Back From Hell (Revenant Files Book 1)

by D'Artagnan Rey

  “Something tells me that will be a popular destination soon for the ghost tourists,” Vic joked. He folded his arms and looked around. “Word travels fast. I guess this has to do with the attack on the mob?”

  Romeo nodded. “No one had to send a messenger. Most saw it on the news. That was only part of the mob, sure, but for this guy to attack one of their places of business openly? He’s not creeping around anymore. Whatever he’s looking for, he wants it bad.”

  “And most of them think he’s gunning for them?” Johnny asked as ghosts entered the restroom and didn’t return.

  “I think most simply don’t wanna take the chance,” the proprietor reasoned. “I don’t blame them. Usually, ghosts don’t have nothing to fear unless they cross the mob or some psycho breather with an ether weapon and a grudge. But this guy is a maniac and has already proven that he doesn’t have a problem chopping ghosts.”

  “Guys, plural, by the look of things,” the ghost detective corrected. “I know it’s only been about a day and a half, but have any of the panicked masses given you something interesting to pass along?”

  Romeo opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by a drunk down the bar. “This is no man…no simple ghost!” he shouted and his words swung between loud and soft. “Do you think this is a wraith or a demon? I say it’s worse.”

  He stumbled off his chair and shambled toward them as the group and few onlookers focused on him. “This must be the work of the devil himself or perhaps one of those demigods—those who don’t care about ghosts or humans as long as they get their fill of…hic!” He leaned against the bar and tried to take a bottle from behind the counter before Romeo grasped his hand.

  “I think you’ve had enough,” the owner warned.

  “Demigods?” Aiyana frowned. “What is he referring to?”

  “Probably a keeper of some kind,” Johnny suggested and scrutinized the man’s clothing. “The guy looks older than Vic. Keepers were generally thought to be demigods or something similar in the early twentieth century. It makes sense since the ones we know of were worshiped as such.”

  “It’s only a drunkard’s babbling,” Vic muttered. “Like I told the others at the hotel, keepers aren’t only known for making deals—although some do, I suppose, for their personal kicks. But I can’t imagine any of them would— Are you shitting me?” He glared out the window.

  “What?” The young detective followed his focus. Rain now poured down, the winds were picking up, and a radio behind the bar began to play the telltale distorted jazz that heralded the Axman. “This has seriously been the worst damn night.”

  The two partners drew their guns from their coats while those in the bar gaped at a dark figure behind the door.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  The doors were thrown open. Ghosts gasped and some drew weapons, while others vanished through the walls. The dark figure walked in and Johnny noticed an immediate change from the monster he had grown accustomed to seeing. This figure was not large. Despite the large coat and hood covering him, he could tell that he was scrawny and almost emaciated and walked like he had been on the move for days, his steps slow on legs that trembled visibly.

  The mood in the room went from shock to panic and confusion. This did not seem to be the same killer from the news and attacks, so was it some kind of gimmick or trick? The young detective began to wonder if this was a new ploy, maybe to lure them closer so he could suck their souls out or disembowel them with razor-sharp claws hidden in his sleeves. As if he had sensed his thought, the figure rested a hand on the table to reveal a skeletal hand with missing fingers before he tried to take another step. He fell and almost flipped the table onto himself where he sprawled on the floor.

  If it was a ruse, this was a committed actor.

  Vic was the first to move closer. Johnny tried to stop him but Aiyana stepped forward as well and he assumed they intended to try to help the wounded potential psycho. He joined them and Romeo came out from behind the bar and followed, along with a few curious onlookers, including a couple of mobsters with their weapons drawn.

  As the ghost detective knelt and flipped the body, they heard a crackling sound like the figure was a heavy smoker and tried to catch his breath after a long run. He removed the hood and startled a few members of the group.

  It was a human—or at least humanoid—face but his pale-gray skin was sunken and his eyes were almost black voids except for a thin circle of white along the edges. He raised his head and focused on the group around him. “This…this is the Carnivale, right?” he wheezed, his voice weak and nasally.

