“You were placed under arrest for possession of heroin. I already talked to Daniel,” Amy spoke openly of the DEA officer who had been assigned their case in two thousand and three, after they were busted in Danville for cultivation of cannabis. They had a rocky relationship with Agent Daniel McCormick, but he did get them out of several pinches in their time. Always for a price and seldom one that they were truly willing to pay. It had never bothered Amy that they had become informants, but it ate away at Hank every day. When they made the deal to turn in the people they were working with in exchange for their freedom Hank had thought that he was willing to do anything to protect his marriage, to keep himself and Amy out of prison. What Agent McCormick had called on them to do, all the people they had sent to prison…it was something Hank tried to avoid thinking about at all costs.
“What do I have to do for Danny boy this time Amy? Oh, yeah, why are you here? Didn’t we split up?” Hank got immediately irritated and afraid of what he was going to have to do. With all the people he had snitched on he figured that he would be used to it but it never got any easier. Especially after he sent his friend Andrew to prison for ten years for growing cannabis. Even that wasn’t enough for Agent McCormick who had demanded Hank and Amy set up several more of their friends, even wearing a wire on one occasion.
“He said that he owed us one, that we’ve been put through the ringer, but he will be in contact if he needs anything. Somebody should be here to uncuff you as soon as I call him back to let him know that you are awake now. As far as me and you…well I’ve been thinking about it Hank and we have a lot to talk about. A big part of me knows I made a mistake and wants to come back, I know it was wrong of me to put Boris’s death on you. Another part of me wants you back in my life, even if you only want to be friends. I miss you on more levels than just marriage. And as to that…well, they called me first when you came to the hospital because I am still your wife. We never filed for divorce so…” she broke off, staring away, averting her eyes and fearing his rejection.
“I love you Amy. I missed you every moment of every day. I will do anything to get you back,” he had no reason to lie, nor was he feeling good enough to put up a front.
“I love you too Hank. I love you too,” she began to sob.
“What’s wrong baby?” he asked concerned, he knew something else was bothering her.
“You are in liver failure. You can’t handle all of the prescription pills you have been taking, even your seizure meds are too much. You have Hepatitis-C, it has been eating away at your liver for twenty years and now it’s failing,” she burst into full on tears, still sobbing heavily.
“I had Hep-A back twenty years ago, but I got well. I was in the hospital for a while but I came out fine,” he told her plainly and firmly, as if it could change his diagnosis.
“The doctor said he’s sure of it. Back then they misdiagnosed Hep-C as Hep-A a lot. I’m sorry Hank. I’m so sorry. There’s things we can do, but if you don’t take care of yourself and if you keep taking all of those pills, and shooting FUCKING HEROIN, then you won’t live much longer baby,” she wiped the tears away, determined to be uplifting for Hank, not depressing.
“Wow. I guess I will have to change everything,” he thought about Amanda Wexler when he spoke, realizing that he had shared a needle with her and that she probably had Hep-C because of it. He was shocked that the thought didn’t amuse him, especially after she had screwed him over so badly.
“Did I lose my license?” Hank asked Amy but he already knew the answer. She simply nodded in affirmation.
“Hank I have a lot to tell you about the house, the town, the people down there…there’s a lot to it, a lot,” she got excited, almost heated like she did when she was stressed out or even in danger.
“Tell me. Looks like we’ll be here for a while.”
“I went to the state records building in Frankfort, out by the state capitol. I looked at every record on file for Gravel Switch that I could find. Also lots about Bradfordsville and Marion County in general. Anyways, I learned a lot about the house. Hank…everyone that moves into that damn house dies. The last four tenants before us were all found dead on the property. Almost like clockwork, every twenty years or so. All dead by hanging and ruled a suicide but one, who was obviously killed by some sort of animal…probably one of the things that attacked me. I mean, Hank, this ain’t coincidence. Before us there was a writer who hung himself. Before him there was a group of hippies in the sixties…” she trailed off again, spacing out as if a little too scrambled by the weight of it all to go on.
