“Aunt Cindy,” he called out. “Are you all right?”
Bending at the waist, he picked up the shirt from where he had tossed it on the floor last night and slid his arms into it. His hands were shaking as he buttoned it up. He looked again down at the stairway when Krissy scrambled out from under the bed covers and hurriedly began to dress.
“What do you think’s going on down there?” Billy asked, fighting the slight tremor in his voice. He strained to hear, and shivered when he heard an outburst of loud laughter.
He jumped and let out a little scream of his own when Krissy spoke close beside him.
“I dunno,” she whispered in a soft, amazed tone of voice. “But that must have been what she was talking about last night.”
“Who? You mean Aunt Cindy?” Billy asked. He sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled on a clean pair of socks and hurriedly laced up his sneakers.
Krissy was silent as she put on the same pair of jeans and sweater she had worn yesterday. Without another word between them, Billy started toward the stairway with his sister one step behind him. She held onto the back of his shirt like it was a lifeline.
The stairs creaked beneath their feet as they made their way downstairs. Halfway down, Billy could see that the camp was empty, but he was pretty sure from the muffled voices he heard that someone was out front.
Voices!
It wasn’t just Aunt Cindy talking to herself. Someone else was outside with her.
He paused at the bottom of the steps and looked fearfully back at Krissy. His first impulse was to tell her to go back upstairs and hide until he told her everything was all right, but his throat was so tight with tension he couldn’t speak. Turning slightly so he could grab her hand, they started, side by side, toward the front door. They were just coming into the kitchen when the camp door suddenly burst open, and Aunt Cindy stumbled into the entryway, slamming the door shut behind her.
“Go upstairs! … Quick! … Go hide!” she shouted between gasping breaths as she fumbled to lock the door.
Billy was immobilized with fright. He stood there, watching in stunned silence as his aunt dashed into the kitchen and started yanking open all the kitchen drawers, frantically throwing things in a clatter onto the floor as she searched for… something. At last, she pulled out a large, thick-blade carving knife and, spinning around on her heel, held it out in front of her just as the camp door burst open with a deafening explosion of splintering wood and breaking glass. The top hinge of the door pulled out of the jamb, and the door hung like a broken shutter. Billy turned around, amazed and unable to believe his eyes when he saw his father standing there in the doorway. In one hand, he held a bow and arrow. A crazed gleam lit his eyes.
“So there you are, you little son of a bitch!” his father said. He stepped forward and curled back his upper lip as though he wanted to take a bite out of him.
“Yeah, and your little sister, too!” his father said when his eyes lighted on Krissy, who was cringing behind her brother.
Too surprised and scared to respond, Billy took a staggering step backwards and bumped into Krissy, almost knocking her over. His first impulse was to turn and run—run away from this man who had made a habit of yelling at him and belting him around whenever he was in a foul mood—but Billy’s legs were locked.
“Hey, I’ll bet you never expected to see me again, now, did yah?” his father said, eyeing Billy narrowly. Billy couldn’t get enough air into his lungs to reply. His stomach tightened, and his leg muscles started vibrating.
“I said, did yah? I’ll bet you thought you were rid of me for good, huh?”
“Stay away from us,” Cindy yelled in a high, quaking voice as she waved the knife back and forth between them in a looping figure-eight. “Get the hell out of here! I already called the cops.”
“Like hell you have,” Alex snarled.
“Leave us alone! We don’t want any trouble!”
“You don’t want any trouble?” Alex said, tossing back his head and letting loose a wild roar of laughter. “So that’s it, huh? You don’t want any trouble! Well, if that’s the case—”
He took a few more steps into the kitchen but shied back, obviously wary of the blade Cindy had in spite of the bow he carried.
“If that’s how you feel, then maybe you shouldn’t have tried to steal my goddamned kids away from me, now, huh?”
He clenched his fist and shook the bow violently.
“I didn’t steal them,” Cindy said, her voice twisting up high and almost breaking. “My sister wanted me to have them, and they came… they came with me willingly because… because they’re afraid of you.”
