In the basement a ritual was taking place which was straight out of a horror movie Donovan had seen as a child. The woman they had been searching for was naked and tied to a metal table in the center of the stifling concrete walled room. She was weeping softly through the gag she wore as he peaked around the doorway onto the unsettling scene.
“Well, look here.” a voice said from behind them. The jig was up and they both knew it. The look on Andy’s face was something Donovan would never forget. It was a mix of shame and anger at having been caught with his pants down.
They were brought into the room much to the joy of the leader of this group of degenerates. He smiled at the two of them in such a way as to make their fear bubble to the surface and play across their features. The reactions brought forth a laugh from the leader who was not really a man nor a boy but somewhere in between.
“We will be with you soon.” this was his first meeting with Alton Tremont the vile coward he had been hunting ever since.
Donovan and Andy were tied and gagged so as not to cause any interruption to the proceedings. Donovan had never been so afraid in his life. If he had thought of something to say in the moment he was sure his tongue would betray him.
The two detectives could only watch in horror as the woman for whom they had been searching was gutted in the most horrible fashion. At first she loosed her pain through her vocalizations and the sound made Donovan close his eyes and beg for relief from the woman’s fear and pain given voice. He whimpered as the woman’s screams became grunts and ragged breaths. She did not die immediately and it seemed as though they were trying to kept her alive as long as possible. Once the ritual was done and the woman’s spirit had fled they turned their attention to the interlopers. Donovan was in a state of shock after the killing he had just witnessed but he had not yet begun to plumb the depths of human suffering.
Donovan was shaking as they took to Andy with glee. He stared at the floor imagining what was in store for him as his partner had his eyes and tongue put out. The horrible, unintelligible sounds he made once his senses had been stolen kept Donovan up at night to this day. All the while the cutter, Alton, was smiling and laughing at what he was doing to him. It was not a slow death but finally and unceremoniously, Alton sliced his partners throat. Deep red arterial blood poured from the gash across his neck. Finally, thankfully he slumped to the floor, his pain and torment over.
Alton approached Donovan and ran the blade gently across his cheek leaving a warm, sticky trail of his partners blood. He was not cutting him but rather caressing the flesh of his face. He moved back to the table and locked his eyes on Donovan. He began to chant and make motions with his hand. He burned the tongue of his dead partner in the brazier which was still lit. Slowly but inexorably the world turned inside out. Donovan saw the walls close in upon him and the heat became unbearable. Soon he found himself trapped in a hellish nightmare within his own head. He grimaced more than once as he told his gruesome tale to Lister.
The initiates of The White Temple found him some time later. Donovan did not know how long he had sat cowering in the corner of the hot basement. An industrial boiler, now a wide mouthed vision of madness, was burning it’s eternal flame within it’s heart. Donovan was drooling and screaming with wide eyes fearing the visions plaguing his shattered mind. The sights he had seen, the blood and horror clung to his fractured soul.
He could not form a coherent thought or even remember where he was. Then she appeared to him like an angel out of the black. A proffered hand in the void to raise him from his pitiful state. Magda washed away the darkness for a promise and soon, he was himself again. Not the soul shattered sack of shivering skin and bone she had found.
Later he had learned it had been a spell Alton had cast upon him. If he had not been found when he was he would have been lost forever, a babbling madman locked away from the world for all time. The relief at his liberation had made him weep. The tears were not only joy at having been spared but anger and loss at what had happened to his partner and the missing woman.
The promise he had made in the midst of his madness was one of fealty to those who had saved him. Just as easily they could have left him to his fate and if they had deemed him without use they would have, he had no doubt. They were not merely saviors but warriors and their compact was to win at all costs.
The White Temple was a group which considered themselves the self appointed protectors of mankind. Their origins were not lost but were so ancient only a few of their number were privy to the entire story of the beginning. Donovan was not to be one of those but instead, a hand to assist in their sacred duty which was nothing less than the protection the world. With such a great and noble calling he quit the force the next day and moved into the tower.
For many millennium The White Temple and The Cabal had been warring for the soul of mankind. There had been times when one side or the other would score a large triumph and change the course of humanity. The Dark Ages had been caused by The Cabal completing a ritual which had stricken the sun from the sky. If he had not borne witness to the magic of Alton he would not have thought it possible.
He was partnered up with a man named Colton Fairely and learned much from the middle aged Ranger. Theirs was to receive orders from the leaders in the tower, which was the home of The White Temple and track down whatever it was they were tasked to uncover. Donovan did not go into too much detail on his work for The Temple. Lister did not press him for it seemed to cause him no small amount of discomfort.
It did not take long for Donovan to move up the hierarchy due to his affinity for sussing out the truth of things. He had become used to seeing workings which defied explanation and learned to accept the impossible as fact. What he learned was not like Lister’s invention, which was something with concrete physicality. Donovan bore witness to things far more difficult to explain or rationalize. Magic existed in the world. As did those who knew how to wield it, people like Anton Tremont his sworn enemy. They had no choice but to stop The Cabal. They had taken Karak and if Donovan was right then this was something which could shift the balance of power for good.
