by Paul Rice
“Bollocks, I never fetched the digging tools with me!” He ran up the slope. “Maggie, listen I’m sorry but…” She turned to him and once more Ken knew that Maggie, just like her father, could see right into his head. She looked at him and shook her own head with a smile. Ken almost stuttered: “Oh, OK then, no problems?” He looked at Jane and gave her an eye signal, one which he tried to make say: “I’ll tell you later?” She, too, smiled at him. Ken shook his own head. “Everyone is fucking smiling around here…” He didn’t feel like smiling in the slightest; in fact, Ken felt like kneeling in the warm grass and screaming at the Godless sky, screaming for Mike to come back and help him with this… Dragging himself from his own self pity – because he could just about hear Mike taking the piss out of him for being a whiner – Ken took a deep breath and then jogged to catch the others up. As he joined them at the top of the slope, Ken saw Tori looking at the disturbed earth and the shovel, which was stuck in the ground beneath the tree. “That’s why Maggie smiled, they’ve already started digging – when in the hell did they do that?” He walked up to the shovel, and said, “About here yeah, looks good to me…” He wiggled the shovel until it came free and turned to look at them.
There were no smiles this time.
“No!” Tori said, “Definitely not here, it’s where I killed him, Jeremiah – I shot him in the head, over there, that’s where he was digging.” She pointed to the spot; turning to look, they could all see the flattened grass where the beast had been walking around before taking some of Tori’s hot lead to the face and then falling onto the ground. There was no blood or any other tell-tale marks and only the small area of flattened grass gave any clue as to the horrific events to have befallen that place. Suddenly remembering, she walked across to the spot and bent down. Finding what she was looking for, the girl stood upright and turned to Ken. Holding it delicately, between thumb and forefinger, Tori returned the Beretta to him. Ken put the safety catch on and then slid the pistol into the waistband of his jeans at the small of his back. Looking down, Ken could see that the ground was littered with empty shell cases.
He’d counted to nine before his wife’s voice made him look up.
Jane asked: “What was he digging for; you mentioned treasure or something, Maggie?” The old lady turned to Tori, seeing her grandmother’s look, the girl reached into the pocket of her jeans – she had done as was asked and had come casually dressed, the only thing she had made a special effort with, were her shoes. They were bright red and suited her perfectly – pulling her hand from the pocket, Tori fetched out a small, cloth bag. Opening the drawstring, she extracted something from within the black bag and then held out her hand. The object, which now rested upon her pink palm, shone dully in the early morning sunlight. It was a medal, or brooch, and looked like the one George had given to Jane and Ken; it was very similar to theirs but somehow different. Tori looked down at them, she was nearly the same height as Ken, anyway, and several inches taller than Jane, but now, as she stood on the slope above them, she seemed even taller than normal. Glancing at the object in her hand, she said, “It’s the other half of the one that you have in your possession, they are the only two in creation and Michael has had this one for a long time… We are not really sure what their true meaning is, not yet. I know you have both experienced its power. When my grandfather gave it to you it was as much a test as it was a gift?” She looked down at the small medal and then back to them as Jane spoke.
“Why did Jeremiah think it was buried here, why would he think that?” Jane said, as she looked at the object and then back to Tori.
Ken couldn’t tear his eyes from the small metal ship. He felt like it was calling him and his mind became filled with an overwhelming desire to reach out and grab it…
Tori, in reply to Jane’s last question, said, “Because my great grandfather, George, made him think it was, he gave him a dream and it drove Jeremiah mad, literally! The difference between this item and the one in your bag back at the farm, would be as much an opposite as black is to white. Your medal is filled with goodness and only the truly good can hold it. That is what I meant about a ‘test’…” She stopped for a moment, as if to contemplate her words, and then continued. “Should you have turned out not to be the good people… whom my grandfather thought you were… then the powers of the good ship would have unveiled your lies immediately!” Maggie walked up the slope to be with them.
