by Hunter Shea
“It’s about time,” she moaned.
John’s heart raced as he kissed the space between her breasts, working his tongue across the goose pimpled flesh until her nipple was in his mouth. She pulled away and held his face in her hands.
She was beautiful. It had been so long since he’d been with a woman and the lust he thought he’d buried for good came roaring back to life. She flashed a devilish smile and went to her knees, unzipping his pants and caressing his hard cock. She didn’t waste any time, slipping her mouth around him, sucking him down to his balls.
“Oh my God,” he moaned.
As he watched her head bob up and down on his lap, he was suddenly struck by one of his last memories of Anne and their final night, before the fight. How badly they had wanted each other, finally getting a chance before they were both too tired. How well she knew his desires, expertly stroking him as her tongue played across his head.
For a moment, he saw Anne’s face instead of Eve’s. His body stiffened, and Eve whispered while massaging him, “Something wrong?”
She didn’t wait for a reply, instead straddling his lap and guiding him inside her. Eve grabbed the back of his chair and started to grind against him, her breasts swaying and slapping against his face. John closed his eyes, afraid to see Anne once again. Eve moaned louder and he felt himself ready to come.
When he opened his eyes, Eve was no longer astride his lap, nor was Anne. An oily black shadow rode him while two others held his hands to the arm of the chair. When he tried to scream, the shadow swarmed over his mouth, silencing his cries.
Faster and faster it pumped, until, against his own will, he went rigid with orgasm. Ashamed and terrified, he hung his head.
Looking up again, he was alone once more, the white snow still dancing on the computer screen. Glancing down, he saw his pants were still on, though tented from his hard-on.
“What the hell?”
Still breathing heavily, he looked around, searching the dark corners of the room for lurking shadows. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched.
Something on the computer caught his eye.
A black blob inched its way up the screen in stark contrast to the sea of white blinking flakes. He stared in amazement as it took shape until it was a featureless human head.
His speakers blared to life.
“Give them to us.” The jade head burst into hundreds of black rain drops and faded from the screen.
For the first time in all his years investigating the unknown, John was afraid.
Chapter Forty
Sheriff High Bear had stormed from the council meeting that was held at Cheryl’s Diner after closing time. He had enough on his mind without catering to that gaggle of scared old geezers.
They’d all been there, from the oldest member Pati Samson at ninety, to Muriel Hawkins and her high and mighty ways. As they blathered on about the white man and his family powering ixitqusiqjuk, bad spirits, it was all he could do not to lash out at them. He knew deep down that Nuna Goodlife had poisoned Erica against him. The meddling old witch had been a thorn in his side for year.
Despite knowing all along that their relationship would eventually fizzle out, Erica realizing old men don’t make good on long term plans, having lost her to the intervention of Nuna on behalf of the council was too much.
So he’d stared at their wrinkled, tan faces. Henry, Sooleawa, Agnes, Niyoc, Thomas, Feather and the dozen others were in attendance, all ordering him to send the white man away. Someone had heard about a gathering at the house with Muraco’s gang and they were terrified of the implications.
“What do you want me to do? Kill them?” he’d said scornfully in the midst of their cries.
Their silence provided his answer.
“There are kids involved. This isn’t like the old times.”
Agnes Riggs had raised a hand to shush them all. She said, “We have children, too. It is worse than the old times. Would you kill Shida’s children instead?”
“Like Millie,” someone lamented. “She paid the price for her grandfather’s sins.”
He’d had enough. He left the diner, jumped into his truck and drove, stopping home at one point to pick up a bottle of Wild Turkey.
By midnight, he was drunk and broken as a Hank Williams melody. Even the Wild Turkey couldn’t dull his emotions. He was sad Erica was gone, angry at the council, sick at the thought of reliving the past and most of all, fearful of going to that house.
Gary hadn’t been there since the Bolster family turned up missing, and even then he was surrounded by people, never alone. He’d been alone up there plenty of times in the past and had most certainly worn out his welcome.
He took another shot of Wild Turkey and felt it sting the back of his throat.
Damn the council. There were other ways. He’d march up there right now and roust them out of bed. Order Backman to pack his bags and get the hell out. Sure, he’d scare him if he had to, maybe even threaten to kill them all. But they would leave. By the break of day, they would leave.
There was too much blood up there. It was in the ground, in the roots of the trees, the blades of grass, within the veins of the dry leaves. He’d be damned to start that up again.
He killed the headlights as he pulled up the driveway on Fir Way.
The forest around him was silent, save for the occasional skittering of leaves in the wind. Standing outside his truck, his mind wandered.
“This’ll teach you to follow me here!”
“What are you doing? I’m a cop. Are you crazy?”
“Maybe.”
“I’ll make sure your fuckin’ ass rots in jail forever, asshole.”
The men and women surrounding him laughed.
“You’ll be rotting long before us.” A pause, then, “Gary.”
A much younger Gary High Bear stepped forward, gun in hand.
“People will come looking for me!”
“Then I’ll make sure to put you in a bigger hole so you can entertain your guests,” Gary said.
