Каарон Уоррен - The Best Horror of the Year Volume Ten

The women swayed and sighed and seemed to me to squeak, almost. Sissiol lowered her arms and turned her mouth down in a parody of disappointment and went to lay her head on the breast of the bald-headed horror.

Eddie stood up too, and gestured to Carboh to stay where she was, and then something between him and the mother took place, some unspoken understanding, because the circle of women parted, Eddie pushed me forward, and we were outside the… enchantment. It was as if the extraordinary perfume had surrounded us in a bubble that we’d broken out of. Sissiol and the mother shifted away from us into the far corner of the room, and I, with my brother, headed for the door. Outside the nest of cushions and the circle of women, the change in temperature was startling—inside had been beautifully warm, outside it was cool, and I was thankful for it because my brain began to awaken from whatever mesmerism had taken place in that company. We did not speak on the way home through the wood, and it didn’t even occur to me to use Dad’s torch to guide us back.

I stayed in bed in my old room the next day. Fuck the decorating, I thought. I stared upwards at the familiar crack in the ceiling that, as a child, I used to imagine was a road that would take me on wonderful adventures. I would visit as many countries in the world as there were to visit. I’d yearned to be a traveller, but I’d ended up struggling for money no more than forty kilometres from this house in Holesville Nine, a pit of a town. As I reached my arms out from beneath the blankets, I noticed a yellow-coloured indentation on my arm. Rubbing did not change it, and I realised it was where Domescia had gripped me the night before.

Eddie came into my room with coffee and doughnuts. I could scarcely look at him.

“I thought you’re like Sissiol,” he said, putting the tray on my bedside table. “She’s really intelligent you know. You like intelligent women, don’t you?”

“Eddie, they’re not women,” I answered, “what is the matter with you?”

“What is the matter with you, more like? Do you know how rude you were last night?”

I sat up and stared at him. “How the hell did you get involved with them, and so quickly?”

Eddie smiled at me and then frowned as if he was dealing with a wayward but much loved child. “When we were with the sisters, Ross, were you aware of time passing?”

I shrugged. “No, I can’t say I was.”

“So, what did you feel like, until Mother came in?” I didn’t want to tell him. I wanted to remind him that our mother was dead and that bald-headed freak woman was not “Mother.” “Did you feel good , Ross?”

I swung my feet out of bed and began to dress. “Yes, damn and blast you to hell. I felt ecstatic. I felt as if I could be there forever in that… perfume. Where did it come from, Eddie?”

“Where did what come from?”

“That perfume. Is it something those women put in their hair?”

“They don’t put it in their hair, Ross.”

“What then—was it some kind of incense?”

“No. It is their hair.”

I repeated him, stupidly. “Their hair does that?” I sat heavily back on the bed.

“Wonderful isn’t it?” my brother whispered.

“How about we change plans, Eddie? How about we sell the house as it is and split the money. Get back to normal life, eh? Don’t you miss Cherie just a bit?”

“I don’t care what we do with the house in all honesty, Ross. And as for money… .” He sighed and stretched as if delirious with pleasure.

“What about all your debts you were so intent on paying off with your share?”

“Ah! That was before.”

“Before you met those women, you mean.”

“Please don’t call them that, Ross. Anyhow, didn’t you say they’re not women?”

“I’ve never met women like them in my life before! And what was going on with that one called Sissy?”

“Mother wanted you to meet her, to see her beauty.”

“Fuck off, Eddie! Just fuck off!”

I left the house, got in my jeep, and headed for town. I found a café with hardly anyone in it and ate a good breakfast. I didn’t know what to do, and I found myself crying without caring if I was seen or not. The night before I’d experienced the most pleasurable dream-like sensations I could ever have imagined. I could’ve stayed and stayed and stayed. I could’ve given myself; I could’ve gone with that ghoul of a woman with hair the colour of mud. Yet in me, deep and powerful, was some instinct that must’ve been entirely missing in my brother. I feared for him. Yet, I argued to myself that he was a grown man and he could do what he liked.

I stayed away from the house for most of the day, and when I got back, Eddie was there, in the kitchen, cooking something. “Well, little brother, you’re full of surprises!”

“I went to the new shop on the tarmac road, they sell pies and stuff, thought we could do with a good meal.”

I set about lighting the old stove as the air was getting cold in the falling light. I glanced at him; he seemed relaxed and cheerful, the slightly troubled look he habitually had was gone, and it came to me in a rush of feeling that I loved him… after all and after everything, I loved him. “Thanks for doing that, Eddie,” I said.

He shrugged and laughed, and turned his head to smile at me. “So, are we okay?”

“Yes,” I whispered. “Let’s get back to work, eh? Let’s finish the house, and leave. I’ll come back for the woodworm guys, you don’t have to worry.”

“Whatever, Ross. I’m happy.”

I straightened up and stood looking at him. “You look it.”

“It puts everything in perspective, you know.”

“What does?”

“Being happy; feeling content with all about you, feeling… blithe.” I laughed. “Blithe? I couldn’t have guessed you even knew a word like that.”

“Well, one of the things living and working together has shown us, is how little we do know about each other, Ross.”

I turned away to check the stove. “How about when we get home, we make an effort to do things together from now on… like we could meet for a meal once a week. You could bring Cherie. You’re wrong to think I don’t like her, Eddie. Actually, I find her heart-breaking the way she adores you.”

“I’m not going back to Holesville Nine, Ross. I couldn’t take Carboh there, could I?”

I curbed the impulse to fling insults at him; I laughed as if we were engaged in pleasant chit-chat instead. “Hey!” I said, maybe you could buy my half of Mum and Dad’s house and move in there with your…”

“No. The sisters must be together. They must not be separated. I’m moving down into their house. There’s plenty of room and they struggle a bit with chores and so forth, and now that Mother is ill, it’s very hard on everyone.” He laid one bowl on the table, broke up some bread pieces and invited me to sit.

“You not eating, Eddie?”

“No. I look at it and don’t quite see it as food. I cooked it for you.”

“Thank-you, then. It looks good. So, tell me, are you really planning to marry Carboh?”

“I’m winding with her, that’s what they call it.”

“Ah! You mean that’s what they call it where they come from?”

“I guess.”

“So, where do they come from?”

A moment of discomfort moved across his face, and a flicker of the old Eddie was visible. “They’ve been in that house a very long time, so they’re more connected to this area than anyone else around here. They know Mr. Ratchetson well.”

“I didn’t mean anything by it, Eddie, it’s just that their ways of doing things are so different. “So when you wind with Carboh, am I invited to the ceremony?”