by Kelvin Teo
Thanks, Jack Reacher.
Ricky turned and doubled over, holding his hand to his stomach and stumbled around.
"I’ll bet that hurts like a bitch, don’t it?"
Ricky straightened up and turned, getting ready to deliver a kick to Danny’s face. He took a couple of steps toward him and raised his foot, ready to smash it into the football hero’s smug face.
"Knock it off, Ricky!"
Ricky almost fell over trying to regain his balance. Danny looked over to see Peaches walking toward them.
"He broke my hand, mama!"
"How in the world did he do that, all trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey, like he is?"
"I hit him and that’s when my hand got broken," he said, still cradling his hand against his stomach.
"Let me see, baby," she said as she took his hand.
She clicked her tongue a couple of times and said, "We’ll have Doc Taylor look at it in a little bit."
She turned and looked at Danny, who took great satisfaction in the bruise on the right side of her fat face. He just wished he had hit her a little differently and broke her nose.
"You causing trouble again, young man?"
"How much trouble can I cause, all trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey?"
"He called you a whore, mama."
She looked at Danny and then smiled.
"I’ve been called a lot worse, baby."
"It’s not right. He shouldn’t be saying things like that about you."
"No, he shouldn’t," she said as she walked behind Danny and ran her stubby fingers through his hair. "But, we can’t let our feelings get the best of us."
As she came back around in front of him, Danny looked up at her and asked, "So, did you ever tell him which of the hundreds of men you’ve banged was his father?"
Peaches smiled and shook her head.
"You’re not going to get to me talking like that. I’m immune to your little jibes and accusations."
"Really? So, you haven’t told him, have you?"
She took a deep breath. Shaking her head back and forth, she said, "This evening is not going to go well for you and your friends. By the time we’re finished with them, it won’t be me that will be the whores."
She had Ricky go and bring his chair over and set it in front of Danny. Then she wedged her body into the seat and he could hear the frame of the chair creaking and struggling to hold her without collapsing.
"Sweetie, let me tell you how things are going to go this evening. First, Ali will be laid out on the altar over there and a ceremony will be carried out, where she will be offered up to Lucifer as one of his brides."
Danny looked over to the altar she was pointing at.
"It’s too bad she won’t survive the ceremony. To send her to be with Lord Lucifer, she has to die. I will cut her heart out myself, removing her soul and denying her entrance to Heaven. She will spend time and all eternity being the plaything for the one true god."
"I thought your sacrifices needed to be unblemished, no scars? Ali now has a scar on her arm."
"That is true, but it is a small one. Hopefully, Lucifer will look upon her beauty and will see she is worth a small imperfection."
He looked at her, wishing his eyes could spit daggers and cut her heart out.
She shook her head and said, "As I was saying, after the ceremony, after Ali has gone to be with Lucifer, the boys are going to have their fun with little Lizzie. All the men folk are going to take turns with your blond friend."
Danny could feel his stomach churning again and thought seriously of letting its contents come up so he could puke all over her. But, seeing as how he hadn’t eaten in hours, there was nothing to come up.
"After she has been used up, she will be begging for us to kill her and we will certainly grant her wish."
Ricky gave a half laugh and said, "Actually, you’re kinda lucky you killed Cal. He was a bit of a strange one and he would have been porking you instead of your girlfriend."
Danny looked up at him and asked, "You know that from experience, Ricky? You and him used to sneak off into the woods together, didn’t you?"
Ricky took a step toward him, but Peaches put her hand out and stopped him.
She looked at Danny and said, "I’m not really sure what you hope to accomplish by getting him all riled up."
"Well, breaking his hand, for one."
Peaches went to stand up, having to push down on the arms of the chair to keep it from lifting off the ground with her. After she got herself upright, she stepped forward and leaned over, kissing Danny on the forehead.
"Save your strength, sweetie. We’re going to make sure you have a really good view of tonight’s festivities. You’re going to get to watch both of your friends die before Sheriff Kelsey is given the pleasure of killing you, himself."
She turned and started walking away and then stopped. She turned and looked at him.
"You really should have just escaped and saved yourself this afternoon. Now, none of you will live to see tomorrow’s sunrise."
She turned and headed out of the clearing and Ricky caught him off-guard with a punch from his other fist. Danny could feel his brain rattling around in his head with that shot.
Clark, where the hell are you?
14
By the time the sun went down, Danny could feel his face was burned and he could hardly keep his eyes open. Of course, it didn’t help that Ricky would get up from his chair every ten minutes or so and punch him in the face again.
He tried to provoke him some more, but he seemed to have lost his ability to cause the scummy mountain boy to become enraged.
After about an hour, he had given up trying. The only thing he could do now was to pray for death before the horrors of the night unfolded. He didn’t want to see either girl harmed in any way, but he couldn’t come up with any plan to get away this time.
In the distance he began to hear vehicles and he pictured them arriving in the motel parking lot down the hill. In his mind, he conjured up the images of a dozen different men, all from the mountain and every one of them a scummy, sleazy piece of shit.
