GNELFS

by Williams, Sidney

  She realized her head was hurting. It throbbed around her temples and across her forehead. Were the Gnelfs doing that too? At feeling Heaven’s tug or her arm, Gab sat up, disoriented. "Sweetheart, are you all right?"

  "Head hurts some."

  Gab hugged her. "Maybe you're hungry."

  Heaven's stomach felt a little queasy, but she nodded. Maybe some food would be good. She followed Mommy into the kitchen.

  "What do you want?"

  "Cereal."

  "Good enough for now." Gab took down a box of Frosted Flakes.

  Heaven sat at the table, watching the flakes fall. The Gnelfs wanted to hurt Mommy. They had warned her about telling, but maybe she should so Mommy could be on the lookout for them too.

  "Mommy?" she said as the bowl was placed in front of her.

  "What, dear?"

  "Why would the Gnelfs be mad at you?"

  Gab was silent, and her face showed concern. "Why do you ask?"

  "Just wondered."

  "Sweetheart, they've been attacking you."

  “But you would be upset to see me hurt."

  "Yes.”

  "Who's mad at you, Mommy? Could it be Daddy that told them to come?"

  Gab put her hand to her face, covering her expression as her eyes closed. For a moment she chewed her lower lip. "Baby, Daddy is far away because of his job."

  "Doesn't he ever want to see me again?"

  "Of course he does," Gab said. "He'll come to visit. Soon."

  Heaven began to eat her cereal, fighting the tears that wanted to flow. She wouldn't cry. Mommy was too worried already. Mommy still loved her, and she didn't want her upset. If Mommy got upset she might go away too.

  ~*~

  When Althea and Marley arrived shortly after six P.M., Gabrielle showed them into the living room. Althea carefully lowered herself onto a seat, but neither she nor Marley seemed able to sit still. The pastor folded his hands in his lap, wringing them like a funeral director.

  "I've put Heaven to bed again," Gabrielle said. "She's kind of upset."

  "Has anything else happened?" Althea asked.

  "Another incident last night. Not quite as bad as before. Nothing happened to her physically this time." She told them about the slashed pillow and about the message on the mirror. Then she repeated what Danube had related to her.

  "It's hard to accept something this strange, but I know weird things are happening. Mr. Danube flew out to L.A. this morning. He's trying to check on my ex-husband. I'm worried because Heaven seems to have come up with that same idea on her own, that her father might be responsible."

  "Children often puzzle over why their parents break up and why one goes away," Althea said. "They blame themselves either consciously or subconsciously."

  "She may have overheard something too, I'm not sure. I'm praying to God this is not something Dave has cooked up to hurt his own daughter."

  "What do you know about this Danube?" Marley asked.

  "He's some kind of priest, not the traditional type. He works for an order of nuns."

  "That's odd," Marley said, "but maybe it's fortunate that he showed up. Last night, Althea had an encounter of some kind. I think it may have been a spiritual attack."

  Reflexively, Gab turned to Althea to get her opinion of what had happened.

  "Yesterday I would have scoffed. I'm not saying the parson is right, but I will tell you it's like nothing I've ever experienced before. I wanted to come back here because I was concerned about Heaven's well-being."

  "She's been all right today. Danube performed some kind of blessing. There was the mirror warning, but that was directed at me. I can hardly believe it. I was hoping tonight would be different. Jake Tanner is going to drop by in a while. He talked to a rabbi this morning. The rabbi sort of confirmed some of the things Mr. Danube said."

  "Seems I'm a little behind in mystical matters," Marley confessed. "I guess I need to learn more about all of this. I guess I've only scratched the surface.”

  "I don't know what in the world is happening here or why it's happening to me," Gabrielle said.

  Marley leaned toward her. "I don't have experience with this sort of thing. I've read about it, but I've never dealt with it firsthand. I will try to help you, though."

  "Thank you. Let's hope you don't have to."