  “Yeah, it is,” Romeo answered and folded his arms. “What the hell happened to you?”

  The man let his head fall on the floor and laughed wearily. “I told him…I told him I could make it!” His voice turned to a growl as he closed his eyes and frowned in anger. “Dammit, the greedy bastard simply couldn’t wait.” He raised his hand as if to pound it into the floor but after he’d lifted it only a few inches, it seemed to fall of its own accord. “He didn’t want partners and not even goons. We were backup supplies, after all.”

  “What are you talking about?” Vic asked. He unbuttoned the top of the jacket and opened it to reveal not only physical wounds on the body but a disturbing glow beneath. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

  The man looked wearily at his chest. “He said he was tired of our incompetence and needed to keep the pot full but kept running out of power. We didn’t do enough and didn’t get enough life out of this city.” He laughed but it turned to a pained scowl. “What the hell. I was here for a good time and a little slaughter but by God, I didn’t expect it to be this much. This is actual work.”

  “It looks like he was here to kill,” Johnny commented as he stood and put his gun away, “but didn’t make it in time. Lucky us.”

  Aiyana produced a white totem with a flower-shaped marking on it. She placed it on the killer’s chest. “This should stabilize him so he doesn’t fade away before we get our answers.” It lit up and directed white energy into the ghost, but her eyes widened as the energy grew brighter and she pulled it away. “What?”

  “Is something wrong?” Vic asked and glanced at her. “I can’t say I know if that was good or bad as I’m not familiar with those items.”

  She gaped at the totem as it began to decay and fall apart in her hands. “That should have healed him but it was like his body simply absorbed the phantasma and chewed through it.” She dragged her attention to the injured body. “And no healing was accomplished.”

  The man laughed dryly. “All you did was feed him a little more,” he explained. “I’m already done for. Whether this is Oblivion or my ticket back to Hell, who knows?”

  “Back to Hell?” one of the ghosts behind them asked.

  “Wait—is he saying he escaped?” Romeo asked in disbelief.

  “I had time off for good behavior.” He chortled, then coughed as dark patches appeared on his face and chest. “Well, good behavior to my boss. But he’s pissed off with me now.”

  Vic caught him by the throat, lifted him, and held his gun under his chin. “The guy who hired you is able to pull you bastards out of the furnace?” he demanded. “How many?”

  The man looked away for a moment while he counted in his head. “There were at least a dozen of us at first. Now…only scraps, I think. I’m not sure how many are left. Probably only him and his pet.” His gaze focused on the ghost detective. “Oh, and Patrick. He was sent to a restaurant outside the city. You might wanna check the news.”

  “We were the news,” Johnny told him. “He’s been taken care of.”

  “Pat got zapped?” he asked and his eyes widened for a moment. “Well, I’ll be damned. I guess that’s why he suddenly turned so antsy.”

  “Stop talking in circles, dumbass.” Vic glared at him, aimed his revolver at one of his hands, and fired. “If you are dying, I can make sure you feel much more pain before you go if you don’t give us answers.”

/>   The man raised his hand and peered at the hole in it. “The thing is, I didn’t even feel that.” He lowered it and smirked. “I guess I still have some of the benefits.” He frowned and looked at his chest and his wounds that had now begun to bleed profusely, evidence of the human body he had almost completely possessed. “Well, shit. I’m still dying, though.”

  “Adrian, get the mop, dammit!” Romeo yelled and one of the employees nodded and disappeared into the back.

  The ghost detective frowned and positioned the barrel of the gun against the killer’s temple. “Fine, then. Here’s a new offer. You tell us what we want to know and I make this quick. You’ll probably have a better chance of being obliterated that way and it’s better than going back to Hell, ain’t it?”

