Cades Cove 01 - Cades Cove: A Novel of Terror (42 page)

John showered and got ready for work while David whipped up some eggs and bacon for breakfast. Afterward, John called Evelyn to let her know what happened. Alarmed about his injuries, it took him another ten minutes to assure her he didn’t need to see a doctor. She insisted on speaking with David anyway, and made him promise to forcibly take her grandfather to the emergency clinic in Gatlinburg if the wounds worsened. She then advised him to be ready to begin the ceremony around four o’clock, and that it consisted of two parts, the latter of which would be completed later tonight.

Within the hour John left to go to the visitors’ center. Per his instructions, David placed Shawn on his leash behind the cabin. John had bandaged the husky’s wounded paw to where it stabilized, and since very little swelling he decided to wait and see if the injury improved before taking him to a vet.

By 9 a.m., David returned to the Econo-Lodge in Gatlin-burg. Rather than risk facing Allie Mae alone in the cabin, he promised John to meet him at the visitors’ center for lunch, and they’d return to the cabin together. A pleasant surprise came when he found everything untouched in his room, including his newly purchased wardrobe.

Making the most of the reprieve, he quickly trimmed his beard, brushed his teeth, and jumped in the shower. He repeatedly peeked over the shower curtain, expecting Allie Mae to suddenly be there. But she left him alone. He smiled as he exited the hotel with his packed suitcase in hand, grateful for his most mundane experience since returning to Gatlinburg. He hoped it was a positive omen.

David visited a fashionable clothing store on Gatlinburg’s strip where he purchased several turtleneck sweaters to hide the bandaged injuries on his neck. Once back in the car, he changed into a beige sweater. With all of his personal business finished, he headed back to Cades Cove.

“
You’re looking dapper,” John observed, once David caught up with him in the gift shop. “Are you up for a bite to eat?”

David glanced at his watch. 11:28 a.m.

“
Sure.”

“
Evelyn’s planning to cook a pot of chili for tonight, which should be ready around five,” said John. “There’s an excellent deli in town.”

David drove them out of the park and onto Gatlinburg’s strip, to Pete’s Sub Shop located in the older section near the Uber Gatlinburg tram. The excellent club sandwiches and a couple of Heinekens reminded David of the lunches he often enjoyed in downtown Denver with Norm. Non-intrusive subjects such as the Vols’ football fortunes and the steady flow of tourists that would soon taper off near Halloween and then start up again around Christmas dominated their conversation.

They returned to the park around one o’clock, where John picked up his cruiser and David followed him to the cabin. The place seemed peaceful under the mid-afternoon sun, with virtually no sign of the assault endured from the spirit’s nocturnal visit. John walked to the back to check on Shawn, his limp already less noticeable, same for the dog. Shawn’s tail wagged fiercely as he jumped up on John’s uniform with dirty paws.

The cabin sat atop a hillside, which David hadn’t realized from the front. The woods’ sloping expanse behind the property and the bluish mountain peaks provided a breathtaking view. Shawn’s doghouse sat a few feet from where the hill sloped and the thick brush and tree line began.

John scanned the area looking for signs of Allie Mae’s presence, and nodded his head when satisfied she wasn’t anywhere around. He led the way inside his home through the back door.

Hickory smoke and the cinnamon flavor from yesterday hung in the air along with the bacon scent from breakfast. After John changed out of his uniform into jeans and another flannel shirt, they spent the next couple of hours watching HGTV programs, until Evelyn arrived. She wore her hair pulled up, dressed in a UT sweat suit, looking like she had hurried about since she got up that morning. Along with her duffel bag, she carried two paper bags filled with the ceremonial supplies she needed. After giving a warm hug to them both, scolding her grandfather again for not being more careful, she set the items next to the table.

“
We’ll be ready to begin in about twenty to thirty minutes,” she advised, glancing at the clock above the oven that read 3:37 p.m. “I’ll need until then to get everything set up. Grandpa, I hope you don’t mind me using the small wooden bowls Grandma used for desserts.”

