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Campfire Story

Jeff Dosser

    Lil’ Kee, pulled up to the yellow framed house and slapped his Monte Carlo into park. He took a long drag on the grape Swisher and looked over at Peanut, a younger, thinner version of himself. Around them, the neighborhood was fading into shadow, the sun sinking below the pink tinted clouds on the horizon.
    “This is the place,” Kee said, climbing out.
    He gripped his down jacket tight against the wind, as he scanned the street. At twenty-four, Kee was already one of the top lieutenants in the Hoover Crips. Peanut, he had adopted as his right-hand man.
    Peanut hopped out the other side, cupping his hands, he blew on them.
    “Kee, I don’t understand why we doin’ this. Why don’t we just take’im an out an cap’em? This feels like some kinda Dr. Evil bullshit that’s gunna end up fuckin’ us over.”
    Kee smiled and ground the Swisher beneath his heel.
    “I got my reasons.”
    Peanut shrugged and followed him to the porch. Kee pounded on the plain white door until it cracked open and a teenage boy poked out his head.
    “What’ya want?” he asked, looking them up and down.
    Kee shoved the door open, knocking the kid aside and strode into the room. The walls had once been a shade of white, but years of greasy cooking and cigarette smoke had tinted them a faded yellow. A worn blue couch dominated the back wall, its sunken cushions covered by a holey yellow blanket.
    Between the couch and the fifty-two inch plasma, mounted on the opposite wall, a cigarette burned coffee table held up an array of beer cans and old Ebony magazines.
    The teen followed them in and disappeared into the kitchen.
    “I’ll get my mom,” he called over his shoulder.
    A tall woman with smooth, chocolate skin, and full lips came walking out, drying her hands on a torn, green towel. She considered them through her fake lashes.
    “Kee, I didn’t think you were coming tonight,” she said.
    Kee’s eyes scanned the room before he dropped onto the couch.
    “I come when I come. You got what I need?”
    The woman eyed Peanut nervously before disappearing into the kitchen and returning with a glass baby jar full of a thick, red liquid.
    She set the jar on the table. “Here it is.”
    Kee leaned back, his lips bowing into a smile.
    “Jasmine, that’s not the way this works. “
    He picked up the jar and swirled the liquid before setting it down.
    “If I don’t see it done, how’m I gunna know what I got?”
    Jasmine’s gaze shifted from Kee to Peanut before she spoke.
    “Ok, gimme a minute, “she said, and disappeared through the doorway.
    “What is that?” Peanut whispered. “Is that blood?”
    Kee looked up and nodded.
    Jasmine returned, a small girl, maybe five years old, in front of her. The girl was dressed in worn pink footies and clutched a stuffed rabbit to her chest. Her dark eyes darted between Kee and Peanut.
    Kee leaned forward, his smile large and bright as he drew a Barbie doll from his jacket.
    “See what I’ve got for you?” he asked. “You just have to help your mommy.”
    “Damn!” Peanut brushed a hand across his head and backed toward the door. “No way! I ain’t playin’ that kinda shit!”
    Kee shot him a hard look, the smile evaporated from his face.
    “Nigger, this ain’t whatever you thinkin’. Just sit your ass down.”
    Kee’s eyes bored into Peanut until he joined him on the couch. Then he turned back to the girl, his smile as genuine and fresh as if it had never left.
    “Hi...” Kee glanced at Jasmine, his brows arched.
    “Jada,” she said
    “Hi, Jada. I’m Kee. You’re mommy is gunna help me out and if you’re a good girl I’m gunna give you this doll. That doesn’t sound too bad does it?”
    The girl’s hand went to her mouth, and she peeked over her shoulder at her mother. Jasmine gave her a squeeze.
    “It’ll be fine baby, “Jasmine said, “it will only hurt for a second.”
    “See?” Kee said. “It’ll all be fine.”
    Jasmine pointed to the spot where Kee was sitting and gave him a nod of her chin.
