Nobody Can Say It's You

16

"I was still so mad at myself for droppin' them car keys. I swear I remember thinkin' that it was just like somethin' you see in a horror movie, you know, right before the girl gets trounced by the monster.

There you are, sitting there watching the movie, eating popcorn, and yelling to the screen, 'Don't go in there, Stupid! Run! Go back! Don't open the door!' And what does that foolish girl do? Just the opposite of ever'thing you've sat right there in that gummed up seat and told her not to! She goes and opens the door and runs right into the ax-wielding maniac who's standing on her front porch!

Anyway, I fumbled with the key and unlocked the door. The paint around the keyhole looks like somebody attacked it with a nail. Maybe Brinkley can polish out some the scratches for me down at the station. I sure hope so. I made a mess of that door, Hadley.

I think it took me a half-dozen tries to get the thing in the ignition once I got into the car. I was still shaking like I had Saint Vidas Dance. I eased out of Sadie's parking lot. That thing is nothing but Pot Hole Alley! The one or two pieces of gravel she put down has long ago sunk in the mud and disappeared.

At least it hadn't been raining. I would have been axle-deep in mud if it had. Anyway, I was drivin' real slow. It was dark as pitch. It was either cloudy as all get out or a new moon. I dunno. The night just seemed to close in on me. I was afraid I'd have a panic attack. It just felt so dark and claustrophobic in the front seat of that car.

I swear I had my high beams on, but they didn't seem much brighter than a candle's flame. It was like a fog of black just ate up the light and made it hard to see. Felt like I was driving through crude oil.

I was making the turnoff onto the hard-surface road out of the parking lot when I saw it. I don't know what it was. It was tall, like Button, dressed in black. It had a black hood just like the one Button wore. It was shiny. Real shiny. That's what I noticed first. All black and shiny.

I was blinded for a second by the glare the outfit threw from my high beams. It had a white face. I saw that much. Well, the neck at least. I didn't see the features. It had a black cloth over its face with eye holes cut out. It stood by the road and spread its arms.

I was so scared! I screamed bloody murder. Right in the car. I don't know how I kept from wettin' my britches, but I did. 

I floored the gas pedal and squalled rubber and beat the bushes for the hard-surface road. I was speeding all the way down the mountain. I'm lucky I didn't wrap that car around a tree. But I made it home. I was never so happy to see my driveway in all my life! I ain't never been so frightened in all my life neither!"

"You were still shaken from seeing Dara Elanor," said Hadley, "in the parking lot at Sadie's."

"You still don't believe me," said Lou Edna. "Well, how do you explain this? Is this a figment of my imagination, too?"

Lou Edna handed Hadley a piece of folded butcher paper. Hadley opened it up. Inside was a chicken bone with a red string tied to one end.

"It was tied to a light fixture near my door. Blood-red powder was all over my steps, too," said Lou Edna.

"Lou," Hadley said, "it looks like you made somebody around here awfully mad."