by Hunter Shea
“It’s just the fire. Sometimes when the flames get this big, they suck out all the air and it sounds like it has a life of its own.”
Angus bumped shoulders with me as he sprinted past. Something either had him spooked, which was doubtful, or had drawn his interest.
Teta and I tried to keep up with him but he faded into the darkness fast. I shouted, “Angus, hold up! We don’t want to get separated!”
And then I heard it too. It was a deep rumble that I felt in the center of my chest. Please, not another earthquake. Or maybe it was Matthias’s Trumpets of Armageddon getting ready to blow. It sure felt like the end of times to me.
Whatever it was, it was coming straight for us. Angus would be our buffer if he didn’t slow down. He was an asset I didn’t want to lose.
I put my right hand on the butt of my pistol, pressing it against my side to deaden the pain that bloomed like a poisonous flower inside me.
Harsh light splashed against the side of the hill, momentarily blinding me. I put my hand up over my eyes to block it out.
When my eyes recovered, I saw what was hurtling at us.
I screamed for Angus, grabbed Teta’s arm and dragged him off the path with little tenderness and no grace. It was either that or die.
* * *
To my relief, Angus made the same snap decision and leapt onto the trunk of a tree that lined the edge of the path. He clung like an oversized squirrel and retained life and limb with inches to spare.
Teta and I spilled over the edge, plunging ass over elbow through brush and sharp thicket. We came to rest in a slight depression, coming just short of braining ourselves against a fallen tree. The wind had been knocked out of me and it was an effort to roll onto my hands and knees so I could gasp for air. My stomach felt like it had been tied so tight it was going to burst.
“What the hell was that?” Teta said, struggling to get his footing.
When my diaphragm finally settled down, I replied, “That…was Matthias’s car.”
“Was Matthias driving? You grabbed me before I could see anything.”
“I don’t know. It was going so fast I couldn’t tell if someone else was behind the wheel trying to kill us, or if they just couldn’t see us.”
“It can’t be Matthias. We watched those wild men jump all over him. Even Wild Bill with an endless supply of rounds couldn’t take on that many.”
“Help me up and let’s get back on the path.”
I looked up and could see the depression in the brush where we had rolled. We had a twenty-foot climb ahead of us, but there were plenty of roots and bushes to hold on to, to make the climb easy. Thankfully, the rifle and shotgun were right in front of us. We were lucky they hadn’t gone off during our fall. A pair of meaty hands reached out for ours when we were close to the top. We were pulled to our feet like a couple of rag dolls. “Thank you kindly, Angus,” I said, picking thorns out of my side and chest.
Our torches lay on the ground, still burning but not as brightly. We’d need more bark and sap, and I hoped the wood could hold out a little longer.
Angus had a broad grin on his face and his attention was drawn to a spot off to our right.
Matthias’s fancy race car was idling in the dark. A figure stood in the front seat and turned to us.
“Praise the Lord, he has seen fit for you all to survive!”
I bent to pick up a torch and walked cautiously to the car. The voice sounded like Matthias, but Hecla and the hills had taught me not to trust my senses.
My surprise was laced with wariness when my torchlight revealed his filth-covered face. His hair was a right mess and it looked like he’d been rolled in mud.
“Is that really you?”
He pounded his chest. “In the flesh! You didn’t think those wild men could keep me down, did you?”
Teta had pulled up beside me. “Yes, we did. How did you get away?”
Matthias bounced back into the driver’s seat. “A perfect question for our drive. Nat, you sit next to me. We have much to discuss. And please hold your torches outside the car. I don’t want you to burn the upholstery.”
I looked at Teta and he back at me. Neither of us knew what to make of our Lazarus. Angus didn’t think twice, settling his girth into the rumble seat. The car tilted in his direction and the frame creaked.
Leaning close to Teta, I whispered, “If he does or says anything strange, don’t hesitate to put a bullet in him.”
“Everything he does and says is strange.”
He had a point. “If it’s anything stranger than his usual, you know what to do.”
We got into the car and Matthias turned the car around, narrowly avoiding slipping over the edge of the path and down the side of the cliff. At least we were back in the direction we wanted to go, and our legs were spared for a spell.
If it was truly Matthias sitting next to me, I was thankful he was alive. He may have been a kook, but he was a dauntless one at that. If he wasn’t, we’d have to take decisive action and hope Angus understood. If not, we were in for a hell of a fight. He wasn’t going to turn to smoke if we hit him, and his bite was a lot worse than his bark.
“Where are you taking us?” I asked.
“On my way up, I came across a considerable shaft entrance. It looked big enough to drive the car through, if I was so inclined. I thought we’d try there.”
We were on the same page, but I had more questions.
“If it looked like the most logical place for Selma to be, why were you driving here?”
“To look for you and Angus and Teta. I saw the flashpoint of the fire and hoped one or all of you were still around to have started it. I have to remember to say a few extra Our Fathers for his deliverance. Oh, but you should see the fire from below. Absolutely cataclysmic. Every scrap of vegetation is bursting into flame. It won’t be long before every tree surrounding the hills is on fire. We’re not getting down from here anytime soon.”
