by Otto Schafer
In his frantic efforts to put out his burning dobok he’d completely lost track of Apep. He jerked his head up, quickly scanning the dojo. Smoke and flame filled his vision, but no Apep. Then he heard something strangely and horribly wrong. It came from inside him, this wrong breaking sound.
Mr. B dropped to his knees.
The blue fire whip drew back through his chest and lungs as Apep pulled the sword from Mr. B’s spine.
Mr. B fell backward onto the mat, his sword bouncing out of his hand. He tried to reach for it, but his hand wouldn’t move.
“Didn’t Turek teach you?” Apep said, squatting down next to the old master. “Never lose your focus.”
Mr. B lay on his back, sucking in short gasps of breath. Something else was wrong – something below him. He tried to look down toward his feet, but it was a futile effort. He couldn’t lift his head. He wondered why and his face furrowed as he tried to understand. He was pretty sure at least one of his legs was on fire. Only pretty sure though, because it wasn’t the pain telling him he was burning. Mr. B could no longer feel pain, nor could he feel his feet, or even his legs for that matter. However, his sense of smell was still intact, and he was quite certain that the foul stench assaulting his nostrils was his own hair, skin, and flesh as it burned. In the background he could hear the sprites’ giggles and laughter.
Apep spat blood and held his side, oblivious to the pain of his broken ribs. “Bah! I told you, so weak and pathetic! I told you! I would watch your flesh burn. Oh, yes, indeed! And I’m in no hurry. I think I’ll stay a while, watch the flames crawl up your body until they find the parts that still feel. Then I’ll savor your screams as you beg me to finish you. And do you know why? Do you know why?!” Apep shouted. “I’ll tell you why. Because you wronged me just as your master wronged me. You got in my way. You took part in delaying my destiny! A destiny you know nothing of!” He paused only long enough to suck in a deep breath. “I will watch the light go out in you with the satisfaction of knowing you can do nothing to stop what is to come.”
Mr. B had no more interest in Apep; he managed to get his head to turn away. He stared toward the back of the dojo and he smiled. “Go, my sages. Go and finish this,” he whispered.
Apep’s face twitched as he followed Mr. B’s eyes down the hall. He bent closer to him, trying to hear. “What are you babbling about? They were just here, weren’t they? And what did you tell them? Where did you send them?” Apep asked, a slight hint of concern betraying his voice.
Mr. B managed a gargled chuckle. “I… told you… you’re too… late.”
“Well, I best be on my way then. Give my best to Turek.” He stooped over the dying master and thrust the flaming sword into Mr. B’s chest.
Searing pain beyond the world consumed him as the steel scorched flesh and fractured bone. The last thing Mr. B felt was his heart combusting into flame.
No. No, I am not too late. In fact, everything is going perfectly to plan. Still, a sense of urgency pulled at him. Apep didn’t know why, but now he felt he must hurry. It was irritating really – he so wanted to relish this moment. He straightened and held open his coat as one by one the God Stones returned single file to the pocket of his duster. Despite his newfound sense of urgency, he gave the now-burning Grandmaster Brockridge one final appraisal, allowing himself only a brief moment to bask in his victory. Finally, his eyes came to rest on the erect sword protruding from the burning man’s chest. Its hilt rocked ever so slightly back and forth, slowing a little more with each sway, until it stopped completely. Satisfied, Apep ripped the sword from Mr. B’s chest and spat in his face. The blue flaming whip retracted as the blue fire faded away.
The entire dojo was a fulminating inferno, and yet Apep walked unharmed through the flames. The tiny fire sprites parted, providing an unobstructed path as he made his way toward the back door of the building. The boy will try to warn his parents of my presence, then he’ll lead me to the temple. Perfect. It seems tonight is a night of unsettled scores.
5
When the Time Is Right
Wednesday, April 6, a few moments earlier –
God Stones Day 1
Petersburg, Illinois
Jack squinted as he blinked back tears of pain. He had been hit in the head plenty, but he had never felt pain like this. Heavy smoke poured from the hole in the wall of the karate place. Wiping his eyes on his flannel sleeve, he got to his feet. He had no idea how long he had been unconscious, but weird flames had already consumed the opening, and he couldn’t see a way to get inside.
If Garrett and everyone else were still in there, they would have to escape out the back – and soon. He ran as fast as he could along the chain of storefronts until he reached the intersection and circled around to the alley. Jogging back toward the karate place, he heard it – someone heaving. Carefully, Jack crept close, staying in the shadowed edge of the alley until he reached the backside of the dumpster behind the pizza place. He knelt down and listened. He could hear people just on the opposite side talking.
The first voice he heard was Garrett’s. “I have to go home and warn my parents about Apep.”
Then David saying something about a temple before that little weasel Pete piped up. “But I still need to tell you about the journal, Garrett. You’re not going to believe this!”
He knew it! Pete had translated the whole thing.
Suddenly, there was a loud sound of breaking glass followed by an explosion of fire across the alley. Jack pressed himself up against the dumpster, instinctually slapping his hands over his ears.
“Holy mother!” someone shouted.
