"Easy now. Watch your step."
The boy steps out of the box and stands as straight as he can, trying to look taller than he is.
"My, aren't you a fine-looking boy. Turn around."
Slowly, feeling very uncomfortable, the boy turns in a clumsy circle. All around him are trees and grass. They are in some kind of park. He thinks maybe he can run away from the man, but he doesn't know where they are. Even if he does get away and hide, he'd still be lost. He doesn't know how long he was in the box, but it had to be over an hour. Maybe a couple hours.
There are two other men standing a good ways off, standing close to each other, talking. One man is bigger than the other, and louder. At one point, they both stop talking and look over at the boy, then go back to their conversation.
After making a full circle, he faces the man again.
"Wonderful. Now"-the man pulls a black handkerchief from his pocket-"I have to put this on you again and tie your hands." He bends his mouth down in a goofy frown. "I know. I'm sorry. But it's all part of the game."
Game? The boy swallows. "Where.. . where are we going? To see my mom and dad?"
"Sure thing," the man says. "Of course. This was all a game, and now there's just one more part. How fun."
He folds the handkerchief into a blindfold and places it over the boy's eyes, tying it behind his head. It isn't as tight as before, and a little light sneaks through along the bottom edge. The boy then feels his hands being tugged together behind his back and something soft being wrapped around his wrists.
"OK, now, I'll lead and you follow, like follow the leader, all right?"
Hesitantly, the boy nods. The man leads him across a stretch of grass then onto some gravel. The men in the distance have stopped talking, and the only noise the boy hears now is the sound of his sneakers grinding in the stones. The boy is still scared but makes himself think about his mom and dad and how excited they will be to see him. He isn't sure if the man with the dark eyes is telling the truth about the game or not, but he chooses to believe it because it makes him not quite as scared.
The man stops him by putting a hand on his chest. "There's a car here. We're going to go for ride to meet your parents, to see Mommy and Daddy."
The boy feels in front of him for the car, runs his hand along the open doorway, and gets in. The seats are hot against the backs of his legs, and it hurts his shoulders again to lean against them.
The man shuts the door behind him, and then the front door opens, the car rocks a little, and the door shuts.
"Ready?"
The boy nods. "Yes."
They drive for what seems like a long time. At first the road is smooth but curvy. Without the use of his arms, the boy has a hard time balancing himself on the seat. Then the road straightens but gets real rough. He bounces around on the seat like a doll. Normally, if Daddy was driving on a road like this they'd both be laughing and having a good time with it. But nothing about this game is fun so far.
There is no air moving in the car, and it's getting real hot.
The man clears his throat. "Won't Mommy and Daddy be so glad to see their little boy again. I bet they're having all kinds of fun, though. And we're having fun too."
Finally, the road smooths again, and a little while after that they drive onto some gravel and stop. "Almost there," the man says. He opens his door and gets out.
With the windows rolled up, the boy can't hear exactly what's going on, but it sounds like the man is arguing with another man.
The boy sits real still and strains to listen. The other man's voice is not his dad's. He hears the other man say something about cursing the town, and then he tells the dark-eyed man to get out, to leave. More voices join in, deep ones, hollering and cursing. Then the boy hears dogs barking and growling.
A man hollers then screams like he's hurt bad.
In the car, the boy begins to cry, and outside the car, he can hear a man crying. Other voices are there then, women hollering something about getting help and men telling them to shut up. The dogs are barking, women start screaming, men are cursing.
The boy slouches down in the seat and prays to God the car door would stay shut. He doesn't want any part of what's going on outside.
Finally, things quiet down, and the only noises he can hear are the muffled crying of women and a man moaning like he's in pain.
The car door opens, and a hand finds his arm. "It's time." It's the dark-eyed man. "Time to meet up with Mommy and Daddy."
"The dogs," Juli said. "You were telling us about the dogs and your lack of preparation."
