Blood Games

by Richard Laymon

  The mother shrugged.

  The kids went ahead and climbed the porch. The kitten rang the doorbell.

  ‘Should we start back?’ Vivian asked.

  ‘Might as well,’ Helen said. ‘We’re almost out of candy.’

  They walked toward the waiting mother. She nodded a greeting, then returned her attention to the girls.

  Light spilled onto the porch as the door swung open.

  A tall, thin man loomed over the girls.

  In unison, they chanted, ‘Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat!’

  ‘Scat!’ the man snapped. ‘Get outa here, ya little snots!’ He slammed the door. It crashed shut with such a clap that all three girls jumped.

  Even Abilene flinched. ‘Jesus!’ she gasped.

  The girls ran. At the sidewalk, Heather wrapped her sheeted arms around her mother’s waist. The kitten was crying, wiping her eyes with small, furry paws. ‘I wanna go home,' whined Gizmo.

  ‘I wanna kill the son of a bitch,’ Cora muttered.

  ‘You and me both,’ Abilene said. ‘Doing that to little kids.’

  ‘Let’s have a word with him,’ Vivian said. She strode across the lawn, heading for the porch, her black gown flapping in the wind. Then Cora was at her side. Finley rushed after them. Helen and Abilene followed.

  Glancing back, Abilene saw the mother hurrying away down the sidewalk, the three girls clustered close around her.

  The dirty bastard, she thought. Her throat felt tight.

  The little kids had been out having a wonderful time. It had been ruined, now. They’d been scared half to death. For the rest of their lives, they would probably always remember tonight and the horrible man who’d yelled at them. Halloween would never be quite the same for them. It would always be tainted.

  Thanks to one thoughtless, selfish bastard.

  She trotted up the porch stairs as Vivian jabbed the doorbell button. She heard the bell jangling inside the house. Again and again.

  The door swung open.

  The man standing in the lighted foyer was not an old grouch. He was young, probably no older than thirty. He looked perfectly normal in his plaid shirt and jeans, his short hair neatly combed. But his eyes were narrow, his lips twisted with a sneer.

  ‘What the hell do you want?’

  ‘What the hell is the matter with you?’ Vivian demanded. ‘We saw what you did to those little kids. There’s no excuse for that kind of behavior.’

  ‘It’s Halloween, for Godsake,’ Cora said.

  ‘They were just trying to have fun,’ Abilene said.

  ‘Shouldn’t have rung my bell, should they?’

  ‘If you don’t like it, you shouldn’t have opened the door,’ Abilene told him. ‘Why’d you have to scare them like that!’

  ‘It was really shitty,’ Finley said.

  ‘Awwww, I’m so sorry.’

  ‘You should be,’ Helen said.

  Leaning forward, he raised his upper lip high enough to bare his gums. He turned his head slowly as if inspecting a group of repulsive but somewhat amusing lepers. ‘Get out of here. Fuck off.’

  With that, he slammed the door.

  At a twenty-four hour convenience store several blocks away, they bought a dozen eggs, a can of shaving cream, and a pair of rubber dish-washing gloves. As the clerk loaded the items into a paper bag, Cora helped herself to a couple of free matchbooks.

  ***

  On their way back to the man’s house, they found a pile of dog waste in the grass beside a tree.

  ‘Allow me,’ Finley said.

  Cora emptied the bag. Finley put on the rubber gloves, picked up the rank, gooey pile, and dropped it into the bag. She tossed the gloves in after it.

  They arrived at the house.

  Its porch was still dark, but faint light glowed through the living room curtains.

  Cora took the bag from Finley. Helen, Vivian, Finley and Abilene crouched down beyond a corner of the porch. From there, they watched Cora through slats in the railing.

  Abilene trembled. She gritted her teeth to stop her chin from shaking as Cora climbed the stairs.

  Crazy, she thought. This guy might be dangerous.

  But he’d asked for it. And he’s gonna get it.

  Cora slid the welcome mat out of the way. She placed the bag just in front of the door. Squatting, she struck a match. She touched its flame to the crumpled paper. As fire crawled over the bag, she sprang up, poked the doorbell a couple of times, and rushed down the stairs.

  Reaching the middle of the lawn, she whirled around in time to see the man throw open his door.

