Page 115 of The Executioners Three
The bell swung back Freddie’s way, but she caught it before it could hit her face. She shoved it again. Full force.Clang!
Now Laina turned to face Freddie too.
Another shove. Another bone-rattlingclang!and now Freddie felt the Disemboweler inside her perk up. The spirit wasn’t awaiting commands, though, because Freddie wasn’t the one to whom his soul was bound.
Instead, he was awaiting the final step. The final moment that would end the curse he’d been bound to for so long.
Libérez-nous. Only you can break it.
Freddie swung the bell one last time, and the clang that ripped out was briefly deafening. The bell heaved away, then back toward her. Too strong to stop. An onslaught of tin and copper that slammed into her face and knocked her off the ladder.
But as gravity took hold and carried her body toward the schoolhouse floor, Freddie felt the bell crack.
And shefeltas the Disemboweler’s spirit crawled out of her body and shot toward Dr. Born in a streak of vengeful flame.Libérez-nous,the ghosts screamed in voices that were impossibly loud.Libérez-nous.
Free us,Freddie finally interpreted, even though she’d never cracked open a French-English dictionary in her life. That’s what they were saying:Free us.
Justin Charretière had lived here in City-on-the-Berme. So had Damien Portier and Alexandre Steward. Ropey, Hacky, and Stabby—three spirits who’d just wanted to be set free for such a very long time.
And three spirits who knew that one was only ever truly served by oneself.
Freddie hit the schoolhouse floor.
The ghosts fell silent.
Freddie’s ankle was not happy with her. Her wrist, meanwhile, was definitely headed towardneeds medical attention. But at least that was the only damage on her person, and once she and Divya limped outside of the schoolhouse, Freddie saw just how badly it could have gone for her and her friends.
And not just for them, but for all of Berm if Dr. Born had actually finished killing Theo and set the Executioners on a killing spree.
Because Dr. Born was dead now and in the most horrific way possible.
His headless body hung by his own intestines wrapped around and around the stage pole, glistening like bloodied fairy lights in the night. His head, meanwhile, was a full twenty feet away, plopped onto a pile of jack-o’-lanterns. The fire extinguisher foam had turned it to a garish, bug-eyed white in a mound of orange.
By the time Freddie actually reached the stage, sirens were audible in the distance. Thank god, because neither Theo nor Kyle looked good—although at least Kyle appeared to only have had his shoulder grazed by Dr. Born’s attack.
Theo’s abdomen, however, was most definitely impaled. “I told you… you were dangerous,” he murmured as Freddie dropped to his side. Cat had pressed her sweater against him, and now Freddie took over holding it against the wound.
“Stop talking,” Freddie ordered. “EMTs are on the way.”
Theo grunted. He was so,sopale. Way pastInterview with the Vampireand heading toward full-on corpse territory.
“I’m sorry this happened.” Freddie gripped his jaw, forcing him to keep his eyes open and locked on hers. “I’m sorry I couldn’t stop him. Look at me, Theo. Stay awake.”
“Right… so what… did happen, Gellar? I’m… hazy on the details.”
Before Freddie could respond—or apologize all over again—two ambulances arrived. Thanks to Kyle, there was no need for any of them to stop in the parking lot. They were able to speed right up into the Village Square.
One pair of EMTs went to Kyle, and a second pair shoved Freddie asideto access Theo. They had a stretcher, and with the practiced ease of experts, they took charge of him and his injuries.
He groaned as they lifted him, but once he was strapped on, he spared a final half-conscious smile for Freddie. “So dangerous,” he murmured.
Then the EMTs hurried him away.
Freddie tried to follow, but they wouldn’t let her. And it was only as she watched them slide him onto the ambulance that she realized Dr. Born’s head was right there on top of the jack-o’-lanterns. But the two EMTs didn’t notice. Nor the other pair as they rushed Kyle away.
More sirens came. More lights. Then emergency blankets over Freddie, over Divya—over every member of the Prank Squad as they tried to explain to the newly arrived Ibrahim and Deputy Knowles what thehellhad just happened.
Yet as Freddie listened to her friends ramble and shout, she realized the Prank Squad actually had no clue what had gone down. Instead, it was like they were all forgetting in real time what they’d just seen, and Freddie watched as one by one—Luis, Cat, and even Divya—rationalized it into a murderous therapist with a gun.
