Hunters: A Trilogy (76 page)

Jane and Maggie held hands whilst Ken brought up the rear. As they wandered up the small slope, stopping and looking backwards every now and then to find the best view, Ken had a terrible thought.

‘Oh, bollocks, I never fetched the digging tools with me!’ He ran up the slope to catch the others. Touching the old woman’s arm, he said, ‘Maggie, listen, I’m sorry but I didn’t bring…’

She turned to him and once more Ken knew that Maggie, just like her father, was able to see right into his head. She looked at him and shook her head with a smile. ‘There is no need to do anything – come,’ she said, ‘everything is ready.’

Ken stuttered, ‘Oh…okay then…no problems.’ He looked at Jane and gave her an eye signal, one which he tried to make say: ‘I’ll tell you later…’

She, too, only smiled at him.

Ken shook his head. ‘Everyone is smiling around here,’ he thought, angrily. Ken didn’t feel like smiling in the slightest; in fact, if the truth be known, he felt like kneeling in the warm grass and screaming at the Godless sky, screaming for Mike to come back and help him with this.

Dragging himself up from his own self-pity – being able to hear Mike taking the piss out of him for being such a whiner – Ken took a deep breath and set off into a jog to catch the others up. As he joined them at the top of the slope, he saw Tori looking at the disturbed earth and the shovel, which was stuck in the ground beneath the tree.

‘That’s why Maggie smiled,’ he thought. ‘They’ve already started digging – when in the hell did they do that?’ He walked up to the shovel, saying: ‘How about here, yeah? This spot looks good to me!’ Grabbing the handle, he started wiggling the tool until it came free. There were no smiles this time.

‘No!’ Tori said. ‘Definitely not here, this is where I killed him, Jeremiah – I shot him in the head, over there, that’s where he was digging!’ She pointed to the spot.

Turning to look, they saw the flattened grass. There was no blood or any other tell-tale marks, only the small area of flattened grass gave any clue as to the horrific events which had occurred in that place. Remembering, Tori walked across to the spot and bent down. Finding what she was looking for, the girl stood upright and turned to Ken. Holding it delicately, between thumb and forefinger, Tori returned the Beretta to him.

Ken put the safety catch on and then slid the pistol into the waistband of his jeans at the small of his back. Looking down, he saw that the ground was littered with empty shell-cases. He’d counted to nine before his wife’s voice made him glance up to watch the proceedings.

Jane asked: ‘What was he digging for; you mentioned treasure or something, Maggie?’

The old lady turned to Tori, seeing her grandmother’s expression, the girl reached into the pocket of her jeans – she had done as was asked and had come casually dressed, the only thing she had made a special effort with were her shoes, they were bright red and suited her perfectly – pulling her hand out from the pocket of the jeans, Tori fetched a cloth bag into the light of day. Opening the drawstring, she extracted something from within the black bag and held out her hand. The object, which now rested upon her pink palm, shone dully in the early morning sunlight. It was a medal, or brooch, and looked very much like the one George had given to Jane and Ken.

Tori looked down at them, she was nearly the same height as Ken, and several inches taller than Jane, but now, standing on the slope above them, she seemed even taller than normal. Glancing at the object in her hand, she said, ‘It’s the other half to the one in your possession, they are the only two in creation, and Michael has had this one for a long time. We are not really sure what their true meaning is, not yet. I know you have both experienced its power. When my grandfather gave it to you, it was as much a test as it was a gift.’ She looked down at the small medal with a gentle smile caressing her lips.

‘Why did Jeremiah think it was buried here, why would he think that?’ Jane asked, looking at the object and then back to Tori.

Ken couldn’t tear his eyes from the small metal object. He felt like it was calling him, his mind became filled with an overwhelming desire to reach out and grab it. It enticed him, pulled him. He stood in silence, listening to the madness.

Tori, in reply to Jane’s last question, said, ‘Because my great grandfather, George, made him think it was here. He gave him a dream and it drove Jeremiah mad, literally. The difference between this item and the one in your bag back at the farm, would be as much an opposite as black is to white. Your medal is filled with goodness, only the truly good can hold it. That is what I meant about a ‘test’…’ She stopped for a moment, as if to contemplate her words, and then continued, saying: ‘Should you have turned out not to be the good people that my grandfather thought you were, then the powers of the good Ship would have unveiled your lies immediately!’

