“Please,” Mayor Reed said. “Time is growing short. Who knows when one of them will come back for us?”
No one said a word. He stood on the receiving end of insolent stares.
“My car is right there. Let’s just get in and drive out, like we planned.”
“Yeah,” Tom said. He let go of Dolores and stood to his feet, offering a hand to his wife. She took it and stood next to him.
Jacob gazed at the three of them standing there, united, like they were the strangest sight he’d ever seen. He sighed heavily and got up. He looked at them with dark, glittering eyes.
“We cannot go,” he said. “For the evil is trying to be born, even as we speak.”
“Fuck that,” Mayor Reed said. “I’ve had enough evil for one day, thank you very much.”
“I can feel it,” Jacob said. He face twisted in pain as he clutched his chest. “It hurts.” He pointed off to his right, in the direction the Bone Sniffer had gone. “It is down the road a ways, and then there is a sharp curve.”
“Miller’s Bend,” Tom said.
“Yes,” Jacob said, eyes closed as he concentrated. “At that junction, off in the woods to the right of that is a clearing. They are there.”
“Miller’s Grove,” Mayor Reed said. “Tina and I used to picnic down there on Fridays.”
Tom and Dolores looked at Mayor Reed.
“What?” he said. “I was having an affair, okay? Like that matters now.”
Dolores shook her head. She turned to Jacob. “They’re all there, in Miller’s Grove?”
“All that are left alive, yes,” Jacob said. “And the Men of Perdition.”
“And they’re going to do a ceremony, to bring something bigger and more evil into the world?” Dolores said.
“Yes,” Jacob said.
“Can you stop them?” Dolores said.
Jacob opened his mouth and shut it quickly. He paused.
“It is in God’s hands,” he finally said. “In God I trust.”
“Okay, then, that settles it,” Mayor Reed said. He patted Tom and Dolores on the back and steered them towards his car. “Let’s get out of here.”
Dolores resisted. She turned back to Jacob.
“This evil, if it comes through, how bad will it be?”
Jacob shook his head. “I cannot say, except that it will be very, very terrible for all.”
“And you can’t stop it?” Dolores said.
Jacob paused again. “I have to try.”
Dolores turned to Tom. “Let’s get out of here,” she said. Tom nodded and slid his fingers between hers. He squeezed her hand tight and together they walked to Mayor Reed’s car.
The Mayor stared over at Sadie and Aggie, both still by Sam’s dead body, heads bowed.
“You two coming?” he said.
Sadie lifted her chin, tears splotching her red face. Her eyes riveted towards Jacob.
“You have weapons, right?” she said. “A way we can fight them?”
“Yes,” Jacob said. “But if they can regenerate, then we have far more to consider and deal with than I’m equipped for.”
“But we can hurt them, right?” Sadie said.
Aggie turned his craggy face towards Sadie. “Girl, I like the way you think,” he said.
Sadie jumped to her feet and Aggie joined her.
“Those motherfuckers killed Sam,” Sadie said. “I want some payback.”
II
Hazel
Like the others, Hazel was paralyzed. She could see, hear, smell, and even move her eyes around, but she couldn’t budge any other part of her body. She was scared out of her mind in the presence of these creatures, and her heart pounded in her chest like an epileptic jazz drummer. Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes as she watched the beginning of the end of the world.
The Weeping Lady called her children over to her side. Hippy Girl, Katy, and Shoeless skipped over to stand in front of their mother, their sad, pale faces ringed with apprehension.
“Children,” the Weeping Lady said. “The time has come.”
“Do we have to go, Mommy?” Hippy Girl said.
“Yes,” she said.
Their faces fell and they looked sadder and more lost than ever before.
“Do not worry,” the Weeping Lady said, taking Hippy Girl’s face and cupping it in her hands. “Your sacrifice will bring on a new night, a darkness to last forever. You exchange your essence for that of one of our Lord’s.”
“We want to stay with you,” Shoeless said. A tear dripped from the corner of his left eye and glittered in the moonlight.
“One day, we shall be together again, forever,” the Weeping Lady said. “But the first step of that journey begins tonight.”
The children nodded as one. The Weeping Lady crouched down on her knees, her white gown spreading out across the ground and over the feet of the black eyed children.
“Katy, you first,” she said.
Katy stepped forward.
As this transpired, Hazel watched, afraid and yet fascinated. She was in the presence of power, real power, and the air in the meadow had taken on an extra charge, like a current of electricity was flowing through it. The taste of burning copper touched her tongue and she felt the hairs on her arms stand up as the Weeping Lady raised the front of her veil and stared at the first child.
Katy shrank back, but the Weeping Lady’s gaze locked onto hers and her eyes froze. They turned from black to white, the eyeballs seizing up and cracking, like eggshells. Katy’s eyes split and fell out of their sockets in jagged little pieces, littering the ground as her body spasmed and black bile bubbled over her lips. She fell onto her back, her spine arching once and then she stopped moving completely.
