The Jersey Devil (12 page)

Joshua said, “I figure we have one chance. For some reason, the Devil and its kin wants you folks just as much as you seem to want it. So, we're going to give them a chance to meet your acquaintance. Maybe when they see what we've done, they'll be of a mind to let us be.”

“You can't be serious!” Bill said. He moved to get closer to Joshua and was jabbed in the side by the butt of Ernie's shotgun. He dropped to a knee.

Shit, that hurt!
His kidney felt as if it had ruptured.

“You'll make fine scarecrows. Except instead of keeping the scavengers away, you're gonna bring them right to where they want to be.” Joshua motioned to the others. “Go on, tie 'em all up.”

The moment they started to protest, Joshua fired a shot over their heads.

“Anyone wants to put up a fight, I'm happy to convince you otherwise,” he said.

Sam Willet couldn't believe this was happening. Ever since they'd stepped into the Barrens, it was like waking up in the middle of a nightmare. A pair of teens, a boy and a girl, roughly grabbed his arms, pinning them at his back while they worked the rope around his wrists. They tugged it so hard it hurt.

“This is what you're teaching your family?” Sam said. He watched his own family and Norm succumb to the heavily armed group. His blood boiled. “How to murder innocent people?”

Chris removed his sweaty bandana, wiping his face with it. “Come on now, you're all human, and we know there isn't a man or woman alive that's innocent.”

He heard the heavy knocking of wood. Sam turned to his left to see another contingent of Joshua's family pounding what looked like six-foot stakes into the ground. How many of them were out here?

“We didn't know the Jersey Devil had spawned so many of those things and we had no way of knowing they would kill your livestock!” Sam grumbled. “We were just defending ourselves.”

Joshua shook his head. “But you came out here to stir things up. It's not my fault you're too stupid to know when to stay away.”

“You can't do this!” Carol said.

“But yet we are,” Ernie replied, tying her ankles together.

Ben had kept silent, giving no resistance until he threw an elbow at the older man who was busy cinching a knot around his waist. The man clasped his nose and went down, blood gushing between his fingers.

With all eyes on Ben, April lashed a kick at the kids by her feet, sending one sprawling into the grass. With her hands tied behind her back, she ran into the woman working on Daryl, driving her head like a charging bull into the woman's stomach.

Daryl and Bill reared back, trying to smash their heads into the people behind them. Daryl slipped, missing his mark and falling on his back.

Bill made the connection, but it was a glancing blow off Chris's shoulder.

Joshua stormed over to Carol, jamming the shotgun under her chin. “Enough!” he commanded. Carol yelped, the barrels still hot from the warning shot he'd fired before. “One more person tries to show they got balls and I'll take her goddamn face off. You all hear me?”

Sam's legs quivered. The fight was immediately taken out of all of them.

“All right. This shows you're not entirely stupid,” Joshua said.

The rest of the work was done silently and with frightening efficiency. Sam would swear they'd lashed people to stakes before.

He had to try to appeal to their humanity. The man was scared, worried about his family, his land, their legacy. He could understand that.

But to be so terrified that you would sacrifice seven people to beasts like the Jersey Devil? For all the silence that had shrouded the myth in recent years, something far more sinister had been brewing under the surface.

“What makes you think leaving us out here for those Devils will get them to leave your family be?” Sam said.

An older woman with oily salt-and-pepper hair, wearing overalls and heavy work boots, looked up at him and replied, “We know that offerings have worked in the past. Give the Devil its due, and it moves on.”

Sam sucked in a deep breath as Joshua and another man roughly dragged him to the stake. Three children, all of them towheaded with cheeks stained green from being in the grass, began the work of lashing him to the stake.

“I know exactly what you're talking about,” Sam said. “But that was in the past. What's happening now is different.”

“And how would you know that?” Chris said. He had April's arm in his dirty hand, leading her to the stake next to Sam.

“I used to live here, over in Tabernacle, back long before you were born.” He looked to the couple that was maybe a decade younger than him. They stopped what they were doing. “I saw the Devil with my fiancée, pretty close to where you found us. I know what it's like. It took my woman from me, ripped her right off the blanket where we were having our picnic. We didn't find her until the next day.”

Sam noticed his family staring at him. He'd hinted at what had happened over the years, but never divulged the entire story.

This is probably your last chance
, he thought.

“We formed a search party that night, but couldn't find a trace of her. I thought for sure I'd never see her again. Once you've seen the Devil up close, you can't imagine anyone surviving direct contact with it. The look in its eyes alone is enough to kill a man. It wasn't evil, so much as it was the absence of anything decent or natural. My Lauren spent twelve hours with that beast from hell, and she was never the same again. Spent her whole life wishing she could remember what happened, but maybe not knowing was a blessing. She tried to get past it, move on with her life, but I lost the best parts of her that night. I think I pretty much lost the same parts of myself, too.”

He was looking down at his feet, picturing that night, the way the Devil swooped from nowhere, the size of a man with the wings of something prehistoric, that awful goat's face and whipping tail. How Lauren had screamed, him frozen with fear, only moving when it was too late, as the Devil wrapped its arms around her waist and carried her off, her screeches fading and fading until she was gone.

He wept for Lauren as openly as he had the day she passed.

When he looked up, everyone had stopped what they were doing.

“When we took her home,” he continued, “her family's neighbor told us what to do. We tethered a lamb in the field outside her house, cutting it so it would make enough noise to attract the Devil. I listened to that animal bleat for hours, until my mind just shut down. When I woke up in the morning, it was gone.”

Joshua approached him, studying his face.

He said, “And did the Devil ever return?”

Sam shook his head. “No. That was the last we saw of it. Lauren and I left not long after, but her family stayed. They never heard or saw it again.”

