As they cautiously approached the now-brighter lights, they could make out the flickering illumination from many torches, the wooden hafts jammed into the ground. The burning torches seemed to be competing with each other to reach the dark sky.
The chanting grew louder.
Both kids could now make out the shapes of men and women. Two men, two women. They seemed to be dressed in dark ankle-length robes, and they were dancing in a rough circle, going around and around, then into and back away from a pole in the center of the circle.
Neither child noticed several dark shapes slowly moving toward them, from the rear.
“It’s those creeps that grabbed us,” Johnny said. “What the hell are they doing?”
Jackie looked at her brother. “When did you start cussing?”
“Long time ago,” he replied in his best adult tone.
“Yeah,” she whispered drily. “At least last month, I’m sure.” She looked intently at the dancing men and women. She suddenly grabbed ahold of her brother’s arms. “Look what’s on top of that pole they’re dancing around.”
Johnny looked. His stomach did a slow, sick rollover. He swallowed back bile that threatened to explode from his throat.
Dead, bloody chickens dangled from strings at the top of the pole. Beneath the still-dripping chickens, a ring of human skulls encircled the pole. The blood had dripped down to stain the bare shining skulls and fill the empty eye sockets.
One of the women suddenly stopped her prancing and dancing and lifted her robe, exposing herself to the sightless skulls. She faced Jackie and Johnny.
“Don’t look,” Jackie cautioned her brother.
“Hell with you,” he muttered, staring.
“You’re too young, Johnny!”
“Stuff it, sister!”
Boys! she thought.
Then one of the men stopped dancing and chanting and lifted his robe.
Jackie stared.
The dark shapes moved closer to the kids.
* * *
“I’ll never get this car down that road,” Kyle said, pulling over off the gravel-and-dirt road and parking by the dark opening that led to the Gibson house. “We’ll have to walk it. Just pray that Louisa was right about the kids. You armed?”
“Yes,” Lucas replied tightly.
“Let me handle this, Lucas. Don’t go off the deep end and start shooting. It’s too late once you pull that trigger. And the kids might not be at the Gibson house.”
“I know.” Getting out of the car, Lucas took a deep breath and calmed himself. “I’ll let you handle it.”
“Let’s go.”
The men began walking down the dark tunnel created by the overhanging branches. Soon the overhanging gloom had swallowed them. Long before they reached the Gibson house, the sounds of the chanting reached them. Neither would venture an opinion as to its source or meaning.
* * *
“Lucas and Kyle will find them, Tracy,” Louisa attempted to calm the woman. “I am almost certain they went to the Gibson house.”
“And if you’re wrong?”
The smaller woman smiled. “I seldom am.”
“I hate this house. I hate this entire county.”
The lights in the mansion suddenly went out, plunging the great house into deep darkness.
Tracy opened her mouth to scream, her nerves stretched to the breaking point. Louisa grabbed her arm.
“Don’t!” she warned in a whisper. “I hear many people outside. Come on. Follow me and be very quiet.”
“But you don’t know your way around this place.”
“I can find my way. I can sense things most people cannot.”
Louisa led the woman out of the kitchen and through the house as if she had lived there all her life. She skillfully avoided tables and chairs and led Tracy into the drawing room that faced the columned portico.
Leaning close, she whispered, “We must speak only in whispers. I sense great danger.”
“The kids running off,” Tracy returned the whisper. “Now this. It’s all connected, isn’t it?”
“Possibly. Probably. Now, if you value our lives, be silent.”
The women were quiet as the first lances of lights from flashlights began flashing and darting throughout the house.
Then the harsh voices began drifting to the frightened women.
“I want to hear that New York broad scream,” a man’s voice said. Laughter followed that. “She is the one we must take.”
“They were in the kitchen. Where did they go?”
“They can’t get away. We have people outside guarding. We have lots of time to pleasure ourselves when we find them. We’ll save the young one for later.” Tracy stiffened in shock at this sexual reference to Jackie. “Start the search and do it slowly. Miss nothing.”
