The Cult of Kishpu

by J. J. Shetland

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “Kathy!”

  Kathy turned around to see Larissa running towards her. She bent down and hugged her. She was delighted to see the little penguin alive.

  “There she is,” cried Pedro. “My –” He stopped when he saw everyone staring blankly at him. “I meant, our super zebra,” he finished.

  Kathy laughed, feeling a little embarrassed. “Thanks, Pedro. And well done for all the progress you’ve made too.” She bent down and hugged him. She was very pleased to see all of her friends alive and well. Then she remembered that neither Mengy nor Paula were with them. She started to wonder where they could be when Lukeson cleared his throat.

  “Private Toronto, may I introduce Princess Louise of the Skies?” The winged woman appeared next to Lukeson.

  Kathy bowed. “Your Highness.” Then she turned back to her sergeant. “Where are we now, Sergeant?”

  “We’re on the fireworks lawn. We need to take shelter somewhere so we can plan our further attacks.”

  When Lukeson and his comrades arrived to rescue Kathy, all they knew about the gardens was that she was here. They were prepared for a few monsters but not the whole army.

  Larissa pointed to a small Chinese house in the Chinese Gardens. Lukeson looked at it. For a small house, it looked big enough to fit everyone in. He checked there was no monster following them as they ran to it.

  * * *

  Lukeson, Princess Louise and the G.C.A. soldiers was glad that the little Chinese House could squeeze them in and they were glad that no monster had found them yet. They heard a few pass them, but that was all they heard. No knocking on the door or peeking through the window. Not even the lovely smells of the indoor trees and plants inside the wooden red-painted walls attracted them. Everyone felt relieved and lucky.

  “Where are these monsters coming from?” asked Pedro.

  “Petunia,” panted Kathy. “We need to find Petunia and kill her.”

  “Wasn’t Petunia your mentor?” asked Pedro.

  “And Rachael was her best friend and Lukeson’s number one soldier of Squad J,” said Larissa. “And they both tried to kill her. And me, for that matter.”

  Lukeson approached Kathy. “I know you’re not handling the truth of Petunia very well, Toronto, but I need to ask you because you’re the best one out of us that knows witches. Where would they hide?”

  “I can’t guess, sir,” said Kathy. “But if I were a witch, I would probably –”

  Then a hole in the roof appeared above everyone and she was pulled away by a colossal squid tentacle.

  Lukeson saw that the wooden walls were beginning to rumble and crack quickly. “Everyone, out!” he yelled.

  Everyone escaped the house just in time before it completely collapsed.

  “Get off me, you slimy thing!” Kathy’s voice roared.

  Everyone followed that yell and found the tentacle dangling Kathy up and down like a fishing rod.

  Pedro looked at the tentacle sticking out in the small pond near them. “How can a giant squid tentacle get through a shallow pond?” asked Pedro.

  “Probably through a magical portal, don’t you think?” said Larissa.

  Rustom aimed his gun at the tentacle, but before he could pull the trigger, he dropped the gun and got electrocuted. Louise flew to the impundulus birds and started firing at them, but cobra sphinxes pinned her back down to the rocky ground. Rocks were being thrown at them by Pedro and Larissa, but they were picked up by wendigos. Stu Pot and Lukeson were firing all they had at the kongamatos and mothmen. Then they were pinned down by some behind them and their weapons were taken away from them.

  “STOP!”

  The monsters stopped torturing their prisoners, but still held them. They kneeled with their prisoners as Petunia and Rachael approached them.

  The croc approached her former leader and smiled wickedly. “Hi, Sergeant. Miss me?”

  Lukeson could only glare at her. Her treacherous lies and betrayal hurt him more than the deep battle scars and wounds his body carried since he started G.C.A. “I don’t care if you’re the last crocodile in the world, Rhodes. If I get free and win this war, I will have you killed and leave you to rot or be fed to someone.”

  Petunia laughed at the conversation between them. “I must say you guys are really fun. It’s a shame I’m going to have to kill you all.”

