by Lukens, Mark
“David!” Stella yelled as she turned to look at him. “Do something!”
David closed his eyes, tears slipping out. He looked lost … hopeless.
Joe kept on singing his prayers, but he had another container of lighter fluid in his hand; he squirted the liquid towards the fire, fueling the flames, keeping the snakes, spiders, and other creatures back away from him and the circle.
“We’re going to take your friends, David,” Joanie said. “We’re going to take them all away from you. You’re going to watch them die one by one.”
Joanie looked at Palmer and Begay. “You can stop this, Palmer,” she said.
Palmer had a confused look on his face: How does she know my name?
“Kill the boy and all of this will be over,” Joanie growled at Palmer.
Palmer stared at the snakes slithering towards him. Some of the snakes had curled up into a coil, their rattles shaking, ready to strike—their combined rattling was like the sound of a million cicadas inside the church.
“Kill the boy!” Joanie screamed at Palmer. “Just kill the boy!”
“Don’t listen to them!” Stella told Palmer. “David’s the only one who can hurt it!”
Two tarantulas crawled over Palmer’s shoes and he pulled his feet away, backing up, but the spiders and scorpions were all around him and Begay now. He shot at a few of them, blowing them into bits until his gun clicked.
Then he reloaded.
The wind outside was even louder now, screeching in through the broken windows, bringing the stinging sand with it. The wood beams in the ceiling creaked and moaned from the strain, ready to give way soon.
“David, fight it!” Stella screamed over the howling wind, the rattling snakes, and the flickering fires.
“Last chance!” Joanie yelled at Palmer. “Last chance to kill the boy! We will win! We always do!” She opened her mouth wide and a fat hairy tarantula crawled out, dropping down to the floor at her feet in a pool of thick saliva.
Begay pumped his shotgun and blew the woman’s head off of her shoulders.
Zeke and Joanie, now without most of their heads, collapsed down onto the floor. Their bodies twitched and bulged. Something large moved around inside of their bodies, struggling to get out.
Cole squirted more lighter fluid at the line of fire in front of him, dragging the fire along with the stream of fluid. “Over here!” he yelled at Palmer and Begay. “Get behind the fire!”
But the fire wasn’t all the way around them yet, and now the crawling creatures were advancing from behind them, the snakes slithering quickly through the debris, their rattles shaking.
The wood floors began shaking, trembling underneath their feet like an earthquake.
Stella looked down at the floorboards beneath her feet and watched as they exploded. Skeletal hands reached up from underneath the floor, grabbing Stella’s ankles. She saw wide eyes in a skull staring up at her, a rictus grin in the darkness below.
“Come down here with us, Stellaaaa …”
CHAPTER 72
“No!” David screamed when he saw the hands from underneath the floor grab Stella’s legs.
Stella tried to pull her foot out of the skeletal hands’ grasp, but they were too strong. More floorboards exploded away. Spiders and scorpions fell down into the darkness below. The hole was getting bigger and Stella could see so many more bodies down there crawling all over each other, their eyes glowing in the darkness, their teeth gnashing.
“David, help me!” Stella screamed. She beat at the hands as she fell down onto her butt. The hands were dragging her towards the ragged hole in the floor.
“You can’t have her!” David screamed, and then his body went rigid, like he was going into a trance. The ancient writing that Joe Blackhorn had painted on David’s face and hands glowed bright red and seemed to move, coming alive on his skin. Threads grew from the symbols and crawled down David’s face, down his arms and hands, down his clothes, down to the floor. The threads grew thicker and wound together like vines, moving towards a black ball of darkness that was forming on the floor in front of David.
David’s eyes rolled back in his head and his body began to shake.
*
The ruined bodies of Zeke and Joanie were twisted together on the floor, their skin melting together for a moment, then pushing away as something inside forced its way out from underneath their flesh. Black tentacles and feelers poked out through their skin, whipping frantically in the air around them, and then changing form. A segmented leg that looked like a giant spider leg pushed out, but then folded back in on itself.
Begay pumped his shotgun again and pulled the trigger.
Nothing.
He pulled the trigger again and again.
Still nothing. He turned the weapon around in his hands, holding it by the barrel like a baseball bat, and he beat at the snakes all over the floor around him and Palmer.
But there were too many of the creatures. One snake shot out and sank its fangs into Palmer’s left calf. The FBI agent screamed. Another snake got him in the other calf. A tarantula crawled up his pants leg. And then another one.
Begay grabbed the rattlesnakes and tore them off of Palmer’s legs, ripping their fangs out of his flesh and clothing. He flung the snakes across the room into the fire in front of Cole.
Cole came over to help Begay, squirting lighter fluid all around them in a circle, dragging the line of fire he’d created over with him, then continuing it on around them in a big circle. The flames rose up in front of them for a moment and they couldn’t see the Ancient Enemy crawling out of Zeke and Joanie.
*
David stood in the circle of owl’s blood, his eyes still closed, his body still trembling. The spinning black ball that had formed on the floor in front of him crackled with electricity as it began to rise up from the floor, gaining mass and solidifying, hovering in the air and spinning faster and faster.
