The Devil's Demeanor (10 page)

When the Scott
boys returned to Georgia, they found most of their stuff packed up. They really
were moving! Though it was only down the street, Don couldn’t help but feel
overwhelmed. With the move came a different school, since the new house was in
a different district. Don would no longer go to Windsor Meadow with Nick and
Monica. Instead he would go to Hightower Elementary, which was much nicer (and
newer) and located behind a tiny suburb, as if the school belonged to the
neighborhood alone.

Hightower was
so clean and new and bright Don took an immediate liking to it. No more
homeroom in a manufactured shed separated from the main building. And the
library was huge, with many large windows that let the sun in. Hightower was
almost nothing but windows. The school was so high-spirited Don actually looked
forward to going there every day.

The first week
in the new house had been surprisingly fun. Mom, Ethan and he had set down a
few mattresses in the master bedroom, ate pizza and watched TV. Mom claimed it
was a tradition when moving into a new house, and that Don was too young to
remember them doing it when they had moved into the last house.

It didn’t take
long to settle into the new home, and Don even made a new friend in the
neighborhood. There was a boy named Sym Stonebrook, whose house was surrounded
by a chain-link fence that went all the way to the curbless street. Large ferns
were placed on either side of the mailbox. Sym, who was half Caucasian and half
Korean, lived only two houses down, and his mom made Don take his shoes off
every time he came over.

Sym’s driveway
was a designated bus stop—the
last
bus stop, in fact—and resulted in
terrible seats on the bus. After a while, Don and Sym decided to trek through
the neighborhood to a better stop in order to get picked up sooner. That was
how Don found out about the Candy Store, which was really just an old lady who
sold candy to the school kids while they waited for the bus in the mornings.
Sure, it sounds creepy, but kids don’t care about stuff like that.

Don still hung
out with Nick occasionally, the two of them meeting at the laundromat to play
arcade games while Don’s mom did laundry. These were the best years of Don’s
life because everything had become somewhat normal for the Scott family.

Adrian kept mom
happy, and Ethan slowly but surely acted more like a regular kid, though he
started falling ill often after turning five back in July. At first it was just
mild stomach discomfort, but then it turned into fevers in the fall. It was as
if his illness made him act normal, for which Don was grateful.

Summer of ’94
was the last to be spent in Connecticut because Dad and Yvonne moved to Florida
the next year. Before they did, though, the family visited New York and Niagara
Falls. They even ventured into Canada for a few hours and had dinner in a fancy
restaurant.

Life was good
for Donovan Scott.

He wondered
when it would all come crashing down for him and his family. He also wondered
if he’d be prepared when it did.

*
 
*
 
*

In 1994, Don
enjoyed a very comfortable Greyhound bus ride to the Turner building in Atlanta
for a field trip. This had been the first time he’d ridden on such a bus, and
he couldn’t believe how large the seats had been. Sym sat right next to him,
and they talked about videogames and movies and listened to each other’s CDs.
In a way, Sym was becoming his new best friend.

That was also
the year Don started middle school. Spirit Spring was the school, and it was
like a mix of Windsor Meadow and Hightower—old with new. Each of the three
grades had its own hall, seventh grade being in the middle. At Spirit Spring,
Don learned to play the clarinet and he became quite good at it, though he
never grew to like moistening the reed every day with his tongue.

As he got
older, his interests changed and he replaced his toys with comic books. Since
there was no place for the big toy box that once resided in the playroom of
their former home, the Scotts had many yard sales.

To feed his
comic-book appetite, Mom often drove him to a comic store in Augusta. Don
enjoyed these rides; Augusta was a beautiful city, with its hills and old
businesses that looked like they would never go away. He especially loved going
to the movie theater that seemed hidden away behind the mall, where no one
could see it from the main road. Don and his family had been going to this very
theater since the ’80s. In fact, this was the same theater where Mom had gone
into labor with Ethan.

Don hoped the
place would never go away, despite that one unpleasant memory. He loved looking
at the posters for upcoming blockbusters in the lobby, as well as watching the
policy trailers before the feature presentation. He was the kind of boy who
loved the stuff
before
the movies more than the movies themselves.

It was a great
time to be a kid, the Nineties. Don treasured this time while he could, because
he knew soon he would be an adult. You only have one childhood.