  “Well…Hell ain’t so bad.” He looked at the weapon for a moment. “Sure, the torture ain’t comfortable and the digs are spartan.” He shrugged and made an effort to smile. “But when you are obliterated, you’re gone for good. At least in Hell, I have a chance to come back again as I explained.” He drew a wheezing breath. “But I don’t think I’ll get that lucky. I’ll probably not go to Hell or be obliterated. I’m not that lucky.”

  “Lucky?” Aiyana asked. “What is worse than Hell?”

  “Hell ain’t no picnic, that’s for sure,” he agreed and closed his jacket. “I’ll try to not stain your nice floors.” He looked at the ghost detective. “At least I know what to expect in Hell. When I die now…well, that master of his will probably claim my rotting soul.”

  “Master?” Vic looked at Johnny and his expression suggested that he didn’t like the fact that a new wrinkle had developed. “What master? Yours or your boss’?”

  “My boss’ boss,” he explained. The dark spots on his face grew noticeably. “I barely had love for that bastard when I worked with him—damn slave driver he is—and sure as hell don’t care for him now.” He rested his head on the floor. “But I have to say, the guy above him—or at least working with him—is a creepy bastard. I killed ten people in life and was labeled a psychotic. Imagine who I’m talking about.”

  “I’d prefer it if you simply spell it out.” Vic grunted impatiently. “If you wanna get back at these guys…well, that’s what we’re here to do.”

  “I can’t help you much. My boss didn’t tell the jobbers his ultimate plan, only his pet and a couple of the early opportunists. I came fairly late to the party.” His eyes whitened gradually. “I don’t even know his name but he was a big deal around here for a time. They called him the Axman of New Orleans.”

  “So did we,” Johnny replied, relieved that they had found one thing out after all. “What can you tell us about his boss?”

  The man coughed and wheezed. “He ain’t no simple ghost,” he stated and looked around the room. “He’s something far greater—something with powers we can never hope to have. He’s a keeper.”

  “A keeper?” Vic gasped. “You’re pulling my leg. There is no way a keeper would be involved in something like this. They might bend the rules from time to time but they wouldn’t do something like this, not when their punishments are way worse than what we have to deal with.”

  “I know, right?” He laughed and dark ooze seeped from his mouth. “It’s wild but it’s true. I only caught a glimpse of him once. He’s a weird bastard. One second he’s yelling so loud you’d think the entire country could hear it and threatening to destroy everything and the next, he’s cracking jokes and demanding dinner. I didn’t get a good look at him. He’s always covered in darkness of some kind, maybe because I wasn’t connected to him like the boss.”

  Suddenly, he thrust his arm out and caught Vic by the collar. Johnny drew his gun again and everyone else with a weapon trained them on him as he pulled the ghost detective closer. “If you truly want to end this, you gotta make a decision now. You need to decide whether taking him out is worth whatever the hell you think you are getting out of it.

  “I don’t know his true plan, but it isn’t simply killing for kicks. He’s looking for someone and when he finds them, he’s got something planned that I’m damn sure you haven’t seen before. So either get out of the city or get to sathmp atta boge…” His words became gibberish and his eyes widened as he opened his mouth and pieces of his tongue drained out with the black substance.

  His pants flattened and dark ooze slid out as his legs disintegrated. A second later, his hand separated from his arm and both turned to mush. He released Vic, lay back, and closed his eyes as his entire body turned black and spasmed for a moment before it melted into one large black pool.

  As the investigators stood and backed away, the drunk laughed loudly behind them. They all turned and he raised his glass and shook his head. “See, what did I tell you? I called it!”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Valerie, Marco, and Annie arrived at the diner for breakfast and a meeting. They were directed to a large circular booth in the corner where the investigators were waiting for them with a large coffee pot and a few empty mugs.

  “Morning.” Johnny slurped his brew. “We would have ordered you something more specific but we don’t know what you prefer.”

  “Honestly, any coffee would be good right now,” the young officer admitted as she sat and sighed. “I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

  “None of us did,” Annie muttered and slid into the booth next to Johnny with Marco behind her. “To be honest, the last couple of days has been too rough to sleep.”