    “Oh, “Kee said, hopping off the couch. She sat down and pulled out a medical bag from beneath the table. She opened the bag and withdrew rubber tubing, a twist of thin, clear hose and a needle. She drew up the girl’s sleeve and wrapped the tubing around her arm. Then she dipped a swab in alcohol and rubbed it across the inside of the girl’s arm.
    ‘Be brave, Jada, it will just be a tiny prick,” she said.
    Peanut’s squinted gaze drifted from the girl to Kee. Kee upheld a hand in silence.
    Jasmine stuck in the needle and took a baby jar from the bag. Crimping the end of the clear hose, she attached it to the needle and stuck the other end into the jar.
    The girl had buried her face into her mother’s chest and wept as blood pulsed into the vessel. When it was nearly full, Jasmine pulled out the needle. With practiced speed, she applied another swab over the drop of blood that trickled out and strapped it down with a Band-Aid.
    “See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Kee said, holding out the doll.
    Jada turned and stared at him; tears still clung to her chubby cheeks. Kee moved the doll closer, and Jada snatched it from his hand.
    “OK, baby, you can go play now,” Jasmine said, shooing the child away.
    She picked up the jar and screwed on the lid, but held it tight against her breast. Kee smiled, took out two hundred dollar bills and dropped them on the table. Jasmine scooped them up and handed Kee the jar.
    He could still feel the warmth of the girl’s blood as his fingers wrapped the glass. With a wink at Peanut, it vanished into his coat.
    “Thank you, Jasmine, it’s always a pleasure,” he said, walking for the door.
    “Whad’ya do with that blood anyway?” Jasmine asked.
    Kee turned, pinning her with his eyes. “That’s not part of our agreement, “he said, “but trust me, you don’t wanna know.”
    Kee started up the car and pulled out. They rode in silence for a several blocks before Peanut slapped the dash and stared at him.
    “What the fuck was that? Takin’ some kid’s blood? Holy shit.”
    Kee glanced at him, locked the wheel with his thigh and pulled out another Swisher. He puffed a solid red glow onto the end, filling the car with grape scented haze before he answered.
    “You gotta have the right blood to make it work,” he said. “That’s all I can tell ya right now. Be patient, an it’ll all be clear.”
    Around them the residential neighborhoods faded away, and soon they were driving past open fields and thick woods. Kee slowed as they approached a mailbox that leaned towards the road and swung the car through the open gate.
    Kee followed the twin dirt tracks illuminated by the head lights as the car bumped along the rutted track, tall, dry grass swishing noisily along the sides of the car.
    They drove a quarter mile, before a pond appeared, the water flat and black. Thick woods grew along the banks, huge willow trunks overhung the water, their long, leafless branches dancing on the surface.
    Kee slowed the car and killed the engine.
    “So this is where we do it?” Peanut asked.
    “We ain’t doing nothin’, “Kee answered, “we let somethin’ else handle this. That way our hands are clean.”
    Kee walked to the trunk and popped it open, flipping back a grease stained blanket. Beneath, hands and feet bound by rope, lay a man. Duct tape covered his eyes and mouth. As the blanket was pulled back, he writhed against his constraints.
    Kee reached beneath his arms, and Peanut grabbed his legs, and they carried him to the edge of the pond. Behind them, tall winter oaks stood shoulder to shoulder, like dark sentries.
    Kee walked back to the car and returned with a can of gasoline and a Bowie knife.
    “Damn Kee, gas?” Peanut said. “Why don’t we just shoot’em an get outta here. This place gives me the creeps.”
    “It ain’t for him,” Kee said, upending the can over a pile of wood he had prepared earlier. With a flick of his lighter, the fire roared to life, the dry branches crackling and curling in the pyre.
    In the glow of the blaze, the wall of trees seemed to recede, the reflection of the flames shimmering off the water. Kee strode over to the bound man and sat him up, ripping the tape from his eyes and mouth.
    The man turned his head left and right, before he peered up at Kee, wide-eyed and urgent.
    “Please Kee. Don’t kill me, not out here. I swear I won’t steal from you no more, I swear on my daughter’s life.”
