Doctor Sleep (The Shining, #2)(120)

Before he could decide what to do next, the white light came again, and, after a pause, yet again.

All of them?

Good Christ, all three? It wasn’t possible . . . was it?

He took a deep breath, then another. Forced himself to face the fact that yes, it could be. And if so, he knew who was to blame.

Fucking steamhead girl.

He looked at Abra’s house. All quiet there. Thank God for small favors. He had expected to drive the truck up the street and into her driveway, but all at once that seemed like a bad idea, at least for now. He got out, leaned back in, and grabbed the unconscious geezer by his shirt and belt. Crow yanked him back behind the wheel, pausing just long enough to give him a patdown. No gun. Too bad. He wouldn’t have minded having one, at least for awhile.

He fastened the geezer’s seatbelt so he couldn’t tilt forward and blare the horn. Then he walked down the street to the girl’s house, not hurrying. If he’d seen her face at one of the windows—or so much as a single twitch of a single curtain—he would have broken into a sprint, but nothing moved.

It was possible he could still make this work, but that consideration had been rendered strictly secondary by those terrible white flashes. What he mostly wanted was to get his hands on the miserable bitch that had caused them so much trouble and shake her until she rattled.


5

Abra sleepwalked down the front hall. The Stones had a family room in the basement, but the kitchen was their comfort place, and she headed there without thinking about it. She stood with her hands splayed out on the table where she and her parents had eaten thousands of meals, staring at the window over the kitchen sink with wide blank eyes. She wasn’t really here at all. She was in Cloud Gap, watching bad guys spill out of the Winnebago: the Snake and the Nut and Jimmy Numbers. She knew their names from Barry. But something was wrong. One of them was missing.

(WHERE’S THE CROW DAN I DON’T SEE THE CROW!)

No answer, because Dan and her father and Dr. John were busy. They took the bad guys down, one after the other: the Walnut first—that was her father’s work, and good for him—then Jimmy Numbers, then the Snake. She felt each mortal injury as a thudding deep in her head. Those thuds, like a heavy mallet repeatedly coming down on an oak plank, were terrible in their finality, but not entirely unpleasant. Because . . .

Because they deserve it, they kill kids, and nothing else would have stopped them. Only—

(Dan where’s the Crow? WHERE’S THE CROW???)

Now Dan heard her. Thank God. She saw the Winnebago. Dan thought the Crow was in there, and maybe he was right. Still—

She hurried back down the hall and peered out one of the windows beside the front door. The sidewalk was deserted, but Mr. Freeman’s truck was parked right where it belonged. She couldn’t see his face because of the way the sun was shining on the windshield, but she could see him behind the wheel, and that meant everything was still okay.

Probably okay.

(Abra are you there)

Dan. It was so great to hear him. She wished he was with her, but having him inside her head was almost as good.

(yes)

She took one more reassuring look at the empty sidewalk and Mr. Freeman’s truck, checked to make sure she had locked the door after coming in, and started back down to the kitchen.

(you need to have your friend’s mom call the police and tell them you’re in danger Crow’s in Anniston)

She stopped halfway down the hall. Her comfort-hand came up and began to rub her mouth. Dan didn’t know she had left the Deanes’ house. How could he? He’d been very busy.

(I’m not)

Before she could finish, Rose the Hat’s mental voice blasted through her head, wiping away all thought.

(YOU LITTLE BITCH WHAT HAVE YOU DONE)

The familiar hallway between the front door and the kitchen began to sideslip. The last time this revolving thing happened, she’d been prepared. This time she wasn’t. Abra tried to stop it and couldn’t. Her house was gone. Anniston was gone. She was lying on the ground and looking up at the sky. Abra realized the loss of those three in Cloud Gap had literally knocked Rose off her feet, and she had a moment to be savagely glad. She struggled for something to defend herself with. There wasn’t much time.


6

Rose’s body lay sprawled halfway between the showers and the Overlook Lodge, but her mind was in New Hampshire, swarming through the girl’s head. There was no daydream horsewoman with a stallion and lance this time, oh no. This time it was just one surprised little chickadee and old Rosie, and Rosie wanted revenge. She would kill the girl only as a last resort, she was much too valuable for that, but Rose could give her a taste of what was coming. A taste of what Rose’s friends had already suffered. There were plenty of soft, vulnerable places in the minds of rubes, and she knew them all very w—

(GET AWAY YOU BITCH LEAVE ME ALONE OR I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!)

It was like having a flash-bang go off behind her eyes. Rose jerked and cried out. Big Mo, who had been reaching down to touch her, recoiled in surprise. Rose didn’t notice, didn’t even see her. She kept underestimating the girl’s power. She tried to keep her footing in the girl’s head, but the little bitch was actually pushing her out. It was incredible and infuriating and terrifying, but it was true. Worse, she could feel her physical hands rising toward her face. If Mo and Short Eddie hadn’t restrained her, the little girl might have made Rose claw her own eyes out.