The Devil's Demeanor (30 page)

“I think she
did. I came in the middle of it after using the bathroom, so I missed the
beginning.”

“Jesus Christ,”
Jordan muttered, causing Conner to chuckle. He almost always did when Jordan
cursed like that. Conner claimed it was because he always looked to the sky and
apologized to God every time. Jordan never noticed himself doing that, though.

“We should
break them up,” Conner offered, bouncing slowly.

“That sounds
mean.”

“She’s mean;
she deserves it. She’s like Grandma Yvonne.”

Jordan
shuddered thinking of
her
. They had met her when they turned six. Dad
never really had anything nice to say about his stepmom, and perhaps that
affected the way Jordan looked at her as well.

The back-porch
door opened and Samantha poked her head out. “Dinner!”

Jordan jumped
off the trampoline, starved. As much as he hated the woman, he loved her
cooking.

*
 
*
 
*

Jordan, Conner
and Samantha sat at the dining table, quiet as usual. The dining area was near
the front door and made Jordan feel like he was up on a stage in front of an
audience. This old house with its many steps and levels was in no way
wheelchair-friendly, but it had enough personality to get by.

Jordan looked
over at the fireplace and saw Dad in his office. He kept shouting to the kids
that he was almost done, just one more minute. Samantha had cooked some kind of
tuna pasta with green beans. Conner always put hot sauce on his, claiming that
it made the pasta taste unbelievable. Jordan decided to try it that way tonight
and was pleased with the results.

Dad finally
came up from the den, walking very slowly up those five steps like it was the
hardest thing ever. He looked exhausted, terrible. He sat at the head of the
table, as if watching over the family from a throne.

“Jesus, Donny,”
Samantha said from a seat closest to him. “You look awful. You shouldn’t work
so hard.”

“Noted,” he
replied as he tore into his food.

Jordan and
Conner glanced at each other before returning to their meals. Silence returned
as well. Jordan hated eating at the table, but Samantha encouraged it. She said
she wanted them to act like a traditional family.

But they
weren’t traditional. She was just Dad’s longtime girlfriend whom he refused to
marry or impregnate. And Jordan’s cousin was treated like a brother and son.
Perhaps Samantha was trying to impress upon Dad that she could be a good wife
and mother so that he would pop the question. She wanted him to think it was
his own idea even though she was subtly leading him in that direction.

The boys looked
at Dad, waiting for...something. Anything. After what Conner had said about
Samantha, Jordan was sure she’d grown tired of waiting for a real commitment.
He couldn’t blame her, but that didn’t mean he agreed, either.

“Look at us,” she
said, beaming at them all. “We look like a real family.”

Dad suddenly
stopped eating and stared directly at her. “Just like a real family,” he
agreed.

“But we’re not
a real family,” she added coldly. “Not yet.”

“And tell me,
what does make a
real
family?” Dad sounded emotionless and weird.

Samantha
swallowed. “A mother and father. Marriage.”

“So,” said Dad,
“if we were to get married, my kids would automatically become yours? Is that
what you’re saying?”

Samantha looked
at the boys. “No, but it would be a start. And if we had our own kids—”

“I don’t want
any more kids,” Dad interrupted.

Samantha looked
like she’d been slapped. “But, Donny, why—”

“We’ve talked
about this before,” he interrupted again. “Why do you look so surprised?”

Samantha looked
scandalized. She absently toyed with a napkin as her eyes darted toward
everyone at the table. “Don’t you love me?” she asked Dad in a near whisper.

“I do.”

“Then why are
you doing this to me?” she wailed.

“Doing what?”
Dad returned in kind. “What am I doing?”

“You make me
feel like some goddammed...”

“Slut?” Conner
supplied.

Samantha
flashed him a glare cold enough to freeze hell before continuing. “You won’t
marry me, you won’t have kids with me. What am I doing here if this
relationship is going nowhere? I feel like an intruder.”

“You’re
welcomed to leave.” That was all Dad would say.

If Samantha had
looked like she’d been slapped before, that was nothing compared to how she
looked now. Was she expecting a marriage proposal now? She looked close to
tears but managed to stay composed. She stopped playing with her napkin, stood
up, said “Fuck you” to Dad, and then walked out the door.

