The Diablo Horror (The River Book 7) by Michael Richan Page B

He could tell Jason wasn’t breathing. A wild swirl of
emotions began in his stomach and started to rise up to his chest. It reached
his throat, and he felt as though he might throw up. He shook Jason again.
Jason didn’t respond.
    “He’s dead!” Roy repeated. “He’s been gone for a while. Stop
shaking him.”
    Steven turned to look at Roy. He was confused, angry,
disbelieving. “How can he be dead?”
    “I don’t know,” Roy said. “You tell me.”
    This is a dream, too, Steven thought. I need to wake up.
    He examined Jason’s body. He couldn’t see any marks, any
blood. “But how?” Steven said, the emotion rising in his voice, the confusion
and anger and disbelief turning into grief. I know how he died, Steven
thought. I know.
    Steven started pressing on Jason’s chest, performing CPR. He opened
Jason’s mouth, checking for blockages, and blew into his lungs, repeating the steps
he’d learned in a class at work. He kept at it for several minutes, checking
for a pulse but finding none.
    Roy turned away from Steven. “Fuck you and this demon!” he
said, storming out of the room. He walked into the living room and thought
about walking outside, but then changed his mind. Instead, he sat down on the
couch in the living room and began to cry.
    Steven stopped the CPR, and examined Jason again. He could
tell Jason was gone, and had been long before he’d risen up off the floor. Seeing
Jason’s body lying still in front of him seemed so wrong, so sudden. The ax
man, he thought. He gave me the ax. I held it, I swung it at him. I
killed him.
    Steven staggered into the hallway and stopped when he reached
the living room. He saw Roy sitting on the couch.
    “I killed him,” Steven said, almost not believing the words
that came out of his mouth.
    “You wouldn’t kill your own son,” Roy said through his tears.
    “I thought I was dreaming,” Steven said. “The man with the
ax, I was forced to follow him. He made me…”
    Steven stopped, unable to finish.
    “Here’s your fucking Agimat,” Roy said, tossing the object
toward Steven. It landed at his feet. “Hope it was worth it.”
    “What did you see?” Steven asked. “Tell me what you saw.”
    “When I came in, I found the ax man in the living room. I
shot him with the EM gun, which worked, by the way, at least long enough for me
to take the Agimat off him. The moment I did, he disappeared. Without it he
didn’t have enough energy to manifest. Then I found you and Jason in the
bedroom. I noticed he wasn’t breathing. I felt for a pulse, but there was none.
Then I woke you up. That’s the whole fucking story.”
    Steven turned to walk back down the hallway. He went into the
bedroom, hoping that as he walked in, he’d find Jason still sleeping, and he’d
wake him up so they could go back to Seattle.
    He stepped up to the bed and sat down next to Jason’s body.
Then he picked him up and held him. He touched Jason’s head, and he felt the
cold skin. That’s when he felt something rip inside him, and he started to cry.
    Oh god, he thought. He’s dead. He’s really dead.
     
    ◊
     
    “Are you sure you’re OK to drive?” Roy asked.
    “No, I’m not sure about anything,” Steven said. They had
loaded Jason’s body into the back seat of the car and covered him with a
blanket, then closed up the house and headed home. They decided to return the
keys to Brett later, along with the news that he could safely return to Diablo.
For now, Steven’s only thoughts were about Jason. That, and the meeting he was
about to have with Aka Manah.
    “I killed him, Dad,” Steven said, feeling numb. “In the
dream, the ax man’s thoughts were in my head. I was thinking like him. He
handed me the ax, and it seemed like the right thing to do. I deserve to be in
jail. I deserve to be dead.”
    “You weren’t in your right state of mind,” Roy said. “You
realize we can’t turn Jason over to a mortuary. There would be questions. We
have to… take care