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he day was as perfect as the sky.
An almost azure blue canvas of billowing white cumulous clouds that floated lazily across the ether. Set ablaze at their edges by a sun of dazzling brilliance.
The wind was a gentle breeze, caressing the birds and the leaves in the surrounding trees. And the temperature couldn’t have been finer if it were embracing a tropical paradise…
Eric Hawthorne
--In the Moment
THE DARKNESS WITHIN
PART ONE
An evening at DAVNER’S Cabin
1
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ennifer Nichols reveled in the feel of the wind softly blowing her silky blond hair back as it lightly breezed through the back passenger window of the dark blue Ford Explorer XLT 4x4. The XLT was pulling a four-sided trailer with provisions—mostly cases of beer, for a weekend at Davner’s cabin.
The Explorer was headed in the direction of Ottercreek, it’s final destination would be a two-story cabin ten miles beyond, that was designed by Tyler’s father, Owen Davner over fifteen years ago.
Jennifer was pushing her head over the passenger’s door window divider, feeling the sun on her face, she acknowledged that it was a beautiful day--the Summer’ Solstice, and she suspected it would be a beautiful weekend, perfect for camping; even if it was going to be done mostly inside a cabin with all the comforts of home.
“That’s not “camping”.” She heard the voice of her mother telling her. “Camping is when you have to “rough it”, and suffer things like going to the bathroom outside.”
“Sorry mom, but the cabin has indoor plumbing.”
“That’s not “roughing it”.”
“Oh—well… I guess I won’t be “roughing it” then.”
Jennifer was currently attending her first year in college at Kilicut Maine University; her Major was Computer Programming, as she eventually worked her way toward her ultimate goal; a PhD in Engineering. With the striking looks of a Centerfold, Jennifer could easily have been a model if she chose to. But she didn’t cater to that “vanity shit”, and she wanted to do something with her mind, something challenging, certainly she had the intellect for it, and intimidated most guys as a result. And she preferred that, over posing for a bunch of men she would never—or care to ever see, just to make a living.
Lanny Conive on the other hand would have no difficulty posing for men that she would never see in order to make a living. She was wild-spirited and quite the exhibitionist at times; taking off her top at the drop of a hat and throwing it to the wind, exposing firm breasts, no smaller than honeydew melons. But rather than be a model, she would choose to be an actress, if the opportunity presented itself, and currently she was attending Springvale’s Acting Studio in hope to prompt her in the right direction. At the moment she was wearing something that looked like the cross between a bikini and a woman’s sexy undergarments mating; her top looked like a white bra that was covered by what appeared to be a red laced bikini top, what covered her fine ass was something along the lines of frayed stone-washed jean, cut in the fashion of bikini bottoms, and slit up the side just for more appeal, contrasting this was her black—what she like to call her—fuck me boots.
At the moment the blue-eyed brunette beauty with the trendy blond streaks was sitting next to Jenni, while she casually rested her head on Jessie Pruit’s shoulder, light sounds of snoring drifted from between her lips, as it was almost a three hour drive from Springvale to Ottercreek, and Lanny had been up all night the previous evening.
There was no commitment between Jessie and Lanny, they weren’t even dating—although Jessie would have very much relished for that to be the case. Jessie was a good- looking young man of eighteen, with dark hair and blue eyes, standing about 6’1” and reaching for a scholarship in football, and it looked promising. He figured if he scored on that Lanny would look at him twice.
(Lanny doesn’t care if you get a scholarship or not. She’s not even attending college.)
Another part of him suggested that Lanny already had looked at him twice. After all she was resting her head on his shoulder. But then again, that could just be her cock-tease promiscuous nature; with Lanny it was always difficult to know when she was being sincere. Was the word even in her vocabulary? He rolled his eyes as the beauty rested her head on his shoulder, trying to distract himself by thinking of other things beyond the girl next to him.
Between summer, school, and his free-time, Jessie was working construction with the Beverly Brothers. But after three months with them he was having second thoughts about the company that he was working for. It seemed, after a time, like a fly-by-night construction company. Always late with his pay-check, lax attitude on the job; the boss, his brother, and partner would spend too much time away from the site. Oh, sure. They were always getting lunch, or running an errand. But they always seemed to be going to some place obscure and out of the way to do it. And although he never saw them drinking beer or smoking dope on the site, there were telltale signs that suggested that might have been the case.
What it came right down to when push came to shove was that it was difficult finding a legitimate job that put integrity and professionalism first. Everyone seemed to be trying to play an angle or cut corners these days. Either that, or he just wasn’t lucky in finding the right position yet that he could appreciate.
“I need some cigarettes,” Shannon told Tyler who was currently steering the Explorer down the long open road.
“I think there’s a Quick Stop about five miles up ahead,” Tyler told Shannon.
“Get some beer,” Brandon called from the far back seat, he was resting his legs on a duffel bag and a cooler, and smoking a joint. The sweet smell of marijuana filled the small area where two young men were sitting.
“Right, beer-run,” Jason added from the far back seat where he sat across from Brandon. To Brandon he said, “Don’t be bogartin’ that joint, man.”
Shannon was a salesperson at McKane’s Jewelers, and she wasn’t entirely sure what she wanted to do with her life. If nothing upcoming inspired her, she supposed that she would go right on being a salesperson, as she was doing very well in that position—or maybe she would choose to be a regional manager, or perhaps even owner of her own store; like her boyfriend Tyler who, had been voted “Most Likely to Succeed” in high school. To this day she believed that it was the skiing accident two years ago at Redoubt that messed up his head a little and somehow gave Tyler the notion that he no longer wanted to be a doctor. It wasn’t a tragedy any way you looked at it; when Tyler was in his junior year of high school he had already owned and operated a computer store, while his father Owen owned four car dealerships, in Springvale, Portsmouth, Portland, and finally, Salem Massachusetts, with over a thousand units of new and used cars. So anyway you looked at it, Tyler would come out smelling like a rose; if his computer store failed, then he always had his inheritance to look at, which would of course be ownership of his father’s dealerships.
2
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TFN. That was their motto. And although they were pretty sure that the saying originated somewhere in France, no one knew who it was in the group that started saying it first. Life’s a bitch, this said mostly by Raine. It’s a SNAFU—situation normal all fucked up, or SNAFUBAR—situation normal all fucked up beyond all repair (or recognition—or reason), this was Tyler’s. Along with Raine’s “Life’s a bitch”, there was Kim’s, Life’s a sandbox: we never leave it: it just gets bigger. And Brandon’s: “Why do bad things happen to good people…? Because it can.” And there were so many others. As numerous as raindrops or snowflakes. Colorful platitudes, each reflecting one’s vision of life in general. Forever the same, forever changing. If you’re looking for me, I just left. Raine considered the ones that she could cultivate in her mind for the moment, as she followed the Explorer, two car-lengths in front of her. She too was driving an Explorer, hers was red, and it was packed with as many passengers as the one in front of her. Both vehicles were borrowed from Owen Davner’s (Deals) primary lot for the weekend so that fourteen kids could go camping out by the lake just outside Ottercreek.
It’s up to the rose… Raine thought quietly to herself, and for the life of her having no idea where the muse had come from. She didn’t recall any of the gang ever saying something like that. Although it was quite possible that she had read something of Brandon’s; he was always spouting that kind of poetic artistic bullshit. She blinked her eyes and turned her thoughts elsewhere. Primarily to the reason Colleen couldn’t come along on their little trip to the cabin. Colleen and Keith were making fire and brimstone laced with lightning drop out of the sky with their third break-up. Three’s a charm… Raine tried to explain to the younger girl the second time that relationships are like milk: when they go sour you don’t put the milk back in the fridge hoping to improve its quality. But Colleen wouldn’t listen. “He’s changed; you should see how loving he is.” That is until he got to drinking, and then one would think that he was possessed by the Devil to look at him. And he would hurt Colleen; and Raine even went as far as to call the police on the bastard, but Colleen wouldn’t press charges. And now she’s pregnant. It just keeps getting better and better… And she’s looking older; far older than she should for a girl her age. Raine sometimes entertained the notion of an “accident” happening to ol--Keith; brakes on the car could fail…arsenic could somehow be found in his beer—or better yet, his dope—who would know who was responsible…? He sky dives! There could be a tragic misfortune. Or hell—someone shoots him on the street, mistaking him for somebody else. Raine could do it. And she knew that she could get away with it. She was demonically intelligent. No one would be the wiser. But then, she would have to look at herself ten years down the road while she was helping others with their problems as a practicing psychologist. How do you live with yourself then? How do you justify yourself? Your actions of having killed someone? Could an exception to the rule be made?
Debra Buchanan sat in the passenger side of the Explorer, manipulating a Gameboy and listening to her Ipod. She had tuned everyone out. She was in her own little cubicle of induced reality. Beyond this, there was no telling what was going on inside her head; what her dreams or ambitions were.
Behind her, Tina Sweate, Becky Carmichael, and Thomas Thorne, watched the DVD player hanging down between the two seats of the cab; the attraction for the day was: Resident Evil: Apocalypse. The trio loved movies about zombies, especially the ones that were approached in an intelligent manner. They even thought that Sean of the Dead was rather clever. And they absolutely loved Romero’s work—although they thought that Season of the Witch was for shit, but then that didn’t have anything to do with zombies anyway.
Behind them were Katsumi Lucia Lin and Ian Traxinger. They were a couple fresh out of high school, Katsumi had the gorgeous features that could only be produced by an Asian/American, Hispanic/American, and a spice of Greek joining together, she was certainly the most beautiful girl that Ian ever laid eyes on, and he considered himself the King of the World for that privilege. The two had met as junior and senior in high school, Katsumi being the latter, having transferred from Providence, Massachusetts. Ian felt a powerful sensation that was both warm and stimulating in his heart and groin when he first laid eyes on his future girlfriend; it was the kind of sensation that could have easily brought tears to his eyes. Katsumi was wearing an outfit that would make one assume that she went to a private girl’s school; with the skirt and knee-socks, and horsetails falling down both sides of her face, she wore a belt with the ensemble that looked like it belonged with the uniform of a cop, but somehow she pulled off the presentation nicely. Chic. Ian thought she was the epitome of adorable and gorgeous melded into one. Having studied the Asian culture as an extracurricular activity, Ian had a soft spot for Asian women, but Katsumi was truly radiant, and she had the most prodigious eyes of violet and blue!
He wouldn’t have the pleasure of meeting Katsumi the first day that he saw her, but he swore that he would meet her if opportunity presented itself. It did, three weeks later one weekend during the spring at a place called Castle Golf; it was a small amusement park really, a miniature golf-course, with water-slides and bumper-boats, and an arcade inside a structure resembling a small castle, hence the name. It had really been an unexpected meeting; Ian had been playing Arcade’s version of Silent Hill in the castle and Katsumi had just walked up to him and introduced herself. They began dating the following day. Four weeks later they were steady. It’s been like a fine ride on a roller-coaster ever since.
Or so Ian believed.
3
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aine followed the blue Explorer into the parking-lot of The Quick-Mart, a sand-dusted structure with aged gas pumps. She pulled the XLT that she was driving right along side of the passenger’s door as Tyler was exiting the driver’s side.
Raine tapped the driver’s window switch and lowered the window; she called out to Shannon who had her window already down. “Hey, Shan, what’s up?”
Shannon turned to acknowledge Raine with a smile. “I need some smokes, and the little boys want more beer.”
“Christ,” Raine exclaimed. “We got five cases on the trailer as it is; how many beers are those lushes planning on drinking?”
“I guess they figure that until they have a case a piece it won’t be enough.”
“You got that right,” Jason affirmed from the back. He took another drag on the joint and said, “Beer and tokin’--that’s smokin’… Ya’ gotta have the beer with the smoke, ya gotta’ have the bud ta’ toke.” Jason and Brandon burst out laughing.
Shannon looked at them like they had pushed their heads up each other’s ass. Or maybe their own.” That’s lame. You guys are smoking yourselves stupid.”
“And that…is why they call it dope.” Jason declared. There was more laughter.
“Stupid is as stupid does,” Brandon added, taking a toke.”
“Whatever the hell that means,” Jennifer chimed in.
“And remember:” Jason stated. “The light at the end of the tunnel may be your eyeball looking through a microscope…”
“Or it may be out of service,” Brandon warned with laughter.
“Oh shut the fuck up.” Shannon told them voluminously.
“Forget about them,” Raine told Shannon. “They’re just compensating for the fact that they can’t get laid.”
