by Makenzi Fisk
His jaw muscles ripple and he glares at me through bloodshot eyes, curling his lip. A crow caws somewhere in the distance. He shoots a glance over his shoulder as if he’s expecting company, an imaginary search team busting out of the trees, or a band of guerrillas lying in wait.
“What are you so worried about, Trenton? Ain’t nobody here but us chickens.” The pimp dealer I got the drugs from used to say the same thing when my mom told him she couldn’t stay, couldn’t do the nasty things he wanted, because she had a kid waiting. He knew I was watching through the window. I wonder if anyone is out there right now, looking in.
I remember the stories I made up about all the people I’d killed, a half a dozen lies I’d counted off on my fingers. Most of them were bullshit. There was only my mother, and the lady I blew up by accident. I’m not sure if I should count Nina’s father. Her hand was on the knife when I pushed it in.
This is different. Now the corpses are real. I swear, my mother’s voice howls on the wind. I can almost see moss drip from her bones. Right behind her is the church lady, screaming in a blaze of fire. Shoving through them is the angry spirit of the old lady I stabbed in the neck, and the man we killed at the gas station. I’m sure they’re dead too.
A shiver that’s half pride and half fear slithers up my spine. Fear is a new sensation for me. I don’t like it. In the movies, girls run screaming from spiders and ax murderers. What should I do when my chest feels tight and my throat runs dry?
“Fuck you!” I spin the camera in a circle and record the angry shapes hunting me from the dark places. “You can’t touch me.” On the screen, it all looks normal, innocent. There is nothing out here but moss, trees and bugs. Beneath the layer of moss is swamp water, sometimes deep, sometimes just enough to wet your shoe. You never know until you put your weight on it. Any minute I could step off this path and fall through.
“Aaagh! I am a badass panther.” Furious blood pumps through my veins, warming me and chasing away my mother’s imaginary ghost.
T eyes me with his head cocked. “Anyone ever tell you that you’re a bit crazy?” His balance sways. “You really believe you’re a panther?”
“If I had my knife, I would hack out your heart.”
“Aw, sugar. You’re dangerous, and that’s the kind of crazy I like.” His lips curve upward, the little mustache bending at the corners. Even soaked to the skin in swamp shit, his hair greasy and his eyes bleary, there’s a certain smarmy appeal to him. That must be how he gets the kids. Trust me, sweet girl. I won’t hurt you. Can you help me find my puppy? He’s so pathetic that I can’t stay mad at him forever.
“Whatcha gonna do about your prize, Trenton?” We haven't seen the kid for at least fifteen minutes, and it’s all his fault. He was too friggin’ polite to watch her pee, and now she’s gone, along with my perfect revenge.
He’s such a pussy. I don’t get how he was ever gonna bring himself to do anything to her once we got to the cabin. Maybe there’s a line he needs to cross before there’s no going back. He juts his chin at me and pops another pill in his mouth. That must be what takes him over the line.
“Trenton Leslie Madison, gimme one of those.” My buzz is almost gone. I might as well take another pill too.
“You know you’re not really a panther, don’t you?” He walks away, careful to keep both feet on solid ground.
I ignore the panther comment, for now. “Come on, T. I’m just messin’ with ya. You shot the gas station guy. You’re not such a pussy.”
He swings around and his huge pupils are as dark as the hidey-hole under my grandfather’s shed.
“Give them to me.”
He holds my gaze with his weird eyes, and reaches into his pocket for the bottle.
I pop one in my mouth and wonder if my eyes are like his. I look into the lens and make faces. When I watch this later, I can say Holy shit. I’m the star after all.
“There are two places that kid can go.” I click the camera off and put it away. The battery indicator is low and I need to remember to save some juice for the final scene. “Along the river, or out to the power lines. If she’s got any brains, that’s where she’ll go, but she has to make it through there. It’s hard to cross that shit.”
T shudders. He probably inhaled a half gallon of green water before I rescued him.
“There’s a shortcut and I bet we can beat her there.” I point to the swamp and he backs up a step. “But you have to stop pissing around.”
