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Nine Lives

AuthorHouse

Contents

A Tiny Division of Hell.....................1The Midnight Spook Show.....................23Blind Lonnie Dixon..........................39Knock, Knock................................51One Winter Morning..........................69Authentic...................................79Hang Ten....................................107Peripheral Vision...........................129The Last Halloween..........................145

Chapter One

Raymond Wolf aimed his gun at the woman in the coffin set six-feet deep in a crude hole resembling a giant mouth locked in a scream. The woman, Debbie Lazo, was wearing nothing but her bra and panties, her wrists and ankles both cuffed.

"Please, Ray, don't do this. Please! I made a mistake. I'm sorry."

"Shut up, bitch. The time for 'I'm sorry' is long past."

"Raymond, please, you don't have to ..."

Wolf pointed the gun at Debbie's forehead. She stopped talking instantly, her eyes spilling tears.

"Just shut up." He turned the gun away so he could look into those eyes, blue eyes he could lose himself in once upon a time. Long black hair spilled around her face on the coffin's floor; her tears, black snail marks of mascara, ran down the sides of her cheeks. Damn, she still looked beautiful.

"Now, darling, I know you are, or at least were, a very smart person, am I right? A's in high school and college. So you probably figured out that you're in a coffin ... in a hole ... in the ground, and, yes, I'm going to bury you alive."

Debbie started to sob, her body shaking and heaving.

"Please, Ray, you can't do this. My wrists hurt. The handcuffs are too tight."

He moved the muzzle of the gun back up to her head.

"The handcuffs are too tight? That's what you're worried about? Maybe you're not as smart as we all thought you were."

"Raymond, please."

"Do not speak until I say you can! Do I look like I'm joking?"

Wolf teased Debbie's lips with the tip of the gun, rubbing back and forth. She tasted steel and a hint of gunpowder.

"Do you hear me? Do you understand what's going to happen to you? Nod your head if you do."

Debbie closed her eyes, still dripping black-streaked tears, and nodded her head. Wolf smiled, his perfect teeth unnaturally white.

"Did you really think you could kill my child without telling me? How could you have done that to me?" he exploded.

"Raymond, let me explain. Please, Ray."

"One more word and it ends right here, right now!"

He moved the gun to her temple. Debbie stopped talking, but the tears continued to leak out.

Raymond Wolf was working himself into a rage, his voice growing louder, trembling as he spoke.

"You didn't even tell me you were pregnant."

Debbie, now sobbing, shook her head back and forth.

"You sneak off to abort our child and you don't tell me? You dump me and throw me away like some, I don't know, like some piece of garbage? And then you start dating some rich accountant? Did I miss anything? Do I have all my facts right? Is that everything?"

Wolf looked into her eyes again.

"You can speak now. Just a yes or a no will be sufficient."

"Raymond, you don't understand. I was under a lot of pressure ... My parents—"

He cut her off.

"I said answer yes or no!"

All Debbie could manage was, "No. No. No. No. No."

He evened his tone to a near whisper. "Oh, so I see, you're a liar also."

"Please. My wrists hurt," Debbie pleaded.

"Shut up about your wrists. That's the least of your problems."

Debbie tried to adjust her body that was now slick with sweat. She poked her hands out from the left side just above the small of her back so she wasn't lying directly on the handcuffs that were digging into her wrists.

"Now, look," Wolf said, "what's done is done. Am I right? We can't change the past, can we?" His voice was in an almost cheery mood now.

"I wish I could. I wish I could," Debbie said

"You sound like that stupid kids book about the train. 'I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.' Well, you know what? Maybe after what I've done to you, you can keep that exact train of thought," Wolf smiled. "No pun intended. I think I can. I think I can escape. I think I can."

Wolf threw back his head and laughed. He ran his filthy hands through his dark blond hair and said, "Boy, are we going to have a lot of fun tonight!"

"You don't have to do this, Ray," Debbie said between sobs.

"Oh, but I do. And it's going to make me feel a hell of a lot better. I have to do this for me and for my child. The one you murdered!"

Wolf bent down close to Debbie, his hand to the side of the coffin. When he brought the hand closer to her, she could see that it was full of earth. He held it over her face and slowly let the dirt filter through his fingers. Debbie shut her eyes and pulled her mouth into a tight line while shaking her head back and forth. Most of the dirt trailed off to the sides of her head, her hair, and the corners of her eyes, which she worked to blink away. Some of it stuck to the streaks of tears on her face and sweat on her forehead.

"Ray, you must be crazy. Please let me go! Stop this! It's crazy!" Debbie yelled, hysterical now.

"I think I can," Ray said. "I think I can. I think I can."

Raymond Wolf was now openly laughing.

"Come on, Deb, say it with me. I think I can escape. I think I can. I think I can."

Controlling the panic in her voice, Debbie said, "Ray, please let me go. I'm sure we can work this out. I promise we can work this out." She attempted a smile at him.

"We can work this out?" said Ray. "It's already worked out." He snatched up some more dirt and threw it across her naked stomach like he was seeding a lawn.

"Everything is already worked out. You killed my child, so I'm going to leave you here to think about what you've done. I'm going to lock up this coffin and bury you alive. Simple."

Debbie started to scream.

"Help! Help me! Somebody please help! He's gone crazy!"

Ray, through a broad smile, joined in.

"Help, help us, somebody! Ha! Ha! Ha! No one is going to hear you. Do you have any idea where we are?"

Debbie looked behind Raymond, past the walls of earth that were to become her grave. She could make out the tops of trees on both sides and in front of her, and, beyond that, the gray sky that was a perfect backdrop to a graveyard. In the sky, way above, an airplane flew over. The buzz of its jets sounded small and out of reach.

I wonder if they can see me, she thought. I wonder if they can see what's going to happen to me.

"You're a mile deep in the woods," Ray said, breaking into her thoughts. "No one knows you're here. No one knows I'm here. As a matter of fact, I'm home sick in bed right now. No one is going to check on me. The next time anybody sees me will be at roll call on Monday morning." He was smiling again. "So scream all you want. There is no one around for miles."

The sky clicked another notch darker and Ray started to rub his hands together.

"Ray, don't do this. Please. Stop it. Stop it," Debbie pleaded again.

He is really going to do it. The son of a bitch is going to bury me alive!

"Let's get started, Debbie honey," he said in a cute voice. "I want you to look a bit to your left. Just turn your...