  “And you think that killing us will mean nothing will stop you from taking over the world?” said Lukeson. “We have made and influenced many friends. With luck, one or two creatures will find a way to take you down, even with us dead.”

  “Ha!” said Petunia. “Nothing will ever take me down. I was born with the powers to rule and that is what I’m going to do! Even the end of time will not stop me! Now, as my first act as Queen of Earth, I am sentencing you to die. By drowning! Just like your friends, that magical elephant and that old fart penguin.”

  “She’s not an old fart penguin!” Larissa protested.

  “Yeah, she’s only thirty five years old,” said Pedro. “And she doesn’t even eat curries or Brussels sprouts.”

  No one had any idea what he was talking about… for the millionth time. For the first time in his nine years, he was starting to get stick of no one being on the same page with him.

  Petunia just nodded to her army and they started to take the prisoners to the squid tentacles.

  “No!”

  Then everyone stopped to see a wendigo offering a glass of blue liquid to Petunia and a mothman offering Rachael one.

  “I’m not thirsty!” Petunia yelled to the wendigo. “Now, beat it!”

  “Your Majesty, don’t be too hasty,” said Rachael, as she drunk her glass. “I don’t know what this drink is, but it’s delicious.” She gave her empty glass back to the mothman. “Get me more.”

  The mothman bowed and walked away.

  “Very well,” said Petunia. She took her glass from the wendigo and drank it. She smiled after she was finished. “It is very good. Now, let us resume the dr-drown –” Then it looked like she was lost for words. She moved her mouth, but there was no sound, not even a soft whisper. Then she looked like she was struggling to breathe. The mouth was full of nothing but coughs. Very painful coughs. Followed by coughs with blood spitting out.

  The G.C.A. soldiers wondered what was happening to Petunia. Then they looked to see Rachael on the ground and coughing as loud and bloody as Petunia. Then the monsters released them as they dropped down to throw up dust before flames took over their bodies.

  “Rally to me!” ordered Lukeson, running away.

  Everyone rallied to him as they watched Petunia screaming. Her hair turned into flames and the fire started spread all over her body.

  Rachael was also in roaring flames as well. She fell to the ground in flames and quickly became no more than a pile of ash.

  The G.C.A. soldiers and Louise watched in horror as all of the burning monsters fell into piles of ash and dust. Then they turned to see the flames on Petunia’s body dying down on the burnt patch of grass below them.

  Rustom found Petunia’s emerald rings rolling to his feet. He picked them up with his metal hand and wasted no time crushing them into little pieces.

  After a minute of watching the piles remain still, Lukeson ordered everyone to check the ash and dust. They were stone cold. There were no bones and no drop of blood. Everyone was certain that Petunia Clockson also known as Anne Dunbury, Rachael Rhodes and every member of the Cult of Kishpu were finally no more.

  “Look!” Louise pointed to a wendigo and a mothman who were still standing up. Then they started to glow white.

  Rustom aimed his machine gun, but was shocked when Lukeson pushed it down. “Sergeant! What the –”

  “Shut up, Rustom!” the sergeant snapped. “I think it’s –”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  And it was.

  “Mengy!” cried Kathy.

  “Aunt Paula!” Pedro and Larissa cried together.

 
Everyone gave Mengy and Paula massive applause as they waved back. When Lukeson approached them, they give him a salute. He saluted them back and smiled. “Well done, both of you.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Paula said.

  He turned to Mengy. “And, Meng, those monster disguises were ingeniously convincing.”

  All the elephant demon could do was blush.

  Paula immediately ran to hug her nephew and niece. “I was so worried about you guys,” she said, delighted to see each of them alive and in one piece. She kissed them each on the forehead multiple times.

  “I was worried, too, Aunt Paula,” Larissa said. “I missed you.”

  “I wasn’t worried.” Pedro got another confused look from his relatives. “What I meant was that I knew you would make it through, Aunt Paula, being the big genius you are. But I am pleased to see you, don’t get me wrong.”

  Not understanding Pedro but still knew he meant well as usual, Paula just laughed and hugged him and Larissa again.

