Blood Magik- A Cold Day In Hell

by Corwyn Matthew

  Bowman noticed it as soon as she said something and lifted his hand to his face as if to will the smell away with a fist clinched by his nose. “God damn… What the fuck…?”

  She whipped her head back impulsively to look in the backseat, bracing herself, as if expecting to see the rotting corpse of Officer Parkman smiling behind her, putrefying their atmosphere… But there was nothing there but shadows.

  She looked back in front of her, down at her feet, but didn’t know what she was looking for. The smell was so rancid and sudden that it couldn’t have been coming from inside the car because…that just didn’t make any sense… She followed a line of logic that led to her closing the vents and making sure her window was rolled up, but the effort did nothing but give her something else to focus on other than the stink; like dead fish warming up in a Port-A-Potty. The look on both their faces was of such disgust it appeared painful, but all they could do was bear. After a few seconds, Carlyle thought that maybe she’d get used to it, and lowered the arm covering her nose. She tried settling into the stench and relaxing her body, and even succeeded in doing so for an instant, but the warmth of foul breath rolling over her left cheek and ear froze her in her seat—

  She sat paralyzed, suffocated by dread, listening to the metal cage that separated her from the backseat scrape against itself as if squeezed between the claws of beast.

  The wires’ creaking was a drill-bit digging into her skull and she cringed at the sound. She tried convincing herself the noise wasn’t real and wanted so much to look over at her friend for comfort…but couldn’t. She was either going insane, having some kind of delusional anxiety attack, or there was something unthinkable in the backseat… Something that didn’t have to be seen if it didn’t want to be…and that smelled of death, and bowels, and Hell…

  Her eyes were closed; her fists clenched so tight she couldn’t grip a weapon even if she remembered she had one. The smell singed the inside her nose and the sounds of the metal wires being torn from the car’s frame rang one-by-one.

  What was Bo, her partner, doing during all of this? Was he as petrified as her? Somehow still driving the car in a straight line while waiting for the death that stalked them to finally bring their lives to an end?

  Maybe if they worked together, they could make it out of this alive. Maybe this thing couldn’t break through the cage and all they had to do was turn around and shoot. Maybe all she had to do was open her eyes…

  Open…

  Your…

  Eyes!

  She did as she demanded herself to and found the road in front of her had quit moving. Somehow Bowman had stopped the car without her realizing it…

  Maybe…maybe he’d already done what she couldn’t. Maybe whatever had stalked them was already dead: A lifeless, powerless bag of bones that was only about as dangerous as a dead doe…

  She convinced herself she’d have to find out even though her gut was telling her otherwise. She began turning her head, and it was like her neck was encased in concrete and she was forced to break through the mold to get it to move. She compelled her chin to lead her eyes, and her brain used its initial imagery to put together a pleasant picture of her partner’s smiling face. …It’s funny how the mind sees what it wants to until its thrust upon the terrifying truth…

  She let her guard down just a little when her subconscious optimism jumped the gun, and wasn’t braced for the horrifying face of terror staring back at her. Bowman’s eyes were sunk into his skull and his mouth yawning wide as if frozen at the point of screaming for the sake of his soul, but the fact that his head wasn’t even attached to his neck was almost the worst of all. If that would have been the end of it, she may’ve survived this night as a tormented, trauma patient in a psychiatric ward, doomed to suffer waking nightmares for the rest of her life. But unfortunately for her, Tessura wasn’t going to allow her that easy of an out.

  On top of her partner’s mummified skull was a demon’s paw attached to an arm that didn’t stop until it came to a body of a beast that no human should ever have to suffer the sight of. Fate was a cruel mistress – Carlyle might even go so far as to call her a cunt – but the extent of her cruelty couldn’t compare to that of the demon Tessura’s. All the pain and fear combined in life that Carlyle had had to endure wouldn’t begin to scratch the surface of the cage her soul was destined to be slowly digested from…

  Tessura…hungered.

