Diablero

by Toby Tate

  And the woman was right. He was nothing more than a habitat, a home for an entity that had taken over his body, mind, and soul and slowly wrested control of it away from him, until finally, he ended up at the bottom of the sea without a soul. Now, after three centuries, it still controlled him, but Lisa’s words had turned on a switch, awakened his true spirit, and made him lucid and aware. He was at a crossroads. Would he set his fellow demons free, to roam and ravage the earth as they once had before the age of the dinosaurs? Or would he allow his human side, his heart, to lead him?

  Blackbeard recalled the days long ago when he was feared and respected, when he commanded great ships and crews, sailing the seas in freedom, taking what he wanted. Then, Caesar had met the master, the Death Defier. He rued the day when he had killed the Teacher and the demon had immediately turned on him and overtaken him. Because of the demon, Teach had never been allowed to find peace, to truly rest as he should have. And all the other souls the demon had taken still screamed for release, trapped inside, along with Teach himself.

  But now, he had regained control, had become conscious again and managed to overcome the demon, releasing those captive souls. Still, he knew this was only temporary. The Death Defier’s power was too strong, even for an extraordinary man like Teach.

  He knew he had to act fast.

  Snapping, crablike claws and tentacles began emerging from the ever-widening hole in space, and the strange howling and moaning became louder. The whirlwind of rocks and debris was now hurricane force, and it was all he could do to remain upright. The noise was deafening. Strange lights and electrical charges like small lightning bolts appeared around the outer edges of the hole.

  Blackbeard turned toward the dead army and concentrated his will on them. Slowly, one by one, the pirates and others who had been followers of the Great Old Ones, began to move.

  * * *

  Oya, Jason, and Caesar watched as the ghastly mob moved toward them, then began to crowd around them.

  Jason became unnerved that there were so many of them, and they seemed to be ushering the trio toward Blackbeard and the rip in space that hovered in their midst. They were getting much too close. The rustling sound the dead made as they moved, rotted limbs rubbing up against him, the nauseating stench, all was enough to drive him insane.

  Oya seemed excited by it. “Do not fight them, my son,” he said. “It is an honor to be sacrificed to the great gods from beyond, to be ripped apart by them.”

  Then, Oya broke down in raucous laughter that Jason felt sure could only come from a total lunatic. The old priest began to move spasmodically, as if he were possessed, dancing and jerking in a psychotic jig.

  As they came within a yard of the black hole, a gigantic, deformed claw shot out from it and snapped Oya in two, as if he were an insect. Blood splattered the living corpses as the priest’s body was cleaved. A pair of reddish-green tentacles greedily grabbed both halves of the body, pulling it inside the hole.

  Jason noticed that Teach’s eyes were not only void of light, but black as two empty sockets.

  As the dead crowded around, the smell of their rotting flesh and bones nearly choking him, Jason regained his senses, and decided he had seen enough. He turned and tried to make his way through the crowd, but there were too many.

  Snakelike tendrils and smooth, slime-covered tentacles grabbed and probed at the dead, dragging them inside the hole, devouring them in ravenous hunger. Jason heard the sounds of crunching bones and eerie howls of ecstatic joy as the demons were sated. He watched in rising disgust as another tentacle grabbed the eviscerated body of John Aiden, picking it up and inspecting it like a tempting morsel.

  Jason fought, scratching and clawing at decayed flesh, desperately trying to get through, trying to get as far as possible from the nightmare that surrounded him.

  Then, his gut lurched and his heart sank as he felt something close around his leg. The grip was so powerful that it crushed his femur and he screamed a blood-curdling cry. He was hoisted into the air upside down, and he watched the ground disappear beneath him.

  He could see Caesar far below taking shots at the arm, but to no effect. Then he saw one of the tendrils snake towards Caesar as the old man shot directly into the hole.

  Jason’s last thoughts before the thing ripped him apart was of his friend, Hunter, and Lisa’s beautiful, brown eyes.

  * * *

  The hole in space and time was nearly four feet wide, and Blackbeard knew he could wait no longer. He turned and looked around at the dead as they milled mindlessly inside the cave, waiting for their next command. Many of them he had known in his previous life as a pirate, and they had served him well. Some had even been friends. He hoped that now they could truly rest in peace.

  Blackbeard turned toward the shifting, shapeless hole as dirt and rocks pelted his face and hands, the wind howling in his ears. He walked to the doorway. The demon within his soul, the Death Defier, screamed in fury at its own imminent destruction, unable to comprehend its defeat.

  Then, Teach stepped inside, disappearing into the void. Immediately, the doorway and the Great Old Ones, howling at the injustice of a rebirth denied, vanished, and all fell silent.

  The dead, sensing there was no more need for them, solemnly crept back into their resting places of sandstone and rocks, and slept.

  Seventy-nine

  Carrying a flashlight and a lantern, Hunter, Lisa, and Jonathan slowly moved through the darkness of the cavern to where the old wooden ladder waited for them. Hunter prayed that the ladder still had enough strength left in it to bear the weight of all four of them before it collapsed.

  Though it shook and wobbled precariously, it held.

