A Crying Shame (153 page)

Then she stepped into the faint light coming from the living room. She was naked. And blood-stained.

Mack didn't think he'd ever seen such a hairy pussy.

Betsy, have they been out here?”

They?” The one word question came out of her mouth in more a grunt than a language.

You all right, Betsy?” Mack asked.

She suddenly smiled, stepping closer to the trooper.
I am now.”

Mack breathed a sigh of relief.
Let's get you some clothes, Betsy. You tell me where they are and I'll go into the house. You don't want to see Jack ... like ... well, you know.”

I know.” She came closer. Her eyes were strange-looking; the yellow in them more pronounced than Mack had ever seen.
But I'm all right now. Believe me, I am.”

That's good,” the trooper said. He turned away from her blood-spotted nakedness, beginning to feel very uncomfortable in her presence.

She said something to him, but he could not make out the words. He turned around, and was able to get just one word out of his mouth before her teeth were tearing at his throat, her taloned fingers ripping his eyes from his head.

No!”

Betsy sat for a time beside the still-warm body of the trooper. Then she knew what she must do and where she must go.

She looked toward the swamp.

The swamp seemed to sigh.

She rose and began running, jogging through the darkness. She let instinct guide her back to the place of her birth.

And she was welcomed there.

 

But not all the maddened young Links were able to race back into the swamp that first of the bloody nights by the Crying Swamp. Some were captured, wounded, taken, and tortured.

Look at the cock on that sucker,” a man said.
Goddamn thing's longer and thicker than that nigger we had down at the jail. And we thought that bastard was hung. You 'member that coon?”

The badly wounded Link was unable to do anything other than look up at his captor through brown eyes of shining hate and fury.

Yeah,” his friend told him, drawing a hunting knife from a leather sheath.
You boys make sure that monster's tied down good and tight now; hold that motherfucker down! I'm gonna collect me a cock; might be worth some money when all this is over.”