The Diablo Horror (The River Book 7)

by Michael Richan

  ◊

  “So you dropped the old man at home so we could have some alone time,” the man said as he sat on a chair in Steven’s living room.

  “I assume you know what happened,” Steven said, walking to a closet and hanging up his coat.

  “I know there’s a dead body in your car downstairs,” the man said. “So it didn’t go as well as it might have.”

  “My son is dead,” Steven said, turning to face the man, the representation of Aka Manah. “All for your goddamn prize. Well, here it is, motherfucker. Take it and leave. We’re done.” He tossed the Agimat onto the coffee table next to the demon.

  The man rose and lifted the object. “Ah!” he said, examining it. “It’s been a long time. Hundreds of years. Tell me, who had it?”

  “What the fuck do you care? You’ve got it now, so go. Remember the deal? Eliza better be home from the hospital and feeling fine before I wake up in the morning. And for the record, I hate you. I’ll hate you to my dying day.”

  “Who had it? I want to know.”

  “Some religious fanatic who thought it would resurrect all of his family after he butchered them.”

  “Where is he now?”

  “Who the fuck knows? Get out!”

  “I want to know. Tell me. Give me his name at least.”

  “Why does it matter? You have it, just leave me alone.”

  Steven looked at the man, holding the Agimat. It looked like he was examining it intently, but it occurred to Steven that the close attention he was giving the object was masking something else, trying to cover his real intention.

  “I want to know who had it. It matters to me.”

  “I don’t know his name. He killed his family, then he killed himself.”

  “Do you know where he’s buried?”

  Steven stopped. This is what the demon really wants, he thought. Not the Agimat. He wants the man’s body who owned the Agimat. Fucker.

  “Why?” Steven asked. “Why would you want to know that?”

  “I want to grind up his bones for stealing it from me,” the man replied unconvincingly.

  “If you want to know, go up there and search yourself,” Steven said.

  “Tell me, or your friend in California won’t be recovering.”

  Steven had just gone through the worst day of his life, and it wasn’t getting any better. He wanted it to end.

  “He threw himself into the same hole he dumped his family’s bodies into,” Steven spat at the man. “That’s where he’s at, rotting at the bottom of a pit a mile or so from Diablo.”

  “Downstream?”

  Why the fuck would he care? Steven wondered. “Yes, downstream from the dam.”

  Steven watched as the man’s expression turned angry and frustrated. Then he disappeared, along with the Agimat.

  Steven stared at the space where the demon had stood. Is it over? he wondered. Was that it?

  He walked through the rest of the house, checking on things. Roy had told him to leave Jason’s body in the car, covered in a blanket, rather than bring him inside and risk being seen. It was killing him to follow Roy’s advice, knowing Jason was alone down there. Tomorrow morning they were going to drive out to Eximere and bury him. Meanwhile, the temperature outside was cold enough to keep Jason’s body refrigerated.

  It felt so wrong to leave Jason in the car, so disrespectful – but Steven knew Roy was right. He wondered if he should eat, realizing he hadn’t eaten anything for hours, but he wasn’t hungry. He felt like he might never eat again. Numbly, he slipped into his normal evening routine, shutting up the house, setting the alarm, and getting ready for bed.

  As he slipped under the covers, he prayed to fall asleep, to not lie up thinking over the horrific details of the day. But sleep did not come quickly.

  The last time I fell asleep, he thought, I killed my son. He felt another wave of guilt and pain pass through him, making him curl up into a fetal position.

  How can a ghost be that powerful? Steven wondered. They seem so stupid, this one especially. Roy had always said they could be dangerous, and now I really know what he meant. The Agimat. The goddamn Agimat gave him enough power to make his stupid dangerous.

  How did he die? he wondered. Not an ax. That was the ax man’s method, there was no real ax around. He’d tricked Brett into using his shotgun, but Brett had already been carrying the gun. I wasn’t carrying anything. If I had strangled him with my hands, there would have been bruises on his neck.

  How did he die?

  Steven felt a pulsing in his palms, but the tears began to flow once again, and his body heaved with sobs, slowly rocking himself. Sleep came gradually, temporarily overcoming the pain.

