The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek(88)

“Don’t call me sweetheart.” Donna jerked her neck back, slamming her head into Dr. Bob’s nose.

As he cried out in pain, Janine took advantage of the brief commotion, jabbing her elbow into Mary Hattaway’s stomach, knocking the wind out of her.

Janine was just about to use her free arm to bury a fist in Travis’s stomach when Leggett Shackelford—who’d been restraining Donna along with Dr. Bob—folded his monstrous arms around her, and Donna, too, effectively locking them both in place.

“Don’t try anything like that again,” he said.

Mary stood up slowly, gathering herself. “Down here,” she said, bringing her face close to Janine’s, “we teach our girls not to hit.” She spit, the viscous substance reeking of stale cigarettes as it streamed down Janine’s cheek. “You’re lucky the One Below isn’t interested in Lost Causes your age. Because if He was, I’d throw you in that spring myself.”

Janine squirmed in Shackelford’s vise-like grip, wishing she could get loose and knock Mary in the stomach a couple dozen more times.

“What’s takin’ so long?” Whitewood said, seeming slightly panicked as he leaned out over the wild, bubbling water. “Those boys should have been accepted or rejected by now.”

The cult was silent, watching their leader like a hawk, absorbing his anxiety as if it were their own.

“Master,” Mary Hattaway said after a long moment, “do you think their masks might be…preventing the One Below from his evaluation?”

Whitewood’s head jerked toward Mary, his eyes trembling in their sockets.

“Or maybe not,” Mary said, bowing her head.

“Dammit!” Whitewood screamed at the spring. “We’re running out of time! Start untying some of the Candidati.” He gestured to the line of terrified kids. “We must have one more accepted before midnight, or all of this will have been for nothing!”



* * *



—

REX HELD TIGHT to his hammer—continuing to chip away at the last of the spring wall holding Leif in place—as the spirit tried to rip it from his hand.

He and Ben had been dealing with this near-constant interference the entire time they’d been digging, the spirit seeming to get stronger and more focused as time passed. Their bags of pig’s blood were now empty, but they’d nearly finished the job.

Rex tore away one last particularly large rock and felt a burst of joy as Leif’s body sagged forward. Rex reached out to hold him, grabbing the rope that Ben had already tied around Alicia and gently looping it around his best friend’s waist.

Gotcha, buddy, Rex thought as he looked at Leif.

Leif’s eyes were open but unfocused, his jaw agape.

I know, Rex thought. I missed you, too.

Ben double-knotted the rope around Leif and Alicia and tested it with a few sharp tugs. He pointed toward the side of the spring opposite Whitewood and the cult, grabbed the rope close to Alicia, then began kicking his fins, pulling their helpless cargo along. Rex understood: since they had no pullers waiting on the shore to haul them in, they’d have to tow their friends back themselves. Rex grasped the rope and started kicking.

They hadn’t made it five feet before the darkness engulfed them, violently dragging Leif and Alicia—and Rex and Ben with them—back to the spring wall.

Rex’s hopes came crashing down as he realized just what the spirit was capable of. He and Ben stared at each other, both obviously thinking the same thing:

How the hell are we going to do this?

There was a splash from above.

About fifteen feet away, Rex saw a young boy in a jumpsuit plunge down into the water.

The spirit left the four of them immediately, darting to the boy and enveloping him.

Rex was thinking they should go help him before he realized:

This was their chance.

He and Ben began kicking their fins again, moving Leif and Alicia through the water as fast as they possibly could. They made it a little less than ten feet before they saw the boy in the jumpsuit launched out of the spring, as if the spirit had decided it had no use for him.

Moments later, the spirit returned to them, Rex and Ben kicking with everything they had, barely making a difference as the frenzied shadow towed them back almost to their starting point.

Another splash.

Then another.

A teenage boy and girl came plummeting down together. Rex suddenly understood that the cult was throwing these kids in, offering them up to “the One Below.” Insane.

He couldn’t think about it too hard, though, because the spirit sped away again, and he and Ben resumed their exhausting rescue. Rex was running on sheer adrenaline at this point; he wondered how much longer he could keep it up.

The spirit, meanwhile, bounced between the boy and the girl, seeming confused as to whom to engulf first. It finally settled on the girl, wrapping her up in its blackness.

Rex and Ben made it back to the spot where the spirit had last stopped them and kept going, Leif and Alicia still drifting behind them.

The girl was propelled toward the spring wall.

The spirit had decided she was worth keeping.

Rex and Ben kicked harder.

By the time the spirit was violently ejecting the teenage boy from the spring, Rex and Ben had managed to get Leif and Alicia a few feet from the shallows. Just a bit further and they’d be able to walk out of this hellscape.