Memoirs of a Monster Killer: Killing Forever Book 1

by David J. Phifer

  “You don’t know how it feels every time I get nervous or anxious,” he said. “This energy goes through my body and it drives me crazy. My pills help.”

  “They help you suppress your power,” I said. “That’s what they do.”

  “What’re you talking about?” he asked. “What power? The power of being a nervous doofus all the time?”

  “What’s going on here?” Serena asked, adjusting the bag on her lap.

  “I think the kid’s a sensitive,” I said.

  An excitement grew in Serena’s voice. “You think he’s a Seer?”

  “I don’t know what he is yet, but he was able to see teleportation energy.”

  Serena glanced at him. “Have you ever been teleported before?”

  “No,” Augie said. “What’s the big deal? Blake teleported. There was a big splurge of energy. And he disappeared. Was I not supposed to see that or something?”

  Serena fiddled with her bag. “Normal people don’t see that energy,” she said. “All they see is a person disappear in the blink of an eye. Poof. They’re suddenly gone. But no energy.”

  He looked down at the floor. Like he was thinking deeply. “What does that mean?”

  Serena put her hand on his knee. “It means you’re special.”

  “It means there’s something about you we have to figure out yet,” I said. I didn’t need Serena putting visions in his head of being some kind of superhero.

  “You think I have powers?” he asked. “I’ve always felt weird inside. Like I didn’t belong anywhere. But I just thought that was because my dad died before I was born.”

  “This has nothing to do with your father,” I said. “Your mother had you take the pills because she was trying to protect you. Keep you safe.”

  “Well, she can’t do that anymore,” he said. “How did you know Blake was one of them, anyway?”

  “I can tell scumbags when I see them,” I said.

  “Okay, but how?” he asked with a confused look.

  “His smile was off.”

  “You killed my ex-friend because his smile was off?”

  “I’ve killed on less,” I said.

  “What if you were wrong?” he asked. “What if he was just weird, like me? You would have killed an innocent person.”

  “Blake isn’t the kind of person that comes off as innocent. If he wasn’t Forever, he still had plenty of skeletons in his closet.”

  “How did you know I wasn’t Forever?” Augie asked.

  “Grace is human,” I said. “Being your mother, that must mean you’re human too. Even if you don’t feel very human.”

  “I remember,” he said. “You said in your books Forevers can’t have children.”

  “That’s right,” I said. “But there’s still something strange about you. Which is why you can’t take anymore pills. Understand? We need to find out what Grace was hiding.”

  “My pills are more than aspirin. They’re an anti-psychotic. If I go too long without them, I go crazy. I start feeling weird and seeing things.”

  “I guess we’ll see about that,” I said, turning to him, “won’t we?”

  “Can you teach me to fight?” he asked.

  “You want to become a hunter?”

  “Yes,” he said with a little too much zeal. “I want to become a monster hunter.”

  “Forget it, kid,” I said, turning onto I-94 West.

  “How can I help if I can’t fight?”

  “We’ll talk about it later.”

  Serena leaned back and looked at me with eyes of judgment. “He’s right,” she said. “You need to teach him to fight. If not, he’ll get us both killed.”

  “I can’t teach him to fight in the amount of time we have. You should see how terrible he is. He sucks. A wet mop has more fighting ability.”

  “I don’t suck that bad,” he said.

  “A kindergartner could whoop you,” I said.

  “Aw, man, shut up.” He crossed his arms and stared at the road.

  “To get you to the point where you’re at least halfway decent, where you don’t get me or yourself killed, it would take months. Years, if we want to be honest about it.”

  Serena waved her hands in the air like she was performing a magic trick. “Maybe I can teach you magic,” she said. “Who wants to be a dumb monster hunter when you can control the laws of the universe?”

  Augie’s face lit up. “You can teach me magic?”

  “Of course,” she said, grinning.

  “I’ve read Ivy’s books,” he said. “What about all that talk about magic costing a price?”

  “We all pay a price for something,” she said. “At least magic is worth the cost.”

