Reception

by Kenzie Jennings

  Not that it mattered. We should’ve been paying attention. We should’ve been moving by then. Shay suddenly had her foot planted back down on the floor, her eyes round and staring just past my shoulder. You know that feeling you get when your neck goes hot and numb, your back stiffens, the goosebumps spread up your arms because you know—you just know—something is there, directly behind you?

  “Hi there,” said a raspy female voice, one I wish I’d paid more attention to before. “It is so nice when late night snacks are already laid out, all peaches n’cream.”

  I turned around slowly, easing my hand away from the island countertop, the other gripping the canister of the blowtorch. The crazy in the ruby dress had brought some friends with her, including Rex Card himself and a couple of Nathan’s bearded hipster-douche friends. They were all gathered in a tight pack at the entrance of the kitchen corridor, and all of them were drenched in a crimson film of gore. A couple of them, much like the pinstriped crazy that had been outside, wore trophy necklaces made from looped intestines around their necks. Most of them, like Rex and Ruby Dress, brandished brass candlesticks and wooden table legs, knives and cleavers.

  “So that’s where all the knives went,” muttered Shay from behind me. “That’s not a bit of a bummer at all.”

  #

  Rex stepped forward from the pack, patting Ruby Dress on the shoulder as he passed her. “Now what d’we have goin’ on right here, y’all?” he said with a beaming smile, showing off those pearly whites. “It’s Missy Prissy and her sissy.” He gave Shay a once over, shaking his head appreciatively at her. “You know somethin’, darlin’, you make such a beautiful bride. I would’ve been proud to bring you into the fold. But alas, t’wasn’t meant to be now, was it? It’s a cryin’ shame it all was just to appease some appetites. But you know how it is, girl, when folks get all stupid-hungry. They just can’t see straight.”

  He was halfway through the kitchen, almost to where we were standing, when I aimed the torch at him and held up the tin of lighter fluid, tipping it forward ever so slightly in his direction as if I was going to squirt him with it.

  “We’ve already charred your sister there, Rex,” I said. “Want me to test this out again?”

  His usually disarming smile and cowboy-gracious demeanor had taken a menacing turn. “Did you gals try her?”

  “Did we what?” Shay’s voice was up a couple of octaves, coming out as a squeak. I put my hand out behind me, signaling her to keep her cool.

  “Did you try her out? Did y’all take a bite?” he pressed, inching closer towards us. “Y’know, she’s not always been a wedding planner. She’s been on this cooking kick that had her on the local news and some of those fancy national competitions. But she’s had this rule she’s always stuck to. She always said that it was important…No, it was essential, s’how she put it…it was essential that a chef test the food himself…or herself, as the case may be. All that testin’ though’s made her a mite plump n’ripe with all sorts of exotic flavors. I’d break her in myself, but…Well, you know, family n’all. Would be kinda unseemly.”

  “Unseemly,” I managed to say around an incredulous half-laugh. Unbelievable. It would be funny if all of it wasn’t so sick, yet there the Card patriarch was, saying that something amidst all of the insanity, all of the blood and smoke, was unseemly. That, itself, was “unseemly.”

  A lead ball formed in my throat. There was a glint of movement to our side, a shiny bit of red caught twinkling in the light. Ruby had apparently lost patience in the Cards’ tradition of talking to their food. She’d come silently around the kitchen island, and she’d just about reached me and Shay, trailing her fingers gracefully along the stone surface of the countertop. She made a clicking sound with her tongue as she moved, her gaze on us steady and unblinking.

  “What’d I say? What’d I say, girl? I told you we were gonna get you,” she purred.

  Rex tightened his lips at her and shook his head, signaling her “no.”

  She pouted in his direction. “But they’re fresh, Rex.”

  “We’re gonna save some of them for later, darlin’,” he told her. “You know good and well we’re gonna have t’store up ’til winter. They can hold for now. We got us all weekend.”

  That’s precisely when Shay decided it high time to swing the meat tenderizer down hard on Ruby’s fingers a couple of times for good measure, mashing them to grit. Ruby let out a ghastly shriek that made my teeth throb and my eardrums ache. I nearly dropped the blowtorch and tin of lighter fluid just from the shock alone, but adrenalin kept me steadfast with my grip just as Rex moved in. I squirted lighter fluid at him, soaking his face and shirtfront with it.

