Witch Hunt

by L R Deney

  “My apologies, but I did not intend for all of that to happen,” Staci said, beginning to show a little more respect as she realized what she was dealing with here. With vampires, one wrong move and things could go south quite rapidly. Especially with four of them surrounding you. “I was trying to pursue a far right reactionary who came into your club. I have reason to suspect that they may operate somewhere near.”

  “A ‘far right reactionary?’” the head vampire asked, a brow raised. “You mean like one of those alt-right shitheads?”

  “Yes, but of a more arcane status. I have been investigating the return of the Order of the Black Sun for the past few weeks. Perhaps you’re familiar with the disappearances in the city?”

  “Yeah, I’ve heard of them. So you claim Nazis are behind them?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “That doesn’t explain why you’re here! I usually toss out anyone openly displaying white supremacist paraphernalia. For very good reason.” He raised his arm and lowered his sleeve to show his guests a series of numbers tattooed to his wrist. “The fuckers are not welcome.”

  Staci nodded, realizing the man was unaware of what was going on in his club. “Well, sadly I must report that their sanctum is here, Mr….”

  “Valitoth. I call myself Valitoth.”

  “Well, met, I’m Staci Drenvauder,” she replied before fishing into her purse to retrieve the statuette and placed it in front of the vampire and his girlfriend. The object buzzed in its vibration along the table.

  Valitoth’s eyes widened and then narrowed when he recognized the significance. “You mean they have been hiding in my fucking club the entire time?” His hands balled into fists.

  “I’m afraid so.” She caught the vibrating statue before it fell off the table. “You have a Nazi infestation.”

  “Can that thing tell us where their anchor is?”

  “Yes, the closer we get, the more it vibrates.”

  Valitoth’s girlfriend chuckled, looking amused. Staci smirked back, knowing exactly what was going through the woman’s mind. The head vampire was oblivious as he slid out of the booth and stood up. Straightening his suit, he looked at Staci square in the eyes, the righteous rage behind them apparent.

  “Time to go Nazi hunting,” he said. “Come on boys, we’re about to tear out some throats with our new friends here. Lead the way, Staci.”

  The group wandered about the club while Staci observed the intensity of the statuette’s vibration, moving from corner to corner of the club, pushing their way past drinkers and dancers alike. Eventually they determined that the heaviest it vibrated was near the side exit of the club that led into the alley. Suddenly it dawned on Staci why the Nazi Melanie and her pursued had so rapidly disappeared. This door had been close by.

  “Well shit,” muttered Valitoth. “That explains how they’re doing it. They’re accessing it from the alley. Honestly, Goth Nazis are the fucking worst.” He led the way out through the door. The statuette went nuts once they were outside.

  “Bingo,” said Staci.

  “So how’re we getting in? Don’t these sanctum anchors need keys?”

  “Fortunately, I know someone who knew a thing or two about breaking into sanctums and gave me a few pointers.”

  She wiggled her fingers and focused on the door as her target. A bolt of dark arcane power fired from her fingertips and struck the door, searing a hole into it. What Staci was pleasantly surprised to see was the silvery-black field of the astral behind it. She had to give it to Russell; he had a very interesting technique. Reaching in, she found the handle on the other side and turned it.

  A ball of dark energy formed at the center of the door and began to expand. Shouting for everyone to jump clear, Staci hurried back away from the door and ran. Everyone scattered through the alley as the growing, inky black ball grew as large as the door itself, consuming it. There was a sudden wind as the orb tried to suck everything in the alley into it. Staci and her companions found what nailed-down objects they could grip onto while the force of the wind tried to pull them in, swallowing boxes and garbage that littered the alleyway.

  Finally the black orb collapsed in on itself and vanished, along with the powerful vortex of wind that accompanied it. At last, Staci had an idea what the Black Sun could actually be and shivered at the thought. Releasing the fire escape that she clung to and dropping to the ground, she checked up on everyone. It looked like everyone was accounted for, some even having resorted to hiding behind the corners outside the alley.