David opened his eyes. His pupils had rolled all the way back into his head, only the whites showing now. His hands were out at his sides, his head leaned back, mouth opened a little, his body shaking violently now. The painted symbols were all off of his skin, all of them turned into threads of electricity that crackled around the spinning ball that was getting bigger and bigger.
*
Stella beat at the skeletal hands grabbing at her from underneath the floor. More of the dead were pulling her down into the hole. She grabbed the gun out of the waistband of her pants and aimed it at the dead skeletal creatures that held on to her. She pulled the trigger over and over again, shooting at the dead things until the gun was empty.
But the bullets didn’t slow them down. When she blew one of the dead away, another would take its place, grabbing her legs and dragging her down into the hole. Her legs were almost down below the floorboards now. She dropped her gun and grabbed at the floorboards, her fingernails snapping off as she tried to dig them into the wood and hold on.
Joe was suddenly at her side. He grabbed at Stella’s wrists, pulling at her. He strained as he pulled at her, but he was losing this tug-of-war. The dead were too strong. There were too many of them. She was slipping farther down into the hole.
The birds and buzzards above swooped down around Cole, Palmer, and Begay, then flew away, pecking at them. Begay swung at one of the buzzards, connecting with it like a baseball bat with a ball. He knocked it away in a fluttering of feathers.
The spinning black ball in front of David grew bigger and bigger, spinning faster and faster, opening up into a void, like a hole in reality, sparks of lightning flashing out of it and through it, crackling in the air.
“Don’t look at it!” Joe yelled at Stella as he struggled to hold on to her. “Don’t look at David! Don’t look into their world!”
Stella wanted to look at David; she wanted to make sure he was okay. But she heeded Joe’s advice. She knew that one glimpse into their world might drive her insane. She closed her eyes and she could feel the electricity in the a
ir all around her, she could feel the hair on her arms and her head wanting to stand up. But she concentrated on fighting to stay out of the hole in the floor.
*
As the flames around them died down quickly, Cole watched the Ancient Enemy rise up from the two dead bodies that had somehow twisted together in a melting of flesh. The thing unfolded itself from the two bodies, then refolded, then unfolded again, constantly reforming itself, changing constantly as it achieved solidity. And then the air around it began to shimmer and distort.
Oh God, Cole thought. It’s going to teleport away again like it did at the Mountainside Inn. It’s going to teleport away and we’re going to lose it.
*
Begay beat at the snakes and spiders and scorpions, but none of them attacked him—they only attacked Palmer and Cole. Palmer had been bit twice so far, maybe more than that, and Begay wasn’t sure if Cole had been bit. Begay had seen the black hole opening up in front of David, and he knew that David was fighting that thing across the room, drawing that thing back into its own world. Begay just needed to hold on a little longer … he just needed to give David a chance to defeat the Darkwind.
There was a screech in the air as the Ancient Enemy was drawn across the floor, its constantly changing form stretched out, tentacles and feelers trying desperately to hold on to the floor much like Stella was trying to hold on. But that thing seemed like it was losing the battle.
Was David winning?
*
Stella was almost over the edge of the hole in the floor now, her legs dangling down inside. She could feel more of the skeletal hands down inside the hole grabbing on to her. It seemed like they were making a last-ditch effort to pull her down into the darkness. She could feel Joe pulling on her wrists, but it felt like she was slipping away from him.
She looked up above Joe at the swirling birds in the smoky air. A few of the buzzards and bats were dive-bombing Joe, trying to get him to loosen his grip as they pecked and clawed at him. But he wouldn’t let go. He kept his head down, his teeth gritted, his eyes on her, and he would not let go.
But Stella saw something else above the birds and bats, something that concerned her even more—the church ceiling was shaking apart. Debris and pieces of wood and shingles were already raining down around them. Then she heard the popping noise of wood beams snapping, braces breaking loose.
And then part of the roof was caving in, collapsing down onto them.
CHAPTER 73
“Look out!” Cole yelled. He pushed Begay and Palmer out of the way of the large section of roof that was falling down on them—it was the size of a king-sized bed. He managed to get Begay out of the way, but the piece of roof fell down on top of Palmer, burying him underneath it in a cloud of dust and sand.
*
Stella pulled her legs as hard as she could, and Joe was helping, but it seemed like the skeletal things were still making one last massive effort to pull her down beneath the floor with them. She thought they were going to tear her legs off.
*
The Ancient Enemy tried to distort the space around it, trying to bend and fold itself around the shimmering air … but it was losing the battle. The alien thing slid across the floor towards the spinning vortex, screeching in fury and fear, twisting and writhing as it was dragged along, feelers and tentacles flapping around and slapping at the floorboards. The Ancient Enemy resisted, but the force from the spinning black hole was too strong, and it was sucked into the gaping hole in reality, back into its own world. With one last screech of anguish, the constantly twisting and changing black thing was gone.
*
Stella felt the grips of the dead hands loosen on her legs all at once. She saw the dead bodies rise up out of the holes in the floorboards like invisible cranes were picking up their bodies. The dead shot across the air towards the spinning black hole. She couldn’t help it, she turned to look.
