Blood Games

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Batty followed them through the kitchen door and down the back stairs.

‘I left something of mine in your shed,’ Cora said.

‘Fetch it.’

‘Watch what you step in,’ Finley warned.

They waited while Cora hurried into the shed. She came out with her tire iron.

Seeing it, Batty cackled. ‘That spose t’hurt someone?’

‘She just carries it around in case of a flat,’ Finley said.

The mention of a flat tire triggered a thought in Abilene. She’d seen no evidence of a driveway or road, much less a car, since leaving the lodge. But she asked, anyway. ‘You don’t have a car, do you?’

Batty answered with a snort.

‘What about a telephone?’

‘Who’d old Batty wanta call?’

‘Are there any homes nearby with cars or telephones?’

‘Y’find any home ’round this neck a the woods, y’d best run from it. Now get on back ’n find Helen, ’fore y’all get got.’ Batty stood watching while they turned away and walked around the corner of her cabin.

Vivian glanced back as if afraid the old creature might be pursuing them. ‘God, is it good to get away from there.’

‘Too bad Helen wasn’t with us,’ Finley said. ‘She would’ve loved all that.’ Leading the way, she returned to the tree where she’d left the water bottle and chips. She picked them up, then looked back at the cabin. ‘Should we go the rest of the way around the lake, or what?’

‘Maybe we’d better head back the way we came,’ Cora said. ‘It’ll be quicker. If Helen’s really at the lodge…’

‘Besides,’ Abilene said, ‘I didn’t much care for what Batty had to say about her neighbors.’

‘What do you expect from a loony?’

‘I just want to get back to the lodge,’ Vivian said. ‘If we keep going around the lake, there’s no telling who we might run into. I sure don’t like the idea of meeting up with any more weirdos.’

‘Yeah,’ Abilene said. ‘Batty was more than enough.’

‘And it’d be a lot farther, that way,’ Vivian pointed out. ‘I don’t have any shoes.’

‘We’re lucky that’s all he wanted,’ Cora said.

‘She, it,’ added Finley.

‘We need to look after our cuts, too,’ Abilene said.

‘I’ve got a first aid kit in my suitcase,’ Cora said.

‘Is it settled, then?’ Vivian asked.

‘I don’t hear any objections,’ Cora said. ‘So I guess we’ll go back the way we came.’

‘And let’s be quick about it,’ Finley said. ‘Before we get got.’ They started hiking away from the cabin, heading for the north end of the lake. As she walked along, Abilene inspected her cut. The short slit, caked with a thread of thickened blood, was no longer leaking. The edge of her hand was stained as if she’d rubbed it against a rusty sheet of metal. It felt stiff and sore. The patch of blood on her skirt was tacky when it touched her thigh. Lifting the skirt, she saw a ruddy stain on her skin.

Now that she was away from Batty, she found it hard to believe that they had actually entered the cabin at all, much less cut themselves with the maniac’s knife and drunk their own blood.

‘That was about the craziest damn thing we’ve ever done,’ she said.

Cora smiled back at her. ‘Seemed like a good idea at the time.’

‘Speak for yourself,’ Finley said. ‘It never seemed like a good idea to me.’

‘You didn’t have to go along with it,’ Abilene said.

‘Didn’t want to be the party-pooper. Besides, it might’ve ruined the spell. Such as it was.’ After a few moments, she said, ‘Hey, if it turns out the old bat was full of shit, does Vivian get her shoes back?’

‘That’s only fair,’ Vivian said. ‘Will you collect the refund for me?’

Abilene smiled, surprised to find Vivian joining in the banter. Cora abruptly halted and turned around, frowning.

‘What?’ Vivian asked.

‘This talk of going back makes me think. While we were there, we should’ve asked Batty where to find the car keys.’

‘Oh, let’s go back right away,’ Finley said.

‘She’d want somebody else’s shoes,’ Vivian said.

‘He, it.’

‘He/she/it’s got Viv’s,’ Abilene pointed out. ‘We’d have to give up something else.’

‘Like our duds,’ Finley said. ‘Old Batty could sure use a decent wardrobe.’

‘Yours,’ Abilene told her. ‘The fit’d be just right.’

‘Gimme a break.’

‘Maybe arrange a trade,’ Vivian said. ‘Fin’d look great in that vest, wouldn’t she?’

‘You got blood on your polo shirt,’ Finley pointed out. ‘Never gonna come out.’

‘So?’

Finley shrugged. ‘Just hoping to ruin this giddy mood of yours. You’re really annoying when you’re cheerful.’