  Everyone else was making a fuss of Mengy. Rustom gave her a friendly pat on the back. “Terrific job, Mengy,” he complimented in Old Chinese.

  Mengy thanked him in Old Chinese sign language. Then she turned to Kathy who was sadly kneeling over a pile of ash and dust. She bent down and wrapped her trunk on the young zebra’s back.

  Kathy sniffled as she stroked the trunk. “I’m okay, Mengy. I really am.”

  “I’m sorry if we hurt you, Kathy,” Paula said, as she walked closer to her. “We immediately found out who the witch was and we thought it would be wiser to end the war before it continued. We were shocked to find that Rachael was an enemy all along. I can only imagine how you must have felt.”

  Kathy sniffed again, but then started to smile. “You guys didn’t hurt me. In fact, you made me feel like I can finally move on from this pain Petunia and Rachael have caused me to have for many years. The world is a better place without them. If I were in your boots, I would have done the same. But how did you guys do it?”

  “Yeah, Aunt Paula,” Pedro said. “How did you guys do it?”

  Everyone started to shout out that same question.

  “Quiet, everyone,” said Lukeson. “Let’s just settle down and hear Meng and Guzman tell their story.”

  Everyone sat down on the grass.

  “Okay, Guzman, in your own time,” said the sergeant.

  Paula went on a big rock and cleared her throat. “Before I begin, Mengy and I want to thank two mermen who helped us with this mission.”

  Everyone’s backs got splashed. They turned to the waters from the wrecked Chinese house. They saw two mermen who G.C.A. knew very well.

  “Chris! James!” Lukeson cried happily.

  “What’s up, Rhys?” asked James.

  “How are your tonsils?” asked Chris.

  Lukeson just chuckled, having no idea what he was talking about. He had lost track of how many times he got asked bizarre questions by that merman so he just decided to go with the flow.

  Getting thumped on the head by James’s hand helped Chris remember what he was meant to say. “I meant, how was your mission?”

  “A success,” replied Lukeson. “And, according to Private Guzman, thanks to you two.”

  “It was nothing,” said James.

  “But it wasn’t nothing,” said Chris. “We had to free Paula and Mengy from the mer-king and her new evil advisor and act like deserters and –”

  “Is all this true, Guzman?” Lukeson always checked with the penguin soldier because she was always the most serious one and the one who rarely lied compared to the rest of the squad.

  “Yes, sir,” Paula replied. Then she explained after the mermen freed her and Mengy the underwater cave and how they took the raft to South America about a day and half ago, the elephant demon teleported herself and the penguin to the city of Tikal.

  * * *

  “Are you sure this is the one?” Paula asked, sometime after she and Mengy finished teleporting from the raft. They were standing outside a tall Tikal Pyramid.

  The elephant pointed to other pyramids in the city of Tikal.

  “I know we’ve checked all the other pyramids out. I’m just saying let’s not put all our eggs into one basket, that’s all.”

  Mengy looked confused. Paula realised that she didn’t understand the idiom and she couldn’t find a basket or a carton of eggs.

  “Never mind. Let’s just go and find this witch poison as quick as we can.”

  As she followed Paula to the pyramid they hadn’t checked yet, Mengy stopped. She thought she saw and heard some rustling coming from the tall trees nearby.

  Paula started climbing up the tough pyramids steps when her feet froze. She couldn’t move them at all. She couldn’t understand why this was happening. She couldn’t feel any anything beneath her feet or around her or above her at all.

  Then she heard a noise coming down below her. She looked down to see Mengy zapping purple magic at a giant brown furry, muscular goat-like creature with two golden horns. It dodged the elephant demon’s magic and charged ferociously for her.

  Mengy aimed her truck at the goat’s body and zapped its furry tummy with purple electricity and zapped him away. Then she ran to Paula and tried to pull her off, but she couldn’t. Then she closed her eyes and wriggled her fingers and trunk.

  Paula noticed the steps glowing yellow. She tried to move, but she just couldn’t. “Mengy, save your energy,” she said. “It’s not working.”

  The elephant stopped her powers.

