Canticum Tenebris (Wrath of the Old Gods Book 2)

by John Triptych

  Paul was incredulous. “Normal?”

  “Normal in that she didn’t get violent and was pretty docile. Then she started to get hungry again. I told myself I couldn’t kill anybody else and so I built a cage downstairs to keep her in. But then she started to change.”

  “Change?”

  “Yeah. She grew thinner. Her rib cage started to show and her eyes became hollow. Her gums started to receded and her nails got longer. She started screaming and howling so much, the other neighbors started to notice. That’s when I dug up Rachel’s corpse to feed her with because she wouldn’t eat anything else. And you know what?”

  Paul tried to keep a straight face. “What?”

  “She got better! Yes, she did. Her features began to switch back to normal. It was like she could somehow transform into something like a normal person if I could just keep feeding her human flesh. I began to experiment. I needed to find out the length of time she needed when it came to eating before she would change again. From my estimations now, it seems she needs to consume either an adult-sized body or two kids every three days or else she undergoes the metamorphosis.”

  “What happens if you wait too long?”

  “Something terrible happens,” Clint said. “It seems she gets thinner and gets taller.. She gets more violent and stronger so unless I allow her to feed, she could break out of the cage I built for her downstairs. If she keeps transforming, she could end up on the loose and could wipe out the rest of the city.”

  Paul raised his other hand in a gesture of peace. “Then we need to find a way to neutralize her, Clint. If she’s been infected with the spirit of the Wendigo, then she’s already dead and it’s too dangerous to keep her around.”

  Clint shook his head violently. “Kill my wife? No, no, no. She’s all I got left. Can’t you see that? The world is dead to me and she’s all I got left!”

  “She’s already gone too,” Paul said softly. “How many more people have to die? You know the Wendigo myth, that creature will never be satiated. It will just keep on eating and it will never stop.”

  “No! I don’t believe you! There must be a way to cure her! We just have to hang on!”

  “How did you kill Kim’s parents?”

  Clint looked at him quizzically. “Who are you talking about?”

  “The kids, the ones who live in the blue house down the street! You must have killed so many people that you can’t even remember them anymore!”

  Clint thought about it for a brief minute. “Oh, them- they were the last ones I killed. They were a couple that I saw over at the food bank. I recognized them as our neighbors so I walked over and told them that I’d found a huge cache of food in one of the houses that was untouched and I invited them to share it with me. They seemed so trusting, I thought it was going to be easy but in the end it was so hard because they were so kind. I almost didn’t go through with it.”

  “And yet you tried your best to cover it all up afterwards,” Paul said. His friend was truly lost now and he pitied him. “You even drove their car and ditched it a few blocks away.”

  “H-How did you know that?”

  Paul straightened his back and thrust out his chin. His fear began to subside and it was replaced by a growing sense of anger. “Their kids are staying with me. I looked for their parents and found the car. That’s when I found this.” He pulled out the Red Sox pendant from his pocket and threw it at his neighbor.

  The pendant hit Clint on his shoulder and fell down on the floor. He bent over and picked it up with his left hand and he carefully held it up in front of his face. “Oh yeah, I lost this some time ago as I remember. This was Donna’s and she always wore it on her blouse when we attended the games. I-it must have slipped out of my pocket when I was cleaning their car out.”

  Paul was adamant in his resolution. He needed to be stopped. Now. “This can’t go on, Clint.”

  Clint was glassy eyed. “Yes, it’s gotta keep going. I’m sorry, but my wife has to come first. We just have to hold on until it’s over and then I can get some proper treatment for her.”

  Paul snorted. “So the kids in my house, are you going to kill them too?”

  Clint’s chin began to tremble. “I don’t know if I can. I’ve never killed kids. But I think I’m going to have to. I think we can make it painless for them. Help me, Paul. They must trust you by now. Donna hasn’t eaten in over a week and I’m afraid she could break out of that cage anytime now. I’m asking you as a neighbor and as an old friend. Help me with Donna and I’ll do anything you want, I promise.”

