THE DEVIL’S DANCE AT HIGH POINT
By
Holly Hixson

Kaliah was unsure of where she was. Thick smoke encircled her. Intense heat flushed her cheeks. The burning building behind her seemed familiar, yet she was unable to place it. She stood, amidst the flames, confused by the images swirling around her.
Kaliah trembled in fear when her parents reached for her with outstretched arms, then faded away. Sweat trickled from her brow to her cheek. What was happening to her? Her parents couldn’t be here—they died ten years ago.
Flames leapt tall around her. Smoke began to tear at her throat, tears welled in her eyes. From the flames she could hear voices calling her, voices of her parents, and Danny, too. Images of those who had hurt her swirled around her, called out her name, accusing her. She could barely breathe from the heat and the fear within her.
“Go away from me! I want no part of you,” she screamed. The searing heat began to blister her skin. The rumble of the fire as it toppled the walls of the building she now faced made her words seem small. Kaliah could barely hear herself speak.
From behind her, a new voice spoke out her name. Icy fingers gripped her spine. As she turned toward her companion, the fires faded away. She trembled at this dark stranger, who she knew very well. He was tall and dark with long raven black hair. His face was cruel, yet sensual. He held his hand out to her.
“It is time, Kaliah. Remember the promise you made to me.”
“The promise of a child,” Kaliah said. “How is it that you still look the same? It’s been ten years.”
“Time has no bearing for me. I rescued you from your parents. The pain they inflicted on you was avenged. I helped you get even with that teacher that hurt you, too. You promised me yourself when you turned eighteen, in exchange for my help. It is time.”
Tendrils of fear curled through her. He reached out to grab her. She screamed out “NO!!!!” and leapt backward into the darkness…
Kaliah bolted upright and found herself in her bed. She barely dared to look around the room. He wasn’t there, yet she could feel his presence. Drenched in sweat, she rose from her bed and went into the small bathroom, flipped up the switch, and stared, horrified, at her image in the mirror. What she saw terrified her. Small red blisters stood out on her forehead, remnants of the intense fire. But that had been a dream. Or was it?
The faces of her new friends came to mind. Jake and Evelyn, but mostly Annie. Somehow she knew they were in trouble. Whoever this man was, she felt that he would go through them to get to her.
At just past dawn, Kaliah slid on jeans and a sweatshirt. The first rays of sun were sliding up the horizon, breaking into day. It was a cool, November morning, but the air up here on this north New Jersey mountain was thin. The cold would go right through her clothes. She grabbed her jacket.
She had to try to find her friends, try to protect them if she could. Somehow she had to figure out how to deal with this man. He had helped her escape her very cruel, abusive parents, and Danny, the teacher from the orphanage where she had been sent after her parents’ deaths. But the promise she’d made him had seemed a joke to her back then, and she’d given it freely, not believing in the reality of the one she’d given it to. Fear continued to curl through her as she stepped out her cabin door.
The wind did indeed cut through her clothes as she headed up the mountain road. She needed to tell Evelyn and Annie that they were in danger. As she walked into the wind she lowered her face toward the ground and stuffed her hands into her jacket pockets. Her thoughts wandered back to when she first met Annie, six months ago.
She had left the orphanage on her eighteenth birthday. Deciding to travel, she headed east, hitchhiking her way across the country. Her last ride dropped her off after crossing the Delaware Water Gap in north New Jersey. They were heading south and Kaliah had wanted to stay her easterly course, the Atlantic Ocean, her goal. She walked into a small Cumberland Farms store to inquire about finding work, her meager funds severely diminished. Her journey would have to take a temporary halt.
She met Annie there, had somehow got pulled into conversation with her and before she knew it Annie was introducing her to Evelyn, the owner of the Kismet General Store. Annie was what Kaliah had always looked at as a “goody-two-shoes”, but there was something striking about her as well. She embraced Kaliah with love and friendship from the moment they met, and that was something Kaliah had never known before.
