The Haunting of Ironwood

by Jeff DeGordick

  Gentle wind blew by her side. She could hear it because she left the window open at the bottom of the stairs. There was a noise that she thought was the rustling of leaves at first, but then she remembered that it was summer (at least, she thought it was still summer) and that leaves didn't fall from the trees yet. The sound took on a methodical rhythm, and then there was a different one. A meow.

  Katie perked up. She shifted on the floor, her entire body aching. She tried to peek around the short wall blocking her view from the window, but she couldn't reach her head far enough. Then she remembered that the camera could see her and pointed her head in the other direction, trying to play it off as if she were just stretching. She settled back against the wall and pulled her hand up to her face like she was scratching her forehead. Her mouth, hidden behind it, whispered, "Cat? Are you there? Come here. Come here, boy."

  The cat cried again. Boxes shuffled, followed by a dull thump. A moment later, the black cat sauntered through the doorway and looked at her. There was something in his mouth.

  "What have you got there?" Katie whispered. She thought he had caught a mouse, but the object was too thin to be that.

  He meowed again out the corner of his mouth.

  "Well come here, boy!" she said impatiently.

  Finally the cat trotted over to her and dropped the object from his mouth.

  It was a pocketknife, stained with dried blood. The same one that one of the poor drunks had on him and attempted to use to defend himself from Earl's axe.

  Katie's heart leapt. Her eyes inadvertently darted up to the camera as she quickly covered the knife with her hand. She was covered in shadow, but to her it didn't look like it; her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and she had no idea what Earl could or couldn't see through the camera.

  She quickly took the knife and put it behind her. Her heart was bursting with joy and she wanted to squeeze the cat in thanks. But she let her logic get the better of her. It told her to get the cat out of there before Earl saw.

  "Thank you! Thank you!" she whispered, bending over and kissing the cat on the top of the head. "Now you've got to get out of here!" She gave the cat a shove and he meandered a few steps before turning around and crying. "Shoo!" The cat showed her the saddest eyes she'd ever seen and she faltered for a moment. But then she shifted forward, pretending to adjust herself again while she gave a quick snap of her arm toward the cat. "Go!"

  Reluctantly, the cat scampered off and she could hear him climbing back up a stack of boxes and leaving through the window.

  Katie sat against the wall and took the knife in her hand. She carefully unfolded the blade and looked around at her shackles. One end of the chain was firmly tied around a hook bolted to the wall; there was nothing she could do there. And the other end was tied around her waist, held together with a small padlock with a keyhole. It sat on the side of her body and she twisted away from the camera, trying to get the tip of the knife into it to unlock herself.

  After fiddling with it for a minute she realized it couldn't be done. But she wasn't upset; she quietly folded the blade away and stowed the knife behind her. She certainly had a great use for it, but she knew now wasn't the time. For now, she had to wait.

  The lights in the basement flicked on. Footsteps carried down the stairs. Katie had been taken by a soft dream and the noise woke her up. Gentle sunlight filtered through the two windows, highlighting some of the dusty boxes in the dingy space.

  Earl walked through the doorway. He caught her gaze and paused for a long time without saying anything. She looked up at him with soft eyes. "Are you Elizabeth?" he asked.

  Katie hesitated. She wanted to say yes. Every cell in her body screamed for her to do so, but she just couldn't bring herself to. "No." She broke down into tears. "I want to... I'm trying, I really am!"

  She averted her gaze and felt his piercing eyes bearing down on her.

  "I know you are," he said. His voice was smooth and caring. "You'll get there just as long as you keep trying. I know you will."

  Katie wiped her eyes and nodded.

  He took the measure of her. "Are you going to try to escape again?"

  Her eyes red, her frown stretched out almost wider than her face, she shook her head. "No," she croaked.

  "Are you sorry for what you did?"

  The words jumbled in her throat. She couldn't speak. She nodded instead.

  A moment later, Earl approached her. He fished a small key out of his pocket and bent over for the padlock securing her chain.

  Katie squeezed the handle of the pocketknife behind her back.

  Earl slid the key in the lock and twisted. The padlock popped and he undid the chain. It slunk off her hips like a snake and rattled on the hard floor. He stood up. "You can go back up in the house," he said. And without irony, "You're free now."

  She kept her eyes on the floor. "Thank you." She slipped the knife in the back of her underwear and they both headed up the stairs.

  Bad Dreams

  Katie spent the next night in her bed. Though it was much softer and more comfortable than the hard basement floor, it didn't help her sleep any better; she was tormented by bad dreams all throughout the night, and she tossed and turned.

  She found herself standing in a field. It spanned off in the distance in waves of golden grass, leading to some trees and a road. But next to her, the field led up a hill. And standing at the top of it, a tree.

  Katie climbed the hill, staring up at the bushy tree. She found herself mesmerized by it. It almost seemed familiar.

  The sun hung in the sky above it, casting a wide shadow beneath its canopy. When she crested the hill, she saw the land dropped off steeply on the other side into a quarry. She stood beneath the wide tree's shade now. The cool breeze rolled across her skin. And now as she reached out for the trunk of the tree to feel its bark, a statement of fact flowed so deeply through her body that she knew its truth in her soul: it was an ironwood tree. How she knew that, she didn't know, but its bark felt rough yet smooth at the same time—soothing to her touch.

