"Yes, you can, as a matter of fact. I like you. Cut to the chase, as they say. It's not hard to see you are a man of action."
Bobby detected a local accent but with some of his words there was a New England slant, like he was born here but spent quite a bit of time up north. Bobby was a master at things like this, detecting inflections, lies as people spoke, as well as their aura.
This guy was bad news, but there was something… different about him, now that he was so close.
Another waitress came up and placed Bobby's breakfast on the table and handed him his to-go bags at the same time.
"Excuse me, waitress? The man needs some more coffee," the man said.
When the waitress hesitated, he stood and walked with her back to the counter.
Bobby dug into his food, trying to calm down. His heart was racing and he wanted to bug out and run until he dropped, but he needed to eat and conserve his energy. He'd been in worse spots than this. He'd stared down the barrel of a loaded gun a few times and been severely wounded. He'd blacked out from pain and was once thrown out of moving speedboat.
As the guy sat back down, Bobby finished his omelet and shoveled the hashbrowns into his mouth.
"Hungry?" the guy asked with a laugh. "Don't worry about the bill. I took care of it for you, and tipped both girls as well. Have you tried the porkroll egg and cheese sandwich yet? It's a Jersey staple."
Bobby wiped his mouth with his napkin before leaning forward. "Who the fuck are you, buddy?"
"Just someone interested in someone hanging around Keyport that isn't a local. They don't usually get too many tourists." He smiled. "I'm Harrison Marsh."
"I'm leaving. Nice to meet you." Bobby grabbed his food order and headed for the door. The waitress was staring at him in fear and the entire staff was around her. The diner was quiet, all eyes on him as he pushed through the door and out into the morning sunshine.
He wasn't surprised to see the guy follow him out.
"I didn’t catch your name," Harrison said.
"No, you didn't." Bobby kept walking, ignoring the abandoned car as he swept past. He wanted to get his backpack and jump the first bus out of this weird little fishing village.
When the BMW pulled up next to him on the street, Bobby had to laugh. He stopped, made a cursory look to make sure they were alone, put the coffees and bagged food on the curb and pulled his pistol. He leaned into the BMW and pointed it at the guy's head. "Give me a reason why I shouldn't put a fucking bullet in your head."
Instead of cringing in horror, Harrison laughed. "My wife hated when I cursed. She hardly ever did it herself. The last time she did, you know what she said?"
Bobby couldn't believe they were having this casual conversation. "Are you for real?"
"Fuck." Harrison laughed. "She yelled fuck." He dropped his smile. "And then my grandfather dragged her into Keyport Bay to join with the Deep Ones."
"Sorry to hear that."
"I need your help," Harrison said.
"Fuck off. If you follow me, I will shoot you in the face. Do you understand?"
"You are carrying something I need to help me fight them. Is it on you or at the church?"
Bobby almost pulled the trigger. "I will shoot you."
Harrison put his hands up. "Then, on your way, tourist. I won't bother you again. However, I can be found by going to the easternmost end of Walnut Street and following the dirt road south."
"If I see you again, I'll shoot you dead." Bobby leaned out of the car and tucked the pistol in his pants but kept his hand on it. Once the BMW was driving east on Broad Street and he was sure he didn't double back or turn down a side street, he picked up the food and coffee and started to move at a fast clip. He was going to get the fuck out of here and never look back.
* * * * *
Father Rocco was hovering in the doorway when Bobby came up. As soon as he got up the steps, the priest moved back into the darkness of the church and shut the door behind Bobby.
"I brought you some breakfast. And coffee," he said and put the items on the altar before moving into the room he'd slept in. His backpack was where he'd left it and he went to it, putting a hand on the zipper.
"I know why you are here," the priest said from the doorway.
Bobby turned and almost pulled his pistol before relaxing. "You scared me, Father. Don't sneak up on a man like that."
"I'm sorry." The old man's eyes went to the backpack. "I looked. I know what you have, and I know God has sent you."