Evelyn’s store was high up on the Kittatinny Mountain, located between three campgrounds scattered around the mountainside. Above the store a trail led to High Point, a lookout spot for tourists in an area filled with colorful and tragic history. Kaliah remembered the first time Annie took her to High Point. Tall mountains, steep cliffs, and breathtaking beauty had filled Kaliah with peace and a sense of awe at nature which overwhelmed her senses and exhilarated her. Annie had lived here all her life, content and filled with love for all around her. For this Kaliah almost envied her.
Now, from behind her she heard the rumbling of an old pickup truck. She pulled herself from her thoughts of Annie, and turned to wave at Jake, a small grizzled man with a beard of silver hanging down his chest. The old man grinned at her with his toothless smile and bumped up the road in his truck that was surely older than him. Jake’s daily visit to the Kismet store was something she knew Evelyn looked forward to.
Kaliah hurried her steps. The dark man of her dream came looming back to her and she knew she had to hurry. She felt Evelyn was in danger, but she hadn’t given a thought to what Jake might be hurrying toward.
As she entered the gravel drive of the mountain store, the silence of the air filled her with dread. The birds weren’t even singing. Jake’s truck was parked over near the fence, his usual spot. The silence was deafening.
Kaliah entered the store, calling out to Evelyn and Jake. Only silence answered her. She ran her fingers through her short, shag cut blond hair and looked around the store. Perhaps they’d walked over to Evelyn’s cabin, a stone’s throw south of the store. It was not uncommon for Evelyn to share some of her blackberry jam and freshly baked muffins with a friend. But she usually left a note on the store’s front door letting visitors know she’d be right back. The aroma of fresh brewed coffee that normally filled the store was not there.
Fear made her uneasy. Standing in front of the large window that looked out over the parking lot made her feel like a target. What’s the matter with you? Kaliah scolded herself. A target for what? She didn’t know, but all at once she wanted to get out of there, and fast. An icy chill raced through her. She headed for the door. A movement from the front window caught her eye and she stopped cold.
The store was situated almost at the top of High Point, nearly perched on the top of a rocky cliff. The silver chain fence erected around the north perimeter of the store kept tourists and locals from toppling over the edge in their effort to peer down the steep grade into the rocky gully nearly two thousand feet below. To the left of the fence a path wound through blackberry brambles and tall scrub pine led to the lookout area of High Point. At the foot of this path, Kaliah stared in fear and wonder. A man with long raven black hair, dressed in a foot length black trench coat and small, circular dark glasses on his face, stood facing her. She could feel his gaze burning through her.
She was distracted by the sound of a car pulling into the gravel lot. The car, a maroon Chevy, stopped near the fence. Kaliah watched as the driver, a teenage boy, got out of the car. He seemed familiar. He pulled something from the back waist of his jeans. In his hands he held a gun. She remembered his name, Jimmy Raymond, one of the local troublemakers. He turned to face the man standing on the path.
Jimmy moved away from his car, whirling the gun in front of him and began firing at the dark stranger. Bullets whizzed all around the man but had no effect. Then a louder noise rang out, almost like a crack of thunder. A blaze of light streaked from the man out to Jimmy. Almost in slow motion, Kaliah saw the boy straighten from the punch of the light, then whirl around slowly. His back arched forward as a second blast rang out. She clamped her fingers over her mouth to keep herself silent as the seventeen year old slumped forward and hit the ground. Kaliah stood in front of the door, frozen like a frightened doe caught in the glare of headlights on a dark wooded road, not knowing which way to turn, but fully aware of the peril she was in. The dark man grinned at her and headed toward the store.
Forcing herself to move, she bolted to the back entrance of the store. She pushed it open and raced toward Evelyn’s small cabin. Once into the small house, she slammed the door behind her, but was unprepared for the sight before her. Kaliah had made herself believe she’d find Evelyn and Jake sharing muffins and coffee, unaware of how much time had passed.