  ~*~

  The Dave’s new address was in an even more unpleasant part of town. The sidewalk which led up to the door of the bungalow was cracked, clumps of grass clawing through the gaps. The front porch was sagging, and exterior paint was beginning to peel away in dry, crumbling flakes.

  Devon parked the car at the curb and looked nervously at the house across the street. “You want me to wait here?"

  Danube traced her gaze. "Maybe you should come with me," he suggested. She was all the help he had.

  The girl who answered the buzzer was blond, dressed in a short denim skirt and a tight blue T-shirt. Her hair fell to her shoulders in a limp, oily wave of tangles, and the tan on her cheeks made her look as if she needed to wash. She didn't look Asian.

  “Can I help you?"

  "I'm Danube," he said. "I'm looking for Dave. Would you get him please?" His tone and the look in his eyes made it clear he would accept no excuses.

  "Uh, sure," she said. "Just a minute."

  Since the woman had seemed unafraid, Devon decided to wait in the car, and as she stepped off the porch, Dave appeared, wearing white shorts and a pale blue T-shirt. He hadn't shaved in a while, and his hair was a tangle of curls.

  "Do I know you?"

  "I'm a friend of Gabrielle's. She's been trying to find you."

  "What does she want? Child support? I haven't got any fuckin' money. I lost my job.”

  One of Danube's red eyebrows cocked upward. "So you are selling drugs?"

  "Shit man you're not some kind of cop?"

  "I came to talk to you about other matters."

  "What the hell do you mean?"

  "Your daughter has been having nightmares. What do you know about the Gnelfs?"

  "Fuckin' green men?"

  Danube grasped his collar and shoved him back through the doorway into the darkened living area. It was a match for the front of the house, a seedy square with lumpy furniture.

  "I'm wondering if you might have encountered someone in the spiritual marketplace. Perhaps someone willing to help you exact some sort of revenge on your wife."

  "I don't know what you're talking about."

  Danube seized Dave's wrist and twisted it, touching a pressure point that drew a cry of agony.

  "Let him go," the girl demanded. "He's not hurtin' nobody."

  "We were talking about green men."

  "All right. My little girl had some books about them or something. That's all I know. I told Gabrielle I didn't want anything to do with her anymore. She wanted to leave, fine."

  "You've lost your love for your daughter?"

  "Hey, Gab wanted to take her. I can do without the responsibility."

  Danube shoved him onto the couch.

  "The Gnelf books contain markings which could be utilized to harm the child. You know nothing about that?"

  "They're cartoons. That's all."

  Kneeling, Danube placed his hands on the man's shoulders and stared into his eyes. Unblinking, Dave stared back, as sweat formed on Danube's forehead, popping out in beads that looked like tiny pearls. Still he would not relinquish his contact. On Dave's shoulders his hands began to tremble, but he did not waver. He let his thoughts search, weaving their way through the man’s brain patterns.

  It was not magic exactly, just an exercise, a process he had learned long ago. He used it infrequently, but today he had no desire for delay and the struggle of hours of questioning. He needed truth quickly.

  After a few more moments, Dave began to tremble and a thin trickle of saliva slipped over his lower lip. His eyes began to roll back in his head, and only Danube's hands kept him upright.

  Releasing his grip, Danube
watched the man slump onto his side. He had sensed no presence of magic here, and he doubted this man was capable of what would be required to perform the acts which had touched Heaven's life.

  The girl rushed over to him, crying as she looked down at the slumped form on the couch. "What did you do to him?"

  "Less than what he’s shooting into his arm does," Danube said, tilting his own head back and massaging his temples with his fingertips.

  "He's dead."

  "He will be fine. Let him rest."

  "You bastard. What did you do?"

  "I cleared his thoughts. The process was taxing for him." He turned his back on her and walked out the front door, almost stumbling as he exited.

  Devon was resting her head against the steering wheel.

  She lifted it when she heard the door on his side close. "Two thousand miles to dine on a dish of red herring," he said.