Hank laid his hand on her arm in reassurance and nodded for her to go on. She took a deep breath. Then she leaned in and hugged him. She took his head in her hands, gently so as not to hurt him, then showered his cheeks and lips with tender kisses. He felt alive and amazed that she was back in his life. Every bit of her affection did wonders to lift his spirits.
Amy continued after kissing Hank for a few minutes, “The hippies were having a party with some friends and several people disappeared, some were found naked and mutilated. One skinned completely alive. The father was found in the house, hung. There were several dead but also several survivors and they all said that the whole group had been abducted by aliens. It is a famous alien abduction story and that is why the writer moved in, he wanted to live in the house because he was writing a science fiction story based on the Gravel Switch abduction and massacre.”
“My god. The damn house is a death trap,” Hank could see that Amy needed a moment so he thought that he would interject.
“Yeah. It is. Okay, before the hippies there was a World War Two vet who came back and lived in the house. He was accused of killing a local boy and before he could go to trial hung himself in the house. Before him was a preacher who killed his whole family and hung himself. The messed up thing is they were all ruled as suicide. Now it gets even better…” something in Amy’s tone reminded Hank of a conspiracy theorist, but he was following her story without any problems.
“The house has been owned by the Hickman family the whole time, since nineteen hundred and five. Before that it was owned by a Chinese railroad worker who came back east after completing the trans-continental railroad. Gravel Switch is where they quarried a bunch of the gravel for the railroads,” Amy paused to breathe deeply.
“Quan. I know exactly who that motherfucker is,” Hank was visibly pissed off at hearing the story of the railroad worker.
“Yes. Quan had raped his own daughter, who’s mother was a Hickman. He was drunk one night after she realized that she was pregnant and he stabbed her to death with a pitchfork. When he sobered up he hung himself. The weird thing is all these hangings have been ruled suicide. But Hank, the local sheriff and coroner…both offices have been held by a member of the Hickman family or a cousin for over a hundred and fifty years. Bernice is one of the last with the name, Jared too, but everyone in that damn town is related whether they will admit to it or not.”
“My god. We don’t stand a chance. What are they doing killing all these people? I mean, what is if all for?” Hank began to tremble a bit.
“They are in a cult Hank. They’re called the Cult of the Black Goat. I know it sounds weird and I know that a lot of messed up shit has happened that we couldn’t explain. But the truth is that thing you saw in the basement, that demon…the thing that attacked me in the field between the road and the house…all the spirits of the house, which I am convinced are all the dead previous tenants, Hank…they are all connected. And all the people in that damn town and surrounding area are working together somehow. I know I sound crazy as hell, but they are a cult and I know it. I know it Hank because Jared tried to induct me into it, or initiate or whatever it was he called it. Initiation. Jared is like some sort of high priest Hank. I played along for a while and learned about it all. The whole thing, the weed they grow, the Cornbread Mafia, all of it is Jared’s. He controls everything and it is all a front to cover up the cult. They think they are
going to open a gateway that lets demons into our reality and that if they do that then they will be spared and given wealth and power. The whole thing sounds like a bunch of Scientology to me. I mean it is weird, but they believe our house is built on the spot where the thing they are trying to summon will come through to our dimension. Jared even admitted that he was the one who shot Phyllis and that she was a sacrifice to the demon,” she had much more to say but gave Hank a moment to respond.
“So Jared doesn’t work for Alan then. Alan works for Jared. Damn they are slick. I can’t believe that fucker. I’m sorry, I know you were dating him. Still, I always trusted him, didn’t even mind when I knew he was fucking you. That isn’t even like me. It was like I was his puppet that he just fed pills to. I was in such a daze that I didn’t even seem to notice,” Hank felt used and it was obvious on his face.
“Hank, we need to take Jared out before he does the same to us. It didn’t go over too well that I didn’t want to join their cult. I mean I was actually going to join until I found out about the human sacrifice. I mean, my friggin’ god, you know?” she had a look of disgust on her face, like she had stepped in dog poop and had to scrape it off of her shoe.
