Before we had made it to the building, Leo opened fire on the beast. I heard him laughing hysterically as blood began to drip from seemingly nowhere above the street.
Olivia and I entered the building and began taking the stairs two at a time.
As we did so, Olivia asked a question that finally knocked loose a piece of information that I'd been trying to remember.
"Where would a beast like that come from? Why did the hermit take care of it?"
I laughed when the memory of the account flooded into my brain. "A few years ago, in America, there was a similar incident. Very similar. It turned out that the mother of the beast had mated with a being from another universe. The resulting offspring were a set of fraternal twins. One with magical powers and very human in appearance. The other was exactly the same as our monster." We passed the second floor and continued upward. "The women then had been a cultist, attempting to create a doorway for the father of the children to enter our world, except that it didn't work out that way. This time, we have a cultist again in the form of the Traum Kult and his caring for the two. I would even bet that the man who attacked us in the alley was a brother to this creature. His power was remarkable, and if he'd had training he would have been able to destroy all of us without much thought." I was beginning to pant as we came to the third floor and then looked around for a door to the roof. "I shouldn't have left him alive."
I found the door and threw it open, running out onto the roof and looking over the edge to the pavement
below.
Except that was no longer the case. Whatever the creature looked like, its blood was normal and had coated the side facing Leo.
Now, when we looked upon the street from above, it was almost as though a portion of it was being seen through a large red lens.
Nazis had joined on the opposite side of the beast from Leo and were taking advantage of his distraction as well. Together they were filling the creature with bullets. While the bullets most likely wouldn't kill the creature, it would certainly hurt, and Olivia and I couldn't have asked for a better distraction.
Olivia came up beside me and together we began shooting from above. It was perfect timing. While we couldn't see the creature, we could tell from the moving blood pattern that it had decided to do away with the pest on the ground. Our timing saved Leo from an early grave. My magical gun's bullets were doing something, but unable to see the monster, I wasn't sure what. From the wounds I caused, smoke rose while only blood came from the normal bullet wounds.
My .38 emptied quicker than Olivia's gun and once I finished reloading I put it back into its holster. Olivia didn't comment on this although it was obvious that it confused her. I took about ten steps back and prepared to run.
Olivia caught on quickly and shouted. "What should I do?"
I shrugged at her. "You'll think of something."
Then I took off with my sword gripped tightly for battle.
Leaping on top of a monster that you can't even see is probably the dumbest thing anyone has ever done. First of all, you shouldn't leap at monsters. Secondly, an invisible monster could move, and you wouldn't know until you hit the pavement in a gory mess. Lastly, you shouldn't leap off of tall buildings either. This entire idea was simply dumb.
As I arced through the air, I angled my magic imbued officer's sword down with the hilt high in the air, and fell toward where I hope the monster still stood.
Luck was with me, as I jerked upward, the blade snagging and slipping deeply into the invisible flesh of the beast.
The result of my attack was unexpected. The monster screamed, but it was not with any voice. It screamed with its mind and the resulting wave of pain coursed through my own brain in much the same way that the pain and echoed on board the Lush Delusion. Then I'd been using the sword as well, and I wondered in the back of my own screaming mind if this was the result of using the sword on larger monsters, or if larger monsters only knew how to scream with their minds.
Using the pain radiating off of the beast's scream, I intensified my grip on the sword. Somewhere deep down, I found the strength to bounce while holding the hilt, and worked to drive the blade deeper and deeper.
The result was both more and less than I had expected. Instead of going deeper, the blade began to slide along the flank of the creature, and I slid closer to the ground. I continued towards the street below for another ten feet or so before I felt something wrap around my waist.
It was one of those orifice-born tentacles, come to remove the thorn from the monster's side.
With a quick jerk of the tentacle, I was very suddenly airborne and arcing toward a building just behind Leo's new position. It was shorter than the surrounding buildings at only one story, and I crashed through a wooden roof instead of a rock wall. I was grateful for the small fortune I was granted, but the thought was far from my mind as I crashed to the floor in a shower of wood and shingles.
To my relief, I found that I had been able to keep a grip on my now blood drenched sword. I attempted to stand and collapsed, my legs not yet willing to fight the pull of gravity.
I shook my head and leaned on a nearby chair before trying again. I was able to get my feet under me and
supporting my weight just as the monster let out another of his psychic screams. I clutched my head but it was over quickly.
In an explosion of what I can only assume was blind rage, the wall and roof of the building I was in blasted inward and I was narrowly missed by stone and boards as the monster came after me.
The gunfire from outside was a constant boom in the background and blood was falling like rain into the now shattered building.
The tentacle grabbed me again, and the strength with which it held me was impossible to fight. I lifted off of the ground and raised my sword to attack at the tentacle.
I don't know what ran through my mind at that moment. I have two theories of what happened. The first is the most mathematical: I simply calculated with my subconscious mind that the beast had to be holding me very close to its head.
My second theory was that the beast's only means of communication with his hermit of a father was through mental imagery. I was suddenly flushed with a strong sense of loneliness, of the inevitability of my death, and then I knew, without a doubt, the location of the monster's head.
