He’d lost his brother the last time Mae came back. Almost everyone in town had lost someone. None blamed his father, but they didn’t need to. It was his guilt over not being able to stop Mae White that powered the bullet he swallowed twenty years ago.
“I’m calling a meeting. Please gather everyone in the main conference room.”
Tom paced the room as he waited for his deputies to join him. They arrived with serious faces, alert eyes, and curious expressions.
“What’s up, sir?” Curtis asked. He took the chair at the front of the room while Randy took a chair at the back. Randy crossed his arms over his chest, his face a mix of emotions.
“What’s with the curfew?” Randy asked.
“That’s why I called you boys in. I want to go over my plan and give you a chance to opt out.”
Curtis shrugged his shoulders. “There’s no question, sir. I’m in. I’m always in, but you knew that.”
Tom nodded. He had expected Curtis to stay. It was just not in the man to turn down someone in need of help. He almost wished Curtis did turn him down. Curtis was exactly the type to fall for Mae’s cries on the side of the road.
Randy just stared; his arms still crossed over his chest. Where Curtis was an open book, Randy was an equally shut one.
“I’m of a mind that you should sit this one out, Curtis. You’re more at risk—not only because of your demeanor but also your age. Randy is a little older and a little less prone to pick up a lady crying on the side of the road than you are.”
“I know better than to pick up strangers, sir,” Curtis argued.
“I appreciate your willingness. I want you both to understand what’s at stake before you make a commitment. At least two men have already disappeared, and according to this report from the coroner, Harlan is back.” Tom held up a yellow file. He closed his eyes for a moment as his heart rate increased.
As the sheriff set the file down on the desk, Randy noticed his hand trembled.
“So, what you’re saying is while you need us to enforce the curfew, you’re also concerned we’ll disappear, too,” Randy said, summing up what Tom hadn’t said yet.
“Yes.”
“Neither of us are her age. Nothing’s going to happen to us,” Curtis said.
“I don’t know that’s true. Everything feels different this time. You’re closer to Garvey’s age, Curtis, and he’s gone. Somehow, I don’t think age matters this time.” Tom shivered as he finished.
What if the day of reckoning was coming, and no one in Rickdale could escape it?
“So how do we stop this?” Randy asked. A slight tremor slipped into his voice. It was not his first round with Mae White, but he’d only been five the last time she appeared. He still visited the grave of his missing uncle.
Tom shook his head. “I don’t know. I wish I had an answer, but I’m no better prepared than my dad was. The curfew should minimize the disappearances, but I just don’t know. But you need to be prepared for anything. Ash got out of the car which leads me to believe he saw something important enough to follow, and Ash knew better, too. The whole town knows better.”
“I’ll do what I can, but I can’t commit to venturing into the fog. Not for anyone. I do believe, and I’d like to be around to see my wife’s smile, my son graduate, my baby girl get married,” Randy said.
Randy’s dark complexion had taken on an ashen tone. His fear was evident. Tom knew Randy would do whatever was asked of him but appreciated his candor. If Randy didn’t want to leave the station, he would do his best to keep him inside until the fog lifted.
“Do you think it will get worse?” Curtis asked. He had no fear. He was one of the lucky few who weren’t impacted by Mae’s return. His family had lost no one the last time Mae came back.
“I know it will, son. The fog is only the beginning. The full moon will make it worse. You don’t go in the fog unless you have no choice. You don’t get out of your car. You don’t let anyone get in your car, especially if they’re walking along the road—whether or not you know them. There’s not a soul in Rickdale who would get upset if anyone just kept driving right now. Not one soul.”
Tom rapped his knuckles against the desk to emphasize his last words. He hoped it would be enough to get through to Curtis.
Curtis wasn’t naive. Like all Rickdale natives, he’d grown up hearing the stories, but like most of the younger people, he didn’t believe them. His family’s lack of history with Mae White didn’t help. To make things more complicated, Tom was good friends with Curtis’ dad. He felt a responsibility for Curtis, as if he was his own son.
“Sheriff, we’ve got an incident,” Carla came into the meeting room with a pink memo sheet. “Tree blocking the road.”
“The fog?” Tom asked.
“Hasn’t rolled in yet,” Carla answered. “At least not here.”
“I’ll take this one, boys. Sit tight.”
Sheriff Greyson drove out to the scene and found the fire trucks already there.
“You boys doing okay?” he called out.
Warren Tillis, the fire chief, lumbered over to Tom’s squad car.
“We’ll have this out of the way soon, though I’m not sure why we’re bothering right now. You want to keep people in town, right? Away from the bridge?”
“I do, but I don’t want to trap people on the bridge, either. That’s just asking for trouble. Any of your men not show up for shift the past couple of days, Chief Tillis?”
Just because Tom wasn’t aware of anyone else missing didn’t mean they weren’t.
“Nope. Everyone’s accounted for. We stay in the firehouse mostly, anyway. You thinking about the anniversary?”
“Yep. Too damn similar for my liking. Ready for the chaos of a full moon?”
Rickdale might be a small town, and everyone might know each other, but that didn’t stop the hijinks and pranks a lot of the local kids pulled every full moon. The pranks were always harmless, just major annoyances, especially for the fire department. They’d spend days pulling shoes off the telephone wires, cleaning graffiti from trees, and wetting down the occasional bonfires that always seemed to pop up along the Rickers Creek shoreline.
“We’re always ready. How long you keeping this curfew in place?” The chief lifted his hat and ran his fingers through his thick, white hair.
“Until it’s over. Until the fog lifts. Until we’ve moved past this and survived.”
Warren studied Tom’s face. “You don’t sound too confident.”
“Just a nagging feeling. Something’s different about this year. I can’t put my finger on what it is, but I’m prepared for anything at this point. I’m just as clueless on how to stop it as my dad was thirty years ago.”
Warren frowned. “Your dad was a right good sheriff. It’s a tragedy what happened to him.”
Tom’s foot stretched out, and he watched it play with a small rock for a minute while he collected himself. “Miss him every day,” he muttered too quietly for the aging chief to hear.
“I’ll tell you something. One thing that always puzzled me about the whole thing,” Warren said.