Strange Folk, page 27
“She’s somewhere very dark, like I saw in my dream. It smells musty, like a basement. And it’s cold.” He looked up at them. “She’s really weak. I think there’s something really wrong with her.”
“Must be a cellar of some kind. Somewhere underground.”
Meredith went to the window and looked out on the backyard where she saw the small building they’d passed on their way in from the woods. She pointed it out to Redbud.
They decided to split up and search for an entrance. Redbud took the basement, and Meredith and Cliff headed for the guesthouse.
They frantically searched the place for some kind of secret door, though she wasn’t sure what that would look like in a house like this. Her only frame of reference were bookshelves masquerading as doors in gothic stories.
She and Cliff opened the last door and found a closet stacked with cases of exercise powders, including one that contained deer velvet. This was Dreama’s husband’s own witchy stash, though he probably wouldn’t have seen it that way. They knocked on the walls like they did in the movies, listening for hollow sounds.
She started to panic in earnest as she walked back to the center of the main room, having found nothing. Her thoughts were fragmenting, feverish. She took a few deep breaths like Redbud had instructed Cliff. She calmed. She saw Cliff standing there, looking to her for their next move.
“I want you to close your eyes and try to feel or see Mom. Whatever you want to call it. You might be able to if she’s close.”
Cliff did as he was told and stood there for a while. Meredith didn’t breathe.
“I think I can feel something.” He started to move, and she followed behind him as he took slow, steady steps around the room. When he’d made it to the opposite side, he stopped and took a step back. “It’s stronger here, but…” He took a step to the side, doubled back, and then took a step in the other direction. He stopped and opened his eyes. “Here. It’s strongest here. But it’s getting weaker.”
Meredith crouched down and frantically clawed at the floorboards, looking for some place to pry them up. When she finally found the hole, she split her thumb bringing it up and spilled blood on the sunken handle of the door.
It was dark in the opening. Meredith called down into the hole but received no answer. She turned around and climbed down the rungs quickly, nearly slipping on her way down. She hit the floor after only a few steps and the light activated, revealing her mother’s body on the floor.
She was pale and cool to the touch, and she didn’t stir when Meredith shook her. She tried picking her up and putting her over her shoulder to bring her up the ladder, but she was far too heavy. With each second that passed, Meredith became more panicked and incredulous at how she’d gone this long without knowing the basic methods of saving someone’s life.
The light above her shifted, and she saw Redbud coming down the ladder. She instructed Meredith to hold the bottom half of her mother’s body while Redbud pulled the top half up the ladder in front of her. It was rough going, but they eventually made it up with Cliff’s help.
Up above, Redbud checked Mom’s pulse and breathing as Cliff looked on in horror. She pressed her palms on Mom’s chest as she whispered an incantation that Meredith couldn’t quite hear. Then she put her mouth to Mom’s and filled her with breath. She did this a few times with tears in her eyes as Meredith stood at a distance and Cliff stroked Mom’s lifeless hand. There was no response.
Meredith thought of how cruel she’d been to her mother since they’d come to Craw Valley. She was supposed to be the one who saw the truth of her, the glorious strangeness and the strength beneath what others misunderstood and overlooked, and love her for it. Instead, she had resented and rejected her like everyone else.
She’d wanted to punish her for lying and for keeping the magic from her, and to have the freedom to change and evolve without her mother’s constant protection.
And now it all felt ridiculous.
Meredith steeled herself and knelt next to Mom’s body opposite Redbud. She took her hands and nodded at her to continue the incantation.
“Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,
Breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
Breathed into his nostrils the breath of life…”
As Redbud spoke, Meredith closed her eyes and quieted her mind. She visualized the roots snaking down and accessing the power in the land as Belva had shown her, and soon she could feel it flowing through her hands into Redbud’s.
She visualized her mother alive. She watched as a younger version of her ran around the yard with her and Cliff until she was sweat-soaked and gasping for breath. She imagined her calming, and her fresh, pink lungs filling and emptying perfectly once again.
