Cades Cove 01 - Cades Cove: A Novel of Terror (40 page)

“
David, thank God you called! I hoped it was you, but I didn’t recognize the number. Only the area code.”

“
I’m calling from John’s, and I’ll be staying here tonight. I’ve been trying to reach you for the past half-hour! What the hell’s going on there??”

“
She’s back!” Her voice trembled. It sounded like the rest of his family cried nearby.

“
You mean, Allie Mae?”

He expected this, and he looked over at John to affirm what they feared had happened.

“
Who else would I mean?!”
she shouted into the phone, and began to weep.

“
Miriam, darlin’…please calm down.” He fought to remain calm himself. “Is she there right now?”

“
Here?
No,” she said, pausing to catch her breath, her voice trembling. “She’s at the house again! She attacked Ty in the bathroom upstairs less than twenty minutes ago, and then chased us all out of there!” She sobbed harder.

“
Is Ty all right?”
He felt a large lump form in his throat.

“
He got out okay, but he bruised his other arm trying to protect his shoulder!” she told him between sobs. “And now we have no clothes, and the kids can’t get their homework since we brought everything back home. She showed up without any warning, David! We were ready to eat dinner…. ‘No way in hell we’re going back inside there after what just happened!”

Obviously sitting on pins and needles since the time he left, he imagined the only shock for her was the attack took place at home in Colorado instead of Tennessee.

“
Did you see her?” He asked this tentative. Equating Allie Mae’s strength and malice with her ability to materialize, the immediate danger for his family depended on how lucent her specter was.

“
No, but everyone else did.”

“
Ah Shi-t-t!”
he hissed into the phone.

“
Ty’s not talking again, but Jill and Chris said they saw her moving up behind me. They said she had no face! And Jan saw a huge shadow that covered the ceiling as it came after us, with a blue glowing eye in the middle of it!” Miriam paused to clear her sinuses.

“
I don’t understand how this can be!” said David, running his free hand nervously through his hair. “She was just here trying to force her way inside John’s cabin!”

“
What??
When did that happen?”

“
Right after it got dark,” said David. “She finally stopped about an hour ago.”

A loud hum suddenly interrupted their conversation. It sounded like another distortion inside the phone connection itself, like what happened earlier. But then the kids and Janice began to scream.

“
What the hell’s happening?”
he shouted into the handset.
“Miriam?!”

“
David, are you there?!”
Miriam shouted back.
“I
can’t hear you! If you can
hear me, listen!
...
Do you hear that? Something’s pounding at the door! Oh, shit! The door’s breaking! Davi—!”

The line went dead.

“
Miriam?! Goddamn it, answer me! Miriam!!”

John came over to David’s side while he screamed into the phone. Feeling absolutely helpless and terrified for his family’s welfare, he started to slump to the floor. But then a surge of rage suddenly flowed through him, and he bolted for the front door, undoing the locks and throwing the door wide open before John could stop him.

“
Come back and get me!”
he shouted into the night as he stepped outside, with John holding his arm.
“Come back, Allie Mae, you cowardly bitch!!”

A gentle breeze moved through the trees. The nocturnal birds and animals continued to make their territorial calls, along with a few hardy crickets and other insects that somehow prolonged their summer lifespan. Defeated, he hung his head and turned to go back inside, wondering what he could possibly do now to save his family from the spirit’s rage and fearsome power he terribly underestimated. But before he made it through the doorway the night-time creatures ceased their activity, as if forced to listen to something else. David paused to listen as well, and at first heard nothing. Then a quiet rumble emerged, growing louder as it moved toward the cabin from the west.

The heaviest wooded land in the national park’s forest surrounded John’s home, and the densely crowded tree line stretched for several miles in any direction. The tops of the tall pines and oaks along the western side of his property began to sway, creaking noisily as the wind forged a path toward them. As the source of the rumble approached, what sounded like an immense swarm of angry hornets aroused from a hundred nests soon gathered in the darkness above the trees. Recalling the experience in his backyard just a week ago, David realized Allie Mae had come back. She’d heard him.

“
Get in here, David!”
John pulled his arm, but he resisted.

“
No, John! I need to face her!” He fought to shake free from the older man’s powerful grip. “If she wants me, she can have me! I can’t let her hurt my family anymore and I can’t let her hurt you either!”

He managed to free himself just as the rumble and growing swarm reached a small clearing that separated the cabin from the forest.

“
Damn it, David, listen to me!”
shouted John over the growing din.
“She’s not going to stop with just you! When she’s done with you, she’s going back to get your family! She won’t stop until she’s taken both Tyler and Chris! It’s not just about you, so get your ass in here!!”

David stared at him in disbelief. Although thorough in what he told John, he knew he didn’t mention how Allie Mae threatened his youngest child. It’s what brought him back to Tennessee.

“
You’ll have to trust me!” John pleaded, his tone calmer as he sought to convince him. “Your family will survive her anger tonight, but she’ll kill you for sure if you don’t listen to me and get inside!!”

Whether or not John’s words about his loved ones’ fate were true, Allie Mae intended to end his life. She had warned him before, and Evelyn confirmed that much. His impetuous taunt brought her back, and now footsteps approached the cabin, crunching through pine needles and dead leaves in the darkness between the cabin’s west side and the forest. John looked anxiously in that direction while restraining Shawn, whose instincts to protect his master were awakened.

Just before the footsteps’ reached the front of the house, David allowed John to pull him to safety. The front door closed and locked, the menacing rumble and swarm gathered on the front porch. The floor inside the cabin began to vibrate under their feet. As if the swarm would gobble them up, the cacophony grew louder, forcing them to cover their ears until the noise abruptly disappeared.