  Jonathan, the last one on the ladder, looked across the cave at the spot where Blackbeard, Jason, Oya, and Caesar had stood among the droves of reanimated corpses and the swirling maelstrom surrounding the wormhole.

  That was when he saw Jason hoisted into the air and heard the gunshots.

  Then he saw Caesar.

  Jonathan immediately began descending the ladder.

  “Jonathan, what are you doing?” he heard Hunter yell.

  He looked up at Hunter‘s confused face. “One of those things has my grandfather. I’ve got to help him. Don’t wait for me. Get Lisa out of here and go back to the boat. We don’t need any more people killed!”

  Jonathan shouted this last part as he finished descending the ladder, then hit the ground running with a flashlight lighting his way across the cave.

  * * *

  Lisa said, “Well, should we go after him?”

  Hunter shook his head. “No. He’s right. My job is to protect you, and that’s what I’m going to do. Once we get to the boat, I’ll come back.”

  Hunter turned and led the way to the front door and out into the field.

  The thick vines and bushes leading to the beach looked foreboding, and Hunter knew they would be even harder to get through in the dark. With the help of a full moon, he managed to find the trail they had hacked out earlier when they had first come, and he led the way through it. All around them, thousands of frogs and crickets performed their nightly symphony.

  As they approached the beach, Hunter thought he could see lights. “Looks like we might have company. I just hope it’s the good guys this time.”

  As they broke through onto the beach, several members of the Royal Bahamas Defense Force, dressed in blue uniforms and caps, swiveled their flashlights toward them. Everyone stared at each other in surprise, Hunter and Lisa shielding their eyes from the blinding light.

  “Why is it the cavalry always shows up after the fact?” Lisa quipped.

  Hunter grinned at her. “Hey, at least they showed up.”

  The soldiers, realizing the two were probably part of the group they had been looking for, ran to them and helped them walk across the beach to a waiting boat.

  Hunter could see an anchored Coast Guard cutter farther out, its familiar orange-and-blue stripes reminding him of
home and all that was good in life. He smiled and jerked a thumb back over his shoulder at the forest. “I need a few men to go back with me. There are still some people…”

  A commotion suddenly erupted behind them, and the group turned to see two people emerge from the trees.

  Jonathan and Caesar.

  Hunter shook his head and grinned. “I thought you two would never make it. I was about to come back for you. What happened?”

  Jonathan was still trying to catch his breath. “I found Grandfather walking back through the cave,” he gasped.

  Caesar grinned. “I shot one of those things in the eye. It never even touched me.”

  “And Jason?” Hunter asked.

  “Gone, along with Oya and Blackbeard,” Caesar said. “And the door to Hell has been closed. Permanently.”

  * * *

  On board the small boat waiting to ferry them to the cutter, Lisa was surprised to see a familiar face. Though he wore jeans and a T-shirt in lieu of a uniform, Lisa immediately recognized Sheriff Jimmy Sutton.

  Lisa looked at the smiling Sutton with bewildered eyes, then decided to forgo the formalities and gave him a hug. The boat pulled away from the pier as Lisa stepped back to look at him. She glanced at the two yachts tied to the other side of the pier and thought of Jason and Edward Teach. “This may sound like a stupid question, but how did you find us?” she asked.

  Sutton shook his head. “To tell you the truth, it was a long shot, and I would have really looked like an idiot if you wouldn’t have been here. Thanks for not making a fool out of me.”

  Lisa smiled. “Glad I could help. Seriously, though, how did you find us?”

  “I got a call from your dad, who was very worried about you. Said he’d received a text message from you. He’s on board the cutter.”

  “Dad came along, too?”

  “Couldn’t stop him, as a matter of fact. Apparently, your dad has a lot of friends, even in the Coast Guard. An old buddy of his is the father of one of the officers, Lieutenant Wilson.”

  “So, he figured out the text message, huh?”

  “It wasn’t too hard. There aren’t a lot of places in the world called Cat Island. Your dad called the Coast Guard and they hooked us up with Lieutenant Wilson.”

  Lisa smiled as she envisioned her Chinese father smooth-talking his way onto the Coast Guard cutter. “Leave it to Dad.”

  “The crew also found a boat full of dead Haitian pirates earlier today. One was still alive and he told a pretty bizarre story. That guy with the black beard was the killer, wasn’t he?”

  Lisa simply nodded.

  “So what happened? Is he dead?”

  Lisa felt weak, exhausted from the ordeal. She looked to the east, just as the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon. “To tell you the truth, it’s a long, complicated story, and you probably wouldn’t believe half of it. You’ll have to send somebody down in the cave to investigate, but my guess is you won’t find anything. Just some old bones, some candles and maybe a book.”

  Sutton glanced around at the others as they stood in silence. Sutton shook his head. “Looks like you all have been through hell.”

  Hunter put one arm around Lisa, pulling her close. “Yeah, sheriff, you could say that. You could definitely say that.”

  Epilogue

  One week later

  Liang helped his daughter carry the last of her belongings from her Subaru to the quaint, two-story Cape Cod in the middle of town. Lisa had moved out of this house months ago, leaving it for Hunter. The sun was bright overhead in the mid-afternoon sky, and though the temperature was a little on the warm side, Lisa didn’t mind. She was just glad to be back to her real home.

