The Cave

by Tom Clarke

  Once Estes was out of ear shot Nico knelt next to the body in the kitchen. “My God Jim” Nico said, “do you have wolves as pets, look what they did to this man.”

  “Fuck that man!” Darrel said, as Jim peered out the kitchen window and into the back yard, looking to make sure that his furry four-legged children were still back there.

  “That cat got exactly what he deserved!” Jim said as he made eye contact with Max and Shilo, both rolling around in the back yard in a show of victory.

  Jim looked away from the window and back to Nico, “So what do you think bro, do you know these jokers?”

  “I do not” Nico replied as he inspected the body in the kitchen. Nico pulled the dead man’s shirt up exposing his torso.

  “Jim, look here” Nico said, leaning closer to the body. “This one has the mark of Alue-Ran, see the branding scar” Nico said as he pointed to a pyramid shaped scar with a spiral running out from the top.

  Jim knelt next to Nico, “Okay, what does that mean?”

  Nico replied, “The pyramid is a symbol of when this one’s master was summoned, and the spiral is the symbol of its arrival into our existence.”

  “Just like the spirals we encountered the last time we meet these guys” Jim replied.

  “That’s right,” Nico said, “except those were part of the incantation that allowed them to be summoned into our reality. The incantations, with the spiral, then become a battery of sorts, sustaining them between feedings.”

  Jim nodded, listening to Nico, but staring into the dead eyes of the man on the floor of his kitchen. As Nico continued to speak, his voice was drowned out by the anger Jim felt building up inside. Nico’s voice was now completely gone, just a garbled mess, much like the teacher’s voice in the Charlie Brown cartoon. All Jim could feel was rage as he pictured his wife fighting for her life in their home.

  “Jim. Hey bro, earth to Jim” Darrel said, snapping Jim back to reality.

  “Yeah, what you got?” Jim replied.

  “Brother, this one’s a Russian. Check it out, he’s all inked up.”

  Jim stood then looking around to see where Estes was. Seeing that the Coroner was out of the room Jim hauled off and kicked the body lying in his kitchen as hard as he could. Nico looked up at his friend, “Fuck that guy!” Jim said as he walked over to Darrel.

  Jim knelt next to Darrel, who had pulled the shirt up on the second dead man. “See here,” Darrel said as he pointed to a large tattoo on the man’s stomach depicting a Russian Orthodox cathedral and a coffin.

  Above that was a snake, rising, and wrapping itself around the man’s neck. “The cathedral indicates that he’s a thief, the coffin means that he’s committed a murder” Darrel said.

  “What about that snake?” Nico, who had now joined them, asked.

  “That means he’s a drug addict” Jim replied.

  Darrel rolled the dead man over and from his back pocket pulled a picture. “Mother fuckers!” Darrel said with a sense of disbelief.

  “What?” Jim asked as he turned to his friend.

  “Unbelievable!” Darrel said as he handed the photo to Jim. “These bastards had Shelly under surveillance.”

  Jim stood, not saying a word, as he looked at the photo of his wife, which had been taken as she was leaving work. He took a couple of disjointed steps backwards, and then sat down at the dining room table, clutching the picture. The rage Jim had felt a few seconds ago was now coursing through his body. As he fixated on the picture all he could think about was finding the person who sent these two men to his house and killing them in a very horrific way.

  Before Jim, Darrel, or Nico could say anything the light in the dining room started to flicker. It became very quiet as if all the background noise just suddenly stopped. The air became oppressively heavy, and a chill came over the three. Nico, who was kneeling next to Darrel, stood and started to speak, but before any words could come out of his mouth a low frequency hiss moved through the house.

  “Hello Jimmy, remember me?” a disembodied voice spoke. A smell of rotten meat suddenly enveloped the house as the voice, which seemed to be coming from all directions continued, “Jimmy, she’s mine Jimmy. You delivered me Sylvia, soon Jimmy…. Soon she will be mine.”

  Jim looked at Nico and Darrel, “Are you guys hearing this?” Jim asked, trying hard to conceal the sense of dread that was coming over him.

  Darrel swallowed hard, scanned the room and then while drawing his handgun, said, “Yeah bro, I’m hearing it. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

  Nico stepped forward, “Jim, do not engage it. It wants you to falter, become enraged, don’t give it anything!” Just then one of the kitchen cabinets snapped open and the dishes inside came spilling out onto the floor.

  “Niiiicooo” the voice said again, “you can’t save them, just like you couldn’t save the last ones.”

  Nico reached inside his shirt and pulled out a cross that he was wearing as a necklace. He motioned for Jim and Darrel to come close to him, “Take my hands brothers” Nico said. As the three joined hands Nico began repeating “By the power of God I command you, by the power of God I command you, by the power of God I command you…. leave this home, be silent. Return to the depths where you belong, you are not wanted, nor will you be tolerated. By the power of God, I command you!”

  The voice, becoming more of a hiss again boomed, “You cannot keep her from me Jimmy, she’s mine!”

