Chapter 8

At eight o’clock Monday morning, Harmony pulled her car into the Social Services parking lot. Despite the activity on the town streets, with parents taking their kids to school and store owners opening up, the parking lot stood empty – all except one ratty old pick-up truck parked in the far corner.

Its rusted green door almost fell off when it swung open and that stripling, Bain Campbell, got out. He looked both ways before he crossed the deserted parking lot. Maybe he thought he was doing something he shouldn’t, or maybe he was just so used to doing things he shouldn’t that he looked both ways out of habit.

He looked both ways again before he opened the passenger door and slid into Harmony’s car. He slammed the door and rested his rifle butt on the floor between his feet. “Ready to go when you are.”

“You won’t need the gun. Leave it behind.”

His head twisted around. “You cain’t go up on Bruins’ Peak without a gun. You should know that better than anyone.”

Harmony tightened her lips. “Leave the gun behind, Bain, or you’re staying behind along with it. I’m not taking you up there with that gun in the car.”

He bared his discolored teeth. “You want to go up to Bruins’ Peak, one of the most dangerous wilderness areas in the state, looking for some wild bear, and you don’t want to take a gun? Yer out of your gourd. What if it attacks you and I have no way to defend you? What then? What if we run into a raging mother bear tryin’ to protect hiz cubs? I’m telling you, I’m not going up there without a gun.”

“Then you’re not going up there. You said you weren’t hunting it, that you would trap it and send it to the zoo. What happened to that?”

He faced forward with a determined snort. He sat back in the seat, but he didn’t take his hand off his gun. “I’m taking it, and that’s final.”

“This is my car. I’ll be the one to decide whether we take it or not.”

“You’re going up there to talk to the Dunlaps. What if they prove hostile? What if you walk into a hail of bullets? What are you going to do then?”

“If I walk into a hail of bullets, your gun won’t help me because you won’t be with me. You’re staying down on the trail, remember? You’re not going anywhere near the Dunlaps, armed or otherwise. Is that clear?”

“You ought to be armed, too. You ought to carry a concealed weapon on trips like this. You don’t know what you could be running into.”

Aiken’s face flashed before Harmony’s eyes, and she couldn’t help but smile to herself. A shimmer of excitement tingled through her at the thought of seeing him again. She wanted to hurry up and get there to find out what happened next. “I think I know what I’m running into.”

“You don’t know what all lives up there on Bruins’ Peak. Thar’s wild animals and wolves and cougars and panthers and wolverines, and the people are more dangerous than the animals. Those people are witches in disguise.”

“I’ve heard all the stories, Bain, and I’ve met the people for myself. They seem nice enough to me.”

“They can make themselves any shape they want. They can show you what they want you to see, and the next minute, they change into blood-thirsty vampires and ghouls.”

Harmony tried to laugh, but his words wormed into her heart. She shuddered in spite of herself. “Now you’re just making stuff up to scare me. Shut up and put your rifle in the truck so we can get out of here.”

“I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”

“What have you seen?”

“I’ve seen people change their shape and rip an innocent person to pieces with blood dripping from their fangs. I was with my dad when that girl killed his friend. Trust me. You don’t want to go up there without some kind of protection.”

Harmony shrugged his warnings away. “I don’t know where you come up with this stuff, but I can’t wait anymore. Get out of the car. I gotta go.”

“Yer supposed to protect the children up there, ain’t ya? You better take my word fer it. They sacrifice their children to their satanic gods on moonlit nights. That’s why the kids don’t show up on the county rolls. That’s why they keep their kids isolated, so no one knows who lives and who dies.”

A chill ran up Harmony’s spine. “You better be darn sure you know what you’re talking about before you start spreading rumors like that. The folks on Bruins’ Mountain have always been cleared of mistreatment of children, and no one has ever reported any child missing.”

His voice rose to a shriek. “That’s exactly the way they want it. Don’t ya see? You cain’t let them take you in with their fancy exterior. They look real nice from the outside, but once you scratch the surface, you find they’re pure evil. You’ll see. You just have to dig deep enough to find the truth.”