Joining in the conversation, she finished off where her grand daughter had started. “An evil person cannot hold the ‘Ship’ you possess, simply touching it would burn their minds. However, this one,” she said, looking at the object in Tori’s hand. “Is exactly the opposite – a good person could never remain good once they had touched it, this little Ship would sear them and immediately fill their soul with blackness!” Ken shoved both his hands firmly into the pockets of his jeans and watched as Jane looked pointedly at the easy way in which Tori handled the piece of metal. Maggie laughed. “No, no, my dear, Tori is not evil by any means, and nor was Michael, but they both have the ability to touch either one of the Ships; the evil twin merely seems to surrender itself to their magic. They are the only ones amongst us to have this ability.”
“But,” Tori said. “Should someone evil take ownership of this,” she raised the Ship and held it up for them to gaze at. “Then imagine what it could do for them – look how you felt when you touched it’s beautiful other half. Can you imagine what the other side of the coin would be like?” Pausing for a while, she looked across their heads at the lake as it lay shimmering behind them. Refocusing she told them: “George laid the seeds of this device deep in what remained of Jeremiah’s sizzled mind, he gave him a dream, but deliberately made it ambiguous, he disguised the truth just enough to confuse them. Red’s father and the Demon knew we had this, but they weren’t sure where? Gradually they saw us together, all of us, many times under this beautiful tree, they saw us and put two and two together. Unfortunately their calculator was as fried as Jeremiah’s brain!” Tori smiled innocently at them. “So, now you know what he was digging for, it had consumed him totally and together with his cancerous hatred, Red’s father became an ideal host for the Dragon. Unluckily for them, the single mindedness of their obsession was to be their final undoing?”
She stopped talking mid sentence and walked past them, looking around as she went. Finally, she stood still, then crouched down and looked around the mound once more. Nodding to herself, Tori rose to her feet and said, “This is the spot… here is where we shall say goodbye to Michael.” She jogged down the incline and shouted for them: “Come on, it’s time to say goodbye! Grandma, you stay there, we can manage?” Maggie nodded and stood gracefully with her back against the tree. She watched as the other two went down to help with Mike. Within minutes, they had laid his blue sarcophagus on the spot, which Tori had decided should be his final resting place on this earth. She referred to it as his ‘Departure Spot’. They stood and looked down at Mike and listened as Maggie asked if anybody wanted to say anything?
Ken did.
Maggie nodded her approval, so he walked over to Mike’s blue shroud and knelt next to his dead friend. “Yeah, well… I guess that we’ll see you later then, Mikey,” he said, voice cracking with emotion. “You make sure that you have a good time, wherever it is that you are. I hope you’ll remember us when we do meet again – we had some pretty fine times, didn’t we mate?” Ken paused to compose himself. Taking a deep breath, he said, “Take it easy brother, and I’ll see you around sometime, when the time comes I guess, OK Mike?” He stood up and they could see his eyes were filled with tears again.
Jane stepped forward and placed a small flower on the blue shroud. She had picked it from the plant, which grew at the bottom of the mound below. She, too, knelt by Mike’s side. “Like Ken says,” she said, “We’ll see you later, sweetheart. We had fun, huh? Maybe you’ll find a woman in the next place, you know, one that you can keep...” She sobbed, and then after taking a
deep breath, said, “Bye Mikey, goodbye love.” She turned away and rested her head on Ken’s shoulder with the tears streaming down her face.
Tori and Maggie walked forward together. The younger of the two women knelt across and placed the metal Ship on top of Mike’s shroud. Its dark metallic hue rested in stark contrast to the bright blue of the material and, standing out like a beacon, the creamy white and yellow of Jane’s flower. Then, as if rehearsed, they both said in unison: “Michael we love you. Thank you for your Gift to us, and to all the worlds in which we move. Take this Ship and travel safely within the light of all that she stands for. Go and seek out the Dark One. Goodbye Michael.” Both woman lowered their heads and stood holding hands for a while. After a few seconds, they turned and Ken could see the blue blaze, which must have been gleaming in their eyes, slowly soften as they smiled. “It’s done, he is free once more! Come on, let’s go to the house.” Maggie said, and slipped her hand in Jane’s whilst Tori did likewise with Ken – together the foursome slowly made their way down the hill.