*
 
*
 
*

Dad and Yvonne
moved to Melbourne, Florida, in May of 1995. It was definitely a different
atmosphere compared to Connecticut, and the road trip from Georgia didn’t take
nearly as long. Dad had picked up Don and Ethan as usual in the van, Don
lounging on the back seat and listening to Whitney Houston or whoever played on
the radio. Yvonne had accompanied them this time, and she controlled the radio
from the passenger seat. Whenever one station lost reception, she would tune to
another. It was always rap or R & B, music Don had never listened to before.
He found himself enjoying, though.

He marveled at
all the billboards on the trip to Melbourne, asking Dad if they could visit
Universal Studios some time during the summer. Dad said yes, of course.

Dad rented a
house just off a highway. It had three bedrooms, so Don and Ethan didn’t have
to share a bed anymore. Hurricane Erin hit hard, but the family survived, and
Don got some awesome footage with Dad’s video camera. But that was nothing
compared to a few other significant events: Yvonne told the boys she was
pregnant, and she and Dad were getting married.

Don barely said
a word for the rest of the summer.

*
 
*
 
*

During the
first week back at school, Don and Sym decided to take a different route to the
first stop just to see more of the neighborhood. During the trip they found a
very steep hill, which proved to be exhausting to traverse.

“We should ride
our bikes this way after school,” Sym panted.

“Have fun with
that,” said Don. “I’m never coming this way again.”

At the moment
they reached the summit, something appeared from around the side of a house on
their right. It was a large, snarling English bulldog, with foam dripping from
its jaws. The boys froze in place and stared in hopeless terror as the dog
trotted closer. It didn’t seem interested in both kids, however—only Don.

“Do you have
meat in your pocket?” Sym asked.

Don ignored his
friend and focused on the dog’s eyes. A deep growl rose from its chest. “Leave
me alone,” he whispered to the dog.

At those words,
there was a slight pause in the growling.

It picked back
up a second later.

“What did you
do to piss it off?”

“Shut the fuck
up!” Don snapped quietly but fiercely. To the dog, he said, “Leave. Me. Alone.”

It immediately
ceased its growling, as if a loud clap had startled it, and then ran away.

The boys stood
in the middle of the street, still frozen with silent fear. Mom always
complained about the lack of sidewalks and curbs in this neighborhood, and for
some reason Don instantly remembered that. Irrational thoughts in extreme
circumstances, he’d read about that somewhere. Though he thought perhaps had
there been sidewalks, he and Sym would have been even closer to the dog when it
appeared. It would have caught them even more by surprise, perhaps even
attacked them before Don could do anything.

“Can I talk
now?” Sym asked after a minute.

“Sorry. I was
just afraid he would attack us if you talked.”

“You talked,”
Sym countered, “and it went away. You know what’s weirder, though? I could’ve
sworn I saw that dog smile at you before it ran away.”

Don nodded as
they started back on their journey to the bus stop. He’d noticed it too, but
thought he imagined it. He was no longer thinking irrational thoughts of
curbless neighborhoods.

*
 
*
 
*

Don’s clear
plastic phone lit up in different colors as it rang. He answered.

“Want to come
over and play Nintendo?” Sym asked.

“Why don’t you
come over and play Sega?” Don asked.

“We played Sega
the other day.”

“Fine!” Don
relented dramatically. “I’ll be over in a minute.”

He hung up and
went down the long hall to the living room. The TV was on, but there was no one
there. “Mom?” he called, but received no reply. He checked the kitchen as well
but saw only Ethan, eating a sandwich. “Where’s Mom?”

“Her room,”
Ethan responded between bites. “She keeps calling people.”

Don made his
way back to her room, which was directly across from his. He knocked on the
door and waited, only to get no reply. “Mom, I’m going to Sym’s house.”

He waited. No
response. Shrugging, he went to the front door. When he opened it, Nick Platt
was standing there, his finger on the doorbell, ready to press it.

“Yo,” Nick
greeted. “I would’ve called but I didn’t have your new number.”

“Hey,” Don
said, not knowing what else to do. He hadn’t seen Nick in a while, now that
they went to different schools. The phones hadn’t been set up for a while after
they’d moved into the new house. “Sorry we haven’t hung out in a while. I’ve
been busy.”

“It’s okay,”
Nick said, “even though we live five minutes away from each other.” He
shrugged.

“Did your mom
drive you over?”

“I walked.”

“You
walked
?”
Don was impressed. That had to be a half-hour walk. “Well, uh...”