  Shay drove the tenderizer hammer against the back of Ruby’s skull. There was an audible cracking sound upon impact, and Ruby let out an inhuman groan. She nearly toppled against me, but I sidestepped her tipping body just in time and pulled the igniter as Rex swung his cleaver at me.

  The cleaver missed by a couple of inches, but I hadn’t. The torch set fire to Rex’s shirtfront, coating it in a fiery blaze, and he howled, rushing for the sink tap as—

  His pack rushed in for the kill, their sights dead set on me. A couple of others were at Rex’s side, helping him put out the flames, and—

  Shay knocked the tin out of my hand, grabbed hold of my arm, and yanked me along with her.

  The two of us ran.

  FOURTEEN

  I had no idea what kind of route Shay had us on, but she seemed to know where she was going. Some of Rex’s clan were on our tail, but the fire must have spread some because I got the sense there were only a couple of them after us. We rushed out into the night through the back door of the kitchen and found ourselves on an unpaved back alleyway rough on dress shoes, definitely not suited for practical getaway use. We ran in the dark, keeping fast, silent, and focused. I heard the back door of the kitchen slam and a couple of catcalls echoing in the night.

  While we ran, I tossed the empty torch. Then I kept trying to rip Shay’s train free, attempting to step on the thing as we moved, but once we rounded another corner, weaving around a stucco wall, she stopped us for a second in order to finally detach the stupid thing. She hurriedly gathered it up and shoved it behind a tangle of bushes against the wall.

  “Get rid of your shoes, too. You’re not gonna get far in those,” I whispered, keeping an eye out. It was just dark enough to go slightly unnoticed yet just light enough from the moonlight we could see each other’s outlines.

  “Are you kidding me? And tear up my feet?” Shay whispered back. “I’m not running in nylons. This place is nothing but dirt and rocks.”

  “You’re gonna trip, and that will be the end of it.”

  “I’m keeping them on and doing just fine, thank you very much.”

  She then shushed me before I could retort, and I cupped a hand over my mouth. She motioned for me to stay still and gripped my hand tightly with her free hand, the other still gripping the tenderizer, and she had us creep around and crouch down low against the wall behind the bushes where she’d hidden her train.

  A couple in raggedy formal wear ran by, both of them cackling at the night. Several others followed suit, and the last one in the bunch was Rex. He was the only one who stopped close to where we were hidden just take out a pack of cigarettes and a Zippo. When some of the stragglers did an about face, waiting for him, he waved them onwards and lit up a smoke. The flame from the lighter briefly illuminated his face, and I gasped into my palm.

  The tattered remnants of Rex’s tuxedo shirt and jacket were doing little to cover his charred and blistered chest. He’d been burned all the way up to his chin. His grimacing, worn face was coated in a heavy film of soot. As he took a couple of long drags on his cigarette, Shay shifted a bit, relaxing her posture, her movements causing the brush to rustle. She raised up her hand that was still brandishing the tenderizer, as if readying herself to use it. Alarmed by the possibilities, I braced her, holding her back with a palm o
ut against her.

  One of the stragglers Rex had motioned away, a stocky beardo who must have thought plaid jackets were trending, had turned around and headed back in Rex’s direction. He was breathless, panting, as soon as he reached Rex.

  “Boy, you need to get in shape before you try huntin’ in the dark,” said Rex around his cigarette. He then took a deep drag and exhaled chalky rings in the air.

  The beardo laughed in mid-wheeze. He held up a finger as he got back his breath, bent over. Then he stretched up and said, “Mr. Card, sir, I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate you letting us take part in all this. It’s such an honor.”

  Rex chuckled, a rattle that came from deep within. My arms broke out in goosebumps at the sound of it. “All of ‘this’? What, you can’t say what ‘this’ is, can you now?”

  “Well, it’s still so new for me. Saying it just kinda makes it sound so…”

  “So…what?”

