Ghost Light

by Hautala, Rick

  In a frenzied flurry of activity, Cindy splashed and scrambled for the shore, coughing and gagging as the stench of decay choked her senses. She staggered a few feet away from the dead dog, then collapsed face-first into the small stretch of sandy beach. She was panting so heavily, each inhalation felt like it was tearing her throat to bloody shreds. After a few miserable moments, she moaned loudly and rolled over onto her back. Looking up at the heavy, gray sky, she forced herself to take a deep, steadying breath of fresh air, but the horrible smell still clung to the back of her throat like the rancid aftertaste of vomit. Her stomach tightened and convulsed as icy shivers jabbed her like thousands of tiny needles.

  Help me, God… please… help me!

  The thought was nothing but a feeble voice, whispering in the chaotic darkness inside her brain.

  After lying there on the sand for another few seconds—seconds that felt like hours—she got up brushed the sand from herself as best she could, and forced herself to continue toward the camp, knowing that every second counted for Billy’s and Krissy’s safety. Her teeth were chattering wildly, and she knew that she was going to be seriously sick if she didn’t get warm soon, but she had already decided that if the kids and Alex were gone, she didn’t care if she died.

  Christ, she couldn’t take much more!

  If the kids were gone, she told herself she would simply lie down on the ground and pray to die!

  4

  Alex was getting increasingly anxious as he crouched behind the same clump of brush he had hidden behind yesterday afternoon while he was waiting for Cindy to show up at the camp. The day was cold, the air damp. He could tell that it was going to rain soon; he could smell the heavy moisture in the autumn-tinged air. He had bet everything on one simple fact—that Cindy, no matter what else, wouldn’t be able to leave the area without trying to save the kids. If that was the case, then she would have to come back for them… or else die trying.

  “And when she does, by Jesus,” Alex whispered, smiling as he squeezed the hand grip of his bow. “When she does, she’s gonna die!”

  He was counting on it, but each passing second stretched out intolerably into seemingly eternal minutes as he waited to see if she was going to come back. If, instead, she had chosen out of fear or self-preservation to try to escape and find help—well then, maybe he was screwed, and he’d deal with it when and if that happened. But he was convinced that he knew how women thought, and he was confident that all he had to do was sit here quietly and wait. He smiled as he gripped the handle of his bow, thinking this was almost s if he really was stalking a deer.

  And by Jesus, he’d get her yet!

  Alex’s mouth tightened into a wide smile when, off o his left from down below the embankment toward he camp, he heard a faint rustle of activity. It could be deer or a dog or something. He listened as dried eaves crunched underfoot and a tree branch snapped as loud as a pop gun. He strained forward, trying to rear better, and was just about to break cover to go investigate when Cindy’s face appeared over the rise about twenty feet behind the parked van. Her hair was dripping, and the expression on her face was pinched as though she were in great pain.

  Good for you, you fucking bitch! You’re just too fuckin’ predictable, he thought.

  He shook his head from side to side, almost laughing , out loud as he watched Cindy cautiously creep out from the brush and into the small clearing where the van was parked.

  Alex watched, his body tensing, as Cindy, crouching low and looking all around her like a frightened animal, made her way slowly toward the back of the van. Shifting silently onto one knee, Alex took an arrow from the quiver and settled it on top of his fist. Drawing the bow string back to his ear, he took careful aim. Holding his breath, he made himself wait until she was standing beside the van, and then, just when she looked like she was about to make a run for it, he led her with the arrow and let it fly.

  The shaft flew straight and true, but at the last foment, as though she sensed danger, Cindy halted in her tracks. Instead of hitting her, the arrow smashed into the rear taillight, shattering red plastic so it flew everywhere.

  “Damn!” Alex shouted as Cindy squealed and spinning around on one foot, dove to the ground.

  “Hey, it won’t do you any fucking good!” Ale shouted as he stood up and fixed another arrow on the bowstring. “You’re not getting very far this time. No fuckin’ way!”

