Awake Read online

  When the clerk finally handed him the bill and Lee had signed off on the charges, he snatched his receipt out of the man’s hands walked as quickly as he could to the doors, Ivy close behind. “Jesus, we’re really in this much of a hurry?” Ben said, he and Stella practically running over from the couch they’d been waiting on.

  It was still raining, but luckily there were still plenty of cabs waiting around due to the convention. Wanting a van so that they weren’t carrying luggage on their laps, he walked to the nearest one.

  “Can you take us to Newark?” Lee asked the driver. He kicked himself; he’d read on the internet to never tell the drivers where you want to go beforehand if you were going out of Manhattan, to wait to tell them until inside the cab, as they couldn’t refuse then by law. Most drivers didn’t like long trips, he’d read, as they could make more money doing many short ones.

  “Friend, I can take you wherever, you have the money to pay,” the Dominican driver said. Apparently this driver didn’t mind their relatively far flung destination.

  “Sounds good,” Lee said, and waved the others over.

  The driver got out and helped them load their luggage into the van. When everything was stowed away they got in, Lee giving one last glance around for the demon before he got into the back with the others. Maybe I’ll be able to lose it again, he thought as he slammed the cab’s door closed.

  “I guess this might be fun,” Stella said as they moved through the perpetual traffic jam of New York’s streets one last time. “I was pissed, but I suppose I have always wanted to see New England.”

  “I hear the seafood is amazing there,” Ben said.

  “I just can’t wait to get back to the RV. It seemed like we actually had more space there than in the hotel,” Ivy said. “And it always felt safe,” she added softly.

  “Uh, yeah it’s safe,” Stella said. “That thing’s enormous.”

  “That’s what she said,” Ben said.

  Lee sighed, the joke was getting old. But at least it made him feel like things were back to normal again, or as normal as things could get. The feeling disappeared when the driver called back “Do you guys have a buddy from the hotel coming along?”

  “No, why?” Lee asked

  “I guess nothing, then. It just seems like this other cab has been behind us since the hotel. They’re probably just heading to Jersey too,” the driver said.

  Lee spun around to look out the back window. He could just make out the cab through the rain, but the driver and passenger were nothing but blurs. Ivy was looking out the window too, squinting to try and make out the cab’s occupants.

  Lee noticed Stella and Ben were staring at him and Ivy. “Why are you guys being so paranoid?” Stella said. “Are you guys on a spy mission or something?”

  “Just curious,” Lee said, and turned back to the front. Ivy turned around too, and gave Lee a worried glance. All he could do was frown and shrug, sweat already beginning to drip off of his brow.

  They glanced back frequently on the way to Newark, trying to not be too obvious about it, but the cab was always just far enough away that they couldn’t see the occupants. The cab kept right behind them until shortly after the New Jersey Turnpike, where it turned off.

  “Maybe it really was just another person going to Jersey,” Lee said.

  “Let’s hope,” Ivy replied grimly.

  It was strange to have her being just as paranoid as him, instead of his anchor of reason. He hoped he didn’t bring her down with him. If it gets worse I’ll have to leave her, leave all of them, he thought. No reason to bring them down with me.

  When they got into Newark, Lee told the driver to head to Maxx Storage, and the driver plugged it in to his navigation. They were there in a few minutes, the driver pulling up to the front gates.

  “Let me help you guys with your bags,” the driver said, and hopped out to do it. When he was finished, Lee paid and tipped the man. “Thank you sir,” the man said, giving Lee a grin and getting back in his cab. “You all take care!” he called out his window as he drove off.

  “That guy was my favorite cabbie yet,” Ben said. “So cheerful.”

  “Let’s hurry, I want to be snuggled up on the RV’s sofa and watching a movie already,” Stella said.

  “I can’t wait to be back in the RV either,” Ivy said.

  Lee got out his wallet, fumbled with the access code the bulldog-looking building manager had given him when he rented the unit out, and typed it in. The panel gave a beep and displayed “Welcome, Mr. Fenton” as the automatic gate ground open. They walked inside.

