As Monique stepped back from the now lifeless body towards her daughter and Benjamin, the dark figures around the circle melted away into the darkness. The butler, knowing nothing else but to serve his master Van Lomas and aided by two of the hooded group, lifted the lifeless Van Lomas from the ground and carried him off into the darkness of the moors.
The four of them were left alone in the circle.
“Mother?” Janey whimpered. “What the hell is going on? Who the hell are you?”
Monique laughed lightly and lifted Janey from off the ground to stand in front of her.
“Your aunt killed the father of Daniel Van Lomas and tonight I killed his son. Daniel Van Lomas too has a son. You must prepare to meet him. You will kill him. Our families shall continue this battle until no heir is left to carry on the ritual they wish to create. You will need this.”
“What battle? I have no intentions of killing anyone. We must call the police.” Janey gasped, interrupting her mother as the woman tried to hand her a velvet covered object.
“Many generations ago, as Christianity was making its first fumbling steps into Britain, an ancestor of Van Lomas was one of those first priests to have arrived here. Yes of course he knew the Bible backwards and forwards but he also knew many other ancient truths that would never be taught to the common people here. He knew the magical texts kept hidden by the Catholic Church. Lucifer himself. Eternal life would be granted to himself or his heirs if the proper ritual was carried out at the proper time and place. That of course is here and now.” Monique drew her daughter close, walking around the stones with her.
“Your ancestor on the other hand was a simple boy that had been taken under the wing of the church to learn and to spread the word in this area. He had studied hard and, more importantly, had observed Van Lomas and followed him to see first-hand the rituals Van Lomas secretly indulged in. He continued to study hard but also made it his life’s work to study all that Van Lomas might know in an attempt to thwart his plan.” Monique paused to ensure Janey was keeping up with her dialogue and to allow her a moment to take it all in. She then continued.
“Your, our, ancestor killed the first Van Lomas on a night such as this and in this location. Creating a book of all he knew, he passed it on to his daughter with the instruction that no Van Lomas must ever succeed in their diabolical ritual. Tonight was my turn. I have studied hard and long for this evening and have been in the utmost terror that I must fulfil this destiny. But now it is done. Now that burden is unfortunately yours.”
Monique passed Janey the thick, leather bound velvet covered book she was always so eagerly seen to be reading. On the cover Janey noted the same inscription as they had seen on the rings the visitors wore.
“Read it and study it child. Prepare, and ensure the future belongs to us, not them.”
“But we need to call the police Mother. We need to get those people back to safety wherever they are.” Janey said as she clutched the heavy book to her chest.
“The police will arrive and find nothing. The cult will be long gone along with the body of Van Lomas.” Monique replied.
“But what about all those people that were kidnapped?” Janey asked.
“I met George some way down the track before he came to the house.” Monique answered. “We agreed he would bring them down to Ben’s van and load them quietly aboard. They were in no fit state to climb down the moors and they would be safe until the deed was done. George and Benjamin can now drive them back to the village and tell all to the police. All, except a mention of us. We were never here. Our anonymity in this matter will be what helps us prevail on the next attempt. There will be a next attempt Janey, have no doubt. Now, let us get off this accursed moor and down to the pub. I believe we may have saved the world and earned a drink or two.”
Janey looked at her mother and Benjamin in bewilderment. So much had happened so quickly that she couldn’t take it all in. But Van Lomas was gone, the evil was gone, and they were all safe once more. For a little while, at least. Taking Ben’s arm on one side and drawing her mother close to the other, Janey walked away from the terror of this night with the two people she loved most in the world safe beside her. A new life had begun for them all, she just hoped she was up to the challenge.
The End
Crossover
Paranormal Romance
About the Book
Two weeks of camping had Tana Jackson bouncing with joy. No chirping mobile phone once she turned it off, no television, nothing but peace and quiet, nature, and the hard work of hiking up a mountain. Tana’s idea of heaven. Then she discovers a village full of crazy cult members that are bound to ruin her trip.