There was more to tell, but not here, not to these people. It wasn't going to be necessary. For the first time since the Pineys had grabbed hold of them, they were listening.

Joshua said, “Well, then you more than anyone can appreciate why we're doing this.”

“Son, what's out there right now is nothing like what happened to me and my wife. That's not just the Jersey Devil. It's a legion of death. Something's not right about them. How long have they been prowling around?”

Ernie said sharply, “Don't tell him, Josh. What's the point?”

Joshua considered it, scratching under his cap. April looked ready to open her mouth but Sam shut her down with a quick look.

“It's been a couple years,” Joshua said, flexing his shoulders. “We've all heard them passing by, but we hadn't seen any until today. Other folks have, though. We may look like we're in the ass end of nowhere, but word still travels. When they come, they're like locusts. Sound like 'em, too. I've heard tales of Devils that look . . . different. Some people think they've multiplied to equal the sins we commit to one another and the earth. That's a lot of holy roller preacher crap that I don't buy into.”

Sam said, “I don't know what's changed, but I get a very strong feeling that the old stories and rules don't apply anymore. If we hadn't fought back last night, we'd have ended up like your cows. Like my son said, we can replace your livestock. Hell, if you let us go, I'll take you to my farms and let you take your pick, plus ten more.”

“We set you free, and you'll just run off, leaving us here with nothing and no place to go,” the greasy-haired woman said.

“No, I promise you we won't. In fact, if you agree to watch over my grandson over there, he'll stay with you until we hunt these things down. You want to be truly free out here? Then let us take care of the problem.”

“I am not staying here with these people,” Daryl shouted, struggling to get his hands free. Chris and another man each grabbed an arm and pulled until he grunted with pain.

“You'll do what I ask you to do,” Sam said. He didn't want to be harsh to the kid, but he had to show Joshua he was strong in his convictions.

“I'll stay in his place,” Norm said.

Sam ignored him. He knew that Norm wouldn't be the proper bargaining chip. “What do you say? I leave my kin with you, trusting you'll keep him safe. When this is all done, you'll get everything you lost and more.”

Joshua put his hand on his hips, looking up at the sky. No one spoke. Surely the man heard the raw honesty in Sam's words. What he was offering was incomparable to having the blood of seven people on their hands, without knowing for sure it would even change a thing.

“And what if you fail? What if those Devils get you like they got my cows?” Joshua said.

“They took us by surprise once,” Ben said. “It won't happen again. I packed for every eventuality.”

There was a cold reassurance in his grandson's voice that even gave him pause.

“We won't stop until we're done,” Sam added. “There's a very good reason why, but it's something I don't feel needs to be shared. You believe your land is tainted. My bloodline has been affected just the same, if not more. I have to end it, now.”

To his surprise, the greasy old woman barked, “Cut them loose. It's a square offer. We'll hunker down until they come back for their kid.”

Daryl came to him rubbing his wrists. “Boompa, you can't do this to me. You guys need me out there.”

He smiled at his grandson. “I'll feel better knowing you're safe. Someone has to do it, and you're better with people than anyone else in the family.”

Daryl narrowed his gaze at him. “So you want me to stay because I'm a people person?” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “You think I'm the yokel whisperer or something?”

Sam saw the sarcastic glint in Daryl's eye and wrapped his arms around him. “I think you're the one who can put a bright spin on just about anything. Plus, you get first crack at these things if they come back this way.”

“You're gonna realize you need me out there, old man. Who else will carry your sorry butt around when your bunions act up?”

“I'll leave that for Norm,” he said with a wink.

A fluttering shadow tearing across the field caught his eye. Sam looked up, searching the blue sky.

“Anyone else see that?” he said.

The two families looked around, scanning every square inch of their surroundings. The nearest trees were hundreds of feet away, so they weren't in imminent danger of something swooping down on them from above.

Still, there was something about the bulk and speed of that shadow that didn't seem right.

“I thought I saw something going from east to west, but I didn't get a good look at it,” April said.

“Same here,” Chris said, his shotgun pointed at the sky.

It was strange, Sam thought. Just a few minutes ago, these Pineys were going to string them up for Jersey Devil food. Now here they were united against a common enemy, but only because he had promised them something in return for their freedom.

“Why don't we get the kids to the house,” Joshua said. “And you, too.”

“Daryl.”

“Right, Daryl.”

It hurt Sam's heart to leave Daryl behind, but he knew it was the right thing to do. Carol lost her battle to hold back tears, pulling him into a tight embrace. She whispered something in his ear, but he couldn't hear what she'd said.

The Piney family headed back to the house in the distance. Joshua and Chris waited for Daryl. “Come on, I don't want to be out here any longer than I have to,” Chris said.

“You have to at least let us say good-bye to him,” April said, wrapping her arms around her brother's neck. She gave them a defiant look that made them quickly look away. “Don't be your usual smartass self,” she said. “Just stay safe.”

“Yeah, whatever,” he said, though with a smile.

It was Ben who cut their farewells short.

“Something's moving in the grass,” he shouted, pointing to a spot ahead of the departing family. “It's coming right at them.”

Sam squinted to see the undulating, knee-high grass. It looked like rippling waves fanning out before an approaching shark. His spine stiffened, his hands gone cold.

“Ernie, in front of you!” Joshua screamed.

Before anyone could react, one of the women hollered as if she'd been burned by a blue flame.

It was the woman with the greasy hair.

“Mom!” Joshua shouted, running toward her.

The woman slipped out of sight for a moment and the squeal of the children was enough to jangle even the hardest nerves.

When she came back into sight, she was in the clutches of a creature straight from the bowels of hell.