by Ron Ripley
She popped the trunk with the key and went around to get the shotgun. She loaded it, checked the pump action on it, and slipped extra shells into her pockets. Jenny glanced over at Shane and saw him slip a pair of – what looked like – brass knuckles onto his right hand. They weren’t brass, though, but iron.
“Iron,” Jenny said, nodding her approval and wiggling her fingers at him, her own ring catching the sunlight.
“Yes indeed,” Shane said, grinning and flexing his hand. “These worked out alright up in Rye.”
“Leo,” Jenny said.
“Yes, Jennifer Roy?” Leo asked.
“The fog’s really pulled back. Do you know where the rest of it might be?” she said.
“In the marsh,” he answered.
“Anywhere in particular in the marsh?” she asked, keeping a tight hold on her frustration.
Leo nodded. “In the far reaches of it you will find the entrance. While you travel to it I shall move ahead and enter the shadow world.”
“Alright” Jenny said. “Shane and I will move to the back, to where the marsh is. The fog will be easy to see?”
“Yes,” Leo said. “Once I am in the shadow world I will find Brian. When you are in the marsh, the fog will look like fog. It may not be large. In fact, it may seem like a mere wisp. When you find it, wait for me there. When I have located Brian, I will meet with you and then be able to lead you both in and out of the shadow world.”
“I don’t like the idea of waiting,” Jenny said, anxious. “Can’t we just go in with you?”
Leo shook his head. “You cannot, Jennifer Roy. I must find him quickly. It will be difficult for us to escape this place. The one who controls it is strong. We must be careful.”
“Nothing like the potential of being lost in another world,” Shane said in a low voice.
“I know,” Jenny said. “You don’t have to come, Shane.”
“No,” Shane said. “I do. I like Brian, and I can’t leave him trapped.”
“Thank you,” Jenny said. She shouldered the shotgun and looked at Leo. “We’ll wait for you when we reach the fog. How will you know, though?”
“Know what?” Leo asked.
Jenny rolled her eyes, sighed and said, “When we get to the fog.”
“Oh. Yes. Call out to me. I will hear you,” Leo said.
“Even in the shadow world?” Jenny asked, skeptical.
Leo nodded. “If I am listening for someone, I will hear them. I will be listening for you, Jennifer Roy.”
“Thank you, Leo,” she said.
Leo smiled and vanished.
Jenny looked at Shane and asked, “Ready?”
The man nodded.
Silently, Jenny turned and headed to the left. She wondered if she would see Ruth when they reached the fog.
Or worse, if they would see Josephus.
Jenny focused on the task at hand and walked through the unmown grass. They followed the perimeter of the wrought iron fence and turned right when it did. Ahead of them, a tree line ran along a little piece of land and then dipped down. A small path, trampled down and littered with beer cans and other trash, led down and into tall reeds and cattails. The plants bent back with a slight wind and Jenny’s nose wrinkled at the stale smell of the marsh.
The path they followed curled off to the right, still following the fence, but Jenny and Shane pushed on into the marsh. Within moments, her feet were wet and the smell grew worse as the mud beneath the still water was churned up. Trash floated by and birds called out from around them.
Her feet grew cold, her legs tired, but Jenny remained focused.
She needed to find a way in.
She would deal with any inconvenience.
Chapter 40: John's Report
John found Josephus in the cannibal’s room. Josephus stood there, by the table, patiently stacking glasses one on top of the other. When John entered, Josephus looked up and gave him a smile which stopped John in his tracks.
“I hope,” Josephus said, turning back to the dishes, “you have brought me news.”
“I have,” John replied.
“Out with it then,” Josephus said. He picked up a knife, balanced it on top of the rim of the top most glass, and glanced again at John.
“I found Brian,” John said.
His smile broadened. “Where?”
“I’m not sure,” John said, and the smile vanished. “But I heard where he is planning to go.”
Josephus frowned and turned away from his sculpture. “What do you mean?”
“He was speaking with another man,” John said hurriedly. “They were talking about leaving the crypt for the marsh. Brian thinks he can escape through the fog.”
“Another man?” Josephus said softly. “Another man.”
“Yes,” John said. He opened his mouth to say more, but the expression of anger which flashed across Joesphus’ face silenced him.
“Him!” Josephus hissed. “He is still alive. After all this time. I thought he was lost forever in the fog. And they’re heading there, to the fog?”
John could only nod.
“Come then,” Josephus said, “we go to the fog as well. I’ve no time to toy with Brian. Not when the other is here still.”
