“Sounds like God,” Sam said.
Jacob ignored him. “In addition to this, there are certain lines on the Earth, some call them Ley Lines, and they cross and intersect just like lines of longitude and latitude. They map the places where the barrier is at its strongest and weakest. The ones from the Other Side, they know these lines, and they seek to exploit the weak spots. One such area was called Auschwitz, and there were many more in and around Germany. These were the places Hitler chose, by guidance of his vile masters, to build his camps. There they promoted some of the greatest acts of suffering and sacrifice seen in history. The barriers weakened and many, many evil things slipped through, to come back to our reality to provoke and destroy humanity.”
“Let me get this straight,” Sheriff Monroe said. He moved around a fresh chaw of tobacco with his tongue and tucked the wad into his right cheek. “These folks, like Hitler, or Pol Pot, they work for the bad guys, and they kill as many people as they can, so that more bad guys can come into our world?”
“Yes,” Jacob said. “And to make this long story short, Constance, your town, your little, unassuming home, lies directly above one of these weak spots.”
“So these creatures, they’ve come here to kill everyone they can, as a sacrifice?” Sadie asked.
“Correct,” Jacob said.
“That is some strange shit,” Tom said. When Dolores elbowed his side, he sighed and pursed his lips. “Forgive my language.”
“The Men of Perdition, the entities that have come to your town, were all born after World War II, spawned by Hitler’s sacrifice of the Jews and the gypsies and the homosexuals,” Jacob said. When no one spoke, he offered them a simple question. “Haven’t any of you ever wondered why mankind had grown so dark, so evil over the last century? Or wonder about the birth of the serial killer phenomenon?”
“You’re saying it’s all connected,” Mayor Reed said.
“Yes.”
“Wait a minute,” Sam said. “There was plenty of killing and badness before Hitler. The world was full of it; always has been, always will be.”
“True,” Jacob said. “But it has intensified over the last few decades, and this is due to the activities of the creatures that came through during World War II.”
“You tell some story,” Sam said.
“It is the truth,” Jacob said. “You’ve all seen them, some form of them at least.” Jacob looked at Sam. “You and your woman saw Spring-Heeled Jack, a famous legend from the late 1800’s reborn to life now under the guidance of a demon.”
“I don’t know about that,” Sam said. “He could have just been some guy hopped-up on drugs.”
“Sam,” Sadie said. “There’s no way.”
Sam grew quiet. Jacob turned to Tom and Dolores.
“You both saw the Bone Sniffer,” he said. “As did you,” Jacob pointed to Martin. “And you,” pointing to Jenny.
“I didn’t see nothing but a dead family,” Sheriff Monroe said.
“Where were they?” Jacob said.
“Over yonder, just off the road. It was horrible. They were killed and their insides were all spread out, weaved in and amongst the others, hanging from the trees,” Sheriff Monroe said. He shuddered. “I ain’t never seen nothing like it.”
“More proof that it’s a madman, or a cult,” Sam said. “And not some supernatural event.”
“The intestines, they formed a pattern?” Jacob asked, ignoring Sam. Sheriff Monroe nodded. “You must show me where this is.”
Sheriff Monroe sighed. “I reckon it couldn’t hurt.”
“If I’m right, then it is probably the work of the Black-Eyed Children,” Jacob said. “And they’ve already begun the ritual.”
“Ritual?” Dolores said.
“It’s to bring the evil into our world,” Mandy said. She smiled as all eyes turned towards her. “They make a sacrifice. I’m not sure who or what, but I can feel it, in my heart.”
“Oh, great,” Sam said. “Another one.”
“She’s right,” Jacob said. “It’s not enough to slaughter the entire town, for that blood is only the beginning, it only weakens an already fragile barrier. For the larger creatures to get through, for the Master of the Men of Perdition to come into our world, a final rite must be performed. It involves all of the creatures and four select humans, all with special blood, all spared by the hands of the Men of Perdition.”
Martin looked around, nervous, his eyes locking momentarily with Jenny’s.
“These people, the chosen to be sacrificed, are like the four elements, earth, water, fire, and wind, and are laid on the ground representing each direction,” Jacob said.
“Okay, hold on,” Sam said. He paused and looked around the room. “I’m not saying I’m buying any of this, but we do have a problem.” He pointed at Tom. “You say you saw something and I believe you. I did, too. Now who’s to say that what you saw wasn’t just some rabid animal, or some species of bear we’ve never seen?”
“I’m to say,” Tom said. “I’ve never seen it’s like before.”
“Okay,” Sam said. “Regardless, we’ve got a problem that we need to deal with. Standing around talking ain’t gonna help.” Sam turned to Sheriff Monroe. “You’ve got guns here. I say we get armed and drive right on out of town, call the State Police, and let them handle it.”
“Fine by me,” Sheriff Monroe said. A murmur passed amongst the group in general agreement with Sam’s plan.