"There is no God," Bobby said rudely. "I need to leave. Enjoy your food and thank you for letting me crash here."
The priest blocked the doorway with his small body, gripping both sides of the doorway. "I can't let you leave. Not now."
Bobby slid the backpack over his shoulder. "I don't have time for this. I need to be somewhere else."
"Don't you see? They've been able to successfully destroy the holy items over the years. I have nothing to fight them with. Now you show up on my doorstep, with an item of power."
"Life is filled with coincidences." Bobby tapped the backpack. "This is the only thing keeping me alive right now, for whatever reason. I have some very bad men trying to find me because I took this."
"Why did you take it?"
Bobby didn't know. When he thought about it, none of it made sense. Black Death had been contracted by one of their normal shady business partners to retrieve the item from a church in St. Augustine, Florida and bring it to him in Miami. Bones and Tank had gone and lifted it without a problem, but, as soon as Bones had it in his possession, he didn’t want to give it up. He wanted to protect it, shield it from evil and run.
So he clubbed Tank as he got on his Harley and didn’t stop beating him until he was dead or near dead, and Bones rode north. In Atlanta, he hooked up with an old friend, not connected to the Black Death Motorcycle Club, and he helped Bones with a new identity, as well as a spell to hide him from Laser's scrying powers. So far it had helped. Bobby didn't know how far he needed to run, but he knew it was much farther than this backwater town.
"I don't need to answer you. It doesn't matter. I need to walk out that door and be on my way. Good luck with your problems, Father."
Father Rocco moved out of the way and let Bobby pass. "Please reconsider."
Bobby turned back to him and smiled. "It was actually nice to meet you. I've done some really bad things in my day. I wish we had a few more hours to kill, because I'd love to get in that booth over there and spill my guts. Get this shit off my chest." Instead, he turned and walked back outside into the clear day.
Harrison leaned against his BMW on the sidewalk and waved.
Bobby pulled his pistol and aimed at the bastard.
"Son, put that gun down in the House of God."
"That man is following me."
Father Rocco laughed. "That man is trying to find his missing wife." The priest gently put his hand on the gun and pushed it facing the ground. "What you have in your backpack will help him, don't you see? This is why you're here."
Bobby glanced at the man, who stood with a smile on his face.
"I should shoot him and be done with this."
Father Rocco laughed. "You'll never be done with this until you help us."
"Us?"
"Yes. I've been having dreams about this for a week. It is God's will. We need to help this man find his wife and defeat them."
Bobby closed his eyes as he put the pistol back in his waistband. "Them?" he asked and didn't know why he wasn't walking west down Broad Street and away from this madness.
"The Esoteric Order of Dagon," the man called from the sidewalk. "They took my wife into the bay. I need to get her back."
"How can I help?"
"God will let you know." Father Rocco tapped Bobby on the arm. "I need to get my things. By the time we return, the church will be gone."
Bobby ignored the priest and went to the fence, staring at Harrison. "If this is some bullshit you're pulling over me and th
e old man, I'll make sure you suffer before you die."
"Not a problem. But you'll see. In the end, you'll understand."
The priest came up with a traveling bag and stopped, turning back to the church and frowning. "This has been my home for innumerable years. I was a small boy when we came here but never fit in." he turned to Bobby. "I'm not one of them, you see. I never will be. Once I walk off this property, they'll sense it and torch the church, like they've been trying to do for decades."
"Then we need to stay and protect it." Bobby opened the gate and motioned for Harrison to come inside.
"I can't enter the grounds," Harrison said and turned to his BMW.
"Why not?"
Father Rocco moved past Bobby and opened the passenger door. "His blood is from here. His family is part of Keyport, even if he wasn't born in this town. He can't enter the church grounds."
* * * * *
The house was ancient. Bobby didn't care to enter, preferring to stand on the front porch with the priest. Harrison didn't bother inviting them inside. He brought lemonade for them, and some cookies on a tray, but the food went untouched as they spoke.
