She peered up. Ricky had climbed to the very top of the snow-covered scaffolding outside the Municipal Building, and he was now holding his arms out while he waited for the chatter to die down, like a dictator about to address the masses.

Once it was quiet enough, he began his speech.

“You wanna see something cool?” he shouted. The demons shrieked their approval. “I said, you wanna see something cool?”

So far, Kelly was unimpressed by Ricky’s speech-making skills.

“Check this shit out!” Ricky hollered, and there was a pause as the Party-Monster appeared behind him, dragging the Hound. Blood still flowed from the stumps that were once his arms, but the Hound didn’t seem to be bothered by it. Another few seconds passed while Ricky placed a noose over the Hound’s head and tightened it, and the demons began to chant impatiently. Finally, it was ready, and Ricky stepped to one side, making a grand gesture for the Hound to throw himself over the edge. Instead, the Hound merely stepped into Ricky, nudging him off balance, and Ricky toppled backwards and screamed all the way down to the street. His sticky end was hidden from Kelly by the crowd, who took a moment before erupting into laughter.

Once they were finished laughing, they started chanting again, and the Party-Monster grinned down at them, grabbed the Hound, and shoved.

The Hound plummeted. Halfway down, the rope went taut and his body snapped straight and his head popped clean off. It all happened so quickly, with so little fuss, it was almost ridiculous. The Hound’s body slipped from the noose and crumpled to the ground and the head followed it down, bouncing twice and then rolling. One of the demons ran up, kicked the head like he was trying for a field goal.

The crowd went wild, and Kelly left Main Street in her wake.

She headed back towards Briar Road, and froze when she heard a dog barking. Two? Keeping low and doing her best to move quietly, she ran from shadow to shadow, closing in on the sound.

She lost it and stopped, trying to ignore the laughter and the screams from the streets around her, doing her best to focus. The dog didn’t bark again. Whether it was Two or not, she took off once more, heading in that general direction, and she rounded a corner and ran straight into a psychopath with a gun.

Chapter 50

HE KNEW IT WAS USELESS, trying to outrun them. Even in human form, Marco Mabb and Jamie Hillock were bigger and stronger and faster than Austin was.

In demon form, it wasn’t even a competition.

They played with him, toyed with him, offered him glimmers of hope and then, finally, they overtook him, shoving him and laughing as Austin fell in the snow.

“Out past curfew!” Mabb howled.