by Lucian Bane
Joe didn’t dare pose questions other than, “Where do I get them?”
What opened that magic door, Joe didn’t know and didn’t care. He just slipped right in before it could shut again. He then followed Jimmy’s directions into the woods to a well-hidden shed, where to his utter glee, sat a small stock-pile of ammunition that could wage a mini-Armageddon.
Thank. You. God.
Joe loaded the bullets back into the gun now. He was at another crossroad in the mine with the black man. At his fickle mercy. He didn’t want to rock the boat and risk being turned over to those psychopaths like he’d done before. “Hows it had to bes” the nut had said. How did Joe know when they’d have another ‘how’s it has to bes’ scenario?
“Which way do we go to get out of town? Just in case something happens to you, I’d like to know which way to run.”
A low laugh sputtered out of him like that was a reeeeal good one.
“Who’s running?”
Joe jerked at the sound of Solomon’s voice and realized immediately. “You’re walking!?” A wave of joy and relief hit him. He was worried he’d have to carry him out and that would be hard if they were on their ass.
Solomon looked down at himself. “Yeah. I am.”
Joe hurried to him, his chest tight with emotion. “Thank God you’re okay,” he whispered, hugging him carefully and biting his tongue with the need to whisper, “They’re coming.”
As much as he wanted to tell him, he didn’t want to freak him out. The boy was suffering severe post-traumatic stress as it was. It was an awkward surprise to hear the muffled sounds of sexual activity through the massive dirt walls but Joe had been relieved. It meant he was healing and thank God for that.
And after seeing that girl nearly have that psychotic breakdown, he was glad for her too. As much as he wanted to be angry at her for causing this, he felt protective of her now. Her words still gave him nightmares and Jimmy’s didn’t help either. “That chile was bred all her life to carry hell inside her! She bears that boy’s torture worse than her own. And she’s had years of it!”
Joe had no idea. Solomon had mentioned it but… he’d never really believed it was this bad.
“Who’s running?” Solomon whispered now.
“We is,” Jimmy said. Joe turned and eyed the black man who now stood and walked over to them. “Lemme sees your right hand,” he told Solomon.
Solomon hesitated then held his hand up.
The black man stared into Solomon’s eyes and took hold of his wrist and turned his hand over. Then he placed an old skeleton looking key in his palm. Joe looked closer and realized it was wood. Was that what he’d been whittling for all these days? A key?
Solomon looked at it.
“Don’t ask me wut it iz,” the man said, turning to limp back to his chair. “Sawed it in a dream. Marked my mind so clear, felt I needed to make it and give it to you. Supposin you be knowin what to do with it better than me?”
Solomon’s brows raised. “I don’t…”
“Ill come son. If iz meant. Sho nuff will, don’t you worry.” The black man motioned for him to sit next to him. “Needs to talk to you.”
Joe nodded when Solomon shot him a glance then made his way over. Damn he was thin and frail.
Solomon sat in the chair by the black man and Joe remained standing, waiting, pacing. All he’d been doing for days.
“You’s met the Master,” Jimmy said, knowing. “What I needs to knowd is… did you meet the queen?”
****
Solomon’s heart hammered at the mention of Master. Yes, he’d met the Master. But the mention of the queen added enough curious confusion to keep from letting the panic of his nightmares have him. “The queen…” he shook his head. “No, I didn’t meet the queen.”
Jimmy stared at him, his head nodding like a bobble doll. “Did you sees her?” he asked, his voice frail and soft.
He shook his head. “Not that I know of.”
Jimmy turned his eyes forward and made weird moaning noises while he rocked a little, looking like he stared through some invisible window. “You neeeeeeds to meet her,” he whispered, his chin beginning to bob and move, his mouth opening. “She gots answers. She knowd the answer to duh curse. She knowd.”
“She knooooooooooooooooooooows!” The piercing scream of Chaos bolted Solomon from the chair.
He raced into the room and found her standing and staring with wide eyes like Jimmy was, gasping for breath then screaming again, “She knoooooooooooooooooooows!”