Maggie walked up the slope to be with them. Joining in the conversation, she finished off where her granddaughter had started. ‘An evil person cannot hold the Ship you possess; simply touching it would burn their minds. However, this one…’ she said, looking at the object in Tori’s hand, ‘…is exactly the opposite – a good person would never remain good once they had touched it, this little Ship would sear them and immediately fill their soul with blackness!’

Ken hurriedly shoved both his hands firmly into the pockets of his jeans and watched as Jane looked pointedly at the easy way in which Tori handled the piece of metal.

Maggie laughed, saying: ‘No, no, my dear! Tori is not evil by any means, and nor was Michael, but they both have the ability to touch either one of the Ships – the evil twin merely seems to surrender itself to their magic. They are the only ones amongst us to have this ability!’ She smiled and turned to stare proudly at her granddaughter.

‘But,’ Tori said, ‘should someone evil take ownership of this,’ she raised the Ship and held it up for them to gaze at. ‘Then imagine what it would be able to do for them – look how you felt when you touched its beautiful other half. Can you imagine what the other side of the coin would be like?’ Pausing for a while, she looked across their heads at the lake shimmering behind them.

Refocusing, she told them: ‘George laid the seeds of this device deep inside the remains of Jeremiah’s sizzled mind where the Demon would find it, he gave him a dream, but deliberately made it ambiguous – he disguised the truth just enough to confuse them. Red’s father and the Demon knew we had this, but they weren’t sure where. They saw us together, all of us, many times under this beautiful tree they saw us, and they put two and two together. Unfortunately for them, their calculator was as fried as Jeremiah’s brain!’ Tori smiled innocently at them. ‘So, now you know what he was digging for,’ she said. ‘It had consumed him totally, and together with his cancerous hatred, Red’s father became an ideal host for the Dragon. Unluckily for them, the single-mindedness of their obsession was to be their final undoing!’

She stopped talking and walked past them, looking around as she went. Finally, she stood still, then crouched down and looked around the mound once more. Nodding to herself, Tori rose to her feet. ‘This is the spot,’ she said. ‘Here is where we shall say goodbye to Michael.’ She jogged down the incline, shouting for them, ‘Come on, it’s time to say goodbye! Grandma, you stay there, we can manage!’

Maggie nodded and stood gracefully with her back against the tree. She watched as the other two went down to help with Mike. Within minutes, they had laid his blue sarcophagus on the spot that Tori had decided should be his final resting place on this earth. She referred to it as his ‘Departure Spot’. They stood and looked down at Mike and listened as Maggie asked if anybody wanted to say anything.

Ken did.

Maggie nodded her approval, so he walked over to Mike’s blue shroud and knelt next to his dead friend. ‘Yeah, well… I guess that we’ll see you later then, Mikey,’ he said, voice cracking with emotion. ‘You make sure that you have a good time wherever it is that you are. I hope you’ll remember us when we do meet again – we had some pretty fine times, didn’t we, mate?’ Ken paused to compose himself. Taking a deep breath, he said, ‘Take it easy, brother. I’ll see you around sometime, when the time comes, I guess… See you later, Mike.’ He stood up and they saw that his eyes were filled with tears.

Jane stepped forward and placed a small flower on the blue shroud. She had picked it from the plant growing at the bottom of the mound. She, too, knelt by Mike’s side. ‘Like Ken says,’ she said, ‘we’ll see you later, sweetheart. We had fun, huh? Maybe you’ll find a woman in the next place, you know, one that you can keep?’ Jane sobbed as she whispered: ‘Bye Mikey, goodbye, love!’ She turned away and rested her head on Ken’s shoulder with the tears streaming down her face.

Tori and Maggie walked forward together. The younger of the two women knelt across and placed the metal Ship on top of Mike’s shroud. Its dull, metallic hue rested there in stark contrast to the bright blue of the material and the creamy white and yellow of Jane’s flower, which stood out like a beacon.

Then, as if rehearsed, in unison they both said: ‘Michael, we love you. Thank you for your Gift to us, and to all the worlds in which we move. Take this Ship and travel safely within the light of all that she stands for. Go and seek out the Dark One. Goodbye Michael.’ Both women lowered their heads and stood holding hands for a while. After a few seconds they turned, eyes softening with a smile.

