by Michael Rigg
Addy nodded and shrugged a shoulder as if she didn't quite believe it herself.
I had no idea what she was talking about, but I nodded and listened, hoping I could pick up on something that gave me more clues as to where I might be from, or shed more light on where I am now, or tell me more about a world where companies deal in metaphysical wholesale.
"The Landry Holdings Company. It's what Daddy does. He controls a world-wide network of specialists and scientists, diggers and experts. It's amazin' the money Daddy's made off his discoveries. He's employed archeologists and bounty hunters the world over to find his trinkets over the last fourteen years."
"What kinds of trinkets has he found?" I asked, wondering what kind of money could be made from selling archeological digs and “mythical junk” to museums.
"Oh, the last one was some old gold box he said was what held the Ten Commandments of Moses his self."
I stopped in my tracks. Adeline took two steps and turned to meet my gaping stare. I knew what she was talking about. This world may be strange to me, the flag different than I remember, but certain references were clear. I forced my jaw to close. "It sounds like you're talking about the Ark of the Covenant."
She nodded as though I'd just asked if she ate breakfast. With a shrug, she said, "It ain't much to see. Daddy sold it to Crane & Loft about a month ago. The Ark, as well as a few other things, he'd been sellin' off to Yankee Corps to buy more Confederate inroads, more control. Atlantis was a keeper, though. Not sure why."
"Wait. Sold it?" My jaw fell open again.
As I stared at Adeline her face broke from a slow grin into a bright smile, then she giggled. "Oh, Alice, you are a treasure. Didn't you know I was pullin' your leg?"
My shoulders slumped as I blew out a breath and grinned, shaking my head and touching my fingers to my suddenly achy temple. "Oh.... Things have been so weird for me the past day I just don't know what to believe anymore."
Addy turned to lead the way into the west wing. Over her shoulder, she said with an idle wave of her hand, "He'd never sell his precious Ark, just like he'd never sell his precious, underwater city."
CHAPTER 16, “Human Life”
Perek Grubbs was a new man, almost literally.
He had once heard you have to sink to the bottom before you can rise to the top, and that's pretty much exactly what happened.
He actually smiled at the irony.
The ghoul, Teivel Hearse, left him standing in the human filth for what seemed like hours. Existing on very little sleep, Grubbs struggled to remain standing. He'd weep and scream and beg, but it seemed no one heard him. No other ghouls came to eat him and put him out of his misery. His ribs ached. His face ached. At one point he slipped on the slimy surface beneath his feet and sank up to his neck before catching himself and struggling to keep his nose and mouth away from the black pungent surface. He had managed to feel his way to a wall in the darkness, hoping to lean against it and rest, but even the walls were slimy with filth.
Then, finally, all the tears and strength gone, his body and mind too weak to sustain him, Perek Grubbs slipped and sank beneath the surface.
Break over.
Even as his mouth opened in an involuntary gasp, and even as a small part of his brain warned him that he'd be inhaling waste instead of air, everything around him vanished and instantly re-formed into something else.
He had found himself, still naked, standing on shaky legs in what appeared to be a dark throne room. A red carpet and tall gilded throne were the only bright and clean things in the room. Everything else was dank and gray, the air wreaked of mildew, though the smell of the septic prison was still strong in his nose. A thick layer of dust covered rows of broken shelves, glassless jewelry cases and fake potted trees. Boarded windows provided thin bands of gray light across the warehouse-sized room. A faded JC Penney logo, the P askew, identified the location. The Penney building in downtown Philadelphia was less than a mile from the Universal Electric building where the police had arrested him.
Hissing sounds echoed in the room, scuttles, a raspy yawn. In the shadows, all around him, Perek Grubbs knew the ghouls waited to pounce.
A black form on the throne squirmed and Grubbs could make out Teivel Hearse, sitting with his weight shifted to one side, his chin resting on his right hand as the long nails of his left tapped impatiently on the arm of the throne. "Ah, my dear Perek," Hearse smiled exposing a row of gray nubby fangs. His voice was soft, soothing, but also somehow cold and uncomfortably warm at the same time.