Asher paced back and forth along the plywood flooring. He held his hands to his chest and rubbed them as if trying to keep them warm. "He appeared early Saturday morning, the man did, saying he and his friends had some business to take care of in the woods and they wouldn't be a bother to no one." Asher's gaze found a spot on the wall again, and he absently stroked his beard. "Had the darkest eyes I've ever seen. At the time I would have sworn he could see right into my heart with them. Now... well, experience has taught me a thing or two."
Rob looked at Juli then at Asher. "Did he have a real fair, smooth complexion, almost white like an albino?"
Asher's eyes snapped to Rob. "That's him. If it wasn't for those eyes, I'd a'said he seemed like a right nice fellow. But those eyes..."
"What about a boy?" Rob asked, wondering where all this was leading, if there was a point to it. And what it had to do with Jimmy.
"Yes, the boy. The man and some of his friends-a bunch of thugs is what they looked like-left saying they'd be back later and we were to pay them no mind. I didn't think anything of it, so I did just that."
"Paid them no mind," Juli said.
"Paid them no mind." Asher was on the other side of the cabin now, arms folded over his chest. "Some of the men stayed. They had dogs with them. Four German shepherds. Big, mean-looking things."
"The men or the dogs?" Juli said.
"Both, but the men were uglier than the dogs. And that's the truth. They walked around town, holding those dogs at the end of short leashes, cursing and making a scene. Being real belligerent. The townspeople, my people, my flock, were scared and stayed in their homes."
Rob shifted in his chair. He was getting impatient. Jimmy was still out there. He wanted to hear what the old man had to say, though. Information was like gold right now. The more he had, the better chance he had of finding Jimmy. "So when's the boy get in the picture?"
"Later that afternoon the man with the eyes got back. As the town's shepherd I went out to meet him. I was going to tell him to do whatever it was he had to do and then leave town. His friends were disturbing the peace."
Juli wiped at her mouth. "So you were playing lawman too."
Asher looked at both of them. "Oh, my, look at me. I have guests and haven't even offered you a drink." He crossed the room to the hutch and retrieved three stoneware mugs. Then he reached in the bottom and pulled out a plastic jug of bottled water. "Water?"
"Sure"
"Yes, please."
Asher unscrewed the cap and poured the water. "I'll have to apologize for it being tepid. No ice."
"Wet is what we're looking for," Juli said.
Asher handed them each a mug, and Rob took a long gulp. "Go ahead. He returned and you confronted him."
"Let me back up here. While they were gone, Mari Emswiler, I think that's who it was, got a call from her sister, who lived over in Mayfield, saying a young boy went missing at the apple festival. So when I reached the car and noticed a boy in the backseat, blindfolded and hands tied behind his back, I told the man to let the boy go, and I was calling the police. What little I could see of the poor boy I could tell he was terribly afraid." He paused and ran a hand over his eyes. "That's when things went bad."
Juli ran her finger over the raised grain of the wood tabletop. "Bad guys usually don't like being told what to do."
"And this one fit the mold," Asher said. "We exchanged some words, voi
ces raised, and all the while the dogs barked and barked and tugged at their leashes." He blinked again and found something interesting to look at on the far wall.
The oil lamp flame undulated slowly behind the glass globe. Rob stared at it and imagined what it was like to face down the dark-eyed man and his cronies with their dogs. "Your eye. The dogs did it, didn't they?"
Asher winced and snapped out of his faraway thought. "The dogs. The German shepherds, they kept pulling at those leashes, straining hard. They'd tug so hard then start coughing in fits. I can still see the coldness in their eyes. The evil. Finally, the men let them go."
Rob pictured it in his head, big, meaty hands releasing the leashes. The dogs lunging forward, backs arched, muscles tensed, fur bristled, teeth flashing white, saliva swinging from snarled lips.
"Were you the only one? The only victim?" Rob asked.
Asher's eyes fell to the floor, and he lost some of his posture. "Maybelle Finfold died that day. She was ninety-two and had come out of her house to see what was going on. One of the dogs ... May never bothered no one. She was standing there on her front stoop with her walker and... one of the dogs. They left her body in the street for the dogs to finish off. And there were plenty of others too. I lost a lot of sheep."
