One
The acrid smell of hot metal wafting on a random
spring breeze seared away the fleeting dreams of a light sleep. Evelyn
Darker’s eyes opened to the darkness of her bedroom. She rolled onto her
stomach, hugged the blankets to her chin, and peered in dread through her
open window. She had seen it on previous nights. And smelled it. And
there it was again, a glimmering ruby in the night, brighter and closer
than ever.
Shocked to breathlessness, she buried her face in her
pillow. Dare she call for help? Her three brothers had been drinking for
hours. Of what use would they be to her? She had told Abe about the
light a week or so ago. He had treated her with his usual contempt.
Lazarus had cackled with sadistic glee. “Demons from hell, Evie!
Demons from hell come to snatch your pretty little soul!”
Noah had ignored her.
The crimson light whispered to her. It had whispered
to her on previous nights, but for the first time since its visits began,
she felt certain the sound was more than her overactive imagination at
work. It called her name. It drew ever closer, night by night, gradually
acclimatizing her to its presence. She had succumbed to it. Her
curiosity had outgrown her fear. For how much longer could she hold it at
bay and not answer back?
The light moved out of view in the weeds along the
side of the house. She held her breath, closed her eyes, and heard a
scraping noise on the front porch. The porch extended around the side of
the house as far as her window. It would bring the creature to her.
The odor changed character slightly and became the
stronger odor of singed wood. It had never come this close before. She
made a decision finally, conscious of having done so only when she threw
her covers aside and rolled to her feet. Barefoot, dressed only in her
cotton nightie, she tiptoed to the window. If a demon meant to snatch her
soul away, how much worse could hell be than her hapless life with her
three brothers? Decay permeated the very walls of her prison, although it
was the consequence of defying Abraham and not the house itself that held
her prisoner.
She parted lace curtains older than her own nineteen
years and peered into the dark night. The window had been missing its
screen for most of the spring. She hoisted it open and extended one pale
leg over the sill. A floor board creaked and she paused, then stepped the
rest of the way outside.
A cool spring breeze stirred the foliage of the trees
about the house. She scanned the dark face of the bushes and then saw the
ruby glow out back of the house and on the side of the rising Appalachian hill
that blocked the morning sun until midday.
She sighed in despair. Did it expect her to follow
it? It tormented her. It preyed upon more than just her curiosity.
Despite her fears, it had become a source of promise as well, opening her
life to new and exciting possibilities.
She clasped her arms across her breasts and shivered
in the chill, debating whether to give in to temptation or abide by common
sense. Where would it take her if she followed? What could it possibly
want with her?
She’d find out. She stepped gingerly down the
splinter-ridden stairs to the gravel drive and danced on bare feet to the
lilac bushes bordering the property line. The weeds scratched at her bare
legs, but her feet were callused and impervious to the rough ground. She
lowered her head and pushed through the foliage between the hedge and the
tool shed so that she could not be seen from the house. She emerged into
the back lot where the light danced to and fro impatiently, aware of her
presence, and chiding her. She hurried to the back fence for a better
look, but it slipped further away, again pausing and waiting for her to
follow.
She climbed over the low wood fence and entered the
stand of saplings spread across the base of the hill. She was halfway
through the trees before she remembered that danger lurked here.
Panic rooted her to the spot. Ellen, too, had been
lured into the hills, her best friend, the only friend Abe had ever
allowed. They had found her dead, sprawled in the dirt, naked as a
jaybird with her throat cut to the spine. It was the reason Abe made her
stay close to the house in fear that she would meet with the same fate.
She turned away, blinded momentarily by fright, and
stumbled over a fallen wire fence. Impact with the damp earth knocked the
wind from her. She scrambled to her feet, but a fallen branch
snagged the hem of her nightgown, popping her right shoulder strap and
tearing the seam of her gown from the hem to her armpit.
“Oh, no!”
She dropped to her knees and forced herself to take a
deep breaths. Calmly, she freed the fabric of her gown and in that quiet
moment heard the echoing drip of water from far, far below. Groping along
the ground with one hand, her fingers encountered a rim of flagstone, and
then a drop-off into nothingness.
