Blood Red

“Yeah? What if it’s something pretty?”

“Then we can take pictures and maybe get an autograph.”

Danny crouched lower to the ground and craned his head, listening intently. Finally he reached out and grabbed at a tree base, pulling out a heavy coat. From behind it a little girl let out a squeal and tried to crawl deeper into the knothole she’d been hiding in.

Danny looked at the girl. She flinched, and shivered in her hole. “Come on, sweetie, come on out of there, we’re here to help.”

She made a sound that let him know she trusted him as far she trusted a big, fat spider sitting on her nose.

“Come on now, do I look like a bad person to you?”

Boyd shook his head and grinned as the little girl stared at Danny and let out a very small smile. He doubted there was a girl in the world that would think Danny looked like a bad person. At least until he didn’t call them back after a night of gnarly sex. As the girl was way too young for Danny, she was probably thinking he looked just swell.

She crawled out of the tree and looked at him with wild rabbit eyes. Danny leaned back a bit and waited, making no sudden moves. Finally the girl came all the way over to him.

“Did anyone hurt you, honey?”

“No. I wanna go home.” She was petulant. He felt the same way, but couldn’t really do anything about it and didn’t think Danny’s arms around his shoulders would make him feel any better.

“Well, we’re gonna try to get you there.”

“What’s your name, honey?” She almost jumped. She hadn’t seen Boyd and was looking at him like he was a very large frog. Next to Danny he was, but so were half the guys on the planet.

“Jayce.”

“Well, Jayce, why don’t we get you home?”

She put her hand in Danny’s when he offered it up, and they started back toward the main road. They’d have to look for Soulis in a little while. The idea of dealing with him while they were dragging around a little girl didn’t sit too well.

“Where’s Kelli? Did she send you for me?”

Boyd ground his teeth together and reached for a cigar. Kelli was probably the cute girl who’d lost her entire extended family. He hadn’t seen her and doubted that he would.

“Yeah, honey, she did. Said she had to leave a real cutie out here and go for help.”

“She’s okay?”

“She was the last time we saw her.”

“Good. I like Kelli. She’s nice.”

Something was moving out in the woods, moving up in the trees. It didn’t sound like a cat or a raccoon.

“Hey, Jayce?”

“Yes sir?”

“Did you see any of the creeps running around in black suits?”

“Un hunh.” She didn’t sound really keen on them.

“Want to see any more?”

“No.”

He walked over to the coat Danny had pulled away from the tree and picked it up. “Why don’t you put this over your head for a minute, okay?”

She looked at him like he’d spoken in ancient Aramaic. “Why?”

“Because things are about to get loud and messy, honey, and you don’t want to see it.”

She put the coat over her head and stood perfectly still. Boyd looked up into the trees and pulled his Dirty Harry piece.

“Gimme my shotgun, Richie.”

He threw the weapon and Danny had to reach but he caught it.

Three of the damned things dropped out of the trees like they were on bungee cords and not at all worried.

Danny got a smile on his face and yelled “Pull!” like he was at the skeet range. He nailed the first one to the tree, blowing its head clean off.

Boyd caught the second one in the groin with a glazer. Most of its legs slapped the ground on either side where the rest of the torso landed. It let out a scream. Once it had been a reporter that Boyd had never much liked. He’d have let it sit there and look at its legs, just out of easy reach, but it started screaming obscenities and there was a kid present. He took off its head.

Jayce was wearing her coat, so she didn’t get covered in its blood. She let out a scream anyway.

The third one jumped at Danny like a cat pouncing at a mouse. Not a very smart cat, mind you: Danny still had the shotgun. Danny pulled the trigger just as its mouth was coming to bite his face off.

It did a great back flip and fell down, twitching, the stump where its neck and left shoulder had been was dark and oozing, and it was still trying to crawl away. Danny blew its back all over the mulch.

“Well, that was fuckin’ disgusting.”

“Language, Danny Boy, we got a little kid here.”

“I heard my daddy say it. It’s okay.” The girl’s voice was muffled by the coat.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Then let’s fucken go.”

“You said it too!”

“Honey, you can even say it if you want.”

“I can?”

“Yep.” Boyd rolled his cigar around.

“Then can I fucking go home?”

Danny laughed and so did Boyd. They led her a distance from the carnage before they let her take off the coat. By then, they had both reloaded.

VIII

The people of Black Stone Bay never knew what hit them, and Jason Soulis smiled at that thought.