Page 2 of Final Inning

Bill called her an evil, soulless witch.

Hagan did not want to get in the middle ever again. She had learned her lesson with those two a long, long time ago.

Hagan was almost at the porch when the screen door swung open.

Ruth stood there, tall, thin, with salt and pepper hair that stood out in wild frizz and fell almost to her waist. There was a wild look in her strange blue eyes. Something about it had Hagan’s skin crawling. Ruth prided herself on being almost Zen in nature. Letting nothing bother her, saying it was all part of some mystical plan. Stars aligned, everything worked together, it was all fate, that kind of thing. Trust the stars, or some trio of mythical Sisters named Nellana Ruth followed so religiously.

Hagan had never asked.

But now…she looked afraid. Terrified. And…she was actually shaking.

“Ruth? What’s happened?” Hagan had never seen her afraid before. She just hadn’t. Ruth was the brave type—she’d fight Hades if she had to, if she felt it was important enough.

“Blood and lots of it.” She was shaking, too. The scent of heavy incense wafted from the trailer. Hagan looked past her. There were two little boys there, one white, one Latino. Maybe around the age of ten. Kingsley and Angelo, she thought their names were. She’d seen them around, but…didn’t think she’d spoken to them before.

Ruth looked at the little boys, then stepped out of the trailer and onto the porch. She pulled the door shut firmly behind her. “Evil lurks, Deputy. Evil lurks here. Those boys…their souls…they are tainted now. For the rest of their lives. I am doing what I can, cleanse what I can. But until the soul of the dead is resting, the living…will remain disturbed. It’s happened before. Nothing…the evil…until it is stopped the souls of the dead cannot rest. They can’t rest.”

Hagan shivered. Ruth…scared her sometimes, no denying that. The things she said—sometimes, Ruth could be a little too right. “Tell me…what happened.”

“I will have to show you. I will not speak the words aloud. For it would bring the curse down upon us all.” Ruth was still shaking, and the hand she’d wrapped around Hagan’s elbow was strong. “You, Hagan Lindhour, have the purest of souls. I have seen that much before. I will ask the Nellana Sisters to have mercy upon your soul. For the times that come for you now—they will test you in more ways than you can imagine.”

Well, at least there was the Sisters’ help. Her soul could use all the help it could get at times.

Especially since she was living in Helery County.

Hagan just followed.

The trailer park was across the road and two hundred or so feet south of the old ball fields. The fields were still used occasionally. There was a rec league that rented the fields each year. They usually had about one hundred kids involved total. And sometimes, there were paid tournaments there. The fields were used as overflow fields, just the way they had been when she’d been young enough to play. She’d played fastpitch softball from the age of ten on.

Until she’d run away from home, ended up with a foster family, and then got offered scholarships to the local junior college. Softball had gotten her where she was today—but it still brought up complicated feelings when she remembered.

Softball was a thing of the past. She still didn’t even know if she missed it. It was far more complicated than that.

And it looked like the fields hadn’t really been updated in the nine years or so since she’d played her last game. If anything, they had gotten rougher.

Hagan hadn’t been out there at the ball fields but twice in the last three years. “What happened, Ruth?”

“Boys were out being boys. Just playing, now that it has warmed up a bit. Hitting the ball around, chasing each other. Roughhousing. I…keep an eye on them from my window. Their mommas work at the plastics factory in town, can’t afford no babysitter now that the boys are a bit older. So I do my part. Boys live in side-by-side units. Been friends since diapers. And they know…if there is a problem to come here. I won’t lock them out, like someone across the road, who claims to be a good clean Christian and all. I give them snacks, healthy kinds of things their mommas can’t afford to buy. I’m just here if they need me, and all. And I’ll never forget the way they came running to me today.”

Hagan just listened, as they walked toward the back of the ballpark. Near field three. She studied it, remembering how it had felt to play right there. Sometimes, her only real free moments had been had on these fields. The only time she didn’t have to worry about whether she’d made her father angry, whether he was going to hit her again that night, was when she was on the ball field—making him look good.

Making him feel like the star.

But…life went on. And she had goals for her future now.

She tried to remember that. To just keep moving forward. Before Helery County destroyed her.

“Boys brought me here. To the blood. I…looked. Saw for myself. I will never forget. When you see that death, Hagan, you never forget. Then made them head back to my place. They don’t need to be brushed by the evil of this. They have come close enough already. They’re just babies. They didn’t need to see this. They just didn’t.”

Ruth rounded the back of the old shed, that had been used for storage for decades. Hagan just followed.

But then she saw it, too.

The blood.

It was everywhere.

And it was coming from somewhere.