by Tom Clarke
Jim raised an eyebrow as he watched his friend tip his beer up and drain it dry. “Okay” Jim said as Nico put his empty beer bottle down and motioned for the bartender to bring them two more.
“Jim do you see this bottle?” Nico said as he held the empty Miller High Life bottle up.
“You mean the one that you just murdered, yeah, so what about it?”
With a crooked smile on his face, Nico replied, “The last time we were together the monsters that we faced, they were coming into our reality slowly, much like if they were beer flowing out of the small opening at the top of the bottle.”
Jim sat back in his chair, took a deep breath, and then finished his beer in the same fashion as Nico. “Brother” Jim said, “you are hitting on a topic that I am not comfortable with. I’m not afraid to tell you that I’ve been having a hard time dealing with that shit.”
As the bartender dropped off two more beers Nico said, “I know Jim, I spoke to Darrel the other day, he’s having a rough time too.”
Jim ran his hand over his face and through his beard, took a long drink from his fresh beer and asked, “So tell me then what’s with the beer bottle metaphor and what does it have to do with me?”
“Because you’re an asshole and you drink too much!” a familiar voice said.
Jim turned in his chair and there standing over him with a beer in hand and a big smile on his face was his friend Darrel.
“Motherfucker!” Jim blurted out as he jumped from his chair, grabbing his friend by the shoulders. “What the hell are you doing here?” Jim asked as he pulled Darrel in for a bear hug.
“Easy brother” Darrel said, laughing and hugging Jim back, “people will start to talk.”
As they sat back down at the table, Jim asked again, “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Nico invited me” Darrel replied as he set his bottle of Becks beer on the table.
“Hey!” Nico chirped, “that bartender told me that they did not have Becks!”
Darrel looked at Nico and with a smile replied, “They don’t, I brought my own.”
Nico looked at Darrel with a look of confusion and envy as Darrel slowly drank from his bottle of Becks. Nico shook his head and grunted, and then returned to his Miller High Life.
Jim looked at his friends, took a drink, and said, “Boys as much as I wish this was, I doubt that we are here for a reunion. What’s going on?”
Nico looked back at Jim, “As I was saying the rate that these demons are coming into our reality has been increasing. If it was the size of the top of this beer bottle at the time of ancient Egypt, then today, it is the size of the bottom of the bottle.”
Jim stood up from the table, “Where are you going?” Nico said.
“Before you say another word about those fucking things, I’m going to need a shot.”
“Now you’re talking” Darrel said, “just make mine a double on the rocks.”
Jim smiled, “Nico you down?”
Nico replied with something in Swedish, “English Nico” Jim said.
“Yes” Nico replied, “I think this calls for something a little stronger than the champagne of beer.”
After returning with three glasses of whiskey, Jim looked at Nico and said, “Now please continue.”
Nico sipped his whiskey, nodded his head with an approving smile, and said, “As best as we can tell over the centuries people have been making deals with these creatures in exchange for power, influence, wealth, success, you name it. Over the past 100-years' events involving these demons have become more and more prevalent, and they have become more and more brazen and aggressive. This is what happened when we were together last, and this is what happened last week at the Vatican.”
Darrel leaned in towards Nico and Jim and asked, “Brother what did happen there, what was that shit all about?”
Nico looked at Jim and Darrel, took another sip of his drink and replied, “It was a distraction. They had a couple of their followers who were members of the church detonate bomb vests at a mass to divert our attention from their real target.”
“Jesus fucking Christ!” Darrel said as he sat back in his chair.
“Wait, what did you just say? Members of the church? What about all that power of God will protect us shit?” Jim said in a confused and disbelieving tone of voice.
Nico looked up from his drink, “My friends, they have infiltrated the church.”
“Well, shit Nico” Jim said, “I could have told you that after Deacon what’s his nuts got all crazy with us back home.”
“I did not want to believe it Jim” Nico replied, “I could not believe it. But my friends I tell that I damn sure believe it now!”
Darrel leaned forward and put a hand on Nico’s shoulders, “Brother, you said it was a distraction, a distraction for what?”
Nico took a deep breath, “After the explosions, all of our assets went straight there. They then broke into a secure vault located in the same area. They were looking for a map.”
“A map of what?” Jim asked.
“It’s a map of a cave in Arizona. During the civil war some Indian Shaman’s, with the help of a priest from Rome, and several Union Army soldiers, lured and trapped one of the demons in this cave. It was contained in the cave with an incantation carved into the cave walls.”
“Was contained?” Jim asked as he slowly drained his class of whiskey and ice.
“Yes” Nico replied, “in the early 1930’s a couple of treasure hunters managed to get a copy of the map. They went into the cave and unwittingly set the demon free. They were both killed in the process.”
