The Revenant: A Horror in Dodsville

by Brian L. Blank

  “Well, they say love is blind and opposites attract and all that bloody crap. My guess, however, is that she is just plain too afraid to drop him.”

  I reached the rock but missed it this time. “I take it Reed and he went at it a few times.”

  “Oh, they weren’t the best of friends, that’s for sure,” Sly replied. “Reed was constantly after Tabitha to drop him like yesterday’s bad news. Then Randy was coming at her from the other side, trying to convince her to move out of the house and away from her brother.”

  “Strange,” I said. I wanted, myself, to have a word or two with Tabitha about Randy, but knew she was surely sick by now of everyone telling her what to do on that particular subject.

  We turned down an alleyway, which would lead us to the highway. Neither one of us had driven to the funeral, so there was no reason for us to walk all the way back to the church.

  “Melissa seems like a nice girl,” I said. Of course, I didn’t know if she was anywhere close to being nice or not. The only thing I did know was that she was positively good looking. Not too many women had enough going for them physically to look good even while crying.

  “You couldn’t find a better girl if you made a pact with the devil himself,” Sly replied. He went on to tell me that she and Reed had been going out for almost two years. She was both prom queen and homecoming queen at Dodsville High. Popular, but not with the ego that usually goes along with it. She wasn’t an original Dodsvillite. She had moved here a little over four years ago, and had started dating Reed almost immediately. Her grandmother was born and raised in Dodsville and, after her husband had died, refused to move away from her hometown. So, since Melissa was old enough, the family enticed her to move here for a while and take care of her. At least until she convinced her grandmother to move back to Denver. The grandmother had died about a year ago, but Melissa decided to stay here anyway. Of course, everyone knew it was because of Reed. Now, she was twenty-one years old.

  Sly and I came out of the alley and walked along the sidewalk adjacent to the highway. Sly continued his conversation about Melissa and Reed. Seems they had been almost joined at the hips. Rarely were they seen in public apart.

  I had been kicking at another rock, when Sly stopped and grabbed my arm. He pointed ahead. The same red pickup truck was coming at us from down the highway. “That the guy you had the pleasure to meet earlier?”

  The truck drove past without incident. Tabitha was seated in the cab, as close to Randy as she could fit. And that sickened me. But there was nothing I could do about it. Time usually works wonders, though, I thought. They’ll break up, eventually.

  Sly put some more tobacco in his pipe and relit it. After taking a few drags, he offered me a smoke. “Puts hair on your chest,” he added.

  “No thanks,” I replied. “I have enough hair on my chest right now.” I had never tried smoking a pipe, but I knew enough of cigarettes to dislike smoking in general. No matter how many times it was explained to me, I just couldn’t see the reasoning in sucking smoke into one’s lungs. But, then, there was a myriad of things I didn’t understand about the world. Like Tabitha and Randy, for instance.

  “I really like Tabs,” Sly said, as though he were reading my mind. He kicked at a stone on the sidewalk, but it hit off the side of his shoe and went scurrying into the grass. I could see the chip in the lawn mower blade already. “And not only because she’s Julie’s kid sister, either. She’s a good, affable person. She’ll even yell at you if you swat at a fly in your own home. Yet, when she’s with him, she’s not Tabby anymore. She’s his girl.” He shook his head, as if attempting to shake away a bad thought. “Damn sad, it is.”

  I could see why Reed remained so adamant about wanting Tabitha to dump Randy. I would have been the same way with a sister of mine, if I had one, and she was dating someone like him. Although I knew I didn’t know Randy well enough to make judgments about him on my own, in those few seconds he looked in my face, I saw badness behind those eyes. Just plain badness.

  “How’d they get together anyway?” I asked.

  “Not quite sure about that one,” Sly replied. “She just brought him home one night a couple of years ago, and they’ve dated ever since.”