"She was taken two weeks ago." Harrison stared across the great lawn to the water. "It was my grandfather who took her, and not of her own volition." He pointed absently above him. "He was… living in a room upstairs since his death."
"You lost me," Bobby admitted.
Harrison sat down heavily on the top step of the porch. "My grandfather was supposed to have died. That's why Nicole and I came down from Boston. I had the romantic notion of a beautiful old house overlooking the water, someplace nice to raise children, away from the hustle and bustle of the big city."
"Instead, you came to Keyport," the priest said mirthlessly and joined him on the step.
"Someone had padlocked him away. Nicole, for whatever reason, unleashed him. He took her and they met the Esoteric Order of Dagon in the bay. It was storming. I ran across the lawn but she was gone."
"How?" Bobby asked.
"Nicole and my grandfather went into the water together."
"She drowned?" Bobby asked and looked at the serene bay, bathed in sunlight and with seagulls and pleasure boats in sight. It was almost a postcard, but he wondered how different a stormy night would be.
"She is now with them," Father Rocco said. He made the Sign of the Cross and stood. "Her soul is damned, given to the Deep One."
Bobby ignored the cryptic words and walked down the porch steps and through the weeds and small sand hills that made up the lawn. It was actually a nice piece of property. Set off from the road, with a gorgeous view of the Keyport Bay. And all within walking distance of the main thoroughfares, shops, restaurants and bars.
"Anyone know about the guy who runs the bar on Broad Street?" Bobby asked over his shoulder.
Both men had silently joined him on his walk, startling him.
"He is an odd fellow, right?" Harrison asked. "The wife and I went in for some dinner our first night here and he stared at her. Now, I think I know why."
Father Rocco shrugged. "I haven't been off the church property in years. All of these people are strange to me."
"Then why stay?" Harrison asked.
"I felt it was my God-given duty. The one shining light in this den of darkness." He put his eyes down. "And when they sent in non-residents to steal all the religious symbols and kill me, I felt like God had spared me for a greater purpose." He looked at Bobby. "Like you, my son."
"I guess we can't really do anything until tonight. But I'm not going into your spooky house if I can help it. I'm getting some nasty vibes just being on this property. Like the kind you get when you're standing on a desecrated Indian burial ground that's been filled in with violently murdered people, thanks to a serial killer, and then Satan himself decided to build a house on it and live happily ever after."
"I wish it were only Satan," Harrison murmured. "What we're dealing with is closer and infinitely more deadly."
"You two are starting to scare me. It's like you're reading lines from a Boris Karloff movie or something. Enough with the cliché spitting. I need to eat. I'm guessing Dominos won't deliver down to Crazyville."
Harrison laughed. "No, but there is a great Chinese buffet a couple of blocks over. Your treat."
Bobby grinned. "Of course. I'm also in the mood for a drink."
Father Rocco shook his head. "We don't have time for that."
Bobby looked up into the clear sky. "All we have right now is time. You know how these horror movies play out. None of the scary shit happens until it gets dark. I don’t want to sit around until midnight and worry about this town attacking me. I need to do some questioning, because that's just who I am."
"Let me lock up," Harrison said.
"Why, afraid someone will break into the creepy house?" Father Rocco said with a laugh. He trailed off as they got into the BMW and pulled back onto Walnut.
They could clearly see the smoke from the fire in the distance, and knew it was the church.
* * * * *
Bobby was going along with something that was beyond him, even with all the paranormal and weird stuff he'd been through in his life. With Black Death, he was part of the team, he knew which side he was on, and he generally knew his role and what to expect.
"I don't even know what this is," Bobby said as he reached into the backpack.
"Not here," Father Rocco said quickly, his eyes skirting around the property. "They are always watching."
