by N. P. Martin
"I mean it," the cult guy said, now standing up straight as he stared defiantly at Amelia. "You have no idea of the forces you are messing with here."
"I think I do," she said.
Fox started up his van. "I’m done here now," he said to Amelia. "I’m done with you."
Amelia walked to the open window of the van and suddenly pointed her gun at Fox’s head. "I know you are."
Then she pulled the trigger and Fox’s head disintegrated, his blood and brains splattering the inside of the van.
"Jesus fuck!" I shouted in shock.
Before I could even ask her what she was playing at, another black SUV pulled up behind the Jag and two more orcs jumped out, both of them armed with automatic rifles. They stood by the car awaiting orders.
Amelia now had her gun pointed at the man from the cult. "This thing does some damage, huh?" she said to him.
All the blood had now drained from his face, and terror seemed to have replaced his earlier defiance. "What is it you want?" he asked.
"I want to know where the cult is meeting tonight."
"What cult? I’ve no idea—"
Amelia fired a shot that went straight past the man’s head, causing him to flinch in terror. "Please! I don’t know—"
Another shot whizzed past his head, the sound of the Desert Eagle massively loud as it echoed off the surrounding buildings. "The next one goes in your head."
"All right!" the man said. "I’ll tell you!"
Amelia walked closer, the gun still pointed at his head. "Spill it."
The man seemed torn, even in the face of getting shot. "They’ll kill me for this…"
"I’ll kill you right now if you don’t start talking."
He shook his head as he now seemed resigned to the fact that he didn’t have a choice anymore. "We’re supposed to meet at the old Hell Fire Club at midnight tonight."
"On Mount Pelier Hill? You’re sure about that?" Amelia asked, taking a step closer to him.
"Positive," the man said, his anger seeming to rise again. "It’s Samhain tonight, so it will be a special mass."
"A special mass?" Amelia snorted slightly and shook her head, glancing at me for a second also, and as she did, a sickening feeling came over me as I knew what was coming next. Unfortunately, I didn’t turn away in time to avoid seeing the man’s head exploding after Amelia pulled the trigger on him. One minute his head was there, the next it wasn’t, and his body dropped to the ground like a lump of dead meat.
"Clean all this up," she said to the two orcs. "Dispose of the vehicles and the bodies."
"Yes, Mam," the orcs said in unison as one of them then dragged the dead man across the ground, dumping his body into the back of Declan Fox’s van, bits of whose skull were still sliding down the windshield.
Amelia holstered her gun and then stopped to stare at me a moment. "Are you all right?" she asked, sounding to me like she didn’t much care if I was or not, as long as she had done what had to be done, according to her anyway.
"You never mentioned you were planning on killing them," I said.
"Scum like those two don’t deserve to live." She walked to the car. "You coming?"
I stood where I was for a moment longer as I glanced once more at the bodies in the van. So much blood, I thought.
With a lot more to come, of that I was sure.
Chapter 18
I didn’t say much as we left the industrial estate and drove to Amelia’s house. It didn’t seem to bother her that she had shot and killed two men in cold blood. Truth be told, I didn’t care that those were dead either. The world was a better place without them, but a little forewarning would have been nice. I said as much to Amelia, and she merely shrugged. "It had to be done," she said. "I thought you’d be okay with it."
When we arrived at the house, we were met by Simoa. "Where’s the kid?" I asked her.
"Dropped off at a hospital," she said. "He’ll be fine."
"We know where the cult is meeting," Amelia said to her as she stepped into the entrance hallway.
"Where?" Simoa asked.
"The old Hell Fire Club on Mount Pelier Hill at midnight tonight."
"On Halloween," Simoa said, smiling slightly. "How very spooky."
I shook my head at her. "Are you enjoying this shit or something?"
"Of course," she said. "Aren’t you, Corvin?"
"No, Simoa, I’m not."
"Organize a team," Amelia said to Simoa. "We’ll move soon."
"This is going to be another bloodbath, isn’t it?" I said.
"You don’t have to come along if you don’t want to," Simoa said, sounding like she was enjoying my discomfort at the situation. "Amelia and I can handle things while you sit in your bookshop."
I threw her a look. "Your passive aggressiveness is wearing thin, Simoa. Do me a favor and go fuck yourself, whatever your problem is."
"I was just saying—"
"No you weren’t, you were—"
"Enough!" Amelia shouted. "I don’t know what’s going on between you two but you’d better sort it out before we leave or you’ll both be staying behind. I can do this on my own if I have to."
"Apologies, Amelia," Simoa said. "I don’t know what his problem is."
Gritting my teeth, I stared straight ahead as I tried not to react. "Whatever, Simoa. Amelia, where is the library?"
"Why?" she asked.
"I need to do some research."
"The west wing, second door on the right."
I threw Simoa a stinking look before walking away. "Shout me when you’re ready to go, Amelia."
As I stepped into the library, I closed the door behind me, leaning back against it as I took a few deep breaths to try and quell my anger at Simoa. Though it wasn’t just her that was winding me up. I felt dirty after witnessing the killings at the industrial estate, which was made worse by the fact that I knew the bloodshed wasn’t over, not by a long shot.