  The long walk to the storage unit was even worse than before, compounded by the rain and Lee getting them lost. When they finally found the unit, they were all soaking wet, and Stella was livid.

  “I’m sure my suitcase soaked through, I’m going to have to wash and dry all of my stuff,” she complained as Lee unlocked the storage unit.

  “Well weren’t you going to have to do that anyway?” Ivy asked. “Or did you use the washers and driers at the hotel? We never did.”

  “I didn’t either, but I still had some clean clothes in there.”

  “How tragic,” Ivy commented sarcastically.

  Lee pulled the door up. The RV was just as they’d left it, still looking brand new off the lot. They got on, turned on the lights and the television, and in a few minutes it felt like they were back home, except that in the narrow confines of the unit they couldn’t extend out the RV’s walls.

  “So who’s going to drive the first stretch?” Ben said.

  “I will,” Lee said. “I want to go along the coast up to Maine, maybe stop in Boston on the way. The best view will be up front.”

  “Well let’s get going already,” Ivy said. Lee could see that she was trembling.

  “Sounds good, Ben you get up front with me and program the route into the GPS,” Lee said. Ben nodded, and they took their seats.

  27

  “I’m going to take a shower in the master bath and get out of these clothes,” Stella said as Lee started up the rig.

  “I don’t think that the water will be hot until the electricity has been on for a while,” Lee warned.

  “I don’t even care, I just want to get this polluted New Jersey rainwater off of me,” Stella said.

  “I’ll come with you, I want to change into dry clothes too,” Ivy said. Lugging their bags, the women disappeared into the back.

  “That’s hot,” Ben commented cheekily.

  Ignoring him, Lee backed out of the storage unit. When the rig was out, Ben got out and closed the storage unit, slapping the lock on again. Ben fiddled around with the GPS while Lee pulled the vehicle over to the gate. “So I just set it to go to Providence, that looks like it will take us along the coast,” Ben said, putting the GPS back on its perch.

  “Sounds good, champ,”

  The RV’s window was too high for Lee to reach the button to open the gate, so Ben had to get out, punch it, and get back in the rig when they were through the gate. “Are we going to tell the people we’re not using the unit anymore?” Ben asked as they exited.

  “Nah, the contract said I was stuck renting the place for six months, so there’s no rush,” Lee said.

  Lee could see Ben’s brow furrow out of the corner of his eye, and his eyes darted from Lee to the front window over and over, as if he couldn’t make up his mind about something. Lee waited until they were back on the interstate, then asked “Something on your mind?”

  “Yeah, when are you going to tell me what’s going on already? I know you better than anyone, and it’s not like you to just decide to check out of a hotel with half an hour’s warning. You look pale and sweaty too, are you not sleeping again?”

  Lee sighed. “You know most of it already, from what Ivy told you. I’m starting to see things all the time. I feel like there’s something following me. Ivy saw it too. I know it sounds crazy, but I have to run from it anyway, no matter if she and I are imagining it or not.
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  Ben raised his eyebrows. “Shit man, you shouldn’t be driving.”

  “I’ll be fine, we lost the thing in New Jersey and it’ll probably take a while for it to find me again.”

  “Jesus, you know how that sounds, right?”

  “I told you, I know it’s crazy. I paid you your money already, just humor me on this. If it seems like I’m putting you in danger you can leave. Heck, you can leave anytime if you want. Consider your obligations fulfilled.”

  “You paid me to go on this whole trip with you, and I’m not going to abandon my best friend when he’s sick.”

  Lee wasn’t sure if everyone wanting to stick with him was a good thing or a bad thing. “Thanks man,” he said anyway.

  “Just don’t get us killed.”

  Ivy returned and sat on the couch behind them. “So where are we heading to first?” she asked, staring at the television but not really watching it.