“Yeah. We really do. He’s too dangerous and obviously thinks that we are some kind of victims. Fuck him. I’ll shoot that fucker in the goddamn face!” Hank got loud enough that a nurse poked her head in to check on them but Amy waved her off, letting her know everything was alright with a smile.
Hank was glad to ride home the next day with Amy. It felt right to be riding in her car again. It felt right to have her next to him, to hear her voice, to kiss her and to hold her. Hank was looking forward to popping a Viagra when they got back to Gravel Switch, though he planned to surprise her with it. He did know that it would be awkward to explain to her that he had put all of her things in the shacks out back where Sheridan and Matilda had once lived a hundred and fifty years before. Still, it wasn’t anything to stress on and he would cross that bridge when he came to it.
He explained Lief and everything the young man did for him and Amy seemed fine with the idea of having another person live with them. The house was certainly big enough for three people and she expressed that she would feel safer with a third person there. Especially after her falling out with Jared. She feared that he would come by with some of his cronies and try to cause trouble for her, especially once he figured out that she was back with Hank.
When they got back to the house Amy rolled up a joint and Hank went upstairs to get Lief who was checking the pH of the water in the hydroponic reservoir. By the time they came downstairs Amy had rolled and lit the joint and hit it a few times.
“You must be Lief, nice to meet you!” she said in a bubbly voice that was the only speech she could manage as she had taken too big a hit off of the joint and was stifling a cough.
He reached out and shook her hand. “Nice to meet you to Amy. Glad to finally put a face to the name.”
The three of them sat and smoked weed together for hours. They put the satellite radio channel on the Grateful Dead and just chilled and talked. Eventually Lief revealed that he had been experiencing supernatural events ever since he had moved in but had been afraid to talk about it. After seeing him open up and after seeing how obviously uncomfortable it made him they told him everything, from Jared to Larvamog. They wanted him to know what he was up against and more so they wanted to inform him of what they thought they were all up against.
He seemed to take it all in much more easily than either of them thought he would. After Hank had finished the entirety of the tale and explained the depth of their desperation to see an end to it all he was quite happy that his apprentice came on board as a full on soldier in the fight.
“How do we kick their ass?” was the first thing the younger man asked, followed by some hard punches thrown into his own hand.
“We don’t know yet. God, I wish Phyllis was still with us. But when we figure it out we will not hesitate to take the fight to them. As far as I’m concerned their cult can suck it, their demon-thing…maggot, whatever…can suck it too. This is our house! If they are trying to bring demons into the world through our house, then we need to fuck them up!” Amy was feeling angry and ready to take the fight to them. It made Hank wonder exactly what it was that she had gone through with Jared.
Hank was relieved to see that Lief and Amy got along so perfectly. It made the strange transition smooth for everyone. The next few weeks were great for them all. Hank’s liver enzymes tested poorly and his skin started to turn a bit grey, his eyes began to yellow with jaundice but all of that seemed secondary to the spiritual fight that they were all engaged in together. They felt stronger as a unit and spent much time together trying to contact the spirits of the house via a Ouija board but were repeatedly unsuccessful. The house seemed to know that they were rallying against the dark side, against the demons and their servants in Gravel Switch.
All three of them seemed to agree that Hank would not get his health under control until they were able to cleanse the house and stop the cult from bringing its plans to fruition. It was that line of thinking that prompted Lief to take decisive action and arm the group. He went to the Wal-Mart in Danville and bought two double barrel twelve gauge shotguns, one for Hank and one for Amy, and a thirty eight caliber revolver for himself. Hank and Amy were both glad to get a shotgun and wondered why they had never considered arming themselves before. It made them do some thinking about how their hippie lifestyle had come at the expense of some basic survival skills.
