Part 68

They both started running in the same instant.

Lowell spent a split-second turning around, but when he sprinted for the opening on the far wall of the cavern, he ran as if hell itself was behind him. His shoulder throbbed with every step, but the pain was nothing.

He had to get out. Out of this room... out of this town... OUT!

Some of the shapes scattered around the chamber still moved. Wounded men and women, trampled by their own neighbors and unable to make their escape now that the crowd had vanished.

Too bad for them.

Lowell leapt over a couple of reaching, moaning forms as he ran.

Behind him... behind him.... No, no, NO! He'd had a head start! He couldn't be that close! Dear GODS could the boy be that FAST!?

"GET OUT OF MY WAAAYYYY!" Lowell flew past a set of reaching arms. Was that Gayle Grieves? Didn't matter.... run... run!

Darkness enveloped him as he entered the curved, upward-sloping corridor. The chamber was behind him now, but there was no door to shut in his wake. There was one ahead, though! If he could get there fast enough... far enough ahead of the boy... of that THING pretending to be his son...

He just had to keep running!

The torches in the corridor had gone out. Lowell sprinted through the dark, trying not to run into the curved wall while trying even HARDER not to slow down!

"HELP MEEE!"

Someone grabbed his legs in the dark. Lowell fell, his scream of panic turning to one of agony as his shoulder hit the wall.

"HELP ME!" An old man's voice yelled into his year. Was that old man Bartleby? Oscar's father? "My legs! They BROKE my legs! I can't mov-"

"GET AWAY!" Lowell swung his good arm, cracking the elderly man across something that felt like a face. He scrambled to his feet-

-and looked behind him.

Nothing.

Darkness.

Then...

Bare feet on stone. Someone running in the darkness. Someone... with knives.

He ran. He ran, hoping beyond all hope that David would stop to kill the old man before coming after him. And if he did, he prayed he found someone else up ahead that he could feed to that thing... that.... boy....

But the boy didn't stop. Lowell heard bare feet slapping on stone behind him. Close. Closer. Closer still.

The knives. How would he do it? Would he stab him in the back? Cut his legs out from under him?

FASTER!

He heard a sound ahead. His mind tried to turn it into human voices... someone shouting... someone giving orders. Who? But that wasn't it. That wasn't it at all! That sound was the loud grinding of metal against stone.

It was the sound of the door to the sacrificial chamber... closing!

"WAIT!" Lowell shrieked. "NO!! I'M STILL IN HERE!"

The corridor continued up and around...

Lowell had a clear view of the metal plate... of the light from the "treasury room" slowly fading as the huge door swung closed.

"WAIT! I'M IN HERE! THERE ARE PEOPLE STILL IN HERE!"

The rectangle of light became smaller... smaller...

Couldn't they HEAR him!? Who was up there!?

Lowell tried to run faster... he TRIED... but there was no more speed left in him. He watched his only escape fade into darkness as he screamed wordless rage and terror at the rapidly closing door.

"NO! NOOOO! WAAAIIIIIITTTT!"

The door sealed with a metallic clang...

...four...five... six footsteps later, Lowell slammed into it. He pounded his one good fist on the metal.

"NOOOOOOOOO!!!! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! WHO'S OUT THERE!? PLEASE, LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT, DAMN YOU!"

The unyielding metal threw his words back into his face.

When his ears stopped ringing, he listened...

Lowell turned, facing the pitch black corridor behind him.

There was nothing to see.

Nothing to hear.

No footsteps on bare stone.

No furtive sounds of someone... something... creeping up the corridor in the dark.

Nothing.

Did he stop to kill the old man? Did he... did he fall? Did he go back to the sacrificial chamber? Was he afraid of the dark? WHAT!?

Nothing.

Lowell crouched and squinted. He moved over toward the wall... found a corner to hide in.

He held his breath, and listened....

He heard his own heart thundering in his chest...

...and nothing else.

Nothing... else...

Nothing...

"Would you like to see what I've learned, daddy?"

The words whispered directly into Lowell's ear, from lips that brushed his earlobe as they spoke.

Lowell Vern screamed in the darkness.

And he didn't stop for a very long time.