“Well…” Staci said.
“Man I wanted to kill the bastard.”
“I don’t blame you Julia. Did he…?”
“Come inside me? Yeah, the crummy bastard. I’m on birth control, thank God. All I’ve got to worry about is that he left me some disease. God knows where he’s stuck his thing before. I’d like to cut his dick off and shove it up his asshole! See how much he likes getting screwed, motherfucker!”
Staci wasn’t sure whether to laugh or not. She didn’t. Instead
she told her the real reason for the call.
“So, we’re all going to have a meeting, probably the 26th or 27th, to talk about what we’re going to do.
“About what?” Julia asked.
“About the Dragons. You know this isn’t the last time we’re going to deal with them, or that they’ll try to kill us. We’ve got to do something about them, all of us.”
“Yes,” Julia said. “You’re probably right.”
“Not only that,” Staci said, “Like Tony said to us today, there’s power in numbers, and the Dragons are probably completely willing to pick us off one by one. I think if we always travel in packs, five or six at a time, never any less, we should be all right. We shouldn’t walk out alone, but give each other a call beforehand, get a few people to go along. We all have each other’s numbers.”
“That’s a bit drastic. What if I just need to go across the street to get my mom some bread or oregano, or something?”
“Call us. Hey, better safe than dead. Did you see what they did to Tony at school? The knife, you realize they were responsible for that? They could be lurking in any corner. We have to be careful.”
“That makes sense, but damn, I don’t want to be a prisoner in my own home.”
“Well, we’ll figure this out. Set something up. I’ll get back to you on a time. Oh, and by the way, Merry Christmas.”
“Yeah. Merry Christmas to you too.”
It almost sounded bittersweet.
“Bye,” Staci said.
“Bye.”
12
Face haggard, his black greasy hair shooting off wildly in different directions, white Tee with a huge wet stain from the neck line to the navel, barely holding his protruding belly, blue jeans hugging his fat like a second skin, marked with dirt and grease; he stood in the doorway. He reeked of alcohol. And even now as he stood there he carried a paper bag in one hand which held either vodka or gin, which he swigged from in four second intervals. His eyes stared coolly at Johnny from his drawn, sweaty face.
Johnny looked back challengingly. His mother looked on in panic. “Now Ben, don’t hit the boy. He didn’t mean what he said.”
“Oh, he won’t,” Johnny said, “’Cause if he lays a hand on me again I’m leaving for good.”
“Is that right?” Ben asked, taking a swig from his bottle. “You think your old man’s been too rough with you? Think I’m an unfit father?”
“That’s right,” Johnny snapped back.
“Please Ben, don’t hurt him. He doesn’t mean any of it,” his mother pleaded.
He looked at her through sagging eyelids. “I know very well what he meant Joanne! And you’ll be smart enough to stay out of this, won’t you?”
“If you lay a hand on her…” Johnny warned.
“You’ll what?” Ben said. “Huh?! What are you going to do?”
Johnny took out a switchblade from his back pocket- the switchblade he’d picked up from Max the day before, and said, “I’ll fucking kill you.”
“Johnny,” Joanne gasped.
“Go ahead, try it,” Johnny challenged him. “See if I won’t!”
“Boy, put that thing away,” he said.
“Oh, you’d like me to, wouldn’t you? Then there’d be no obstacle between you and me.” He looked to his mother. “Mom, get out. Dad and I have some business to take care of.”
“Johnny, don’t do this, please,” his mother begged.
“I said GO YOU STUPID BITCH!!” he screamed. He didn’t mean it, but it sent her out into the night crying.
"Now it’s just you and me stepfather.”
“You get out there and apologize to your mother.”
“I will,” he said, grinning maliciously, “As soon as you
apologize to me, and then get your stuff, and get your dirty fat ass out
of here.”
“Boy, have you gone crazy?! Do you know who you’re talking to?!”
