The Collected Horrors of Tim Wellman Read online

  "Charlie?" Steve said.

  "I'm a comin'!" he said as he finally caught up with the group. "I'm a danged old man, ya know! I ain't the climber I used ta be... why, there was a time I coulda run up an' down here all day!" He finally noticed the body on the ground and walked closer. "I told ya you'd git 'im, didn't I."

  "Ya got a bottle on ya?" the chief said.

  He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a pint of whiskey. "Ya need a drink, chief? Careful there, son, this here is hundred-and-ten proof."

  "Good." The chief took the bottle from his hand, took a swig, and then poured the contents over the old man's body and stepped back, struck a match, and dropped it on the corpse. The fire lit almost immediately, and the flames soon engulfed the body as everyone stood back and watched.

  "Burn in hell, mother fucker!" Steve said. "I hope you burn for eternity."

  "Amen," everyone else said at the same time.

  "I reckon we got a lot a healin' ta do now," the chief said. "We lost some good people." The body started to pop and snap as the body fat was beginning to cook. "Well, maybe not so good, but they was our people, regardless."

  "Yep," Jerry said. "Seems like ain't nothin' ta celebrate over 'ceptin' we stayed alive."

  "I'll take that," Steve said. "Y'all got your property and I got a new family, I reckon." He squeezed the girls closer and walked away.

  "Hey there!" Susie said. "Where ya going with my girls?!"

  "Come on, then," he said without looking back. "You can give them a bath while I go buy them some new clothes as soon as Teresa can open up her shop."

  "No!" they both yelled together.

  "Don't worry," he said. "I know, I know, nothing flowery. You like plain clothes."

  They both looked at Susie and seemed to be begging for help.

  "Don't worry, sweeties, he ain't nearly as stupid as he seems," she said. "Well, he is, but ya get used to him after a while."

  "Yeah, yeah, I said I got it," he said. "Anything pink is okay, though, right? Long as it ain't got flowers."

  "Help us," the girls said together.

  Waking The Rain

  Allowing for slight differences of opinion, they all agreed in general that they were royally screwed. Jack's old wreck of a car had stopped at the very worst of times. All day long after leaving the senior skip day picnic they had cruised the back roads and hollows along the border where West Virginia and Kentucky met up, occasionally finding a bridge to cross across the Big Sandy River from one state to the other and the car had done fine. It had been the perfect day, bright sunshine, shirtsleeve weather. But by evening the sky had changed and heavy rain was moving in from Ohio and the four of them needed to get home before dark. It was only then that his car decided it had had enough work for the day and simply took a break. Whether it had been fortuitous, or even worse luck, they happened to roll off the main road and onto an old dirt driveway, and then the car neatly slid in the mud and came to rest right on the edge of a stream that was beginning to flood because of the sudden downpour.

  "Dickhead!" Anna yelled. "You got us even deeper in shit!" She nervously fluffed her short brown hair with her fingers and stomped her feet on the floorboard.

  "Hey, just shut up for a minute, will you?" Jack said as he pounded his hands on the wheel. He turned the key several times, each time the starter motor turned slower until it could only muster enough current from the battery to make a metallic clicking noise. He glanced over at his girlfriend who was now so annoyed the windows on her side of the car were steaming up.

  "OK," Brice said from the back seat. "We're twenty miles from home. We have no food. We have no water. We just finished the last joint. A raging river is about to get us. We're going to die."

  "I like that," his girlfriend, Jessica, said. "Well summed up."

  "I thought so," he said.

  "Even a trace of panic in your voice," she said.

  "Enough!" Jack said. "Look, this is a driveway, so it leads to a house, right?"

  "It's raining like hell out there," Anna said.

  "Well, you can wait here if you want. Maybe the car will slide the rest of the way into the water, but even if it doesn't, the way that's rising I'd say we got no more than five minutes to get out before we all drown." He crawled across her and opened the door since his door was blocked by the mud the car had settled against.

  "Stupid shit!" she said, and then jumped out and the other three quickly followed her.

