Bloodchild (34 page)

"I'll be okay." Colleen stared at her for a moment. "Mrs. Carson," she said, "do you believe in the existence of evil creatures… things people think are imaginary or science fiction… horror creatures?"

"I believe in the existence of the devil," Lucy Carson said. "And I believe he takes many different forms in his efforts to destroy our souls."

"Why does God let it happen?"

"He doesn't. We do," Lucy said softly.

Colleen sat up and leaned toward her. "What do you mean, 'we do'?"

"If we have faith in our hearts, true faith, then it can't happen. But," she added, shaking her head, "unfortunately, even if we have deep faith, we are vulnerable to evil if we don't remain vigilant. Audra is such a trusting soul. In a way that's my fault. I built such a tolerance into her. She believes anyone or anything has some good in it."

"But if we believe and we are vigilant, we can defeat these evil creatures, we can defeat the devil?"

"Most definitely," Lucy said, and smiled. Colleen nodded and then closed her eyes. She was very tired now. Her body felt as though it weighed twice as much. "I think I'll get ready for bed," she said.

"Of course. It's nice of you to have sat here this long and talked to me. I'll go up and turn down Audra's bed for you."

"Thank you," Colleen said. Just as she started to rise, the phone on the dark walnut table beside Lucy Carson rang and they looked at each other in anticipation. "It might be my brother," she said quickly.

Lucy Carson lifted the receiver, swallowed, said hello in her tiny, frightened voice, and then smiled.

"Yes, she's here, Mr. Hamilton. One moment." She handed Colleen the receiver. "I'll go up to turn down the bed," she repeated, and left Colleen alone in the room.

"Hello," Colleen said.

"What have you done, Colleen?" Harlan asked immediately. His voice sounded tired and thin. "What has come over you? I just finished talking to the police. I thought you were going to put all this to a stop. I thought you understood—"

"I know. I'll explain everything tomorrow."

"I want you home right now. Do you understand?"

"No, Harlan. There still hasn't been any trace of or information about Audra. I'm not going to leave Mrs. Carson. She needs someone here with her. I'll be all right. I won't go anywhere or talk to anyone tonight. As a matter of fact, I'm going to sleep in a few minutes."

"You followed them? That's what you told the police?" he asked incredulously.

She hesitated. There was no point in going over the story again, especially with him in this state of mind, she thought. She sensed that it would only enrage him further, and cause more problems. He might even come over to the Carson house and make a scene in front of Lucy.

"I don't want to talk about it now, Harlan. I'll talk about it tomorrow."

"You're damn right you will. And to that psychologist at the hospital. I'll make an appointment right after my first class in the morning."

"Make it for after school," she said, thinking ahead. "I've got to go to school. I can't miss any more work."

"What? You're going to school?"

"I'll come directly home, and you and I can see anyone you want," she added to appease him. He was silent a moment. "Okay?"

"Don't you dare go anywhere else but school, Colleen. And don't you dare tell anyone else these stories."

"Okay. And, Harlan… please, don't tell Nurse Patio where I am tonight if she should ask. Do that one thing."

"You're a sick girl, Colleen. I'm sorry to say it."

"Please don't," she repeated.

"You should come home," he said after a moment.

"I'm going to sleep right now," she said quickly. "Good night, Harlan." She hung up before he could reply.

"Everything's ready for you, dear," Lucy Carson said as she returned to the living room.

"Thank you."

"I'm going to sit up a while longer. I'll only lie awake in bed, anyway."

"Maybe I should stay with you," Colleen said. "I don't have to go to sleep."

"No, no. I'm just going to be a little while longer. Go on. We'll have a good breakfast. It's comforting just to know you're in the house, and especially in Audra's room. Thank you so much for being so thoughtful."

Colleen got up, and Lucy Carson kissed her on the cheek.

"Have a good night," she said. "God bless you."

"Good night," Colleen said, and went upstairs to Audra's room.

