“Ah need you to snap out of it, boy.” She pushed gently on his chest. He took one step backwards, and then another. He shook his head. He blinked, and then looked down at her.
“I’m okay,” he said. “Last time I saw a piece o’ steel that looked like that, it was an armored personnel carrier that got hit by a LAWs rocket. No, that ain’t quite right. The APC looked a lot better. Not by much, though.”
He looked down at her again. “Whatcha need me t’ do?”
Truly guided Jake to a spot about twenty feet away from the opening and in the shadow of the house. “I need you t’ make sure no one gets any closer than this t’ me or the cave. I don’t care what you gotta do. If anyone bothers me at th’ wrong time, we’s all dead.”
“You got it, Granny.”
She smiled at him and then turned away. The smile disappeared as she walked to the bag. She carried it closer to the stone circle.
Time to make a circle of my own, she thought. She pulled materials from the valise. Within minutes she had four thick candles burning, one at each compass point. Two tapers flickered from a portable altar in the center of the circle defined by the four large candles. Incense smoked from a ceramic bowl. Steeling herself for the cold November air, she completely disrobed and stepped to the altar. With her right hand she picked up a black handled knife. She stepped to the easternmost candle. Taking a deep breath, she raised the blade and started to chant.
“Spirits of the East, I call upon ye…
Truly heard claws scrabbling on stone as she finished her first invocation.
Too soon! she thought. I don’t have the circle cast, yet.
She turned. The creature was a third of the way clear of the low stone wall. It was everything she feared it would be. Wide, leathery wings slowly unfurled. Massive ram’s horns spiraled from either side of the goat head. Crimson eyes bored into her. The smell of burning sulfur filled her nostrils. One cloven hoof cleared the stone circle and stomped onto the frozen turf. Smoke and steam curled upward from the demon’s foot.
“Baphomet.” The name hissed through her lips as she recognized the being. She raised her athame towards it as she screamed her defiance. “Be gone, thou unclean thing! You are not welcome here!”
“Your forest fairy is no match for me, little grandmother,” the creature’s basso voice thundered inside her head. “I walked among the stars while she was weaving floral garlands and I shall eat this world when she is but a faint echo in time.”
It extended one scaly claw towards her. It expanded as it came closer until it was large enough to envelope her. She felt the demon’s heat radiate from it. At the last moment she reversed the point of her athame.
“You will not have me!” she screamed as the knife slid deep inside of her.
•
Jake stared in disbelief. A beautiful, young Vietnamese girl walked slowly towards him. He rubbed his eyes. Mei Li. It couldn’t be. The last time he saw her was in 1974 in Saigon. They’d shared a hooch for three months. Long, shiny black hair framed her oval face; her almond eyes smoked with sensuality and promise; her petite frame and small, firm breasts drove him wild with desire.
The war was ending. Chaos was king and ruled with an indiscriminate hand. The Americans were withdrawing and the North Vietnamese Army under General Giap was driving in from the north almost totally unopposed. She was only twenty-two and terrified.
“Why you leave me, Jake-san?”
He blinked. She stood less than ten feet from him. She was exactly as he remembered her. But, that was impossible. More than twenty years had passed.
“You say you love me long time.” She walked closer.
“You’re not here.”
“You promise me I come America with you.”
Her perfume filled his nostrils.
“I couldn’t. They wouldn’t let me.”
“You numba ten G.I.!” She spat. She lunged. She grew. Her mouth widened. Her teeth lengthened. “Now I take you! I make you pay!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Dave was twelve years old and it was Sunday afternoon. He was in the central Pennsylvania house he shared with his parents, his sister, Pauline, and his brother, Mark. Specifically, he was in the finished basement of their three-story home. Dark wood paneling covered the cement walls. The concrete floor was carpeted with a heavy shag rug. A white, textured drop ceiling hid the wires, beams, and pipes that ran beneath the floor above. In spite of the wood and the carpet, the overhead lights set into the false ceiling, and the strategically placed space heaters, the chill never left the room no matter what the season.
