LOT'S MOUNTAIN

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: Trapped

We have to go in. I keep telling myself that we have to. I can hear the Stone Hounds behind us. I've stared them down before because they want me alive (when they remember they're not supposed to kill me), but what about Jamie? And Grim and Dennis?

But I can't go in ... Bill walked through that door, but he never walked back out again. It's dark in there, except for some moonlight drifting in through some of the windows, the ones not boarded up.

Thoughts of how Bill screamed and begged and kept on screaming until he died run through my head. Jamie tugs me forward.

We have to keep pushing forward. We can still find the Huntsman if we get out of here, but we won't get out if the cemetery hounds find us first. After Jamie drags me inside, Grim and Dennis leap forward to follow. Then something happens. At first, I think that somebody just took a picture, blinding me with a flash. The world goes from white to red. Then things get dark again.

Grim and Dennis are still outside, on the porch. They try to follow us again, but there's another bright flash of light. I can see them through the open door. But I see something else, too—a single, gleaming red eye.

Dennis must see the look on my face. He yanks out his pistol and turns. Grim hesitates, but I yell to him to do it. And then he does. The orbs around him start to flare and bounce, swinging wildly around him and Dennis. He doesn't want to, but Grim takes off with Dennis, dragging him away from the house. Grim's a whole lot stronger than I thought. Dennis tries to scramble back, but he's no match for Grim.

The hounds don't follow them. No, they want to keep Jamie and me here. They want to make sure Jamie and me don't leave. Well, mostly me.

Grim'll warp Dennis and him out of here when they're far enough away from the Stone Hounds. He'll come back for us. I know he will. And I still have his orb, so he'll be able to find us. It'll be up to Jamie and me to be alive when he does.

That means that we have to stop staring after Grim and Dennis and get moving. Right now. We slam the door shut and start dragging a chair over to it, since the lock's all screwed up and won't latch.

After I fall over what's left of a couch, we get an idea and push it against the door. As soon as I get to wondering about how long it's going to take the cemetery hounds to come inside, one bursts through the window near us in a spray of splintered wood and shattered glass. There's another sharp crack as more hounds surge through the other windows. Shard steps forward, filling up the whole damn doorway.

Jamie's still got that sword, but a stone sword's not going to do a damn thing against a cemetery hound. Even if we try to get one of the eyes, I doubt we'd be fast enough. I was lucky last time and there are a lot more of them than when I found the two in the woods with Imaru. So we duck down what we hope is an empty hallway. But running won't do any good. I know that. We have to find some way to get out or some place to hide.

There are no doors to close and hide behind. They've all been removed for some reason.

As we get deeper into the house, the smell of rot and decay that clings to everything makes me gag. Just like the dreams. Just like when I have the nightmares where I'm digging up my brother's grave. And in those, Bill shows up with bugs chewing on him and ...

I stagger and almost fall to my knees. No. I need to run so Jamie and me can get away.

While I catch my breath, I hear something that sounds like claws scrambling against a tile floor. I have this image of Shard wiping out against that slick kitchen floor and plowing into a wall. Yeah, I wish.