by Makenzi Fisk
“I trust you, Allie. I don’t totally understand what’s going on in your noggin’ but I know it’s something special, something good, and you’re stronger now than I’ve ever seen you.” Gina’s chest rose sharply and fell. “But Lily’s not the same kid that used to shoplift in my store. Derek’s different too. And there’s the boy. I’m a bit scared.”
“Me too, but I don’t sense any danger from the boy. I don’t sense him at all.” The thread that connected her to Victoria pulled with urgency. “I have to go.” For the first time she realized that she wasn't ill, did not have a headache and wasn’t losing control. She was focused and confident.
The trail through the swamp beckoned. Colors clung to the grass like smoke, lazily swirling downward. Doppler barked and bounded after them, as if he scented the vibrant blues and greens she saw, the colors that dissolved when she walked through them. An acrid tang stung her nostrils, and her stomach rebelled against the metallic taste on her tongue. She spat it out.
Gina whispered their location into the radio, and got a squelch of alarm back. “Stay in the car and wait,” was all they understood.
Allie shook her head. “I can’t.” She turned to follow the dog, his tail sticking straight out behind him. “Maybe you should stay,” she called over her shoulder.
Gina tucked the radio into her pocket, and was beside her with a crash of brush and a hastily-muttered curse. “No way. I’m scared shitless, but I’m coming. What if this was my kid?”
They ran after the dog, leaping fallen trees and dodging branches. Doppler whined in anticipation and Allie felt his energy pull her as much as Victoria’s. An ominous thrum, dark and oily in the back of her mind, reminded her that Lily too was out there.
The light was faint under the cover of trees, but she found the path she knew was there and they followed it as it wound its way over higher ground. All around them, a chorus of frogs and insects joined in one last deafening tribute to daylight. There was a subtle change in the air, as if the forest sounds sharpened, and separated into individual voices. The cushion of moss beneath her feet transitioned to solid footing, grass brushed her pant legs. She stopped when they got close enough to see the towers, steel arms outstretched like sentinels.
The sky flushed muted sunset colors but, above the clearing, anger churned like black clouds, like hate.
“What’s happening?” Gina whispered. Tail drooping, Doppler whined and circled them.
“Something terrible.” Allie turned away, couldn’t bear to feel it. She had to block it out or she’d never be able to find Victoria. Icy fingers traced her spine when she ran the opposite direction.
A few hundred yards further, they found another trail into the woods. Well-worn, Allie recognized it as the one she’d taken last year to come berry picking with the kids. Last year, when the sun was shining, and no homicidal lunatics were stealing children.
Their biggest worry was the hungry bears lumbering along the edge of the blueberry patch, looking for the best spots. They’d never encountered one, but had an emergency plan in place if they ever did. ‘Put down your pails, kids,’ she’d say. ‘Leave them right there and, quiet as you can, follow me back to the car. Stick together and we’ll be fine.’
The kids loved the adventure, made a game out of practicing to walk silently in a pack. Now Victoria was out here with a predator worse than a hungry bear. She was in the hands of a soulless monster.
Allie clutched her stomach as she ran. The scar burned as if it had opened wide, raw and angry. When she’d been stabbed, Lily’s face had been oddly devoid of expression, as if she had no idea what to do until Allie reacted. Was Victoria seeing that face right now?
When she couldn't hear Gina’s ragged breath, she turned to see that she had fallen behind. She waved her arm in a hurry up gesture.
“Go,” Gina panted. “I’ll catch up.”
Allie didn’t want to leave her, but the thread’s pull was insistent. With Doppler at her heels, she let it lead her.
The sunset faded, leaching the remainder of light from the forest. Branches tore at her face, tugged at her clothes. Doppler yelped when she struck him with her heel, but she had no time to stop and reassure him. One misstep might land her in the swamp, twist an ankle, or worse.
The trees parted, and she found herself at the side of the road. She bent to catch her breath, to check if her belly really was bleeding. The jagged scar looked the same as always. A growl rumbled from the dog’s throat and she pulled her shirt back down.
“Why didn’t you die?” Lily stepped out, her arm crooked around Victoria’s neck. In her other hand, the shiny barrel of a gun pointed at the frightened girl’s head.
