Death Veil: Banshee Series Book 6

Chapter 6

Music blared through Benton’s headphones, pouring the frantic, electronic beat into his skull. All of his thoughts drowned within the pulsating tide. His body moved out of pace with the song. Each shift and sway maintained the purposeful dignity that Svetlana would have demanded. Dancing was his only real escape from the mounting tension, both within the household and himself. At this point, they just kept the living room furniture pushed against the walls.

The two-week suspension had only caught Nicole by surprise. She had protested to the principle for hours that he couldn’t do it. Challenged anyone who said otherwise to explain how Benton could be responsible for getting attacked by rabid deer on school property. Or how they could punish her for killing a few of the dangerous animals. Benton had offered support when she had asked but otherwise kept his silence. It wasn’t about logic. Not really.

It was fear.

More than one teacher had opened their doors to investigate the noise and caught a glimpse of the snow-white monster. A classful of terrified students had seen the living buffalo skull staring him down. The stags had only come after him. No one knew what they had seen that day, but they knew exactly who it wanted. Serial killers, stalkers, monsters; there was really only one way people reacted to discovering Benton had a target on his back: they wanted him as far away from them as possible. Paranormal quarantine, Benton thought to himself. The thought was quickly lost again as some particularly difficult footwork demanded his focus.

Nicole was just collateral damage. He would have never asked for her to be, but he couldn’t deny that, deep down, he was grateful. They were a packaged deal. Wherever one of them was, the other was sure to show up sooner or later. It was something he had come to rely on, and wasn’t about to give it up. Especially when he didn’t know how much time he had left.

Danny and Meg had taken to bringing over homework and assignments after school. Zack showed up more for gossip. They all knew from the beginning that Nicole was going to have rapidly dwindling interest in either. She had a mystery. And the school board had given her all the time she needed to climb down that rabbit hole.

They were almost a week in at this point as the vast majority of the living room wall was now devoted to her ‘stalker wall’. Printouts of legends, historical photographs, urban legends, and a few crime scene photographs, that Dorothy herself had provided, were all pinned in neat disarray. They were connected by different colored threads of tinsel because Nicole still wanted it to be pretty.

Coming out of a spin, Benton arched his back, draping down until his fingertips grazed the floorboards. He had to admit; It didn’t look that bad. Obsessive, strange, and creepy, but in an almost festive way. She’s getting way too good at this. Drawing himself back up, he crossed the living room, his toes barely making a sound as they tapped the floor. He closed his eyes, trying to quiet his mind, to narrow his reality to nothing beyond the music in his ears and the air in his lungs.

Each day made it a little harder to pull off the feat. There was always something new to discover in the morning snow. Undefinable tracks circled the house, clustering at windows and pacing in front of the doors. The tree trunks had been slashed along with the car tires. A murder of crows had settled within the neighbor’s fir tree, held off from the pines around the Rider home by the sudden increase in territorial great horned owls. And night never came without the yard being filled with glowing eyes.

In a town this small, everyone knew everyone. It didn’t take long for Logan to be roped into helping animal control when the deer and coyote population had started to become a problem. It was now a near-constant battle to keep them outside of the town properly. An annoyance for many, a concern for few, and a curiosity that had the few tourists they got lingering a few days longer. For Benton, it was proof that he hadn’t misinterpreted Mic’s warning. He was going to die soon. And perhaps rise again as a reaper, just like her.

The thought invaded his mind, burning him inside like a branding iron. He pushed his body harder, trying to hide from the truth within the haze of muscle memory and blissful oblivion. While he could push it from the forefront of his mind, it was always there, lurking on the edges, ready to strike again. His exhausted body trembled as the music reduced to a single, lingering note, then cut off into silence. Without it, he almost dropped into a sweaty, terrified heap.

I don’t want to die.