He adjusts his cap, leaving muddy fingerprints across the brim. “I’m ready.”
Running down a bush trail with a case of beer in my arms will slow me down, but I’m reluctant to leave it behind. Finally, I convince myself that we’ll be back with the kid in a few minutes, and cram it under a tuft of cow parsnip.
“You run funny,” T says behind me. “Stiff like a scarecrow. I never noticed before.” He falls into step when I jog, his breath wheezing in his chest, and his sore leg hitting the ground with a clumpity-clump. I find the side trail and turn right. It’s overgrown and takes imagination to follow.
I keep my head low but T is upright, and branches whip him square in the face. He’s lost his polite facade, using words that would make my grandfather blush.
When the trail firms up under our feet, soggy moss, birch and willow give way to thick grass and knobby brush. Ahead, the power line pyramids stand tall. We’re close. Stealth is more important than speed. I turn to him, my finger across my lips. “Shh.”
Between ragged breaths, he manages a smile, white teeth glittering like fangs.
The birds have stopped calling. Animals have gone silent. Are they reacting to her, or us? I perk up, turning my head to catch any sound. Leaves tinkle, and fragments of bark drift through the air in my peripheral vision.
“There!”
* * *
“There!” Allie nearly dropped the controller and the drone spun sideways. The video image became a sea of green. Was that Victoria? She thumbed the toggles until it navigated back to the clearing that carved a swathe across the land. The setting sun sprayed the sky with color, and dappled the earth with elongated shadows. Which shadow had caught her eye? The high definition camera had recorded it all, sending the image feed to the smart phone, but she couldn’t waste time reviewing it now. She had to keep looking.
“You found her?” Gina squeezed beside her. “I don’t see anything but trees and the power line.”
A tiny figure wearing a blue shirt came into view. Little more than a dot on her screen, it ducked in and out of brush under the towers.
“There she is!” Gina shouted.
Allie’s body shivered with hope. “Victoria knows this area.” She’d walked that grassy line with her last year, searching for blueberries. It led all the way back to Morley Falls.
“Run home now. Run.” Gina whispered, careful not to bump Allie and lose the image. She watched a few seconds longer and then ran for the radio.
Victoria whirled, and Allie wanted to reach out, to touch the blonde hair flying in the wind, to reassure her that everything would be okay. The dot froze, and dissolved into the grass.
“No!” Two more figures approached from the woods, and she imagined them sniffing the air for the scent of their prey. One went left, the other right. She dropped altitude.
“Gina! Tell them to hurry.”
* * *
T takes off, crashing through tall grass like a moose, all long legs and bizarre angles. A squirrel scampers up a tree to yip down at us. That’s all it was, a squirrel. “Argh!” he growls. “We should make a fur mitten out of it.”
If the kid is nearby, she’ll be on her belly in the grass with all the racket he’s making. We need to flush her out. I send him north and I go south. It’s a matter of time. We’ll find her.
“Come out and play!” I try the sing-song voice my mom used on me when I was young, but it sounds stupid coming out of my mouth. “Get out here, you little shit. If I have to come and get you, you’ll regret it.”
Past the first transmission tower, T imitates me, hunched over as if he’s searching for a lost kitten, but his backbone is tense. I’m not the only predator here. That kid doesn’t have a chance.
Soon, she’ll bolt from cover, a rabbit making a zigzag into my trap. This panther will stalk her like easy prey, snatch her off her feet and sink my fangs into her throat. Hunter’s blood pumps in my veins, faster and faster, fueled by the extra pill in my gut and washed down with beer.
As if I’ve run a mile without stopping, I can’t catch my breath. Sounds magnify, twisting themselves into images from a horror movie. A slight breeze ruffles the tops of the grasses and I imagine the suspense music starting. Grasshoppers grind out their diabolical mating call, sawing one jagged leg against the other. In the sky, an ominous speck draws closer, sun glinting off one buzzing eye, its shadow tracking me.
“Come on out, sweetheart. We won’t hurt—” T goes silent. He sees the speck too. He cocks his hat on his head and stares like an old farmer watching a storm cloud take form.