When they reached the truck, Ken stopped them and said, “I’m sorry, but I have to ask: we aren’t just gonna leave him like that are we, there are wolves and things up here and… well, you know?”
Maggie apologised profusely. “I’m so sorry Kenneth, it’s simply that we are so used to having you around that I think of you as family – there are times when I tend to forget that this is as new to you as will tomorrow’s dawn be to all of us!” She reached over and touched his hand gently.
Tori laughed. “Maggie is right, we are so used to you being here with us that we take things for granted – Michael will be fine underneath the tree, there is not a creature on this planet that could get through his shroud. He will make his own way from this place from the beasts,” she pointed towards the tree. “Tonight you will see his departure. People for miles around will see him leave.” She laughed again and said, “Just you wait and see!” Her voice was filled with happiness. After one last look back up the hill, they turned away and climbed into the truck, Tori hopped up into the back as usual. The sight of the glittering blue coffin fetched a lump to Ken’s throat and he had to look away.
Engaging first gear, Ken drove them home.
Drove them home in silence, drove them home without Mike.
Chapter 33 - 23:55 – Exactly
Tori had been right about Mike’s spectacular exodus. At exactly five minutes to midnight, he made his grand farewell. Earlier, after returning from the apple tree, Jane and Ken had spent the rest of the day aimlessly tidying up the house and trying to get things straight. Strangely, both Maggie and Tori had almost immediately gone for a nap. On arrival back at the farm, both of them had seemed to wilt. Jane had shooed them to bed, without resistance they made their way into Mike’s room and closed the door. When she had peeked around the door, several hours later, Jane found them both to be sound asleep. Maggie was holding Tori in her arms like a mother would her young child, one who perhaps had a touch of the fever. Jane closed the door softly and went back to trying to occupy her mind. Ken didn’t seem to be in the mood for talk and she left him to it. It was comforting to hear the manly noises as he put right the damage outside.
Later, they had gathered on the porch and sat whilst Jane made them a fresh pot of coffee. Maggie and Tori looked much better and the long rest seemed to have recharged their previously deadened batteries. Ken had done a fine job with the house and things were almost as they were before. Jane noticed that he had missed the spatter of blood, which Red had screamed onto the underside of the roof. It lay there in a dark, black spray above them, she didn’t mention it to Ken as her husband was starting to look somewhat shattered, instead she stood, went back into the house and then returned armed with two ice-cold bottles of beer for him.
He took them from her, saying: “Thanks babe, I’ve just about had all the coffee I can handle, to be honest. I’ll get that mess tomorrow?” He raised his eyes towards the offending ceiling above them and winked at her.
Jane laughed. “You are such a clever bugger at times, Ken!”
He winked at her again and then chugged long and hard on his first beer. Jane figured tonight could be one of those occasions when her husband decided to make the most of warm weather and cold beers. She must have had a touch of the mind-reader about her…
Whilst they sat and chatted, Tori filled in a few of the gaps for them: She had hitched a lift with Kristi, old Mr Lumpton’s youngest daughter, from the farm about three miles down the highway. Within minutes of Tori leaving the outskirts of town, Kristi had pulled over in her little silver Honda. The two girls had laughed all the way back to the turning for the track. Kristi was a bundle of fun and she had driven Tori right to the door of the farmhouse, they’d said their goodbyes and Tori had run into the house in search of the others. In her haste, she had missed the old blue Chevy that lay hidden behind the barn. “I should have known,” she said, with remorse. “That’s where we hid all the cars when we had the party – I should have looked!” The house was empty and, after shouting for everyone several times, Tori had figured she knew where they all were, deciding to join them immediately, she had headed for the steps. As she turned back to the house, to make sure the fly screen was properly closed behind her, Tori had heard a loud creak from the top step… it always made that noise when it took the weight of someone big… and she turned with a smile on her face, fully expecting to see Red.
