Ravenous

by West, Terry M.

  “Āmi dēkhā bā śaẏatāna sparśa, kintu āmi jāni nā. Āmi tāraṭāna anubhūta haẏēchē. Kintu āmi bādhita karēchēna. Āmi ātmasamarpaṇa karatē jāni - āpani saba sanrakṣaṇa karā ātmasamarpaṇa karatē habē. Raktēra...”

  The mayor stared.

  “She has never seen or touched it, but she knows. She has resisted its pull. She knows she has to surrender – we all have to surrender to be saved. She ends with the word – blood.”

  Mayor Capello reached out and took Aleesa by the shoulder, “Darling. Please – take these cookies and the Kindle Fire and go to your room for a while. Mommy and Daddy have a problem we need to solve. Load in Deer Hunter and take down every damned wolf you see.”

  Megh raised her eyebrows, “Aldo!”

  “Well! It’s better than being exposed to all of this disturbing supernatural gibberish.”

  “It’s your language. You know we never curse around Aleesa,” Megh said.

  “It’s okay, Mommy. I hear you screaming bad words at night when you and Daddy go to bed. I’ve heard you do that lots of times. I’m a woman, too.”

  Megh blushed, handed Aleesa the plate of cookies and dismissed her to her room.

  Kanta sat down beside Mayor Capello and watched Aleesa disappear from sight.

  “What is going on, Aldo? Is it…” Megh stopped.

  The Mayor sighed, “I didn’t make a couple of payments into the Mujah-Rashid account. Actually, there were more, they just haven’t discovered them yet.”

  “It looks like they have, Aldo! You know we agreed this is a worthy cause. This country must overcome its condescending holier-than-thou crusading Christian attitude. The world is changing. It’s time to embrace Islam. This country must change from the inside out. We can’t start this fire without the help of the Mujah-Rashid. We promised them to keep the money consistently coming in and they promised there would never again be corporate contracts with governments manifesting into incidents like 9/11. Killing thousands of people is not the way. We have to take over their hearts and their minds to infiltrate the education system! Aldo! What are you thinking?”

  “It’s too late…” the mayor said.

  Kanta looked up at Megh and nodded, motioning to her bedroom.

  “Āmāra purōnō juẏēlārī baksa. Āmāra bēḍarumēra madhyē ālaḍō pāṭhāna. Tākē ēṭi khuluna ēbaṁdūrē upara thēkē bhitarēra āstaraṇēraṭiẏāra āchē. Sēkhānē ēkaṭukarā kāgaja āchē. Tākē tā ditē,” Kanta said in Bengali. “Āmi ē'i kāgaja sparśa nā kēna āmi ēkhana jāni. Ēṭā āpanāra jan'ya apēkṣā karā haẏēchē kāraṇa ēṭi haẏa.”

  “How is it she understands English but hardly ever speaks a word?” the mayor said.

  “She hates the language.”

  “What did she say?”

  “She wants you to take her old jewelry box. She said to send you into her bedroom, have you open the box and tear the inner lining away from the top. She says there's a very old piece of paper there. She wants you to have it. She knows now why she’s never touched this paper. It’s because it’s meant for you.”

  The mayor sighed and slammed his hands onto the kitchen table, “I don’t have time for this! Where is it?”

  “The bottom of her nightstand beside her bed,” Megh said.

  Kanta closed her eyes, “As-salam-o-alaikum – 'en tryq eraqh aldma.”

  “And now what? She speaks Arabic?”

  “Aldo – it’s a universal phrase used all over the Muslim world. She’s a very devout and spiritual woman. She wants to help. It means peace be unto you – but she added something else.”

  The mayor stared.

  “… through the spilling of blood.”

  Kanta opened her eyes. Tears escaped and, once again, she spoke in English, “Bloody Hell – Blood for blood – War is nothing but the sacrifice of blood – Terrorism is nothing but a blood sacrifice.”

  Mayor Capello jerked open the door of Kanta’s nightstand, pulled out the ancient Dokra jewelry box and flipped open the lid. He gripped the material along the inside edge of the top of the box and, with some effort, pulled away the inner lining along the lip. A flattened scroll fell to the floor. It was sealed with red wax. The sun was down.

