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

knew that whatever it was it was still down there. There was no way for them to just stroll out of the house. Cindy remembered all the others that had been killed and wondered if this was like what the end had been for them, waiting, full of dread.

"Emma, you have got to help me. I am losing it." Indeed the long hike to Further Back and the lack of real sleep were beginning to wear Cindy out. Plus she had not eaten and her thirst had become just another part of her pain. "Emma," she cried and shook her friend to make sure she was not falling back into a trance.

"Cindy, it's okay." She heard Emma softly say.

"What?" Cindy looked up drunkenly.

"I said it's going to be okay. Everything is fine. Believe me."

Cindy cried at hearing the normal timbre in Emma's speech. "Emma, Emma, what has been going on? What was wrong with you earlier?"

"Don't worry Cindy. It is all okay now, I will get you out of here." She reached and took Cindy's hand into hers. "This has just been a long terrible nightmare."

"But Emma, I don't understand. What has been going on here?"

Emma smiled at this. "Me and you both kiddo." The whole Emma was back. "Is she still down there?"

"Who? Who do you think is down there?"

"Viola Grace." she slumped back on the cot and looked directly at Cindy.

"It is Viola then? It really is her? But I don't see how. I can't understand this."

"I don't know exactly how to explain it to you yet Cindy. I just have this feeling that I am going to get more answers in the end than I may be prepared for."

"She killed all those people didn't she?”

"I think so," Emma replied and turned her head away from Cindy to stare at the door. "But Cindy, I don't think she could have done it without me."

"Oh Emma, that's crazy talk. We have got to find a way out of this place. We cannot just sit here and wait for her to get us too."

"We cannot very well just sneak out of here. It is not over yet."

"So what do you suggest we do?"

"I don't know" were Emma's last words.

The door to the room exploded inwardly. Emma stood up. Everything was happening so quickly Cindy could hardly register it all. Emma walked towards the door as if to close it again except there was no longer any door there. It had broken off its hinges and lay flat on the floor. As Emma reached the doorframe Cindy saw something reach out and grab Emma's wrist. She was jerked so abruptly from the room Cindy actually fell back on the cot as she recoiled.

Then came that horrible sound. Cindy could hear bones crack as what ever had Emma drug her down the halls. Screams filled the air. Screams that were louder than Cindy's own thoughts could identify. Bile filled her mouth as bellowing was mixed with other sounds. Crunching and snapping like a tree being blown down poured in from the dark hallway.

"No, no, no, no.." Cindy began to shout at the top of her lungs joining the chaos. But over all the noise she still heard the banister break and the sickening thud as a body fell to the first floor.

 

"What's the word on Wilson?" Harvey asked as he stepped from the porch and approached the waiting ambulance.

"Head wound, slight concussion, looks like he fell, but he could have been hit. Who can say?"

"What does he say, damnit?" Too many loose ends: too many loose ends for Harvey to handle anymore. He needed time to think, time to rest. People were missing. People were hurt. People were going stark raving mad. He didn't even have a suspect.

"He is still too out of it to make much sense, sir. He mumbles something about his niece every now and then. More than likely he was out looking for her when this happened."

"No shit." Harvey's patience had ceased to exist.

The family doctor was still inside attending to Elizabeth and Harvey had not had the opportunity to question him yet. Harvey was standing there gathering his thoughts when he heard another car pull up in the drive and the commotion that ensued.

"We found him!" Harvey heard someone yell and immediately he headed out the front door.

"What's that?" Harvey addressed the patrolman in the center of the crowd.

"We found him, sir. We found that Simmons boy. Well at least we are pretty sure it is him." Harvey eyes knitted up in a question. "Well he ain’t got no head."

 

The ride seemed interminably long. Hattie could not remember it ever taking so long to get to the levee before. She glanced at Moseph who drove silently besides her. "Can you go any faster, please? Its gonna be dawn before we get there at this pace."

"It's a gravel road, woman. You want to end up in the ditch?" Moseph spit out his window into the night. "'Sides, I ain’t too keen about getting to Further Back in the pitch dark."

That was it, Hattie knew. The old man knew just like the rest of them that Viola's old place was to be avoided. For all she knew Moseph might have even had a hand in doing away with the old witch.

"Old witch," Hattie thought, was that not exactly what she could be called as well; an old witch practicing the ways she and a long line before her had been taught. What had Viola Grace ever wanted out of life that Hattie had not desired at one time too? But Viola had been born blessed.

