Blood Games

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Abilene felt heat rush to her face.

Christ, how does he know my name?

‘Whoooa,’ said Finley. ‘He knows ya! Do you know him?’

She shook her head.

‘I’ve just seen you around,’ he said. ‘That’s all.’

Bill suddenly looked startled. ‘Hey! She’s the one in the yearbook!’

‘She is not! Shut up!’

‘Oh, wow.’

‘He doesn’t know what he’s talking about,’ Harris said, his bloody face grimacing. ‘Come on. We’ve gotta get going.’ He didn’t wait for the others. Forgetting his zombie walk, he hurried past Abilene with his face turned away.

‘Geez, Harris!’ Bill called, and rushed after him.

As the other two followed, Chuck the baseball player grinned at Abilene. ‘That guy’s got a major-league crash on you.’

‘No kidding,’ she muttered.

She looked back in time to see Harris throw a punch into Bill’s shoulder.

‘Curiouser and curiouser,’ Finley said.

‘Maybe you oughta go after him,’ Cora said.

‘Give me a break.’

‘He was pretty cute under all that blood,’ Vivian said.

‘Yeah, sure thing.’ 'He must’ve gotten your name from the yearbook,’ Helen said.

‘Freshmen don’t even have yearbooks yet.’

‘Wouldn’t be hard to get your hands on one,’ Cora told her.

‘I’d be flattered,’ Helen said.

‘Well, I’m not.’

She looked over her shoulder. The boys were half a block away. They weren’t walking like zombies. Harris seemed to be the center of attention. He’d taken the meat cleaver off his head. He was shaking it at the others, who shoved him and slapped his back and pointed toward Abilene.

Really giving him the business, she thought.

The poor guy was probably embarrassed half to death.

Serves him right.

He looks at pictures of me in the yearbook?

Turning away, she muttered, ‘What a creep.’

‘Just in love,’ Finley said.

‘Take a leap.’

‘Cut it out,’ Cora said. ‘Here come some more kids.’

Abilene felt hot and shaky inside. In spite of the chilly wind, her skin seemed to be on fire. Sweat dribbled down her sides.

A major-league crush.

I don’t even know the guy.

He knows my name. He looks at my picture.

God, what else does he do? Follow me around?

A freshman, no less.

A moron going around wearing a toy meat cleaver like a hat and fake blood all over his face.

He had nice eyes, though.

A woman and two kids — another Freddie Krueger and a pirate — distracted Abilene from her thoughts about the zombie. Cora handed out candy bars. After the mother led her children away, Cora folded her empty bag and shoved it into Vivian’s. ‘That’s it for me,’ she said. ‘Your turn to do the honors.’

‘Oh, okay.’

‘How long are we planning to keep at this?’ Abilene asked.

‘Aren’t you having fun?’ Finley asked. ‘Not every night you bump into a secret admirer.’

‘Don’t remind me.’

‘Maybe they’ll come back,’ Helen said.

‘Oh, please.’

Abilene found herself keeping watch, half-expecting the zombies to show up again, hoping they wouldn’t, but surprised and annoyed at herself when, some time later, she glimpsed a group of guys in the distance and felt a tremor of excitement. Which turned into disappointment when they approached and she saw they were a vampire, a hobo, a soldier and a Frankenstein monster. They were also younger than the zombies. And creeps. They blocked the sidewalk. The soldier raised his M-16 and ordered, ‘Halt.’

‘Oh, this is terrific,’ Finley said. Ignoring the soldier’s command, she stepped onto a neatly trimmed lawn, shouldered her video camera, and began to tape the episode by the light of the full moon and streedamps.

‘What’s she doing?’ asked the hobo.

‘Forget her,’ said the Frankenstein monster. ‘Look at these babes.’

‘I vahnt to suck your blood,’ said the vampire, leaning close to Vivian and wiggling his eyebrows.

‘Have a Three Musketeers bar,’ Vivian said. She reached into her bag.

‘Zee blood is zee life.’ His head darted toward the side of Vivian’s neck. She shoved him away. The soldier opened up, his M-16 clacking, spitting out bursts of water that splashed Vivian’s face.

‘Cut it out,’ Cora warned.

‘Oh yeah?’ He swung the muzzle of the automatic squirtgun toward her.

‘You shoot me with that, I’ll shove it up your wahzoo.’

‘Oooo, I’m trembling. I’m shaking.’

Cora took,a step toward him, and he backed away.

