The Collected Horrors of Tim Wellman (17 page)

"You need to watch your step," he said as they
started up the old driveway. "You can turn your ankle in these old
gully ditches." He had decided the girls could walk but still
realized their small size would pose some problems on the rough
surface.

"Everyone from this morning is in one place,
now?" Tamara said. "Together?"

"Yep, they're all trying to figure out how to
cheat you out of your property," Steve said with a chuckle.
"Luckily they're all too stupid to be dangerous."

"If there was a fire, they would all die,"
Kimberly said.

The words struck Steve with a feeling of fear,
though he instantly realized she was simply responding to the fire
at the old house. Fire equaled destruction for them both right now.
"Guess so," he said. "But think how all their families would feel
about losing them."

"Families are evil," Tamara said.

"Most aren't," Steve said. "Girls, you have to
understand, the way you were treated was wrong and not ordinary.
Most families are good. You liked Susie, right? She's part of my
family."

The girls suddenly stopped and turned to face
Steve, but they were looking past him. "No fire," Kimberly
said.

Steve searched every bit of his being to assure
himself she was simply making a statement and not stopping an evil
spell. "Oh, I just thought of something," he said. "I don't think
they've come up to get the bodies, yet."

"The bodies are gone," Tamara said.

Kimberly nodded. "Taken away."

"How could you possibly know that?" he said and
then paused. "Oh, Susie must have told you." He smiled as they
continued up the hill. "That's good, then. I know you girls are a
bit more mature than I thought but still, you shouldn't be seeing
that sort of stuff. It will give you nightmares!" He pointed down.
"Watch out, that's where dad's truck tore out a hole this
morning."

The girls each hopped over it and continued
their journey. "Are we smaller than other girls our age?" Kimberly
asked.

He nodded and then noticed the girls hadn't seen
him. "Yeah, a bit," he said. "That just makes you cuter,
right?"

"Careful."

He suddenly stumbled and fell, barely catching
himself with his hands before his face hit a large, jagged stone.
"Shit!" He quickly hopped to his feet and pretended it was nothing
of importance, but it had actually scared him. "Do y'all know where
the door is? Can you find it in this rubble?"

They had made it up the hill and were walking
across the flatter lawn, well manicured and looked after by one of
the town's lawn care professionals, Mark Smitters, who couldn't get
a real job because he was a reformed child molester on parole. But
the old man, or at least someone on the hill, seemed to like him
and kept him in steady employment for years.

"We imagined this yard," Tamara said. "As a
magical place full of wonder and adventure."

"Have you
never
been out of the
basement?" Steve said.

"Not until last night," Tamara said. "They used
to show us pictures, though, and video."

"The town has a park, you know, with a large
lawn like this and swings and teeter-totters and stuff for kids to
play on," he said. "We can go there once all this blows over. Hey,
watch your step, now, some of the floor is probably weak even
though it looks okay."

The two girls were already stepping into the
rubble, looking around as if they were completely lost. "We've
never seen it from the outside," Kimberly said.

He stepped across a few burnt two-by-fours and
bounced a bit on the floor to test its strength.  "We found
you over there in the little block room thing," he said. "That was
just off the kitchen." He walked over to the kitchen area and
coughed. "Uh.... your... someone... was on the floor here, coming
from that direction." He lined his body up with the room and
pointed across where the bodies were found.

The girls followed his arm and walked in the
imagined direction, stomping their little feet on the floor as if
they were doing soundings. "Our room is under here," Tamara said as
she stomped several more times.

"The door is under here," Kimberly said. She was
pointing at a fallen wall, mostly consumed but still substantial
enough that Steve wasn't sure if he could move it.

He bent down and lifted and was surprised how
light it felt. He easily moved the wall out of the way and revealed
the steps leading down to a door. "Oh, there it is."

The girls nodded and started down the steps.
They looked solid enough; in fact the entire floor of the house and
presumably everything below it seemed nearly untouched by the fire.
He followed the girls down, gingerly testing each old wooden step
as he went. "The door," Tamara said. "You have to open it for
us."