"Cursed, more like it," Hattie mused. Viola had too much power from the start and with all that power it was just too easy for Viola to always be tipping the scales in her own favor. Viola had become plain mean and then evil with her powers. "Mean like a mad dog," As this thought came into her mind Hattie turned around to look out the back window at the dog.

It was not the dog that was staring back at her mere inches from the glass.

"Great merciful Lord," Hattie exclaimed and Moseph swerved in the gravel.

"What's with you?" he hollered. "Don't be scaring me..." Moseph froze as he heard the thump on the back glass. In the rear view mirror he could now see what had Hattie transfixed. No dog, but the decayed stark face of Viola Grace returned his gaze. "Oh Jesus," he began to cry.

"Keep driving and roll your window up," Hattie directed him without turning her head away from the sight behind them.

Just then Viola raised a boney fist and crashed into back glass.

"The Lord is my Shepherd," Hattie began. Fleshless lips bared back and the corpse began to wail. "I shall not want," Hattie continued. Moseph began to swing the truck back and forth on the gravel road in an attempt to shake Viola from her position. "He maketh me lie down in green pastures." The shrieking continued.

"Damn you Hattie. We're dead! We're dead!" Moseph's voice rose to drown out the piercing screams from the back.

"Shut you mouth, " Hattie rebuked him. "He restoreth my soul." Moseph accelerated and kept weaving side to side. "His rod and His staff they comfort me." The words of the twenty-third Psalms poured sweetly from Hattie's mouth. "He prepareth a table for me in the presence of mine enemies." The response from the back was one of violence and frenzy.

"My cup runneth over." The words were calm and soothing. "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." And then Hattie felt it, the sublime peace that passes understanding. "And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

Viola was thrown from the pickup bed with a gale like force. Moseph with his frantic driving did not even see her go over the edge and land in the road writhing. Hattie's deep sigh took him by surprise but told him that there had been a change. He glanced in his mirror to see an empty truck bed. Still his speed picked up. He couldn't turn around. That witch was back there somewhere. He just wanted to run as far as he could away from the evil they had just barely escaped.

 

 

Chapter 37

"I don't care who says I got to wait to get a statement from Wilson. A boy is dead. Two girls are missing. There is no telling what fate they have met. There is no time to wait." Harvey barked into the phone. He was standing in the Wilson's well-lit kitchen. Thirty minutes had passed since the ambulance had pulled away taking Roy to King's Daughter's Hospital in Yazoo City. The doctor had finally managed to get enough barbiturates into Liz to induce sleep. Officers had been sent to inform the Simmons of their son's fate. The boy's body was being transported to the coroner for an autopsy. And Harvey did not have a real clue to go on. He stared into the back yard.

"Searching, that is what we are doing over here." he told the receiver. He didn't wait for a reply on the other end he just slammed the phone down.

"Get me all those men milling around out front," he bellowed to no one in particular. He stepped on to the back porch. "Looks like the only answers we are going to find near here lie right down that path."

 

When they had gotten to the end of the levee Moseph did not want either of them to leave the cab. "It is insanity to go out in them woods towards her house. You are a crazy woman." he fought.

"You can come with me or you can stay here by your lonesome cause I am going."

"Dang woman."

"You willing to stay here alone?"

"Okay," he said, "so what you gonna do?"

"I am headed to Further Back and I am going to put an end to that Viola Grace and her evil soul once and for all."

Moseph cradled his head in his hands and rocked back and forth. Hattie opened her door. "Wait" he whined, "Don't leave me here." Reluctantly he opened his door.

 

The path was narrow and Harvey's men had to walk single file through parts. Their flashlights silently struck the ground before them. They were an exhausted group, having worked for hours without any relief. Some of the twelve men who made their way through these woods had been present when the different mutilated bodies had been found and that made them easy targets of fear.

Lacey Caine was supposed to be the killer they had been told. But Lacey was now locked up tight and somebody was still out there murdering. Only extreme exhaustion kept anyone from speaking up about this or any of their other apprehensions.

 

Cindy's head wobbled on her neck like a car window statue. Her mouth was agape. She was going into shock. All fight had left her. She sat on the cot and listened to the dead silence of the house. She was certain that it was Emma who she had heard fall. The drop had to be at least sixty feet. Now she just sat there waiting for whatever had gotten Emma to come back for her.

 

Moseph had began