Tracy fought to suppress her fear. She pressed her back hard against the wall, then felt the wall begin to give under her weight. Louisa put her hand over Tracy’s mouth to prevent her screaming and both women felt the wall give. They tumbled backward into darkness. The panel closed in front of them.
They were in total darkness.
“Sshh!” Louisa shushed Tracy before the woman had a chance to speak. Placing her lips close to Tracy’s ear, she whispered, “This old mansion is rumored to be filled with secret passageways. Those men will never find us if we keep silent. Do you understand?”
Tracy nodded her head, then thought how silly that was in total darkness. “Yes,” she whispered.
The women waited.
* * *
“We have intruders!” a woman called, looking toward the dark timber.
The man and women with their flesh exposed dropped their robes and stared.
“There!” the spokeswoman said, pointing toward where Jackie and Johnny lay watching in the brush.
“Oh, God!” Johnny said.
“Will you stop breathing and slobbering down the back of my neck!” Jackie said.
“I’m not doing anything to you,” the brother replied indignantly. “You’re so turned on looking at that naked man you’re spitting on me.”
Both kids then realized they were lying side by side. No way either one could be breathing down the neck of the other. They looked at each other, then slowly turned around as the men and women in the torchlit circle began laughing.
The kids looked up into the muzzles and mean eyes of two big Dobermans. Their mouths were open, just inches from the kids’ necks.
“Sneaky little spies!” the dark-haired woman said. “They must be punished.”
When Jackie and Johnny turned their heads away from the dogs, the men and women had surrounded them.
Behind them, the sounds of wild laughter sprang forth. The laughter was filled with madness. It seemed to be taunting the kids.
“That’s not Randolph,” Jackie said. “Who have we been following?”
“Randolph?” a burly, dark-complexed man said.
“You wouldn’t understand,” Jackie said. “Randolph is good. You people are . . . bad, I guess.”
All the black-robed adults did their best to hide smiles at that statement.
“We understand much more than you think,” the blonde woman said. Then she could no longer contain her humor and it sprang forth in a gentle laugh. The laughter changed her whole expression. Now she did not appear ominous-looking to the kids—only stupid-looking. She said, “I believe the children have made contact with he who is advised by wolves.”
Jackie jumped to her feet. The huge black Doberman snarled. She dropped back down to the ground.
“Steady, Thor,” a man said, his eyes never leaving Jackie. “Steady, Satan.” The dogs settled back and were silent. The man looked at the blonde woman. “What you suggest is impossible. We have attempted contact for almost a year with no results.”
“And we are adults attempting to contact children,” the woman argued. “Perhaps that is where we made our mistake.”
“Hey!” Jackie said. “Don’t igno
re me. How do you people know about Randolph and the others?”
“As persistent as you seem to be,” another man spoke, “it would be difficult to ignore either of you.”
The others laughed.
Jackie and Johnny got to their feet. One of the Dobermans leaned forward and licked Jackie’s hand. She petted him and he whined softly.
“I thought you said these dogs were dangerous?” Jackie asked.
“Obviously he senses no danger in you,” the burly man with the slight accent said.
Then the dogs became restless.
“Someone is coming,” the dark haired woman said.
“Probably Dad and Mr. Trooper,” Johnny said. “Now we’re really in trouble.”
“And well you both should be,” they were told. “You have interrupted a very important ceremony.”
Kyle and Lucas ran into the torchlit area and stopped, confusion evident in their eyes as they looked around at the macabre sight.
“What’s going on here?” Kyle blurted.
“Great God!” Lucas said.
Both men had guns in their hands.
“There is no need for guns,” the man who had thus-far been silent spoke. “No one has been nor was going to be harmed. The ceremony we were performing is a legal one—we checked on that some months back. The skulls were all legally purchased and there is no law against humanely killing chickens.”
