by George Fry
The two headed to Richard’s car.
“Alright, get in.” He ordered.
“You’re not taking me down to the precinct, are you?”
“I’m pretty sure you’d blow my car to pieces before I could even attempt that.”
“Smart man.”
They drove through the town, heading straight to the source of the cult’s power.
“Why the hell are you so interested in this cult any way?” Drifter asked.
“Demons are driving this country to the brink of destruction. The public despise them. Then Daemonism comes along and suddenly the media tries to convince everyone that the demons are here to save us? All sounds a little fishy to me.
To top it off, no one on the force can investigate them, or face termination. Something's rotten. I don’t know if it’s corruption or cowardice, but I’m not going to let an opportunity to find the truth pass me by.”
“You think there’s a conspiracy.”
“You’d have to be blind not to be a little suspicious, or been living under a rock, like you.”
“Point taken.”
“I think there are people out there taking advantage of all this chaos for their own gain.”
“Well, you can handle that shit. So, are we gonna barge into Anderson’s home, guns blazing?”
“No. I’ll just say we got a report of a disturbance and ask to check his home.”
“What if you don’t find anything? Or he gets suspicious? What if he just kills you? Or what if-?”
“Alright! I get it! It’s risky! That’s where you come in. If something bad happens, you have my permission to barge in guns blazing, as long as I’m not caught in the crossfire.”
“And if I refuse?”
“Then… I’m fucked.”
Richard’s gung ho attitude resonated with Drifter. A thick headed rookie, looking to prove himself in a world that was trying to supress him. His plan was clearly stupid, rushed and poorly thought out. The perfect plan for Drifter. He didn’t have to think, just act.
As a police officer, Richard had access to the addresses of everyone in town, allowing them to find Anderson’s home in no time, parking the car right outside his gate.
“What’s all this computer shit?” Drifter asked, looking at the car’s dashboard.
“Drifter, you had the whole car ride to ask me that, and you’re asking now?”
“Yes.”
“It’s recording equipment, that’s all.”
“Sounds useful.”
“Right, now remember, back me up on this, in case shit goes south.”
“Yeah, yeah…”
Richard headed for the front door, knocked and anxiously waited for an answer.
The door opened and standing tall with his robes, Anderson looked down upon Richard, with a judgemental stare.
“What is it?” He sternly answered.
“Oh… excuse me sir, but me and my partner here received a call to check out a disturbance at this address.”
Anderson seemed perplexed. “What partner?”
Richard looked to his side and around the immediate area. Drifter had completely disappeared.
“Bastard!”
“What is this disturbance you’re talking about?” Anderson interrupted.
“What? Oh, that’s what I’m here to find out.”
“I see… and who called you?”
“I can’t answer that, I’m afraid. This shouldn’t take long though, it’s just a precautionary search.”
Anderson was immediately skeptical. “Very well.”
He invited Richard inside.
On the other side of the house, Drifter was aimlessly snooping around.
“I can sense demon magic. Like a portal, but it’s coming from inside the house, so fuck that.”
It didn’t take long for Drifter to grow bored of his investigation. He could just break into Anderson’s home, but with no specific goal in mind, he’d probably just get himself caught.
He inattentively lurked around for evidence.
“A credit card?” He exclaimed. “What kind of idiot would lose this out here?”
Drifter threw the card into the bushes, convinced it was of no use.
Richard gave the downstairs of the house a quick once over, while Anderson watched him, diligently. At first glance, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, even checking the closet and garbage revealed nothing, which was a problem. If he searched any longer than he already had, it wouldn’t really be a ‘quick’ search anymore.
Still, something seemed off, but he needed to buy more time to figure out what, so he took his search upstairs. Unfortunately, nothing looked out of place. At first glance.
“Are you satisfied now, officer?”
“I suppose so, except for one thing.”
“What is it?”
“You missed some blood here.”
Richard pointed to a single red spot on the floor, just outside Anderson’s bedroom. Despite making sure he cleaned up the mess Dale made, he clearly didn’t have enough time to do a thorough enough job, before Richard arrived.
“Th-that’s not blood.” Anderson argued.
“Is it paint?”
“Y-yes.”
“What were you painting?”
Anderson stammered to come up with an excuse.
Richard continued. “Yeah, that’s blood. It was especially noticeable under the bins and near closet. In fact, I’m going to have to give that closet a more intensive examination.”
Anderson had no choice but to comply, as Richard returned to the closet. Although they were hidden by the darkness, with a flip of a switch, the light revealed the blood splatter on the floor.
“Oh yeah, something’s up here.” Richard noted. “The blood leads into the wall, is there something behind it?”
“Perhaps you should see for yourself.”
With his ominous permission, Richard searched for a way to look behind the wall. Eventually he figured out the back wall could be pushed aside, sliding across to reveal a secret room.
Richard was sickened by what he found. Corpses, torn and rotting, bound by chains. As the wafting smell of decaying flesh assaulted his senses all at once. The bodies appeared human, but they were deformed and contorted. Among the amalgamations of flesh lay Dale, still unconscious, missing his legs.