An accident leads to Tana’s introduction to the village and the crazy idea that she’s somehow stumbled into a parallel universe. Unfortunately, Kajika, the sex god that she meets upon waking, turns out to be more of a scummy demon and makes her time there a nightmare.
Injured and knowing she won’t be able to get off the mountain, Tana settles in to learn more about the villagers, and comes to respect the people there, even if they are in need of mental help. There’s a lot of talk about the Land of the Living and the Spirit world, and it’s all too much for Tana to deal with. Between Kajika’s nastiness and a fear that she’s starting to fall for the cult’s beliefs, Tana determines to leave.
As she fights to get back to the Land of the Living, she also starts to fight back against Kajika, and slowly she wears him down until his attitude changes entirely. A horrifying discovery could soon change Tana’s future and she’ll have to make a choice, a life with Kajika or freedom from the world entirely? Only Tana can make that choice; but the new life she leads, the new love and friendships she has could be the deciding factors in the most important decision of her life.
Chapter One
Tana Jackson pulled into a parking spot at the bottom of the latest mountain she was determined to hike and smiled happily. Two weeks of camping, hiking, and total peace from the world outside awaited her. World War III could start and she’d never know because she was going to be hiking up a mountain, through thick woods, and cooling her feet in cold mountain streams. Just the kind of holiday she’d been longing for.
Tana pulled her gear out of the back, checked in with the office, and pulled out her map, refreshing the trail in her mind. Finding the trailhead, she started her way up. Early morning sunlight barely penetrated the canopy of the trees and Tana knew she had hours to go before she made her first campsite. The canopy overhead provided shade and kept it cool but Tana was sweating an hour into her hike and pulled the electric blue fleece she had on over her head, and tied it around her waist.
Wiping her forehead, Tana looked around the rocky terrain, wondering how much weight she’d shift on this holiday. She wasn’t vastly overweight but she never denied herself whatever she wanted to eat so that she could look like a supermodel. Brushing at the strands of long red hair that had escaped their clip, she reminded herself that life was meant to be lived and enjoyed, denying yourself food so that you could go to parties where you hated everyone else didn’t appeal to her. In any case, she reminded herself, exercise usually shifted most of it and she was a healthy 28-year-old woman. She wandered off the trail for a moment to snap some pictures of a stream that had caught her eye, and then carried on, wanting to set up camp by lunchtime.
Halfway up the mountain, Tana stopped and made her first campsite, using an area provided by the forestry service that oversaw the parkland. The wind was up a bit so she used a barbecue pit provided by the service to cook her lunch rather than making a campfire herself. The sky was a little more open where some of the trees had been cleared out for the campsite, and Tana knew the night wouldn’t be too cold, especially with a sleeping bag to warm up in. She set up her one-person tent, slid the sleeping bag inside of it, and pulled out a book, deciding a little rest was called for after that hike up the mountain.
Tana spent the rest of the day exploring the area, taking phot
ographs, resting her feet in the spring that ran down the mountain, and generally just enjoying where she was. She prepared another dehydrated meal that evening, changed into more comfortable sleep attire, snuggled down into her sleeping bag, and quickly fell asleep, looking up at the stars through the trees, totally at peace with the world and quietly happy.
The next morning she set off early, wanting to reach the peak of the mountain and see the views from the top before the sun went down. This part of the hike took considerably longer as the altitude increased and the terrain became rockier. She consulted the map periodically because she’d lost the trail markers somewhere along the way, but she was certain she’d stayed on the right path.
Tana was near the top when she started to smell smoke. The scent confused her at first, but then she realized there must be some campers up top. As long as they didn’t impinge on her quiet time she didn’t mind other people around. Sometimes campers liked to party until the morning hours and that usually made Tana a very unhappy camper. She giggled at her bad joke and carried on trudging up the mountain.