“They are going to do something horrible with Karak.” Donovan looked like someone had just lifted the weight of the world off of his shoulders as he finished with a sigh.
“Magic, really?” Lister was genuinely confused. He could believe Vita’s world could be overflowing with magic, but in his world, the world he had known his whole life?
“Magic?” Lister repeated. He stood and began pacing the room. “I mean really… if there was magic in the world wouldn’t we know about it?”
“The proof is everywhere but most people refuse to see it.” Donovan was still seated but kept his gaze on Lister as he spoke.
“Ok.” Lister was trying to get a grasp on the situation but was having difficulty. “So some crazy cult has been around for thousands of years and they have a demon we let through. Now they are plotting to do something horrible with him which might lead to the end of the world?” As he spoke the truth it all seemed too incredible to be believed.
Donovan stood in Lister’s path and unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it open. On his chest a symbol was burned into his flesh. It was a circle quartered by lines longer than the circumference and looked like cross hairs. In each of the quarters within the circle was writing Lister did not recognize. The entire symbol pulsed with an internal blue glow, lighting the surrounding skin and hair. The symbol reminded Lister of a surgical scar mostly because of Donovan’s build and it was in a place where a man of his size would have one.
“This is what is protecting me.”
Lister looked closely at it but really did not know what he was looking at. Sure he had heard stories about magic, Alistair Crowley and all but he had never really given practical magic any thought.
“As long as it glows, this symbol will keep the madness at bay.” Donovan closed and began buttoning his shirt. “I have been told it does have a lifespan which means my sanity do
es too. Now you know why I want to find Alton. If I kill him then maybe I can get rid of this damned thing.”
“So magic is real.” it was not a question but a statement which did not hold much weight. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. This has been a hell of a couple days.” Lister sat down hard in his seat.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Vita was back home, in her village. She was walking along the main road leading through the center. She passed all of the houses she knew all too well. She could hear the children playing and smell the mossy, loamy scent which always seemed to permeate the air of the estate they all shared in such a wonderful and unselfish way. Her steps were unhurried for why would she need to. All was as it should be. Nothing was out of place as a slight breeze brushed her face and tickled her hair with the always present heat. Though she had longed for so much more than the small village had offered, in the moment, in the dream, she was content.
As she approached the workshop on the outskirts of the town she realized it was the old place, the one they had called home before the accident in which Merrill had lost his limbs. It was smaller and far more sturdy than the new one with pillars of stone and steel supporting it’s weight. She knew this was as it was meant to be.
The shadowy interior was cool to her warm skin. She walked down the aisles touching the surfaces of the various devices knowing the loving care Merrill had put into them. He was the smartest man she had ever known and she loved him dearly.
“Pappy.” she called in her dream.
“Vita!” she heard the return call but it was distressed, tight sounding. She rounded a corner to see Merrill buried in an insect mound, only his head visible like the many corpses she had seen in the caverns. His face not as wrinkled as it was the last time she had seen it but it was as it had been when this shop was still their home.
“Pappy, are you alright?” she was moving forward now not of her own volition. It seemed he was a magnet and she was being drawn inexorable toward him. As she approached, from the darkness at the edges of her vision came the warrior bugs which had pulled him from her hands and back through the portal.
“Pappy!” she screamed as the insects with their six legs skittering, their carapaces gleaming with their hardness came forward to rend them both. She felt the anger and hate fill her and she was no longer herself but a creature of rage grown large and imposing in the workshop. Her horns were long and devastating as she pounded them into the creatures, shattering them and sending them crashing through the rows. They came for her and with big swaths of a large clawed hand she swatted them about with ease, shattering them upon the walls with violence born from fear and love.
She was at Merrill’s side as they were being buried by the insects. They bit with vile pincers rending flesh with surprising ease but Vita’s blood lust had blinded her to the effect. Sharp saw toothed legs struck out ripping at her over and over again. They were being torn asunder, the sound of the tearing and the skittering of the many legs and gnashing of mandibles was horrifying. She could take it no more.
Vita began to swing wildly, her mind now gone. She was a beast without any self control or compunction to stop. She felt a wicked satisfaction in utterly destroying these creatures as she released a visceral howl from the depths of her being. The creatures were sent sailing through the air broken. To her horror Merrill was among them tumbling through the air his body a rag doll cast aside as though by some angry child.
She awoke then with a start and a loud whimper. Her eyes were wide and her skin was coated in a thin film of sweat though this world was a cold she had never known. She looked around in the dark room which to her eyes was not darkness but lit by the reds and oranges of her internal flame.
“It was a dream.” she said as she dropped her legs over the side of the bed her breath coming in gasps.
“Are you alright?” Lister stood in the doorway.
“I am fine.”