  “You’ve gone nuts,” Paul said. “This is all so insane!”

  Clint looked away. “Will you help me, Paul? Please? I-I am not going to ask again. I’m begging you for the last time. Just say yes, please.”

  Paul grimaced. “No! I’m not a killer!”

  Clint sighed as he tightened his grip on the cleaver. “Nothing personal, then. You were a friend and I will always consider you one. But my wife needs to feed. And I choose her well being over the rest of the world.”

  Paul panicked, and moved to the side of the desk, dropping the flashlight on the floor as Clint advanced on him. As Clint tried to get around the office table, Paul got behind the tall leather chair and pushed it against him. Clint screamed as he got pinned to the wall of the office and swung the cleaver, which caused a big gash on Paul’s upper left arm just below his shoulder. Paul screamed in pain and had to let go of the chair as Clint pushed it aside and lifted the cleaver high over his head for a downward strike.

  “For Donna!” Clint screamed at the top of his lungs as he swung the cleaver down, toward Paul’s head.

  Paul was able to get both hands on his neighbor’s arm and the cleaver stopped inches away from his forehead. Clint kept screaming his wife’s name over and over again, as if to give him strength for what he had to do as he pushed forward and both men fell on top of the desk.

  As the two of them struggled, Clint’s screams soon attracted a high pitched wail coming from the basement of the house that began to steadily get louder.

  Paul gasped as he was pinned on his back while lying on top of the table. His neighbor was a heavyset man and he used his bulk to hold Paul down on the desk. Paul had both his hands gripping the wrist that held the cleaver and was barely keeping the heavy chopping blade from gashing his head. Clint kept on screaming as his other hand kept Paul’s head in place for the mortal blow.

  With his eyeglasses somewhere on the floor below, Paul groaned as Clint’s fingers dug into his face as his neighbor kept his head pinned down on top of the desk. His strength was slowly draining away, and his arms were numb as the cleaver inched closer. With one final effort, Clint shifted the strength of his arm and brought the razor-sharp cleaver down to Paul’s shoulder instead as he started slicing through Paul’s winter jacket and began to draw blood.

  Paul screamed in pain. With an animal-like desperation, the mythology professor used his teeth to clamp down on one of Clint’s fingers that was pushing on his face and bit into it with all the strength his jaw could muster. Clint howled in pain as Paul nearly tore his finger off, and he instinctively pulled his hand away from Paul’s face. Paul instantly pushed out with his forehead and head butted his neighbor on the chin.

  The counter-attack was so ferocious that Clint moved back, stunned at the blow on his forehead as he became disorientated. Paul knew he had to finish this before his crazed neighbor could recover as he grabbed a granite ornament from the office desk and smashed it across Clint’s head. His neighbor staggered a bit as he dropped the cleaver, but the second and third blows from the stone ashtray in Paul’s hand finally took him out of the fight as he fell backwards and crashed in a heap on the floor.

  Paul groaned as he clutched his shoulder in pain. As he looked at his arm he noticed that the gash didn’t cut too deeply; he would recover but stitches might be needed to close the wide cut. As he stood there trying to recover his wits, a loud grating noise like the screeching of metal b
egan to reverberate from the door leading to the basement. Within seconds, he was startled by a loud banging noise and an even more powerful scream coming from the basement just down the corridor.

  A momentary fright seized him as he dropped the granite ashtray from his hands. Paul started to feel his way around the carpeted floor for his glasses. After a minute’s worth of frantic searching, Paul’s fingers triumphantly clasped the thin eyeglass frames as he stood up once more and put them back on. Right at that moment, he staggered in shock and surprise as he heard the noise of splintering wood coming from the basement door. Donna must have broken through her cage and was now trying to get out of the basement.

  Paul was about to leave, when he saw that Clint began to stir his head, letting out a short groan as he lay stunned on the floor. Paul bit his lip and made a decision as he grabbed Clint by his shoulders and began to pull him out of the office and into the living room. As he dragged his neighbor past the darkened corridor, he saw that the basement door beside him was slowly giving way to whatever was inside.

