The Fright Train

The Glow Part 9

Two seconds of shrieking terror, two seconds of free fall- then Laszlo's right hand skimmed the rope and caught it in a desperate death grip. Her feet kicked at the rough quarry wall. Rocks skittered away down to the coal-covered ground below.   

A few more seconds and she would've joined Grandma and the kid.

Laszlo let out a long shuddering breath and gained her composure. She glanced up, but the old man was gone. Figured. Her only solid lead and he'd vanished, unless they got to Ally Mason in time.

"Laszlo! Laszlo!" the two officers below her were shouting. "You all right?"

Laszlo closed her eyes and drew in another breath. "I'm fine!"

Come on, V. Pull yourself together. You've had worse than this.

She climbed back up quickly and glanced around for any traces of the old man. Stay away from those we've claimed. They belong to her. It was like he had vanished into thin air.

"Something wrong?"

Laszlo turned to the two officers. It was the taller one who had spoken. His badge read Sharp.

"Nothing. We'd better move along. Ally's not gonna have much time."

They took the nearest squad car, and Laszlo left the siren off. The shorter officer, badge reading Coleman, gave her a confused look.

"If Ally's gone hostile, I don't want to alert her to our presence. She might run off or become aggressive," Laszlo explained. Though she was unsure that leaving the siren off would do anything, it was best to take as many precautions as they could.

It took no more than fifteen minutes to make their way from the quarry to Ally Mason's house, where another squad car was already parked across the street, lights flashing. Laszlo frowned. Were they too late?

She climbed out while Coleman was still parking the car and jogged over to the other vehicle to ask them what they were doing.

The car was empty.

Laszlo shaded her eyes and looked inside. The keys were still in the ignition and all the doors were unlocked. A bad feeling snaked down her spine.

"Sharp," she called, beckoning to the taller officer. "Get on this vehicle's radio and contact HQ. See if they've received any transmissions from this vehicle in the last half hour."

"Yes ma'am."

"Coleman, cover me," Laszlo ordered, pulling out her taser gun. "We're searching the house for Ally Mason."

"What do we do if Ally's hostile?" Coleman whispered as they quietly approached the house.

"Subdue her for questioning," Laszlo replied. "Right now she's our only lead."

"Yes ma'am." Coleman conducted a quick spark test for his taser gun, and Laszlo did the same.

"Sharp," she said over her walkie, "we're searching the house for Ally Mason. If we call for backup, your primary goal will be to subdue her for interrogation. Careful not to make contact with her skin."

"10-4," Sharp replied. "HQ says the last transmission they received from the car was twenty minutes ago. The officers in the car were investigating a 911 report of a homicide."

Laszlo and Coleman stared at the front door to the Mason home. It was hanging open, though one of the hinges was ready to fall off, and blood was spattered across the lower half.

They walked up the porch stairs and stopped just in front of the open doorway. More blood was pooled along the wood floors and carpet. All the lights in the house were off. Laszlo flicked the wall switch a couple times to no effect.

"This doesn't look good," Coleman muttered. "You think someone wanted Ally Mason to stay quiet?"

"That's a lot of blood for just one person."

Their boots clacked across the bloodied wood floors. Laszlo stepped carefully over a splayed out arm, and nudged Coleman when he was about to step on the chest the arm belonged to.

That body was too old to be Ally.

"Looks like her parents," Coleman guessed under his breath. Laszlo nodded and switched on her flashlight.

The house was so quiet it felt like it was holding its breath. Laszlo's flashlight beam flickered over bloodied walls and empty rooms- and a set of red footprints.

She and Coleman looked at each other. The footprints were uneven, and led away from the carnage in the living room up a flight of carpeted stairs.

Laszlo shone her flashlight up the stairs. Dust motes swirled in the beam, but Ally Mason did not appear.

"Ladies first," Coleman whispered.

"Wimp."

Laszlo went up as quietly as she could, hand on her taser, slowly shining her flashlight left to right. Her heart was beating so loudly it felt like it was going to beat out of her ribcage.

"Laszlo!" Coleman hissed. "There's someone behind me!"

Laszlo turned around just as Ally Mason leaped our from the shadows, sinking her teeth into Coleman's neck like some kind of vampire. The officer screamed like a dying animal.

"Drop him!" Laszlo barked. She fired her taser gun, but Ally didn't even flinch. A kitchen knife sunk into her side crackled with electricity.

Coleman gurgled as Ally's teeth went in deeper. His panicked eyes met Laszlo's. She pulled out her gun and trained it on Ally's head.

"She....needs....," Ally groaned around her mouthful of human flesh. "I....need..."

"You need to leave Officer Coleman alone," Laszlo said, and cocked the gun. "Drop him. This is your final warning."

"It's...too...late...," Ally said, pulling free of Coleman's neck to deliver her message. Her face was streaked with his blood. "She's...here."

"Who's here?" Laszlo demanded. She switched on her walkie. "Sharp, come in."

"She's...here..."

An icy cold breeze blew across Laszlo's neck. "Sharp! Do you copy?"

Static. Laszlo cursed and fired a warning shot past Ally's head, but the girl didn't seem to have noticed. The ragged openings in Coleman's neck wheezed.

"Who is she?" Laszlo demanded again.

Ally looked up, and smiled. Her bloody right hand lifted to point behind Laszlo. "She's...here..."