by Gord Rollo
“Yeah, we’ll see. Grab that bottle of Jack and follow me.”
They grabbed a few flashlights and laughed their way toward the front doors of the church. Inside, the reception area wasn’t nearly as cheery at night as it had been earlier in the day and the sanctuary wasn’t likely to be any better, but Rich had shot his mouth off and there was no way he could back down now without looking like a chicken. Not feeling nearly as confident as he had back at the fire, he pulled open the sanctuary door and took a few uncertain steps inside.
“Come on, tough guy,” Pat said, pushing Rich in the back near the door. “Not shitting in your pants already, are you?”
“No way. I’m fine…it’s just there are some holes in the floor in here so chill a bit. I’ll get there.”
“You don’t have to climb up there, Rich,” Lizzy said, her better judgment starting to kick in. “We can get some pictures during the day, when it’s not so dangerous walking around in here.”
“Don’t worry, sweets,” Rich said, carefully making his way to the far end of the room, his flashlight aimed at the floor the whole way. “Everything’s cool. I can see okay. Just a couple quick pics and we’ll get back out to the fire.”
Climbing up onto the raised altar, all the flashlights in the room flashed up toward Joshua Miller’s corpse, and now that they had Rich’s body to compare it to, they could see how truly large the reverend was.
“Oh my God!” Kelly said. “He’s huge!”
“Damn!” Rich said, having the best view of all of them. From up close, the mummified man looked immense, his body withered but standing nearly seven feet tall with a wingspan at least that much. For the first time he started to rethink this dumb plan of his.
“That’s right, Liz,” Dan said, bursting into laughter. “A few quick pictures and you can help Rich change his underwear.”
“Very funny,” Rich said, knowing he was in too deep to back out now. At the reverend’s bound feet, there was a church pew likely left from when they’d strung Joshua up all those years ago. Rich carefully climbed up onto the dusty wooden bench and stood up right beside the dead man.
“Careful, honey,” Liz said, holding her breath for no reason, hoping the boys would get through with all their macho bullshit so they could get back to partying soon.
“I’m fine, for God’s sake. Man, he was a big dude though, huh.” Even standing on the pew, Rich was still only head level with Joshua’s chest, even though the bound man’s feet were only several inches above his own. Looking up into the tangled hair covering Joshua’s face, a chill ran down Rich’s spine, a sobering tingle of fear urging him to get this over with. “Okay, Pat. Take the damn picture.”
“Sure, but can you push his hair out of the way so we can see him? From here it just looks like you’re standing beside Cousin Itt from the old Addams Family show.”
Everyone in the room laughed at Pat’s joke except Rich, who had the ghastly job of actually touching the dead holy man and then looking directly into his gaunt, dried-out face. Reaching out, he gently pushed the mop of tangled locks to the side but it wasn’t the death mask of Joshua Miller’s openmouthed frozen scream that caught Rich’s attention first. It was what was hanging around his neck, hidden within his tangled mane.
“Wow! Look at that, guys.”
“What is it?” Dan said, having noticed something shiny too.
“Don’t know,” Rich said. “Some kind of necklace. A triangle on a five-pointed star. Some kind of funky carvings around an eye too. I’m no expert, but I think the damn thing’s made of silver and gold.”
“Get lost,” Pat said. “You serious?”
“Of course I am. Look!”
Rich leaned back and let the others shine their lights on the large amulet beneath Joshua’s leathery skin. When the lights hit the precious metals, even after all these years they shone. “See that? I’m telling you that’s gold! It’s part of the treasure, I’ll bet.”
“Grab it, man!” Dan said. “Bring it here and let’s get a closer look.”
“No, wait!” Kelly shouted, startling everyone. She remembered Malcolm telling her about this amulet and making her promise not to mess with it. “My grandfather warned me not to touch that. It’s a matching charm to the ring I showed you. This is gonna sound stupid, but he said they’re both magic and it was that necklace that has some kind of control over the evil around here. He made me promise we’d leave it alone.”