And one sheriff that should have been their salvation.
Inside, he cried because of how useless he felt. He had spent the last two years as the leader of a great bunch of guys on the football field and now, he couldn’t even save his and his friends lives.
He could hear some male voices from down the hill, hooting and hollering about the good time they were going to be having. He imagined they were getting a look at the girls and he closed his eyes, trying to block the visions he was seeing.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t squeeze the images from his brain. The only thing he could do is imagine the terror Ali and Lizzie were feeling at that moment.
Please God, help me find a way to help them.
About half an hour after he heard the first vehicles arriving, he could hear people coming up the path toward the clearing. Looking toward the edge of the meadow, he could see some lights coming through the trees. There were at least a dozen.
He watched as Peaches came walking into the clearing and he almost had to laugh. She was dressed in red satin robes with a brightly colored scarf around her head. She was carrying a burning torch in one hand and a flag staff in the other. The flag was bright red with a yellow pentagram in the center.
Behind her, came Zeke, carrying a torch and large book. From what he could see, Danny could tell the book was ancient, or at least made to look that way. Zeke was also dressed in red satin robes and had a gold hat on his head that look like something the Pope would wear.
The next person in line was the sheriff, dressed the same way, carrying a torch, but he had a white rope in his other hand.
Danny’s heart sank when he saw the rope was tied around the necks of Lizzie and Ali. They were following him, though they still struggled against his pull. Each of them was dressed in a white, pullover gown that reached to their knees.
Behind them came the rest of the participants. Danny could see as he looked at each one, his imagination had not been far off. These were the slimiest looking men he had ever seen in his life. They looked like they ranged in age from twenty to sixty. They were all dressed the same as the others.
Each of them carried a torch and some other item. He could see that one of them carried what looked like a folding cot and a couple of others carried mattresses. Some more lawn chairs were also being brought into the clearing.
Lizzie caught sight of Danny and screamed, "Danny! Help us!"
It was then she saw he was completely tied up and couldn’t do anything to help them.
"I’m so sorry, Lizzie," he said, which brought another punch to the side of his face from Ricky.
As he shook the cobwebs from his head, he saw the men fanning out around the altar, moving to the concrete squares he had seen earlier. They began setting the torches in holes near each square. When they were finished, the clearing was lit quite well from the flames of the torches.
The chairs were set up and one of them looked like a cheap, dime store throne. He almost wanted to laugh as Peaches squeezed her ass into the chair, taking her place as the high priestess of this little get together.
The cot was set up near the head of the altar and one of the mattresses laid on it. Lizzie was hauled over to it and thrown down on it by the sheriff and another guy and they tied her hands and ankles to the legs of the cot.
Another chair was set up a few feet from the cot and then, Ricky and a couple of other guys cut the ropes tying Danny to the stone and hauled him over to the chair. When he tried to fight them, one of them slugged him in the gut and they slammed him into the chair. Then they got some rope and tied his hands and ankles to the chair, keeping him from being able to get up.
They hadn’t been kidding. He was sitting no more than five feet from the cot and Lizzie was stretched out in front of him. He could see the white gown she was wearing was the only thing she was wearing.
He looked into her eyes and could see she was crying with all her heart and he was doing the same thing.
"I’m sorry, Lizzie. Forgive me."
"It’s not your fault, Danny."
"Shut the hell up!" said Zeke as he punched Danny in the face.
Ali still had quite a bit of fight in her and she kept kicking at anyone that got close to her, but when the sheriff and Zeke turned their attention to her, she was no match for them. They grabbed her and lifted her up and carried her to the altar.
She was screaming bloody murder, still trying to kick her way out of their grasp. She was cussing up a storm and promising every one of them she was going to come back in the next life and kill every one of them.
Inside, even though his heart was breaking, Danny smiled at her strength and hoped she would make good on her promise to come back.
"Easy with her, boys," said Peaches. "Do not damage her. Lucifer wants her as close to perfect as we can deliver her."
Ali turned her head and spit right into Peaches’ face and then continued her struggle to get free. She figured she had free reign to fight as hard as she could because she knew they wouldn’t do anything to damage her.
They finally got her onto the altar and some of the men began securing her arms and legs to some metal rings in the concrete. By the time they were finished, she was laying flat on the hard, stone altar, unable to move more than a few inches in any direction.
A small table was unfolded in front of Peaches and the book Zeke had been carrying was set on it. He opened it to a place that had been marked with a satin bookmark and arranged it in front of her. She leaned forward and started reading from the pages.
Danny couldn’t understand a word she was saying. To him it sounded like gibberish, but in the back of his mind, he could tell it was Latin. How a goober from the backwoods could know Latin was beyond him.
Danny looked around and each of the men had taken up positions around the altar, standing on each of the stone squares. A torch burned near each of them and it gave all of them a look of pure evil.
