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Authors: Jeffery X Martin

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Hunting Witches (6 page)

BOOK: Hunting Witches
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“You’re new here, aren’t you?” the woman called, and Nika could hear the stranger’s soles shuffling towards her, chasing her. “I can tell. I know everyone in town. Are you visiting?”

Nika sighed as the woman caught up to her. “No, you’re right,” Nika said. “We’re newbies. My husband and I just moved here.”

The woman extended her hand and smiled, the corners of her pale blue eyes crinkling. “My name’s Sarah,” she said. “Welcome to Elders Keep. I used to work here! That’s how come I know everyone. Everyone has to come to The Store, right?”

“I’m Nika.” They shook hands, and that was how Nika made her first friend in The Keep.

“Are you grocery hunting too, Sarah?” Nika asked. “I didn’t see you pushing a cart.”

“No, I’m just here,” Sarah shrugged. “Everybody goes to The Store.”

“How come you don’t go to Bell Plains? There are actual malls there to hang out in.”

Sarah looked genuinely surprised at the prospect. “And leave town? Why?”

Nika had no response. She was becoming pretty fond of Elders Keep herself.

“Does your husband work in Bell Plains? Most husbands do, I find,” Sarah said.

“Yeah, he does,” Nika said. They were wandering through the frozen foods. Nika was half-heartedly looking for peas, distracted by the conversation. She hadn’t spoken with anyone but Mark and that odd real estate agent since the move. “Are you married?”

“My husband’s a dentist,” Sarah said. “He has an office downtown. Your teeth are pretty, though. Bright. You probably don’t need to see him.”

“Well, if I need a dentist, I’ll be sure to book an appointment with him.” Nika reached into the freezer and brought out a bag of mixed vegetables. Some soup might be good for a chilly night.

“You don’t know anybody in town, do you? Ain’t made a friend yet.”

Nika stared. This was a kind of straightforwardness she wasn’t used to. Yet, there was no malice in her voice, no edge of mocking or intimidation on her face. It was an honest question. Nika figured it deserved an honest answer.

“No, Sarah, I haven’t. I’ve been putting together my house and haven’t had a whole lot of time to get out.”

Sarah touched Nika’s cart. “Check out. Check out and let’s go get some coffee. You want to? I want to. Come on! I’ll pay. It will be fun!”

Don’t talk to strangers. Strangers are friends you haven’t met yet.

Oh, the mixed messages of adolescence, and how they carry over into adulthood. Nika weighed her options carefully. Sarah was aggressive when it came to continuing a conversation, but Nika did not think she was going to pull a chloroform-soaked rag out of her purse and drag her away to a van with blacked-out windows. Sarah may have been excitable and a little flighty, but Nika didn’t sense any danger from the woman.

“You know what?” Nika said. “That sounds good. Make you a deal. Let me go home and get everything put away, and I’ll meet you at The Meal Worm in, like, an hour?”

Sarah bounced up and down on the balls of her feet. “It’s a deal!” she squealed. “See you there!” Then she was gone, scurrying towards the doors like a kindergartner towards the playground at recess.

Nika hadn’t expected to enjoy hanging out with Sarah, but they became fast friends. After the first time they went out for coffee, they did it twice more that week. Nika found Sarah to be engaging and bright, and they shared interests in gardening and classic rock. They became Facebook friends, and began to message each other at night during their favorite television shows.

“We should bring the husbands into this,” Sarah said one afternoon after a pot of coffee and some chocolate peanut butter pie at The Meal Worm. “Let’s have a double date.”

“That would be fun!” Nika said, smiling. “Mark goes to work, comes home, eats dinner and then helps me decorate.”

“Are you not moved in yet?”

“Almost there,” Nika said. “Still some work left to do in the basement, then we’ll be set.”

“Cool,” Sarah said. “Take a night off with Mike and me. We’ll go someplace fancy. Dress up and stuff. Maybe over in Bell Plains! It will be a small road trip, a nice dinner, maybe we’ll get on the Ferris Wheel! What do you think?”