Whatever the reasoning, I plunged my sword downward in front of me instead of slicing at where I knew the tentacle was.
My blade plunged deep into a soft tissue, and I knew that I had killed it. There was a shudder through the beast as its life left it. With a sudden jerk, I fell from it, pulling my sword along with me. My boots hit the floor with a thud, but I kept my balance. The tentacle slid from my waist.
Standing there, the adrenaline rushed through my head, and I allowed it to flood away all of my coherent thoughts. The first thing that pushed its way through my adrenaline crash was the collapse of stone and boards near the where I assumed the left side of the 'boy' had been. Squeezing between the remains of the wall and the invisible mass was Leo, and he was shouting something.
I looked up to him and forced myself to hear the words he shouted.
"We have to leave here. We have to go now!" His face was red, and I could tell that he was still high on the adrenalin that I was currently coming down from.
"What?" I stupidly asked. The question was dumb, but behind it was the real question; why? Why now?
Somehow, the Frenchman understood my meaning and began jabbing his finger the way he had come. "The Nazis are coming."
He looked around frantically, and peered out the giant hole and up at the building I'd jumped off of. "Where's Olivia?"
My ass had been kicked, but not my brain. I brought my senses back together and remembered the rest of my plan. I sheathed my sword and holstered my pistol. Through the body of the beast, I saw the soldiers running at us with their guns raised.
As Leo continued demanding the location of Olivia, I dropped slowly to my knees and put my hands behind m
y head. Then I turned my attention to Leo.
"Get on your knees before they shoot you."
He looked at me with his mouth agape. "Where's Olivia?"
"She'll be fine. I'm sure. Now get on your damned knees." I nodded toward the first bunch of Nazis that bounced off of the monster they couldn't see.
"Where is she, Doran?" He was yelling again.
"She's not our problem. She has never been our problem." I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him into a kneeling position. "Now get on your damned knees!"
Leo's confusion turned to anger. He thought I was leaving an ally; that I was giving up and leaving Olivia to die. He couldn't be more wrong.
"So much for your plan to get us to Berlin." He said through gritted teeth as the soldiers slid in the same way that Leo had.
"No, the plan is the same. I'll get us to Berlin, and I'll get us there quickly." I gave him a half smile that I know only angered him more in the light of Olivia's disappearance.
"Oh?" Leo replied. "How?"
The next thing I said was as much to the soldiers as to Leo.
"I'm Dr. Andrew Doran. I'm an American Archaeologist looking for the Traum Kult. Take us to Berlin."
Chapter 8: The Doom that came to Berlin
Berlin was a six hour journey from Munich, and two hours into it, Leo and I could feel every uncomfortable bump in the road. The Nazis had tied our hands and thrown us into another of their trucks. We were guarded by four of the Nazi soldiers, and after two hours of sitting in silence they had become bored. The one furthest from where we sat was nodding off, while the other three looked like they wouldn't be far behind.
My fingers had been rubbed raw during the drive as I worked at the ropes holding my wrists behind my back. It was slow going and I wasn't even sure if I'd made any progress, but I had nothing else to occupy the six hour drive.
Leo had stopped talking to me as soon as I'd demanded that the Nazis take us to Berlin. He hadn't stopped glaring at me the entire time. He'd been angry at my response concerning Olivia, and I couldn't blame him. Without explaining myself, I had left the idea open that any of my allies were easily cut off.
In French, I finally spoke up. "You look like I killed your puppy. Could you stop pouting please, before I ask them to shoot me?"
He spoke through gritted teeth. "You left her for dead."
I shook my head. "No, I didn't."
"Don't lie to me, Doran!" He was trying not to yell and give the guards a reason to hit him. "You left her in Nazi territory surrounded by monsters and soldiers." He hung his head. "That beast struck out at the building you jumped from after it threw you. We shouldn't have left her."
He was frustrating me. He should have seen what I knew long before I did. "When did you meet her?" I asked, seemingly changing the subject.
Leo brought his head back up, glaring at me as red filled his face. "What?"
I rolled my eyes, taking pleasure in returning him some of the frustration he was giving me. "It's a simple question, Leo. When did you meet Olivia?"
His anger never left his face, but he thought on it before answering. "A few years ago."
It was my turn to keep my volume from a shout. "A few? How many is that? Was it two? Was it five?" I took a breath trying to calm myself down. "When did you meet Olivia?" I repeated.
Leo didn't like being talked to in this manner, "Two years ago."
I nodded. "Good, now tell me how you met her."
He let his head fall back as if pleading with God to shut me up. "To what end?"
I spoke through gritted teeth. "Tell me the details, Leo."
He looked at me and confusion filled the Frenchman's eyes. "I don't remember." He shook his head. "I'm not even sure that it was two years ago...it might have been three."
I returned his head shake, but with more conviction. "No, I'm sure you don't remember much about her. Actually, I certain that you don't remember her at all before seeing her with me."
Instead of being surprised at my claim, Leo asked. "How is that possible? I know I've known her, but I can't remember her."
I nodded. "I can't figure out why, but I think that she's...different. She might have been working against us this entire time."
Leo's anger had changed to concentration. He was now trying to figure out the same thing I was: What was Olivia? "That is impossible. She's helped us kill the Nazis."
