Toy Cemetery

by William W. Johnstone

  But only silence greeted his question.

  “She isn’t in there,” he said. “If she was, she’d holler or something just to let us know.”

  “Did you see that woman’s eyes?” Carla asked as they were pedaling away. “Wild and spooky.”

  “Let’s go see Father Pat,” Andy suggested.

  * * *

  “That could be nothing more than coincidence.” Jim tried to ease Jay’s thoughts.

  “Could be. But I rather doubt it.”

  “We just keep piling mystery on top of mystery,” Amy said. “I think time is running out on us, and we’re just spinning our wheels.”

  “I think it’s beyond our understanding,” General Douglas said softly.

  Jay looked at the old soldier. “I’m curious, general. What is your real connection in all of this?”

  The general’s smile was hard. “Why, son . . . I’m just an old soldier who returned to his birthplace to live out his golden years in peace, that’s all.”

  “Uh-huh.” Jay smiled. “General?”

  “Yes, son?”

  “That is the biggest lie I’ve heard since I got to town.”

  Then General Douglas cleared his throat.

  “My connection? ... ” The General paused. “Well, let me start by saying that we’re distant cousins, or something like that.”

  “I don’t recall my mother or father ever mentioning that we were related to the Douglases.”

  “They might not have known it. We’re related pretty far back. Tell the damn truth, since I’ve been back here, I’ve found out that damn near everybody in this town is related to one another. Disgusting!”

  “Incest does seem to be rampant,” Jay agreed.

  “Yeah,” the general said drily. “Well, I came back a couple of times before the war, that’s the second war, but after my parents died . . . hell, what was the point of returning? I did breeze through back in ’72 or ’73. Saw your Aunt Cary briefly, from a distance. I don’t think she recognized me. She hadn’t changed one whit. I couldn’t believe it. Thought it might have been her daughter. But she was never married.

  “And the damn town had changed. Not in the normal way a town is supposed to change . . . progressively, I mean. A lot of the people that I grew up with, like old Milton, weren’t very friendly. They acted . . . weird. Wary. I sensed fear lingering around them. I didn’t like it. My wife didn’t like it. But she wasn’t from this part of the country, so she had no idea what it was like before.

  “We drove around town some, and the feeling grew stronger.” He looked hard at Jay. “You ever been in combat?”

  “Yes, sir. ’Nam.”

  “You know the gut feeling a good soldier feels when you sense an ambush?”

  “Very well, sir.”

  “That’s the gut sensation I felt. Something was very wrong. I never forgot that feeling. My wife died, and I just drifted for a few years, seeing the U.S. from outside a military base.” He sighed. “But I got tired of hauling a trailer around, so I came back. Same feeling, only worse.

  “I can’t prove what I’m about to say. I’d probably be committed to some institution if I spoke these words outside of this group . . . but this town is sick. More than that, I believe this town is evil.”

  Jay expelled a long sigh. “I believe that, too. Let’s get to work and try to find a way out of this mess.”

  * * *

  Eric put a big scarred hand on Father Pat’s shoulder. “You want me to try to find the girl, Pat?”

  The priest struggled with his emotions. “No. You couldn’t even get started before it would be all over. You know why they took her.”

  “It’s barbaric, Pat!”

  “What is?” Andy asked.

  The priest shook his head. “Tell me again exactly what Chief Craig said to you all just before turning you loose.”

  “He said we lucked out. He just got the word,” Carla told him. “Whatever that means.”

  Eric squeezed Pat’s shoulder gently.

  The priest nodded his head.

  “What about Ange?” Ken asked.

  The priest hated this part of his job. He had met the devil many times in his life; he had won some and lost some in battle with the Dark One. He had lost his sight. But he hated this part of it.

  “Ange will soon be with God,” he told the kids. “Her struggles on earth are almost over. You will all have to accept that that is part of the scheme of things.”

  “I don’t understand none of that!” Robert cried. “What are you talkin’ about?”

  “He’s tellin’ you that Ange is gonna die!” Jenny said harshly.

