The Hunter Inside (41 page)

‘Paul Wayans Shimasae,’ Bill Arnold
said, wondering what would happen next as he did so. What did happen took his
breath away. Strands of piercing white light replaced the rain that had poured
in for so long. They stretched from the roof, all the way down to the floor of
the building, scouring everything like thousands of fingertips. They flitted
around the four men, who each looked at one another with wide eyes. For a
second or two each was overwhelmed as the lights skirted around their heads and
across their skin. All hate was removed from them in that instant; and each
knew what peace was truly like. It was like being a baby; a feeling that they
had all long forgotten. It passed instantly, and each of them knew why the
world could not have true peace; they would not survive. Evil would find a way through
their innocence, and it would ravage their world. They had to possess hate.
They had to have the knowledge of evil, and they had to have the will to fight
it.

The strands of light reached up the
walls of the building towards Sandy as the four men watched from below. They
interlaced and interweaved as they went, meeting in points of brilliant white
that dazzled the men. Joe Myers smiled as they enfolded his wife, wondering how
the lights made her feel. Sean and David would feel it less. They were still
children, relatively untouched by evil before this day, but Sandy, he now knew,
had suffered at the hands of evil for years. She deserved to feel the peace
that had flowed through him a couple of moments before.

It was a feeling that was alien to
Sandy Myers. Since the death of her parents, the only thing that had even come
close to the sensation of peace that she felt momentarily was when Sean and
David had been born. She had sat and held them, Sean in her left arm, David in
her right, while both Joe and she had wept with joy. She had known on that day
that the boys were her world, her peace, and now she hung and waited to see
what would happen. She didn’t think there were any more names for them left to
say. But something was definitely still happening. The voices had departed her
head, which made her feel confident that Shimasou’s power was diminishing, but
she did not think it was finished. Not yet.

The building shook violently as the
lights concentrated on the ledge above Sandy. The figure that lay surrounded by
the lights felt real pain for the first time as the force of Shimasae felt for
a way in. It was weak now. It didn’t know how it would reach Sandy; it had
trouble moving, but it began to crawl slowly towards the edge of the ledge. The
ravaged wood creaked in disapproval and warning to Sandy. Through the
thunderous noise that surged throughout the building and the rain, which began
once more to pour in and threatened to become its own tidal wave, Sandy called
out to the men below, ‘What’s happening?’

Sam O’Neill looked into the eyes of
Todd Mayhew. He was stumped. Something was happening, but they had gone through
the list of people that Shimasou had killed, and still it was not over.
Unless
we’ve missed somebody out
, he thought, and considered Paul Wayans’
grandmother. It was his fault that they did not know her name, and the weight
of the world seemed to literally be on his shoulders. ‘What d’you think, Todd?’
He asked the question in a tone that was normally reserved for the word
Mayday.
‘Do you think it’s Paul’s grandmother?’

Todd Mayhew didn’t know why it wasn’t
over. Maybe it
was
because they had not said the name of Paul Wayans’
grandmother. She
had
been one of its victims, after all. Maybe Bill
Arnold knew. The theory that Mayhew had about Shimasou’s intended victims being
able to see into its mind had been at least partly true. If it hadn’t, then
they would not have found the building. Bill Arnold had seen through its eyes,
and had known where it was that they had to go. Maybe he could see through its
eyes now. Mayhew looked towards Bill Arnold without answering O’Neill’s
question. Arnold looked at the floor, seemingly in deep contemplation.

‘Bill, the links you had to the mind
of Shimasou,’ he said, ‘do you still have them?’ He waited as Arnold continued
to study the swirling dust at his feet. He had assumed the same distanced look
as earlier, and Mayhew noticed the look of concern that spread across the face
of Joe Myers as he looked at Bill. Thirty seconds passed as all inside the
building remained silent, Sandy hanging above, the men looking at Bill Arnold’s
face, and the lights.

