Slattery Falls

by Brennan LaFaro

  “I knew,” he said, “that you and the girl would end up betrothed before either of you even knew the other existed. Once that bond formed, the three of you would make up a power source the likes of which I’ve not seen in centuries. You see, children are the purest fuel cells, but they don’t last as long as they once did, and I must go hunting every few years to… replenish myself.”

  Even with a corporeal body, his voice still surrounded us and shook the room.

  “You eat children,” I said.

  “Nothing so crude as that,” Weeks snapped back. “I utilize their essence. Meanwhile, I allow them an opportunity to become a part of greatness, a part of history. My gift to them,”

  Josh stepped forward, meeting Weeks eye to eye, if not exactly face-to-face, with stoniness. “What do you mean by centuries? Like since you moved to Slattery Falls?”

  “I would imagine you could not find out much about me from England, and before that?”

  Our silence answered the question for him.

  “Of course not,” he chuckled again, no merriment present. “Truth be known, the story from Bristol is much like the story here. I got greedy, took too many children from too small an area, and they burned me at the stake. Before that, Scotland. Beheading. Before that, dear me, I can’t remember, but the path originally began in Norway.” Norwegian, that’s the accent. “Eventually, one simply needs to move on and try again.”

  “And your wife? Tabitha?” spat Josh. “Do the villagers kill her every time as well?”

  His face changed at that. A pained look, and I worried for a moment that Josh had fucked up royally.

  “Tabitha, I met in England, and brought here with me.” His eyes seethed with fire. The room even felt warmer. “Slattery Falls made a terrible mistake acting so rashly and dispatching her with me. I have gone out of my way ever since to see that their future generations pay for it. I pick up stock and find a new place every so often, but this time, I see no reason to leave. Not without her.”

  He waited for us to reply. Probably not a good idea to antagonize him.

  “So now what?” said Josh. “You’ve got us here. You’re going to… what? Utilize our essence and live here for another couple hundred years?”

  Weeks took a step forward, meeting our gazes one at a time. “Yes,” he answered after a moment. “And it’s going to be most unpleasant for you, I’m afraid.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  You’ve heard the term “all hell broke loose”, I’m sure of it. Maybe you’ve even used it, and let me assure, you did so in a hyperbolic fashion. I don’t want to brag, but I’ve seen all hell break loose, and you haven’t.

  After informing us of his intentions, Robert Weeks didn’t move at first, arms crossed and closer to eight than seven feet tall now. As he waited for us to make the first move, the mysterious light pouring down from the ceiling took on hues of red and orange, flames licking down all around us. The temperature jumped at least forty degrees and the ground shook, the sound of the concrete floor grinding and splintering, drowning out everything else.

  The three of us turned toward the stairs we had come down, only to find another doorway turned into a solid wall. Shucks and son of a bitch, wouldn’t you know it? We kept to the far side of the room, trying to keep away from Weeks. He stood watching us scramble about the room with a half-smile on his face until we came across a doorway and ducked in. I say ducked in, because the door, and the tunnel it brought us through, couldn’t have been over five feet tall.

  Trying to escape a vengeful spirit is hard enough, never mind when you’re sweating bullets and have to run hunched over like an absolute dipshit. The tunnel narrowed as it went, eventually coming to a rounded end with nothing but a hole in the floor. A rope hung down, tethered to the wall by a mounted hook. Another obvious trap, but what other option did we have?

  “I’ll go first,” I said, adrenaline finally lending the inspiration to stop letting everybody else take all the risks.

  “We’re being bottlenecked,” said Elsie. “I don’t love the idea of you going first.”

  “And if you cut in line, will that make it less of a trap?” I smiled, gave her a peck on the lips, and lowered myself down. A lifetime of choosing nachos over a trip to the gym caught up with me all at once. It occurred to me I hadn’t even been able to climb the rope to the ceiling in high school gym class. What hope was there for me now?