This was too much for Harmony. She threw the car into reverse. “Buckle your seatbelt, and no funny business. The first time you step out of line, I’m leaving you by the side of the road. Do you hear me?”

He buckled his seatbelt, and Harmony hit the gas. She revved the motor on the turnpike out of town and hit the dirt road running around Bruins’ Mountain. She knew better than to listen to anything Bain said, but his comments about children disappearing rattled her more than she realized.

She forgot all about the rifle. If she thought about it at all, it gave her a feeling of relief. If anything dangerous went down, at least they had something with which to protect themselves.

What if – just if – those stories contained a grain of truth? What if the immaculate exterior and homey feeling she encountered at the Kerrs, and from Aiken in town, covered up something sinister?

She didn’t believe the devil’s spawn and child sacrifice stories. Bain and those like him concocted those stories straight out of some trashy horror novel. Every sadistic tale of child abuse had its cover-up, though. Every abuse ring had its respectable citizens at its head. They made friends and allies of police, judges and lawyers. They gave money to the local Rotary Club. They could call up hundreds of witnesses to testify as to what honest, generous, kind-hearted citizens they were.

Bruins’ Peak could be the same way. The Bruins certainly had something to hide. She discovered that for herself; they didn’t like outsiders. They kept their children to themselves and didn’t mix. All of that made Harmony suspicious.

She never saw anyone – man, woman or child – carrying a weapon on Bruins’ Peak. Not one rifle or pistol did she see at the Kerrs. They could have kept them hidden, or locked down. Still, the whole combination of puzzle pieces didn’t fit together to make a coherent picture of either innocence or guilt.

She drove the road to Bruins’ Peak in silence. Her mind revolved through the conflicting images and messages bombarding her from all sides. Bain Campbell accused her, even as he sat next to her in her own car. How could such a charlatan make her feel guilty for trusting her own instincts? He was a laughing stock: his stories were vacuous and foolish enough to make children laugh. So why did her skin crawl when she heard them now? What about Bruins’ Peak gave her chills?

She turned off onto the old logging road she took the first time. She pulled into the same turn-out and shut off the motor. Bain squinted through the windshield. “Is this place you stopped before?”

Harmony swung her door open. “This is it. Now come on, if you want to see the spot. I’ve got to make this quick so I can get up to the Dunlaps by nine.”

Bain followed her up the path into the trees. With him walking behind her, she could recapture the grandeur and sacredness she felt the first time. She wouldn’t see the same bear, but at least the forest still spoke to her in its subtle, whispering voice. It still called to her. She still belonged here.

The timesEvery time Bain stumbled, and cursed under his breath at the steep, slippery climb, it ruined her elation. He brought her crashing back to Earth. She never should have brought him along. She cast a glance over her shoulder. Sure enough, he stumbled along with that stupid rifle on his shoulder like Gunga Din on safari.

The thought gave her a silent inner laugh, but she froze in the middle of the path when she spotted a familiar shape moving in the trees. She chopped the air with her hand and hissed through her teeth to silence Bain. She was just in time. The shape emerged from the shadows. It was the same bear! What was he doing here? Why was he back in the same spot she met him last time?

Had he come here to see her again? How did he know she would be here? Did he miss her and long for her to come back? Did she mean as much to him as he meant to her? Her heart soared at the sight of him. He was just as magnificent as ever. He throbbed with raw animal power. His eyes found that secret place in her soul that longed for release into wilderness. Only he could give her that. He invited her to join him in the holy distance beyond humanity.

The bear trotted across the path. It headed for the trees on the other side, like it intended to keep going without stopping to say hello. At the last moment, it swiveled its head around and growled at Harmony. She took a step toward it and put out her hand to beckon it closer.

The bear kept walking. It walked into the trees and turned in a complete circle to come down the path toward her again. This time, it ambled straight down the path, zeroing in on her hand with purpose. It wagged its head from side to side with exaggerated sweeps of its clawed paws.

Bain stepped up behind her, but Harmony waved her hand behind her to signal him back. She moved another step toward the bear. He growled under his breath in that voice she understood. He was talking to her. He wanted to get close to her. She extended her hand closer to his face to let him smell her when Bain pushed up behind her.

Bain raised his rifle to his shoulder. “Stay away. It could be dangerous.”