  5

  “Car, uh…” Officer Grant B. Buterhanz couldn’t for the life of him remember the designation of Gibbons’ car. “Car Forty, umm……fuck…” He tapped the mic against his forehead to jar loose a lost set of numbers from his short-term memory. “Car-forty-fucking-Gibbs-and-Delgado, come in.” …Close enough. “You two slack-offs are about six minutes past check-in. What’s the word?”

  With the limited range of their radios, every officer on patrol was instructed to stay in regular contact with the next; no more than 15 minutes radio silence between them, keeping less than two blocks apart. “Gibbs. Delgado…” If for any reason they lost contact, their orders were to abort and return to base of ops. “Earth to Space Monkeys. Come in, Space Monkeys.” In this case, “base of ops” was the National Guards’ post ten blocks back and three blocks south. “I’ll have both your asses skinned raw with a cheese grader and fried in the grease made from the fat off your own thighs if I have to abort this pursuit…” The last thing he wanted was to have to give up on his search. “I’m talkin’ fried, Space Monkey bacon bits, you assholes… Come in.” Without the support of his patrol, he could wander through the fog for days and never find the two that got away. “Damn it.” The raw, death-flavored air was so thick that the culprits could’ve been on the same block as him, a few hundred yards in either direction, and he’d never even know it.

  His first thought was that his fellow officers might have drifted out of range, or that inside the mist wall the communications-distance was shorter than they thought. The protocol was to head back immediately. If something happened to the car next to him and he went searching, he could end up just as missing, and the last thing the Police Force needed right now was a shortage of cars and good men to patrol them. His brain said, “turn back now, get more backup and come back strong”. But his balls apparently wore the pants and were filling him with an encumbrance of foolish hormones egging him to push on. He knew enough to not blindly continue his search or to go after the missing officers on his own, but he couldn’t see any way out of at least finishing searching the block he was on, then heading up the next one over to give it a look on his way back.

  In order for them all to stay on the same page, they were told to patrol the streets at no more than 15 mph. That way they could keep a fixed distance between them and maintain contact, but since contact had already been lost…

  He hit the gas and sped up to twenty-five. Immediately, the surrounding fog took offense to his speed, angered by his show of aggression. Clumps of blood-mist coalesced and consecutively splashed against his windshield making it harder for him to see. He wasn’t paying it much mind at first, but when he noticed the change he looked directly into the masses of red to find scowling faces and gnashing mouths twisting fiendishly in their vapors. The mist streaked off the side windows like claws gripping at the glass with a hissing sound escaping the air, and he flipped his wipers to High, smearing a cranberry tint over the world in front of him.

  He tried to put his mind off the disturbing distractions and survey as far ahead as possible. This being the last opportunity he’d have to catch his quarry, he needed to cover as much ground as he could. He leaned forward in his seat and griped the wheel tightly, ready to swerve if he’d have to. He’d patrolled these streets a thousand times before, but there was something about the texture to them underneath the haze that made them feel foreign. He knew exactly what street he should be coming up on, but for some reason it didn’t pop up when he expected it to.
It’d been like that the entire time he spent behind the fog-line. At first, he assumed it was because he was limited to such a slow speed. But even now, every single block stretched on for longer than it should. It was as if the city didn’t want him to reach his destination… Or at least took some kind of demented pleasure in making it more nerve-racking for him to do so.

  “Any minute now…” He mumbled to himself to calm his concern, hoping he’d run into some kind of good fortune before he’d have to head back. “Aaaannnnyyy minute now…” Thinking positively may’ve been psychologically healthy, but it felt naive. His instinct to flee kept butting in its nervous little nose, pushing him to make a clean break for civilized waters. “Aaaaannnnnnyyyy…fuckkkinnnggg…” His heart skipped when he thought he might’ve seen a glint of yellow in the distance rounding the corner ahead. “Oh, no fucking way…” He punched the gas and covered enough street to get a clearer shot at the backside of a cab right before it turned out of his line-of-sight. “No. Fucking. Way. …Your ass in mine!” He threw on his lights but thought better of his siren, not wanting to draw any potentially dangerous attention toward him. “You’re not getting’ away from me twice in one night, shit-holes. This I swear.”

