by Hixon, Wayne
“Shut the fuck up!” he shouted.
Rachel wanted to slump, wanted to collapse with exhaustion and pain, but the ropes kept her upright. Maybe she brought this attack upon herself. No. That was exactly what victims thought. She wouldn’t let herself become a victim.
Bones whipped himself back into the driver’s seat, jerking like a barnyard rooster, and pulled the van back onto the road.
“Let me out,” Rain said. “I don’t want to be near you right now.”
“Like hell,” Bones said. “She’s a liar, Rain. Just a stupid liar. I don’t want anyone but you.”
“What about that one time?”
“I don’t know what I was thinkin. You was on yer period. You know I don’t like it when yer bleedin.”
“Yeah, but it happened. I coulda just sucked you off or somethin but you had to go and do... that.”
“I’m not bitchin with you. I’ll slice you up and down before I get in an argument with yer bitch mouth.”
The van hummed along the road. Bones fired up another cigarette, his hand trembling, his head jerking forward on his neck.
“So you don’t want to fuck her?”
“No way. She’s a skank.”
And you’re a real fucking prize, Rachel thought.
“Then you don’t care if I mess up her face?”
Rachel cringed at that. Maybe she had only succeeded in making this girl jealous. A jealous girl, Rachel knew from experience, was nothing to take lightly.
“Go right ahead. I’d like to see her messed up. Just don’t make her bleed too much.”
Rachel heard the slow unsheathing of the knife and all her muscles drew tight within her bondage. She didn’t know which would be worse—being dead or going through life as a hideously scarred freak.
Rain ran her finger along the blade and looked almost furtively at Rachel.
Seven
Rain crouched down in front of Rachel, trying to steady the knife in front of her as the van raced through the night. Rachel continued to probe the girl’s eyes, unable to discern any singular emotion in them.
“Time for some music!” Bones shouted from the driver’s seat, obviously thrilled at the prospect of more bloodletting from the back.
Suddenly, the van exploded in music. It was Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood singing “Some Velvet Morning.” Not really something Rachel would have expected Bones to be a big fan of.
Rain leaned in toward Rachel, placing her cheek against her ear. The girl had a hint of the same whiskey and cigarette stench Bones had, but there was something beneath it. Something sweeter. Something a little more innocent.
“I’m going to cut your ropes,” she whispered. “Just whimper a lot so he thinks I’m cutting you.” Her voice was more the compassionate girl Rachel hoped she was rather than the vicious slob she feared.
Rachel didn’t say anything. She didn’t know what to say. For the first time in this whole horrifying evening, she saw a glimmer of hope. A tingle ran through her. Was Rain just putting her on? Building up her hopes to make the cutting more painful? This was the same girl who’d slashed her foot only moments before.
“What is this shit!” Bones shouted from the front.
Rachel’s heart skipped a beat. At first she thought he had heard what Rain whispered to her. Then she realized he was talking about the music. He frantically slapped at the dial, searching for something louder, undoubtedly. He stopped when he got to some kind of testosterone-driven crap metal.
“That’s more like it,” he muttered. “These guys fuckin rock.”
Rachel wasn’t familiar with whoever he was talking about and she didn’t really care. Rain leaned over her and severed the rope running from her neck to between her legs. Rachel let out a loud moan. She hoped it sounded miserable but it could just as easily have been a moan of pleasure. The rope had been stretched tight against her groin, rubbing that sensitive area nearly raw.
She wondered if Bones would be able to see this treason taking place in the rearview mirror but when she looked up she noticed the van did not have a rearview mirror. Of course not, she thought. A vehicle this fine couldn’t have a rearview mirror. It would have been like an insult or something. It probably didn’t have power steering either.
“Slice that bitch up good!” Bones shouted over the driving music, hopping up and down in his seat.
“I’m cuttin her up,” Rain said, running the knife along the coils of rope binding Rachel’s wrists. She pressed her lips against Rachel’s ear again, whispering, “When I get you free, you have to promise to take me with you. You can’t leave me behind to deal with him.”
“I promise,” Rachel whispered back, punctuating it with a loud wail.
“I can’t wait to see that bitch!” Bones shouted.
The van roared on. Rachel’s spirits continued to climb beneath the quivering of Rain’s knife. Bones took a turn very fast and Rain slipped with the knife, dragging it over Rachel’s forearm. She barked out in pain and Rain met her gaze with a look that said she was sorry.
“Are we almost there?” Rain asked.
“Just a few more minutes, baby. Just a few more minutes then I can join in.”
“Good. I’m runnin out of places to cut. I might have to take her tits off if you don’t hurry up.”
“You know,” Bones said. “I was thinkin about cuttin her tits off. But I thought they might want em. You know, to play with and shit.”
“We think so much alike.”
“Then I don’t have to tell you what I’m gonna do to you when we drop this cunt off.”
“I think I already know, baby. I thought we was gonna wait til tomorrow to drop her off?”
Rain loosened the rope from around Rachel’s body and just the ability to breathe and, if she wanted, move made her feel better.
“I figure it won’t hurt to swing by. See if they’s there. Maybe we can leave her with that Zack freak.”
