“Hey, didn’t we see that on our way into town?” Vesper asked me.
I nodded. It had been a pristine, white-domed structure, so very different from the decaying ruin Adler had captured in his photo. The red brick foundation and iron dome gave the observatory a steampunk feel, making it seem even more out of place in the deep woods.
“Was there ever one before that? The building in these photos looks like it’s a hundred years old.”
Deputy Wood shook her head. “No. The location for the Big Bear Solar Observatory is optimal due to the clarity of the sky and the presence of a large body of water. There is no other observatory in the area and no one in their right mind would build such a structure in the middle of the forest.”
She blushed slightly as we all stared at her. “My girlfriend is kind of a science geek. We go to the observatory all the time.”
“Please continue scrolling,” I asked the deputy.
My heart was racing. Something about the abandoned observatory in the woods was tugging at my instincts. I sensed that this phantasmagorical building might be the key to this whole mystery.
The deputy continued to click through the camera roll.
More shots of the observatory indeed followed. There were wide-angle photographs and multiple close-ups, showing crumbling brick and rusted metal. Tall trees surrounded the observatory, casting spidery shadows that added to the surreal quality of the photos.
“That thing looks like Dr. Caligari’s dream house,” Vesper said. “Seriously weird.”
“Do you think you can identify this building?” I asked. “Even narrowing its age down by the style of architecture would help.”
“I’m on it,” she promised, already pulling out her phone.
More shots followed, almost forming a stop-motion animation film as Adler rapidly clicked the shutter. A photograph of a steel entrance being pushed open. A shadowy space beyond, a glimpse of Adler’s hand as he reached out to the darkness.
“They went inside,” Vesper breathed. “Why did they do that?”
“Most people who come across a ruin like that in the middle of nowhere are going to want to take a closer look.”
Of course, people like Vesper and myself, who’d seen the kind of things that lurk in the shadows, know better. In this case, it appeared that Adler and Plevins’ natural human curiosity had come at a high price. Whatever they found in that place, it had…altered them. Messed with their minds and seared symbols into their skin.
The next batch of shots showed the insides of the observatory, with Adler bounding up the stairs to the telescope. He'd captured the massive metal contraption from multiple angles, almost as if it was one of his beloved wild beasts.
The next batch of pictures that followed were of the Grizzly bears in their enclosure, just before Adler had launched himself into their midst. We had reached the end of the digital camera roll.
I clenched my jaw and once again tried to figure out what had happened to Plevins and Adler after they set foot inside the strange observatory. Instead of providing answers, the photos had deepened the mystery.
I glanced at Deputy Wood. “Could you go back to the photos taken inside the observatory?”
Various shots of the telescope filled the laptop again. I narrowed my gaze and leaned closer, hoping to catch some revealing detail that I might have missed during the first viewing.
“Hold on,” Vesper suddenly said. I glanced at her and then back at the screen, wondering what might have caught her eye.
“Could you please zoom in on the last shot?”
The deputy’s finger flashed over the keyboard as she made the image bigger.
“Even closer,” Vesper demanded as she took a step toward the laptop.
At first, I couldn’t tell what she was getting at. But with the next set of magnifications, I saw it too.
Strange markings covered the surface of the telescope. Almost as if someone had etched the symbols into the steel for some unfathomable reason.
The deputy zoomed even closer on the telescope until one of the exotic symbols filled the entire laptop screen.
I tasted copper and realized I must’ve bitten my lip.
I recognized the symbol now. After all, I’d encountered it twice in the last few hours. First on Plevins’ neck, and then on my athame. I had no doubt that, when I went down to the morgue to examine Adler, I’d find the same symbol somewhere on his body.
But what the hell did it mean?
Chapter Eight
The frozen forest awaited us.
Pale moonlight glittered on a fresh layer of snow as Sheriff Delgado parked the cruiser.
Using the GPS in Ralf Coleman’s photo camera, we’d established the location of the mysterious observatory. The sheriff had brought us as close as possible to the coordinates, but the rest of the route we would have to cover on foot.
I shivered as I got out of the vehicle. Temperatures had dropped considerably as soon as the sun had gone down.
I’d told Vesper to return to the cabin so she could start scouring the internet for information on the observatory. She’d protested at first, but I’d convinced my assistant that her research skills were what I needed right now. Secretly, I just wanted her to be safe. I still felt uncomfortable with Vesper risking her life in the field.
Right now, it was just Delgado, a very nervous Deputy Wood, and yours truly. Our breaths clouded, adding to the otherworldly feel of the nocturnal forest landscape. Right off the mountain road, a dark mass indistinguishable trees cast jagged shadows.
Delgado pointed at the forest. “The observatory should be about fifteen minutes up ahead.”
I took a long look at the yawning darkness, gripped my athame under my coat for courage. “Let’s do it.”
I fell in step with the sheriff. Our flashlights lanced the darkness. The only sounds came from our boots trudging through the snow. In our heavy coats, gloves, and snow pants, we must’ve looked like astronauts exploring an alien world.
Delgado had wanted to wait until the next morning, but I had pressed him on the urgency of the situation.