“Yeah,” Lucas said. “For frying, baking, or stewing.”
The man shrugged philosophically.
Lucas’s eyes found the kids. “Both of you, get over here!”
The kids bolted to his side.
The Dobermans lay down on the cool ground and yawned.
“We can do this easy, or we can do this hard,” Kyle said. “You can all cooperate and give me your names now, or I can do it my way, which, I assure you, you won’t like. Which ever way you folks want it, that’s fine with me.”
“No, problem, Patrolman Cartier,” the blonde woman said. “We’ll cooperate fully. We have absolutely nothing to hide. My name is Professor Karen Hart.”
“And my name if Professor David Siekmann,” the burly man with the accent said.
“I am Professor Nancy Morreale,” the dark-haired woman said.
“And I am Professor Mark Sanders,” the last one said. He smiled and pointed to the Dobermans. “From left to right, Thor, Satan, Brute, and Savage. As you can see, they are not as ferocious as we would like people to believe.”
Lucas and Kyle grunted. Neither of them was about to turn their backs to the huge animals. Kyle said, “Professors of . . . what?”
“Well,” Mark said, “we are all the holders of many degrees, some more prestigious than others. From archeology to Greek mythology, with many stops in between. But we are now, and have been for almost a year, all on sabbatical—from our various universities—combining our talents, which are considerable, I assure you, toward our one great passion—attempting to prove or disprove the existence of witchcraft, past and present.” He shrugged. “That last bit was, of course, superfluous. If it existed in the past, then it is certainly a present reality.”
“Not necessarily, Mark,” Karen said. “The dinosaur was a reality of the past, but not of the present.”
“I don’t altogether approve of that analogy,” Nancy said.
“I don’t agree with it being an analogy,” David said. “I would prefer to call it a—”
“All right!” Kyle said. “Jesus. I feel like I’m back in a damn classroom.”
“Or worse,” Lucas added.
“Then you people aren’t witches and warlocks?” Jackie said, looking from person to person.
David laughed. “Well . . . ” He cut his eyes toward Nancy Morreale. “She claims to be a witch of the good variety.”
“She pulled up her dress,” Johnny said, looking at his dad.
“I beg your pardon, son?”
“All part of the ceremony,” Nancy said. “We did not know we had an audience, much less one so young. And I do not claim to be a witch, I am a witch.”
“Without being able—thus far—to prove it,” David said gently.
“I think you people are a bunch of certifiable kooks, is what I think,” Kyle said. “God help me if Louisa gets wind of y’all.”
“Oh, yes,” David said, his face brightening. “The psychic lady. We would all very much like to meet her.”
“Lord! ” Kyle said, then sobered as he realized that neither he nor his wife had ever even seen these people before, much less met any of them. “How do you know about my wife?”
“We know many things,” Karen said, seeing the cloud of suspicion on the trooper’s face. “And there is nothing supernatural about any of that. We have all spent the better part of our lives honing what natural equipment God gave us. Anyone of average or better intelligence can do it. But for now, I can tell you both this: I am receiving very strong vibrations from the Bowers Plantation House. And I am not saying that to hasten your departure. Nancy?” She looked at the other woman.
The dark-haired woman clutched at the strange-looking medallion that hung between the shape of her breasts, outside the black robe. She shut her eyes. “Yes!” she said, urgency in her voice. “Oh, God, yes! Danger!”
Kyle and Lucas could only look at one another, not knowing what to believe.
David Siekmann moved very swiftly for a man his size. “Come, people!” he said, waving his hand at Lucas and Kyle. “We’ll all go. I am now receiving the danger signals as well. Come! We must hurry.”
“Uhh . . .” Kyle said, looking at Lucas.
“What the hell. We have the kids. Let’s go.”
“Get in back of our pickup,” Karen told the men. “We’ll take you to Mr. Cartier’s car.”