Jack shuffled to his feet, peeking out from behind the dumpster in time to see the group moving away from the karate place. Flames poured freely out the back now, but they didn’t look like any flames he had ever seen before. These looked strange – almost… alive. Quietly, he maneuvered to the other end of the dumpster as he watched the group begin to move down the alley.
The last voice Jack could make out was Garrett directing the rest of the group to the library and then the drainage tunnel. A moment later they were gone. Jack stepped out from behind the dumpster. He knew it. There was way more to that old journal than they let on. Something major was going on. He looked back toward the flames pouring from the building. He couldn’t see past the back doorway, but he could hear shouts and the sound of metal striking metal. Sword fighting?
Garrett had said the drainage tunnel was a short walk from the library. There was only one drainage tunnel he knew of close to the library, and he was willing to put money on it being the same tunnel he had followed Lenny and Pete to the other day. Okay, Garrett. I’ll see you and your friends at the tunnel and then you’ll have to face me. First things first. He was going to need some help.
A shadow appeared in the flames. It was the cloaked man from earlier. He walked through the fire. No, not through it. It moved for him. Jack froze, still as a cobra, too late to try and hide now. The man paused in the doorway holding his side. He said something Jack couldn’t understand. Blue-grey, smoke-like stuff came from his fingers in streams, snaking into the man’s side and into his face. After a moment, the grey-blue smoke disappeared. The cloaked man let go of his side and stood up straight.
The man stepped down from the doorway into the alley and fixed his eyes on Jack. “You were in the street earlier, were you not?”
Jack nodded.
“I felt you there, Jack.”
Jack’s eyes went wide at the sound of his name.
“I feel something else too. Hate. So much of it. Enough to fill an ocean.”
Jack swallowed hard.
“You know what else?” The man didn’t wait for an answer. “Power, Jack. In time you can harness your endless pool of hate into power, and I can help you.”
Jack recognized something in that moment – call it a feeling or an instinct, or maybe it was just plain desperation. Whatever it was, he felt it – the weight of it. The weight of the moment. So
mething important. Jack couldn’t articulate it if he tried, but he could feel it sure as heat from a flame. Now and then the sun shines on even a dog’s ass, and today the sun was finally shining on his. Jack cleared his throat, finally finding words. “I know where Garrett is going. I know what he has and… and where he is going. He has this journal and—”
“Ah, good,” the man interrupted, stepping closer to Jack. “But I already know these things, Jack. Go, follow your path. Follow your plan and when the time is right, seek me out.”
“But how will I find you? How will I know when the time is… right?”
“My name, Jack. All you will need is my name. You will know when to speak it,” the man said, turning away from him.
“Your… your name?”
The man paused but he didn’t turn back. “My name is Apep.”
Jack watched the cloaked man as he moved steadily down the alley through the slowly falling ash and embers. The sky cracked with lightning that came too close for comfort. He blinked reflexively, taking his eyes off the man only for a second, but when the oddly colored lightning finished its dance through the clouds – the man was gone.
6
Overlooked
Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1
Rural Chiapas State, Mexico
Gabi and Sarah stood there for a long moment, swallowed by silence broken only by their own increasing heartbeats and heavy breathing. The focus of their attention was a large jawbone with a double row of teeth, which looked different, sharper than human teeth, almost like… canine teeth. But that wasn’t all. It now became clear to Gabi what had bothered her when she only had a chance to glance over them earlier. These skulls were larger than they should be.
“Sarah? Do these skulls seem too… big to you?” Gabi asked quietly.
Sarah didn’t answer – not right away. She cocked her head to one side then the other and said in the same soft tone, “I was so taken aback by the racks, and with only our headlamps I guess I hadn’t noticed.” Sarah swallowed dryly. “Let’s see, the circumference of the average adult skull should measure between fifty-four and fifty-seven centimeters max,” she said, continuing to speak quietly as if the two were sharing some great secret they didn’t want anyone else to hear. Sarah unclipped a cloth measuring tape from her side and very carefully checked the circumference of the skull. “Seventy-eight centimeters. This just isn’t possible, unless… unless this person had a deformity. Yes, of course, that must be it. This individual must have suffered from gigantism. But the teeth? Perhaps a deformity caused by the gigantism? I… I just don’t see how…”
As Sarah carefully began to measure the next skull over, Gabi stood silently in the dark and, not for the first time since descending into this place, she held her breath. Even without the tape, the next skull looked too big and so did the next and the next. Somehow, she knew – this wasn’t gigantism or deformities, this was something else.
“Seventy-five centimeters. What the… Two people with the same condition?” Frantic now, Sarah checked the next, nearly knocking the rack over. “Seventy-three centimeters,” she gasped. The double row of teeth was visible on this skull as well since the lower jaw appeared to be missing. She checked the next, and the next, and the next, and found all were too large, the largest being eighty-one centimeters in circumference.
Gabi stayed quiet as Sarah continued to talk to herself out loud now, scrambling in near panic to find reason in what she was seeing.
“A whole race of people with gigantism and double-rowed teeth? No. No way… it couldn’t be. Come on, Sarah, be rational. Wait! Could these be Gigantopithecus?”
