Demon Dance by T. Chris Martindale

Author:T. Chris Martindale [Martindale, T. Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: horror, supernatural
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Published: 2020-11-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

The earthen house had been a family’s home once, when a wagon from Indiana strayed away from the Oregon Trail in search of a homestead. They had carved a large single room from the side of a gentle slope, firmed up the perimeter with heavy bricks of sod and soil, and planted a string of Christmastime firs on either side and all around the rear for a windbreak. They supported the ceiling with heavy beams, some of which they brought in from the town of North Platte while the rest were scrounged or stolen from other abandoned cabins in the area. And when the wood ran low, they constructed wide doors for the entrance from the bed of the wagon itself. Their work was slipshod and hurried in the face of a bad winter, but it was proven sound by the years to come. For it still stood today, some twenty years later, long after those original owners were but a memory. Whether they died in the silence of the prairie or were taken prisoner by the bands of Northern Cheyenne and Pawnee who wandered these lands at that time, no one would ever know. But the house remained in mute testament of their passage.

The grasses grew thick across the old soddy these days, and the pine trees had grown tall and strong and held the wind at bay. The big double doors were still there, though hanging crooked now in a buckled framework and rotting from the ice and rain. It saw occupants infrequently now, only when ranch hands used it as a line shack while herding, or when passing fugitives took advantage of its shelter and isolation.

Or when travelers happened by. The three who stayed there this night did not care about the people who had come before, or about the musty stink within or the way the doors wouldn’t latch and banged softly on cracking leather hinges. All they cared about was that the sun had just slipped from the sky, and that darkness now spread across the land like a giant’s shadow.

The night was upon them. There was not much time.

No Moon stood on the sloping grassy roof, lit by the glow of Hanhepiwi, the Night Sun. Hurry, he urged himself. It’s well past dusk now. The Devil will be here. Hurry! But he knew he could not leave, not until the task was done. He had to be thorough, or they did not stand a chance. He reached into the pouch on his side and took out another small handful of sweetgrass and sage and powdered bone, the same mixture that had served him so well back in Barlow. Then he held it out and sprinkled it lightly over the grass. Not too much in one place, he cautioned. There isn’t so much that you can waste it. Just a light dusting, all over the roof…

Something howled out on the prairie, in the extreme distance. It was only a dying echo that reached him, a faint, shrill cry.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.