  I continued lowering myself down, arms burning, losing my grip and sliding a foot or two down the rope occasionally. I could see Elsie repelling above me, having a far easier time. After what felt like a thousand feet, my feet hit solid ground. I stepped away from the rope to let the others down and attempted to get my bearings. This new room was dark—like cave-in-the-center-of-the-earth dark.

  After the sudden onset of heat in the last room, a welcome draft made it feel huge. Keyword is feel, since I couldn’t see more than a foot in front of my face, and I had stowed my flashlight in Josh’s bag at the grotto. I saw an Elsie-shaped person hit the ground followed by a Josh-shaped one, complete with messenger bag. As Josh adjusted to the Stygian blackness, he fished around for our flashlights, then stopped as an alternative source of light emerged.

  The light came from two pinpricks. Two sea-green pinpricks. Eyes. Fuck me.

  As the eyes came closer, we retreated, scraping up against a wall behind us. At first I had misjudged how close the eyes were, turns out they were further away, but they were massive. I expected Weeks to step into the little bit of luminescence cast by the hole in the ceiling. Instead, an unspeakable monstrosity filled that gap.

  The closest comparison I can make is to a buck, but with no skin or musculature the description doesn’t do it justice. Calling it a skeleton wouldn’t be accurate either. That implies it was skinny, or somehow frail, but the buck appeared broad and fierce, tattered pieces of rotting skin hung from bones, the smell of dirt and decay arriving right before the rest of the beast. This thing had been dead for a very long time.

  It lumbered toward us, then came to a stop and let out an inhuman combination of a groan and roar. When the unearthly sound ceased, it charged. I dove to the left, and the beast collided with the wall, sounding like a Flintstones car crash.

  I think this was the closest we ever came to breaking our never split up rule. We hauled ass in the direction the buck had come from, hoping the creature had knocked itself unconscious. At least I think that’s what happened, since I couldn’t fucking see anyone else. I went at a flat-out sprint, surrounded by the sounds of footsteps and heavy breathing, the blood pounding in my ears. Hoofbeats joined the din. A crash and a scream told me it had overtaken Elsie. I changed direction, hoping against hope that I was heading the right way, when I slammed into a wall of bone. I didn’t know if I could hurt this thing, but I’d sure as hell try.

  The pain registered immediately, and the beast’s mass gave no quarter. I tried reaching, scratching at anything I could get my hands on. My fingers latched onto what felt like an eye socket, and I could tell I had its undivided attention. I heard Elsie scoot out from underneath as my fingers mashed through wet gristle, extinguishing one bright sea-green eye.

  The buck swung its head wildly, trying to dislodge my hand. As much as I wanted to get away, I was hurting it and wanted to press that advantage. I applied as much pressure as possible, then felt a searing pain take over my left thigh.

  The antler? What else could it be?

  Elsie got to her feet beside me, panic in her voice. “Travis, what is it?”

  “GO FOR THE EYES!” I shouted.

  I heard a sickening wet crunch that must’ve been its other eye, and the other green light blinked out. The beast let out a wounded cry and pulled away, running back toward where we had descended from the floor above. There was no outlet that way, but I was sure it would find or create one.

  This fucking place and its “anything goes” policy. I felt a momentary twinge of sadness for the thing that
had just tried to gore us. Why did that fucker have to send an animal after us?

  “Are you okay? What happened?” said Elsie.

  Oh yeah. I’d been stabbed. “I think so. It hurts like hell and I can’t see how bad it is, but it doesn’t feel life-threatening. Can you feel if an injury is life-threatening?”

  Against all odds and common sense, she laughed, and I couldn’t help thinking of the first time I’d met her. How that strange sense of humor had drawn me in from the start, even if it took me a while to realize. I felt her reach out and cradle my head against her chest. “I guess I’m not trained in mortal injuries. Can you walk on it?”

  “Yeah, pretty sure.” I grunted and grumbled, getting to my feet. “Hey, where’s Josh?”

  “Here,” he called back right away.