But there wasn’t much I could do about it. It was going to happen whether I was involved or not. The best thing I could do was accept that and get on with trying to find a way to stop the wraith that was controlling it all. If the wraith couldn’t be stopped, then it didn’t matter how many cult members were killed, more would keep popping up as the wraith ensured the cult stayed in existence.
So I turned my attention to Iolas’ library of old books, which was huge, containing thousands of tomes on every subject you could think of.
"This is going to take a while," I said to myself as I gaped at the intimidating number of books, lined from floor to ceiling on sturdy wooden shelves. There didn’t appear to be any real organization to the books, at least none that I could discern, so I went to the end of one side and began to systematically check the book titles as I went along, resisting the urge to stop and examine any books that caught my interest, but which weren’t helpful to my current search.
A few minutes after I started, Amelia came walking into the room. "Hey," she said, staring slightly strangely at me.
"Hey," I said, barely looking at her as I continued searching the books.
Amelia came walking over, her boots clunking against the hard wood floor. "Take no notice of Simoa."
"I’m not."
"I don’t know what her problem is."
"I do."
"What?"
"She doesn’t like me because I’m close to you. I think you have a Single White Female situation on your hands. I see she even cut her hair short to look like yours."
"She wanted a change, she said."
"Yeah right."
Amelia sighed and shook her head. "Whatever. She’s just a bit strange, that’s all. She’s good at her job, though, and that’s all I care about. If she wants to look like me, I’m not going to stop her." She stared at me a moment. "There’s something else wrong with you. You aren’t happy about my plan, are you?"
"Your plan to commit a massacre? No, not really."
"Do you have a better suggestion?"
I
shook my head, knowing there was none. Simply turning the cult members over to the authorities wouldn’t accomplish much since they were all so well connected and would walk soon after, effectively getting away with it. The only way to ensure the cult never reformed was to get rid of them all, especially the wraith that controlled everything from the house in Kilkenny, which I had yet to tell Amelia about. I stopped searching the books for a moment to look at her. "I’m just not as comfortable with killing as you are."
"Don’t make me out to be some sort of sociopath, Corvin."
"I’m not."
"These people kill children and do god knows what else. They’re a cancer that needs eradicating, that’s all there is to it."
"I know."
"If you don’t feel comfortable with it, have you should stay behind as Simoa said."
I shook my head. "I need to be there. The cult leader is a man named Jared O’Hare. He needs to be taken alive."
Amelia frowned. "Why?"
"Because I promised someone I would get him justice."
"Who?"
"The man who saved my life last night."
Amelia shook her head. "Now I’m confused."
I turned back to the books to continue my search. "There’s a lot you don’t know yet…"
Amelia listened carefully as I told her about events in Kilkenny, and everything that Iolas had told me about her parents and what they had become. She stayed silent for most of the time as I spoke, the look on her face becoming graver as I went on. When I’d finished, she just stood there for a long time in deep thought. I said nothing more, allowing her to process everything as I continued to scan the book shelves. I had already come across a few volumes on ghosts and spirits, but so far I found nothing useful on how to exterminate them.
"My parents were monsters," Amelia said eventually, causing me to turn around and look at her. "Why didn’t Iolas tell me any of this?"
"I think he was trying to protect you in his own way," I said. "I guess he thought you didn’t need to know the truth."
She shook her head as she stared at the floor. "My family is truly fucked up, more than I ever thought it was."
"You’re not your family, Amelia."
"That doesn’t make me feel any better about all this."
"You already knew your parents were involved in this anyway."
"Yeah, but I didn’t know they started it all," she said. "Neither did I know what terrible people they were to begin with."
"Iolas did you a favor when he…took you out of the situation."
"So you’re on Team Iolas now are you?"
I shook my head. "Just stating the facts. Can you imagine what would’ve happened you if Iolas hadn’t…"
"Killed my parents? You can say it. I’m over that already."
"I’m just saying things could’ve ended badly for you. You could’ve ended up like them."
Sighing, she paced the room a few times before saying, "And now my parents have become this wraith or whatever it is that hangs around the house?"
"The wraith controls the cult, or rather the current leader."
"So we have to kill this wraith thing then?"
I nodded. "It’s the only way to finish the cult off for good."
"And my parents."
"Your parents are gone, Amelia. That wraith is nothing more than a manifestation of the darkness they shared between them, not to mention a puppet of Apep."
"So that’s why you’re in here then is it? To find out how to kill the thing?"
"I’m not having much luck. I was thinking we could burn the house to the ground and the wraith would maybe lose its power that way, but I’m not sure."
"I think you’d be better of looking in the artifact room," she said. "I’m almost certain Iolas has some sort of ancient ghost trap in there."
I frowned. "He never mentioned it."
"He probably forgot he had it. He used to collect these things just for the sake of it most of the time."
"Let’s go and take a look then."