  He started down the slope, all the while keeping his arrow aimed squarely at Cindy as she scrambled to her feet and then stood there, panting heavily and staring at him with a panic-stricken expression. Her lower lip was pale and trembling, and a watery film filled her eyes. Her clothes hung in damp folds over her body. Alex was glad to see that she was still clinging to her injured wrist.

  Maybe I did break it, he thought. Serves the bitch right!

  “You’ve had all the chances you’re gonna get Cindy,” Alex said in a mild, almost pleasant voice. “Now there ain’t no one who’s gonna save you.”

  In a flash, Cindy turned and started to run. She darted to the front of the van, obviously hoping to position herself so the van was between her and Alex, but Alex quickly side-stepped, all the while tracking her with his drawn arrow. She was in front of the van maybe twenty feet down the road when he let the arrow loose. He realized his aim was true when he heard a shrill scream and saw Cindy throw her hands into the air, then stagger a few more steps and fall. A wild scream of pain echoed from the trees as she rolled over onto her side and pulled frantically at the metal shaft that was sticking up out of her upper thigh. The razor sharp point had pierced her skin and was sticking out the back of her leg. Alex smiled when he saw the widening dark splotch of blood that was soaking through her pants leg.

  “God damn it! I told you it wouldn’t do you any good to try ’n run,” he said, his voice tinged with a tone mock pity.

  He couldn’t help but laugh as he looked at her, lying there on the ground, her face twisted in agony. Leaning his head back, he let his loud, ringing laughter fill the woods as he strode forward until he was standing a few feet in front of the van. Then, slowly and deliberately, took another arrow, his next to the last one, from the quiver and fitted it onto the bow string. The only sound Cindy was making was a high, terrified whimper as she thrust back with her unwounded leg, propelling herself backwards on the ground in one last attempt to get away.

  Alex grunted as he advanced inexorably toward her with the arrow pulled back to his ear. Shaking his head sadly from side to side, he steadied his aim at her heaving chest.

  “Well, Cindy, it’s been fun as hell, hasn’t it?” he said. Then he let the arrow fly.

  5

  Alex was so swept away by the dizzying realization at this was it—I’m finally getting revenge on Cindy r everything she’s done to me!—that for a split second he didn’t recognize the sound that suddenly roared in his ears. A senseless curse burst from his mouth when he turned around quickly and, in a shattering instant, recognized the sound and saw that he van was moving straight at him. In a single, blazing instant, before he could dodge out of the van’s path, the front bumper slammed into his legs, buckling him forward just below the knees. There was a loud snapping noise that sounded like a rifle shot, and the pain that leaped through his body felt like he’d been caught in a hail of bullets. He lost consciousness for a split second, and wasn’t even dimly aware when the impact knocked his aim off, and the arrow flew off harmlessly into the woods. When his mind cleared, he was already on the ground and there was an intolerable pressing weight on his legs. Immediately following the impact, the van lurched forward once, and then the engine died.

  Alex closed his eyes and threw his head back, unable to stop the loud howl of pain that ripped out of him. H knew, even then that at least one leg, probably both were broken. His right foot was being crushed beneath the van’s front tire. Through a shimmering haze a pain, he looked up as the driver’s door opened and someone stepped out.

  He was stunned and h
ad to lick his lips furiously before he could make a sound other than a gut wrenching groan. A hot, burning pressure was building up inside his head, making him think it was going to burst as he stared into the steady, glassy gaze of his son. His silhouette looked massive, towering against the churning gray clouds overhead.

  “Billy, please!” he shouted, his voice little more than a ragged gasp. “For Christ’s sake! Get this fuckin, thing off me!”

  He leaned back on his elbows and tried to wriggle his foot free from underneath the tire, but any movement merely ground it down all the harder and sent searing waves of pain through his body.

  “Do what I say!” Alex shouted, trying hard to keep a commanding edge in his voice. “Right now… get the fuck… back into the van… and get… this thing… off me!”