  Whether it was with the help of adrenaline or just sheer willpower, Paul was able to drag his neighbor out of the house as he closed the front door behind him before pulling at Clint’s shoulders again. All he had to do now was to get him across the street. Just as he dragged Clint into the middle of the lane, the door to Paul’s own house flew open and the two kids ran out to him.

  “What’s going on, Professor? I heard screams and crashing sounds,” Kim said as she stood over him.

  “Help me get him inside, quick,” Paul said in between breaths as he kept on dragging his unconscious neighbor forward. Droplets of blood from his wounds fell on the street.

  Troy instantly got beside Paul and started to pull as well. Kim sighed and got behind them as she grabbed Clint’s legs and tried to pull them up so it would add less drag. But just as they made it to Paul’s front porch, the door to Clint’s house was violently ripped open and something tall and gangly stepped through as the three of them turned and looked.

  It might have been human once, but now it was a creature from which the stuff of nightmares was made. It was close to eight feet tall and it had very thin arms and legs. One could see the exposed rib cage in its emancipated torso just underneath the creature’s withered breasts. Its long, thin hands ended in razor sharp claws. The creature’s feet seemed to have been human once but now it seemed to have arched upwards into hoof-like protrusions, like that of a deformed deer’s. Its worst aspect was its face, which resembled like a cross between a human being and a moose. A pair of small antlers seemed to be growing from the side of its head while its long, tousled hair resembled a lion’s mane. The creature turned its snout upwards to the night sky and bellowed at the full moon above it.

  Both children screamed. Paul kept pulling at Clint’s shoulders as he started to drag him to the edge of the open door. “Get in the house now!”

  The kids ran inside first and helped him get his neighbor past the door sill as the Wendigo began to charge forward at them. Paul gritted his teeth as he pulled Clint in further so he could get the door closed before the monster could reach them.

  They finally got Clint’s legs through the door just as the Wendigo made it to Paul’s front porch. Troy reached into his pocket and threw a handful of pennies and quarters at the creature’s face just as it started to poke its head in through the open door. The Wendigo howled in frustration, and it took a step back while brushing aside the coins from its bloodshot eyes just as Paul and Kim finally closed the front door and pushed the deadbolt in place.

  Paul let out a brief sigh as he sat behind the door while trying to recover his breath. All of a sudden there was a loud crash as the front door nearly buckled but somehow held. He quickly got back up and started to drag the leather sofa to help barricade the entrance. The door continued to take a ferocious hammering as the creature outside screamed to get in.

  Kim quickly ran behind one end of the couch and she started to help him push it into place as the relentless pounding on the door continued. “Oh my god! What is that thing?”

  Paul gritted his teeth as they both pushed the sofa right behind the door. “It’s a Wendigo. An evil Indian spirit that’s cannibalistic.”

  Kim was wild eyed. She seemed almost hysterical. “W-What are we gonna do?”

  The creature outside let out a roar of rage as it failed to get through the door and then everything became quite all of a sudden. The only thing all three of them heard was Clint’s groaning as he stirred on the floor.

  Paul knew that the ordeal wasn’t over. He quickly looked around before pointing at the smoldering embers of the fireplace. “Get that fire started again, hurry!”

  Kim ran over to the logs that they had placed beside the hearth. “T-There’s only half a dozen logs here! We left the rest of them outside, by the porch!”

  “It will have to do,” Paul said as he grabbed a bunch of the wooden logs and threw them into the fireplace before relighting it with kerosene and the lighter in his pocket. “We need to keep the fire burning until dawn.”

  Kim sobbed as she knelt down on the floor with a sense of resignation. “But we don’t have enough firewood. The fire’s only going to last for a few hours! We’re all gonna die here!”

  Paul grabbed her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. “Nobody is going to die! Don’t give up on me!”

  At that moment, the window from across the room shattered as they all saw a pale, gangly arm burst through the window pane but it was stopped by the metal bars of the frame. Kim screamed again as Troy grabbed a small ceramic pot from the top of a coffee table and threw it at the monster’s arm. The vase shattered as it hit the side of the monstrous limb and the Wendigo withdrew it back with a frustrated roar.

