Long Holler Road - A Dark Southern Thriller by David Lee Malone

“Well, you did an exceptionally good job today, Snake, and so did your friends. I’m so glad you brought them and I got a chance to meet them.”
      She disappeared into the house again and I could tell Glenn was still not going to acknowledge my existence, which was fine by me. I was happy. I had gotten as much money as I would have made doing back-breaking labor all day long in the hay fields and I had barely broken a sweat. I had also had a wonderful conversation with the prettiest woman on earth.
      Madge came back to the door and yelled for Snake. Snake walked toward the house with the same old caveman gait he always walked with, his knuckles almost dragging the ground. He walked in the house and Madge shut the door.
      I wondered what Madge needed with Snake. I thought she might even be giving him something extra and didn’t want us to know about it. You could just tell she felt real sorry for him.
      Me and Glenn decided to walk on down to the end of the road and wait on Snake there. We reluctantly walked away, occasionally looking back over our shoulders. Madge was one of those kind of people you hated to leave. Glenn was just staring off into space and humming to himself like I didn’t exist. I knew he was as proud as me to have gotten the twenty dollars, though I know he felt I didn’t deserve a penny of mine.
      We finally saw snake stomping down the road to meet us. It ran through my mind for a mere fraction of a second, that Madge might be treating old Snake to some of what the other boys his age were getting. But I quickly dismissed the thought. Surely Madge’s standards were higher than that. Glenn still hadn’t spoken a word to me when Snake walked up and we all three started walking toward Aunt Lena’s store. Whatever Madge had told him he was keeping to himself, which was uncharacteristic of Snake. He had a little smug smile on his lips as we rounded the corner onto Long Hollow Road.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER NINE
                               
      His captors had treated him fairly well, so far. He wasn’t sure if he had been there two or three days. His watch was gone as well as his clothes. They had given him a t-shirt and a pair of gym shorts to wear, but no shoes. He had been allowed to watch all the TV he wanted, as well as having all kinds of books and magazines to read. The TV was the only way he had of knowing the approximate time. He knew what time the news and certain other shows came on, but had to guess at the time in between shows. He had also been fed better that he would have been at home. The woman, or he assumed it was her, was an excellent cook, though wondering what they planned on doing with him next had diminished his appetite considerably.
      He had received one visit from the woman that he wished hadn’t happened, but it was forced upon him and he had no choice. He was a happily married man, very happily married, that had been in love with the same woman since his junior year in high school and had always been completely faithful. At least until now. But the woman had made him do it. That sounded rather childish when he thought about it, and he remembered some TV show where the punch line was, the devil made me do it. He couldn’t remember now which show it was. The fact that the woman was beautiful and had done things his wife would never do, didn’t make him feel any better about the situation. But she and the man had threatened to beat him, maybe even kill him, if he hadn’t performed. What else could he have done? Should he have resisted anyway, putting his faithfulness to his wife above survival? Of course his wife would understand that he had to do it to save his life. She always understood, or at least always had. What good would he be to her dead?              
      The big man who always wore the ski mask had filmed the whole thing. It didn’t make any sense to him. Were they trying to make