"What? Oh, okay," he said and then realized what
they were talking about. It was a massive steel door, not unlike
the door of a bank safe right down to the huge circular crank to
open it. "Gez, they
really
wanted to keep you girls locked
up, didn't they?"

"They loved us," Tamara said.

"Had a fucked up way of showing it," Steve said.
He grabbed the big wheel and turned it several times as the locking
mechanism clanged and clicked and then suddenly popped and opened
slightly. "Open." He tugged on the massive door and with some
struggle managed to get it moving toward him. Once in motion, it
seemed to open the rest of the way by itself. "Hey, it's gonna be
dark in there and the electric is off, now."

"Our room works on batteries," Kimberly
said.

"They didn't want us to be around regular
electricity," Tamara said.

Steve narrowed his eyes and looked down at the
girls who seemed to have cheered up and were looking at each other.
They were smiling. He felt a shiver run down his spine. For one
brief moment he thought he may have just made a massive mistake but
quickly shook the thought from his mind. He had made the little
girls happy and after what they had been through the last day and
probably their entire lives, they deserved a little bit of
happiness. "Why didn't they want you to have real electricity?"

They both shrugged. "They were afraid." Tamara
pointed up. "That switch turns the power on."

Steve pushed it and the room inside the door lit
up. "So the room must have batteries that were continuously
recharged by house current. That means the batteries will run down,
maybe pretty fast, so you have to hurry and get your stuff."

"Understood," Tamara said. She grabbed
Kimberly's hand and they walked into the room and then looked back
at Steve and motioned him to follow.

"Are you sure it's safe?" he said. Then he
realized he was asking two little girls if he would be safe and
laughed out loud.

The ceiling was low and he had to stoop to keep
from bumping his head but it was exactly like any girl's room. Pink
beds, stuffed animals and dolls lightened the mood. An open closet
lined one wall and was full of clothes and shoes. There were
mirrors and a dresser, books and games. It
was
a girl's room
other than the massive door and low ceiling; he had expected a
prison cell. The girls had moved directly to a basket and were
pulling things out and putting them in a garbage bag. "We need our
dirty clothes."

"Hey, just take the things you really like,"
Steve said. "I'll buy you new things you need."

"You buy stupid clothes," Tamara said.

"Sorry!" he said. "I thought you were
three."

They both looked at him and then continued to
stuff the bag. And once the basket was emptied, they moved to the
closet and began filling another bag. "We like plain dresses,"
Kimberly said. "We are dressed like dolls, now."

Steve got a crick in his back and jerked up,
banging his head on the ceiling. "Son of a bitch!" He rubbed his
hair and then punched the ceiling softly with his fist. He hit it a
little harder. "This is painted steel."

"Yes, the room is a solid steel box," Tamara
said. She spoke as if it could have been made of nothing else.

"A question," he said. "Every time it seems like
you two get upset, something happens," he said.

The two girls whirled around and looked at him.
They stared without speaking until Tamara broke the silence.
"Yes."

"I... I don't believe you are bad girls," he
said. "After what's been done to you, locked up like animals, you
have the right to be mad at the world."

Tamara smiled. "We're not responsible."

"It's him," Kimberly said. "Grampa."

"But he's dead, girls," Steve said. "I saw the
old man's burnt body myself."

"He didn't live in the house," Tamara said. "He
lives in the woods."

Steve sat down and for the first time in several
minutes was able to stretch his neck. He was eye-level with the
girls now and he could see they were noticeably shaking. He held
out his hands to them and they both walked to him and leaned on his
shoulders. "You're saying old man Perry is alive and lives in the
woods?"

"He lives in the woods," Kimberly said.

He understood immediately that Kimberly had only
affirmed part of his question. "I think you girls were told a lot
of things that maybe weren't true," he said. "But, let's go for
now, okay? The room in safe, so we can come back and get more of
your stuff tomorrow."