  Twenty seconds later, Buterhanz rounded the corner and got close enough for the Cabby to see the red and blue lights gaining from behind.

  “Oh, shit… Not again…” He peered into his mirror, shifting unsettled in his seat. “I thought they couldn’t see us?!”

  Alex turned back to see exactly what she was hopping she wouldn’t. “Damn.”

  “Now what?” He’d already made a habit out of looking to her for answers.

  “Just…pull over. A high-speed chase in this fog would be asinine.” She almost let a trifle of hope rise in her heart when realizing the demon that followed them must not be near. If it was, then it was likely the cop would’ve never found them. Either that or he’d already be dead.

  This time, Buterhanz didn’t waste a second on the smell of his breath or straightening his hairline. He wasn’t about to take his eyes off his prey for even an instant until he knew he had them exactly where he wanted them. He hopped out of his car in a hurry and drew his firearm, aim straight and steady.

  “Let me see your hands!”

  Todd the Cabby was a little taken by the officer’s urgent tone. “Shit…he looks pissed…” He put his hands on the dash and Alex lifted hers to where the officer could see.

  Buterhanz approached the driver-side cautiously with eyes on the Cabby, not wanting to be distracted again by Alex’s feminine appeal. He gave the front seat a good look for weapons or drugs and then backed off slightly to address his perp.

  “I got one question for you, Houdini. …No…scratch that… I got about seven…but I don’t wanna be out here any longer than I have to, so we’ll chop it down to three.” He paused a moment as if giving Todd the opportunity to take part in the dialog. When he didn’t, he went on. “One: How the hell did you two get by me earlier?”

  “Uhhh…” He was racking his brain for a bullshit explanation…

  “Two: What the shit do you two think you’re doing out here on a night like this?”

  “We were just—”

  “And Three:” He cut him off before pausing to give his detainees a chance to catch up. “Is it just me or is it really fucking warm out tonight?”

  They were both at a loss for words.

  “First things first, Copperfield: step out of the car with your hands on your head.”

  Todd really didn’t want to get out of the car. He was crying out to Alex in his mind, hoping she’d find a way to get them out of this mess. Alex had heard his cries, but didn’t understand how to go about addressing their problem. She decided on polite conversation to start.

  “Officer, uhh…?” Her tone suggested he fill in the blank.

  “Oh no you don’t, cupcake. You’re not sweet talkin’ your way out of this one.” He was still being sure not to look her way, but after hearing her voice, the struggle he waged against his hormones was ever so much more trying…

  “Look,” She figured she’d just try to be as straight with him as she could, but before she even had the chance to, a spark of adrenalin flushed over her body and a familiar sense of danger tightened her throat. “…oh, shit…” Tessura’s stench was closing in and Alex got the feeling things wouldn’t turn out so well for the courageous policeman outside her door. “I don’t know how else to put this, other than; it’s really not a great idea for you to be out on the street right now…”

  Her remark threw him off enough to where he let his guard down and made eye contact.

  “What?” He didn’t have a clue as to how to take that.

  “What?” Todd the Cabby, on the other hand, had a clue, but wished he hadn’t.

  Buterhanz looked down at Alex as her eyes jumped around, nervously scoping their surroundings for what she knew was a deadly threat. He found himself getting lost in her features but tried to stay focused.

  “Look, sweetheart, I’m not the one you need to worry about right now…” She looked back up at him with concern in her stare and the green flicker in her eyes caught his attention. “Whoa…”

  “You really need to get in the car right now.”

  Stunned by the manifestation of jade, he was a little thrown for conversation. “What… You mean this car?”

  “Yes. This car. Now.” She tried to be stern but could see he wasn’t the type to blindly take orders, so she added, “Please.”

