Blood Games

    ‘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.’