“No, I don’t. I mean it old man, right now.”
Ben started to approach him.
“Back off!” Johnny shouted, raising the knife.
“You’ve gone out of your mind!”
“Yes!” Johnny said. “Yes! Completely off my rocker! Totally fucking psycho! NOW DO WHAT I SAY!!”
“All right, all right, Johnny. Whatever you say.”
“Good. Now tell me you’re sorry for beating on me, and treating me like shit the last few years.”
“I’m sorry son.”
“No you’re not!” He raised the knife again. “I want you to say it like you mean it, even if you don’t motherfucker! Now!”
They were both sweating now.
“All right. Okay. Just calm down.” Ben Clayborn didn’t look so tired or drunk anymore. “Look son. I didn’t mean to hit you.” He was backing up toward the door. Johnny knew what he was up to. “I never wanted to hurt you.”
“Not convincing enough.” Johnny watched as his arm reached behind him for the doorknob. “Don’t even try it. I’m much quicker than you. You so much as take a single step out that door I’ll be on your back like a pit bull.” This halted Ben in his tracks.
“What do you want?” He was crying now.
“I told you Ben, now give it!”
“I…I…can’t.”
“You fucking bastard! You really don’t feel an ounce of regret, do you?! Get out of here! Just get out of my sight and don’t come back again!”
“Son?”
“I’m not your son.”
“Johnny?”
“Get- out!”
“I’m… I’m…”
“Get- out- before- I- ram- this- knife- in- your- throat!”
“I’m sorry,” he cried. “I’m so sorry. I’m…” He was choked with sobs. All the strength and bluster went out of him, and he went down on his knees to the floor. “Oh God…Johnny…”
It wasn’t an act this time. Johnny hesitated with the knife. After a few seconds he put it down. Ben buried his face in his hands.
“I’m so sorry. Go ahead Johnny, kill me. I deserve to die.”
Johnny went to him. “No. Dying’s too good for you. You’ve got to go. And don’t come back.”
“I need help.”
“Yeah, but you won’t get it here. Get out, and get help.”
“You’re breaking my heart.”
“Good,” Johnny said. “Get up.”
His father looked at him from a tear streaked face.
“Get up,” Johnny said again.
This time he did. Johnny hugged him. Ben Clayborn cried out loudly, hugging him back.
“You broke a lot more than my heart. You killed my piece of mind. You were responsible for my ever having joined the Dragons. You made me shun everyone around me. You killed my self-esteem. The guilt over that boy’s life I took, accident or not, I have to live with, all because of you.” Johnny broke the embrace. “I don’t think I can ever forgive you. But I’ll try- if you change.”
“Johnny?”
“I think you better go now.”
His stepfather merely looked at him, and nodded. Head down, shoulders slumped; he turned, and walked out the door.
The door opened five minutes later, and his mother came in.
“Mom?”
“He told me everything,” she said. “He’s going to be staying at Barnie’s place. He says he’s going to get help.”
“Mom, I didn’t mean what I said to you.”
“Oh, I know darling. It’s a
ll right. Johnny, would you have really gone through with it?”
He thought about that. “I guess. Things would have turned
out a lot different if I had.” He trembled to think how different, but even now with things ending as they did, he found it hard to believe it was all over. He didn’t really trust that Ben would seek help. All he could do was hope.
13
“Hi, is Pete there?”
“Yes, just a minute. PETE! PHONE!”
Jeremy yanked his ear away from the receiver.
“Hello?”
“Uh, Pete?”
“Yeah, who’s this?”
“Pete, its Jeremy.”
“Hey Jeremy! How’s it going, all right?”
“Yeah, not bad. Your mom nearly screamed my ear off when she called you, but other than that…”
Whiteman laughed. “Yeah, she gets carried away. I was just in the next room too. So, what’s up?”
“Well, the rest of us are trying to come to an agreement on a meeting.”
“Meeting?”
