“It isn’t a stunt,” David said. “I assure you all of that.”
“Why don’t you just sit over there and look stupid?” Harry said. “Besides, who asked you, anyway?”
“Yeah,” George said. “How’d you like to have a fat lip?”
David smiled. He would outweigh either man by a full seventy-five pounds, and looked to be in extremely good physical shape. But he did not take up the challenge. He looked at Louisa and she nodded her head, both of them now understanding what was happening with the visitors.
“Yeah,” Lucas said, catching the looks. “I understand, too.”
“You understand what, jerk?” Harry said, an ugly tone to the question.
Lucas ignored them. The power of the horse and the house was working on his friends, bringing out the meanness in them, just as it had done with Lucas, when he had invited Jan to go and meet the rocking horse.
Lucas and Louisa stared at each other.
“Look at them!” George yelled. “Lucas and the little lady sittin’ there makin’ goo-goo eyes at each other.” He turned to Kyle. “You just gonna sit there while your wife flirts with another man? What kind of man are you, anyway, Cartier?”
Kyle could have easily broken George in several pieces, but he, too, now understood what was happening. He merely looked at the man and shrugged, holding his temper in check. “No big deal, partner. You’ll see.” Jan came back outside, looking a little white.
The professors, Kyle and Louisa, and Lucas and Tracy sat silently, watching and noting the transformation of their friends.
Then they shifted their attention from the arguing adults to the kids. While the adults were shrieking at each other, the kids were apparently not being affected by the powers of the horse and house. The children were sitting quietly out in the front yard, talking among themselves, ignoring the screaming of the grownups.
Then all four of the newly arrived guests began yelling and squalling and shrieking at each other, the accusations, recriminations, threats, and denunciations zinging around the veranda.
Tracy waved the others off the porch onto the lawn. She glanced at Kyle, standing ready with the hose. “OK, Kyle,” she called. “Let them have it.”
Kyle turned on the water and began hosing down the people. They danced and yelled under the sudden impact of the cold spray. Lucas ran to the other side of the house and grabbed up a hose. Together, the men kept up the soaking until Tracy yelled for them to stop.
“Jesus God!” Harry yelled.
“Now you see what we mean?” Louisa asked the dripping men and women. “The horse and house have been working on your minds. Taking control, making you say things you really don’t mean. Do any of you remember any of what just happened?”
The wetted-down men and women began looking sheepishly at one another.
Jan rubbed the water from her face, then used her hands to squeeze the water from her hair. “Good God, what came over us all of a sudden?”
Those in the yard let them talk it out.
“I felt like I was thirteen again,” Mimi said. “I was hurled backward in time, over the years. I could actually see—I was there—when I caught my older sister and her boyfriend on the couch. I thought he was attacking her. Boy, did Alice give me hell for that.”
Despite it all, George laughed. “You never told me about that. That must have been an interesting experience.”
“Yeah,” Mimi said, an embarrassed look on her face. “It was. I hit her boyfriend right on his bare bottom with a broom.”
Harry turned around, facing those in the lawn. “Lucas,” he said, having difficulty meeting the man’s eyes. “Ol’ buddy, I am truly sorry. I am so sorry for the things I said to you, and to all of you. Please forgive me. But . . . you mean all that . . . stuff you have all been trying to tell us is really . . . real?”
“I’m afraid so, Harry. Look, let’s get you all unloaded and then we’ll . . . ”
“I want to go home!” Jan said. “And I mean right now. Sorry, Lucas, Tracy, but me and mine are leaving. Right now!”
“You can’t leave, Jan.” Tracy once again attempted to force the truth on them. “We’ve told you. We are all trapped.”
“Look across the road,” Nancy said. “She pointed.
The one man that had been visible earlier had now grown into a half-dozen. The rifles in their hands could be seen clearly by all.
“But . . . well,” Mimi sputtered. “This is illegal. Call a cop.”
“I am a cop,” Kyle said sourly.
