FIVE.
Two midnight shadows seemed to blow across the yard of the Blackwood home.
Finally, those shadows broke out of the overlapping darkness of the trees, hit the moonlight and exploded into two teenagers: Clyde and Brian, running fast and hard. Their heels beat a quick, sharp rhythm on the sidewalk, like the too-fast ticking of clocks; timepieces from the Dark Side, knocking on toward a gruesome destiny.
After a moment the running stopped. Doors slammed. A car growled angrily.
Lights burst on, and the black "66 sailed away from the curb. It sliced down the quiet street like a razor being drawn across a vein, cruised between dark houses where only an occasional light burned behind a window like a fearful gold eye gazing through a contact lens.
A low-slung, yellow dog making its nightly trash-can route crossed the street, fell into the Chevy"s headlights.
The car whipped for the dog, but the animal was fast and lucky and only got its tail brushed before making the curb.
A car door flew open in a last attempt to b.u.mp the dog, but the dog was too far off the street. The car bounced up on the curb briefly, then whipped back onto the pavement.
The dog was gone now, blending into the darkness of a tree-shadowed yard.
The door slammed and the motor roared loudly. The car moved rapidly off into the night, and from its open windows, carried by the wind, came the high, wild sound of youthful laughter.
SIX.
The House, as Clyde called it, was just below Stoker Street, just past where it intersected King, not quite bookended between the two streets, but nearby, on a more narrow one.
And there it waited.
Almost reverently, like a hea.r.s.e that has arrived to pick up the dead, the black "66 Chevy entered the drive, parked.
Clyde and Brian got out, stood looking up at the house for a moment, considering it as two monks would a shrine.
Brian felt a sensation of trembling excitement, and though he would not admit it, a tinge of fear.
The House was big, old, grey and ugly. It looked gothic, out of step with the rest of the block. Like something out of Poe or Hawthorne. It crouched like a falsely obedient dog.
Upstairs two windows showed light, seemed like cold, rectangular eyes considering prey.
The moon was bright enough that Brian could see the dead gra.s.s in the yard, the dead gra.s.s in all the yards down the block. It was the time of year for dead gra.s.s, but to Brian"s way of thinking, this gra.s.s looked browner, deader. It was hard to imagine it ever being alive, ever standing up tall and bright and green.
The odd thing about The House was the way it seemed to command the entire block. It was not as large as it first appeared-though it was large- and the homes about it were newer and more attractive. They had been built when people still cared about the things they lived in, before the era of gla.s.s and plastic and builders who pocketed the money that should have been used on foundation and structure. Some of the houses stood a story above the gothic nightmare, but somehow they had taken on a run-down, anemic look, as if the old grey house was in fact some sort of alien vampire that could impersonate a house by day, but late at night it would turn its head with a woodgrain creak, look out of its cold, rectangle eyes and suddenly stand to reveal thick peasant-girl legs and feet beneath its firm wooden skirt, and then it would start to stalk slowly and crazily down the street, the front door opening to reveal long, hollow, woodscrew teeth, and it would pick a house and latch onto it, fold back its rubbery front porch lips and burrow its many fangs into its brick or wood and suck out the architectural grace and all the love its builders had put into it. Then, as it turned to leave, bloated, satiated, the gra.s.s would die beneath its steps and it would creep and creak back down the street to find its place, and it would sigh deeply, contentedly, as it settled once more, and the energy and grace of the newer houses, the loved houses, would bubble inside its chest. Then it would sleep, digest, and wait. "
Let"s go in," Clyde said. The walk was made of thick white stones. They were cracked and weather-swollen. Some of them had partially tumbled out of the ground dragging behind a wad of dirt and gra.s.s roots that made them look like abscessed teeth that had fallen from some giant"s rotten gums.
Avoiding the precarious stepping-stones, they mounted the porch, squeaked the screen and groaned the door open. Darkness seemed to crawl in there. They stepped inside.
"Hold it," Clyde said. He reached and hit the switch.
Darkness went away, but the light wasn"t much. The overhead fixture was coated with dust and it gave the room a speckled look, like sunshine through camouflage netting.
There was a high staircase to their left and it wound up to a dangerous-looking landing where the railing dangled out of line and looked ready to fall. Beneath the stairs, and to the far right of the room, were many doors. Above, behind the landing, were others, a half dozen in a soldier row. Light slithered from beneath the crack of one.
"Well?" Clyde said.
"I sort of expect Dracula to come down those stairs any moment."
Clyde smiled. "He"s down here with you, buddy. Right here."
"What nice teeth you have."
"Uh-huh, real nice. How about a tour?"
"Lead on."
"The bas.e.m.e.nt first?"
"Whatever."
"All right, the bas.e.m.e.nt then. Come on."
Above them, from the lighted room, came the sound of a girl giggling, then silence.
"Girls?" Brian asked.
"More about that later."
They crossed the room and went to a narrow doorway with a recessed door. Clyde opened it. It was dark and foul-smelling down there, the odor held you like an embrace.
Brian could see the first three stair steps clearly, three more in shadow, the hint of one more, then nothing.
"Come on," Clyde said.
Clyde didn"t bother with the light, if there was one. He stepped on the first step and started down.
Brian watched as Clyde was consumed by darkness. Cold air washed up and over him. He followed.