  We had about a mile to go, if my memory served me right, before we would come to the street that Julie lived. A good half-hour walk left, at least. The sun was hot and I could feel the wetness in my armpits under my suit coat. And it wasn’t going to cool off anytime soon, either. Hard to believe that only two days ago, the temperature had a hard time breaking out of the fifties.

  The lawns in Dodsville were still green. But, then, June lawns in Wisconsin were always green. By the middle of July, on the other hand, brown spots would crop up in everyone’s front yard. And by August most of the lawns were brown.

  We walked on in silence for a couple of minutes. I wondered if Melissa would be at Julie’s when we got there. I wanted to talk with her. She would have known Reed better than anyone. Girlfriends know things about a guy that even he himself would be surprised to discover.

  “Think Melissa will leave town now?” I asked.

  Sly turned to me and smiled. Then he stopped walking, leaned over the curb, and knocked his pipe clean of used tobacco. “Yea,” he replied without looking up at me. “I could see it in your eyes when she first took her hands away from her face.” He stood. “Just give her a little time before you do anything, huh?”

  To say the least, his insinuation took me by surprise. “Boy,” I replied, “have you got me wrong on this one. It’s nothing like that. Nothing at all.”

  “Maybe," Sly replied, nodding slightly. “Anyway, she’ll stay in town. She’s got a good job here at a local law firm. I doubt very much she’ll be running home to Mom. She’s too strong a person now.”

  Julie’s house was just over two blocks off the highway, and we could see it after making the turn onto her street. Randy’s red truck was parked in front. Tabitha shot out of the side door of the truck and ran straight into the house without looking back.

  “Must be trouble in paradise,” Sly commented.

  I smiled to myself, but didn’t say anything.

  Randy squealed his tires as he pulled away from Julie’s and headed in our direction. And he squealed them again as he slid to a stop next to Sly and me. He rolled down his window and spit out a chew.

  “O’Neal,” he said, almost a command. “Get your big-city ass over here.”

  I looked to Sly for advice.

  “Better do what he says,” he replied in a subdued voice. “May save a lot of trouble later.”

  So, I stood straight and boldly walked up to the truck. “What’s up, Randy?” I asked, trying to sound as polite as I could, but I knew I probably only came off sounding sarcastic.

  Randy was about to reply when a car pulled up behind him and laid on the horn. Randy leaned out his side window and glared at the driver, giving him the bird at the same time. He did it with such authority the driver quieted.

  “As for you, O’Neal,” he said, directing his attention back to me. “You lay a fuckin’ hand on Tabs and I cut your fuckin’ dick off.” He spit again, just missing my feet. “Understand?”

  I couldn’t help the smile that appeared on my face. What a first-class jerk.

  That smile vanished from my face quickly, however, as Randy reached out his window and grabbed me by the shirt collar. He just glared at me a moment, then he yanked me against the side of his truck and spit in my face. “Or should I just cut your little pecker off right here?” he said.

  I was never the calm, patient type when I knew I should be, and I wasn’t about to start now. I wiped the spittle off my face with my sleeve and grinned again. “Fuck you, Randy,” I replied, in a straight, monotone voice.

  I must have surprised him because, at first, he didn’t react. A look of complete perplexity came over his face for a second, as if his entire philosophy of life had just been proven wrong. Then he sighed and simply stared blankly at
me. I was just beginning to think that the old saying, if you stand up to a bully, he’ll back right down, was true, when the next thing I knew I was dragging my feet down the road with Randy still hanging onto my collar. My immediate thought was, Okay, Randy is going to kill me.

  Sly yelled something at me, some sort of advice on how to survive in such a situation, but my mind didn’t register the words. Randy stared out the windshield, keeping a tight grip on me, and watching where he was going. We approached the highway, and Randy went through the stop sign, making a fast right turn, squealing his tires once again. If a car had been coming at the time, it would have rammed us, or I should say, it would have rammed me as I was the one dangling from the driver side of the truck. My feet left the pavement as we started around the corner, and I was beginning to believe that Randy was planning on building up some speed before letting go of me. But as he finished the turn, with me with my legs hanging almost straight out now, he released my collar, and I went flying--right into the oncoming lane of traffic.