Redbud was shouting now.
Meredith opened her eyes, and her mother lay there wild-eyed and wheezing for air. They sat there, suspended, as her breathing steadied.
“Oh, thank god,” she rasped. “I didn’t want to die.”
They all laughed, and then Meredith sobbed into her mother’s neck, something she hadn’t done since she was too young to remember such things. Mom weakly clutched her shoulders. In her touch, she could feel her mother’s love flooding her, warm and light like the heat had been turned on inside her body. This love knew her, and this knowing was a comfort that was truly freeing. She tried to send her own love back and gripped her tightly to make the transfer.
“I’m sorry I’ve been such an asshole,” Meredith said, pulling back.
Mom reached up and wiped a tear from Meredith’s cheek as she struggled to catch her breath.
“Oh, honey, it runs in the family. You get that honest,” Redbud quipped.
Lee chuckled hoarsely, and Cliff giggled, but Meredith didn’t join in. “I’m serious. I’m sorry I didn’t try to understand. I feel like I betrayed you.”
Mom put a shaky hand on Meredith’s arm. “No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have kept it from you. You were right to fight for it—look at how powerful you are.” She paused and took a deep breath. “No matter what happens between us, we will always have this.” She gripped her harder. “I will never leave you.”
Meredith carefully wrapped her arms around her this time, and in the shared space, she felt their worlds joining once again—not into the small, protected world that only they and Cliff had occupied, but into a new, open one that encompassed everything they’d discovered.
“We gotta move,” Redbud said, reminding them that they were still in Dreama’s guesthouse. Meredith and Redbud helped Mom up on either side, and they slowly walked her toward the door.
“Wait! We need to get Mama’s black book. It’s still down there,” Mom cried.
“I got it.” Cliff disappeared down the hole, and a few seconds later he was back, clutching the large book to his chest.
Belva seemed to regain her strength when she saw Mom hanging between them, and she got up, leaning on Luann for support. As they disappeared slowly into the woods, a fierce wind whipped against Meredith’s ears and blew through the trees, creating a rushing sound as thousands of branches rubbed together. When she opened her mouth, she could taste metal and blood. She looked back as the sound cascaded over the mountain and thundered like an invisible giant barreling through the woods, heading straight for them.
THIRTY-FIVE
LEE
A sliver of moon looked down on the clearing where four women stood with palms facing out at midnight.
There was no fire or bundle of herbs or wooden stake.
Only flesh and bone and blood.
Four generations of blood that rose and fell with each woman like the sawtooth silhouette of a mountain range, until they now stood here, ready to face their demons.
They listened to the snap and tread of someone coming down the path. Her hair glinted like stolen jewelry in the moonlight as she came into view.
Cliff saw that she’d come for the black book tonight. Now he was safely tucked away in the cabin with Billy, Kimmie, and Luann.
Dreama stepped carefully into the clearing and stopped at a distance like a bobcat studying its prey. That cold fire blazed in her eyes, and all cheerful pretense had been dropped.
There would be no more camouflage. They would lay themselves bare before the woods and its spirits tonight.
Dreama’s attention settled on Lee, who held the charred black book to her chest. “I’m here to take back what’s mine.”
“It’s not yours. It never was.” Lee held it tighter to her chest.
“It was abandoned and I gave it a new home. I used it far better than she ever did.”
Lee moved to slice back, but Belva put a hand on her arm. She’d promised she would let Belva try mercy first.
“Why, Dreama?” Belva asked.
Dreama didn’t turn toward Belva; instead, she fixed her gaze on Redbud.
“You killed my mother. The only person who ever gave a damn about me.” She took a deep breath. “I thought about hurting you for years. I would daydream about it when things were bad at the Shorts. It gave me something to work toward. When I was finally ready, I followed you to that motel we used to live at. I watched you go into one of the rooms, and I saw you were torturing yourself far better than I ever could. It didn’t feel right.” She pulled her gaze from Redbud and paced in front of them.
