Nico issued a powerful resounding whistle. This had been the signal for assembly long before the gang had even heard of lycanthropy. The humor was not lost on them though. Pipsqueak loped toward the sagging picnic table panting and whining, his tongue hanging out.
“We’re ahead of schedule,” Nico explained as the bikers all settled in at the table. “Never hurts to be ready for plans to go south though.”
“What’s the plan now, Chief?” asked Aura.
“On Devil’s Night, we pile up some furniture and whatnot. Make a bonfire, just before dark.”
Rhino alternately spun his knife on the table and flipped it in his hands.
“Everybody but me and Jiggy goes wolf. Hobie and Rhino will patrol out around the road.” Nico pointed toward the area where the trees opened up onto the driveway. “I don’t see how anybody could find us, but better safe than stupid.”
“But first…” He lit a joint, drew from it, passed it. “We bring back my Ruthie. The ritual calls for ‘heightened emotions.’ If any of you wanna couple or triple up, whatever, that’ll help.”
Looking at Aura, Nico made a sweeping gesture, like she could take them all on and he would be fine with that.
“Killing the little girl in front of the big one will bring things to a boil. A little torture beforehand will help. I’ll handle that myself.”
Aura glimpsed toward the bedroom where Candace and Jill were held and saw the captives watching them. Jill raised both middle fingers.
“Pip, you’ll read the spell while I skin the punker bitch. Anybody who’s not banging can help me put Ruthie’s bones in the fresh flesh. Once she’s good to go, the party really starts.”
“We wolf out and feast on fat townies!” Pipsqueak clapped once.
“All but me and Jigs.” Nico motioned toward the row of motorcycles. “Somebody’s gotta drive.”
“You ain’t gonna go beast, Chief?” Aura asked.
“I’m gonna go beast all right,” Nico said. “On Ruthie.” He made a thrusting motion with his hips, drawing approving murmurs from the boys. “It’ll be reunion night for us. But don’t y’all worry. We’ll be right there with you, drinking up blood and good times.”
“It’s only for a minute, fella.” Stuart scratched Bravo’s cheeks and let the dog lick his face.
“Hey, it’s your first French!” quipped DeShaun.
“Har…dee…har.”
As soon as Stuart rose, the dog strained at the leash, pointing his nose east, whining, imploring the boys with his eyes.
“I hate it when he does that.”
“Poor guy,” lamented DeShaun. “My mom is talking about trying to get him some doggy sedatives, or something.”
“Maybe my brother can spare a gallon or two of his precious whiskey to help him out.”
DeShaun patted his friend’s shoulder. “Come on.”
They went inside and searched for Jill, conscious now of the innocuous door leading down to the town secrets; a portal to another dimension.
“Let’s just ask for her.”
They went to the window to check on Bravo, found him still yearning and yearning.
“She didn’t come in today, boys,” Mrs. Washburn told them at the counter. “I tried calling but there’s no answer.” Mrs. Washburn knitted her brow. “So unlike her.”
The boys now felt as anxious as Bravo. “I got a weird feeling,” Stuart said.
“Maybe she’s just, you know, too upset,” offered DeShaun.
“No,” Stuart said. “Remember that mutton-chopped douche yesterday?”
DeShaun did, and it worried him.
As they went outside to get Bravo, Stuart walked to the corner of the building, examining the windows outside the storage room where Jill had taken them.
“Dude. Tell me you’re not thinking about…” DeShaun clammed up as a couple of ladies walked by and baby-talked Bravo.
“Miss Stella was pretty adamant about us getting that info,” Stuart muttered.
“Yeah, but…” DeShaun smacked his forehead. “The son of a sheriff’s deputy. Breaking and entering. My butt would literally be reduced to charred hamburger. Why don’t we just tell my dad about this? Or Yoshi?”
“Don’t you think they’ve got a lot going on right now?” Stuart reasoned. “And what if Reverend McGlazer fell off the wagon or something, like my stupid brother? If everybody found out, he’d be ruined.”
“You’re trying to kill me at a young age, aren’t you, butthole?” DeShaun deadpanned. Bravo whined and tugged his leash. “You too, Bravo!”
“We’ll plan it out and come back tomorrow night,” Stuart said.
DeShaun held his hands out in a frame toward the ground. “Here Lies DeShaun Lott. Taken Too Soon. Thanks To a Butthole Named Stuart. See Adjacent Stone.”
* * * *
McGlazer pulled Stella to his side, placing a gentle, assured hand on her lower back as he guided her out the church’s rear door.
The sky was a white sheet of sun and thin cloud cover. The wind and its smell of crumbling leaves was a familiar cloak of fall Stella accepted upon her shoulders for the first time of the season, as if from her gentleman escort while they awaited a coach for the opera house.
“What’s out here?” she asked McGlazer. Instead of answering in words he made a show of closing his eyes and drawing in the autumn scents.
He led her around the corner of the building, where she rarely had cause to venture. The wooden slab flooring of the lawn shed had been pried up and leaned against the church wall. The subterranean rock stairway beneath seemed too black, as if refusing to receive the daylight.
Stella willed herself to see into the dark, but the dark willed differently. Stella knew it was best not to bet against the dark.
“Shall we?” McGlazer said, gently pulling her along. Stella squeezed his hand and stopped. “What’s down there? I didn’t know…”
“Oh, it’s new to me too,” he reassured. “Don’t worry. There’s light.”
McGlazer drew a butane lighter from his pocket and sparked it as he led her down the time-polished steps. As he opened the narrow rough-hewn door, all she saw was his teeth.
Stella was alarmed that her first step over the threshold was much deeper than she expected—nearly a foot below. She didn’t feel so much beguiled now as dependent on the reverend to keep her safe from bats and spiderwebs. Could she depend on her own good sense to leave if things got too off-kilter?
McGlazer lit a dusty oil lantern resting on a crusty sconce on the wall to the side of the door. Wavering light bloomed out onto the room, which Stella found surprisingly larger than it should have been.
Stella’s attention was drawn not to a sight but to a sound; a shifting and shuffling. As she strained to see, McGlazer closed the door behind her.