We’re all acting incredibly cheerful, Abilene realized. It seemed strange until she thought about it. They’d just gone through some bizarre, rather harrowing experiences, and come out of them unscathed. It was the nervous, heady feeling of exhilaration that comes from knowing the crisis is over and everything is okay once again.

Like after an earthquake.

But the crisis isn’t over, she reminded herself. Everything isn’t okay. We’re safe from Batty, but Helen’s still missing.

Maybe we will find her at the lodge.

Following the others as they continued their journey around the end of the lake, Abilene thought how great it would be if Batty had been right about Helen’s location.

There all the time. Never was abducted.

It was what Abilene had really hoped all along.

But don’t count on it, she warned herself. Helen might be anywhere. You can’t rely on the hocus-pocus of some freaky old hermit.

You can’t rely on it, but you can’t discount it, either.

Abilene considered herself to have an open mind. Maybe too open. Harris sometimes accused her of being gullible. But she couldn’t help what she believed.

Among other things, she accepted the possibility that mysterious forces might be at work in the universe. There was plenty of circumstantial evidence to support the notion of God, for instance. The same with such matters as telepathy, visitors from outer space, reincarnation, ghosts, and various forms of fortune-telling. Some of these things were undoubtedly hogwash. But she suspected that not all of them were.

So why not a Batty able to ‘see’ where Helen is?

Maybe hogwash. But maybe not.

Batty’d had no control over just where the drop of blood would land when it fell from that awful pendulum. But it had struck the map almost exactly in the location of the lodge.

Even if Batty somehow knew that’s where we’d come from, Abilene thought, why did the blood fall at that particular place?

Maybe just coincidence.

Coincidence. A nice catch-all for cynics. It could be used to explain away a whole array of mysteries.

Maybe that's the real hogwash, Abilene thought. Maybe there’s no such thing as coincidence. Nothing is accidental, nothing random. Maybe everything is part of a pattern.

In some ways that seemed to make a lot more sense than the idea that events were ruled by chance.

Chance could obviously play a part in things. But as certain as Abilene felt that chance was a factor, she was even more certain that it was a minor player. A wild card.

Cause and effect ran the game.

Some of those causes, some of those effects, were just too subtle or disguised or mysterious to be recognized.

So maybe it was chance, coincidence, that the drop of blood fell on the map just where it did. Or maybe Batty’s bizarre little ritual somehow caused it to land there.

We’ll never know, Abilene thought.

If we find Helen there…

We still won’t know for sure. Finley would say it was a mere coincidence. Cora was too matter-of-fact to care one way or the other. She would just be glad that Helen was back in the fold, and not concern herself with Batty’s hand in the matter. Vivian would probably be just as astonished and perplexed as Abilene.

Helen was the only one who would truly believe, without any doubt, in Batty’s power.

It really is a shame she wasn’t with us, Abilene thought. Finley was right about that. Helen would’ve been scared witless, but she sure would’ve loved it.

‘When we find Helen,’ she said, ‘we really oughta take her back and introduce her to Batty.’

'If we find her,’ Finley said, glancing back.

Vivian looked over her shoulder, frowning. ‘I sure wish Batty’d told us whether she’s all right.’

‘Bat-brain doesn’t know shit, anyway. It was a waste of time. And blood.’

‘I don’t know,’ Vivian said.

Then they came to the mouth of the inlet. As Cora hurried over the rocks, apparently eager to jump in, Finley said, ‘Wait. Why don’t I fill up the bottle before you go in and mess up the water?’

She shook the plastic container. Only a couple of inches of water remained, sloshing about its bottom.

‘That’ll be enough to last us till we get to the lodge,’ Cora said.

‘Yeah,’ Vivian said. ‘Don’t ruin it.’

‘We can always come back if we run out,’ Cora explained

‘This stuff looks fine to me,’ Finley said.

‘Why bother?’ Abilene said. ‘We’ve got two more bottles in the car.’

With a grin, Finley said, ‘But they aren’t filled with clear, sparkling Vermont lake water.’

‘God knows what’s in that stuff,’ Vivian said.

‘Woosies.’

Cora jumped.

The rest of them followed her into the water. Once again, Abilene was stunned by its sudden chill. She submerged herself completely, then surfaced. Cora and Finley were continuing toward the other side, but Vivian had halted, unwrapped her hand, and was using a clean part of the sock to work on the bloodstain marring her shirt.

Seemed like a good idea. After switching the moccasins to her injured left hand, Abilene reached across with her right and rubbed the bloody area of her skirt briskly against her thigh. Probably wouldn’t do a lot of good. But she was bound to get out the worst of it.

‘Any luck?’ she asked Vivian.

Vivian dropped her hand. The pink of her skin showed through the clinging fabric. The bloodstain was faint, but still visible.