The Frankenstein monster, meanwhile, had wandered over to

Helen’s side. ‘Look at this,’ he said. ‘This babe’s dressed up as a sheet.’

‘I’m a ghost,’ Helen said.

‘No such thing as ghosts.’ He lifted the sheet. ‘It’s not a ghost, it’s a blimp!’

Abilene muttered, ‘Fuck you, Charlie,’ and shoved him off the sidewalk. He staggered backward, tripped on a lawn sprinkler and fell on his rump. The soldier opened fire on Abilene. Cold spurts of water hit her forehead, her eyes, her cheeks. Then the kid squirted her bare armpit and swept his weapon sideways. Her sweatshirt went cold and wet against her breasts.

She heard laughter.

Cora lunged forward. She ripped the M-16 out of the soldier’s hands and shoved its muzzle against his crotch.

‘Ow!’

Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat.

The vampire rushed Cora. Vivian slipped the broom handle between his feet. He yelped, stumbled past Cora and slammed the lawn at Finley’s feet.

The hobo whirled and ran.

The Frankenstein monster scurried up and went after him.

The soldier swatted the plastic gun barrel away. Clutching his sodden crotch, he staggered backward, blurting, ‘Leave me alone,’ as Cora pursued him. ‘Leave me… She stuck the muzzle into his mouth and pulled the trigger. He coughed as water flooded his mouth.

The vampire fled, his black cape fluttering behind him.

Cora shoved the M-16 into the hands of the choking, spluttering soldier. ‘Next time,’ she said, ‘be nice to people.’

The soldier twisted around and raced after his friends.

‘Good show!’ Finley called out. ‘Bravo!’ Lowering her camera, she came back to the sidewalk.

‘You were sure a lot of help,’ Abilene said.

‘Didn’t look to me as if you guys needed any assistance. Sure gave them a Halloween to remember.’

‘Dirty rats,’ Helen muttered.

‘Kind of fun, actually,’ Cora said.

‘He didn’t shoot you,' Vivian pointed out.

‘I sure shot him, though.’ She laughed. ‘Poor kid.’

‘Poor kid, my butt,’ Abilene muttered. ‘He soaked me.’ Bending over, she swung her pendulum out of the way and lifted the lower part of her sweatshirt. She dried her face with it, then wiped her wet armpit and rubbed her breasts. Deciding she would prefer to have the chilly dampness against her back, she pulled her arms inside and twisted the sweatshirt around before struggling into its sleeves. That did feel better.

Finley grinned at her. ‘Now you’re “The Other Pit and the Pendulum.” ’

‘A sequel,’ Vivian said.

‘Are we about ready to call it quits?’ she asked.

‘You don’t want to disappoint all the children who haven’t yet had the opportunity to enjoy the Merry Halloween Team, do you?’ Finley asked.

‘I could live with it.’

‘Most of the little ones ought to be heading for home before much longer,’ Cora said. ‘Why don’t we stick it out for a while?’

‘Those creeps’ll probably come back and egg us.’

‘They wouldn’t dare,’ Finley said.

‘Let’s give it a few more minutes,’ Cora said, and started walking.

As everyone followed, Helen laughed through her sheet. ‘Yeah, just a few more minutes. That’ll give us a chance to run into some real trouble.’

‘We should’ve gone to your all-night Shock Festival at the Elsinore.’

‘We’d gone to the movies, Hickok, you wouldn’t have met the love of your life.’

‘You and the horse you rode in on.’

Abilene discovered that, by walking with her spine arched and her shoulders back, she was able to keep the wet fabric from touching her skin.

They continued along the street, pausing each time they met kids. Block after block, Vivian handed out candy bars. When her bag was empty, Helen took over.

Though they came upon teenagers as well as little kids, nobody gave them much trouble. A few smart-alecks, but most of the trick-or-treaters were nice and none assaulted them with squirtguns or other weapons. Abilene found herself enjoying the encounters and was a little disappointed when she realized that they’d walked a full block without meeting any more kids.

‘I guess they’ve mosdy gone home,’ she said.

‘I’m getting low, anyway,’ Helen said, and shook her sack. She was carrying the last of the candy. ‘Should we start back?’

‘Let’s try one more block,’ Abilene suggested.

Cora grinned back at her. ‘You’re the one who wanted to quit.’

‘That’s when I was wet.’