  “Could have used some help there, man,” I said, immediately feeling Elsie’s gaze cut into the back of my head. “Shit, sorry. No, don’t worry about it.”

  “I froze,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like that. I’m the one who’s supposed to know what to do here, and I just left you and Elsie to get torn apart.”

  “Josh, man. You can’t beat yourself up. I don’t think anyone has ever seen anything like that and gotten out of this fuck-faced basement to tell about it.”

  “Did you just call a basement, fuck-faced?”

  “Well, you know what? It is a fuck face. I can put some weight on this thing. Elsie’s fine, right? I feel like I was probably supposed to check on that.”

  “Yes, fine, thank you. My knight in shining armor.”

  “So we’ve got to keep going. Otherwise we just sit here and wait for him to, like, rip our souls out? I don’t know.”

  “Yeah,” said Josh. “That’s a pretty fair point. Any guesses what’s ahead?”

  “Dark. And lots of it.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  My leg wasn’t horrible. I could walk on it, but it was definitely worse than I let on. It actually worked to my advantage because we walked pretty slowly. The house had done little in the way of earning our trust and any excuse to avoid charging ahead would do. Then that fucking voice again.

  “My children, have you resigned yourself to walk in the dark forever?”

  “Just looking for the exit sign,” I called. Look, quick aside here. You might think I’ve added in some snark at this point to make myself look more courageous, but I was scared, completely and utterly shitless. No shit, whatsoever. I was also fed up and frustrated. I thought, if this fucker is going to kill us anyway, I might as well have some fun in my last few minutes with the people I love.

  “You won’t find an exit, not unless I want you to. These caverns go on infinitely. You could walk for days, weeks until your legs collapse beneath you and dehydration sets in. You may as well give in now.”

  “Kindly fuck off, and let us walk in peace,” said Josh, surprising even me with the flippant way he said it. Then the ground shook. The tunnel flooded with a dim hellish light, and the surrounding walls roared.

  Weeks appeared directly before us, even larger than before, at least eight feet tall by now. The green in his eyes glowed like those of the buck.

  “I have centuries, an eternity to wait you out, bastard scum, but it’s been long enough. So I’m going to take you one at a time. I’ll pull your limbs off your bodies, and I’ll suck the meat off your bones. Then maybe crack them open and drink the marrow. Don’t want to miss any of that essence.” The impatience in his words and the light show, however unimpressive, spoke to his fury, but the calm with which he described his plans for us contained a chilling air.

  “The others,” he continued, “will watch.” He held a hand up and I felt my feet sink as if I’d stepped into a warm mud puddle. As soon as the liquid reached my ankles, it hardened again. Elsie was in the same predicament on my right, trying desperately to pull herself free, but to no avail. Josh’s legs were free. A look of panic flashed across his face so quickly that you might have missed it if you blinked. Then my friend was back. He reached into the Misfits bag and pulled out a small book just as Weeks grabbed him around the middle. The bag dropped from Josh’s shoulder and fell to the ground with a sense of finality.

  “As a rule, I take no pleasure in this,” said Weeks, “but you three are particularly troublesome. I don’t think I’ve ever had to work for a meal like this before. All this struggle, and for what? You could never have hoped to escape this place with your lives. You’ve been destined to end up here, like this, your entire existence. I’ll be able to stay here and continue my crusade against this cursed town, or maybe pick up and go somewhere new. I quite like America, perhaps the west coast this time.”

  While Weeks spoke, Josh flipped through the book he’d plucked from the bag. Frustration and anxiety turned to hope in his eyes as he settled on a page. He whispered while reading from the page. Had the son of a bitch found a ritual, after all? A frenzy ran through his voice, as if he had a mile of words to speak and only a meter in which to do it. I couldn’t make out much of what he said, but it didn’t sound like English. Then Weeks paused.

  “What are you doing? What is it that?” He tried to snatch the book from Josh’s hand. As soon as it met his skin, a loud sizzling sound erupted. Weeks yanked his blackened fingers away from the book and let out a roar. The same wounded but dangerous sound that had come from the buck earlier. Something told me he would not be running the other way this time.

