The pain in his voice made her stop for a moment until the numbing coldness that always came to her rescue made itself known once more.
“You are but a child. You will do as I tell you. Right now, you will hush and mind what you are told.”
The children looked at one another. Then they began to fade back into the shadows.
Crying filtered out into the silence. Very faint at first then louder and louder until it filled the very air she breathed.
She covered her ears, trying to blot out the sound, but it grew louder until she matched their cries with her own painful scream until the sounds stopped, and she found herself alone in the wind.
An eerie silence followed.
Her mind traveled back to when she had been a young girl turning men’s heads with her winsome ways. But there had only been one whose sweet words made her heart flutter.
However, as much as she loved this man, she knew their stolen moments together would have to be enough, for he could never make her his own. His hidden moments with her were already a betrayal to the woman who carried his name.
He could not allow scandal to ever come close. His name had to remain crystal clean.
She knew this and had agreed to stay in the background. Living in the beautiful house he had given her.
As the months turned into years and the years into decades, it became increasingly difficult to turn a blind eye to what he was doing to the children. In the beginning, she had agreed to help him try and achieve his dream of finding a cure for the many crippling diseases plaguing the young, or ways to make a diseased limb whole again. As failure followed failure, she found it difficult to shut out the screams and tortured faces that burned themselves into her mind until she had to run away and surround herself with those enjoying a normal everyday living.
Sadly though, she always came back. Her love for him would allow her to do no less. The day came when she decided it had to end. The children had to come first. She begged him to stop his experiments. He refused, telling her his life work must come before any feelings they shared for each other.
That’s when she knew she had to use a stronger force than that at hand. The voice in her mind, who called out to her, was getting stronger and louder in its insistence that she listen and obey. She fought against having anything to do with the dark side. She knew that once a person accepted the dark side into their soul, their days of being a free entity were over.
Instead, she turned to witchcraft to aid her in her need to not only win her lover, but to ward off the dark ones who wanted her for themselves.
To her dismay, she was soon to learn a white witch cannot do the spells she wanted to do without paying a high penalty. Soon she was delving deeper and deeper into the black arts until her soul took on the gray hue of someone offering herself up to evil. That’s when she gave in and accepted the one who had been trying to garner her soul for years. When she asked him his name, he told her he was known as The Man in Black.
Instead of health and beauty, the evil surrounding her soul showed through, and she took on the appearance of the dark side of witchcraft.
He left her then to go back to his other life and continue his life work far away from the Pacific Northwest, where he had spent so many years in hopes of seeing his dreams become a reality.
Years passed, and still she waited for his return, keeping the big house the same, so he would feel comfortable upon his return.
His favorite foods were kept stocked, and his choice of wine waited in the wine cellar downstairs.
It was all for his pleasure; she herself had long since stopped needing the comforts of fine food and drink and the touch of a lover.
Her body went unwashed, and her hair grew long and unkempt. She neither cared about her health nor her mind as she delved deeper and deeper into the black arts.
With her money problems solved, she no longer had need of the young girls of the county who came to her to cleanse themselves of the unwanted burden they were carrying.
She had someone to help her when she needed supplies. As long as he was paid, she knew he would keep a tight lip on him.
Her life had been without conflict or worry…until now. And conflict was the one thing she could not afford.
She would see to it that those who caused her problems would be made to suffer.
Chapter Fourteen
The house was quiet as everyone waited for Bill to tell them what he had heard about the family down the road.
Sami, stretched out between Butch and Donna, kept a keen eye on the kitchen area.
Bill took another sip of his hot chocolate, lit up a cigarette and proceeded to tell about the summer day he and Eddie had sat out in the back yard sharing a few drinks and a wild story. A story, that until this morning, Bill had believed had been nothing more than a fabrication brought on by too much alcohol.
***
Bill swatted a pesky bee flying around and making a nuisance of itself.
“Guess it’s about time to invest in one of them bug zappers.” He took a drink of his beer and set the can down on the small patio table beside his chair.
Eddie laughed. “Fran puts up them sticky strips to catch them. Only problem is, every time I get drunk, I’m the one who gets caught up in the damn thing.”
“How’s Fran coming along? It’s been what…three months since she had the stroke?”
“She’s getting along all right. Our daughter and her family came to help out and that made Fran snap back a lot quicker than she would have.”
“You just never know what the hell can happen. One day you’re feeling fine, and the next you’re flat on your back with a fucking stroke!”
“I should have seen it coming. As upset as she’d been the last few months, I’m surprised it didn’t happen a lot sooner than it did.”
Bill reached into the cooler, brought out two cans of beer to set them between them on the table.
“What’s she been upset about?”
Eddie picked up his can of beer then set it back down. “I don’t mean to be an ungrateful neighbor, but do you have anything stronger than beer? I feel like having a good stiff drink.”
