by Bryan Smith
At first the smell of sizzling meat made Daphne’s eyes water and brought a tickle of nausea into her throat. But once the odor of the myriad spices and oils began to commingle with the cooked meat smell, she found it more tolerable. Her stomach settled down and the feeling of nausea receded. And then some stranger things happened. She became aware of a greater-than-usual amount of saliva in her mouth. And she started thinking about how she hadn’t eaten all day. Her stomach might even have growled a little.
Vivian smiled. “Hmm, is someone hungry?”
Daphne’s conscience made one more effort to assert itself. She would participate in this abomination. That was a given. She had no choice, not if she wanted to live. But she could not allow herself to enjoy it on any level. She wasn’t like these people. She wasn’t a deranged, inhuman monster with an utterly corrupted soul. She was just a person who’d been backed into an impossible position. And that meant that holding onto what was left of her humanity was more important than ever. She made herself look at Kate’s face, which was flushed bright red and twisted in agony. This was a real person who was suffering on a level unimaginable to most people. Even if Daphne couldn’t bring herself to revolt against the situation, she could at least feel a proper level of shame and sorrow.
As if sensing the scrutiny, Kate’s eyes rolled in her direction. The pain engulfing her must have been close to all-consuming by this point, but the hatred she felt for Daphne was so huge she was able to force out a bitter condemnation: “Rot in hell, you fucking cunt!”
The outburst appeared to sap much of her remaining energy and she again subsided into whimpers and moans.
Daphne grunted.
Okay then. Fuck you, too.
She glanced at Vivian. “You’re right. I am very, very hungry.”
Picking up a fork and steak knife, she leaned over the table and sawed off one of Kate’s nipples along with part of the areola. This elicited laughter and exclamations of surprise from Vivian and her guests. Excising this part of the breast wasn’t easy. The meat was tougher to saw through than she imagined, but she was determined. She gritted her teeth and ripped at the flesh until the portion came loose. Kate screamed and blood gushed from the wound. Daphne then dropped back into her chair and set the morsel on the grill to cook. Meanwhile, everyone else at the table gaped at her with expressions of awe.
Daphne gave them an innocent look. “What? We’re here to eat, right?”
Before anyone could say anything, she speared the morsel with her fork and plucked it off the grill. The civilized part of her mind was still screaming at her to stop, but she ignored this and tore off a piece of the areola with her teeth. Her mouth flooded with saliva again as she began to chew. She had a thoughtful look on her face as she considered the taste and decided it wasn’t too bad, although it was a little raw and undercooked. The nipple went into her mouth next and that was better.
Vivian’s eyes were slitted and her head was tilted to one side as she eyed Daphne with deep curiosity. “Generally we leave the cutting to the chef. He knows what he’s doing and it cuts down on the mess. But I like your enthusiasm. So…what do you think?”
Daphne downed the last of her wine and signaled the waiter for more.
She looked Vivian in the eye as she said, “I think I’d like to eat her pussy next.”
Across the table, Ambrose choked on a mouthful of wine.
That’s it, Daphne thought. I am officially no longer human. I’m a monster, just like the rest of these fuckers.
When Klaus finally started cutting strips of meat from Kate’s body, Daphne scooted her chair closer to the table.
And the feast began in earnest.
22.
A search of the Cummings residence turned up some useful items, including a loaded handgun and the keys to the SUV. The search also turned up a significant chunk of cash, which Sienna stashed in her backpack. In her heart of hearts, she didn’t believe she’d be alive much longer and thus wouldn’t have much use for currency, but being prepared for alternative outcomes couldn’t hurt. Another interesting discovery was a basement that had doubled as a dungeon. She didn’t find anything worth taking there, but her gaze lingered for a time on a cage in the corner of the room, the bottom of which was covered with a layer of filthy blankets.
The room was imbued with a scent of shit and urine no amount of cleaning products could ever fully banish. Over time Sienna had become inured to “bad” smells thanks to her regular exposure to dead things in various stages of putrefaction, but she had a feeling most people would have a hard time putting up with this stench for long.
Unless they had no choice.
Like Allie.
The girl’s period of imprisonment here had undoubtedly been a nightmarish experience from beginning to end.
Out of one nightmare and into another.
Sienna stopped looking at the cage and went back upstairs to the kitchen, where she opened the oven and coaxed Allie out of it. The girl emerged with a timid look on her tear-streaked face, her clothes streaked with black grime. In need of a place to stow the girl while she searched the house, Sienna had forced her into the oven, intimidating her with the bloody knife she’d used to mutilate and kill Horace. She warned Allie she would turn the oven on if she tried to get out without permission. Unsurprisingly, this was all the incentive she needed to stay put.
And now Sienna marched her out to the Dodge Durango at gunpoint. In a few more seconds they were speeding down the dirt access road and shortly thereafter were back out on the Old Fort Road, heading toward Rural Route 42 and Hopkins Bend.
