Doctor Sleep: A Novel

for a few tools and an old lawnmower. Dan thought he’d felt something there, but it must only have been overwrought nerves. When they looked up again, Rose was no longer in view. She had retreated from the railing.
    Billy finally managed to get the door of his truck open. He got out, staggered, managed to keep his feet. “Danny? You all right?” And then: “Is that Abra? Jesus, she’s hardly there.”
    “Listen, Billy. Can you walk to the Lodge?”
    “I think so. What about the people in there?”
    “Gone. I think it would be a very good idea if you went now .”
    Billy didn’t argue. He started down the slope, wallowing like a drunk. Dan pointed at the stairs leading to the lookout platform and raised questioning eyebrows. Abra shook her head
    ( it’s what she wants )
    and began leading Dan around Roof O’ the World, to where they could see the very top of Rose’s stovepipe hat. This put the little equipment shed at their backs, but Dan thought nothing of this now that he had seen it was empty.
    ( Dan I have to go back now just for a minute I have to refresh my )
    A picture in his mind: a field filled with sunflowers, all opening at once. She needed to take care of her physical being, and that was good. That was right.
    ( go )
    ( I’ll be back as soon as )
    ( go Abra I’ll be fine )
    And with any luck, this would be over when she came back.
    5
    In Anniston, John Dalton and the Stones saw Abra draw a deep breath and open her eyes.
    “Abra!” Lucy called. “Is it over?”
    “Soon.”
    “What’s that on your neck? Are those bruises?”
    “Mom, stay there! I have to go back. Dan needs me.”
    She reached for Hoppy, but before she could grasp the old stuffed rabbit, her eyes closed and her body grew still.
    6
    Peering cautiously over the railing, Rose saw Abra disappear. Little bitchgirl could only stay here so long, then she had to go back for some R & R. Her presence at the Bluebell Campground wasn’t much different from her presence that day in the supermarket, only this manifestation was much more powerful. And why? Because the man was assisting her. Boosting her. If he were dead when the girl returned—
    Looking down at him, Rose called: “I’d leave while you still have the chance, Danny. Don’t make me punish you.”
    7
    Silent Sarey was so focused on what was going on at Roof O’ the World—listening with every admittedly limited IQ point of her mind as well as with her ears—that she did not at first realize she was no longer alone in the shed. It was the smell that finally alerted her: something rotten. Not garbage. She didn’t dare turn, because the door was open and the man out there might see her. She stood still, the sickle in one hand.
    Sarey heard Rose telling the man to leave while he still had the chance, and that was when the shed door began swinging shut again, all on its own.
    “Don’t make me punish you!” Rose called. That was her cue to burst out and put the sickle in the troublesome, meddling little girl’s neck, but since the girl was gone, the man would have to do. But before she could move, a cold hand slid over the wrist holding the sickle. Slid over it and clamped tight.
    She turned—no reason not to now, with the door closed—and what she saw by the dim light filtering through the cracks in the old boards caused a scream to come bolting out of her usually silent throat. At some point while she had been concentrating, a corpse had joined her in the toolshed. His smiling, predatory face was the damp whitish-green of a spoiled avocado. His eyes seemed almost to dangle from their sockets. His suit was splotched with ancient mold . . . but the multicolored confetti sprinkled on his shoulders was fresh.
    “Great party, isn’t it?” he said, and as he grinned, his lips split open.
    She screamed again and drove the sickle into his left temple. The curved blade went deep and hung there, but there was no blood.
    “Give us a kiss, dear,” Horace Derwent said. From between his lips came the wiggling white remnant of a tongue. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been with a woman.”
    As his tattered lips, shining with decay, settled on Sarey’s, his hands closed around her throat.
    8
    Rose saw the shed door swing closed, heard the scream, and understood that she was now truly alone. Soon, probably in seconds, the girl would be back and it would be two against one. She couldn’t allow that.
    She looked down at the man and summoned all of her