The Weight of Blood (83)

“Please!” Kali begged, rising to her feet, one of Kenny’s arms in her hands. “I can’t carry him alone.”

Wendy didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t think, with all the sounds and smells bombarding her senses.

“Wendy, he could die! Please.”

Kenny? Dead? Oh no . . .

She took one last look at the country club. She couldn’t save them. Even if she walked in there, how could she stop it all from happening? Tears in her eyes, she nodded and pushed herself up.

“Okay. Okay.”

They scooped him up, one under each arm, and struggled to carry him back to the Barn.





Twenty-Four


MADDY DID IT

EPISODE 10, CONT.

Michael: I’m so happy you were willing to talk to us, Cole. Thank you for stopping by.

Cole Lecter: My mama heard about what you all were doing. I listened to an episode or two.

Michael [narration]: This is Cole Lecter. You heard testimony from his mother, Amy Lecter, at the beginning of this series. She mentioned Cole came home with the blood of other children on his clothes.

Cole: So y’all really think she was a witch?

Michael: We’re not all the way sure. How does that make you feel?

Cole: Well, you know that movie Unbreakable? The one where Bruce Willis is the only person that survives some big train accident that killed everybody? That’s how I feel. Or that’s what my friends call me now. What’s left of them. I guess if she’s a witch, then I must be some sorta superhero too.

Michael: I’m so sorry. It must have been really hard for you.

Cole: sigh Eleven minutes. That’s how long it took. I didn’t know that at the time. It felt like hours. But I read that somewhere. She was inside the country club for only eleven minutes.

Michael: Can you recall what happened that night? We’d love for you to tell us whatever you remember.

Cole: I don’t remember everything. Some things are real fuzzy on account of my drinking. We had pregamed at Jason’s house, and I had a bottle of Jack all to myself. Felt like I had to take a piss every fifteen minutes. Bethany, my, uh, girlfriend, was super freaking mad at me all night. She, uh, didn’t make it.

Michael: Hey, man. Do you need a break?

Cole: No. No. I’m fine. I need to do this. Uh, right, so, I remember I was headed to the bathroom when out of nowhere, the doors just came flying, opening toward me. Both of them at the same time. The same way we used to rush the doors before we ran out on the field. One door sorta scooped me up and slammed me right into the wall behind it. I blacked out for a minute, maybe longer. When I opened my eyes, I tried to push the door, but it wouldn’t budge, and the bar was digging into my stomach.

Michael: So you were stuck behind the door?

Cole: Yeah. At first, I thought it was a joke, you know. ’Cause, it felt like it was glued to the wall or something. The guys, we were always pranking each other. But when I was looking through the little square window, I could see that everyone had stopped dancing and was staring into the hallway. I tried to see what everybody was looking at.

Michael: What happened next?

Cole: I saw Charlotte. I thought she said she was going to the Black prom. I mean, the everybody prom. She said she was. But she was there with Chris, whispering in folks’ ears. Kayleigh was with them. She turned around and started laughing. Everybody was laughing then. I was wondering what was so funny. Then Maddy walked into view, covered head to toe in that paint. Her back was to me, but she was just standing there, watching them all laugh. I remember suddenly feeling real, real sick. Like I was about to throw up. That’s when a chair flew across the room and smashed into Kayleigh’s face. The leg . . . it went right into her eye. The room went quiet. And then Maddy raised her arms, like she was asking for a hug, turned her palms upward, balled her hands into fists, and snatched the air back real quick. The floorboards yanked under everyone’s feet, sending folks tumbling, like she snatched the rug up. And then . . . and then . . . Christ, she looked so small, like she was one of those guys directing an orchestra. A conductor, right? That’s what she was doing, waving her hands around, making stuff move. Everybody was screaming, trying to run out the back, but the doors were locked. Folks tried running past her kept getting knocked out. Chris tried taking a chair to her head; she looked at him and he froze like a statue, blood coming out his eyes and ears and mouth. Behind him, I saw Bethany running with Charlotte. I was calling her, telling her to hide, but she tripped on her dress and went sliding into the DJ table. Them wires got all tangled around her and Charlotte’s throats, started choking them, stringing them up like a noose. Jules and her boyfriend, Brady, something fell from the ceiling, came down on them, split his head in half. The chandelier shattered and all that glass . . . it just hovered in the air for a few seconds. Then, them shards came raining down, slicing necks . . . I could see everything, hear everything. Jason . . . he was screaming at her, “You stupid bitch. You stupid nigger bitch!” He stopped, and it sounded like a pile of twigs snapping before he fell to the floor. That was the last sound I heard before it all went quiet.

Michael: My God.

Cole: When she was just about to walk out, she stopped and looked dead at me. Her eyes were so black. I started begging and crying. Christ, I was so scared. But . . . she just walked by. The doors slammed behind her. I couldn’t move for a long while until I heard this voice in my head telling me to go home.