“’Sumwun say “fuck”?” Lanny said sleepily, eyes still closed. She nuzzled Jessie’s shoulder like a kitten trying to get comfortable. Jessie couldn’t prevent the hard-on that surfaced in his jeans.
“Oh—Raine, could you open the back?” Katsumi asked. “I’d like to get a Code Red.” As Raine released the back hatch, Katsumi pushed it open. Sheepishly she turned to her boyfriend as her feet touched down in the lot. “I just need something to suck on,” she said to Ian with a wink and a sultry brush of her tongue over her upper lip. Then she went into the store, and again Ian marveled at the woman whose affections he had won. As slender as they come, she was wearing a light and dark blue-mix floral bikini with a sarong wrap that cut at an angle from her waist to her toes, and blew lightly in the breeze, when she turned around one could see her tattoo that covered her back from neck to butt and coming around about an inch to either side; an extremely intricate and colorful design, that to this day no one has quite been able to figure out; Brandon made the comment that it looked like two dragons mating, and Jason added, “only if they were done by H.R. Geiger.”
She was out three minutes later with her soda in hand.
Tyler came out eight minutes later with two more cases of Budweiser and a carton of Marlboro Lights 100’s. A slight adjustment of coolers and cases of beer and the trucks were back on the road.
4
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he two-story cabin near the pond was built from felled trees, shaved, and glossed to an always-looks-like-new shine. Twelve years ago Owen Davner had the plans for the cabin contracted for a get-away-from-it-all home-away-from-home. It was the perfect location. Ten miles from civilization. The cabin had cost $210,000 to construct, on land that cost almost three times that much. It was complete with running water, generated electricity, and a fireplace. Furthermore, Owen had—for about thirty grand--constructed a waterfall up on Gillian Heights, which was an outcrop almost fifty feet above and overlooking the pond.
Tyler had been up to the cabin more than a dozen times since he could remember; four times with Shannon, three times with the gang, and twice with Nick Steis, the death-metal rock-star.
It was interesting to note that although Maine was notorious for bees and wasps, neither insect seemed interested in making the cabin—or for that matter, the area of the cabin—their home. Something kept them away. Which only added to the enjoyment of the atmosphere and environment up at the cabin. And that was just fine with Tyler, because he hated the little fuckers. Always building hives where they weren’t wanted; either on the front porches of his house, or in the attic. But up at the cabin there were no hives found, none built, it was wonderful, but it was also a little strange.
On June 13th, at approximately one o-clock, the SUVs could be heard coming up the long drive leading to the cabin, gravel crunching between the dirt road and the tires. Horns announced their coming in a manner that suggested that the drivers were letting anyone who might be up at the cabin know that they were on their way. The sun shone warmly across Quaintley Pond.
The Explorers pulled up close to the wide, wooden porch bordering the cabin. The windows shined with their one-way glass, and the pond rippled and gleamed beneath the bright sky, left of the vehicles.
In no time, bodies piled out of the trucks and began grabbing coolers, cases, duffel bags, and other provisions. Debra made sure to unpack her Playstation first, as it was already decided what room she would have, and it came with a color TV.
Food was shifted from coolers to larger coolers and refrigerators inside and outside the cabin. Rooms were chosen--if they hadn’t been earlier that day, and half of the group put on swimwear, the young ladies looking far more attractive then the men—especially Brandon and Jason, whose trunks almost fell three inches passed the knees, or were they wearing cut-offs? As faded as they were it was hard to tell.
It didn’t really matter, because neither one of them was interested in swimming at the moment anyway; instead—twenty-five yards from the cabin, hidden by the surrounding woods—they were more interested in dropping some of the acid that Brandon bought off a carnival worker at B&B Amusements—both of them had a bottle of St. Paulie Girls in their hands. And Brandon recalled the motto of B&B Amusements: We Make Memories…
It was never articulated just what kind of “Memories” B&B referred to—what kind they made… Unknown only to the very few and those involved, the carnival was a front for drug-running, prostitution, and pornography—especially child-pornography.
Brandon hadn’t known any of that. He just knew that the carnie sold him some hella-shit LSD—or EMT, as the carnie called it. If he had known what was going down, he would have gone to the police—even if it meant that he would have been busted for carrying acid. Pedophiles should all rot in hell!
But then—once again, he didn’t know anything about B&B’s hidden agenda. So he took the acid, and went on his way.
5
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ebra Buchanan was a Registered Nurse at Mercy Central, and a rather wealthy R.N at that. In early June of 2004, Debra Buchanan was hit by a car while crossing a street in Corinthian, not far from where she went to school.
Following the accident, Debra was in a coma for 21 days. She had fractured her skull, shattered her ribcage, punctured her lungs, and shattered her hip, which was replaced by metal and Teflon.
The man who had hit her was a retired Sergeant of the military who was just beginning to experience the exciting fundamentals of a mental disorder, which in his case was Schizoaffective. His lawyer explained that his client was hearing voices at the time of the accident. Debra had actually felt sorry for the man, and pissed at the world that there was no one to truly blame for her condition—although it was said that she had recovered remarkably.
Yeah. Remarkable.
Debra suspected that she probably wouldn’t have the privilege to play sports ever again. And she would always have to have someone with her if she wanted to swim. Oh—yeah, and she would always walk with a slight limp, which would grow increasingly worse as she grew older
Yeah. Remarkable recovery.
Still, it could have been worse; she could have been sent on a permanent vacation following the accident. But considering the condition of the world these days, she often argued that maybe the permanent vacation might not have been such a bad thing.
At any rate, the verdict in, Debra sued the Sergeant’s insurance company, which would in turn make the man’s rates skyrocket, if they didn’t drop him completely, but there was little that Debra could do about that…bills had to be paid. The suit was for 1.5 million dollars, half of which covered hospital expenses, which took almost a year to receive, and “sorry Mr. Man for your disorder, but I currently have one of my own...who do we blame now…? God?” Such was life; some of us are able to drive the highway, while others of us have to constantly wait to get into the stream of traffic.
Pushing aside the memory to the best of her ability, Debra installed the Playstation, and as it was warming up with Final Fantasy, she decided to go grab herself a beer from one of the coolers.
Shannon and Tyler were still in the kitchen putting things away; Thomas and Ian were in the living room watching football on a 60-inch HDTV, while the remaining girls were all in the pond illustrating a young teen-ager’s wet-dream, or the next Sports Illustrated Swimwear issue. So what was the problem with Ian and Thomas? As if hearing her thoughts, Ian turned to Debra. “Aren’t you swimming?”
“Maybe later,” Debra told him. “I just want to hit a few more levels in Final Fantasy.”
“Did you bring any two-player games?”
“Sure; racing and combat, mostly.”
“What do you have in the way of combat?”
“Mortal Kombat Armageddon II and Tekken III.”
“May I challenge you to a game of Mortal Kombat this evening?”
“You may, if Katsumi says it’s alright.”
“If Kat--?
“Says it’s alright.” Debra finished for him.
“Hey girl, I’m not pussy-whipped here.” Ian protested.
“It’s not a matter of being pussy-whipped; I don’t want to get on Katsumi’s bad-side.” And then before Ian could say anything more, Debra turned to the couple in the kitchen. “Could I get a beer?”
“Sure can do,” Tyler replied. “Import or domestic?”
“Import,”
“Heineken it is.” Sorting through the coolers, Tyler found a six-pack of Heineken. He grabbed two bottles. Then he reached into his pant’s pocket and took out his keys. He used a bottle-opener on his key-chain to open the first bottle, then he removed the tool from the key-ring and handed it to Debra. “For later,” he said finally.
“Thank you, kind sir.” Debra acknowledged. Then she took her two beers back to her room where the intro-movie to Final Fantasy XII was still going strong.
Brandon was dealing out hits when Jessie showed up, seemingly materializing out of nowhere in the woods behind them.
“What’s up dude-men? You scopin’ the chicks from a reticent vantage? Shame on you…”
“What did he just say?” Jason asked. “I mean I have no idea what he just said. Where does a jock come off having a vocabulary?”
“He asked if we were scoping out the babes in the pond.” Brandon affirmed.
“Nah,” Jason replied offhandedly. “We’re just dropping acid, sucking down beer.”
“No shit?” Jessie’s eyes widened, his voice raised a notch.
“No shit, want a couple of hits? I’ve got ten.”
“To be perfectly honest, I’ve never dropped acid before.”
“No shit. In that case maybe we should start you out with one hit.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“Only if you take it with a phormachidal maniac.” Jason admonished, looking up toward the sky.”
“A what?”
“Do we look like the kind of guys that would fuck with dangerous shit? You won’t find me shootin’ heroin or smokin’ crack.” Brandon explicated.
“A phormachidal maniac,”
“What in the hell is a forma-cydle maniac?” Jessie wanted to know.
“Ah—c’mon dude, smart guy like you knows; pharmachidal maniacs are the sort of psychos that like to chop people up into cole-slaw and sprinkle them over their Wheaties.”
“Oh—you mean; homicidal maniac.”
“That’s what I said; a phormachidal maniac.”
“Hey Jess,” back to Brandon. “Do you want to trip, or not?”
“Sure, what the hell.”
Tina, Raine, Jennifer, Becky, Kim, and Katsumi were all in the pond, and when they weren’t swimming they were gossiping--mostly about boys. With the exception of Rain and Becky, the girls stood in the shallow of the pond, which was four feet deep, just enough to keep heads and breasts above water. Raine and Becky were on long, luminescent rafts, with cup-holders; Becky straddled hers, while Raine lay on her breasts and belly. Owen designed the pond so that the shallows would incline almost immediately; that way if someone dived in, they wouldn’t have to worry about hitting their head on the shallows. The pond at its deepest point was twenty-two feet, not that he expected anyone to be swimming down that deep, but he suspected that there would be those who would climb Gillian’s Height, and jump down from the waterfall into the pond. And Owen didn’t want anyone breaking a leg after hitting the water.
“So are you in love with him?” Jennifer asked Tina.
“Not at this time,” Tina admitted. Then with a sly smile she added, “But that’s subject to change.”
“Right now it’s more like lust,” Kim suggested.
“Uh-hunh…” Jennifer replied agreeably. “I see the way you look at Earl.”
“About the same way I look at Thomas and Jessie and Steven.” Tina countered with laughter. After a moment she added “Earl does have nice…eyes though.”
“That’s not what you meant to say, and you know it.”
“Okay, so I like his ass.”
“He does have a really nice ass.” Raine admitted.
“And he’s got a great sense of humor.”
All the girls burst out laughing.
“And he’s an awesome Game Master.” Kim added.
“Yeah, his campaigns are like, so cool.”
“I remember the last one we went through.”
“Scared the hell out of me,” Raine replied. And Raine didn’t scare easily.
“It was so Gothic, so eerie…”
“Yeah, why wasn’t he able to make it out this weekend?” Becky asked.
“He had to work,”
“That figures.”
“So, if you had your choice, who would you share your bed with?”
“Oh—Christ,” Raine said with a lace of disgust. “Why don’t you ask her what you really mean? This isn’t some old ladies’ coffee cache; what “prude and proper” is asking you is: who would you want to fuck?”
“Oh, that sounds real good, coming from someone who’s planning on being a therapist someday.” Jennifer countered.
“What I say at work is one thing. Who I am when the work-day is over is another story.”
“We are, who we are inside,”
“Nice, did you hear that psycho-babble from Brandon?”
“That’s somebody I would fuck,” Becky put in.
“That stoner?”
“He’s real profound when he isn’t burning brain cells.”
“If that’s what you say.” Raine said off-handedly.
“You can’t deny that he’s cute,”
“Okay, I won’t deny it.”
“Okay, so who would you fuck, Tina?”
“Nobody, ‘cause I’m roomin’ with Raine on this trip, I don’t have the privacy I want, and poison oak does not a pleasant bedfellow make.”
“Don’t let me stop you,” Raine objected. “I can always go somewhere else.”
“And there’s always the alcove,” Kim chimed.
“Anyone want a beer?” Katsumi suggested. There was a small cooler near the shoreline. “I’m gonna’ get a beer.”
“You’re not exempt from this conversation,” Becky called to her.
“Yes I am.” Katsumi called back.
“I’ll have a beer,” Tina told Katsumi.
6
Build a Wall with the bodies of the dead
And you’re saved
Make the world scared
Show me the sign of victory
--Balls to the wall
Accept
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randon handed Jessie the blotter of acid; a tiny piece of square paper—about the size of an aspirin, with a design on its face. Jessie looked at it with curiosity lining his features. “Is that a profile of Scooby-Doo, or am I already trippin’?”