“Well, call some more!” she insisted.
“No phones,” Tracy said.
“Use the radio in your damned car, then!” Mimi looked at Kyle.
“It quit working when I pulled into the driveway,” Kyle patiently explained. “Just like your vehicles stopped working.”
“All right, all right,” George said wearily. “This isn’t getting us anywhere. Lucas, I hate to touch what may be a sore spot. But why didn’t you call and warn us about this . . . mess?”
“I was handed a false story about when you people were arriving. It’s a long story. It’s a story the Brotherhood worked out very carefully. Looking back, I don’t believe I would have ever been permitted to call any of you to warn you. For some reason, whatever the reason, I think the Brotherhood wants a certain number of people gathered here. That’s just a guess. Come on, let’s get you people into some dry clothing and then we’ll unload the wagons. We’ve got time to talk.” I hope, he silently added.
They all looked up at the sounds of a car pulling into the driveway. The car sputtered to a halt behind George’s car.
Anne Garrett-Cameron and husband.
Now the little gathering was complete.
Now the festivities could get underway.
The rocking horse laughed and laughed.
The house sighed.
22
“This is utter madness!” Anne said. “Pure hogwash. Lucas, you are a respected attorney. Supposedly a rational man. Surely you aren’t serious?”
The rocking horse whinnied and laughed and rocked and squeaked.
Anne’s eyes widened as she looked up toward the landing. She cut her eyes to Lucas.
“Let’s all find a seat,” Lucas said. “We’ve got to work out some sort of . . . plan of action, I suppose.”
“The only plan I want to hear is how do we get out of this thing? ” Harry said. “And I hope you got one.”
“Sorry. That’s the one thing I can’t tell you,” Lucas said. “Any of you. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Everybody in the room began talking at once. No one noticed as Mimi quietly left the den and walked into the stairwell, to stand looking up at the rocking horse, who was looking down at her.
“Weird,” Mimi said.
The eyes of the horse followed her every move. They glowed with anticipated victory and inner satisfaction. The horse watched the woman slowly climb the stairs and step onto the landing.
It seemed to Mimi that the rocking horse actually smiled at her.
“A trick,” she muttered, her voice just a whisper. “It’s a trick. Nothing more. They’re playing a trick on us.”
She reached out and hesitantly touched the horse’s neck.
That was her first mistake. And with just one touch she was transported back in time, reliving a nightmare that could only exist in the deep dark bowels of the earth.
And far below her, in the ground-level rooms of the mansion, curious things began to stir as new life stepped past the boundaries of death and sent messages to that which lay motionless on the Dark Shore. It whispered quiet words that penetrated the grave. . . and beyond. The foul whispering stirred those bits and pieces of death, prodding at them to awaken. It was almost time.
But not quite.
* * *
“I’d like to meet these Woods’ Children,” Betty said, her child’s natural curiosity overriding fear. “Randolph sounds cute.”
“Can it!” Pete
r Westerfelt said.
“He is cute,” Jackie said. “But he’s also dead. You got to remember that.”
Three of the four newcomers shuddered at that thought.
“When can we meet them?” Carla asked. “I’d like to talk to them. Wow! Just think of doing that, will you?”
“I don’t know,” Johnny answered her. “We never know when they’re going to show up. We might never meet them again.”
“I don’t believe any of this!” Peter said. “Personally, I think it’s all a bunch of hooey.”
“Wait until night comes,” Jackie said solemnly. “Then you’ll see.”
“Sure, sure!” the ten-year-old said.
“Little boys can be so stupid,” his sister said.
“Stuff it!” Peter told her.
* * *
“I can’t start the car, Anne,” Paul said. “The battery is stone dead.”
“It can’t be explained,” Anne said, sticking by her opinion of all Lucas had told her. “I do not believe in ghosts and goblins and things that go bump in the night.”
Harry left the group to go to the kitchen for a cup of coffee. He would have liked something a lot stronger to drink, but it was just a little early for that.