  “Why!” Andy yelled. “She ain’t done nothin’! You do something, Father Pat!”

  “There is very little I can do, son. Except pray.”

  “Is that gonna help Ange?” Jenny asked, her dark eyes shining with an odd light.

  The priest and Eric noted the light. Pat said, “Prayer always helps, Jenny.”

  The girl turned suddenly and stalked out of the room. The others followed her. Robert slammed the door behind him.

  “I have always been inadequate in explaining death, Eric.”

  “No one really knows what lies behind the dark curtain, Pat.”

  “Strange words from you, Eric.”

  “Realistic words, Pat. You did what you had to do, and explained it as best you could. Now it’s time to go to work.”

  “We’ve been together for a long time, Eric. This will be our most difficult battle. I can sense it.”

  “We’d better get busy, then, Pat. We have a lot to do.”

  “Where are we going?” Kelly asked Jenny.

  “Not we. Just me. I don’t care where you go.”

  She jumped onto her bike and pedaled off.

  “Now what’s her problem?” Kelly tossed the question at anyone.

  When no one answered, she turned around. The others were pedaling away. After Jenny. Kelly was once more alone.

  The girl looked back at the rectory.

  “You weren’t much help,” she muttered. “I’m still alone.”

  She got on her bike and rode away.

  * * *

  The six of them worked carefully, slowly going over the old newspapers, with Jim using the scanner. And as they worked, Jay soon began to realize that someone, or something was controlling the town, and had been doing so for many years.

  But why had it gone unnoticed for so long?

  And the mysterious disappearances began as far back as the newspapers went.

  “Probably even further back than that,” General Douglas said.

  “You remembering something?” Jim looked up from the scanner screen.

  The general nodded his head. “Even back when I was a kid, there were . . . well, we called them happenings. People would just wander off and never be seen again.”

  “I don’t mean to imply that you were born back in the Middle Ages,” Amy said. “But sixty or seventy years ago, wasn’t this place sort of isolated?”

  “It certainly was, girl. And it was woolly, too. And . . . ” He paused. “Clannish. How could I have forgotten that? Yes. Outsiders were . . . just not welcomed. But I was a kid then and an old man now, with a lot of distance between the two. Hell, maybe I’m getting senile.”

  No one in the room believed that.

  “Did my Aunt Cary collect dolls back then?”

  “Oh, yes. But it would seem by now, she would have thousands of them.”

  Jim snapped his fingers. “That’s what Eric meant when he said, ’What a way to spread his dark word.’ ”

  Amy hissed her fright. “You mean those toys are ... devils!”

  “Most of them . . . yes,” Jim reluctantly admitted. He smiled. “What a paper this is going to make. When I do get my Ph.D, my thesis will be. . . oh, something like . . .”

  A rifle shot banged outside, the slug knocking a hole in a front window and plugging the scanner screen. Jim had hit the floor and come up rolling, a
short-barreled .357 magnum in his hand, the hammer back.

  But there was nothing to shoot at. The street remained the same: people walking up and down, traffic flowing smoothly. No one seemed a bit alarmed.

  Amy looked up from her position under the table, observing the normal human flow outside. “They don’t seem a bit bothered by a shot.”

  General Douglas quickly figured the angle of the shot and pointed to the second floor of a building across the street. “Well, look over there. There the bastard stands, smiling at us.”

  They all gathered at the window, looking at the man who still had the rifle cradled in his arms. He grinned and waved.

  “Walter Burton,” Deva said.

  “But he’s always been such a nice man!” Amy said. “He was my Sunday School teacher, for God’s sake!”

  “Interesting way to end it,” Jay muttered, smiling at Amy.

  “A sham,” Jim said. “A mockery. The people of this town, many of them, have been flaunting satanism in the face of God for years. Thumbing their noses at Christianity by pretending to worship God. In His church!”

  Jay turned to Deva. “How many phone lines do you have here?”

  “Two.”

  “Jim. You call Father Pat; tell him what you just said to us. I’ll use the other line.”