“Scoooooby--Doooooby--Dooooo…!” Jason crowed.
“That’s an imposed image of Scooby-Doo.” Brandon affirmed. “The hits are EMT, and they are called Scooby-Snacks.”
“Really? How quaint.”
“Yeah, just take the hit and stick it under your tongue, let it slowly dissolve.”
Jessie, with slight hesitation, did as he was instructed, not sure what to expect. No sooner was the blotter under his tongue, and then someone came up behind him, covering his eyes. The hands were small and soft, and had the slightest aroma of hand-lotion in spite of their exposure to the pond. Jessie could feel the damp body pressing up against his back, curvaceous breasts pushed into him. Jessie however didn’t register these elements immediately, and he was startled so intensely that he almost spit out the hit, and came close to voiding himself as well.
“Guess who…” a young woman’s voice declared, playful
Jessie was without a voice, so the other two young men spoke for him. “Damn girl, you’re looking fucking hot. Good enough to eat.”
“Promise?” The female’s voice challenged. Lanny then took her hands away from Jessie’s eyes, first she pinched him then she slapped him on the right buttock. “It’s me, “sweet cheeks”.”
“It certainly is.” Brandon admitted. “Where have you been doing your shopping for swimwear, Frederic’s?”
“How’d you guess?” Lanny countered with a wicked smile. Then she surveyed the trio—even as Jessie was still regaining his composure—with a mischievous glint in her blue eyes, she said, “What have you boys been doing away from the sight of the world?”
“Dropping acid,” Jason said, before anyone could say another word.
“Really?” Lanny sounded excited.
This at once surprised Jessie, then, just as quickly, he wasn’t surprised. Not at all. He knew Lanny liked to party, and would do so just as easily as she would drop her top for kicks. It was relatively obvious to him that Lanny dropped acid during her expeditions, maybe even a little EMT—whatever the hell it was. Furthermore, it sounded like Lanny had enjoyed the experience.
“Do you have a hit for this bodacious babe?” Lanny wanted to know.
“Sure,” Brandon said with a warm smile. He was checking out Lanny’s form, and her swimwear; it was a pink body suit, made of something like lycra or latex, that fit snuggly like a second skin, and was pierced with circular holes that seem to reveal too much and not enough at the same time, the bottom of her breasts could be seen, the sides and swells exposed by strategically-placed holes, while impressions of her nipples showed prominently, her tits pushing against the fabric of the glistening body suit, and sometimes…when looked, at a glance, it gave the appearance that she wasn’t wearing anything at all. When Brandon regained his senses, under Lanny’s winning smile, he handed her a blotter.
“Did you take a hit, sweet-cheeks?”
“It’s his first time,” Brandon answered in Jessie’s stead.
“Oooh—first time?” Lanny arched an eyebrow. “In that case it wouldn’t be safe to let you out of my sight.”
“You won’t let me do anything stupid, will you?” Jessie said, looking at Lanny’s ample cleavage.
“Oh—no, baby. I’m going to take good care of you. And then…if it’s alright with you, I’m going to fuck your brains out. How does that sound?” She smiled brightly at him.
Jason and Brandon looked at one another sheepishly. Jessie was finding it difficult to look away from Lanny’s cleavage, and the exposed curves of her breasts.
“Like what you see?” Lanny said suggestively.
Jessie was hardly aware that he nodded his head, or that the colors around him were growing brighter, more crisp, setting Lanny’s swimwear aglow. It was at that moment that he thought that he had seen a face in the trees from the corner of his eye. Not a human face, per-se; but a countenance made out of leaves and branches. He turned and studied the area briefly then was startled to see more botanical visages.
“Uh…guys,” Jessie said finally “I’m seeing faces in the trees.”
“Tree spirits!” Jason squawked, then cackled, finishing by clapping his hands together for applause.
“C’mon Jessie” Lanny prompted, and Jessie would have sworn at that moment that he was looking at the countenance of the actress from Resident Evil, Milla Jovovich with long dark hair and blond streaks, she had such a contagious smile. “Let’s go swimming.”
Charmed by her words, even before he realized it, he was following Lanny’s tantalizing heart-shaped ass through the woods and toward the pond. Faces of nature surrounded him, grinning suggestively. An animated skeleton trotted by in front of Lanny, but she didn’t pay any attention to it, so neither did Jessie. It didn’t even seem to matter that the skeleton had a broom between its legs.
Jessie stepped out from the woods and his mouth dropped open. The pond before him was a scintillating rainbow of colors. The waves and ripples looked like flames of iridescence, or mercury reflecting rainbows. “My god,” he exclaimed. “Are you seeing this?”
“Seeing what, honey? The prismatic pool?”
“It is absolutely beautiful!”
“It sure is. Let’s not waste any time. It will feel as good as it looks.” And then suggestively she added, “I promise.”
And it did. Even better. It almost felt…sensual.
Jessie followed Lanny into the pond, and then all at once he lost her.
A moment later he felt a tug on his trunks—or thought he did, and then they were pulled down passed his knees. As he was flailing momentarily to regain his composure, and his shorts, when he thought that he felt two hands on his penis, and all at once a groan escaped his lips. The sensation was indescribable. He grew hard almost instantaneously. Before he could clearly register what was happening, a feeling like a warm, silken glove enveloped him--or again, maybe he was imagining it. After all, it was impractical for a guy to get a hummer from a chick underwater. But—oh, god, it felt so real.
Tina yelled over to him from the other side of the pond, “Hey, Jessie! Have you seen Lanny?”
Hands and tongues seemingly rolled back and forth along his erect prick.
“I—uhn…that is…uh—“
“It’s a simple question, hon.” Tina pointed out. “Have you, or haven’t you?”
“I—oh…I don’t…think so.”
“You don’t think so? You either have, or you haven’t. What’s the deal?”
Jessie thought he was going to climax at any moment. “Hav—hav—haven’t…seen her.”
The EMT added to the stimulation tremendously, and Jessie threw his head back and looked toward the sky. The clouds, looking down, were laughing at him.
And then Lanny surfaced next to him, and the wave of euphoria slowly passed. That is until she flashed him a radiant smile—said: “Let’s be friends,”—kissed him forcibly, then pushed her tongue down his throat.
Tina spied Lanny. “There you are! So you haven’t seen her, eh Jessie? Hey, no splooge in the pond guys; you want to do that, you take it to your bedroom or the alcove.”
Contrary to belief, Lanny had not in fact given Jessie a hummer while submerged beneath the water, however it was a combination of elements—her stroking him for example--that led Jessie to believe that she had.
The alcove was a natural vault, a rock hollow, an impasse behind the waterfall, with a built in Jacuzzi to the far left of the vault. Around the hot-tub was a 10x20 stone-covered area that was polished from occasional spray and run-off from the fall. In some areas Owen had lined it with brick—for example the edge of it that faced the waterfall. It was a place most commonly used for making-out by the young men and women that came to the cabin—a romantic little place.
“I like to finish what I’ve started,” Lanny told Jessie with a sly smile. “C’mon, I’ll race you.” She would beat him of course, because although Jessie was physically fit, Lanny had been on the swim-team her sophomore year of high school, and she always prided herself in keeping up her strength, including 200+ days a year spent at the gym.
Jason and Brandon were already in the alcove, examining the far wall, and observing that there was some kind of inscription in the stone.
“Am I trippin’—“
Lanny came splashing around the waterfall, she hoisted herself up on the lip of the alcove. “Hey guys,” she addressed the two young men with little surprise in her voice. “What are you up to?”
They both started at Lanny’s abrupt voice and appearance, but they recovered their composure quickly. “Hey, Lanny. Come over here and take a look at this.
Lanny got to her feet. “Look at what?” She walked over to where the two friends gathered at the wall, they were scrutinizing it, while her bare feet slapped against the smooth floor of the alcove and came up behind them. For the moment the hot-tub was forgotten.
“Do you see this?” Brandon asked. “Or, am I just trippin’?”
“Hey dude, I see it too.” Jason confirmed.
“See what?” Came Lanny’s reply. Then she too saw it; characters carved into the wall:
Kra’deh tra’ef Sera Fooetagh
“Do you see it?” Brandon insisted.
“I see it,” Lanny told him. Her eyes peered at it in detached wonder. “But what does it mean?”
Jessie showed up about this time and joined the club.
“It looks like it was carved in with a chisel,” Brandon told them.
Jessie looked at it, didn’t agree. He ran his hand across the characters. “They’re too smooth. No, it looks like it was burned into the stone.”
“Dude you are trippin’. How ya’ gonna’ burn that into the wall? With a rock-version of a wood-burning tool?”
Jessie shrugged. “Beats the hell out of me. Maybe acetylene, a welding torch?”
“Who’s gonna’ take the time to use a welding torch to carve gibberish into the wall?”
“That’s what disturbs me,” Jessie replied a bit cryptically. “I don’t think that the words are gibberish. I think they were put there as painstakingly as they were deliberate.”
“What the hell for?”
Again Jessie shrugged. “Hell I don’t know, some kind of warning?”
There was silence for a full minute in the hollow, and then Brandon and Jason both burst into fits of laughter.
“Scooby-Doo! Where are you?”
“We got some work to do mow.”
Brandon looked at Jason. “Did you just say “mow”?”
“What are you talking about mow? I didn’t say “mow”?”
“Can I see your license and registration, mow?”
Together Brandon and Jason said: “Super Troopers!”
Brandon was wiping tears out of his eyes by the time he was able to say, “A warning to what? The Ghost of the Haunted Hollow?”
Jason made the sound of a ghost, it echoed through the impasse.
And then Brandon broke in with the next verse: “You’re not fooling me--‘cause I can see, the way you shake and shiver.”
“Shit,” Lanny almost spat. “Will you two grow up? Jessie may be on to something here.”
“Oh, he is,” Jason winked. “He’s on to you.”
“Oh—fuck-off,”
“Unkind, Lanny baby. Unkind.” Jason turned to Brandon. “Hey dude, why is it whenever a girl acts like a slut-bunny, and you call her on, it she gets pissed?”
“Maybe I prefer the term “lady of the evening”, gentlemen.”
“News-brief: it’s broad daylight.”
“It’s nighttime somewhere; I like to be instant in season and out.”
In the meantime Jessie was studying the inscription in the wall—trying to make it say something.
(Think Da’ Vinci Code…)
Possibly an anagram…? In English…?
(In Common…)
Kra—
(Kra--)
Kra-
No.
Dark. It’s...“dark”.”
(Dark…)
“Tra—something…dark. Dark rat. Dark art… Tra…”
(No…)
“Did you say something, dude?” Brandon inquired of Jessie.
“It is “art”.”
“Dude, if you’re calling that shit art—“
“He—“
“He what, dude? What are you going on about?”
“The…”
“He the art?! Whaaat the fuck are you talking about?”
Lanny gave Brandon an admonishing shove. “Will you knock it off! Can’t you see he’s trying to figure this thing out?”
“A jock figure this thing out? That’ll be the day.”
Ra’ef—
(Fe’ar…)
“Fear… It is an anagram. Some of the words are backwards,” Jessie said finally.
Brandon and Jason both looked at the jock. Then they both studied the inscription again. “So what does “hih-gateof” mean?”
“As crazy as it sounds, I think you just nailed it.”
“Nailed what? This isn’t the way I like to trip.”
“”Gate of”…something. Gate of…fear the dark…”
“Get out of town, it doesn’t say that. It says: Ares fe—what the fuck? Oh, I’m trippin’ balls; because now the words are bleeding and blurring and shit.”
“Chill out, Jason.” Jessie told him. “I see it too. The inscription is…changing.”
Characters rippled and faded and melded together before the quartet. They seem to go out of focus, then returned, rearticulated, as clear as before, but with a different inscription.
Oruc s’bo-al Ramet Seir Aeda dar-t’ne
“Okay, so now what the hell is this?” Jason wanted to know. “Did you see a little man run through here wielding a welding torch?”
The quip was ignored.
“I think it’s…Spanish,” Lanny said almost tonelessly.
“Whaaat? You gotta’ be kidding. I mean I’m no Spanish Major, but that’s not like any Spanish that I’ve ever seen.”
“You have to look for the words—find them, but I think that it’s Spanish. I wish Katsumi were here, she’d be able to help us with it.”
“Are we even sure that we’re all seeing the same thing anymore?”
