Doctor Sleep (The Shining #2)(120)

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.

For the time being, at least, she had to give up and leave. But before she did, she saw something through the girl’s eyes that flooded her with relief. It was Crow Daddy, and in one hand he was holding a needle.

7

Abra used all the psychic force she could muster, more than she had used on the day she had gone hunting for Brad Trevor, more than she had ever used in her life, and it was still barely enough. Just when she started to think she wouldn’t be able to get the hat woman out of her head, the world began to revolve again. She was making it revolve, but it was so hard—like pushing a great stone wheel. The sky and the faces staring down at her slid away. There was a moment of darkness when she was

(between)

nowhere, and then her own front hall slid back into view. But she was no longer alone. A man was standing in the kitchen doorway.

No, not a man. A Crow.

“Hello, Abra,” he said, smiling, and leaped at her. Still mentally reeling from her encounter with Rose, Abra made no attempt to push him away with her mind. She simply turned and ran.

8

In their moments of highest stress, Dan Torrance and Crow Daddy were very much alike, although neither would ever know it. The same clarity came over Crow’s vision, the same sense that all of this was happening in beautiful slow motion. He saw the pink rubber bracelet on Abra’s left wrist and had time to think breast cancer awareness. He saw the girl’s backpack slew to the left as she whirled to her right and knew it was full of books. He even had time to admire her hair as it flew out behind her in a bright sheaf.

He caught her at the door as she was trying to turn the thumb lock. When he put his left arm around her throat and yanked her back, he felt her first efforts—confused, weak—to push him away with her mind.

Not the whole hypo, it might kill her, she can’t weigh more than a hundred and fifteen pounds max.

Crow injected her just south of the collarbone as she twisted and struggled. He needn’t have worried about losing control and shooting the whole dose into her, because her left arm came up and thumped against his right hand, knocking the hypo free. It fell to the floor and rolled. But providence favors True above rubes, it had always been that way and was now. He got just enough into her. He felt her little handhold on his mind first slip, then fall away. Her hands did the same. She stared at him with shocked, floating eyes.

Crow patted her shoulder. “We’re going for a ride, Abra. You’re going to meet exciting new people.”