‘Better,’ Abilene said.

‘I guess the shirt’s ruined. Doesn’t really matter, though.’

‘Don’t you get a free supply from Tipton?’ Finley asked. Vivian turned around. Finley had already climbed onto the rocks at the far side. ‘Sure do. If I had any with me, I’d give one to you.’

Finley smiled down at the darkly stained tail she’d used to wrap her hand. ‘Gives my shirt character, don’t you think?’

‘A red badge of courage,’ Abilene said.

‘A red badge of lunacy,’ Finley corrected.

Following Vivian to the other side, Abilene said, ‘If this was a war, we could all get Purple Hearts.’

‘Not sure they give ’em for self-inflicted wounds,’ Cora said. They climbed out. Abilene slipped into her moccasins.

‘I guess our little communion does make us blood sisters, though,’ Cora added.

‘Whoopee,’ Finley said.

‘It wasn’t actually so bad,’ Vivian said. ‘I mean, it was only our blood. I thought about that. I figured it wasn’t any worse than if it’d just been my own.’

‘I thought about that, too,’ Cora admitted.

‘Yeah,’ Finley said. ‘Could’ve been worse.’

Vivian nodded. ‘If Batty’s blood had been in there, I know I couldn’t have drunk it. Not a chance.’

‘In a way it’s kind of neat,’ Abilene said.

‘Oh yeah,’ Finley said.

‘I mean, we all have each other’s blood inside us right now. We’re digesting it. It’ll become part of us.’

‘You’re weird as hell, Hickok.’

Cora started to walk away but Vivian asked her to wait. With Abilene holding her steady, Vivian balanced on one leg and struggled to get the wet sock onto her foot. The bottom of her foot looked ruddy, but there were no cuts or scrapes that Abilene could see. At least the sock would now give it a little protection.

‘If you have any trouble you can borrow my moccasins for a while.’

‘It’s not bad.’

‘All set?’ Cora asked.

‘Yep.’

They followed Cora across the rocks, over the top of a fallen log, then along the shoreline to the place where they’d first come upon the inlet that morning. From there, they journeyed through the woods, keeping the lake in sight.

Abilene was surprised at how quickly they came upon the path to the lodge. She supposed that she shouldn’t be surprised; return trips, she had noticed even as a child, always seemed faster than the trips going out.

With a glance to her left, she saw the old dock and the strangely tilted diving platform beyond its end.

‘Anybody wanta go down to the beach and take a snack break?’ Finley asked, waving the bag of chips.

‘Let’s just get on to the lodge,’ Vivian said.

‘You mean I traipsed all over creation with this for nothing?’

‘Eat some yourself,’ Abilene suggested.

Finley didn’t bother, but she did open the water bottle. They all took drinks from it before resuming their trek.

Soon, they stepped out of the woods at the far end of the lodge’s grounds. Abilene felt her heart quicken as she started across the field. She squinted through the bright sunlight, scanning the back of the lodge, half expecting to spot Helen. Maybe by the outer pool. Maybe watching from one of the high balconies. But she saw no one.

Though the field seemed fairly level all the way to the rear of the lodge, Abilene realized that it had a slight upward grade. She was too low, for a while, to see the granite walkway or pool.

But as she neared them, the ground rose.

Helen’s shoes were still there, the open bag of chips propped up between them like before.

Abilene felt her excitement wither.

‘She hasn’t been back for her shoes,’ Cora pointed out.

Nobody else said anything.

They trudged the final distance. The sun was high enough, now, for the balcony of the lower porch to cast a shadow across half the width of the walkway and pool. They stepped into the shade and leaned back against the wall of the lodge.

The granite wall felt wonderfully cool through Abilene’s blouse. Huffing for air, she lifted the front of her blouse and wiped her face.

Nobody spoke.

Cora alone didn’t appear to be winded. But she, like the others, was flushed and dripping.

Vivian bent over and clutched her knees.

After a while, Finley sat down.

Whether or not they believed in Batty’s power, Abilene guessed that they had all approached the lodge with hopes of being met by Helen. Now, they felt only let down and exhausted.

‘This isn’t accomplishing anything,’ Cora finally said. ‘We’d better look for her.’

‘Let’s go back to the car first,’ Vivian suggested. ‘I want to get some shoes on.’

‘And we can take care of our cuts,’ Abilene reminded them.

Nobody made a move to leave.

Maybe we’re scared, Abilene thought. Afraid to start searching. As long as we haven’t searched, there’s still a chance of finding her. But if we look everywhere and don’t turn her up…

‘Why don’t we just rest for a while?’ Finley said. ‘I’m really bushed.’