He cocked the hammer…
Gary shook his head to ward off the memory. Dozens of deer footprints dotted the freshly fallen snow. The plan was to repeatedly slam his nightstick on the door, scare the hell out of them, then give them the bum’s rush out of Dodge. It seemed simple enough, though just his being here shrouded by night was turning his stomach to jelly.
As he approached the house, he heard whispering. He stopped, straining to locate the direction of the voice. Or was it voices? The night was once again silent.
Something banged against his car. He spun around and noticed his door, which he’d left open, was now closed.
His breath caught in his throat.
“Hhhhhuuuuhhhhhhhh.”
He was confronted with a single row of shadows so black they obscured the house behind them. They were as tall as him and quivering slightly in the breeze.
He wanted to run back to his truck, but icy cold fingers sprang from the ground and gripped his back and legs, holding him in place.
“Shit shit shit shit,” he stammered.
One of the shadows drifted forward, coiling through the air like a snake. Hovering inches from his face, it whispered, “Come see the hole. There’s room for one more.”
When Gary tried to scream, the shadow leapt into his mouth, gagging him.
His body jerked, held up by dead hands.
I can’t breathe! Gary thought. His mind reeled in terror.
I…can’t…breathe…
Chapter Forty-One
The last couple of days had been a flurry of activity, and Eve was grateful for the work. It helped to keep her mind off the feeling that she was never alone, no matter what room she was in. It was to be expected, considering all they had seen so far. That didn’t make it any easier for her to deal with.
A day didn’t go by without a handful of odd occurrences: creaking on the stairs as if someone was walking up and down when they were all in bed, turnin
g around to see drawers opened that had been closed just a moment ago, strange tapping noises on windows and the outside of the house, barely audible whispers that faded the moment you tried to concentrate on them, and worst of all, the darting shapes that existed only on your periphery. It was worse outside, an open range zoo of scurrying shadows that made no sounds, which is why she now kept the kids in the house. It was getting too cold to be in the yard anyway, Eve told herself.
The bell rang and she let Judas in. He seemed apprehensive, so she called for John to come up.
“You all ready for tonight?” Judas asked.
“As much as I can be for something like this,” she said.
John took Judas’s coat and led him to the kitchen, talking a mile a minute.
Even John seemed distant the past day or so. They barely spoke and there were a few times she actually thought he was avoiding her. Too much stress, for all of them. Who would have thought it would turn out this way?
The weather man had said they would get hit with a pretty bad snowstorm, a freak happening so early in the season. She hoped it wouldn’t impede their departure tomorrow.
Everything but the bare essentials had been packed away. Jessica and Liam were upstairs taking a nap. She had even loaded up the Jeep with a couple of suitcases. The rest was in boxes throughout the house, awaiting the men who would pick them up for shipment next week. The furniture would go back to the outlet they had rented it from. In just a few days, the house would once again be empty.
And that’s the way it should remain, Eve thought, shivering from a sudden chill.
An hour later, she heard the bell ring and John answered. She came downstairs and was introduced to the gang, and they certainly were a gang.
Muraco, Wadi, Ciqala, Ahanu, Erica from the diner and Mai, their first house guest, were all smiles. Wadi, the one with the shocking red hair, carried a case of beer. To them, this was just a perfect excuse for a party.
John eyed the group and the beer and scowled, visibly displeased by their attitude.
“So what do you want us to do?” Muraco asked.
John sighed and rubbed his hands across his face. Despite his misgivings, he was resigned to working with what he had. “Basically, your just being here is all I need. I have the entire house wired up for video, still pictures, sound, and I’ll be taking frequent electromagnetic, ionic and temperature readings. Upstairs is off limits, because the children are there along with Eve. If you see, hear or feel anything strange, let me know so I can concentrate on that area. If anything solid comes of this, you all just might find yourselves in some magazine articles.”
A couple of the guys high-fived each other and murmured something about being on TV. Erica was busy admiring the house while Mai stood off to the side looking scared. Muraco saw her and pulled her close to him.
“Hey Judas, where’s your butt buddy?” Ciqala asked.
“He’s with his grandmother. I guess he’s smarter than us.”
“Yeah, right,” Ahanu said. “Like missing a chance to be in a magazine is smart. Dumb lard ass.”
“Hey, hey, hey. Let’s try to keep it civil,” John interjected. “Now why don’t you all have a seat in the living room and have a beer. If you want I can start a fire, put in a movie, whatever will make you comfortable.”
They jumped onto the couch and chairs, like standing up had been a supreme effort. Wadi ripped the top off of the case of beer and handed one to everyone.
“Judas, you want to help out with something simple?”
“Might as well.”
He handed him a handheld device and a pad. “This is a laser guided thermal scan. If you could, just walk around sections of the house and take readings. Once you form a baseline, keep hitting the same spots. If you get a markedly lower or higher reading, note the time, temperature and place.”
“Sounds easy enough.”
Eve watched as Judas walked with his head down around the house while John went back and forth to his different cameras and sensors. Muraco and his friends drank beer and watched an action movie, hooting whenever something blew up. Outside, the wind howled and snowflakes started to fall.
