Come Get Me (25 page)

“It was probably just some animal or
something,” Maria said trying to swing his attention back to her.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve got something much better for you to
look at.” “Maria I’m out here to find Jill, not to watch you act
like the whore you are,” he said as he fought to keep control of
the car and himself. He refused to give her the pleasure of making
him look at her. He regretted doing it the first time but he hadn’t
been able to help himself. It was just a natural male reaction, he
told himself. “Put you damn clothes back on and tell me where to go
and no, hell is not an option.”

“You know you want me Jimmy,” she purred. “I
saw you looking. You liked it, didn’t you? If you’d just look again
you might see some more things you like.” He could feel her inching
closer but he’d had about enough.

“Look you stupid bitch,” he yelled as he
slammed the brakes, “I’m not going to do anything with you. I
thought I got it through that thick skull back at the restaurant
but I guess not.” He’d held himself in check long enough. It was
time to vent a little on the target of his anger. “You’re here to
help me find Jill. End of story. After that you can go back and
live in your little fantasy world. Right now tell where the hell I
need to go. Other than that keep your damn mouth shut.”

Before when he’d yelled at her she’d looked
almost ashamed of herself. Now she just returned his stare almost
like she was challenging him to do something more. He was sorely
tempted too but instead just held her look. He refused to be the
first to look away. After a few more seconds the contest of wills
seemed to be over. Maria looked away and started buttoning herself
back up.

“It’s right up here,” she grunted. “Keep
going up over this hill in front of us. It’s on the other side.”
She was back to her pouting routine. Jim started forward again
thanking god this ride was almost over.

“It’s about time,” he said anxiously trying
to fill the silence in the car.

They topped the thing Maria called a hill and
started down. At first Jim saw nothing but after a few seconds of
searching the area spread out in front of them he did see a faint
light a little bit further down the road. Bouncing and thumping
their way down the hill they slowly got closer and closer until
they were almost there. It was a good thing too. He didn’t know how
much more of this his poor rental could take. The return trip might
be it. All they needed to do was stop long enough to get Jill and
then hightail it back to town.

Thinking about driving back he found he was
actually happy Maria was there. She was the only one that knew how
to get back to town. Jill might know, but then again maybe not.
She’d come out here during the day when it was easier to see land
marks and other things she might’ve used to navigate. It was pitch
black now. There was nothing to see but what the headlight could
pick out. That wasn’t enough to find their way back. Even though
they’d just drove out here he was totally lost which meant Maria
was their only hope.

Concentrating on navigating his way down the
small hill he was only able to catch quick glimpses of their
destination. The house if that was what you wanted to call it stood
lost and alone surrounded on almost all sides with trees. The
forest was slowly taking back its own. During one of his glimpses
he noticed something that sent chill down his spine. From what must
have been the front door drifted an eerie glow. He wasn’t even sure
he actually saw it but the closer he got the more he was sure it
was there. The glow became the center of his world as the car
seemed to bounce from one side of the road to the other. It kept
getting closer and that was all that mattered.

They finally came to a stop no more than
thirty feet from what passed for the entrance. The glow was still
coming from the door but now it had a slight flickering quality to
it. For some reason this made it seem spookier than when it had
just been an undefined glow. As the dust settled down around the
car and Jill bounced from the passenger side Jim took a moment to
study the place he’d worked so hard to reach. When Jim actually
parked outside it he saw that he had been partially wrong.

It wasn’t what he expected. He thought they
were coming to some place far off in the woods somewhere not an
actual house. What stood before him would’ve almost been livable if
not for the fact that half of its upper floor seemed to have been
burnt away at some point. The house was fronted by three frames
where windows must’ve once been. Above these was an overhang that
brought to mind cool summers sitting in the shade but was now
nothing more than dirt and decay. Above that, as he saw when he
first arrived, was what was left of a second floor. The part that
was still standing had one blackened window looking out into the
night. He looked over at the burnt part but saw something move out
of the corner of his eye. Something had moved in the window. He saw
nothing there a second ago, but as soon as he’d turned his head
he’d seen something. The creepy crawly sensation of being watched
settled over him again. He strained his eyes trying to pierce the
darkness but after a few moments gave up. It was just too dark for
him to see anything. Shaking his head he noticed Maria standing on
the front porch waiting for him.

He couldn’t figure out why she’d sent Jill
here. His mother said Tommy was killed in the woods not in a house.
Maybe was here just before he died or something and that was why
Jill was here. He could see Jill’s car parked off to the side of
the house but there was no sign of Jill. If it’d been him he
would’ve rushed outside to see who’d arrived. He’d at least want to
know whether it was friend or foe. But there was nobody except for
Maria.

Well, no Jill but at least now he was sure
she’d made it out here. He’d been worried at some points that maybe
she hadn’t come and the whole thing would be a wasted trip. What
made it worse was the place was so hard to find. He’d grown up here
and thought he knew the location of all the old houses still
standing around town but this one was a new one for him. If he
hadn’t known it was here then nobody else did either. All the more
reason to get Jill and get the hell out of here, he thought as he
hurried towards where Maria was waiting.

“Isn’t it spooky out here?” she said greeting
him as he approached. “I just love it. Sometimes I think I can do
anything out here.” She sounded a lot happier than she had a few
minutes ago and what was all this about doing anything out here.
Had she been here before? He was glad she’d gotten over the
scolding he’d given her earlier but she was sounding kind of
strange. She sounded bubbly, excited even. Not exactly what you
would expect when coming to the place someone was murdered. Then
again it was Maria. She wasn’t exactly a normal type of person.