She started to hear voices, children’s laughter, the yips of dogs chasing each other, and what sounded like wood being chopped. Oh good grief, there was a whole village at the top by the sounds of it. Her mood souring and her hopes for a peaceful evening quickly disappearing, Tana climbed the last little bit and stood behind a tree, expecting to see a whole commune of tents and campfires. What she saw made her jaw drop.
The top of the mountain was mainly clear of trees with some kind of wigwam structures dotted all along it. People walked in between the structures, clad in buckskin clothing, working; performing a variety of jobs from curing more of the leather used to make their clothing and footwear, to chopping wood, and preparing food around a large fire. An elderly man with long grey hair sat in front of one of the cooking fires caught her attention, and she watched him for a moment as he turned meat on large stones set over the fire. Well that was one way to get the job done, Tana thought. As her gaze drifted over the village, Tana became aware that she needed to relieve her bladder and glanced at the old man once more.
“Such a brilliant way to cook food,” she said to herself as she turned around. Tana was startled to find the old man standing in front of her and tried to backpedal but her left foot caught between two rocks and she fell, rolling 20 foot down the slope of the mountain before landing against a tree. She cried out in agony just before she passed out, the side of her head colliding with a rock.
The old man watched as Tana rolled, horrified that he’d startled her so badly. Looking back up the slope he wondered how he was going to get such a large woman up to the village to tend to her injuries. He was going to have to go for help.
“She’s so big, none of the women in our village, or other villages are as tall as her, as round. She must be from another village far, far away. Or she’s come from the other side of the vale. I don’t know Kajika; I’ve just never seen a woman so big.”
Tana scrunched up her face and tried to open her eyes, but they were being held down by stones it felt like. Her entire body was screaming at her in pain, her right collarbone, shoulder, and left ankle holding a competition to see which could get her attention first. Finally managing to drag her eyelids open, she looked at the two men staring down at her and decided she’d rather be dead than listen to that old man and what had to be the sexist man alive discussing how large she was. Scrunching up her face, she tried to roll over but stopped immediately as her ankle finally won the screaming competition.
She bit back a scream and a swear word, punching the soft blankets that cushioned the place she was resting instead. Finally, the pain ebbed to low-grade torture, and she opened her eyes again. Yep, the sex god was still there. The man was beautiful with dark-black hair, crystal blue eyes, and a mouth that women would pay for. His body looked like it had been sculpted from marble, and she could see quite a bit of it as it was only covered in a loincloth of some sort at the moment. Who wears loincloths in this day and age, she thought? This must be some really weird cult, just wait until I get back down the mountain and tell them what kind of nutjobs have taken over up here.
“Could one of you stop gawking at me and help me please?” She finally asked with the need for a toilet burning in her lower regions still. She was almost afraid to sit up but she needed to go so bad.
“I can understand her; she must not be from far away then. How long before we can send her packing?” Sex-on-legs asked.
The older man came at her, poking around at the herbs he’d placed on her injuries. He made some low noises, looked at her eyes, and then spoke. “A week at least. Her ankle won’t hold, wait for at least that long.”
“And that’s a lot of weight to be carrying around, Mingan. Fine then, she can stay but you’d best keep her in here; she might accidentally crush one of the women in the village if we let her out.” This from the now not-so-sexy man. In fact, his sex appeal had just dropped 95%. “Do we have enough food to feed such a massive woman or do we need to find another deer? Or two?”
Tana looked at the man in horror and outrage, her mouth gaping open. “You do realize I can hear you, right?” She fired at him with a withering glare.
“No, I didn’t, but it matters not. Please, don’t move, you might break the frame of the pallet and do yourself a further injury. Please, just don’t move.”
“Would it hold your weight Mister High and Mighty?” She asked with a sneer.
“Yes, it would. Why do you ask?” The man asked with a haughty tilt of his sculpted chin.