  “I don’t know. It’s wrong, isn’t it? It sounds so wrong. Whenever I hear myself say it out loud, it makes me want to take a long shower, wash it off.”

  “Son, it’s been taboo in polite society for a long while now,” Rex said softly. “Perfectly understandable.”

  Beardo looked as if were trying to find the right words. “But I feel like I should… I should talk about this with someone who’s been going through the same thing,” he said, “someone who’s been doing this a long time, longer than any of us. Nate said you’d been…you’d been like this since you were his age.”

  “An’ you thought ol’ Papa Card here would be your walkin’ words of wisdom. El confidante,” Rex scoffed. “Your generation. Hell. All y’all do is ‘feel’ like talkin’ about everything, don’t you? On your Youtube channels, your blogs n’vlogs, your Instagrams. You know what? You don’t need to say a damned thing if you don’t want. All you need to do is to satiate your newfound appetite an’ satisfy your nature with God-provided sustenance.”

  “My girlfriend and I…We’ve been going through a rough patch. Stress from work. Money problems. Honestly, sir, if it hadn’t been for Nathan—if we hadn’t met him—we probably would’ve ended things between us,” said Beardo. He kept shifting his weight from one foot to the other, back and forth, like he was anxious. “We didn’t know how much we needed this.”

  Rex nodded and thumped the beardo on the back, squeezed his shoulder. “You’re more than welcome to join us durin’ feast year. When you’re on your own though, you stick to them choice cuts an’ no brains, hear? Stay the hell away from whatever pox Dell’s trailer park cousins’s been tryin’ to sell everyone here.”

  “Nate mentioned something about that. Sounds nasty.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s good what you kids do. Y’all research. Because you do, you know goddamned well if you wanna catch the shakes and shimmys, wobblin’ around, knee-walkin’ like a drunkard, that’s what’ll happen. And that’s your right. You’d best go right ahead and do what they so recommend. Otherwise, steer clear of what they tell you. Choice cuts, and choice cuts only.”

  “Choice cuts only,” repeated the beardo. “I won’t forget that, sir.”

  “Best be movin’ on,” said Rex motioning for the guy to go on ahead. “Gotta keep up with the rest of ’em before they get it all.”

  My thighs were hurting by the time Rex took the last couple of puffs and then put out his cigarette, grinding it under his boot. He slowly turned around, the whites of his eyes gleaming, examining the shapes in the darkness. My blood formed slivers of ice that trickled down my back.

  Rex halted, frozen in place. Because he’d stepped directly out of our line of sight, I couldn’t see what he was doing at first. That is, until he bent over, and suddenly, he was right there, his face probably no more than a couple of feet away from our hiding spot. All he had to do was turn his head, and he’d see us as pale shapes in the shrubbery. Shay suddenly had my hand in her free on and squeezed it so tightly, it went numb and prickly all over. Rex was examining something there on the ground, something he picked up and held in between his fingers. Whatever it was he had, it glinted in the moonlight.

  He let out a low, appreciative whistle. “Now what in the world,” he muttered. He stood up right beside our hiding spot, pulled out his lighter from his pocket, and flicked the igniter. “Where’d you come from, pretty girl?” he said, chortling, as he examined the finger in the light. The finger with its manicured nail painted a deep shade and its sparkling, diamond ring.

  I could swear it was Nabhitha’s ring, Nabhitha’s finger. As if to confirm my thoughts, Shay cut into my palm with her nails, digging right in.

  “Papa, where you hidin’? Come n’get some of this! We got us a wild one here, and hell if she ain’t a sight!” Nathan shouted from far off in the dark.

  “Yeah, I’m comin’! Y’all just hang on a minute! Give an old man some leeway. I gotta find you kids in the dark, and my eyesight ain’t as good as it used t’be!” Rex shouted back, and then he brought the finger up to his nose and took a long whiff. Then he licked and sucked around its crusted, jagged root where it had been severed.

  Shay buried her head against my shoulder, averting her eyes. I bit my inner cheek to keep from crying out. When Rex chewed upon the skin and meat around the bone, like he was just enjoying a Buffalo wing at a bar, I silently gagged into my hand.