Doppler barked, his little legs bouncing off the ground with the effort.
Lily narrowed her eyes. “I think I’ve met that dog before. At your friend’s house in Winnipeg.”
“He bit you, didn't he?” Allie shifted her weight and took a step forward. The blood droplets on the cereal box in the cupboard. Doppler had bitten Lily out of fear. “I won’t let him bite you again, if you let Victoria go.”
Lily threw her head back and laughed. “Let him try. I’ll shoot him on the spot.” She swung the revolver toward Doppler and a strange gurgle bubbled in her throat.
Victoria’s eyes were wide, cheeks flushed as if she’d been running too. She coughed at the pressure on her throat.
“Should I shoot her?” She pressed the barrel into Victoria’s temple and the girl winced, clenching her jaw tight. “This little shit gave me a world of trouble today. Thanks for the knife, by the way. It’s mine now.” She jostled Victoria as if they were old friends exchanging a joke. Victoria turned her face away.
“Or should I shoot you ?” Lily swiveled the gun to Allie and bared her teeth. “Are you gonna put a hex on me? A witch spell or something? I wish I could record this with my camera. It would be awesome, but I’d rather kill you.”
White hot energy surged through Allie’s veins, pure and focused. Doppler whined and peeped from behind her leg. “Put the gun down.” The words came out of her mouth, but it sounded far away. Motion slowed. There was time. “You can run, you can escape.”
A siren wailed in the distance, then another. Gina had the radio. She’d called for help, but did they know which way to go?
Lily loosened her grip on Victoria’s neck and a flicker of doubt crossed her face. “Why didn’t you die?” A moment of fear. “Why does my mother haunt me?”
“You do that to yourself.” Allie didn’t believe in ghosts, not the kind Lily was talking about. Regrets of the past, memories of terrible things, those were the ghosts she believed in.
The jagged edges of Lily’s energy wavered. “How do I kill her if she’s already dead?”
Allie narrowed her eyes. “You can’t. Let go of the girl and run.”
Lily flinched. “I-I’m not running. I’m the badass panther!” She twisted a handful of Victoria’s hair in her fist, and brought the revolver up.
Allie wanted to leap at her, to tear the gun from her hand, to put her arms around Victoria and make her safe. Wait. Wait a moment longer. She clenched her fists and stood motionless on the road.
“Stop!” A man’s voice boomed from the dark. Derek. Would he help? Something terrible was about to happen.
Lily hesitated, twisting the handful of hair until Victoria cried out. Doppler exploded from Allie’s safety, a snarl on his tiny muzzle. He leapt into the air and sank his teeth into the soft flesh inside Lily’s elbow, twisting and thrashing. She howled and the gun thudded onto the road. The dog hung on until she swung her fist at him.
Go. Go. Go! Allie rushed in and blocked her punch until Doppler released and skittered back to his feet. “Let her go!” She pummeled Lily with her fists in a tidal wave of protective instinct.
Lily sagged under her onslaught. “I’m sorry mommy.” She crouched in the dirt, arms covering her head while Doppler barked in her ear.
Victoria tugged at the back of Allie’s sh
irt until she backed away. Allie grabbed her hand and gripped it tight. No matter what, she would keep this child safe.
Her twin sister had been right when she’d said Victoria was a fast runner. The girl matched Allie pace for pace as they sprinted with Doppler at their heels. They didn’t stop to catch their breath until long after Lily was out of sight.
Victoria hiccupped a sob. “Auntie Allie, I tried to be brave like you.”
“Oh, sweet girl. I was so proud of how brave you were.” She drew her into her arms.
“You were like a mama bear. Better than Auntie Vicky’s stories.”
Allie hugged her again. They were safe but Lily was still back there, and the sirens were getting closer. “Gina’s coming for us. We need to meet her.”
They hurried to a fork in the road and arrived moments before the headlights of an unmarked car, with her Jeep on its tail, flooded over them. Victoria waved, and they skidded to a stop. Gina exited the Jeep at the same time Erin leapt out her door.
“You’re safe!” Erin reached for both of them.