She motioned to the cupboard above the refrigerator and John nodded his approval. David assisted her in retrieving the half-dozen black wooden bowls stacked neatly in the cupboard’s corner, and Evelyn set them down on the table in a row near the candle and the bag. From one of the sacks she pulled out an assortment of plastic baggies containing a variety of leaves, roots, and seeds. The other contained a pair of ceramic incense burners and three white slender candles. She emptied two small bags of incense into each burner.

Evelyn removed a pound of deer meat and folded the paper bags, placing them beneath the table.

“
This isn’t part of the ceremony,” she advised, noticing the David’s curious look as she moved into the kitchen holding the package of fresh meat. “I told Grandpa that I’d cook up some chili tonight, which I hope you’ll enjoy.”

She smiled as she sat the meat on the kitchen counter and moved over to the pantry, where she retrieved two cans of chili beans and the necessary spices.

“
I haven’t had venison in years,” said David. “If tonight’s meal is anywhere near as good as what you fixed us yesterday, I’m in for a real treat!”

“
Why, thank you, David!” She said. Her smile widened. “If you’ll take your seat again at the table in a few minutes, I’ll soon join you.”

While waiting for her, he studied the strange names of the various leaves, roots, and seeds.

“
What you and I will do first is crush the roots and blend in the herbs,” she said, once she joined him at the table. She tore open the first few packages. Immediately the fragrances of each filled the air before them, some pleasant but others bitter and acrid. She lit the incense and the larger white candle from yesterday. “Some of the roots will really stink once we mash them up.”

Evelyn opened the duffel bag and removed two small wooden mallets, handing one to him. Next she set three of the bowls near him, placing several red fleshy stalks from a chickweed plant inside the first bowl. She added a pair of brown slender roots on top of the stalks, which she called ‘delani’, along with a funnel-shaped yellow flower named Carolina jasmine.

“
Go ahead and finish blending them together,” she instructed, after taking care of the initial mashing of the stalks, roots, and flower. “Before we eat dinner I’ll need you to thoroughly wash your hands, since the mixture is toxic.”

He paused to look at her with a ‘why in the hell are we doing this?’ expression on his face. She smiled and patted his wrist.

“
It’s necessary for you to actually handle the paste as you create it, since your physical essence must be absorbed for the paste to have maximum effectiveness,” she explained.

He nodded and went back to the task of blending the mixture. It took nearly ten minutes for him to break down the stalks, though the flower and roots became a pliable mush right away. Before long, the concoction became enough of a paste where Evelyn indicated it suited their purpose. The paste’s color dark rust, she set the bowl to the right of Allie Mae’s bag, just outside the rune placed there yesterday.

Next she placed a handful of very small black roots inside the next bowl, which she called ‘unaste’tstyu’, black snakeroots. In addition, she opened another bag containing a single dark brown root she called ‘kagaskutagi’, also known as crow skin. She pressed this root in with the others, and spread seeds from liverwort, or ‘skwali’ as she called it, on top of them. David blended these ingredients together, which formed a black paste. She set this bowl on the left side of the bag.

With two bowls in place, she pushed the third one toward him.

“
This one is the most important, since it will be the end result you seek,” she said. “As we add in and mash the ingredients, I’ll need you to focus your thoughts on what you want to happen tonight, both for you and your family as well as the girl’s restless spirit.”

He agreed to do whatever she asked. She opened packages containing the three largest roots, breaking them into smaller pieces. One seemed almost carrot-like while the other two gray and scraggly. Their names ‘dayewu’, distai’yi and ‘amadita’ti’, they barely fit inside the bowl.

“
Go ahead and combine them. Concentrate,” she advised.

He struggled to keep the distai’yi inside the bowl. Meanwhile, she removed several fresh white lilies from the last two packages.

“
The devil’s shoestrings are always the hardest to get to cooperate,” she told him, noticing his growing aggravation to keep the damn things inside the bowl long enough to crush them.

