by Troy McCombs
"It would take me years to explain it in depth, but the best way I can answer it, is this. E=MC2. I can see into the woman's head. I know what you and she did in your investigation...in your researching how and why this house became what it has become. Your brain, transferred in my skin, in my aura, is like the atoms in your bombs splitting. Certain souls in the presence of other souls have adverse effects. Some have very remarkable effects, as yours will for me. Your endowments will supply me with authority over all. How do you like the truth?"
John snickered. "You remind me of something from hell. A demon in bodily form. You know what they are, don't you?"
D'kourikai did not respond.
"They are greedy, power-hungry beings who only get a kick out of killing and control. You remind me of them. They feed on arrogance, pain, and evil. Care only about themselves."
"Stop right there!" Every part of its body tensed. "I am nothing like anything in your limited dimension! It's like comparing an ant to an elephant. Are you superior to a microbe? You kill them so they don't hurt you. It's necessary to growth and survival." The macabre beast twitched. Its limbs stretched. Its many eyes blinked, one after another after another. D'kourikai was getting impatient and wanted to get the show on the road.
John looked passed the mounds of red, grotesque lumps of flesh on its torso, and at Jennifer, who was still bawling like a child in a dark well. Her arms were tensed up, her fists clinched.
D'kourikai noticed his change in eye level and snickered. "Are you willing to give your life for Jennifer and Lucky? Are you willing to hand your own soul over for theirs? I will set them free. But you must do for me first."
"Anything."
"No!" Jennifer blurted out, shaking her head. Despite her gnawing fear, she was not about to watch John sell his soul to this piece of shit.
D'kourikai's mouth split open into three wicked smiles. Behind them, its teeth were of a distinctive shape, protruding from its green gums laterally. Its rancid breath smelled like toxic waste. The thing was just trying to intimidate him. All of them.
To Rollings, it was actually becoming less and less frightening.
"It's okay," he mouthed to Jennifer, looking back up at his opponent. "Tell me what you want me to do. You give me your word you'll let them go. Unharmed. Then I will comply."
Multicolored slime oozed from the monster's mouth. It splattered against the floorboards and burned a hole through them. "That's not how it works. You do for me first...then I free these lesser life forms."
John shook his head, unaffected. "I'm giving you my eternal soul. If I'm soooo important to you, why can't you let my friends go? You say they're lesser life forms, so why do you need them?"
D'kourikai paused, as if flustered by the question. "I will let one go. The woman."
"Them both!” John wasn't backing down.
"One! You dare challenge me! I should kill the mutt and the whore. But you're right. They mean nothing to me. I need neither of them. How will I know you'll live up to your end of the bargain?"
"Because they mean more to me than my life."
The beast seemed confused. Skeptical. Caught off guard. While he tried to figure out that bizarre logic, a low, faint rumbling sound started to fill the room. It was an organic, animalistic sound. The only one who heard it was D'kourikai.
Lucky was growling. He hated this creature and was not going to watch it kill or even degrade his master. Every instinct in his doggie soul told him to attack.
"Fine. They're free to go."
John looked from side to side. "How do you expect them to leave?"
"What, do you need a door, too? There's two windows!" It laughed, its many eyes blinking.
Lucky had had enough. He bolted forward, toward the disgusting monstrosity, intent on bringing it down from its place on the ceiling.
"Lucky, no!" John screamed, watching his dog about to be obliterated. He knew there was no match up. No competition. The dog would die, probably horribly.
D'kourikai continued to laugh as Lucky ran straight for him, legs kicking backward, mouth open, teeth gleaming, growl deepening. Jennifer watched closely, wondering if the dog was actually going to strike It unprepared.
Does IT even see the dog approaching?
Sorrow filled John's eyes instantly. The air left his lungs.
Lucky closed the distance quickly, leapt up off his back legs, and was airborne, arching back his head so he could plunge his canines into a dangling limb. But inches before contact, something happened, something awful. D'kourikai swiped the air with one of its limbs, and Lucky, the spectacular Doberman, gave its life to protect John.