  ◊

  The drive out to the peninsula had been long and quiet. They’d stopped for coffee since neither of them had felt like making any. Neither had eaten any breakfast, either. They weren’t hungry. Every time Steven thought of something to say, he stopped himself. Nothing seemed appropriate, and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to speak without crying, anyway.

  Steven received a call as they passed Olympia. It was from Eliza. He put her on speakerphone and they both listened.

  “Well, it’s rather miraculous,” Eliza said. “I started improving last night, and this morning they discharged me. Said they’d never seen such a rapid recovery. I’m feeling a thousand percent better.”

  “Oh, that is good news,” Roy said, but not with his usual enthusiasm.

  “What’s wrong?” Eliza said. “Something’s wrong.”

  “Eliza…” Steven started, but he couldn’t summon the words.

  “Tell me,” Eliza insisted.

  “We’re on our way to Eximere,” Roy said. “Something’s happened to Jason, and…”

  “Yes?” Eliza asked. “What happened to Jason?”

  “…we’re going to bury him there,” Roy finished.

  “Oh my god,” Eliza said. “Oh my god.”

  Steven and Roy didn’t say anything more, unsure of what to add.

  “What happened?” Eliza asked.

  “We…” Roy started.

  “Eliza, we…” Steven tried to continue.

  “I’m on the next plane,” Eliza said. “Will the two of you wait for me? Wait there at Eximere, until I can get there?”

  “Sure,” Steven said. “We’ll wait for you.” The idea of Eliza joining them during their time of grief seemed comforting to him. He was glad she was so willing to drop everything and come up.

  “I’ll rent a car at the airport,” she said, “and be out to Eximere as soon as I can get there.”

  “Alright,” Steven said. “Thank you.” He hung up.

  “I’m glad she’s coming,” Roy said.

  “Me too,” Steven replied.

  Neither of them had touched their coffee. They settled back into the wordless silence that had preceded Eliza’s call, the sound of the road a numbing soundtrack to their thoughts.

  ◊

  “How horrible,” Eliza said, as Steven finished recounting the tale. He was on his fourth drink and was beginning to slur his words. Roy was right behind him.

  In the distance, under the banyan tree in the back yard at Eximere, a fresh mound of dirt covered Jason’s body, now resting silently near the other gifteds, the only one with a normal grave. Steven and Roy had spent hours sitting next to it after they finished with the sad task of interring the body. Now they were on the back porch with Eliza, filling her in on what had happened.

  “So my illness was brought on by Aka Manah,” Eliza said. “That explains why the doctors were so baffled. And the quick recovery.”

  “The deal is over now, so fuck it,” Steven said. “I’m going to tell you what the agreement was. Between me and him.”

  “Are you sure you want to do that?” Eliza asked. “Weren’t the terms of the deal that you’d keep it secret?”

  “Fuck it,” Steven said, swinging his glass a little and spilling some of his drink. “He changed the terms on me.
Plus he wasn’t even after the Agimat anyway. And the deal is done now. So I consider myself released from the agreement.”

  “What do you mean he wasn’t after the Agimat?” Roy asked.

  “OK,” Steven said. “So, the deal all started because of the planchette. You remember, the one we found in the object room?”

  “Yes,” Roy said. “The one that exposed the marks on your hands.”

  “Yes,” Steven said. “He claimed it was his, and he wanted it back. He wanted to know where I got it from, but I wouldn’t tell him. Apparently, he can’t detect things down here. So he had a bunch of other things he wanted back, things he claimed were stolen from him over the years. He threatened both of you, hanging your bodies in the suicide forest. I don’t suppose you remember that?”

  “Hanging?” Eliza asked. “Literally?”

  “Yes,” Steven continued, “he had your bodies hanging in the trees as a way to scare me into agreeing to his terms. He gave me a list of items. I told him I’d look for them, and if I found them, I’d return them to him. He showed up in California, along the freeway, when we were driving back from Nevada. Do you remember that?”

  “No, I don’t,” Roy said.