  Clint’s groans had turned to coughing. It seemed that he was starting to regain consciousness. Paul quickly ran over to a standing floor lamp and tore out the electrical cord that was attached to it. He then quickly moved over to Clint’s side as he began tying his neighbor’s arms behind his back.

  Kim had recovered somewhat as she stood up and looked at him. “What are you doing to Doctor Taylor?”

  Paul made sure the knot he made on Clint’s restraints was tight. “He tried to kill me. That Wendigo out there is Donna, his wife. He had been killing the people around here and feeding them to her.”

  Kim whimpered as she put two and two together. “D-Did he … kill my mom … and dad?”

  Paul only nodded. A part of him felt that it was one shock too many for the kids to take, but he had a distinct feeling it was better to tell the truth now than hide it from them.

  Kim screamed as she ran over to Clint and tried to hit him, but Paul got up and hugged her as she cried in his arms. Troy ran over to the fireplace and grabbed the poker as he tried to swing the hot metal rod at Clint, but Paul was able to knock it away as he took the little boy by the shoulder and held him tight as well.

  For a brief moment, there was a sense of peace as the children kept crying in his arms and all Paul could hear was their pain and loss. His left arm felt numb but it was still functional. He needed time to think of a plan to escape but feared they were trapped. The car was right outside but it would be suicide to try and reach it with that monster on the loose.

  As the children slowly began to relax, there was a loud crash coming from the kitchen. Kim let out a yell as Paul stepped away from them and ran into the kitchen area. The Wendigo had tried to smash through the back door but thankfully it too was locked tight. Paul gritted his teeth as he pushed the heavy wooden dining table to reinforce the back entrance.

  With the help of the children, he barricaded the rear door was as well. Paul then moved over to the stove top and turned on two of the gas burners as he placed two large sauce pans on the counter. He quickly opened the cupboard and took out the remaining bottles of extra virgin olive oil that he had been storing and quickly poured their contents into the pans before placing them on the roaring burners.


  Paul then turned to the two kids as he kept rummaging through the pantry. “Make sure all the windows upstairs are also locked tight. Go!”

  Both Kim and Troy instantly turned and ran up the stairs. Paul kept trying to remember the things he had in the house that could be turned into some sort of weapon against the creature as he heard a loud crash and the children’s screams coming from upstairs.

  Paul quickly ran up the stairs. As he got to the corridor, he saw Kim backing out from one of the rooms.

  Kim screamed as she pointed at the Wendigo smashing through the bedroom window. “It’s t-trying to get in!”

  The Wendigo had broken through the glass and was trying to twist the window latch from the inside in order to get in. Despite its savage nature, it still seemed to have some sort of rudimentary intelligence, which made it even more dangerous.

  Paul noticed his umbrella by the side of the room and he grabbed it. He began thrusting it like a spear at the creature’s arms as Kim kept screaming in terror. The umbrella’s metal point scratched at the Wendigo’s right arm and the creature made a grab at it as it bellowed.

  As he kept trying to stab it with the pointed umbrella, Paul had an idea. “Get me the deodorant spray in the bathroom!”

  Kim looked at him in disbelief. “What are you gonna do? Make it smell better?”

  Paul grimaced as the creature got hold of his umbrella and the Wendigo snapped it in two with just one clawed hand. “Get it now or we’re both dead!”

  Troy ran into the bathroom, then reemerged holding the spray can of deodorant before placing it into Paul’s hands. The mythology professor took out a lighter from his pocket and held it slightly in front of the spray nozzle just as the monster was able to unlock the latch on the window.

  As the Wendigo started to push its head and shoulders through the window, Paul flicked the lighter on while spraying the creature’s face with the deodorant. As the vaporized chemicals from the spray can flew past the lighter’s flame, the mist instantly ignited as a jet of flame erupted from Paul’s hands and right into the snarling face of the Wendigo.