“Wait,” Jacob said. He held his hands up to quiet the hubbub. “That is a good plan, except all of you are forgetting that those creatures are still out there. And they will not let you leave.”
“So you say,” Sam said. “We’ve only got your word for it, though. I mean, you talk about all these creatures and we’ve only seen a few. Two, to be exact. So what makes you think these other thing are even out there and why should we believe you?”
“The Weeping Lady, if you’d set eyes on her, you’d be dead already,” Jacob said. “And the Mad Gasser, he is the most cruel of all. He enjoys the torture, watching as a person drowns in his madness.”
Jenny giggled. It knifed through the room like gunfire. All eyes turned to her.
“I’m sorry,” she said, still laughing. “His name makes me think of someone who farts people to death.”
Sam smiled. “Exactly. None of this is believable.”
“And then there are the Black-Eyed Children,” Jacob continued, undaunted by the mockery. “They are savage and brutal. It is no wonder that no one has come here to tell the tale of them.”
The door slammed open and everyone jumped. Sheriff Monroe yanked his pistol from its holster and jabbed it at the air in front of him. Hazel strolled in, haggard and disheveled, her eyes bright with anger.
“I saw them,” she said. “I saw the little bastards, and this man’s right. They’re mean as hell.”
“Hazel?” Mayor Reed said. “Oh, God, honey. You’re okay! I was so worried!”
Hazel stormed over to Mayor Reed and punched him square in the jaw. His knees buckled and he fell to the floor, smacking the side of his head on the linoleum.
“Jesus! Hold on, now,” Sheriff Monroe said. He hustled over and grabbed Hazel, hauling her away from her husband just as she cocked a leg back to kick him.
“He left me to die, the rotten asshole,” she said. She fought the sheriff’s hold on her, but to no avail. He had hold of her good and tight.
“Be that as it may,” Sheriff Monroe said. “We got to have calm. You’re in my office, now.”
Hazel spat on the ground between her and her husband as he shook his face, groggy. “We’ll settle this later,” she said.
“You okay, or do I need to throw you in a cell?” Sheriff Monroe said.
“I’m okay,” Hazel said. She went limp in his grip and smiled. Sheriff Monroe let her go.
Hazel zipped past him and kicked Mayor Reed in the balls as he was struggling to get to his feet. He gasped and fell down, cupping himself, his face
as red as the Devil’s rear end.
“Goddammit!” Sheriff Monroe said. He grabbed Hazel by her arm and spun her around.
“I’m okay,” she said, smiling. “Now.”
Sheriff Monroe let her go again, shaking his head slowly. Jacob stepped over to Hazel.
“You say you saw the Children?” he said.
“If you mean those creepy kids with the black eyes, then yes, sir, I’ve seen them.”
“And they didn’t attack you?”
She shook her head. Jacob studied her a moment. “She’s one of the chosen. As is he.” Jacob poked a finger at Martin.
“What?” Martin said. His hand shot to his chest and he held it over his heart. “What did I do?”
“You have the stink of the beast on you,” Jacob said. “As does she.”
“My name is Hazel.”
“As does Hazel,” Jacob said. He peered around the room, sizing each person up.
Martin shook with nerves, finally succumbing to them. He pointed at Jenny. “She’s one, too.”
“What?” Jenny said. She backed away from the group.
“Is this true?” Jacob asked. “Were you passed by?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know what any of you are talking about. I watched my parents and my friend get killed right in front of me! Right in front of me!” Jenny yelled, her hands coming to her face as tears poured down her cheeks. “They were torn apart!”
Dolores stepped over and put her arms around Jenny. “Poor thing.” Jenny leaned against her shoulder.
She is the third,” Jacob said. “That much is certain. But who is the fourth?”
“What in the hell are you talking about?” Hazel said.
“They need four to serve as the final sacrifice,” Jacob said.
“That’s enough,” Sam said, interrupting. “I don’t want to hear your damn story anymore. I say we take a vote by show of hands. All those in favor of packing some guns and getting the hell out of here, raise your hand.”
All hands except for Jacob and Mandy’s reached to the sky.
“That settles it,” Sam said. “Let’s go.”
The front doors cracked open as the Bone Sniffer charged into the room, jaws snapping open and shut. It bowled over Tom and Dolores and knocked Sadie back into Sam as it surged straight for Martin. The Bone Sniffer smacked him to the ground with its big snout and scooped his body up in its mouth. It crunched down, shattering Martin’s hips, turning the bones to grit and powder as it turned and loped from the room, leaving as quickly as it came.
Martin’s screams trailed off into the night.
The entire room sat in shock for a moment. Sam held Sadie, Doc helped Tom and Dolores to their feet, Hazel leaned into Mayor Reed, Jenny shook with fear, Mandy gripped the bars of her cell, and Jacob stared out the open door. He looked into the darkness, a heavy weight on his heart. So, it had begun. The first victim, the first sacrifice had been taken. Three more would be next, two more he knew from this group. But who was the fourth? Were they already taken? If so, time was growing shorter far faster than he’d realized.
