Page 51 of The Executioners Three

Freddie found the end of the bigger clapper. The heart of iron that wasn’t a heart at all. And with only a little clumsiness, she slotted it into the weathered bell. Now she just had to pray it was big enough and the bell old enough, weak enough to break from her swinging.

She leaned backward and shoved the bell. The clapper hit as it was meant to do.

Clang!

The sound was so loud it vibrated into Freddie’s skull. Into her teeth and brain cells. A thousand little legs to dig, dig into her Charretière DNA, just like the daddy longlegs she’d been so afraid of getting in her hair.

She watched as Bowman, still wreathed in flames beside the stage, suddenly turned to face Freddie.

The bell swung back Freddie’s way, but she caught it before it could hit her face. She shoved it again. Full force. Clang!

Now Laina turned to face Freddie too.

Another shove. Another bone-rattling clang! and now Freddie felt the Disemboweler inside her perk up. The spirit wasn’t awaiting commands, though, because Freddie wasn’t the one to whom his soul was bound.

Instead, he was awaiting the final step. The final moment that would end the curse he’d been bound to for so long.

Libérez-nous. Only you can break it.

Freddie swung the bell one last time, and the clang that ripped out was briefly deafening. The bell heaved away, then back toward her. Too strong to stop. An onslaught of tin and copper that slammed into her face and knocked her off the ladder.

But as gravity took hold and carried her body toward the schoolhouse floor, Freddie felt the bell crack.

And she felt as the Disemboweler’s spirit crawled out of her body and shot toward Dr. Born in a streak of vengeful flame. Libérez-nous, the ghosts screamed in voices that were impossibly loud. Libérez-nous.

Free us, Freddie finally interpreted, even though she’d never cracked open a French-English dictionary in her life. That’s what they were saying: Free us.

Justin Charretière had lived here in City-on-the-Berme. So had Damien Portier and Alexandre Steward. Ropey, Hacky, and Stabby—three spirits who’d just wanted to be set free for such a very long time.

And three spirits who knew that one was only ever truly served by oneself.

Freddie hit the schoolhouse floor.

The ghosts fell silent.

Freddie’s ankle was not happy with her. Her wrist, meanwhile, was definitely headed toward needs medical attention . But at least that was the only damage on her person, and once she and Divya limped outside of the schoolhouse, Freddie saw just how badly it could have gone for her and her friends.

And not just for them, but for all of Berm if Dr. Born had actually finished killing Theo and set the Executioners on a killing spree.

Because Dr. Born was dead now and in the most horrific way possible.

His headless body hung by his own intestines wrapped around and around the stage pole, glistening like bloodied fairy lights in the night.

His head, meanwhile, was a full twenty feet away, plopped onto a pile of jack-o’-lanterns.

The fire extinguisher foam had turned it to a garish, bug-eyed white in a mound of orange.

By the time Freddie actually reached the stage, sirens were audible in the distance. Thank god, because neither Theo nor Kyle looked good—although at least Kyle appeared to only have had his shoulder grazed by Dr. Born’s attack.

Theo’s abdomen, however, was most definitely impaled. “I told you… you were dangerous,” he murmured as Freddie dropped to his side. Cat had pressed her sweater against him, and now Freddie took over holding it against the wound.

“Stop talking,” Freddie ordered. “EMTs are on the way.”

Theo grunted. He was so, so pale. Way past Interview with the Vampire and heading toward full-on corpse territory.

“I’m sorry this happened.” Freddie gripped his jaw, forcing him to keep his eyes open and locked on hers. “I’m sorry I couldn’t stop him. Look at me, Theo. Stay awake.”

“Right… so what… did happen, Gellar? I’m… hazy on the details.”

Before Freddie could respond—or apologize all over again—two ambulances arrived. Thanks to Kyle, there was no need for any of them to stop in the parking lot. They were able to speed right up into the Village Square.

One pair of EMTs went to Kyle, and a second pair shoved Freddie aside to access Theo. They had a stretcher, and with the practiced ease of experts, they took charge of him and his injuries.

He groaned as they lifted him, but once he was strapped on, he spared a final half-conscious smile for Freddie. “So dangerous,” he murmured.