“You’re right,” Rich said. “That does sound stupid. Look…we came here to find a treasure, didn’t we? This thing is probably worth a fortune, Kel. There’s no way we can leave it behind. Right?”
“Right!” Pat said.
“Right!” Kim and Lizzy said together. Everyone looked at Dan.
“Sorry, Kelly, but Rich is right. We might not find anything else, but that necklace alone might be enough to get us all out of the hole. We can’t leave it here. No way. I mean, really…magic? Come on. This is the real world, remember? Just don’t tell Malcolm we took it. That’s all.”
“I guess you’re right.”
That was all Rich needed to hear, his fear of the hulking corpse in front of him gone as the excitement of finding some real treasure sunk in. “Yes! I’ll have it off him in a jiffy! Just a sec…”
Rich grabbed the bulky necklace, its weight making him all the more excited. He was trying to mentally decide how many ounces of gold it was made from as he lifted the chain to slide the amulet over the top of Reverend Miller’s head, when it pulled tight on his desiccated forehead and wouldn’t budge. “What the heck?” he muttered under his breath, pulling harder on the silver chain but still having no luck. “It’s stuck, guys,” he said over his shoulder. “The chain is too short I think. Doesn’t want to fit over his head. Maybe they did it up with a clasp on the back or something?”
“Don’t be such a wimp,” Pat said, snapping a few pictures. “Just rip the damn thing off like a man!”
That was the last thing Rich wanted to do. He could picture the reverend’s entire head coming off if he yanked too hard. Setting his flashlight down, he reached up with both hands and used one of them to push the chain a few inches higher up the dead man’s head. Tearing the dry skin a little above Joshua’s right eye, the chain started to move. One more hard yank and…
“Oww!” Rich screamed, the amulet finally sliding loose but not before one of the points on the star sliced into the tender meat of his palm, drawing blood. In the darkened room, Rich didn’t realize how badly he’d cut himself until he stepped down off the wooden pew and examined his hand under the glare of his flashlight. He had a two-inch cut under his left thumb and blood was streaming into his palm and starting to run down his wrist.
“Shit! I cut myself, guys. Fucking nasty too.”
“You got the necklace though?” Lizzy asked.
“Yeah, I got it. Thanks for all the concern, honey. I’m okay, really!”
“Oh, poor baby. Get over here and I’ll kiss it better,” Dan said, laughing.
“I got something else I’d rather you kiss, asswipe!”
Back out in the reception area, Liz wrapped Rich’s hand in his undershirt, while everyone else was busy checking out the necklace.
“This is incredible,” Kim said. “It’s just like your ring, Kelly, only way bigger.”
“Yeah, and feel the weight of it,” Dan said. “If this is really silver and gold like it looks, there’s no telling what it might be worth. At auction it might be worth a bloody fortune!”
“Speaking of bloody,” Liz said. “I’m gonna take picture boy here back to the tents to get some Band-Aids. The fool sliced himself pretty good.”
“We’ll all come. Rich is the man tonight! I think a find like this deserves a drink. What do you say, big guy?”
“Sounds good to me,” Rich said. “Make mine a double!”
“You got it. Let’s go.”
Together they exited the church and headed back over to stoke the fire and have some more drink
s. Liz got Rich bandaged up and soon the party was in full swing again. Everyone was in a great mood, convinced the amulet they’d found was only the tip of the iceberg around here and that by this time tomorrow they’d have found the mother lode and all be filthy rich.
Inside the sanctuary, Joshua Miller hung in darkness, none of the reveling campers outside the least bit concerned that Rich’s blood had sprayed onto the reverend’s forehead as he’d yanked off the silver and gold talisman, and that even now his crimson life juices were sliding down the dead man’s face and trickling into the corner of his gaping open mouth…
Back at the fire the gang partied on, everyone’s excitement getting the better of their judgment. They drank all of the peach schnapps and over half of the whiskey, but it was the marijuana that really did them in. A few more joints passed around and all bets were off. Inhibitions were cast aside and a few of them started to lose control, especially Kim, who wasn’t able to keep her feelings about Dan hidden any longer and kept trying to rub up against him and get him to dance with her. When she eventually put her arms around his neck and tried to kiss him, Kelly finally stepped in.