  Tears of pain were streaming down his face as he stared up into Billy’s pale, trembling face. Billy was breathing so fast his cheeks puffed in and out like overworked bellows, but there wasn’t the slightest trace pity in his expression as he stared down at his father d slowly shook his head.

  “Christ, Billy, it hurts! It fucking hurts! Get the fucking thing off me!” Alex bellowed, but Billy simply clenched his fists and, looking past him toward where Cindy was lying on the ground, continued to shake his head from side to side.

  “You little shit! You little fucking shit! You broke y goddamned legs!” Alex wailed.

  Dark, crashing waves closed over his mind, and he struggled not to lose consciousness in spite of the deep pain that embraced his legs and flooded up into his hips.

  “You bastard! You rotten little piece of fucking shit!” he shouted, but his voice started to fade and he closed his eyes and leaned back as another, stronger wave of pain almost dragged him down into unconsciousness.

  “When I … when I get my hands on you—”

  He ended with a loud, gasping grunt. With one last burst of energy, he tried to ignore the overwhelming pain and pull his leg free, but it was caught beneath the tire as surely as if he had stepped into a bear trap. With very second the pain got stronger and stronger, and thick blackness nibbled at the edges of his vision, threatening to close in on him.

  “I had to do something,” Billy said.

  His voice was so fragile and shattered Alex barely card—or understood—him.

  “I couldn’t just… just sit there and let you hurt Aunt Cindy any more. I couldn’t do it, dad!”

  6

  Cindy had closed her eyes, trying to clear her mind as she waited for the sting of death. But when that last fatal pain didn’t come, and then when she heard the van’s engine roar to life, she opened her eyes. For fluttering instant, she didn’t dare to believe what she was seeing. Ignoring the pain in her leg, she lurched forward, as if she could somehow stop what she could see was going to happen, but it was already too late. Billy was sitting behind the steering wheel of the van leaning forward in his seat like an enraged race driver. The van bucked forward—just like it had the last time Cindy had let Billy try to drive—and slammed into Alex. The impact knocked Alex onto the ground just the arrow whisked off out of sight. As the swirl of exhaust and dust started to clear, Cindy saw that Alex was down on the ground… and he wasn’t getting up.

  Cindy cringed, listening as Alex swore at his son, telling him to move the van, but Billy just stood there, wearing an expression of grim determination as he shook his head, and said, “I couldn’t just… just s there and let you hurt Aunt Cindy any more. I couldn’t do it, dad!”

  Covering her leg wound with her good hand, Cindy forced herself up onto her feet. Limping horribly, she made her way toward the van. All the while, her ears were ringing with the echoes of Alex’s curses. She couldn’t tear her gaze away from Billy’s face. He looked stunned, completely drained of all energy and life, and beneath that was the soul-deep fear of what would happen to him if his father ever got his hands on him.

  He did that for me! Billy saved my life! Cindy thought. I can’t let Alex get him! Ever!

  Every step sent sharper, deeper jabs of pain lancing through her body, but she made her way slowly over to where Alex lay on the ground. After staring for a moment into his pain-glazed eyes, she noticed the hunting bow, lying to one side, only a few feet from Alex’s grasp. Moving as quickly as she could, she went over to it and picked it up.

  “You’re dead!” Alex screamed when he looked over at her. “I’m gonna fucking rip you to pieces!”

  He thrust himself viciously away from the van. His hands dug deep furrows into the soil as he strained back, trying to wiggle free. Above the labored sounds of his breathing, there was another sound—a loud, crackling, grinding noise that Cindy knew was Alex’s ankle bones, being ground into mush. With a keening wail of agony, he stopped his efforts and collapsed back onto the ground.

  “No, I don’t think so,” Cindy said. It took a great effort to speak at all. The pain rippling like waves of acid through her leg made her mind go blank, but she shook her head to clear it, focusing every ounce of her remaining strength on a single thought—

  He killed them… killed them all! Every person who ever meant anything to me! Debbie!… Harry!… and Alice! And he liked it! He was gloating over what he had done as if he had thoroughly enjoyed himself. As if life had no value at all to him!

