Chapter 28
Haatim leaned against the window as they drove down the freeway. Frieda and Dominick sat in the backseat, so quiet that he glanced over to check on them and make sure they hadn’t fallen asleep. He couldn’t even imagine sleeping right now, and it had felt like a weight hung over his head ever since they’d started the trip.
Abigail drove and hadn’t said anything since they had left Mitchell’s shop a few hours earlier. She remained even quieter than usual and stared forward, eyes on the road and thoughts a million kilometers away.
What did she think about? He would have given anything to get a glimpse into her mind to see what worried her so much. She seemed even more somber than when they had flown back to Ohio from Cambodia. What had happened at the shop to make her so distant and withdrawn?
“You okay?”
She blinked. “Yeah.”
“Just worn down?” he said.
Abigail nodded. “Yeah. Rough couple of days.”
“Tell me about it,” he said. “When this is all over, I think everyone will need a good and long vacation.”
She sat silent for a moment. “Yeah,” she said, finally.
He could tell that she felt unconvinced, but she didn’t offer anything further.
“Looks like it’s going to rain,” he said, after a while.
“Yep.”
He took that as the end of the conversation and leaned back in the passenger seat. Apprehensive about everything happening, he had no idea what they would find in Raven’s Peak. Though still the middle of the day, it had grown dark enough with thick cloud cover outside that it could have been the middle of the night. The clouds hadn’t opened up, yet, but when they did, it would bring a storm to remember.
Never in his life had the weather so perfectly matched his mood as right now. He had tried reaching out mentally for his sister again, but it didn’t prove of any use. Whatever had happened to connect them, it had either gone or only made for something he could do subconsciously.
Still, it showed that she remained out there, fighting for her life against the demon that had overtaken her. He felt ready to do everything in his power to save his sister.
“You know that she’s gone, right?” Abigail broke the silence. It seemed as though she had read his mind. She glanced over at him with a concerned look on her face. “You won’t bring her back.”
He could see the concern there, and the worry, and it gnawed at him. “You don’t know that.”
“I do,” she said. “I got possessed, and it gave me a horrible experience, but I stayed alive. When they took over your sister’s body, she’d gone already.”
“Maybe they brought her back to life when the demon came.”
“It doesn’t work like that.”
“You don’t know how it all works,” he said more harshly than intended. “No one does. What we try to do, the world we live in … we don’t have hard and fast rules for any of this.”
Abigail glanced at him. “Yes, we do,” she said. “The rule is: if you live this life long enough, this world will destroy you.”
He blew out a breath. “I’m telling you, Nida is still in there. I’ll save her. I failed once. I won’t fail again.”
“We need to stop her, Haatim,” Abigail said. “I won’t allow you to jeopardize what we need to do.”
“I won’t,” he said. “But, I won’t abandon Nida either.”
“She’s gone. The demon just wants to manipulate you.”
“Do you trust me?”
“Yes.”
“Then trust me when I tell you she’s out there.”
“Even if so, what’s to say you can save her? You told me before that you confronted the demon in Cambodia and didn’t stand a chance.”
“That happened before I knew she lived. I can reach Nida and bring her back; I just need another chance.”
Abigail glanced at him again. “All right,” she said.
He could tell that she remained unconvinced but figured that offered the best he would get out of her. He worried that she, Dominick, or Frieda might try to kill Nida without giving him the chance to save her.
To be honest, though, he didn’t feel that confident of what would happen either. He could still remember when the demon had dominated him and used him as a plaything. Part of him believed that if he did get the opportunity to redeem himself, he would simply fail once more.
Maybe it would work out better if they killed her. He didn’t want to admit it, but maybe they all had it right.
***
They drove into Raven’s Peak slowly, looking around in awe at the city. It lay empty and silent throughout, completely abandoned by all of the townsfolk in the preceding months.
It reminded Haatim of the smaller version of the town out in the woods where he’d gone with Abigail. Now, this one had become a ghost town as well, forgotten by time and abandoned by the world. Though considerably larger and more modern, it would face the same fate.
Already, after only a few months of abandonment, it had fallen into disrepair. Grass and weeds pushed up through the streets and sidewalks in various places, and it showed signs of decay and rot.
The day remained cloudy and overcast, and without any streetlamps or building lights, everything lurked in shadow. It proved windier than he would have liked, as well.
He recalled those short hours he’d spent here with Abigail, which felt so long ago. So much had happened since then, and his entire world had altered.
