Cold Fear

by Timothy Friesenhahn

  The girl’s eyes shot open, but it was already too late. She tried to scream but her time was up. In a nano second, she realized she had been betrayed. Moloch had deceived her. No sound escaped her mouth. Her breath was temporarily out. The inside of her head felt like it was swelling. The pressure was pushing her eyes from their sockets. All within a mere second, pain thrived in her skull and the screams within her head let her know where she was going and there would be no return. Her existence was washed away in an instant.

  From within her mind, his closed eyes opened. When his vision came back, he saw the dingy room the girl lived in. With his hands, he felt his body, and instantly knew what little time he was going to walk the streets of man; he was going to enjoy it. Within a few minutes of laying and feeling his new body he knew more than one boy was going to suffer over the next few hours.

  Moloch was going to go on a sexual, murdering rampage, before he retrieved the child. In his thoughts, he knew he had to change his perception of himself, because for the next few hundred years he would be a man no longer.

  Female was his new body and the power of the female body had come with an unexpected reward. Giving birth was not the reward, but he thought had it been another time that might have proved to be an interesting experience. No, the reward would be the power she held between her legs. Moloch’s new face smiled and, like the smiling man, the smile was consistent.

  The next few hundred years, raising his protégé, would be an experience, that he was sure of. What little light was left in the original mind of the boy whom Lilith had taken, so many centuries ago, was corrupted by the fresh fragrance of the new level of evil. Tanner and Cici would have to die and if by some miracle the old hag had been able to travel through his portal, she too would suffer her end.

  The smiling man laughed cynically and got dressed for an extremely early morning on the town.

  Sorry, the smiling woman.

  Chapter 7

  “He will be here whether we want him to or not. The only thing we can hope for is that we can persuade him. Fighting him; I don’t know if we would have a chance.”

  Em’s hand trembled as she led Cici and Tanner, who was holding Sophia, down into the basement. The basement never really changed since her time in the house. “seems like you two never come down here.”

  Cici, whose hands were trembling with nervous apprehension of the confrontation to come, responded, “we only come down here to do laundry. I always avoid coming down here if I don’t need to. Tanner stays away from it, because he says he can’t breathe down here.”

  “I can’t, my nose is getting stuffy already, and we have only been down here a few seconds,” Tanner said, defensively.

  The last several minutes had been the longest he had ever known in his life. The stories he listened to his dead grandmother tell were impossible. His younger grandmother, however, persisted the truth of what she spoke. Cici was an immovable object in her belief of it as well.

  Em turned and went to the three neatly stacked boxes under the staircase. Removing the top two, she slid the bottom box to the right using her foot. The top of the box read fragile.

  Looking at Tanner and Cici she asked, “you two never went through these boxes after all these years?”

  Tanner and Cici looked at each other, then at Em as they shrugged their shoulders,

  “Well, I guess, it’s a good thing you never went through them; you might have been distraught on what I kept in this box right here.” As she spoke, she opened the box and removed a black veil which she held tight in her hands for a second, then gently laid it on top of the other two boxes.

  Rummaging through the box for a few seconds, she found what she was looking for. From the box she removed a small .38 pistol.

  Cici’s mouth gaped with not only anger but a small feeling of safety. The young Hispanic mother was a firm advocate of having guns removed from homes. Though, Tanner didn’t agree with her at all, he had obeyed her wishes of not owning a gun in the house. He knew it was foolish to not own at least a pistol as the lady held. The world was sick and vile and reeling into a pit of corruption more and more every day. The government that once stood firm upon its foundation had cracked and weakened tremendously since the nineties.

  The leaders of this country are all corrupt, both political parties are full of fools, he thought to himself quickly.

  Having a gun wouldn’t be a bad idea for protection, that was just common sense.

  But that kind of sense just isn’t that common anymore.

  The media and online outlets had warped a majority of the society. Time would only tell, but, surely, the country was on a downward spiral into oblivion.

  The beautiful mother of his enchanting daughter hated guns and when she took if from Em and held it with both hands tightly gripped around it; Tanners mouth fell open, stunned by what he was witnessing.

  “I don’t believe in guns, but if this might give us a chance to stop Moloch then I will use it,” Cici spoke as she let Em fix her hand on the gun so that she held it correctly.

  As Em was helping Cici hold the gun properly, Tanner noticed the back wall of the basement was moving and a light was shining through where the wall met the floor.

  “Something is happening,” he spoke with trepidation quivering in his voice.

  “He’s here.” both Em and Cici announced, at the same time, as if they were in each other’s thoughts.

  Before either of them could speak another word, the wall vanished and from it a bright light shined. They all squinted into the brightness as they realized right away that it wasn’t light they were seeing; it was raging fires. All in a split second, it happened.