  “Well, that was close,” she remarked. A few of her companions nodded.

  But now the entryway into the sanctum they sought was open at last. On the other side, a corridor decorated with Nazi banners on either side was exposed. A pair of men decked out in full, black SS outfits ran out and found the group of people waiting for them. Frozen in disbelief, the two men were immediately dogpiled by the vampires; Valitoth claimed one of their throats, tearing the esophagus free in a bloody mess.

  “I never wanted to see that damned uniform again!” he roared.

  “Ughh… yeah, I can’t even imagine,” Staci muttered, leading the way in through the doorway.

  “A bunch of motherfuckers are going to die!”

  Melanie kept close to Staci’s side while the others followed. “So what’re we going to do?”

  Staci turned, sending a few sparks flying out of her fingers at the banners, causing them to burn. “Well, I’m going to take Valitoth and his friends to find this Fuehrer, and the rest of you I’m sending to find the prisoners. Hopefully you’ll still find them alive.”

  Nods were exchanged around the group of seven, and they split their different ways. Melanie looked back and gave Staci a nervous wave; the witch merely gave her a reassuring smile.

  ◆◆◆

  Karl Dunkelstein, Fuehrer of the new Fourth Reich, stood over the ceremonial chamber on his dais. Already he had his first four victims chained to altars, four men standing over them with daggers. He had all of the prisoners he needed to finally begin his sacrifices to the Black Sun to bring in his new Reich, like his father and the rest of SS had tried so many decades before.

  The fell, High German words rang off his tongue like an unholy cacophony, their purpose to call forth the source of his dark worship. Once he finished this preamble of his ritual, each of the four men standing over their sacrifices would have their own words to say before they were supposed to plunge their daggers into the hearts of their victims. A new era was soon to be at hand.

  He was about to reach the end of his preamble when he heard the commotion from outside of the chamber. The Fuehrer halted in midsentence as the sounds of screams and fighting came from outside. Everyone’s attention was on the door when it suddenly crashed open with a loud explosion. Once the debris had settled, a woman dressed in black in the company of three vampires stood in the doorway.

  “I have come here to chew bubblegum and punch Nazis,” said the woman. “And I’m all out of bubblegum.”

  “Staci Drenvauder, I presume,” Karl said with a hint of infuriated disdain.

  “Yes, and I’m going to love wrecking your shit.”

  “Your reputation certainly precedes you,”

  “Yeahhh, yours not so much.”

  “Then allow me to introduce myself!” the Fuehrer said, summoning forth a great column of energy around himself, hands calling forth red flame. “I am Karl Dunkelstein, Fuehrer of the Fourth Reich!”

  Staci started laughing. “Oh my God, ‘Dunkelstein?’ That’s got to be the most hilarious and disappointing name I’ve heard during this entire escapade. And look at that display! What was that? Are you going to scream in constipated growls for three hours?”

  Valitoth leaned in to her ear. “Uh… are you taking this seriously? That’s a fucking Nazi.”

  Karl Dunkelstein did not look amused.

  “Oh, I’m not sorry,” remarked Staci. “People like this deserve to be ridiculed. Every damn atrocity they committed woul
dn’t be possible if they hadn’t been taken seriously… if they were only just swiftly punched in the face like the xenophobic trash that they are. Nazis need to be afraid to spout their hate in public.”

  “Attack her!” shouted Dunkelstein.

  “Well then, looks like it’s show time, boys!” Valitoth announced, fangs extending hungrily.

  The robed Nazis rushed forward with their daggers as the three vampires leapt straight at them. Blades and claws swung at each other and magic flew. Staci cast several dozen bolts of dark, arcane power at Karl, the Fuehrer safely blocking each one with a barrier he had erected around himself. The fight to bring down the Order of the Black Sun had at last begun.