Where had the cover gone? Childhood imaginings
flashed to life in her imagination. Gnarled trolls scampered up the sides
of the well and groped in the darkness to drag her screaming to a fate
worst than death. She scurried back on hand and knees and climbed to her
feet. She held the seam of her torn gown together and backed from
danger. How would she explain herself if Abe caught her roaming the night
half naked?
She heard it then, an urgent whine like an angered
insect growing louder by the moment. She looked wildly about and saw the
red light rushing swiftly toward her. Her fall had alarmed it, or it was
taking the opportunity to attack. She had no way of knowing. With a cry,
she turned and bolted back across the fence, her bare feet pounding across
the back lawn at a dead run. Only as she neared the safety of the house
did she look back. She was close enough to the house now to scream for
help.
Her scream would have awakened half of Silver Ridge,
but the light was gone and her crisis defused. To prevent another one
from developing, she stepped through the deepest of the shadows along the
wall of bushes and tip-toed back to the sanctuary of her bedroom window.
A looming darkness separated itself from the darkness
and blocked her way. Evie reeled back in shock. Lazarus stepped into the
dim light cast by a distant streetlight filtering through the trees.
“What you doing out here so late, Evie? You meeting a suitor in the
woods?”
Lazarus was not as tall as Abe, their oldest brother,
but he was half again her own height with long, stringy hair that fell to
his bare shoulders. Eyes glazed with alcohol narrowed with evil glee.
Evie tried to move around him, but he sidestepped to block her way and
grinned wickedly with his thumbs stuck in the straps of his bib overalls.
Trapped in the open, Evie was helpless, fair game for anything Lazarus had
in mind, as far as Lazarus was concerned, even if he was her brother.
“Lazarus, you leave me alone. I’ll scream. You know
what Abe will do to you if you so much as touch me.”
Lazarus chuckled amusement at her helplessness.
“Yeah, but what will he do if he finds you sneaking about outside with
your nightie all tore up like that? You got a suitor hankering for you
out here after dark, Evie?”
“I got no suitor, Lazarus Darker. I heard something
is all.” She snatched a convenient story from the depths of her
imagination. “It sounded like a puppy whining, lost and hungry. Abe lets
me feed strays.” She lifted her chin defiantly. “You know he does.”
“You used that story once already. It won’t wash
again.” His confidence faltered regardless. He wet his lips with his
tongue and wiped his hands down his coveralls. His eyes roamed her body,
pausing to take in pale flesh peeking through tears in the gown. In
silence, he weighed temptation and its consequence.
Evie clutched at the torn fabric, trying to keep the
curve of a bare hip hidden from view.
“Tell you what, Evie.” He edged forward and dipped
his head, knowing she had the power to deny him. His voice softened.
“Let’s you and me be a bit more friendly. You know I never meant to hurt
you. Just let me be nice to you.” He reached out and ran a finger along
the surviving strap on her shoulder. “You can scream if I hurt you, and
then we’ll both be in dutch with Abe, and neither of us wants that. What
do you say, huh?”
Another voice sounded from the darkness, a deeper,
but softer voice. “It doesn’t sound like a good idea at all, Lazarus.”
Noah Darker stepped from around the front of the
porch. He startled Evie so badly that she almost wet herself. Lazarus
sidestepped into the shadows in a feeble attempt to hide.
Noah never smiled. His face was softer, not so
mean-looking, but Evie knew he could be as dangerous as Lazarus in his own
way, always wanting to do right by Abe. Noah was the youngest of her
three brothers, but his age alone was of no consolation to her. If he
tattled to Abe, Abe would beat on her and Lazarus both, and Evie feared
that Abe would hurt her bad some day. He was just too big to be gentle.
“Please let it go, Noah,” she begged. “I just heard
something is all. I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”
Noah gazed at her for a time. He eyed Lazarus with
far less tolerance. “Your beer’s getting warm, brother. Leave Sis
alone.”
Lazarus glared back at the man, but the glare was a
front for fear as great as Evie’s. He slunk away, defeated.
Noah eyed her distrustfully, but with none of the
sick hunger that had been in Lazarus’ eyes. “Git back inside before Abe
whups us all.” And then he, too, brushed past in ominous silence.
The back screen door slammed twice. Alone, Evie
scanned the night one final time. The demon was gone, but her curiosity
and her humiliation were too much to bear. She’d be ready for it the next
time it made its appearance, regardless of what it was, or what it wanted
of her.
