Devil Dead

by Linda Ladd

  “He lives upstairs,” Nev was leaning up close and saying to Novak. “See that stairway goin’ up on the side of the house? That’s how he gets up to his door.”

  More brilliant commentary from a pea brain, Claire thought. “So you’ve been up there?”

  Claire watched Nev closely, not sure yet what to think. Maybe this girl was smarter than she acted. Maybe she was putting on a dumb-as-a-stump show for them and knew a lot more than she was letting on. Nah. She didn’t have any super-sized plethora of smarts. Nobody was that good of an actor.

  “Oh, yeah. Yeah, sure. Coupla times. With Andi and Pru. Not lately, though. Like I said, I haven’t seen much of ’em. They been freakin’ skippin’ out on most of their classes. Partyin’, I guess. Gonna freakin’ flunk out, both of ’em.”

  Boy, Nev had really regressed into college speak now.

  “What’s this guy look like?” Novak asked her, turning in his seat to look at Nev. He was actually being more patient than Claire would have expected out of him. More wordy, too. But that wouldn’t take much. He was now pushing up to five words at a time.

  “He’s tall and kinda skinny and he’s got that kinda little beard, you know, like, I don’t know, like, rappers I guess. He’s crazy hot, freakin’ hot, and he’s got a real nice butt. You know. Especially in tight jeans.”

  Claire said, “No, we don’t know. Think specifics, Nev. What kind of beard? What color is his hair? Get a picture of his face in your mind, hold on to it a minute, and tell us what he looks like. Was it a goatee, a mustache? What? Think back.”

  Nev thought back, and it looked like it gave her a headache. The conversation sure was hurting Claire’s head. Finally, aforementioned twit said, “It’s a goatee, and it goes up around here.” Nev sat up even closer to Novak, perching on the front edge of the backseat while she made a little circle with her forefinger up the side of Novak’s mouth and across under his nose and down the other side. Then she drew a line up his jaw across his knife scar to his ear. It did appear that the kid was enjoying the bodily contact more than Novak was.

  Okay, Novak was not a pretty boy, but he did have that virile thing down pat. But, and alas, Nev’s feminine wiles did not work. Novak did not look all turned on or good to go. He leaned back out of said siren’s reach, and said, “What color is his hair?”

  “Brown. He’s kinda pale, kinda hot, kinda nice, I guess.”

  “Does he kinda carry a firearm?” Novak said. Aha, his heretofore admirable patience was wearing a bit thin, or so it seemed.

  Nev looked up at Novak. “Oh, yeah, sure. A freakin’ big one, too, you know, stuck down in the back of his pants, like yours is. I think he might deal drugs, or something. Those guys are always armed. You know, just in case.”

  Well, the girl knew enough to notice that Novak was carrying concealed and where he kept his weapon. That was interesting. “Does Carvy always carry?” Claire said, not particularly thrilled at the possibility of having a gun battle before lunch. The not-life-threatening-but-aching-like-the-devil scissors puncture was enough excitement for one a.m.

  Novak opened the door, got out, and leaned back inside to look at Claire. “Take her back to campus. I’ll wait here and see if he comes out.”

  Irked that she had to be the one to put up with Nev all the way back to campus, but also more than pleased at the opportunity to get rid of Nev and her freakin’ this and freakin’ that, Claire agreed to drive her back with freakin’ alacrity. “Well, don’t do anything until I get back. Wait for me.”

  “Then make it quick.”

  Claire watched him stride off toward the quaint bookstore and a couple of other shops located just down the sidewalk from their parking place. He was an in-charge kind of guy, true, but she was the boss and she hoped he remembered that. If he didn’t, she would remind him, of course. She took a right at the next block and headed back to Tulane, very eager to get the incessantly chattering girl out of the car and on her way to wherever inane bubble-brained coeds hung out.