Nika nodded. “Sounds good to me! When do you want to go?”

“Let’s do it tonight!” Sarah said. “Why wait? I know Mike won’t mind not cooking.”

“I’m sure I can talk Mark into an evening out. He’s been working so hard at his new job.”

Sarah clapped, like a little girl served a second piece of birthday cake. “Does Mark like French food?”

Nika shrugged. “He likes French fries.”

“Close enough! What time does Mark get home?”

“Usually around six.”

Sarah nodded. “Then we will pick you up at seven and go out on the town.”

“That sounds fun! I’m looking forward to it,” Nika said, already thinking about what dress to wear. “This is a great idea. I like this idea.”

 

***

 

“That was a terrible idea,” Mark said. “An absolutely awful idea. I’m not mad at you, Nika, but for crying out loud, that was one of the worst experiences I have ever had.”

“I’m sorry, honey,” Nika said. “I had no way of knowing it was going to be like that.”

“I’m not mad at you, either,” Mark told the cab driver. “I just can’t believe it’s a hundred-and-fifty-dollar cab ride from Bell Plains to Elders Keep.”

The cabbie shrugged.

“It’s just a hell of a lot of money for a cab ride.”

The cabbie shrugged again.

“And we didn’t even get dinner out of it,” Mark said.

“I can stop somewhere if you’re hungry,” the cabbie said.

“And spend more money?” Mark asked.

“Honey, calm down,” Nika said, patting his arm. “We have the money, it’s fine.”

“See, buddy?” the cabbie said. “It’s fine. Your wife says so.”

“Why are you in this conversation, dude?” Mark asked.

The man chuckled. “You talked to me first, man,” he said. “I can stop, if you like. But it’s a dark road, and the Keep is still a ways off.”

“It’s fine, driver,” Nika said. “Keep going.”

Nika composed herself, and squeezed Mark’s hand. “Honey, I’m sorry I got us into this mess. It’s my fault. I didn’t know my friend was psychotic.”

“Well, I didn’t figure you did,” Mark said. “Let’s just chalk this one up to experience. But maybe we should reconsider living in the Keep. Our subdivision might be empty for a reason, you know? People don’t seem as crazy in Bell Plains.”

“Oh, but we just bought the house,” Nika said. “I don’t want to go anywhere for at least two years. I haven’t had a chance to plant a garden yet.”

“All right,” Mark said. “It’s just a thought.”

“I wouldn’t live in the Keep,” the cabbie chimed in. “Most of my guys won’t even drive there, no, sir. Did you know a few months ago, they found a guy and his wife inside their house, dead, and they had been eaten by spiders? Hundreds and thousands of poisonous spiders. Nobody knows where they came from. They had to burn the house down and re-burn the ashes just to make sure all the little fuckers were dead. Something about introducing a new species into a closed biosphere. But still! Can you imagine? Getting bit and bit until you were paralyzed and then wrapped up in a cocoon and your skin turns into soup and it’s just all those little legs, those little skittery, hairy legs, man. I wonder how long they stayed alive?”

“Would you just drive, please?” Nika said. The driver put both hands back on the wheel and muttered softly to himself about how being eaten from the inside by baby spiders must be one of the worst ways to go.

“Urban legends, man,” Mark said. “They’re everywhere. Look, baby. We’ve got some red wine at the house, right?”

Nika nodded.

“We’ll go home, get a pizza delivered and watch some shitty old television shows for a while. We’ll camp out. Get naked in the living room, lay under a sheet? Sound good?”

Nika inched closer to him, smiling. “Sounds wonderful.” They kissed, eyes closed, neither one of them noticing the remains of a burnt-out house on the side of the road. The driver would have pointed it out, but hey. Customer wants it quiet, customer gets it quiet.

 

***

 

Even though they were tired, Mark and Nika stayed up late. Mark pulled two of the kitchen chairs into the living room, and Nika draped a sheet over them, making a tent. They sat beneath it, naked, the television a hazy light through the thin fabric.

“I feel like I should be watching cartoons and eating cereal,” Nika said.