“Wanna hang
out?” Nick suddenly asked.

“I was heading
to a friend’s house down the street. You wanna come?”

Nick shrugged
again.

Don shut the
front door and Nick followed him to Sym’s house. When Sym answered the door, he
glared unhappily at Nick but said nothing. Don and Nick removed their shoes and
followed Sym to his room, where a videogame was paused on the TV.

“This game is
so awesome. You’re going to love it,” Sym promised.

It was a
two-player fighting game, so one of them had to sit out and play the winner.
Sym lost the first round but didn’t argue about it. Don was grateful he didn’t
freak out the way Clark had long ago. Nick gave Sym a few helpful hints when
his turn came around again.

“Do you have
this game?” Don asked Nick.

“Yes. You would
know if we hung out more.”

Don grinned as
he watched his two best friends get along.

Halloween was
Don’s favorite holiday, and he had planned a week before to do something
special. As he sat on his front porch in a lawn chair, a group of kids ran up
to the door. The kids stood next to Don without giving him much thought as Mom
gave them candy. Only one kid glanced at him. Don stared back through his monster
mask, trying to slow his breathing. He hoped the kids thought of him as merely
a stuffed scarecrow instead of a living being. Many of the houses on this
street alone had stuffed scarecrows decorating their yards.

The moment the
kids turned their backs to Don to go to the next house, Don leaped from his
chair and roared. The kids screamed without even looking behind them as they
ran for their lives. Don laughed as he sat back down on the chair.

“When are Nick
and Sym coming over?” Mom asked him, laughing as well.

“In a few
minutes.”

“And Sym’s mom
will be with you, right?”

“Yes.”

“Good, because
I want you to take your little brother with you.”

Don jumped from
his chair. “Mom!”

“Don’t give me
that; he’s a kid and he has just as much right to go trick-or-treating as the
rest of you.”

The last thing
Don wanted was to look after his brother. Even with Sym’s mom, he knew Ethan
was really his responsibility. Instead of arguing, Don waited for the next
group of kids to approach the house. Out of pure spite, he scared the kids off
before they were even halfway to the porch.

Nick was
dropped off by his mom minutes after Sym and his mom arrived at the Scott
house. Don was holding Ethan’s hand as the group of five started up the
winding, barely lit street. Don tried not to let his brother dampen his
spirits, but as they reached the corner at the top of a hill, a familiar
motorcycle drove past. Don watched it pull into his driveway, and he saw Adrian
jump off and dance up to the front door. Mom was waiting there for him.

As the night
wore on, Don wished he’d chosen a different costume because the straw from his
scarecrow outfit was irritating his skin. Nick was dressed as Batman and Sym
was a ninja. But Don knew the order of things: Monstrous scarecrows were
scarier than ninjas and Caped Crusaders.

At least he
wasn’t Ethan, who was wearing a cheap knockoff of a Power Ranger. Mom had
bought it from a toy store and Ethan looked miserable; he’d wanted to be a real
Power Ranger. His mask rested on top of his head as he walked with his gaze
down.

“I hope we
don’t see that dog again,” Sym said as he looked around.

“What dog?” his
mom asked.

“Me and Don ran
into a scary dog before school last month.”

“Why didn’t you
tell me?” she asked heatedly. “That’s one thing I hate about this neighborhood:
Everyone lets their pets run loose. Don, did you tell your mother?”

“Yes,” he lied.

“See,” said
Mrs. Stonebrook to her son. “Don here is responsible enough to tell his mother
when stuff like this happens.”

“It wasn’t a
big deal, Mom,” Sym said, but she was no longer listening. To Don, he said,
“Why do you always have to be such a fairy?”

Don grinned.

As the night
wore on, Don couldn’t shake the feeling he was being watched, followed. He kept
looking around as they went from door to door, collecting candy. Ethan must’ve
felt it too, because he kept looking around as well.

Nick and Sym
were comparing candy while they walked, but Don was too distracted to join in.
The streets were packed with costumed kids and adults. The most popular house
on the block was said to have a chainsaw-wielding maniac who chased you off
after you got your candy. Don was looking forward to that.

Ironically, the
Candy Lady didn’t hand anything out that night. “Oh, well,” Sym sighed. “She’ll
probably close up shop until next week.”

The sound of
the chainsaw coming to life pierced the air and was followed by screaming
children. Don couldn’t see the house it was coming from, which only added to
the excitement. After a few more houses, Sym noticed something white on the street.

