Blood Magik- A Cold Day In Hell

by Corwyn Matthew

  Bowman and Carlyle exchanged unsettled glances and Carlyle asked, “Can you see her eyes? …I heard these things that’re eating people have glowing, red eyes.”

  “I can’t… I can’t tell from here… Looks like she’s walking away from me… Yeah. Her back’s towards me… I’m gonna pull her over and see what’s goin’ on.”

  Bowman fought a bad feeling clawing up his spine. “Parkman, don’t get out of your car. We’ll be there in three minutes. Just hold tight ’til we show up.”

  “Trust me, man…there ain’t no way I’m getting out of this car without backup. I’m gonna hit her with the P.A. – see if I can figure out what’s what until you get here.”

  “Copy that. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

  Parkman chirped his sirens when he got a hundred feet from the woman in heels strolling down the empty block. There was something about her walk…or her hair, maybe, that seemed familiar… He squinted to peer through the mist but couldn’t make out any specifics. He grabbed the walkie in his car that was attached to the loud speaker and addressed her accordingly.

  “Lady…what the hell do you think you’re doing walking around out here on a night like this?” As he approached, she continued her nonchalant meander in the opposite direction, seemingly paying his authority no mind. “Lady! Stop where you are. I know you know you’re creeping me out right now, so let’s just talk about this before things get out of hand.” He unsnapped the strap on his gun holster and pulled within fifty feet of her. She had an attractive figure that was visible through her tight jeans and short, waist-high jacket; both her hands in the pockets. “Look, lady, the longer you play this game, the more on edge I get… If you don’t stop where you are and turn around to face me I’m gonna shoot those sexy heels right out from under your feet.”

  She finally stopped where she stood and the attitude oozing from her stance sparked another flame of familiarity in his mind. Her wavy, light brown hair and body shape reminded him of the girlfriend he’d just spoken so fondly of. He tried not to let it get to him, considering it couldn’t possibly be her, and again addressed the mystery woman who finally seemed to be playing by the rules.

  “Okay…that’s a start… Now, Simon says: take your hands out of your pockets and put ’em on top of your head. Slowly.” The woman did as he asked and his heart jumped when the sparkle of the ring on her finger resembled the one he gave his girl this past Christmas. He lowered the walkie from his mouth to stare uneasily before shaking his head to regain focus. “Alright, now turn…” He almost didn’t want to finish his sentence. “…Turn around…but keep your hands on your head.”

  She didn’t budge.

  He hesitated, taking an extra moment to study her figure, and the more he did, the more she resembled exactly who she couldn’t be. He looked closely at the light brown, suede jacket she wore and the heels that matched, remembering the other night when she asked what shoes he preferred with that jacket and he picked a similar pair. Her jeans even had the same brand name on their rear as the ones she wore that night, and the seven, thin, gold bracelets around her wrist were identical… “Why seven?” he’d teased. “Why not five…or eight?”

  The mystery woman in front of him turned around to show the striking eyes and lips of his girlfriend and answered the question he was asking in his thoughts out loud with a smile—

  “…Because seven’s my lucky number.”

  When he saw her lips form the words dancing in his mind he froze with his jaw open. He again lowered the walkie, staring at this girl who couldn’t possibly be in front of him because she was supposed to be in another state, and he whispered her name as a question and a plea for his sanity…

  “…Danni?”

  He was so distracted by the sight of her that he didn’t see the giant, salivating beast standing beside him until its fist had already broken through the glass and settled into a fatal grip below his chin.

  4

  Bowman and Carlyle rounded the first street corner cautiously, expecting to run into Parkman in another minute or so, Carlyle resting her hand atop her loaded weapon. She didn’t want to be a Negative Nancy, but figured they should get the likelihood of the situation out in the open.

  “What’s the chances Parkman just stumbled across a random transient we missed on the first sweep of the area?”

  Bowman distraughtly shook his head. “Slim-to-shit. …S’more likely the cab driver dropped off his fare, and she’s just some nutcase who thinks being food for zombies is a hip way to go.”

  “Hope you’re right… I’d hate to come face to face with one of those things if you’re not. I hear they aren’t like anything Hollywood’s ever put on film… Cullen said he saw one take pointblank shots to the head… He could see straight through its skull and it was still coming. They’re supposedly unkillable…”

  “Bullshit. Nothin’s unkillable. If it exists, it can un-exist… Just gotta know what pieces of ’em to hack off to get the job done.”

  She glanced over with an eyebrow raised. “Channeling your inner Ashley Williams?”

  “Ashley who?”

  “You’re kidding… You’ve never seen Evil Dead?” The title didn’t seem to ring any bells. “Army of Darkness? Ash vs Evil Dead? …‘Gimme some sugar baby’?”

  “You know I’m black, right? Black people don’t watch lesbian horror movies…”

  “Lesbian horror…? No… Ashley’s a man, man! He’s not a lesbian. And Army of Darkness is more like a comedy than a horror movie…”

  “Which would explain the dude with the chick’s name… Black people also don’t watch horror/comedies with male heroes who’re named after lesbians…”

  “Dude…you lost me…”

  “Good. Because you and me being on the same page goes against the natural laws of the jungle. Black men whose best friends are pasty, white, bull-dykes don’t go over too well in the hood.”