  ‘Shit!’

  He leaped over the threshold and stomped the blazing bag. Embers flew. Abilene heard a soft splat. His ankle, bare above the top of his house slipper, went dark.

  ‘Yeeeuug!’

  But he kept stomping until the fire was out. Then he lifted his foot and looked at it. Then he looked at Cora.

  ‘Trick or treat!’ Cora called.

  ‘Cunt! ’ He lurched across the porch, gasped when his clotted slipper skated sideways, but kept his balance and raced down the stairs.

  Cora took off.

  The man dashed after her.

  He was hot on her tail by the time she reached the sidewalk. There, she ducked her head and sprinted. The guy went after her. A moment later, they were both out of sight.

  ‘Man, was he ever pissed,’ Finley said.

  ‘What if he catches her?’ Helen asked.

  ‘He won’t,’ Finley said.

  ‘Come on.’ Abilene rose from her crouch. She led the way along the front of the porch and up the stairs toward the open door. Her legs felt weak and shaky. Her heart pounded.

  ‘I sure hope nobody else is here,’ Vivian whispered.

  ‘Who would live with a jerk like that?’ Abilene said.

  ‘Another jerk, maybe,’ Helen suggested.

  Careful to avoid the charred remains and brown smears, Abilene stepped onto the threshold. She leaned forward. To the right of the tile foyer was the living room. From where she stood, she couldn’t see much of it.

  She heard nothing except her own heartbeat.

  ‘Let’s do it and get out,’ Vivian whispered.

  Nodding, Abilene shook the can of shaving cream and pried off its lid. She crept across the foyer and stepped onto the carpet. The television was off. The only light came from a single lamp at one end of the sofa. Its dim bulb left deep shadows in the corners of the room.

  ‘Nobody here,’ Finley said.

  ‘I guess…’

  An egg came from behind, dropped just in front of Abilene’s face and shattered on the carpet at her feet.

  ‘Watch it.’

  Finley laughed.

  Another egg sailed by. This one smashed against the wall above the TV set. Its viscous contents splattered and dribbled. Turning around, Abilene watched Finley and Vivian pluck more eggs from the carton in Helen’s hand and hurl them. The missiles exploded, splashing yellow glop against walls, the ceiling, a lamp table, a rocking chair barely visible in one corner.

  Abilene hurried over to the coffee table. A glass half full of soda was there. With a quick squirt, she gave the soda a frothy head of shaving cream. Eggs exploding all around her, she drew curlicues of suds on the table top. Then she went to the sofa. Its upholstery was covered with something that looked like an old bedspread, so she figured the shaving cream wouldn’t do any real damage. She started at the lighted end of the sofa and made her way down its length, leaving thick, fluffy designs along its cushions.

  She kept her eyes on the job.

  Until she came to the far end of the sofa.

  In the gloom between Abilene and the wall, some five feet away, she saw a chair. She’d noticed the chair earlier. Hidden in a dark corner as it was, however, she hadn’t realized it was a wheelchair. Nor had she noticed that it wasn’t empty.

  Something was in the chair.

  A bundle of blankets topped with a sm
all, gray orb that almost resembled a head.

  Her heart gave an awful lurch.

  She stared at the thing. It didn’t move. It didn’t make a sound. The head really didn’t look much like a head, at all, more like a shriveled grapefruit perched on a stalk above the blankets. But it seemed to have a face.

  A dummy? A mannequin? Maybe one of those inflatable sex dolls.

  ‘Hey,’ she gasped. ‘Over here.’

  ‘What is it?’ Finley came up beside her. ‘What is it?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘We’ve gotta get out of here,’ Vivian said, hurrying over with Helen to see what they’d found.

  Finley pulled a flashlight out of a pocket of her coveralls. She switched it on. She aimed it at the thing in the wheelchair.

  The small head was hairless, the color of wet, dead leaves. Its face looked like something that a careless child might’ve formed out of papier-mache: lumpy, ragged flesh; eyes holes poked by fingertips; a couple of quick pinches to make the nose; a slit for a mouth; a tiny knob of chin.

  ‘It… it isn’t a corpse, is it?’ Helen whispered.

  ‘Christ, no,’ Finley said. ‘It’s just a dummy. A homemade dummy, at that.’

