She tried a different approach – the notebook, she had to get back to the notebook. “David, what have you been drawing in your notebook?” she asked him again.

He stared at her for a long moment, like he was trying to decide if he should tell her or not. Finally, he just shook his head no and whispered to her. “I don’t know.”

“Can I see it?” she asked.

David hesitated; again he seemed unsure of what he should do.

“You can trust me,” Stella told David. “You know that. I’m the only one here you can trust.”

David nodded and he handed her his notebook.

Stella took the notebook and she smiled at him, trying to give him her warmest smile under the circumstances. “Thank you, David. I just want to take a look.”

David nodded and he watched her as she opened the notebook and flipped from one page to the next; she flipped through page after page until she stopped where David had stopped drawing. Nearly two-thirds of the notebook had been filled with David’s drawings. She looked at him with shock in her eyes.

“How did you learn how to do this?” she asked him.

David stared at her for a long moment, and then he shook his head no. “I don’t know,” he told her.

“Do you know what these things are that you’ve drawn?” she asked him.

“I don’t know,” he said again.

Maybe he didn’t know what was in the notebook, Stella thought, but she knew what it was. And she began to get the first far-off glimpses of hope in her mind. The drawings in this notebook might be the answer, she dared to believe, a way to fight that thing out there.

Cole searched through the house for the things they would need while Jose kept and eye and a gun on Needles. Cole could hear Needles pleading with Jose, but Cole knew Jose wouldn’t give in. They were all way beyond that now. Maybe they would have time to think about it later, but right now there was something out there that was impossible to fight. And with the sun setting soon, they had no choice but to do what it wanted.

For a few moments Cole was afraid he wouldn’t be able to find anything to tie Needles up with and he would have to go out to the garage and look, but then he found a roll of duct tape and a length of rope in the kitchen underneath the cabinets.

Even if he had to go out to the garage, he believed that the thing out there wouldn’t kill him as long as he were doing what it wanted.

Maybe, his mind whispered. But how did he know?

What kind of being was out there? What kind of thing could bring the dead back to life? Hollow people out and put pieces of his brother back together and reanimate them, use their bodies like puppets?

Cole didn’t want to think about it right now. He needed to concentrate on this task.

But thinking of going out to the garage made him think of the snowmobile for a split second. Did the snowmobile even run? Even though the thing out there had ruined the pickup truck and Stella’s Suburban, had it somehow overlooked the snowmobile?

He pushed the thought of the snowmobile from his mind. Maybe this thing could read minds. Who knew how powerful it was? And if it could read minds, then he didn’t want to give away his one slim hope of getting away.

Stella had driven away from this thing down in New Mexico (if she was telling the truth, his mind whispered), if she and David had gotten away, then maybe he could too.

Cole placed the tape and the rope on the dining room table and he went into the kitchen to find some tools. There weren’t many tools in the cabin; he’d found a hammer, a screwdriver, some nails. He wasn’t going out to the garage to look for tools. Instead, he found some spoons and knives in the kitchen drawer, and they would have to do.

A little earlier Cole had searched the cabin for some kind of pain killers, even aspirins, something to help dull the pain for Needles. But there was nothing in the kitchen or the bathroom. He’d found a bottle of Tylenol and a bottle of regular aspirins. But both of the bottles were empty. He wasn’t sure if Tom Gordon had left empty bottles behind in his cabinets, or if the bottles had been emptied somehow.

It doesn’t want Needles to be anesthetized, his mind whispered. It wants Needles to feel the pain, feel every bit of his eyes being pulled out of his face.

Cole pushed the thought away again as another wave of nausea washed over him.

Cole had wanted to force some whiskey down Needles’ throat to help ease the pain, but Jose didn’t want to do that; he said it was just a waste of time and they needed to hurry. Cole agreed that they needed to hurry, but he also suspected that Jose wanted to keep the whiskey for himself as a cushion of numbness in case he needed it when the end came.

But Jose was right – they needed to hurry.

Cole and Jose looked at Needles.

It was time.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Needles was tied to one of the dining room table chairs with many lengths of rope, duct tape, and two more telephone cords. Jose tied the last of the bonds as Needles struggled and screamed in the chair; the chair’s wood creaked from his struggles, and it seemed like it might tip over, but it didn’t, and the bonds held.

Jose stood up and backed away from Needles. He glanced at Cole who looked miserable.

“I wish we could’ve given him something for the pain,” Cole muttered.

Jose’s expression had turned cold and hard; he was focused on what had to be done. “I told you, we don’t have enough time for that. We need to get this done before the sun goes down.”

Neither one of them had to look towards the windows in the kitchen or the living room to tell that the sun was setting. The waning afternoon light filtered in through the curtains that covered the window, casting a warm, yellowish light on the gruesome act that they were about to perform.

Needles struggled in his chair, but then he gave up as he breathed heavily – the bonds were too strong, and there were too many of them; there was no hope of him escaping and he realized that now. He looked around, his eyes wild with panic. He glanced at Jose, but he knew that there was no bargaining with Jose, his only chance would be with Cole.

“You’re making a big mistake, Cole” Needles said, trying to keep his voice as calm and reasonable-sounding as possible. “That kid, he’s doing all of this somehow. I know it.”

Cole looked away.

“Listen to me, please. You need to kill that kid. That kid’s doing all of this. He’s the demon. The devil. He’s going to get all of you in the end if you don’t kill him first.”

Jose stood by the table and inspected the “tools” that Cole had laid out: various spoons, a few different kinds of kitchen knives, a bowl, some rags for cleaning up. The duct tape was near the tools. He picked up the roll of duct tape and tossed it to Cole. “Shut him up, will you?”

Cole caught the roll of tape.

Needles’ eyes followed the tape and he stared at Cole, pleading with him. “No, wait! You have to listen to me! I’m not crazy! I know what’s going on here! It’s that kid!”

Cole wrapped the duct tape around Needles’ mouth, wrapping it around his head several times, covering the lower half of his face with the tape.

Needles screamed into the tape and struggled again. Tears flowed from his eyes as he sobbed into the tape.

Jose picked up a small, serrated kitchen knife and stood in front of Needles. He looked at Cole who stood behind Needles. “You ready?” he asked Cole.

Cole managed a small nod as he swallowed hard. “I guess.”

“Hold him still,” Jose said.

Cole grabbed each side of Needles’ head and held him as still as he could. He pried Needles’ left eyelid open with his fingers as he held him.

Jose brought the tip of the knife close to Needles’ left eye which was bulging with fear, the eye couldn’t look away, couldn’t help but watch the tip of the knife as it got closer and closer, the knife shook a little in Jose’s unsteady hand.