The silence was eerie and complete, without even a faint whistle from the wind. David and John stood staring wide-eyed at the front door for nearly a minute, the only sound being their labored breaths. John approached the curtained window next to the door. He pulled on the side of the curtain, attempting to peer outside. He moved his face closer to the edge of the window and opened the curtain a little further for a better view. A pale white hand reached in, grasping at his shirt, but he pulled away just in time. The slender hand clawed at the window frame but withdrew once the curtain touched it.

John hurried back to where David stood while Shawn snarled at the door. In response, something enormous slammed against it, causing the door to rattle against its frame. Several items hanging on the wall dropped to the floor, and the feathers from the dream catcher above the door lifted into the air. Then the lights inside the cabin flickered and died.

John’s entire home cast into darkness, the dancing flames from the fireplace provided the only illumination, other than moonlight creeping in through the corners of the rear curtained windows of the cabin. David tried the kitchen light switch, which didn’t respond while John got the same response from his lamp in the living room. Only three logs left to burn.

In the kitchen, John kept a drawer full of candles for just this sort of emergency, since at least twice a year the cabin was without power due to inclement weather. After grabbing one of the candles and lighting it, the two men remained crouched on the floor between the kitchen and front door for much of the next hour. In addition to the electricity, the landline phone was dead. The logs in the hearth steadily burned down, where the dying coals popped intermittently within the fireplace. John eventually retrieved a dozen more candles and placed them throughout the living room and kitchen, saving the last two for the hallway and bathroom.

“
Depending on what she did to the circuits here, we’ll likely have to wait until morning to get the power back up,” he advised, when they felt safe to stand up and move around the cabin again. “In the meantime we can heat up some coffee the old fashioned way or cocoa if you’d prefer.”

He moved into the kitchen and retrieved a kettle, along with a battery operated radio/CD player from the counter. He returned to the fireplace after filling the kettle with water, setting the CD player on the coffee table and hanging the kettle from a metal rod beneath the mantle. They decided on cocoa instead of coffee.

“
The reception on the radio’s not so good,” he said. “I hope you don’t mind country music, because that’s all I listen to.”

David nodded politely, even though he preferred rock n’ roll. Deeply worried about Miriam and the kids, he glanced at his cell phone, hoping the signal strength had improved. It still showed zero bars.

John popped in a CD from a small stack on the coffee table. David had heard of the artist, Tim McGraw. To his surprise, he enjoyed it much more than he expected. Visibly pleased by his response, John played other CDs, ranging from older artists like Dolly Pardon and Merl Haggard to newer ones like Keith Urban and Gretchen Wilson. Impressed at the quality of the newer recordings, David grew saddened while listening to some of the tracks from Haggard’s greatest hit collection.

“
Brings back memories, eh?” said John, noticing David’s demeanor changed.

“
Unfortunately,” said David. “My dad’s favorite artists consisted of Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn, and Mr. Haggard.”

John nodded, his gaze thoughtful as he looked toward the fire, almost out. He got up and added the larger of the three logs, stirring the remaining embers to kindle the flames. He then turned his attention back to David.

“
You’ve told me a good deal about Miriam and your kids, but nothing about your own father and mother,” he observed. “Your sadness tells me it was not so good for you growing up in Chattanooga.”

David nodded while staring down into his cup of cocoa.

“
Let’s just say I learned to hate Willie, Lorretta, and Merl for the same reasons I loathed my dad.”

“
Why, was he an abusive man?”

“
It depends on how you define abuse,” said David. “Did he hit me? Sometimes, but not enough to warrant a visit from a social worker. It was more neglect, since he was almost never around. The only time I’d ever see him was when he had a bone to pick with me about one thing or another.” He looked up from his cup, a faraway look in his eyes.

“
What about your mother?”

“
I remember when I was young how much I adored her, she was so beautiful,” he recalled. “I had no idea she didn’t have long. As I grew older she started drinking more and more. My folks used to fight a lot.”

He turned his gaze to John.

“
I think my dad used to hit her. And then she died when I was eleven. My aunt told me the angels came and took her, that she wasn’t meant to stay here on earth. But I found out later she took her own life. She was found in their bed when my dad was away on business, with an empty bottle of Jack Daniels and what was left of her prescription sleeping pills on her nightstand.”

“
I’m so sorry, David,” said John, his tone comp-assionate. “I’m sure she’d be proud to see what you’ve done for yourself.”

“
Maybe…. Maybe not.” David smiled weakly. “After that, my Aunt Ruth pretty much raised me, since my dad was home even less. I stayed with her and my Grandpa Elbert. When I was little, he used to beat the holy hell out of me and my cousin Celeste until I got old enough to fend him off. Celeste was a year older. She died after falling down the stairs at Grandpa’s house. She was fifteen at the time and I was at a football game when it happened. It took Auntie several years to recover, which I’m sure she still really hasn’t. She hides it well, though…. To this day, I think the old man did it.”

He eyed John serious.

“
Maybe I should shut the hell up about all this.”

“
If you don’t mind talking, I’m quite interested in the rest of the story that brought you to where you are today,” said John.

“
Well, there’s really not a whole lot more,” said David, pausing to pour himself more cocoa. He added some peppermint Schnapps that John brought from the kitchen. “The old bastard finally died, and when he did my dad started spending more time in Chattanooga. My aunt and her husband were the only other folks living in the house besides me and him.”