  Witch Way

  Although Diana had now seen many a full moon and many a ceremony inside the Sanctuary in the years since that very first time, she still dreaded her mommy’s bad moods so much that she nearly always had a sick stomach. She hated calling her mommy Luna, too, but she had to do it, or Luna’s wrath would be triggered. Worst of all, now that Diana was growing older, Luna made her go hunting every single morning with her bow and poison arrows, and kill more animals for Luna’s taxidermy needs. Then she’d have to pull off their hides and do all those terrible things that she really hated with a passion.

  But Luna would not let her stop. She said that it was the family business, and Diana was gonna have to learn it so that she could carry on when Mommy was planted deep in the earth and turned back into dust again. Spirit didn’t like all the killing, either, or the smell of disemboweled animal carcasses, but he still went with her. After they got back home, though, he would slink away and hide in the bushes when Luna went into the taxidermy shed. He probably thought that he was next on Luna’s list of things to kill.

  Then one night, when Luna went shopping in town, she caught a ride back home with a man. A man who was the biggest person Diana had ever seen. Diana had never really seen a man before, not close up. Maybe some of the people in Luna’s coven were men, but Diana had never really seen any of them. Mommy had certainly never brought a man home, either, at least not when Diana was awake. But this time, Luna brought the big guy right inside their house and let him sit in the parlor on their good blue settee with the red fringe on it, and everything.

  Luna told her that the man had picked her up on the bayou road and offered her a ride home so she didn’t have to walk so far in the hot sun. Then she invited him to eat dinner with them and took out her good crystal goblets with the little flower designs on them and brought out her best bottle of red wine and poured it for him, wine that reminded Diana of the animal blood she had to collect in all those Folgers coffee cans outside in the yard.

  The big man drank his wine very slowly and smiled at Diana now and then, and seemed to like her, almost as much as he liked Luna. When Luna went into the kitchen to get the roast duck she was serving for dinner, the man told Diana that she didn’t have to be afraid of him, that he wouldn’t hurt her. He told her that he lived down the bayou and was her neighbor and that if she and her mother ever needed help with anything, then she should come see him.

  But she was scared to death of him and didn’t answer when he spoke to her and didn’t even look at him. She wasn’t sure yet if she liked him or not. Men were so big and strong and frightening to look at, and she was still very little. But he didn’t hurt her or hurt Luna or Spirit, just smiled and spoke softly and politely and then after dinner, he got in his truck and left. She was glad that he was gone. She didn’t trust any other people, not at all. She hoped he never came back or bothered her mommy, not ever again. And he didn’t. She never saw him again after that, not one time.

  As time went by, Luna turned into her scary person, the one that Diana didn’t know, many more times. That’s when their little place in the swamp got all frightening to live in, and she sometimes wondered if the nice ladies who lived down the bayou and gave her bread and sugar cookies would hear Luna screaming at her, and come and help Diana. But they never did. And when they did come to visit, sometimes Luna would take Diana and Spirit and they would all hide together in one of the upstairs closets until the women quit knocking and went away. Other times, when Luna was her mommy again, she would take the ladies into the company parlor like she had done with the big man, with its carved and heavy and dark old furniture and the white crocheted doilies that Gram had made long, long ago. There, Luna would serve them sweet tea and little tasty petit fours that she liked to bake and that she always kept on hand for visitors. Those were the times when Diana knew she was safe from her mommy’s crazy fits, and her mommy really did act like her mommy and would stay that way, at least until the ladies went back home.

&n
bsp; So, in the years that followed, Diana and Spirit tried to be quiet and cause no trouble and be very, very good. And it worked, too. Mommy was gone a lot, out in the swamp behind the Sanctuary. She sometimes stayed there for several days without coming back to the house, and Diana didn’t know for sure what she was doing out there all alone. But she always ended up coming back home. After Luna started those overnight trips in the swamp, she didn’t go crazy so much anymore. The times that she threw Diana in the bayou and slapped her around and chased Spirit out of the house and into the swamp with her broom came less often. She acted more calm and sweet and talked about the full moon that would come soon, and that she would have to go down to some tavern called the Crab House Bar and find them a suitable Sacrificial Lamb. Diana had no idea what a tavern was, or a Sacrificial Lamb, either, truth be told, but she suspected a tavern was a little grocery store. She’d only been one time to the store down the bayou road, when she was pretty little, but she remembered all the different kinds of food on the shelves and the chocolate candy and chewing gum in the glass case beside a front door that had a little silver bell over it that rang every time somebody came inside.