*
 
*
 
*

Samantha and
Dad broke up that very night. Though Jordan didn’t miss her, he did feel sorry
for her. She’d committed ten years of her life to nothing. She and Dad had
fought many times over the years, but this time felt like the final time. Now
that Samantha knew for certain where Dad stood on the subjects of marriage and
children, she no longer felt committed to the relationship.

She left within
the week, taking many things with her. The house actually looked significantly
different without her, prompting Jordan to realize just how much she’d
contributed to its interior design.

Every day at
school, Jordan paid more attention to all the couples than he had before. He
gauged the levels of love they showed, wondering how long they would last. Not
long, judging by some. Others would probably last through most of college.

When it came to
Erin and Travis, however, Jordan liked to think they were on the verge of a
break-up. Erin was a wonderful human being who deserved to be treated like a
goddess. Travis was a grade-A asshole. It made Jordan sick to his stomach
knowing they were together. But Erin was smart; she was with Travis for a reason.
If only Jordan could figure out what that reason was.

He sat in the
darkened English class, watching the tiny TV. The teacher, Ms. Randall, sat at
her desk, also watching. She’d put on some Tennessee Williams movie, an
adaptation of one of his books that the class had read the previous week.
They’d even written an essay on it. Jordan didn’t care, though; he liked
watching movies.

He felt a tap
on his shoulder and turned back to see Erin grinning at him.

“Your cousin
said something about camping this weekend,” she whispered.

Jordan groaned.
“
He
wants to go camping in the woods behind our house.”

“But you don’t
want to?” Her grin faded.

“Well...it’s
dangerous. People have died in there.”

“The Texas
Devil, I know. Conner wants to go looking for it. Sounds like fun.”

“
That
sounds fun to you?”

“I love
camping. I even have my own tent and sleeping bag. Don’t be scared; I’ll
protect you.”

Jordan was
about to smile until he suddenly thought of something. “Is Travis coming?”

“Well, he
overheard Conner and me talking,” she replied. “He wants to go too.”

“Of course he
does.” Jordan sighed.

“You don’t like
him, do you.” It wasn’t a question.

“He’s such a
jerk. How can you stand being with him?”

It was Erin’s
turn to sigh. “I know he is to other people, but he’s really nice to me.”

“Do you love
him?”

She looked at
him and said, “I do.”

She looked sad
to him, though. He couldn’t explain it, and he wanted to talk to her more, but
felt now was not the time. “I’ll talk to Conner about the camping thing. Don’t
tell anybody else, okay?”

“Deal.”

That night,
Jordan went looking for Conner but found him nowhere in the house. The light in
Dad’s study was shining through the fireplace, so Jordan assumed his father was
working again. Even so, Jordan felt alone in the house. He stepped out onto the
back porch and stared at the dark woods once again. He would soon be venturing
off into those woods with the girl of his dreams and her bastardly boyfriend.
Would it be worth it?

Obviously, Dad
could never find out about this. Jordan and Conner had three days to come up
with a good excuse for why they would be gone the entire weekend. Jordan felt a
little guilty leaving his father, considering what happened with Samantha. But
what could he do? He was only fifteen, and Dad was used to being alone anyway,
locked in his study.

Jordan climbed
onto the trampoline and bounced slowly. He felt like he was being watched, but
not from the woods.

He stopped
bouncing and sat down, the trampoline under him, and he felt like he was
sinking. He was about to climb off when he made the mistake of looking at the
stars. There were so many of them, so tiny and bright.

Jordan lay flat
on his back and simply marveled at that sky. He and Erin would look at this
same sky in a few days. He would do his best to pretend Travis wasn’t there—

Something
touched Jordan’s back.

He sprang to
his knees. He screamed and tried crawling off the trampoline, but then realized
that whoever or whatever was under it would probably grab him the moment his
feet touched the ground.

Instead, he
stood up, his breathing ragged. He walked around, fearing to stay in the same
spot for too long. He made his way toward the direction of the back porch,
wondering where Dad was. Dad had to have heard him scream.