He looked up, and tears were running down his cheeks in long stripes, getting lost in his beard.
"Darlington's seen its fair share of death," Juli said.
"I didn't see any cemetery in town," Rob said.
Asher wiped at more tears. "You won't. They stopped burying people after the first night." He must have seen the question on Rob's face because he quickly continued. "The darklings. That day we buried twelve of our own. For a town of only a hundred and three-no, four, Anna Caldwell was pregnant at the time-that's devastating. The next morning the graves were all dug up and the bodies gone. The darklings had taken them."
"The dark-eyed man," Rob said. "Who is he?"
Asher's eyes turned cold, and he set his jaw. "As far as I'm concerned, he's the devil."
"And what happened to the boy?"
After swallowing hard and wiping at his cheeks with the sleeve of his shirt, Asher sniffed then said, "They took him into these woods, and that was the last of it."
"The last time you saw the men again?" Juli asked.
Asher shook his head. "No. Some of the thugs stayed behind and"-he put his fist to his mouth-"hurt some of our women. Then they told me if anyone called the police, they'd be back and do worse."
Rob couldn't believe what he was hearing. It was incredible and pathetic at the same time. Darlington was a town captive to their own fear. But Asher hadn't answered all his questions. "What about the darklings? And the dogs out there now? They can't be the same dogs."
Asher paced some more, arms crossed at his chest. "Their evil offspring is what they are."
"And the darklings?" Juli asked. "Please don't tell me they're the dogs' evil offspring too."
"What are they?" Rob asked.
"That evening, after we'd done our best to patch our wounds, some menfolk and me set out to search the woods for the boy. We were a peaceful town, so only a few had any weapons to speak of. A few hunting rifles and knives was about all. Others brought gardening tools, some kitchen knives, some hammers and screwdrivers. We never thought we'd need to use them but felt more secure with something in our hands, you know. We searched these woods until sundown. By the time darkness fell we were good and lost, which was odd because most of us grew up in Darlington and knew these woods like it was nobody's business. We played here, hiked here, and hunted here. But that night, every single one of us was lost as a blind man in a mirror maze. We wandered around, confused and disoriented for hours. I think it was Ed Bittinger who first heard the screams, away off. Naturally, we thought it was a woman at first, and we all started accounting for all our gals, all the Darlington
Rob felt a shiver run through his body. "But it wasn't a
Asher walked over to the hutch, removed the jug of water, and poured himself some more. He held it up. "Any more?"
"No, thanks."
He took a long sip and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "We ran all night and into the morning through these woods, dropping one by one. I could hear them screaming all around me, hear their cries for help. What was I to do? I didn't hear one gunshot. They never even got a chance to pull the trigger. Eventually I was the only one left, and the darklings caught up to me. To this day I still don't understand what happened, but when morning came I was still alive. I went back to town, but it wasn't the same. The people-my people, my flock-had changed. They were so afraid."
"What are the darklings? Do you know?" Rob asked.
"Whatever they are, they were brought here by him. Conjured from the pits of hell, and now they do his bidding."
"The dark-eyed man."
Asher nodded. "Some say they're demons, other say aliens, and others, vampires."
"Maybe they're all of the above," Juli said. "Demonpossessed, blood-sucking aliens. Maybe they're from the IRS."
It all sounded so ridiculous. Every aspect of reason told Rob this was all nonsense. Demons didn't ravage towns like Darlington and hide in the woods. There was no life on other planets. And vampires were the lore of old tales. None of it made sense. But the darklings were real; they were something. He'd heard them, seen them, and felt their grip on him. He'd have to suspend reason for now. If he was going to find Jimmy in these woods, he'd need to know more about what he was up against. "Are they very aggressive?"
"Only in the dark. In the presence of light, any kind of light, they're pretty docile and even act afraid, but in the dark they're vicious. Worse than the dogs."
"I think I'd rather be up against little green men," Juli said.