Rachel caught the look of concern cross Rain’s face. If Bones was taking them to someone’s house, that meant more people to get away from.
Hope that doesn’t make her lose her nerve, Rachel thought.
“What if they ain’t there?” Rain shouted toward the front.
Rachel stayed low, on the floor, feeling the van make the transition from asphalt to gravel.
“It better fuckin be there,” Bones said. “If I gotta haul this bitch around til tomorrow night, ain’t no guarantee what she’s gonna look like.”
It? Now Rachel was thoroughly confused. It sounded like they were talking about the Sad House.
“I’m sure they’ll be there,” Rain reassured him. “They know you’re comin, don’t they?”
“That don’t mean shit to them. We might still not be able to find it.”
The van went down a steep hill and skidded to a stop.
Rachel pulled herself up to her knees. Rain turned her back on Rachel as the van stopped, obscuring her from Bones’ view.
“I wanna see what you done to this bitch,” Bones said, swiveling his body around to face the back.
“It’s pretty bad,” Rain said and Rachel was almost certain she saw the girl smile. It was a beautiful thing. The kind of smile that probably reached right into boys.
Rachel met Bones’ eyes as he turned around and saw just a brief second of surprise before Rain plunged toward him, attempting to jab the knife into his left eye. It went wide, slicing his ear. It hit about midway down, cutting into the lobe.
Rain shrieked and tried to bring herself away from Bones but he already had her in his grasp. Rachel knew now would be the time. Now had to be the time to spring up and out of the sliding side door, disappearing into the night.
But she couldn’t do that.
She had promised this girl, both her captor and her liberator, that she would help her get away from this boy and she intended to keep her promise.
Grabbing up a handful of rope from the floor of the van, she twisted the unknotted end around her hand. She swung
the heavier knotted end toward Bones’ face, aiming for his eyes. He fought this attack off with his right hand and frantically tried to grab the knife out of Rain’s hand with his left, shouting desperate curses all the while.
Rain managed to drag the knife across his chest but, mostly, all the blade got was leather.
But she had broken from his hold.
With her left hand, Rachel grabbed Rain and, with her right, she grabbed the long handle for the sliding door and yanked it back. The door slid open, Rachel simultaneously falling out of it and dragging Rain behind her.
Together, they were out into the night, in some kind of small hollow, running up a hill from the direction Rachel presumed they had come.
“You two better get back here!” Bones shouted, his breath rasping as he ran behind them.
“Run faster!” Rain hissed.
Rachel heard the loud report of a gun and half expected to feel a bullet bite into her back or her leg. But apparently Bones was too full of rage to really focus and take aim. Rain was also unfelled by the shot. It gave Rachel impetus to run even faster and find some cover but here on the side of this hill, cover seemed to be somewhat absent. The woods were just over the ridge.
She ran in a crazy zigzag pattern, not sure if Bones was following them or not. Another shot went off and Rachel would have sworn she heard the bullet whistle past her ear. That would be great. Come all this way just to get shot in the head.
When they reached the road at the ridge, Rain threw herself down into the gravel. Not knowing what else to do, Rachel did the same.
Here, the air was a little mistier, a little thicker than it had been back in town. Rachel couldn’t make Bones out and figured he couldn’t see them either.
“Let’s go straight across the road, into the woods. He’ll think we stayed on the road,” Rain said. “Stay low.”
“Right,” Rachel replied, admiring the other girl’s combat skills.
The woods began immediately on the other side of the road and descended sharply. Running downhill made them much faster. Now Rachel feared flattening herself against a tree more than she feared Bones’ gun. It was too dark for him to see. Nearly impossible with the added darkness and occlusion of the woods, she figured.
The two girls continued to run, brambles lashing at their ankles and thorns scraping their faces.
Eventually, Rain stopped.
“I can’t run any more right now,” she said, panting.
Slowing her breathing, Rain pricked up her ears, listening for any sounds of Bones. Rachel did the same.
Rain pulled a pack of cigarettes from the inside pocket of her leather biker’s jacket. Reaching to pull a cigarette from the pack, she flinched and pointed to something on the back of her hand. Rachel squinted her eyes and looked.
“What’s that?” she asked.
Rain snorted a laugh. “I think it’s his fucking ear lobe.”
With the middle finger of her other hand, she flicked it off and said, “Gross.”
“He’ll never miss it.”
Rachel wished she had a coat. She was still dressed for bed, without the comfort of shoes. Her feet had to be a bloody mess but she was so eager to get away from the greater danger she hadn’t felt anything underfoot.
“Can I have one of those?” Rachel asked, not really knowing why she would want one since she didn’t usually smoke, had been nagging Jacob for months to stop smoking, and her lungs were burning from running.
“Sure,” Rain said, holding the pack out to her.
“Thanks for what you did back there.”
“Yeah. I think we showed him, didn’t we? Sorry about cutting you. I had to do it with him looking.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Rachel said. “I’m just happy to have my breasts for now.”
“Bones has a real thing for cutting the nipples off. He plays with them for days. Until they get all rotten and smelly.”
Rachel suppressed a shudder.
They lit their cigarettes and continued walking in the dark woods.