“I realized I’d been focusing on the wrong thing. I should have been investing in myself. So that’s what I did. I turned myself into someone worth a damn who could make Craw Valley a better place.” She smiled.
“I knew I’d have to get rid of people like Belva and her gatherings. It was all too public. It’s fine to use local superstitions as a bit of color, to set up a tour during Halloween or open a gift shop. But you can’t actually practice it out in the open. It looks backwards to outsiders. I had time on my side. Belva is old, and there was no one for her to pass on the tradition to. Redbud had destroyed herself, Billy’s a hermit, and you were gone. When she died, her work would die with it.”
She gestured at Lee. “But then you showed up out of nowhere. The last thing I planned for. I thought, Dreama, keep yourself together, she’ll only be here a little while. She hates this place. But then I dreamt of a future where you and your children would stay and continue the tradition.
“I had to discredit the work and scare you off, Lee. I had to make people think Belva was killing the targets of her spells. I couldn’t risk you taking over for her and getting in my way. And I’d been planning to get rid of those bastards. We couldn’t have a pedophile in our school. The scandal would ruin us. And TJ had it coming. He’s the one who got my brother into dealing. People don’t want to move to a place with a drug problem.
“When Meredith went missing, I thought damn, she’ll never leave now. I tried my own ways of finding her, but they didn’t work. And then you figured it out, Lee. Turned out Auntie Red still had a few tricks. I thought, this will be the nail in the coffin.” Dreama’s face went hard again.
“You were going to leave. No one else had to get hurt. But then Otis tells you he loves you or whatever he said and it all went to hell. I never thought you’d throw so much away over a man. Especially after what happened with your mama. Men are a means to an end, and anyone who acts otherwise is gonna end up sad and alone.” She now fixed her gaze on all of them. “I can’t let y’all get in the way of what I’ve started here.”
Redbud stepped forward as if to touch Dreama. “Honey, I’m sorry about your mama. I didn’t know it was her who was messing around with Hank. I didn’t want anyone to die. It was a big mistake, and I’ve paid for it.”
“It’s not about that anymore. This is about the future.”
Belva stepped forward as well. “Dreama, we’re family. We can help you.”
“Don’t talk to me about family. You abandoned me and Earl when Mama died. Let us live with those awful people. My brother would still be alive if it weren’t for you.”
“But those were your mother’s wishes. I was trying to respect her.”
“You know Mama was half crazy from that church and the moonshine by then. You should have fought for me. But you didn’t. Because you didn’t think I was special.”
Belva inhaled to protest, but this time Lee put a hand on her arm. She had allowed them to reason with Dreama out of their own guilt, and it hadn’t worked.
There would be no mercy for her tonight.
“Look, Dreama. You hurt an innocent man. You’re dangerous, and we can’t allow you to continue your work.”
“I’m not scared of you.”
Meredith stepped forward, completing the line. A pendant of wood blackened by lightning hung around her neck. The four women joined hands. “So be it.”
They closed their eyes and began to hum. The roundness of it was spiked at the edges, like a cocoon made out of razor wire.
Redbud opened her eyes, and they were inky with the desire to protect those she loved. “The woman who stands before us has used the power of the land to harm our community.”
Redbud’s voice was a gutting blade, and the women gritted their teeth against it. Meredith dug her heels deeper into the earth, and a glow built under the surface of her skin.
“She has killed two men and hurt a third. She has disgraced the Buck name. And she works every day to transform the land and the community so that she may wield its power only for herself.”
Meredith was nearly shimmering now, the power of the land drawing up through her and traveling through their hands like an electric current. Lee felt the primordial tingle in every cell.
Redbud chanted, “Blow out her light.” And the others responded louder and with more force, “Blow out her light!”