  ◆◆◆

  Elsewhere within the sanctum, the trio of Melanie, Theo, and Aku no Shi were fighting their way through the corridors. The Nazis, while not numerous, did put up a decent fight. Aku no Shi was fully utilizing her hair as a weapon, slamming and strangling the fascists with strands of hair while cutting them down with her katana to finish them off. She was practically a one-woman army, taking care of most of the enemy while Theo acted as support, countering the enemy’s spells for the witch.

  Eventually the hallways were littered with the bodies of men in black trenchcoats. Rounding a corner, the three companions found a stairway that led down into the depths of the sanctum. Leading the way, Aku no Shi climbed down the steps with her hair like a massive spider. She glanced around for any guards, assuming that this was the place where the captive people were being held.

  There was one, and he was actually shocked to see them despite the obvious sounds of fighting. Presumably he assumed that his fellows would have already taken care of them. A swipe of hair across his head, then a strike into his midsection sent him stumbling backward. He grunted as he managed to cast off a few crimson bolts of razor sharp energy, some of them cutting through the tendrils of hair, others through Aku no Shi’s skin.

  The witch growled and pulled out one of her shuriken and tossed it at him with liquid motion. In just a few moments, one shuriken became two dozen. The man was immediately perforated by the stars and fell back in his gurgling moments of death. Aku no Shi stepped over his body to enter the prison complex.

  There were numerous doors, each locked shut and forged from steel. Theo and Melanie quickly searched the dead man’s body for a key while Aku no Shi remained vigilantly on guard. They found the keys on his belt buckle, and hurried to open the doors. The sights that they found were appalling but not unexpected.

  Many of the people were beaten and on the verge of becoming emaciated, poorly fed and poorly treated. A lot of their clothes were on the way to rags and they apparently had been issued only buckets to defecate and piss in. The sight of it all was flagrantly disgusting and revealed all too well how the Nazis saw these people, as something less than human.

  Eventually Melanie stumbled across someone she had feared she’d never see again.

  “Kimberly!” she exclaimed.

  “Oh my God, Melanie?” Kimberly said from within her cell. “What are you doing here? How?”

  Melanie simply handed off the key to Theo and rushed forward to embrace her. “That’s not important right now; all that’s important is that we get you out of here.”

  Kimberly hugged her back. “I was so afraid that I was going to die. They kept speaking of a sacrifice.”

  “Yeah, they’re Nazis trying to bring back the Reich.”

  “I kind of gathered that they were Nazis.”

  “Ohh… my… God,” Theo exclaimed from behind.

  Both women looked over to them and they saw Theo staring at a man, dark in skin, clean-shaven bald, and dressed somewhat… aristocratically? He looked at the three of them with some hint of hope on his face and walked out of his cell. Then he took in a deep breath as he savored in his sudden moment of freedom.

  “Who is that?” asked Kimberly, remembering the day of his arrival. “He sounded important.”

  “Hell yeah, he’s important!” Theo said, still in disbelief.

  “Ah yes, where are my manners?” asked the man. “My name is Drake Okar, I am a councilor on the Council of Magic.”

  “Uhh… yeah… I’m Theo and this is Melanie. Her friend is….”

  “Kimberly,” the once-captive woman said. “Someone wanna explain? What is a Council of Magic?”

  Okar sighed. “I suppose mundane folk were going to find out eventually. Allow me to be the one to elaborate on the details.”

  Off in the distance, the sanctum rumbled….

  ◆◆◆

  The ceremonial chamber was a pandemonium of pure chaos. The vampires had already finished off the four Nazis, their bodies scattered around the chamber. Now they were working to free the prisoners from the altars while Karl Dunkelstein and Staci Drenvauder dueled. Exploding magic spells rocked the foundations while the vampires tore free the restraints.

  “Get them out of here, go, go, go!” Valitoth ordered.

  “Not so fast!” shouted Karl as he took note of what was taking place. He fired off two crimson bolts that set Valitoth’s men ablaze in flame. “No one leaves this chamber without my orders.”

  “Fuck!”

  “Your orders don’t matter, old man,” yelled Staci from the air, her green eyes blazing, and shadowy, black wings extended. She sent down a wall of darkness to slice in front of him and turned her attention to Valitoth. “Get them out of here! This is no place for them!”