The girls nodded and handed Steve the bags full
of clothes. "You can carry these and we'll carry our drawing
books." They walked past him as he was getting up to his feet, and
then Kimberly stopped and went back to her bed and grabbed a
stuffed pink bunny and ran back to catch up with Tamara and they
all left the small, metal cage.

"Hold up," he said. "Let me shut the door to
keep out any animals."

The girls seemed happy as they climbed the steps
and walked across the blackened floor and back into the yard. The
sun was just setting and the sky had a pinkish glow causing the
trees to take on the same color. They all three stopped for a
moment and looked around. It was a scene that none of them had
really seen before; the girls had never been allowed out and Steve
had never been allowed up on the hill. It hit him that from the
time he was in high school till yesterday, what seemed like most of
his lifetime, the girls were locked up in that tiny room.

"Is it always like this?" Tamara said.

"No, not usually," he said. "It's extra pretty
today."

"This is summer?" Kimberly said. "It's hot."

"Yeah, it gets hotter, it was just eighty
today," Steve said.

Both girls turned and looked into the woods
behind the house. "He's out there." They seemed very scared and
both wrapped an arm around Steve's legs.

"You girls were afraid of the old man?" he said.
"Didn't he just lock you up? He never hurt you, did he?"

"Our parents locked us up to protect us," Tamara
said.

"Say what?" he said. He dropped down on his
knees and put his hands on the girls' shoulders. "Your parents
locked you up to protect you?"

"From him," Kimberly said.

"So, your parents..."

"Were good," Tamara said.

"I wondered why they seemed to give up their
lives to try to get you to safety." He took a deep breath and
smiled. "But they did good, right?"

The girls nodded. "They did the best they
could."

He stood up and pointed down the hill. "Okay,
let's get out of here for now," he said. "There's ice cream and
cake waiting for us." They started walking down the hill, raising a
trail of dust from the driveway as they struggled to take secure
steps in the loose gravel and clay. "If he's out there, he has to
come down sometime. He don't have a house to use as a base,
now."

The girls didn't look up; they simply kept
walking. "He doesn't need anything to keep going," Tamara said.

"Fire!" Kimberly said as she pointed toward the
town.

"Holy fuck!" Steve yelled. "It's the bingo
hall!" He started walking faster but kept it slow enough so the
girls could keep up. "Fire!" He cupped his hands around his mouth
and yelled as loud as he could. "Fire!" He could see a few people
running toward the fire, now, mostly the wives and children of the
men who were attending the meeting.

"Grampa did it," Tamara said as they stepped
back onto the sidewalk.

"Missy!" Steve yelled as a woman ran past. "What
have you heard?"

"Sam called!" she yelled back but kept running.
"Weren't nobody hurt! They all got out! Said it was them damned
kids started it!"

"Stop!" There was something in his voice that
was different and she seemed to sense it and stopped. "Take a look
here!" He waved his arms at the girls.

"Oh," she said. "They're with you?"

"Not out of my sight the entire day!" he said.
"Ya tell them that!"

She nodded and then took off toward the bingo
hall. "I'll tell 'em."

"You think the old man did it?" he said.

The girls nodded. "He'll destroy everything,"
Tamara said.

"But why?" Steve said. "He seems to protect you
girls, too, but you were locked up to keep him away from you. None
of this makes sense."

Kimberly shrugged. "Our parents never told us
much except he... our family... has always had some
abilities
," she said. "But something happened to him before
we were born, made him crazy. Mom said he read bad books."

Steve shook his head. "Bad as in evil? Like
occult books or something?"

"Demon worship," Tamara said. "Dad said he
wanted us to
help
him so they had to keep us away from
him."

"So, he's protecting you now..."

"Because he still wants us to join him," she
said. "But the fire last night must have made him mad at
everyone."

"Girls, this is important," he said. He didn't
look at them because he was afraid of the answer. "Everything
that's happened... the ambulance wreck, Jake's death, the bingo
fire... you had nothing to do with?"