36. Faith
“Nathaniel on East Daniel,” I chanted to myself as I screeched to a halt at a yellow light that had just turned red. “Nathaniel on East Daniel. Come on, you stupid light.”
Suddenly glad that I was a snoopy waitress who also read names and addresses on driver’s licenses and that I just happened to remember Thane’s rhyming address, I pulled up my phone as I waited for the light so I could figure out where 101 East Daniel Street was.
I didn’t remember the exact house number that had been on his ID, but I was counting on the fact that maybe I’d see something familiar if I just started from the beginning of East Daniel and drove through from there.
The light turned green. I squinted at the map that had just popped up on my phone and tossed it into the passenger seat before pressing on the gas. Ten minutes later, I found Daniel Street by pure luck. And I started to cruise down it, looking for…well, anything.
By the time I hit the twelve-hundred block, however, I was starting to wonder if this was a fruitless effort. I had no idea what Hudson or any of his friends drove, so I couldn’t try to spot any of their vehicles parked at the curb, and it wasn’t as if they’d be performing the exorcism right outside on the front lawn.
If all six of his friends were there, though, maybe a big group of parked cars clustered together would help. Except the street was crammed with parked cars all over the place.
“Come on, come on,” I mumbled desperately. “Just give me a sign…please.”
As I finished the plea, I straightened in surprise when I saw who looked like Hudson’s friend, Thane, yanking open the front door of a bungalow-style house and racing down the front walk after… What the…?
It looked as if some guy was helping an ancient priest into the passenger seat of a black Escalade sitting in the driveway. And Thane did not seem pleased about them leaving.
Which meant I’d been right to worry. Something had gone wrong.
“Shit. Shit. Shit.” Finding an open place to park about half a block down, I whipped into the spot, parked, and threw open my door before even killing the engine.
“Hey!” Thane was hollering as I raced down the sidewalk toward him. He pounded on the window of the Escalade. “You can’t just leave, dammit. We paid you to get that shit out of him.”
“We’ll give you a refund,” the driver called as he hustled around to the driver’s side and threw open the door.
“I don’t want a refund. I want my friend to—dammit!”
The Escalade roared to life, and its tires spun as it peeled in reverse out of the driveway.
“You’re going to get a very lousy review for this!” Thane shouted as he followed them out onto the road so he could flip them the finger as he helplessly watched the Escalade gear into drive and take off down the street, its red taillights swerving as if waving farewell.
When he clutched his head and growled out a sound of despair, I drew close enough to call, “Thane?”
He dropped his hands and spun toward me, blinking through the streetlights and gaping at me in confusion before he hesitantly answered, “Faith? What’re you doing here?”
“Hudson said he was here, about to get an exorcism,” I said, drawing close. “What happened?”
Motioning after the departed Escalade, he hurried from the street and rejoined me on the sidewalk. “The motherfucker pulled Ivey’s ghost just enough to the surface that it took control, which freaked the priest out so much that he just…took off.” He ran a harassed hand over his shaved head and gripped his skull, muttering, “I guess this was the first exorcism that actually produced any results for him. Fuck!”
I glanced toward the front door. “You’re sure it’s Brett who’s in charge, though? I mean, you can actually tell a difference? Because Hudson was worried?—”
A bitter laugh strangled its way from Thane’s throat. “Oh, you can tell. Trust me. The little shit doesn’t try to disguise himself at all.”
I nodded, even as my heart began to thump in overtime. “Take me to him,” I ordered.
Except Thane only winced. “That’s not a good idea.”
“But I can help him,” I argued in shock. “You know I can. I might not be able to get the ghost out, but I can push it back deep enough for Hudson to have control over himself again.”
Thane groaned indecisively as he glanced longingly toward the front door. Then he spun back to me. “Just how much would it hurt you?”
I shook my head immediately. “A little headache, maybe a nosebleed, and that’s all. I’ll be fine. I’ll heal.”
“Dammit,” he muttered to himself before he grasped my arm and started toward the front door. “Alright, come on. You get Hudson back, and then you gotta go. Okay?”
“Of course,” I agreed, willing to say anything for permission to enter his house. I’d already been a split second away from racing toward the door without his permission.
“Hudson is going to kill me for letting you do this,” Thane complained all the way up the front walk.
“But only if I get him back, first,” I reminded.
He sent me a pathetic glance. “No matter what happens in there… Thank you.”