  “Who are you calling?”

  Jay smiled. “Why, the police, of course.”

  * * *

  “Now, folks.” Chief Craig stood smiling at them. “You could have said nearabouts any name ’cept that one, and I might have believed you. But don’t you come tellin’ me that Walt Burton shot out that window.”

  “We all saw him,” Jay told the chief. “Standing right up there, in that window.” He pointed.

  “Well, I’ll go talk to him. But I ’spect he’s got a good alibi. Some kid that don’t like a bunch of folks stirrin’ up trouble probably done it. But thanks for reportin’ it, Clute.”

  “You’re welcome, Craig,” Jay replied. “Tell me, when do you expect the long distance lines to be working?”

  “Oh ... three/four days, I reckon.”

  “That’s nice. Oh, by the way, Craig. I spoke with one of the doll people earlier today.”

  The chief was in the process of lighting a cigarette. His hand started trembling almost uncontrollably.

  “Yeah.” Jay rubbed more verbal salt into the man. “And he told me to tell you something.”

  Craig clicked his lighter closed and got control of his emotions. “Oh, yeah?”

  “Yeah. He told me to tell you that you’d get yours!”

  The older man wanted to hit Jay; it was in his eyes. But, he cautioned himself, that was not in the plan. At least, not yet. The chief of police spun around and stalked out the front door. He slammed the door so hard the glass popped out, shattering on the floor.

  General Douglas glanced at Jay, a faint smile on his lips. “You’ve got guts, Clute.” Then he lifted his arm. “Goddammit, what happened to my watch? I know I put it on. What time is it, somebody?”

  “Ten minutes to four,” Amy told him.

  “Sure is getting dark early.” The general’s words were softly spoken. “I wonder what the hell that means?”

  “Nothing good for us.” Jay looked outside. “And you can bet on that. I’m getting worried about the kids. Jim, do me a favor and go look for them. Maybe Amy would like to go with you?”

  The young woman moved closer to the trooper. “I’ll tell you all something. I wasn’t really scared until just a few minutes ago. Not until that shot knocked out the window and the scanner and nobody outside even noticed. Then Craig came and said his little line of crap. And then the general’s watch, like yours, Jay, is missing. People. I’m scared.”

  “You just grab onto that young man’s strong arm, girl,” General Douglas said. “From the look in his eyes, I think he’ll be more than happy to take care of you.”

  Jim blushed.

  “I never have been much on running away from a fight,” Douglas continued. “But there is that line about valor and discretion. I wonder what would happen if we did try a bug-out?”

  “They’d stop us, or just kill us,” Jim told him.

  And nobody even dared to dispute it.

  4

  Kelly rode her bike right up to a group of kids, all of them older than she. She sat on her bike and stared at them.

  One by one, they turned their faces from her gaze and walked away.

  Angry and confused, she followed them. “Hey!” she yelled. “What’s going on with you people?”

  But they would not reply.

  Kelly pedaled on. She came to the little town park and stopped at the sight of Jenny, sitting on a park bench with Robert Gibson. She was too far away for Kelly to make out the words, but they sure were cozy.

  The girl glanced up at the sky as she was having a hard time seeing. The sky was murky; not a natural kind of dark. Kelly felt very strange; a sensation she had experienced only a few times in her young life.

  And she knew what it meant. She knew she’d better get to her father – in a hurry.

  She took one more look at Robert and Jenny. The boy’s hands were rubbing Jenny’s bare legs.

  * * *

  “That is not God’s light,” Eric said, as he and the priest were leaving the rectory.

  “I can feel it, Eric. The air is thick with evil. It makes me sick to even think what Jim suggested might be true.”

  “It’s the one thing neither of us even thought of. The nerve of them; sitting piously listening to your words and secretly praising Satan.”

  “You’ve packed everything we’ll need, Eric?”

  “All packed, Pat. Including what I’ll need to do my job as you do yours.”

  “I don’t like what I sense in your voice, Eric. There is a hardness that I’ve never heard before.”