  “You’re not teaching the kid magic,” I said. “He can’t handle it.”

  “He needs to be able to defend himself, Sol.”

  “Is it Black Magic?” Augie asked.

  “Dark Magic,” she said.

  “What’s the difference?”

  “Dark Magic is simply understanding the laws of the universe and using them to your advantage,” Serena said. She seemed happy to have a pupil. She probably appreciated having someone who would listen. And take her seriously. Since I did neither. “That magic includes using energies from other dimensions and realities.”

  “Realities?” he asked.

  “Like Hell,” she said.

  I added my two cents. “She’s sugarcoating it, kid. Dark Magic is the kind of magic that’s unpredictable, unsafe, and dangerous.”

  “Wow,” she said. “Can you be any more curmudgeony?” She turned to Augie. “Don’t let him mislead you,” she said. “Yes, it can be dangerous. That’s why you learn to use it properly.”

  Augie uncrossed his arms. “What’s Black Magic then?”

  She grimaced. “Black Magic is generally magic used for more, shall we say, mischievous purposes.”

  I jumped in again. “Black Magic is used to harm, kill, or destroy. Its intent is to do evil.”

  “Potato, potahto,” she said, rolling her eyes. “What he said, I suppose.”

  “August is not learning magic,” I said with a sternness in my voice. “I said we’ll talk about it later.” I turned to them both and cast a look that said I meant it. “This conversation is over.”

  I could tell her influence on Augie would not be a good one. But it didn’t take a genius to figure that one out. We needed to end this quick, save his mother from damnation, and get him the hell away from her.

  Chapter 14

  Finding Grace

  We prepped the house for about twenty minutes after arriving. I moved the coffee table to the side and pulled Grace’s body to the center of the living room. The blanket was still over her. Serena closed the curtains to the front bay window.

  Augie sat on the coffee table. His leg bounced up and down.

  I glared at him. “Stop fidgeting.”

  “I can’t help it,” he said. “That’s my mom under there.”

  “You don’t have to watch this.”

  “Yes, yes I do.”

  Out of nowhere, he jumped off the table. “Holy hell!”

  “I haven’t even removed the blanket yet,” I said. “What’s the problem?”

  “On the table,” he said without looking.

  I glanced at the table. “What?”

  “It’s crawling on the edge.”

  I looked closer. It was a brown insect with pinchers on the end. “It’s just an earwig.”

  “It’s not ‘just an earwig,’ dude,” he said, still facing the other direction. “It’s a freak of nature. We used to have those things in the house growing up. I had nightmares about them for years. The only thing worse is centipedes. And spiders. They all suck.”

  His mother’s corpse was sitting on the floor and this kid was worried about an earwig. I squished it under my thumb. “The big bad monster is dead,” I said. “It’s safe to come out now.”

  Serena chuckled.

  “It’s not funny,” A
ugie said, turning around to us. “Those things are disgusting.”

  I took the end of the blanket and cast Augie a last look. He nodded. I uncovered Grace.

  With the blanket off, Serena studied the body. She reached in her bag and pulled out a Ziploc. Inside was a butterfly cocoon.

  She pulled it out and held it up. “This has to go down her throat.”

  “What’re you waiting for?” I asked. “Do it.”

  “Solomon, I just did my nails. I’m not getting them all gross,” she said. “Corpse bile can stain. You know that.”

  I grabbed the cocoon. “For crying out loud, woman,” I crouched down to the body. “August, you might want to look away.”

  August turned the other way.

  Serena sat on the love seat and tapped her fingers against the arm. “You have to stick it down pretty deep.”

  I turned to her. “How deep?”

  She avoided eye contact. “All the way?”

  “What do you mean all the way?”

  “The cocoon has to rest on her heart.”

  “On her—?”

  “You’ll have to shove real hard,” she said. I shook my head and threw daggers with my eyes. “Do you want to save her or not?”

  “Black magic bitch,” I said. With the cocoon in my hand, I shoved it down Grace’s throat. Her neck bulged as my hand went down her esophagus.

