Tread Softly

she was bound with rope — wrists tied behind her back, legs bent at the knees, ankles lashed tight. She attempted to straighten her legs, but her wrists were tugged down as her feet moved.

'Merle?' she asked.

She heard only her own breathing and heartbeat, and the moan of the wind outside.

'Merle, are you here?'

A stupid question, she thought. Of course he's not here. He's gone after the women.

Chapter Nineteen

Flash blew steam away, and took a sip of his coffee.

Across the fire, Benny leaned forward with a demented look on his face as he continued his poem:

'And I cried, 'It was surely October/on this very night of last year/That I journeyed — I journeyed down here/That I brought a dread burden down here/On this night of all nights in the year,/Ah, what demon has tempted me here?' ' His glasses reflected the firelight, hiding his eyes behind leaping flames. ' 'Well I know, now, this dim lake of Auber — /This misty mid region of Weir — /Well I know, now, this dank tarn of Auber/This ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.' ' He leaned back, took a deep breath, and smiled.

Heather, who'd been gazing spellbound, started to clap. The others joined in. 'Terrific,' Karen said. Flash clamped his hot mug between his knees, and applauded.

'Did you learn that for school?' Karen asked.

'No, just for myself.'

She shook her head as if amazed, and Benny swelled up with pride.

'Sure was a creepy poem,' Nick said.

Julie turned to Nick, hunched her shoulders, and contorted her face. In a low, moany voice, she said, ' 'The ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.' '

Nick made himself look frightened. 'Yeeeeahh!' he cried, and covered his face.

'Why is it,' Alice said, 'that we insist on trying to frighten ourselves? Why doesn't somebody say a nice poem?'

Flash grinned. 'Nymphomaniacal Jill used dynamite to get her thrill — '

'Don't you dare!'

'Gross,' Rose said.

Flash peered at his daughter, surprised.

'Why don't I start a story,' Alice suggested, 'and we'll go around the campfire and everybody add onto it?'

'Bleah,' Rose said.

Nick nodded. 'That's a drag, Mom.'

'Why don't we give it a try?' Karen said. 'Might be fun.'

Scott nodded. 'Sure. Go ahead, Alice.'

Alice looked grateful for their approval. 'All right,' she said. 'Once upon a time, there was a fair maiden who lived in the woods, all alone except for…' Pausing, she turned her head toward Rose.

'Mick Jagger,' Rose said.

She got plenty of laughs except from Alice. 'Be serious.'

Rose sighed. 'Okay. Except for her mean mother.'

Alice rolled her eyes up, and Flash took a drink of coffee to hide his grin.

'One day, the maiden got so tired of her mother always spoiling her fun that she ran off into the woods and met…' She turned to Heather.

Heather looked across the fire at Benny as if asking for help. With a shrug, she said, 'And met a. gee, I don't know.'

'The gee-I-don't-know,' Nick continued, 'was an ugly, hairy thing with one eye where its nose should've been…'

'And two noses,' Julie added, 'where its eyes should've been. The noses were upside down, so it wore a big cowboy hat to keep itself from drowning during rainstorms. Whenever it sneezed, it blew its hat off.' She turned to Benny, who stared at her as if she were crazy.

'When the maiden found the gee-whatever-it-is,' he said, 'it was crawling around looking for its contact lens. She helped it, and finally they found the lens.' Shrugging, he looked at Karen.

'With the contact lens back in its eye, the gee-I-don't-know stared at the maiden. She was the most beautiful creature it had ever seen. 'Gee, you're purty,' it said.' She grinned at Scott.

'The maiden blushed,' he went on. ' 'You're not too shabby yourself,' she said. 'And with those two noses, I bet you smell a lot better than me.' ' He raised his eyebrows at Flash.

'So the gee-I-don't-know picked up the fair maiden and carried her deep into the woods. They came to his hut, and went at it hot and heavy.'

'Dad,' Rose muttered.

'Before you know it,' he continued, 'the little hut was crowded with little gee-I-don't-knows, so they packed up and moved to a condo in Palm Springs and lived happily ever after.'

'What a dumb story,' Rose muttered.

'I thought it was kind of cute,' Karen said.

'Why don't you tell a story?' Benny asked her. 'Do you know another scary one like 'Doreen and Audrey'?'

'Afraid not. That was my entire repertoire.'

'How about you, Dad?' Julie asked.

'My last one didn't go over too well.'

Julie wrinkled her nose. 'Yeah, that's right. Forget I asked.'

'I've got one,' Flash said.

Alice raised an eyebrow. 'Is it clean?'

'Sure.'

'Go on,' Nick said. 'Let's hear it.'

Flash finished his coffee, and set the aluminum cup on the ground between his boots. 'Maybe I'd better not,' he said. 'Your mother has this thing about creepy stories.'

'Don't make me the villain,' she protested. 'If you think the story's appropriate, go ahead and tell it.'

He grinned. 'Well, if you insist.' Reaching inside his jacket, he took a cigar from his shirt pocket. He tore off the cellophane wrapper, crinkled it into a ball, and tossed it into the fire. 'This happened to me a long time ago, back when I was in high school.'

'The Dark Ages,' Nick said.

'Right.' Clamping the cigar in his teeth, he lifted a twig from the fire. With one hand shielding the small flame from the wind, he lit up. 'My dad, my brother, Cliff, and I were on a fishing trip up around Land O'Lakes, Wisconsin. We'd heard about a string of ax murders in the area. Seems some lunatic was running around giving the whack to folks he found in the woods. They called him the Chopper. Maybe a frustrated tree surgeon.' Flash grinned at his joke, and stared at the glowing tip of his cigar. 'There were four or five bodies they found in the woods. All of 'em were dismembered. Some had arms cut off. Some were missing a leg. Two of 'em were beheaded.'

'Arnold,' Alice said in a warning voice.

'You said I could tell it.'

'I imagined you'd use some discretion.'

'Want me to stop?'

'Keep going,' Nick said. 'It's neat.'

Alice sighed. 'Just tone it down, all right? There are children present.'

'Tone it down, okay. Now, where was I?' He sucked in some smoke, let it drift out of his nostrils. The wind whipped it away. 'Oh, yeah. So the Chopper was on the loose, and they'd found some of his handiwork in the