San Francisco Covens: Crucible

by Manuel Tiger

  Speaking it aloud? It sounded vastly complicated, even for me.

  “Okay, yeah,” he whispered back. “But if you haven’t noticed Henry? We’re pretty well guarded at the moment.”

  “Leave the distraction to me,” Heather said having overheard my plan.

  “What are you going to do?” I whispered. “I don’t want you getting hurt!”

  Before she could reply there came shouting from the ramp as several men jumped out of the way and the stone statue rolled quickly down the ramp crushing two men under it.

  Chaos erupted at once as some of the soldiers guarding us ran to prevent the statue from toppling over.

  At that same moment Heather went into action.

  And it was quite the performance.

  “Oh my god!” she wailed. “Oh my god! That’s a sign! A terrible sign!” she cried out stumbling into me, pushing me against Daman as I went with it and slid down his body to allow him access to my backpack.

  “Now!” I whispered as I bent my knees. I felt him quickly unzip my backpack, the chains on his wrists rattling slightly as he reached within and fished around for a few seconds.

  “Found it,” he whispered as the guards around us converged on Heather who was now rolling around on the ground and even flopping about.

  It felt like minutes when it was only seconds. That is, in regards to Daman getting my phone. Not Heather flopping about.

  “Did it!” he whispered hurriedly dropping the phone back into my backpack as Heather was roughly picked up and shook by one of the soldiers.

  “Hey!” Scott shouted but a gun placed under his chin quickly quietened him.

  “My god is thirsty,” Aadya said with a grin. “We waste no more time! We perform the revealing ceremony here!” she said as she began ordering the statue placed into position which was just a few feet from us. She walked over with Miss Samantha and Bryan while Miss Samantha handed over a wrapped parcel to Aadya that I didn’t have to guess what was inside it.

  Aadya took the parcel and drew away what looked to be a leather cloth inscribed with arcane symbols to reveal the Witch Stone. It still had a bright red glow emitting from it which grew brighter the closer she stepped toward the statue.

  “Just who did I dial?” Daman asked, his lips near my ear.

  “Hopefully help,” I replied. “But how soon they arrive is another matter.”

  We watched as Aadya placed the Witch Stone into an indention on the top of the statue’s head and step back from it.

  At first the stone just continued to glow then in the blink of an eye that red glow engulfed the statue. The moment that occurred soft whispering voices rose up around us, swirling and threading its way around and over us, carrying with it what sounded like ancient voices chanting followed by the scent of fresh spilled blood that quickly became the scent of rot and a musty scent of old bones as if an ancient grave had been opened. I felt an invisible hand caress my cheek and the others all reacted in various ways telling me they were experiencing these ghostly touches as well.

  “The fuck,” Daman whispered as he spun around. “I felt…I felt something touch the back of my neck!”

  “Spirts of the dead,” Sophia said jerking her head and shifting her eyes to the side as if she could see whoever had touched her. “And I sense something else coming.”

  Hand sized black spiders suddenly erupted from the earth at our feet, scurrying quickly along the ground, some crawling up the legs of the soldiers who cried out and began furiously beating at them.

  Overhead, erupting out of literally thin air, came the deep throated hooting and ear splitting screeching of owls and bats. I looked up to see them swirling in one giant circle before they began to break away, diving downward, sparing no one in their assault.

  As a group we all fell to the earth as the owls attacked several soldiers and clawed their face before flying upward again while the bats fluttered about, screeching. Carrying out the last round of assaults the bats began zipping down, latching onto the back of heads or onto bodies. I curled in on myself, feeling the fluttering of wings brush over my head several times. I looked up when one soldier began screaming for several had latched onto him biting at his face, one clinging firmly to this nose as he ran around with flailing arms.

  Then, it was over, as if the switch that had unleashed them had been turned off. The spiders, owls and bats were gone. Even the man that had been attacked by the bats stood looking dazed, not a single scratch on his face.

  “What the hell was that?” Heather whispered as we each slowly got to our feet again, helped up by the soldiers that continued looking around with weapons drawn, spooked out of their minds.

  “Those were creatures associated with Mictlantecuhtli,” Carmen said. “This is not good at all for it means he walks the land, is here.”

  A grinding of stone had us all looking toward the statue that now moved, that seemed to come alive as its head swiveled toward a rise in the land a few yards from us. Bright golden light appeared in the sockets of the skull face that shot forward to strike that rise of land.

  There came a rumbling like an earthquake that had us tossed about, falling back to the ground as I looked up to watch as earth and rocks began to crumble away where the beam of light was fixed on. As the earth literally tumbled away it revealed a gaping large hole in the ground that quickly became evident as an entrance into the earth.

  The sides of the entrance were composed of skulls, their eye sockets lit up with the same glowing light. Only, these skulls were not human. They were the skulls of things that could not have possibly existed, that could not have lived. They were elongated, some having bone protrusions that looked like horns spouting from the top of their heads.

  The rumbling subsided and an eerie stillness settled over the area.