  “He made you both pass out while he talked to me,” Steven said. “Threatened you again, made you gasp for air. He wanted me to speed up the search. Then we got home, and apparently I still wasn’t moving fast enough for him, because he showed up here on Friday, threatening you, Eliza. Telling me you’d be ill until I got the job done. So Roy and I went out to Eximere, and I went through all of the objects, comparing them to his list. It took all night. There were maybe a dozen or so I brought back that night, to give to him the next morning. The Agimat was one of them, but it disappeared sometime between my leaving Eximere with it, and the demon inspecting the boxes of objects at my house the next morning. He said the Agimat had reverted to its previous owner. Apparently this happened because it was removed from the protection of Eximere.”

  “It was recharging during this period,” Roy said. “Between Good Friday and Easter. So it was powerful. Perhaps that’s why the demon wanted it back now, with this sudden deadline.”

  “But the bastard’s a liar,” Steven said, slurring his words even more. “When I gave him the fucking thing, all he wanted to know was where the man was buried.”

  “The man?” Eliza asked.

  “The man who had the Agimat,” Steven said. “The one who killed his family with the ax. He was trying to be coy, but I knew what he really wanted. He wanted to know where the man’s body was. I told him it was in the pit with the others, and he was pissed. Then he blipped out. Gone. I’m done with him and glad of it.”

  “So what he really wanted was something else?” Roy asked. “Not the Agimat?”

  “That’s what I think,” Steven said. “He may have had some interest in the Agimat, but he wouldn’t stop torturing you, Eliza, until I told him where the man’s body was. It seemed to me that was his real goal.”

  “Bastard,” Roy said. “Instead of telling us what he wants, the fucker puts us on a goose chase, and we lose Jason because of it. We could have walked out of there after the first trance and told him the body was buried in that pit. If we really didn’t need to get that object, Jason would still be alive.”

  Steven seemed to go catatonic. He felt like he wanted to cry again, but he’d been crying all day, and the tears wouldn’t come. He was dried out.

  “Some Easter this was,” Eliza said. “Supposed to be a day about life.” She stood up. “It’s late. I’m going to bed, and I suggest you do, too. I brought lots of extra food with me. We don’t have to rush back to town. We’ll stay here tomorrow. With Jason.”

  Steven stared out over the porch railing into the back yard as Eliza and Roy left. The little lights near the ground in the yard, illuminating the path to the tree, cast enough light that the large banyan was filled with shadows. A slight breeze caused the branches to sway lightly, waving silently over Jason’s grave, which Steven could see clearly from where he was sitting. He started crying again, unable to stop himself. Sleep well, Jason, Steven thought, as he rose to his feet and walked into the house. Sleep well.

  Chapter Six

  Sleeping at Eximere was like sleeping at the most quiet, relaxing resort in the world. It was so well built you couldn’t hear a sound, especially the loud snoring of Steven and Roy. When the light returned, it was a natural alarm clock, rousing Eliza and Roy. The only thing missing was the sound of birds chirping.

  When Eliza stumbled into the kitchen, she found Roy pouring himself a cup of coffee from a pot he’d just made.

  “You want some of this?” Roy asked.

  “I do,” Eliza said, sliding onto a stool at the counter. Roy removed a mug from the cabinets and poured her a cup.

  “Steven?” Eliza asked.

  “Still asleep,” Roy said. “And I hope he sleeps as long as he can.”

  “Me too. I’m surprised you’re up. It’s been a hard couple of days for you, too.”

  “Couldn’t sleep. Too many things bothering me.”

  “I know, I can’t imagine losing a son or a grandson. Especially like this. He blames himself.”

  “I know, but I can’t see where he had much of a choice with the demon. As for the incident at Diablo, well, I kind of blame myself for that.”

  “Don’t take this the wrong way Roy, but you realize all this blame and guilt doesn’t help anything, right? The only way you wouldn’t have been wrapped up with the demon was to have not returned that book to June in the first place. And returning these stolen books is a perfectly fine and admirable thing to do.”

  Roy sipped his coffee while he listened to her. She was right, but it didn’t ease the pain very much.