Grubbs flinched at the voice but stood his ground. He looked down at himself as a chill in the room erupted goose flesh all over his body. Not only had he been transported out of the sewer cell, he was also clean as though fresh from a steamy shower. Raising his eyes to Hearse, Grubbs covered himself modestly with his hands.
Hearse smiled at that, his eyes lingering on Grubbs' hands before meeting his eyes. "Such an interesting breed, you humans are."
Grubbs cleared his throat, but his hoarse voice still cracked when he spoke. "You're human too. Well, you were."
"Were," Hearse echoed. "You made us this way."
A loud hiss echoed from Grubbs' left and he turned to see a thin, gangly ghoul leap onto an overturned display case. Like Hearse, its eyes were red. Unlike Hearse, it wore tattered rags instead of a gentleman's suit. Its teeth were so long they pushed open the black maw of a mouth and drool hung in long strands from its rows of sharpened teeth.
"One of my loyal subjects," Hearse smiled with an idle wave of his hand, drawing Grubbs' attention back to him. "He's harmless to you, Perek. They all are." Hearse stretched in his throne and lifted his left leg, placing his foot on the seat cushion and appearing to slouch languidly in the golden chair. "I'm surprised you held up for as long as you did before surrendering to your rather distasteful fate." He pursed his lips and made a 'tisk' sound. "I am so sorry about that, but you held up for quite some time before exhaustion took you... Admirable, that."
Not knowing how to respond, Grubbs glanced at the ghoul squatting on the display case before turning his attention back to the one on the throne in the black velvet suit.
Hearse said, "Relax, my pet." He gestured to Grubbs' hands. "Don't hide yourself from me. You will find that in my service there is nothing for you to hide."
Trembling slightly, Grubbs relaxed himself. He let his arms dangle at his sides and slumped his shoulders, cowering before the demands of the Lord of the Ghouls. When he saw that Hearse was staring at his body with wide lecherous eyes, he looked down and away. Spotting a dust-encased teddy bear on the floor, he centered his attention on that.
Hearse said, "Don't be ashamed, my pet Perek. I am going to give you the greatest experience any human has ever had the pleasure of enjoying." He flicked his wrist, the ruffled cuff of his sleeve flashing, and produced a rectangle of paper like a magician pulling a card from his sleeve. "Your Acquisition Papers."
Grubbs looked up.
"...And your identification. And..." Hearse's eyes shifted to Grubbs' right forearm. "A gift."
Flinching at a sudden sting that ripped from the crook of his elbow to his carpal tunnel, Grubbs raised his arm and widened his eyes in the dim light. There, on his forearm, was a Corporate Ident tattoo.
"Welcome to the Hearse & Grubbs Corporation, Perek. Oh—" Hearse waved a hand as if thinking of something to add of little consequence, "You'll find your ribs and face are healed as well."
Grubbs' mind reeled. Here, standing naked in an abandoned JC Penney, surrounded by flesh-eating ghouls and their madman of a lord, he was bequeathed simultaneously with everything he'd ever wanted and never wanted at all. He touched his re-formed nose, his un-puffed cheekbones, he ran his fingers down the xylophone of his rib cage. Service to the ghoul surely meant inevitable death, but he wouldn't die here. Not yet. Not today.
No, Teivel Hearse gave him a Corporate Ident because he meant to set him free, to have him perform some task. Who knows, Grubbs mused, if I play my
cards right. If I serve Mr. Hearse well—as I served Mssrs. Thorne and Wolfe—perhaps I'll be richly rewarded. Perhaps more than anyone if magics like this were any indication. Hell, Hearse could snap his fingers and fill this room with gold.
He allowed himself a smile.
"Oh," Hearse breathed, "It does this old heart good to see a smile on my pet."
The smile vanished as Grubbs felt the ghoul's eyes on him again. "W-What is this for?"
Hearse raised a pointed eyebrow.
Grubbs caught his misstep and corrected. "My lord." He swallowed, "What is this for, my lord?"
Hearse's smile was wide and filled with the conniving of all the world's treachery rolled into one. "A thank-you, my dear Perek. ...Thank you for telling me about Lord Landry, about the acquisition of Atlantic property, and about the ... what did you call her? Property?"