Suddenly,
something pressed upward at the center of the trampoline. It looked like a
handprint, and it just kept rising. Up and up, until Jordan thought it might
rip through the material.

Jordan couldn’t
stand it anymore. He jumped off the trampoline and ran straight for the back
door without looking back. He nearly tripped on the patio steps when he heard
breathing right behind him, but he managed to stay on his feet, get inside and
lock the door.

And then he
made the mistake of looking through the blinds. It was instinct.

When he looked,
he saw a pair of bright, wet eyes staring straight at him. And then he passed
out.

“Jordan, wake
up.”

Jordan felt a
hand lightly tap his face. He opened his eyes and saw Dad kneeling over him.
The sun was rising, which startled Jordan. He’d been passed out on the floor
all night. The last thing he remembered was—

He jumped to a
sitting position, his heart suddenly racing. Those glossy eyes glaring at him
through the blinds. “Dad, there was something outside. It chased me.”

“What are you
talking about?” Dad looked wary.

Before Jordan
could reply, Conner came trotting down the steps from the kitchen. “What
happened?” he asked, a bowl of cereal in his hands.

“Where were
you?” Dad asked him, sounding a little angry.

“Upstairs.”

“All night?”

“Yes.”

“No, you
weren’t,” Jordan chimed in. “I was looking for you. I couldn’t find you
anywhere.”

Conner looked
at him, a deer caught in headlights. “I was probably in the bathroom. What’s
going on?”

He and Jordan
looked at Dad.

“I fell asleep
in my office,” Dad said. “I just woke up a minute ago and found Jordan passed
out right here. He said there was something outside. Did you see or hear
anything?”

“No,” Conner
replied. “Maybe it was a dog.”

Dad actually
flinched at that. Why?

“Are you okay?”
Dad asked Jordan.

“Yes.”

“Good. Get
ready for school, both of you.” He stood and looked through the blinds to the
backyard.

“Shouldn’t
Jordan go to a doctor or something?” Conner asked.

Without looking
back, Dad said, “He’ll be fine.”

The boys
showered, dressed and ate breakfast; Conner helped himself to a second bowl of
cereal. While at the table, Jordan asked, “Where were you? Really?”

Conner stared
at him for a moment before replying. “I was outside.”

“Doing what?”
Jordan felt a chill go down his spine.

“Hanging out
with a friend.”

“Were you in
the backyard?”

“Sort of. We
were out in the woods. We were scouting a spot to pitch the tents this
weekend.”

Jordan tilted
his head, studying his cousin. “Who were you with?”

Conner suddenly
grew very uncomfortable. “A friend.”

“Is this friend
going camping with us?”

“No.”

Jordan
continued to study his cousin before deciding to drop the subject. “You didn’t
see or hear anything last night?”

“We heard you
scream, but we were far away and didn’t know it was you, so we ignored it.”

“How did you
get back in the house?”

“I climbed up
to my window, since the back door was locked. Were you really passed out all
night down there?”

Jordan nodded.
“I don’t know what happened. I guess it’s possible to be so scared that you
pass out. Maybe I imagined it all.”

“Do you still
want to go camping?”

Jordan sighed.
“No, but I will anyway. Somebody has to keep an eye on you.”

*
 
*
 
*

On the way to
the bus stop at the end of the street, the boys saw crabby old Mr. Leper
standing on his front porch, staring at them as they passed.

“I hate that
old bastard,” Conner said, staring back.

“Dad hates him
too,” said Jordan. “He’s always watching everybody, or complaining about petty
things, Dad says.”

“I hate him
because he always stares at
me
.”

“You’re
paranoid.”

“I’m
attractive. He probably has a thing for little boys.”

Jordan laughed.
“He can be your sugar daddy.”

They laughed
together as they reached the bus stop. At school, Conner told Erin and Travis
about Jordan’s run-in with the Texas Devil last night. Jordan hadn’t even
thought of that as a possibility until the words were out of his cousin’s
mouth. He had thought the thing to be human, or at least humanoid. Or, in the
best-case scenario,
imagined
.

The news seemed
only to make Erin and Travis even more excited about the expedition to come.

As Jordan
walked from English to algebra, he saw none other than Diedre Marshall standing
just outside his math class.