  One very hot day, Mommy came looking for her where she was playing with Spirit on the back porch. She smiled and watched them awhile, and then she said, “Diana, you’re old enough to do more of our taxidermy work now. I just don’t have enough time.”

  “Okay, Mommy, I’ll help you. It’ll be fun.”

  Spirit lay on the floor and watched, as if he expected violence to erupt any minute, but so did Diana. She didn’t trust her mommy. Mommy was always better when she was Luna and soaking in the tub of milk. Sometimes Diana wished she had never gone out to the Sanctuary that night and seen all that stuff inside its walls. Sometimes she wished she could just sleep at night and not have to chant and sit in that stupid tub full of milk and listen for the gods to answer their prayers. Sometimes she wished she lived somewhere else, in a nice safe house with other little kids and ladies who made sugar cookies for her to eat.

  As it turned out, Luna wanted to teach Diana another lesson on how to skin the poor little raccoon that Luna had caught in one of her animal traps along the bayou. The furry little carcass laid there on the skinning table, its striped tail all limp, its eyes open and staring and sad-looking.

  “Okay, my darling little one, you are gonna learn how to drain this critter’s blood in time for the full moon, and then I will teach you to take out his insides and stuff him. It’s called taxidermy, darling. That’s how I make all the money to support us between sacrifices. Would you like to see my handiwork?”

  Diana nodded, wondering if her mommy had forgotten that she’d already shown her how to do that kind of stuff, and lots of other times, too. Every time Luna taught her stuff, she acted like it was the first time she had ever mentioned it. Diana didn’t understand that, either. She guessed that it was because Diana was dimwitted, and Luna probably thought Diana forgot everything after a day or two. This time Spirit had come inside with them, and he was pressing his side up against the back of Diana’s legs and trembling all over. But Diana obediently followed Luna back outside and then down the narrow trail into the woods. Lots of vines covered the ground and seemed to reach out and try to trip her. Hanging gray moss brushed the top of her head and big silvery spiderwebs hung between the trees and seemed to sparkle in the sun, and all the little silk-wrapped bundles of flies and mosquitoes and moths caught tight in the sticky web gleamed like little trophies.

  In a little while, they came to another building that Diana had never seen before. It looked a lot like their own house, but it was smaller and more overgrown with weeds and vines. It reminded Diana of the story of Hansel and Gretel that her mommy used to read to her, the place where the witch lived. Luna walked straight up to the front door and took a key off her belt. “Come, Diana, dear, this is my very favorite place in the whole world. This is where I come when I need to be alone for a while. You will love it, and you will meet the man who will help you take your initiation rites just a few nights from now. His name is Frankie. He’s gonna be our Sacrificial Lamb.”

  “Okay, Mommy.”

  Mommy jerked around and looked angry. “My name is Luna, Diana. You know that. Don’t you try my patience, girl.”

  Diana tensed up, ready to be struck with Luna’s open palm. “Yes, Luna. I’m sorry.”

  “You come inside with me. And leave that stupid dog outside.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  So they went into the building, and it was very dark inside. Then Diana heard Luna pick up a big electric lantern and a moment later, light flooded the place. It was a living room, sorta like theirs, but with just a couple of chairs and an upended crate. The whole place smelled like it had been closed up for a long time and really pretty awful inside. Then she saw that there were people in there with them. They were standing along the walls. But, no, wait, they weren’t standing up, she realized, they had ropes tied around their necks. They were hanging from plant hooks attached to the ceiling.