  ‘It’s hideous,’ Vivian muttered.

  ‘Maybe that bastard has some Halloween spirit, after all,’ Finley said. ‘Hold the flashlight. I’ve gotta get this.’

  She gave the light to Abilene.

  Then she raised her video camera, turned around for a slow pan of the trashed living room, and pointed her lens at the ghastly thing in the chair. ‘Say cheese,’ she said.

  It said, ‘Cheese.’

  The slash of its mouth spread open and it said, ‘Cheese,’ the word rolling out slow and deep like a voice on a record player at low speed. A tinny, scratchy voice. A voice that resounded as if spoken in an echo chamber.

  Finley gasped, ‘Fuck!’

  Helen made a high, whiny noise.

  Vivian gagged.

  Abilene wet her pants.

  The four girls didn’t stop running until they reached the convenience store. Cora, as planned, was waiting outside its door.

  ‘I got away from that bastard quicker than… What’s the matter with you guys?’

  She was answered with shaking heads as the girls struggled for breath.

  Helen removed the noose from around her neck, and pulled off the sheet. Crumpling it, she slumped against the store wall. ‘He didn’t catch you, did he?’

  Vivian shook her head. She was bent over, hands on knees, in his house,’ Abilene gasped. ‘He had… a guy. Someone. In a wheelchair.’

  ‘It didn’t look human,’ Finley blurted.

  ‘Like a dummy. Something. Horrible.’

  ‘Its face,’ Vivian murmured.

  ‘What was wrong with him?’ Abilene gasped.

  ‘What was right with him?’

  ‘Never… seen anything like it,’ Vivian said. ‘God. I’m gonna have nightmares forever.’

  Abilene met Cora’s eyes. ‘You’re really lucky. You didn’t see him.’

  ‘Oh, come on. He couldn’t have been that bad.’

  ‘Oh, yeah?’ Finley asked.

  Back at their apartment, Finley inserted the tape cassette in the VCR. She fast-forwarded past the skirmish with the four teenagers…

  Then the living room of the house was on the television screen. Eggs splattered everywhere. Thick curls of shaving cream on the coffee table, the sofa.

  ‘Boy,’ Cora said, ‘you done good.’

  Abilene couldn’t watch the rest. She stood very still, itchy in her damp corduroys, and watched Cora.

  Cora’s eyes went wide. ‘Holy shit,’ she said.

  When the thing said, ‘Cheese,’ the color left her face.

  Finley shut off the tape.

  ‘Maybe that’s why the man was such a creep,’ Vivian said. ‘I mean, he lives with that. Takes care of it. Maybe it’s… one of his parents, or something.’

  ‘We shouldn’t have trashed the place,’ Abilene muttered. ‘Oh God. How could we?’

  ‘We didn’t know,’ Finley said. ‘I’m gonna tape over that part. I never wanta see that thing again. I don’t even wanta think about it.’

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  A tickle on her shin roused Abilene from sleep. A moment later, she felt the tickle moving. She bolted upright, saw a spider scurrying toward her knee, and whisked it off. Squirmy with goose-flesh, she inspected her legs and arms. Nothing else seemed to be on her. Except for a film of dew, which made her skin feel clammy and had dampened the front of her blouse and skirt.

  She stretched and yawned. The morning air was pleasantly warm, not yet hot. Though no sunlight was on her, she saw paths of dusty gold slanting down through the trees.

  Probably no later than seven o’clock, she supposed.

  She’d slept very well. It looked like a beautiful morning, and she felt wonderful until she remembered the task that awaited her and the others: returning to the pool and searching for the keys.

  Won’t be so bad in daylight, she told herself.

  Then we’ll be out of here.

  If we find them.

  Ought to wake up the rest of them and get it over with.

  On the sleeping bag next to Abilene, Finley continued to sleep. Helen’s bag was flat against the ground. She’d crawled into it last night, in spite of the heat.

  But she wasn’t in there now.

  Abilene scanned the clearing. Cora and Vivian continued to sleep. There was no sign of Helen.

  With a flutter of worry, Abilene decided that she must’ve gone off. To take a pee, or something.