I nodded and waited for him to open the door for me. Then I rushed inside, only to pull up short at the sight that greeted us.
Behind me, Thane gasped, “What the hell?” while Parker clutched a bloody arm and Keene went stumbling backward away from a growling, struggling Hudson who was being pinned in place by Foster and Damien holding on to each of his arms and Alec gripping him in a headlock from behind.
“He spit on me,” Keene cried in disgust as he wiped the back of his hand over his face.
“Hey, at least he didn’t cut you,” Parker panted as he lifted his blood-soaked hand from his forearm to check the damage.
“What the fuck happened?” Thane demanded, going to Parker first to check his injury.
“Well, he threatened to kill us,” Parker told him, hissing when Thane made him remove his hand completely. “And I think he meant it because he dashed into the kitchen and found a fucking knife.”
“Jesus. This is going to need stitches,” Thane breathed, grabbing a tissue from the box sitting on the end table next to the couch to press against the wound.
“It’s a hell of a lot more manly than getting spit on,” Keene groused as he took a gander at Parker’s cut. “Lucky bastard.”
All the while, Damien, Foster, and Alec cursed and struggled, working in tandem as they tried to keep a pissed-off Hudson restrained.
“I’ll kill you. I’ll kill all you motherfuckers,” Hudson ranted, his face turning red with all the effort he was putting in to break free. “You can’t hold me like this forever.”
Finally, noticing me just standing there, gaping at him, Keene bobbed his head in my direction. “What’s she doing here? I thought she had to stay away.”
“She’s just going to bring Hudson back, and then she’ll be gone again,” Thane announced.
So Parker motioned me forward. “Then, get your ass over there,” he cried. “Why’re you just standing there?”
I swallowed thickly, wanting to hurry to Hudson that very moment, despite how intimidatingly scary he was. Lifting a hand, I answered, “I just want to see if I can talk Brett into coming out on his own, first. Because only he seems to have the ability to do that.”
Keene snorted. “Yeah. Good luck with that. The bastard’s finally in charge of all of Ivey’s faculties. No way in hell is he going to come out now.”
“But Hudson was his best friend,” I argued, not quite able to drop my hope. “Maybe that’ll carry some weight with him.” And turning to Hudson, I called, “Brett?”
Hudson’s gaze sliced savagely my way, and when he saw me, he snarled. “No! Keep her back. Get her away. She hurts me.”
“I just want to talk to you,” I said, remaining on the other side of the room.
Brett hissed and snapped his teeth at me. “Well, I don’t want to talk to you. You suck. You’re gross and ugly and smell like farts.”
That one caused me to pause and blink.
I glanced over at the guys in question, and Keene looked stumped by the insult. “Farts?” he mouthed to me in question.
“He doesn’t mean that,” Thane promised me. “Hudson would never say that to you.”
With a nod, I lifted my hand. “I know.” But it struck me that we were dealing with a child here. So I decided to talk to him as if he were one.
“Well, I just wanted to say that I’m sorry about what happened to you. Dying that way… Wow, that must’ve been horrible. And so unfair. You never should’ve had to go through that.”
That seemed to mollify the ghost. He stopped struggling so he could listen to what I was saying.
“Then to be stuck in there for years with no body of your own.” I shook my head sympathetically. “I can’t even imagine.”
“It was the worst thing I ever went through,” he agreed.
I nodded along with him, actually feeling kind of sorry for him, even as I said, “Then why would you do this to Hudson? This is his body. Not yours. Do you really want to do to him what was done to you? I thought he was your best friend.”
“He is,” Hudson’s voice answered, and his face filled with confusion before he squinted. “He’s my best friend ever, so he won’t mind if we share. He’ll be fine with it. Hudson’s so chill; he shares everything with me. So I’m just going to wait in here until he’s done living so I don’t have to move on by myself. I’m not doing that alone.”
I shook my head. “But you’re killing him by being in there. Did you know that? You’re wearing him down, and before long, he’ll die.”
Brett didn’t seem to care. With a shrug, he shot back, “Great. Then he and I can move on together sooner than I thought.”
As the men in the room growled in protest, I slapped my hands to my hips and snarled, “Listen here, you little punk. You should be ashamed of yourself. You’re killing your best friend and keeping him from growing and living the life you never got. How could you be so selfish?”