  There were those who had been skillfully inserted within the NYPD; Departments of Defense and Homeland Security; the President’s National Security Council; National Security Agency; US Department of State; all waiting in their safehavens. Germs of terror, bathed in blood, fully prepared with nefarious orders issued through the Office of the President of the United States – America was in a state of war.

  Local, national and world media were notified with statements which had been prepared for some time. The streets of New York were a river of blood.

  Highly financed orders directed by corporate czars were given in the New York’s sacred places of defense: NYPD; 1st Battalian, 69th Infantry; Delta Company 1st Battalion; Marine Corps Public Affairs; the United States Air Force and the elite Underground Special Forces Unit. Bombs were already falling. Bullets were flying. People were dying. The War of New York had commenced with extreme prejudice.

  Black clouds clustered like the aftermath of a funeral burning. Mayor Capello sat down on Kanta’s bed, unfurled the flattened scroll onto his lap.

  “What is this? It’s just gibberish! Gibberish again! That’s all that ever comes from that Parkinson’s infested old woman!”

  He began to wad up the piece of paper and it was as though he was struck by lightning. He was hit so hard by the unseen force he fell to his knees to the floor, his eyes riveted to the script on the paper.

  “No! It’s gibberish! Meaningless gibberish!”

  He fought with all his might to tear his gaze away from the unintelligible title centered at the top of the paper. His grip on the sheet tightened, becoming unbreakable. His breathing grew deep, even and slow. He gritted his teeth and became aroused.

  Something was building inside of him – a heated passion – a desire to spill blood – to feed the hunger of an unseen beast of prey – the beast that was his savior – and the damnation of the world.

  He stayed his determination to look away from the title until suddenly it blazed clear…

  Car Nex.

  He shook his head and the obsession settled deeper.

  He jumped up and opened the bedroom door, “Leave me alone! Don’t come in here! Not for anything! Stay away from me!”

  He slammed and locked the door, fell to the floor and deeply fingered the words on the paper, caressing each fragment of obscurity, massaging each syllable into submission and clarity, until he was exciting the mysterious language – ignorantly reciting each subtle nuance of magical incantation – singing, raping and pillaging the darkness within the beginnings of the esoteric script for the sake of salvation.

  Megh took her mother by the hand and they went to the door, “Aldo! What is it? What is going on?” Megh fervently banged at the door.

  Kanta pinched Megh’s arm and pulled away.

  “Ouch! Mother!”

  Kanta knocked Megh across the hallway, tightly gripped a knife and sliced her wrist. Kanta fell against the door and slid to the floor. Her blood ran down the outside of the bedroom door and pooled onto the hardwood flooring. She moaned and pressed her throbbing wrist directly into the gap of the door at the floor.

  “Mother! What have you done?” Megh grabbed her mother. Her mother brushed her aside with a power Megh had never known before. Megh stepped back and placed her hand across her mouth, dumbfounded.

  Aldo feverishly chanted the preamble of carnage. The blood creeping beneath the threshold of the door caught his nose and his eye. He thrust the door open and dragged the body of his mother-in-law into the room and dropped her to the floor. She was still clutching the knife when he slammed and locked the door.

  Megh ran to the door, “Mother! Mother!”

  Aldo spoke in an ancient, unknown language to the ears of Megh – a language that brought pl
easure to Kanta. She sat up, took the knife and slashed her opposite arm from wrist to elbow.

  “That’s it! Spray your blood – open the bloodgates – blood for blood. War is the sacrifice of blood – terrorism is a blood sacrifice – open the bloodgates and feed the beast – our savior.”

  Kanta handed him the serrated butcher’s knife. He grabbed her by the hair and tore open her throat.

  Blood sprayed across the scroll. The paper drank in the blood like a ravenous beast of prey. And as it drank, Mayor Capello’s eyes were opened unto the dark world living within the scroll and saw the form of the beast raging within.

