Nightrunners (8 page)

When I was three feet away, I started to push that thing at a trot, and when I hit
that cat,
what a sound, and I had my eye peeled on that mower chute, and for a moment
there was
green and then there was red with the green and hunks of ragged grey fur,
spewing out,
twisting onto the lawn.

For as
I knew, no one ever knew what 1 did. I just covered up the stump of the
cat's neck
real good and went on about my business. Later that evening when I was
finishing up, the
little shit next door came home and I could hear her calling out, "Kitty,
kitty, kitty," it was
all I could do not to fall down behind the mower laughing,. But 1 kept
a straight face, and
when she came over and asked if I'd seen Morris
—
can you get that,
Morris?
—
I said,
"No,
I'm sorry, I haven't," and she doesn 't even get back to her house
before she's crying
and calling for that little fucking cat again.

Ah, but so much for amusing sidelights, Mr. journal, I guess the point I'm trying
to make
is people get themselves tied up and concerned with the damnedest things, dogs
and cats,
stuff like that. I've yet to come across a dog or cat with a good, solid idea.

God, it feels good to say what I want to say for a change, and to have someone
like Clyde
who not only understands, but agrees, sees things the same way. Feels good to
realize
why all the Boy Scout good deed shit never made me feel diddlyshit. Understand
now why
the good grades and being called smart never thrilled me either. Was all
bullshit, that's
why. We Supermen don't go for that petty stuff, doesn't mean dick to us.

Got no conscience 'cause a conscience
isn't
anything but a bullshit tool to make you a
goddamned
pussy, a candy-ass coward. We do what we want, as we please, when we
want. I got this
feeling that there are more and more like Clyde and me, and in just a
little more time, we
new ones will rule. And those who are born like us won't feel so out
of step, because
they'll know by then that the way they feel is okay, and that this is a dog
eat dog world
full of fucking red, raw meat, and there won't be any bullshit, pussy talk
from them,
they'll just go out and find that meat and eat it.

These new ones aren 't going to be like the rest of the turds who have a clock to
tell them
when to get up in the morning, a boss that tells them what to do all day and a
wife to nag
them into doing it to keep her happy lest she cut off the pussy supply.
No,
no
more of that.

That old dog ain't going to hunt no more. From then on it'll be every man for
himself,
take what you want, take the pussy you want, whatever. What a world that would
be, a
world where every sonofabitch on the block is as mean as a junkyard dog. Every
day
would be an adventure, a constant battle of muscle and wits.

Oh man, the doors that Clyde has opened for me. He's something else. Just a few
days
ago I felt like I was some kind of freak hiding out in this world, then along comes
Clyde
and I find out that the freaks are plentiful, but the purely sane, like Clyde and me,
are far
and few
—
least right now. Oh yeah, that Clyde . . . it's not because he's so smart,
either.

Least not in a book-learned sense. The thing that impresses me about him is the
fact that
he's so raw and ready to bite, to just take life in his teeth and shake that
motherfucker
until the shit comes out.

Me and Clyde are like two halves of a whole. I'm blond and fair, intelligent, and
he's
dark, short and muscular, just able to read. I'm his gears and he's my oil, the stuff
that
makes me run right. We give to each other . . . What we give
is ...
Christ, this will
sound
screwy, Mr. Journal, but the closest I can come to describing it is psychic energy.

We
feed off each other.

Jesus fucking H. Christ, starting to ramble. But feel better. That writer's idea must
be
working because I feel drained. Getting this out is like having been constipated for
seventeen years of my life, and suddenly I've taken a laxative and I've just shit the biggest
turd that can be shit by man, bear or elephant, and it feels so goddamned good, I want to
yell to the skies.

Hell, I've had it. Feel like 1 been on an all-night fuck with a nympho on Spanish
Fly.

Little later Clyde's supposed to come by, and I'm going out the window, going
with him to
see The House. He's told me about it, and it sounds really fine. He says he's
going to
show me some things I've never seen before. Hope so.

Damn, it's like waiting to be blessed with some sort of crazy, magical power or
something. Like being given the ability to strike people with leprosy or wish Raquel
Welch up all naked and squirming on the rack and you with a dick as long and hard and
hot as a heated poker, and her looking up at you and yelling for you to stick it to her
before she cums just looking at you.

Something like that, anyway.

Well, won't be long now and Clyde will be here. Guess I need to go sit over by the
window, Mr. Journal, so I won't miss him. If Mom finds me
missing
after a while,
things
could get a little sticky, but I doubt she'll report her only, loving son to the parole board.

Would be tacky. I always just tell her I'll be moving out just as soon as I can get
me a job,
and that shuts her up. Christ, she acts like she's in love with me or something,
isn't
natural.

Enough of this journal shit. Bring on the magic, Clyde.

FIVE

Two midnight shadows seemed to blow across the yard of the Blackwood home.

Finally, those shadows broke out of the overlapping darkness of the trees, hit the moonlight and exploded into two teenagers: Clyde and Brian, running fast and hard. Their heels beat a quick, sharp rhythm on the sidewalk, like the too-fast ticking of clocks; timepieces from the Dark Side, knocking on toward a gruesome destiny.

After a moment the running stopped. Doors slammed. A car growled angrily.

Lights burst on, and the black '66 sailed away from the curb. It sliced down the quiet street like a razor being drawn across a vein, cruised between dark houses where only an occasional light burned behind a window like a fearful gold eye gazing through a contact lens.

