James Moore - The Haunted Forest Tour

“What makes you think I would bargain with you?”

“ You want to live through this event, don’t you ?”

“I suppose.” Maybe if he listened, he could work out a way out of his current mess. There was nothing to bargain with, really, but he could at least buy some time. “So what can you do about getting me out of here in one piece?”

“ More than you know. I can ensure your safety through what you call the Haunted Forest .”

“You a bigwig?”

“ I am not in charge here, but I have connections, if you will .”

“I don’t know if I will or not until I hear what you’re offering and what it will cost.” Lee shook his head. “Somehow I doubt you take American Express.”

“ I seldom take credit .” It settled back a bit, and he watched as one of its arms came out from the folds of the tattered cloak. “ I offer you three things, Lee Burgundy. First, I offer you safe passage from this place. Second, I offer you your youth again .”

“You’re lying. Old is old and it doesn’t change.” The words were out of his mouth without his even thinking about them.

The Proof Demon let out a low hissing noise, and the bared collection of serpentine fingers reached out and grabbed Lee’s wrist in a grip as cold as the grave. Lee tried to pull back, but his arm was firmly caught. He raised the stick he held in his other hand, and one of the creature’s many tails lifted into the air and whipped around it, holding it still.

“ Watch and learn, Lee Burgundy .” The hand on his wrist squeezed. Lee bit back a yelp and looked closely as the fingers opened tiny mouths and bit into his flesh. He felt the venom enter his body. It wasn’t painful at all, but he wanted to scream anyway. As soon as the writhing digits had done their damage, they pulled away from him and the tail on his trusty stick did the exact same thing.

Lee pulled his arm closer to his face and looked at the wounds, wondering how long he had to live. The tiny bite marks vanished almost instantly, but a tingling sensation spread.

“What did you do to me, you nasty little fuck?” His ears were ringing and his heart felt like it was going triple-time in his chest. The muscles in his arm spasmed and the tremors started moving, sliding through his body in jolts that still didn’t hurt but were scary as hell.

The seizure spread through him like lightning and Lee fell back on his ass before it was over, dropping his only weapon in the process.

He tried to cry out for Mindy, Barbara, anyone, but they continued walking, completely unaware of what was happening to him.

Anger lashed through him. Anger he hadn’t felt since the day several years ago when he saw some teenagers run over a dog in the street, get out of their car to poke at the dying animal, and then return to their vehicle and drive off, laughing. His anger was both intoxicating and frightening in its intensity.

Lee climbed back to his feet and practically snarled at the Proof Demon, which remained—not surprisingly—unafraid of him.

Lee took two steps forward, his hands clenched into fists that felt like wrecking balls.

“ Stop, Lee Burgundy, and look at yourself .” Lee caught sight of his arm from the corner of his eye and stopped as he took a closer look. The fine gray hairs that had been on his arm for as long as he could remember were gone, replaced by thicker, darker hairs. The veins that had been so prominent in the last five years were still there, but partially submerged in heavy, corded muscle. Lee looked carefully at his hands, which were stronger than they had any right to be. He moved his hands up to his face and felt the geography of his flesh. The wrinkles were gone, filled in with soft flesh. The bones were the same but also partially obscured by muscular tone he hadn’t felt in over two decades.

“You made me young again?”

“ Oh yes. A sample before we conclude our business, Lee Burgundy .”

“Just Lee.”

“ Lee then. Your freedom and your youth, Lee. I can offer you both of those, as well as the woman of your choice, from the ones before you or any others that live in this world of yours .”

Lee looked again at his hands, at his arms, the muscles that had rebuilt themselves, the bones that felt stronger than he could ever recall. His head swam with the proof that miracles could happen.

Miracles. That was the rub. Miracles were the province of the divine, not the infernal. Oh, the stories of demons and devils offering bargains were endless, but they always came with a price.

“I don’t have much, I grant you that.” Even his voice was young and strong again! “But I have no desire to sell my soul for fleeting youth and a free ride out of this dump.”

“ Don’t forget the women, Lee …”

He looked again at Mindy and the others, who were now literally moving in slow motion. He’d had more interaction with the fairer sex in the last few hours than he had in the past year, and all of that had been here, in the craziest place he had ever walked. While purely primal, a part of him longed to hold a woman again, to kiss a beautiful girl’s lips.

“ I don’t want your soul, Lee. That would hardly make a worthwhile bargain for you, would it ?”

“Then what do you want?”

The Proof Demon sidled closer, the multiple lights of its eyes staring at him again.

“ Give me the boy. Give me young Tommy and you shall have all that I promised you .”

Lee turned his head to look at Tommy. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words would come.

Dover’s Point was hardly a booming metropolis, but the last four years had seen something of a population explosion in the dusty little town. First, there was the claim to fame as the town closest to the Haunted Forest. That brought a lot of weirdoes and freaks into the area, to say nothing of religious fanatics.

Then came the people who actually bought all the land around the Haunted Forest and decided to make the unholy spot into a tourist attraction. Most of the residents in the area were a little taken aback at first, but the money came rolling in along with the construction crews, scientists, and hucksters that filled that place. After that, all was forgiven, or at least forgotten by a lot of the locals.

The rest of the country might be going through a recession, but things were looking up economically for most of Dover’s Point and the population that called it home.

Aloysius Mortimer Gantry — Al to his friends, Allie to his mistress, and the honorable Mayor Al Gantry to everyone else — thought the Haunted Forest Tour was one mighty fine addition to the area, really. It was a nice diversion from the billion or so miles of sand and tumbleweeds that made up the rest of New Mexico. Of course, he’d made a damn fine lump of scratch when everything started, so he wasn’t in much of a position to bitch about it, either.

Mayor Al was perfectly fine having monsters as neighbors just as long as they decided to keep to themselves.

Jake Steiner, the head of the police force in Dover’s Point, was fine with that notion too. He wasn’t so fine with the idea of sending his men out to the Haunted Forest Tour headquarters. He’d made that perfectly clear to Al only fifteen minutes earlier. One squad car stayed in town. The other nine went to check on what was going on. Why? Because the people running the tour paid good money to make sure the police force in Dover’s Point was both sizeable and well armed. They were a cautious lot and since they were being nice enough to pay for easily half the salaries in town, Al felt he could be magnanimous about the whole thing.

It was good to have the right connections, even if now and then you had to do a little something in return for the favors.