Knowing Eddie to be a hard drinker, he hesitated for a moment, and then got to his feet. “Sure, I got a bottle of scotch in the liquor cabinet. I’ll be right back.”
When he came back outside, with the bottle of liquor and two glasses, he saw Eddie sitting in his chair, his head resting in one hand he had propped up on the table.
“Come on, pal.” He set the scotch down on the table, and reaching into the cooler, scooped ice into the glasses. “After a few of these, the world will look a lot brighter.”
“I don’t think there’s booze enough in this whole damn world to brighten my world, Bill.”
“Ah, bullshit. Quit it.” He poured both glasses full and handed one across the table.
Eddie threw the liquor down his throat and then reached for the bottle.
Bill couldn’t help but feel a twinge of regret that he had brought out a full bottle as he saw Eddie quickly down a second glassful.
“Don’t worry, Bill,” he said noting the look of concern, “I just want to get a small buzz. It helps me face the day.”
“I don’t begrudge you a few drinks. I just don’t want you getting shit-faced and going home to Fran. She’s got enough problems without that.”
Eddie snorted a caustic laugh and pulled the can of beer closer.
“All right, we’re alone, so tell me what the hell’s going on with the two of you. You said Fran was stressed out before the stroke, and the way you’re acting, I get the feeling you aren’t far behind her.”
“I’m living in hell,” he groaned, running a tired hand through his dark brown hair. “If only I could share this nightmare with someone.”
“I just said you can talk with me, Eddie. What the hell? Don’t you trust me?” Bill said in jest, but he could see Eddie was measuring him in how far he could go in telling what was going on.
“It ain’t that I don’t trust you, Bill. I just don’t know if you’ll believe me.”
“Only one way to find out, old buddy.” Bill slapped him on the shoulder. “If you can’t confide in your friends, who the hell else can you confide in?”
“No one, I guess.”
“Then let’s hear it.”
Eddie sat in his chair quietly rolling the half can of beer back and forth in his hands. “Bill, what I’m gonna tell you is something I haven’t told anyone. Not even members of my family.”
Bill nodded and waited for him to continue.
“It all started about a year ago. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the rumors going on about the Prescott Mansion?”
“You referring to the rumors about illegal abortions that are said to be done out there?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you gonna tell me they ain’t just rumors?”
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you. The old lady that lives there has been doing abortions on girls around the county for years. She ain’t too picky what trimester they’re in either. In fact, from the way I hear it, the further along the pregnancy is, the better she likes it.”
“You ain’t serious? She aborts babies that are almost full term?”
“Yep, because that way she can keep the baby alive for her sadistic experiments.”
“Now you’re really losing me. For someone to do that, they would have to be a goddamn ghoul.”
“Kinda rings reminiscent of Nazi Germany, don’t ya think?”
“If she really is doing shit like that to innocent little babies? Hell yes!”
“Oh, it gets even worse. She damn near killed a girl some years back.”
“Do you know this for a fact, or is this just hearsay.”
“I can tell you right here and now what I’m telling you sure as hell ain’t hearsay! I was at the hospital finishing up some paperwork on a patient when one of the nurses took a call about an emergency being brought in by a private citizen. I grabbed a gurney and we got to the entrance just as a car pulled up. The driver reached over and opened the front passenger’s door and yelled for us to get her out of there. Since he was parked right beneath the light in front of the entrance, I could see someone wrapped in a blanket, sopping wet with blood.”
Without being aware of it, Bill tipped the bottle of scotch over the glasses.
Eddie nodded and picked up his glass.
“I’ve heard that if someone picks up an accident victim, they can be sued if something goes wrong.”
“That’s true, they can, but this was no accident victim. This was a young girl who damn near died because of a botched abortion.”
“Go on.”
“I yanked the door the rest of the way open and reached in to lift her out of the car. I’d barely got her out when the driver hauled ass on us.”
“I hope to hell you got the number of the license plate.”
“Didn’t have time. She was bleeding so bad, blood was dripping on the asphalt.”
“My God.”
“I didn’t even put her on the gurney. I just ran inside with her in my arms.”
“Wonder she wasn’t already dead, bleeding like that!”
“Luckily, we had a surgeon who had just finished up with another emergency and hadn’t left yet. The son of a bitch who did the abortion perforated the uterus.” He raised the glass to his lips taking a deep swallow. “He didn’t think she’d make it.”
“Then she did live?”
“Yeah she lived, but she’ll never be able to have kids.”
Bill took a sip of his Scotch. “I’d say that’s a good thing. If all she’s gonna do is get rid of them why would God bless her with another one?”
Eddie looked over at him. “Life ain’t always that cut and dry, Bill. She was just a scared kid caught up in a mess she didn’t know how to get out of.”
“If you say so.” His deep voice took on an unexpected gruffness. “I don’t approve of abortion and killing innocent babies, but maybe that’s just me.”
“I’ll tell you a little secret, my friend, until you are in a situation, you can’t predict what you’ll do.”