  “Providence, then Boston, from the route we set,” Lee informed her. “I might stop in Boston for the night if, you know, things are looking good then.”

  “That sounds good, but I don’t know about stopping,” she said.

  “You guys are both paranoid now?” Ben whispered to Lee, the din of the TV keeping Ivy from overhearing.

  “Just shut up,” Lee said. Ben changed the subject.

  One good thing about how late they’d left was that the traffic was light by east coast standards; Lee even found himself approaching the speed limit a time or two. “How are they ever going to get this traffic under control?” Ben said. “The population’s not going to get smaller, and some of these roads are from the seventies.”

  “I know, what is it going to be like during the morning rush twenty years from now?”

  Stella came out of the back with a towel wrapped around her hair. “Oh my god that was the coldest shower I have ever taken. I had to literally wash each part individually, taking a break to warm up after each one,” she said, and sat down next to Ivy on the couch. “I think the water’s running out too, the pressure was getting low.”

  Lee looked down at the instrument panel and saw that not only was the water tank almost empty, the fuel was low as well. “You’re right, it looks like we’re going to have to make a stop pretty soon to top up the water and fuel ,” he said, giving his mirrors a check to make sure that they weren’t being followed. “Thanks for saying something, I hadn’t even looked at the gauges, that would have sucked if we’d run out of fuel somewhere.”

  “Let’s just make sure we do it fast,” Ivy said.

  Half an hour later, shortly after they’d crossed into Connecticut, Lee followed the exit signs off the interstate to a town called Stamford. Though large, the town looked very quaint, exactly the kind of town that came to mind when one thought of New England. He checked again to see if there was anything following them. They seemed good for the time being.

  He pulled the RV into the first truck station they found, pulling up to the water pump around back. “I’ll fill it up, since you’re driving,” Ben hopped out.

  As Ben filled the water tank, Ivy came up front with Lee and sat with him, while Stella watched television. “Maybe it really was just a shared hallucination, I’m starting to feel kind of silly,” Ivy said after a few minutes.

  “Yes, probably just a sympathetic reaction or something,” Lee said. He didn’t know what to think any more. He was almost certain something was happening to him, but he didn’t see why Ivy should start seeing things. Would that be any crazier than what already happened though?

  “Yeah, I mean, it was a writing convention, right? Maybe that was a guy dressed in a costume from some novel he liked, there were a few other people dressed up in outfits.”

  “That’s probably what it was,” he said halfheartedly.

  When Ben finished filling the tank he climbed into the back with Stella and Lee pulled up to the pumps. “I can pump the fuel too if you want, though I’m going to need your card. I don’t think I have enough to fill up this whole thing, it holds like a thousand gallons right?” Ben said.

  “Don’t worry, I got it,” Lee said, and got out of the RV.

  The fuel tank filled faster than the water tank did, but not by much. Though nowhere near a thousand gallons, the eighty gallon tank still took an excruciatingly long time to fill. Lee’s eyes kept darting back and forth, scanning around as he pumped, looking for any sign of the demon. His neck was starting to hurt from how often he was turning his head.

  Just as the pump started slowing to a halt, a blood-red Lamborghini Diablo pulled into the station; Lee knew even before the driver came into view that it was the demon. He froze for a split second, his skin crawling as the car pulled right up to the pump behind his RV. It’s a diesel pump, that Lamborghini takes gas, he thought stupidly.

  Snapping to, he jerked the pump out of the RV and dropped it back in its cradle. He almost didn’t remember to put the gas cap back on, and as he was screwing it on he heard the Diablo’s door open and close.

  Not turning around to look, Lee dashed to the driver’s door and heaved himself up and into the RV. “What’s going on?” Ivy asked. He didn’t answer and fumbled his keys out of his pocket, promptly dropping them on the floor.

  Cursing, Lee groped around on the floor with his right hand while he reached over with his left and pressed the button to lock the RV’s doors. He couldn’t find the keys for a moment, and was about to vomit from panic when he found them, nestled underneath his seat. Triumphant, he grabbed them and started the vehicle, slamming his foot on the gas pedal so hard that they were all jostled backwards as he pulled away from the pumps.