Something’s coming. I feel it in the marrow of my bones, leaching into my flesh. The buzz becomes a whine, high-pitched and insistent. This might be the end. My mother is here. She wants her revenge too.
T takes his eyes off the orb and turns them on me. He’s right there but I’m alone, powerless. My skin cracks, like pottery dried too fast, and splits from my powdery bones. I crumple to my knees.
The sun is going down but my mother’s vengeful eye still tracks me, radiating angry light. She’s coming. My heart, wrapped in old leather and rusted steel, peels away from my ribs and tumbles to the ground.
“What’s wrong?” T squats beside me but he’s not real. He’s a hollowed-out version of himself, pale and colorless. The real T is tall and dark, with a baby mustache and a man’s lean muscles. “Are you tripping?”
“I’m sorry!” I shout to my mom’s shining eye, watching me, plotting her punishment.
“It’s okay. It was my fault she got away.” T wraps his arms around me and squeezes, his heart hammering against my ribs. The buzzing of my mother’s ghost vanishes. Good riddance. Was it my imagination?
“Don’t touch me!” I twist away from his sweaty embrace.
The bush behind us vibrates, and T lunges for the flash of blonde hair. Long arms extended, fingers grasping, he gets hold of her shirt sleeve and reels her in, a fish on a line, one inch at a time. The intense fire in his eye tells me to get the net because he’s ready to land her. Right before I can, she drops to her back and kicks his groin like a mallet smashing rotted wood. It takes him to his knees.
“Aww.” Guttural wind vibrates through his throat and he curls onto his side, a dying insect.
The girl’s running, and streaks toward the woods, feet kicking up behind her. There is no rabbit zigzag, no hesitation. She’s fast.
I propel myself into motion, my feline hunger for revenge a wonder drug for my empty bones. I mean to catch her but I can’t. Before I reach the trees, I’m winded. My lungs burn, and my heart hammers harder than it should. The kid outruns me, backtracking into the swamp.
“Fuck!”
I’m losing her. In the muggy green jungle, where I have to step carefully, her little feet skip from tree root to tree root, careful not to linger in one spot. “T! She’s getting away.”
He’s on his knees, crawling after me, black eyes wild. He pants like a dog, chest heaving with the effort.
“Get her. I need her.” My jawbone aches with hunger. The cop needs to pay. Her girlfriend needs to pay. Goddammit, everyone needs to pay. I don’t even care what they did any more. I want them to bleed. “Trenton, get up.”
He staggers to his feet, spine cockeyed, hat sideways. The knuckles of one bony fist dig into his chest. “Lily, I think I’m having a h-heart attack.”
I pull the revolver from my pants and point it at him. “Trenton Leslie Madison. Go get her.”
His eyes roll, and flick forward like the possessed doll in that movie. “I-I can’t.” He drops his fist to his side, watery eyes on mine. “This is the worst birthday ever.” He’s about to collapse.
“You useless fucker.” I pull back the hammer, even though T told me they only do that in movies. With my other hand, I click to record video. This is gonna be a helluva movie.
“You’re not a man. You’re a pussy.” The barrel of the gun looks ten feet long from this angle, and it’s pointed right at the middle of his old-time cowboy shirt. A gurgle starts in my belly, and matches the crazy rhythm my heart’s making.
“Please, no.”
“So long, sucker.” I tense my finger on the trigger like he showed me. How many bullets are left? Two? Three? I can’t remember, and it doesn’t matter. I have enough. Don’t pull it, just squeeze, nice and smooth.
“But I love y—”
BAM! The grip bucks in my hand when the bullet explodes. T drops and crumples backward, a drizzle of dark blood oozing from the hole in his shirt. This is nothing like the movies. There is no kicking or screaming, no dramatic music. He falls back and his whole body deflates into the weeds.
I stand over him, camera on record, but I’m not sure what to say. Goodbye might seem as if I liked him, and I can’t say I did. He was exciting sometimes. I wanted to, but I couldn’t like him.
