lips.
Vivian stared into the bowl. Her face looked unnaturally pale and slack. ‘I don’t know if I can,’ she muttered.
‘It’s not so bad,’ Abilene said.
‘Zee blood is zee life,’ Finley said.
‘Just don’t think about it,’ Cora advised her. ‘A couple of sips and you’ll be done.’
‘It’ll put hair on your chest,’ Finley added.
‘Just what I need.’ Vivian managed a sickly smile. Then she took a deep breath, sighed, raised the bowl to her mouth and drank. She swallowed twice. Lowering the bowl, she gasped as if she’d finally come up for air after nearly drowning. Blood dribbled down her chin. Before she could wipe it away, a drop fell onto the front of her white, knit shirt.
Batty stepped up between Vivian and Abilene, lifted the bowl and drank. Gulp after gulp. Swallowing. Seeming to relish the taste. Then, lips tight, cheeks bulging, the old lunatic removed the bat-skull necklace. Held it high by its leather thong.
Head tipped back, Batty opened wide and lowered the dangling skull. It went in white. It came out red. Batty’s lips wrapped around the base of the skull. Sucked off some of the excess blood before swallowing the mouthful and easing the necklace away.
Like a pendulum, it swung across the leather map. Back and forth. Slowing down. Beginning to drift in lazy circles.
A drop of blood gathered on the hanging jaw. Bloomed. Fell. And splashed the map midway between Cora and the edge of the lake.
‘Ah!’
The single red bead was all that fell before Batty slipped the necklace back on. The skull made a smudge on the skin of the old lunatic’s chest.
Batty aimed a finger at the spot of blood on the map.
‘That’s where you think Helen is?’ Cora asked.
‘Ghost Lodge.’
‘The Totem Pole Lodge?’
‘Call it whatcha want.’
Stunned, Abilene stared at the dot of blood. Its position, in relationship to the outline of the lake and the hole marking Batty’s cabin, actually did seem to be in the vicinity of the Totem Pole Lodge.
Finley murmured, ‘Holy shit.’
Vivian gazed at the spot. Her head shook slowly from side to side.
Looking up at Batty, astonishment in her eyes, Cora said, ‘That’s where we were. That’s where she disappeared.’
‘She’s there.’
‘Is she all right?’ Abilene asked.
‘Can’t say.’
‘Do you know?’
Not answering, Batty picked up the bowl and set it on the hardwood floor beside the table. A creak sounded in a far corner of the room. Abilene turned her eyes to the rocking chair. The cat was gone.
Vivian groaned. She was looking down. Abilene followed» her gaze and found Amos hunched over the bowl. Tail twitching, the cat lapped away at the remaining slick of blood.
‘Y’ain’t from these parts,’ Batty said. ‘Don’t know better. Get y’Helen ’n get back where y’come from. ’N praise the Lord it’s old Batty y’run into. Some folks nearby, they’duz soon kill y’dead as spit on y’feet. Now scat.’
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?’