“Yeah, about what to do with the Dragons. Tony thinks we should all get together and talk about it.”
“That’s a good idea. Hell, I don’t want to have to worry about them the rest of my life.”
“Exactly,” Jeremy said, “None of us do.”
“I hear ya. So when?”
“You free either the 26th or 27th?”
“Free as a bird, both days. In fact, not a thing to do.”
“Great. I’ll call you back tomorrow and give you a time.”
“Yeah, okay. Where’s it going to be?”
“Oh, we’re meeting at Tony’s. We’ll be in his backyard.”
“Won’t his mom mind so many people?”
“Nah, not his mom. She said it’s okay. Maybe his dad, but he’ll
be at work.”
“Day after Christmas?”
“That’s what Tony says.”
“Whoa, rough job. All right.”
“Well, like I said, I’ll call you tomorrow. I have to talk to Tony first.”
“Yeah, sure, talk to you then. Bye.”
“Bye. Hey, uh, Pete?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for everything.”
“For what?”
“You know, back there- the fight and all? For getting that guy off me.”
“Oh, Jake? Yeah, he’s an asshole, up there with Max. Basically he just follows his brother Phil, who’s practically Max’s right hand man, next to Farris.”
“And Carl,” Jeremy added.
“Carl? Carl I’m not too sure about.”
“What do you mean?”
“When I left there seemed to be some tension between him and Max. Maybe I just imagined it, but…”
“What?”
“Didn’t you notice Carl didn’t join in the fight at all? He was mainly in the background, just watching I guess.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I didn’t really think about it. I thought maybe he was just serving as lookout.”
“Maybe, but I doubt it. Who would he be expecting except maybe other kids? I think he’s having second thoughts. You know, about the Dragons.”
Jeremy wondered. “Well, that would be one more on our side.”
“I hope so,” Pete said, “We can use all the help we can get.”
14
Tony appeared to be throwing a party. Of course, that’s what he’d told his mom to justify having so many kids at her place. An after Christmas party. It was perfect. She’d even pitched in for chips and soda.
All eleven of them were present: Jeremy, Tony, Staci, Johnny, Myron, Lou, Mike, Mary, Julia, Peter, and Bill. They’d had to pull out the patio chairs to get them all seated in the backyard.
“All right,” Tony said. “Who wants to start?”
Julia raised her hand. “I’ll start.”
“Go ahead,” Tony prompted.
“Well, Staci suggested we should all travel in groups of five or six at all times. To be honest,” she said, looking at Staci apologetically, “I hated the idea at first. I mean, I’m my own person and everything, but I’ve been thinking maybe it’s not such a bad idea.”
“Good, okay,” Tony said. “Shit,” he looked around, “Maybe we should write this down.”
“How about we vote?” Johnny said.
“Yeah,” Tony nodded. “Good idea. I’ll be right back. I’m going to get some pen and paper.” They sat around quietly until he came back.
“All right,” Tony said, “I wrote it down. Go. All in favor raise your hands.”
“In favor of travelling in groups?” Myron asked.
“Yes, that. Five or six to a group, you said, Staci?”
She nodded. “I think that’s a good number.”
“Aren’t we giving up a lot of freedom?” Johnny said. “I mean I’m with the girl here…”
“Julia,” she said.
“Julia, right,” he continued. “I like to be able to go out on my own, or with one other person, if you know what I mean.”
“Well, I think we are going to have to give up some of our normal habits, if we want to play it safe,” Myron said.
“Shut up dork,” Johnny told him.
Myron smiled. At least he knew John was kidding.
“Why don’t we just vote?” Jeremy said.
Tony threw his hands up in the air, and rolled his eyes as if to say, well duh, that’s what I’ve been saying.
“All in favor,” Jeremy said, raising his own hand. All hands went up but one, John Winter’s.