  “Our pathway revealed,” Aadya said walking over to the statue, caressing the face as a lover would with her hands. “Thank you my lord. You walk with me this day,” she said kissing the statue’s forehead gently. She reached up and removed the Witch Stone, the glow encasing the statue vanishing and returning back to the stone. “Round up the prisoners.” She ordered. “And follow me.”

  “You have to admit, that was pretty damn cool,” Daman and Scott said at the same time.

  I side eyed both with an arch of the brow as we were ordered to fall into line.

  “Well, you know, despite it being the way to our deaths,” Scott amended.

  “Yeah, what he said,” Daman said.

  I just sighed heavily as we were led after Aadya, Miss Samantha and Bryan into the awaiting mouth of the earth.

  II

  Down into darkness we went upon crudely made stone steps that seemed hastily put into place with no mind to order as some jutted out or were recessed leaving no more than one or two inches coming out of the ground. Several times I nearly pitched forward had Daman not caught me to pull me back.

  After what had to have been a twenty minute walk we finally arrived into a darkened chamber that had it not been for the glow coming off of the Witch Stone my vampiric sight would not have been able to penetrate it for it was like we had stepped into the darkest starless night.

  In the center of the chamber, which I could see was now circular, resided a single pedestal with a bowl shaped top. Aadya walked toward it and placed the Witch Stone into it, that red glow latching onto the pedestal causing it to glow bright red as torches that lined the wall erupted with fire.

  “Holy shit,” Scott whispered as we all began turning around, casting our eyes upon what the fire light revealed – murals adorned the walls.

  “These are not Aztec, Nazca or even Mayan,” I said stepping toward a mural when one of the soldiers roughly grabbed me by my backpack and jerked me back into place with the others. I shrugged him off, my eyes returning to the images depicted on the murals.

  “These are the old ones,” Sophia said in awe. “I have never seen depictions of them till now.”

  “If you can call those smoky shape
s images,” Scott said staring at one section of mural. “They seem to be telling a story.” He said stepping as close to one as he was allowed to before a soldier stepped in front of him and pushed him back into our little group.

  He was right though. The images shown were of entities that looked like smudged charcoal drawings that a hand had smeared. There were tiny figures obviously running from them in fear or worshipping them with blood offerings. The panel that Scott was looking at was the most detailed yet still crudely drawn. In the center white dust or paint had been applied around a figure that looked feminine. This female warrior held a spear in one hand and the smoky entities were the ones in retreat now.

  “What is it saying?” Heather asked. “This seems vaguely familiar to me.”

  “It is telling the story of the First Witch,” Miss Samantha said. “The one that sent the old ones and the demons into retreat.” She spoke in a near reverent tone as she approached the panel. “This means this chamber is older than it looks.” She turned in a slow circle taking in the rest of the murals. “It also details the rule of the demons, the enslavement of mankind before her arrival.”

  “All shall be so again,” Aadya said reaching out and turning the Witch Stone within the holder. There came a grinding of rock as the chamber vibrated and shook, dust falling from above that choked the air and made it difficult to breathe.

  Once the dust settled and the rumbling died away a doorway in the wall directly across from the pedestal had appeared.

  “You are awakening something that shouldn’t be disturbed,” Carmen said. “If it was hidden like this then it was done for a reason. This power you seek to unleash was never meant to reside in the world again.”

  “Says the one that only has a few moments left to live,” Aadya said with a smile as she removed the Witch Stone from the pedestal and started toward the doorway followed by Miss Samantha and Bryan.

  “Henry?” Heather said nudging me. “Before you get the butt of a gun against the back of your head? You should start walking.”

  “Hold on,” I said looking at a mural that had been uncovered when the dust fell away. “Look,” I said as several of the soldiers paused and looked with us.

  The uncovered mural showed three female figures. The female on the left side was painted brown with long curling hair. Wrapped around her was what resembled the feather serpent from Aztec mythology, only, not really. It looked more like a dragon with the attributes of the feathered serpent and there seemed to be smaller drawn dragons around her. The figure on the right was painted dark brown with similar curling hair while water swirled around her and the two massive wolves that were to either side of her. Finally I looked at the center figure.

  The figure was painted a light brown with swirling locks of long hair and around her was every beast of nature but also the figure from the other mural, the one holding the spear, seemed to be floating above her.

  The most disturbing part however was the river of blood and shimmering paint or dust that she stood in.

  “What is this?” one of the soldiers asked.

  “It’s the story of the witches from the murals back in the…,” Sophia said but stopped herself. “The figure on the left side of the mural? With what looks like Quetzalcoatl? Only it looks more like a dragon.” She turned around slowly looking at all the murals. “We know it is said that demons and dark entities once ruled the world. Then,” she said resting her eyes on the figure across the room holding the spear. “The First Witch as that woman said came and destroyed them or sent them into retreat and now this mural,” she said looking back to the uncovered one. “Seems to say that three women or girls will come forth.”

  “Come forth to do what?” Daman asked. “Help along with what Aadya is doing?”

  “The rest of the mural is gone,” I said pointing out the broken section beneath the figures. The remains of it were on the floor in varying sizes of fragments ranging from pebble to about the size of my hand. “If we had time to maybe shift through them we could – ”

  “Get moving!” a soldier barked at me.

