text: \-The Turn, short horror story. Emma sat in the back seat of her mother’s car watching the line of cars on the other side of the interstate. They weren’t moving and occasionally she would see kids playing with passengers nearby stretching legs. Her tablet had died earlier that morning and she was still cross with her mother for not letting her plug it in. She said she needed to keep her phone charged, and she thought to herself that “maybe she wouldn’t need to charge it if she wasn’t constantly reaching for it - trying to call people or answer when it rang”. Not that it made a difference. Every time it rang, she would talk for a few minutes in a hushed voice before spattering “hello, hello” as the connection was lost. She mulled over the thought of asking her again to use the charger but thought better as she would be home soon anyways. Mother was upset, and she didn’t want to chance getting rejected again. They had been in the car since before the sun crossed the horizon. Now after lunchtime with her stomach rumbling, she was just happy to be heading back home where she would finally be able to get the snacks her mother had hastily left at the house. Emma’s mother, Bernadette, a slightly heavy set woman with short chocolate brown hair, focused on the road in between attempts to wipe the tears from her eyes. She had been a single mother since Emma was two. Between the booze, the lost jobs and the fists she couldn’t take it anymore and somehow convinced her worthless husband to move out. As she drove back to her modest house in the country she wondered if she made the right choice. At least maybe he would have been able to protect them. She shook the thought from her mind as they passed a sign “Knoxville - 25 Miles”. She refocused as she knew the 321 exit would be coming up shortly. She could feel her heart begin to race. The thought of vacating the main interstate and leaving the safety of all those other people brought the dread from her stomach up into a lump in her throat. She felt sick and thought for a minute that she might pass out. She shook that thought loose too. Right now - she needed to get home. Get her and Emma home, then she could worry about what they would do for the night. They lived in the small town of Wears Valley, Tennessee. Just on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains and Dollywood where she worked cleaning hotel rooms. Bernadette had lived there her whole life. They lived in the house her daddy had left them after he’d passed. A small house with two bedrooms and a single small bathroom. It was a sturdy house, besides the sagging porch and thinned glass windows. She always thought “it had good bones” and “they don’t make them like this anymore”. Now thoughts of what heavy furniture she could push in front of the windows, and could she pry up those old boards from the front porch raced through her mind. As four lanes turned to two Emma began to see things she recognized. It wouldn’t be long now before they were back home. Then she could plug in her tablet and eat some snacks. What a strange day it had been for Emma. She could see the shops, gas stations and homes she’d seen a hundred times, but they were different now. Boarded up, dark, men with guns sitting outside scanning the distance. One of the men she recognized, Lloyd Houston waved frantically at her mother from outside the Smoky Mountain Grocery, a small corner shop. He was a nice old man and she always liked seeing him. He would buy her a pack of gum or a candy bar whenever they would go to the store. Bernadette pulled her car into the gravel parking lot and as close to Lloyd as she could get. He propped his 12 gauge against his lawn chair and walked to the window. “Jesus Christ, what the hell is going on Bern? I thought you were going to Atlanta” he whispered through the window. Bernadette, not able to fully control her voice snapped back “We tried Lloyd; we couldn’t get anywhere close to it. They were turning back cars as far as Cartersville.” “Jesus” Lloyd said again “Tom couldn’t come meet you, to talk to them - or let him take them with you?”. “No, he’s just a deputy - they had the National Guard with jeeps and dogs turning us around on the median. One of the cars got stuck, and they just used their trucks to push it back onto the road”. Lloyd stepped back from the car for a moment, knowing what had to be going through her mind. “What are you going to do now, Bern?” he asked. Still trying to speak soft enough for Emma to not hear “Lloyd please, I don’t know. I can’t go home. Not out there alone in the woods. You have to let us stay with you”. With a sad look he says “I can’t Bern. You know I’d love to have you but there’s just no room”. “Please Lloyd you have to...please” She bargained. “I don’t know, we’ve got all the grandkids and their parents are panicked. They are hard enough to be around in good times”. Knowing she could win this argument and play on his kind heart she reaches out the window and grabs his hand. “Please I’m begging you - we won’t be any trouble; we will bring our own food from the house. Emma can play with Susie and Dillan - distract them from their parents”. Realizing he’s lost Lloyd relents “It’s standing room only - you’ll have to make a cot for you and Emma to sleep on”. “That’s fine Lloyd, just fine” she fights back the tears, and she squeezes his hand. She releases his hand as she reaches for the napkin to dab her nose. Lloyd