“Jason’s right,” Jessie said admittedly. This was suddenly making him feel very uncomfortable. “This is too weird. I think we ought to just leave it alone.”
“But you said it might be a warning,” Lanny pointed out.
“So…?”
“So, if it is, I think it would be in our best interest to find out what it means.”
Entrada
“Look, I’m trippin’; I’m not even sure what I meant two minutes ago.”
Lanny looked at him. “Do you still want to fuck me?”
Jessie made a face. “Sure, of course, but—“
“You knew what you meant,” Lanny said matter-of-factly.
“Leave it to the slut to make everything clear for you,” Jason commented.
“Stop calling me a slut; I haven’t asked you to fuck me yet.”
Temor
Brandon brayed with laughter. “Zoinkers!”
“And don’t even start with that “zoinkers” shit.”
And then Lanny saw it.
7
|
I |
n the upper corner of her right eye Lanny saw something glowing, like an emerald on fire. She tried to blink it away, it was however persistent, and remained constant.
She saw then, somewhere in the distance, beyond a wavering veil of fog, burning at the top of a bizarrely-designed metal pedestal of some kind. A green jewel, floating, perhaps twenty yards…beyond the wall.
8
Obscuro
Lanny wondered if the others saw it.
They did.
“What…the hell…is that…?” Brandon voiced in awe.
“It’s…weird…”
Lanny moved to put her hand on the surface of the wall, her hand passed through it.
9
|
B |
randon exclaimed, “No, I am not seeing this. I don’t care how badly I’m trippin’.”
“Believe it,” Jessie said in wonder. “Because I think that we’re all seeing it.”
On the other hand Lanny was feeling it. Or wasn’t feeling it as the case might be. This set up involuntary tremors concerning the reality of the situation, which in turn startled her so badly she slipped and fell through the wall…
“Ow…! My knee, godammit!”
Pain shot through Lanny’s left leg, pinpointing on her knee in a white flare of light she could see behind her closed eyes, the sensation that followed led her to believe that she had sprained her knee, on the rock floor, on the other side of the wall.
She would learn in time that she had not in fact sprained her knee, merely came very close to doing so. In spite of that fact, the pain was intense enough to make her nauseous, and then she saw pinpricks of light flashing momentarily, she developed a headache almost immediately. There followed then a splash of fireworks and kaleidoscopes in her mind’s eye, as the drug she took kicked in and helped to graciously alleviate most of the pain.
“Lanny!” Jessie called out in sudden fear. “Are you alright?”
There came no answer.
Lanny rolled around and rocked back and forth, grabbing her knee with both hands. Gritting her teeth.
Jessie became badly frightened. The clarity and acoustics between him and Lanny was obscured, a hazy fog seem to move intermittently before him, beyond the wall. He stepped through the veil.
He was suddenly in another world.
It was a vast, fiery-green illuminated and cavernous realm of protruding stalactites and towering stalagmites. Where the ceiling could not be placed and where a multitude of bioluminescent lichens glistened on the surrounding walls. It was strangely beautiful in its presentation—or perhaps it was the chemicals in Jessie’s brain that made it seem so, it appeared as ancient as it was alien, and had a haunting aura in its quintessence.
Jessie saw stone shelves to either side of him built into the walls, climbing toward the darkness of the cavern. Figures occupied the shelves, inert forms, with arms crossed before them, imitating sleep or death.
He found Lanny, still holding her knee, lying on her side, between himself and the pedestal of green fire. She smiled weakly at his appearance.
“Are you alright?” he asked again.
Lanny looked at him, an embarrassing expression alighted her features. “I’ll live,” she said weakly. “’Hurts like hell though. The EMT helps—who would have thought?” Slowly Lanny sat up. “I must admit that this is the first time my clumsiness has ever caused me to fall through an ethereal wall into another dimension, while trippin’ on acid.” Before Jessie could say anything, she went on. “Did it occur to you that while you were playing the knight-in-shining-armor that you could have quite possibly passed through a gate into another world, when you went through that wall?”
Jessie didn’t quite know what to say to that. He wasn’t sure if Lanny were being serious, if this response was a byproduct from tripping, or if she had hit her head when she fell. “It…uh, never occurred to me.” And then straightening himself, he said, “But I’m sure that there’s some reasonable explanation for this.”
“Explanation? Possibly. Reasonable? Doubtful.” Lanny looked up toward the ceiling. “I deciphered three of the words in the inscription before I fell through.”
“What are the words?”
“Entrada. Temor. And…Obscuro.”
“And what do they mean?”
“Entrada means: “entrance, entry, or gate”; Temor means: “dread, or suspicion; while Obscuro means: “dark or dim.”
“Scary, dark gate?” Jessie queried. “Gate of dark dread?”
“I don’t think that it’s quite that simple. You interpreted the words: “fear the dark—“
“Fuckin’-a!” Jason vociferated. “We’re between worlds, man!”
Lanny rolled her eyes. “Only a complete idiot would find the concept of that reality exciting.” Then she added, “I don’t suppose you two stopped to think that for one moment that when you followed us through the veil, you might not be able to get back? I mean I didn’t fall through the wall for shucks and giggles.”
Lanny was having a time with her head. Trying to discern between what was real and what was unreal. Her drug-induced brain was suggesting one reality, while her intuition argued with it. She was convinced that she was in the embrace of a powerful hallucinogen which influenced her primary thought process, and which probably wouldn’t wear off for another ten hours or so, but she also was swayed to believe her inner feelings, which told her that she was in a mother-fucker of a cavern. Stone walls, stalactites and stalagmites climbed all around her, they appeared ancient, vanishing into a dark, vertical abyss that the green glimmering light could not illuminate.
The forms on the shelves on the other hand, were illuminated, and the glow of the fiery brilliance made them appear sickly.
“Whoa…” Jason exclaimed. “Dead dudes! What’s up with that?”
The two buds seem to skip over to the nearest shelf. It was about six feet in length and was raised from the ground by about four feet. Their eyes widened as they gazed at the figure lying on the slab of rock. What they saw there would have ordinarily filled them with repugnance. Instead they were fascinated. The creature was humanoid—but far from human. Its head was bulbous in a lateral sense, while its skin was like tallow and the coloration was that of egg-whites. The thing had a maw that was open and splayed and somehow crushed, or collapsed, filled with needle-like teeth, and upper and lower fangs, where a barbed tongue lay across. Normally the creature would appear vile and monstrous in the buds’ eyes, with a gaunt form not lacking of muscle, and talons almost eight inches in length.
“Eeewwwww…gnarly…”
“Scooby-Doo! Where are you!?” Brandon’s words echoed through the cavern.
“”Get away from there!” Lanny demanded. “Christ, will you two knock it the fuck off?! We’re in some serious shit, here.”
“Chill out girl,” Jason implied. “This ain’t real. It’s all a mind-fuck from the EMT. These dead guys don’t even look human—“
Brandon agreed. “What do you think is really going on here? Do you think that we somehow stepped into another world, like the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe?”
“Or maybe fell through a rabbit-hole like Alice in Wonderland?”
“This can’t be happening.” Brandon said calmly.
“It’s impossible.”
“Really…?” Lanny reached over and picked up a small stone from the ground, she tossed it at Jason, and it lightly bounced off the front of his head.
“Ow—fuck!” What was that for?”
“What was what for?” Lanny replied, looking innocent.
“You threw a rock at me.”
“I did not. You said it yourself, “this ain’t real.” Then neither was the rock; it was all in your hallucinating-fuckin’-mind. Or would you like to dispute the issue?”
“Girl, you’re losin’ it.”
“You’ve already lost it.” Lanny declared. “I’m trying to get a hold of a hairy situation, and I’m trying to do it while frying on acid; that’s no walk in the park, and godammit, you’re not helping!”
10
|
L |
anny said, “Now then, I understand that we’ve all taken a superb hallucinogen, but I’m telling you that what is going on around you—around us, is real.”
“How do you know?” Jason challenged.
“Aside from the bump on your head…? Turn around and look behind you.”
Jason did as he was told. “Yeah?”
“Do you see anything strange? Here, let me help you; you can no longer see the alcove, can you?”
Admittedly, Jason could not see the impasse, instead he saw a solid wall, one that had faces swimming about it, reminding him of a scene from Pink Floyd’s, The Wall.
“I see faces—“ Jason began, and Lanny cut him off.
“The faces are a hallucination. The rest of this is real.”
Not wanting to accept this, Jason moved forward and toward the wall. He put his hand to it, and discovered that it was solid, rough, and cold to the touch, in spite of the faces within. And the reality of the wall’s solidity brought an unnatural feeling of claustrophobia that slowly closed in and around him, bringing an icy grip along for the ride. Jason realized suddenly that, somehow, in some inexplicable way, he was cut off from the very world he once knew.
“This isn’t possible,” he said in wonder and disbelief.
“Possible, or not,” Lanny stated. “It’s something that we’re going to have to accept, so we can in turn deal with it.”
“But it isn’t possible.” Jason said again, as if, with his mere words, he could make the reality anything save that which it currently was. “This is a bad trip. I don’t like this. I want to go home!”
Jason heard whispers whirling around him, a multitude of voices speaking, unintelligibly. Abstractly he thought it might be the bioluminescent lichens. He began to weep.
“I want to go home!!”
“Godammit, Jason!” Lanny’s voice echoed. “How long have you been taking this shit? You should know better than to act like that.”
“She’s right,” Brandon admitted. “You can’t fuck with your head like that, or you’re going to be in for a world of hell.”
Jason understood this; that if he influenced his thoughts darkly, he would provoke terrible hallucinations. He needed to get a grip on his thinking, and fast. But it was quite difficult, because now he was badly frightened.
I want to go home… But he wouldn’t say it, not aloud. Not anymore. He would not allow the drug that he had taken to push his thinking in a direction that could lead to mental desolation.
“What are we going to do, Lanny?” he said soberly.
Loc’opa…eh…enot…
“I’m not sure yet. But I think I have an idea. Will you guys help me up?”
The young men moved forward to assist her, and Jason couldn’t help but cop a brief feel while he was doing so. Lanny discovered that she couldn’t put her full weight on her leg—no surprise there, she would be limping for a couple of days, or so she suspected. And there goes the weekend. She wondered—if her idea did work—how she would be swimming back to the house from the alcove. She supposed that she would need Jessie’s help.
Lanny looked at the intricate, ornate pedestal that was also a fiery brazier, and studied the floating gem in the dancing flames of the fire within. She observed that the jewel was about the size of a silver-dollar, and probably priceless if appraised properly.
What are we going to do, Lanny?
She knew that they were all expecting her to somehow get them out of this. It wasn’t really fair to do so. However that is what happens when you keep your head while everyone else around you is losing theirs; authority manages to get delineated to the one maintaining their composure as cool as a cucumber. People draw strength from that one, hope is made manifest, and the one keeping their cool suddenly finds that they are hoping that they don’t disappoint—or in worst-case scenario, get killed—those counting on them. But really—what was it that was around here that could possibly kill them?
(Fear the dark…)
There was a lot of rock.
There was the fire.
And there was…the darkness.
11
|
W |
ith the help of the boys, Lanny slowly made her way over to the pedestal/brazier, she limped, and she gasped with every other step.
“Lanny, what are you doing?” Jessie inquired, uncertain of her actions forthcoming.
Lanny said nothing, but continued moving forward. She observed that, as she drew closer to the pedestal/brazier no heat emitted from the dancing flames.
“Lanny…?”
She reached her arm out, trying to bring herself still closer to the flames. Abruptly the gem within the fire leapt upward. It hovered in the air above the group, all eyes upon it. The glowing jewel gleamed ominously with its inner fire, like something alive, scrutinizing them.
12
|
L |
anny cursed: “Oh--shit,” even as the flames suddenly grew higher in the brazier.
The boys weren’t sure what to make of Lanny’s statement.
They were given little time to figure it out before the fiery jewel launched itself at the young woman.
“Look out!” Someone cried in warning.
The jewel hit Lanny square between the eyes, with the force of a thrown baseball. She saw a splash of stars and was knocked off her feet. The boys still held her and prevented her from hitting the ground. Lanny wasn’t given the luxury to rationalize what was going on before the jewel rebounded off her head, and then found the palm of her right hand. In the next instant she felt a burning sensation that caused her to again grit her teeth; it was as if something was melting into her palm, fusing into it. She let out a squawk, and this time the boys were unable to keep her from hitting the ground.