They crossed a street. And Abilene saw, near the far end of the block, a group of three small kids run from a lighted porch, laughing, their treat bags bouncing and swinging. The children joined a woman waiting on the sidewalk. They hurried ahead of her and scampered toward the next house.

‘Hey, one’s a ghost,’ Helen said. She sounded very pleased.

Soon, they were close enough for Abilene to see that the other two were dressed as a kitten and a gremlin. From their size, she guessed that they were no older than five or six.

They were off at a house when Finley strode up to the woman and announced, ‘Hi! We’re the Merry Halloween Team!’

The woman laughed and shook her head. She had red hair and freckles. She didn’t look old enough to have three kids.

Maybe just one is hers, Abilene thought.

‘We’ve been going around giving stuff to the kids,’ Helen said.

‘Hey, that’s a great idea. Sort of like trick-or-treating in reverse.’

‘Just an excuse to get out and see what’s happening,’ Abilene told her.

The ghost, kitten and gremlin came running across the lawn.

They slowed down near the sidewalk. Then stopped on the grass. And stared.

‘It’s all right, kids. This is the Merry Halloween Team.’

‘With treats!’ Helen said. She bent over and reached into her sack. ‘It’s so nice to meet a fellow ghost,’ she said, smiling at the spook.

‘I’m not really a ghost. I’m Heather.’

‘Nice to meet you, Heather. I’m Helen. But I’m a real ghost.’

‘Oh, I bet you aren’t really. There’s no such thing. Is there. Mommy?’

‘If she says she’s a ghost, I guess she is.’

‘But I’m a very friendly ghost,’ Helen explained, and dropped a couple of Three Musketeer bars into Heather’s bag.

The girl said, ‘Thank you very much.’

‘You’re a very pretty kitty,’ Helen said as she gave treats to the kitten.

‘Meeeeooooow. ’

Abilene grinned. ‘They’re really cute kids.’

‘I’m Gizmo,’ said the gremlin.

‘Here you go, Gizmo.’

The candy bars no sooner hit the bottom of Gizmo’s bag than all three girls rushed on down the sidewalk.

‘Don’t run,’ the mother called. Then, ‘Thanks a lot. Happy Halloween.’

‘You, too,’ Finley said.

The mother hurried after the girls. ‘Wait,’ she called. ‘Forget that place.’ Over her shoulder, she said, ‘I told them, only houses with lighted porches or pumpkins.’

The girls were running toward a dark porch.

‘You heard me,’ she called.

‘Oh, Mom.’

‘Probably no one’s home, anyway,’ Finley said.

The mother shrugged.

The kids went ahead and climbed the porch. The kitten rang the doorbell.

‘Should we start back?’ Vivian asked.

‘Might as well,’ Helen said. ‘We’re almost out of candy.’

They walked toward the waiting mother. She nodded a greeting, then returned her attention to the girls.

Light spilled onto the porch as the door swung open.

A tall, thin man loomed over the girls.

In unison, they chanted, ‘Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat!’

‘Scat!’ the man snapped. ‘Get outa here, ya little snots!’ He slammed the door. It crashed shut with such a clap that all three girls jumped.

Even Abilene flinched. ‘Jesus!’ she gasped.

The girls ran. At the sidewalk, Heather wrapped her sheeted arms around her mother’s waist. The kitten was crying, wiping her eyes with small, furry paws. ‘I wanna go home,' whined Gizmo.

‘I wanna kill the son of a bitch,’ Cora muttered.

‘You and me both,’ Abilene said. ‘Doing that to little kids.’

‘Let’s have a word with him,’ Vivian said. She strode across the lawn, heading for the porch, her black gown flapping in the wind. Then Cora was at her side. Finley rushed after them. Helen and Abilene followed.

Glancing back, Abilene saw the mother hurrying away down the sidewalk, the three girls clustered close around her.

The dirty bastard, she thought. Her throat felt tight.

The little kids had been out having a wonderful time. It had been ruined, now. They’d been scared half to death. For the rest of their lives, they would probably always remember tonight and the horrible man who’d yelled at them. Halloween would never be quite the same for them. It would always be tainted.

Thanks to one thoughtless, selfish bastard.

She trotted up the porch stairs as Vivian jabbed the doorbell button. She heard the bell jangling inside the house. Again and again.

The door swung open.

The man standing in the lighted foyer was not an old grouch. He was young, probably no older than thirty. He looked perfectly normal in his plaid shirt and jeans, his short hair neatly combed. But his eyes were narrow, his lips twisted with a sneer.

‘What the hell do you want?’