Dave sat at the heavy worktable that occupied the middle of the room. A partially completed jigsaw puzzle lay before him. He held one irregularly-shaped piece in his hand as he studied the edges. Thoughts buzzed in his head like gnats at the edge of his vision.
I’m lying on my back, my face is cold, and I have to pee.
Dave placed the piece into an opening along the edge. It fit perfectly. He studied the picture taking shape. After a moment, he shook his head. Not enough, yet. He picked up another piece.
The light’s wrong. It can’t be getting dark already. Are those stars?
He placed another piece and frowned. He didn’t like the scene slowly forming. He grasped another and studied the portion printed on it. All he saw was dark sky.
Where’s the moon? If the day is turning into night, shouldn’t there be a moon?
He stretched his hand to place it near the top.
“Whatcha doin’, Coozin?”
Dave jerked. The picture on the table scattered as the basement vanished. Suddenly he was in the woods, lying on his back, and looking up into the night sky. He turned his head to the left. Fear gripped his stomach with a tiny fist.
Is that a goblin? He looked closer.
A short being dressed in dirty, tattered jeans crouched near his left shoulder. Sparse hair – dark and greasy – lay in lank strands over its round head. Its wide-set green eyes studied him curiously. The heavy lids closed and opened in a slow blink. The creature’s tiny hands ended in elongated claws.
This has to be a dream, Dave thought. Either that or I’ve fallen into Middle Earth. If he asks for his precious, I’m pretty sure I’ll scream.
“Wha’s wrong, Coozin?” The creature’s high-pitched voice sounded childlike.
Troubles, Bubbles? Dave’s mind cackled. I’m going crazy.
“Who are you?” he whispered.
“Levi. Levi,” the creature chortled. “M’ mama calls me Levi, and Levi dat be me. I ain’t got no las’ name, but m’ papa’s plain t’ see.”
Oh, Lord, Dave thought. I’m dealing with an inbred retard.
The being stopped capering. The green eyes narrowed. “I ain’t no retard. I know that word, Coozin. It’s a ugly word. It means stoopid. I ain’t stoopid. Jus’ ’cause I’s ugly an’ cain’t read don’t mean I ain’t smart like you an’ everbody else. Ah’m jus’ as good as ennybody else.”
Icy fingers tap-danced down Dave’s spine. Did this creature just read his thoughts?
“Ain’t no cree-chur neither,” Levi growled, confirming Dave’s fears. He crept menacingly towards him. “Ah’m a man, same’s you.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it.” Dave shivered, only partially from the cold. “I’m hurt. My head. My legs.”
Levi relaxed and looked closer. He sniffed at Dave. “You ain’t from ’roun’ here.”
Dave shook his head. Jagged spikes dug into the back of his eyeballs.
Levi crept towards Dave’s feet.
He moves like a chimpanzee, Dave thought.
Levi looked back at him, his eyes narrowed. “What’s a ’panzee? Looks like some kinda ape. Ah done tole ya once’t already. Ah ain’t no animal. Ah is a man.”
“Yes. You’re right. You’re a man.” The effort to speak made Dave pant. “It’s just how you move, that’s all.” He lay back from the exertion. A warning pain shot up his leg. His left leg wa
s mercifully numb.
Levi squinted at him for a moment longer. Mollified, he returned his attention to Dave’s leg, but did not touch it.
“Well, well, looky-here, looky-here.” He made a clicking noise. He looked back at Dave but Dave was looking at the sky once more. “Looks like y’all found one o’ Jake’s traps. Gotcher foot good, it did, it did. Yep. Got’er real good an’ tight.”
“Trap?” Dave looked at Levi who was fast becoming a hunched shape in the failing light.
Levi shuffled back to where Dave could see him more clearly. “Yep. Trap. Jake puts’em out all ’roun’ here so no one gets too close to his still. ‘specially strangers like you.”
Moonshiners? What next? Dave looked skyward and gently shook his head. Pain grated inside his skull. This movie just gets better and better.
“Ah’ll be raht back, Coozin.” Levi turned to shuffle away. “Ah gotta find somethin’ t’ open th’ jaws so’s ah kin free yore foot.”
“You’re leaving? Where are you going? Don’t leave me out here by myself.”