Lanny woke with the guys staring down at her. “What?” she looked up, meeting their gaze of mixed expressions. “Did it work?” She said blearily.
She saw a flash of movement, up on the nearby wall. And when she glanced over a horrifying shriek almost escaped from between her lips. She knew that what she was seeing was no hallucination.
“Did what work, Lanny?” Jessie asked softly.
“Wait—hussshhhhh…” Lanny offered in warning. “Don’t move,” she whispered. Slowly, cautiously, she said, “Look up on the wall.”
The guys did. Their discovery almost made them void themselves. Up on the cavern wall, perhaps twenty feet from the ground, squatted one of the ghoulish humanoids, poised like a spider, eyes of crimson gleaming wickedly. It made a sound like an angry cat with a throat full of phlegm, hissing, in what one might consider to be either a warning or anticipation. There appeared another, moving on all fours with superb and fluid agility, followed by another that crawled up next to the first. They seemed to unlock their jaws as they opened their mouths, dropping them perhaps three inches below where their chins might be, and displayed their, teeth, their fangs, and their long barbed tongues that moved in whip-like, serpentine fashion.
“Holy-shit,” Jessie declared.
“Go for the alcove wall,” Lanny instructed. “Now.” She looked at the pedestal/brazier, and saw that the gem no longer occupied the heart of the flames. As if in answer to her unspoken question, she could feel her palm still burning.
“I’m not leaving you here,” Jessie said, bending down to pick her up. This seemed to agitate the creatures on the wall, and they scuttled down about six feet. He slung her over his right shoulder as gently as he could.
“Hang on,”
Jason didn’t wait for an explanation, as he thought he could once again see the alcove beyond a hazy veil. He ran, arms and hands out in front of him, toward the wall, and then through it… And one of the ghouls followed, screeching as it scuttled and sprinted on all four limbs. It leapt off the wall, ran passed Brandon, and followed Jason through the veil.
Jason didn’t allow himself a moment of relief, but ran the breadth of the alcove, he dived through the waterfall and into the pond. Surfacing a moment later, he swam furiously toward the shore. He didn’t reach it. For as he swam, there appeared in the water—breaking the surface, dozens of the ghouls that he had seen in the cavern. They were all around him. Screeching and hissing and moving madly toward him. And he could not discern if it was illusion or not. He screamed in abject terror. They came at him with claws tearing at his flesh, ripping out his throat. He saw his own blood spray as he flailed helplessly in the water.
Suddenly he found himself recalling the first time he saw a beautiful woman naked. It had been in his friend Nicky’s tree house—a custom job that. It was half the size of his own bedroom, with a ladder for access and a pole for departure; it had its own deck, shutters, and was fully furnished, with a color TV, and Nintendo. Jason didn’t remember the woman’s name, that didn’t matter; all that mattered was that the woman had given him a hard-on at eleven years of age. She was a Centerfold of course, taking up residency in the middle of a Playboy Magazine. It had been a rite of passage of sorts, and it was wonderful; like the first time he had drank beer with his friends.
…He remembered the first time that he had seen the bare beautiful body of a young woman. She had been a friend of his older sister, Una. Her friend’s name was Carleen Delfino. Jason had been thirteen and Carleen had been fifteen, with long black hair and blue eyes and a curvaceous figure—somehow he always seem to attract the older women in his life. His luck, or so he believed. Maybe it was his blue-green eyes and curly hair. He had been on the couch one night a little after midnight, watching Movies ‘Till Dawn, a Godzilla episode if he recalled correctly. And Carleen walked into the living room wearing nothing but moonlight. “Could you rub my back for me, baby…?” she had asked him in a sultry voice. She had been drinking a little that night, had gone to a party with Una and some other girlfriends. Apparently she hadn’t gotten lucky at the party, or the guys there were a bunch of idiots—low-class and full of shit. Nonetheless, Una had showed up almost immediately, throwing a sheet over Carleen, but not before he had seen all the jewels and gems that she had to offer. Una tried to usher Carleen back into the bedroom, repeating over and over in justification: “She’s drunk, Jason. Carleen’s drunk.”
…His mind filed back to the first time that he had sex. He had been fifteen and at a friend’s party. When the curtain had closed at the end of the party, the second act—unbeknownst to Jason, had just begun. A handful of friends stayed over, girls as well as boys. And Jason had been sleeping in a spare bedroom when Denise Marlow had climbed into his bed, another wonderful rite of passage.
…He remembered when his father was having midlife crises and Jason’s parents were obviously not getting along in their relationship; Thaddeus was buying cars, and when he had the opportunity he fucked anything between the age of nineteen and twenty-seven. That really wasn’t one of Jason’s more pleasant recollections, but he thought—a bit abstractly, that when your life is passing before your eyes, you don’t get to choose the memories that find you…
Brandon took off running almost immediately after Jason passed through the veil. Another ghoul followed just as swiftly. The monstrosity leapt down to the nearest shelf like a great cat, then landed on the ground, its movement was so fluid that it made the process seem like a single act. Then it was bounding quickly after Brandon. The creature almost had him, until he passed through the veil, then the ghoul deviated from its pursuit.
The fiend leapt up on the wall just above the portal, ran up its surface, and vanished into the surrounding darkness overhead.
“Did you see that?” Jessie said, more to himself than to Lanny. She was now draped over his right shoulder, trying to refrain from fearing the worst. Jessie was getting ready to run. “It didn’t see the portal; the other must have gone through by mistake.” Lanny said nothing, her mind screamed at her of the insidious danger they were currently in.
“I know it’s going to hurt some, Lanny.” Jessie whispered. “But there’s no other way. I’ll be as fast as I can.”
He was too. Even as more of the ghoulish monsters came pouring out of the darkness.
For the past three years Jessie had received the Presidential Award in Physical Fitness. He could run the 50-yard dash like the wind, a blessing to his coach whenever he got the ball on the field. The following dozen yards suddenly seemed like a mile to him. And it was like something out of a nightmare, where a terrible entity pursues you and you feel like you’re either running in place, or moving in slow-motion. No matter how much ground he cleared, he somehow knew it wasn’t enough. And he was certain that all of these fiends from hell were hot on his heels. He was suddenly wishing he hadn’t taken the acid, it was really fucking with his perspective. He was boarder lining hysterical panic, and terror that was so monstrous that he feared if too much thought were given to it the end would devour him. So he didn’t think. He ran.
He ran like hell. Abstractly he could hear the lyrics from the Eagles’ Hotel California…
Last thing I remember
I was running for the door…
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before…
--Eagles
Hotel California
He could feel the hot, fetid breath of the creatures on the back of his neck. He knew at once that his over-balance with Lanny was going to cause him to pitch forward and crash to the ground, just as he knew that all the fiends that were hiding in the dark were now coming down and out to cheer him on. And then he was through the veil…
13
|
T |
yler put four T-bone steaks on the outside grill, and was listening to Marilyn Manson on an expensive boom-box, singing something about “jumping on our shortswords”, which in turn had him thinking about Earl Hansford, and the possibility of him getting off work early enough to join the group out at the cabin.
It had been awhile since he had played a kick-ass game of Dungeons and Dragons—or Rendered Realities as he called it, having adopted the depiction from another friend—and utilizing rules not found in the game, and Tyler would have loved spending some part of the evening going through one of Earl’s kick-ass campaigns, and it was no secret that the rest of the group would have looked forward to it as well. Everyone loved Earl’s campaigns; he was like a Dungeon Master god that had countless modules ready, and everything he needed on his laptop—including, but not limited to—sound effects, music for mood, and images of creatures and surroundings that he designed and illustrated himself. Earl was a hell of an artist, and currently worked at another friend’s body shop air-brushing designs and images on cars; he was a writer as well, and he breathed life into his kick-ass campaigns that was embraced by the players.
Tyler hoped that Earl could make it. There was still plenty of time left to the weekend.
He was turning the steaks over when he heard the blood chilling cry for help. Cutting through the peace of the afternoon like a ragged knife. It was coming in the direction of the pond. He recognized the voice immediately as having belonged to Jason. And when Tyler looked up reflexively from his steaks, he saw him flailing in the water like one who couldn’t swim. Tyler knew however that Jason was a fine swimmer, so the problem would have to be something else.
A cramp maybe.
Not allowing himself much thought to mull over, Tyler kicked off his sneakers, threw down his hat that made him look like Jimmy Bufett, and leaving his Hawaiian-print shirt on, he ran toward the shallows and dived into the pond. He swam swiftly toward Jason. He had almost reached him when suddenly Jason stopped his splashing and sank beneath the surface of the water.
With a purpose, Tyler submerged and kicked forward, he could see Jason in the vague environment of the water, he was perhaps fifteen feet away, and sinking like a stone. Tyler swam to him, grabbed Jason about the pit of the arms, pulled him toward the surface.
The ghoulish fiends were gone from Jason’s sight, fading away into the reflection of the sky, melding into the clouds whose smiles now looked none-too friendly.
Brandon crashed through the waterfall and dived into the pond. When he broke the surface he observed that Tyler was assisting Jason, and moving toward the edge of the pond, where the younger man coughed and sputtered frenetically.
As soon as they were on dry ground Tyler caught sight of Brandon. Tyler called out to him, “Do you know what’s going on here? Jason almost drowned.”
“It’s a long story Slim,” came Brandon’s reply. “And I don’t think that you’re going to believe any of it.” Especially after he finds out that we’ve been dropping acid.
As it turned out Jason didn’t need CPR, he just needed his chance to breathe properly again. And when he was allowed that chance, air came to him like a comforting whirlwind.
“Easy,” Tyler cautioned, turning back to Jason. He noticed that his eyes were like kaleidoscopes. “Take it easy, man. Catch your breath.” After a moment he asked, “Did you get a cramp or something?”
“Nha-nha-no cramp.” Jason sputtered. “It was a…demon.”
Brandon reached the edge of the pond, climbed out. “He’s telling the truth, man. We were chased by demons.”
Tyler looked at Brandon askance, “Demons?” he was pretty sure that he heard them both correctly, it was just hard to believe what he was hearing. Was it some kind of stoner joke? If it was, Tyler didn’t appreciate it. He scratched his left temple. “Come again?”
“You heard the dope right, man. They looked like something out of Nosferatu. All gnarly and shit.”
“They climbed the walls like spiders.” Brandon added.
“What walls?” Tyler wanted to know. “Where?”
“Inside the alcove.”
“Actually it was through the wall of the alcove.”
“I’m going to lower you down into the water, Lanny. Grab the ledge if you have to. I’m right behind you.” And he was, a moment later both young man and young woman were in the water. Lanny was shaking in spite of herself. She knew that one of the ghouls had breached the veil, the question is what happened to it? Where were Brandon and Jason?
“Now wrap your arms around my neck, ride my back, and I’ll pull you across the pond.”
Lanny followed Jessie’s instructions, and a moment later, the two were around the water fall, and skimming across the pond.
Tyler saw them almost immediately. And he noticed that Lanny seem to be holding onto Jessie in a romantic fashion. Further scrutiny let him know however that something was apparently wrong with her legs. He saw no blood in the water, so he hoped it wasn’t too serious.
“Hey!” Tyler called out to them. “Over here!”
Jessie turned, and moved in Tyler’s direction, there he spotted Jason and Brandon. Tyler continued to wonder why Jessie was towing Lanny. He noticed that Lanny needed help finding the edge of the pond. Just what the hell happened here?
14
|
B |
etween the four of them they relayed their experience in the cavern to Tyler. He watched them with mixed expressions alighting his countenance. If the young man were anybody else, he might have thought that he was being duped, and laughed at their story. It sounded ridiculous. Preposterous. It sounded like they had all been off on one helluva’ toot. Oh—but they had; they all dropped acid, remember? That would explain a few things, but it would not rationalize the story away in its entirety. Brandon and Jason might be stoners, but they weren’t dishonest.
But demons? Paaa-leeeaase… Come on.
(If not, what then? After all Jessie and Lanny backed up the story almost verbatim.)
What the hell is going on?
“What happened to the fiend that followed you through?” Lanny asked Jason.
Jason looked around in a frantic panic, as if expecting the creature to jump out of the trees at him at any moment. “I-I-I didn’t know that one did.”
“It did, alright,” Brandon said. “It was right on your ass.”
“I must have lost it when I hit the water.”
“Okay,” Tyler said. “Slow down, let me catch up here.”
The four waited.
Tyler rubbed his eyes in a tiresome manner. Then he looked at the four directly, soberly. His eyes then turned strictly toward Lanny. “Okay, let me see your hand.”
