The Altar

It didn’t take long to positively identify the sneaker as belonging to Melissa. The searchers then converged on the spot, which was roped off with yellow tape. Erik joined the sheriff and one of the State Police investigators and they followed the girl’s trail through the woods until it abruptly ended on Route 102.

The State Trooper spent a long time looking around near the side of the road, and made Erik stand back and away so as not to disturb anything.

“I think we may have a crime scene here,” he said. “I’m calling in the detectives. It looks like the girl was put into a car.”

“Could someone have stopped and picked her up?” the sheriff asked.

“Well, I’m not a crime scene expert,” the trooper said. “But it looks to me like there was a struggle here. I’d say the girl was abducted. In fact, I think she was taken in the woods and brought back here.”

Erik shook his head. “Is there anything we can do?”

“We’ll put out a state-wide alert,” the Trooper said. “We’ll put her picture on the news and hope someone’s seen her. And we’ll follow the evidence and see what we can find.”

Erik didn’t like the sound of the man’s voice. It didn’t hold much hope.

“Come on,” the Sheriff said. “I’ll give you a lift home. There’s not much else we can do tonight. We’ll let the experts take over.”

Erik nodded and got into the sheriff’s car. It was almost midnight by now, and he was glad they were only a half mile from home.

“What was your boy talking about? The sheriff said. “A rock? Where’d he get that from?”

Erik sighed deeply. “He was lost in the woods a couple of night ago. I don’t know what it is about woods that attract kids,” he said.

“Happens all the time,” the sheriff said.

“Yeah. Anyway, he was lost for about an hour. Johnny Dovecrest found him and brought him back.”

“Now that one’s a weird bird,” the sheriff said.

“He does appear a little strange. But he found Todd in the woods. Todd wouldn’t say anything at first, but later he told me there was a big black rock in the woods, and that the rock tried to get him. He claims he got away by hitting the thing with his geologist’s hammer.”

The sheriff was silent for a moment.

What do you think happened?”

“I really don’t know. Todd’s not the kind of kid to make up things like that. He’s a pretty practical kid, usually. But it just sounded so farfetched. I mean, a rock trying to get him. I thought it was all in his imagination. Then I heard about that gravestone in the historical cemetery. I wonder if there’s a connection. I don’t think he could have wandered that far, but….”

His voice trailed off into silence. The sheriff pulled into Erik’s driveway and parked the car.

“There have been some weird goings-on since they dug up that cemetery,” the sheriff said.

“Like what?”

“Well, nothing I can really put my finger on. Just weird stuff. Like people reporting voices from the woods. Pets disappearing. And just…well…I don’t know how to say this….”

“Just try.”

“Well, it’s a creepy feeling. Like I said, I can’t put my finger on it. Just a creepy feeling. And now your boy going off into the woods and getting lost. And this teenager disappearing. I don’t know. It just feels wrong.”

“Yeah,” Erik said. “I think I’ve felt it too. I thought it was because I just moved into the place and it wasn’t familiar. But now I’m not so sure.”

He stopped and waited a moment before he opened the car door.

“Sheriff, have you heard any reports of a Satanic cult in the area?”

“Hmmm. There’s been rumors for as long as I can remember about things going on in the woods. Mostly the Indians get blamed. But it’s just urban legends. There hasn’t been a kidnapping or a murder in this town for fifty years, at least. I think every small town has rumors. I don’t pay any attention to them.”

“I heard there was a Satanic cult traveling east and they were in Rhode Island.”

“I’ll check into it. But my guess is that the devil hasn’t got anything to do with this girl’s disappearance. I suspect we might just have your run-of-the-mill pervert. Or it might even turn out to be a relative. I think the father ran off and left. Maybe he’s come back.”

Erik nodded. “You’re probably right.”

“Still, though, I’ll check with the State Police on your cult. If there is one around, I want to know about it.”

“Thanks,” Erik said, and climbed out of the car.

6

Johnny Dovecrest hadn’t answered the door when the police knocked. He’d pretended not to be home, and since the place was completely dark anyway, they had believed it, too.

Dovecrest didn’t need the police to tell him what was going on. Another child had disappeared, this time a sixteen-year-old girl. He’d heard it on a news bulletin, and even if he hadn’t, he would have known. He had felt the girl’s fear this time. It had been strong and close. He wondered if he could have helped her. He felt guilty for not trying, but he was convinced there was nothing he could have done. The entity had a human helper now, someone who was strong and swift, and guided by a power beyond anything that could be imagined on earth.

Dovecrest knew that his power was limited. Very limited. The entity might play with him and let him live, at least for now. He could almost hear the thing taunting him in his brain, daring him to come out and try to stop things.

No, Dovecrest knew that he couldn’t stop the nightmare by himself. But he didn’t know where to turn to for help. His own people were useless. And the white man would just think he was crazy-and why wouldn’t he? The story was certainly beyond anything in modern culture-the kind of things that bad movies were made about.

The boy was the only one who would believe him. The boy knew, and Dovecrest sensed it. But what good would one little boy be against this? Unless the boy could make others believe. Maybe his father. Maybe the preacher. Maybe even the sheriff.

Dovecrest was torn. Part of him felt that he should rush out into the woods right now and confront this thing before it became more powerful-and its power was increasing each and every day. And part of him felt that he needed to wait, recruit others and develop a plan.

He feared that by the time he could do that, though, it would be too late.

Whatever he decided, he needed to do something and do it fast. He felt his window of opportunity leaving him. It was already too late to help the girl, he realized. She was gone, taken away to some place where she would be dealt with later, at a time and place of the being’s own choosing. He knew the place. The time was less certain.

Tomorrow would be the day when he would begin his recruitment efforts. He would go and see the boy and his father, and try to make the man understand the truth of what the boy had seen in the woods. He would make him understand what was happening-what had happened and how history was poised to repeat itself in a new and improved version. The man-Erik Hunter-had seemed intelligent. He could make him understand. He could make him believe.

Then he would at least have an ally. Together they could perhaps recruit others and make a plan.

Otherwise, Dovecrest feared that this sleepy little town would never be the same again.

CHAPTER TEN