“What in the hell was that?” Sheriff Monroe said, shaking from his stupor.
“The Bone Sniffer,” Jacob said. “It has begun.”
II
Martin
It happened so quick. He’d been standing there, listening to that weird little fat guy talking, wishing he’d smoked that cigarette anyway, when the doors blasted open and the thing that he’d survived, the thing that had killed his Cindy and so many others before and since, charged right in, grabbed him in its jaws, nearly snapped him in two, and carried him away. Now it had him and he was helpless in its grip.
It moved so fast! The wind whistled in his ears as it hauled him down the road and he was a mile gone before he could even wrap his mind around what was happening to him. He could feel his bones grinding in its mouth, breaking to little bits, but mercifully, he couldn’t feel the agony of it. After the initial snap, a bright, white-hot pain unlike any he’d ever felt in his life shot through him and everything below his shoulders had gone numb. He wasn’t sure if it was because his back had been broken or if his nerves had been severed.
His eyes moved around, catching the scenery as the Bone Sniffer carried him on to whatever destiny awaited. Mostly what he saw was darkness, interspersed here and there with bits of light coming from a wrecked car or a streetlight or some house or when the trees overhead would part and the full moon shone down, casting an eerie glow. He saw dead people by the dozens, all killed in some horrible fashion, but the Bone Sniffer moved too fast for him to see the details; it was mostly just blood and lumps of flesh and bones. He was thankful for this, just like he was thankful that he was certainly going to die soon. Martin was tired, tired of the visions and the pain and tired of living without Cindy. And he was weary of this world, so full of evil and wickedness that he’d never known existed.
The Bone Sniffer ran from the road into the woods. Leaves and branches slapped Martin’s face and clawed at his cheeks. Death would be a relief, but he knew it wasn’t going to be an easy one. And as the Bone Sniffer entered into a clearing riddled with the intestines of dead children and adults, he knew it was going to get a whole lot worse for everyone.
Moonlight poured straight down into the clearing, lighting it almost as bright as day. Standing in the middle was a woman in a lacy white dress, a man wearing a gas mask, and another guy brandishing two gleaming, long knives. They all turned and watched as the Bone Sniffer carried his body into the middle of the ritual site. He could feel the evil emanating from them like heat shimmering off a desert highway.
They studied his inert body for a moment and then, in unison, nodded their approval.
The Bone Sniffer set Martin down and nudged his body, shifting it into place with its big muzzle, until it was satisfied. Bone Sniffer trotted away, back into the woods, leaving Martin behind as it loped after whoever was next on its list.
The brush to his right shook as three children, all with eyes as black as the void between the stars, burst into the clearing.
“Mommy!” Red Shirt said.
“We missed you!” Hippy Girl said.
“We love you!” Katie said.
They all ran into the embrace of the woman in white. She wept loud and hard, sweeping them up into her arms.
Martin watched them, sure in his heart that the tears the woman was weeping were nothing compared to those that would be shed throughout the world by the end of this horrible night. He blinked back his own tears and stared up at the moon, wishing he could have one last cigarette.
III
Sadie
“You’re saying that thing was one of them?” Sam asked. He was glaring at Jacob, the look on his face saying he was going to wipe the floor with the little bastard any second now. She felt Sam’s anger but she knew it was misdirected. Jacob was telling the truth; it was just hard to accept. Even she was having trouble with it, and this was seconds after that giant creature had bashed into the police station and snatched up that poor man and ran away.
“Of course,” Jacob said. He didn’t look the least bit perturbed by Sam’s anger. She reckoned he faced that kind of reaction every day; he had the feel of someone who’d seen a lot and done a lot, and nothing much fazed him any more. Kind of like somebody who’d come back from being at war, minus the post traumatic stress. He had been there and through that and was on the other side now. She felt sorry for the man even as she admired him.
“They took their first, so far as we know, and they’ll be back for the other two,” Jacob said.
Jenny screamed and ran out the front door.
“Someone go after her,” Jacob said.
No one moved until Dolores finally shot the entire group a disappointed look and walked to the hanging front doors.
“Here,” she said. “Let me.”
Dolores disappeared outside. Sadie wondered if she should go help but she held back, afraid. Who k
new if those other things were out there? She leaned into Sam.
“I want to go,” she said to him.
“Alright,” he said. “Let’s get out of here.”
He wrapped his arm around Sadie and steered her towards the entrance. He paused for a second and turned around to face those left.
“If you’re smart, you’ll get out of here, too,” he said.
Sadie could feel their eyes on her back as she and Sam walked outside.
The air was crisp and cool, such a change from just a couple of hours ago, when it was hot and muggy and so thick she could stir it with a spoon. The smell of rain drifted on the wind, indicating a thunderstorm was on its way.
Something about that made her feel a little bit safer, that despite the way the world had suddenly gone so crazy, there were some things that would never change, that were constant and true. Like thunderstorms. Or, as she looked up into the sky, the big old moon up there.
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