  "Run close to the tree line, it's blocking some of the rain," Brice said as he led the pack. He was the football star, the all-state, blond haired wonder boy and in situations where leadership was needed, even if it were motivated more by stupidity than thoughtful consideration, he could be counted on to take the lead. They ran in line, and even though the rain made it hard to see, there was still enough light to illuminate shapes. "Rock!"

  Hearing each other was more difficult, however. Anna tripped on the rock with such force she actually went sliding on her stomach and nearly caught up with Brice before coming to a messy stop. "Shit! Damn!" She yelled so loud that everyone else, and possibly even people several miles away, heard her clearly.

  They all stopped. It didn't matter now, they were soaked so there was no reason to run anymore.

  "Just look at me!"

  "The rain will wash you clean by the time we get to the house," Jack said.

  "Idea!" Brice shouted. "Mud wrestling!"

  "Idea!" Anna shouted back. "No fucking way!"

  Jennifer began singing. "The water is wide, I can't cross o'er; nor do I have light wings to fly; give me a boat that can carry two; and both shall row, my love and I."

  They were all silent for a moment.

  "And you can shut the fuck up, too," Anna said.

  "Come on, teamwork!" Jack said, just as he happened to look back to see his car slide into the raging flood water.

  Everyone else heard the crash and also looked back.

  "To be honest, it was a piece of shit anyway," Brice said. He pointed ahead. "Come on, it's gotta be just around the bend."

  "If we're walking anyway, why don't we just get back on the road and walk to a town? We passed Fort Gay about twenty minutes ago," Jennifer said.

  "Because, it will be getting dark soon and this is rural West Virginia," Jack said. "How many ways do you want to be ass-raped before you die? My answer is none!"

  "Hey, I was born and raised out here in the sticks," Brice said. "You're insulting my peoples."

  "Do you want to walk along that road after dark?" Jack said.

  "Hell no!" Brice said.

  "OK, come on, like Jack said, this has got to lead to a house," Anna said.

  And he was right, as soon as they made it around the next sweeping curve the old house came into view and as if on cue, a huge bolt of lightning hit somewhere just behind it and illuminated the entire structure.

  "See," Brice said, "God still writes the best horror stories."

  He picked up his pace and the others followed him until they all ended up on the large wrap-around porch of the old farm house. The house was three stories tall and sat on an older stone foundation. Its wooden siding was painted white at one time but had darkened to various shades of yellow and brown over the years and had a rusty red metal roof and a first story covered porch that wrapped around the front and both sides. It was still a solid structure, though, not ruins, just run down.

  "I don't think there's anyone home," Jack said. "There's a realtor's For Sale sign in the yard."

  Anna knocked on the door anyway. "Hello?! Is anyone home?! We're just trying to get out of the rain!" She pushed on the door and it opened. "Hey!"

  "Great, breaking and entering," Brice said. "I'll bake you a cake with a file in it."

  "Nothing got broke, so it can't be breaking and entering," Jennifer said. "It's illegal trespassing."

  "Oh, sorry," he said. "I defer to the legal knowledge of the cute band majorette with a C average."

  "As you should
," Jennifer said. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him. "In all matters."

  They all shuffled through the door and into the darkened front room. It was still fully furnished and looked as if someone were still living there. Suddenly, the whole room seemed to explode with light and everyone literally jumped. Except Brice, he had found the light switch.

  "Realtor's always have the electricity turned back on so they can show the house," he said.

  Everyone took a deep breath. "Again, your knowledge of all things worthless comes in handy," Jennifer said.

  "My best friend in middle school had a mom who was a realtor," he said. "They probably just shopped some junk shops and thrift stores and bought a lot of this more modern seventies shit to make the house look more country." He looked around. "I bet no one has lived here in fifty years or more." Everyone stared at him. "What? I watch a lot of antiques shows on TV."

  "OK, I guess we can just stay here until morning, and then start walking until we can get cell service," Jack said.

  The room was decorated in a mixture of older styles with printed wallpaper that had faded over the years and peeled in places. The floor was dark hardwood with a large Persian area rug under the old walnut coffee table and wood-framed maroon velvet sofa and chair. A few other tables and chairs were peppered about, all seemed to be from different time periods. One wall was filled with shelves holding various smaller items: glass animals, plates, ceramics, photographs of different families and children... and mixed in was the usual bric-a-brac that older rural people would collect and cherish.

