Page 93 of Coven of Corpses

“I don’t like splitting up,” Cody said, following him out the back door and watching him lock it with the key.

“I don’t either, but it’s safer this way,” Demmy said. “Get Tracey to the site so she can set up. I’ll stop and pick up Margie on the way.”

“All right,” Cody said with a grimace. “But I don’t like it.”

“You said that.”

“I’m saying it again, hoping you listen this time.”

A crash from the front of the strip mall made them all jump. Demmy locked eyes with him. “We’re running out of time.”

At the far end of the alley that ran behind the strip mall, Cody saw a shadow move. “Nope. We just ran out. Go. Now.”

Demmy looked in that direction and they both watched as the figure stepped into the light above the back door of what used to be Infinite Potential, the fitness center they had once belonged to. It was Baron, but he looked and moved differently than before.

“Is that…?”

“It’s Baron’s body, but I don’t think Baron’s driving the bus any longer,” Cody said. “Get going. I’ll meet you there.”

Cody ran for Jugs’s truck, Tracey and Clarabell waving from the narrow backseat for him to move. He scooped Enid Helen up off the passenger seat and held her tight in his lap.

“Drive,” he said to Jugs. “Fast.”

The truck roared to life, and Jugs slammed it into drive. Demmy had already driven off in the Cadillac, and Cody turned to look out the rear window. Tracey and Clarabell were doing the same, and they all watched Baron run toward them.

"Go, go, go!" Cody shouted as the truck lurched forward.

The demon sprinted after them, gaining with each step. It was inches from the tailgate when Jugs rounded the corner of the strip mall. Rubber squealed and the truck threatened to roll, but he kept it upright and hit the gas. The truck shot forward, tires smoking and leaving the demon in a cloud.

“I’m calling Lucia!" Clarabell yelled from the backseat. “Let her know what’s going on and see if she can give Demetrius an escort to the site.”

“Where am I going?” Jugs said.

“Out toward Parson’s Pines,” Tracey said. “At the S-curve.”

“The wiggle,” Cody said with a smirk.

“The what?” Clarabell and Tracey said together.

“Something Otis said. He called that stretch of road ‘the wiggle.’”

“You Parson’s Hollow folks have always been a little weird,” Jugs said.

“Hey, you’re Parson’s Hollow folk now, too,” Cody said.

“Maybe by blood, but not by name. We Harriettville folks got the hell away from all y’all and made our own town.”

Jugs drove as fast as he dared through town, truck streaking under the flashing yellow light. Out on Route 118, he was forced to slow down for the crew working to clear the elm tree from the road. Cody found it more than a little wild to realize he and Demmy would have been part of that crew not too long ago. Chainsaws buzzed and the bright work lights flooded the truck’s cab as Jugs eased past on the gravel shoulder. When they reached the other side of the fallen tree, he sped up again.

“That tree chased you?” Jugs said.

“It did,” Cody said. “Took out a few cars and at least one fence in the process.”

“Parson’s fucking Hollow.”

“Your home town,” Cody said, then looked down at Enid Helen. “You, too, little darling.”

“Leave my girl out of this,” Jugs said. “She had no choice.”