“Okay, whatever. You were going to tell me about your demons.”
“I am.” He drained the glass and set it down on the table. “That night is when it all started.”
“How?”
“When something happens to someone that might be an assault, it has to be reported to the police. Since we knew this kid didn’t do this to herself, we reported it.”
“Then what happened?”
“Two detectives came to the hospital. Usually a couple of uniforms will answer this kind of call, but since none of us thought the girl was gonna make it, the department sent the detectives to get as much information as they could before she died.”
“Did they find out anything?”
“They didn’t, but I did.” He rubbed his eyes, reached into the cooler to withdraw two more cans of beer. “She was still under the effects of the anesthesia, so they could see they weren’t gonna get anything right then. I suggested they go get a smoke while she was still out so they did.”
Bill could feel himself getting a little upset with the way Eddie seemed to be hedging about what he had to say. He was just getting ready to call it a day when he noticed a change come over him. Sitting back in his chair he tried not to let his impatience show.
“She started to thrash about, so I pulled a chair over beside the bed and took hold of her hand. I talked quietly to her…you know, trying to calm her down. I could tell she was talking about something, and I leaned in close to try and hear what it was she was saying.”
“What was she trying to say?”
“Just a bunch of disjointed shit in the beginning…then she said something that caught my attention.”
“What was that?”
“At first I thought she was talking about a black man, but the more she talked, the more I was able to make out that she wasn’t talking about a Negro, but a man in black.”
“Say what?”
“She was talking about a man dressed in black.”
Something kept niggling at the back of his mind, but he couldn’t pull it forward. Then finally it came to him. “Do you have any idea where this girl lived?”
“Yeah, she lived in Coal’s Addition. You know where most of the wet backs live,” Eddie said.
“I heard a rumor about that place some time back. It was about a man that was dressed all in black from his shirt and jeans to his boots and wide brimmed hat, and was only seen in that part of town.”
“What else did you hear?”
“Just some silly shit. Why?”
“I want to know what you heard. If we can’t be straight up with one another, we might as well forget it.”
“All right. Some years back, some of us were having a keger over in Cole’s Addition.” He had to laugh as he saw Eddie’s expression. “Not all Mexicans swam to get over here.”
“In that part of the area, they either swam or were trucked.”
Bill lit up a cigarette and tossed the pack on the table.
Eddie reached over, shook one out. “Been off these damn things for six years.” His hand shook as he flicked the lighter.
Bill looked away, trying to swallow his guilt. “You should’ve said something.”
“I’m a big boy. I’ll lay ‘em back down after this one. You were gonna tell me you know of the Man in Black.”
“It’s probably nothing. You know how superstitious Mexicans are.”
“What the hell did you hear?”
“One of the men told about a night a good friend of his met face to face with The Man in Black.”
“I want to hear this,” Eddie whispered, not bothering to hide the fear in his voice.
“It seems this friend was coming home from one of the houses down the street where he had been partying pretty heavy.”
“Drugs used at this party?”
&nbs
p; “I would guess, but the way I hear it, it wasn’t anything stronger than pot.”
“I’ll take your word for it. Go on.”
“He had just made it to the street light when someone stepped in front of him.”
“Let me guess. Our boy.”
“Do you want to hear this or not?”
“Go ahead.” Eddie scooped up some ice in the empty glasses and sloshed in some scotch.
“The man who told the story wasn’t the one who saw The Man in Black, I think the man in question was named Saul, or something like that, anyway, he said this man Saul had told him that he felt like he had been frozen in his tracks the moment the man appeared, like he was numb to the point of not feeling anything.”
Bill tried to ignore the way Eddie was looking at him. And he had to admit he was starting to feel uneasy. He continued with what he had been saying.
“The man began telling Saul all about himself. Even things he didn’t know or remember on nights he had been smoking out and drinking.
“If he couldn’t remember what he had done, then how the hell did he know what he was hearing was accurate?”
“You know how things get sketchy after a night of heavy partying. They aren’t real clear, but you still have bits and pieces.”
“How long did the man talk to him?”
“Not too long.”
“Wasn’t he surprised this individual knew all this?”
“I sure as hell would have been.”
“All right, now I’m gonna tell you something.” Eddie said. “I’ve heard of this Man in Black too, and like you, it comes second hand.”
“Let’s hear what you got.” Bill lit up a cigarette and then handed one over to Eddie who didn’t hesitate to accept.
“I’m beginning to think we could be talking about the same man.”
“Maybe. Anyway, go ahead with what you’ve heard.”
“I guess this person is said to only come out at night.”
“Sounds like a goddamn vampire.”
“Yeah, right down to the fact that no one has ever seen him out after sunrise, or seen his face.” He gave an involuntary shutter.
“The reason I think we’re talking about the same man is the story I heard took place beneath the street light too. And the man who met The Man in Black is named Paul something or other.”
The Hay Fort Page 9