Instead, in the dimly lit cabin, she saw Evelyn’s body propped in her oak rocking chair, eyes open wide in terror. Jake was stretched out on the sofa, blood draining from his throat. The woman had suffered the same fate as Jimmy.
Horrified, Kaliah sank to the floor staring at the bodies of her two friends. She moaned softly. The click of the door opening stirred her and she crawled silently under the kitchen table. The only noise came from her ragged breathing. She knew he had entered the cabin, but heard no noise, no footsteps, nothing. She’d seen him walk through a hail of bullets, untouched. The reality of what he was, some kind of demon, or perhaps the devil himself, entered her mind.
He came into view and dropped Jimmy’s body in front of the fireplace. Kaliah held her breath, terrified. Death had visited this mountain this day, and she knew before the devil’s dance was done, she was going to die.
When he moved from her view, she closed her eyes, barely able to breathe. Silence loomed around her. Suddenly, she felt his cold, strong fingers grip the nape of her neck as he pulled her from beneath the table. She was paralyzed from fear. He pulled her up to him, their faces inches apart. Kaliah couldn’t see his eyes through the dark glasses, but she could feel his intense stare. This is it, she thought.
“I could give you a choice,” he told her. “You could be of use to me. Bring others into my fold, bring other souls to me, and you can keep yours, for now. How about it Kaliah? Shall you die? Or will you let others die for you?”
Before Kaliah could answer him, a sound from outside brought new terror to her heart. Annie’s voice drifted in the air. She was in the parking lot, calling out to Evelyn or Kaliah. The devil shrieked with glee and dropped his hold on her. He tore out of the cabin toward Annie.
“NO!!!!!” screamed Kaliah as she raced after him. She reached the gravel lot in time to see Annie and the man disappear up the path toward the High Point lookout. Kaliah raced after them. At the top, Annie faced her, the dark man’s arms locked around her waist. He was laughing hysterically.
“Please, not her. She’s done nothing to you. She’s good. You’ll never get her soul,” Kaliah pleaded with the man she now thought of as the devil.
“Ah, yes. But this is your choice, Kaliah. It’s you I want. She is just a means of me getting what I want. Now choose. Either I kill her or you do. That’s your price for defying me.”
“Kaliah, what’s he talking about?” Annie said to her. “What does he want with you? Why does he want to kill me?” She stopped struggling in the devil’s arms as she faced her friend.
Hot tears ran down Kaliah’s face. “I will not kill her or allow you to. She’s not part of the deal. You want me? Let her go. I’ll keep my part of the bargain, but release her first.”
Annie and the demon were standing very close to the edge. “You want to save your friend?” the devil asked. “Come get her.” The demon released his grip on Annie, moving with lightning speed. Kaliah saw her friend glance backward at the cliff’s edge. Oh, God, no, Kaliah thought. She ran up to her friend. Annie’s hands reached out to her. As their fingers touched, she felt the demon rush against her, pushing her forward. She was propelled toward her friend pushing Annie over the edge. Kaliah looked into her friend’s eyes as she dropped off the edge of the cliff. First she saw terror, and then love replaced the fear. Kaliah screamed after her friend.
The demon’s laughter rippled across the mountainside. Desolate, Kaliah stepped toward the cliffs edge. She wanted nothing more than to join her friend. Tears streamed down her face, emptiness filled her soul. She placed her foot on the edge, prepared to step off when she heard Annie’s voice.
“Fight him Kaliah. Don’t let him win.” Annie’s words filled her head, yet seemed to come through the wind whistling through the treetops as well. Kaliah stepped back from the edge, feeling her friends love for her course through her, a silent river running deep.
“Yes, Annie,” she whispered as she turned from the edge. She headed back down the path. When she hit the gravel lot, she looked around briefly, and then sprinted across to the winding mountain road she’d walked up. Grief flowed through her at the loss of all her friends. As she retraced her steps down the mountain, Kaliah breathed deeply of the mountain air, swearing to avenge her friends. Somehow, she would make the devil dance again, only she would be triumphant in the end.

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 01.07.2009

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