On Emma's Bluff by Sara Elizabeth Rice, edited by davebccanada (audio ebook reader txt) 📕

stood stiffly from his spot on the floor. The sounds below them had ceased. Emma reached for him and started to tell him to stay, but then just kissed his hand and said, "Be careful."

"Oh I'll be back," he said as he eased out the door.

 

 

Chapter 24

In twenty minutes time Bill had still not returned from the lower floor. They had followed his progress distinctly as he slipped out the door and more or less crept down the stairs. "Is that asshole humming?" Cindy had asked at one point when he could still be heard on the floor below.

"Sounds like it," Emma admitted.

The presumed humming had stopped after about two minutes and since then there was nothing to be heard except the spongy night sounds, the wind, rustling leaves and the return of the tree frogs. Cindy had resumed her swilling of the scotch immediately after Bill's departure, sharing with the other two, and now all three were feeling the heavy affects. But fear or apprehension, whatever demon you chose to name it, had kept them alert.   Stimulated their nerve endings had kept them too tight to make many sounds as they listened.

"He should have been back by now, " Emma stated the obvious.

The other two declined to give their opinions.

Bill had indeed stayed away too long, but it was not because he had been physically detained as those above him might have feared. Upon descending to the third floor he had been at first riddled with a case of the shivers. His skin literally crawled up his spine and tingled at the base of his neck. That was when he had begun to hum, almost unconsciously. He felt a relief in hearing his all to human voice.

He had heard the direction of the steps when he had sat listening in the above room. He went straight to the room where the stealthy steps had gone. This room was almost exactly below the one where the others sat on the fourth floor. He had not thought to bring a flashlight with him and now regretted it. The house looked even more cavernous in the scarce light. It was possible to imagine it as vast and unending, perhaps even connected with corridors that led into the bowels of the earth. The darkness gave Bill a sense of invisibility. He found he was not afraid of what he might find.

As it turned out the room had little to offer. It was empty, as empty as it had been when they had previously checked it. An open closet gapped open from one wall, but other than that there was nothing askew in the place. Bill walked toward the window in the far wall. The clouds had scattered and the lawn was now illuminated in the starlight.

The surrounding cover of tall trees waved at him from all corners of the yard. "Nothing here to be afraid of," he thought. A rather peaceful place it seemed to be. He found himself thinking that it might be nice to come back up here sometime alone just to get away.   He was not sure how long he stood their soaking in the soft-lighted scene below him, but suddenly he remembered Emma.

Just a hint of anger touched as he thought of how the others had foolishly set out to be scared. He decided that if a little scare was what they really wanted he could oblige. Besides it might make Emma real glad and appreciative to see him when he did return.

After thirty minutes Emma was no longer content to wait passively for Bill's return. She had put back on her boots and sat nervously swinging her legs from the side of the bed.

"Just wait a little more and we'll all go down with you to look for him," Cindy said trying to pacify her.

"And then what? Cindy, there is no earthly reason why he should have been gone this long in the first place. I am ready to go look for him now."

"Aw, come on Emma, nothing could have possible happened to him. You are just being paranoid," Jim broke in to say. But Emma was already on her feet and headed for the door.

"I don't care," she said practically yelling, "You two just stay here. I am going to look for him." She was out the door in an instant. They could still hear the ring of her words as she headed down the hall.

At the head of the stairs she froze. All of a sudden she felt too frightened to move. "It's just a house," she told herself, "just a stair case, just a wall."   She could feel her heart racing. She thought she might be sick. At the first stair the floor moaned softly despite her light step. She imagined Cindy and Jim hearing her like they had heard the earlier sounds. Gripping the banister she made her way down.

She almost did not realize it when she reached the third floor, so thick was the darkness. She stumbled briefly and cursed when her foot dipped for another stair and came up short on the flat floor. "Oh my gawd, I can't even see the doors." She began to feel her way along the walls. Looking upward she could make out the faint glow of the fourth hall window. "Wait a minute," she stopped as she noted, "There should be a window on this hall as well." Her head snapped toward the direction where the front hall window should have been located, but all she could see was fathomless darkness.