The mutt's body split in half. The tail end flew left, and the front end flew right. Both slammed against the walls and thudded to the floor. Entrails scattered across the room. John looked down. Jennifer cried harder. Lucky looked back at his master.
"Lucky…." Heartbroken, John ran over to his dying dog, knelt down, and held him. A pool of blood saturated the perimeter.
"Why, Lucky, why? You were out of here! You were going to leave. You didn't have to save me. Not this time! Please don't die!"
Lucky whimpered and placed a paw on Rollings' forearm. His gums retracted and he showed his teeth, smiling at John one last time. John pet his twitching body above the severe injury, watching his best friend fade away from the physical world. "I love you, dear friend. And I will put this thing in its place!"
"Hardly so," D'kourikai interjected. "You have no power over me. You have no power over your own kind."
Lucky panted hoarsely, and his twitching intensified, turning into uncontrollable spasms. The doggy smile never left his face. He did not appear to be in pain, despite his jerky movements. A second later, however, he became motionless. Another victim of the Mayberry House. His glassy eyes were still fixed on John, who wept silently to himself. Blood continued to soak the floorboards.
"Awwww. Such a pity. Now let's get down to business!"
Furious, John swung around, stood, and looked at the abomination. "The hell with you! You killed him, you egotistical, worthless son of a bitch!"
"You watch what you say, Rollings. Temper, temper. Emotion blinds you foolish beings."
"And ignorance blinds you!” John clenched his fists. “There's a reason why you and your Cthulhu are stuck in places. Because My God put you there!"
D'kourikai didn't like the taste of those words. His twenty-two eyes slanted. Steam swelled from his nostrils. "Your God, huh? The invisible, intangible ghost that lives in the sky? The one that you believe exists?"
John smiled. His cheeks flushed.
"Are you mocking meeeee?!" Its voice was so bassy it rattled the floorboards.
Rollings didn't care anymore. He took back every bit of terror he'd bestowed upon this heap of biology. Sure, it was intelligent. Manipulative. Knew things by touch and feel. But its power was limited, too. It lacked simple emotional knowledge and had no apparent knack for even a hint of empathy. For as tough and menacing as it seemed before, D'kourikai now behaved like nothing more than a brainy, spoiled little boy.
"I will not have that, human."
"You let her go and I'm all yours."
"No! The animal attacked me. You've lost your privileges. She will be released after the fact."
John looked from eye to eye to eye. "Then we have no deal. Besides, you could have killed us both by now and used me for what you need. What do you really want me to do? Get down on my knees and bow down to you?"
D'kourikai nodded and laughed. "Why, how did you know? I must have you drop to your knees... but bow to me? That's optional. I would surely appreciate it."
"If I kneel, will you let her leave?"
"Fine! Right after."
Jennifer watched as John carefully bent down on his knees. He looked eerily calm, was not sweating, and was not rigid or nervous at all. Once on the floor, he said, "Now what? By the way, I'm not bowing."
"Lace your hands behind your back and tilt your head back as far
as it will go."
"John, no!" Jennifer shook her head aggressively. "Don't do it!"
D'kourikai jerked its head aside. As he did, the woman's mouth flew closed. She tried to open it to speak again, but was unable. Her lips were firmly sealed.
"You don't know about the female much, do you, Rollings?"
John had no idea what It was talking about.
"This woman has known about you since I have. She saw you in the newspaper after Charlie stole your lock of hair for me. Subsequently, she has made a constant effort to get close to you. She has fallen in love with you. She wants to be with you in ways I do not understand. She hides secrets from you because of a faulty insecurity in her past. She's terrified you won't love her back, but she can't stray away from you. I just thought you might like to know that before you are parted from her indefinitely. Oh, and she's ovulating." D'kourikai chuckled.
John looked up at her, almost more appalled with that bit of information than his approaching demise. Was it true? Did she feel that way toward him? Or was the beast only toying with him?
"You're lying."
"Am I? My senses never lie; never deceive me as yours sometimes do you. But enough conversing. It's time to get down to business. Tilt your head back, you puppet."