Without looking up, Bill Arnold spoke
suddenly, ‘Margaret Arnold Shimasae,’ he said, grimacing as he waited for
something to happen that would confirm to him that his mother had died at the
hands of Shimasou. The lights remained, but nothing new happened to confirm his
fear. She had not been killed by it, and a huge sense of relief at the fact
made Bill Arnold blink furiously, attempting to clear the tears that clouded
his vision like an early morning fog. Maybe it
was
Paul Wayans’
grandmother whose name had been missed out. A new sense of panic manifested
itself inside Bill Arnold’s head. If that was the case then they might still be
beaten. If Shimasou was not defeated then it might reach Sandy and begin to
rebuild its strength.
And it has the kids
, he thought, and looked up at
Sandy once more, hanging above.

The other three men followed his gaze,
fixing their eyes on the figure of Sandy Myers. Todd Mayhew wondered how she
could have held on for so long with events such as the ones they had just
witnessed unfolding all around her. But still she clung on.

What now
, Joe Myers wondered. What could they
do to help his wife and children?

Then all at once Bill Arnold realized.
It was now up to Sandy. There
was
nothing they could do; she was alone
for this one. His tears spilled over and he glanced at Joe Myers, unseen due to
him having his gaze firmly and unblinkingly fixed upon his wife above. The wind
called to Sandy, pleading and urging her to end their nightmare, Shimasae
begging to be allowed to do the work that had to be done.

The building spun as the image
presented itself in front of her eyes. She still clung on, despite the
explosions of shock and disbelief that flashed through her head. But she forgot
about her arms, she forgot about everything, and was suspended in the crumbling
building, a cocoon of grief surrounding her and isolating her.

They were gone.

Her life was gone.

Just eight years. She had been alive for
just eight years. And now her life had been so cruelly snatched away from her
by something not of this world. The same way as the lives of her parents had
been taken. This time she had seen it only faintly. The figures of her children
and the huge shadow thrusting the long knife into their prone bodies was like a
reflection shimmering on water on the insides of her eyelids. Maybe the water
on which it shimmered was Sandy’s tears. She felt no tears, only a spinning
black void surging down through her stomach, enveloping her whole body and
battering her mind. As she hung without hanging, she felt as though a freight
train was hitting her repeatedly, backing up and returning within seconds of
each hit, but on the inside of her body, trying to bust out and continue on its
journey to a place Sandy didn’t think about. Sandy
couldn’t
think about.

It had killed her boys. Her boys were
dead. They were her light, her hope. Her reason for fighting. What did she have
left to fight for? All that now remained of the building around Sandy was the
edge of the shaking remnants from which she continued to hang. She did not see
any lights, or feel any wind blowing. The rain ceased to hit her face, and she
had forgotten the men below.

For Bill Arnold things had changed.
The lights that hovered were the same: various colors that wavered at the top
of the building where Sandy Myers hung. The rain continued to fall onto the
four men and the wind blew restless around them, but things had changed inside
his head. The image of the children being killed had made him realize that they
couldn’t beat it. They might be able to save the world from it. Well, that was
up to Sandy. Bill knew that Shimasou had destroyed the families it had touched,
and whether he lived or died he no longer cared. Life would be painful, and the
memories, he knew, would haunt him. But now it was up to Sandy, and Bill
Arnold’s mind told him that she should be allowed to make a decision on the
future of the world. He would only say it if Sandy said it, because if she
decided to save the world from Shimasou, then it was a world in which she had
to live. He knew that she would never have any peace, and he wanted Joe Myers
to hear it come from the lips of his wife. If she said it, that was.

The floor sagged further. Sandy knew
why it continued to sag. It was coming for her, and her mind was focused on it
now. Tuned right in. But how could she say it? How could she save
this
world?
Shimasou is not from this world.
The voice that spoke up inside
her head sounded like that of her father.