The Weeping Lady turned to Hippy Girl. “You are next,” she said.
III
Aggie
They stood around the remnants of Jacob’s trunk, the implements, once inside and orderly, had been tossed out laid at their feet like scraps of junk. Aggie bent down and grabbed a shotgun and held it aloft.
“I’ll use this,” he said. “I was always good with a shotgun.”
Tom stepped out of the police station, shaking his head.
“I don’t get it. The electricity’s out, nothing’s working,” he said.
“What about the radio?” Dolores said.
Tom shook his head. “It’s on a battery back up, but it’s like the batteries are dead.”
“What about our cells?” Mayor Reed said.
Those with phones pulled them out and looked at them. No one was able to get any reception.
“It is the work of evil,” Jacob said. “The entities they are conjuring are filling the air with all sorts of energies. They must be interfering with communications.”
“To hell with this,” Sadie said. She slung her cell phone across the parking lot. It hit Sam’s smashed truck and shattered. She bent down at the small pile at their feet and grabbed a pistol lying there. Jacob’s hand shot out and stopped her. He pointed at two sacks sitting next to the pistol.
“You should take those, instead,” he said.
“Why can’t I have the gun?” she said.
“They should take it,” Jacob said, pointing to Tom and Dolores. “Just in case.”
“Damn right,” Mayor Reed said, pushing past Sadie and snatching the gun up. It was a Colt revolver, six shots. He popped the chamber and examined the bullets, his eyes big.
“Those bullets are silver,” Jacob said. “Like these blades.” He held up the two long knives he’d brandished against Spring-Heeled Jack. “They may not kill the evil, but they shall surely wound them.”
“Hold on a second,” Aggie said. He was tired and angry and wanted a drink so bad he could weep. “Why should they get the only other gun? I thought we were the ones off to save the world or some shit.”
“Screw you, old man,” Tom said. “We need protection, too.”
“You’re the cowards running off,” Aggie said.
&nbs
p; “And you’re a drunk,” Dolores said, coming to her husband’s side.
“Damn right I am,” Aggie said. “And I wish I was drunk right now so I could stomach the sight of your ugly face.”
Her face turned red and she raised a hand like she was going to smack Aggie when Jacob stepped between them.
“This is not the time,” Jacob said. He looked at Aggie. “If we fail, then the evil loosed on the world will surely seek the closest living humans to devour, and those would be your friends here.”
“He better pop some antacids, then,” Aggie said. “Else he’s going to get a sour tummy.”
“You know, I never liked you,” Tom said.
“Cry me a river,” Aggie said.
“Enough!”
It was Sadie. She’d picked up the two bags Jacob had pointed out to her and glared at everyone. “Enough,” she said again. Silence fell on the group.
“You want to leave, fine,” she said. “I was right there with you five minutes ago. But now things have changed. You have to go and get help. So take the stupid gun.”
No one said a word for a few moments. Finally, Mayor Reed spoke up.
“So, I guess that’s it, then,” he said.
“I reckon so,” Aggie said.
Each person looked at the other.
“I’m sorry I said you were a coward,” Aggie said to Tom, who nodded.
“I’m sorry for calling you a drunk.”
“I am a drunk, goddammit,” Aggie smiled. Jacob looked pained and Aggie shot him a mean look. “Calm down, Reverend. God don’t mind me tossing words about. If he did, he would have done killed me a long time ago.”
Another moment of silence. Aggie stared at what were probably the only people left alive in the little town of Constance. They weren’t many, but they were his neighbors, and he loved them even if he didn’t know them all that well.
“I suppose we got work to do,” Aggie said. He rested the shotgun on his shoulder and pulled out the keys to his truck. “I’ll drive.”
IV
Jenny
Jenny cried as she watched the last child, Shoeless, spasm and fall dead. She wanted to look away, she wanted to close her eyes and wish it all gone, but she couldn’t. Her gaze stayed riveted on all that was happening around her, regardless of how scared she was. It was like she was being compelled by something outside of her body.
The Weeping Lady picked up each dead child and carried them over and laid them between three of the four humans on the ground. Her crying seemed to grow louder and more pronounced with each step she took. The children were placed so their heads were between the feet of each person of the group and their tiny feet were between the heads of the chosen. This left one space vacant between where Mandy and Hazel lay. Jenny wondered who was going to be put there.
A sudden movement on her left made Jenny’s eyes whip around and then freeze on the Mad Gasser as he took his mask off, throwing it to the ground. He stretched his arms to the sky like he was trying to limber up. She’d never seen anything like it before. If she wasn’t paralyzed and her mind wasn’t locked into its current state by some unseen hand, she was sure she’d have gone insane.
