Donna walked behind him. She was silent, lost in her own thoughts, her eyes turned to the ground as she walked. She was more and more convinced that they shouldn’t have come. Martin and Julie hadn’t been seen or heard from since the night before at Falcon Point’s Dockside Diner. Something had happened to them, Donna was convinced, something terrible.
She raised her head, her eyes meeting the dim yellow glow of the pole light, the house black as a burial shroud against the sky as they approached.
Yeah, something had happened to them, she thought, there…at that place.
“That sure is one scary looking place,” Billy said softly as they stood on the road, staring up at the old MaGee place.
“Yeah,” Donna said, barely a whisper. “I don’t like it. Let’s go back to Falcon Point.”
Billy ignored her comment. His eyes danced across the MaGee property, straining to cut through the shadows, see what he could see, deciding on a course of action. The house was dark but for the dim yellow glow of the pole light behind the house.
“If Martin and Julie are here, they’d be insi…,” Billy said softly then fell silent. A subtle movement in the shadows cast by the dim yellow glow of the pole light had caught Billy’s eye, something turning on a slight breeze.
“They’d be what?” Donna whispered.
But Billy had already started for the gate and the cracked and broken sidewalk that led to the front porch. He swung the creaking gate open. Half way up the sidewalk he turned into the tangle of overgrown grass and vegetation, making his way toward the west side of the house. His eyes were focused on the two shadowed gibbets that were backlit by the pole light behind the house.
Donna’s eyes wandered, peering about the shadows, the brush, bushes, trees. No toilet paper, she thought, they didn’t TP this old place.
Billy and Donna emerged from the shadows into the dim yellow glow of the pole light and stopped. Donna gasped, raising her fingertips to her lips. Her eyes were big, round, watery, and fearful. Billy stared as a sudden fear closed in around him, his mind suddenly invaded by images of things lurking in the shadows and high overgrowth, watching and waiting.
Two naked bodies hung by their bound feet from the gibbets, one male and one female. Their hands were bound behind their backs and their heads were missing. They had been gutted like ocean caught tuna, their bodies split open from pubic bone to severed necks.
Billy caught his breath as he slowly approached the gibbets. He knew instinctively that the two headless gutted bodies were those of Martin and Julie. His gut feeling was confirmed when he noticed in the dim yellow glow the mermaid tattoo on the upper left arm of the headless male body. Martin had such a tattoo.
“Billy, let’s go home,” Donna called out fearfully from the edge of shadow.
There was sudden movement in the high grass then three figures appeared in the dim yellow glow, old Ezra MaGee and his boy and girl, Joshua and Martha Jean.
Billy momentarily stared at each in turn. Old Ezra MaGee, what a piece of work. His hair was gray, frizzled, a beard hung to the middle of his chest, and he showed a perpetual scowl. The old dude looked like he’d been in the sun way too long. Weathered and leathered, lines crisscrossed his face looking like a road map to Helltown.
Joshua MaGee was a hulking brute with hunched shoulders, wildly disheveled black hair, a lopsided drooling sneer, and lazy left eye. He looked a few bricks short of a full load.
Martha Jean MaGee, the term blonde bombshell came to Billy’s mind. No more needed to be said or thought.
“Well, looky what we have here,” the old dude said, holding a shotgun pointed waist high at Billy. “A coupla fish come t’dinner!”
“Billy…” a sudden glare from old Ezra’s narrowed eyes cut Donna off.
The two young MaGee siblings were smiling, Joshua making eyes at Donna while Martha Jean was making eyes at Billy.
“You the Shark?” Billy stammered.
“Some folks call me that,” the old creep hissed as he approached Billy, the shotgun still leveled waist high. “But m’name’s Ezra MaGee. It ain’t no matter to no fish.”
Ezra suddenly swung the shotgun around and buried the stock end into Billy’s gut. Billy grunted, hissed air, and doubled over. A swing of the shotgun caught Billy under the chin and sent him out cold on his back at the foot of a gibbet.
“Joshua, bring it inside,” old Ezra said, glancing over his shoulder at his boy.
“Sure pa,” Joshua said, crossing the yard to where Billy lay and hoisting him over a shoulder.
Old Ezra turned to Donna. “You, fish bitch,” he said, motioning with his shotgun, “around the back.”
Martha Jean prodded Donna with a shove, Donna stifling back a sob while tears trickled down her cheeks.
It was nigh on 10:00 pm when Billy’s eyes fluttered.
He was disoriented, his thoughts fragmented. He winced and groaned. There was pain in his gut and jaw. Something hard was pressed against the side of his head and a bright light shown in his eyes. He tried to move his arms to raise and steady himself, but found he couldn’t. His hands were bound behind his back with baler twine.
Piece by piece the surroundings became clearer. He was in a kitchen, seated at a kitchen table, leaning forward, his head laying on the table top. The bright kitchen light shown in his eyes. Suddenly, what had happened came flooding back. The MaGee house. The bodies hanging from the gibbets. The old creep and his two…
Billy’s eyes shot open wide. Unsteady and nauseated, he forced himself to sit up and peer about the kitchen through squinted eyes.
Donna sat at the kitchen table opposite him, her hands also bound behind her back with baler twine. She was lost in horror, a blank stare at the table top, tracks of tears trailing down her cheeks. Old Ezra was leaning against the kitchen counter, still cradling the shotgun, Martha Jean and Joshua flanking him, the two MaGee youth still grinning and making eyes at Billy and Donna.
“So, the fish man has finally woke himself up,” old Ezra said with a sneer.
“You’re a Marsh,” Billy stammered, fighting back the pain in his jaw.
“Yeah, I reckon so,” old Ezra said, “My grandpap was Ezra Marsh, brother t’Obed. My ma Celia gave me Ezra’s name.”
“You’re not one of us,” Billy said.
“I don’t cotton t’no tainted fish,” old Ezra said. “We ain’t got no truck with Obed’s line. Theys tainted. I ain’t havin’ none o’that taint in my line.”
Joshua suddenly pushed off the counter and rounded the kitchen table to where Donna was sitting. “Can I keep this one, Pa?” he said, leaning over and gently touching the side of Donna’s neck with two fingers, “she got pretty little gills forming.”
Donna didn’t move.
“What you want with a fish, boy?” old Ezra said.
“I wanna have some fun, Pa.”
“What kind o’fun you talkin ‘bout?”
“You know, down in the basement,” Joshua grinned.
“Ain’t your sister good ‘nough for that?”
“Pa…”
“Martha Jean’s good ‘nough for me,” old Ezra interrupted, “Why ain’t she good ‘nough for you?”
“Pa, I ain’t never had me no fish b’fore,” Joshua said.
Old Ezra sighed and stared at the floor for a few seconds. “Ah’right, boy,” old Ezra finally said then looked up at his son, “Take her down t’the basement an’ have yur fun. But I’m warnin’ you boy, I ain’t havin’ no fish babies in my house!”
“Don’t you worry none, pa,” Joshua said, his eyes lighting up.
“Billy!” Donna suddenly cried out as Joshua dragged her off the chair and out of the kitchen. Her screams trailed away as Joshua dragged her down the basement steps.
Martha Jean pushed off the counter and swaggered over to the kitchen table. “Pa, can I have him?” she said, sitting on the edge of the table next to Billy. She grinned as she leaned over and began to play with his damp hair.