“Killed or murdered?” Darrel asked.
Jim looked up and replied, “I would venture to guess they were eaten, weren’t they Nico.”
“Probably, yes” Nico replied.
“Okay” Darrel piped in, “it’s not that I’m not happy as shit to be sitting here with you two, but what’s this got to do with us?”
Nico looked at Darrel, took a sip from his drink, and then shifted his gaze to Jim. “Because you met this demon six months ago Jim. He is the monster that you faced in that strip club.”
The color ran out of Jim’s face, he could feel every hair on his body stand up as an all too familiar chill ran the length of his spine. Jim stood up from the table and started to walk in a slow circle, stopping to peer out one of the few windows in the bar. As he ran his hands across his face, Jim turned and asked, “You mean to tell me the thing that tried to kill me has been creeping around since the civil war?”
“Us” Darrel interjected, “tried to kill us.”
“That’s right!” Jim replied, “all three of us. Since the fucking civil war Nico, come on.”
Nico nodded his head as he took another sip from his drink. “Point of fact, it probably has been here since ancient Egyptian times, if not longer” Nico said.
Jim looked at Nico, smiled and let out a slight laugh as he shook his head and sat back down. “Brother, how do you know that?” Jim asked.
Nico looked at Jim and Darrel then said, “After I returned to the Vatican I was reassigned from the Swiss Guard, to a special task force that deals with these, and other, how shall I say, oddities. After being assigned I was granted access to all the files that the church had on these monsters.”
“Wait a Goddamn second!” Darrel interrupted. “You mean to tell me that the church, the freaking Vatican, knew about this thing and didn’t take any action against it?” Darrel looked at Nico with an expression of concern on his face, “Bro did you know about this thing when we met you with that Deacon fellow?”
Shaking his head Nico replied, “No, I mean I knew why we were there, but I had no idea of the extent of what was going on. It wasn’t until I got assigned as a special investigator on this task force that I started to get an idea of how bad things had gotten.”
Darrel reached out and shook Nico by his shoulder, “I didn’t mean to imply that you had anything to do with this, I just mean, if they knew,
why didn’t they do something about it.”
Nico smiled a shallow smile and replied, “They either did not know how bad the situation was, or they did not want to get involved hoping that it would right itself.”
“Hoping it would right itself? What the fuck does that mean!” Jim asked as he slapped his empty whiskey glass onto the table.
Nico took a deep breath, looked up at Jim and Darrel and then while shaking his head replied, “There is a faction within the church that feels as long as our institution is not directly threatened, we should keep our involvement to a minimum. Brothers, I do not agree with that, they are in the minority but have power and are trying to sway others to their way of thinking.”
“Wait, I don’t get that” Jim said. “What happened to God is good and the demons are bad, so let’s all embrace the power of God and fight these things. Isn’t that what you said to me last time?”
Nico smiled, “Yes, I did say that, and it’s true! Jim for you, me, even Darrel it is just that simple. Faith in God and what is right drives us, it gives us the power to stand against the dark ones who would enslave us.”
Nico took a sip from his drink and continued, “However, it is not that clear for many whose real ambition is power. The church is no exception, I’m sure that you saw the same as a police officer. The few who instead of doing what they do in the name of the righteous bastardize their authority to gain power for themselves.”
Jim sat back in his chair, “So what do we do?”
Nico finished his drink and replied, “When you killed Stevie you simply killed the host, the demon that was possessing him, though greatly weakened, exited his body as it died. The other one, the leader, vanished. That was the first recorded time of more than one of them working together, forming a hierarchy. Jim, Darrel, I believe that they are marshaling their forces, collecting them for a larger event and we must be ready. Let us start by going somewhere more private, and possibly better whiskey, and I will bring you up to speed.”
Jim smiled, “My crib, it is, let’s go to the liquor store first.”
3.
Home
The sun was starting to set as Shelly turned down the long dirt and gravel drive leading up to her house. She had stopped off at the grocery store after getting off work and receiving the text from her husband Jim that Nico and Darrel had shown up for a surprise visit and would be joining them for dinner that night. Shelly liked Darrel, they had always gotten along very well. She had not had a chance to spend much time with Nico, but after what had happened before, she wanted to thank him for saving her husband’s life, and what better way to do that than by making up some good Montana grown steaks on the grill.
As she started driving down the driveway the sun was in just the right position that it was hitting all the mirrors on her car. She did not see the dark colored Nissan Sentra rental car that had followed her from town and had stopped at the end of the driveway, or the two occupants who got out and started making their way through the woods to the back of the house.
Shelly pulled to the front of the house, collected up her groceries, and as she approached the front door hit the automatic shut off for the alarm on her key fob.