Harmony laid her hand on the gun barrel and pushed it down to point toward the ground. “Put that thing away. He’s not dangerous. I think he might be tame. He let me touch him last time. He might know people.”

“It don’t matter how tame he is. He’s still a wild animal. You stay back.”

Without turning around, Harmony planted her hand on Bain’s chest and gave him a shove. “You stay back, and keep that thing away from me. Can’t you see he came here to see me? He would never hurt me. Of that I’m quite certain.”

Bain obeyed her shove and moved behind her, but he kept his hand around the trigger grip. Harmony turned her attention to the bear, who watched the whole exchange with his close-set black eyes. He looked back and forth between Bain and Harmony, and when Bain moved back, he lowered his head and rumbled in his chest.

Harmony took one more careful step up the path toward him. She put her arm straight out in front of him and murmured under her breath. “You know me, don’t you? You know me. I’m here. I came back to see you just like you came to see me. Yes, I know you, too. We know each other, don’t we? You wouldn’t hurt anybody, would you? Of course you wouldn’t. You’re a fine big boy, aren’t you? You’re so beautiful.”

He grumbled under his breath in that conversational way. He pretended to look away from one side to the other, but he let his nose graze close to her fingers each time. He inched closer, and his grunts came quick and sharp like words. His nostrils quivered for her scent.

All of a sudden, Bain’s voice shattered the stillness. “You be careful around that thang. I’m tellin’ ya, he could maul you in an instant. Step back so I can get a clear shot at ‘im.”

Harmony smacked her lips in annoyance, but before she had a chance to answer, the bear raised his burly head on his tree trunk neck and let out a tremendous bellow at Bain. The noise shook Harmony to her very bones, and the bear’s lips jiggled around his giant dripping fangs. He bellowed straight into her face. But seeing that his eyes were locked on Bain, over her shoulder, told her the bear was angry at Bain and not her.

Still, that noise, and the sight of his bared teeth, reminded Harmony of all Bain’s haunting horror stories. She could well imagine this creature tearing a person apart with one enraged twist of his mighty neck.

Bain reacted faster than Harmony could imagine. In a fraction of an instant, he shouldered his rifle and took aim, but the bear reacted faster still. Harmony saw only a blur as the bear charged past her in a speeding juggernaut of brown flying fur and teeth. His fur brushed her face on his way past. He hurtled toward Bain just as Bain tightened his finger on the trigger.

The whole scene unfolded in slow motion. She had to stop this. She had to stop the bear killing Bain and Bain killing the bear. Which did she care about more? She never stopped to consider.

This was all her fault. She never should have brought Bain up here. She never should have let him blind her with those stories to let him bring that gun. If she wanted to see the bear again, she should have come alone. She should have kept the bear to herself so no one knew what happened to her in the woods. She should have done a thousand things she didn’t do, but she had to do one thing right now. She had to stop this.

She put out her hands and shouted at the top of her lungs, “No!” but it was too late. Bain squeezed the trigger. The bear launched himself off the ground with his mouth open and his claws extended. He would land on the muzzle of the gun. It would go off and shoot him in the chest. The bear would die. What would Harmony do then?

She couldn’t let that happen. She never knew she could move that fast, but she flew off the ground and lunged for the gun.

The next thing she knew, she gazed up at the crowns of the trees raking the blue sky. The sunlight danced between the needled boughs, and a soft breeze rustled the canopy. She remembered nothing. She felt nothing. She knew only the blessed bliss of belonging in the forest, her forest. She was home.

Just then, a rugged face blocked her view. A battered old baseball cap covered short, straight brown hair ending just above the ears. Stubble of a beard covered the jaw and upper lip. A stout neck dove down into the neckline of a tight white T-shirt.

Footsteps ran away and diminished into the distance. She studied the face and recognized it. “Aiken! What are you doing here?”

“Don’t try to move, Harmony. I’m going to help you.”

She put out her hand. “Don’t leave, Aiken.”

He took her hand and kissed it. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m taking you where you’ll be safe.”

Harmony blinked, but she couldn’t focus. She lost consciousness with Aiken’s face hovering before her eyes.