Blood Red

“Where are you going?” Jayce’s wide, dark eyes were filled with tears.

“I’m going to get help, and I want you to hide.”

Kelli was looking all around them. She’d screwed up. She had no idea where she was, but there were trees all around them in the fog and she couldn’t see the road anymore. One of the larger trees was close enough that she could make out the details. She moved with Jayce and pointed to a rotted-out hole in the center, what her grandfather had called a faerie door. “You see that hole, Jayce?”

“Y-yeah . . .” The little girl sounded dubious.

“Can you hide in there?”

“I don’t know.” She was starting to cry more, starting to get nervous and Kelli couldn’t blame her.

“Try for me, baby girl, okay?” Kelli took off her coat.

Jayce backed into the spot carefully and managed to crawl completely in. Kelli smiled.

“There you go. I’m gonna give you my coat and you use it to cover the hole up, okay?”

The poor kid was crying, but quietly, and she nodded her head. Kelli tucked her jacket in around her and tried not to cry herself.

“Okay. You stay right here. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Finding her way wasn’t as hard as she expected. She just had to listen to the sounds of the screams. She said a silent prayer and jogged back the way she had come, searching for lights. Something above her dropped a plastic Spider-Man mask to the ground. The mask was broken in three places.

Kelli stopped and looked up, her heart thudding into overdrive.

Her baby boy looked back down at her. Teddy was crouched on a limb, Nicky draped across the heavy branch a good ten feet above her head. Nicky wasn’t moving at all. Teddy was licking his lips.

“Hi, Kelli!”

“Oh God, Teddy.”

“Miss me?” He sounded amused.

The worst part was, even with the blood on his face, even with a dead boy pinned under his weight, she was happy to see him. Some part of her was rejoicing.

“Oh, Teddy, honey, what did they do to you?”

Teddy stood up and Nicky’s body rocked threateningly as he moved across the branch to look directly down at her. “I’m coming for you, Kelli. And we can be together again.”

“Teddy, no . . .”

He didn’t listen. He dropped out of the tree, his preposterous black costume fluttering around him like batwings. He landed in a crouch and stood up. By all rights, his knees should have been driven through his shoulders from that height.

“You wouldn’t let me in, Kelli. I should be mad at you.” He was pouting, but it was a playful, mocking pout that she knew well from when bedtime came and he didn’t really want to go to sleep. Unlike Bill, Teddy’s skin was soft and fresh and firm. He was just very pale.

“Teddy . . . what happened?” God, she wanted to hug him to her. She knew better and had no intention, but he was so perfect to her and so alive.

Then she looked into his eyes and saw how perfect he really was. His sweet face and his crazy messy hair and his goofy costume and she knew she was being stupid. He would never hurt her, and every other sin was forgivable. She could take him to a doctor and get him patched up. “Oh, come here, baby boy.”

He moved closer, smiling. His eyes glowing with a light as bright as what she felt for him inside her heart. Such a wonderful boy and always so sweet.

The sound of his foot breaking the plastic Spider-Man mask made her look down. The instant she did, she knew she’d been played.

Kelli backed away fast, looking at his water-logged tennis shoe instead of at his face. The skin wasn’t pale; it was gray and filthy.

“Oh Teddy . . .”

She turned and ran again and heard his anger when he spoke again. “Get back here you BITCH!”

The words shocked her so much she looked over her shoulder and saw him as he started moving, gaining speed and coming up so fast he almost blurred. Kelli caught her foot on a root and dropped like a rock, barely covering her own face before she hit.

Teddy was fast, true, but he seemed to lack reaction time. He overshot and had to come back around.

Kelli was up and running again, this time with a rock in her hand. She’d brain him if she had to.

II

They came out of the fog in droves, some of them wearing the black costumes and some of them wearing the remains of whatever they’d died in. All of them stank of stagnant salt water and darker things, and they were hungry. The worst of it for the babysitters was being recognized by some of the frat boys. They got creative with where they bit and how long they could make the suffering last.

The children died quickly for the most part.

Jason Soulis watched it all, standing on the top of his roof as the attack took place. He willed the winds to gather stronger and summoned the fog to go further inland, and the elements obeyed.

The night was only just starting and he wanted to savor all of it.

One of the children ran away and he let him. The boy cowered against the side of his house and cried soft music into Jason’s ears.

He loved to hear children cry.