  "Where to now?"

  "I want to go to the place where they make the Gnelfs."

  ~*~

  Tanner shut his computer down. He wanted to get over to Gabrielle's. A feeling of concern had found its way through the storm of his imagination to nestle in his brain. Normally when he was writing he was able to shut out other notions and feelings even in the worst of times, but today he could not. He kept thinking of the things he had witnessed and of the eerie warnings Danube had conveyed.

  The old adage of naming a fear to make it go away came to his mind. But this fear could not truly be named, or if it could be given a name, like Gnelfs, it could not be understood, and that was at the heart of the saying. If a fear could be understood it could be conquered, but how could one understand some esoteric and forgotten myth that threatened to tear away reality?

  When, Gabrielle showed him into the living room, he shook hands with Marley and Althea, and then helped himself to a cup of coffee from the service on the coffee table. Casually, Gabrielle sat down on the floor in front of his chair and rested one arm against his leg.

  Heaven was now curled up at the end of the couch, her head resting on Althea's lap. Her eyes were closed, and breath purred softly through her nostrils. She seemed so innocent and angelic—so at peace.

  They all watched her for a while, their vigil silent except for the occasional sound an appliance made or the creak or groan of the house. Each noise made eyes narrow and muscles twitch. They were waiting for something bad to happen.

  "Have you heard from Danube?" Tanner asked, to end some of the tension.

  "No calls."

  "I wonder about this man," Marley said. "He's a priest and he isn't a priest?"

  "He's as mysterious as some of the other goings-on," Tanner replied. "I think I trust him, but I don't know what to make of him."

  "I've studied the Bible and good and evil all my life. I've never thought anything like this could be possible, that it could manifest like this," Marley said.

  "Why did it have to choose me?" Gab wondered again. "A couple of days ago it looked like I might be getting my life in order. Now everything is screwed up again.”

  "I wish I could help you toward a resolution," Althea said. "That's my job, but I just don't know what to do in the light of all this. The parson and I spent the afternoon going through some of his books and searching the web, and we didn't find anything pertinent."

  Tanner related again what he had discussed with the rabbi.

  "We didn't delve very deeply into these themes in the Old Testament in seminary," Marley said.

  "The Book of Raziel is apparently very powerful."

  "I don't see how Dave could have laid his hands on that," Gab said.

  "Ex-husbands can do a lot of things you'd never expect," Althea stated authoritatively. "You're married to them. You live with them. Then, when it’s over, they're something totally different. They can do things you'd never believe the nice guy who used to send you roses would have pulled."

  Gab looked skeptical. "I don't know. There's got to be some other explanation."

  Before anyone could reply, the sound of the laughter filled the room.

  Chapter 12

  After a bit of discussion in the offices where Gnelfs were merchandised, Danube obtained the creators' office address. They preferred to work in the little studio in which they had started out.

  Stepping into the air-conditioned reception room, Danube found a petite blond secretary behind a small mahogany desk.

  "I need to speak to the creators of the Gnelfs," he said aloud.

  "Do you have an appointment?" she asked brightly, in her voice a seemingly calculated Southern California inflection.

  "It's very important that I speak with them," Danube said.

  She smiled. "Sir, do you realize how many people say that? The Gnelfs are very popular. We have visitors frequently even though our office is not listed. If we accommodated every request for a personal visit we wouldn't be able to create more Gnelfs material. Now if you'd like to leave something to be autographed for your children . . ."

  "A child may die if I do not speak to them about the origins of their work."

  "Sir, I hardly think this could be a matter of life or death."

  "Ask them if they know anything about The Book of Raziel."

  "I'm not supposed to bother them. They're on deadline with a new project."

  "Please."

  Hesitantly she moved away from her desk and through a door. She returned in a few moments, face puzzled.

  "That seemed to get their attention," she said. "Go right in."