  “Well, I appreciate your words Eliza, I do. But I don’t think they’ll help Steven very much. He believes he killed Jason. That’ll never stop eating at him until the day he dies. Maybe not even after that.”

  “Are we sure that’s what happened?” Eliza asked, setting her coffee down. “It’s not like an autopsy was done on Jason, to know what he died from. Steven had this dream of killing him, and he wakes up next to him. You didn’t see him kill Jason, did you?”

  “No,” Roy said.

  They sat in silence for a few minutes. Eliza considered a couple of other things to say, but she decided against saying them. One of the reasons she rushed up to visit them was to offer comfort and support, but sometimes it was best to just let things sit.

  “That’s not all of it, though,” Roy said. “There’s more that’s bothering me.”

  “Like?”

  “Like, why didn’t the demon go get the Agimat himself? Why did he force Steven to go get it? Presumably the demon can hunt down and recover lost or stolen objects on his own; the only reason he roped Steven into this deal was to get at objects hidden away here, in Eximere, that he couldn’t find but he knew Steven had access to.”

  “True,” Eliza said.

  “And if he really was the original owner of the Agimat, he would have known that it would revert to its previous owner the second it came out of Eximere. Maybe he already knew all about what happened at Diablo.”

  “Then you’d think he’d be able to figure out about the pit,” Eliza said. “He could have observed the same ghost cycle you watched up there. He wouldn’t have needed Steven to tell him the bodies were buried there.”

  “As much as I hate to say it,” Roy said, rising to pour himself a warmer, “I think we need to go back to that old biddy in Gig Harbor. She might be able to shed some light on all of this, especially now that the terms of the deal are out in the open.”

  “What was her name?”

  “Judith,” Roy answered. “Judith Duke. I don’t relish visiting her, believe me. She seems crazier than a shit house rat. But she might have some answers.”

  “Should we go today?”

  “No. Let’s spend the day here. Maybe stay tonight, too. We’d both benefit from just t
aking a day off. I don’t think he wants to leave Jason just yet, and honestly, neither do I. But when we leave, I’m going to suggest a detour on the way home, to see her.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  “What will you do with your day?”

  “Oh, explore around a bit. I’ve not had as much time here as you two. Do you suppose Kent Percival is still upstairs, keeping guard on the house?”

  “I would think so. Haven’t heard a word from him since we set the whole thing up.”

  “And what are you going to do today?” Eliza asked.

  “I guess what I always do,” Roy answered. “Go through books in the library, see if I can figure out who they belong to. It’ll take my mind off Jason, at least.”

  Roy paused. He didn’t like what he’d just said.

  “That came out wrong,” he said. “I don’t really want to take my mind off Jason.”

  “Just let today be whatever it is,” Eliza said. “Don’t force it.”

  “I’m glad you’re here,” Roy said, smiling at her. “I think the day we met you was a rare day.”

  She reached across the kitchen counter, extending her hand. Roy took it. “I feel the same way. Both you and Steven mean a lot to me.”

  Roy held her hand for a moment, then let it go. He walked out of the kitchen and to the library, where he settled into a large padded chair. He sat his coffee down on the small table next to him, and opened a book from the stack he selected earlier. Then he promptly fell asleep.

  ◊

  Many hours later, Eliza wandered into the library. Roy was gone, but the entrance to the stairway that led to the lower level was exposed. She walked down the stairs and through the door at the bottom, emerging into the large workspace of James Unser. She saw Steven walking among the work tables, inspecting the projects. She walked over to him.

  “You know,” Steven said as she approached, “I didn’t even think to check down here for objects for Aka Manah. But this room is full of them.”

  “They’re all in use, though,” Eliza said. “You don’t know what might happen if you were to remove one. Like this one, here.” She pointed to a project on the table next to them. A flat, thin piece of wood about a foot square was covered with a green moss. Above it, a contraption was rigged to drip a single drop of yellow liquid onto the exact center of the moss every minute or so. A collector pan under the moss was gathering a brownish liquid that ran from it, and recycling it back up through several bottles until it fed the tube delivering the drop of yellow liquid.