The SUV handled much better than the old pickup truck and was loaded with lots of top-end options, including wireless smartphone connectivity and in-dash camera display that showed the road behind the vehicle whenever it was moving in reverse. She didn’t have any real use for these things, but a part of her was helplessly fascinated nonetheless. When you were from a poor background, a brand new automobile was like something from another planet. But the novelty of the experience soon yielded to a surge of depression, reminding her again how lame her life had been up to this point.
It was a good thing she was probably dying soon, because she didn’t think she could bear spending too many more years in a world where she was destined to always exist at the margins of society. Being deliberately different from everyone else while she was young was one thing. She liked being unique and scary. In her own special way, she was the coolest chick in Bedford. But the prospect of being forever excluded from the world of nice shiny new things bummed her out.
“Are you all right?”
The girl’s voice made Sienna flinch. She’d gotten lost in her own head there for a bit. A glance at the odometer indicated she was already six miles down the road from the Cummings place.
She shot a sharp glance at Allie. “What do you mean?”
“You’re crying.”
Sienna scowled. “Bullshit.”
Allie’s expression was strangely solemn. “No bullshit.”
Hearing the little girl curse almost made Sienna laugh. The urge deserted her as she glanced at the rearview mirror and saw eyes brimming with moisture. Seeing this filled her with anger and self-loathing. “I’m not crying,” she said, angrily wiping the tears from her face. “The sun just got in my eye.”
“The sun’s almost down.”
“Shut up.”
They drove on in silence for a while after that and Sienna again descended into self-reflection tinged with melancholy. Doubts about what she was doing kept creeping in around the edges of her thoughts. Her successful resurrection of Arlene was the most definitive proof yet of the unusually strong talent Mama Weeks had sensed in her so long ago, and it had temporarily invested her with a staggering degree of confidence. But now that confidence was ebbing. For years she had been obsessed with the idea of raising her father from the dead, a goal she had pursued with such single-minded focus that it might have blinded her to other, better possibilities. Maybe s
he was being too short-sighted. Maybe she should let go of the past and start thinking about how she might use her talent to improve her life.
But then the memory of the last time she saw her father came unbidden into her head. They had been running and running. Hopkins Bend was in chaos as men in combat fatigues swarmed the streets, mowing people down with automatic weapons. It had all been very frightening and disorienting. Her father’s initial plan had been to pile everyone in his truck and get the hell out as fast as possible, but all the roads out of town had been sealed. The truck was shot at numerous times. Sienna remembered a cousin taking a bullet through the neck as they bounced around in the back. They had to abandon ship and run into the woods when another bullet blew out a front tire. Her father scooped her up and carried her in his arms for a long stretch of the run through the forest. Twice he stumbled and dropped her, but each time he grabbed her right back up and kept on moving. She had cried the whole time and there had been a ceaseless cracking of gunfire and shouted authoritarian voices. It felt like the whole world was ending that night.
Her father became worried they were in danger of being surrounded. So he stopped at the edge of a clearing, crouching with the kids behind the tree line as he coached his elder daughter, Jodi, about what to do. He was going to try to draw the army men off their trail. Jodi was to lead Sienna and their cousins in the opposite direction. He told them they would eventually come to a grouping of old family cabins. They were to rouse the people there and convince them to take them out via back roads to someplace safe. Even to Sienna’s ears, this had sounded like an extremely dangerous plan, but her father had insisted they were out of options. He gave Jodi a last firm admonition to do as he said and ran out into the clearing. Jodi had just started dragging Sienna away when she saw her father’s body jerk under a hail of bullets and crumple to the ground.
He had given his life to save the lives of his family.
“I have to bring him back.”
Allie looked confused. “Bring who back?”
Sienna turned on the Durango’s headlights. It wasn’t quite full dark yet, but it was best to play it safe on a winding back road like this one. “My dad.”
“Where is he?”
“In the ground.”
Sienna glanced at Allie. Her expression made it clear she found Sienna’s comment perplexing. Her intense look of concentration as she mulled it over might have been adorable under other circumstances. The way her thin lips were pulled down at the corners while her smooth brow creased in the middle elicited a strange impulse from Sienna—the desire to reach over and ruffle the girl’s hair.
“Is your dad dead?”
Sienna nodded. “He is, but I’m bringing him back, like I said.”
A shorter fretful silence ensued. The shift in Allie’s demeanor was a phenomenon familiar to Sienna. It was the way people who tried to tolerate her always became wary when she said something particularly odd or inappropriate. Somehow, though, it was a little more hurtful coming from someone so young. The hurt troubled Sienna nearly as much as the reflexive affection she’d felt for the girl a moment ago. She didn’t know what it meant on a deeper level, just that it was dangerous. She had the sense that prolonged exposure to this kid had the potential to confuse her immensely and muck things up.
Killing her will put an end to that. And the sooner it happens, the better.
Sienna knew this was true, but the thought caused another of those strange, uneasy flutters inside her.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
“Bring him back…how?”
“I’m going to raise him from the dead. Make him live again.”
Allie made a little sound of disbelief. “Like a zombie?”
“Yes. Exactly like that.”
Allie shook her head. “Zombies aren’t real.”
Sienna smirked. “They are too real. I already made one today.”
“You’re lying.”