“Yeah,” he said instead of what he was
thinking “let’s just find Jill and get out of here.” He didn’t know
if he liked the happy Maria or the skulking one instead. Either way
he wanted to be gone.

“But Jim, this place is perfect,” She purred
sweetly in answer. “We can do whatever we want and nobody will ever
know.”

He found he was having an easier time seeing
things the closer he got to the doorway. The light coming from
inside was making things a lot brighter. By its light he could see
the smile that was slowly spreading across her face as she slowly
rubbed her one hand over her breasts and the other snaked its way
towards her groin.

“I thought we already went over this,” he
said shakily. He wasn’t attracted to her but he was also a man. He
couldn’t deny that what she offered was tempting but then he
thought of the perverse pleasure she seemed to take in everything
going on lately and how difficult she’d been about bringing him
here. Just that made it easy to resist her spell.

“We are here to find Jill and then leave,” he
growled.

“Oh come on,” she cooed. “She could even join
in if you wanted.”

“Damn it, I said no! Why the hell can’t you
listen?”

“Cause I’m not hearing the right
answers.”

“Well, that’s the only answer you’re going to
get.”

“You sure about that?” she asked sliding a
hand down her pants.

“Yes!” he said breathing heavily. She really
needed to stop what she was doing. She was distracting him from
what they’d came to do. Jill was somewhere inside and he needed to
find her. What would he do if she came out while Maria was putting
on her little show? How would he explain that? They just needed to
do what they came to do and leave. But the nymphomaniac couldn’t
take no for an answer.

“Look let go get Jill and get out of here,”
he said. “I’ll take you home and you can do your thing there by
yourself.”

“You don’t sound too sure of yourself Jimmy.
Sure you don’t want some before we go find little Jillykins?” She
pulled her hand from her pants and raised it to her lips licking
her fingers.

“I’m sure,” Jim said.

“Last chance,” she said huskily sliding her
hand back down.

“Stop! Just stop!” he yelled. “I know you’re
a damn whore so just stop shoving it in my face. Let’s just get
Jill and get out of here. You can finger yourself silly when you
get home if you want, I don’t care. Just do what you said you’d do
and that’s it. Nothing else. After that we’re done.”

By the glow of from the house he could see
her face turn from sensuous to pouting. He hoped this wasn’t a
return to her earlier state. If that was the case they’d never get
out of here. She just might make them stay here out of spite.

“Fine. Have your way,” she said as she turned
and walked through the door.

Left unprepared Jim could only stand there
looking at the place she had been. He’d expected some kind of
argument or at least another attempt at seducing him but instead
she’d given up. It had to be some kind of ruse. She hadn’t given up
that easily before so why would she now. And where in the hell was
Jill? All this yelling you would think she’d have come running to
see what was going on but nope, no sign of her anywhere. Things
just weren’t right. Something was going on and he was missing it.
Maria had gone inside, presumably to pout, and with her went all of
his answers the most important of which was the whereabouts of
Jill. If he wanted to find out anything, he’d have to follow her
whether he wanted to or not.

Bracing himself he stepped through the door
and was quickly assaulted. The light was brighter on the inside
than he’d thought. He couldn’t see a thing after being in the dark
for so long. Before his eyesight even had a chance to clear he
started sneezing. The smell of vanilla, cinnamon and lavender was
so strong it almost knocked him off his feet. As it was it felt
like walking into a wall it was so thick.

During his sneezing fits his eyes slowly
adjusted to the interior. Through his tears the first thing he saw
was candles. That explains the light and the smell, he thought.
Looking around he saw that there were candles of every shaped and
color positioned about the room on every surface that could
conceivably hold one and even some that probably couldn’t. Big fat
candles trailed up the stairs leading to the second floor, little
tiny candles were placed here and there between candles that looked
like everything from animals to cars. What was left of a chandelier
hung from the ceiling draped with long skinny candles dripping wax
down to the floor below. Through all this was a narrow path that
led to another room. Maria was nowhere to be seen so left with no
other option Jim slowly began to follow it.

While walking he thought he heard movement
overhead but when he stopped he heard nothing but the sputtering of
the candles of the dripping of wax. When he was only a few steps
from the corner that led to the next room he thought he heard
talking. It sounded like Maria but he wasn’t sure. It was too
quiet. Wanting to get to her and demand to know what was going on
he quickly covered the few remaining steps and stalked into the
next room.

What he saw was beyond his comprehension for
a few seconds. His heart dropped at the sight before him. He
couldn’t breathe.

“See, I told you he was coming!” Maria
cackled as he sputtered to regain his senses.

Maria stood on the far side of the room in
front of the fire place with Jill. But it was a Jill he barely
recognized. Gone was the perfect country girl look. Gone was the
friendly smile that he’d grown to love. Gone was everything that
made her recognizable to him. Instead he saw her strung up, hands
above her head tied to a rafter in the ceiling. Her head rolled
from one side to the other as Maria batted it back and forth. There
was a string of drool hanging from her mouth. Her clothes had
pretty much been torn from her body. Her shirt had been ripped open
and was hanging in tatters that barely covered the parts of her
that Jim had only dreamed of seeing. Her pants were still on but
they had been ripped. There were also dark spots on them he was
sure was blood. His earlier thoughts of Maria having done something
returned. He wished he’d brought some type of weapon but he hadn’t
been expecting anything like this when he’d come to find Jill.
Nobody would’ve expected something like what he was looking at.

“I told you she could join in,” Maria said
seductively as she groped Jill’s chest. “I offered to share you
with her but she said no. She wanted you all to herself. I couldn’t
allow that.”