It was as if from miles away that she finally picked up the swaying spot of light. Too and fro it rocked as it grew more and more into focus. What she was seeing was someone walking toward her swinging a lantern, but not from the end of the hall, but rather from across a grassy meadow. The figure moved slowly, light heartedly, almost skipping as it came closer. It was a young girl, or at least it looked like a young girl. Emma blinked her eyes and waited for the image fade, but it did not. When the form was close enough Emma could make out the smooth radiant skin and a clover-like aroma. Emma was frozen in her tracks. "Is this death? " she asked herself.

It was indeed a small young girl who approached her, a petite young black child, who looked to be around eight or ten years of age. The girl skipped merrily down the hall to Emma and then she stopped. Emma could see the tiny moist face, the eyes full of excitement.  

"He's in this room, missy," the child said taking Emma's hand and pulling her toward a spot at the end of the hall.

Emma could not resist; she was not able to. Her eyes never left the impish face that grinned up at her. At the door the girl slipped back behind Emma and gave her a shove toward the entrance. The door was slightly ajar and as Emma entered the light from the room blazed in her wide pupils. And then she saw Bill. He was standing leisurely in front of the window.

She did not say anything, but he turned as if he had been expecting her.

"Baby." He held out his hands to her. His mouth formed a small circle as he said, "Oh, what's the matter, Baby? Don't look so scared."

She rushed toward him almost leaping into his arms.

“Well now, I thought you might be a little worried, but this is better than I even hoped," he admitted. "Umph," he exhaled as he slipped his hands under her sweater and searched for the clasp of her bra.

Emma did not pull away. She only clung to the familiar chest all the more. She inhaled great gulps of his scent. "Oh, thank gawd, I'm not dead.   You're not dead," she cried.

"No, I'd say right now I feel pretty damn well alive." He took her hand and pressed it lower on his body so she could feel for herself.

"What the hell are they doing down there?" Cindy asked Jim. They had heard the muffled voices when Emma had finally found Bill.

"What's it sound like to you?" Jim asked delicately.

"Like he's humping her brains out," Cindy retorted in disgust.

"Could be," Jim conferred.

"That really pisses me off." Cindy sprang to her feet and began collecting her paraphernalia. "They had the audacity to drag us all the way here just so they could get a chance to screw!"

"Wait, you are not going to go barging in on them during the middle?"

"I mean that's real shitty of both of them," Cindy continued to rage.

"But Cindy, you don't really want to interrupt them now?"

"Like hell I don't!" She left so quickly that Jim felt like he had no other real option but to follow her.

By the time they were down the flight of stair most of the pounding and moaning had ceased, but this did not temper Cindy's fury.

"Hey you two in there, we are going home. You can just stay here if you like." There was not mistaking the hostile tone in her voice.

Bill mumbled a disgruntled ‘shit’ from behind the door and Emma shakily rasped out ‘just a minute’ to her friend.

There wasn't much for them to talk about as they fought their way back through the woods.

 

 

Chapter 25

Roy Wilson could not get to sleep. His wife's tossing and turning had joined forces with his own over wrought mind and sleep was just not coming.   Pulling on his khaki pants, belt still attached and jingling over his hips, he forged his way through his dark house to the kitchen. A revealing peak into the icebox offered no tempting treats to occupy his taste buds. He began to wonder where he might have placed the cigars that had been given by a visiting uncle. Perhaps now was the time to take up that stinky habit. He did not have to glance up to the clock to know it was already after two a.m. He had heard Emma come in and settle up in her room for the night hours earlier. There was no one for him to talk with and he had little inclination to take up late night letter writing.

He made his way to the back door window and pulled the sheer curtains back to study the night. The moon wasn't visible from where he stood, but the dim night sky played with the shadows in the back yard. Just a hint of wind