“Not fur. Don’t you worry none. Ah’ll be raht back. You’ll see.” Levi scrambled away into the darkness.
“Come back!” Dave hollered. “Don’t leave me!”
Only the silence of the dark forest replied.
“Son of a bitch,” he muttered. “If I ever get free, I’m gonna find that little monster and show him how a deer feels.”
Slowly, carefully, Dave forced himself to a sitting position. He waited until the world stopped spinning. While he struggled to stop his panting, he looked at his legs stretched out in front of him. The left one looked all right. The jeans cuff was dark and damp, but it didn’t look like blood.
He looked at the right leg and nearly threw up. He closed his eyes until the nausea passed. Even with his eyes squeezed tightly shut, he could still see the jaws cutting deeply into his leg just above his ankle. Why hadn’t he worn his leather boots? They laced halfway up his calf. He remembered thinking that they were too much trouble; his sneakers would be good enough. It wasn’t like he had to worry about snakebites at this time of the year. He shook his head. Obviously there were other things that bit that were unaffected by the cold.
He looked at his leg once more. He thought he might be able to pry the jaws apart, but positioning himself to where he could reach it was going to hurt. A lot.
Bracing himself, Dave eased his butt toward the trap, slowly bending his knee and sliding his hands alongside his hips as he did so. Despite his caution, pain slammed into his brain. His vision grayed. Sounds grew faint and distant. His face tingled and felt clammy. A few seconds passed. The grayness faded. He waited for a few more seconds, taking deep breaths and preparing for the pain he knew would come next.
“Oh, well,” he muttered as he leaned forward. “No balls, no blue chips.”
He gripped the jaws of the trap. Taking a deep breath, he tried to force them apart. The spring was stiff and strong, the mechanism slightly rusted. The jaws resisted. He pulled harder. His arms ached, but the gap slowly widened. They were almost far enough for him to slip his foot through...
Suddenly, he heard a sound in the leaves behind him. He turned his head. The jaws slipped from his fingers. The steel bands snapped closed on his leg. He felt steel on bone and heard a crunching sound just before the mushroom cloud filled his brain and carried his consciousness away on waves of agony.
Levi watched as the man turned, arched his back, screamed, and fell backward onto the leaves.
“Now, why’d he go an’ do that for? Ah done tole him ah’d be raht back.”
•
“Oomph!” Someone punched Dave in the gut and drove the air from his lungs.
“Oomph!” He opened his eyes and watched as the dark ground passed inches from his face. His fingers churned furrows in the cold, wet leaves as they dragged through the ground next to rapidly-moving denim-clad legs.
“Oomph!” Something softball-sized and rock hard drove into his stomach again. He tried to shift but a thick, padded bar held him firmly in place.
“Oomph!” Again the air forced its way through his lips.
“Stop,” he wheezed. To his surprise all motion stopped. A moment later he was gently lowered to the ground on his back. Levi’s round face loomed over his own.
“You’s awake, Coozin?”
“Yes-s-s-s,” the word pushed past his lips like escaping steam.
“Well, you jus’ lay there a minute, Coozin. We still got a piece t’go an’ you ain’t zackly light.”
Dave struggled to catch his breath. His stomach felt like he’d tried to do too many crunches. “Where…where are you…where you takin’ me?”
“Why, I’s takin’ you t’ yore people, Coozin.”
“My people?”
Levi nodded. “Th’ big house with th’ big roun’ thing that points at th’ sky.”
“Satellite dish,” he panted. “It’s a satellite dish. You’re takin’ me t’ Fred’s cabin.” He lay back.
Levi shrugged. “Don’t know no one called Fred.”
“That’s all right.”
“Listen, Coozin,” Levi stepped closer to Dave and bent down. “We gotta get goin’ ’fore the fiddles start.”
“Fiddles?” Dave shook his head. It had to be a local thing. He tried to move his leg. Pain shot up his right side and exploded like a skyrocket inside his head. He lay back, panting. “I don’t think I can walk. My ankle.”