  Her blouse and Bermuda shorts were still spread out on top of her sleeping bag. But her swimsuit was missing. So were her shoes.

  She must’ve taken the suit with her, Abilene thought, to put on after she finished.

  She’ll be back in a minute.

  Abilene waited, sitting motionless, listening. The forest was noisy with birds. There were rustling sounds. Buzzes and hums of insects. But no heavy, crunching sounds. Nothing that might indicate a person moving about.

  How far did she go, anyway?

  Helen was really too timid to go wandering off alone.

  Wasn’t she?

  It passed through Abilene’s mind that someone might’ve found the encampment and taken her. But that seemed very unlikely. Why would anyone just grab Helen? And how could that happen without a struggle that would’ve disturbed the rest of them? Besides, nobody abducting her would’ve bothered to take her swimsuit and shoes.

  No, she’d gotten up and left of her own free will.

  In her swimsuit.

  Good God!

  No, she wouldn’t. She wouldn’t dare go back to the lodge by herself. To go swimming and look for the keys.

  She’d offered to go in and search for them last night. Not alone though.

  But what if she woke up just a while ago? Already daylight. Everyone else still sleeping. And she’d decided to go ahead and find the keys and return and surprise everyone.

  Any minute, she might come tromping through the woods, all wet and grinning, holding up the key case, saying, ‘Look what I found.’

  She might be in the pool right now.

  Maybe not alone. Maybe struggling, this very moment, with the guy who’d thrown their things in the water last night.

  Sick with worry, Abilene shook Finley awake. As the girl groaned and mumbled, she twisted around and shook Cora. ‘Wake up. Quick. Everyone. Helen’s gone.’

  ‘Huh?’ Finley murmured. ‘Whuh?’

  ‘She’s gone! I think she went to find the keys.’

  Abilene slipped into her moccasins as the others stirred and sat up.

  ‘Holy shit,’ Cora said.

  ‘We’ve gotta go after her. Quick.’

  ‘Helen’s gone?’ Vivian asked.

  ‘When did she leave?’ Finley asked.

  ‘I don’t know! I don’t know! I just woke up. She wasn’t here. She too
k her swimsuit.’

  ‘She must’ve gone to the pool,’ Cora said.

  On her feet, Abilene turned slowly and scanned the woods. When she turned toward the east, she saw the lodge. It had been out of sight, last night, only because of the darkness. Now, bits of it were visible beyond the trees. It was no more than a hundred yards away.

  ‘My God,’ Abilene said, ‘it’s right there. She must’ve gotten up and seen how close we were.’

  ‘I can’t believe she’d go without us,’ Vivian said.

  ‘She sure went somewhere,’ Finley said.

  Cora called, ‘Helen! Helen!’

  No answer came.

  Abilene rushed into the trees. As she dodged trunks and ducked under low limbs, she heard the others following. Soon, she left the trees behind. She raced through the high grass and weeds of the field. Vision jarring, she scanned the length of the lodge, its windows and porch and doors, the driveway and garage area off to the right. No Helen. No one at all.

  Straight ahead, the front of the Wagoneer came into view. She ran toward the car. The springy foliage gave way to concrete that smacked her feet through her moccasins. Abruptly, she slowed, knowing that if she took the slope at full speed, she would probably tumble headlong. With short strides, she hurried down alongside the car.

  And stopped behind it. There, resting on the pavement, was a cardboard box. One that they’d left in the car last night. The box contained packages of cookies, potato chips, crackers and cheese puffs.

  Cora, halting beside her, looked at the box. ‘This explains plenty.’

  Finley, huffing, said, ‘What’d she do? Stop by for a snack?’

  ‘Looks that way,’ Cora said.

  ‘Someone else might’ve done it,’ Abilene suggested.

  ‘Must’ve been Helen,’ Vivian said. ‘God, we should’ve just let her eat what she wanted.’

  ‘If she came here for food,’ Finley said, ‘where is she now?’

  ‘I still think she went to find the keys,’ Abilene said. ‘I mean, why the swimming suit?’ Without waiting for a response, she made her way down the steep pavement. At the bottom, she scanned the rear grounds. Seeing no one, she peered around the corner of the lodge.

  Near the edge of the outside pool were Helen’s sneakers. Propped up between them was an open plastic bag.