  “And we’ve never faced anything like what has happened in this town, Pat.” He helped the priest into the car and told him to sit for a moment. “I’m going to lock and chain the doors. The people of this town will never defame this church again. Not as long as I’m alive,” he added grimly.

  * * *

  Jay and General Douglas nailed boards over the broken glass of the front door of the newspaper office. Douglas put into words what they both felt.

  “Weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. One minute the streets and sidewalks are full of people, the next minute, deserted.”

  “It’s getting darker, too.” Deva stood on the sidewalk, beside Piper.

  “It’s an unnatural darkness,” Piper said. She shivered. “It shouldn’t be dark for another two hours.”

  Kelly pedaled up, and with an explosive burst of words, she told the startled group what had happened to them that day.

  The four adults stood in silence for a few seconds after the girl finishing speaking.

  “Arrested you!” Jay shouted.

  “And they kept Ange,” Kelly said. “Craig said she’s with her parents, but we rode over there and she isn’t there. I just know it. And Jenny is over in the park, letting Robert Gibson feel her legs.”

  “Jenny is doing what?” Deva matched Jay with a shout of her own.

  General Douglas turned to face the street as the sounds of a car driving up reached him. He turned just in time for a thrown rotten tomato to hit him on the side of the head. The tomato burst, showering them all with stinking bits of the vegetable.

  “You son of a bitch!” the general roared.

  “Get bent, old man!” the teenagers in the car shouted. The car sped away with a squealing of tires.

  Deva ran off in the direction of the city park, ignoring the shouts for her to stop and wait for the others.

  She was back in a moment, pushing Jenny, who was pushing her bike ahead of her.

  “You told on me, you tattle-brat!” Jenny yelled at Kelly She launched herself at Kelly, and the two girls hit the sidewalk, scratching and biting and slugging.

  The parents and General Douglas manage
d to separate the two before any serious damage was done. The girls, hair mussed and clothing torn, stood panting and glowering at each other, Deva and General Douglas holding Jenny, Jay and Piper with a firm grip on Kelly.

  Eric and Father Pat drove up. Eric got out, and the priest lowered his window.

  “Where’s Ange?” Jay asked Eric.

  “I have no idea, Mr. Clute. I suspect she’s been taken for a black mass.”

  “A what?” Douglas shouted.

  “Not in front of the children,” Father Pat said from the car.

  Kelly jerked free and pointed a finger at Jenny. “You’re one of them!” she shouted. “I saw Robert Gibson putting his hands all over you.”

  “You’re a goddamn liar!” Jenny yelled. “I was tryin’ to get him to tell me where Ange was. I’d have let him do anything he wanted to tell me. That’s what I was doing.”

  “That’s enough!” Father Pat shouted. “Now just calm down, both of you. Jenny, did the boy tell you where Ange is being held?”

  “No, sir. Said he didn’t know.”

  Deva shook the girl. “Don’t you ever let a boy put his hand inside your shorts. I don’t give a damn what you’re trying to accomplish.”

  “Whore!” Kelly told her.

  And they were at it again. By the time the adults managed to separate them, Kelly had a busted and bleeding lip and Jenny had a bloody nose.

  And then it was dark; a murky, thick darkness that the headlights of the cars could barely penetrate.

  “Satan’s night.” Father Pat’s voice struck through the murk. “Where are the other children?”

  “I don’t know,” Jenny said, holding a tissue to her bloody nose.

  “They rode off after you,” Kelly said. “Left me alone, again.”

  “All of you go to my house,” Jay said. “General Douglas, would you drive Father Pat there?”

  “Sure. Where are you off to?”

  “To Deva’s house. To get her father’s collection of guns. Eric, you’ll want to come along, I imagine.”

  It was the first time any of them had ever seen the big man smile. “I wouldn’t miss it.”

  * * *

  “Quite a collection.” Eric looked over the gun cabinets. Jim and Amy had joined them at the house.

  Deva was in her bedroom, packing up a few things. “My father collected guns,” Deva called from the bedroom. “And did gunsmithing as a hobby.”