Maybe I should have thought this scene through, or rehearsed. I poke him with the toe of my muddy shoe. Nothing happens. Why couldn’t there be screaming, sprays of blood, a gushing wound, something more fantastic?
When the barrel cools enough that it won’t burn my ass, I tuck it back into my pants. At the edge of the swamp, I straighten my shoulders as the earthy smell of moss and stagnant water summon me. A frog jumps across my path. On the hunt, I follow the little muddy footprints into the darkness.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Allie shook the drone’s controller, as if that would magically send the machine back into the air. The last thing she’d seen before she lost control, were the two figures advancing on Victoria’s hiding spot. The image had spun and the screen went black.
Then there’d been the loud bang, a noise that traveled through the forest and ricocheted off her synapses. She prayed it had only been a tree falling, a distant thunderclap, anything else.
“Did you hear that? It sounded like a gunshot.” Gina was on her toes, tense with nervous energy. She looked at the smart phone’s screen. “It’s gone. Did it crash?”
Allie wanted to hurl the controller into the sky and will it to make Victoria safe. Doppler jumped up and put his paws on her knee.
“We might have lost power, or it tried to return to its origin.” She didn’t want to talk about the gunshot. “I need to go out there and find her before it’s too late.”
Gina answered a squawk on the radio. “Chris heard it too. He told me to wait right here. He’s going in on foot with that FBI lady. Erin’s trying to come from the river trail, but the guy she’s with is having trouble keeping up, something about his shoes.”
“I can’t sit here and wait.” Energy quivered against the darkening sky, as if electricity leapt to bridge the space.
“Chris told us to stay.” Gina’s brown eyes flashed. “Dammit. Let’s go get Victoria.”
Allie ran for the Jeep, and Doppler launched himself onto the seat as soon as she opened the door. “I know a road that parallels the transmission towers. We can hike in.” A single unbreakable thread pulled at her heart like a spelunker’s safety line, a thread that stretched all the way to Victoria. Branches scraped at the sides of the vehicle, and rocks assaulted the undercarriage. She pressed the gas pedal harder. The dog whined.
Gina gripped the door handle and hastened to put on her seatbelt, anything to keep her from slamming into the dash. “I hope the FBI man with terrible shoes doesn’t mistake us for the bad guys.”
The automatic headlights activated when they plummeted down a dip in the road. They clicked back off when they crested the next hill and the last rays of sunlight blinded them. A
llie held up her hand to shield her eyes.
“Watch out!” Gina yelled.
A deer crossing the road startled as they rounded a bend, her graceful posture turning to alarm. Allie swerved and nearly lost control, the Jeep spinning sideways. It was a sharp drop into the ditch, and the tires ground to a halt inches before going over the edge.
“Holy crap!” Gina yelled, clutching the dog tight to her chest. “Could ya get us there in one piece?”
“I’m sorry. We’re so close.” Adrenaline sizzling nerve endings, Allie reversed and backed out.
In front of them, the panicked deer galloped one way, and then the other, blocking them from passing. Finally, she laid on her horn and the deer bounded sideways into the trees, white tail raised like a flag.
They drove for another quarter of a mile, until the road was blocked by a Morley Falls PD patrol car. Allie stopped behind it and they got out. Both of the cruiser’s front tires had gone over the shoulder, its bumper ground into the ditch, rear tires suspended mid-air.
“Unit forty-one is the car Ernie drives.” Gina peered through the driver’s window to the empty interior. “I heard them talking on the radio. Derek stole this.”
Allie squeezed her eyes tight. So much conflicting energy vibrated through this area that it confused her.
“Derek.” Gina looked into the woods. “Where is that crazy son of a bitch?”
“I can’t figure him out. Is he really dangerous?”
“I thought he was only a pathetic drunk, but…” Gina’s hand went to her throat. “I don’t know any more.”
“He went that way.” Allie pointed to a trampled spot in the grass. Beyond, weedy poplars gave way to a canopy of birch and pine that filtered out what was left of the light.
“Isn’t that swamp past there?”
“Yes, but there’s a trail that leads to the power lines. I think I can find it.”