Then he heard Mimi’s screams. Everyone came running. He bent over her prone body, slapped her face until she opened her eyes.
“It was so awful,” she whispered, “. . . and it seemed so real.”
Mimi tried to describe the horrible images that had penetrated her mind, but had difficulty repeating them.
The rocking horse laughed.
They helped Mimi up and within seconds the arguing began again. Everyone was at each other’s throats.
David looked at Louisa. They exchanged thoughts.
The horse is winning.
Yes.
The oldest ploy in the history of battle. Divide and conquer.
Louisa nodded her head in agreement.
“That’s it!” Kyle roared, jumping to his feet. “Damn it, people, don’t you see what’s happening to you. Best of friends are on the verge of becoming the worst of enemies. Now just calm down and use your minds to fight this thing. If you don’t—if we don’t—the horse, the house, whatever, will win. And it wants to kill us! You’ve got to realize that.”
Louisa looked at her husband, new respect for him in her eyes. She rose and went to George, sitting down in front of the man. She took his hands in hers. “Look in my eyes,” she said. “Look directly into my eyes.”
Nancy went to Harry and sat down in front of the man. Look at me,” she ordered. “Clear your mind and concentrate on my thoughts. You will receive them, I assure you.”
“Jan, Mimi,” Lucas said. “Both of you come out to the porch with me.”
They followed him outside.
“You believe us now, don’t you?” Lucas asked the women.
“I . . . guess so,” Jan said.
“I do,” Mimi said. “God, do I!”
Jan took several deep breaths. She nodded her head in the waning light of the Georgia afternoon. “I guess I’m finally getting it through my head that this is no joke. But Lucas, I’ve never believed in ghosts or hocus pocus. I laugh at horror movies.”
“I know. Neither did I—or Tracy. But we finally realized that we couldn’t ignore what was taking place right in front of our eyes.” Lucas turned as the kids came out onto the porch to stand and look at him. “It’s getting a little weird, isn’t it, gang?” he asked, doing his best to smile at the youngsters.
“Yes, sir,” Carla said. “Mr. Bowers, all this stuff that’s happening to the adults; all the strange stuff, you know?”
“Yes. I know what you mean. What about it?”
“It hasn’t happened to us. We’ve been talking about it. We don’t understand why it—whatever it is—would bother just the grownups and not us.”
“That’s something I can’t answer, Carla. Except to say . . .” He paused, thinking swiftly, choosing his words carefully. “Except to say that we, the adults, might have to borrow some strength from you young people.”
He looked at Carla and Betty and Ruth. All very typical twelve-year-olds. Still pretty much adolescent, but facing young womanhood and really not understanding anything about the trials they would soon be enduring.
If we let the Brotherhood get their hands on these young girls, Lucas thought, it would go very rough for them.
“Mr. Bowers,” Peter said, standing by Johnny’s side. “We’re just kids.” He was a small boy, but by no means frail. “I don’t really believe what’s been said around here. I think it’s all some sort of trick. But even if it were true, how could we give adults strength?”
Lucas thought about that for a moment. “Just be strong,” he said. “That’s the best answer I can give any of you. Just be strong and don’t lose faith in the power of childhood.”
“I think that means,” Ruth said, “you want us to stay and think like kids—right?”
“Yes.”
“But I always wanted to grow up quicker,” Carla said.
“Not for a while, yet. OK?”
Before she could reply, Johnny said, “Lights in the woods, Dad. Fires, I think. They’re all around us.”
“You kids go in the house and stay there,” Lucas said. He walked completely around the mansion, staying on the veranda. Kyle joined him on the east side and walked with him.
“The men of the Brotherhood are making a show of themselves,” Lucas said.
“Yeah. We’re boxed in tight,” Kyle said. “Must be forty or fifty men out there . . . that we can see. They’re all around us.”
“I wish I knew what they wanted and when they were going to hit us. And with what.”
