by David Kempf
“Tell me something I don’t know, Wilson,” said McDowell.
Dr. Brown and McDowell now appeared in the mirror as they were. They were looking at themselves in the mirror watching the same mirror. The blue flames appeared and they were screaming in agony, slowly burning to death. The doctor ran to the front door and grabbed the knob, it was unspeakably hot and he screamed out loud in pain. McDowell tried to kick the door open but to no avail. The blue flames consumed him and caused suffering beyond words. His face grew large on the mirror like a big screen TV. McDowell watched his own face die, the light from his eyes becoming darkness.
“That’s just a vision and nothing else,” McDowell said confidently.
“Yes, it’s only a vision, Christian.”
McDowell grew furious. He was so angry that he didn’t notice Bill Wilson in full physical form was standing right behind him.
But Dr. Brown saw. “Good lord in heaven, he’s behind you!”
“Please God, no.” McDowell grabbed hold of the mirror, to try to turn it around but it wasn’t moving. He noticed that he had dropped his anniversary coin on the floor. He heard Bill cackling behind him but ignored it. He snatched up the coin and pocketed it, then grabbed the mirror. This time it was working and he turned it around at Bill Wilson.
“What do you think you’re doing…?”
“Time to make a searching and fearless moral inventory, Bill!”
Wilson didn’t like what he saw. Images of his prayers to a higher power getting confused… the wine god answering instead of the real God. His hate, his lust, his jealousy, A.A. members fighting science every step of the way…. What should have been a simple program that cost nothing being used by the DUI and recovery rackets to make money off of sick people. The disgusting cult of personality and the way him and his followers tormented those who would dare disagree with the program. All of this was coming back to him. The ghost was being haunted.
“My God, it’s working, Christian.”
“I will not go from one hell to another…”
The Wilson thing now got sucked into the mirror; he was fighting to stay in the physical world but he was failing.
“You’re a failure and your giant ego can’t take it, you’ve done far more harm than good,” said McDowell.
Now Wilson was completely in the mirror, looking at the two men from the other side.
“No…”
“Your no one important,” McDowell said.
Wilson screamed again.
“I won’t let my life be a failure,” McDowell said and then threw his coin at the mirror. It cracked and Bill W. began to fade from view.
“You will never stop me. Every time a drunk falls down, I am the one pushing him. When someone leaves the program, I come after them. When someone drives drunk, I whisper in their ear it’s a good idea. I will never allow anyone to get sober without praising my name. No one stops drinking without me. And…”
“Goodbye you wretched thing,” McDowell said.
“And when you say my name three times in a mirror and turn the lights off and on, I will come…”
The coin turned orange and melted the mirror into silvery goo. And then the malicious ghost was gone. The house, again, was only an old abandoned wreck.
“Let’s get the hell out of here, McDowell,” Dr. Brown said in silence.
“That’s probably a good idea.” The two men walked towards the door and it opened with a light push. They stepped outside. It was a pleasantly cool evening; light rain was beginning to fall.
“What about your machine, Lionel?”
“Fuck it.”
They both laughed.
“What gave you such power over him?” Dr. Brown asked.
“I worked the program, A.A helped me get sober. If you follow the steps and stay sober Bill Wilson can’t touch you.”
“Thank you,” Dr. Brown said, patting him on the back. “It’s a shame we won’t get paid for this.”
“Wilson said that a spiritual experience is required for sobriety and he gave us one hell of a spiritual experience.”
Dr. Brown laughed.
“One thing to put on my gratitude list is that we are alive. One for thing is for sure…”
“What’s that?” Dr. Brown asked.
“Bill’s House is Hell’s House.”
Dear Dr. Wells,
This is quite a coincidence. Sarah wrote about alcoholism, too. The world is a nightmare and when people die, they will find that there is no light at the end of the tunnel. There is no way to avoid Hell. Alcohol haunts me. It is one sin that I am not fond of. It makes ruining lives and damning people too easy. There are so many other temptations out there. Things need to get done and frankly drunkenness hinders those who should be doing my will. Men are so pathetic that they have to poison themselves to get through life. The human race is always afraid. I do like how you make fun of someone who spent his life trying to help others. You get points for that and you are therefore still in the running.
Sincerely,
A Good Friend to Have
CHRISTIANS
By Henry David Wells
“It’s the Devil’s holiday again and no one is safe,” James Book said, dreading the dying of the sunlight.
“Halloween,” said Natalie Leeds.
“There has got to be some natural and rational explanation for all of this,” Devon Logan said.
The three teachers were staring out the church windows, almost in unison but perceiving things very different.
“Perhaps they are some kind of mutation,” said Logan.
“This is God’s curse for our wickedness,” said Book. “Since you’re a science teacher you naturally want to deny the fate we brought on ourselves.”
“I thought you taught that history repeated itself,” Logan said.