“What’s this?”
he asked as he picked it up.

“Sym
Stonebrook, you drop that right now!” his mother shrieked.

He did. “What
is it?” he asked again, a little afraid.

“It’s a
tampon!”

“What’s that?”

“Never you
mind.”

To Nick and
Don, he said, “I’ll find out when I’m older, she means.”

“Probably not
even then,” his mother said. “I need to get your hands washed. Let’s stop by
the house. Who the hell throws tampons on the street like that?”

“But Mom—”

“If you knew
what a used tampon was, you’d want to cut your hand off!”

“Maybe if you
told me—”

“Enough!” she
screamed. “After we wash your hands, we can pick up where we left off. That is,
if you don’t pick up any more things you shouldn’t be touching. Okay?”

Don and Nick
exchanged glances; they wanted to get to Chainsaw House. “Mrs. Stonebrook,”
said Don, “can we stay here and wait for you guys?”

She bit her
bottom lip. “I don’t know. I promised your mom I’d keep an eye on you.”

“Please. We’ll
be right on this street when you get back.” He and Nick put on their best
sad-puppy faces.

Finally, she
relented. “I guess there’s no sense dragging all of you back for this. You boys
better be here when I get back.”

“We will,” Nick
and Don promised together. Ethan was still looking about curiously.

Sym and his
mother quickly made their way down the street, in the opposite direction of
Chainsaw House. It would take them at least ten minutes to get back to their
house.

“Come on,” said
Don as he led the others down the street. This was the route they always took
to get to the first bus stop, but it seemed different at night. One house had
orange and green lights tied around a tree in the front yard. The candy givers
were in their open garage, handing out treats.

As Don, Nick
and Ethan walked up the driveway, Don could see an old man and woman sitting in
rocking chairs, a mountain of junk behind them. Sitting next to them was a man
in a gray jumpsuit with a burlap sack on his head. He held a chainsaw in his
lap.

“Oh, man, I’m
scared,” Nick said to Don, though he sounded excited.

“Happy
Halloween,” the old woman cackled as she gave them their candy. “Have you been
good boys this year?”

“What does that
have to do with Halloween?” Nick asked.

“Old Bubba
here”—she indicated the masked man next to her—“doesn’t like naughty children.
In fact, he
hates
them.”

Don gulped; the
woman was looking directly at him.

“Well, we’ve
been good this year,” Nick said nervously.

“I don’t
believe you,” said the old man. The couple was wearing matching denim overalls
with red plaid shirts underneath. The man had on a straw hat. “I don’t think
Ol’ Bubba does, either. Do ya, Bubba?”

Suddenly, the
masked man jumped up from his seat and jerked the chain of his weapon, bringing
it to life. The three kids turned and ran for their lives, screaming and
laughing at the same time.

A good distance
away, they stopped. “There was no chain on that chainsaw,” Nick said with
gulping breaths. “It was all noise just to scare us.”

“It worked,”
Don said. “Didn’t it, Ethan?”

When he looked
over to where his brother had been standing, he found no one.

Ethan was gone!

*
 
*
 
*

Don hated
breaking his promise to Mrs. Stonebrook, but with his brother missing, he
couldn’t simply stand by and wait for her to return. He had to start looking
now.

“He couldn’t
have gone far,” said Nick encouragingly. “I mean, he was right here a second
ago. Maybe the chainsaw guy really scared him. I guess he was real-screaming
instead of fake-screaming.”

The two boys
headed in the direction they had been running, passing more children who had no
worries in the world. Don’s heart hammered in his chest at the thought of Ethan
running around, alone, surrounded by strangers. Don was made even more nervous
when he remembered the feeling of being watched earlier.

“Is that Monica
Harris?” Nick asked.

“Who?” Don asked,
distracted.

“Monica Harris.
She lived behind you before you moved, remember?”

Don temporarily
snapped out of his troubled thoughts to notice a group of girls heading his
way. Most of the girls were dressed up as princesses or fairies; Monica was
dressed as a pirate. She had on a black outfit with short sleeves and leggings,
with a shiny green belt around her waist. A large plastic sword was sheathed in
the belt.

“Hey, Monica,”
Nick called.

She smiled and
waved, causing Don to blush. The group stopped as Monica said, “Great costumes,
boys.”

“Thanks,” Don
mumbled.

