Chapter 30

“Then why are you hurting my friends?” she asked.

“We aren’t hurting anybody,” Benson said before Albert could answer. “We just wish to be left in peace.”

“Has your peace been disturbed?” Rachel asked. “Who has disturbed it?”

“We’ve never had any peace,” Benson said. “Steven won’t allow it.”

“Who is Steven?”

“Don’t,” Albert said.

“Steven is the man who—”

“Don’t!”

“I want to tell her.”

“He’ll kill us.”

“Al. We’re already dead. Steven killed me. Remember?”

“No.”

“Yes, Albert.” Benson paused, swallowing around the rusty nails in his throat. “He tied weights to my ankles and dropped me into the lake. And then you—”

“I did what I had to do. To stop him. But I was too late. I was too late to stop him from…from what he told us he would do. I’m not sorry I bashed his head in. I’d do it again, if I could.”

“Who is Steven?” Rachel asked. “Is he still…with us?”

“He never left. He’s here right now, I can feel him.”