Her temples pounded as an avalanche of
grief threatened to crash down, and she pulled herself up slowly as the floor
lurched with the weight of Shimasou. The aches and pains of minutes before
retreated as the far more powerful emotion of grief overwhelmed Sandy. She
raised her head, bringing it parallel to the edge of the remnants of the
staircase, and opened her eyes. Shimasou lay, crawling slowly towards the edge,
towards Sandy. Its skin had begun to tear as Shimasae had taken away the combined
strength of its victims, and blood oozed from seemingly everywhere, soaking the
clothes it wore and running over Sandy’s fingertips.

The effort it had made to put an image
of the dead boys into their heads had almost been too much. For a moment it had
even passed out as it tried to crawl with the weight of the lights of Shimasae
to contend with. But it had to destroy her hope, even if it was only as an act
of defiance.

It was now close enough for Sandy to
look into its eyes. They were cloudy, but looking into those eyes Sandy saw
eyes that she knew. Small streams of blood trickled out down its cheeks.

‘Sean Myers Shimasae,’ she said in a
flat, weak tone.

The world would be spared from
Shimasou. Because it was not
of
this world. She knew that the world
needed a second chance, and she gave it that chance.
Her
world would
never have a second chance; it was gone, blown away by a set of events that had
unraveled with frightening speed. The grief was too strong and too deep to ever
be erased, and the memories were indelibly stamped upon her mind.

Below, Joe Myers fell to his knees. A
humming sound began to swell inside the building as O’Neill also fell to his
knees and held the distraught Joe Myers in his arms, burying his weeping in the
shoulder of the big Special Agent. Bill Arnold looked up at Sandy and said,
‘David Myers Shimasae’. The humming inside the building became louder, forcing
Todd Mayhew to put his hands over his ears and drop his head. Bill Arnold
continued to stare upwards at Sandy as the lights that surrounded her moved
away, up onto the ledge where the two lifeless bodies lay. Where Shimasou lay.
From his position he could not see Shimasou. Sandy dropped her own head due to
the brightness of the lights as they rained down onto the figure of Shimasou
like arrows. It stopped moving entirely, completely overwhelmed as Shimasae
found its entry and stripped away the final levels of its existence. The lights
swirled around the building as black dust began to rain down into the eyes of
Bill Arnold, making him put his hands in front of his face to shield himself.
The others raised their heads and shielded their faces in similar fashion,
trying to see what was happening above.

The dust that rained down was like
lumps of coal hitting them, and the lights that swirled around the building
sought it out and carried it back towards the top of the building, away from
those below. It was Shimasou that rained down, and each of them knew that
Shimasae was in the lights that protected them from its final threat.

The world had been saved from
Shimasou. Sandy Myers had saved the world. Her husband continued to weep,
hiding his face in the shoulder of Special Agent O’Neill, who kept his own head
down. It was
his
failure that had killed those children, his failure as
a Special Agent. If he had anticipated Shimasou targeting the children, then
maybe they would still be alive. A sense of grief welled up with the guilt, and
for Special Agent Sam O’Neill it felt like his own children had been murdered.
It was almost like he had murdered them himself. His heart tore down the middle
as he held the agonized Joe Myers, and he bit his lip so hard that blood
trickled down his chin with the tears from his stinging eyes.

The five people inside the building
were united in grief and desolation. Todd Mayhew despaired. He was not quite
sure how his heart had withstood the strain that had been placed upon it. Even
now, as yellow and purple and red and blue lights carried the lumpy black
particles away from the building in a swirling black cloud, his heartbeat
raced. They still had to find a way of getting Sandy down from her position
before the building tumbled to the ground and erased what had happened, and he
did not know how they were going to do it. It was their final challenge, and
they all looked up at Sandy as the storm ceased and the wind fell. The building
was silent and dark. The lights that had held on to Sandy and had inspired the
feeling of peace that they had felt briefly had now departed the building,
taking with them the evil of Shimasou, but leaving behind the grief and pain
that evil and sorrow caused in each of them.