Locked Doors

60

BETH bolted barefoot through the beach grass as the third shotgun report erupted from the thicket of live oaks. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw the old man leaning against the rusted pickup truck, hand pressed into his side where she’d cut him with the boning knife.

The adrenaline waned, her own stab wound beginning to throb like the worst cramp she’d ever felt, as though something were trying to burrow out of her stomach.

Another shotgun blast echoed across the water.

She plunged into the thicket north of the house, running like hell, not looking back, tearing through the cooling darkness of the live oaks, the sun at her back, not long for the world.

Beth crossed a patch of sandspurs.

She screamed and fell, dug three organic spikes out of her right foot and ran on, dead leaves clinging to the blood on her left leg.

After two minutes she collapsed, lying in leaves in the swarming cold.

She rolled onto her back, stared up at the fading sky.

She closed her eyes.

Excruciating now to inhale.

She pushed her palm into the wound, felt blood seep between her fingers…

When her eyes opened she could see a solitary planet in the cobalt.

Her breath steamed.

Leaves crunching somewhere in the distance.

She wondered if the man with long black hair would kill her in the woods or take her back to that awful house…

Beth woke colder than she’d ever been, the sky starblown, woods gone quiet, her bleeding stopped. She sat up, staggered to her feet, and limped along through the thicket.

After an hour she broke from the trees into a field of marsh grass, her feet sinking every step in the cold mud. She tramped on, so delirious with exhaustion that she hardly noticed when her eviscerated foot touched the pavement of Highway 12.

Beth stepped bewildered into the middle of the road. To the north it ran into darkness as far as she could see. Southward, it extended toward what could only be the nighttime glow of civilization.

The moon was rising.

Sea shining.

She stumbled along toward the village.

Rufus’s wound was long but shallow. He sat in a chair in the kitchen while, in lieu of stitches, Maxine used a strip of duct tape to close the three-inch slice to the right of his bellybutton.

The left side of her jaw was swollen but the pain was sufferable.

There was little she could do about it anyway. They didn’t have much time. People would be coming soon, looking for the men their son had murdered.

While Maxine packed suitcases, Rufus took a lantern down into the basement.

The good news was that the project was nearly finished. He had only to install the power supply and wire it to the chair. He would work all night if he had to.

Flicking on the overhead light bulb, he rolled the generator from the passageway into the death chamber.

Rufus hoped Luther would return soon so they could put the finishing touches on their beautiful chair together.

At midnight Beth came to a dirt road. It branched off to the soundside of Highway 12, crossed a hundred yards of marsh, and terminated on a piece of dry land, upon which sat a modest saltbox, its porchlight beckoning.

The name on the nearby mailbox read Tatum.

She could see the warm glow of the Ocracoke Light in the distance, a comforting presence above the dark trees. The village was less than a half mile down the highway, but everything was sure to be closed at this hour. Besides, the sole of her foot was shredded. She doubted she could stand the pain of walking much farther.

Her wound started to bleed again as she trudged down the dirt road. The closer she got to the house the more lightheaded she became and the deeper the cold bored into her. She wondered how she’d lasted this long, felt a brief tinge of pride.

Live oaks massed behind the saltbox, blocking a view of the sound. But eastward the dunes were just low enough to offer a glimpse of the sea-shinyblack in the strong moonlight.

She neared the house. An old sailboat foundered in weeds on the edge of the marsh, like something washed up after a hurricane, stripped of sails, its hull cracked.

A Dodge Ram gleamed in the yellow porchlight, parked parallel to the garage, “BOATLUV” on the license plate, a fishing rod holder mounted to the front bumper, the rods standing erect in their PVC pipes.

Beth climbed five brick steps to the front door.

Moths loitered above her head, bouncing off the porchlight, over and over like maniacs.

Nausea hit her but there was nothing on her stomach.

Through slits in the blinds, she saw the shadow of a man lying on a couch, blue light flickering on the walls around him.

Beth opened the screen door and knocked.

The man did not move.

She banged on the door, saw him sit up suddenly and rub his eyes.

He staggered to his feet.

She heard his footsteps coming.

The front door opened and a whitebearded man gazed down at her through glassy eyes. He cinched his robe and she smelled gin when he said, “Do you have any idea what time…”

He rubbed his eyes again, blinked several times, and squinted at her, Beth crying now, the warmth of his home flowing out onto the porch, reminding her what safety felt like. The man saw the blood pooling at her feet, traced it to the hole in her stained and ragged lingerie.

She heard audience laughter on the television.

Cold blood trailed down her leg.

“Help me,” she whispered.

Her knees quit and she fell forward.

He caught her, lifted her off her feet, and carried her inside.