  I slid on my side across that lane and stopped just short of the curb, all the while squeezing my eyes shut, waiting for impact from the car that would crush me under its wheels like some poor fated rabbit. But, of course, that particular scenario didn’t happen. A few cars slammed on their brakes, and my clothes on my left side were fairly eaten by the pavement; but, all in all, I had survived.

  I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was Sly standing over me, and the look on his face made me, for a second, wonder if maybe I hadn’t been killed after all.

  I thought you were dead," he said as he helped me to my feet. “I heard what you said to him, and I thought right away that I was looking at a dead man in the making.”

  Forcing a smile as an attempt to hide my own embarrassment, I replied, “I was just testing the old ‘stand up to the bully’ theory. Guess that’s a bunch of horseshit, huh?”

  Being a teacher, I had come up against his type before. Yet, I never once thought I actually had anything to fear from them. There was something to be learned here. Some people were just so fucking crazy that they were plain dangerous.

  “You going to be all right?” Sly asked, noticing my shredded pants and shirt. His voice still held some concern.

  My arm was bleeding, mostly from abrasions, not cuts, and my leg felt more than a little stiff, but I assured him I was okay. “Just flesh wounds,” I added. “Nothing to worry about.” Expect maybe Randy, I thought but didn’t say aloud.

  “Better have Julie take care of that arm,” Sly said, ignoring my attempt at a joke. “You’re lucky you know a nurse.”

  I had never thought to ask Julie what she did for a living. Her becoming a nurse didn’t surprise me, though. She was always patching up Reed and me when we were kids.

  Julie, Tabitha and Melissa were seated in the living room as Sly and I walked through the front door. My leg was hurt a little worse than I had at first thought because Sly had to help me walk. All three girls, including Melissa, who didn’t even know me yet, came running up to us when they saw my condition, and helped me to the couch.

  “What in hell happened?” Julie asked, trying to sound angry, but her concern was what came through.

  “I just fell down,” I lied. I would tell Julie the truth later, after Tabitha had left. Right now, I didn’t want her upset anymore than she already was.

  Julie, of course, knew I was lying right away. “You fell and you just happened to rip off the left side of your clothing.” She turned to face Sly. “What happened? Really?”

  “The idiot fell half way down the Angel Flight,” he replied, obviously lying for the same reasons as I had. “What a clod.”

  Julie looked from Sly to me and back again, not believing either one of us. Sly rolled his eyes toward Tabitha and shook his head. Julie took the hint.

  After she had professionally bandaged my arm, Julie took a look at my leg. “Probably just a bruise,” she said. “But you’ll go to the hospital tomorrow to have it checked, anyway.”

  I hated hospitals with a passion. After all, people died there. “No,” I replied, not meeting Julie’s return glare. “I’ll be fine. Like you said, it’s just a bruise.”

  “You’re going to the hospital tomorrow if I have to take you there myself,” she said. “And that’s final.”

  I started my rebuttal, but Sly cut me off. “You forget about our harrowing stay upcoming on the Hill. We need to be there by early evening, if I remember correctly.”

  “That reminds me,” I added, glad to change the subject. “We should call Mrs. Klaus to make sure nothing has changed. She’s had time to think about this by now. Maybe she’s come back to her senses." The gut feeling I first received when she told us her story still crawled around in my innards.

  “You’re not getting out of going to the hospital tomorrow,” Julie said, jabbing her index finger into my chest. “I’m going to drive out there in the morning and haul your ass out of bed. I mean it.”

  “I know you do.”

  “And you can take a taxi right back after a doctor checks that leg.”

  Melissa’s face had brightened considerably since I had first seen her at the church a couple of hours ago. This was the first really good look I got of her, and I wasn’t anywhere near disappointed. She was, in plain and simple terms, beautiful. Brown hair made a perfect picture frame to a perfect face as it flowed down just past her shoulders. Her face, itself, was tanned, and her teeth were straight and white. If she had been two inches taller, she could have been a model. For a moment, I envied Reed.