“What made you change your mind?” Rachel asked.
“What you said... about him messing with you. That’s what did it. It’s happened before and I didn’t even really care if you were lying or not because it made me think about last time and how that had made me feel and about how I should have left him then. How I should have just quit this whole thing the minute it started but didn’t and I guess that was it. I didn’t want to be around him another minute. I’ve been thinking about it for a pretty long time but I never had anyone I could use as an accomplice or something. I haven’t really been myself until recently.”
“Do you think he’s still following us?”
“Honestly? I doubt it. He doesn’t like to leave his van alone and he’s... well, he’s incredibly lazy for one thing.”
“Lazy Bones.”
“Ha.”
“Sorry.”
“No need to be. That’s what I think of him as too. To myself anyway.”
“So what happened last time?”
Rain took a deep drag of her cigarette. “You really want to know?”
“Tell me some stuff about yourself and I’ll tell you some pretty shocking stuff about myself. How’s that? Maybe we can try and make some sense of all this.”
The girl exhaled and Rachel noticed her breathing trembled just thinking about it.
Rachel reached out and touched Rain’s arm.
“It’s okay,” she said. “Bad stuff happens to everybody. It’ll make you feel better to talk about it. Trust me.”
The girl took a harsh drag from her cigarette and said, “I guess so,” smoke puffing out of her mouth.
“Okay,” Rain said. “First of all, let me start by saying this: I don’t really know you and what I have to tell you could get me in a lot of trouble too. I want you to promise me you won’t tell anyone about what I’m about to say. I mean, I’d look like an accomplice or something. And I didn’t really want to do any of it.”
The girls sidestepped a tree and landed on a narrow clearing.
“As much as I would like to promise that, I don’t know if I can.”
“Then I can’t tell you.”
“Well, see, my situation’s a little more complex than you might realize. A couple years ago, my boyfriend, Jacob, and I had some really strange stuff happen to us and ever since then we’ve been trying to sort of figure out what it was that really happened. So, I can tell you now, whatever you tell me will probably make it back to him because we don’t keep anything from each other. Especially not the really strange stuff. Not anything that might help us get to the bottom of this mess.”
“Well, I guess it’s okay if you tell him if you’re sure he wouldn’t tell anybody else. I was mainly talking about cops or anyone like that.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t tell a cop.” Rachel almost laughed at Rain’s nearly naive sense of caution. “Besides, the cops in this town are probably just about the most evil people we have. Besides Them.”
“Them?”
“The Devils. Have you ever heard of the Devils?”
“Can’t say that I have.”
“Well, let me clue you in. They’re kind of a legend here in Lynchville. Now, I have family all over the U.S. and I’ve mentioned the Devils to just about all of them and none of them seem to have heard of them either. The Internet doesn’t really help much. The Devils are like the most evil thing imaginable. I don’t really know what it is about them that makes them evil or what they’re trying to do. Legends are the typical boogeyman type of stuff, you know. Sometimes they’re vampires. Sometimes they’re ghosts. Werewolves. Zombies. Just about everything. It’s said they’re older than the town itself and, through some twisted logic, have like a psychic hold on the town or something. Which explains why people don’t really leave. I mean, people move away, but no more than usual. Most people don’t even really believe they exist. They treat them like an urban legend or something. Hell, me and Jacob believe and we’re still h
ere.
“Almost everyone I know who lives here has some wicked bad nightmares but you don’t really know if that’s because of the Devils or if we’re all just a little paranoid, you know? And if you don’t believe, then the nightmares can’t hurt, right? Anyway, there does seem to be a higher than usual death rate in Lynchville and of course there’s talk about someone somewhere covering everything up because they benefit from the Devils in some way. Or maybe the leaders of the town are Devils themselves. You know, like some ancient council that feeds off the town’s energy. Who knows? That’s the mystery we’re trying to figure out. Mainly, we just want to find out why what happened to us happened. I know it all sounds crazy. I’ll tell you more when we meet up with Jacob.
“Do you think I’m crazy?”
Rain chuckled slightly. “Do you think I’m crazy?”
“I guess it’s all relative.”
Rachel’s body ached. The cut on her foot, after trodding over dirt and dead leaves and twigs, was now throbbing.
She pitched her cigarette off into the woods.
What if Bones saw the glow from the cigarette?
No. He couldn’t have kept up with us, Rachel thought. She trusted Rain when she said he was lazy. Besides, they were lost in the woods themselves. She didn’t have any reason to believe Bones knew these woods any better than the average person.
Rain tossed her cigarette out.
“I’m sorry,” Rachel said. “You had something you wanted to tell me and I completely took it away from you. You just seemed so nervous. I thought it might calm you if I talked for a little bit first. Let you know we’re all a bit fucked up.”
“No. Thanks. It did. It helped.”
Rain pulled the jacket tightly around herself and said, “You cold?”
“Surprisingly no. I’m just kind of glad to be alive. In a bit of pain.”
“You sure?”
“Sure.”
“Okay, well, mainly, I pulled that stuff back there because I just can’t take Bones anymore. He’s a lot sicker than I thought he was. We’ve been running for almost a year now.”
