Krampus: The Yule Lord (18 page)

“So, I can just reach in there and take whatever I like?”

“You can, but be aware you are putting your hand into that other place. Your arm and hand will be visible to anyone who happens to be near. This can lead to trouble, to loss of limb, to even being pulled into the sack, into the very place you are robbing.”

Jesse hesitated. “But it is a safe. No one will be in the safe.”

“No, so long as the chest is closed, no one can see you.”

Jesse loosened the mouth of the sack, peered into its smoky shadows. “All right, here goes.” He inserted his hand until he bumped a wall. It felt right, like cold steel. He pushed downward until his fingers hit something hard, cylindrical. He grasped it, could tell by the weight it was a gun. He pulled his hand out, very pleased with what he found.

A minute later he had three machine pistols, several handguns, one sawed-off shotgun, a couple dozen boxes of ammunition, and stacks and stacks of hundred-dollar bills. But there were more surprises in the General’s safe: an unopened bottle of aged bourbon; an assortment of pills—amphetamines, by the look of them; what appeared to be several grams of pure cocaine, not crack but the real deal; keys to who knew what; all sorts of contracts and promissory notes; an envelope full of Polaroids of some woman that looked an awful lot like Jesse’s third-grade teacher, Mrs. Sawyer, in her birthday suit. Jesse wrinkled up his face but didn’t stop until the safe was empty. It felt good to take something back from a man who’d stolen so much from him, and knowing he’d be using the General’s own guns against him made the act all the sweeter. He grinned at Krampus.

Krampus grinned back. “You are enjoying yourself.”

“It’s empty.”

“Then we’re done.”

Jesse looked over the loot, at the cash, at all the guns and ammo. He nodded and let out a deep breath, suddenly feeling drained.

“You are weary?”

“Need something to eat, that’s all.”

“It is the sack. It takes a toll.”

Jesse wondered just what part of him the sack had taken that toll from.

“You should eat,” Krampus said, nodding toward the tub holding the beef.

Jesse looked at the cow leg. He was just about hungry enough to eat it raw, but figured roasting a few strips over the stove would suit him better. He hopped up and started over, caught sight of the cow head and stopped. “Hey,” Jesse called. “Is it possible to put something back? Back in the safe?”

Krampus raised an eyebrow. “Yes, it is possible. Once the door is open it will stay open until I open a new one.”

Jesse lifted the cow head by the ear and brought it back. “That safe belongs to the man that put this hole through my hand.”

Krampus nodded, grinned, and held the sack open. Jesse dropped the head inside. “Jesse, you are certainly a man after my own heart.”

I
SABEL WALKED WITH
Jesse along the gravel road, glad to be out of the moldy-smelling church. It was night and they were headed to a mini-mart called Pepper’s, which Jesse claimed to be about two miles back down on Route 3. They’d decided to walk instead of risking anyone seeing the truck or chance the vehicle running out of fuel. Jesse carried the empty gas can he’d retrieved out of the camper, gas being one of the things Krampus couldn’t pull out of his sack.

“Man, what I wouldn’t give to see the General’s face when he comes eye-to-eye with that cow head,” Jesse said with a laugh. “Over forty thousand dollars gone. Poof! That man is just gonna pee himself.”

Isabel shook her head distractedly, scanning the shadows, keeping an ear out for any suspicious sounds, any sign or hint that Santa Claus or the wolves might be near.

Jesse gave her a light shove. “Hey, c’mon, it’s funny. I’m telling you. You gotta understand that man’s the biggest son of a whore in all of Boone County. Hell, maybe in all of West Virginia.”

Isabel managed a smile. She liked it when he looked at her, liked his green eyes, the line of his jaw, but most of all she liked his laugh—kind and warm, and full of life.
It’s nice,
she thought,
taking a walk with someone that’s not as ancient as the hills. Don’t hurt none that he’s easy on the eyes,
she admitted.
No, not one bit
. She considered what it’d be like to hold his hand. It’d been a long time since she’d held hands with anyone. Not since her Daniel, and that had been over forty years ago now. But she knew this man wouldn’t want to hold her hand; she knew what she looked like now.

“Okay, so you gotta help me out here,” Jesse said. “Lord, where do I even start? None of this makes a lick of sense. Santa Claus, and giant wolves, and . . . shit, just what the hell is that Krampus guy? How in the heck did you ever end up with that devil?”

“He’s not a devil.”