Walking in the front door, she went straight to the kitchen and dropped the bags of groceries and then went to the back door and let Max and Shilo in. As she opened the back door, she could see that both dogs were looking at the wood line behind the back fence. Neither were wagging their tails and jumping up and down, excited to have the alpha home and ready for their food. Instead, they had a look of focused concentration, ears straight up and tails hanging low.
“What’s the problem?” Shelly said as she stepped out onto the back deck with the dogs. “What is it stinky” she asked as she placed her hand on Shilo’s head, “another deer?” Just then she heard Max let out a low guttural growl, the same growl she had heard from him the other night when Jim thought there had been an intruder in their house.
Looking down at Max she saw that Shilo too now had her ears pinned against the side of her head and slight snarl on her face.
“Okay, you two are freaking me out, come on, biscuit time.” With a pat on the side and a quick whistle the three went inside. As Shelly started to shut the door, she felt a strange chill, and then a slight odor she had never smelt before. She turned and pushed the back door open again to take another look. All she could see in the waning light of the setting sun were the trees swaying in the wind behind the fence.
Pulling shut and locking the backdoor Shelly felt a sudden sense of unease envelope her, it was that smell. She had smelled it before, but could not put her finger on it. It was so faint, and yet so distinct that it was almost trying to trigger a memory. The concern about the smell drifted to the back of her mind away as she started putting groceries away and thinking about what she needed to do to get ready for dinner.
Looking to break her uneasy feeling she reached over and turned the radio in the kitchen on to the 80’s channel. Shelly smiled as she thought to herself how on any other day she would just let Jim cook everything on the grill, but she wanted this dinner to be perfect, nothing left to chance. So, Jim was out, and she would dazzle them with the meal of the year.
Putting the last of the groceries away, Shelly realized that the steak marinade must have fallen out of the bag in the car. As she walked out the front door to retrieve it, she saw that both Max and Shilo had followed her from the kitchen where now laying down in the living room watching the back door. She smiled, shook her head and walked out to get the missing marinade.
After locating the glass bottle of steak marinade, which had been hiding under the back seat, Shelly walked back in the front door. Upon entering the house, Shilo came running over and looked up at her. Shelly peered across the room and could see that Max was standing at the back door, all 110 pounds of him tensed and his teeth were showing. “What the hell is your problem?” Shelly asked as she walked to the back door. “They’re just deer and can be in the woods Max,” she said as she unlocked the door and started to turn the knob.
Just as she put her hand on the knob of the back door that smell, the one she had smelt just a few minutes ago came storming back. This time not as a wisp on the wind, but as an overpowering slap in the face.
Suddenly she recognized the smell, it was a combination of damp dirt, like from an old cellar, and blood. She had smelled it as a child while her and some of her friends were exploring an old abandoned house. Her friend had called it the “Ghost smell.”
The memory of that smell brought a feeling of confusion to Shelly as she opened the back door to let Max out to go bark at the deer.
She could picture in her minds-eye the look on her childhood friends face as she explained the ghost smell to her. Just like when she was a child the idea of the ghost smell was making all the hairs on her arms stand up.
The memories and the feeling of confusion was immediately replaced by surprise and fear, as she looked up and saw an unknown male wearing a dark hoodie reach forward and knock the partially open door back into her. The door swung back hitting Shelly in the forehead and knocking her to the ground.
As soon as she hit the ground Shelly looked up and saw not just one, but now two males, both wearing dark colored hoodies, moving into her house through the open back door with a sense of purpose. The second male slammed the door shut as the first male, the one that had hit her with the door, kicked her in the stomach. He reached down, grabbed her by her hair and pulled her to her feet.
Shelly struggled to her feet under the pain of having her hair pulled almost from her head as her attacker changed his grip from her hair to her throat. The male looked at her, smiled, and said, “Fear is his kingdom, pain his lands, I serve his greatness….and you are mine!”
The attacker's grip tightened around Shelly’s throat, her body starting to thrash as her breathing was cut off. She started kicking her legs forward as if she was running from the men in her kitchen, one of her feet hit the man in the groi
n. He grimaced, then drew his free hand back, making a fist.
Shelly’s attacker never got a chance to strike as he was suddenly hit from the side by 110 pounds of German Shepard lunging and biting into his flesh. The man screamed in pain as he let go of his grip on Shelly’s neck and reached for his side. As he reached down Max let loose of his bit, barking and snarling he lunged forward again, this time grabbing the man behind his left knee. Sinking his teeth into the man’s leg, ripping back and forth with his head, and pulling the man to the ground, Max let loose and turned his attention to the man’s head.
Screaming in pain the attacker puts his arms up to protect his head only to have this crazed Shepard sink his large teeth into his forearm. The second intruder, who had moved deeper into the house came running back into the kitchen. He grabbed Max by his fur and started pulling him off his partner.