  “Understood, ma’am,” replied the vampire as he led the four people out of the chamber.

  “I grow tired of you!” roared the Fuehrer, extending his fingertips to send out red and black lightning.

  Staci swooped to the side, dodging but to her horror realized that Dunkelstein was actually maintaining his destructive spell, leaving a trail of exploding stone in its wake. Eventually she ran out of space to retreat to and she used the only means of defense she knew she had against it, her wings. Blocking as the electrical, magic power poured from the man’s hands, the wings absorbed the energy as they had before. But it was too much, and a surge sent Staci slamming back into the ceiling.

  The Fuehrer lowered his hands in displeasure. “So, you can withstand the Holocaust bolts.”

  Staci looked at him with horror. “Really? Reaaally? You named them that? I don’t know whether to laugh or get angry. Fucking Nazis!”

  Her Hellfire whip came out, lashing down in his direction, but it remained deflected by Dunkelstein’s barrier. Nothing was getting through it, it seemed and that was starting to infuriate her. She dived down toward him, swinging out her wings at him and he stumbled back in surprise before focusing an orb of red arcane power at her chest. She narrowly dodged that attack, soaring back up toward the ceiling.

  Ughh… this is getting exhausting, she thought to herself. This old dude is tougher than he looks.

  “I will look forward to ending your nuisance once and for all, Staci Drenvauder,” the head Nazi said, following her path, lobbing a myriad of destructive spells after her.

  Explosions rocked the chamber, stone creaking and falling in chunks to the floor below. Staci had to throw some of her own spells back toward him, but again nothing passed his barrier. It was frustratingly unbelievable. Growling with annoyance, she focused on her demonic connection, calling through the planes to Hell, and her request was answered.

  The demons tore into the chamber through reality, amassing twenty-four in all and leaping toward Karl. They used their own arcane flame to tear away at his barrier while he scowled in disgust at them. The barrier was tested to its limits until he couldn’t maintain it any further and he cursed in response, running as far as he could from the demons.

  Staci thought she had finally won the fight, the war, when the Fuehrer suddenly pulled another trick from up his sleeve. He began shouting several words in High German, waving his arms dramatically. At first Staci wasn’t sure what he was trying to accomplish, but when the massive serpent formed from a substance that looked like a
hole in existence itself took shape, she was both horrified and astonished. Even the demons seemed to be taken aback as the thing attacked them.

  “Not even Hell is a match for the Schwarze Sonne,” he laughed, turning his attention back to Staci.

  “What have you done?” she asked, watching the demons engage in a desperate struggle against the serpent, everything it was touching instantly eroding.

  “The Void! The power of the Schwarze Sonne is the Void. It exists at the very heart of our galaxy, consuming all. It is a god!”

  “…You worship supermassive black holes? That is very… anti-climactic.”

  “Mock all you want, but we will harness its power for the Fourth Reich!”

  “Over my dead body.”

  “So be it, Drenvauder,” he declared, forming a massive red sphere of burning, arcane energy over his head.

  Staci’s eyes widened and tried to dodge, but the thing was far too large to elude, so she did the only thing she could do, defend herself with her wings. She found herself crashing down to the floor from the impact, disoriented and barely conscious. Somewhere her demons fought the snake, but she couldn’t tell where and only heard the sounds of fighting. But standing over her was a sight she didn’t want to see, Karl Dunkelstein.

  “So, my foe is mortal after all,” he said, reaching down and grasping the front of her dress to lift her. “Beaten. Broken. How the mighty have fallen. Observe, your demons have retreated and the Void serpent pursues. You have no allies here.” He reached into his robe to reveal a dagger. “Now… now you will meet the Schwarze Sonne.”

  He raised that dagger and Staci’s heart began to spike with that eerie shock of panic when suddenly a tendril of hair smacked it from his hand. He released her and spun around, confronting whoever interrupted his victory.

  “Who dares?” he demanded.