  Before Nico could respond, Jim let go of his hands, stepped into the kitchen and yelled back, “Fuck you! I ate your fucking lunch once and I will do it again you gutless worm! Show yourself!”

  The chill that had manifested in the air of Jim’s home suddenly became cold, their breath shown as Nico, Jim, and Darrel exhaled. A low guttural laugh that had a metallic tinge to it resonated through the house.

  “Jim, behind you!” Darrel yelled.

  Jim turned, and there standing behind him was the dead man with the branding of the pyramid on his torso. “Holy shit!” Jim yelled as he stepped back. The dead man took a step forward and smiled, “She is mine, he promised…. she is mine.”

  Jim, Nico, and Darrel watched in disbelief as the dead man reached out and touched a picture of Jim’s wife which was hanging in the kitchen. “She’s mine…. he promised” the dead man said again as he made a fist and punched the picture breaking the glass.

  The man then turned and faced Jim, Darrel, and Nico, who were staring, stunned by this reanimation of a corpse. The dead man smiled again, “Jimmy.”

  He didn’t get a chance to complete his sentence as Jim stepped forward and buried a metal frying pan he had picked up from the sink into the dead man’s forehead. As the man stumbled back from the strike to the head, Jim followed, stepping forward, and striking downward at a forty-five degree with the frying pan hitting his target in the rib cage.

  Jim then dropped the pan as he shuffle-stepped in closer, positioning his right leg across the front of his opponent’s legs. He reached out, grabbed the dead man by his head, pivoted forward and threw his opponent over his legs and to the floor, where he landed with a thud that rock the entire house.

  The dead man landed right where he had started, the same spot in the kitchen where his life had been ended by Jim’s wife.

  Jim stepped forward and put his foot on the dead man’s neck. “Fuck you…. she’s mine!” Jim growled through clenched teeth as he presented the Glock .40 caliber he carried concealed on his right hip and fired a single round into the dead man’s head.

  As quickly as it had set in, the oppressiveness of the air lifted as Jim re-holstered his handgun. “What the hell was that!” Estes yelled as he came running back into the house.

  Nico and Darrel both looked at Estes, “What? We didn’t hear anything.”

  Estes started to speak, but before he could a word out Jim barked, “Bob, get these two pieces of meat out of my house!” Estes stood there for a second, his mouth still open as if he was going to speak. He suddenly remembered
what Tyler had told him about Jim and decide that in this case discretion was the better course of action. He took a deep breath, “Okay Jim, we are just about done.”

  As Estes finished up inside Jim, Nico, and Darrel walked out into the back yard. As Jim and Darrel knelt to play with Max and Shilo, Nico looked past the back fence and into the tree line.

  “Jim” Nico said as he stared into the wood line, “your home has been marked.” Jim and Darrel both stopped and looked up at Nico.

  ‘What does that mean, exactly?” Jim asked.

  Nico turned back to his friends, “The beast has made his presence known, here, in your home. It intends to take from you your wife, then your home, and in the end your very soul…. if you let it.”

  Jim looked at the ground, and then up at his two dogs. The realization of what Nico was saying, and the fact that it was all true was sinking in.

  “As defendable as your home is you, and your family can not stay here. At least until this is over” Nico said, putting a hand on Jim’s shoulder.

  Darrel stood, “Okay, what do we do now?”

  “First things first, let’s get some photos of those assholes in my kitchen” Jim replied. Nico and Darrel both nodded in agreement and then followed Jim back into the kitchen.

  Jim took out his cell phone and started taking pictures, not just of the faces of the dead men, but also of their respective tattoos, brands, jewelry, and finally of their identification.

  As Jim was finishing up Estes came back inside, “Jim we are ready to move them out and wrap this up.” “Okay, thanks Bob. Hey, I appreciate your help with this.” Estes smiled and nodded as the rest of his crew started to bag up and remove the two bodies from Jim’s kitchen.

  Once everyone was gone Darrel and Nico helped Jim collect up Max and Shilo, as well as a small stockpile of guns, ammunition, and other equipment and load it into Jim’s SUV. The group then headed to town to collect Shelly and decide what their next move was going to be.

  Pulling out of his driveway and away from his house something that Nico had said came back to him. “Your home has been marked” Nico had said. The same thing had been said to Jim during his last encounter with the demons, more than one victim had told him that they had been marked. Usually this statement immediately preceded their death.

  It took about 20 minutes to drive Great Falls. As Jim pulled into the parking lot of the hospital, he started working his way through, looking for Tyler’s car. Not seeing it, he pulled into an open spot by the front doors of the hospital, got out, and waved down Nico and Darrel who were following behind.

  “Hey fellas, I don’t see Tyler’s car. I’m going to run inside and check with admissions, see how much longer they’re going to be.” Nico nodded and pulled off to find a parking spot as Jim went inside.

  “What did you mean when you said Jimmy’s crib had been marked?” Darrel asked as they circled the parking lot.

  “It’s akin to marking something on your GPS” Nico replied, “once those two who were under the influence of Rin Alue-Ran discovered Jim’s house they left an imprint, for lack of a better term. That imprint lets others who have been possessed by Ran find it.”