"What's a few Nazis to convince us she's on our side?" I was looking him in the eyes. "I think that maybe the Traum Kult helped her put memories in your head so that it would be easier to convince me to accept her help. I was hesitant to accept either of you because of your Resistance connections, but both of you were able to vouch for the other and helped me to build that trust. With her there on the Kult's behalf, they were able to keep tabs on me with the option of executing me if I got out of control." Leo laughed then, and I wasn't
expecting it. "You're insane, Andrew." His look of anger was coming back. "You've been seeing monsters everywhere, and now you're seeing them in your allies."
Obviously, I was losing his confidence, and I decided to hit it a little closer to home. "Have you ever been intimate with Olivia?"
Leo's anger flared more than I had expected it to. If I was right about the Traum Kult, they may have also implanted a resistance to my inquiries into his mind. Or he was just surprised by my question. "What? That's none of your damned business, American!"
At that moment, an idea struck me. It was possible that I could get him angry enough to burn through the implanted resistance. "Don't you think that it's a little odd that such a beautiful French woman has been working with and trusting you, a relatively handsome man, for...well, supposedly two or three years, and she's never batted her eyelashes at you?" I snorted. "It took her about a week with me."
Leo's face was redder than it had been yet. He had obviously had feelings for her, and why shouldn't he? If I was right, than the Traum Kult had made her a beautiful and intelligent woman with much in common to both him and I. She was a juicy worm at the end of a very sharp hook.
Leo shouted then, "How dare you! Damned filthy American!" He didn't get much farther in his cursing. A punch from the soldier nearest to Leo absorbed much of his ire. I caught a glint of what I'd been hoping for then: His anger snapped. Somewhere inside, the magic that had been used to make Olivia believable had reached its limit.
"No," I replied, whispering now so as not to anger the soldiers anymore. "It isn't my business, but it actually is. Olivia got to you moments before you met me. I'd bet that was more than enough time to confuse your memory with a spell."
While his anger had diffused, his incredulity was putting up a solid fight. "Or you could be paranoid, Olivia could be a loyal member of the French Resistance, our friend, and you left her for dead beneath the corpse of a beast from another world."
I nodded, ceding the point. "And," I added, "out of the German's hands."
Realization dawned then as Leo's eyes perked up. In his smile, I saw that he had finally figured out the entirety of my thoughts. He now saw me as less of a coward, and more of a clever tactician.
I was still certain that Olivia was either an agent for the Traum Kult or some other nefarious magic wielding group, but I wasn't stupid enough to be certain about it. Leo was correct, I had just as equal a chance of being very wrong about our French companion. If I was right about her being a spy, I'd successfully removed her from our movements, but if Leo was correct, and Olivia was our ally, than she was still free from Nazi detainment and would therefore be in a much better position to rescue us.
The smiles on both of our faces finally pushed the Nazis over the edge and the nearest soldier to me pulled a pistol from his holster and pressed it against my head. In German he added, "Shut up." I didn't need to translate for Leo. He seemed to catch on.
My lengthy discussion with Leo had also served another purpose. It had been my assumption that the ties were getting loose enough to slip out of, but by the end of the conversation
I was still as secured as when the journey started. I decided at the prodding of the soldier's gun to try a new idea.
The Nazi kept his pistol in his lap after I'd taken his advice. Reaching down into the tiny well of magic I had access to, I shouted, "Ia Ia!"
Much as they had on my trip to Barcelona, my hands erupted in a blinding flash of daylight. The heat from the burst destroyed my ties. I closed my eyes as the light filled the small space of the back of the truck. Opening them, I could see that everyone, including Leo, was obviously blinded. I jumped up and grabbed the pistol from the Nazi's lap. It only took four quick shots to ensure that Leo and I were the only living people in the truck bed. I cut him loose.
The truck began to slow as soon as I got Leo free, and I knew that they must have heard the gunfire. I grabbed the dead soldier nearest to me and began undressing him.
"Quickly," I barked at Leo. "Act like you're still tied up!"
I had the soldier's clothes on as the truck finally came to a stop. With a shake and a creaking slam, I could hear the passenger side door open and shut. I pulled the canvas flaps down, so that he wouldn't see the corpses and would have to open it.
The flap swung back and before the passenger could get a good look at what he saw, I grabbed him. Dragging him into the truck, I hit him once and then twice. He was unconscious quick enough. I looked at Leo and put a finger to my mouth. "Stay quiet, I've got a plan." Leo nodded and began stripping the weapons from the unconscious soldier.
I jumped down from the back of the truck and came around on the passenger's side of the truck. I could see that the lead car had stopped about a hundred yards in front of us, and the driver was leaning out and shouting, "What's going on?"
Feeling as though I had to say something, I shouted "Dummkopf!" Idiots! I waved them on.
As the lead driver slid back into his seat and led the car away, I opened the door and hopped up into the cab of the truck. The driver turned to me and began to ask what was going on when he recognized that I wasn't his companion. Before he could react, I swung the recently borrowed pistol up and shot him in the face.
The Adventures of Andrew Doran: Box Set Page 18