“I remember
you,” she said to him, wagging her finger jokingly. “Where did you go? I
haven’t seen you in forever.”

“I moved,” Don
explained, playing along. “I had to go to another school.”

“That sucks.
Maybe we’ll all go to the same high school together, though. My mom says there
aren’t as many high schools as there are elementary and middle schools.”

“Oh, really?”
Don hadn’t thought much about what high school would be like until that moment,
and figured it would be nice for them all to be together.

“Why are you
trick-or-treating in this neighborhood?” he suddenly asked her.

“My friend
Mandy invited me to trick-or-treat with her. Her older sister has to watch over
us.”

Don saw Mandy
in the group, dressed as a purple fairy. Her sister was not dressed up and
looked really bored. “Well, have fun. I have to look for Ethan.”

“Did you lose
him?” Monica asked.

“Just a minute
ago.”

“Well, we can
help you look for him.”

“Excuse me?”
Mandy demanded. “I don’t want to go off looking for some little kid. I want
more candy.”

I’ll bet you
do, you fat bitch,
Don thought, taking in her chunky physique.

Monica rolled
her eyes. “I will help you look for him if you want,” she said to Don.

“You don’t have
to.”

“I want to.”
She wrapped her arm around his and dragged him along in the direction he’d
already been going.

The trio had
only been searching for a few minutes when Monica said, “Is that him?”

Don looked to
where she was pointing and saw a small blue Power Ranger-like child just
disappearing down a hill. “Ethan!” The three ran up to the street that lowered
steeply into a cul-de-sac, only to find it filled with children. Don was
certain he had just seen his brother, but now Ethan was lost among the crowd.
“Ethan!” he called again.

“Let’s go down
there,” Monica suggested, and then began jogging down the steep hill without
Don and Nick.

“She’s bossy,”
said Nick.

“I like it,”
said Don as he followed her. All three searched through the crowd of children,
calling Ethan’s name in the process.

But Ethan
wasn’t among them.

The whole time
they searched, all Don could think about was what he would tell Mom if he
returned home without his brother. She would be devastated; she would blame
Don. He could tell Ethan meant more to her than he did. Her baby boy.

“There he is,”
Nick said and pointed to a house at the bottom of the hill and on the right.

Don saw Ethan
disappear behind the house, into the dark backyard. “Ethan!” he screamed at the
top of his lungs, but his brother either didn’t hear or simply ignored him.

Don and the
others raced for the house, into the backyard, and nearly ran into a waist-high
brick wall. Just beyond the wall was a dark forest.

“You don’t
think he went in there, do you?” Nick asked.

“I know he
did,” Don replied.

“How?”

Don didn’t
answer because he would have to explain the feeling he’d had earlier of being
watched, and how he was getting that feeling again now.

Strange sounds
surrounded the trio as they ventured through the dark woods: crunching leaves,
snapping twigs, and sometimes even quiet laughter. For some reason, only Don
could hear the laughter. Nick said he heard only wind. All three kids were
scared and tried not to show it.

“When did you
and Ethan become buddies?” Monica asked.

“What do you
mean? He’s my brother.”

“Yeah. But I
remember you not liking him much.”

Don told her
about how Ethan defended him against Zeke the bully in Connecticut, and about
how Ethan seemed to act more like a regular child lately. It was as if the
strangeness inside the little boy was vanishing.

“Why would
Ethan come into these woods alone?” Monica asked, breaking several minutes of
silence.

“I think he was
following somebody,” Don answered as honestly as he could. He knew now he and
Ethan had been followed earlier. Maybe whoever—whatever—had followed them
managed to get Ethan to follow them now. But why?

“Ethan?” Don
called into the woods and got no reply.

“Do you think
something happened to him?” Nick asked.

“No,” Don said
quickly. “He’s fine. We just have to find him.”

“We will,”
Monica said, reassuring. Don was grateful to her for that.

“Wait,” Nick
whispered as he stopped dead in his tracks. “I hear something.”

Don figured it
was the “wind” again, but once he too listened, he heard a young voice. It was
Ethan.

“Is he talking
to somebody?” Monica asked, listening as well.

Indeed it
sounded as if Ethan was having a conversation, but when he stopped talking, no
other voice took up the break.

“I think he’s
talking to himself,” said Nick.

When Ethan
started up again, the three kids made their way toward his voice. He was close.
The woods opened up more as they walked and, after a minute, they found
themselves in a clearing with the moon shining down on them.