Grubbs nodded. "Yeah. Landry traveled with a Property, my lord. It's the reason he—"
Hearse waved a hand, his eyes slowly traveled Grubbs' body before settling on his eyes again. "Yes," he hissed. "It surprises me that none of you knows the danger of the one you seek."
"Danger?" Grubbs swallowed. "My lord?"
Hearse stood slowly with the grace of a male ballerina and approached Perek Grubbs. His velvet suit made no sound as he walked, and he played a long nailed finger over his lower lip as he approached. "The woman you're all seeking, the nameless one kidnapped by the Confederates. I cannot believe you have no clue what she is."
Teivel Hearse, of course, knew more about Alice than any of them. He gathered a lot from her scent, the distraction all the ghouls felt at once that drove them mad wanting to climb the human towers after her. It was Hearse, their leader, who was first drawn by the magics cast by a young witch, then his senses found the delicate deliciousness of the woman. He concentrated not on the witch or the woman but on those who whisked the woman away and those who tried to seize her. Such a fortunate happenstance to have Perek Grubbs' I.D. and papers fall to his earth.
Grubbs shivered as the Lord of the Ghouls stood before him. He was surprised Teivel Hearse wasn't taller, that they were almost eye-to-eye. "I-I know that she's the cause of Mr. Thorne winning the bid over the Atlantic property, my lord."
Hearse walked slowly around Grubbs, looking over him as a master might inspect a slave.
Stiffening as the ghoul stood behind him, Grubbs added quickly, "Sh-She was alone, we think. She —I think she works for L-Landry."
Hearse's cold hand coiled over Grubbs' right shoulder, his long nails gently scratched his neck as he breathed in his left ear. "She doesn't work for Landry. And, I dare say, the Landry's mistakenly believe she works for Thorne & Wolfe." Hearse wrapped his left arm around the man's waist and crawled his right arm over Grubb's shoulder, hugging his back like a lover. Resting his pointed chin next to Grubbs' ear, Hearse whispered, "I could smell her... a stench stronger than that of any witch, and it was a witch's scent that drew my eyes skyward, my pet Perek."
"M-My lord?"
"She's an angel."
Grubbs frowned, suddenly no longer distracted by the feeling of the ghoul's cold velvet-clad body pressing against his back, he winced at the thought and glanced to Hearse's gray and deeply-lined face on his shoulder. "N-No, sir. No, she can't be an angel."
Hearse raised an eyebrow. "You don't think so?"
"N-No, sir. Um, my lord, I don't. She's just a woman. No angel would've done what she did to me," he said, reflecting on the sharp pain of his formerly broken nose and ribs.
"A woman who appeared from nowhere, Perek, and pulled with her a man who could have sealed the strength of the Confederacy for a hundred generations. What kind of woman would have such a power?"
Grubbs frowned, thinking, as Hearse released him from the awkward hug and moved slowly back to his throne. Sitting as he flicked back the tails of his velvet frock, Hearse said, "Then how is it I smelled her? And, yes, while I know when a woman is menstruating, that is assuredly not the case in this instance, not from a distance of a hundred stories at least." The ghoul yawned, then smiled at his own dark humor.
Grubbs wasn't convinced the woman was an angel. Maybe a harpy or a siren of some kind. She appeared as a regular woman, from what he recalled, rather unkempt and shabby-looking. And he didn't expect that an angel could deliver a combination martial arts attack like the one that she used on him. Still, his fate was in the hands of the Lord of the Ghouls and he knew from long years of corporate service, you never argue with the boss. Bowing slightly, Grubbs said, "I don't know, my lord, but I will find out for you.... if you want."
Hearse laughed. He threw back his head, tossing his long strands of black hair, and laughed so loud his voice echoed throughout the abandoned store. Ghouls hidden in the darkness all around them hissed and chattered. A second one joined the one perched atop the display case, and another peaked around from behind a dust-entombed, plastic Santa Claus. "Oh, my darling Perek, you are exquisite. Exquisite!"
Grubbs frowned, but smirked slightly, happy that at least he could make his captor laugh. That could very well buy him his life.
When Teivel Hearse finally stopped laughing, his expression became serious. The ghoul swallowed hard before waving a hand. The gesture caused small clouds of dust to erupt around the room as the ghouls hiding and watching from the shadows all scampered away, their ticking claws retreating rapidly in a herd toward the open elevator shaft at the back of the abandoned store.