“What the hell is this…?” Richard muttered, shaken.
“What? This is just a normal closet.”
“What the fuck is so normal about this!?”
“Please don’t get so excited. You found nothing to be concerned about."
“Nothing to…? There are bodies in there! Chained and rotting! What in God’s name have you done!?”
“I don’t think you understand.”
Anderson’s arm stretched around to Richard’s back, as his hand expanded into a massive demonic claw.
Richard could feel it, the presence of a large weight pressing down on him, ready to crush him at any given moment. He was left paralysed by fear as the monstrous priest bent down to whisper into the young man’s ear.
“There is nothing to be concerned about. This was just a quick search that warranted no further action. Merely a false alarm. You will be leaving now, lest anyone end up hurt, or worse. Is that clear, officer?”
Richard weighed up his options, but with Drifter gone and no way to defend himself, he complied with Anderson’s request.
“Right. There’s nothing to report. Sorry for disturbing you so late. I should head home now.”
“That would be wise.”
Drifter put his feet up in the car as he waited. After what seemed like hours, Richard finally returned, slumping into his seat in silence.
“Find anything?” Drifter asked.
There was a pause, before Richard slammed his fist into the dashboard.
“Dammit! I couldn’t do anything!”
He slammed his fist again.
“I was totally petrified! The truth was right there and I couldn’t do anything a
bout it!”
Drifter laughed. “Shit, what happened?”
Richard immediately directed his fury towards Drifter.
“Where the fuck were you!? If you had just been there, we could have done something! You could have stopped him! I nearly died! He chose to let me live because he knows I can’t do anything! And you just sit there and laugh, when you could have fucking done something!”
Drifter was slightly stunned by the officer's emotional outburst. He was clearly traumatised. Once he was given a moment to calm down, Drifter finally spoke up.
“Did you record any of it?”
“Record? Of course! The recording equipment! We can take this to the station and-”
“No.” Drifter interrupted. “We’ll keep it to ourselves.”
“Right, they’ll probably just confiscate it anyway and I’d be taken off the case.
Tomorrow… tomorrow we’ll confront Anderson and his cult with the evidence and prove what a monster he really is. Then, you’ll have free rein to fight whoever gets in our way.”
“Tomorrow sounds good. I’m getting sleepy.”
Drifter climbed into the back seat and laid down.
“Are you snoozing in my car?”
“Well, where else am I going to?”
“A hotel?”
“Nah, this is fine.”
“Fucking... alright…”
Drifter soon fell asleep in the back of the car as the hours passed by, with night turning to day. There were no surprise attacks or recurring nightmares, just a peaceful sleep, which was immediately interrupted by a sudden cold splash over Drifter’s face.
He flailed his arms in protest. “Fucking cunt! What!?”
“Get up, Drifter.” Richard ordered, holding an empty cup of water. “It’s time to get to work.”
“Work? No thanks…”
Drifter rolled over, ready to return to his dreams, aggravating Richard.
“My car isn’t a bed, you bum! Those cultists will be holding their morning mass soon. We have to get moving.”
“Cult….?”
Still half asleep, it took a minute for Drifter to remember what he had been doing the past 24 hours.
“Oh… that cult… I’ll wait for the evening mass.”
“After what I saw last night, I refuse to wait around any longer. We’re bringing them down now.”
Drifter lifted himself up, still slightly sleepy.
“You really think you can bring them down with just a video recording.” He yawned.
“We can only hope.”
“Ugh...”
“Let’s go.”
“Wait!” Drifter suddenly cried.
“What is it now?”
“Can we get breakfast first?”
“You what? You think we have time for breakfast?”
“There’s always time for breakfast.”
“We don’t have the luxury of lounging around in a restaurant, you stupid sod!”
“Then we’ll order it to go. I’ll eat on the way.”
“God… you’re such a child…”
They drove up to the cathedral and waited for the last of the acolytes to enter, while Drifter finished scarfing down pancakes, ordered from a fast food chain, with Richard calmly sipping his coffee.
“I can’t believe I actually got you to buy me breakfast. You must be real desperate.”
“No one cares about these demons until after they’ve already killed. By then, it’s too late. Now we’re being told to just bend over and accept them, like we’ve just given up.
I want to prove that there are officers out there still willing to fight for the people instead of just pretending to save face. I’m not going to let this chance slip by. I will reveal their hypocrisy to the public.”
“With just a video?”
Richard stepped outside the car. “It’s time. Let’s go, Drifter.”
As they were about to enter the cathedral, they were stopped by a woman calling to them.
“Drifter!”
“Amanda?” He answered. “You look like shit.”
“I… I found something…”
“You mean, like a penny?”
“Drifter…” Amanda appeared soulless. A sleepless husk of her former self. “...this can’t go on… you have to stop them…”
“Stop what now?”
“Anderson.”