“Hello, Mr.
Scott,” she greeted cheerfully. “Just the man I was looking for.”

Jordan smiled.
He liked being called a man by a beautiful woman.
 
Even if she was only using him.

“Did you talk
to your dad about the interview?”

“He said he
wasn’t interested.”

The reporter
tapped her chin with her index finger and chewed on her lip. Jordan could smell
her vanilla perfume once again. “I figured he’d say no. I really just wanted
him to know he’s still on my radar. I appreciate you asking.”

“Ms. Marshall,
why are you so interested in my dad’s past?”

She suddenly
looked at Jordan with renewed interest. “Did he say that? Does he think I’m
interested in his past?”

Jordan felt as
if he’d said too much. “Aren’t you?” he asked, hoping to fix his mistake.

She nodded.
“It’s interesting that his mind went there, though. Very interesting.”

Jordan saw his
class was only half full, but he needed to ask the reporter something while he
had the chance. “Ms. Marshall, did something happen to my dad when he was a
kid?”

Ms. Marshall
grinned. “A lot of things happened, young man.”

*
 
*
 
*

Jordan couldn’t
get his little talk with the reporter out of his mind as the day wore on. She
was interested in Dad, and not because of his occupation. Jordan hated thinking
there was some deep, dark family secret eluding him. He was almost tempted to
help the woman if only to satisfy his own curiosity.

But what if
that secret proved embarrassing or harmful to the family name? Jordan would
never forgive himself for airing the dirty laundry for the world to see.
Perhaps it was best to stay away from Ms. Marshall like Dad advised.

After school,
Jordan helped Conner gather the camping gear and hide it from Dad. Next, they
had to come up with a believable excuse for why they would be gone for two
days. They were spared when Dad told them he had to fly to New York to visit
his agent and that he would be back Sunday night.

Dad was gone
long before Jordan and Conner, along with Erin and Travis, made their way into
the woods Friday evening after school. Travis brought a tent for him and Erin,
answering Jordan’s unasked question about the sleeping arrangements. Conner
brought his high-definition camera Dad had bought him for his last birthday to
“document” the hunt for the Texas Devil. Jordan hoped Dad would never find the
footage; he would kill the boys if he discovered that they’d wandered into
these dangerous woods. Irony of ironies.

Conner took
them to the spot he’d scouted the other night. It was a small, round patch of
treeless land, though thin trees bordered the area. It was only five in the
evening, but it was already getting dark. The kids began setting up their
tents. The cousins’ was fairly small, and it would be cramped; Erin and
Travis’s was slightly larger and much newer-looking. Jordan could only imagine
what they would do in there. His face grew hot and red as his heart hammered
with jealousy.

*
 
*
 
*

The teens
started a small fire once it got colder and heated up hot dogs and marshmallows
on sticks. Erin had tofu dogs and patties that smelled quite good once cooked.
Then they discussed the best ways to go about searching for the mysterious
Devil. Everyone except Jordan was eager to begin right away, despite the
darkness. They had plenty of flashlights, and cell-phone reception was
excellent in case they needed to call for help.

It was eight
o’clock when the search began.

The group
decided to begin where the last victim had been found. The area was no
different from any other part of the woods, and there was no way to tell if
they even had the correct place. Conner assured the others that he knew where
he was going. His certainty made Jordan uneasy.

The group found
nothing there and so moved on to the next murder site, which was located near a
stream at the bottom of a slight rise. There they found what looked like animal
prints in the damp soil. There were also a few broken sticks near the tracks.

Travis found a
hole a few feet away from the stream. It was large enough to hold a man. Jordan
got a very bad feeling as he stared at the hole. It was at least six feet deep
and two feet wide. It looked like a vertical grave. Jordan shivered as the
explorers moved on.

After an hour,
the group returned to camp, dejected. Besides the weird hole and animal tracks,
they found nothing noteworthy. The night grew colder as the hour grew late. The
teens decided to call it a night shortly before midnight. Jordan and Conner lay
shivering in their tent; Jordan could hear noises coming from Erin and Travis’s
tent and he grew furious. He could imagine what the couple was doing next door.