    Kee rocked back on his haunches and held his hands out to the flames. The man’s gaze drifted to Peanut and back to Kee.
    “Please Kee, I promise. I learned my lesson. I ain’t never gunna do nothin’ against you long as I live. I swear!”
    For long moments, Kee stared into the fire before he stood up and faced the man.
    “I’m not gunna kill ya, Vibe.”
    “You’re not?”
    “No, I’m not. We’re just gunna leave ya out here and drive off.”
    “We’re gunna do what?” Peanut exclaimed.
    Vibe looked back and forth between them.
    “Really? Oh thank god! Thank god! I swear you don’t never need to worry about me again! I learned my lesson Kee, I really did.”
    Kee squatted down by the blaze, warming his hands.
    “But before we go, I’m gunna tell you a little story. A story about somethin’ that happened to me when I was a kid.”
    “Sure Kee, anything, anything you say.”
    For several seconds there was just the crackle of the burning wood and slow hiss of wind through the high branches.
    “You see that pond? “ Kee asked, bumping his chin towards the water. “That’s about the best fishin’ hole in a hundred miles. You wanna know why?”
    Vibe’s brows knit in confusion, and he shrugged.
    “It’s because no one ever comes out here. Everyone who lives round here thinks this place is cursed or haunted. Either way, no one’s around. Except my uncle Don and me. “
    Peanut and Vibe both looked uncomfortably at the woods, the shadows among the trees suddenly felt ominous and watchful.
    “First time I come here was on my eleventh birthday. Don brought me down here for a weekend fishin trip. There wasn’t no dirt road back then, just a path that we hiked down. Anyway, we fished all day and caught us a fat stringer of fish. Then we set down to cookin’ dinner.
    “I was just a kid, but I wanted to help clean and gut the fish. I pick up the knife and Don loses it. Screams at me to not touch no blade and don’t cut myself, no matter what I do, don’t cut myself.”
    Overhead the wind picked up, the tops of the bare trees swaying against the stars. Sparks from the fire leapt into the darkness like tiny sprites.
    “After he took the knife away and cussed me out, he was real quiet. Then he apologizes and tells me that the reason he don’t want me to get cut and the reason no one comes out here is because of the Two Face Woman. Don’s full blood Sioux and he’s loaded with stories bout Indian spirits and shit like that. “
    “I ask who’s Two Face, and he tells me she’s an Indian demon. He said the Sioux and Cheyenne was the first to see her, but that she been livin’ here an there since the people came to the land. He told me that Two Face has long elbows, like spikes, and claws, like knives, and she particularly likes the taste of child flesh. Whenever she smells the blood of children she can’t resist. She uses her elbows and claws ta torture her victim’s before she chop em’ to pieces and eat em’.”
    Kee took a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it with a flaming brand. He stood up and examined Vibe.
    “So I think my uncles pulling my leg, ya know. I’m almost grown and he’s tellin’ me this bullshit ta scare me. Campfire story an all that. So when he was busy fryin’ them fish, I go and start to clean one of them fish myself. But just like he warned, that knife slip and I cut a big ol’ slice outta my hand. I knew I was in trouble, and so I take off my shirt and wrap my hand up in it, cuz blood was goin’ everywhere.
    “Well, I sit down by the campfire, and pretend nothin’s wrong, but Don look right at me. His eyes get wide, like he knows somethin’ up. He ran over and grab my hand, opened the shirt, and there’s blood everywhere.
    “So he goes crazy, right? He grabbed all the wood we collected and dumped it on the fire. He buried the skillet, grill and fish, everything under that wood. Then he got some gas and dumped it all over, so the flames leapt up real high.
    “Then a wind comes. Like a tornado, it blew right through the camp, almost knocked us over, sendin’ sparks flyin’ everywhere. Don rushes ta where the darkness and the light are mix’en and started shoutin’ something in Sioux that I didn’t understand.
    “It was quiet then. Don come joggin’ back into the firelight, and starts throwin’ things into the pack but he keeps turnin’ and lookin’ to them trees. ‘We gotta get outta here Kee,’ he tells me. Then we hear the scream. It wasn’t like nothin’ I’d heard before. Like ... like a cat or woman, but like they in a whole lotta pain.