Instead, the young woman found herself face to face with the Demon. It had been a while, but even through the huge red face of Jeremiah, the young woman had immediately recognised the Dark One. She said, angrily, to them: “It shocked me! I knew that the time for confrontation was near, but I wasn’t ready for him and I just stood there and watched him. I was so scared – I knew that I was done for!” Jeremiah had clambered up the stairs and stared at her for a while, tilting his head to one side the beast had looked her up and down, giggled, and then licked his lips. Although she had never heard Jeremiah talk, Tori knew that no man could ever sound like that. “His voice rustled like dead leaves, he sounded like a bag of rusty nails being shaken; it was awful because I could definitely hear Red’s voice inside of him!” She struggled to find the words to adequately describe the obscene rasping sound, which the man’s voice had made. “I just can’t explain how horrible he was?” she said, and then looked apologetically at them.
Jane knew exactly what Tori meant; she remembered only too well from her own dream: ‘Aww c’mon Lady Jane, where’s yore sense o’ huumorr?’ She shuddered as the awful sound echoed in her memory. Yeah, Jane remembered all right, smiling at Tori she told her not to worry as they could all imagine the noise, easily.
Tori said that Jeremiah laughed at her and had then said something about: “Me being fresh out of friends, about how he had something that would keep me ‘Reel Company…’ Then he attacked me, he just leapt on me; he was so big, so heavy, I just can’t tell you!” The memory made her eyes widen with shock as she relived the scene with them. “He put one hand around my throat and lifted me off the floor and I knew then that I was dead, for sure! I kicked him in the balls, but it was like kicking the wall and it only made him laugh even more, the filthy bastard!” She had tears in her eyes now and Jane saw that they were tears of anger; Tori’s blue eyes swam with emotion. She paused, as if to clear here mind before continuing.
“And then Michael turned up, my Knight in blue jeans had arrived. Riding a black and red Harley too – Mike always was a cool customer!” Her emotion turned to one of joy as she remembered her brother. “Then there was a fight, I never knew Michael was like that; he smashed that thing to the four walls of this place!” She waved her hand in an indication of the general area. “It was the most fearful thing I have ever seen, Jeremiah was so incredibly strong and he threw Mike around like a rag-doll… I was so scared, but Mike just laughed and kept on coming back at him, he was like a terrier and I think he scared it, I don’t think it had expected that?” She looked a
t them and they could see the pride she felt for her dead brother. She then told them what had happened when her other ‘Love’ had duly arrived, it was how Tori referred to Red, and was the first time she had bared her true feelings for the young man.
Jane had been half wondering if Tori’s relationship with the Red had merely been part of the act… collateral damage, so to speak… but, by the sound of things, she was thankfully wrong?
Tori said Red had flown up the steps and lifted her onto his shoulders – she had been trapped, crouching in the corner with disbelieving eyes watching the insane melee of the battling men before her. Red had carried her to the truck and told her to stay put before bounding back up the steps to join the fight. Tori said that he, Red, had grasped his father around the neck from behind and then slung him sideways. Jeremiah had crashed into the wall beneath the kitchen window, his huge bulk causing such a shock to the wooden wall that the glass in the window had shattered. The man had instantly bounded to his feet and, ignoring Red, launched himself towards Mike again. As he rushed past, intent only upon Mike, Red had barged into his father, sending the cursing man staggering once more.
This time Jeremiah didn’t ignore Red, turning around, he snarled at his son and then punched him. It was an almighty blow, and one which Red only half managed to avoid – as he ducked, Jeremiah’s fist smashed into the top of his head and Red collapsed where he had been standing, with the ring on his father’s finger having cut his head to the bone. “There was blood everywhere!” Tori said, looking around as if in an attempt to see the terrible reminder of their ferocious battle.