Somewhere in those woods was a building that had transformed two men, warped their minds and inked their flesh, condemning them to death. There was a power at work here, unlike anything I’d ever faced before.
Who are you?
I vividly remembered the dark curiosity in Jeremy Plevins’ face as he regarded my knife and asked that question. Lips struggling to form words, almost as if the inhuman speaker was still downloading human language from some part of Jeremy’s possessed brain. Thinking about the man’s otherworldly voice sent a chill down my back that had nothing to do with the snow.
The exchange had been brief but telling. It had recognized the power in my athame, had hungered for it and feared it in equal measure. The dark force controlling Jeremy felt drawn to the magic of my knife and its ability to absorb his strange tattoos. Now I just had to figure out how to use that fact to my advantage.
“Just another night in the life of Simon Kane?” Delgado said as we stomped through the forest, the flashing GPS unit in his gloved hand mapping the way.
“You don’t know the half of it.”
Something in my voice gave Delgado pause and made him swallow whatever wisecrack was on his mind.
“So tell me, Kane, what do you make of all this?”
“I wish I had the answers, sheriff.”
“But you must have a theory. Something. Detective Sanchez said you know this shit. I’ve lived here for fifteen years, and I know everyone around these parts. Don’t you think one of them might’ve brought up the old observatory in the woos? There should be records of this structure, stories about the place.”
I agreed with Delgado. Small towns are notoriously bad at keeping secrets, and this was a doozy.
“I’m hoping my assistant might dig up something on that front.”
Delgado eyed me for a beat, not happy with my answer. That was too bad because it was the only one I
had to give.
“What about that strange marking on the observatory’s telescope? Weren’t they the same as the tattoos found on Jeremy and Ralf’s bodies? What’s that all about?”
I considered Delgado’s question. My natural tendency is to keep information close to the chest. The moment you take a deep dive into the weird, folks stop to take you seriously. But I had to give local law enforcement something. The sheriff had been more than gracious up until this point. He could have easily shut me out of the investigation. Delgado wasn’t thrilled about my involvement in the case, but he trusted Sanchez’s judgment of my character and abilities. I had to prove to him that his trust was warranted.
Deputy Wood drew closer, curious to hear what I might have to say.
I paused, trying to decide how much to tell them. We had started this investigation under the pretense that the monsters I hunted were human fanatics, obsessed with the occult but still people. The tattoos had given Delgado the first hint that something extraordinary was happening here. It was time to lay my cards on the table, but I had to strike the right balance. These cops knew something fishy was going on, but I couldn’t overwhelm them.
Skeptical cops, I could work with. But if they were catatonic with terror, it wouldn’t do any of us any good.
“The markings on the telescope, the tattoos on Plevins and Coleman’s body, they’re occult protective symbols.”
“He’s talking about wards.” Deputy Woods said authoritatively. Her confident tone caught both Delgado and me off guard.
She shrugged sheepishly. “I watch Buffy.”
“Protection against what?” Delgado asked.
Demons, I thought, knowing all too well that explanation wouldn’t work for Delgado unless I put it in real-world terms that would make sense to him.
“You’ve heard of my father, Mason Kane, haven’t you?”
The question hung in the air for a moment. It was Deputy Wood who answered. Her eyes widened as she spoke.
“I caught the documentary about him on Netflix a while back. Mason Kane was a cult leader who sacrificed people to the devil. Made Charles Manson look like a rank amateur. He killed—”
The deputy broke off, realizing she might have her let her enthusiasm get the best of her.
“It’s all true. My father worshiped demons. Evil spirits.”
Delgado let out a low whistle and shook his head. “No wonder you hunt men like your father.”
Not men, I thought. Monsters.
I took a deep breath and pressed on. “Mason Kane tried to control dark forces, bend them to his will, and tap into their immense occult power. And guess what? Demons don’t want to be controlled.”
“Hey, who can blame them, right?” Delgado said, the joke falling flat.
“In their twisted minds, occultists are kind of like lion tamers. They need to beat the beast into submission without getting eaten alive. So they use ‘wards,’ as Deputy Woods so astutely pointed out. Protective symbols that keep them safe while they conjure the demon.”
Delgado snorted. “You almost sound like you believe in this stuff.”
“No,” I lied. “But my father did. And so do the men and women I hunt. And that’s all that matters.”
Delago’s cocked an eyebrow. “Are you saying people worshiped demons in that observatory?”
“That’s what it looks like.”
Delgado shook his head, jaw set defiantly. “Don’t tell me now that Jeremy and Ralf were part of a cult. I knew these men. Both of them were god-fearing folks that you would find in church every Sunday.”
“I’m not trying to imply anything, sheriff.”
“None of this makes any sense.”
When it came to the supernatural, not much ever did. I felt the sheriff’s pain.
Even I was struggling to wrap my head around this case, and the press called me the Paranormalist. If anyone, I should know what was happening here. But the occult doesn’t play by any rulebook. Each new case is a journey into the unknown.