Rob sat back in chair. "Why do you live here in the woods? Wouldn't it be safer in town? Or somewhere else? Colorado? Hawaii?"
Asher returned to the table and sat in a chair. He turned his head so his lazy eye fixed on Rob. "After the massacre, that's what I call it because that's what it was, after that I was never welcomed in town again. My people were so afraid of the dark-eyed man and his thugs they ran me out. They were afraid if they were seen with me he'd punish them. Fear rules in their hearts now."
"So why didn't you just leave? Go somewhere else and start over?"
Now Asher turned his head so Rob could see his good eye. "They're my people, my flock. I could never leave them. I should have been prepared, but I wasn't, and I let dogs in. Paul warned about that. I pray for Darlington every day. And pray someday they'll have me back. In the meantime, I have my cabin here and my lights. I light up the darkness."
"That's what Norm said."
Asher leaned forward. "Norm Tuckey?"
"Yeah, he put us up last night. Odd fella. When we left this morning, he told us to light up the darkness."
Asher eased back, and Rob thought he saw the beginnings of a smile under his thick beard. "Did he now. Norm said that."
"How do you get your supplies?" Rob asked. "The nearest supermarket isn't exactly walking distance."
"Someone in town, I don't even know who it is, leaves me things at the edge of the woods. Whoever it is must feel guilty or sorry or both, but he won't enter the woods. Once a week he leaves batteries, food, water, and odds and ends."
"He is a she," Juli said. "Mary Jane."
Asher gave her a blank look.
"From Mayfield. The diner."
"Oh, yes. Mary Jane. It's been so long. I used to love her meat loaf."
"She does throw together a wicked meat loaf," Juli said. "Once a week she brings a carload of supplies to Darlington. Been doing it for twenty-two years."
Rob looked at her. "That's how you were here before."
Juli nodded. "I was never allowed to come with her. I didn't even know she did it until I was fifteen. Then I was so curious. Of course, as a kid you hear all kinds of stories about Darlington. How it's haunted, how people have gone there and never come back
, how the woods surrounding the town are alive. Ripe stuff for a small-town teenager looking for adventure and danger."
"You followed her, didn't you?"
"Sure did. Rode my bike the whole way here."
"That's quite a hike."
"And a half. I was in great shape back then. By the time I arrived, Mary Jane was already leaving. I hid in the woods and snuck up to the town. It looked like just a normal small town. The people were gathered in the church parking lot, rationing out the food and supplies. Before I knew it, though, the sun was setting and the sky was getting darker. I stuck to the road on the way back and never saw anything, but I could feel them. Hear them too. The screams. Footsteps. They were just on the other side of the trees. And under all the other noise I kept hearing someone whisper my name. Sounded like the wind was doing it, or the trees. Like the woods was alive and calling out to me. I pedaled so hard I thought my legs would fall off. Prayed the whole way home."
Rob stood, walked over to the wall, and slid the board away from the peephole. Outside, the woods looked peaceful and still. Huge poplars and oaks stood like sleeping giants. Even their leaves were motionless and quiet. A few pines were there too, their trunks straight as telephone poles. Rods of light reached from the canopy and touched the leaf-covered ground. But somewhere out there, just out of view, were the dogs. He knew it. They were there. He could almost feel them watching him with those dead black eyes.
"Why don't the townspeople leave?"
Asher sighed. "They're too afraid."
"Fear rules in their hearts," Juli said.
"The dark-eyed man," Asher said. "He told them if they ever tried to leave, they'd never make it out of the woods. And the town is surrounded by woods. There's no way out."
"If it wasn't for Mary Jane and her weekly trips, they'd all die, and Darlington would be no more," Juli said.
Rob continued to watch the undergrowth for any sign of life, any movement or glint of an eye. "The dogs are afraid of light but not daylight?"
"Only direct light. Daylight doesn't bother them in the woods. It would if they left the cover of trees."
"So there's the dark-eyed man, the darklings, and the dogs."
Darlington Woods Page 11
