Page 134 of The Midnight Knock

Ethan said, “It’s him.”

10:52.

11:23.

11:45.

Ryan slammed the room’s front door, bolted the chain, grabbed the cluttered side table and heaved its contents to the floor. The table was just wide enough to wedge it beneath the door’s knob like a barricade. The fast-food bags and matches and ashes went everywhere. The grooved stone egg went rolling, bounced off the wall, came to rest near Sarah’s boot. When she didn’t move to take it, Ethan plucked up the stone and handed it to her. “The Chief gave this to you for a reason. Hold on to it.”

At the edge of the room, Kyla was trying to shove the long dresser toward the back door. “A little help?”

11:47.

11:52.

11:55.

Outside, the mountain let out one of those booming moans, louder than a crack of thunder, and it was followed by a shake in the earth so powerful it knocked them all to their feet. Hunter was the first back up, dragging Sarah from the bed so he could pull the mattress free. With some help from Ryan, he heaved it against the window.

Ethan and Kyla rallied too. They dragged the long dresser to the hall and shoved it against the back door. Behind him, Ethan heard Hunter’s chest rattle and wheeze. He glanced over his shoulder in time to see the man cough up a spray of blood onto the back of his hand and try to wipe it away before anyone saw.

The roar of Jack Allen’s car filled the room. Headlights washed through a chink between the mattress and the window. Out in the dark, the Guardians were getting restless.

11:56.

11:57.

11:58.

The approaching car swerved into the parking lot, coming to a stop right outside their door. A familiar voice sounded just behind Ethan’s ear. A grinding crunch of teeth.

“Oh, son. Now we’re playing for keeps.”

Jack Allen laughed.

He laughed and laughed and laughed as the time trembled at11:59, the racing hands of the clock suddenly hesitating like they couldn’t bear to allow this to happen. But there was no stopping it.

11:59 became midnight, and a horrible bellow of pain from the mountain knocked out the power. All of it, at once, just like that.

Room 4 sank into darkness, right along with the rest of the motel. A wave ofSHRIEKSwent up: the Guardians were on their way.

And from the front door, there came a courteousknock

Knock

Knock.

KYLA

Before anyone could answer the knock—as if anyone would—a GuardianSLAMMEDinto the room’s back door. Kyla heard a furious splintering of wood. Heard talons clawing. Kyla had half wondered if maybe the creatures of the desert might have remembered the way they’d given her and Ethan and Ryan a veritable honor guard across the desert last night, but judging by the way those things descended on this room, she doubted it.

With the lights out, the motel was fair game. And anyone without a stone egg was in the shit.

Jack Allen knocked again at the front door. He jiggled the handle. “What are you so afraid of?” the man said, his voice seeming to echo in Kyla’s head. “Would you deny a weary traveler some shelter and warmth?”

In the darkness, she could just make out the shape of Sarah Powers leaning against a wall nearby, trembling. “Who the fuck is that?”

Kyla said, “You really don’t want to know.”