“Don’t mock God’s perfect plan,” said Book, the biology teacher.
“It’s like we’re all trapped in a horror story that never ends,” Leeds said.
“This isn’t a story…. this is real life,” Book said authoritatively. The three people were careful to hide in the church and lock the doors earlier this year. Last year, two teachers died because the darkness fell upon them sooner than expected. People only saw a few of the creatures the first year they appeared but the things had grown in number every All Hollow’s Eve since then. The fiends had now been terrorizing this small town for six years. The young brown-haired woman who taught English, the older woman, slightly greying who had a scientific mind and the balding, middle-aged history teacher who always secretly wanted to be a headmaster at a much stricter school, all chose to stay on this darkest of all nights.
“Funny, it feels just like any other fall night, the cool wind and the foliage is so beautiful here and all over the town.”
“Enough Natalie,” said Book.
“I can freely speak my mind,” she snapped back at him.
“This is Judgement Day night,” Book said.
“Then why does life continue as normal after this night is over?” asked the English teacher.
“It’s all part of a plan,” Book barked.
“It doesn’t make any sense at all,” Logan said to her colleagues.
“If this isn’t His divine judgement then why don’t we all leave? Huh? Why do we stay in this stinking sinful town to find out what these things want every year?”
Neither woman could answer Book’s question.
“They could be all over the county, even all over the world so what’s the use of leaving this place?” Natalie Leeds said.
“What I want to know is why no one can photograph them and prove they exist,” said Logan.
“They’re supernatural. You need to have faith to see them for spiritual warfare, I don’t know,” Book said.
“I thought you knew everything,” Leeds said slyly.
The two teachers were well known for not being very fond of one another.
“Why do we feel compelled to come to this church every
year?” Book asked.
“We teach at a non-denominational Christian school so I guess we fight these things despite our denominational differences,” said Logan.
Book looked sternly at Natalie Leeds. “Episcopalian. If I ran the school you wouldn’t be able to teach at the school until you found a real church.”
“I would never want to teach at a school where you were in charge,” Leeds said.
The biology teacher was nervous because it was growing dark outside. “We need to be quiet. They’re coming soon, it won’t be long now,” she said.
“God in heaven,” said Book. Is that rotten fish I smell?’ The three of them were looking at the church windows, none of which were stained glass. The ceiling was tall and a bit dark at the top. All of the rooms were locked, there were chains on all four doors so nothing could get in or out. The three mortals could not agree much but they did agree that it was now dark enough outside to be terrifying.
“Obey the son of man,” whispered something in the dark.
“My God!” screamed Book.
The two women immediately embraced to comfort each other.
“I see it,” said Book. His heart raced. “Two red eyes on the ceiling…”
The three looked up at the ceiling and to their sheer horror, they saw six glowing red eyes.
“There are three of them this year,” Logan said. “They must be hanging upside down like damn vampire bats.”
“Yes,” said Book.
“We know that crosses, holy water and the Eucharist have no effect on them. We learned the hard way last year,” Logan said.
“Are you Catholic now?” Book asked Logan.
“No,” she answered. “Good, it’s bad enough Natalie is an Episcopalian.
“It’s this stupid bloody name for a church,” said Book with disgust. “The New Salvation Church. We need that old time religion to fight these demons!”
“Which religion is that?” Leeds asked. “Hinduism, Judaism…”
“Old time Christian!”
“You mean Catholic then, right?” the Episcopalian said gleefully.
The inner faith discussion was interrupted by the sounds of scratches and screeching above them in the dark.
“If there are six eyes then there are three of them,” said the science teacher.
“One for each of us,” Leeds said.
“Of course there are three,” Book said. They will judge us for our sins.”
“Good thing you don’t have any,” said Leeds.
Logan nodded in agreement and smiled. This turned to nervous laughter and Book did not appreciate being laughed at.
“This is indeed a test,” said Book as he looked up at the dark ceiling.
“Doubtful,” said Logan.
There were no more glowing eyes coming from the darkness above. The pastor and all of his congregation had abandoned the church days before this night’s ritual battle. The pumpkins in the church were beginning to rot.
“These things are from hell to punish us for our pride,” Book said almost believing his own words.
“Pride?” asked the English teacher.
“Yes.”
The two women laughed at him.
“Proudville Christian School,” said Logan. “That’s the name of the high school where we teach. Do you want me to repeat it?”
“No.”
“Good.” The science teacher smiled.
“I never really got a good look at them,” Leeds said.
The science teacher grimaced. “I can’t believe they are bloody real.”
“Well, I’ve seen them, ladies, I’ve seen them…”
“Seeing is believing,” Logan said.
“Faith is evidence of things not seen,” said Book snidely. “Sadly, I have seen these things and sometimes even I don’t believe they exist. I guess it’s all part of God’s plan.”
“Why can’t we get a picture of those damn things?” said Logan.