He didn’t have a human face. He had been a person at one time, it seemed, because it had the oval shape of a human head, but it was completely devoid of hair, like the body of the Bone Sniffer, and it had no ears. The Mad Gasser had no face to speak of; just a blank sheen of pink skin split in two down the middle by a long, vertical slit. For a moment, Jenny couldn’t help but think it looked like a vagina. That moment passed when the gash cracked open and yellow pus dribbled from the bottom of it, running down what would have been a chin on a person but was just a knob of bone on the Mad Gasser. The slit parted and two stems, black with long streaks of glowing green, slid out on each side at the top portion of the opening.
At the end of each stem was an unblinking eyeball.
The two stems snaked in the air, each eye looking here and there, moving separately yet with purpose, scanning the entire area. Jenny would have vomited, if she could have.
At the bottom portion of the slit, another stem uncoiled, this one much longer and thicker and resembled a tube, hollow at one end, much like the hose on the gas tank that the he had been carrying around. This stem was black with pulsing purple stripes running along its sides. It wriggled in the air like an obscene tongue, licking the wind and tasting the sky.
The Weeping Lady walked over to him.
“Do your work, brother,” she said.
The Mad Gasser nodded and strolled to the perimeter of the clearing. As he did so, green gas hissed and sizzled from his tongue, spraying from the hollow end of the lower stem. The gas billowed on the air and settled, hanging around the top of the grass like some sort of fog. He made his way around the boundaries of the meadow, creating a clear line of green gas that hung in place, unstirred by breeze or physical intrusion.
The Weeping Lady nodded to the Bone Sniffer.
“It is time,” she said.
V
Jacob
“The Weeping Lady is their leader,” Jacob said. He sat on the far right, next to the window, his eyes searching the dark woods that lined the road. He was tired and rattled and more than a little afraid. God had called him here to save the world from the intrusion of an evil so ancient, so powerful, that if it got through to this dimension, the other weak points would buckle and fold and literally, all hell would break loose.
And yet, he was not prepared, not in his research or his knowledge nor in his weaponry. He had traveled here as quickly as possible, carrying only what he could round up at the last moment, knowing that time was crucial and the faster he got to Constance, the better. If he’d been a day earlier, he could have helped to prevent things getting as far gone as they were.
Or could he?
The resurrection of the Bone Sniffer had shaken him more than anything had disturbed him in a long, long time. It was causing him to question his faith, and that was something he hadn’t done since he could remember.
“She is the key,” Jacob said. He wanted, no, he needed to talk, to straighten things out in his own mind. He had to instruct the others with him, proud warriors fighting for humanity’s fate, so they would understand what to do in case he fell or failed. And ordering things helped to keep his fears at bay. If he could just take one thing at a time, one foot in front of the other, he could cope.
Or so he believed.
“She is the one who will lead the ceremony, the one who knows and will speak the arcane scriptures to bring the great evil into our world,” he said.
“So we go in there, shoot her in the head, and get the hell out, right?” Aggie said. “Sounds simple enough to me.”
“Yes, but you must understand, each Man of Perdition serves their purpose,” Jacob said. “The Black Eyed Children bring slaughter and death, like the others, but they’re vessels; the bodies they inhabit, and their spiritual energies, help to fuel the ceremony. I am sure that they have already been laid to rest, next to the four chosen humans.”
“What about that big goon, the fucking dog that won’t die?” Aggie said.
“The Bone Sniffer sups on the marrow of its victims, and in particular, it will drink from the four chosen humans. When it had done so, it will spit the marrow onto the ground in the middle of their configuration of bodies and it too will lie down to die with the others,” Jacob said.
“And the other two? Mr. Hoppy and the guy with the gas?” Aggie said.
“They are protectors, foot soldiers, entrusted to keep any interlopers out of the area, to secure the site so that the Weeping Lady may conjure with no interruptions.”
Aggie sighed. He slowed the truck down.
“Miller’s Bend is up yonder,” he said. His old fingers twitched on the steering wheel. He was scared, Jacob noticed. He turned and looked at the woman, Sadie, and saw no fear in her eyes, only anger and determination. She suffered a grievous loss tonight and she appeared ready to do
whatever it took to get her revenge.
Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord, Jacob recalled. It seemed tonight it was going to take the power of God, the reliance of an old drunk, the wrath of a wronged woman, and the shaky faith of a Man of God to save the world. He wondered if it would be enough.
VI
Martin
The Bone Sniffer chose him first. It dropped its big head and opened its maw and crunched Martin’s right leg, snapping it in two at the knee. There was no pain. He was blessed that way, unlike the others, because his injuries had completely paralyzed and numbed him. He felt the pressure of the jaws and the power in the creature, but as far as physical discomfort, there was none.
He looked down his body as the Bone Sniffer sucked the marrow from his right thigh bone, slurping it up like a cat cleaning itself. When it was done, the creature moved to his left leg, cracking it open and drinking from the left thigh bone.
He watched, as detached from what was going on as his calves were from his thighs. There was nothing he could do. He’d stepped into a nightmare where his friends and lover was murdered and ever since then, despite his hopes and dreams, he could not escape from the reality that he was doomed.
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