by Tom Clarke
Thor looked at Nico, exhaled, shook his head and said “Okay, I will do my best to keep an open mind.”
Nico continued, “Like I said we were able to lock Alan in that cave in 1864. Sometime in the early 1930’s he managed to get out, I don’t know how, but he did. One of the first things he did was ensorcelled an old Navajo medicine man, the child of the one who helped me, and then he then went on a killing spree. It was that possession that alerted us that Alan had escaped. We were able to track him to Nepal in 1934, there had been a large earthquake, some 10,000-people killed.”
“What could he possibly want in Nepal?” Jim asked.
“Pretty simple really,” Nico replied, “Food. There was a lot of destruction, suffering, plenty of carnage for him and his growing number of followers to feed on and not draw attention to themselves. They set up shop in a remote area on the outskirts of the destruction zone, the more he feed the stronger he became. It didn’t take long until he was able to assume the form of his victims again.”
Darrel leaned in towards the center of the table, “Okay, I just want to make sure I’m on the same page here. This Alan dude, along with the guy from Thor’s shop, the one pretending to be Tyler, they can both, what, like shape shift?”
“Not exactly,” Nico replied. “A more accurate description would be that they consume their victims. They absorb their very essence, their soul, and then then assume their shape.”
Jim shot back the remaining whiskey in his glass, parked it hard on the table and said, “Basically, they eat them and then they become them.”
“Sort of,” Nico said. “They assume their form, but not their personality or their memories. It is almost like Den-Ra-Tenian was wearing a Tyler costume.”
“How do we spot them?” Darrel asked, “I mean, if they look just like the person they… consumed, how do we know that one of us here at this table isn’t one of them!”
“They are consumed with mirrors” Nico said, pointing to the large mirror behind the bar. “If one of us were a demon masquerading as a human they would not be able to stop staring at their reflection in the mirror. It becomes physically painful for them to not examine themselves in a mirror.”
“Shit, sounds like my ex-girlfriend” Darrel said as he finished his glass of whiskey.
“That’s how we identified Alan in Nepal, with a mirror. He managed to elude us, however.” Nico said. “It was not until 1936 when I had another opportunity, it was also then that I began to suspect that there had been an infiltration of the church at the highest level. Pope Pius XI agreed to receive a man named Anton Mussert at the Vatican. You see Mussert was a Nazi, his holiness had been talked into the meeting with some of his highest-ranking advisors. I had received information that Alan was going to try and kill the Pope so when he arrived in the form of Mussert we arranged for a large mirror to be placed in the same room as the meeting. This proved the distraction we needed, as Mussert gazed into the mirror, we moved in and captured him.”
“So, what happened?” Thor asked. “Was the Pope in on it?”
Nico ran his fingers across the pendant he was wearing around his neck. “No. We locked Mussert in a room while we prepared to perform an exorcism. When we returned, he had been released. He killed three members of his holiness’s private guard as he made his escape. I’m sure that if we had not intervened, he would have killed Pope Pius, maybe even taken his form.”
Nico looked over at Jim, “That was the last time I saw Alan, until we ran into him at Rockets.”
“Okay, what the fuck do we do now?” Darrel asked, looking at Nico and Jim. “Hey bro, come on, let’s get our heads back in the game here. What are we going to do?”
“What can we do?” Thor added. “I mean, really, what can we do? Nico, if you were at this cave why haven’t you just gone back and got the table yourself?”
Nico looked up from his drink, “We were blindfolded, myself and the other priests, until we got to the cave. I don’t know how to get there.”
“Okay, I buy that” Thor replied, “but why hasn’t this Alan guy just gone back and retrieved the thing himself? He obviously knows where the cave is. Why not go, or send one of his little creepy morons to go and get it?”
“That’s a damn good question” Darrel interjected, “why not?”
Nodding his head Nico said, “The tablet is like a battery. When one of them physically touches it, they receive power and energy from the inscription. However, the opposite inscriptions, the one that will trap them, also gives off energy, the two counteract each other. Prolonged contact would be damaging to them. If Alan handled the tablet improperly he would risk getting trapped again. But, if he can get it into a controlled environment, then he could use it.”
“You think that’s how he got out; he was able to use the tablet?” Darrel asked.
“I don’t know” Nico replied, running his hands through his hair. “We imprisoned him in the deepest part of the cave. The tablet was buried near the entrance. The only way he could have used the tablet is if someone gave it to him, even then I doubt he would have had the energy to break the barrier. I just don’t know.”
Thor leaned in close to the rest of the group, “Okay, so let me ask this then… why now?”
“What do you mean?” Jim asked.
“No, he’s got a good point,” said Darrel, “why now?”
“Think about it” Darrel continued, “This thing has been creeping around for a really long time. It got out of that cave in the early 1930’s, so why wait until now to make a move like this? I’m having a hard time believing that it’s retaliation for Rocket’s. There has got to be another reason.”