Kyle only grunted at that. “Well, we’re not going to be defenseless. I was going to a gun show after I left here. I got a suitcase full of guns in the trunk of my car. We’ll get them. I’ve got my .38; couple hundred rounds of ammo for that. My shotgun’s in the trunk. Since all this spook stuff started, I convinced Louisa to start totin’ a little .32 automatic in her purse. Got plenty of rounds for that and she’s a good shot. Any of your friends from the city know anything about guns?”
“I don’t think so, Kyle. I know neither of them hunt, and neither of them pulled any military time. But Jim and Lyda were supposed to be out this evening. I wonder if they’ll make it?”
“I hope so. Jim’s car or truck is a rollin’ arsenal and he’ll stand firm. He’s a gutsy bastard.”
Evening abruptly began its meltdown into night. Golden hue became purple-tinted, then the royal blue set in, soon wrapping the estate and grounds in darkness. The moon was hidden by an overcast sky.
Not one bird sang or chirped. No dogs barked. Lucas wondered what had happened to the Dobermans?
“David said they were all killed,” Louisa spoke from behind the men. “Shotgunned at close range.”
Kyle held out his hand and Louisa took it, joining the men at the veranda railing. She looked out over the darkness.
“A perfect night for it,” the woman said.
“Perfect night for what, Honey?” Kyle asked.
“Death.”
* * *
It was a grim-faced group that sat in the large room that had been converted into a den. Lucas looked them over, finally speaking to David.
“Other than the obvious, what’s the matter?”
David pointed up toward the landing. “The rocking horse is gone. I don’t know how long. I just noticed it.”
Lucas lifted his eyes. The familiar little hobbyhorse was gone. The landing was bare. “I wonder what that means?”
“We don’t know,” Karen said. “But we all have been hearing noises coming from the rooms under us.”
A sigh seemed to fill the mansion. It swept through the den like a stale breath of air from a newly opened grave.
Jan joined the others in grimacing at the foul odor that quickly filled the room. She looked around her. “What in the name of Go
d was that?”
“It’s the house breathing, mother,” Carla told her.
The grave-like odor lingered in the room.
Harry looked first at his wife, then his daughter. “The house is breathing. You mean the goddamned place is alive? Now come on, folks. I just don’t . . . I just can’t accept . . .”
The house took a breath audible enough for all to hear.
Harry visibly paled.
Faintly, coming from the woods, a whinnying sound drifted to them.
“The bastard is taunting us!” George said, a wild look coming into his eyes.
“Steady, George,” Mark said. “Steady, now. Calm down.”
With an effort, George sat back down and took several deep breaths. “I’m OK, now. It’s deliberate, isn’t it?”
“Sure. If they can warp our minds, the less danger to them from us.”
“Oh, no!” Anne said, looking toward the hallway. “That can’t be.” Her face paled, her eyes widened. She opened her mouth and let out a chilling shriek. With a shaking hand, she pointed as she howled.
Then she fainted, hitting the floor with a boneless thud.
The lights in the home dimmed to no more than a tiny glow. All heads turned in the direction Anne had pointed.
A bodiless head floated and bobbed and glowed just past the archway. It grinned at the gathering. Opening its mouth, it exposed a rotting tongue and blackened teeth. Maggots roamed inside the open mouth. A maggot worked its way out of one ear and fell to the floor.
“Anne’s fa .. fath . . . father!” Paul stuttered the words. Then he joined his wife on the cold marble floor.
Jan and Mimi began screaming as the head moved to a position over them. Maggots dropped from the gaping mouth into the women’s hair. They howled and slapped at their hair. Their shrieking only fueled the flames of confusion and fear.
With more presence of mind than the adults, Johnny grabbed up an ashtray and hurled it at the grinning head. The ashtray caught the head squarely and with full force.
Maggots flew in all directions.
The rotting head yowled in what sounded like pain. The lights returned to full power. The head was gone.
And so was Karen Hart.
Rockinghorse Page 23