‘What the hell is the matter with you?’ Vivian demanded. ‘We saw what you did to those little kids. There’s no excuse for that kind of behavior.’

‘It’s Halloween, for Godsake,’ Cora said.

‘They were just trying to have fun,’ Abilene said.

‘Shouldn’t have rung my bell, should they?’

‘If you don’t like it, you shouldn’t have opened the door,’ Abilene told him. ‘Why’d you have to scare them like that!’

‘It was really shitty,’ Finley said.

‘Awwww, I’m so sorry.’

‘You should be,’ Helen said.

Leaning forward, he raised his upper lip high enough to bare his gums. He turned his head slowly as if inspecting a group of repulsive but somewhat amusing lepers. ‘Get out of here. Fuck off.’

With that, he slammed the door.

At a twenty-four hour convenience store several blocks away, they bought a dozen eggs, a can of shaving cream, and a pair of rubber dish-washing gloves. As the clerk loaded the items into a paper bag, Cora helped herself to a couple of free matchbooks.

On their way back to the man’s house, they found a pile of dog waste in the grass beside a tree.

‘Allow me,’ Finley said.

Cora emptied the bag. Finley put on the rubber gloves, picked up the rank, gooey pile, and dropped it into the bag. She tossed the gloves in after it.

They arrived at the house.

Its porch was still dark, but faint light glowed through the living room curtains.

Cora took the bag from Finley. Helen, Vivian, Finley and Abilene crouched down beyond a corner of the porch. From there, they watched Cora through slats in the railing.

Abilene trembled. She gritted her teeth to stop her chin from shaking as Cora climbed the stairs.

Crazy, she thought. This guy might be dangerous.

But he’d asked for it. And he’s gonna get it.

Cora slid the welcome mat out of the way. She placed the bag just in front of the door. Squatting, she struck a match. She touched its flame to the crumpled paper. As fire crawled over the bag, she sprang up, poked the doorbell a couple of times, and rushed down the stairs.

Reaching the middle of the lawn, she whirled around in time to see the man throw open his door.

‘Shit!’

He leaped over the threshold and stomped the blazing bag. Embers flew. Abilene heard a soft splat. His ankle, bare above the top of his house slipper, went dark.

‘Yeeeuug!’

But he kept stomping until the fire was out. Then he lifted his foot and looked at it. Then he looked at Cora.

‘Trick or treat!’ Cora called.

‘Cunt! ’ He lurched across the porch, gasped when his clotted slipper skated sideways, but kept his balance and raced down the stairs.

Cora took off.

The man dashed after her.

He was hot on her tail by the time she reached the sidewalk. There, she ducked her head and sprinted. The guy went after her. A moment later, they were both out of sight.

‘Man, was he ever pissed,’ Finley said.

‘What if he catches her?’ Helen asked.

‘He won’t,’ Finley said.

‘Come on.’ Abilene rose from her crouch. She led the way along the front of the porch and up the stairs toward the open door. Her legs felt weak and shaky. Her heart pounded.

‘I sure hope nobody else is here,’ Vivian whispered.

‘Who would live with a jerk like that?’ Abilene said.

‘Another jerk, maybe,’ Helen suggested.

Careful to avoid the charred remains and brown smears, Abilene stepped onto the threshold. She leaned forward. To the right of the tile foyer was the living room. From where she stood, she couldn’t see much of it.

She heard nothing except her own heartbeat.

‘Let’s do it and get out,’ Vivian whispered.

Nodding, Abilene shook the can of shaving cream and pried off its lid. She crept across the foyer and stepped onto the carpet. The television was off. The only light came from a single lamp at one end of the sofa. Its dim bulb left deep shadows in the corners of the room.

‘Nobody here,’ Finley said.

‘I guess…’

An egg came from behind, dropped just in front of Abilene’s face and shattered on the carpet at her feet.

‘Watch it.’

Finley laughed.

Another egg sailed by. This one smashed against the wall above the TV set. Its viscous contents splattered and dribbled. Turning around, Abilene watched Finley and Vivian pluck more eggs from the carton in Helen’s hand and hurl them. The missiles exploded, splashing yellow glop against walls, the ceiling, a lamp table, a rocking chair barely visible in one corner.