  We were once more put into a line and marched down the passageway after Aadya and the others. Eve and Miranda covered the rear while Cass and Zoe waited for us in the middle.

  “Must feel good to have tossed all your morals into the fire and shit on your fellow sister witches,” Heather said as she passed Zoe. The woman backhanded her quickly and so hard across the face that Heather slammed against the wall. She flicked her hair out of her eyes and pushed off and came at Zoe before one of the soldiers struck her in the side which sunk her to knees. He didn’t stop there as he began hitting her over and over about the head and shoulders with the butt of his assault weapon. Due to the restrictive nature of the cuffs and chains she could do little to protect herself.

  “HEY!” I shouted. “Stop!” I said as I suddenly felt the cold press of a barrel against my neck.

  “Give me a reason, Leech!” the solider said. “Go on!”

  I stepped down as Heather was jerked to her feet and returned to her place in the line.

  “You okay?” Scott asked.

  “Fine,” Heather growled as she and Zoe shot enough heat between the two of them I wouldn’t have been surprised if one of them suddenly erupted into fire.

  Heather eventually looked away, faced forward and continued walking. I could see a bruise already forming on the side of her cheek and seeing that? Made me feel even more helpless than I already did at being unable to help her, to have prevented that from occurring.

  After a few minutes I began to notice that the further we went down the passage the warmer the air became, like a hot stale breath blowing over us. I wondered why, then regretted wondering when we finally emerged from the tunnel.

  We stepped onto a crescent shaped stone platform carved with demonic imagery of demons looking to be engaged in an orgy. The soldiers put us in a group to the left of Aadya, Miss Samantha and Bryan. But I paid them little attention as my eyes moved to the opposite side of the room where another platform resided connected to the one we were standing on by a narrow stone bridge above a deep lava filled abyss. On the left and right side of the room was skull faces pouring a waterfall of lava from between their mouths. Thankfully we were not extremely close for the heat already was making me break out in a sweat and feel even more uncomfortable.

  “Come, our destination lays beyond this chamber,” Aadya said pointing to the stone bridge. “You,” she said turning toward me. “Cross the bridge to the other side.”

  “What? Why me?” I said as I was pulled from the group. Daman went to reach for me when he was forced back.

  “Surely you’re not afraid to cross the bridge are you?” Aadya asked with a smile.

  “You seem to be,” I said as she chuckled and reached down, undoing the chains on my wrists. I felt that sensation of suppressing leave me at once as I rubbed my wrists.

  “You,” she said pointing to a soldier standing nearby. “Escort him across.”

  The man nearly seemed on the verge of protesting, but simply nodded his head. He placed the barrel of his AK-47 against my back and pushed me forward. I stumbled for a moment then looked back at the others. Daman’s jaw was set, his lips a thin pale line while Heather gave a nod of her head, mouthing that I could do it. The others just simply stared back with worried expressions. Bryan just grinned, folding his arms across his chest.

  “It’s just like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom!” Scott said. “You got this, Henry!”

  He had more confidence in me than I did at the moment, but I nodded my head.

  “Okay,” I said trying to keep the nervousness out of my voice. “I can do this. It’s just crossing a very fragile looking bridge over a lake of lava. A walk in the park.”

  I placed one foot carefully on the stone bridge and then added my weight to it, ready to leap back at any second if stones began to fall away. When the bridge didn’t collapse I let out a sigh. “Okay,” I said rubbing my suddenly damp
hands on my pants. “Bridge didn’t collapse. That’s good, very good. Let’s see if that holds up.” I added my other foot and when nothing happened I started putting one in front of the other, slow and steady, and began crossing the bridge while doing my best not to look down as the soldier followed close behind me, keeping the barrel of the gun pressed against my spine.

  When he struck me a little too hard in the back I nearly lost my footing and toppled over the edge of the bridge, but managed to adjust my angle and right myself. “Would you like to go in front of me and I take the gun!” I demanded.

  “Keep moving!” he yelled back not even attempting to keep the nervousness out of his voice.

  I just shook my head and kept to the slow pace, one foot in front of the other, testing the firmness of the stones that made up the bridge.

  Everything seemed to be going fine until we neared the middle of the bridge.

  That was when I heard the sputtering of the lava from the stone heads in the walls and realized we had arrived in the middle of them as well.

  “Shit,” I said when I watched the lava flow start to slow then become a trickle in a matter of seconds. “Double shit!” I yelled diving forward as the mouths exploded with a stream of lava that struck the soldier. I didn’t bother looking back when he began screaming. I was too busy half crawling, half running my ass across the bridge praying all the while that it didn’t suddenly fall out from under me and send me plummeting to the lake of lava below.

  The man’s screaming, which seemed to last forever, told me enough of his fate, creating enough of a visual in my head to know what was occurring without having to be witness to his last moments.

  I reached the end of the bridge and baseball dived onto the platform panting hard, my body shaking like a leaf.

  I slowly turned my head over my shoulder to see the poor man was coated in lava, a section of face burnt away to reveal glistening bone beneath. He was already dead by the time toppled off the bridge and fell into the lake of lava below with a loud plop.