She reached over and helped him hold the bowl steady, until he finally subdued them. The resultant paste light gray, Evelyn handed the lilies to him, explaining he should be the only one to add them in. The paste near-white when finished, the aroma had become almost pleasant compared to a few moments ago. He thought about his beloved family and how desperately he wished for Allie Mae to find peace, or at least leave them the hell alone.

“
So far so good!” she enthused, moving the bowl to the lower edge of ‘Allie Mae’s Treasures’, just below the runes. “We’re now ready to break for supper. Before we do, let me explain what each of the bowls represent so you can reflect on their meaning while we eat. The bowl with the red paste represents your success and triumph. It’s for the victory we seek tonight. The bowl with the black paste, as you’ve already correctly guessed, represents death. But, remember it doesn’t represent the spirit’s intent or fate. Rather it’s the same as the Tarot Death card, or the rune’s death symbol. It simply means the end of a journey, and hopefully the end of your struggle against her.”

She paused to make sure he understood.

“
The last bowl represents the end result you desire, as I already mentioned, which is peace and happiness. The three together will provide your protection as you return her treasures to where you found them.”

“
You mean I’ll be taking the bag back to the ravine?” A sudden chill seized his heart.

“
Yes, David.” She took his hands and clasped them in hers. “It’s the only way to end this. I assure you, you’ll be ready to do it by the time we complete the ceremony tonight.”

John came over to them, placing his hand on David’s shoulder.

“
I’ve set up the TV trays in the living room, and the chili’s ready,” he announced.

Evelyn stood up and David did the same, following her to the kitchen sink where they both thoroughly cleansed their hands. Afterward, they joined John in the living room. He had poured them each a glass of iced tea to go with a steaming bowl of chili. Small loaves of hot bread were placed alongside the chili, and after Evelyn recited a brief Cherokee blessing the three sat down to eat.

Shortly after five o’clock, the sun had already disappeared behind the western hills. The cabin’s security lights came on as they chatted quietly in the living room. When the topic turned to Allie Mae’s attack from last night, John showed Evelyn his injured leg. She gasped when she saw the bruises, but held off giving her grandfather the stern lecture David expected.

John told again how the spirit crept in through the fireplace after the fire died, and loomed above David as he slept. If not for Shawn’s prompting, he might not have been able to save David from Allie Mae, since he slept soundly in the recliner and unaware of her presence. Once awake, he watched her shadowy form descend while the air around them became frigid, the vapors from David’s breaths being sucked up into her essence as she moved ever closer to him.

John recited a prayer he had uttered only one other time since his teenage years, at his wife’s deathbed. It failed to appease the anisginas then, the evil spirits who brought her cancer, and he feared it might not be effective now as well. But to his surprise, the entity lifted from David and turned to face him. The shadow seemed impenetrable, and the row of candles on the mantle suddenly blew out, as well as the others in the living room and kitchen. Surrounded by complete darkness didn’t deter him. He chanted the prayer more fervently. Books and magazines flew off the shelves while pots and pans crashed to the floor in the kitchen.

He described how he pictured a dance his grandfather showed him long ago, and began to imitate it, moving toward David in the darkness and feeling the invisible iciness of the spirit’s essence embrace him. Shawn barked angrily at his side while sacred items were torn from the wall and ceramic dishes fell upon the pots and pans scattered across the kitchen floor. Meanwhile, David slept through it all.

As John explained to David earlier, the confrontation lasted about an hour. The ghost uttered her own chant, spitting out vehement threats as she sought to overpower John’s prayer. He felt an icy spray as her shrouded face drew near, and he responded in kind, raising his voice to match hers. Finally she let out a terrible scream and threw him back against his recliner. It tipped over and he landed hard on the floor and on top of Shawn. He expected her to try and finish him off, but it didn’t happen. Soon, the lights in the living room flickered and came back on. She left.

John laid still, waiting to make sure the attack had ended. After a few minutes he got up and turned off the overhead light so David could continue sleeping. He went to the bathroom, where it surprised him to see his face and shirt covered in blood. He washed his face and bandaged the cut above his eye, praying Allie’s corpuscles and other matter hadn’t merged with his own. He then took care of Shawn’s leg.