‘It’s done, he is free once more! Come on, let’s go to the house,’ Maggie said, slipping her hand in Jane’s. Tori did likewise with Ken and together the foursome made their way down the hill.

When they reached the truck, Ken stopped them and said, ‘Look, I’m sorry, but I have to ask: we aren’t just gonna leave him like that, are we? There are wolves and things up here and… well, you know?’

Maggie apologised profusely. ‘I’m so sorry Kenneth,’ she said. ‘It is simply that we are so used to having you around, I think of you as family – there are times when I tend to forget that this is as new to you as will tomorrow’s dawn be to all of us!’ She reached over and touched his hand gently.

Tori laughed, saying: ‘Maggie is right, we are so used to you being here with us that we take things for granted – Michael will be fine underneath the tree, there is not a creature on this planet that would be able to get through his shroud. He will make his own way from this place, from the beasts and from the Hyenas of this place!’ She pointed towards the tree, saying: ‘Tonight you will see his departure. People for miles around will see him leave!’ She laughed. ‘Just you wait and see!’ Her voice was filled with happiness.

And so, after one final, wistful glance up the hill, they turned away and climbed into the truck, Tori hopping up into the back as usual. The sight of the glittering blue coffin fetched a lump to Ken’s throat and he had to look away. Engaging first gear, he drove them home. Drove them home in silence, drove them home without Mike.

Tori had been right about Mike’s spectacular exodus. At five minutes to midnight, exactly, he made his grand farewell. Earlier, after returning from the apple tree, Jane and Ken had spent the rest of the day aimlessly tidying up the house, trying to get things straight. Strangely, both Maggie and Tori had almost immediately gone for a nap. On arrival back at the farm, both of them had seemed to wilt. Jane had shooed them off to bed, without resistance they made their way into Mike’s room and closed the door. When she had peeked around the door several hours later, Jane found them both to be sound asleep. Maggie holding Tori in her arms like a mother would her young child, one who perhaps had a touch of the fever. Jane closed the door softly and went back to trying to occupy her mind. Ken didn’t seem to be in the mood for talk and she left him to it. It was comforting to hear the manly noises as he put right the damage outside.

Later, they gathered on the porch and sat whilst Jane made them a fresh pot of coffee. Maggie and Tori looked much better; the long rest seemed to have recharged their previously-deadened batteries. Ken had done a fine job with the house and things were almost as they were before. Jane noticed that he had missed the spatter of blood, which Red had screamed onto the underside of the roof. It lay above them, like garish graffiti. She didn’t mention it to Ken as her husband was starting to appear somewhat shattered. Instead, she stood, went back into the house and then returned armed with two ice-cold bottles of beer.

He took them from her, saying: ‘Thanks, babe, I’ve just about had all the coffee I can handle, to be honest. I’ll get that mess tomorrow…’ He raised his eyes towards the offending ceiling above them, winking as he did so.

Jane laughed. ‘You’re such a clever bugger, at times, aren’t you, Ken?’ she said. He winked at her again and then chugged long and hard on his first beer. Jane figured tonight was to be one of those occasions when her husband decided to make the most of the warm weather and some cold beers.

Whilst they sat and chatted, Tori filled in a few of the gaps for them.

***

She had hitched a lift with Kristi, old Mr Lumpton’s youngest daughter, from the farm about three miles down the highway. Within minutes of Tori leaving the outskirts of town, Kristi had pulled over in her silver Honda. The two girls had laughed all the way. Kristi was a bundle of fun and she had driven Tori right to the door of the farmhouse. They’d said their goodbyes and Tori had run into the house in search of the others. In her haste, she had missed the blue Chevy that lay hidden behind the barn. ‘I should have known,’ she said, with remorse. ‘That’s where we hid all the cars when we had the party – I should have looked!’

The house was empty and, after shouting for everyone several times, Tori had figured she knew where they all were. So, deciding to join them immediately, she had headed for the steps. As she turned back to the house, to make sure the fly screen was properly closed behind her, Tori had heard a loud creak from the top step… it always made that noise when it took the weight of someone big… and she turned with a smile on her face, fully expecting to see Red.