With deliberation Lanny opened her hand.
A short burst of adrenaline surged through Tyler involuntarily in a chilling fashion as he saw the green, incandescent jewel, now the size of a quarter, embedded in the palm of Lanny’s hand.
It looked like a life-clock, something out of Logan’s Run, only a bit larger. It was really quite pretty with its inner green fire flickering; resting flush in Lanny’s palm, and it somehow reflected the enormity of the situation.
Tyler had no words.
Where was the ghoul that had chased Jason?
It could be anywhere by now.
Unless…
It had some enmity to the sun. And if it did, it wouldn’t have long to wait before it went down.
The story, validated by the credibility of the strange, alien jewel in the palm of Lanny’s hand, sent all possibilities of jokes or hoaxes scattering to the winds. Something extraordinary was on the verge of occurring, Tyler could feel it in his bones, something otherworldly.
It was at that time decided by the five that the rest of the group had to be informed about the experience, and that a contingency of some kind needed to be initiated; in the event that something else decided to come through the veil, as well as the likelihood that one of the ghouls was lurking somewhere around them, out of sight.
Lanny wanted an ice-pack for her knee.
“Do you have any guns?” Lanny asked, almost sounding cryptic.
15
|
T |
yler replied: “Quite a few, actually. Mostly used for hunting. We keep them in a Steel Safe down in the basement.”
“I suggest that you break them out. We’re probably going to need them before the night is through.”
“From what you described I think I would feel safer with an automatic.”
Lanny looked at him. “Do you know where to get one?”
“Nick has a couple, actually.”
“Maybe you should give him a call.” Lanny suggested.
This agreed; Tyler headed back to the cabin. Jason and Brandon followed, still blazing on EMT, the world around them seeming like a carnival. It was decided that it would be easier to tow Lanny to the shallows, then up to the cabin, rather than walking the distance.
Jessie felt the slight change of pressure around his legs in the water; the sensation came right before the strike. It was very subtle. Then he was crying out in agony as he felt talons rake his flesh. He turned reflexively, and Lanny was knocked loose as Jessie went into throes of splashing. Instinct, for Lanny, took over.
Her mind and her hands suddenly sought out the neck of the fiend attacking Jessie. For the most part, the creature was beneath the young man, tearing at his legs, feet, ankles. Lanny saw blood filtering away from open wounds as she submerged to confront the adversary, thin streams of crimson rose to the surface.
Lanny, ignoring all the pain that she was able—and suddenly she found that it was a lot more than she thought she could—tried to grab onto the throat of the ghoul. Instead her hands found its eyes. She pushed her thumbs into its sockets—even as she avoided its teeth—and felt them yield under her force.
There was a flash of green light that illuminated the water, originating from Lanny’s right hand. A corona of brilliance surrounded her, growing increasingly brighter between her hands. The fiend’s face ignited in a phosphorescent fire that could burn beneath the water.
The creature jerked spasmodically, trying to break free of Lanny’s grasp, but she persisted, even while her lungs were burning for air, she remained adamant. She wanted to give the folks at the cabin more proof of her experience.
“Eeewwwww…gross,” Katsumi declared, looking down at the corpse in the dirt. Lanny and Jessie went inside the cabin to receive first-aid from Debra. Brandon and Jason stayed outside for commentary on the fiend. And Tyler was just barely able to save his steaks on the grill before they turned black on one side. Not that anyone felt like eating at the moment. Marilyn was going strong with the Fight Song:
I’m not a slave
To a god that doesn’t exist…
I’m not a slave
To a world that doesn’t give a shit…
“Is it human?” Tina asked, looking at the face that was burned away on one side, exposing the inner tissue.
Before anyone could stop him, Jason knelt down and separated the lips on the corpse, revealing its fangs and needle teeth.
“I don’t think so,”
--“Don’t touch it!” Katsumi warned
“It looks like some kind of vampire,” Tina pointed out.
“One would suppose that any humanoid with fangs is going to resemble a vampire.”--) Ian said.
--“How many humanoids have you seen recently?” Tina said flatly.
(--“But what’s up with the barbed tongue?” Ian replied, ignoring Tina’s comment.
“I have no idea,” Jason answered.
“Whatever it is,” Brandon stated. “There’s more of them. According to what Lanny and Jessie said—much more.”
At that moment the lips of the ghoul compressed against Jason’s fingers, and with instinct, laced with panic, he pulled them away. With slow deliberation the entire face began to collapse upon itself, appearing to melt as it did so.
“What’s happening to it?” Katsumi wanted to know.
“It…it looks like it’s…dissolving.”
The degeneration process continued, as if acid had been poured upon the fiend. Its ribs pushed in on itself, even as its legs deflated. Within moments it was flush with the dirt, looking not unlike a ghastly, wrinkled pancake filled with ooze. A moment after that, and it filtered away entirely, leaving no evidence of its existence.
“Well, there goes any chance of involving the X-Files.” Brandon commented.
“Why would you want to bring the authorities in on this, anyway?” Tyler said, stepping away from his steaks for a moment. He had since changed his clothes, and now wore a black tee-shirt with a pentacle on it, along with blue jeans.
“What do you mean?” Brandon countered. “Of course we want to involve the authorities. I’m not planning on going back into that cave.”
“Think about it, Brand. We involve the authorities, and suppose—just suppose, they believe enough of our story to determine the cave is worth investigating. What do you think is going to happen to us? The next thing you know—“)
“Oh—Jed’s a millionaire…” Jason sang.
(--“this place is crawling with scientists. And they take us away to some out of the way military base where they perform all kinds of tests on us. They will try to rip the jewel from Lanny’s hand so that they can examine it and find out what makes it tick; if they decide that what they find can’t be compromised, they’ll kill us, simple as that.”
There was silence for a long moment.
Finally Ian said, “Tyler, don’t you think that you’re being just a little paranoid?”
“No.” Tyler said matter-of-factly, and went back to his steaks.
Shannon had given Lanny an ice-pack for her knee, and a Percogesic for the pain, while Debra cleaned and dressed Jessie’s wounds. She wrapped layers of gauze around his legs, from feet to knees. Miraculously, no arteries had been hit. Still the slashes were considerably deep, and he would have to see the doctor for stitches. Debra agreed to drive Jessie to the nearest hospital.
“What is happening here?” Shannon said, sounding hapless.
“It would appear that we have side-stepped into the Twilight Zone.” Lanny replied, lying on one of the couches.
“And why is Tyler so anal with the steaks?”
Lanny shrugged. “It’s just a guess, but I would say that it’s a stress-reaction. That’s his way of keeping a grip on reality.”
“I need a couple of men to put Jessie in the truck,” Debra said
“I’ll get Ian and Thomas to help you with him.” Shannon told her. She walked across the living room to the front door and stepped outside, as soon as she was gone, Lanny pulled on the pink lace that held the front of her swimsuit together at the breasts, exposing them.
“Hey Jessie, look over here.”
Jessie did so, and his heart skipped. Inwardly he admitted that every opportunity to see Lanny’s boobs was a treat.
“Very very nice,” Jessie commented with slightly erratic breath.
“Does it help the pain?”
“Definitely.”
Lanny smiled. “I hope so.” She tucked her luscious jewels away. Then she looked at her right hand, gazing at her palm and the multi-faceted gem within. “I wish I knew what this damn thing was supposed to do. It set the fiend’s face on fire. I wonder if I could do it again.”
Jessie didn’t know what to say. Everything was happening too fast, and with a dream-like quality. He wouldn’t have been surprised if he had awoken to find himself safely in his own bed. But for now his rationale was telling him that everything that he was experiencing—from the pain in his legs, to Lanny’s voluminous melons—was real.
“Gate of Seria…” Lanny said suddenly, if barely above a whisper. “Fear the dark…”
“What did you say, Lanny?”
But the answer would have to wait. Ian and Thomas came through the door. Between the two of them they were able to load Jessie into the back seat of the SUV. Debra followed them out and got behind the wheel of the truck. She ignored the gazes of fascination that were fastened on the disintegrating creature by the pond.
Appetites were slow to return. But eventually they did. Before the sun was fully set, the gang was eating a dinner of steaks, potatoes, and salad, and talking very little between gulps of beer.
It was difficult to accept what it was they were facing, in spite of the proof that they had. Because it was so unreal, unprecedented, and unfeasible. However no matter how hard they might try to rationalize the reality away, the facts spoke for themselves and would not be persuaded otherwise. It wasn’t everyday that you encountered a gateway to another realm in your backyard, filled with monsters. And it wasn’t everyday that your friend lay on the couch across from you with a jewel from that realm embedded in their hand.
But here it was now. Right before your eyes. And the only thing you had to do seemed like the most impossible; and that was to simply accept it.
Shannon spoke: “Lanny, you said something right before Jessie left; something about a…gate.”
Lanny shrugged and cut her steak. “”Gate of Seria”,” she replied. “”Fear the dark…” That’s what’s inscribed outside the cave on the wall.”
“I thought you weren’t able to fully interpret what was on the wall.” Shannon said pointedly.
“I wasn’t. Not entirely. But I know now.”
“How?”
“That I don’t know.”
Glances were exchanged among the group. After awhile Tyler said, “Thomas, after dinner, I would like you to go downstairs with me, and get some guns out of the game room.”
“Righty-oh,”
Thomas followed Tyler down the wooden stairway that led into the basement. The area was well insulated and had been turned into a game room and bar, with pool-table, a table that was turned into a diorama, for playing Rendered Realities, there was a dart board, and a classic Balley pinball machine. Up against the east wall stood a tall, steel-inlaid cabinet that functioned as a safe. Lining up the proper combination sequence, Tyler opened the cabinet to reveal a small array of firearms. Respectively there were three pump action .22 caliber rifles—two with scopes, two pump-action shotguns; and in a case beneath the gun rack there were two pistols; a 44. Magnum and a Glock. Tyler took down a holster and belt that hung on a hook on the inside of the cabinet door, he placed the Magnum in the holster and hung it over his shoulder; he did the same with the Glock, hanging the gun and holster over his other shoulder. Following this, he put his arms out in front of him, slightly curved.
“Okay, load me up with the .22s, and you grab the shotguns.”
Thomas did as he was instructed, and briefly Tyler struggled under the weight of the firearms. “Pussy,” Thomas said with a sideways smile. Then he grabbed the shotguns in either hand and followed him back up the stairs.
The guns were put on the kitchen table. Then the two men returned to the game room to retrieve ammunition. Back upstairs Tyler began counting rounds.
To those that were listening, he said, “I gave a call to Nick Steis. He’ll be bringing some more guns to us in a couple of hours.”
“What for?” Ian asked. He didn’t care much for Nick, he didn’t like the way that he talked and looked at Katsumi during conversation. He was always left with the impression that Nick was sizing her up for something later on. Like he had plans to… Kat on the other hand wasn’t bothered by Nick; he exhibited the type of mannerisms that she had come to expect from a Death-Metal band member. It was decided by the rest of the group that Ian felt jealousy toward Nick, especially when he was around Katsumi.
“For target practice,” Tyler said cynically. “For our protection,” he clarified. “What do you think?”
“What are we thinking about this for? Why don’t we just bug out of here?”
Katsumi looked at her boyfriend, uncertain that she heard him correctly.
“If we do that,” Kat said. “We take the chance of letting more of those ghouls filter in from out of the cave.”
“She’s right,” Tyler said in agreement. “It would be like walking away from the leak in the dam, when you can do something about it.”
“Don’t talk to me about sins of omission; I don’t believe in God, remember?”
“Fine, Ian.” Tyler said flatly. He began to load the weapons—to Thomas he said: “Give me a hand here; you load the shotguns. Make sure the safety’s on.” To Ian he finished with: “We’ll call you a cab; and you can get your ass out of here before things get too serious.”
“It’s not just my ass that I’m thinking about…” Ian looked at Katsumi.
“No,” Kat said, looking at her boyfriend in proviso. “This is where I draw the line. I don’t leave my friends behind.”
“Kat,” Ian began in what he thought would be a viable explanation and justification. “One of those things could have killed Jessie—he got lucky. What’re we going to do if a dozen of those things come after us?”
Katsumi looked at the weapons laid out on the kitchen table. “We fight,” she said simply. “Do you know how to use a gun?”
“I fired a few in my time, sure.”
“Then you can’t walk away from this. You take the Magnum, I’ll take the Glock.”