Then the EMTs hurried him away.

Freddie tried to follow, but they wouldn’t let her. And it was only as she watched them slide him onto the ambulance that she realized Dr. Born’s head was right there on top of the jack-o’-lanterns. But the two EMTs didn’t notice. Nor the other pair as they rushed Kyle away.

More sirens came. More lights. Then emergency blankets over Freddie, over Divya—over every member of the Prank Squad as they tried to explain to the newly arrived Ibrahim and Deputy Knowles what the hell had just happened.

Yet as Freddie listened to her friends ramble and shout, she realized the Prank Squad actually had no clue what had gone down.

Instead, it was like they were all forgetting in real time what they’d just seen, and Freddie watched as one by one—Luis, Cat, and even Divya—rationalized it into a murderous therapist with a gun.

Somehow they just erased the parts where Laina almost broke them in half and flames had come off her body.

Freddie soon learned that Bowman and Laina were no better when she was guided with them toward the water mill by a woman and man who could not have been more obviously federal agents than if they’d worn neon signs on their foreheads.

In their matching bulletproof vests and dark jackets, the duo could have literally just walked off the set of The X-Files .

“I’m Agent Harris.” The woman flipped out a badge. She had dark skin, and her dark curls were tucked under a navy-blue cap. “And my partner is Agent Li.”

She notched her head toward the pale man at her side, who was currently frowning toward the stage.

He at least seemed to see what had happened to Dr. Born, even as literally no one else did.

The three firemen clearing out debris passed by Dr. Born’s head without a second glance—repeatedly.

And Ibrahim, Knowles, and the Prank Squad never once looked at the stage.

“We understand,” Harris continued, “you’ve been through a lot tonight, so we won’t keep you long.

But we do need to get statements from you—and we also want to make sure you understand that what happened here tonight isn’t unusual.

In fact, it’s more common than you’d think, and we have special resources to help people like you. ”

Bowman shook her head, frowning. “I… have to be honest, Agents, I don’t know what you’re talking about right now. Why are we here?” She glanced at Laina. Then Freddie. “And what happened to us?”

Laina shivered so hard her emergency blanket crinkled. “Yeah, I don’t understand either. Was I sleepwalking again?” She too looked at Freddie.

But Freddie didn’t answer. After all, what could she say? It was probably better for the both of them if they never remembered what the heck they’d gone through—or what the heck they’d almost turned into.

The two agents seemed to agree. “Memory lapses aren’t unusual.” Li pulled a card from his jacket. “But if either of you need help—or if you find you simply want some answers, then here’s how you can contact us.”

“We’ve got stations all over the country,” Harris added. “And we have agents always manning the phones.”

Laina didn’t take the card; Bowman did. Her head kept wagging, though, and her brow stayed pinched as she examined it. “My nephew,” she said eventually. “Can I go to him now?”

“Good idea.” Harris nodded. “And when he wakes up, let him know we’re here for him too, if he needs us.”

An absent nod from Bowman as she palmed the card into her pocket. Then she laid one hand on Laina’s forearm and her other on Freddie’s shoulder. “Let me get you two home.”

“Um,” Freddie said. “If it’s okay, I’d rather leave with Divya.”

“Right, sure.” Bowman’s grip briefly tightened on Freddie’s shoulder while her eyes searched Freddie’s, as if confirming that Freddie really was as calm and unfazed as she seemed.

A wind whispered over them. A natural one that smelled like October and car fumes and broken pumpkins.

And eventually Bowman seemed to decide Freddie was okay enough to be left behind, since she nodded once for Freddie. Then once for Laina. “Come on, Laina. Let’s get you out of here.” Together, emergency blankets crackling, they shuffled away.

Which meant Freddie could finally turn her full attention onto Agents Harris and Li—neither of whom looked surprised by Freddie’s choice to hang back.

“You,” said Harris once Laina and Bowman were out of earshot, “have the look of someone who remembers everything that happened here. So we’re going to need to rely on you for a full statement. Think you can manage that?”