“Yeah, well, they damned well better be afraid of me, because once I get ’em back home, I’m gonna whoop the friggin’ tar out of ’em! Out of both of ’em!” He turned and stared straight into Billy’s eyes, making the boy’s blood run cold.
“Tell me, boy. Is it true what she says?” his father asked, nailing him with a cold, angry stare. “S it true that you don’t want to stay with me?”
“I… I—” Billy’s lower lip began to tremble as he tried to speak, but the only sound he could make was a strangled stammer. Burning pressure was building up in his bladder, making him have to go pee real bad.
“Well…” his father said, letting a gruesome smile split his face, “we’re about to change all that, now, ain’t we, boy?”
Billy thought he had no control over his body, but his head started nodding up and down as though he was in complete agreement with his father.
“That’s right,” his father said, turning to Cindy. “You see that? He wants to be with his daddy. Don’t yah, boy? And his sister does, too. Ain’t that right?” He took a deep breath and indicated the door with a quick flick of his head. “Now, why don’t you and your little sister get your skinny butts outside while I take care of things in here, okay?”
“I’m warning you!” Cindy shouted. “The police are already on their way. Leave us alone!”
“You didn’t have time to call the police, and besides, I took the liberty of cutting the phone line. Stop trying to bullshit me.”
Billy’s gaze moved frantically between his father and Aunt Cindy. He was dimly aware that they were yelling at each other—just like his father and mother used to yell at each other—but their voices hardly cut through his raging confusion and fear. He felt riveted to where he stood, trapped as if someone had glued his sneakers to the floor.
“I’m warning you,” his father said. Billy watched in silent horror as his father turned to Aunt Cindy and jabbed his forefinger at her. “You fucked things up enough as it is, so you just keep your goddamned mouth shut, all right?”
He glared over his shoulder at Billy and saw that he hadn’t moved.
“And you, boy! Get your goddamned ass moving or I’ll kick it all the way back to Nebraska! My van’s parked up at the top of the hill. Go get inside it and wait. I’ll be along shortly.”
“The white van,” Krissy said in such a hushed voice that Billy almost didn’t hear her. “All along, it was you… she was warning me about you!”
“Billy! Krissy! Don’t do it! Don’t go!” Aunt Cindy shouted, taking a step forward as if to intercept him.
Then everything happened so fast Billy registered only a portion of it. Letting loose a wild scream, his aunt suddenly lunged at his father with the carving knife. As she brought it around in a vicious arc, the blade gleamed with a reflection of white light; but in a quick reflex move, his father brought the bow around like a baseball bat to block her. The bowstring whistled loudly, but the sound abruptly stopped with a loud cracking sound as Aunt Cindy cried out sharply and, leaning forward, clutched her left wrist to her side. The knife clattered to the floor, and his father stepped forward and kicked it away.
“Don’t try any shit with me!” he shouted.
“You bastard!” Aunt Cindy shrieked. “You goddamned bastard! You broke my damned wrist!”
“That ain’t all I’m gon
na break,” Alex hissed, laughing.
Billy stood rooted to the spot as his father moved quickly forward, grabbed his aunt by the hair, and pulled on it so hard her head was thrown back, exposing her throat. He watched in horror as his father clenched and raised his fist, looking like he was a split second away from punching her in the face, but then he violently shoved her away from him. Aunt Cindy stumbled backward, scrambling to keep her balance, but collapsed in a heap on the floor amid the clutter of kitchen utensils she had thrown there.
In a controlled, almost lazy voice, his father turned to him and said, “Now why don’t you do what you’re told, and take your little sister up to my van and wait for me there?”
“Don’t hurt her,” Billy said in a ragged, breaking voice. “Please, dad, don’t hurt her! She never hurt you.”
Tears filled his eyes, burning as they ran down the sides of his face.
“Stop your goddamned crying, boy!” his father bellowed. “What, did she turn you into a little pansy or something?”