The Carson house was much smaller than her brother's. It was a Cape Cod style structure with a Queen Anne sloping roof and small eyebrow windows in the front, even though there was no attic, just a crawl space. Audra's room was at the front of the house, a room only half the size of Colleen's, but it was a clean, warm, comfortable room with light blue wallpaper, a light maple wood trundle bed, and matching dressers with a rectangular mirror over the smaller one. There was a portable stereo tape deck set in the left corner on the aqua-blue nylon carpet. Colleen recalled that Audra mainly had only religious tapes, what some called religious rock and roll.

As soon as she walked into Audra's room, she stopped and looked around sadly. There were so many reminders of her friend, of course, but the one that hurt the most was the picture she and Audra had taken with Teddy a month ago. Audra had it in a frame over her large dresser. The three of them were standing by Teddy's car. Audra looked so small and vulnerable in the picture. It was almost as if Colleen could have predicted then that something terrible would happen to her.

There was a large cross over Audra's bed, a Bible on the small night table, and some religious magazines in a rack beside the dresser. On the post at the head of the bed Audra had draped a half dozen different-sized crosses. Some were on silver chains, some on beaded ones. Colleen sighed and embraced herself. She could feel safe in a room like this, she thought.

She went to the bathroom, washed up, and returned to the room quickly. She saw that Lucy Carson was still downstairs. She felt sorry for her, but she was exhausted. She took off her clothing and slipped under the dark-blue comforter. She felt snug and secure, even though the horrible things she had seen kept returning. She fought back the persistent images, but what seemed to keep them firmly at bay was her taking the large silver cross out of her pocketbook and placing it beside her on the pillow.

She quickly fell asleep after that and didn't open her eyes until a loud scratching sound on the window woke her. She stirred and looked toward it. At first she thought it was a large bat, its wingspan the width of the glass pane, but then it changed before her eyes and she thought she saw Audra peering in at her.

She sat up and rubbed her eyes to rid herself of the illusion, but the face was still in the window. She heard Audra calling to her, begging her to open the window and let her in. Was she in a dream, or had she indeed awakened? she wondered. She couldn't think very well. She felt drawn to the window, drawn to open it.

Colleen turned and placed her feet on the floor and started to get out of the bed. The face changed back into the large bat's and then to Audra's. The mouth moved slowly, the words coming forth in a distorted, low tone but it was distinctly Audra's voice.

"Colleen… Colleen… let me in. Colleen… Colleen."

She stood up.

"Audra?"

"Colleen… let me in. I want to be home. I want to be with you. Please… open the window."

She started for the window but stopped. Something stronger drew her around. She looked down at the pillow and quickly reached for the cross. With it in her hand she turned back to the window; only now the face was gone, and so was the sound of Audra's voice.

Cross in hand, she went to the window and peered out at the night. The breeze nudged the branches of the trees. Their dry, orange-and-yellow leaves fell like tears into the shadows. Some floated farther and landed in the pools of white light created by the streetlights. She listened but heard nothing more.

Still feeling as though she were in a dream, she glided back to the bed and crawled under the comforter. She placed the cross beside her, and once more sleep came in gentle, welcome strokes. When the morning light woke her, she could barely remember getting up to approach the window during the night. What she did remember seemed too much like a dream to be taken seriously, anyway.

She didn't focus on it. She went to the bathroom and dressed quickly to have breakfast with Lucy Carson and meet Teddy at the gas station. Before she left Audra's room, she thought about the things Lucy had told her about battling the devil in all his forms.

Convinced now about the power of the cross, she put it back into her pocketbook and added a handful of the crosses Audra had draped over the bedpost. Then she hurried downstairs to begin what was going to be the most dangerous and important day of her life.

"Audra's been gone too long now," Mrs. Carson said the next morning after thanking Colleen for staying the night and keeping her company. "I'm prepared for the worst."

"Oh, we mustn't give up hope," Colleen had replied weakly. "Something happened, but maybe she's still all right."

Mrs. Carson had smiled, as if she were the one who had to humor Colleen.

"I'm praying for her soul," she'd said simply, then had closed the door softly. For a moment Colleen had been unable to walk away, so bathed in sorrow and pain was she. Her chest had ached so. She had wanted to go back into the house and embrace the woman, but she had to go on. It was time. Maybe somehow, some way, she would do something that would change the dismal prophecy both she and Lucy Carson had in their hearts.