They threw their arms around each other, cheeks colliding in a flurry of relief. When Gina cried, tears rolled down Victoria’s cheeks too.
“Did you radio Chris?” Allie lowered her voice. “Did he catch the boy?”
“He’s with him now.” Gina gave a small shake of her head. Lily’s boyfriend was dead.
“Where’s the female suspect?” Gonzales called out the open door.
Allie pulled out of the hug and pointed down the road. “She was a half mile that way. We’ll go with Gina to your parents’ house. Victoria’s mom and dad should be there soon, and they’ll be so happy to see her.” She wrapped her arm around the girl’s shoulder and met Erin’s eye. “Go catch Lily.”
“I will,” Erin assured her. She got back behind the wheel. “Is she armed?”
Allie nodded. “She has a gun.”
“Let’s go.” Gonzales racked the tactical shotgun in his hands.
“Be careful, Erin. Derek is with her, and…” Allie bent to whisper in her ear.
CHAPTER THIRTY
“Lily! Stop!” Derek squinted through the dusk at the figures on the road. He hadn’t even been sure it was his daughter until she spoke. She’d been talking about killing whoever was up there with her, and she had a gun. Where the hell had she gotten a gun? The last time he’d seen her, she’d been a child, not unlike the one she was holding by the hair.
A dog barked and someone yelled. Two people ran away, leaving Lily standing alone. He hurried across the grass and through the ditch. If he’d known she’d come out here, he could have stayed on the damn road, instead of trundling his ass through the swamp. The back of his neck was a mass of insect bites, but he didn’t bother to scratch them, not now, not when he’d finally found his daughter. “What are you doing, sweetie?”
Lily turned, one hand squeezed over her opposite elbow, dark blood dripping through her fingers. “A demon bit me. I tried to kill it.” She wiped her hands on her pants. “You got a cigarette?”
What had happened to make her like this? Was it his fault? Was it the fault of both her parents? That left the blame squarely on his shoulders. He’d failed, in so many ways. Tiffany was gone. Dead. Her cracked skull dumped with her bones in Gunther’s bog. How was Lily involved in that?
Somewhere far away, a woman shouted. Lily picked up the revolver, holding it in her palm as if she was considering its weight, its ability to wreak destruction despite its size. She curled her fingers around the grip and pointed it directly at Derek’s chest.
“Dad?” She didn’t appear surprised to see him, as if she’d expected it. The skin of her face was smooth, as pale in summer as in winter, no matter how much time she spent outside. He used to joke that the sun bounced right off her. Her cool green eyes regarded him from beneath colorless brows, the resemblance to his own somewhat disconcerting. It was as if she were the younger, female version of himself. Where he was thick and muscular, she was slim as a willow, and just as resilient. The biggest difference was that he burned like a hairless pig. Burn, peel, burn, peel, all summer long.
“I shot T, out by the power lines. It wasn’t like I thought it would be,” she said.
“Okay, we can talk about that, sweetie.” Derek held out his trembling hands, palms up, the way you’d calm a small child or wild animal. She was neither. Both. She’d killed her boyfriend. “Why don't you put the gun down first?”
“But I need a climax before the credits roll.”
“What?” He took a slow step toward her. His alcohol-starved brain screamed for caution. Lily had always been unpredictable, and now she held a gun.
She reached into her pocket, brought out a cell phone and thumbed a button on the side. Lens turned to her face, she addressed the camera. “Okay, so the battery is dying. I need to hurry and film my final scene. It was gonna be different, but this will have to do. And… action!” She turned it around toward Derek and held out the gun so it would be in the shot.
He took a step back, his shaking legs threatening to buckle. “Whoa! No. Let’s not do this.”
Lily giggled. “Good. That was good. Reaction. I love that.” She closed the space between them. “Hey, dude, did you know your ear is missing? Did the monster bite it off? He bit me too.” She showed him her elbow with its tiny drizzle of blood.
“Yes, the monster bit me. Look, we have something in common. Let’s talk, sweetie. Put the gun down and I’ll help you make your movie, or whatever you’re doing with that camera.”