Suddenly, he
exited his tent and walked a little ways to one side of the campsite. He stood
on rocks and sticks that poked through the soles of his sneakers, trying to
finish pissing as quickly as possible so that he could get out of the freezing
cold and into slightly less freezing cold.

He almost
didn’t want to return to camp. He didn’t enjoy knowing the girl he liked was
making out with her jerk of a boyfriend. Jordan decided he’d get blankets; he
wasn’t used to this much cold. Not to mention thunderstorms. He and Conner
would always become practically catatonic once the lightning and thunder came,
no matter how much older they got. Conner had even dug a hole in Jordan’s
closet to hide inside during such a storm; the two had been playing in Jordan’s
room at the time, but Jordan never said anything to Dad.

A branch
snapped somewhere ahead of Jordan, startling him. He stared into the dark but
saw nothing except trees. And then something moved.

*
 
*
 
*

Mr. Leper
watched from the shadows as Jordan Scott stood a few feet away, taking a leak.
The boy was staring right at him now. The old man had stumbled slightly,
possibly giving away his location in the woods. After a moment, however, Jordan
looked away. Then he started walking toward his house.

How many kids
were out here?

Leper had seen
four leaving the Scott house with camping equipment earlier. What were they up
to? Didn’t they know how dangerous these woods were? Did their parents know
about this? Leper doubted it, just as much as he doubted that anyone knew that
he was, in fact, the Texas Devil.

The nosy old
man stepped out of his hidden spot and headed in the direction Jordan had come
from. Soon he came across two tents in a small open area. One tent was quiet
and small; the other had some activity going on inside. These kids wouldn’t
know what hit them. He couldn’t wait to beat their brains in with a rock, cut
off their genitalia and throw the bodies in a hole. He would keep the genitals.

The quiet tent
was closest, and the flaps were slightly open, but he passed it by in favor of
the one with the activity. He started toward it, his hands and loins itching
for the girl—and maybe even the boy—he’d seen venturing into the woods earlier.
He had a feeling they were the ones that occupied this tent.

Before Leper
could get to the noisy tent, he was seized by the back of the neck and dragged
away.

The grip was so
tight he thought his neck would snap at any moment. He couldn’t even yell as he
watched the campsite grow farther away. He couldn’t see what had him, but he
felt like he was in the jaws of a wild animal.

No. It couldn’t
be.
He
was the Texas Devil, the crazy murderer who stashed his victims
in these woods. What had seized him now couldn’t be....

Leper tried to
look at his assailant but the grip on his neck prevented that. He reached back,
expecting to feel a muzzle, a jaw, but found what felt like a hand. A cold,
clammy hand. Was this thing like Bigfoot or something? Despite all these
thoughts going through his head, Leper was more terrified than he’d ever been.
He now knew what his own victims must have felt just before they died.

Deep down,
Leper
knew
he would not survive this night.

The pressure on
the back of his neck suddenly vanished. The old man was given the briefest
glimpse of his attacker before he found himself plunging headfirst into a hole
in the ground, a hole he normally would have dug himself, but he hadn’t dug
this one. Dirt was thrown in to fill the gaps, preventing Leper from moving an
inch. All he could do, while he waited to die from suffocation, was marvel at
the impossibility of what he’d seen. And as he sat there on his head, the blood
rushing to his brain, he laughed at the fact that he’d been buried upside down
in a hole. It was his own
modus operandi
.

Before he died,
he thanked whatever god that the attacker hadn’t ripped his genitals off of him
first.

*
 
*
 
*

Jordan woke to
sunlight in his eyes. He was in the den, sitting on the comfy gray couch. Rays
of light were filtering through the blinds at an angle, warming his face as he
leaned his head back over the cushion. He noticed he had a blanket draped over
him. He felt nice and comfortable there, though something nagged at the back of
his mind.

Then it hit
him. He was supposed to be in a tent, in the woods behind his house.

He threw the
blanket off and looked through the blinds. What time was it? He looked at his
watch and saw that it was a little after six in the morning. Why was he inside?

He tried to
remember.

He’d been
really cold last night, so he came back to the house to grab the blanket. He
could remember nothing after that. He must have sat down for a moment and fallen
asleep.