They went out in the field and practiced shooting every day. All three of them became adequate marksmen in little time. They even had the joy of seeing Alan drive by one day and stop in the road to observe them gunning down some targets they had attached to hay bails. Hank still intended to pay Alan the last two thousand clones he owed but he had put little more than zero effort into it in months. He really no longer cared if Alan got paid, but because he considered himself a man of his word he intended to pay. As far as Alan owning him, well Alan could suck his double barrel. Hank had had enough of the Cornbread Mafia and their bullshit. He often joked to himself that they were just some kind of Satanic, Redneck, Inbred, Hillbilly branch of Scientologists and he wouldn’t be bullied or harassed by them ever again.
18
The Crown
The day after Alan saw Hank, Amy and Lief in the field shooting guns Hank called Alan up on the phone to let him know that it would still be a while before he could do another two thousand clones. It was true, his mother plant could not have any more branches cut off of her. He did not want to stress his mother, so he passed the news on to Alan, giving him as much head’s up as possible that the clones would be delayed yet again. He neither knew nor cared how the country boy took the news. Hank felt free of the shackles the Cornbread Mafia had been restraining him with. He was unaware that all of that confidence had only come to him after acquiring a firearm and learning how to properly use it.
He went to bed early that night, leaving Lief in the garage to blow glass and Amy was at work so an early night didn’t seem so bad to him. He fell into a deep sleep and relaxed a little more than he had in many months, other than the first few days when Amy had come back or that night he spent with Amanda Wexler. It was strange to him that he heard nothing at all as he woke up, tossing and turning from a nightmare to find a figure in all black standing over him. He heard the all too familiar sound of a shotgun being cocked and was told by a deep and gruff voice to, “Get up.”
Hank got out of bed and the man told him to get dressed and to come outside with him. Hank had never been a hostage before, other than Quan’s, and he did everything the man asked without hesitation. When he got outside he saw Lief was unconscious on the front porch, knocked out cold with a small trickle of blood coming from a dent in his forehead that would surely be needing stitches. The moon was full and Hank could make out that much, enough to know that Lief would probably be alright. When they got
out to the yard he could make out the shape of Alan’s van. Shit! He was being taken to Alan.
He got in the back of the van and was surprised to see that Michael Williams was in the back of it as well. The only difference was that Michael was hog tied and had a gag in his mouth. Hank was shocked to be told that he was riding shotgun. He had gotten in the back of the van but was being made to ride in the front. He was not sure what to make of the situation. Alan was at the wheel but didn’t say a word, so neither did Hank. The man with the gun got in the back with Michael, kicking him in the stomach as he did so. Michael let out a yelp that was audible even through the gag.
It was a short drive to Alan’s house and when they got there Alan finally spoke as he parked the van. “You getta see what happens to motherfuckers that don’t follow the rules tonight Hank. You getta see what I’ze got in store for ya, buoy,” Alan was not messing around. Hank could tell he was much angrier than he anticipated the man would be.
As Hank got out of the van the big man in all black got out of the back and kept the shotgun pointed at Hank as he marched him into Alan’s back yard. Alan whistled loudly and several men came out of his house, some Hank recognized, some he did not. They went to the van and grabbed Michael up and carried him behind Hank and the man with the shotgun.
“Michael, we gonna feed ya to the coyotes!” Alan yelled at Michael but Hank knew the words were meant for him as well.
When they were all gathered in the back yard Hank noticed that everything was pretty well visible because of the light of the full moon. The yard seemed empty. He wondered what it was that was going to happen, where they going to shoot Michael?
His question was quickly answered and all the men who carried Michael out of the van took him to a spot in the middle of the yard. They laid him on the ground and there were stakes on the ground that Hank could not see until they began to tie him to them with rope that one of the men had carried over his shoulder. Another man, one that Hank recognized as the bet taker at the dog fight where Boris had died, produced a knife and they cut Michaels shirt open, then cut a deep gash across his stomach and chest. He screamed in agony. Hank could tell it was not a fatal wound, but it was definitely a world of pain.
Gravel Switch: the black goat chronicles book 1: a Weird Tale of Extreme Horror Page 16