  In the next moment, a loathsome feeling rumbled in her gut. She turned around with a sense of dread and peered across the large field, waiting for some terrible evil to show itself. But this evil couldn't be seen—only felt—and she knew she had nowhere to go. She cowered under the tree, gazing around. It was coming for her. He was coming.

  The dream dissolved away layer by layer until she felt herself floating in an unending sea of darkness. A light appeared and quickly grew brighter. She turned to it and felt a tug on her solar plexus, urging her to approach. The light was warm and comforting. Before long, it enveloped her. It snuggled in behind her and embraced her like an old lover.

  And then she realized it was Josh. They were lying in bed together and he was spooning her from behind. She felt his warm breath on her cheek. Her mind told her not to do this, but her heart ignored it. She felt so good in his warmth.

  "I miss you, baby," he said.

  She nuzzled the back of her neck against his chin. "I miss you too..."

  "Promise you'll come back to me."

  There was a hesitation in her. "I don't know if I can," she said. "I said I wouldn't. I... I can't."

  He caressed her cheek. "Yes you can. You always do."

  Her cheeks reddened in embarrassment. She always did, didn't she? Every time he kicked her to the curb, she always crawled back. Every time.

  His fingers weaved through her hair, his fingertips tracing along the side of her face like drops of rain. His forefinger caught her lip and she kissed him.

  "I love you so much," she said. Her face twisted in anguish. He didn't know how much she did; he never would. And that's what pained her.

  "I love you too, baby. Come back to me. I miss you. Come back."

  A single tear rolled along her cheek. "I will, Josh. I will. I'll find a way."

  Katie awoke and shifted beneath her covers. Her body was stiff and she stretched out. That warmth was still pressed up behind
her and her heart burned with the thrill of knowing that it hadn't been a dream at all; Josh was behind her, and being locked up in that awful nightmare of a house was the dream. She rolled over.

  Earl smiled at her as he started caressing her other cheek. "Good morning, darling."

  Katie jumped and nearly fell out of bed. She squeaked, not unlike a mouse, and all of her words were firmly frozen beneath a layer of thick ice.

  "I didn't scare you, did I, Elizabeth?" he asked.

  Her eyes were wider than saucers, but she managed to shake her head.

  "Good. That's good." He stroked her cheek with his forefinger several times before tracing it down her neck, following it along the cleft between her muscles and her windpipe to her chest. "You were whispering in your sleep, you know."

  "I... I was?" She was still terrified.

  "Yes. You were saying how much you love me." Earl's smile widened. Then he teared up. His face was a mixture of jubilance and relief.

  This made Katie clench up.

  "I'm going to cook us a special dinner tonight," he said victoriously. "I'll lay a dress out for you later."

  "Okay," she croaked.

  He was so excited that a joyful bounce had been added to his every movement. He leaned over and pecked her on the lips, then he jumped out of bed like a flea and happily marched out of the room, leaving Katie petrified and clutching the bedding with her white fists.

  In the afternoon Katie sat on the couch and flipped channels on the television. Earl came downstairs and went into the kitchen. She heard him rummaging around in the fridge and then the freezer. He came into the dining room and stood behind her.

  "I have to get some things from the grocery store for dinner tonight," he said. He paused as if he was going to add something else, but he didn't.

  Katie twisted on the couch and looked at him. "Uh... okay," she replied.

  He looked at her carefully, almost suspiciously.

  "I'll just be here watching TV," she said. She turned back around slowly and gulped. She heard his footsteps march off down the hallway. But this time he didn't go upstairs to leave the house; he unlocked the front door and left through it, closing and locking it behind him. A few moments later a car door closed and the Volvo's engine rumbled. The sound of loose gravel being kicked up faded into the distance, and then she was left alone with the quiet tedium of a Law & Order rerun.

  Katie set the remote down next to her. "Okay," she whispered to herself, "okay... time to go." Another moment passed and she didn't move. "Do it, Katie."

  She headed upstairs. It was time to find the control room behind this whole operation.

  Breaking and Entering

  The dress Earl laid out for dinner was pale blue with white dots. Katie took it off the bed and slipped into it. It wasn't time for dinner yet, but she had to be convincing if her plan was to work.

  Katie found a broom in a closet on the second floor. She'd seen it before, and the idea percolated in her head as she sat on the couch downstairs watching TV. Now she took it and began sweeping some dust along the edges of the hallway into a dustbin. She kept her eyes on the ground, busy in her work—a doting servant; Earl's perfect prisoner; Elizabeth.

  She worked quickly without looking like she was rushing. When she got to the stairs, she retrieved a sponge and a cloth from the closet and began cleaning the bathroom. She scrubbed the mirror and then the tub, drying them off with the cloth.

  Then, knowing she didn't have much time, she took the broom and headed up to the third floor. She started at the far end, sweeping up the dust in the hallway, working her way past the closet without looking at it. She got closer and closer to the camera watching the hall. She kept her back to it, slowly working her way backward as she periodically bent to collect the dust between sweeps. And when she reached the end and was standing in the doorway to the empty bedroom right below the camera, she raised the knob of the broom in the air and hit it—by accident, of course.