“You were dreaming of Merrill.” it was not a question as he entered the room leaving the door open a crack to let some light in. Lister knew all too well what such loss could do to a person.
“Yeah.” she looked up at him with blame written on her face. It was not directed at Lister but reflected back to her. “It’s my fault.” she stated flatly her eyes falling to the carpeting at her feet.
“No, it’s not.” Lister took a seat on the bed next to her. “I never should have left before everyone made it through the portal. If I had been there then we could have saved him.” Lister said trying to make her feel better but consequently making his own face redden with shame.
“I know he is alive. I don’t know how I know but I know he is.” Vita voice was so quiet it was but a whisper. “He is surrounded by those things waiting to be eaten or whatever those damn things do to people.”
“I have been working on something. In order to get back to save Merrill I have to find my computer. It is one of a kind, of my own design. It would take a long time to start from scratch.” Lister looked in her eyes. “We are going to go get him back, I promise.”
“Yeah, I just hope we can get back in time.” she sounded hopeless and Lister could not blame her.
She was from another world and she was stuck here without any of the people or things she had known her entire life. He could not quite understand how she must feel and though he did want to say something to make her feel better, he wasn’t sure he had the words to act as a salve to her heart. He remained silent. The two sat on the bed wondering what the hell they had gotten themselves into.
Lister had been working diligently as Vita slept. He knew what they needed to do and he was not one to admit anything was impossible. He was sure there had to be a way to find The Cabal and learn where they had taken Karak and more importantly to him, where they had taken his computer. He had a mission to get Merrill out of whatever bondage he found himself in and he would not fail.
Lister blamed his device for the predicament they were in but it was a two edged sword. Without the portal he would never have had chance to meet Vita. She and Merrill were two things which had come from this he did not regret. He knew no friends and perhaps this was what friendship was? Lister found himself relying upon her. Not just for Vita’s physical prowess which was considerable, but for her companionship as well.
“It’s finished.” he said looking at the resonator feeling Vita’s hope rise at the thought.
“What are we waiting for?” Vita hopped up, ready to get to the task at hand with no worry of the odds against them.
“Wait Vita. It is not powerful enough. We need to be able to search millions of square miles. This device is only able to sense your particular… signature for one mile.”
“Signature?”
“Yeah, I used your particular vibration, the vibration of your species along with a Singing Stone to distinguish you and Karak from the rest of the world.”
“So we have to drive around the entire northeast trying to pick up a signal?” Donovan asked.
“Right now yeah.” Lister sounded tired.
They sat there for a moment in silence each lost in their own thoughts. Lister was not feeling like he had accomplished much. Now his resonator was a one of a kind device thanks to the Singing Stones. The changes to his resonator put him no closer to getting Merrill back than did his kitchen stove.
“Let’s give it more juice.” Vita said with a confident tone, her eyes locking on Lister.
“Huh?”
“Yeah, you know, amplify the signal?” her hope faded as she spoke.
“That’s not poss…” Lister began but hissed to a stop as the idea struck him dumb. Lister was a bit surprised at the simplicity of it. Immediately he knew just how they could find Karak but he was not looking forward to the implementation of the fledgling plan.
“We need to go to the college.” Lister said sounding less than enthusiastic.
“My car is a block away.” Donovan said looking at Lister. “The Cabal is going to be on us once we start down this
path. Are you ready for what’s coming?” there was no doubt in his voice but the implication held thick in the air.
Lister had been too busy trying to find a way back to Vita’s home and to one of the two friends he had ever known. He had forgotten to worry about the peril they were in. Strangely he did not have any seconds thoughts about what they were intending. One path lay before him and it was not one he would turn from had he wanted to. Lister met Donovan’s gaze:
“I am ready.”
Donovan held his eyes for a moment. He had apparently seen what he had wanted and he nodded his approval.
“How will they know what we are planning?” Vita asked an obvious question, breaking the tense moment.
“Alton’s twin. She is a powerful woman. Somehow she knew we were going to be here and all of this was going to transpire. They know who you are. I am sure they know where you attend college.” Donovan seemed uneasy at the thought.
“Well, some witch is not going to stop me.” Vita said with finality. “I am not afraid to get my hands dirty to achieve my aims.” the look in her eyes made Lister feel almost sorry for the people they were up against for they had no idea the devastation coming for them.
“You may have to.” Donovan replied
“It doesn’t matter!” Vita turned on Donovan with her fingers curled into fists and a sneer stretched across her face. Donovan shrank back slightly from the sight of the beast suddenly dropped into their midst. Vita noticed her state and quickly regained herself. The tinge of red in her deathly hued cheeks bespoke the shame she felt.
“I am sorry.” she said after a silent, tense moment. “We need to get back. I know Merrill is alive and I have to save him.”
“We, have to save him.” Lister followed up. He was afraid of what they may be up against but he had made up his mind he was going to plow through whatever The Cabal, fate or the world had to throw at him.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Lister Crowe Page 13