  “That goat monster must be a Nagual.”

  Mengy gave her a ‘What?’ look.

  “Nagual,” repeated the penguin. “They’re magical human beings that can shape shift into any shape or size of any creature. And our friend here is either a sorcerer after this poison for his own purpose or he’s a bodyguard protecting it.” Either way, she highly doubted that he could be a member of the Cult of Kishpu.

  Then, out of the grass, appeared an Elapids snake. Not just a big one, but ten times the biggest one ever on the planet.

  All Paula could do was gulp. Like I said, shape shift into any shape or size of any creature.

  Mengy charged and fired her magic orbs at the vast Nagual snake. She dodged the snake’s teeth and continued to fire at the giant snake. But no matter how much magic she fired at him, he wasn’t going down. She stopped and panted.

  “Mengy, behind you!” Paula yelled.

  But before the elephant could move a muscle, the snake leaned in and closed its mouth with her in it.

  “Mengy! No!”

  The snake made its way to Paula and hovered above her. It opened its mouth, but then it stopped and glowed orange. Then it started to shake. Then it hissed in pain before its head started to expand and burst open.

  Paula closed her eyes and reopened them to find herself covered in snake skin and blood falling. She was disgusted, but quickly became happy when she discovered that she could walk ahead.

  Mengy, covered in snake blood and skin as well, approached her with something large in her hand. It had one of the snake’s fangs through it.

  “Ah, the snake’s heart,” said Paula. “Very clever. That must have been the Nagual’s power source.” When they started to climb the steps of the pyramid, she saw Mengy pointing to herself. Paula remembered she just mentioned power source and thought Mengy was asking about her own power source. “All I know about your powers is that you were born with them. I don’t know the source behind it and I couldn’t find anything when I tried to research magical demons. When I scanned you when we first met in the Huangshan National Park, all I found out was some of your cells – the magical ones, I mean – are in no other creature G.C.A. found. Not even in Rustom. That’s the top of my knowledge.”

  The two soldiers finally reached the top of the pyramid. Mengy’s hands glowed purple and put them on the stiff stony door to push it. It opened a lot easier with her powers and in they went. The door closed behind them by itself and the room went d
ark again, but the elephant sent three small yellow orbs from her hands to the ceiling. It successfully lit the room up.

  “Search for any secret levers, buttons, whatever you can find,” Paula ordered.

  They all looked around, but they couldn’t find anything except rocks, dust and a ruby.

  A ruby? A massive, pretty ruby? In the middle of the room? Mengy thought it was so pretty she couldn’t resist reaching for it.

  Paula spotted her. “Mengy, no! It could be a trap!”

  Mengy’s trunk was so close to touching it. Then she felt like the floor vanished and darkness was pulling her down. The last thing she saw before the yellow shiny orbs were out of their sights was Paula reaching for her trunk, which she successfully caught.

  The soldiers kept falling down into darkness. It wasn’t the darkness that bothered them; it was how far they had to keep on falling and what would be there when they would reach the end.

  Mengy managed to send out some more bright purple orbs to shine some light around her and Paula. Then she sent more down in front of them to see how far they still had to drop. It wasn’t far, but the ground wouldn’t be a soft landing. It would a landing with a greeting from spears, swords, pikes and bones scattered all over the floor.

  Then Paula grabbed something onto the rocky wall and it stopped her and Mengy from falling. Then they turned around to see on the wall opposite them an opening to a corridor with an orange light.

  Paula was surprised when she saw the something she was holding onto started to glow purple and getting itself out all by itself. She knew this was Mengy’s work. When it was completely out, she saw the thing she was holding onto was a dagger. It started to fly, carrying them to the corridor on the other side.

  Paula patted Mengy on the leg. “You got us here safely, I’ll give you that.” Magical demon powers never ceased to amaze her; that was due to the fact that it was things that she didn’t know about interested her more than the things she was an expert on.

  Mengy grabbed two flaming torches, gave one to Paula and led the way down the corridor. After walking and seeing nothing for ages, they were getting very bored. Then a whooshing sound out of nowhere made them stop.