“You can’t rely on me to solve your problems. I’m not a superhero.”
“Please!” She grabbed at Drifter’s arm, suddenly springing to life. “You can't let anyone suffer like Abby did! No one deserves that! Please, stop that monster!”
“Alright… we were gonna do that anyway.”
“Thank you…”
Amanda walked away.
“Where are you going?” Drifter asked.
“To get Abby…”
With Amanda gone, Drifter looked over to Richard who was ready to head in as soon as he was. With a hard kick, Drifter booted the doors wide open, interrupting Anderson’s sermon and disturbing the acolytes in the room.
“Apologies for the interruption.” Richard announced. “But, we’re here on official police business.”
Richard marched down the aisle, with Drifter casually strolling behind.
“And what could the police possibly want with us?” Anderson questioned. “What department are you from? Who are you?”
“I don’t have to reveal that information.”
“Very well. If you wish to throw away your entire career with false accusations, then be my guest.”
“Your threats won’t work on me.”
“Time-out!” Drifter called. “Dale, what the fuck are you doing up there?”
Beside Anderson, toward the back of the stage, were two demons, holding up a tired, legless boy by his arms, no longer able to stand of his own free will.
“Did you lose your legs?” Drifter chuckled. “Guess that’s one way to stop yourself from running blindly into fights.”
“Drifter!” Dale yelled. “Will you kill this cunt already! The guy’s a sociopath! And I want my legs back!”
“Of course he’s a sociopath! He’s running a fucking cult!”
“What the hell Anderson!?” Richard objected. “Why’d you bring the kid here!?”
Anderson was adamant with his response. “To serve as an example, to those who go against the wishes of the demons! He’s lucky he’s still alive!”
“Fuck you!” Dale retorted. “You’re the one who did this to me!”
“Do not cast the blame onto me, when it was your own folly that lead to your crippled state.”
“Don’t listen to him! Anderson’s the one who attacked me! He had freaky huge demon arms! He’s not human!”
“You see, my children. This boy has been consumed by his own arrogance and can no longer accept the reality he lives in, instead choosing to create lies to better fit the narrative he wishes to create.
Do not be fooled. He has no proof. Do not believe the lies of one who has already committed murder upon demonkind.”
The people in the church rallied behind Anderson’s words.
“He’s the one who killed our comrades!”
“He was with that White Heathen!”
“He’s a traitor to humanity!”
“Dale, you paraplegic plonker!” Drifter yelled over the crowd. “How are we supposed to prove anything with them screeching like arseholes!?”
“We have to quiet them down somehow!” Richard explained.
“Just fire your gun into the air! Assert your authority as an officer of the law!”
“I can’t, you stupid sod!”
“Oh… oops…”
A gunshot rang out in the cathedral, startling the crowd into silence. Beside the stage stood Amanda, gun pointed to the sky, with all eyes on her.
“You want proof?” She announced. “I’ll show you proof. A dose of harsh reality for you blind, boot lickers.”
Amanda stepped aside to reveal the creature c
rawling on the floor behind her.
There, sprawled out like a lumpy rug, struggling to maintain its connection to the living world was a creature neither human nor demon, just a contorted mess of what was once a sentient being.
“Remember the girl chosen for Anderson’s ascension scam?” Amanda elaborated. “She was my sister, Abby and this is what he did to her. Take a good, long look, because I can barely stand to anymore...”
The acolytes were horrified into silence by what they saw. No creature could possibly be born into such a painful existence. They questioned if this was their eventual fates as well.
“Do not listen to her.” Anderson retorted. “She could have found that pitiful creature anywhere.”
“...Ammy…” The creature wheezed.
“She still knows my name. I saw Abby transform with my own eyes, but what I want to know is why? Why did you do this!? Why did you destroy my sister!?”
“That creature is irrelevant.”
“WHAT!?”
Amanda was frozen by her own fury. Anderson was dead set on deflecting any and all accusations being thrown at him.
“If you need more evidence of Anderson’s cruelty,” Richard explained. “I have plenty of footage recorded from my visit to his home last night.”
“You did what!?” The priest cried.
“I wonder how your people would react to your private dungeon? I guess Ammy wasn’t your first victim.”
“You’re bluffing. How could you have recorded anything?”
“All officers wear a recording device in their pocket, in case they run into trouble. I’ve got the footage in the car if you all want to see it?”
There was a loud crash from outside, as one of the demons burst through the doors, revealing the wrecked police car from outside.
“Oh my.” Anderson snickered. “How unfortunate.”
“Ah, shit. Why did I open my big mouth.”
“Well, officer, how do you intend to prove anything now?”
“I think the fact you just destroyed the evidence is proof enough.”
“I did no such thing. My servant merely acted on his own.”
“Crap, now what?”
“Now nothing.” Anderson asserted. “Your carelessness with the evidence has only proven your incompetence. Please stop wasting our time and get out.”
“Hold it!” Drifter called. “You forgot about me.”
“As if I care about the opinion of the White Heathen.”