Endless Night Part 1

Endless Night.

Richard Laymon.

This book is dedicated to our friends:.

Larry Mori & Joan Parsons, Curators of the Mori-Parsons Museum of the Weird and Wonderful.

where they dwell.

Part One.

Someone in the House.

Chapter One.

Jody came awake moaning.

"Wake up!" The whisper sounded urgent. "Jody, wake up! Please!"

The voice belonged to Evelyn. Probably so did the hand shaking her shoulder.

She thought, Oh, yeah. I'm at Evelyn's. Sleeping over. Trying to sleep over, more like it.

She opened her eyes, rubbed them, yawned. The room was dark, but she could see Evelyn looking down at her from the bed. The girl's face was a dim blur smudged with shadows. Her arm, darker than the white sheets, was stretched toward the floor where Jody had settled for the night in her sleeping bag. Her hand had a tight grip on Jody's shoulder.

Jody moaned again. "What is it this time?"

"I heard something."

"Gimme a break," she murmured. "You messed up a really neat dream. I wanna get back to it, if you don't mind. Jeez." As she yawned, Evelyn shook her shoulder again.

"I mean it. I'm not kidding. I heard something."

"So?"

"I'm scared."

So what else is new? Jody thought. She didn't say it, though. Evelyn had a way of blowing just about everything out of proportion, making big deals out of nothing-but she was Jody's best friend. They'd been best friends since kindergarten, so Jody'd had about ten years of experience with her histhonics.

"It probably wasn't anything. Just go back to sleep."

"It was somebody breaking one of the windows downstairs."

"Uh." Jody yawned again. Now that she'd been awakened, she felt too hot inside her sleeping bag. Had Evelyn's father shut off the air conditioner before turning in? "Breaking gla.s.s?" she asked. "Maybe one of your parents is up and dropped something. What time is it, anyway?"

"One-fifteen."

"Jeez." She found the inside zipper tab up near her left shoulder. The hand on her other shoulder flinched when she slid the zipper down. "That was just me," she explained.

"What're you doing!"

"Melting."

"We've gotta do something."

"Yeah. Let's go back to sleep." She swept aside the stifling thickness of her sleeping bag. From the knees down, it still buried her. She freed her legs and stretched out, uncovered. That felt better, cool and nice except where her nights.h.i.+rt kept the air away. If she were at home, she could simply take it off. Not here, though. "Does your dad turn off the air conditioning at night?"

"My G.o.d, Jody."

"Can we open a window, or something?"

"They don't open."

Remind me never to live in a state-of-the-art house, she thought. "That's probably why somebody broke one."

"I don't find any of this amusing."

Jody felt her nights.h.i.+rt glide up her body, giving her a momentary, soft caress as she raised her arms and folded her hands beneath her head. Now, she could feel the air's touch higher on her thighs. She eased one leg sideways.

A lot better.

Just gotta get back inside the sleeping bag before daylight. Wouldn't want either of the guys to see me like this. G.o.d, that'd be embarra.s.sing. I'd never be able to look Mr. Clark-Charles-in the eye again. It'd be even worse if Andy got a look. A lot worse. Him and his major-league crush. The poor tyke might throw a heart attack, be the first twelve-year-old in history to drop dead from over-excitement.

"Do you think we oughta take a look around?" Evelyn asked.

"All you heard was a little breaking gla.s.s?"

"Yeah."

"That could've been anything. It probably came from outside. Maybe somebody dropped a bottle."

"What if it's a robber?"

"If it's a robber, I don't think he would appreciate a visit from us."

"Ha ha."

"Anyway, the burglar alarm would've gone off."

"Maybe not."

"Your dad always sets it before he goes to bed."

"I don't know about that."

"My G.o.d, Ev, every time your folks turn in before us, your dad always warns us not to touch any of the doors. Or does he only do that when I'm staying over? Does he think I'm a bad influence and'll talk you into sneaking out to get wild?"

"No. He thinks you're great."

"Very perceptive man."

"But the alarm doesn't have to go off, you know? Not even if it is set. Criminals have ways ..."

"Sure. Real pros do. But pros try not to go busting into houses when people are in them. They like to go in when n.o.body's home. For one thing, it's less of a ha.s.sle. For another, it's a much lighter sentence if they get caught. It's only burglary, if n.o.body's home. Boosts it up to robbery if anyone's there, anned robbery if the bad guy has any kind of a weapon. That's what Dad says."

"He always carries a gun, doesn't he?"

"Most of the time."

"I sure wish he was here right now."

"Oh, for Pete's sake, Ev. If you're this worried, maybe we'd better take a look around. Or maybe you'd rather dispense with the preliminaries and just dial 911."

"I'm thinking about it."

"Oh, your parents would love that. Look, why don't we go and wake up your dad?"

"Sure. He'd kill me."

"Not if there's a bad guy in the house."

"But what if there isn't? What if I wake him up, and it's all a false alarm?"

"You woke me up."

"That's different."

"Yeah, it's okay to wake me up."

Evelyn was silent for a few moments. Then she said, "Maybe I'd better."

"Better what?"

"Tell Dad."

For the first time, Jody felt a slight tremor of worry. Even though Evelyn's father seemed like a really nice guy, the poor girl had always shown major reluctance to disturb him. If she was ready to wake him up, she must be seriously concerned about the noise she'd heard.

Evelyn swung her legs down from the mattress. She stood up and took a long stride to step over Jody's chest.

"You're really going?" Not waiting for an answer, Jody said, "I'll go with you." As soon as Evelyn was out of the way, she sat up. Evelyn kept walking. "Hold it. Jeez."

She stopped and waited.

On her feet, Jody asked, "Do you have a robe I can wear?"

"I thought you were supposed to be hot."

"I am hot. But what if Andy's up and around?"

"Don't worry, he's not. Nothing wakes him up."

Evelyn pressed a shoulder against her bedroom door and turned the k.n.o.b. When she stepped back to pull the door open, Jody did a quick shuffle to avoid being stepped on.

Evelyn swung the door open wide.

And grunted.

Jody heard a quick, wet punch.

Something poked her belly. She sucked in her breath, drawing in a stench like week-dead rat, and stumbled backward as Evelyn seemed to leap straight up in the middle of the doorway. But it wasn't a leap. On her best day ever, she couldn't have leaped so high. Her head struck the top of the door frame.

This isn't happening, Jody thought.

No.

Huh-uh.

No way.

But she could feel a small trickle of blood sliding down her belly. Untouched by her loose hanging nights.h.i.+rt, it dribbled on downward to her groin. It felt very real.

So did the blood she heard splas.h.i.+ng as it fell from Evelyn. Very real.

And the stink of rot was real, too. For a few days last summer, Jody had smelled much the same disgusting odor after a rat had died behind a bathroom wall at home. Dad hadn't been willing to demolish the wall to retrieve the carca.s.s. So they'd had to wait it out.

This smells just like death.

This can't be happening.

Evelyn hung there limp, head drooping sideways, bare feet nowhere close to the floor, a blob of darkness growing on the back of her nightgown. From the middle of the blob protruded a pointed silver tongue.

Before Jody could make sense of what she was seeing, Evelyn glided away from the doorway and vanished into the corridor.

Jody stood frozen.

She couldn't move or scream. She couldn't breathe.