Redbud screamed, “BLOW OUT HER LIGHT!” and the others responded, “BLOW OUT HER LIGHT!” and then they were all screaming as one. “BLOW OUT HER LIGHT!”
Dreama’s amusement was replaced by apprehension. She drew inward, and her face was cold when she resurfaced.
Belva had told them the binding wouldn’t last forever, but it would allow them to get close enough to sever her connection to the land’s power permanently.
“This ain’t a fight you can win now, darlin’. Let’s work this out,” Belva said.
“You’ve always underestimated me.” Dreama turned toward the dark wall of woods to her left. A piece of the darkness broke from the murk and loped toward them.
The shadow looked like a copy of the one Redbud created all those years ago, but more Dreama-like in its essence. It came to a stop next to Dreama and loomed next to her with its flat, blank head turned toward the four women. It seemed to be under her control, with a form more solid than Redbud’s, like a nightmare set with gelatin, firm and horrifying.
Dreama nodded her head at the women, and the shadow lumbered toward them.
Belva met it in stride and pulled a handful of black powder from her pocket. A mix of Pallie’s grave dirt, gunpowder, and dried snake.
Belva chanted, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” She blew the grit into its face. A thick cloud formed around the creature. When it cleared, it was on its knees with its head down.
But after a moment, it started to rise again. It put a hand to Belva’s face, and she went down in a heap on the grass.
Meredith lurched forward to defend Belva. She took the creature by the shoulders, and as she made contact, a shot of leftover energy pulsed from her hands into the murky depths of it, illuminating its form like the sky during a thunderstorm. It hunched over and tried to regain its balance. Meredith placed her hands firmly on its back and delivered an even brighter light pulse, which brought it to the ground. As she crouched down to deliver a third blow, the thing twisted around and met her hands with its own. Darkness passed through Meredith; she flickered in the night like a lightbulb. Lee felt it blink through her as well, and she lost consciousness.
When she came to, Lee was on her back on the ground, still clutching the black book. She saw Meredith lying still a few feet away. She tried to reach for her, but she could barely move.
On her other side, the creature advanced on Redbud, who stood firm and strong before it. She reached out and grabbed its arm as if to share a memory, and Lee wondered what memory she would show. Maybe it would be powerful enough to remind Dreama of her humanity. The creature seemed intrigued at first, and its body went still in her grasp as if a moment from long ago played in its mind. But then the reverie passed, and the creature wrenched its arm out of Redbud’s grasp. She had no other defenses, and it swiftly struck her down.
Meredith stirred, but she struggled to get up. The creature loped over to her and kneeled next to her body. It leaned down to put its mouth over hers as Lee imagined it had done to Otis.
At the same time, Dreama walked over to Lee and attempted to pry the black book from her grasp. Filled with sudden adrenaline, Lee reached out and grabbed Dreama’s arm.
* * *
The land that stretched before Lee was unyieldingly flat and filled with dead trees twisted into unnatural poses. The ground was only empty, mole-colored dust. It was the type of gray day she remembered from childhood where the world felt lifeless. It was contagious, filling her with a heavy inertia. It was hard to move and hard to care about moving.
There was a small yellow house in the distance, and she willed herself to walk to it, propelled only by her stubborn will. As she got closer, she saw that its paint was graying, the roof sagged, and the window glass was shattered. Lee hadn’t been to Ruby Jo’s house since she was a child, but she still remembered it. Back then it was well-maintained and fastidiously clean. Ruby Jo was always in the kitchen, having inherited Belva’s cooking skills, if not her more magical leanings.
Lee stepped inside the house. The plaster was flaking off the walls, and the furniture was covered in mold and dust. There were gaps in the floorboards that Lee had to step over in order to get to Dreama’s old room. Inside, a ten-year-old Dreama crouched around a small fire that seemed to blaze without catching the rest of the house. Her palms were held up to it as if to warm them. When she saw Lee, her face went fierce and animalistic.