“Guess we don’t need to count the nays,” Tony said, writing. “Okay, we all have each other’s numbers, so we should never have a problem with this rule. Always travel in groups of at least five.” He looked at Johnny. “And to honor you Johnny, we’ll take that number down to four if it involves a double date. That’s the only exception.”
Johnny sneered. Myron laughed.
“Anyone else?”
William, aka Bill “hell of a swing” Koontz raised his hand.
“Bill,” Tony said.
“Um, I was thinking we should all carry something with us.”
“You mean weapons,” Lou said.
“Yeah, like knives, something we can conceal easily.”
“Not like bats?” Johnny said.
“Right,” Bill smiled. All were in favor.
“Okay,” Staci said. “This is all great. But what we came here for is to figure out how we’re going to deal with them. Get rid of the problem, not just defend ourselves if we get jumped.”
“She’s right,” Pete said.
“Besides,” Staci added, “I don’t think they’re our biggest problem.”
“What do you mean?” Lou said.
She sighed. “There’s something else going on here. I didn’t want to talk about it before because I figured you’d all think I was crazy, but something else is going on in this town. I can feel it.”
“Feel it?” Tony asked.
“Yeah, it’s in the air. Ever since I was a little girl I could sense things, when bad things were going to happen. For some reason I don’t think it has to do with the Dragons. I mean, at least not entirely. They’re part of it, but there’s something bigger. Something else going on in Mercy Falls.”
“Bad things a-brewing,” Julia chuckled.
“I’m serious,” she said. “I know better than to ignore my instincts. There’s something weird going on here. Something definitely not normal.”
“Like the girl,” Johnny nodded. Staci looked at him with something like relief.
“Girl, what girl?” Mary said.
Tony nodded gravely. “We saw something all right.”
Myron jumped in. “Before you guys arrived, before we were attacked, there was a girl in the woods. We thought maybe she was lost, or something. She spoke to us. She told us to leave. That it was not safe there.”
“Yeah, it was kind of creepy,” Tony agreed.
“We didn’t see
any girl,” Mike told them.
“That’s the point,” Staci said. “When we were attacked, she was gone. It was like she vanished.”
“She probably just ran off,” Lou said, “Any scared little girl would.”
“No,” Johnny said. “She was right there, and when we turned, she was gone. It couldn’t have been more than a second. No one can run that fast.”
“What are you saying Johnny?”
“I’m saying, I think we saw a ghost. A bona fide ghost.”
15
Ghost, Johnny had said. But that still didn’t feel right. There was something all right, something in those woods. And it was more than just a little girl, more than just a ghost. Staci was almost sure of it.
16
“Come on. Can we go?” Myron said. He was practically whining now.
“Man, you really like this movie, don’t you?” Tony said.
The five of them were walking when Myron had stopped in front of the movie theatre. Completely halted in his tracks, mouth wide open. Mel’s Moviehouse was re-showing The Breakfast Club. Not only that, it was double featuring with a Kung Fu flick. Both for only a buck. They wouldn’t truly appreciate what a bargain it was until years later, when movies cost anywhere from eight to twelve dollars and double features were all but non-existent.
“Are you kidding?” Myron looked at Tony as if he were the dumbest man alive. “It is only the best movie ever!”
“No way,” Tony said, “A bit too melodramatic.”
Myron looked like he was about to have a seizure, not realizing Tony was only joking with him. Finally Myron let out an exasperated sigh and said, “Whatever.”
“Come on,” Staci said, “Let’s go. It’ll be fun.”
“Well, at least there’s a Kung Fu flick playing,” John shrugged. “I’ll go.”
“All right,” Tony said.
“There’s five of us here,” Jeremy said. “If one of us goes we all have to go.”
“You don’t want to go?” Staci asked.
“Um, yeah, sure, if you want to go,” he said nervously.
She looked at him so sweetly he thought he’d melt. “Yeah, let’s go.”
17
The Pit in the Woods: A Mercy Falls Mythos Page 16