“Hey, what the fuck you think you’re doing?” she screamed, pushing Kim away from Dan, who was so drunk he nearly stumbled into the fire trying to get out of the way.
“Settle down,” Kim said, slurring her words. “I don’t want him forever. I just wanna borrow him for a while, okay?”
Kim made a move to reach for Dan again but Kelly wasn’t having any of it. She stepped in between them and slapped Kim as hard as she could across the face. “You’ve got your own man, bitch. Get lost.”
“Come on, Kim,” Pat said, trying to intervene. “Back off, okay?”
“Fuck you,” Kim spat at Pat, pushing him aside. “And fuck you too, you little slut. Dan and I go way back…don’t we, baby? Tell ’er she ain’t the only one who likes the dark meat, sugar.”
“What?” Kelly said, fists clenched, ready to explode. She turned to Dan. “Is that true? You’ve been fooling around with her too?”
Dan was sitting on the ground by this point, not wanting any part of this argument but forced to say something. “No way. I mean…I knew her but I swear I’ve never—”
“Son of a bitch! I trusted you, Dan, and here you are lying to me again.” The anger started to drain out of Kelly, a deep ache filling her heart instead. “How many other whores don’t I know about?”
“None, honey. You got this all wrong.”
“Who you calling a whore, bitch?” Kim said, not helping things any.
“Fuck you, slut. I ought to rip your fake tits off. Who invited you anyway?”
“Oh they’re real, sweetie. Just ask your man…he’ll tell you!”
That did it. Kelly charged at Kim, ready to claw her eyes out, but Rich grabbed her from behind and pulled her to the far side of the fire. “Settle down and shut the fuck up! Both of you! This isn’t happening. You hear me? We’re all just too damn drunk to think straight.”
“He’s right, Kel,” Lizzy said, coming over to try calm down her best friend. “Come on, let’s call it a night. You can come sleep with me, and Rich can sleep with Dan. We’ll talk about all this in the morning when we’re thinking straight.”
“I don’t wanna sleep,” Kelly said, still furious but on the brink of tears. “I want her out of here. Don’t want her anywhere near me…or Dan.”
“We can’t do anything tonight,” Rich said. “No one’s going anywhere in the middle of the night. I agree with Lizzy. Let’s get some sleep and worry about all this shit in the morning.”
“Kelly, please…” Dan said, too drunk to even get to his feet.
“Fine,” Kelly said, ignoring her boyfriend and letting Liz lead her off toward her tent. She was bawling on her friend’s shoulder within two steps.
They disappeared into the tent and everything was quiet out by the fire. Kim was slumped to the ground rubbing her chin where she’d been slapped, Dan was on the ground looking ill, like he might throw up or pass out at any minute, and Pat and Rich were just standing still looking at each other, neither of them having a clue how things had spiraled out of control so quickly.
“I’ll take Dan and get him into bed,” Rich said to Pat. “You okay with Kim?”
“Guess I’ll have to be. Quite the load she just dropped on us all, huh? About her and Dan, I mean?”
“Yeah. Wonderful.”
“Think it’s true? If it is, I doubt she ever liked me. Probably only hooked up with me to get near him.”
“I don’t know, man. I didn’t know about it if it is. Regardless, there’s nothing we can do about it tonight. Get her into the tent. We can worry about everyone being pissed off tomorrow. Maybe we’ll all be so hungover none of us will remember.”
“Yeah, right? We’re not that lucky. What about the fire?”
“Fuck it. It’ll burn itself out. I’m going to bed. See ya in the morning.”
Rich grabbed Dan and half pushed him, half carried him to Dan’s tent, unceremoniously shoving him inside and disappearing himself, leaving only Pat and Kim outside by the fire. Looking less and less like the sexy woman Pat had thought she was, Kim was bent over vomiting into the grass.
“Lovely!” Pat said. “Why does this bullshit always happen to me?”
