The Hymn by Graham Masterton

Author:Graham Masterton
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Horror, Fiction
Published: 2011-01-08T10:33:58.600000+00:00

‘People can’t die and then come alive again.’

Lloyd shook his head. ‘I don’t know. Maybe they can, in a different way. Burning seems to have something to do with it. Maybe you live for ever, if you burn.’

Kathleen said, tightly, distractedly. ‘You can take a right here.’

They turned away from the ocean and started to drive up into the hills. But as they reached the first high crest beyond the interstate, Lloyd became aware that a single pair of headlights was following them, not too close, but close enough not to lose them.

‘Look around,’ he told Kathleen. ‘Do you think that’s them?’

She shaded her eyes. ‘I can’t be sure, but it looks like them.’

‘Hold on tight, then. This is where we shake them off for good.’

Lloyd pressed the gaspedal down to the floor, and the BMW surged forward at more than 90mph. It took them only a few seconds to reach the next intersection, and Lloyd immediately braked hard and swung off to the right, killing his headlights as he did so. Then he swung left, completely off the road, and the car jolted and bounced as he negotiated his way down a dusty slope, through a clump of birds-of-paradise and prickly pear. The BMW’s suspension banged unnervingly as they drove over a series of rocky ruts, and the muffler grounded again and again. But then Lloyd wrestled the car around behind a high screen of bushes and brought it to a halt.

‘There’s no way they’re going to find us now,’ he told Kathleen. ‘Let’s give them ten minutes or so to get tired of looking for us, then we’ll carry on to your place.’

Only a few seconds afterwards, they saw headlights flash past them on the main highway. Then a truck went past, and a procession of much slower cars. Lloyd let out a tight, anxious breath.

‘I wonder what they want that charm for,’ said Kathleen.

‘I don’t know. Maybe it’s part of their religious ritual. Otto has the same design on the wall of his house, but much larger.’

‘They’re so weird, those people,’ Kathleen shivered. ‘I can hardly believe that Mike was mixed up with them.’

They waited in silence for five minutes longer. Then Lloyd said, ‘I’ve been thinking about your husband’s medical. Is there any way we could find out what the results were?’

‘Why?’

‘Just a guess. Marianna thought she might have had breast cancer, and if your husband had found out that he had something wrong with him — maybe that would have made them both a whole lot more receptive to the ideas of somebody like Otto. After all, he was promising everlasting life.’

‘I suppose I could call Doctor Kranz.’

Lloyd checked his watch. His hands were still burning dully, but the Tylenol was deadening the worst of the pain. ‘It’s just a shot in the dark. But I’ve been trying to follow up every possible idea.’

‘You don’t think …’ Kathleen began.

Lloyd glanced across at her. He knew what she was thinking, and what she was going to say.

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