“Yeah,” Freddie said. “I can manage.” Her voice was tired but surprisingly strong given all she’d just gone through. “Although…” Freddie glanced toward Dr. Born. There was still no one going near him. “Can no one see him hanging there?”

“They can.” Li’s expression folded into something thoughtful. “They just choose not to. It’s a common defense mechanism in situations like this. We see it all the time. The brain just shuts out anything it can’t explain.”

“Situations like this?” Freddie repeated.

“Unexplained phenomena,” Harris inserted. “That’s the official term for them.”

“So you’re telling me this was all real tonight? Blood oaths and murderous spirits and… and magic bells?” Freddie wet her lips. To her surprise, she tasted blood and felt the heat of a fresh cut.

“Definitely looks to be real.” Harris gave an almost flippant shrug. “Most of the time, when we go to sites like this, nah. They aren’t real at all. But sometimes? Well, you’ve seen for yourself.”

Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, Freddie thought. Only in contradiction to what we know of it.

Freddie shivered, hugging her emergency blanket to her. Across the square, she could see the Prank Squad had finished giving their statements. Now they were being pushed into Ibrahim’s and Deputy Knowles’s squad cars, presumably to be taken home.

All except Divya, who kept flinging her hands in Freddie’s direction, as if she wouldn’t leave without her bestie, and how dare Ibrahim suggest otherwise! Did he know that her mom cut his hair ?

Freddie huffed a laugh—a sound filled partly with amusement for her friend, but mostly just frustration at these two agents standing beside her.

“If you both know that sometimes these situations are real, why didn’t you intervene sooner?

Like, I don’t know if you’ve noticed.” Freddie waved to the destroyed Village.

“But things got pretty deadly, and we could have really used some help here sooner.”

Agent Li grimaced. “Yeah, that’s on us. We only just got a full idea of the case two hours ago, after a warrant finally came through that let us search Anne Ferris’s house. We were just starting to explore her attic when we got a call from Deputy Abadi.”

“Right.” Freddie hugged at the blanket again. She was suddenly feeling the weight of everything that had happened. The gut punch of how this night could have gone if Ibrahim hadn’t actually summoned backup.

How long would Theo and Kyle have been waiting for emergency assistance? Would they have died like Dr. Born had?

“Look,” she said wearily. “I know you guys want this statement from me, but can it actually wait? My adrenaline is all spent up, and my insides feel like someone scooped them out of a jack-o’-lantern.

So… so I’d really just like to go home now, with my friends.

If that’s alright.” She pointed toward Divya, who was waving both hands over her head.

“Right.” Harris nodded. “We understand.” She exchanged a glance with Li, who sighed but also tipped his head in agreement.

“No problem. If you can just give us your name and address, we can stop by your home tomorrow. And here, have one of these.” Li fished a card from his pocket and handed it to Freddie.

Who huffed another laugh—this one mostly just amused. Because the card read: Federal Bureau of Investigation . Department of Unexplained Phenomena. “So there is an entire department just for this kind of stuff. Like on The X-Files .”

Li scowled. Harris rolled her eyes. “No,” they said in unison. “It’s not like The X-Files .”

Which only made Freddie laugh again, since she didn’t believe them at all . “Thanks,” she told them as she pushed the card into her pocket. “And I’ll see you both tomorrow.” With a turn, she hobbled back toward the Village Square.

Dr. Born’s head still steamed into the night, untouched. His corpse still swung side to side from his own intestines, and each gust of wind made him spin.

Yet somehow, still, no one noticed him.

Certainly not Divya, who immediately enveloped Freddie in the Greatest Best Friend Hug of All Time.

“You have a daddy longlegs in your hair,” she said as she squeezed and squeezed and squeezed.

And Freddie laughed one last time. A bright, bubbling sound that hovered on the verge of hysteria and was so at odds with the destruction all around. But hey—she was just so happy to be alive.

“Let’s go, Div.” She took her bestie’s hand into her own and climbed into Ibrahim’s squad car.

The last thing Freddie saw before they left City-on-the-Berme was the bell inside its cupola. Fully broken now, and Freddie hoped broken forever.

No bells are rung, she thought as they left it behind, when the Three leave the gate. Libérez-nous. Free us.