Solomon grabbed her in his arms. “Chaos! Chaos look at me!”
She turned her wide eyes up to him, full of terror. “She knows,” she whispered, “the queen knows, she knows!”
“What does she know, what does she know?”
“The curse! SHE IS THE CURSE!” she roared in wide mouthed horror.
Solomon walked with her out of the room, bringing her to Jimmy to find out what was going on, why the fuck was she saying the same thing and what did it mean!
“Help her,” Solomon shouted once he was before the man who still looked stuck on the outside of something and searching for a way back in. “Help her!” he roared at him.
“She knows, she knows,” Chaos whispered, rocking back and forth on her feet.
Jimmy stood then and looked straight into Solomon’s eyes. “And when you leavin, don’t be taken no secrets with you, cuz Ms. Mary, she real old and frail and they would hate to see her get hurt.”
What the fuck was he saying?
“How do we get out of town?” Joe demanded.
“Yous take my truck,” Jimmy turned to Joe now. He dug in his pocket and pulled out his keys. “Iz waitin fuh you on the edge of the mountain, hidin in the trees. See dis hear button?” He pointed to what looked like a vehicle alarm. “When you get to the edge of the forest by the road, press it.” He gave a slow grin. “Listen fuh da tweet. Jus follow duh tweet, keep on pressin till you heards it.”
“How do we get to the edge of the woods?” His uncle asked.
“Hurry now,” he said, pushing them toward the door. “Gots to go.”
Chaos turned in the opposite direction and Solomon grabbed her.
“I have to get Marcy!”
“Gots to go now!” Jimmy bellowed, heading out. His Uncle Joe was already loaded with weapons and hurrying out and Solomon grabbed Chaos’s hand and pulled her.
“I’ll get you another doll, Beautiful! I promise!”
“But she’ll be scared!” she cried, allowing him to pull her.
“She’s not scared, she’s brave, just like you! She’s going to guard all your things and when all this trouble blows over, we’ll come back and get her, I promise you.”
She seemed to accept that and they followed Jimmy in a quick run down the hill. It was broad daylight and Solomon’s eyes ached from the bright light.
Five minutes into their sprint, he realized he wasn’t nearly healed as dizziness clawed at his mind and a heaviness filled his limbs.
He looked back over his shoulder, ready to see black figures chasing them. The way Jimmy acted, they were right on them. His uncle Joe did the same thing in front of him.
By some miracle Solomon made it to the bottom of that hill without falling on his face. Then they ran on level ground for another mile it seemed. He was ready to call out when Jimmy stopped and pointed. “Bouts two more miles straight ahead, don’t veer. When yous reach the road, do’s as I tole you.”
Jimmy turned to Solomon. “Dis aint ova son. Dis aint hardly ova. Sees you soon.”
They resumed running and all Solomon could think was no. No, he wouldn’t see him soon. Fuck no he would not.
They finally made it to the road and his uncle began pressing the button on the key chain. He walked along the road, holding it up as he went while Solomon watched behind them. The hair on his body vibrated with dread, his mind seeing those black figures at every shadow.
“I heard it!” Solomon turned and pointed in the direction
and they raced toward it, the chirp getting louder. Just as Jimmy promised, the truck was buried in tree branches, nearly undetectable.
Looking all around, they yanked the branches from the truck and climbed in. Eyeing the woods all around, his uncle muttered, “For somebody that seems crazy, he sure has some sophisticated shit.” The engine purred to life on the first turn and his uncle thanked God and threw the truck into gear, backing onto the empty road.
They all eyed the windows and mirrors for the first five minutes. When nothing jumped out, or chased them, they finally let their breaths out a little.
Chapter Eleven
“Now, just where the hell are we? Look for a map in the glove box,” Uncle Joe instructed.
Solomon opened it and wasn’t surprised to find it bone empty. He dug around, looking under the seat coming up empty.
“So clean for a crazy man,” Chaos whispered.
At hearing her odd tone, he looked at her and saw her digging her nails into her skin on her arm, making it bleed.