steps back and orders “go to the house quickly, get anything you might need - food, water, something to sleep on and get into town. But be safe and quick about it!” Bernadette nods curtly, still trying to dry the snot in her nose. She shifts the car back into gear as he quickly catches her “do you still have your daddy’s .308?” She nods again. “Bring that too” As she approached the final turn to the road which would ultimately lead her home, she contemplated whether or not she should just keep going. “Just keep going and go straight to Lloyd’s house”. Whether it was habit or guilt over the food she promised to bring, she soon felt the bumps under the tire as she crossed the median turning onto the dirt road. The house was at the edge of town, a town where everyone knew everyone. Nevertheless, out here the land was rural, and neighbors could be hundreds or thousands of feet away. Bernadette didn’t have much land she legally owned, but her property almost backed up to the national park. Great swaths of land formed a half billion years ago. Mountains rising out of the earth as tectonic plates collided. Being late spring the trees were green and the forest thick. A hazy overcast day compounded by the dust and pollen the small car kicked up. Bernadette had to pass two houses before she reached home. She didn’t know the Johnsons who lived closest to the road, but she spent some time cleaning vacation homes with her neighbor, Amy Wilson in the off season. As she passed the Wilson driveway, she slowed the car and tried to spot the house. In the winter she could see Amy’s car, but the dense foliage blocked her view. “Surely she’s left”. Nearing the end of the half mile trip from the paved road she felt that sickening feeling again and once again had the urge to keep driving. She regained her thoughts and told herself “twenty minutes, I can go in for twenty minutes and be at Lloyd’s in an hour”. \- The car came to a stop and Emma could hear the familiar sound of windchimes singing in the breeze. Dust hung in the air and caused her mother to cough as she opened the door and unstrapped her from the booster seat. She quickly hoisted her and led her into the house by her hand. “She never holds my hand” “Mom, can I have some chips now?” “Yes sweetie, grab some chips and go get a few toys from your room” Bernadette said as she quickly began raiding the fridge. “I want to plug my tablet in” “no not now sweetie we are going to Mr. Lloyds in a few minutes” “No, I don’t want to go to Mr Lloyds, we just got home - I want to play on my tablet” Emma said with a whine. Realizing she hadn’t told Emma about their plans to stay with the Houston’s that night she stops her packing. Looking at Emma now for the first time since she awoke her at 4:30 this morning she pushes back the brindle hair from her freckle kissed face. “I know sweetie, but Susie and Dillan are going to be there. Don’t you want to play with them”. Emma shook her head softly no and put her thumb in her mouth to hide her disappointment. Bernadette knew she was tired, she never sucked on her thumb anymore. She pulled her in close nuzzling her under her neck while she rubbed her back “Ohh baby, if we don’t go to Mr Lloyds then he can’t give you the candy he forgot to at the store today. If you’re really good he might even take you on a tractor ride”. Knowing this was a lie. She pulled back from her daughter and could see the tears beginning to form in her eyes. “I don’t wanna go”. Her calm composure now turning to anger and panic snaps at Emma. “Emma Lynn O’Keefe if you do not go to your room and pack your toys you will have nothing to play with tonight, and if you do not go right now I will spank your bottom. She flies up and begins her frantic packing of anything she can grab from the old white fridge. “Go Emma, and I don’t want to see anymore tears” Emma still sniffling, begrudgingly walks towards her room. “The adults are acting weird today, momma never wants to go anywhere.” She crosses the dark living room making sure to step on the beams of light streaming from the blinds in hopes that maybe it will break her mother back. Emma’s room on the opposite end of the house is adorned with toys and stuffed animals. She looks across the rows of stuffed animals and dolls and remembers the tablet in her hand. Maybe she could charge it for a few moments before they had to leave. Susie’s parents wouldn’t let her have a tablet, but maybe she could borrow one from the adults. She climbs onto her bed to fish the plug from the socket. Something outside the window draws attention from the edge of her periphery. A white bunny rabbit at the edge of the garden. She’s seen bunnies before, but never a white one. Not a single mark of gray or black or brown, she can see its pink nose as it sniffs at the vegetables from outside the fence. She watches it for a few moments as it works its way around the garden fence, looking for a way to retrieve the produce. “Maybe I can catch it and take it to Mr Lloyd's house” Emma thinks. “He raised that baby squirrel whose mother abandoned it”. Forgetting the toys and tablet she hops from the bed - moving towards the hallway, pausing. She needs to be quiet; wanting to be quick and get the bunny before her mom notices her absence. She begins to sneak towards the screen door just past her mother’s room, cautiously avoiding the groaning floorboards. As Emma approaches the screen door she crouches down into