  He continued to incant the Poetry of Pain – to feed the conjuring – to massage the ego of the beast. He pulled Kanta’s body up by the hair of her head and smeared the scroll across the gaping wound of her throat, escalating the fervor of the timeless moment – of his mounting passion – until finally – a moment ensued filled with absolute peace, resolve and climactic satiation which consumed his entire soul and the words of the summoning flowed…

  “From the Blood and the Darkness of the Nexus, I summon you. I summon and release the Carnivore from the Nexus in order to feed the essence of the Nexus with the Blood of all lifeforms that carry the blood. It begins in blood and ends in blood. And begins again – for the Car Nex is never sated. It is pain. It always struggles to feed its obsession for blood. This must be so in order to maintain the existence of the Nexus. For the Nexus must continue to grow – to expand – to be fed with the blood of all forms of life with blood until all life is absorbed becoming the Nexus – feeding its Monarchy.

  “As the Summoner, I am sworn to fight for my life as the Car Nex fights for mine. My blood is now spiritually connected to the Car Nex. Only through the death of the Summoner or the coming of the new day shall the Car Nex be temporarily sequestered back into the Dominion of the Nexus to suspend its sojourn of blood. This has always been though all generations of time and will be so throughout all of eternity.

  “If the Summoner remains alive and the night has been shattered by the light of the coming of the sun, when the night inevitably returns, then so shall the Car Nex return – to feed. With the passing of each night, the mind of the Summoner and the Car Nex melds until they have become a complete synthesis – united one with the other. With this progression, the Summoner eventually feeds on the blood of the living – like unto the Car Nex.

  “Let it be so!”

  He could no longer hear the screams of his wife slamming against the door.

  He no longer heard his daughter, Aleesa, screaming – sobbing – beside his wife’s frenzy.

  He didn’t hear Kanta’s body hit the floor beside him.

  The only thing he heard was a deep guttural resonance – the sound of something approaching – swelling – growing – something closing in – the sound of a breath being taken – until the beast was released from the world within the scroll.

  The entire roof of Grace Mansion, including the spacious wooden-beamed attic, was ripped away and he stood in the midst of a storm.

  The Car Nex raged immediately above him within a hot swirling funnel, spraying blood, fire and menace.

  It was now his constant companion, leading a Carnivorous War Machine wherever Mayor Capello chose.

  He flung open the door, “Get out! Take Aleesa and Filippa and get out, Megh! Get the hell out of here!”

  “Aldo! Aldo!”

  “Get everyone down into the basement and stay there! Barricade yourselves in! Hunker in beside the gun cabinets! Break the glass and protect yourselves! I released the Carnivore from the Nexus! Look!”

  “Oh – my – God!” Megh said. She stared up at the monstrosity tearing apart the rest of the mansion.

  “Get – into the basement – now! It will kill all of you!”

  “Daddy!”

  “I have to stop this war! Thousands are already out there dying because of me – because of us, Megh! This city is our people – our family! You know what I was doing with the money…”

  Aleesa stared up at Megh.

  “I promise – I’ll come back for you. I have to stay alive. If I die, the Car Nex dies. These terrorist bastards must be stopped! I love you both! Please – please be careful.”

  Mayor Capello stepped out of the doorway and stood to the side, “By the way, your mother’s dead. She died for a good cause…”

  Megh stared at the slaughtered remains of her mother’s body, grabbed Aleesa and Filippa, and began their descent into the basement.

  Mayor Capello ran through the front door, started the car and stared up through the open convertible top of the BMW. The Car Nex immediately moved above him and drooled onto the passenger seat beside him. The drool burned a hole through the fabric.

  The Car Nex hovered over the car as he floored it heading straight toward the warfare breaking loose over and around Manhattan’s Central Park. He tracked, dodged and weaved onto Broadway with bombs dropping left and right. Some of the buildings fell like controlled demolitions, collapsing straight down, becoming disintegrated rubble. In the guise of Death and Hell, the Car Nex followed Mayor Capello, raging through the metropolis, taking down skyscraper after skyscraper, crushing and demolishing high-rise after skyscraper after skyscraper pummeling through Midtown and Lower Manhattan.

  Number One World Trade Center, as yet unopened, was now gone; The World Financial Center, Empire State Building, Bank of America Tower, Chrysler Building, New York Times Building all the way to 40 Wall Street – more than 100 high-rise buildings – gone – nothing but dust, debris and wreckage.