  Tanner and Cici recognized the woman that came from the wall with the sinister smile scratched across her face. It was Hannah.

  But how? Why? They had no time to conclude.

  From between Hannah’s legs came a long tentacle. The tentacle shot through Tanner’s neck. The toddler fell from his hands screaming as blood burst from her father. He choked on his blood as he fell back to his death. Fear had coursed through his eyes. Cici flung herself to her child feeling the tentacle wrap her up as she held on to Sophia. The tentacle had moved so fast Tanner had no chance to move out of its way. The powers he had begun to realize he had had been useless against Hannah. Em held the gun and fired all the bullets into the woman Moloch. The tentacle slung Cici and Sophia into the air and all three vanished into the wall.

  Em approached her dying grandson. Blood flowed from his neck with each breath he struggled to take as his eyes begged for life. He was trying to speak but he could not. His eyes were beginning to see the dim light of the place he was going to. Em cried and held the black veil, she had unknowingly grabbed, tight to his bleeding neck.

  “Shh, shh, it’s all going to be okay hun. The place you’re going to is far better than her. Do not fear death, for in it you will find peace,” as she spoke she hoped, for his sake, he would find piece.

  His death was so horrific. Sporadically shaking, his body twitched with fear of the impending death, until the last second. The last glimmer of light left his eyes. Em kneeled, crying over his body, not knowing what to do next. Looking at the wall from which Moloch came, her cries turned to sobs. She stood and approached the wall and hoped she could still open the power in life as she had during death.

  Tanner couldn’t cry as he died, even though his restored grandmother was assuring him death would be welcoming, the only thing he could think about was saving Cici and Sophia. As soon as darkness entered his vision, he saw himself laying beneath him. Em was kneeling beside his dead body as she sobbed. The beautiful lady turned toward the wall from which the tentacle producing Hannah had taken his wife and child. His spirit hovered next to Em and he put all his energy into trying to get her to realize that he was still there with her.

  The air in the basement had grown frigid. The muggy atmosphere it had contained prior was gone. The cool, dry air washed over Em and she felt an energy she
had felt before. Yes, it was the way she felt when she was dead and her spirit was stranded in the house.

  “Tanner are you here?” She asked.

  All his energy was focused into getting her attention, and he could feel that it was working. Then other spirits entered the basement. It was the spirit of the old man, Arthur. He didn’t know the other two, but he could feel their presence and he knew with solid certainty that it was Cici’s parents. The three spirits hovered toward him. They enveloped him, until all the spirits became one.

  Em could feel the icy air pierce her flesh and before her very eyes she saw a glow of translucent light form. The bright, foggy patch of spiritual energy lit the basement brighter than a sports stadium. The entity hovered before her and it spoke. The words were as icy as the air. The voices were jumbled and gargled with each word.

  “Together we will enter you; within you we will go and find Cici and the child. Moloch’s curse will be put to rest. If the devil himself shall stand in the way, we will cut him down.”

  Her body suspended effortlessly into the air; she could feel the top of her head graze the roof of the basement. The huge light of spirit entered her. Landing on her feet, the wall opened as it had when Moloch arrived. This time there were know flames, just an empty field. In the distance of the dead grass, she could see Sophia standing. She could hear the child crying as she looked over at the other two. The other two were Cici and Hannah, whose body Moloch had taken as his.

  As she got closer, she noticed that the female Moloch was floating in the air and was transforming or doing something that was beyond her knowledge. The green hair that had been on the girl’s head, fell in shambles on the ground. The bullet wounds in her belly and chest healed, and the blood invisibly washed away. Moloch landed in his healed body and lifted Cici from the ground. Before Em could make it, the demon ripped her neck to pieces and tossed her dead body to the side. Moloch’s attention turned to Em.

  The smiling woman gave her a look that said, it was ready. Em’s mind raced because, besides the spiritual light that had entered her, everything else was happening as the vision had shown her. Sophia showed what was going to come to be and, for the most part, it was happening.

  Moloch waved his right hand toward the toddler and the child floated above his head. The little girl screamed in terror as the demon transformed once more. This time, the state of which it looked like in hell came to be. The bald demon, Hannah, shifted into an immense creature. Her face stayed, but long teeth protruded from the upper lip. It grew several feet in size. Its arms stretched and at the ends of them were big white claws with black nails, measuring at least six inches a piece. The tentacle busted through the genitals of the female’s anatomy. The toddler descended in front of the demon; her wails of terror were ear piercing through the empty field.

  Finally, Em reached Moloch, but she didn’t know if she was ready for the fight. Before the full confrontation could take place, though, she noticed that the demon had clawed at Sophia. His tentacle had entered her mouth and, with a violent look in its eyes, it threw the child to the side. The screams were knocked out of her with the hard landing she made on the ground. Em felt herself rise from the dead grass; she could feel her body heat up. A bright light enveloped her.