  Darrel shook his head, trying to wrap his brain around the idea, “That’s kind of fucked up.”

  “Well put Darrel. Jim’s house is now a magnet for negative spiritual energy, a stopping point for unsettled ghosts, as well as demons.”

  There was an awkward silence for a second or two and then Darrel spoke, “Nico, how did they find him?”

  Nico just shook his head, “I don’t know my friend, I just don’t know.”

  “Listen” Darrel continued. “Is there any way that these things got to Shelly and Jim because of us? I mean, you don’t think that they were able to conduct some sort of electronic snooping and get the information they needed from either of us do you. That would indicate a pretty high level of sophistication, like a government involvement of some sort.”

  Nico turned and looked at Darrel, “Government involvement such as what?”

  “I don’t know” Darrel replied. “How about the church. You know, your friends at the Vatican.”

  Nico just looked straight ahead and did not answer.

  4.

  The Hospital

  As Nico started to circle the parking lot again, he looked up and saw Jim walking out of the front door of the hospital, alone. “Where’s Shelly?” Darrel asked as he got out of Nico’s rental car. “They have her in a room, the doctor went ahead and admitted her for a possible concussion. Nico park that thing and let’s go see how she’s doing.”

  Nico pulled the car into a parking space as Jim and Darrel walked into the main entrance of the hospital. Concern for his friend’s wife was building, Nico knew that she had tangled, not just with some bad actors, but with attackers who had been touched with evil. A concussion may be the least of her worries he thought as he got out of his car and started walking towards the front entrance.

  Right at the entrance to the hospital Nico was stopped in his tracks by an overwhelming smell of rotten meat, a smell so strong it was like being hit in the face. He could almost taste it as the smell permeated his sinuses. Suddenly a cold wind blew over Nico sending an unnatural chill through his bones.

  He clenched his teeth, muttered, and rolled his shoulders to loosen his posture. He knew this stench all too well, and had felt the cold, bone chilling, breeze before. It was the smell and breeze created when the damned were near. The evil that they carried with them was there for all to see, you just needed to know what it was you were looking at.

  Nico looked around, and in the annex parking across the street from the hospital, was a tall, thin male wearing an old dark colored suit. The man is standing with his head bowed and his hands clasped in front of him at the waist. Sitting on the ground next to the male were three other men, all in similar suits, and all staring at the ground in front of them.

  The tall, thin man looked up and made eye contact with Nico. Nico just stared with anger in his eyes as the man in the parking lot smiled wide, unclasped his hands, and showed his palms to Nico. The three men who were seated beside him slowly stood, none of them looking up from the ground in front of them. Nico reached inside his shirt and grasped the cross hanging around his neck as the man across the street brought his hands together, as if to pray, and then raised them above his head again with his palms facing Nico.

  As he turned to walk into the front door of the hospital the man across the street yelled, “Nico, she’s mine Nico. God has spoken! Our time is near Nico.”

  The man’s voice carried on the wind, sending a chill down Nico’s spine. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to block it out.

  “Hey, what the fuck?” were the next words Nico heard from his friend Darrel. “Are you coming with us or what? Hey bro, what’s wrong, you look like you just saw a…. Oh shit!” Darrel’s attention was immediately taken from Nico to the four men in old style suits walking across the street towards the hospital, all of them with their hands in the air and following their leader in a chant.

  Nico grabbed Darrel by the shoulder, “Come on! We must get Jim and Shelly and get out of here…. Now!”

  “Yeah” Darrel replied, “they’re in room 318.”

  Nico and Darrel both moved into the lobby of the hospital with a serious sense of urgency. As they made their way towards the elevators Darrel heard a child’s voice calling his name. He stopped, and looked down a hallway, “Jesus Christ!” Darrel yelled.

  “What?” Nico said as he spun around.

  Darrel pointed down the hallway, “Look at that kid. What the fuck is going on!”

  Nico looked, but did not see anything, “Come on they are playing games with your mind, there is nothing there.”

  Darrel stood silent for a moment, staring down the hallway. “Jesus Nico, there was a little girl there calling my name. She had a freaking knife sticking out of her chest, she was smiling at me.”

  “Get in the
elevator” Nico said as he pushed his friend towards the open door. Darrel stumbled into the elevator, shaken by what he had just seen.

  “What the hell was that!” Darrel yelled, pointing at the closed door of the elevator.

  “They’re here” Nico replied.

  “Whose here? And what the fuck did I just see smiling at me back there.”

  Nico shook his head, “The men that attacked Shelly they were servants of the beast that calls itself Rin Alue-Ran. He is the one that we faced before, the one that almost killed Jim. Those men in the parking lot, they are also servants of his, but they serve at a higher calling.”

  Darrel looked at Nico and squinted his eyes as he tried to understand, “Okay, let me get this straight, those retards in the parking lot, the ones that looked like they were escaping from the Little House on the Prairie, they’re bad guys? Are you sure that they are not just turning themselves in after escaping the funny farm?”