  Serena leaned in closer, trying to see where my hand was inside Grace. “Can you feel her heart?”

  “I think so,” I said.

  “Release the cocoon in the area,” she said. “If it’s within an inch or two, that’s fine. But touching it is best.”

  Slowly, I pulled my hand back up her chest, up her throat, until I was out. There was no blood. Only black bile and ash.

  When a body is drained of its life force, all the juices dry up. Leaving it a dry, bloodless, empty husk. Like a grape that has its moisture sucked out and becomes a raisin. The same thing happens to the flesh when all its juices are sucked away.

  August still didn’t turn back around. “Are you done?”

  “We’re done,” Serena said. “You can turn around.” He did and saw the black bile on his mother’s mouth.

  “What is that black stuff?”

  I snapped at him. “Don’t worry about it.” The less he knew about this stuff the better. He wasn’t strong enough to know all the details and still be able to sleep at night.

  “Solomon, how do you know she’s in Ghostworld?” Serena asked. “Is that a guess?”

  “I don’t guess,” I said. “Double mirror test. With a black mirror.” I relaxed back into the couch.

  “All right,” she said. “That’s good enough for me.” She slid down the love seat to the floor, next to Grace’s body. She crossed her legs Indian style and put herself in the lotus position. Closing her eyes, she started humming.

  Augie sat next me. He turned to Serena. “What are you doing?” Serena’s eyes opened, but her pupils were gone. Her head flailed around like she was possessed. Her mouth dropped open and her voice echoed a zombie-like groan. “Holy shit! What the fuck is that?”

  “Relax,” I said.

  Like the floor was made of snakes, Augie threw up his feet and rolled over the arm of the couch. He got behind it, using the sofa as a shield between him and the flailing witch with white eyes. “What the fuck is that, dude? What the fuck, man?”

  “Quiet, boy,” I said. “She’s going into a trance.”

  “Trance? For what?”

  “To find your mother.”

  “I thought you said she was in Ghostworld.”

  “We know your mother’s in Ghostworld,” I said in a whisper. “But we don’t know where. It’s a big place. We know the house, but not the room.”

  “I never read about Ghostworld in your books,” he said.

  “Every reality, every dimension, has a frequency,” I said. “Hell, Heaven, our world. They all resonate at a certain frequency within the universe.”

  “Like a radio,” he said. “You turn the dial and get a different station, right?”

  “Correct. Every dimension is like a house. A mansion with many rooms. Serena will find the room we need.”

  Serena’s head stopped spinning and her eyes returned to normal. “I got her.”

  “Where is she?” I asked.

  “She’s lost. In the Recurrence.”

  “Shit,” I said.

  Augie sat back down. “What’s the Recurrence?”

  Serena pulled her knees to her chest. “The Recurrence is a dimension of nightmares and dreamscapes. Or, a nightmarescape, if you will. It’s where entities relive tragedies and old sorrows.”

  I scratched the gruff on my face. “Once we get the energy from Poe, we can astral project there—”

  Serena interrupted me. “No, we can’t. You have to go there in person.”

  I felt my face tighten. “What?”

  “You can’t hold onto a piece of her soul if you’re an astral body yourself. You have to carry it,” she said. “Once we get her soul back, I can lock it in a vial for you to take back, but it has to be in person. With your physical body. That’s the only way.”

  I shook my head in disagreement. “You’re saying we need to find a portal and physically go to the other side?”

  “Now that you mention it,” she said.

  “Why didn’t you tell me this in the beginning?”

  “Would it have made a difference?”

  I ground my teeth. “How do we find a gateway to the other side in time?”

  “Oh, I’m sure you’ll think of something,” she said.

  Augie rubbed his eyes. “Wait, wait. So we have to find this Poe guy, get back my mom’s soul from him, and find some kind of portal to this Ghostworld, which you guys don’t have, in order to give it to my mom so she can get to Heaven?”

  Serena smiled. If a smile could be sarcastic, she had it down pat. “And we have to do it in three days. Or your mother’s soul will be lost forever.”