  Her brother poured some coffee in a mug and looked at the dark contents. “It might not be my favorite brand but it’ll get the job done.” He took a swig and leaned back. “It’s a good thing I’m at the end. I can get to the restroom quickly.”

  “How was the bar?” Valerie asked and poured herself and Annie a cup. “I had hoped you would text me something at least before we met again.”

  “We were there for…longer than expected.” Johnny sighed. “Speaking of sleep, Aiyana and I only got a couple of hours.” He sipped again but lowered his mug when he realized that everyone at the table was looking at him. “What?”

  Marco chuckled. “Man, you’ve only known each other for a few hours and you’re already that cozy? You move fast, my man,” he said with a wink.

  He almost dropped his mug. “What? No, you smartasses. We got back to the motel after we did some interviews at the bar. She got her own room and said she didn’t have time to make reservations anywhere before she arrived here.”

  “It honestly wasn’t bad,” the shaman added and stirred a spoon in her mug. “I’ve grown accustomed to camping, so having a decent bed is a plus.”

  The young detective looked at Vic. “Why did you look so weird? You were there last night.”

  His partner chuckled. “Well, sure, but when have you known me to pass up an opportunity to have a laugh?”

  “Particularly at my expense,” he muttered. A waitress stopped at the table and asked if they were ready to order. Except for Vic, everyone placed an order for breakfast and she returned to the kitchen. “Well, since we have that sorted, we should probably fill you in on what we found.” He looked around the table and sighed. “Do you remember all that keeper stuff Vic talked about last night?”

  “Yes…” Valerie answered hesitantly and realization came to her before the others. “Please don’t tell me…”

  Vic shrugged. “We could do that for you, certainly, but we’d be lying.” He removed his hat and scratched his skull. “One of those freaks showed up at the bar, but he wasn’t in good shape. For them that might usually mean that they looked like a normal guy they’d possessed, but this one was dying and looked like a cancer patient with a dash of the black plague.”

  “He was a killer like the one you told me about V,” Aiyana continued. “When questioned, he said he was pulled from Hell and that he was working for the Axman of New Orleans.”

  This revelation drew sharp intakes of breath from the others. They looked at each other and Marco was the first to speak. �
��I suppose it is nice to finally check that off the list but seriously, it’s not very comforting.”

  “Wait until we get into the real shit.” Vic chuckled. “I assume as a way to make amends and piss his former boss off, he told us as much as he seemed to know. It appears the Axman is working with a keeper of some kind, which I would usually dismiss off the bat. To be honest, I tried to but with all the weirdness that has been going on and the things we do know, it provides a solid explanation.” He rested his head against his fist. “Dammit.”

  “A keeper? But you said they are responsible for looking after life and death. That’s their job,” Annie pointed out.

  Her brother nodded and stretched for the coffee pot. “Yeah, but he also said they aren’t above doing favors and party tricks for the right price.” He filled his mug and raised a hand. “Refill over here, please!”

  “But not something like this,” Valerie added. “I probably don’t know as much as you do, Vic, but I’ve researched keepers. Some of them were considered gods at one point or another, right? They did things for their followers in exchange for their worship.”

  “Yeah, guys like Odin, Ra, Apollo, and Quetzalcoatl are all keepers. They moved away from that because the big guy is kinda laissez faire about the whole cycle of life and death.” He tapped his finger on the table as a waitress replaced their pot of coffee. “Still, nothing along the likes of this, although we can thank their buffoonery for things like werewolves and vampires. We’re still dealing with that crap.”

  Johnny refilled his mug. “It doesn’t make sense that a keeper, even one who’s willing to do something like this for kicks, would take the chance in the first place due to the fear of retribution. And if they did, that they would stoop to relying on a ghost for so much of their plan.”

  “Retribution?” Marco asked. “Who would go after them if they are so powerful?”

  “The other keepers,” Aiyana answered. “They police one another and vie for power in the domains like any group. Some are noble and others malicious, but they all work to keep the cycle in balance.”