Billy stared back at his father, trying hard to stop the motions, but there was no way he could.
“Now, do what you’re told and get your ass out there!” his father shouted, but still, Billy couldn’t move. In two big steps his father was beside him, and like a stroke of lightning the flat of his hand smacked Billy in the side of the head so hard it made his teeth rattle. A high-pitched ringing sound filled his head, and e covered his ears with both hands as fresh tears owed.
“Fuckin’ pansy! Now do as you’re told! Don’t make me hit you again!” his father bellowed.
Dazed and blinded by tears, Billy reached behind him for his sister’s hand. Once he found it, he squeezed it tightly and started in halting baby-steps for the door, shying away from his father, expecting another slap. The last thing he heard as he walked through the shattered door was the strangled, whimpering sound his aunt was making deep in the back of her throat.
“He’s gonna do it to her,” Krissy said in a tiny voice that Billy could barely hear above the ringing in his ears. “Can’t you stop him? He’s gonna hurt her… just like he hurt mom.”
3
Alex carefully placed his bow and arrow on the counter before stepping forward and grabbing Cindy by the hair again. He pulled up, almost lifting her off her feet. The pain was excruciating. Her scalp felt like it was on fire as he levered her back against his knee and forced her head back further and further until she was sure either her neck or spine was going to crack.
This is it! I’m going to die! was the only clear thought she had through the whirling confusion of panic and pain.
As the agony intensified her vision became a watery blur, a confusing swirl of colors that blended like smeared watercolors. Off to the side, she had caught only a hint of motion as Billy and Krissy did what their father had told them and left the camp; then Alex’s face, looking as bloated and pale as a fat, full moon, loomed close above her, transfixing her with an enraged stare.
“And now, you fucking bitch, you’re gonna pay,” he said in a low, steady voice that sounded like he was thoroughly enjoying this. “You’re gonna pay for all the bullshit you put me through these past few months.”
“… you’ll… never…”
But that was all she could manage to say. The backward pressure on her throat was cutting off her words and supply of air. Exploding white spirals of light filled her vision. A heavy, repetitious crashing sound was roaring inside her head so loudly she could barely make out anything he was saying. His lips, terrifyingly magnified, moved in soft, rubbery twitches, exposing his wide, flat teeth.
“Before I kill you, though, I have a little something to tell you.”
Cindy’s mind was slowly blanking out as excruciating pain swept through her like a boiling flow of lava.
“I want you to take this final thought with you on your way to hell,” Alex said.
Every word he spoke sounded sludgy, dragging like a record that was being played on the wrong speed.
“I didn’t just kill your sister, you know. I also killed your fucking husband!”
Through her pain, Cindy barely understood what he had said, but his words filled her with a depth of misery she had never experienced before in her life… not even on that day when she had first found out her sister had died!
“Oh, yeah, I did,” Alex said, snorting with laughter and spraying her face with spittle. “I killed Debbie because she was a royal pain in the ass, almost as bad as you are, but after you took off with my kids, I followed your husband, and do you know where I found him?”
Cindy’s mouth moved but made only a grating, gasping sound.
“I found him at a motel, where he was getting ready to fuck his girlfriend.”
His grip on her hair tightened. Balling it into his fist, he shook her head violently up and down as though she was agreeing with him. She heard something crackle in her neck. Tears streamed from her eyes, and thick mucus clogged her throat, blocking off her air. “Did you hear what I said?” he yelled.
Again, he shook her head, even harder. The pain was like hot irons, piercing her head and shoulders.
“Did you even know he had a fucking girlfriend?”
He snorted, then shook his head, regarding her with feigned sadness in his eyes.
“No, you probably didn’t, you’re so fucking dense; but he did, and I found him there and I fucking-a killed him. And your nosy neighbor, too. Shit, I never even knew her name, but I killed her, so rest assured—they’re all waiting for you… in hell!”