Jesse halted. “Wait, did I get something wrong here? Aren’t you his slave? Didn’t he do this to you?” He gestured at her face. “Turn you into a monster?”

Isabel’s cheeks burned. She looked away, surprised by how much his words stung. “He saved my life,” she said, zipping up her jacket and pulling the hood over her head, hiding her face within its shadow. She walked on, leaving him standing there.

Jesse caught up.

“Well, that still doesn’t give him the right to make you his slave.”

“It’s not like that. You wouldn’t understand.”

“That’s ’cause it don’t make any sense.”

“And I ain’t no monster. I’m a woman. If you weren’t so thick you’d be able to see that.”

Jesse put up his hands. “Didn’t mean it like that.”

Isabel walked faster, leaving him behind.

“Ah, c’mon, Isabel. Slow down. I’m sorry.”

“I tried to kill myself, okay? Be bones in the ground, too, if weren’t for Krampus.”

“Kill yourself? Well, now why would you want to go and do a thing like that for?”

“That really ain’t none of your business. Is it?”

Jesse frowned, nodded. “You’re right, I’m sorry. It ain’t none of my business.”

She kept walking.

“Didn’t mean to pry,” he said. “Just trying to make sense of this whole thing. I mean it, I’m sorry.”

Isabel slowed, sucked in a deep breath of the cold night air. “I’d got myself into a bad situation. Seemed things just kept getting worse. I guess I tried to take the easy way out, okay?”

“Isabel, you don’t need to be explaining yourself to me.”

They continued on in silence. Isabel wanted to say more, ached to talk to someone other than Vernon and the Shawnee, someone young, someone with clear, sympathetic eyes. But opening up had never come easy for her, and she didn’t know this man. Just because he had a warm laugh and kind eyes didn’t mean he could be trusted. And you didn’t just start telling some stranger about how you got pregnant at sixteen, not unless you were prepared to have them look at you like you’re some kind of hill trash. But it hadn’t been some cheap hookup. Maybe if it had, the whole thing would’ve been easier. Isabel felt tears stinging her eyes and quickly blinked them away.
Don’t you start. Just let it lie, girl.
It always caught her off guard how bad it still hurt, even after all these years. She tried not to think about her baby growing up without a mother. How maybe if she’d been stronger, she’d be with him right now.

“I was sixteen when I ran away from home, ran away from everything. I wasn’t thinking straight, found myself up here in these hills. It was winter and cold, didn’t know what to do. Couldn’t see no way to fix the things I’d done. Walked out on a ledge and looked down at the rocks below and there was my answer . . . the answer to all the pain and heartache.” Isabel found she was crying. “Wish I’d had better presence of mind. I just felt so bad about everything . . . so bad. Just wanted all that hurting to end.” She wiped at her tears. “Dammit, didn’t mean to start all this blubbering.”

Jesse put an arm around her. Isabel had not had anyone touch her, not like that, not in over forty years. She covered her face and began to sob.

“I looked up into the stars,” she said. “Begged the Good Lord to forgive me, and walked right off that ledge.”

“Jesus, Isabel.”

“Well, I should’ve picked a taller cliff, ’cause that fall . . . it didn’t kill me.” She let out a mean laugh. “Just broke a bunch of bones. I couldn’t move. Just laid there crying and screaming. The pain was something awful.” She moved away from Jesse and wiped her sleeve across her face. “Well, it was them Shawnee that found me. They brought me to Krampus. I’m guessing I broke something in my spine, ’cause I could move but one arm, couldn’t feel a thing below my waist. Things were getting fuzzy. I believe I was dying. And that’s when Krampus bit me.”

“Bit you?”

“Uh-huh. That’s how he does it. Turns people. Something to do with mixing his blood is the way he tells it. Whatever it is he does, it saved my life. Healed me right up. About two days later I was up and walking about. Only that wasn’t all it done.” She held out her hands, looked at the jagged black nails protruding from her scaly fingers. “Didn’t always look like a monster y’know, used to have fair skin and long red hair. Owned a couple of pretty dresses, too.”

They walked on a long time without either of them speaking.

“So that’s why you stay, because he saved you?”

She looked up into the night, let the light snow hit her face. “No,” she said, knowing she’d go looking for her son if she could. She knew her boy would be in his forties by now, wouldn’t know her from Adam, and probably wouldn’t want to, either, not after she’d abandoned him. But she would sure like to see who he turned into. See if he had his father’s eyes. “I’d leave right this minute if I could.”