  "Wow!" Brice said. "Floor model TV!" He looked around the back. "Still got a price tag on it: fifteen bucks. Well worth every penny... and probably thirty-five or forty more."

  Anna walked toward the high-arched doorway that led into the rest of the house. "I'm hungry. Maybe there's some food in the kitchen."

  "Hey, should we just barge in like this?" Jack said. "I think we should just stay here in this room and not bother anything."

  "Screw that," Anna said. "If there's food, I want it. Oh, I know, let's call a pizza place. Oh wait, we can't because we're in the middle of fucking nowhere!"

  "You can go ahead and look around," Brice said. "You might find a bag you can stuff full of valuables, too. Might as well rob them blind while you're at it."

  Anna held up her middle finger as she walked out of the room.

  "How'd you hook up with that bitch, anyway," Brice said to Jack.

  "She's your twin sister; you introduced us," Jack said.

  "Oh yeah. Sorry, dude."

  "Hey, wonder if they got cable?" Jennifer said. "I'm missing America's Not Got Talent." She looked around. "There's no remote for the TV."

  "For you, the world didn't exist before 1994, did it?" Brice said.

  "Hey guys!" Anna's voice came from somewhere else in the house. "Come upstairs! There are dry clothes up here!"

  "Oh, why not," Brice said. "The extra time served can't be that much more than what we're going to get already."

  They made their way through the large doorway and into the main living room and saw the stairs on the left. Nothing grand or sweeping, they were simply stairs to the second story like most old farm houses had, with simple lathe-turned balusters and slightly more ornate posts and finials, barely wide enough to walk up side-by-side.

  "Anna?" Jack yelled. "Which way?"

  "Left at the top," she said as she appeared at the railing above them. She was already dressed in a long flowery cotton dress.

  "Hey, I always thought you'd make a good farmer's daughter," Brice said.

  "Ha ha," she said. "At least I'm dry." She started rubbing her hair with another dress.

  "Actually, you look pretty hot, baby," Jack said. "It suits you."

  "Yeah, yeah," she said. "Come on, follow me." She passed a couple of open doors, and then pointed. "In here."

  The room had been a bedroom, but not the master bedroom. It had dolls and several books on shelves and the whole atmosphere of a younger girl with bed coverings in pinks and pale blues and a writing desk with a notebook, pencils, and a few schoolbooks. There were a few pictures tacked to the wall of people none of them recognized but who seemed to be pop idols or singers from a long time ago. Anna pointed to an open wardrobe full of dresses.

  "Wait, all dresses?" Brice said. "Where are the boy clothes?"

  "Wet pants or a dry dress," Jennifer said. "Your choice, sissy-boy."

  "You know, like how you used to sneak into my bedroom when we were little and put on my dresses?" Anna said.

  "Shit, put on a dress one time, just one time, and you're branded for life," he said.

  "Mom's still got the pictures."

  "Well, let's check some other rooms, there should be some clothes for men around here somewhere," Jack said. "If we're going to change, let's make an effort."

  "There are," Anna said. "Room next door has oil-soaked and smelly coveralls covered in mold and fungus, big bedroom down at the end of the other hall has pants that both of you could wear at the same time and still have room for a third person. I couldn't get the door to the room at the top of the stairs open."

  "Shit," Brice said and started to unbutton his pants.

  "Hey, take it outside," Anna said. She grabbed a couple of dresses and tossed them at the boys. "Jennifer might be comfortable seeing your private parts, but not me."

  "I've always thought of mine as Major parts," Brice said.

  "Second Lieutenant, at best," Jennifer said as she shoved them out and shut the door.

  "Won't be a sec!" Brice yelled.

  "Honestly, Anna, you need to lighten up. Jack's a great guy but if you don't learn to enjoy life he's gonna get tired of it take off on ya."