  “Your secret’s safe with me, my brotha.”

  She smiled forcefully and he smiled too, both attempting to carry on with business as usual, but neither feeling completely up for the task. A moment of silence between them was the last thing they needed. Too much time to absorb their estranged surroundings would only serve to increase anxieties so she decided to try her hand at continuing their dialog.

  “So, we still on for the strip club on your birthday?”

  “You’re god damn right, we are.” He welcomed her continued exchange. “Somethin’ about havin’ a lesbian with you at a strip joint that gets the girls to drop their guard… ’Member last year?”

  “That Middle-Eastern goddess who couldn’t keep her hands off you?”

  “Yeah, man, she was all about me, huh?”

  “I gave her a c-note to keep you company.”

  “Shut your filthy mouth!”

  “I swear, man. I slipped it to her when I went to ‘the bathroom’.” She air-quoted her words to animate her confession.

  “What about that little senorita you had all over you?”

  “Didn’t give her a dime.”

  “Bullshit!”

  “I speak the truth, my man. I was broke after hooking you up, I swear. Between the money I gave Jasmine and buying us drinks, I didn’t even have money for a single lap dance.”

  “That bitch was dancing on your lap all night!”

  “I know… Wild, right?”

  “An’ how the hell you remember that stripper’s name, anyway?”

  “Who, Jasmine?”

  “Yeah. Jasmine.”

  “We went out for drinks the next weekend. Nice girl. She’s got kids, though. Kids aren’t my thing.”

  “So, what…she was gay?”

  “She had kids, dude.”

  “Oh, right… So, she was a freak then, huh? Down for both sides?”

  “I don’t think she knew what she was
down for… I think she just thought I had money ’cause I slipped her that bill. Strippers will do just about anything for a free ride. Probably would’ve let me go down on her too, but come time to return the favor… That’s a different story.”

  “Huh.” He sounded slightly perplexed but fascinated. “Being a lesbo’s some complicated shit.”

  “You have…no…idea, my man. Women are a very shifty breed. And all of ’em are cock-teases… Even if you don’t have a cock.”

  He nodded in acknowledgment, graciously accepting her input.

  “We should double date. Your insight on the female creature could help a brotha out…”

  “I don’t think so, dude. Goes against the natural laws of the jungle. Lesbians whose best friends are well hung black men, an’ all…”

  “Right…right… Makes sense. Penis envy.”

  “Ohhh, no. Don’t get me started on that shit…”

  “It’s true, ain’t it?”

  She gave him an “are you really that dumb” glare before she answered.

  “The reason lesbians are lesbians is because we don’t like dick… So, what the hell makes you think we’d want one?”

  “I don’t like dick, and I’m happy to have mine.”

  She stopped for a second to evaluate his retort.

  “You make a good point.”

  “See? Penis envy.”

  “Blow me.”

  “Penis...”

  “Suck…”

  “…envy.”

  “…my cock.”

  He paused for effect then glanced over with a cocky grin smeared on his face.

  “You wanna borrow mine so you can take pictures with it?”

  “I wanna borrow yours so I can slap you in the mouth with it.”

  “And the truth…shall set you free!”

  She laughed and shook her head. He glanced over at her and smiled as she looked ahead, noticing what looked like Parkman standing in the middle of the street in front of his vehicle.

  “Didn’t that asshole swear he’d stay in his car?”

  Bowman looked out at what caught her eye and shook his head. “I knew his ass wouldn’t be able to resist tryin’ to be a hero.”

  Parkman stood waving his arm for them to pull up. Bowman reached over to roll down his window but Carlyle stopped him when she noticed something out of place.

  “Whoa…wait a minute…”

  “What?”

  “What’s with all the broken glass next to his car?”

  Bowman followed her stare and expressed his intrigue in her observation with a “Huh…” He took his hand away from the window controls and stared in thought. “Maybe it’s just a coincidence… He might’a just stopped next to it.”

  She peered through the distance, suspicious of the civility of Parkman’s wave, and noticed the shape of a man in his driver seat.

  “…And who the hell’s he got behind the wheel?” She looked over at her partner who was trying to confirm her account with his own eyes. “Stop the car… Something doesn’t feel right.” Bowman obliged, and she grabbed her radio to bark into it. “Parkman. What the hell’s goin’ on over there? I thought you said you weren’t getting out of your car?”

  They both waited from a little over two hundred feet for him to respond, but instead of answering he just continued waving them in. Bowman felt the moment was just as odd as Carlyle did so he decided to investigate from afar.

  “Grab the binoculars. See if we can shed some light on what’n the hell’s goin’ on over there.”

  Carlyle put the binoculars up to her eyes and directed them toward Parkman who oddly disappeared from her sights when she did. “What the hell…?” She lowered the specs and looked back toward him with her own two eyes and he was right where he was supposed to be, but when she looked through the binoculars a second time, he disappeared just as quickly as the first. “That… doesn’t make any sense…”

  Little did she know, it made more sense than she could possibly understand. The illusion Tessura created for the two of them was the same: It was simple enough to make them both see Parkman standing in front of them at an equal distance, but the demon trickster couldn’t put two different images in both their minds when Carlyle’s perspective was changing so rapidly.