He grabbed her hand and laced his fingers in them, holding it tight. She just needed something to hold, he knew that feeling.
“A sign,” Solomon said, pointing. They drove by it and Solomon made out, Camden.
“Damn, we’re clear on the other side of the mountain. It’s been a while but I know my way to the state line well enough.”
Jimmy’s words about Ms. Mary struck him with panic. “We need to get Ms. Mary and bring her with us.
“What?” his uncle cried.
“You heard Jimmy, they’re going to hurt her. I can’t leave her Uncle Joe. I’m her caretaker and I’ve been MIA, she could already be dead, she’s old! We’ll go get her and head out right after. We can even take the highway at the end of my road. It takes you to Highway 119.”
“Jesus, Solomon,” he growled. “And I still haven’t reached your dad,” he muttered. “Or I’d say he could take care of her. I think something may have happened to him too,” his uncle said, eyeing the mirrors again. “I left him a message and now I wish I hadn’t.”
“Master thinks he’s his father,” Chaos said, rocking a little.
Uncle Joe eyed him with raised brows and Solomon realized he thought she was talking crazy. Solomon remembered then what Master had said about his mother. He was a liar, but could that be true? Would his uncle know? Did Solomon even want to know the truth?
“He thinks,” Solomon muttered.
Silence reigned in the truck for several miles and that was fine with Solomon. If he never talked again about any of it, he would be thrilled. He looked out the window, his eyes watching the woods for signs of anything odd, still half expecting black figures to pour into the road and form a blockade, then drag them all to hell.
“How did you even find us?” Solomon had been wondering that since he was awake enough to think.
His uncle recounted the crazy events while eyeballing the mirrors. Solomon would have considered the whole story far-fetched except this was his uncle telling it, and so he knew they were the exact insane facts.
They finally got to Ms. Mary’s road and he turned onto it. “We go in there, we don’t visit, son, you understand? And if she doesn’t want to come, we’re leaving, are we clear?”
“Yes,” Solomon said, dread hitting him. Not come? He hadn’t thought of Ms. Mary not coming. What was he thinking? What if she refused? Would he make her? “I can’t let her stay,” he said.
His uncle was silent for a second before wondering, “You plan on kidnapping her if she refuses?”
God. He considered how long she’d been unattended. She could be dead or half starved by now. Fallen someplace and left to die, waiting for him. Images of her body eaten alive by some animal, maybe her own, the pets he’d given her for her comfort. And if she was alive, how would she fare without him? With those maniacs running loose? She had to come. Because he was pretty sure of one thing…. those demonic sonofabitches would use her to get to him if they had to.
Maybe he should drug her. His luck, he’d kill her by accidental overdose. This was so fucked up, so fucked up.
They pulled up cautiously at Ms. Mary’s and Uncle Joe turned the truck around, for a quick escape he guessed. Solomon looked around, wondering what time it was. They sat in the truck a few seconds outside her cabin, looking all around while Uncle Joe readied his weapons. He handed Solomon a hand gun. He took it gratefully as he again searched the area for any moving shadows.
“I know this place,” Chaos said lightly, looking around. “Not sure how.”
“Let’s go. In and out,” his uncle said, opening the door.
Solomon pulled Chaos with him to the front door, holding her hand in a death grip.
“You knock, I’ll guard,” his uncle whispered once on the porch.
“Ms. Mary?” Solomon knocked on the screen door loud enough to be heard if she were in a dead sleep.
“Solomon?” Her voice rang out from inside and his relief came in the form of panic as he tried the handle. She sounded frail. “Come in,” she called, “door’s open.”
“I see that,” he muttered, opening it a crack before calling, “You alone?”
“Well I ain’t got no man up in here if that’s what you mean. Just me and Dexter.”
Solomon pushed the heavy door open and the overwhelming stench of rotting trash and food he’d expected, didn’t hit him. He hurried through her place, making sure they were alone. The place was clean. Who had seen to her?
The look of shock on her face at seeing Solomon was one for the records. “What on earth happen to your noggin? Where’s all your hair and you look a fright thin!” A strange feeling hit him and Solomon went to the windows, looking around as far as he could see.