  With no warning, Weeks grabbed Josh’s arm, the one that held the book, and wrenched it from his body, throwing it to the side. Elsie and I both screamed, frantically pulling at our feet, our concrete restraints every bit as solid as before. Josh bellowed. He clenched his teeth and closed his eyes, continuing to speak in the unknown language. Whatever he had in mind, I hoped he could do it fast.

  Weeks still had Josh by the torso with his left arm. He wound his right back to deliver a crushing blow, and time slowed to a standstill. The chant ceased. I could only hope because it had finished. A sense of calm washed over Josh’s face in that split second, and a half a smile crept on to the right side of his face. It would be a few more minutes before we knew what had happened, but in that moment, Josh knew he had won. He never got to see the aftermath—he didn’t need to. This was why he’d come, and he knew it all along.

  I couldn’t help thinking that I’d never get to hound him about that.

  Weeks’ massive fist connected with the side of Josh’s head, resulting in a sickening thwack. A crack resonated through the underground cavern. Whether it came from his skull or his neck, we never found out. Josh’s body went limp just before Weeks unceremoniously tossed him to the floor.

  “I don’t know what kind of game you little shits think you’re trying to pull, but he got off easy. You two, not so much.” His unflappable exterior had finally cracked.

  “Robert?” A voice came from behind him, heavy with reverberation. It sounded like a woman.

  The anger drained from his eyes, his shoulders slumped. He didn’t even turn.

  “Tabitha.”

  An apparition, bathed in white light, materialized behind him. I recognized her instantly from the original picture Josh had found. She wore a floor length evening gown, her skin unblemished, and her eyes kind. Was this the ace up Josh’s sleeve?

  She approached Weeks and stopped a few feet behind him, waiting for him to turn. As he did, tears rolled down his cheeks.

  “You’re done here,” she whispered. A sound so soft it didn’t seem capable of reaching our ears, yet it did.

  “Years of study, I’ve learned how to cheat death. It’s my right to be here.” Some of the confidence that had drained away at the initial sound of her voice was returning. “I have missed you… fiercely, over the years, but I have no desire to join you in death. Not yet.”

  “What great deed are you performing here, Robert?”

  He waited for her to go on.

  “When we first met, I will admit
I was drawn to your power. The ways one could change the world with the ability to live a hundred lifetimes, but what exactly have you done with that power, that time? Darling, you have become so obsessed with living to see the next day that you make no plans for it, and even worse, you do not care what you have to do to see it. I spent my last day on this earth being dragged out of my home, informed and shown proof that my wedded husband murdered children, and then hanged. I cannot speak for you, Robert, but the people of Slattery Falls did not hang me high enough to snap my neck. It was an awful way to go.”

  “You, more than anyone, know that the dead have time to plan. I suppose I could have haunted you. Made you pay for my unfair death with sleepless nights and a lack of peace, but I pitied you. I pitied you and I loved you. The man I married had so much potential, and the man I have watched since I died is just cruel. Robert, do you know why I am here?”

  “I was murdering children long before I loved you, Tabbie. I didn’t stop for an instant either.” There was no venom in his declaration, just a statement of fact. “It’s the only way I could survive.”

  “Then perhaps surviving is not worth the cost. I ask again Robert, do you know why I am here?”

  “I guess they sent you here to kill me. I’ll tell you, love, what I told them.” Tears flowed freely now, collecting in his beard. He gestured at Elsie and I, callously ignoring Josh’s body. “You won’t succeed.”

  “You cannot kill what is already dead. You have been killed many times and it never seems to stick. I came back to take you with me, to help you cross over.”

  “And how do I know what kind of judgment awaits me on the other side?”

  “You do not, but you can trust me like I once trusted you, and you can trust that I love you and I believe that somewhere inside you is a good man. Your faith will be better placed than mine was.”