Lily narrowed her eyes. “Whatever I’m doing? Don’t talk to me like I’m a kid. I’ve never been a kid. I’m making the best action movie of all time. You should be grateful that I’m putting you in it.”
Derek could have sworn that his stomach had emptied hours ago, but now fiery whiskey burned his throat. “No, you’re making a mistake. It’s not too late.”
A high-pitched wail sounded in the distance. Goddamn Ericsson, or Zimmerman. They’d never stop dogging him.
Lily’s spine straightened. “This keeps getting better.”
“It’s time to do the right thing, sweetheart. They want me too. Let’s turn ourselves in. We’ll go together and sort everything out. I’ll stick by you, you know I’d do anything for you.”
“Would you die for me?” She thumbed the hammer back and tensed her finger on the trigger. “Bang!”
His intestines twisted sideways and he nearly passed out.
“Ha, ha. You flinched.” She eased the hammer forward. She was toying with him. Trying to get her old man to wet his pants out of fear for her goddamn video.
“That’s not funny.” He’d always been a permissive father. It was time to be a real parent. He reached for the gun.
Her eyes narrowed. “Here comes the climax.”
His fingers closed around the cylinder as she squeezed. It rotated and bucked in his hand when the firing pin struck the primer. A molten hammer pounded Derek’s upper thigh, taking the strength of his leg out from under him. He groaned and fell to his side. Heat spread to his groin.
Lily leaned over him, camera in his face. “Aren’t you gonna do something? Scream, or fight?”
An unmarked car rounded the bend in the road, and its siren abruptly halted when it came to a stop.
She panned over with the camera, “Fuckin’ Ericsson’s here,” and panned back. “You still wanna turn yourself in?”
There was yelling, and a flurry of activity as Erin and the male FBI agent exited. They took cover behind the engine block. She’d called him Gonzales, like Speedy Gonzales. Derek smiled at the thought of the fast little Mexican mouse and wished Lily could have had a normal childhood, watching cartoons in her pajamas with her parents. Things might have been different.
“Drop your weapon!” Someone called out.
His life was spilling from him, but he willed himself to stay conscious when his body yearned to curl into a ball and, what? Die? Maybe death didn’t scare him as much as it used to.
Hopes for a family were gone, but he had to know.
“Tell me what happened to Tiff— to your mom.”
Lily’s jaw twitched. Was she smiling?
“Step away from him!” Erin shouted. “We can talk.”
Lily bent as if all her bones melted at once. She pressed the gun to his forehead. “That’s what we’re doing, right? We’re talking. We don’t need her poking her nose in our business.”
“Tell me,” he said. His vision fogged, and despite the summer heat, his feet were cold. “It was an accident, what happened with your mom, wasn’t it?
“I wanted it to happen. I made it happen.” She pointed the camera at the hole the bullet had torn in his pant leg. “That’s awesome.”
Blood gushed every time his pulse pounded. Here he was, bleeding out, and she was talking about shooting him the way another kid might talk about homework, or a decadent dessert. She enjoyed watching her father bleed to death.
Erin was still yelling but he couldn’t make out the words. Why was she here? She would never leave him alone.
“It was… an accident. You were… a child.”
“I told you. I was never a child,” Lily spat. “Mother said you were gonna marry her. Talked about it like it would solve all her problems, my problems. Did you know she was afraid of me? Who’s scared of their own kid? Anyway, she always liked drugs more than she liked me. She said she stopped, but she would have used again, you know.”
Derek’s throat closed, his lungs grew heavy. He was so tired.
“I wanted to kill her and the opportunity appeared, out of nowhere. She took me for a picnic, but I pushed her in the swamp and smashed her head. I hated her. I thought she was gone, but she haunts me.” She looked at her phone’s screen. “Scheisse, my battery’s dead.”
* * *
“Dad?” I don’t remember if I ever called him that. He was more like a servant. My minion. He’d do anything I told him. His blood squirts between my fingers and drips off my elbow. The greedy dirt drinks it up, leaving a stain that will be gone with the next rain. If we were in a movie, the pool of blood would be big enough for us both to lie in, on our backs, laughing and making cherry-colored angels.