  "I enjoy life," she said. "I don't have to act stupid about it." She paused and smiled. "Yeah, I know. I'm trying to change. It's just tough, I spent most of my younger teens trying to be the perfect goth girl. I don't do normal very well."

  "You've just sent your brother and your boyfriend outside to change into dresses," Anna said as she slid her wet pants down and stepped out of them. She then pulled her t-shirt over her head and pulled her panties off. "So, think about how stupid that is. No one is normal. Shoot for happier stupidity."

  They both laughed.

  Anna tossed her a dress. "Dry off with that one."

  "Hey, is there anything sexy in there?"

  "I think these are all the latest fashions... from nineteen forty-five," Anna said.

  Jennifer pushed through a few things and then pulled out a simple white cotton dress, straight cut, almost like a slip and quickly held it over her head and let it fall over her body. "Ooh, scary."

  "Scary?"

  "Yeah, all the spooky girls in those Japanese horror movies wear these, right?" she said and let her arms fall down by her side and dropped her head so that her wet and stringy long, dark hair was covering her face. "Like I just crawled out of a well or something."

  "Hey, let us back in!" Brice yelled.

  Anna unlocked the door and opened it. "Oh, real cute, Sally," she said.

  "Thanks," Brice said. "I think it matches my eyes. Does this make me a lesbian?"

  "It makes us both idiots," Jack said.

  "Look!" Jennifer said and posed like a horror movie character again. "I'm gonna get cha!"

  "Hey, who dripped water all over the place," Jack said. He pointed to the floor where an old book was soaked, literally sitting in a puddle of water. "God, let's try to show a little care."

  "I didn't do that," Anna said.

  "'Twern't me, pardner," Jennifer said. "I ain't been no wheres near no books."

  They all took a closer look at the floor. It was an old book, its leather cover mostly indiscernible because of the heavy layer of white mold and it appeared to have been very wet for a very long time.

  "Ugg, it smells like old shoes," Anna said as she reluctantly picked it up using just the tips of her fingers. "It's really soaked, but I swear, I didn't do it."

&
nbsp; "Maybe it's a book about water falls or something," Brice said.

  "Maybe you should just shut the fuck up," Anna said. She opened the cover and the pages reluctantly came unstuck. "It's an old diary." She turned a page, then another. "Weird." She turned a few more pages. "It's written by a girl named Linda, but all the entries are about a girl named Judith."

  "Ah, the sweet bloom of girl-on-girl love," Brice said. "Are there any photos?"

  "Don't think that's it," Anna said. She began reading. "Today Judith smiled. It was the first time in weeks that I was scared. The rain started again, so terrible, rain. I hate it. But Judith wants rain. I think she..." She looked up. "It's smudged after that. I think this must be Linda's room. Judith is young, a little girl, I guess her sister, maybe?"

  "So we're all wearing Linda's clothes," Jack said.

  "I heard that noise again coming from the cellar." Anna began reading again. "I think Judith is restless." She turned a few pages ahead. "Judith's fourth birthday..." A few more pages turned and she sighed. "Judith's last tortured breath..."

  Everyone was listening intently. They all seemed to fall into the narrative of the farm girls' lives.

  "So, Judith died as a kid?" Jennifer said.

  Anna nodded. "Apparently. That's probably her room at the top of the stairs."

  "The locked room?" Jack said.

  "I guess they just sealed it off when she died," Anna said. "People do that when they can't deal with the loss. Good Christian folks wouldn't call it a shrine, but that's pretty much what it is."

  "Still," Jack said. He pointed to the diary. "Why did that get wet?"

  "Probably a leak in the roof," Brice said. "There was a stain on the floor where it leaked before, so the realtor put the book there to cover it up. Then, more rain... it makes sense."

  "So, why isn't it still leaking now, Sherlock?" Jennifer said.

  He shrugged. "Elementary, my dear see-thru dress wearing Watson," he said. "The heavy flow of water dislodged parts of the rusty metal roof, and sealed the hole."

  Anna was still paging through the musty memoirs. "Most all are dated from the late forties. After Judith died there are no more entries." She flicked through the blank pages. "Wait, here's another. Different handwriting. 'Everyone is dead but me.'"