A low-slung, yellow dog making its nightly trash-can route crossed the street, fell into the Chevy's headlights.

The car whipped for the dog, but the animal was fast and lucky and only got its tail brushed before making the curb.

A car door flew open in a last attempt to bump the dog, but the dog was too far off the street. The car bounced up on the curb briefly, then whipped back onto the pavement.

The dog was gone now, blending into the darkness of a tree-shadowed yard.

The door slammed and the motor roared loudly. The car moved rapidly off into the night, and from its open windows, carried by the wind, came the high, wild sound of youthful laughter.

SIX

The House, as Clyde called it, was just below Stoker Street, just past where it intersected King, not quite bookended between the two streets, but nearby, on a more narrow one.

And there it waited.

Almost reverently, like a hearse that has arrived to pick up the dead, the black '66

Chevy entered the drive, parked.

Clyde and Brian got out, stood looking up at the house for a moment, considering it as two monks would a shrine.

Brian felt a sensation of trembling excitement, and though he would not admit it, a tinge of fear.

The House was big, old, grey and ugly. It looked gothic, out of step with the rest of the block. Like something out of Poe or Hawthorne. It crouched like a falsely obedient dog.

Upstairs two windows showed light, seemed like cold, rectangular eyes considering prey.

The moon was bright enough that Brian could see the dead grass in the yard, the dead grass in all the yards down the block. It was the time of year for dead grass, but to Brian's way of thinking, this grass looked browner, deader. It was hard to imagine it ever being alive, ever standing up tall and bright and green.

The odd thing about The House was the way it seemed to command the entire block. It was not as large as it first appeared—though it was large— and the homes about it were newer and more attractive. They had been built when people still cared about the things they lived in, before the era of glass and plastic and builders who pocketed the money that should have been used on foundation and structure. Some of the houses stood a story above the gothic nightmare, but somehow they had taken on a run-down, anemic look, as if the old grey house was in fact some sort of alien vampire that could impersonate a house by day, but late at night it would turn its head with a woodgrain creak, look out of its cold, rectangle eyes and suddenly stand to reveal thick peasant-girl legs and feet beneath its firm wooden skirt, and then it would start to stalk slowly and crazily down the street, the front door opening to reveal long, hollow, woodscrew teeth, and it would pick a house and latch onto it, fold back its rubbery front porch lips and burrow its many fangs into its brick or wood and suck out the architectural grace and all the love its builders had put into it. Then, as it turned to leave, bloated, satiated, the grass would die beneath its steps and it would creep and creak back down the street to find its place, and it would sigh deeply, contentedly, as it settled once more, and the energy and grace of the newer houses, the loved houses, would bubble inside its chest. Then it would sleep, digest, and wait. "

Let's go in," Clyde said. The walk was made of thick white stones. They were cracked and weather-swollen. Some of them had partially tumbled out of the ground dragging behind a wad of dirt and grass roots that made them look like abscessed teeth that had fallen from some giant's rotten gums.

........

Avoiding the precarious stepping-stones, they mounted the porch, squeaked the screen and groaned the door open. Darkness seemed to crawl in there. They stepped inside.

"Hold it," Clyde said. He reached and hit the switch.

Darkness went away, but the light wasn't much. The overhead fixture was coated with dust and it gave the room a speckled look, like sunshine through camouflage netting.

There was a high staircase to their left and it wound up to a dangerous-looking landing where the railing dangled out of line and looked ready to fall. Beneath the stairs, and to the far right of the room, were many doors. Above, behind the landing, were others, a half dozen in a soldier row. Light slithered from beneath the crack of one.

"Well?" Clyde said.

"I sort of expect Dracula to come down those stairs any moment."

Clyde smiled. "He's down here with you, buddy. Right here."

"What nice teeth you have."

"Uh-huh, real nice. How about a tour?"

"Lead on."

"The basement first?"

"Whatever."

"All right, the basement then. Come on."

Above them, from the lighted room, came the sound of a girl giggling, then silence.

"Girls?" Brian asked.

"More about that later."

They crossed the room and went to a narrow doorway with a recessed door. Clyde opened it. It was dark and foul-smelling down there, the odor held you like an embrace.

Brian could see the first three stair steps clearly, three more in shadow, the hint of one more, then nothing.

"Come on," Clyde said.

Clyde didn't bother with the light, if there was one. He stepped on the first step and started down.

Brian watched as Clyde was consumed by darkness. Cold air washed up and over him. He followed.

At the border of light and shadow, Brian turned to look behind him. There was only a rectangle of light to see, and that light seemed almost reluctant to enter the basement, as if it too were fearful.

Brian turned back, stepped into the veil of darkness, felt his way carefully with toe and heel along the wooden path. He half-expected the stairs to withdraw with a jerk and pull him into some creature's mouth, like a toad tongue that had speared a stupid fly. It certainly smelled bad enough down there to be a creature's mouth.

Brian was standing beside Clyde now. He stopped, heard Clyde fumble in his leather jacket for something. There was a short, sharp sound like a single cricket-click, and a match jumped to life, waved its yellow-red head around, cast the youngsters'

shadows on the wall, made them look like monstrous Siamese twins, or some kind of two-headed, four-armed beast.

Water was right at their feet. Another step and they would have been in it. A bead of sweat trickled from Brian's hair, ran down his nose and fell off. He realized that Clyde was-testing him.