Alone now with the Lord of the Ghouls, Grubbs swallowed and again reflexively covered himself against his lord's hungry glare.
Curling a finger, Hearse beckoned Grubbs closer. "Come to me, Perek."
"W-Why?"
"Because I command it, and because I wish to give you something."
Grubbs stepped forward slowly. "What do you want to give me, m-my lord?" Grubbs asked, wishing for money instead of anything else the recesses of his mind feared.
Hearse smiled, his eyes burning. "An experience, Perek, that you will never forget."
That was hours ago.
Now he rolled out of his plush bunk aboard the SS Air of Grace and stretched. The bites and scratches on his shoulders, sides and thighs burned under the bandages, but other than that he felt like a million bucks; which was ironic, Grubbs felt, because that was half of what he was traveling with.
As the airship's engines hummed loudly all around him, Grubbs walked to his private bath and checked his look in the mirror. He needed a tan, and the gums in his dry mouth were bleeding, but other than that he still felt pretty rich and satisfied with himself. His new-found wealth and power were well worth the price of the pain and humiliation he suffered at the claws, mouth and... other unspeakable parts ...of his lord, Teivel Hearse.
Dressing in a black velvet suit with silver buttons, much like that of his master but with a shell jacket instead of a frock, and a silver gray ascot adorned with a tiny platinum pin shaped like an H, Grubbs smiled. Not only did he feel more rich, and now actually had the bank account of the truly rich, he even looked rich—more rich than he'd ever even dreamed.
A knock at the dressing room door snapped him out of his reverie. "What is it?"
Grubb's personal valet, a man he hired in Philadelphia from the most reputable Imperial service in the nation, said, "We will be arriving in New Yorke in fifteen minutes, suh."
"Thank you, Wilton," Grubbs smiled. My own butler.
He returned from the private bath to finish getting dressed. Wilton helped him into his black leather shoulder holster, a gleaming pearl-handled automatic protruding from its opening. Then he shrugged into his jacket before turning to face his valet. "How do I look, Wilton?"
"Dashing, sir," the English manservant smiled with a slight nod.
Grubbs produced a wad of bills from his vest pocket and handed them to the butler. "Be a good man and go check on the captain. Tell 'im that I'd like the ship to cruise around Yorke for a bit while I have breakfast in the dining cabin."
Wilton's lip curl
ed slightly. "And whom shall I say is making the request, suh?"
"If he gives you static, just tell him this comes straight from Vice President Perek Grubbs of Hearse & Grubbs... Incorporated." Grubbs' smile was self-satisfied and confident. He tugged at his sleeve. “He can stop by to check my Ident if he needs to.”
"Very good, suh." Wilton turned to leave.
"Oh, and Wilt?"
"Yes, suh?"
He passed a couple hundred more toward the butler. "Have the dining cabin cleared before I get there. I wish to breakfast alone."
Wilton nodded. "Very good, suh."
"Oh, and send word ahead to Thorne & Wolfe. Tell 'em I wanna meet with them by 10 this morning—but don't say the V.P. thing—just act like an operator and tell 'em Perek Grubbs is comin' back to report."
"Very good, suh."
Grubbs turned to his wide portal after his valet departed. He drew a deep breath, unconcerned that the only smell in his nostrils was the dankness of death—a leftover from the ghouls, he imagined—and smiled at the view.
"It'll all be mine before ya know it," he laughed. "All mine." And all I had to do to get it was play fancy boy to a male witch.
~~~~~~~
Bryce Landry sat next to his father in the back seat of the aerocar as it approached Baton Rouge. The cabin of the car was sealed and air conditioned, so he was comfortable in his dark brown suit. The red ascot at his neck was decorated with a round red pin with a blue dot and white diamond in the shape of a star. His father sat next to him in a black suit and charcoal gray tie. Jefferson Landry adorned his lapel with a small red Confederate flag pin.
They flew in silence for awhile, Bryce wondering how Alice was doing and worrying on Lucien. He knew his father would react angrily about the contracts, but he hadn't expected a humiliating beating in front of Alice, his brother, and sister. It was only luck that Savannah hadn't seen.