Hell over high water

The reverend was being possessed by the evil presence, Mouse thought. How else could he have tried to kill Roger in cold blood before taking the book from the safe?

And now he had kidnapped Armel and taken the man back to his room! It scared Mouse to think of what the reverend might do next. And suddenly she spoke to the group.

"We must go, we must follow him! What if he tries to kill Armel?"

 

Yes oh ALmighty! Thank you! Thank you!

Pem was shouting now. Armel shreiked. The room grew cold.

 

"Ms. Bequem! We must go!"

 

Jean bit her lip and looked at Roger. She hoped he would be fine for a few minutes. She grabbed Mouse's hand, and looked at Dana.

"Stay with your friend or come with us." she said. They ran towards the yelling coming from the Reverend's room. She pulled on the door, it was locked.

 

"Go away!" screamed Pem from behind the door.

 

Don't listen to him! We must get inside the room before he does something terrible to that man!

 

The room went silent.

 

The noise suddenly stopped, and Jean panicked. She grabbed Mouse's hand.

"We need to run at the door and hit it with all our force." she yelled. They back up as far as they could, and they ran after full speed. They hit the door with a wood-splintering force. The door was badly damaged. Jean backed up and continued to kick it with her feet. The door fell in, and they rushed in.

 

"I think he just killed Armel."

 

There was blood, but no sign of either man. The two had vanished.

 

The burning thing had finally fallen silent. Now, the only ones left in the wheelhouse were Dana and Roger.

His wound stung, leaking red. It stained his hair and dripped down the side of his face, being absorbed into the blanket draped over his shoulders, bleeding through to the collar of his shirt.

Dana slipped off the blanket and laid it over the younger boy. He hesitated, then slipped it over his face. No, no that wasn't right. Roger wasn't dead - he couldn't be dead.

Dana uncovered his face and sat silently, watching him. Thinking about everything and nothing all at once.

This was all happening so fast - too fast. Just hours ago, he'd been curled up in the hallway, seasick before the ship could set sail. How could so much happen in such a short period of time?

 

As they turned to leave, Mouse heard a voice, "You really are simple creatures."

Mouse and Ms. Bequem stopped short as they saw two Reverend Pems. One was covered in blood praying to the second. The second Pem turned to face the ladies and smiled.

Mouse shrieked "His eyes!"

The second Pem chuckled as a faint glow pulsed from within the empty eye sockets.

"What have you done to the Reverend," said Mouse in a near hysterical cry.

"Only what he asked for," responded the eyeless Pem. "Since you came on this ship he has been calling to me. When I asked you to play little girl do you remember what he said?"

"He told you to leave me, " said Mouse.

Eyeless Pem shook his head. "After that, when he was speaking in Latin." He turned towards Ms. Bequem. "Doctor, I am surpirsed you, of all people, wouldn't have known enough Latin to recognize he was stiking a deal with me. Be begged me for my power and in calling his name, I agreed.

"Didn't it strike you odd that the gentle Reverend grabbed the Captain's arm? Or how roughly he dragged Armel into the wheelroom? All part of my ritual. The Reverend always wanted power. He became an exorcist to exercise power over my kind. When that didn't work, he sacrificed his family. Finally, he came here and his wish was granted."

The real Pem's body shook and convulsed as tiny forks of yellow - green lightning played over his skin. His face contorted into a smile of pure ecstacy. The book, still firmly grasped in the Reverend's hand, began to shift and writhe as if alive.

Behind the two Reverends, Armel sat unable to move. Tears streaming down his face.

 

It had all happened so fast. Cain wasn't even sure what had happened, but one thing was for sure.

Clare was dead.

He couldn't believe it -- she was gone, murdered. He would never see her again, not in this lifetime.

And now the Rev seemed to have gone mad, and something bad was going to happen to Roger, he could tell.

Cain shouted. "Pem! What are you doing?"

 

Dana heard shouts coming from down the hall. He turned towards the opened doorway. Roger passed by without looking at him.

No, wait. It wasn't Roger, it couldn't be Roger. It was him.

The fake Roger leaned in the doorway to the Reverend's room. He giggled, smiling innocently as he watched the whole scene.

 

Mouse ran to Armel, reaching for the man's hand, but was stopped by the eyeless Pem. Suddenly, she was thrown backwards with enough force to make her hit the wall. A flash of pain coursed through her body as the evil creature spoke.

"Stupid child. You boarded this ship in the hopes that you might escape the brutal beatings your father so willingly doled out, isn't that right?" He was smiling at her now.

How does he know?

"Well you picked the wrong ship, MOUSE!" The eyeless Pem said, grabbing her by the throat. Mouse began to choke as the pressure of his hands increased. The world was turning black; she was about to pass out when she saw Ms. Bequem come from behind the thing. She held a lamp in her hands, a brass one that looked quite heavy. With all her might she swung it, hitting the creature in the head.

 

A thick gash opened across the Pem creature's skull. Just as quickly, the skin knit together and Armel shrieked. The wound was now on his head.

Mouse's eyes fluttered as she passed out. "This toy is broken, " he said as he dropped her to the ground.

Reverend Pem's body continued to shake as a thin, white foam gathered in the corners of his mouth.

 

Cain was paralyzed with fear. But he knew that what stood before him was no longer Pem.

He raised his pistol and fired at Pem.

 

The Reverend's head snapped back as thoughts plastered the wall behind him. As the last bits of yellow lightning ran over his face he said, "It ... was .... worth .... it."

 

The second Roger giggled. It was a sweet, musical, happy sound - no malice whatsoever. He looked amused, like a little kid watching a puppet show.

He twisted a strand of greasy, dark brown hair around his finger and watched to see what would happen next.

 

Mad with fear and rage, Cain fired at the thing again and again, depleting his supply of bullets while screaming intelligibly.

"Die! Die!"

 

The eyeless creature looked down on Pem's ruined skull and shrugged.

 

The sound of gunshots echoed through the halls, reaching the wheelhouse where Dana sat over the small red-haired boy. Something was happening, something bad.

He spotted the knife, its blade now coated in blood. Dana grabbed hold if it and got to his feet. He started towards the opened doorway, then stopped. He couldn't just leave Roger like this - what if something came, and there wasn't anybody there to stop it?

This door, it was the only way in and out of the wheelhouse. With a small whine, Dana swatted down in front of the doorway, knife ready. If he could guard the entrance, there wouldn't be anything to worry about, right?

 

Jean grabbed Mouse from the ground, holding her in her arms. She thrust her into Cain's arms.

"What are we going to do?!" she yelled desperately.

She rummaged in her purse, and found her husband's rosary. Something she never thought she'd wear again. She held it in front of the Pem's face, not really sure it would do anything.

 

Cain clutched Mouse tightly.

"Don't worry," he whispered. "I'll protect you."

"Just get out of here! Mrs. Bequem, let's go!"

 

Darkness came to her then and Mouse swam down into the depths of unconsciousness. She saw her mother again, but this time she wasn't wearing the warm, inviting smile that Mouse had seen before. No, now the flesh of her face was rotting off, showing teeth and bones beneath her putrid flesh.

"You're going to die, Mouse. You know that, right?" She said, laughing hysterically.

"You're not my mother!" Mouse said, backing away from the thing. She turned around then and began running toward the bright light coming from behind her.

"Mouse! Mouse, wake up!"