Endless Night Part 7

"Here, I'll do it." In the gla.s.s, Jody watched Andy step past her. He looked skinny and fragile, hardly more than a little boy. "I've worked these things a lot," he said. "They've got one just like it that they take out by the pool."

As he turned and took a stride toward Mrs. Youngman, he changed. The boy in the gla.s.s transformed, grew in size and bulk and breadth. His face turned heavy and mad. He lost his jeans. His hands, empty an instant ago, now clutched an ax.

Jody's confusion didn't last long.

She shrieked, "No!" and grabbed Andy's shoulder and jerked him backward as the sliding door exploded. She glimpsed the ax swinging sideways through a swarm of tumbling fragments-on a course toward Mrs. Youngman's belly.

She turned away, ducking and flinging up an arm to s.h.i.+eld her face.

Through the clamor of shards falling onto table top and floor, she heard the fump of the ax chopping into its target.

Gla.s.s nipped Jody's rump and the backs of her legs. She staggered forward to get away, then twisted around and looked and saw that the ax had actually struck Mrs. Youngman higher than the belly.

It had buried its head between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, deep into her chest. The blow had apparently slammed her back against the wall. She had a shocked look on her face. The phone was just beginning to fall from her hand.

The man who clutched the handle of the ax didn't so much as glance at Jody or Andy as he stepped through the destroyed door.

Jody swung Andy by the arm, propelling him toward the dining room. As she raced after him, she swatted the kitchen switch and killed the light.

Behind her, someone muttered, "f.u.c.k." it On her way through the dining room, she snagged two chairs away from the table and flung them backward as she ran by. The switch for the chandelier wasn't within reach, would require a slight detour, so she made an instant decision not to bother with it.

The foyer was lighted, anyway.

She thought Andy might go for the front door, but he didn't. Good. One of the other guys might be right on the other side.

She followed Andy across the foyer to the stairs. He started racing up them. So did she.

Going upstairs didn't seem like a great idea. But neither did going outside.

It was obvious, though, that Andy had spent some time at this house. He and Mable knew each other. He knew how to work the phone and had mentioned something about a pool. Probably came over to swim with a Youngman kid, or something.

He'd been here before, so maybe he knew of something upstairs that would help. Maybe Ernest the healer had a firearm, after all.

Her own dad kept plenty of secrets from Grandma Fargo, things that Jody knew about and sometimes revealed to friends.

So maybe Andy knew where to find a gun.

Oh G.o.d, please!

Hearing quick footfalls from below, she glanced over her shoulder just in time to see the ax man hurry out of the dining room. He jogged through the archway, looked toward her from the foyer but didn't react or slow down.

Andy had already reached the top of the stairs.

Jody, taking three at a stride, sprang to the top a moment after him. There, she turned around and saw the ax man jerking open the front door.

He's leaving?

He didn't spot us after all?

He thinks we ran outside!

Right at the start of all this, the guy who killed Evelyn hadn't noticed Jody standing just behind her in the dark room. Maybe this guy had no better eyesight than ...

He didn't run out into the night, but whirled away from the open door and rushed for the stairs as his friends with the knife and saber charged into the house.

Andy grabbed Jody's sleeve. He pulled it hard, stretching the neck of her nights.h.i.+rt down off her shoulder. The pull sent her stumbling toward him, and a wall blocked her view of the three intruders.

"Come on!" he gasped in a whisper.

"They got a gun?"

She heard a thunder of footfalls on the stairs.

"Phones. Almost every room has a ..."

"It's too d.a.m.n late for 911."

"We can..."

"Let go of my sleeve."

He let go. The ruined neck still drooped off her shoulder.

"Get ready to run."

"What ... ?"

She leaped sideways. The ax man was in the lead, rus.h.i.+ng up the stairs like a crazed lumberjack. When Jody loomed above him, he hefted the ax.

Jody hurled her Louisville Slugger like a short, stubby spear.

She'd aimed for his forehead.

That's where the bat struck him, its fat end clouting him above his eyebrows, bas.h.i.+ng his head back.

The moment she saw the bat hit him, she sprang sideways past the wall and gasped, "Go!" and hoped Andy would lead them to someplace with a lock.

From the sounds of thuds and slams and outcries she heard as she lunged after Andy, she guessed that the ax man must've gone backward down the stairs and knocked into one or both of his buddies.

He's gotta be out of the picture, she told herself.

But that leaves the other two.

Two against two. Now the sides are even.

Right. Even, my b.u.t.t.

They'll kill us.

"Where're we going?" she blurted as she dashed down the corridor on Andy's heels.

"Jim's room."

"He got a lock?"

"A phone."

"Does his door lock?"

"Don't know."

She heard the men behind her.

"Johns got locks," she gasped.

"No phone."

A glimpse back showed her two dim figures rus.h.i.+ng side by side.

"The parents' room," she said. "Where?"

Andy's vague, pale arm swung up and pointed to a gray rectangle just ahead-a doorway perhaps a shade less dark than the corridor.

"Go there!"

He cut across the corridor. So did Jody. "The door, the door, the door!" she yelled.

She followed him through the doorway. They both skidded and staggered, stopping fast, reversing direction. Andy grabbed the door by its edge and slammed it. They threw themselves against it.

Shoulder to the wood, Jody reached out and swept her open hand down the wall. She found a light switch. She flicked it up and the room filled with light that made her squint.

The m.u.f.fled thud of footfalls rushed closer.

Jody looked down at the doork.n.o.b. No lock.

No mechanism at all for securing the door.

Great.

She flipped herself around. Back to the door, she scooted her feet over the carpet and bent her knees and braced herself for impact.

Andy did the same.

She felt his arm against her arm.

The bedroom was very large. It did look like the master bedroom, but it also looked as if the old Mrs. Youngman had been sleeping in it.

With permission? Jody wondered.

Shades of Goldilocks.

She's dead. Dead. Jesus.

The covers were folded at its foot, the top sheet twisted over to one side, the bottom sheet rumpled. The old woman must've been too hot.

The doork.n.o.b turned very fast and the door shoved at Jody's back. The pressure only lasted a second.

Guy must've just pushed with his hand.

Beyond the bed, open draperies showed a sliding gla.s.s door. Only half the expanse reflected the room, and Jody realized the door had been left open.

Mrs. Youngman must've wanted fresh air.

Maybe didn't like air conditioning. Or didn't know how to work it.

Jody saw a lawn chair and a railing beyond the open part of the door.

A balcony.

Between her and the balcony stood the bed. It had an elaborate wooden headboard and nightstands on both sides.

A white telephone sat on the nearer nightstand, probably fifteen feet from Jody.

The door slugged her back.

She and Andy both grunted. Their knees bent. Their feet skidded on the carpet. The men must've thrown their shoulders against the door, met more resistance than expected and failed to follow through, because after the burst that nearly threw Jody and Andy off their feet, the door banged shut.

Jody ached to make a run for the telephone.

By himself, though, Andy wouldn't stand a chance of holding the door shut.

"Yes!" she suddenly said. "Yes, it's an emergency. We've got killers in the house. Dr. Youngman's. On Laurel Lane. Hurry! They're trying to get us!"

Andy met her eyes. Though he looked ready to scream, he said, "How long did they say it'll be?"

"A couple of minutes. They said there's a unit real close to here."

From behind the door came a hissing of quick whispers.

Jody ran for the nightstand. She s.n.a.t.c.hed up the handset of the phone and heard a dial tone.

She tapped the numbers 911.

Andy stared at her.

She waved him to step toward her.

With a nod, he moved silently away from the door.