  The Car Nex sucked souls from hidden places, ripping and exploding the flesh containing their lifeblood, sucking their fluids through smoke and fire filled air, feeding the Nexus.

  Between the terrorists, the legitimate armed forces called in to fight the foreign invaders, and the Car Nex, over six million people were dead. Not one terrorist survived the War of New York… and there was one hour of darkness remaining.

  The demolition and massacre of the city was beyond anything the earth had ever witnessed within such a short space of time. The Car Nex extended the essence of its supernatural being into the night. Each body flying from a building, attempting to jump to safety, was captured and crushed – blood and spirit sucked into its maw, sparing them from being splattered on the street hundreds of feet below…

  ***

  I killed the engine and was surrounded by silence. I felt so conflicted – so safe and protected. Everyone around me was dead. What a mistake. Millions of innocent lives had been lost in my obsession to stop the Mujah-Rashid. Instead, I was feeding a beast with an insatiable taste for blood. I stared up at the Evil One. It passed a message to me: more.

  I tried to outrun it. I needed to get back home – to find my family alive.

  The BMW screamed into the driveway. The Car Nex was there with me, looming over the ruin. I ran through the wreckage of Gracie Mansion and into the basement…

  It was as though I was out of my body. I know I couldn’t have been. I believe I was having a premonition – a vision. Everything was in slow-motion. I saw the bullet cut a direct artery through the darkness – blazing through the night of a bloody past in a flash and slash like a razor through a future that was happening – right – now.

  I saw my heart beating – suspended in the obscure portent before me – pulsing with an enthusiasm that is only found in its final clutching moment – and then it hit me – dead center chest: I was fading into the blackest oblivion – my connection with the physical world no more – I was now out of my body.

  The Car Nex screamed in opposition, its upper lip curled, saliva flowing from its fangs. It gave an informed nod, heavily scented in bloodlust.

  Aleesa and Filippa fell back into the shadows. Megh moved forward and openly mocked the Evil One.

  In a last weak act of defiance, the Car Nex took Megh, ripped her body apart, sucked her dry and hurtled the body into the darkness.

  The Car N
ex collapsed upon itself and receded into the night. When the beast vanished, it was as though I had lost my dearest partner. It left behind a heartrending memory of romantic carnage and an anguished hunger of discontent… all within a stir of echoes suspended in eternity.

  The grip of my daughter’s hands relaxed from the handgun. It bounced when it hit the concrete floor in the corner of the basement, firing once more.

  Filippa pulled Aleesa close into her bosom and they wept.

  About the Author

  E. R. Robin Dover, like everyone else, has a compassionate side as well as a dark side. In Dover’s case, this is a very dark side. He lives in the New Mexico desert, pumps iron, plays guitar and keeps himself locked away in the shadows of unnatural circumstances so he can write. This is Robin’s gift: Millions of scabrous black shards impatiently wait to deeply embed themselves into the tender flesh of your susceptible mind. They lay concealed like bloodthirsty parasites - wearing unnatural faces of the evil in your long forgotten, worst nightmares. Preparing to reveal to your conscious mind the horrors your subconscious mind never want you to know – about your true self – about your disease – if you but dare look…

  Visit E.R. Robin Dover at: http://www.robindover.com/

  Car Nex: The Mighty and the Merciless by Joseph Ramshaw

  Brax VaGhuul strolled down the musty hallway, sealed and silent doors passing by on either side like the ghostly hulls of ships half-glimpsed in the night, his nostrils stinging with the mingled stench of crotch-rot and semen-stained bedsheets. For a supposed “house of pleasure”, this place was awfully dank and depressing. Drab tapestries depicting naked, thick-thighed women bathing in hot springs adorned the peeling, scabrous walls. The hallway carpet reeked of muddy feet and nervous perspiration. Hope and despair and guilty anticipation coalesced in the air; the lingering ghosts of the house’s previous visitors.

  Brax was a man whose height and girth gave credence to the ancient legends of giants roaming the earth. In truth, he was the disgraced son of Everich VaGhuul, famed and honored general of The Bastion, the world-sized space-station the VaGhuuls called home. Since being exiled from The Bastion, for reasons he seldom cared to dwell on, Brax had been making a living running dirty jobs in the scummy back-quadrants of the universe.