As she drove to the gas station on Church Road to meet Teddy, she gradually replaced sorrow and pity with anger. If Lucy Carson was right, then the forces of good could win over the forces of evil. She had to have faith in goodness, of course, but she had to have faith in herself as well. All that had happened to make her doubt herself would be pushed aside. She had to prevail, and she was determined now to do so. In a strange way she had been hardened, scarred by the terror. She felt anointed, prepared for battle.

"Get in," Colleen said quickly when she arrived at the gas station to meet Teddy. He had been standing by his car, waiting. He looked hesitant, confused.

"Just leave your car where it is," Teddy said, "and we'll go in mine. I'd better do the driving this time," he added. She nodded. Teddy was impressed with her look of determination. Her eyes were clear, her gaze intent.

"I asked Steve Carnesi about that farmhouse," Teddy said as he walked with her to his car.

"And?"

"The family that had owned it lost it in a tax auction about six months ago. Someone else bought it."

"Who?" she asked.

"Well, he's never seen them but their name is Niccolo."

"Niccolo!" She stopped walking. "You said Niccolo?"

"Uh-huh."

"Don't you know who that is?" she asked, her face becoming animated. He looked puzzled. "No, you couldn't. I never told you. That's the name of the family from whom Harlan and Dana adopted the baby."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. In fact, I remember asking Harlan if that was why Dana wanted to name the baby Nikos… sounds like Niccolo."

He stared at her a moment.

"Maybe we ought to call Lieutenant Reis again."

"For what? Do you seriously think he would come down here this morning? Come on," she said, and got into his car. He hesitated.

The previous night, after he had followed her to the Carson house and seen her go in safely, Teddy had done more thinking about all this. Despite his strong feelings for Colleen, he had to agree with the detective and Harlan. Her stories and supposed sightings were getting more and more incredible. Of course, he had no background and no experience with mentally disturbed people, but she was looking more and more like one. Why this suddenly should have happened to a bright, outgoing girl like Colleen, he couldn't say; but it had. Mental illness was a mystery to him, anyway; he didn't expect any less of its causes.

Was she telling the truth now? Had the baby's family been named Niccolo, or had her bizarre mind turned everything into this wild conspiracy filled with creatures and decomposing bodies? Maybe he was doing something terribly wrong by taking her up there that morning. Maybe it would lead to even more trouble, and this time he'd be blamed for it, he thought.

"I don't know," he said. He opened his car door and got in. She looked over at him curiously.

"Don't know about what?"

"About whether or not we're doing the right thing going up there by ourselves. I mean… it
is
trespassing, and if we go into the house, that's like breaking and entering, isn't it? What if this family comes up while we're there? What are you going to tell them, that you saw vampires in there last night and returned to check it out?"

She looked at him a moment, opened the car door without speaking, and got out.

"Colleen!"

She didn't turn back. She went directly to her car and got in. He started toward her, but she turned on her ignition and shifted into gear quickly. He practically had to jump out of the way as she pulled out of the gas station and onto Church Road.

"Colleen! Wait!" he screamed, running after her, but she didn't slow down. Moments later she was turning up the driveway to the farmhouse. She drove very slowly and very carefully, watching the sides of the gravel road and looking keenly for any signs of Jillian's turquoise robe. In moments the old farmhouse loomed ahead.

That morning, in the bright sunshine, it appeared far more dilapidated than it had during the night. She could understand why the detective thought it ridiculous that anyone lived there. The porch railings dangled, the gray siding had rotted and fallen off in places, the upstairs windows were broken, and the lawn was so overgrown that it covered the small sidewalk that led up to the porch steps.

In the daylight the farm machinery didn't look ominous, just old, discarded, rusted, and broken… pieces of equipment simply falling into disuse. Could the house itself be something supernatural? she wondered. Could it actually undergo a metamorphosis at night, come alive just like the undead? Why not? Perhaps they had imbued it with some of their power, some of their evil spirit.