As I went to move toward the door, Amelia stepped in front of me and then threw her arms around me, hugging me tight. After the last couple of days I had, her embrace felt good. "I’m sorry you nearly died," she said. "I…don’t know what I’d do if you had."
Her wore shocked me a little. It was the first time she had given me any real indication of her feelings for me, and to be honest, I had given little thought to me feelings for her up until now. So far, things had been casual between us, but it seemed that was about to change, if it hadn’t changed already. "Lucky I don’t die that easily," I said, pulling back and smiling at her, before kissing her on the lips.
"Maybe we should go somewhere after this is done," she suggested.
"Where do you have in mind?"
She shrugged. "I fancy Switzerland. I’ve never been and I want to try skiing."
I nodded. "Sure, if I can watch you ski from somewhere warm that sells alcohol, I’m in."
"That’s boring."
"It’s never boring watching you in action."
She shook her head and dropped her gaze for a second. "Wise up."
"Are you actually blushing? You are, aren’t you?"
"Come one," she said turning away. "We’ve got shit to do."
"Your cheeks are still red," I said as I followed her out of the library.
"Your cheeks will be red too in a minute if you don’t quit."
"Oh, dirty, you’re gonna spank me?"
She shook her head. "I didn’t mean those cheeks."
"Damn…"
It didn’t take Amelia more than a minute to find what she was looking for in the artifact room. It was a small vase that sat atop a tall wooden table. The vase was nothing much to behold, seeming to be almost crudely fashioned from clay, with glyphs carved into it around the middle. It also a domed shaped lid sitting on top. Beside it on the table was also a scroll with the words to a spell that would apparently force a spirit into the vase and trap it inside.
"How did you know about this?" I asked her.
"Iolas used to make catalogue all this stuff for him," she said, looking around the room as if she held love for any of the items on display. "I know everything in here and what it does."
I picked up the vase and held it, feeling nothing special from it. "And this is supposed to work?"
"It’ll work. Iolas didn’t buy duds."
"Awesome. This is just what we need then."
Amelia walked to the door as I grabbed the scroll. "It’s past dark," she said. "Let’s go and hit these fuckers at the Hell Fire Club now."
I nodded, even though my stomach turned over at the thought of the bloodshed to come.
Chapter 19
The Hell Fire Club is the popular name given to the ruined building at the summit of Mount Pelier Hill in Dublin. The building was a hunting lodge built in 1725 by one William Conolly, and it exists in isolation outside of the city, surrounded by a forestry plantation known as Hell Fire Wood. The building was also built on top of a prehistoric site at the summit of the hill, and once sacred cairn stones were used in the building itself, which many cite as the reason for the rumored paranormal activity surrounding the place, and of course because the builders had never seen the movie Poltergeist. Members of the Irish Hell Fire Club used the hunting lodge as a meeting place for nearly a decade. Stories abound about the debauchery, occult practices and demonic manifestations that took place in the club over the years, so it was no surprise that the Cult of Apep had decided to hold one of their masses on this night of Samhain, when the forces of darkness are at their most energetic.
Amelia and I were inside her car as we sat by the side of a narrow road, surrounded by nothing but dark countryside. Amelia wore an earpiece that she was currently getting status updates through from her security team of orcs, who were on standby to move on her order. As expected, the cult had its own security team at the foot of Mount Pelier Hill, presumably to prevent any brave members of the public venturing u
p to the old building on the summit this Halloween night. "Take the security out when you’re ready," Amelia said as she looked straight ahead.
I sat looking out in the darkness as I prepared myself for the bloodshed to come. As I waited, I took out my phone and sent a text to Jonah in Kilkenny:
D U STILL WANT O’HARE?
A moment later, he texted back:
YES
I sent hm another text telling him to sit tight, and that I would bring O’Hare to him. As I saw it, it was only right that Jonah get to decide what happens to O’Hare. The man killed Jonah’s little brother after all. Earlier, I grabbed a picture of O’Hare from the internet and sent it to Amelia’s phone, telling her to send it to everyone on her team so they would know not to kill O’Hare along with the rest.
"Is it done?" Amelia asked, addressing the person on the other end of the earpiece.
As she started the car and began to drive, I assumed the answer was yes. The cult’s security team was all dead, which left just the cult themselves, who according to the orcs, were already inside the building atop the hill, no doubt awaiting their next sacrificial victim to arrive, who of course wouldn’t be arriving at all. The only thing arriving for the cult was death.
Soon, we drove down into the carpark at the foot of the hill to see over a dozen vehicles parked there, most of them SUV’s and luxury cars belonging to the cult members and their security team. After we pulled up behind a black Mercedes, I got out to see a number of bodies lying on the gravel, bleeding out from bullet wounds. At the foot of the hill, six orcs stood with automatic weapons, along with Simoa, who held a semi-auto handgun. Amelia had already offered me a gun, but I refused. I knew nothing about guns, and if I was going to kill somebody, I would do it better with magic.
"Let’s move," Amelia said to her team as she took out her Desert Eagle. "And remember, no one gets left alive."
"Except O’Hare," I said.
"Except O’Hare," she repeated.