  “Oh god, it’s right behind us,” Ivy said, leaning over Lee’s lap and looking through the mirrors on his side with horror in her eyes.

  He glanced into the mirror just in time to see the demon running behind the RV, grinning so inhumanly wide that he could see every single one if its yellow, jagged teeth. Lee took a hard turn out of the parking lot so fast that he almost lost control of the RV, and the demon disappeared from sight.

  “What the fuck are you driving like a maniac for?” Stella screamed up from the back. Neither Lee nor Ivy answered, and Ben didn’t say anything either.

  When they were back on the interstate heading north, Ben came up in between the front seats and crouched down between them. “Look guys, if you want to stop off at a rest stop or somewhere to switch, I can drive for a while. You two seem a little bit tired.”

  “We’re fine for now. We’ll stop and get some food sometime and you can take over then,” Lee said, hoping it would buy him some more time.

  He didn’t know what he was going to do, but he knew that he couldn’t stop anytime soon. He could see on Ivy’s face that she felt the same way. Already naturally pale, her smooth, white skin had become almost translucent, and her full, rose lips seemed to be pulling themselves into her face, as if to hide.

  “Alright man, but you really need to watch the driving. We’re going a little too fast. Cars should be passing us, not the other way around.”

  “I’ll take it into consideration,” Lee said. Clearly not satisfied, Ben turned and sulked back into the living room. For the first time, Ben and Stella clicked on the seatbelts installed into the couch; it hadn’t seemed necessary before.

  As he sped north, Lee checked the mirrors every few seconds, looking for the Diablo. “What’s happening Lee? Are we going crazy?” Ivy whispered.

  He turned on the satellite radio to the nineties channel and turned the volume up, not wanting the two in the back to eavesdrop. “We’re going to be fine. I love you,” he said, not knowing what else he could say.

  “I love you too.”

  They drove on through Connecticut, sometimes marveling at the New England beauty, but mostly looking in the mirrors for any sign of the demon.

  “Once, when I was a kid, I found some baby birds in a fallen nest. I sat there and took care of them until my parents came by and scolded me, telling me that by touc
hing the birds I’d doomed them to death, as their mother would reject them because they’d smell of a human,” he said to Ivy as they drove through the bleakness that Connecticut became come night. “It wasn’t until I was twenty-four that I found out that’s complete bullshit, birds don’t reject their children over a smell any more than a person would. I agonized for half of my childhood because of an urban legend.”

  Ivy just stared out of her rear-view mirror, a light sheen of sweat across her brow. Lee gave her a few minutes and then spoke again. “I’m sorry I got you into this, I can drop you guys off at the next stop if you want, it’s not right for you to stay with me.”

  She snapped out of her stupor and looked to Lee, grabbing his thigh so suddenly that he almost stomped down on the gas, trying to jump up off his seat. “I’m staying with you. I wouldn’t take any of this back for the world. I’m just scared and I have no clue what’s going on.”

  “What about them?” he said, jerking his head back to indicate Ben and Stella.

  “I guess they should have a choice, but do you want to tell them? They’ll probably call a mental institution on us.”

  “I’ve told Ben a bit of it. Not everything, but I told him the gist of it.”

  “Well there’s no way I can tell Stella. I love her, but I wish they’d stayed in New York.”

  “Did I hear my name up there?” Stella called up.

  “Uh yeah, we were trying to figure out what to eat later,” Ivy yelled back.

  “Make it some place with vegetarian options.”

  Not wanting Ben and Stella to get wise and start listening in, neither Lee nor Ivy said anything for a while and went back to staring at the mirrors. Lee’s reasoning began to come back and he started to focus on the road, already starting to convince himself that everything that had happened was just a hallucination, albeit one that he was inexplicably now sharing with Ivy.