John did. Jennifer fought to rip her mouth open with her hands, but it wasn't working. Not even almost.
Think, Jennifer! Think!
"Now close your eyes and repeat after me."
He shut them. He had no regrets, live or die. He just hoped D'kourikai lived up to his end of the bargain and freed his last prisoner.
"Jussict-Vior-Morkten. Sechuist-Oppioriss-Miccee."
John repeated the words. He could already feel an unpleasant change in his body, down to the nerve and bone marrow.
"Tyrassian-Bore-Irpatini-Womlikor."
He repeated those words as well.
His heart started to beat erratically, and his nose began to leak blood. His brain felt like it was hemorrhaging. Dizziness emerged at once. He could feel a part of his metaphysical self dwindling away. The thing across the room was initiating the rites to absorb his soul. But, as the monster continued to speak his magic spell, another voice made its way into John's senses. The words were not verbal, but more like mental thoughts, echoing across his remaining conscience with great clarity and strength. It was Jennifer's voice. She was speaking to him telepathically.
John, the word we were looking for in the warehouse...the word that was marked out, is Self-Sacrifice.
He tilted his head forward again and opened his eyes. Realization radiated bountifully from his face. His nose stopped bleeding. His headache returned to normal. He felt better, as if he'd just taken a large dose of medicine. D'kourikai looked down at him with contempt, wondering why he had broken contact. "What are you doing?!”
John stood back up and shook his head. "No. I'm not just handing my life over to you."
"Ahh!" It quickly picked up on the psychical reception. "She speaks to you through mindful vibrations! Well, if only I'd known you humans have some abilities we have."
Frustrated, the monster reached over and clutched Jennifer's arm so tightly that the bone inside made a loud popping sound. She let loose with an earsplitting scream. D'kourikai let loose with uncontrollable laughter. "That's what you get for interrupting us!"
Getting an idea and suppressing it, John swiftly turned and ran toward the nearest window. By the time D'kourikai looked back at him, he broke it with his elbow. Shards of glass scattered down to the backyard below and some onto the windowsill. John picked up a big, sharp piece, put it against his throat, and turned back to the now-frightened looking beast.
"You! You wouldn't!"
"You don't think so? I'll do it to save her. I'll do it just to spite you."
"If I let the bitch leave, will you drop the weapon?"
"Maybe."
"Maybe?!"
"I will."
D'kourikai looked closely at him, read him, and snickered. "I don't believe you. How do you like that? In every dimension I have ever visited, I have never come across a self-murdering life-form.”
John dug it into his skin, drawing a thick bead of blood. His cheeks blushed. His neck muscles tensed up.
“Stop!” The beast made a subtle STOP gesture with one of its limbs. Immediately, Jennifer fell to the floor, holding her broken right arm with her left hand. Other than that, she was fine. Physically.
"There! I let her go. Now stop hurting yourself!"
A portion of the attic floorboards cracked and exploded down into the upstairs hallway below. A nice little square hole appeared for her dismissal. Before she left, she looked back up at John, thanking him via expression alone. He couldn't summon the courage to face her.
"Move along now!"
She stood and looked down into the opening. The broken boards were arranged together into a very poorly improvised, spur-of-the-moment staircase. It didn't look safe (nails and jagged lumber protruded from the woodwork), but it was far safer than the attic.
Jennifer retreated back to the standard world.
Now it was down to two. A battle of Good vs. Evil. Human and Monster. They watched each other carefully. John kept the broken piece of glass by his jugular, but lightened the pressure. It made D'kourikai nervous.
"You said you'd drop it. Now drop it!"
If I don't cut, it will win. I have to die like this in order to stop it.
He hesitated.
"You can't do it. Just as I'd thought. Besides, you can't use liquid to cut yourself."
An acute pain suddenly filled John's raised hand. It felt like spikes digging into his palm and descending down his wrist. The glass shard had turned molten and seeped through his very fingers. John looked down at it as it burned his skin and the tissue underneath. It hurt, but he somehow blocked it out. He didn't even wince.