  “I don’t think…”

  Todd too was getting that familiar feeling in his chest. He knew the demon was closing in so he exploded with an anxious outburst—

  “Get in the fucking car, asshole, she’s trying to save you!”

  “Save me…?”

  It was all a little much for him to process. He let his guard down, slightly lowering his weapon. His gaze drifted up in contemplation and ironically met with the stare of a thing that defied all explanation.

  Tessura huffed and drooled with burning yellow eyes – the two of them only separated by the bulk of the cab and his proximity to the strength in Alex that kept the beast at bay.

  “Holy Hell!!”

  His raw shock and fear didn’t allow him to find the courage to fire. Instead, he reached for the cab door and jumped inside like a child trying to avoid being stung by a bee. He nearly flattened Alex on his way in but she managed to slide over before becoming a casualty of his hastiness.

  The Cabby couldn’t move. The sight of the beast who had nearly taken his life petrified him. Buterhanz was screaming at him to drive but he couldn’t hear him. Alex was yelling for the officer to calm down, more afraid that he’d accidentally shoot one of them than of the beast who had her locked dead in its glare.

  “Relax! Relax! It can’t get to you in here!” She put her hands on the officer’s shoulders and noticed her touch had a calming effect.

  He briefly broke his stare away from the angered beast and looked over to her. “How…how the hell do you know that?!”

  “Because if it could, I’d be dead already.”

  He was trading glances between her and the monstrosity that stalked them and realized what she’d said made some kind of sense. “So, what…what’re you saying? It’s after you?”

  She cocked her head. “At the moment, I think it’s after you… But because of me, yeah.”

  “W-what if I just let you off with a warning? Forget any of this ever happened?”

  “I get the feeling you’re better off sticking with me now…”

  She sighed at the idea of having brought another innocent bystander in on her life choices, but let the thought go when she realized they still weren’t moving. She looked back over at the beast outside who snarled and puffed in an aggravated display, then toward her new friend, the Cabby, still frozen stiff.

&nbs
p; “Todd?” She spoke his name gently to carefully break through the wall of terror he’d raised. She considered how the latest addition to her group, Officer Buterhanz, seemed to react calmingly to her touch, so after a moment of doubt, she reached up and put her hand on his shoulder. “Todd? Can you hear me?”

  Her touch was a warm flush spreading over his chilled body that thawed him out enough for him to breathe. He took in a deep chest-full of air and snapped out of his daze with its exhale, then turned his head to look back at her gleaming, green eyes.

  “Yeah…” He finally answered with a nod to support his words. “Yeah… I can hear you…”

  “I’m not gonna let anything happen to you, remember?”

  He took in another breath and nodded again. “Yeah… I remember.”

  “Okay, good. Then…let’s keep moving.”

  Todd gave the demon one last glance to prove to himself he was back in control, then put the cab in gear.

  “Wait…what? What about my car?” Buterhanz was reaching to gain some kind of control.

  “What about it?”

  After a shift of his eyes to think it over, he adhered to her argument. “Well…where the hell are we going?”

  She looked him sternly in the eyes, sighed, and then leaned back in her seat. “…You don’t wanna know.”

  Holy Assemblage!

  A Reunion of Priests

  The sound of the exhaust blaring from his hog roared through the city with enough pomposity to piss off the dead, but most were too preoccupied with building the army Imala demanded to go gallivanting off in search of the knuckles that bruised their ego.

  The inner-city streets were devoid of demon soldiers, but the Damned, those whose souls were trapped in the minutes before dying, haunted corner-stores and turned over vehicles throughout, reaching with despairing pleas for Marty’s aid as he passed… But he knew they were beyond his help – he could smell that none of them were still alive.

  When he pulled up to Alex’s complex he sprung off his hog in a hurry, momentarily forgetting about the half-naked young woman perched on the back of his bike. He glanced back to see the fear of abandonment in her eyes and quelled her worries with an extended hand.