“Let’s try to find them and find out what the hell they want,” Natalie Leeds said.
Then she looked around the place. The rotting pumpkins and the increasingly noticeable smell of rotting fish were permeating the air. The dark, dismal church atmosphere was adding to the despair and sense of despair.
“Enough of the doom and gloom, let’s figure out how to kill these things,” Book said.
“Maybe we weren’t meant to kill them,” said Leeds.
“Yeah, maybe we were meant to figure out what they want,” said Logan.
“Oh boy, you two mock God and his plan. That’s probably what happened to all of the other teachers and why these things seem to only come after us every year on this evil holiday.”
“Okay,” Logan said almost mockingly.
“It’s you two, that’s why this happening. God is punishing me for not putting a stop to the secular madness you tried to slip into the school. You wanted to have your little dance didn’t you? Every school should have a prom when you knew that God would turn his back on us for opening the dark door of sin with something like that…”
“You’re so out of your mind,” Leeds said.
“Perhaps you could dance with a few of the young men that had boyish crushes on you like the ones in drama club,” Book said.
“The boys in the drama club were mostly gay.”
“What?”
“Never mind. Some of them liked you like that idiot who watched horror movies and wanted to be a writer…”
“Oh… him. Yeah, he was carrying a lifetime torch for sure.” Natalie Leeds smiled.
“Oh, I agree that was much more than puppy love,” Logan said. For a moment the two women laughed and seemed to forget where they were.
“We should have never had a Quaker for a principal.”
“Please,” Leeds said.
“Remember who those things took last year,” Logan said.
“Oh sure, Lithgow. He went to my church and it was rumored…”
“He slept with two girls in my eleventh grade class,” Leeds said.
“Mr. Lithgow was never convicted and…. oh God… that damned smell is getting stronger!”
Book screamed inhumanely loud in the dark. He felt cold claws on his back, pushing him to the dirty church floor. The thing was small, he thought, perhaps only about three feet tall but as cold as the grave. A filthy hand if one wanted to call it that shoved something foul tasting into his mouth. Then he got up just in time to see the two women screaming in horror at what they had just witnessed.
“Where is it now?” Leeds asked.
“It’s gone,” Logan said.
Natalie Leeds was speechless at the horror of it all.
James Book held his tightening stomach hard and began to vomit all over the floor and his best Sunday school shoes. He touched his head, it was bleeding mildly. Book reached inside of his mouth and pulled out a small fish bone.
“It put raw fish into your mouth?” Leeds asked.
“Like that damned sushi crap the Japanese eat, I guess.”
“These creatures are punishing us but I don’t know why,” Book said with a voice of true desperation.
“Yes,” said Logan.
Book stared at Logan for a moment. He was rapidly losing patience with her. She was clearly becoming uncomfortable with the way he was looking at her. Suddenly, he rushed over to her and grabbed her by the throat, choking her.
“What the hell are you doing?” cried.
“You… you wanted to teach evolution, didn’t you?” he said.
“James, stop it!” said Leeds. She pulled his hands off the science teacher’s throat with all her strength. The two women were surprised that he let go so easily. Logan rubbed her throat.
“I know what you wanted to do,” Book panted. “You wanted to propose to the principal, that Quaker that we teach evolution in a Christian school. Am I right?”
“Yes,” she croaked.
“See,” he said, looking at Leeds.
“We’re going to have to s
tick together if we are going to survive this night,” Logan said. She looked at the lunatic who almost choked her to death. What was wrong with him? She wondered why the three of them were chosen for this ordeal.
“Sorry,” he said. But he didn’t sound sorry.
Logan nodded in utter disbelief.
“Sometimes we fail His test,” he said.
“What?” Leeds said.
“This is a test. I have no doubt we are being tested here.”
Logan shook her head at what she perceived as the history teacher’s madness. She looked all around the church. There was no sign of the monsters. The ceiling was still dark, she looked out a window and saw nothing. Then she ran towards Book and knocked him down. She started punching him in the face.
“Yes, I was raised Catholic and to get the job I went to this stupid church. I’m an agnostic!”
“Please stop,” Leeds said.
With a contemptuous look at her colleague, Logan released Book and stood.
“It’s all part of the plan,” said Book, clearing his throat. “It’s time to pay the piper for all of us.”
“The last three survivors of PCS,” said Leeds.
“Proudville Christian School,” Book said.
“You don’t have to worry about these creatures coming here to separate the sheep from the goats. They’re here for all of us,” Logan said.
“It’s because we, all of us have done nothing to stop them,” Book said. “All of those poor lost souls that could have been saved.”
Logan scoffed. “Don’t make me knock you down again.”
He laughed defensively. “Please don’t make me choke you again.”
The science teacher laughed. The English teacher did not.
“The Lord thanks you for your service and all James but don’t you think your kind of a self-righteous prude,” Logan said.
