Darkfall

into it.
    Eighth floor.
    In a haunted voice that cracked more than once, but still with her familiar imperious tone, Faye said, “What were they, Jack? What were those things in the vents?”
    “Voodoo,” Jack said, keeping his eyes on the lighted floor indicator above the doors.
    Seventh floor.
    “Is this some sort of joke?” the doorman asked.
    “Voodoo devils, I think,” Jack told Faye, “but don’t ask me to explain how they got here or anything about them.”
    Shaken as she was, and in spite of what she’d heard and seen in the apartment, Faye said, “Are you out of your mind?”
    “Almost wish I was.”
    Sixth floor.
    “There aren’t such things as voodoo devils,” Faye said. “There aren’t any-”
    “Shut up,” Keith told her. “You didn’t see them. You left the guest room before they came out of the vent in there.”
    Fifth floor.
    Penny said, “And you’d gotten out of the apartment before they started coming through the living room vent, Aunt Faye. You just didn’t see them-or you’d believe.”
    Fourth floor.
    The doorman said, “Mrs. Jamison, how well do you know these people? Are they-”
    Ignoring and interrupting him, Rebecca spoke to Faye and Keith: “Jack and I have been on a weird case. Psychopathic killer. Claims to waste his victims with voodoo curses.”
    Third floor.
    Maybe we’re going to make it, Jack thought. Maybe we won’t be stopped between floors. Maybe we’ll get out of here alive.
    And maybe not.
    To Rebecca, Faye said, “Surely you don’t believe in voodoo.”
    “I didn’t,” Rebecca said. “But now… yeah.”
    With a nasty shock, Jack realized the lobby might be teeming with small, vicious creatures. When the elevator doors opened, the nightmare horde might come rushing in, clawing and biting.
    “If it’s a joke, I don’t get it,” the doorman said.
    Second floor.
    Suddenly Jack didn’t want to reach the lobby, didn’t want the lift doors to open. Suddenly he just wanted to go on descending in peace, hour after hour, on into eternity.
    The lobby.
    Please, no!
    The doors opened.
    The lobby was deserted.
    They poured out of the elevator, and Faye said, “Where are we going?”
    Jack said, “Rebecca and I have a car-”
    “In this weather-”
    “Snow chains,” Jack said, cutting her off sharply. “We’re taking the car and getting the kids out of here, keep moving around, until I can figure out what to do.”
    “We’ll go with you,” Keith said.
    “No,” Jack said, ushering the kids toward the lobby doors. “Being with us is probably dangerous.”
    “We can’t go back upstairs,” Keith said. “Not with those… those demons or devils or whatever the hell they are.”
    “Rats,” Faye said, apparently having decided that she could deal with the uncouth more easily than she could deal with the unnatural. “Only some rats. Of course, we’ll go back. Sooner or later, we’ll have to go back, set traps, exterminate them. The sooner the better, in fact.”
    Paying no attention to Faye, talking over her head to Keith, Jack said, “I don’t think the damned things will hurt you and Faye. Not unless you were to stand between them and the kids. They’ll probably kill anyone who tries to protect the kids. That’s why I’m getting them away from you. Still, I wouldn’t go back there tonight. A few of them might wait around.”
    “You couldn’t drag me back there tonight,” Keith assured him.
    “Nonsense,” Faye said. “Just a few rats- ”
    “Damnit, woman,” Keith said, “it wasn’t a rat that called for Davey and Penny from inside that duct!”
    Faye was already pale. When Keith reminded her of the voice in the ventilation system, she went pure white.
    They all paused at the doors, and Rebecca said, “Keith, is there someone you can stay with?”
    “Sure,” Keith said. “One of my business partners, Anson Dorset, lives on this same block. On the other side of the street. Up near the avenue. We can spend the night there, with Anson and Francine.”
    Jack pushed the door open. The wind tried to slam it shut again, almost succeeded, and snow exploded into the lobby. Fighting the wind, turning his face away from the stinging crystals, Jack held the door open for the others and motioned them ahead of him. Rebecca went first, then Penny and Davey, then Faye and Keith.
    The doorman was the only one left. He was scratching his white- haired head and frowning at Jack. “Hey, wait. What about me?”
    “What about you?