Divine Evil

icecream. It's hot now.” She smiled hopefully. “Ice cream'd be good.”
    “Friends take care of each other. And they trust each other. I have to know about this place. I need you to tell me.”
    She was in an agony of indecision. Things were always simple for her. Whether to get up or go to bed. Whether to walk west or east. Eat now or later. But this made her head ache and her stomach roll. “You won't tell?” she whispered.
    “No. Trust me.”
    “There are monsters there.” Her voice continued to whisper through her wrinkled lips. An aged child telling secrets. “At night, they go there and do things. Bad things.”
    “Who?”
    “The monsters in the black dresses. They have animal heads. They do things to women without clothes on. And they kill dogs and goats.”
    “That's where you found the bracelet. The one you gave to Clare.”
    She nodded. “I didn't think I should tell. You're not supposed to believe in monsters. They're just on the TV. If you talk about monsters, people think you're crazy, and they lock you up.”
    “I don't think you're crazy. And no one's ever going to lock you up.” He touched her then, stroking her hair. “I need you to tell me where the place is.”
    “It's in the woods.”
    “Where?”
    “Over there.” She gestured vaguely. “Over the rocks and through the trees.”
    Acres of rocks and trees. He took a deep breath to keephis voice even. “Annie, I need you to show me. Can you take me there?”
    “Oh, no.” She got up, spry from panic. “No, indeedy, I don't go there now. It'll be dark. You can't go there at night when the monsters come.”
    He took her hand to still the jingling bracelets. “Do you remember Clare Kimball?”
    “She went away. Nobody knows where.”
    “I think someone took her away, Annie. She didn't want to go. They may be taking her to that place tonight. They'll hurt her.”
    “She's pretty.” Annie's lips began to tremble. “She came to visit.”
    “Yes. She made this for you.” He turned the bracelet on her wrist. “Help me, Annie. Help Clare, and I swear to you I'll make the monsters go away.”
    Ernie had been driving for hours. Away from town, in circles, out on the highway, and back on the rural roads. He knew his parents would be frantic, and he thought of them, for the first time in years, with real regret and need.
    He knew what tonight would mean. It was a test, his last one. They wanted to initiate him quickly, finally, so that he would be bound to them by blood and fire and death. He'd thought of running away, but he had nowhere to go. There was only one path left for him. The path that led to a clearing in the woods.
    It was his fault that Clare would die tonight. He knew it, had agonized over it. The teachings he had chosen to follow left no place for regret or guilt. They would wash him clean. He craved that, thought only of that as he turned his truck around and headed for his destiny.
    Bud passed the Toyota, glanced at it absently, then remembered.Swearing under his breath, he turned around and reached for the radio.
    “Unit One, this is Unit Three. Do you copy?” He got nothing but static and repeated the call twice. “Come on, Cam, pick up. It's Bud.”
    Shit on a stick, he thought, the sheriff was off the air, and he was stuck following some kid in a truck. God knew where, God knew why. Annoyed or not, Bud followed procedure and kept a safe distance back.
    It was dusk, and the taillights of the pickup gleamed palely red.
    When the truck turned off the road, Bud pulled over and stopped. Where the hell was the kid going? he wondered. That old logging trail led straight into the woods, and the Toyota wasn't a four-wheel drive. Hell, the sheriff had said to see what the kid was up to, so that's what he'd have to do.
    He decided to go on foot. There was only one road in and one road out. Grabbing the flashlight, he hesitated. The sheriff might say it was cowboying, Bud thought as he strapped on his gun. But with everything the way it was, he wasn't going into the woods unarmed.
    When he reached the start of the logging trail, he saw the truck. Ernie stood beside it, as if waiting. Thinking it would be his first-time-ever genuine stakeout, Bud crept back and crouched low in a gully.
    Both he and Ernie heard the footsteps at the same time. The boy stepped forward, toward the two men who came out of the woods. Bud nearly betrayed himself by calling out when he recognized Doc Crampton and Mick.
    They hadn't bothered