  “What? What do you see?” He was eager for an answer. Parkman’s eerie, repetitive wave was racking his nerves.

  “Nothing… I don’t see anything… I mean, he’s not even there!”

  “What?”

  She finally aimed her specs away from the front of the vehicle and gazed through its windshield to see the sunken in, soulless corpse of the officer formally known as Parkman in the front seat. She jumped at the sight of his pale, petrified expression and yelled out—

  “Oh god!!”

  “What?! What?! What the fuck is goin’ on?!”

  “Fuck!! He’s dead!! He’s fucking dead!!”

  “Wha—?”

  “Just go!! Just get us the fuck out of here, now!!”

  Bowman slammed his foot on the pedal, too much in a panic to think to put the car in reverse, and peeled out toward the threat ahead.

  “No! No! The other way! The other way!”

  “Are you crazy?! We’re not goin’ deeper in!!”

  “Shit! Shit! Shit!”

  They fishtailed toward the illusion of Parkman and by the time Bowman straightened out the car, Tessura let the image of the former policeman dissipate, purposely revealing her startling true self. Carlyle and Bowman’s eyes spread wide and jaws hung low as they blew by, that fraction of a second lasting ten times as long.

  Tessura’s yellow eyes and drooling pallet were almost as terrifying as the soulless look left on the corpse of Officer Parkman, and Carlyle felt her heart stop at the moment of passing when she and the beast met eye to eye.

  Bowman was so taken with the nightmarish thing that even after they passed he couldn’t help but continue staring through his sideview mirror. What neither of them knew, or could have possibly guessed, was that Tessura wasn’t looking at them, but at the backseat of their car, vacant and shrouded in dark…

  Carlyle could hardly move, let alone think, but after a few seconds she realized she’d have to do both if they were going to stay alive. Bowman was still so intently staring behind through the reflection of the side-mirror that he forgot he was the one behind the wheel. He was heading recklessly for the back of a parked semi and couldn’t be bothered to realize he was driving straight for a face full of steel bumper…

  “Bo!!” She yelled out at the top of her lungs, reaching for the wheel. Her hands shot up to steer their nose away a second too late, but the speed and weight of the well-built Crown Victoria charged on with a loud noise, a broken headlight, and only a few scrapes to show for it.

  “Are you with me?!” She wanted to be sure his head was behind the wheel before she let it go. He didn’t respond right away, so she called out again. “Bowman!”

  “Yeah! …fuck… Yeah, I got it!”

  She looked into his eyes before putting her life back into his hands then finally let go, somewhat convinced he was back on the job.

  “…What…” He didn’t even know how to begin to ask. “…What…” He wasn’t even sure if the English language had words for what he wanted to say. “…What…” But eventually, four of them inevitably came to mind: “…What the fuckin’ fuck?!!”

  Correction: three.

  “I don’t know, Bo… Let’s…let’s just get out of here, okay?”

  He looked into his rearview, uncomfortable with not keeping an eye on the beast that already killed one officer for sure and possibly more.

  “Shit!”

  “What?!” She didn’t like the sound of that.

  “It’s gone! I don’t see it!”

  She whipped her head ar
ound to look behind them then found a second to think his words through.

  “That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

  “But where the fuck did it go?!”

  She continued her search, scanning over every inch of the street she could until Parkman’s swirling lights got swallowed by red fog in the distance.

  “Back to Hell, hopefully…” Her entire body along with her voice was shaking, but her disposition remained strong. Underneath all her fear and instincts to flee she felt the warmth of anger kindle inside and wanted retribution for the death of a fellow officer.

  “Can you see it?!”

  She stared for longer than she could even think for a reason to until she eventually settled on an answer.

  “…No.”

  “Fuck!!” He slammed his hand against the wheel to vent his frustrated anxieties. “…Fuck!!!”

  “Just…just drive, okay?”

  “Yeah, I’ll fuckin’ drive… I’ll fuckin’ drive, god damn it… Can’t fuckin’ do anything else, now can I?”

  “Yeah, you can. You can get me the hell out of here in one piece.”

  He took heed to her tone and allowed her words to sink in and straighten him out.

  “Yeah…” He inhaled deeply. “Yeah… I can do that…” He looked over at his partner and friend and gave her a feebly composed nod. “…I can do that.”

  He still found himself compulsively glancing into his mirror but stayed focused on his task. The silence that fell between them was spoiled by the pounding of their hearts but grew quieter with every passing second.

  Carlyle’s head fell back against the seat, attempting to absorb a moment of ease. For the time being, she felt safe in her partner’s care and did her best to allow the calm to settle her nerves and slow her heart. She took in a deep lung-full of air through her nose then exhaled. The drumming of her pulse against her temples quieted with her every swell of oxygen so she repeated the process once more. She breathed in deep, eager to take comfort in her breath, but scowled and gagged instead at its sudden putrid smell.

  “Jesus…” Coughing at the taste, she covered her mouth. “…What the hell is that?”