Jim looked at his friend Nico, “Well, what about that Nico, or whatever your name is. Why now?”
“I know why” Thor said as he finished his drink. “You guys said it these things are demons, they're evil.”
“Yeah, so… so what?” Darrel replied.
“Come on man, think about it! Look at the world we're living in, evil is all around us! Now we know that there really are such things as demons and they’ve been here for thousands of years, if not longer. How do we know they have not been slowly setting the stage? Introducing evil into our hearts and minds, molding us into a world where they can flourish. I mean shit fellas, Nico said they had put people in the Catholic Church as far back as the 1930’s what the fuck does that tell you!”
“He’s right,” Nico said, shaking his head. “Time means nothing to them, they have been working in the shadows, infiltrating, manipulating, influencing to socially engineer us.”
“To what end?” Jim asked, “I mean why? Why not just stay in the shadows, why make moves like this?”
Nico looked up at his friends, “They want to conquer! It’s not enough for them to stay in the shadows and be the things of nightmares, they want to subjugate us. Thor is right, they have infiltrated the church, that’s why I’m by myself, I was tossed out because I would not conform to the new way of doing things. I would not accept their new normal, a normal where the elites live a life of perceived privilege while the rest of humanity struggles to keep from being some monster’s food source.”
Jim cleared his throat recognizing that he had hit a sensitive spot with his friend. “I will ask the question again…. Why now?”
“I don’t know” Nico said. “Maybe Thor is on to something, maybe as a civilization, as a species, we have reached a point of no return that these monsters feel they can exploit. So much evil in the world, maybe they feel that they can move about undetected. I just don’t know.”
Thor finished his drink, “I hate to be the one to bring this up again, but as Darrel there asked, what the fuck do we do now?!”
Darrel shot back what little whiskey he had in his glass, “I will tell you what we should do. We go forward with our plan, we get that rock, and then we go and get Shelly back. That’s what we should do!”
Thor rocked back in his chair, “Man weren’t you even listening to this cat?” he sai
d pointing at Nico. “How are we supposed to fight these things, let alone pull off a rescue? I mean, if half of what Nico here has said is true, followed by that freak show back at my shop…. Brother these things are evil. I’m not talking break into your house and drink your last beer evil, I’m talking Old Testament sort of evil!”
Nico leaned in and put his hand on Jim’s shoulder. Jim just sat there looking into his empty whiskey glass as Nico said, “My friend, I know this is a lot, but I tell you this, your wife is certainly dead. We cannot let the stone fall into Rin Alue-Ran’s hands or anyone else for that matter.”
Jim ground his teeth hard as he looked up from the empty glass. He swallowed hard, rolled his shoulders forward and sat straight up in his chair. “I’m going to get this rock. I have the information Smiley sent to my phone. I’m going to get it and I’m going to use it to flush out the ass hats that grabbed Shelly, and then I’m going to kill them!”
Jim turned and looked straight at Nico, “We don’t have to worry about the stone falling into Alan’s hands, or that other shit head from Thor’s shop getting it because they are not going to be around when I’m done.”
Jim turned and looked straight at Thor who had recoiled back into his chair at the sight of the man he thought he had known. “Your right Justin, these things are evil! I have seen them kill and eat people, they possessed a good friend of mine and he killed himself. They sent a couple of hitters to my house to try and kill my wife…. I have fucking had it!” Jim barked as he slammed a hand down on the table.
“Now, we know that to find this cave. We must go to Tusayan, Arizona, I’m heading that way in the morning. The email I got from Smiley is that some dude named John Redfoot has the information we need. They will get their stone, and that stone will be the last thing that these Mickey Mouse motherfuckers see on this earth!”
“Jim, please!” Nico said, “I’m begging you, all of you, you don’t know what you’re dealing with here. If they get the stone, either Alan, or Den-Ra-Tenian, we are looking at worldwide destruction.”
“Okay, wait a second” Darrel, “I don’t trust these things whatsoever, but didn’t Smiley say that his boss just wanted to go home? What if that’s the case? Maybe he got the picture and just wants to go back to a warner, sunny climate, leave us smelly humans to our business.”
“You are not hearing me” Nico replied. “These monsters only see you as food. Food and labor, they have only one purpose and that’s the enslavement of mankind. Jim… brothers, if you think that Rin Alue-Ran is evil he is no comparison to what will come through that gate if we allow it to be opened. We cannot risk it!”
There was silence for a minute as the discussion points started to sink in. “Look fellows” Jim said in a subdued tone of voice. “We know that the map to the cave is in Tusayan, Arizona. It’s a small town, I was through there a few years ago on the bike. Smiley emailed us the address we need to go to. I’m going to get a room, sleep this shit off for a while, and then in the morning I’m headed to Arizona. You guys do what you want, but I can’t let this go.”
As Jim stood up from the table Nico reached out and grabbed him by the arm. He looked his friend in the eyes, smiled and nodded. They then each went to the bar, got rooms at the adjacent hotel, and ended their day.