“We can watch cartoons and eat pizza,” Mark said. “It’s the modern age, baby. Twenty-four hour news coverage and cartoons all the time. Also, people bring you food, if you pay them enough money.” He gestured to the pizza box on the floor between them. “It’s a brave new world, baby.”

Nika laid her head on Mark’s shoulder. One of the things she loved about him was his way of turning around lousy situations. Anyone else would have let the failed double date ruin the evening, but not Mark. He channeled his frustration into a whole new plan. Pizza and a tent in the living room? It was like being a child again, but with all the privileges and fun parts of being an adult. She moved in closer to him, smelling him, fabric softener, fading deodorant and a faint hint of clean sweat. Full of Italian food and red wine, and with Mark’s hand stirring between her legs, Nika let the double date fiasco drift from her mind.

Of course, everything was going to be all right. She would find new friends, ones who weren’t insane. She had her husband, her best friend, whom she loved desperately. They were out of Atlanta, out of that lousy apartment and into a real home, a place where it was safe to make plans or paint the walls or sit on the living room floor without worrying about the downstairs neighbors listening to every noise she made.

And she was making noises, there under the soft gauzy bedsheet, as Mark’s fingers played a bass solo on her G-Spot. He had played in a rock band in high school and never lost his rhythm. Her buzz from the red wine was still pretty heavy, and Nika loved everything. She loved Tennessee, despite their heavy reliance on orange clothing. She loved Elders Keep, the weird little town she was determined to embrace and call her own. She loved Mark, her delightful husband who could do anything, as long as he kept doing what he was doing to her right then, those subtle movements which were causing spasms in her root chakra and she was so happy, complete, and she loved everything so much that when the living room window exploded inward a couple feet away from her face, she wasn’t sure how to react.

“What the fuck was that?” Mark bellowed. He stood up, the sheet rising around his shoulders.

“What’s going on?” Nika murmured.

“Baby, go into the kitchen and call the sheriff,” Mark said. “Don’t come out this way. There’s glass everywhere.”

“What happened?” Her haze disappeared in a heartbeat, and she was racing towards a panicked state.

Mark looked down at the carpet, covered with shards of glittering glass. The chilly evening breeze whistled through the window frame. In the shifting light of the television, Mark could see the solid outline of a brick lying in the floor.

“Someone just gave us a housewarming present,” he said.

 

***

 

Nika called the cops, then she and Mark went into the bedroom to put on clothes. Even though she knew the sub-division was basically empty, she pulled the blinds shut anyway. Someone might still be outside, lurking, watching. Mark pulled on a pair of ratty lounge pants and an old T-shirt.

“Don’t go in the living room,” Mark told Nika. “You’ll fuck things up for the cops. Crime scene stuff.”

“What do you know about crime scene preservation?” she laughed.

“I know enough to know you need to do it,” Mark replied. “Besides, there’s glass everywhere. Please don’t cut yourself.”

“Fine,” she said. “We’ll just stay in the kitchen and wait. The sheriff said he would come in through the back door anyway.”

Mark raised an eyebrow. “Wonder why that is?”

“I’m assuming it’s so he doesn’t screw up the crime scene,” she said.

Mark nodded. “I knew that.” He walked out of the bedroom and down the hallway, right as the sheriff’s car pulled up in the driveway. Red and blue light played off the walls, illuminating the entire living room. A moment later there was a sharp knocking at the back door.

“Cops are here, babe,” Mark called.

 

***

 

The sheriff was a tall guy, with tremendous shoulders. He looked like he could beat the hell out of the devil, but there was something about his eyes, smile lines and almost visible memories that made him seem more sad than threatening. Introductions were made. Nika offered to make some coffee and the sheriff accepted with genuine graciousness.

The sheriff’s deputy came inside as well, and so did a couple of crime lab types who began vacuuming the glass out of the carpet.

“They’re collecting it for evidence,” Deputy Moon said.

“You think someone might have touched the window before they threw the brick through it?” Mark asked.

BOOK: Hunting Witches
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