“Well, what’s stopping you?”

“Krampus forbid us from going into town. From going near folks when we can help it. Doesn’t want anyone seeing us. Or at least he didn’t. Y’know, back when he was all chained up. He’d send one of us into town every now and again to steal a newspaper, raid the library for any books on Santa Claus, or maybe if there was some other odd thing we needed that we couldn’t make for ourselves.”

“And, let me guess, there’s some sort of reason you got to obey him? He’s put a spell on you? Hypnotized you?”

She nodded. “That’s pretty much so. Once we turned, when he gives us a direct command, we’re powerless to do anything else. It’s like becoming a puppet. You no longer think, you just do.”

“And he’s ordered you to stick around, I take it.”

“He made us take this oath. Y’know, not to run off, to protect him, to take care of him, and other stuff like that.”

“Don’t leave much of a life for a young lady.”

“I try not to think on it too much.” She could see the mini-mart sign now, glowing not more than a quarter-mile ahead.

“What is he?” Jesse asked.

“Krampus?”

He laughed. “Who else would I be talking about?”

Isabel managed a smile. “Couldn’t tell you for sure. The Shawnee think he’s a forest god. Shoot, they’re so goddamn infatuated with him there wasn’t even need for him to have changed them. I guess he must’ve done it so they’d not grow old. Makwa told me that his whole tribe used to bring Krampus offerings since way back before the first white settlers even showed up.”

“And Vernon, I’m guessing he didn’t volunteer?”

She laughed. “He was surveying for the coal company sometime back first part of last century. He found Krampus by accident. Krampus, of course, wouldn’t let him go after that. So lucky Vernon’s been stuck with them stubborn Indians for company for going on nearly a century. And if you give him half the chance he’ll be glad to chew on your ear about it, too, let me tell you.”

They approached the store, skirting a mound of dirty snow piled along one end of the parking lot, and stopped in the shadow of a Dumpster. Isabel stared through the large front window at the goods inside the little mart. They sold a small selection of groceries and home basics, as well as local crafts and souvenirs: pecan rolls, jams, jellies, sausage and jerky, quilts, coon caps, key chains, magnets, and Indian jewelry made in China. She’d not been inside a store since before she was pregnant, and found herself mesmerized by the colorful displays and flashy packaging.
Wouldn’t mind,
she thought,
spending a bit of time in there. Wouldn’t mind at all.

Jesse dug a roll of bills from his breast pocket. Flipped through them. “Shoot, it’s all hundreds.” He snorted. “Never thought there’d be a day when I’d catch myself complaining about having too many hundred-dollar bills. Ah, here we go.” He peeled off a hundred and two twenties, put the rest away, and headed toward the store. Isabel remained in the shadow.

Jesse stopped, looked back. “Oh, yeah . . . guess you gotta stay out here?”

She nodded absently, her eyes fixed on the shelves of cheap trinkets.

He studied her for a moment. “Been awhile since you been inside a store, I bet.”

She nodded again.

“Okay, gotta pay before I pump. It’ll be a sec. Now, don’t you go running off and leaving me.” He winked at her and headed away. “Oh,” he called over his shoulder. “And keep your eye out for snipes. A gal out this way lost a few toes to one just a couple of weeks ago.” Isabel set her hands on her hips and watched him trot off.

About a minute after Jesse entered the store, a car came up the highway and pulled into the lot. Isabel withdrew into the shadows. Two teenage girls and an older boy climbed out, laughing over some shared joke. One of the girls jumped onto the boy’s back and rode him piggyback into the store, all three hooting and carrying on as though life was one big carnival ride.
So carefree,
Isabel thought and tried to ignore the jealousy biting at her. “Life don’t always go the way folks want,” she muttered under her breath. “That’s all.”

Isabel watched them romp about in the store. Both girls had long, wavy hair. It bounced and shined, silky in the glow of the beer signs. S
omething a man would want to run his fingers through,
Isabel thought, and touched her own cropped hair; it felt waxy, crusty. She hadn’t had a chance to wash since fall; the creeks were too cold this time of year. The girls had on makeup, lipstick, and eyeliner, earrings.
All the things girls wore to pretty themselves up.
She wondered if there might be some makeup to cover up the blotchiness on her face.
Maybe a little lipstick?
Might look a little bit more like a young woman than some cave monster.