Back From The Dead

off as soon as possible.”

Gordon traded a glance with Scott. “We could do it now.”

“One more blow to the head should do it,” Rebecca said.

Scott exchanged a look with Gordon, then all three boys looked at her. The grim realization of what had to be done seemed to be evident in their faces. “Okay,” Scott said. He moved forward to escort Rebecca toward the door. “Thanks. And listen,” he said as he ushered her outside. “I’m sorry for blowing up at you like that.”

They were standing outside the guest house now. Rebecca lowered her guard slightly. “Okay, but don’t wig out on me like that again.”

“I won’t. Scout’s honor.” Scott began to walk Rebecca down the stone path that carved its way through his immense back yard to the back deck of the house. “And listen, I appreciate you coming out here so quick. We just…I guess we never thought it would…”

“End so quickly?” She stopped and looked at him. There was something in her face that was so damned sexy to Scott. He kissed her once then hung back, waiting for a reaction. Her mouth turned up in a slight smile. “Bastard.”

Scott grinned.

Rebecca’s features became serious again. “Seriously, Scott. You still going to do what you talked about? You’re gonna bury him in the woods, right?”

“We’ve got that all figured out, just like we talked about it.” He’d told Rebecca about burying the bum in Zuck’s Woods. He didn’t tell her about their plans to try resurrecting him via black magic and bringing him back to the guesthouse so they could beat on him some more. She’d really think they were seriously deranged.

“Yeah?”

“Oh yeah.” Scott put his arm around Rebecca’s shoulders and led her to the back deck. “Trust me, we got it all figured out.”

“Okay, just remember,” she said as they mounted the steps of the porch. “I have no knowledge of what you guys are doing here.”

“Of course not. You and I were in my car cruising around in York County the night that bum disappeared.”

“Exactly.”

“And Gord and Steve were at the Reading outlets.”

“Damn right they were.”

They looked at each other again and then Rebecca turned to look at the guest house. She looked grim. “Seriously though, Scott…if that guy wasn’t such a…you know — ”

“A worthless no nothing homeless nigger?”

Rebecca gasped, then looked at him in irritation. Scott grinned.

“I can’t believe you said that!” Rebecca said.

“Okay, I’m sorry.” Scott put his arm around her and ushered her gently across the deck and into the kitchen. He closed the sliding glass doors behind them.

* * *

When Scott stepped outside fifteen minutes later, Steve, David, and Gordon were on the deck sitting in the lawn chairs. They looked over at Scott as he came outside.

“Well?” Gordon asked.

“Rebecca’s still cool,” Scott said. He sat down at the bar his parents had erected on the deck. “She thinks he might live another day at the most, probably not much longer than that. He’ll most likely die tonight, though.”

“So we’re still going to do it?” Gordon asked.

“Yeah,” Scott said. “I must be crazy for going along with this, but…” He shook his head. “What can it hurt?”

Last night and today at lunch, they’d talked about the burial site. Steve was convinced Gordon’s spell hadn’t worked on the rabbit because animals had no souls. Gordon asked him to explain that and Scott did the honors. “God made man in His image and breathed life into him, giving him a soul,” he’d explained. “The Bible doesn’t say anything about God giving animals souls. That’s why it didn’t work.”

It made sense. By the end of lunch they’d convinced Gordon that it was at least worth a try to bury the bum at the spot. Steve asked how long they would have to wait. Gordon answered, relying on his dim memory of his scant read of that passage in the book Count Gaines had given him. “It should happen overnight,” he said. “If we bury him at nightfall he should come back the following morning.”

“So we’ll have to camp out there at night,” Steve suggested.

“Or get there real early in the morning,” Scott ventured.

Now Gordon got to his feet. A nervous twinge of dread coursed through him. Might as well get this over with. “I say we do it. We can have him in the ground and be back here by midnight.”

The boys eyed each other warily. Scott nodded. He turned to Gordon. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s do it.”

The boys stood up and then slowly headed to the guest house. Before they stepped inside, however, each boy headed to the utility shed that sat catty-corner from the guest house. Scott unlocked the padlock with a key on his key ring. The boys reached inside and each of them grabbed a different gardening tool — shovel, spade, hoe, pick. Then, as if they had a singular purpose, they headed toward the guest house and stepped inside.

Chapter Ten

Burying the bum was no problem.

They waited until nightfall to do it. With the homeless man’s very battered body wrapped in plastic garbage bags and stowed in the back of David’s SUV, they drove to the spot well after ten-thirty P.M. Once they were fifty feet down the trail, David popped the headlights back on again; he’d turned them off shortly before he made the turn to head down the rutted dirt road. They were deep enough in the woods now that they wouldn’t be seen. Besides, the other night it had been so dark you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face when you were this far in the woods.

All four of them were silent as David piloted the vehicle through the narrow, twisting road until they reached the small clearing where they’d parked the other evening. Then, like they’d rehearsed this scene a million times, they got out of the vehicle and stepped into motion.

They hauled the plastic-wrapped corpse out of the rear of the SUV and, with David leading the way with a small flashlight, and Steve carrying a pair of shovels, the four threaded their way through brambles and weeds and trees to the clearing. To the sacred spot.

“Here we are,” Gordon said as they stopped in the clearing. Steve handed Gordon a shovel and the boys got to work. Within ten minutes they had a two foot hole dug in the ground, about six feet long and three across. Plenty of room to lay the body in, but not too deep. The guy still had to claw his way out, right?

When they were finished they rolled him into the grave, shoveled the dirt back over him, stomped it down. Then they gathered around and Gordon pulled out the book. Using the illumination of the flashlight provided by Steve, he concluded the ritual by making a hand motion in the air — the sign of the pentagram and the inverted cross. “Abbadon, Damballah, Pazuzu, Azathoth, Hanbi! I beseech thee! Bring what lies dead in this hallowed ground alive!”

Gordon rushed through the ritual, not really caring that he was fumbling it, just wanting to get the hell out of there. It was a still night, and a slight breeze rustled the leaves of the trees. When he was finished, Gordon turned to the group. “It’s done. Let’s go.”

He led them through the darkness to the SUV. When they piled in, Gordon tried not to let his nervousness show. Scott could tell, however. “Fuckin’ pussy,” Scott said, playfully punching his shoulder.

“Let’s just get out of here,” Gordon said. They don’t feel it, he thought. They honestly don’t feel it!

What Gordon felt was that same sense of eerie…presence was the only word he could think of. He’d felt a presence in that clearing, as if something had come alive. It was something unseen and