Chapter Eighteen
From high atop the church steeple, the crows huddled together to ward off the chill in the air, their obsidian eyes watching the fire on the ground below as it slowly died. Some of the bigger crows were asleep already, the older leaders of the murder, but the younger, more skittish birds stood watch, their finely tuned instincts telling them something had changed in the field tonight. A disturbance in the natural order of things. There was an electric hum in the air, some powerful force awakening and sending a ripple of dark energy throughout the woods. The birds could understand none of these things, but they could feel the hatred, feel the insane hunger building inside the church below their clawed feet, and none of them knew what they should do about it so they remained alert and on guard, ready to bolt at a moment’s notice if the danger they sensed came any closer.
Within the sanctuary, Joshua Miller groaned and opened his eyes. His sandpaper-dry tongue dabbed at the sweet coppery liquid inside his mouth again and felt another surge of adrenaline and energy travel down his throat and warm his cold, unmoving heart. After seventy-four long years, his heart began to beat within his withered chest, sending wave after wave of blood coursing through his collapsed veins. It was excruciatingly painful, his tightly bound limbs thrashing against their ropes as every muscle in his body cramped and spasmed back to life. Along with the blood, images of his life and death flooded into his consciousness again, filling in the gaps that time had eaten into his memories. It took every ounce of control Joshua had learned over the decades not to scream out in agony, but he stifled his cries, relishing the pain after so many years of not feeling anything. He rejoiced feeling the great weight of Angus Tucker’s amulet finally gone from his chest, the removal of which had as much to do with his resurrection as the life-giving blood trickling down his face into his thirsty gaping mouth.
It’s gone! The talisman is gone!
The blood from the young man who’d cut himself had also dripped and fallen onto the cornstalks below, causing them to lap up the red liquid as greedily as he had done. Below him, the corn magically began to move, a soft green glow illuminating the basement and lighting the sanctuary around him. He watched the cornstalks grow even thicker and stronger, snaking up out of the floor and piercing into the paper-thin skin of his ankles, knees, thighs, arms, and belly. The strong fibers of the plant bore tunnels within his parched inner meat, wrapping itself around his bones and entwining within his atrophied muscles. He would have screamed at the inhuman invasion but before he could one thick shaft entered his mouth, gagging him into silence as the corn grew down his throat and spread its fibrous tendrils throughout the core of his convulsing body. Moments later, his old, desic
cated body began to rebuild itself, his muscles feeding on the dark power flooding into his system through the cornstalks, growing larger and far more powerful than he’d ever been in real life. Joshua was becoming part of the field and the field becoming part of him, a union formed in hell and consummated on the dark altar of a desecrated church.
Their job done, the cornstalks snapped off near where they’d entered his flesh, retracting back into the basement, the wounds healing almost instantly but leaving several inches of plant sticking out of his skin. The unnatural green glow died away, leaving Joshua in darkness again, but he was used to that by now. By the light of the moon filtering in the few windows the intruders had managed to pry open and by the slight green glow of his enhanced eyes, he clenched and unclenched his massive fists, amused at seeing the way the cornstalks protruded from his shoulders and wrists, and relishing the incredible strength he felt raging through him. With one quick flex of his forearm, the thick ropes binding his left hand snapped, and one more pull freed his arm completely. The ropes holding his right arm held a little longer, but he was still able to rip his arm free without much difficulty. Holding on to the crossbeam with his left arm, he examined the way his fingernails had grown long and pointy during his long sleep. He used the overgrown nails on his right hand to slice apart the ropes wound around his midsection and legs, pleased they were sharp enough to sever the bindings easily, like a new scythe blade cutting through fresh summer grass.
Free of his bindings at last he dropped heavily to the floor, not at all used to supporting his massive weight on his own two feet but he got the hang of things quickly, testing his powerful legs by walking around on the altar. When he was sure of himself, he leaped off the raised platform and moved down the center aisle, headed for the front of the church and the freedom of the fields beyond. At the front doors, he paused to look over at the dying fire and the trio of colorful plastic tents grouped near it. Inside, he knew the group of young intruders must be sleeping.