  The camera jerked upward and pointed toward the ceiling.

  Katie continued into the empty bedroom like nothing had happened, quickly sweeping the floor. She knew there was another camera watching her from the closet next to the dancing Santa figure; she had to make it look convincing if Earl reviewed the tapes later.

  She worked her way over to the windows and saw the sprawling driveway neatly cut between the woods. It was still empty, but she knew it wouldn't be for long. She scooped up the last bit of dust then set the broom and dustpan in the corner of the hallway. She glanced up at the camera and made sure that she was out of view. Then she drew in a deep breath as she set her eyes on the closet door.

  "Okay," she told herself.

  Katie pulled the door open and pressed the button on the frame and the back of the closet swung open into darkness. She closed the door behind her then made a right, hurrying through the cramped space.

  She hadn't seen the way to his control room the last time she was in here, but she knew it was here somewhere. She held her hands out in front of her in the blinding darkness, patting around on the walls. She couldn't see a thing, and she slowly reached her foot out, waiting for the stairs. She went down them, ducking under a low wall in front of her. She knew the control room was somewhere to her right, but she quickly lost her orientation in the darkness. Her hands worked along the wall, trying to find something out of the ordinary—a handle, a button, a little latch—but there was nothing.

  As she reached the tight landing in the staircase and they wrapped around a hundred and eighty degrees, she began to see the light from down below.

  You could always try to escape again. He's not here. He can't do those bad things to you again.

  No! her mind hissed. The door had been opened before just to taunt her, but she knew it wouldn't be now. Plus, that would mean she would have to crawl back through there... and she would never do that again.

  But in the light drawing up from below she could see the bundle of red and yellow wires perched up in the edges of the small space. She turned back and followed it up into the darkness, keeping her hand on it at all times like she was following a diver's safety line back to a boat.

  Halfway up the narrow stairs to the third floor, the bundle of wires disappeared through a hole in the wall just big enough to fit them.

  Here! she thought. It's got to be here.

  She used both hands to find a way in. But the wall was flat, rough wood, just like the rest of the house. She was almost ready to give up when her pinky finger brushed along an indent. Exploring it, she found that it was a little hole, not much bigger than could fit a finger. She hooked one in and felt around on the other side of the half-inch-thick wall. She could feel something, something like cold metal. Her finger fiddled with it, trying to discover what it was, when the shape of it finally came to her in her mind. It was a latch.

  She pulled it and pushed on the wall. The wall swung open. The hidden door had been so tightly fitted to the rest of the wood that the cracks between them were almost imperceptible. Katie reached out and felt a narrow crawlspace.

  The wood was rough on her arms and knees as she lowered herself down and plunged headfirst into the claustrophobic space. There was a light up ahead, a dingy yellow, and she used it to guide herself. Her skin instinctively crawled, her mind immediately going back to the horror she'd experienced in the tunnel she tried to escape through. She felt many little prickles along her skin, like tiny legs. She shuddered and slapped at herself, but she knew there was nothing there. She knew she was making herself crazy.

  Katie crawled quickly, never moving her eyes from the growing light ahead. And when she came out into a small room, she gasped for air as if she were coming out of the womb.

  A desk took up most of the cramped room with two computer monitors and a lamp sitting on top of it. An office chair sat in front of it, and a metal filing cabinet was tucked in the corner beyond.

  Katie slipped around the desk, almost tripping over the bundle of wires that crawled up the
back of the desk and into a hole. When the faces of the computer monitors came into view, she felt like she was going to be sick.

  Across the two large screens were grids of live images taken from each camera in the house. She could see absolutely everything from every angle. And though she knew she had been watched, actually seeing it now with her own eyes made her sick to her stomach.

  She leaned into the screens and found her bedroom. There were two more cameras that she didn't even know about, and her hands balled up into angry fists.

  "Goddamn you," she spat.

  She studied each view, memorizing them, learning everywhere and every way he could see her; if she knew every angle, she figured she could use it to her advantage. As she studied the screens, something caught her eye.

  There was a thin book sitting on top of the filing cabinet next to her. Curious, she picked it up and opened it.

  It was a scrapbook like the one she found tucked away in Earl's bedroom. The cream hardcover opened up to a slightly yellowed page. A little handwritten scribble, off-center: "Our consummation".

  Katie's hands trembled as she turned the page. A large picture had been glued to the paper. It showed a cherry red 1970s Chevrolet Malibu sitting in the driveway. The picture had been taken with an old camera. The next page had two images squeezed in. The first one was a shot from inside the car, staring out the windshield down a driveway. The second one was looking at the console between the front seats. Sitting there was a little box. A ring box.

  She continued, turning the pages as carefully as she would the hair-thin pages of an old Bible. The next shot was still from inside the Chevy, now looking out on a parking lot. There looked to be some grass beyond a short brown fence at the end of the lot, but it was obscured by some low-hanging trees.

  The next photograph made Katie gasp.