Cindy hung there, suspended by her hair, watching in silent terror as Alex again raised his fist, preparing to bring it down squarely into her face. But as the import of his words slowly registered in her pain-wracked brain, a sudden fury filled her. Suddenly, she felt as though she was beyond any physical or mental pain he could inflict on her. With a long, trailing scream winding up inside her, she found a reserve of strength—somewhere—and suddenly lurched forward, kicking out wildly at him. She was only dimly aware that she even connected.
But she must have because Alex’s gloating expression suddenly exploded with pain and surprise, his eyes bugging out of his head. The burning pain on her scalp suddenly stopped, and she felt herself plop down hard on the floor. A jab of pain lanced up her spine like lightning.
Alex staggered backwards, coughing and sputtering as he doubled over and grabbed his crotch with both hands. His face turned bright purple, and his lips and cheeks puffed out with a long, agonized groan.
“You bitch!” he screamed, his voice shrill with pain and rage. “You fucking bitch!”
Cindy’s mind was a blank, white sheet of terror as she scrambled to her feet and, dodging past Alex, started unsteadily for the door. When she banged into the counter once, she felt something snag her leg and tug her back, but she couldn’t tell if it was Alex or if her foot had caught on something else. It didn’t matter. As she pulled away, the single clear thought in her mind was to run!
Run!
Air roared into her lungs, burning in her throat as she leaped through the smashed door and stumbled outside. For a frozen, dizzying moment, she hesitated, looking around like a punch-drunk prize fighter who didn’t know where she was. Then her gaze swung up to the top of the crest, and she remembered.
Yes!… The kids!… They’re up there!… He said he parked his van up on the hill!… That’s where they went!
As she stumbled forward, her entire body was a symphony of pain. She clutched her bruised or broken left hand close to her side as she started to run. Tears blinded her, and she careened off the trees like a pinball as she zig-zagged her way up the slope. Her footing wasn’t very secure, and as the slope got steeper, her feet kept slipping on rotting leaves and pine needles. Whimpering with pain, she dropped to her hands and knees and started crawling, frantic to get away but knowing that Alex would be coming after her the instant he recovered. When she was halfway up the slope, something whistled past her ear with a quick zip. Glancing to h
er left, she saw the feathered shaft of an arrow sticking out of the embankment less than an inch from her hand.
“Hold it right there, or the next one’ll go right through you!” Alex shouted. His voice echoed like thunder in the uncanny stillness.
Cindy skidded part way down the slope when she hesitated and turned to look at him. He was standing on the doorstep with his bow, minus two arrows, gripped firmly in his hand. Slowly, without ever shifting his eyes away from her, he took another arrow from the quiver and notched it.
“You know, maybe I ought to give you a little running start,” he said, smiling grimly. “That way, I could shoot you in the back and make it look like it was a hunting accident. Think that’s what I ought to do?”
Cindy was panting too heavily to reply. The cold air seared her lungs. She just sat there, distantly aware of the dampness from the forest floor penetrating the seat of her pants. She stared back at him wordlessly, hoping that, when death finally came, it would be mercifully swift.
I don’t want to die!… I don’t want to die!
“Well…? Is that it? Do you want a fighting chance?” he shouted, “or do you think I should end it quick and clean right now?”
Right here and now!… Please!… Do it quickly!
That was her only thought, but she still couldn’t reply. Her body was consumed with pain that numbed her mind and spirit.
“Well then…” Alex said finally. “Fuck you!”
He shrugged as though helpless in his decision, then raised the bow and took careful aim at her. “We’ll end it right now!”
Cindy didn’t see or hear the arrow fly.
In a blinding instant, as soon as she sensed that he had released the arrow, she dodged to one side and was up and running, stumbling as she cut across the slope and headed off into the woods. Her only hope… her only prayer was that the trees would shield her, and she could get away from him and somehow find help. The only other clear thought in her mind as she ran was that—hopefully—Alex wouldn’t leave with the kids.
Not yet.
Knowing Alex as she did, she was positive he wouldn’t give up until he had run her down and killed her.
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