“Oh, like you’re one to talk,” Brett countered. “You only want him back so you can have more sex with him. Yeah, I saw you. I saw you naked and making all those stupid noises. Want me to tell everyone here just how ugly and disgusting you are without any clothes on?”
As the other six cringed with a few matching groans, I shuddered in revulsion. I guess I should’ve realized that Brett had been present for all that. And it was even harder to hear coming from Hudson’s voice. It felt as if Hudson himself was calling me ugly and gross and awful.
But I shook my head past that, reminding myself yet again that this wasn’t Hudson I was talking to. It was Brett. And Brett clearly wasn’t a kind, rational spirit.
“I guess there’s no changing your mind, then,” I told him as I stalked forward. “So bye, bye now, Brett.”
Taking his face between my hands, I leaned forward and pressed my brow to his.
“No!” he screeched in horror. “Get away from me. Get this freak show off me. Someone, help. Please! She’s hurting me.”
I closed my eyes tighter and kept holding his face between my hands as he hollered and struggled and snapped his teeth at me, frothing at the mouth.
Tears filled my lashes. “Hudson,” I whispered. “I’m sorry if this hurts you too. I’m so sorry.”
“Fucking bitch,” he hissed. “I’ll kill you for this. I’ll gut you like a?—”
He cut himself off by making a choking, gargled sound. Then he began to twitch as if he might be having a seizure, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head.
“Ah, hell. Here we go again,” Foster murmured.
Thinking I was somehow killing Hudson, I let go of his face and started to back away.
But Alec cried, “No! It’s working. You’re bringing him back. This is exactly what happened when Brett appeared.”
So I returned to Hudson and cupped his face between my hands. “Come on, baby,” I begged as I pressed my forehead back to his. “Come back to me.”
Tears rolled down my cheeks as he gritted his teeth and moaned. Pressure filled my head, so sudden and intense that I gasped. Against me, Hudson’s muscles locked up, and he went rigid just as all the overhead lights burst, sprinkling glass everywhere and plunging the room into darkness.
All the guys cried out in alarm, and the three holding onto Hudson surged closer to huddle protectively over me and him and each other.
Then, Hudson went totally lax. He would’ve slumped to the floor if we weren’t already holding him up.
“Hudson?” I asked, keeping his head upright when it tried to lob forward limply. “Oh my God, Hudson? Are you okay?”
“Faith,” he rasped weakly, his voice sighing my name as if it were a balm to his senses.
“Hey,” I answered in a shaking voice, laughing and crying at the same time as I wiped tears off my cheeks. “Welcome back. How do you feel?”
Personally, I felt like shit. My head was killing me, something was dripping persistently from my nose, my knees were turning into Jell-O, and if everything wasn’t already dark, I’m sure black spots of dizziness would be dancing in my eyes.
“Feel like me again,” Hudson managed to answer. “Totally wiped out, and I need a nap. But I’m good. You’re not supposed to be here, though.”
As the three holding him eased up and began to back away, Hudson reached for me and immediately wrapped a hand around the back of my neck so he could haul me in for a hug. “Who do I need to hurt for putting you in danger and letting you in here?”
“All of them,” I said as I hugged him back, holding him as tightly and as closely as I could. “But I would’ve come anyway. I’ll always come when you need me.”
Hudson sobbed out a choked sound and tightened his grip on me as he buried his face in my hair and rasped, “Well, you need to go before I hurt you again. And you need to step out of my arms and physically back away from me because I don’t think I can let go of you on my own.” His voice went hoarse as he added, “I don’t ever want to let go of you again.”
“Hudson,” I wept, pressing my face to his shoulder.
“Is everyone okay?” Thane’s voice was asking just as a small source of light popped on; it looked like his phone’s flashlight.
As a chorus of, “I’m fine,” and “All good here,” and “I’m just fucking peachy,” answered him, Hudson kept hugging me, staying true to his word that he never wanted to let go.
I kept holding him just as tightly, even though my brain was buzzing hard and felt as if it was going to burst at any moment. Vertigo took over, and my consciousness started to slip.
“Hudson?” I heard someone ask. “You good? You with us?”
“Right here,” he answered in my ear, swaying gently with me. “But someone needs to get her out of here before I fucking—Faith?”
I lost my grip on him and started to fall.
“Faith!” I heard Hudson roaring from a great distance as I slipped into a black abyss of nothing.