“Because I doubt I weigh any more than you do. I’m 5 foot 8 and I barely weigh 154 pounds. I’m not a whale. Stop talking about me like I am.” Tana demanded, looking away as tears stung her eyes.
“In this village, as you will see, women rarely reach 5 foot tall. You are a giant. A behemoth. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a woman as massive as you, in fact. Ever. Excuse me now, I have more important matters to tend to.” With that he slipped out of the doorway, pushing aside the leather strip that served as a door.
Tana looked up to the older man, wondering if she was about to receive more of the same treatment from this one as well. Being insulted by complete nutcases, great. This was a new low in her life. The man that just left had said that this place was a village, and that he’d never seen a woman as tall as she. Either he’d been living under a rock, or he was deluded, there were plenty of women as tall as her in the world, some even taller. But nature called and called with an urgent ring, a pang of imminent embarrassment, or whatever you wanted to call it.
“Is there someone who can help me get to the toilet?” She asked the old man, her cheeks burning red.
“Toilet?” He asked, “What is a toilet?”
“Seriously? Alright, I know you people are up here playing Hiawatha on the mountain but come on now, how else are you going to answer the call of nature? Squat behind a tree?” Tana asked, losing patience and control of her tongue.
“Call of nature?” The man asked uncertainly.
Thinking hard of how to explain to the man the simple concept of “I need to urinate,” Tana scraped her brain looking for other ways of saying it.
“Yes, I need to wee, have a pee, tinkle, go to the bathroom, potty, make water…” Tana stopped as the man interrupted her.
“Ah, make water, yes, I will send in my daughter, Allana; she can help you.” The man left quickly, a woman soon making her way into the room. The woman was beautiful; brown haired with large brown eyes and a tiny physique. She had a sweet shy smile that faltered as she saw Tana.
“Heavens!” The woman exclaimed.
Tana had an idea of what had caused the woman’s reaction. “Yes, I know; I’m big and you’ve never seen a giant like me. All of you women could take starring roles in any film starring munchkins or pixies, maybe even fairies and brownies. I have no idea but you’re all delicate little flowers and I’m a cyclops with two eyes. I get it. Can you help me please before I
end up with wet pants?”
“Cyclops?” The woman, little more than a teenager really, asked timidly.
“Never mind. So what serves as a toilet around here? How do I relieve myself?” She asked, on the verge of tears but trying to maintain an air of bravery and nonchalance. These people were all insane, they just had to be.
“Papa says you need to make water?” She asked.
“Yes, desperately.” Tana replied with a wan smile.
“I can help you, first we should, um, remove these strange pants you are wearing. Oh, how do they come apart?” Tana undid her pants, and Allana helped her to pull them down before sliding the bowl she’d been carrying with her underneath Tana.
“This won’t work. I can’t do this laying down.” Allana helped Tana to shift around and finally her bladder was empty, gloriously empty! Relief was simply not the word for it. She’d write letters home about it if anyone there cared.
“Thank you, Allana; I know you didn’t have to do that.”
“You are welcome. What is your name?” Allana asked with curiosity lighting up her delicately fine-boned face.
“My name is Tana Jackson. Is there a doctor here?” Seeing the confusion return, Tana sifted through words that might make sense to the woman. “Um, healer?”
“Ah yes, healer, that would be my father Mingan, who was with you earlier. He says you need to rest for a few days at least.”
“What about the colossal jerk with your father? I hope he’s the village idiot.” Tana asked sitting back on her pallet; a blanket rolled up to act as a pillow.
“Kajika? He is our Great Father, what is a village idiot?” Allana asked, starting a fire in a stone circle on the floor.
“Um, never mind, what’s a great father?” Tana asked, wondering if the man was a massive perv out impregnating all the delicate flowers in the village.
Thriller: Horror: Conceived (Mystery Suspense Thrillers) (Haunted Paranormal Short Story) Page 43