  She caught me staring at her, and I nonchalantly looked down into my lap and picked an imaginary piece of lint off my good pants leg. My other leg began to throb a bit.

  “What’s all this talk about staying at a haunted house?” Melissa asked, and when I looked up, she was looking directly at me for a reply. “Julie and Tabitha were telling me about it when you and Sly stumbled in like something out of a disaster film.”

  “Not much to it,” I replied, feeling a bit awkward talking to her. And not knowing why.

  Julie and Tabitha jumped into the conversation and told her the rest of the story where they had left off. The two of them appeared to have come to the conclusion that the entire week would be fun followed by fun. That’s when a brainstorm of pure genius struck me. The reason I had gone along with the Klaus farce in the first place was because Tabitha needed a jump start to get her back into life’s track. Melissa could use the same jolt. If anything would get our minds off the immediate tragic sense we all felt, it would be a week on the Hill, living in paradise.

  “Why don’t you join us?” I said, interrupting Tabitha. “It will be a change of pace. You can count on that.”

  Tabitha slapped her forehead. “Why didn’t I think of that?” she said. “And I could use another female there to keep these two boys out of trouble.” She motioned to me. “As you can see, they can’t do it on their own.”

  Julie agreed wholeheartedly. Sly simply smiled at me.

  Melissa listened to the idea silently, and, for a moment, actually appeared excited. But her eyes quickly saddened. “I have to work,” she said. “But thanks anyway.”

  “You can take a week off work,” Julie said with determination. And once Julie set her mind, I knew Melissa didn’t have a choice. She would be joining us at the mansion. “I’m sure those stuffy lawyers can struggle a week without you. Just as I’m sure they understand you need a little time off right now.”

  “Don’t you have vacation time coming?” Tabitha asked.

  “But in a haunted mansion?” Melissa asked, the expression on her face showing that she wasn’t yet convinced. “I don’t know about that part of the deal.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about that,” Julie said. “Mrs. Klaus recently got divorced and she lives out in that huge palace with just her little daughter. All those creaks and groans from the house over years past have finally come to light. That’s all.” She turned to me. “Right, Stephen?” />
  “Oh, why not?” Melissa said before I had the chance to reply. “But only if I can get off work.”

  I called Mrs. Klaus, using the telephone number she had left with us. She was afraid we had changed our minds. In the back of my mind, on the other hand, I was hoping she had changed hers. This all still seemed too weird to be true. Mrs. Klaus told me for us to meet her at the mansion right away, as it would be dark in about an hour, and she wanted to show us the grounds.

  “We’re leaving,” I said and hung up. I turned to the four faces staring intently at me. “Let’s go,” I said.

  The five of us piled into Julie’s car and headed to the Hill.

  CHAPTER SIX:

  Mrs. Klaus’s Mansion

  The mansions on the Hill were built long before I was even born. Executives, whom my father grudgingly referred to as “The Local Big Shots,” from the only lucrative factory in town decided they belonged above the commoners and had their homes built on the high hill on the south side of the city limits. Their mansions loomed over the entire town, almost as though they were keeping close watch over their subjects below. All of the ten mansions could be seen from any vantage point in the city. Often, as a child, I had nightmares that the mansions were actually monsters ready to leap down from the Hill and stomp on all the houses below. Rarely did I venture down the boulevard that ran in front of the mansions.

  That same lucrative factory, The Horace Smith Co., closed its sacred doors a little over eight years ago, I was informed in the car on the way to Mrs. Klaus’s, because of some labor dispute with the union. Instead of giving in to the workers’ demands, The Local Big Shots decided to take their business and head to greener, less aggravating pastures. The mansions went up for sale, and, as few persons from Dodsville had the assets needed, seven of the ten mansions were sold to rich, and smug, out-of-towners. I couldn’t begin to guess what the property values were today. But, as a teacher, I knew it was probably slightly out of my price range.