D'kourikai's smile faded away. How could he not react to that? "Either you get down on your knees and finish your fate, or I make what just happened feel a hundred-fold worse."
"You need me to sacrifice myself for you?"
"Indeed."
"Instead, how about I sacrifice myself for all the souls you stole so that you could evolve? The poor Prestillion family? The soldiers who died prematurely? Or what about—"
"How will you do it? How will you sacrifice yourself for them? If you look back, you'd see that the window is gone, along with the glass. You have no tool anywhere in this room with which to end your life."
"Oh, but you cannot force me to repeat your words back to you. You cannot make me go against my free will, can you?"
"With sheering pain, yes, I can. I can break you. The worst pain isn't physical, it's mental. The mind controls the body. So let's see what we can do."
D'kourikai blinked its twenty-two eyes. John stumbled backward, an aching throb filling every inch, every millimeter of his brain. He had to react. He had to scream. This was something unexpected. Not once in his twenty three years on earth had he felt so much discomfort, so much pain.
"A-ha! So you're not as strong as you thought you were, are you?"
I can't take much more of that.
"You can't take much more of that? Is that what you thought? Well how about this!"
Every nerve ending in his body felt like they had been ripped apart. His fingertips, his groin, his feet, his eyes, and his gums burned with an intensity greater than the sun. He could hardly stand. This was utterly unbearable.
Think of something peaceful, think of being somewhere else.
An image materialized in his mind, one he'd forgotten about. Something good. Something very recent. He remembered watching those two bunnies run up the hill after each other, going without a care in the world.
D'kourikai cringed. He ingested the same memory, and it hurt his mind.
"What was that?" Its voice was uneven and permeated with extreme distress.
John noticed this and used it to his advantage. He opened his eyes and regained his
balance. He gazed through his enemy, past its nearly two-dozen eyes. Another memory resurfaced.
"Ouch! Mom! That hurt worse than the scratch!" John, at eight-years-old, with bright blonde hair and much lighter eyes than he had today, was sitting on the porch with his mother. This was when they lived in the house on Stiven Street, long before it had been torn down.
"It's okay John." His mom gingerly cleaned his scraped knee with some alcohol. Her long, golden hair flowed in a slight breeze. "Just think, this burning actually helps the wound."
"It does? Really?" He showed her his set of chompers.
She rubbed his head. "You're silly, Johnny." Her green eyes revealed the truth: she loved her son more than her own life.
D'kourikai stumbled backward across the ceiling, groaning. The memories John was recalling weren't just memories, they were times in his life that dearly meant something to him. They were memories he'd mistakenly forgotten about, therefore things D'kourikai had no real way of seeing or knowing.
They were too beautiful and harmonious for Its bodily structure to bear.
Another thought popped up. Then another. And another. D'kourikai's body began to quiver, now in pain, not in glee. Yellow foam emerged from the corners of its mouth. Its limbs swung around in radical circles. Its eyes bulged from their sockets and turned bright red, hemorrhaging.
Suddenly, John didn't need to think another pleasant memory.
The sunlight glistening through the only window intensified. The floorboards began to steam, it was so bright. A rainbow of luxurious colors accompanied it, rapidly filling the room with heavenly character. The smell of roses appeared from somewhere, everywhere. D'kourikai grew increasingly alarmed, and John grew increasing relieved. Something was happening, and neither being knew what, but it was in John's favor.
"What is this? What are you doing to me, Rollings?!"
"Putting you in your place. Y'see, power comes with a price. What you may not know in your world is this: what goes around always comes around."
Ghostly but non-threatening shapes and shadows danced off every wall in the attic. They came at once, dozens of them, and were all of human origin. They were also the victims of D'kourikai, free and unconstrained from Its grip once and for all. Some swam around John, engulfing him in a sea of tranquility. Others swarmed the entity, overwhelming him, trapping him, attacking him. The apparitions ripped off his limbs, which dissolved into nothingness once they were unattached from his body. His eyes exploded one after another, until he couldn't see at all. Black, horrible-smelling blood popped from every pore on his body, and his skin began to rip and tear apart.