“I don’t want you hurt, Kat.”
“You sure as hell don’t want to be using me as a smokescreen.”
“I-I’m not,” Ian insisted.
“Good. Because I’m staying here. The discussion on this matter is over.”
“Dammit Kat—“
“The discussion is over; you will not have me choose between you and my friends and what I believe in.”
“I thought you believed in me.”
“And I thought you believed in me” Katsumi countered.
“We’re going to have to rig the perimeter.” Tyler said. “And take turns standing watch.”
16
|
T |
homas said: “I’ll take first watch.” Grabbing the .22 that was called an Eclipse, he also took hold of an ammunition belt and wrapped it around his jeans, then he headed toward the front door.
“We need at least three outside on perimeter,” Tyler pointed out.
“I’ll do it,” Brandon ventured.
“Are you in any condition?” Tyler said, referring to his drug-induced state.
“I’ll be fine.”
“Don’t give him the Magnum,” Thomas said, and exited the cabin.
“I’ll go with him,” Jason declared.
“Like hell you will,” Tyler contradicted. “I would rather you watch the inside of the house; in case any of those mother-fuckers breaks through the perimeter. Or you can take second watch; we’ll rotate every four hours.”
“I’ll take second watch,” Jason said finally.
“And I’ll take first watch,” Tyler stated.
“No,” Ian said, speaking up. “I’ll do it. You watch the inside of the house for awhile; you’re the most familiar with it.”
“I’ll take the roof and a .22” Katsumi said.
Everyone looked at her.
“Best vantage for whatever comes at us,” she said pointedly. “Do we have any radios?”
“We have four.” Tyler replied. “Do you still want the Glock?”
“I’ll take a radio. And yes I want the Glock also.” Katsumi said.
And, with beer in hand, Katsumi headed upstairs to Tyler and Shannon’s bedroom. Ian followed her up.
“Here, you hold this.” She told her boyfriend, handing him the .22 and her beer. Then, using the balcony outside the sliding glass door, Katsumi hoisted herself up onto the roof.
“Why can’t you just stay on the balcony?” Ian wanted to know. He feared she might slip and fall off the roof.
“I can’t see the back of the house from the balcony.” Katsumi said matter-of-factly.
Ian wasn’t about to let his girlfriend stray too far from him. He had stuffed the Magnum in its holster and took an ammunition belt. He climbed up on the roof to join Katsumi. Meanwhile Thomas and Brandon began walking the perimeter, while Tyler busied himself with stringing up a bell-line around the pond. He shut off the waterfall, and now he alternated between the inside of the house and outside, carrying with him one of the shotguns.
During this time Lanny and Jessie both experienced a rather bizarre stimulation. The pain in Lanny and Jessie’s legs seemed to fade, subsiding to a point of nonexistence. Lanny could no longer feel the strain, whereas Jessie—on his way to the hospital, no longer felt any pain. At first they thought that it was the EMT, but when it remained strong and consistent, they began to question the validity of it. Both moved their legs with little effort, or without any knifing sensation. Lanny moved to stand up and found that she was able to do so without any difficulty.
“I’ll take the other Eclipse.” She said unexpectedly.
17
|
I |
n the meantime Jessie was trying to convince Debra to pull over to the side of the road to check his wounds.
They were speeding by an antique shop on the side of the road when Debra said, “They’ll do that when we get to the hospital.”
Okay, that didn’t convince her.
Jessie really didn’t expect that it would.
Still, he had to give it a try.
Furthermore, he considered the idea that if he mentioned that he was no longer feeling any pain, she would either assume that he was going into some form of shock, or the EMT was causing a physical hallucination.
Sooooo…
“Debra, I think that there’s something wrong with my legs.”
“Really?” she sounded cynical. “I thought there was a reason I was rushing you to the hospital.”
Strike Two.
Jessie frowned. “Stop the truck,” he submitted. “Deb, I mean it.”
“Whatever it is can wait ‘till we get to the hospital.”
“This isn’t going to wait.” Or at least he strongly believed that it wasn’t going to wait. He considered for a moment the possibility of being wrong, and how awkward he would feel if that were indeed the case. “Oh—my bad…oops, sorry, I guess I must really be trippin’ balls…”
“Asshole.”
See kids? This is why you don’t want to do drugs.
“I’m not a doctor,” Debra said fixedly.
Jessie could see the conversation completing a circle. He decided to take a chance. “We are going to look foolish when we get to the hospital, and the doctor finds that there are no wounds to tend to.”
“What are you talking about, Jes? You’re not making sense.”
“Just stop the goddam truck,” Jessie exclaimed, losing patience.
“Alright. Alright. Let me find a place to stop.”
She found a place. On the side of the road. It was a motorcycle shop, which had, for the purpose of advertisement, tacked the frame and shell of a green dirt-bike to a post and a sign that read in bright scarlet script: Murray’s’ Motorcycles. The cycle in question was missing the front tire, and looked quite odd with its exposed forks. Debra pulled into the small parking lot, which was littered with motorcycles—old and new—and looked like it could only fit five vehicles in its lot at one time side by side.
Turning off the ignition, Debra said, “Okay, let me check your dressing then.”
Brandon was without words.
Getting out of the truck, she opened the passenger door behind the driver’s side. Jessie was resting with his back against the other door, his feet facing Debra now. He didn’t appear to be in any pain, and there was no blood bleeding through the bandages. Curious.
Her initial look seemed almost cursory.
Then she went immediately to unraveling the bandages around his left leg. What she saw there made her eyes widen in shock disbelief and wonder. Even before she finished removing the bandages, the evidence was clear, if not understandable. What she was seeing she knew was impossible. As if to clarify this point, tiny stars of surrealism and unreality flashed before her eyes, the kind that display themselves right before you are about to pass-out. She suddenly found it difficult to breathe.
“But…but…that’s not possible,” she said to herself, if not to Jessie. She had never seen anything like it.
A chill crawled up the length of her spine, followed by a wavering shiver.
Less than an hour ago Jessie’s legs looked like they had had a casual visitation from a wheat thresher. Now, before Debra’s disbelieving eyes, the wounds looked as if they had knitted back together of their own volition, and had been in the process of healing for about five days.
“This is too weird,” Debra acknowledged breathlessly.
“You won’t hear me arguin,’.” Came Jessie’s reply.
Debra turned the truck around and headed back to the cabin, wracking her brain for an explanation that would not come.
“Do you feel any pain at all?” she asked Jessie. Just because he looked better, didn’t necessarily mean that he was better, and Debra was concerned about the ramifications this miracle might have.
“None whatsoever,” Jessie told her.
It didn’t make any sense, at least not yet. Add it to the file and sort it out later. That’s all she could do. Maybe there would be an answer waiting for them back at the cabin. That is if it wasn’t crawling with ghouls from hell.
There was always that possibility. And that thought did more than just frighten Debra; it filled her heart with dread. Would they survive the night? Debra had to believe that they would. The alternative really wasn’t an option. Unintentionally, she experienced a vision of a sort where she returned to the cabin, only to find everybody having been slaughtered—blood and limbs were strewn everywhere, arms, legs, and other body parts, torn away in a manner too grisly to describe.
These images prompted Debra to accelerate over the speed-limit, and, albeit abstractly, she wondered why; if her worst fears were realized, what could she possibly do about it?
It took Debra almost forty-five minutes to return to the cabin. By that time a shiny sheen of sweat had broken out over her face. She noticed that the stars were out, contrasted by wispy clouds that looked like the application of an air-brush on velvet. Her high-beams showed the way down the long, narrow road that led up to the cabin. She spied Brandon in the nearby brush with a flashlight and a hunting rifle. This had led her to believe that Tyler had probably handed out firearms to everyone capable of using them. Brandon waved to the truck as it went by him and made its way up the dirt road to the cabin.
Without assistance, Jessie got out of the truck with Debra, and both entered the cabin together.
Mixed expressions greeted them. Most of the expressions were as easy to interpret as they were expected. Wonder and awe were the primary proffering that Jessie and Debra received. But there were underlying expressions of apprehension and fear.
“What’s wrong?” Tyler asked, finally breaking the awkward silence.
“It would seem that Jessie no longer needs a doctor.” Debra said calmly.
Jessie showed all those present just what she meant by that.
“I’ll be damned,” Tyler reflected.
“Alright, I don’t think we can deny it any longer,” Tyler was saying. “Some unknown, inexplicable force is responsible for the reparation of Lanny and Jessie both. And it wouldn’t surprise me if that little gem in the palm of Lanny’s hand has something to do with it. It’s the only thing that truly makes any sense in this illogical environment.”
“That is a “good” thing, though, isn’t it?” Lanny queried.
“You tell me,” Tyler countered. After seeming to consider the idea, he said, “Can you make the gem do something?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know…”something”.”
“Well I’m not going to sprain my leg again and see if it heals me.” Lanny said plainly.
“What if you were to cut yourself?”
“What if you were to cut yourself? I’m not cutting myself. Even if this thing does have healing properties, it doesn’t work like Wolverine’s healing-factor.”
“Previously you mentioned that it set the ghoul’s face aflame. Can you do that again?”
“I hope that I don’t have to find out.”
“Maybe you can conjure a small flame. Try that.”
Lanny knew what Tyler was asking. She held out her palm, looked at the fiery jewel within. She concentrated. Then said, “Flame on.” Time passed without any results. Lanny felt fortunate that she hadn’t cut herself. “Maybe it doesn’t do parlor tricks,” Lanny suggested.
Tyler decided that that was probably the case. It made as much sense as anything else that was unfolding that evening.
The first two hours passed without incident. Nick Steis showed before the third hour. He was attired not unlike Neo from the Matrix. He usually dressed mostly in leather and sunglasses, because he could afford to, and he thought it was cool. Having recently signed a contract with Pandemonium Records and scoring a song in the recent motion picture Morbius, alongside Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie, things were looking relatively bright for Nick’s future, and his band Bedlam Wraith. Now he pulled into the drive in a newly purchased Humvee.
Under the illumination of the light-posts he acknowledged Thomas and Jason and spied Katsumi on the roof, before Tyler stepped outside to meet him. “Hey pussycat,” he called up to Katsumi. “What’s new? Watcha’ doin’ on the roof?”
Behind her Ian rolled his eyes. The asshole brigade has arrived.
“Keeping an eye out for monsters,” Katsumi called back.
“Really.”
Was she serious?
Monsters…?
(Maybe she’s drunk.)
Then what’s she doing on the roof…with a gun?
(Good question.)
The light from above the porch clearly illuminated Tyler as he stepped out wearing black jeans and tee-shirt. “Glad you could make it,” he said to Nick as he met him half way. “Come on inside,” Tyler said. Then added, “Have I got a story for you.”
“That’s what I’m here for. Let’s hear your story.”
So Tyler gave it to him. Once inside the cabin he told Nick everything—which of course Nick at first thought was a joke. And then he saw the gem embedded neatly in Lanny’s hand.
18
You’re never sure if the illusion is real
You pinch yourself
But the mem’ries all you feel
--IN THE DARK
BILLY SQUIER
|
N |
ick said: “What is that thing?”
“That’s a silly question, honey.” Lanny replied. “It’s exactly what it looks like. Although…I think it was also responsible for frying the ghoul’s face off.”
“And then the thing just dissolved away?”
“Just like nobody’s business.”
“This is too weird.”
Steis got no argument from that.
“Okay…” he said. “Well Tyler, if you will come with me outside to the Hummer, I’ll show you what I got.”
Tyler followed Steis outside to the Humvee—to the back of the truck, where Nick unlocked what looked like a military foot-locker—only twice the size. Inside was some camping equipment which he removed and revealed a false bottom; this was in the event that the police pulled him over for any reason.
The officer would ask professionally: “Could you open up the locker please?”
To which Steis would answer keenly: “Certainly officer,”
The cop would see the camping equipment, and not think twice.
However Steis, among other things, was a gun-collector; and especially of the expensive and specialized variety, and beneath the false bottom of the locker there was revealed an assortment of firearms. Including a couple of Glocks, Magnums, and Desert Eagles. With the pistols came a variety of semi-automatic weapons; which consisted of, C7s, C8s, MP9s, Scorpion pistol-autos, and two strange-looking items resembling over-sized plastic toy assault rifles; the kind that Tyler had as a kid—the ones that shot round, plastic discs.
“What are those?” Tyler asked, recognizing all but the two firearms that looked like toys.