  “See, Diana, darling, these are the other members of our coven. They have all willingly given their lives as Sacrificial Lambs so that I could obey Satan’s commands. Satan has visited me often out here in this house and told me what I needed to do. He talks to me inside my head. All day and all night. His voice is so strong when he tells me what I must do. He told me that I had to use these human bodies to make this place into a sacred altar dedicated to him. He told me how to do it and how to drain them of their blood and then use it when I worship him. He told me that I should keep their bodies intact and that I should stuff them like I do our animals so they look alive.”

  Then Luna knelt and cupped Diana’s face with both hands. “And I obey him, Diana, every single word that he commands. Look, darling, see how alive they look? Just like all our projects back in the shed. Just like your pet bird and that little white cat you found out in the yard, the one you named Kitty Kat. We are honoring these brave Wiccans and Sacrificial Lambs of Satan. Oh, yes, they are very good people, very good. They are like our personal saviors. They have been sent to us by Satan himself.”

  Diana stared around at the hanging people and wondered who Satan was and why Luna was now worshipping him. Where did the Moon Goddess and the Horned God go? Who were these dead people? They were limp and lifeless, just like Kitty Kat had looked on that morning when Diana came down to the kitchen and found the tiny little kitten dead with her little head bashed in by Luna’s heavy iron skillet. Luna must have gutted them like she did all the animals they hunted. Luna must have filled their insides full of the cotton stuff and gauze and chemicals and sewed them back up. How could she do such a thing? That was just plumb crazy. Luna had really gone completely mad now. Diana was suddenly very afraid of her mommy, and she didn’t look at Luna’s Sacrificial Lambs anymore. They just looked too awful.

  “What’d you think, sweetheart?”

  Diana was afraid to speak at first. What if Luna stuffed her, too? Then she said, “But, Luna, I thought you said that us Wiccans weren’t supposed to hurt anybody.”

  “Luna? Why are you calling me that, pray tell? I swear, child, you have the strangest notions sometimes. I’m your mommy. You know that. What are you talking about, hurting these folks? I didn’t hurt them. They just died, and then I made them immortal for all eternity. They are here for our pleasure when we need to remember them. Just like all our pets.”

  Diana sure didn’t understand a lick of any of that. It was all just so crazy and confusing; even she knew that and she was dimwitted. She didn’t know what else to say. So she just said, “Yes, Mommy.”

  “You will soon learn to make those around us who die immortal, Diana, just as I have done. You will do it to me someday.”

  Diana just stared at Luna for a moment. Then she said, “Yes, Mommy.”

  Very afraid now, Diana stood there and watched as her mother approached a hanging body that wasn’t propped up on a sawhorse like the others. She grabbed the
man’s hair and pulled up his head. He had a wide strip of silver duct tape over his mouth. “Hello, sweet Frankie, thank you so much for the nice time we had last night.”

  At first, Diana thought he was the big man who had come to dinner at their house, but it wasn’t him. She didn’t know who this man was. She had never heard of anyone named Frankie. Then Diana was shocked when the stuffed man seemed to rouse up at the sound of Luna’s voice, and then his eyes opened and went wild with terror. He started yelling, but it was so muffled under the tape that Diana couldn’t understand his words. He struggled violently against the duct tape binding his wrists behind his back. Her mommy started laughing at his show of terror. “Hush now, sweetness. Your time will come. You’re just not quite ready yet. Not to worry, it won’t be long now.”

  Then Mommy came back over to Diana and took her by the hand. She opened the door and turned out the lantern. Diana looked back at the man as her mommy led her outside into the sunlight again. He was looking at her and yelling under the tape on his mouth, but she still couldn’t understand him. He was very afraid; she could understand that much. So she stood there quietly outside and waited while her mommy took out that silver key again and wrapped the chain very tightly around the door handle and locked it with a twist of the wrist.