11.
Red’s Curiosities
Jim walked out into the cold Montana morning, a backpack over one shoulder and a hot cup of coffee in hand. It was still early, just coming on 6am as he took a big swig from the coffee and looked out over the parking lot and into the pre-dawn darkness.
“Good morning” Nico said as he walked over to Jim from the direction of the SUV. Jim nodded as he took another drink of his coffee.
Looking around the lot Jim said, “I don’t see Thor’s bike?”
“That’s because he took off this morning” Nico replied, “He left about ten minutes ago.”
“Did he say where he was going?” Jim asked.
“He said something about a survival shelter near some place called Dillon. He tried to get Darrel to go with him, but then Darrel called him something profound and Thor rode off.”
Jim just shook his head, “Where’s Darrel at?”
“I think he’s over by the truck getting sick. He and Thor stayed up for a while last night. I think Darrel told him about our last encounter with these things and that sent poor Thor, the so-called God of thunder over the edge.”
“Hey man you got any of that coffee left?” Darrel asked as he walked over to Jim and Nico.
Jim handed his cup to Darrel, who took a large drink, swirled it around in his mouth, and then spit it out into the bushes where they were standing. “Damn Tequila” Darrel said as he handed the cup back to Jim.
“Keep it,” Jim said as he rolled his shoulder into a nice long morning stretch. “Thanks for sticking around fellas, it means a lot to me.”
Darrel slapped Jim on the back and smiled. Nico put a hand on Jim’s shoulder, “I meant what I said last night Jim, every word, but I trust you. I know that I have not been exactly honest about myself, but please know that I’m with you till the end, whatever that end may be.”
The drive to Tusayan, Arizona took about 15 hours. Much of the time was spent taking turns behind the wheel while the others slept, eating junk food from fast-food restaurants, and discussing their overall plan.
A large part of the discussion was directed at Nico and the life he had so expertly concealed over his many years. Darrel, who considered himself a self-described student of history, spent a lot of time picking Nico’s brain about historical events.
It was nighttime when Jim, Darrel, and Nico arrived on the outskirts of Tusayan. “Okay, look rather than drive around at night in a small town and draw attention to ourselves lets grab a hotel” Jim said.
Darrel, who was now behind the wheel driving, replied, “Yeah that’s a good idea. First, let’s make a pass through town, and take a quick look. Then find a hotel and get some sleep before we make any moves.”
As Darrel drove down the main drag Jim remarked, “Man, this place is built up, must be all the tourists passing through to the Grand Canyon. Over there, let’s hit that Mom and Pop joint, there across the street from McDonalds.”
Darrel pulled into the lot, made a loop completely around the building, and then parked off to the side of the lot away from the building lights. “Listen” Jim said before Darrel shut the engine off. “I’m not sure what to expect with all this, but let’s get a plan together in case things go south for some reason.”
Using his cell phone Jim pulled up a map of Tusayan. “Check it out,” he said, pointing to the screen on his cell phone. “This is our hotel, this truck-stop across the street, that will be rally point one, it’s about a half-mile from the address Smiley gave us for finding this John Red Foot cat. There’s a regional airport about a mile in that direction, let’s call that rally point two.”
Jim then zoomed the maps application in on the address which had been sent to him to find John Red Foot and the map to the cave.
Switching to a satellite aspect view Jim, Darrel, and Nico could see that the building was a small wooden structure set back off the main drag with a parking lot.
“Bro, I think that’s a store of some sort” Darrel said, looking at the screen of Jim’s cell phone. “Are you sure that’s the right address?”
Jim looked hard at the image on the screen of his phone. “Yeah, that’s the right address. Ah fuck it, we’ll find out tomorrow. Look Nico and I will walk over, it’s not that far. Darrel, you park here in this lot across the feeder road, keep some eyes on the place while we're inside.”
Darrel nodded as he made a few quick notes on his hand.
“Looks like there’s a back door right here that leads to a small back lot. If we must grab this Red Foot dude, we’ll drag him out the back. You swing around, scoop us up and we will all take a drive out of town.”
“What about local law enforcement?” Nico asked.
“
None” Jim replied. “I checked on the drive, just a Sheriff’s Office, and they're located in Flagstaff. We may see a roving deputy, or they may have a couple posted here, but no real presence that I can see.”
Darrel looked up at Jim, “Radios?”
“No, let’s use cell phones. We’ve got them if we need them but a couple of strangers walking around with handhelds would draw attention. I do want you to grab photos and plates if you can of anyone coming and going from that spot though.” Darrel smiled and nodded in agreement.
“Okay, Nico and I will go and check in first, give us about 10 minutes and then you come in and get a room. Remember, don’t give them the correct plate for the rig. I will text you when we get on the move in the morning.”
“Got it!” Darrel replied. “I will get set up when you guys start moving, let’s say in motion at 8?”
Jim looked at Nico, who nodded, “8’s good for me.”