“Everything okay?” Uncle Joe asked him.
“Who you got taggin long wit ya? If I’d known I was havin company, I’da got myself presentable and cleaned up.” She gasped then. “Well… I’ll be, is that you, Joe?”
“Yes ma’am,” his uncle said. “How are you, Mary?”
“Well, I’m mighty fine,” she said, her mouth gaping in a toothless smile. “Ain’t you growed up all fine lookin!”
“Thank you Mary. You haven’t aged a day either.”
That got them a loud cackle and Solomon came before Mary and knelt. “This is Chaos, and you remember Uncle Joe.”
“Course I remember him, I’m old, not senile!” Like that was no part of the aging process. Again, he was surprised to find no smell of an abandoned elderly woman on her. “How are you feeling?” he whispered, finding her hands too cold. “Are you eating? How are you getting around, food?
“I been managing. Worried sick ova ya. Where you been?” she asked, her tone going extra quiet and secretive. “You look like you been dragged through the canals of hell!”
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered, a rush of guilt hitting him.
“What you sorry bout, stop that. I’m a grown woman, I can take care of myself.”
“Well, you seem to have managed nicely. You keeping this place clean by yourself?”
“O’ course not. Sweet Jimmy Ray been comin round to help me out. You know we was childhood best friends? Sure was. I was so happy to see him.”
Solomon was stuck on the fact that Jimmy had come by and seen about her. He was always on the verge of thinking good things about the black man, but after his capture, everything he did worried him.
He knelt before Mary then. “So hey, I have an idea,” he began in an excited voice while praying for the right words that would end in her cooperation. “I was going on a vacation and wanted to take you to visit my folks. How would you like that? See the sights together?”
Her face fell until she looked badly troubled. “Oh, honey,” she said. “There ain’t no leavin for me.”
“Why?” Her absolution filled him with dread. “It’s just for a couple days, that’s all. Then I’ll bring you right back?” He didn’t care about the lie, whatever it took to get her to come. Already he was cons
idering how he’d force her if she didn’t agree to go.
“You listen, son,” she whispered, leaning toward him a little. “This is where I’m gone die. I know you in some kinda trouble and want to protect me, but you don’t need to worry about me. You need to worry about you and your uncle and that chile with you. It ain’t safe!”
More panic hit him. “What are you talking about?”
“I get the news, you know,” she said. “And Jimmy, he knows everything in town, all the secrets too.” She added this with a proud raise of her chin, that stubborn jaw set in a crooked slant. “And you need to leave this place. It ain’t no safe for you, son.” Her face fell with a dreadful regret as she whispered, “They can’t hurt me none. Don’t you worry about that.” She gave a single firm nod. “Jimmy’s gone care after me, he told me so.” She smiled again. “Did you know him and I was best friends growing up in these parts?” She leaned back and smiled, her head bobbing a little. “Sure was. He’s coming back to watch ova me.”
“Solomon,” his uncle called with a hard tone.
He looked over his shoulder and met his let’s go now glare.
“He’s a good man that Jimmy. I sure did miss him all these years. When he came to see me, I was plum shocked out my noggin.”
“It was real good seeing you again, Mary,” Uncle Joe said, loudly.
“Quit ya yellin ole man,” Mary snapped before looking at Solomon with a wink. “Get out now. When all this blows ova, come have some coffee with me,” she said, with a sweet smile. The kind that was oblivious to how dark things actually were for him and maybe her.
Solomon stood and kissed her on the top of her head. “Bye Mary.”
“For a bit anyway.” She folded her hands in her lap, and Solomon looked around once more, his eyes landing on her laundry needing washing.
“Son,” his uncle said with a harder tone.
“Okay, Jimmy’s coming to watch her,” he said, looking at his uncle who nodded.
“Was nice meeting you Miss Mary,” Chaos called, giving a tiny wave and happy smile.
“Same here chile.” Ms. Mary seemed to see her clothes for the first time and her face crimped. “Good lort chile, what on earth you wearin bed sheets for?”