I mentally reviewed what I knew so far. Based on the presence of protective wards on the telescope, it looked like someone had performed a demonic ceremony inside the observatory, which in itself was a first in my experience. Demon worshippers generally preferred deconsecrated churches, castles, or crypts to practice their infernal rituals. Observatories were symbols of science and knowledge, man’s desire to reach for the stars. Not exactly an occult hotspot.
Then again, some rituals did involve tapping into the power of the stars. The Picatrix, the famous grimoire of astrological magic written in the eleventh century, came to mind.
Okay, so perhaps the cultists had used protective wards as they engaged in a ritual that involved the stars in some capacity. So why had those protective wards burned themselves into Jeremy and Ralf’s skin?
And then it hit me.
What if some dark force had remained trapped in the observatory? Maybe the original ritual had backfired somehow, and the demon had become trapped in the physical structure by the wards. Such an entity could have seized control of both Jeremy and Ralf in the hopes of escaping its prison.
But something went wrong. As soon as the beast had sunk its claws into the hapless men, the observatories wards had kicked in and burned themselves into the demon’s victims instead. A portion of the creature’s essence had escaped inside Jeremy and Ralf, but the protective wards had followed, binding it and preventing it from fully seizing control.
That would even drive the sanest man off the edge. No wonder Jeremy and Ralf had succumbed to their darkest insecurities and obsessions.
There was a mad logic to the whole idea. It would also explain why my athame had absorbed the strange symbol. My knife could draw protective wards, but its magic could also penetrate and destroy magical fields.
This theory still didn’t tell me who might’ve performed the original ritual, nor did it suggest why no one around Big Bear Lake had ever heard of this observatory before. I hoped Vesper might be able to fill in some of the gaps on that front.
Delgado suddenly paused, and I almost knocked into him, lost in my own thoughts.
We’d reached a craterlike clearing and were now looking up a small incline dotted with uprooted, flattened trees and displaced undergrowth. It looked like a mid-sized asteroid had slammed into the place.
The sheriff stared around, his flashlight beam carving the night. “No idea what’s going on here, but these are the GPS coordinates from Ralf’s camera roll. We’re here.”
I clenched my jaw. I doubted the GPS was malfunctioning. So where was the damn observatory?
Chapter Nine
A heavy silence had fallen over all of us as we drove back to town. The latest development in the case had rattled Sheriff Delgado and Deputy Wood. If the presence of an observatory no one had ever heard of hadn’t been strange enough, its disappearance truly tested the imagination. In the face of such mysteries, most people shut down and withdrew into themselves.
Don’t get me wrong, I was freaked out too, but at least I knew the impossible was possible.
I was more focused on the why than the how at this point in the game.
Why had the observatory appeared in the first place? And where had it gone?
I hoped Vesper’s investigation into the matter had proven more fruitful than our nocturnal stroll through the woods.
I palmed my cell and called my assistant. She picked up on the first ring. Judging by the energetic way she greeted me, she’d found something of interest. I could easily picture her grin, the way her eyes lit up with the thrill of discovery.
“How was your little walk through the woods?”
“My feet feel like blocks of ice, and I think my left ear is developing frostbite. No wonder people love this place.”
“You sound like a spoiled LA brat.”
“The curse of having grown up in sunny California,” I grumbled.
“So did you get a chance to do some stargazing?”
I quickly br
ought Vesper up to speed. To my surprise, my assistant didn’t seem fazed by the observatory’s disappearance.
“This vanishing act makes a lot of sense,” she said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I think I was able to identify the place. And there is a fascinating story here.”
My cell chirped as Vesper sent me a text. My eyes widened as I took in the black-and-white photograph she’d messaged me. It looked ancient, the film grainy, the focus slightly off. Despite the poor image quality, the observatory in the picture was the same structure Ralf Coleman had captured on his camera.
The structure’s brick and stone base was the same, the cylindrical cone sprouting from the dome a perfect match. The crucial difference here was the lack of decay. The dome was pristine, untouched by the mark of time.
“You got to love image recognition software. I ran Coleman’s photo of the observatory through a few apps. Ten minutes later, I had a match.”
“Impressive. So what am I looking at?”
Vesper sent me another black-and-white picture, and I stifled a gasp. I saw sheriff Delgado’s reflection in the cruiser’s rear-view mirror, his interest in my phone call unmistakable. I held up a finger, trying indicate that I would tell him everything as soon as I was done.
I eyed the latest photograph. It was of the mysterious observatory, but the structure now flanked a stately mansion surrounding by endless woods. The place made me think of a haunted castle in some magical forest.
“What am I looking at here, Vesper?”
“Rockmore Manor. Constructed at the end of World War I, completed in 1927. The brainchild of millionaire Robert Rockmore, a turn-of-the-century industrialist who made his money in shipping, railroads, and things like that. The sprawling fifty-acre property located in San Jose was constructed to his exacting standards—no compromises, no cut corners.”
“San Jose?” I asked.
“Please hold your questions until the end of the spiel,” Vesper chirped. “In addition to the main house, the estate boasted a conservatory, an outdoor theater, and of course, the observatory. As you can see, Rockmore’s mansion reflected his hobbies and passions, which included a strong interest in astrology and the occult.”
The Paranormalist 4: The Unearthly Page 5