“Those? Those are worth about a life’s-sentence imprisonment, if the law finds out that I have them.” Steis took one of the funny-looking rifles out of the locker. “X9s,” Nick explained. “Feel the weight,” Tyler did, and inwardly admitted that the weapon was just a little heavier than the toy gun that he had when he was a kid.
“It’s an assault-rifle; .50 cal—like the Desert Eagles. These babies will spit out 300 rounds per minute, without knocking you on your ass. They’re used by Special Forces.”
“How did you get them?”
“Networking, through a friend, who knows a friend, who knows a friend that has…connections.”
“How many rounds do we have?”
“1500. I think it will be enough for anything that we might have to face. If not, we may as well put our heads between our legs and kiss our ass’s goodbye.”
Those carrying .22s were upgraded to semi-automatics and shotguns, with the exception of Shannon, Tina, Jennifer, and Becky, who preferred the lower caliber firearms. Nick suggested to them to carry the MP5s or the Scorpions. Katsumi, Raine, Debra, and Lanny chose to take the C7s and C8s, wherein Nick gave them lessons in firing the weapons, and provided Jason, Jessie, Brandon, Thomas, and Ian, with back holsters for the shotguns. Nick and Tyler armed themselves with the X9s and the Desert Eagles. They all admitted that, armed the way they were, they each looked like something out of the latest action movie, if not a little on the rag-tag side of things. Now it was time to kill the mad-scientist’s biological experiment gone bad…
PART TWO
The EDGE
1
|
T |
he woman that stood by the edge of the pond, bathed in moonlight, defied description. If however Thomas was expected to give a description, he would have started with her figure; saying that she was statuesque and curvaceous, with muscle-tone that was as tight as the woman was alluring. Water fell in droplets, spilling slowly down her superb body in glimmering rivulets.
Swallowing a developing lump in his throat, Thomas decided that there was an ethereal quality to the woman, celestial, like a goddess that had just come down from the stars.
Thomas had been walking the perimeter on the other side of the pond when he saw the goddess rise from the water like a spirit. She was divinely nude; her hair was a fiery-red nimbus that moved in waves around her features, cascading down to the small of her back, while her eyes were exotic, luminous burning fires of aquamarine. Her tongue wet her crimson lips that bespoke of surreptitious erotic delights.
“Kiss me…”
Her voice was like a soft, gentle breeze blowing across the surface of the water.
Thomas was entranced. His flashlight left nothing to the imagination, until it fell from his grasp, hitting the ground soundlessly. The beam illuminated legs that were long and graceful, belonging to that of a dancer, and somehow the light created a glorious aura that surrounded and embraced the woman.
It was at that moment that the assault-rifle that the man carried suddenly seemed too heavy for him to hold, and it too dropped from his hand, and fell to the earth without a sound.
And then she was upon him. Ravishing kisses seemed to fall upon every exposed area of his body; every nerve-ending, stirring heated arousal that he didn’t believe was possible.
Thomas could not contain himself. He returned kind for kind. And slowly, in the midst of passion unbridled, he abstractly observed his clothes falling away from him, and soon—before he fully realized what he was doing, he was inside her. Fucking the celestial vision in a frenzy. It was a sexual fantasy made real, that touched him in manners undreamed of, enveloping him on levels that he didn’t know existed, however the more that he knew, the more that he wanted—the more he craved. Something back in the far recesses of his mind screamed at him, trying to warn him; admonishing him that this scenario unfolding wasn’t right, that he was in fact in danger. But the voice was drowned out by the sensations that the woman offered him, the lusty keening sounds she made from each of Thomas’ inward thrust of his hips. The pleasure and euphoria was as unimaginable as it was exquisite, it brought tears to Thomas’ eyes, and then abruptly, there was a blinding flash of light. In the midst of the brilliance, Thomas saw the Maker of all Creation, and observed that She was a Goddess.
Brandon and Steis, were experiencing similar visitations from angels of natures salacious, and coping in much the same manner as Thomas. During their sexual escapades perspiration fell freely, as they each tried to satisfy their own carnal lust, as if their very lives depended on it. With each passing moment the sucubi took and drove the men more and more into throes of ecstasy, and further and further away from the world that they knew.
2
|
T |
his evening’s sexual phenomenon did not go unnoticed. On the roof of the cabin Katsumi was watching Steis from her vantage point. He was walking the perimeter near a copse of trees. He was at the edge of it, his flashlight in the night pinpointing his position, when suddenly, without prior warning, he seem to fall into some sort of trance; first dropping his weapon, then his flashlight.
Currently, Ian was on the other side of the roof, unaware of what his girlfriend was seeing.
Katsumi peered into the intermittent night, cut briefly by the beam of Steis’ flashlight. She couldn’t see any identifiable reason for the man’s strange behavior.
A thought occurred to her. And after a moment, she took up her assault rifle and looked through the scope—having switched it over to night-vision. It took another moment to locate Steis again through the scope. When she did, her eyes opened wide in amazement, ague, and confusion. Suddenly Steis wasn’t alone.
There was with him a woman of exquisite beauty that seemed to move with the wind. Katsumi watched with fascination through the scope as the woman took him down in a sexual proposition.
Abstractly she found herself thinking about the ways in which Heavy Metal Rock Stars have the ability to reshape reality around them to their liking through song and fame; for example, she recalled the story of a band that was touring, and about how two of the band members made a bet to see how long either one of them could go without taking a bath or shower, and still convince women to have sex with them. In the space of three months neither member bathed or showered and still they managed to have sex with no less than 200 women.
Katsumi thought that was really gross.
Repugnant.
But regardless of what she thought, life—in all its glory, revealed that Rock Stars had that power over reality like nobody’s business.
The words of Earl played in her mind: “Behold the reality of…Omnipotence…Omniscience…and…Omnipresence… Ain’t Life Grand…?
Blame it on man.
Blame it on the Devil.
The Creator is exempt from the mistakes of His Creation, because he granted free-will…”
As the goddess went down on Steis, Katsumi found herself wondering when it was the last time that he showered.
Then she came around suddenly and realized the potential danger that Steis was in.
Considering this, she tried to get a bead on the woman with her rifle, looking through the scope. But there was just too damned much activity. Katsumi was no sharp-shooter; she couldn’t take the chance of hitting Steis.
Why don’t you just yell or something?
And take the chance that that thing fucking him might decide to kill him?
Then Katsumi saw the reality around Steis and the woman literally distort.
You have to do something!?
How can this even be happening?
The air around the lovers rippled like waves on the water. And then all at once, they were gone. Only an ethereal ribbon contrasting reality was left to mark their passing. The ribbon moved swiftly, in a serpentine manner--across the pond, toward the alcove. And it wasn’t alone. Other ethereal ribbons moved in to join it.
Do SOMETHING…!
Katsumi removed the Glock from its holster, and—had this been a movie, as the heroine, she would have casually used one hand to fire a report into the air. This wasn’t a movie.
Katsumi, gripping the gun with both hands and bracing her back against the incline of the roof, she fired a shot into the night sky.
The report echoed. There was a long moment of silence that made Katsumi believe that no one heard the shot. It made her believe that she was the only one, left all alone at the cabin. A frightening moment of surrealism. Was she the only one left alive? What was going on? What happened to everybody? Where was Ian? Then she felt his presence, even before she heard the scuffling of his sneakers across the roof. At the same time she saw the light from Tyler’s flashlight below waving back and forth as he came around the side of the cabin, seemingly trying to look everywhere at once. Katsumi called downed to him from the roof. Ian moved up beside her.
“They’ve taken Steis!” She yelled down to Tyler.
“Who? What? Katsumi—“
“A woman—a succubus, an enchantress—hell, a witch—whatever we’re calling them these days! I saw her. I saw Steis! And then in a blur—a ripple, they disappeared.”
Tyler was about to say something but Katsumi continued.
“I saw a ribbon—like a warp in reality, head toward the alcove, across the water, and it wasn’t alone!”
A Succubus…? Christ, what next?
“Steis!” Tyler called out in the direction of the flashlight that Steis had dropped. He ran over to it, weapon ready. Saw the area empty. He picked up the flashlight, examined it in a banal manner. Saw the assault-rifle, picked it up and slung it over his shoulder. Then he turned toward the pond. He yelled: “Brandon! BRANDON…!” No answer. And then: “Thomas! THOMAS…!”
No answer.
Lanny met Katsumi at the balcony. “What’s wrong, Kat? What happened?”
“Some sucubi bitches took Steis, Brandon, and Thomas!”
3
|
F |
our 75-watt lamps planted strategically, gave light to the entire living room. It wasn’t enough to offer brilliance, just enough to be able to read by. In the areas where there were shadows, darkness seemed more voluminous, and the contrast gave the inside of the cabin a dramatic representation. The state of matters had changed radically. Tyler gave it some thought. He considered how the mind worked and functioned under certain conditions such as fear, drug-influence, and dreaming. Neurons in the brain for example fired in a different format when one was asleep, convincing the individual that they weren’t dreaming, even when the dreamer new otherwise; this was highly affective during a nightmare. One became terrified in a nightmare because the mind convinced you that you were in fact terrified. Tyler was now seeing an opposition to that realization. And that was that neurons couldn’t possibly be firing properly in the brain of anyone in the cabin at that moment; because although they were dealing with reality, their minds were trying desperately to try to convince them that it was a dream. Ironically, the ones who were the most susceptible to the congruity of reality around them were those under the influence of drugs, or those that imbibed more alcohol than the rest. Still, it couldn’t be enough to completely wash away the fear that crept in to embrace them all.
Tyler was shivering in spite of himself, but he managed to keep his voice steady.
“We have to decide what we’re going to do next.”
“What?” Katsumi countered. “It’s a no-brainer; we’re going to go after them. We’re going to get them back. We’re going to go into that…damned cave, and get them back.”
Ian said nothing at this point as he knew that it would be pointless to do so.
Tyler turned to focus on Katsumi. “I am going,” he said admittedly. “And so are you,” he then turned to the remainder of the group. “But I can’t speak for the rest of us. And we have to consider the possibility…we may not come back.”
“You’re not going anywhere without me,” Shannon stated firmly.
And Tyler knew that there was no point in arguing, so he didn’t try to.
Ian said, “Kat’s not going anywhere, without me.”
The stakes had been altered drastically. Not just in the abduction itself, but in the nature of the abduction. They were entities that had kidnapped the men. Anomalies really. That could somehow distort reality, change their opacity, and/or solidity at a whim. What good were firearms of any caliber going to be against such creatures? Tyler had believed earlier after first contact with the ghoul that they might actually stand a chance. Now he strongly doubted the possibility of success.
“I’m going,” Lanny declared. “I have a feeling that we may need what’s in the palm of my hand. If I can ever figure out what it does, and how it works.”
“I’m in,” Jessie affirmed.
“So am I,” Jason added.
The rest of the young women were hesitant, but eventually the vote was unanimous.
There was also something else to consider, now that Tyler thought about it. And it was that the fear of loss would be a strong factor in determining the actions of the group. And those that had wealth and prosperity were not necessarily the ones who had the most to lose. But it was those among the group that had never tasted wealth, which might in fact have the most to lose. For all they had, that was all that they knew, and had to cherish. But those, like him, had tasted the fruit that life offered, and as such were made complete by the experience; those who felt incomplete were the ones that had the most reason to fear; people like Jason and Becky for example, who lived just above poverty’s wake. It was the difference between those that could afford to wear leather, and those who couldn’t.
And although Tyler was one of those individuals that could afford to wear leather, in this instance he didn’t believe that it was the most practical; the group dressed in clothing that was available and the most suitable, considering what might be faced in the near future. Fitness attire was the most prevalent, although Tyler and Shannon both chose to wear Denali Jackets, unzipped beneath the arms to regulate temperature; they also chose to wear fingerless gloves, and boots instead of sneakers. For the most part, the women that chose not to wear jackets. But instead wore halters, tubes, or tee-shirts. Tyler located three helmets used for spelunking, which were equipped with acetylene and electric lamps. He handed two of them over to Jason, and Katsumi, even as he handed over the other X9 to Jessie, both of which had their own lamps built into them. Lastly, other provisions such as trail-mix, food bars, Slim Jims, and bottled water were added, and stuffed into a small duffle; Debra grabbed the first-aid kit and put it in a backpack that she would be carrying.
As the group was about to move
on, Lanny mentioned spelunking equipment, in the event that it might be
needed. Tyler gathered the climbing gear together, and most of it was
carried by Lanny in a back pack, the rest was carried by Tina.
- BACK -