  Rex slid off the ring from the remains of the finger and stuffed it deep in his pants pocket. Then he tossed what was left of the finger into the bushes where we were hidden. It landed, caught in a tangle of bramble directly in front of our faces, its painted nail pointing right at us. I held Shay’s head against me, rubbing her neck, keeping her line of sight temporarily blind to what was there. I didn’t want her seeing it, a morbid reminder that anyone who was a stranger to the Cards was pretty much at the top of the food chain.

  By that time, my thighs and legs felt as if they’d been injected with hot wax, and my injured arm throbbed. I was numb and crackly all over and willed Rex to join his flock, if only so that Shay and I could get up from where we were crouching. It was as if whatever metaphysical entity was in charge had decided to fuck with us because Rex suddenly had second thoughts about throwing away that finger. He reached down into the bramble and dug through, cursing the night as he did, his fingers within easy reach of us.

  Shay’s breathing went still. I kept an eye on Rex’s hand moving in the bushes, inches from our hiding spot. He finally found the finger, and as soon as he had it in his grasp, he pulled his hand away from the bramble. My whole body sagged in relief, but I still clung to Shay because I knew that all it would take was one mishap from either of us, one bit of movement in the bushes, and that would be it.

  Whistling a cheerful melody, Rex held up the chewed finger to the moonlight, double checking for whatever it was he wanted to see. Then he slid it into his other pants pocket and walked away into the night, his whistle an eerie afterthought.

  I waited until I was absolutely certain there was no one else around, and then I gently let go of Shay. The two of us slid up to our feet, and, holding hands, I let her lead me along the wall behind the chain of bushes. I had no idea where we were headed in, but I trusted that Shay knew exactly where to go.

  The real question was, once Mom was in tow with us, how the hell were we going to get out when the crazies had besieged the whole place, and where would we go?

  Out in the middle of a dead-land nowhere, our possibilities were awfully slim.

  FIFTEEN

  I’m sorry, but had I mentioned the evolution of my headache during that timeframe? I know it’s not of any significant relevance to what we were going through, and there’s nothing quite as boring as hearing about one’s ailments, especially when there’s a live bloodbath happening. Granted, I hear it gets worse when you get older, and back when the grandparents were still alive and kicking, it was all any of us in my family heard about. For days on end, it was all about the hernias, the arthritis, the back pain, the sinus pressure, th
e indigestion, the hemorrhoids, and it was always a mixed bag of treats. We never knew which ailment we’d get at what particular place and time.

  Rambling. Apologies. But as dull as it may seem, I feel I ought to include something about the raging headache I endured during that point in time, while we were edging our way around the wall to the rear grounds of the resort, where Shay had foolishly left Mom. It wasn’t like me to just give in and follow her, and it wasn’t like Shay to take the lead. The headache is what kept me behind; it’s also what kept me from making taking any risks. My head felt hot and heavy. The night noises had since grown louder. The buzzing drone of the cicadas, punctuated by the occasional faint chorus of mad laughter in the dark, did little to soothe the ache and flashes behind my eyes, the dull pounding in my temples, and the strange, shrill ringing in my ears.

  My eyesight was affected by the headache, too. The more I squinted, trying to make out Shay’s outline, a misty shape in the moonlight, the worse it felt. I longed to just crawl in a bed, any bed, with a firm pillow and a fluffy blanket and just sleep it away, sleep everything away, hiding from the crazies, burrowing myself down deep in bed as far as I could go.

  “We’re almost there,” whispered Shay. “Should be up ahead somewhere.”

  The tenderizer gleamed, a sliver in her grip, the head of it still sticky with gore. I was tempted to snatch it from her since I felt a little vulnerable out there in the wide, dark open without a weapon.

  “Careful where you step,” she said. “There’s a little incline, so it’ll feel like you’re walking on a hill, kind of like you’re sideways. But keep to the basin. Step where I step.”

  I kept on her trail, shadowing her steps, cautious of where I landed. “Where’d you leave her?”

  “She should be around here somewhere.” But Shay didn’t sound as if she was entirely sure of that. “That’s her casita up ahead.”