    “So Don drops the pack and grabs me by the wrist and we start runnin. I say runnin’, but he was actually draggin’ me down that path cuz I couldn’t run as fast as he was goin.
    “‘Don’t look at it boy, don’t you look in its eyes!’ he yells while we runnin’. Then, somethin’ grabs me. Rips me right outta Don’s grip. I lost my shoe, and go tumblin’ in the dirt. My leg feels like it’s on fire, and blood’s pourin’ into my sock.”
    Kee pulled up his pant leg, and four long, pale scars trace their way from his calf to his ankle. Vibe and Peanut stare at the scar, then exchange wide eyed looks.
    “Then I hear somethin’ in the grass, and this face pushes through and then a body. I was so scared I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. Her face was bony and tight, like she been starved for years and her tits was long and saggy and she was hung all over with loose, pale skin. She didn’t have no hair cept some dirty strands on top. An her arms. Her arms were longer than her legs and bent out to the sides with curved claws stickin’ out from her elbows.
    “She raised up on her skinny legs and stared at me with yellow eyes, and licked her lips like she could already taste me. Her tongue was long and red and I could smell my own piss pourin’ hot down my leg.
    “Then Don step up beside me. He got his hand coverin’ his eyes so he can’t see. I hear a —BANG—and my ears start to ring. I ain’t never seen him with a gun, but I guess he always had it. He stood there blazin’ away, not knowing where he was shootin’, but the dirt kicked up around that thing and she spun an disappeared into the field. But she never stop lookin’ at me even when she was runnin’ off cuz on the back of her head there was another face.
    “When the gun was empty, Don picked me up, threw me over his shoulder and started sprintin’ to the car. I still couldn’t move a muscle, but I could see. I seen that thing jump back on the trail and come followin’. It galloped after us as fast as dog. And it was lookin’ right at me. I knew then what it wanted. It wanted to chop me into to bits. It wanted to watch me die.
    “Next thing I know, my uncle’s throwing me in the car. He dived on top and gunned the engine and drove me straight to the emergency room . I got twenty-eight stitches in my hand and leg that night. When it was all over and we come back to the car we see four claw marks rippin’ through the metal across trunk.”
    Kee paused and eyed Peanut and Vibe. They both stared at him, the fire light glinting in their wide eyes. Kee took the Bowie knife and stuck it in the ground at Vibe’s feet, then took out the jar and poured the contents over Vibe’s head. The thick, red liquid oozed down his cheeks and dribbled from his nose.
    “What the fuck is this?” Vibe asked, wiping the blood from his eyes.
    “It’s the blood of a child,” Kee said dropping the jar into the coals, “and a knife. I figure if you can kill that bitch then no loss, your debt to me is paid.”
    Above, a powerful gust of wind bent the boughs and somewhere in the woods a shrill scream rent the silence. Vibe’s head twisted left and right as Kee motioned Peanut to the car.
    “Wait, that was just a story,” Vibe cried out, “wasn’t it? It was just a story!”
    As Kee turned the car, another scream echoed through the woods. Vibe was sitting on the ground, sawing at the ropes around his legs. Kee gunned the engine and bounded down the road. Beside him Peanut stared out of the windshield, his dark skin an ashen gray.

*************************************

    Kee walked into the kitchen and grabbed a beer out of the cooler before collapsing into the cushions of his leather couch. He picked up the remote and pulled up his recordings, clicking on the six o’clock news.
    Fast forwarding through the talking heads chit chat and weather, he paused at a perky reporter standing with thick woods in the back ground. He took a sip of his beer and hit play.
    “Yes Paul, this is the scene of the search by county deputies. This morning, authorities were notified by a group of hunters that a hand was found alongside the road just behind me. Initial reports from the sheriff’s department tell us that several additional body parts have been located nearby, but we still have no ID for the victim, the fourth found in the area this year.”
    Kee smiled and clicked the TV over to a recorded football game and leaned back, another problem solved.

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