At the border of light and shadow, Brian turned to look behind him. There was only a rectangle of light to see, and that light seemed almost reluctant to enter the bas.e.m.e.nt, as if it too were fearful.
Brian turned back, stepped into the veil of darkness, felt his way carefully with toe and heel along the wooden path. He half-expected the stairs to withdraw with a jerk and pull him into some creature"s mouth, like a toad tongue that had speared a stupid fly. It certainly smelled bad enough down there to be a creature"s mouth.
Brian was standing beside Clyde now. He stopped, heard Clyde fumble in his leather jacket for something. There was a short, sharp sound like a single cricket-click, and a match jumped to life, waved its yellow-red head around, cast the youngsters"
shadows on the wall, made them look like monstrous Siamese twins, or some kind of two-headed, four-armed beast.
Water was right at their feet. Another step and they would have been in it. A bead of sweat trickled from Brian"s hair, ran down his nose and fell off. He realized that Clyde was-testing him.
"Bas.e.m.e.nts aren"t worth s.h.i.t around this part of the country," Clyde said, "except for a few things they"re not intended for."
"Like what?" Brian asked calmly. "You"ll find out in plenty of time. Besides, how do I know I can trust you?"
That hurt Brian, but he didn"t say anything. The first rule of being a Superman was to be above that sort of thing. You had to be strong, cool. Clyde would respect that sort of thing.
Clyde nodded at the water. "That"s from last month"s storm."
"Nice place if you raise catfish."
"Yeah."
The match went out. And somehow, Brian could sense Clyde"s hand behind him, in a position to shove, considering it. Brian swallowed quietly, said very coolly, "Now what?"
After a long moment, Brian sensed Clyde"s hand slip away, heard it crinkle into the pocket of his leather jacket. Clyde said, "Let"s go back, unless you want to swim a little.
Want to do that?"
"Didn"t bring my trunks. Wouldn"t want you to see my wee-wee."
Clyde laughed. "What"s the matter, embarra.s.sed at only having an inch?"
"Naw, was afraid you"d think it was some kind of big water snake and you"d try to cut it."
"How"d you know I had a knife?"
"Just figures."
"Maybe I like you."
"Big s.h.i.t." But it was a big s.h.i.t to Brian, and he was glad for the compliment, though he wasn"t about to let on.
Clyde"s jacket crinkled. Another match flared. "Easy turning," Clyde said, "these stairs are narrow, maybe rotten."
Brian turned briskly, started up ahead of Clyde.
"Easy, I said."
Brian stopped. He was just at the edge of the light. He turned, smiled down. He didn"t know if Clyde could see his smile in the match light or not, but he hoped he could feel it.
He decided to try a little ploy of his own.
"Easy, h.e.l.l," he said. "Didn"t you bring me down here just to see if I"d panic? To see if those creaky stairs and that water and you putting a hand behind me would scare me?"
Clyde"s match went out. Brian could no longer see him clearly. That made him nervous.
"Guess that was the idea," Clyde said from the darkness.
Another match smacked to life.
"Thought so."
Brian turned, started up, stepping firmly, but not hurriedly. The stairs rocked beneath his feet.
It felt good to step into the room"s speckled light. Brian sighed softly, took a deep breath.
It was a musty breath, but it beat the sour, rotten smell of the bas.e.m.e.nt. He leaned against the wall, waited.
After what seemed like a long time, Clyde stepped out of the bas.e.m.e.nt and closed the door. He turned to look at Brian, smiled.
(What nice teeth you have.) "You"ll do," Clyde said softly. "You"ll do."
Now came the grand tour. Clyde led Brian through rooms stuffed with trash; full of the smell of p.i.s.s, sweat, s.e.x and dung; through empty rooms, cold and hollow as the inside of a petrified G.o.d"s heart.
Rooms. So many rooms.
Finally the downstairs tour was finished and it was time to climb the stairs and find out what was waiting behind those doors, to look into the room filled with light.
They paused at the base of the stairs. Brian laid a hand on Clyde"s shoulder.
"How in h.e.l.l did you come by all this?" he asked.
Clyde smiled.
"Is it yours?" Brian asked.
"All mine," Clyde said. "Got it easy. Everything I do comes easy. One day I decided to move in and I did."
"How did you-"
"Hang on, listen: You see, this was once a fancy apartment house. Had a lot of old folks as customers, sort of an old fossil box. I needed a place to stay, was living on the streets then. I liked it here, but didn"t have any money. So I found the caretaker. Place had a full-time one then. Guy with a crippled leg.
"I say to this gimp, I"m moving into the bas.e.m.e.nt -wasn"t full of water then-and if he don"t like it, I"ll push his face in for him. Told him if he called the cops I"d get him on account of I"m a juvenile and I"ve been in and out of kiddie court so many times I got a lunch card. Told him I knew about his kids, how pretty that little daughter of his was, how pretty I thought she"d look on the end of my d.i.c.k. Told him I"d put her there and spin her around on it like a top. You see, I"d done my homework on the old fart, knew all about him, about his little girl and little boy.
"So, I scared him good. He didn"t want any trouble and he let me and the c.u.n.t I was banging then move in."
A spark moved in Clyde"s eyes. "About the c.u.n.t, just so you know I play hardball, she isn"t around anymore. She and the brat she was going to have are taking an extended swimming lesson."
"You threw her in the bay?"