He noticed one of the blocks was empty and he took solace in the fact that it probably was where Cal would have stood if he was still alive. He thought back to earlier and how he had killed Cal and wished he had the strength of Samson and could kill every other man in the clearing.
He looked at Peaches and she was droning on, reading from the book. Once, she looked up toward the sky and Danny was terrified to see her eyes were completely white. There were no pupils looking out from her eyes.
She raised her hands and he could tell she was trying to draw some power from somewhere.
Lady, if you’re looking for the power of Satan, you’re looking in the wrong direction.
Danny looked down at Lizzie and she had her eyes closed and her lips were moving. He was pretty sure she was praying.
Sweetie, I hope you’re on a first name basis with God because we sure could use His help right now.
He began looking around the circle and each of the men had pulled their hoods up over their heads and he thought he was hallucinating when he saw red eyes coming from underneath.
He shook his head and looked again and the red eyes were gone. He realized it was just the light from the torches playing tricks on his eyes.
He looked across the circle and saw the sheriff, standing on a square just to the side of Peaches and he was staring hard at him.
Danny decided he was going to die anyway, so he wasn’t going to cower in front of this, or any other man. He looked the sheriff right in the eyes and smiled at him, letting him know he was happy he killed his boy.
The sheriff took a deep breath and looked away.
Small victory for me.
After about ten more minutes of listening to Peaches prattle on, she pushed herself up and out of the cheesy throne and began walking around the altar.
She made a couple of complete loops around the altar, the whole time chanting in Latin. Her arms were raised up and she was beseeching Lucifer to come and join them.
After her third trip around the altar, she stepped up on the ledge around the concrete block and looked down at Ali, who was still struggling against her ropes.
Peaches reached for the shoulder of Ali’s gown and began ripping it off the young girl’s body. Within a few seconds, Ali was naked again and trying to break free from the bonds.
Danny glanced around and could see a few of the men were staring at her and he could tell they were wishing they weren’t wasting her good body on a sacrifice to Satan. They wanted to have a piece of her themselves.
Peaches began to run her hands up and down Ali’s body and Ali screamed at her, "Get your hands off me, you fucking whore!"
Peaches raised her hands to the sky again and then Zeke stepped up behind her and placed a long dagger in her hand. After he stepped back to his square, Peaches brought her two hands together, holding the dagger with both and mumbling some more in Latin.
Ali screamed as she looked up and saw the dagger hanging above her. She continued to try to break free from the ropes, but she wasn’t going anywhere.
Peaches’ rantings reached a crescendo and she raised the dagger high above her head. The men around the circle began moaning in a low rumble, which also gained in pitch.
Danny closed his eyes, not wanting to watch what was about to happen and he cried, knowing he had failed both girls. He knew he was going to die and he knew he deserved it. He and Clark had promised their parents they would be safe with them. Now, their parents may never even know what happened to them.
Clark, you asshole!
Pfffft!
15
Then, all sounds stopped, as a faint whistling was heard, followed closely by the sound of a body hitting the ground.
Danny opened his eyes and saw Peaches laying on the ground and it took him a second to realize, she was deader than dead can be.
There was an arrow sticking out of her face, looking like it had hit her right between th
e eyes. She had a surprised look on her face, as if she didn’t know what had happened.
The same look was on the faces of all the men around the circle. They were all frozen in place, trying to decide whether this was part of the ceremony or not.
In rapid succession, two more arrows flew out of the dark, slicing into a couple of the men, knocking them off their stone pedestals. One caught an arrow dead center and Danny could see it sticking completely through his body.
The second man went down with an arrow through the side of his head and as he hit the ground, all hell broke loose around the circle. Most of the men turned and ran for the path leading out of the clearing, but a couple stayed.
Zeke, Ricky and the sheriff.
The sheriff reached into his robes and pulled his gun and stepped up on the ledge around the altar and pointed the gun at Ali’s head.
"Come out and show yourself or I’ll put a bullet through her face!"
Pfffft!
An arrow slammed through his face, taking him off the altar and landing flat on top of Peaches’ body.
"What’s happening, Danny?" squeaked Lizzie.
"Uhh, I believe Clark has arrived."
Even though we were in a very dire situation, she was able to force a smile as she looked at him.
Zeke scrambled across the ground to the side of the sheriff and grabbed his gun. He jumped up and pointed the gun at Ali and another arrow flew through the air, slicing into Zeke’s arm, knocking the gun to the ground.
Zeke and Ricky both looked toward the dark woods around them and couldn’t see anything that gave Clark’s position away. It was as if the arrows were flying from nowhere.
The brothers didn’t need to think twice about their next course of action. They both turned tail and ran as fast as they could to the trail and down the hill.
After watching them retreat, Danny shifted his gaze back to where he thought the arrows had come from and didn’t see anything. It was as dark as a coal mine the further you looked away from the torches.
Then he saw some movement in the dark and watched and it looked like a small bush or tree was moving out of the tree line and coming toward them.