  Augie jumped off the couch and bent over like he was going to vomit. “What you’re saying is my mom is as good as dead.”

  Serena glanced at me. “He hasn’t been around you that long, has he? This is a typical weekend for you.”

  I looked at Augie and nodded. “We’ll find Poe.”

  He looked up at me with wet eyes. “How?”

  “I know a guy who has an interest in this kind of thing. More like an obsession. He may know of a gateway. Somewhere.”

  Serena shook her head. “One of your snitches?”

  “Yes. Even one you know.” I turned to Augie. “August, we’re going to save your mother’s soul.”

  Chapter 15

  The Chubby Snitch

  We strolled down the apartment building hallway toward my contact’s place. Serena walked beside me. Augie followed.

  “Try and keep up,” I said.

  “Tell me again why we couldn’t just call him?” Augie asked.

  My eyes shifted to the apartment numbers. “If he knew I was coming, he’d run.”

  Serena snickered. “Run from you, Sol? Gee, I wonder why.”

  “Shut up,” I said. “Why would anyone run from me? I’m very lovable.”

  “Yeah,” she said. “Like a rabid porcupine.”

  I knocked onto the Professor’s door. I stepped out of sight before he looked through the peep hole.

  Harold Landon opened the door. “Well, hellllo,” he said to Serena, checking her from top to bottom. “Serena Acosta. Here for a nighttime rendezvous? I knew one day you’d come to your senses. Do you want to tear off my clothes and ravage my body? Or kill me and have sex with my corpse? I know dead people are kind of your thing. What can Harry Barry provide for you today, sweetheart?”

  Serena smirked. “Don’t call me sweetheart.”

  I stepped in the doorway and revealed myself. His eyes got huge. “First, Harry, no one will have sex with your live body much less your dead one. Second, don’t refer to your
self in third person. It’s creepy.” I barged through the door and grabbed his throat. He was a chubby man. Ninety percent body fat, ten percent ego.

  His chubby throat in my grip, I led him down the hall to the living room and pushed him to the couch.

  He went from confusion to all smiles. “Solomon, buddy. It’s been a long time.”

  “Three years, five months, eleven days,” I said. “Did you think you could actually go somewhere I couldn’t find you?”

  “I just moved,” he said. “I was gonna send you the new address. Scout’s honor.”

  I sat on the coffee table in front of him. “You moved twelve times, Harry. Even the IRS can’t find you.”

  “Mr. Landon?” Augie asked, pushing past Serena. “You’re Ivy’s snitch?”

  “I hate the term snitch,” Harry said. “I prefer informant, thank you very much.”

  I turned to Augie. “How do you know him?”

  “He’s my Philosophy professor,” Augie said. “I mean, he was. But he disappeared years ago. No one knew why.”

  Harry put his hands on his large stomach. He had food stains on his shirt. “When you deal in the underworld, young man, bad things have a tendency to follow you wherever you go. Present company excluded, of course.”

  “Harry, I need a favor,” I said.

  “Of course you do,” he said. “Why else would you possibly be here? In my apartment? Sitting on my table? With your big muscles and intimidating stare?”

  “You used to study portals and interdimensional travel,” I said.

  “Still do,” he said. “But I haven’t yet found a dimension better than this world. Sure, they start off good, but sooner or later, they fuck you up the ass. And not in a pleasurable way either.”

  Harold Landon was always the sniveling type. Sometimes you could rely on him in a pinch, sometimes he would run the other way, leaving you to die. And sometimes he needed additional encouragement to do the right thing. I opened my coat and checked the ammo in my Glock. “We need to get to Ghostworld. Specifically, the Recurrence.” I slipped the clip into my gun and holstered it. It was a subtle threat. To let him know I still meant business. That I hadn’t softened over the years. “We need a portal.”

  Harry shifted uncomfortably on the couch. He fiddled with his silver Rolex watch. “You’re looking for a gateway to the Recurrence? Are you insane?”