  Her hands were trembling as she gripped the bow handle with her left hand. A jolt of pain from her broken wrist stung her like a bee sting, but slowly, deliberately, she pulled the last arrow from the quiver, raised the bow, and rested the arrow on the hand grip.

  “You miserable bastard,” she whispered through raw, cracked lips. Burning tears streamed from her eyes. Every word, every movement, every breath took an immense effort. The pain in her leg was almost intolerable, and her mind felt mushy and floating from the loss of blood. She was afraid she was going to pass out soon, but she had in her mind the single, clear thought that this man was responsible for everything that had happened to her.

  And he will have to pay for it with his life!

  Trembling with rage and pain, she gripped the feathered end of the arrow and started to pull back.

  “You don’t deserve to live,” she said in a low, rasping voice. “I’m gonna do to you exactly what you were going to do to me.”

  She pulled back on the arrow a little more, but suddenly a jolt of pain made her stop and cry out as her left wrist collapsed under the mounting pressure. A gauzy haze filled her vision, and she staggered backwards a few steps. She almost lost her grip on the bow, but, gritting her teeth, she held on to it, shook her head to clear it, steadied herself, and then started to pull the arrow back again. Once more, though, her wrist folded in on itself from the pressure of the pull, and this time the arrow dropped to the ground.

  Cindy had been putting all of the pressure of standing up on her one good leg, and when she bent over to pick up the arrow, she fell down. The impact jiggled the arrow sticking in her leg, and her agony went to an entirely new level of pain. A burst of raw laughter from Alex hammered her ears.

  “Ain’t that too bad, huh?” he shouted with a wild snort of either laughter or pain. “That’s just too fucking bad!”

  Murderous fury filled Cindy, but she knew the loss of blood was weakening her, fast. She realized that, probably even if her left wrist hadn’t been broken, she wouldn’t have been able to pull back the bow. It was too powerful for her. She wished she had the strength to get up again and use the bow to beat Alex to a bloody pulp, but she was close to fainting. Panting heavily, she swung her blank gaze in Billy’s direction and waved for him to come over to her.

  For a frozen instant, Billy just stood there. Cindy could see by the twisting expression on his face that he knew, if he went to her now, it would be the ultimate betrayal of his own father. His lower lip was trembling, and his chest hitched as though he were crying tearlessly.

  “Please… Billy,” Cindy gasped, collapsing back onto the ground. “Help me…”

  Just then, the rain that had been threatening all
morning began to fall. Cold, plump drops hit her face like stinging pellets of ice, sending deep shivers racing through her body. Cindy tried to keep her eyes open, but the darkness was swirling inside her like a tornado and pulling her down… down…

  “What should I do, Aunt Cindy?”

  The desperate-sounding voice seemed to come at her from inside the torrent of darkness that was dragging her under. It sounded a bit like Billy’s, but there was a hollow, echoing quality to it that frightened her.

  Am I dying?… Is this it?… I’m dying?

  The thought filled her with a cold dread, but she also found a measure of relief in it.

  Maybe now I’ll see Debbie again… and mom and dad, and Harry, and Alice… Maybe now I’ll finally be at peace…

  The stinging drops of rain splashing against her face brought her back to awareness, at least a little bit, but the loss of blood had been too severe. As consciousness slipped away, she felt like she was floating on a dark cushion of air. The chill that had gripped her body was gradually fading away into a soothing, red heat. She sensed that someone was standing there beside her, and when she wedged open her eyes, in her shattered vision she saw, not just Billy, but someone else; it looked like a tall woman whose smiling face glowed with a soft, radiant blue glow.

  Cindy wasn’t even sure if she was talking out loud or not, but she heard herself or someone say, “Billy… go get help… the keys to the car… under the floor mat… go… drive and get… get… help!”