  Liang glanced at her. “So, have you heard about what they found in the cave?”

  Lisa had been so caught up in getting back together with Hunter, she hadn’t had much time to think about it. “No. What did they find?”

  Liang smiled. “It was just like you said. Nothing but old bones.”

  Lisa nodded as she climbed the steps up to the front porch of the old house. “Doesn’t surprise me. Is Mom coming by later?”

  “I’ll be picking her up in a little while.”

  Hunter came into view as they walked into the kitchen. He smiled at them. “Hey, don’t put your back out carrying that stuff,” he said to Liang.

  The old man smirked at him “I don’t see you doing much carrying, Mr. Smartass.”

  “I’m more of a supervisor than a worker, per se.”

  Lisa walked directly to Hunter and shoved the box of clothes she was carrying into his arms. A look of surprise crossed his face as Lisa smiled impishly.

  “Looks like I have a little training to do to get you back into shape.”

  “Hey, I’m ready when you are.”

  The two shared a kiss over the box as Liang placed his own box on the kitchen table.

  “If my wife talked to me that way…” he began.

  Lisa looked over at her father, crossing her arms. “You’d do what?”

  He glanced at her “Uh, nothing, honey.”

  “That’s what I thought.”

  ***

  As Lisa continued unpacking, Hunter clapped a hand on his father-in-law’s shoulder. “Would you like some coffee?”

  Liang pulled out a chair and took a seat at the kitchen table. “No, I’m fine.”

  Lisa’s father, a retired River City police detective, had come to America from Hong Kong in the ’70s looking for opportunity and love, and had managed to find both. A black-belt master in kung fu, Liang decided that law enforcement would be his chosen profession, and after a few years of learning English and working for a friend in a local Chinese restaurant, he tried out for the police force. With his obvious Chinese ethnicity, the local citizenry were a little reluctant to accept a foreigner as a local cop, but Liang’s amiable demeanor soon won them over. Eventually, he got his degree in law enforcement and went on to become a detective.

  The biggest challenge for Liang came when he met Lisa’s mother, Elizabeth Moore, the black daughter of a fellow police officer. Elizabeth’s dating a Chinese man didn’t set well with some in her family, but her parents were surprisingly accepting of Liang, welcoming him as part of the family when he asked for Elizabeth’s hand in marriage. It made family reunions quite interesting on both sides.

  “So, how did your editor like the story?” Liang asked with an amused gleam in his eye.

  Hunter gave him a half smile. “About as well as I thought he would. Stanton threatened to send me on a permanent vacation if I tried to file the story, so I’ll just sit on it for now. I guess I wouldn’t believe it either. Maybe I could sell it to a tabloid.”

  * * *

  On the island of Nassau, Bahamas, a government official strode down the hall of the pink, colonial-style building in Parliament Square. As he entered his office, he closed the door behind him and walked over to the large, oak desk by the window. Outside, he could see the statue of Queen Victoria standing in the square. A palm tree swayed in the breeze as a motorcyclist passed, revving his engine as he pulled up to the building.

  Though the man was relatively young, he was also very well-educated, and understood the ways of not only those in this small island nation, but also the ways of the world. He had come here from one of the outer islands to work in the government and climb his way up the ladder to a place of power, a place where he could sway the hearts and minds of the populace.

  The official sighed and turned to a large bookcase. Reaching up to the top shelf, he removed a book, and behind that book, recessed into the wall itself, was another book. He gingerly slid it from its hiding place and placed it on the desk.

  He was both awed and sickened by the cover, crafted from the once-living face of an unfortunate human. He removed the seal from the back and let the cover fall to the desk.

  The man stared, transfixed by the Death Defier depicted in an etching on the front of the book, and by the indecipherable words below it.r />
  But the man knew that given the time, and the patience, he would eventually decipher it, and its secrets would be his.

  He pulled out the desk chair and sat, then carefully opened the book and began to read.

  About the Author

  Toby's stories have been praised by the likes of New York Times bestselling authors Steve Berry, Douglas Preston, Jonathan Maberry and Steve Alten. He has been featured in The Big Thrill magazine and on Internet radio, blogs and newspapers.

  Inexplicably drawn to all things dark and macabre, at about the age of twelve he began penning short stories and publishing his own movie monster magazine.

  An air force brat who never lived in one place more than two years, after high school Toby did an eight-year stint in the US Navy and ended up on the east coast. He has since worked as a cab driver, a pizza delivery man, a phone solicitor, a shipyard technician, a government contractor, a retail music salesman, a bookseller, a cell phone salesman and a recording studio engineer.

  Toby later earned a BA in English and became a full-time graphic designer and newspaper reporter, publishing hundreds of stories with the Associated Press and his local paper. He has since been published in The Pedestal Magazine, Voluted Tales magazine, Famous Monsters of Filmland, Scary Monsters Magazine, and websites like eHow.com.

  Owing to the inspiration of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Bradbury, and Stephen King, Toby became an author of what he likes to call "high-octane sci-fi, fantasy, and horror" and has published several books.