Fiends

    ‘What’s your name?’ Willy repeated. And then he remembered a game he used to play when he was a kid. He put down the flashlight. He went to the bed and knelt on it, facing the girl. She smelled like sweat and sex. ‘Now,’ he said, ‘what’s your name?’

    ‘Tina,’ she said.

    ‘You lie!’ he blurted, and smacked her hard in the face with his open hand. The blow turned her head sideways. ‘What’s your name?’ he asked again.

    She looked at him. She pressed her lips tightly together. They were cracked and bleeding. She said, ‘My name’s Tina.’

    ‘You lie!’ he yelled, and smacked the other side of her face. ‘What’s your name?’

    She glared at him. She said nothing.

    ‘YOU LIE!’ He swung. His hand clapped her cheek so hard his fingers tingled and blood flew off her lips.

39

    ‘I’ll be just outside the door if you need me,’ Jack said from the bedroom doorway.

    ‘I need you,’ Marty said.

    He grinned. ‘Maybe some other time. Goodnight.’ He shut the door as he left.

    Marty turned off the bedroom light and stood in the darkness. She thought about going out to Jack. But she didn’t want to seem pushy.

    Some other time.

    She took off her clothes and climbed beneath the sheet, wishing he was there beside her, holding her close and warm. His strong arms around her. Caressing her. Not doing anything funny, just being gentle and safe…

    She woke up with a start.

    Her heart was slamming. Her bangs were plastered to her forehead with sweat and the bed was soaked beneath her. She lay there motionless, wondering what had shocked her awake.

    The room was pale with a creamy glow of moonlight. The door was still shut. Between the door and the dresser fell a shadow. The shadow was too small to conceal a person. But the open closet made a large darkness.

    He’s in there.

    Ago, he’s not. Don’t be ridiculous.

    He is!

    The sweat seemed to freeze on Marty’s skin. She pulled her top sheet up tightly under her chin.

    The only sound she could hear was her own loud, thudding heart.

    She glanced at the nightstand. There was no lamp on it.

    Scissors.

    After bandaging her back that morning, Jack had put them in a drawer of the nightstand. She’d used them, herself, just before supper.

    Now, where’d I put them?

    On the dresser.

    But the dresser stood beside the open closet.

    I’ll never make it. He’ll jump me before…

    Nobody’s in the closet!

    Willy is.

    Marty inched her leg toward the side of the mattress. After a long time, her right heel dropped over the edge. She kept moving her leg sideways, slowly, slowly, until it was off the mattress all the way to her rump. Her foot on the floor, she started sliding her left leg over.

    Eyes on the dark, open closet.

    He’s watching. If he starts coming, run for it.

    At last, both her feet were on the floor.

    She raised her back so gradually that the bedsprings hardly made a sound. They were nearly silent, too, when she leaned forward and eased her weight off the bed. She stood up straight, staring at the black closet.

    Nothing seemed to move in there.

    With six slow, careful steps, she reached the dresser. Her hand patted the top of it.

    And found the scissors.

    Picked them up. Clenched them tight.

    With the tightness of a scream growing in her chest, she sidestepped to the closet. Raising the scissors high, she lurched into the darkness. She drove them down, hard and silent.

    Pain seared her thigh.

    She tried to stifle her yelp of hurt surprise.

    Waving her other hand in the air, she caught the dangling string and pulled. The closet light came on.

    Nobody there.

    Nobody except Marty.

    Marty, naked and sweaty and shaking. Marty, scissors in her hand. Marty with a ragged red gash ripped across the inner side of her right thigh.

    She had a sudden urge to sit down on the closet floor and cry. Sit there and cry till dawn.

    Instead, she bandaged her leg.

    Then she got dressed, putting on the stiff, filthy shorts and jersey that Willy had stolen from the girl by the lake.

    Then she took the shotgun out of the closet.

    Sneaking through the dark house, she found Jack asleep on the living room sofa. She set down the shotgun. She found his trousers draped over a nearby chair.

    His keys were in the right front pocket. His wallet was in the left rear pocket.

    She took out a five-dollar bill and slipped the wallet back into his pocket. She kept the keys.

    She was tempted to kiss him before leaving.

    But she didn’t dare.

    He might wake up and not let her go.

40

    Thrusting and shuddering, Willy erupted inside Tina. Then he relaxed on top of her.

    Somewhere along the line, she had fainted.

    Just as well. Willy hadn’t liked the way she’d just taken it, never saying a word even when the pain made her twitch and weep.

    He pulled out and sat back.

    A breeze was blowing through the open door and window, giving him goosebumps. He got up and shut them both. The handcuffs lay open on the table. He picked them up. Then he turned off the lantern and made his way through the darkness. He found the mattress, got to his knees, reached out and touched Tina. Her skin was hot. From its sticky ridges, he knew he was touching her back. He slid his hand down her rump and down the back of her leg to her ankle.

    He cuffed her left ankle. After sitting beside her, he attached the other cuff to his own left ankle. The bracelet was almost too small, but he managed to get it on.

    Then he unfolded a blanket and lay back, covering himself. He stared at the dark ceiling.