“Please, God, don’t snow us in,” Eve murmured as she went back up to the children. “And while you’re at it, keep us all safe tonight.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Nuna Goodlife rose with a grunt from her chair and shuffled slowly to the window when she heard a car pull up outside. Erica said she’d wanted to stop by and talk soon. In preparation for her visit, Nuna had bought chocolate chip cookies, Erica’s favorite. She was tempted to have a few herself but the doctor had made her swear off cookies on account of her worsening diabetes.
She pulled the curtain aside and saw the Sheriff’s truck parked alongside her car.
This couldn’t be good. She saw his face during the meeting and the raw hatred there. He was mad at all of them, her especially because of her link with the child. It wasn’t right, him cavorting with a girl her age. And maybe she wanted to protect Erica in the process, keep her from learning any of his dark secrets or the council’s shrouded past. Physical relations have a way of loosening lips.
He knocked loudly on the door four times.
“Hold your horses, High Bear. I’m coming.”
Might as well let him say his piece, let the air out a bit so he didn’t pop.
She opened the door to a man who was no longer Gary High Bear. His cobalt blue eyes were dead and gray. A river of bile had frozen and crusted on his chin and shirt.
“Why did you run? Did you think you could just steal my kids and money and get away with it?” he said in a voice that was not his own.
Nuna knew that voice all too well. She began to tremble.
“I told you when I threw you out, Nuna, crime doesn’t pay. Time to come back home.”
“No!” she shrieked.
Gary High Bear raised his gun and shot her in the face.
A prisoner in his own body, Gary watched Nuna’s head explode. He’d been reduced to a series of mere molecules granted access to the sights and sounds of carnage his own body was creating. Thick gobs of blood hit the ceiling and floor as her body crashed to the ground. The bullet had taken off the entire right side of her face. Her left eye slipped from its shattered socket and lolled onto the floor.
Swimming in revulsion, he was forced to view his booted foot crash down and pulverize what was left of the old woman’s head.
The world spun as he turned to go back to his truck. He could smell Thomas Covell’s vomit as it dried under his nose. He didn’t know which was worse, quickly killing Nuna with a single bullet or watching as he strangled Thomas to death.
He was utterly helpless. The vile eddy of hostile spirits that had invaded his body was in control now. He could hear it laugh, gleeful in the death of the council members and happy to have him locked in his own cage.
As easily as it could read his thoughts and divine his memories, he could get a sense of its own designs. Muriel Hawkins was next. It was going to get everyone on the council, one by one. But then what?
He drove along, not bothering to put on the wipers to clear the windshield of the heavy snow that had begun to accumulate. The truck skidded to a stop in front of Muriel’s home and he grabbed the shotgun off the rack.
Without pause, he kicked the door off its hinges with the force of a concentrated hurricane. Teddy Hawkins sat in front of the TV eating a bowl of ice cream. The door skidded to a halt at his feet. When Teddy saw the sheriff and his rifle, he jumped from the couch, shouting, “Mamaw, run! Get out of the house!”
Both barrels caught Teddy in his ample stomach. His shirt flew apart in tatters and dozens of bloody holes erupted on his pale flesh.
Muriel stood in the hallway aghast.
“Why did you kill my husband?” Gary said, this time in a woman’s voice. “You were my best friend!”
A calm settled over Muriel as she faced him.
“Because he chose you over me, Sa
lly. I was young, and jealous and stupid.”
A grin spread across Gary’s face.
“Not good enough, friend.”
Before she could say another word, he shot her in the chest. She flew back into the hallway and out of sight, landing with a tremendous thud.
Inside himself, Gary screamed as his body walked out of the house searching for its next victim.
Chapter Forty-Three
The snow outside had begun to accumulate over the past hour. High, howling winds battered the house as thick sheets of snow obliterated their view of the outside world. Even Muraco, who was used to intense winters, remarked how early in the season it was for such a storm.
As John walked by the patio doors, he thought he saw something move past the bottom of the steps. When he looked back the snow was pristine, not a track in sight.
He rubbed his eyes, hoping it was just a side effect of snow blindness. Could you get that just by looking out a window? He wasn’t sure.
While everyone watched a movie and drank, he noticed Mai was sitting off to herself.
“If you’re frightened, I can take you home,” he offered.
She shook her head. “I’m okay.”
He didn’t even know her and he could tell she was lying. It probably wouldn’t do any good to make a scene out of it. The last thing he wanted to do was upset the balance with Muraco’s gang. It wasn’t like he’d invited the church choir to the house.
Judas came over to him and said in a hush, “It looks like the temperature of the entire room is dropping. In the past ten minutes, everywhere I’ve taken a reading is lower by five degrees.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Five degrees is pretty significant, especially in such a short amount of time. If it was a little less, I’d just say the house was getting cold because of the weather outside. Are there some spots dropping more than others?”
Judas consulted the list he’d been tracking for the past couple of hours. “Nope. It’s everywhere. If this keeps up, we’ll all be ice cubes.”