Dinner was delicious, and Bobby went to town on the Chinese buffet, filling himself like he'd never done before. When the three men had entered, families and couples hurried with their last plate of food and rushed out. Bobby took it upon himself to pour soda from the fountain for them, since the staff stayed in the kitchen and refused to help. It was quite surreal, like they were lepers.
By the time they'd finished, the sounds of fire trucks were gone and they didn’t see smoke in the sky. Father Rocco wanted to go back to the church, but Harrison took him by the arm and led him back into the BMW and home.
Bobby refused to go into the house and the priest concurred. "There is something… off in this dwelling. Something evil resides here," Father Rocco said quietly.
"There are several things residing here," Bobby said with conviction. "My senses are all over the place, even sitting on this porch." Bobby no longer wanted to go to the bar. He wanted to be done with this night and leave.
Harrison dragged one of the living room chairs out for the priest and put it on the porch. "I haven't been back upstairs since Nicole left. I use the bathroom and sleep on a couch with my sneakers on. And I mostly sleep during the day, since it's too spooky at night. At dusk, I come out here and watch the water."
The three men were silent for awhile. As it grew darker, they grew edgier, fiddling with stray twigs, the priest shaking his legs to a fast rhythm, and getting more and more nervous.
"We'll need to go inside and examine the artifact," Father Rocco finally said.
Bobby watched as Harrison and Father Rocco entered the house, but as he stepped to the doorway and moved his foot forward he stopped, repulsed. His gift was in full bloom and his head felt like it was going to explode.
"What's the matter?' Harrison asked.
"I can't go in there," Bobby said, and slumped down into the chair on the porch. He handed his backpack to Harrison and closed his eyes. "Wake me before the fun begins."
* * * * *
It all happened so fast.
Bobby was having a nightmare about a tentacled beast just below the surface of the water when he was violently shaken by Harrison. He instinctively went for his pistol but it was gone.
"Father Rocco went into the painting!"
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Bobby pushed himself off the chair and came awake. He looked around. It was dark out, strange lights over the water. The porch was quiet.
"We don't have time for this. They tried to get the relic from him but he
resisted. I was able to pull it from his fingers but he was… sucked into the painting." Harrison hefted the golden item in his hand, which looked like a small staff, only twelve inches long and three inches thick. "We need to get out into the bay and find Nicole."
Bobby shook his head. "We need the priest."
Harrison scoffed. "This isn’t about God and the Devil and all of the old man's fairytales. This is real, this is us versus the Old Gods; don't you get it? He is out there and he is gaining power. We need to stop him. But first we need to rescue Nicole. I have a rowboat."
Bobby looked Harrison in the eye. "Where is my weapon?"
"I don’t know what you're talking about."
"Bullshit. Hand it over or I will take it from you."
Harrison pointed through the open doorway. "The priest took it with him. He has it."
"He's upstairs?"
"Are you listening to me? He went into the painting. There's no more time left." Harrison ran off the porch and toward the water with the golden staff in hand.
Bobby let him go and steeled himself to ignore the heady feeling, the pain and his primal instincts. He went into the ancient house and walked up the stairs, as if moving through molasses.
Halfway up, even with no lights on, he could clearly see the horrific painting on the wall, taking up several feet of space next to the stairs.
It seemed to move when he didn’t look at it closely, and it gave off such a wave of evil that Bobby held onto the railing and began to vomit. When he stopped, only bile spitting from his nostrils and burning his throat, he looked up and forced his will to fight it.
It was a landscape of volcanic fields, angry seas and purple skies. Creatures seemed to shift whenever he looked at another part of the huge mural. Bobby began feeling his mind slip as he held his ground.
When he saw the tiny image of Father Rocco, arms held above him as a large bat-like entity hovered above his head, Bobby tried to reach in and grab the priest.
Lightning seemed to flash and Bobby blinked, his fingers charred as he found himself disoriented and prone at the bottom of the stairs.
Keyport Cthulhu Page 4