Abilene hurried over to the coffee table. A glass half full of soda was there. With a quick squirt, she gave the soda a frothy head of shaving cream. Eggs exploding all around her, she drew curlicues of suds on the table top. Then she went to the sofa. Its upholstery was covered with something that looked like an old bedspread, so she figured the shaving cream wouldn’t do any real damage. She started at the lighted end of the sofa and made her way down its length, leaving thick, fluffy designs along its cushions.

She kept her eyes on the job.

Until she came to the far end of the sofa.

In the gloom between Abilene and the wall, some five feet away, she saw a chair. She’d noticed the chair earlier. Hidden in a dark corner as it was, however, she hadn’t realized it was a wheelchair. Nor had she noticed that it wasn’t empty.

Something was in the chair.

A bundle of blankets topped with a small, gray orb that almost resembled a head.

Her heart gave an awful lurch.

She stared at the thing. It didn’t move. It didn’t make a sound. The head really didn’t look much like a head, at all, more like a shriveled grapefruit perched on a stalk above the blankets. But it seemed to have a face.

A dummy? A mannequin? Maybe one of those inflatable sex dolls.

‘Hey,’ she gasped. ‘Over here.’

‘What is it?’ Finley came up beside her. ‘What is it?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘We’ve gotta get out of here,’ Vivian said, hurrying over with Helen to see what they’d found.

Finley pulled a flashlight out of a pocket of her coveralls. She switched it on. She aimed it at the thing in the wheelchair.

The small head was hairless, the color of wet, dead leaves. Its face looked like something that a careless child might’ve formed out of papier-mache: lumpy, ragged flesh; eyes holes poked by fingertips; a couple of quick pinches to make the nose; a slit for a mouth; a tiny knob of chin.

‘It… it isn’t a corpse, is it?’ Helen whispered.

‘Christ, no,’ Finley said. ‘It’s just a dummy. A homemade dummy, at that.’

‘It’s hideous,’ Vivian muttered.

‘Maybe that bastard has some Halloween spirit, after all,’ Finley said. ‘Hold the flashlight. I’ve gotta get this.’

She gave the light to Abilene.

Then she raised her video camera, turned around for a slow pan of the trashed living room, and pointed her lens at the ghastly thing in the chair. ‘Say cheese,’ she said.

It said, ‘Cheese.’

The slash of its mouth spread open and it said, ‘Cheese,’ the word rolling out slow and deep like a voice on a record player at low speed. A tinny, scratchy voice. A voice that resounded as if spoken in an echo chamber.

Finley gasped, ‘Fuck!’

Helen made a high, whiny noise.

Vivian gagged.

Abilene wet her pants.

The four girls didn’t stop running until they reached the convenience store. Cora, as planned, was waiting outside its door.

‘I got away from that bastard quicker than… What’s the matter with you guys?’

She was answered with shaking heads as the girls struggled for breath.

Helen removed the noose from around her neck, and pulled off the sheet. Crumpling it, she slumped against the store wall. ‘He didn’t catch you, did he?’

Vivian shook her head. She was bent over, hands on knees, in his house,’ Abilene gasped. ‘He had… a guy. Someone. In a wheelchair.’

‘It didn’t look human,’ Finley blurted.

‘Like a dummy. Something. Horrible.’

‘Its face,’ Vivian murmured.

‘What was wrong with him?’ Abilene gasped.

‘What was right with him?’

‘Never… seen anything like it,’ Vivian said. ‘God. I’m gonna have nightmares forever.’

Abilene met Cora’s eyes. ‘You’re really lucky. You didn’t see him.’

‘Oh, come on. He couldn’t have been that bad.’

‘Oh, yeah?’ Finley asked.

Back at their apartment, Finley inserted the tape cassette in the VCR. She fast-forwarded past the skirmish with the four teenagers…

Then the living room of the house was on the television screen. Eggs splattered everywhere. Thick curls of shaving cream on the coffee table, the sofa.

‘Boy,’ Cora said, ‘you done good.’

Abilene couldn’t watch the rest. She stood very still, itchy in her damp corduroys, and watched Cora.

Cora’s eyes went wide. ‘Holy shit,’ she said.

When the thing said, ‘Cheese,’ the color left her face.

Finley shut off the tape.

‘Maybe that’s why the man was such a creep,’ Vivian said. ‘I mean, he lives with that. Takes care of it. Maybe it’s… one of his parents, or something.’

‘We shouldn’t have trashed the place,’ Abilene muttered. ‘Oh God. How could we?’

‘We didn’t know,’ Finley said. ‘I’m gonna tape over that part. I never wanta see that thing again. I don’t even wanta think about it.’