Gabi’s eyebrows creased. “What’s that, Sarah?”
“They were a genus of giant ape that lived over a hundred thousand years ago in China. They were giant, to be sure. Some even reached nine feet tall, but these skulls don’t belong to apes. Their features are too human and not only are there no records of them here in Mexico, but they didn’t have double rows of teeth.” Sarah wiped her face with one hand as if she were pulling off cobwebs. “Plus, the timing is all wrong! How could a prehistoric ape skull be present on an Aztec skull rack?”
“Sarah, I don’t think these are apes, but whatever they are I don’t think they are Aztec.”
Sarah froze. “No, Gabi, I don’t think they are either. It’s just so impossible! My god, how big would these people have been? Here, hand me your notepad.”
Gabi passed her the pad of paper, and Sarah began calculating. “No, this can’t be right – I did something wrong with the math. Can’t be right – can’t be!” She did the math again and after a moment she looked up from the pad, able to answer her own question. “Oh, my dear lord! Charles, what have you stumbled on to? Gabi, these people would have been between ten and twelve feet tall!” she said, jutting her shaking finger repeatedly into the pad. “We’re looking at an undiscovered race… a race of people far above average size… a race of—”
Gabi’s eyes exploded wide as the word burst from her lips, “Giants!”
7
Home
Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1
Petersburg, Illinois
The cold evening air stung Garrett’s lungs as he plunged forward, Lenny on his heels. They burst from the alley, crossing the highway where a row of parked cars lined the street, bumper to bumper. Without a single moment of hesitation or course adjustment, Garrett leapt over the hood of a brown station wagon, just barely clearing the vehicle. With all the grace of an acrobat, Lenny jumped up only enough to allow his butt to land on the hood of a maroon sedan. Momentum carried the boy effortlessly across the smooth surface and he too landed on the sidewalk, never missing a beat. Bounding down the sidewalk, the boys cut right, crossing the parking lot of the pizza place. They were only a few blocks away from home.
As they ran, the boys could hear the fire trucks behind them in the distance. Garrett glanced over his shoulder, instantly regretting the decision – his heart sank. The sight of smoke and flames billowing from the dojo constricted his chest as he fought back the tears. The fire appeared huge now, too big to be just the dojo. It must have spread by now, engulfing the restaurant next door, the antique store on the opposite side, and maybe even Double D’s Dollar Store. By the looks of it, the entire north side of the town square was engulfed.
Garrett swallowed hard. Mr. B was dead, wasn’t he? He knew it, felt it in his heart. Would they all die before this was over? He didn’t know what to think or what to feel. He knew what he must do, but he didn’t know how. The path had been laid out for him, and he had to complete what Mr. B died for. Go now and warn your mother of Apep’s arrival. Then get to the temple and destroy what’s inside! You must destroy it before Apep can get to it!
Garrett pushed harder, reaching deep inside himself.
Lenny began to fall behind. “Slow down, Garrett! I can’t… hold… your pace,” he said in short grunts.
“We have to get home! He’s coming,” Garrett said, his jaw clenched tight as he sucked air through his teeth and nose.
Heavy clouds stacked one atop another pressed down low in the sky, blotting out the setting sun. It wasn’t supposed to be dark for almost another hour, but it was dark and getting darker by the second. It was not until they turned onto Fourth Street that Garrett noticed the streetlights. First, they flickered on like they normally would, taking a few minutes to warm up. But then they continued to flicker, creating a strobe effect all the way down his street. With two blocks to go, the lights flickered off completely and the entire neighborhood went dark. No streetlights; no light at all, not even from the porches or windows.
Garrett was forced to slow in the sudden darkness.
Lenny caught up to him then, and once he slowed, he began hacking. “You think… the power outage has… something to do with what’s going on?” Lenny asked between gasps.
“It’s more than that, Lenny. It’s too early to be this dark. Even with a thunderstorm building, have you e
ver seen it this dark?” Garrett spun in a circle, trying to see lights up on the bluffs, but all he could see was darkness. The only light came from the distant glow of the burning buildings uptown. From his left, Garrett heard a screen door slam.
“Goddammit! Why is it always during my favorite show the power has to go on the fritz? I think they plan this! I think it’s a damn government conspiracy,” came a voice from the direction of the slamming door.
Garrett recognized the voice of Mrs. Belford – one of his neighbors.
A light flicked on then, as Mrs. Belford flicked a flashlight beam up toward the power lines, looking for the source of the outage.
“What the hell are you doing, Maribeth? Are you going to climb the pole and fix the power? Get your ass back in the house and help me find some candles,” came Mr. Belford’s gruff voice.
“Shut up, Larry! I’m telling you it’s the government!”
“Come on,” Garrett whispered. “I don’t like this.” The streetlights had always been Garrett’s nemesis, the clock he was always racing home to beat, but he missed them now like an old blanket. He wanted to go back. God, he wanted to back this day up. And he wanted the damn streetlights to come on. They hustled blindly down the street, Mrs. Belford’s voice fading as she continued to rage about government conspiracies.