“Stay and guard!” Mark yelled at the Dobermans. They looked at him and yawned.
Kyle started to ask the woman how in the hell she knew they came in his personal car, then thought better of it. There was such urgency in all their voices, it had transmitted to him. Now he was afraid for his wife’s safety.
“Yes,” Nancy broke into his thoughts, startling him. “You are very correct. Many people in this area both hate and fear your wife. She has powers they do not understand.”
“Hell,” Kyle said, jogging along beside her, “I don’t understand them.”
She smiled at him. “I do.”
Bouncing along the rutted, hooded road in the four-wheel-drive pickup, Nancy said, “I am receiving impressions of hooded men. Dark clothing. All wearing leather gloves.”
“Probably the same people who attacked us the other night,” Lucas yelled over the roaring of the powerful engine.
“What?” Nancy said. “When?”
“Tell you later.”
She nodded. “The women are safe,” she said. “I’m getting impressions of secret passageways and very frightened women. But they’re both safe—for now.”
* * *
Tracy and Louisa heard the room being searched. The sounds of breaking vases and kicked over furniture was followed by loud cursing, penetrating the panel. Neither woman made a sound as the men stomped around the room, angry.
“Goddamn it, they’re gone!” a man said.
“That’s impossible! They have to be somewhere in the house. They couldn’t have gone outside; they would have been spotted. Every goddamn outside light is on. Our people would have spotted them.” The voice sounded somehow familiar to Tracy.
“Find the women, goddamn it!” a man’s voice called, his voice holding the note of command. “We need the all-seeing woman for our ceremony.”
“That ain’t all we need her for!” a man yelled.
Laughter came after those words. Rough, dirty laughter. Tracy felt Louisa tense beside her. The women held hands for some degree of silent comfort.
“Headlights comin’ down the road fast!” another voice was added.
“Get to the woods—hurry. We’ll get them another night.”
Heav
y running footsteps filled the house. Then silence was all about the frightened women huddled in the secret passageway. Both of them could sense more than see that the lights in the mansion were once more blazing.
Gunfire ripped the Georgia night as Kyle, with his. 38 Chief’s Special, and Lucas, with his .45, shattered the soft darkness with muzzle blasts and lead.
Then the women discovered they could not move the panel. Tracy had started to kick it in when Louisa’s voice stopped her. “We might need this again,” she said. “When the men get into the house, we’ll start yelling. They’ll get us out.”
“Louisa!” Kyle yelled. “Tracy! Sing out. Where are you?”
“Here!” Louisa yelled. “Just off the drawing room.”
They heard the men—it seemed more than two—enter the drawing room.
“Hell, it’s empty!” Lucas said. “Tracy, where in the hell are you?”
“Behind the paneling. On the west side. We’ll start tapping.”
Lucas and Kyle, with the still-robed professors, followed the sounds of tapping until they reached the single panel.
“Push gently in the center,” Tracy called, her voice muffled.
The first thing the freed women saw were the black-robed men and women. Both of them could barely suppress a scream of fear.
“Relax,” Kyle said, helping them out of the cramped passageway. “They’re on our side. They’re college professors.” He looked back at the robed men and women. “As strange as that might seem to you,” he added.
The women freed, both of them stretching cramped and aching muscles, Lucas asked, “You both all right? What happened?”
Tracy related the events, ending with, “And then we heard gunfire.”
“I think we hit some of them,” Kyle said. “I saw a couple of the bastards stumble. One of them almost went down. I believe that was from Lucas’s .45. That bullet hits like a tank. I’ll ask for a check on local hospitals at first light. Not that it will do much good if the Brotherhood is as powerful and widespread as some believe.”
“It is,” Nancy Morreale said, standing behind the tight little group.
Lucas introduced them all around. Both Tracy and Louisa had curious looks in their eyes at the sight of the professors—mainly at their mode of dress—but said nothing. Lucas turned to Jackie and Johnny.
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