Chapter 26

They finally got to speak to Victor Creel. It was dark in the room, which was only lit by few, weak lights. “Do not startle him,” the guard told the three girls, “Do not touch him. Do not pass him anything. Stand five feet away from the bars at all times. Is that clear?”

“Yes sir,” the girls said, one after the other.

The guard ran his bat against the bars, “Victor. Today’s your lucky day! You got visitors. Real pretty ones. Must be in one of his moods. Have fun.”

“Victor?” Nancy said, “My name is Nancy. Nancy Wheeler. And this is…”

“Robin Buckley.”

“Claudia Fuentes.”

“Um, we have some questions.”

“I don’t talk to reporters. Hatch knows that.”

“We’re not reporters. We’re here because… we believe you. And because we need your help.”

“I need your help,” Claudia said, “Whatever killed your family, it’s back, and it’s after me.”

Victor turned around, revealing empty sockets in place of his eyes, surrounded by scars. “When he attacks, our friend described it as a trance,” Nancy said. She was talking about Max. She didn’t know it had happened to Claudia yet, she didn’t wanna stress her out even more, “Like a waking nightmare. That’s why we think he’s coming for her next.”

“And then for Claudia,” Robin added.

“Does any of this, anything we’ve told you, sound like what happened to your family?” Nancy asked, “Victor, I know this is hard-“

“You don’t know anything!”

“You’re right. We don’t know. That’s why we’re here. To learn. To understand.”

“We need to know how you survived that night,” Robin said.

“Survived?” Victor laughed, “Is that what you call this? Did I survive? No, I assure you, I am still very much in hell. You, Miss Fuentes, letting him kill you is better than living like this.”

Claudia felt a lump in her throat, and Robin rested a hand on her lower back, biting her tongue in order to avoid saying something out of line to Victor.

“I had been back from the war,” Victor said, “Some fourteen years. Her great-uncle had died, leaving us a small fortune, enough to buy a new home, a new life. It was a magnificent home. Alice said it looked like it was from a fairy tale.”

“Alice. Was this your daughter?” Nancy asked.

“Hm, yeah. But Henry, my- my boy. He was a sensitive child, and I could see he felt something was wrong. We had one month of peace in that house. And then it began. Dead animals, mutilated, tortured, began to appear near our home. Rabbits, squirrels, chickens, even dogs. The police chief blamed the attacked on a wildcat. This… this was no wildcat. This was an evil. And evil neither animal nor human. This was a spawn of Satan. A demon. And it was even closer than I realised. My family began to have encounters conjured by this demon. Nightmares. Waking, living nightmares. This demon, it seemed to take pleasure in tormenting us. Even poor, innocent Alice. It wasn’t long before I began to have encounters of my own. I suppose all evil must have a home. And though I had not a rational explanation for it, I- I could sense this demon, always close. I became convinced it was hiding, nesting, somewhere within the shadows of our home. It had cursed our town. It had cursed our home. It had cursed us. It took Virginia first. I tried to get the children out, to save them. But I was back to France, back in the war. It… it was a memory. I had though German soldiers are inside. I ordered it’s shelling. I was wrong. This demon, it was taunting me. And I was sure it would take me, just as he’d taken my Virginia. But then, I heard another voice. At first, I believed it was an angel. And I… I followed her, only to find myself in a nightmare far worse. While I was away, the demon took my children. Henry slipped into a coma shortly after that. A week later, he died. I tried to join them. I tried. Hatch stopped the bleeding. He wouldn’t let me join them.”

“The angel you followed, who was she?”

It seemed Victor had said all that he was capable of saying. He lay down, and began to hum the song ‘Dream a Little Dream of Me’.

Dr Hatch suddenly burst through the doors. “Is he everything you hoped he would be?” He asked.

“I just had a very interesting conversation with Professor Brantley. Perhaps we should discuss in my office, while we wait for the police.”

——————————

The girls were lead back to the office. Nancy tried to reason with Dr Hatch, but it was no use, he didn’t believe them. Of course he didn’t. Why would he?

Robin caught up with Nancy and Claudia. “Victor said the night of the attack everything went on in the house, but he made a specific mention of music. He said music was playing. And then, when we asked him about the angel, he started to hum. Dream a little dream of me, Ella Fitzgerald.”

“The voice of an angel,” Claudia said.

“Yeah. Hatch said that music can reach parts of the brain that words can’t. So, maybe that’s the key, a lifeline.”

“A lifelines back to reality.”

“It’s worth a shot.”

“I think we can beat him,” Nancy said.

“What?”

“To the car.”

“Okay, I’m warning you right now, I have terrible coordination. Like, it took my six months longer to walk than all the other babies.”

“Just follow my lead.”

“No, oh my God!”

Before Robin could protest, Nancy and Claudia bolted, followed by Robin. Nancy and Robin both threw their shoes off, but Claudia was surprisingly good at running in heels, and keeping them on.

They made it to the car, where Dustin’s angry voice sounded through the walkie. “Robin, where the hell are you? This a code red. I repeat, a code red!”

Claudia picked up the walkie. “Dustin, it’s Claudia. We copy.”

“Holy shit, finally! Please, please, please tell me you guys have this figured out!”