The car shuddered as he cut the wheel hard to the right, keeping to a sharp bend in the path. I pulled my arm close in case we scraped along the hillside. I was hurt enough as it was.
“Which brings me to my main concern,” I said. “How are you still alive?”
Matthias stepped on the brakes and the car came to an abrupt stop. My forearm caromed off the windshield. He fumbled with the inside pocket of his dusty vest.
His palm opened and in it was something round and made of metal. I couldn’t make out any specific design in the dark.
“I survived because of this. And now I know at least part of what we’re up against.”
Chapter Forty-Six
Matthias leaned into me, so close that I could smell the staleness of his breath. His eyes sparkled with a mild sort of mania. “Have you ever heard of the Djinn?”
“I’ve had lots of gin in my time.”
“I’m not talking about alcohol, Mr. Blackburn. The Djinn I’m referring to are spelled d-j-i-n-n.”
I didn’t have to turn around to know that Teta’s hand was close to his gun. The air was unnaturally hot and we were shrouded by a haze of gray smoke. I didn’t want to talk. I wanted Matthias to drive. But it didn’t look like he had any intention of doing it until he’d said his piece.
“I can’t say that I have, Matthias.”
The metal disc was pinched between his thumb and index finger. He held it up to my face. “This is what put it all together for me. I was given this amulet as a gift from an Islamic Imam in California. We had worked together to rid a house of a very nasty spirit that had evaded every trick I had in my book. I’ve kept it on my person ever since.”
“So what does it have to do with these Djinn?” I was growing irritable and had to suppress the urge to choke him. This confirmed for me that he was, indeed, Matthias.
“This is the fascinating part. The Djinn were a race of b
eings created by God after he made the angels, but before humans. They were made from fire and have coexisited with us for millennia. And, like us, the Djinn can be good, evil or indifferent. There are different levels of Djinn, each with their own powers and abilities. There are Sheytans, Afrits and the most powerful and dangerous of all, Marids.
“You see, if a Djinn makes up his mind to bedevil you, there are very few ways to drive him away. The evil Djinn are a nefarious lot. Tricksters of the highest order. One of their greatest talents is that of a shapeshifter. For limited periods of time, they can take on the countenance of any living creature or even inanimate objects. Or, in our case, mystical man-beasts. I should have realized it when they turned to smoke and ash when we mortally wounded them. Beings of fire, when wounded, will return to some form of their core being. But you see, we weren’t killing them at all, because they can’t be killed. We simply broke their hold on the shape they had attuned their energy to become.”
I must have gone mad because he had my full attention, and part of me was buying his story.
“So every one of those things that we shot, sliced and set on fire is still alive?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“This is bullshit,” Teta snapped.
“Let’s hear him out,” I said, locking my eyes on Matthias. If the Djinn were shapeshifters, could one of them be wearing Matthias’s face right now? Angus coughed, rocking the car. The smoke was getting thicker.
Matthias continued, though with a little less enthusiasm. He cast a nervous glance back at Teta. “When the wild men overtook me, I offered my soul up to the Lord and gave thanks for getting you closer to Selma. I shut my eyes as I waited for them to rip into my flesh. When nothing happened, I opened my eyes and was pleasantly surprised to see them backing away from the car. That’s when I put two and two together. I raised the amulet before me and it was like bearing fire to a wild animal. They cringed, they cried, they fled. I drove among them, attempting to keep them out of the trees, to afford you ample time to find where Selma had been taken. Then I saw the fire, and made a mad rush to find who had survived.”
My lungs started to hitch and my eyes burned. “I think we need to continue this while you drive.”
He looked back at the advancing dark cloud. “I think you’re right.” It didn’t take much to get ahead of the smoke.
I said, “So, we’re dealing with a bunch of Djinn? There isn’t a chance you have more of those whatchamacallits is there?”
“Amulets. And no, this is the only one. Like I said earlier, the Djinn are only part of the problem. I think we have a mix of Djinn and Sheytans, but I’ve never heard of so many working in tandem like this. It’s as if they’re being controlled by another higher power. There are two theories about the Djinn in relation to why the bad ones prey on humanity. It’s said that the creator vowed he would bestow grace on the greater of his two earthly creations, man and the Djinn. Naturally, the Djinn want to claim that honor and have worked very hard at imposing their will on men. They feed on fear and blood, easy enough things to acquire when they make their presence known to an unsuspecting human.”
“Well, they’ve gotten some of my blood already,” Teta said. “Any fear I may have given them is long gone. I’m one pissed-off Dominican right now.”
Matthias raised a fist. “Good! We all need to drive fear from our minds. It will keep us strong and protect us.”
“But what about this other, higher power you mentioned? What do you think that could be?”
Matthias’s lips pulled back into a tight line and his face paled in the light of the torch. “There’s only one I can think of. Satan.”
When I turned, Teta was making the sign of the cross.
“Matthias, the devil is something folks made up to scare people into doing right.”
“Do you believe in God?”
“I have a strong suspicion he’s real, yes.”
“And you believe the supernatural origin of the things you’ve seen and experienced since you’ve come to Hecla?”