“Where did everyone go?” he asked in awe, looking at the city from the passenger seat. The headlamps would light up a section of the city, and then it would fade back into nothing when they moved on by.
“I don’t know,” Abigail said. “It feels so empty.”
“Evacuated,” Frieda said from the back seat. “On the Church’s orders.”
Haatim had focused so tightly on the city that he’d nearly forgotten she sat back there. He jumped a little at the sound of her voice, and then forced himself to relax.
He glanced at her in the rear-view mirror; she seemed broken down with an unreadable expression on her face. She hadn’t slept much since everything had set into motion, and Haatim could tell that all of this had gotten to her.
Dominick, on the other hand, slumped fast asleep, leaning his head on Frieda’s shoulder and snoring softly. He could snooze through anything. She reached over and gave him a gentle shake, waking him. He let out a snort and blinked open his eyes. Then he yawned. “We’re here?”
No one responded, just kept looking out of the windows. He rubbed his face and coughed. “Guess so.”
“Everyone here moved?” Haatim cast his disbelieving gaze around once more.
“The Catholic Church bought out their properties with the assistance of the US government, forcing everyone out. Imminent domain where necessary. After what happened here, though, not that many holdouts wanted to stay. Don’t worry: they got paid generously for their property.”
“So, now it’s just a forgotten town.”
“One of a few out in the world. More than you would think, actually. Crazier things happen all the time. And making a remote town in the middle of the mountains disappear isn’t that difficult with the right motivation and resources.”
They drove up the road along the main thoroughfare. Haatim saw the bar and shop they’d stopped in, as well as other buildings that he remembered that looked empty and forgotten.
All of them stood abandoned and boarded up. They kept driving until they reached the far side of town and the small FedEx office he and Abigail had hidden in during the first attack on the city. His old car still sat smashed up against the brick wall, riddled with bullets.
He’d almost forgotten that beat-up old Junker, and just seeing it brought back innumerable memories.
“I see the Church left things how you found them.” He pointed at the car.
“Why wouldn’t they?” Frieda glanced at him. “The plan was to let things settle down for about ten years before considering whether or not to try and rebuild the town.”
“I guess that won’t happen now.”
Frieda stayed silent for a few seconds. “No, probably not.”
“You sure this is the right place?” Abigail asked. “It doesn’t seem like anyone came here.”
“Yep. Definitely the place we’re supposed to be,” Haatim said. “I haven’t managed to contact my sister or the demon again since the flight, but she’s out here somewhere.”
“This place is important to her,” Frieda said.
“Not just her,” Abigail said. “She’ll do it at the old church in the woods. The one where I killed Arthur.”
“You didn’t kill him.”
Abigail didn’t respond. Instead, she put the car into gear and headed down the road that led to the campgrounds, where they’d gotten attacked when driving back into Raven’s Peak. Haatim still felt the sheer and brutal terror of the moment, getting shot at and attacked.
A police car and shots had come out of the fog. He couldn’t help but look around, half-expecting something to jump out at them and swarm the vehicle. However, nothing happened, and they soon reached the outside of the city and drove into the forest.
“How long will the ritual take?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” Frieda said. “This is all new for me. The ritual I performed with Arthur all those years ago took nearly five hours, and I would imagine this one will take longer. I can’t be certain.”
What Frieda didn’t say, possibly for Haatim’s sake, was that they might have come too late already. They had no way of telling what Nida would need for the ritual, or if she had completed it. They might have walked into a trap just to face their deaths.
But they’d run out of alternatives, and this offered the only way for them to go. They had exhausted every avenue open and had no choice but to continue forward. As Winston Churchill once said, “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”
The trees flitted past, and the sky continued to darken. Still, it didn’t rain. Haatim would almost have preferred if it had. He couldn’t help but think that the weather gave an ominous sign of things to come.
It proved a sobering realization to know that they might die out here, and even worse to know that they might all perish without accomplishing anything.
Did he sit okay with that or not? They had to try and stop Nida, though. That would prove nearly impossible with such a dangerous and unpredictable foe.
“So many memories,” Abigail whispered beside him. He couldn’t tell if she spoke to him, or if it had just slipped out.
“I know.”
To come back here brought a painful reminder of when he’d first come to the town. He remembered facing the demon and dealing with impossible situations. He also recalled the feeling of pure rightness when he had faced the demon. For sure, something had happened, and God had reached through him to get rid of Belphegor. He had helped save Abigail and the town.
Now, he prayed he would find that strength once more and save his sister. He had failed once: he couldn’t afford to fail again.