  The Gnelfs creators were laboring in a cluttered writer’s room in which a large white board faced a table holding laptops and crumpled note paper. The wall was decorated with framed images of the various Gnelf characters. The creators were both in their early thirties. One was tanned and had smooth blond hair. The other, who sat behind a drawing board, was heavier, wore glasses and sported a beard, while a snap-brim hat covered his thinning hair. They both looked nervous.

  "Can I help you?" the heavy one asked.

  Danube stood in the doorway, looking from one man to the other, studying them quickly, spotting weaknesses and dangers with this hasty assessment. Softly, he spoke, introducing himself.

  The heavy one shifted about on his stool. "What the hell do you want?"

  Danube found a seat facing the men. "I want to talk to you about your creation," he said. "You are?”

  “What?" the blond man asked.

  “Your names."

  "I'm Robert Eden," the blond man answered. This is Allen Hyde."

  "Eden and Hyde. Creators of Gnelfs and Gnelfland."

  They nodded, intimidated, wondering if they should call security. He kept his eyes focused on them to keep them in place. He intended them no harm, but he wanted no interference.

  His strength had been taxed by the encounter with Davis, the touch for Devon, and the effort to get past the receptionist. He wasn't up to the strain of battle or the further effort needed to extract information.

  "The two of you do most of the preliminary artwork?"

  "What is this about?" Hyde asked.

  Danube closed his eyes, fighting to control impatience and building anger. "I need answers about your work," he said. "I don’t have the time to go through the effort of creating a façade in order to talk with you, and I do not have the patience to try to make you believe who I am or why I am here. Now, you do the artwork?"

  "I did the initial stuff," Hyde answered, still a bit indignant. "On the TV shows, hell, there's a whole staff of people. Inbetweeners, character—"

  "The books," Danube said.

  "Yeah, that's kinda how we got started."

  "Why did you put the symbols in there?"

  "What? What symbols."

  The color began to drain from the blond man's face. In spite of his tan he seemed to go pale, snow white. "You're not from one of those coalitions or something, are you? You're not going to organize a boycott? We're not Satanists."

  "I need to know why they are there—and where you
found them," Danube said.

  Eden glanced over at his associate. "Hyde put them in there."

  Hyde smirked, and his eyes rolled upward in disgust. "They're nothing," he said. "Just like Procter and Gamble's man in the moon."

  "They are a little more pertinent than that," Danube said. "They have an actual connection with ancient rites."

  Hyde grimaced again. "We didn't know that, man. We just wanted something that looked authentic."

  "Look, those are the earlier books anyway," Eden said. "When we signed the cartoon deal and the merchandising agreement, they made us ease up. They were afraid somebody would get the wrong idea."

  "Someone did," Danube said. "Someone very powerful, I'm afraid. While those marks are harmless on their own, they can be utilized. They are marks for conjuring or binding, and once they are planted in a child's mind—"

  "Come on," Hyde said. "They're bullshit. This is California; we picked up some stuff in some shops. It's nothing. It's like crystals or such."

  Eden leaned across the table and touched Hyde's arm. "Remember? That night we were scared."

  "We'd had a few mind-altering substances. Who knows what happened. It could have been an earthquake."

  "You were attacked?"

  “Tell him,” Hyde said.

  "We were fooling around, doing some sketches on the white board. We were doing a deal where the Gnelfs were opening up a cave of treasure, and it was sealed with this magic symbol. They couldn't enter. We were trying to figure out what the seal would look like, and Hyde was doing some sketches. We were playing with some designs, inverting things, turning them around so we'd have a symbol of our own, not a duplication of those in the books we had."

  "And what happened?"

  "We heard something," Hyde said. "We turned and the door flew open. There was nothing there, but the room got cold. So cold we started shivering. It didn't make sense. It was warm otherwise."

  Eden remembered. "That's what I said then," he noted. "I was sitting here at the desk talking to Allen while he was drawing, so I got up to close the door. I figured I'd check the thermostat on the air conditioner too. We were trying to treat what had happened rationally.