“Unless I’m having one hell of a hallucination, yes. And that’s because I have the scars to prove it.”
“Don’t discount the existence of the devil. You can’t have good without the counterbalance of evil.”
His head swiveled forward and he stomped on the brakes. The car fishtailed and skidded to a stop. The large mineshaft that Teta and I had first explored loomed to our right.
“The devil is real, Mr. Blackburn, Nat, and he’s here, in Hecla. The Djinn are acting on his behalf. They are, in fact, his slaves. We should pity them as much as the souls of the men, women and children that have fallen prey to the evil in this place. The question is, why is the devil here and what can we do to send him back to hell?”
The tall order of finding and saving Selma got higher than the peaks of the Rockies. What I didn’t dare say aloud was that I chose not to believe in the devil because doing so was terrifying. As a kid studying the Bible with my mother, I tended to gloss over the fire-and-brimstone parts. I slept better that way. As an adult, I’d done my share of bad things, usually to bad people. It was easier to draw on a man if you didn’t have to worry about burning in hell for eternity.
Now, if Matthias was right, I’d rode right into hell on a rented horse and damned some good people in the process.
And if the Bible was right, my soul was already good and tainted. I was, in fact, home. A man should be comfortable in his home.
We got out of the car and gathered at the opening of the mine. It stared back with the same black, fathomless mystery as the spirit children. A cold draft drifted up from its depths, chilling our exposed skin.
“You’re not buying all of this, are you?” Teta asked.
I breathed deep, feeling the weariness in my bones. It would be so easy to just lie down and go to sleep. And if that sleep were permanent, all the better.
“I don’t know. You’re the one who couldn’t make the sign of the cross fast enough.”
“Catholic missionaries lived in my village. The only person that scared us more than the devil was our mothers. There are people in places I’ve left behind who would swear I was the devil. Kind of ironic, isn’t it? But I never heard of Djinn or shapeshifters.”
“I haven’t either, but it’s all we have at the moment. Maybe if we go with the worst-case scenario, the rest will seem easy.”
“We can only ask the Lord for such a gift,” Matthias said. “But I think he has other plans for us.”
There were no pine trees, or any trees for that matter, around this opening. They had been cleared long ago to make way for men and their machines. It was the original one we had entered days earlier. I remembered when the tunnel went to hell and hoped we weren’t met with a wall of fallen rock deep inside. The flames from our torches were growing weaker by the moment.
“I’ll take the lead. We better move fast before we lose the torches altogether,” I said. “I’ll fix them,” Angus said. He took both torches and ground out the flames under his boot.
Teta yelled, “Have you lost it? We need those!”
Angus paid him no mind. Instead, he went to the car and pulled a couple of shirts out from under the front passenger seat. There was a small kind of toolbox in the rumble seat and from that he got a long, thin hose. He wrapped the shirts around the ends of the torches, then inserted the hose into the car’s gas cap. Sucking on its end, his chest heaved and he coughed, spitting out a mouthful of gasoline. He doused the torches with the gasoline and extracted the hose.
“Here, light them when we’re inside the tunnel.”
The odor coming from his mouth was strong enough to catch fire. I’d make sure to light them away from his trailing breath.
“Teta and I have been in here before. You really have to watch your step as much as your head. There are tracks everywhere, and in some places, the steel and ties
are buckled. It’s also wet and cold.”
Teta snickered. “Funny, I never thought of being cold in hell.”
Angus crouched by the entrance and waved us on. “This isn’t the heart, but there is something here. I’ll get the chest.”
He unlashed the chest from the back of the car and had to hold it in front of himself with two hands. I wasn’t sure if Teta, Matthias and I, combined, could have carried it.
“It gets narrow inside,” I said. “I’m not sure you or the chest is going to fit.”
“I’ll take it as far as I can,” he replied with a flat expression.
This time, I gave a torch to Teta so he could take the rear. Knowing that the wild men, or Djinn appearing as wild men, were still out there, gathering strength to re-form, I felt safer knowing Teta and his guns were covering our escape. I gave the other to Matthias. “Stay close to me. I’d rather have my hands free, if you get my drift.”
“Guns to fight the devil. It’s a novel concept,” he said. So was introducing my elbow to his mouth.
* * *
We crept into the shaft. The temperature dropped considerably. It was a welcome reprieve from the heat that the forest fire had birthed in the past half hour. There was a good chance that we would be parboiled if we stayed outside much longer. My shirt, damp with sweat and blood, was cold against my skin.
Our footsteps sounded like thunder in the silence. The steady drip of water echoed back to us. My toes froze just recalling the last time we’d been here.
Matthias reached out to touch one of the wooden support beams. The tinder crumbled like dried leaves in his hand.
“The wood shouldn’t do that,” I said. “This mine hasn’t been around long enough for that kind of rot to set in.”
“There’s a rot far more pernicious here,” Matthias said. His breath turned to vapor the moment it left his mouth.
I suddenly felt a lot less safe, traipsing through the tunnel, knowing the heavy timber was more decorative than functional. I didn’t know a man who wasn’t terrified of the thought of being buried alive.