“Ah knows that.” Levi positioned his hands on either side of
Dave. “’Tha’s why I carried you this far. Ah kin carry y’all the rest o’ th’ way, too.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Don’t you worry none. Tain’t much farther.” Levi’s legs levered upward as Dave fell across his right shoulder. What little air remained in his lungs whooshed out, preventing any protest.
Levi scrambled down the slope, his awkward gait barely disturbing the leaves. Dave jounced about like a badly packed bag of flour. He tried to hold his hands up but the effort proved too much. His palms and fingers kept dropping down to drag in the cold wet soil and leaves.
“Noooooooooooooooo…”
Levi stopped and looked back up the trail at the darkness. “Oh, no. Someone’s done gone up on th’ ridge where no one’s s’posed t’ go.” He turned and headed down the slope, his steps quicker.
“What…was…that?” Dave managed to gasp.
“Don’ ask,” Levi replied. “You won’t like th’ answer.”
Dave felt a chill. There was something familiar about that scream. Peete? Oh, God in Heaven, what could make Peete scream like that? What could possibly make any human being scream like that? He suddenly realized that Levi was speaking – muttering, really – and, as he listened, the creature’s words chilled him.
“Gotta get this one someplace safe. Sounds like pa done got one fer his dinner already. He ain’t gonna settle fer one, though. Ain’t no one safe on th’ mountain t’night.”
Despite the urgency brought on by the scream, Levi struggled under the weight of his charge. At six feet, one inch tall and almost two hundred and ten pounds, Dave was a big man. Levi stood barely four feet in height and weighed just over one hundred pounds. Worse, Dave was unable to help. Levi’s leg muscles trembled from the effort. His lungs burned with each labored breath. Only the occasional glimpse of light from the house below as they drew closer kept him from collapsing beneath his burden.
“We’s almos’ there,” he hissed through clenched jaws.
His shoulders ached. His knees threatened to buckle under the weight. His steps dragged through the damp leaves. Step by staggering, struggling step, Levi carried Dave closer to the house. Just as he felt he could not take another step they emerged from the forest and into the side yard. He saw Jake standing near the house with his back toward him. That made no sense. Why would Jake be here?
Levi glanced to his left. Candles burned and a figure stood near one of them. It was Granny. She was nak
ed and held a knife pointed in the air. Something huge, hulking, furry, and glowing crawled out of the well behind her.
“Granny!” Levi dropped Dave and ran to the middle of the yard. He froze. Wherever he looked he saw carnage, chaos, and death.
The creature was free of the cave opening. It resembled a huge, Dali-esque caterpillar. Its long abdomen was a series of diminishing rounded sacks – large at the head and steadily decreasing towards the tail nearly twenty feet away. Six ropey tentacles – pointed at the end and lined on the underside with a double row of suckers – writhed beneath the creature’s head like grasping snakes. The creature’s face looked like a primate. The skull was rounded where the eye sockets held the huge unblinking eyes. Elongated slits bisected the yellow-green irises and made them look reptilian. A third eye stared from a rounded hump just above and between the other two.
Flattened tissue resembling a nasal passage split the face between the lower eyes. Rather than nostrils, however, a single horizontal slit opened and flapped below the membrane above the lipless mouth. Needle sharp teeth lined its gaping maw like stalactites and stalagmites. A bifurcated tongue darted in and out of the creature’s mouth. A row of wide, vertical slits lined each side of the creature’s neck like gill slits, although the being appeared to breathe air comfortably.
Energy crackled and danced over its skin. Colors beyond description ebbed and flowed and shimmered. The sharp tang of ozone filled Levi’s nostrils.
He stared in horror as the thing reached towards Granny. When the tentacles encircled her waist she screamed. Her hands slammed downward driving her knife deeply into her naked, bony chest
Levi watched Jake take one slow, lurching step after another away from the shadows of the house and closer to a tentacle that writhed before him like a dancing cobra. The tip darted back and forth as Jake’s lips moved. He held his arms apart as if he were trying to placate someone. Before Levi could shout a warning, the tentacle struck. It ripped Jake’s head from his shoulders. Blood spouted from his neck as the tentacle deftly, almost daintily, popped Jake’s head into the creature’s gaping mouth.
Black Stump Ridge Page 18