  Moloch saw the old hag, now restored, coming for him. It was too late. Whether she died or defeated him, his power had been placed in the child.

  The younger version of the old whore possessed an angel-like power he had never seen, but heard of. The battle was not in his favor, so he invited death willingly. His time was done, his mission was almost complete. He passed his power to the child as the devil had asked. No, he couldn’t raise the child as she needed to be, but at least she would develop the hunger. The restored bitch shot through him and centuries of life left him in an instant. The demonic body transformed back into the bald woman’s body. She laid on the ground dead and limp.

  It was too late. The events of the last few seconds played out just as the vision had shown her. Moloch placed his demonic power within Sophia. Em had to decide what she would do.

  Leave the knocked-out child to nature in the field of dead grass or take her back with her?

  Tears filled her eyes; she failed. As she approached the girl’s small body, she felt the icy chill that she felt in the basement. From her body came the light, this time it was not as bright. It encircled the child, raising her from the ground.

  Its icy gargle of a voice spoke once more, “this shall not be her fate; it shall be yours. The visions this child acquired were only half correct. Come closer now Mathelda McQuaid. You will carry the evil which was placed within the child. You will feed on the ones that do bad. You have done shameful things yourself. This innocent child will not pay for all our sins. Raise her and let her go when she is old enough. You then, need to leave her and go on doing what the demon did for centuries. If you refuse to take this evil from the child, we will remove it from her, but that will come at a price. The devil will surely learn of what we did, and he will come for the girl and kill you. We can’t stop the devil like we stopped Moloch.”

  Em outstretched her hand and felt the icy touch of the hovering entity. From Sophia, a black bead came from her mouth and shot directly into Em’s. The bright light of spirits vanished.

  She stood cradling Sophia in her arms.

  Her tears were drying up as she thought, better me to take the curse then her.

  Em raised the child as her own for twenty years. The hunger for the flesh of bad doers, drove her mad. When Sophia went to college, she left the house from which she first died and had raised the girl. She traveled back to the empty field to find it had turned to a big city. In a dark alley she stood in the night, nude and ready to feed. At first, she held the curse at bay, but as the years moved along, the hunger grew into starvation which grew into the need for the flesh. Two men were antagonizing a young girl in the dark alley. The new demon, Em, approached them and their attention left the girl they were about to defile. They both smiled at the Goddess that stood before them. Em gave them a look she used to use so often with men, and they approached her willingly.

  She looked at the young girl who was still crying and she demanded, “run, get out of here, girl.”

  One of the men spoke, even though their skin color was different, they both looked the same. Baggy pants, sagging passed their butts and big oversized shirts and jackets on; a couple of thugs. A couple of soon to be dead thugs.

  The lighter skinned man spoke, “shit, boy we ‘bout to do some stuff to you.” He looked at his partner in crime continued on. “You be seeing dis bruh?”

  That was the last words the man would ever speak and the last words his partner in crime would ever speak. Stopping a few feet in front of them, three tentacles burst from her genitals and her mind commanded them what to do. A frenzy of rape and bloodshed ensued in the following minutes. The men screamed and begged for mercy. She gave none.

  Right before she ate the genitals from their bodies as they cried in pain, covered in defecation and blood, she told them, “know my name you little thug fucks, I am Mathelda McQuaid and I will hunt down every vile loser just like you two.”

  She ripped their genitals off and ate them. A satisfaction she never knew entered her. A smile stretched across her face. Her mind had been corrupted, but not to the extent that Moloch’s had been over his centuries of torment. A demonic vigilante is what she would become. Though, the power she possessed was evil, she used her hunger to feed on the ones that deserved death. Murderers, rapists, drug abusers, politicians, animal abusers, and liars. No one deserved the cruel death she would give them; she knew that; but she had to tell herself they deserved it. It’s how she had to think to stay hungry, and over time she was consistently starving. Though, some bad doers deserved the punishment she served up, some did not. None of that mattered to her any longer. Time would heal all wounds, but she possessed no wound. She was cursed and she used it to rid the earth of bad doers. Over time, maybe
she would learn some control over the power and some of the lesser crimes could be overlooked. As it was, however, they were going to die. They would face her nefarious tentacles. They would choke and be penetrated by the evil she laid upon them. The world of criminals would discuss her like a folklore. She was a myth that no one ever wanted to find out was true or not. She wanted to be feared and hope that when people spoke of her they shivered with fright. Malevolent torment was her best attribute, and soon her name was spoken within the criminal circles throughout the country. Her name was Mathelda or to them the Goddess of Death.