The Noxious Neighbors Part 4
Two of the people in cloaks have dragged the girl over to the bald man and have thrown her to his feet. She is trying to scream but the gag in her mouth refuses to let the sounds carry beyond her lips. Everything is moving slowly. PB is seeing it all before him but his mind denies that it is happening. He refuses to except that he is witnessing a murder.
The bald man has begun to chant again and the circle around him is repeating the words. The girl lies at his feet, her hands tied behind her back, her head twisting left and right in terror. The bald man screams the words at the moon and the dagger reappears from his cloak. The girl stares up and she no longer moves, she can only watch the flames reflect off the blade.
PB is running towards a tree by the cliff ledge and before he realizes it he’s ripping a low limb off the trunk. It comes off easily but it is long and heavy and he throws the newly freed limb on to his shoulder and turns back towards the fire. He is not in a panic because everything is still moving slowly. The cloaked figures are still chanting, they do not notice his approach.
He drops the limb from his shoulder and lets it drag on the ground as he closes in. He can see now that the cloaks are dark crimson, not black like they had appeared from the bush. The only faces he can see clearly in the fire light are those of the bald man and the girl on the ground. The bald man has the dagger in both hands and has raised it above his head, the blade looking down at the girl hungrily. PB is running now, ten feet away from the circle, the tree limb lifting off of the ground.
He hits two of them with one swing, the branch smacking them across the back of their hoods. They are falling over each other and PB enters the circle through the hole. He doesn’t know if he’s going to make it out, all he wants to do is hit the bald head with the branch. He lunges forward and swings the branch above his head. His momentum is unstoppable.
The eyes of bald man have shifted in PB’s direction and he is no longer chanting. PB brings the tree limb around and let’s go, the heavy end propelling towards the clean cranium that shines in the fire light. The bald man ducks and shifts out of the way and PB is cursing. He feels someone on his heels and swings the branch around, catching another cloaked member in the chest. Crimson cloaks are fluttering around everywhere. The smoke from the fire is mixing with the dust and PB is swinging the tree branch wildly.
“Let’s go!” he screams at the girl.
She is rolling on the ground but can’t get up with her hands tied behind her back. PB realizes this and curses again. There is distance between he and the hoods now and he lets the branch fall as he reaches down and grabs the girl under her armpits. She’s surprisingly light and the adrenalin in PB’s arms has her hoisted up on her feet in one toss.
“Run God damn it!”
She is not listening or moving, she is watching one of the cloaked men come towards her. He’s huge, with hulking shoulders that are stretching the cloak around his wide neck. PB sees him too now and snatches the tree limb from the ground as the big man bares down on them. PB is in a half crouch and he has just enough time to swing the branch up and crack the end of it across the giant’s face. The hood has flown off with the blow and PB watches the eyes go dumb on the wide face as the big man falls back onto the bloody rock.
PB and the girl are running for their lives now, flying off the edge of the field and scrambling down the rocks. The girl is quick and nimble, launching herself from rock to rock in her bare feet with her hands still tied behind her. They get into the canyon and PB’s breath is solid, burning his lungs like he’s breathing ammonia. He doesn’t notice that the gag has worked its way out of the girl’s mouth.
“Diablo!” she screams “Diablo!”
The have reached the road and even with the adrenalin pumping PB feels his legs turning to rubber. He is almost to his car and realizes he’s lost the girl. He turns around and can see her down the street, running in the opposite direction. He gets in the car and rips out of the gravel and dirt onto the road, determined to snatch the girl and escape with both of their lives.
He has her in his headlights until she runs off the shoulder and into the trees beyond. PB jumps out of the car with the motor on and chases her. Its pitch black under the trees and he stops in his tracks, trying in vain to spot her. He stands still and listens but it’s only his heart beat in his ears.
He hears the sound of his car’s motor as it accelerates and drives off. He runs to the road but the car is long gone and all he can see is empty asphalt in the faint moonlight. He has no choice but to walk the way he came and he scans the shoulder for cloaked figures, wishing he still he had the tree branch.
The sun is coming up when he gets within a block of the apartment. Instead of going home he catches a bus and makes his way to the police station were he goes inside and announces to the woman behind the glass that: “My car was stolen and I almost witnessed a murder.”
Two uniformed officers are summoned, Officer Timmons and Officer Schelznek, and after doing a brief interview they drive PB up into the hills to the place where that morning’s fracas had occurred. PB leads the two men up through the canyon and over the rocks to the field above. There is nothing but trampled grass and the black mark of dead bon fire.
“You say they killed a goat?” Officer Timmons asks.
“Yes. Right there. The guy got its blood all over this big flat rock.”
“What rock?” asks Officer Schelznek.
“I don’t know. It’s gone now.”
All three men climb back down to the road and the police officers drive PB to his apartment where, after getting the model and make of his stolen car, they leave him. PB watches them drive away and he is exhausted. He walks back towards his apartment, the idea of his bed the only thought in his head. He is almost to the gate when the screaming begins.
To be continued in Part 5.
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