a low stance. She begins to push and the hinges pop with a loud groan. Pausing she can hear her mother talking on the phone from the kitchen. Making herself as small as possible Emma slides her body between the door and the house out onto the concrete steps. A cacophony of birds and insects break the silence of the stale house and Emma holds her nose not to sneeze from the pollen in the air. Right around the corner there it is, the white bunny rabbit. It’s digging at the bottom of the fence trying to gain access to the plants Bernadette planted a few weeks back. Still in her low crouch Emma begins cautiously walking towards the garden. The un-mowed grass licking at her exposed ankles, she knows she will be itching later. After a little sneaking she finds herself five feet away from the bunny who’s preoccupied with his soon to be treat. Pausing to sniff the air the bunny spots Emma, and quickly begins a hasty retreat. After a few steps the creature stumbles and struggles to get up. Emma can see that its leg is hurt. She feels a sharp pain of sadness in her chest, “the poor thing is hurt. Now I have to get it to Mr. Lloyd” The rabbit regains his footing and begins a staggered hop towards the edge of the woods and Emma gives suite. Not quite gaining on it, but not losing it, she follows the hare through the edge of the woods and into the thickening undergrowth. Ignoring briars and thorns, young Emma pushes through the tangle determined to rescue the wounded animal. It begins to get dark, even midafternoon in April the dense canopy oppressively hangs overhead. Emma pushes past the dense grove of pine trees. The trees she’s not allowed to pass, deep in thought and pursuit. “Mamma doesn’t have to know I’ve been back here”. Nearly losing sight and regaining it, Emma spots the white bunny only a few feet away but it’s not moving. Emma doesn’t know what she sees. There are red splotches on the animal and it’s breathing is shallow and labored. As she approaches the rabbit, she can see the fear and begging in its eyes. It’s in a trap. A trap not unlike the traps the cunning villain uses in her favorite tv snow. Realizing the extent of the injury, tears begin to well in her eyes as she brushes the dried leaves from the jaws that now intersect the wounded animal. She begs and pleads as she pulls on the powerful spikes that seem to devour the poor beast. The animal struggles and she sees it’s stomach begin to tear against the sharpened blades The springs are unrelenting. Emma, hearing a loud pop, looks up for the first time since beginning her chase. The crack still echoes through the trees, a figure emerges from behind a grand pine. “Shh shhh - Don’t cry Emma” A sing-song voice speaks out to her. The forest now quiet save for the soft voice and gentle rustling of leaves. The figure approaches and her young mind struggles to make sense of what she sees. A tall woman but far too big to be any person she knows. “She must be two feet taller than mama” Nearly scraping the first layer of limbs, Emma sees the antlers adorning the woman’s crown. Antlers that lead down to a deer’s skull, leaving only her pale white mouth exposed. Her torso and legs covered with heavy cloth, stained with dark splotches crimson red. Her bare feet with darkened toes walk silently across the earth. As she draws closer Emma begins to feel uneasy by the strange woman. “Maybe she will tell mama I was out here - I wasn’t spose’d to be''. Feeling an urge to run, she remembers the bunny. “This woman is big, maybe she can open the trap” “I found a bunny...but it’s hurt and, in a trap...can you help me” Emma blurts to the odd woman. “What bunny sweet Emma?” she replies Now focused on her little white friend she thinks “It’s right here!” “She’s so close, how could she not see it?”. Only now did Emma feel the visceral burning pain as she looked down. No bunny to be found, she tries to pull back but can’t move. Her delicate hands smashed between the powerful jaws of the bear trap; she feels the teeth dig into her wrist as she struggles to break free. First panic, then fear, and finally dread wash over six-year-old Emma as the horned woman approaches. Tears stream down, washing streaks of dust from freckled face as she wishes her mama was there. Bernadette hangs up the phone, finishing the conversation with her brother, Tom, the deputy in Atlanta. His last remarks replay in her mind “It’s crazy today, sit tight for a few days at Lloyds and I’ll call when I can get you into the city” Not wanting to stay here any longer she puts her arms through as many grocery bags as she can carry. “Emma bring your toys we’re leaving now!” she yells across the small house. Getting no reply “Emma, come on, right now sweetie”. Maybe she had been too hard on her. Rounding the door to her daughter’s room. A rush of adrenaline and churning stomach acid, her eyes go wide as she quickly scans the room” “Mama! Mama come here!” she hears faintly from outside the house. “Emma!?” Bernadette retorts as sheds the bags lining her arms. Nearly sprinting out onto the sagging porch scanning the unkempt yard. Instantly she feels the adrenaline start to fade and her heart begins to slow. She sees Emma by the edge of the woods waving and smiling. A heavy sigh, she promised herself she wouldn’t be that hard on her sweet Emma again. “Emma, what are you doing out there sweetie?”. “I found a bunny; I think he’s hurt” she replies from the dark tree line.