the Pretty Dead Girls Part 48

Billy felt the house begin to shake. It felt as if something was moving under the concrete beneath his feet.

An earthquake.

Billy shuddered. He had never been so terrified in his life.

h.e.l.l was erupting.

And his mother was inside.

81.

"Lord Jesus," Father Ortiz prayed in the snow. "I beseech you! Save this house and the people within from the demon's clutches!"

He wished he had Bernadette's faith. The little girl knelt serenely in the snow, mumbling her prayers. Ortiz was trembling, terrified.

So many times I didn't believe, he told himself. he told himself. So many sightings of the Virgin I simply called hysterical. So many times I told the Vatican that the lost Book of Revelation was a hoax. So many times I didn't believe... So many sightings of the Virgin I simply called hysterical. So many times I told the Vatican that the lost Book of Revelation was a hoax. So many times I didn't believe...

He could feel the earthquake now through the blanket of snow. The moon was gone. Snow fell more heavily as the power across the campus went out and everything was plunged into darkness.

Darkness that took life around them.

Darkness that began to close around Father Ortiz's throat.

"No!" he screamed.

"Pray, Father!" Bernadette shouted. "Pray!"

But it was too late. The darkness had him by the throat. The darkness seemed to grow limbs, and it lifted him high in the air, higher and higher- And then, like it had Miles Holland, it dropped him headfirst into the snow.

The last words that went through Father Ortiz's mind were: I believe in G.o.d, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth... I believe in G.o.d, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth...

Bernadette did not move as the snow around her turned red from the priest's blood. She continued to pray.

From the house came a great roar.

The roar of a lion.

82.

Sue saw him first. The red eyes in the dark. The figure-both enormous and small at the same time-moving down the center aisle toward her.

We have the same eyes, Sue thought dispa.s.sionately. Sue thought dispa.s.sionately.

He was called the Prince of Darkness, and now Sue could understand why. Darkness rolled down the center aisle-a deep, pulsating darkness. It was darkness that lived, that encased a beating black heart. Sue felt its damp coldness as it grew nearer.

Behind her, Malika screamed again, but Sue was barely aware of the sound. All of her attention-her entire being-was focused on the roiling darkness that loomed ever closer.

On either side, people fell from their chairs. Some dropped to their knees. Metal chairs clanged. Cries and gasps disturbed the silence as the breathing darkness pa.s.sed down the center aisle.

The demon seemed to smile amidst the chaos. Not a smile in the physical sense-but Sue could sense its pleasure. It continued its approach to Sue on the dais.

Daughter, it said in words only Sue could hear. it said in words only Sue could hear.

Father, she replied. she replied.

The darkness reached out to her.

She put out a hand to meet it.

"Sue!"

The voice came like a spear thrown unexpectedly at them. Everyone spun around to look. Sue withdrew her hand, and the demon whirled around in a great rush of darkness, its red eyes growing large.

Then it was gone.

At the bottom of the stairs, looking into the room, stood Dr. Marshall.

"Sue!" she called. "It's not too late! You can stop this! You know you can!"

"Get her!" Dean Gregory shrieked to his guards, who made a beeline toward Ginny.

Sue's vision went red.

There was a terrible high-pitched thrumming in her ears.

My father...

He's gone!

Anger began to well up inside her. She stood, eyes blazing.

"Sue!" Ginny shrieked again, just as the guards set upon her. "You are your mother's daughter as much as you are his!"

My mother...

Sue spun around. Her eyes met Malika's on the cross.

With a wave of her hand, Sue caused the straps that held Malika in place to fall away. The girl slumped to the ground, free. Sue spun on Dean Gregory, who was running toward her. Her arm flew out, and without even touching him, she sent him staggering backward, propelled into the wall.

People were standing now, many trying to flee. Some were screaming. With another wave of her hand, Sue caused the door to the stairway to slam shut, locked, preventing anyone from escaping.

They will all die. All of them. Sue felt the power rising up in her. All of them. Sue felt the power rising up in her. All die. In honor of me! All die. In honor of me!

"Sue!" Joyce was saying. "Control yourself! This is all new for you, very heady...maybe we rushed things too fast...sit, Sue, sit...we'll take care of Virginia Marshall."

Sue turned to look at her. "No, Joyce," she said, delighting in her treachery. "I'll "I'll take care of take care of you you!"

And with a grand sweep of her hand, she sent Joyce flying across the room, arms outspread, coming to rest on the cross that Malika had just vacated. The straps rea.s.sembled themselves, securing Joyce in place. She screamed as the cross clicked into gear and inverted itself once again, leaving her upside down, her long black hair hanging in front of her face.

On the dais, Sue laughed maniacally.

She began pointing at people in the crowd, feeling the power surge down her arm and through her fingers. How wonderful it was to watch them crumble under her power, fall lifeless to the floor. She killed a state cop. Then her boring biology teacher. She laughed uproariously. The whole room was screaming, in a panic.

Her eyes came to rest on her grandfather.

"You made me like this," she said to him. "You made me a creature that would be born without the capability to love or be loved."

"Susan," he argued, terror on his white face. "You will be great-"

"I am am great," she said, and with a flick of her hand, she blew the head off his neck. Her grandmother screamed as the old man's blood covered her. great," she said, and with a flick of her hand, she blew the head off his neck. Her grandmother screamed as the old man's blood covered her.

"Sue!"

Amid the pandemonium, she heard a new voice. She spun in its direction.

"Sue!"

Billy.

It was Billy-standing in front of a door he'd just broken down.

Billy.

"Sue," he said. "You're wrong. I loved you. I did! I loved you!"

Their eyes held.

83.

Dean Gregory was getting to his feet. As Ginny struggled with the guards who held her, she watched the dean waver across the room, heading for Sue.

He wants to subdue her, Ginny thought. Ginny thought. Harness her. He knows her power is great, and that she'll use it against all of them. Harness her. He knows her power is great, and that she'll use it against all of them.

"Holy Mother!" Ginny shouted. "Save your daughter! Sue is as much your daughter as his!"

In that instant, the two great torches on either side of the dais fell, bursting into a huge fire that separated Gregory from Sue and Billy.

In moments, the whole room was on fire.

84.

"Billy!" his mother shrieked, grabbing his arm. "We've got to get out of here!"

But he kept his eyes locked with Sue.

He felt a calmness he'd never known in his life before.

"I did love you, Sue," he repeated. "And I think...I think you started to love me."

85.

Yes, Sue thought. Sue thought. Yes, I did Yes, I did.

And she started to cry.

The door sealing off the room from the stairs flung open. People began scrambling to get away from the flames. Even the guards who held Ginny let her go, hoping to save themselves from the inferno. People were trampling over each other as they attempted to get up the stairs, just as the fire caught hold of the walls.

"Go," Sue said to Billy. "Take your mother and save yourself."

Their eyes continued to hold for a moment. Gayle Honeycutt was crying hysterically, tugging at Billy's sleeve.

"Sue," Billy said.

"Go," she told him again.

Billy turned, pus.h.i.+ng his mother in front of him, and headed for the door.

Sue watched them go, the intense heat of the flames now reaching her face. She turned, and helped a sobbing Malika to her feet, removing her own robe and placing it around Malika's naked body. Her roommate was still obviously drugged and unable to walk. "You will be strong now, Malika," Sue told her. "Your legs will carry you. You will go up the stairs and save yourself."