“Don’t look,” Joe whispered. He was right there beside her, and he hugged her, shielding her from the sight as he held on to her.
*
Cole watched as the animals that weren’t on fire suddenly backed up away from them. If animals could’ve looked like they had suddenly woken up in confusion, then this was it. The buzzards, birds, and bats swirled above them in the smoke, and then they all shot up and out through the large hole that was in the ceiling now, escaping out into the sandstorm above. A few of them flew out of the broken windows, some of them colliding with each other in a panic, but then escaping.
Snakes, spiders, and scorpions skittered away from the fires that were dying down quickly, slithering and crawling back towards the open doorway like an army, and others escaped down into the cracks in the floor and at the edges of the walls.
Cole looked over at the black hole in front of David as the hole turned back into a spinning black ball crackling with electricity, getting smaller and smaller until it closed up on itself and disappeared into nothing.
The church’s walls were still rumbling and more of the ceiling was going to collapse soon. The storm outside was at its strongest now.
“Help me get him out of there!” Begay yelled at Cole.
Begay grabbed a corner of the large section of roof that had fallen down on Palmer, and Cole took the other. They managed to move the piece of roof back far enough to see Palmer underneath, unconscious now, but they had moved it enough to pull him out.
“We need to get him to the door!” Cole said.
Begay looked a little uncertain about that, but the snakes, spiders, and scorpions were almost entirely gone now, and the dead bodies of the man and woman had slipped into the spinning ball along with the Ancient Enemy that had been inside of them.
“It’s over,” Cole said. “David won. That thing is gone!”
Begay didn’t question it. He grabbed one of Palmer’s arms and Cole grabbed the other one. They pulled him through the debris across the floor.
“We gotta go!” Cole yelled at Stella and Joe, both of them crouched down on the floor together. Stella grabbed her gun and stuck it down into the waistband of her pants as she got to her feet. Joe helped her stand and they looked at David.
David had collapsed on the floor inside the circle; he was unconscious now. The spinning ball or hole in their reality or doorway, or whatever it had been, was gone now. There was only the ozone smell in the air from the crackling electricity.
The sandstorm was already dying down, but the building was still shaking, still ready to collapse.
“Get David!” Cole yelled at Stella. “We need to get out of here. This building’s going to collapse!”
Stella darted to the painted circle. She scooped David up in her arms, and Joe followed her through the debris as the roof caved in behind them, crashing down section by section as they both ran to the doorway.
All of them got outside of the church as large sections of the roof fell down onto the floor behind them. Cole and Begay dragged Palmer down the wood steps, and then down the path through the rock garden and into the dirt street of the ghost town. Stella cradled David in her arms, and then she dropped down to her knees and set him down on the sand near Palmer.
“Is he …?” Cole asked Stella.
“He’s still breathing,” she told him as tears streamed down her face.
Cole looked at Palmer. He was still breathing, too. But he had lacerations on his face and hands, and he looked pale from the snakebites.
A crashing sound from behind them turned all of them around to the church. The roof had caved in all the way, but the walls in front were still standing, and somehow part of the steeple had held up. From the front, it still looked almost like a regular church.
But they were out here now; they were safe.
“David won,” Cole said to Stella, and he realized he was crying too. “David beat it. He sent it back.”
Stella nodded. “It’s over,” she said. “It’s really over.”
Joe hugged Stella, and then he pulled away and smiled at her.
<
br /> “I’m going to need you two to raise your hands up slowly,” Begay said.
Cole turned around and saw that Begay was pointing his service pistol at him.
CHAPTER 74
“What are you doing?” Stella yelled at Begay.
“He’s a wanted criminal.”
“He saved your life!” Stella screamed at Begay.
“It’s okay,” Cole told Stella and he raised his hands up a little in front of him.
“I need you to take your gun out and throw it over to me,” Begay told Cole.
Cole nodded, indicating that he understood. He reached inside his coat and pulled his gun out slowly and held it with two fingers by the barrel. He threw it across the sand to Begay where it landed with a thud.
Cole raised his hands again. “Take me,” he said. “I’m the one you want. Just let them go.”
“He was helping them get here,” Joe told Begay, “helping David get here so he could send the Darkwind back to its own world.”
“I didn’t kill those people,” Cole told Begay. “I helped rob that bank in Colorado. One of our guys killed that old man in the bank, not me. But they’re all dead now, including my brother. That thing … the Ancient Enemy killed all of them.”
Begay picked up Cole’s gun from the sand and stuffed it down into the waistband of his pants. He looked at Stella. “What about you? You have a gun?”
Stella nodded, already resigned to the fact that they were going to get nowhere arguing with this man. “I’ve got one in my waistband,” she said in a low voice. “It’s empty,” she added.
“Throw it over here. Move very slowly.”
The wind was dying down and the air was almost still again. The coyotes were gone. The spiders, snakes, and scorpions had all crawled away to their safe havens.
Stella pulled her gun out slowly and then threw it across the sand to Begay. “You don’t have to do this,” she said.
Begay didn’t answer.
“That man is dying,” Joe said, nodding down at Palmer. “We need to get him to a hospital.”