“Fuck you, I am not.”
Allie giggled.
Sienna frowned. “Don’t do that. This isn’t a joke. This isn’t a happy fun-time adventure we’re on here. I have magic powers and shit and I can bring dead people back to life. And part of how I do it is by sacrificing snotty little brats like you.”
“So…you’re a witch?”
“I guess. Sort of.”
Sienna gave the Durango’s steering wheel a hard spin as she took it around a sharp bend in the road, which was getting bumpier the farther away they got from Bedford. She didn’t have a lot of experience driving and the frequent deep potholes were giving her fits. It would only get worse the closer they got to Hopkins Bend. She knew this because not long ago she had blown an older guy in exchange for a ride out to one of the barricaded roads into the ghost town. The guy was fat and gross and his crotch smelled like unwashed gym shorts. Afterwards she’d spat his come in his face. The guy hadn’t minded, calling it “hot”. Sienna shook her head at the memory. And people call me weird.
But blowing the fat perv had been totally worth it from a reconnaissance standpoint. The visit refreshed her memory of the terrain and gave her a rough idea of where she might find her father’s body. It also did a lot to allay her concerns about a lingering military presence in the area. The posted warnings and barricades were intimidating at first blush, but it soon became clear there were no army people around.
At one point, Sienna got out of the fat fuck’s car and walked around the barricade to see what would happen. The answer was nothing at all. She had stood on the opposite and stared down the winding road into her old hometown for a longish period, lapsing into a trance-like state during which her mind boiled over with all the horrible old memories and the anger she had carried with her since the night of her father’s death. She hadn’t snapped out of it until the guy who’d given her the ride called out to her from the “safe” side of the barricade in an anxious tone. She told him he could perform whatever sexual act he wanted with her if he would drive her into Hopkins Bend so she could see what had become of the place.
Fatty’s answer to that had been a predictably emphatic NO.
Which was disappointing, but she had learned some valuable things and so opted not to press the issue. And some of those things were about to come in handy. Sienna had arrived at a point in the road where it forked off in two directions. The fork to the left was the beginning of Rural Route 42, the way into Hopkins Bend. Staying to the right would eventually take her out to the interstate and, potentially, the wider world beyond her insulated backwoods life.
She twisted the Durango’s steering wheel to the left.
Rural Route 42 was unobstructed for the first fifty yards. A bend in the road hid the barricade until you were right up on it. Except for the signs warning of a dead end, it was almost possible to believe that the quietly thriving little community of Hopkins Bend was still out there, just a little ways down the road. But then the Durango rounded the bend and there was the barricade that shattered the illusion.
The sight of the barricade so enraged Sienna she was tempted to build up speed in an attempt to crash through it. And she might have done it if not for her previous visit out here. The barricade was reinforced on the other side by steel drums filled with cement. A high-speed crash into the barricade would succeed only in demolishing the Durango and killing its passengers on impact.
But that wouldn’t be necessary. She could probably force the Durango around a side of the barricade. That also would not be necessary. The place she needed to get to should be within relatively easy reach by foot and the SUV couldn’t take them there anyway. She parked at the side of the road right up against the barricade and switched the engine off.
She grabbed her backpack, unzipped it, and dropped the keys inside. Before zipping it shut again, she took out the big Smith & Wesson pistol she’d found during her search of the farmhouse. Sienna sincerely hoped she’d never have to fire the damn thing because the recoil would probably knock her on her ass. But the real benefit
of having the gun was that it was big and scary, enough so to hopefully keep the kid in line.
Allie’s face crumpled at the sight of the gun. “Please don’t shoot me.”
Sienna’s expression was stern. “I won’t shoot you, not as long as you behave.”
I’ll be cutting your throat in a little bit, though. You’ll probably wish I’d shot you then.
Allie wiped tears from her eyes. “I’ll be good. I promise.”
Sienna had another of those irritating and entirely unprecedented twinges of affection for the girl. It was too bad she didn’t have time to find someone else to use in the sacrifice ritual. Her brain conjured an unhelpful fantasy of just driving away from this place with Allie, the two of them subsequently surviving together on the road, a couple of young vagabonds having adventures and bonding together like sisters.
But it was just a stupid fantasy.
This was her destiny.
I’m coming for you, daddy.
They got out of the Durango. Allie stood at the edge of the tree line while Sienna shut and locked the SUV. She wasn’t sure she would ever have use for it again, but at least it would be here if she needed a getaway vehicle later, unless Delmont or one of his moron cronies came along and hauled it away.
She pointed the gun at Allie and indicated the barricade with a jerk of her head. “Around the side there. Get walking.”
Allie started walking.
Sienna shrugged on the backpack and followed her.
23.
Jessica’s disorientation and debilitated condition in the wake of her struggle with Billy worked to Zelda’s advantage. The assassin was able to secure her wrists in plastic zip-tie handcuffs before she could react. She then hauled Jessica to her feet, turned her around, and pressed the 9mm pistol against the small of her back.
“Back inside, bitch. And none of that ninja shit this time. First hint I get of you trying something, I’m putting a bullet in your spine.”