“Who’s the other?” John asked, confused.
“Jacob Wurbach,” he spat. “I’ll eat his soul before the day is through.”
John remained silent and followed the angry ghost out of the room.
Chapter 41: Lost and Found
Brian didn’t want to sleep ever again.
They had been walking for over an hour, at least, and they still hadn’t left the hall of horrors. Even though he tried to keep his eyes averted, Brian occasionally looked to either side, and what he saw horrified him. The people beyond the glass were terrifying.
They ate one another, destroyed the flesh of those around them. He saw children eating adults, and adults eating children. He saw desecrations he had never imagined, and he felt certain he would suffer his final heart attack because of it.
He tried to close his eyes, and to walk blindly behind Jacob, but against the back of his eyelids, he saw the images. The pale white flesh, the bleeding wounds, the broken bones and black mouths sucking out the marrow.
He continued to stare at the small of Jacob’s back, and he wondered how the man survived his travels.
“We’re coming to the next door,” Jacob said suddenly, breaking the silence.
“What’s next?” Brian whispered hoarsely.
“A biting, punishing cold,” Jacob replied. “Whatever you do, don’t stop moving. Here we go.”
Jacob stopped, and Brian heard him open a door.
A painful wind blasted out of the doorway, slamming into Brian and biting at all of his exposed skin.
Without another word, Jacob walked into the new room, and Brian followed. A dull light filled the air, and the room was huge, larger than anything Brian had seen so far. The ceiling was several stories high, and the walls were an easy one thousand feet from one another. Snow covered the floor, and the wood-paneled walls were covered with frost. Men and women, naked and frozen were scattered about, as though someone had paid a morbid tribute to Narnia’s White Witch. The expressions on the dead were painful to look upon.
At the far right corner of the room, Brian caught sight of a small door, and he wondered how long it would take them to reach it. He could feel the cold sapping his strength. By the time he had taken twenty steps, his body had gone from horribly cold to painfully hot.
One of the first symptoms of hypothermia. As soon as he recognized it, his mind spun out of control. Part of him wanted to strip off his clothes so he wouldn’t be so terribly hot. The other part fought to keep them on.
Jacob stumbled, fell to a knee and then slowly got back to his feet. He shook his head and started to walk forward again.
Brian forced his legs to listen, to obey his commands. If he fell, he would die.
If Jacob couldn’t free himself of
the braided tether, he would die, too.
The door drew nearer.
Each step became a struggle. A battle to move onward. Brian no longer felt his ears or the tip of his nose. He felt as though his feet were encased in ice and as though his hands had been lopped off at the wrist.
Then, they were at the door, which opened of its own accord.
Leo, slightly more faded than usual, stood in it, looking at them with surprise and pleasure.
“Brian Roy!” Leo said excitedly. “I am pleased to have found you here.”
Whether Leo was going to say more, Brian didn’t know. Jacob pitched forward through the doorway and dragged Brian down with him.
Chapter 42: In the Marsh, 5:27 PM, May 3rd, 2016
“Jenny, there it is,” Shane said, his voice thick with exhaustion. His finger trembled slightly as he pointed.
Jenny looked.
“Oh my God,” she whispered. A wave of relief swept over her. Leo had never told them how far into the marsh the fog was, or how difficult it might be to reach it.
Fifteen feet away, barely visible behind the wreck of an old, 1930’s pickup truck, was a bit of fog. It hung low to the water, moving lazily through and around the rusted body of the vehicle. The fog was thickest in the truck. The glass, Jenny noticed, was surprisingly intact. None of it had been broken.
“I’m going to call Leo,” Jenny said.
Shane nodded and leaned against a scrub pine which grew awkwardly from a small tuft of solid land.
Jenny wet her lips and yelled out, “Leo!”
Nothing happened.
Jenny looked around. “Do you see him?”
Shane shook his head.
“Damn it,” Jenny said, frowning. She waited, counted to thirty, and then yelled again, “Leo!”
Leo didn’t show up.
She tightened her grip on the shotgun, turned around to see if maybe the dead man might be somewhere else, and then bit her tongue to keep herself from swearing.
Jenny took a deep breath, counted to sixty, and called out, “Leo!”
“What?”
Jenny jumped back, startled. Leo stood beside her.
She was so surprised that she could only point at the truck.
Leo looked and smiled. “Yes, it is the fog.”
“What about you?” she managed to ask.
“What about me?” Leo asked politely, looking at her.
Jenny couldn’t even answer.
Shane did, though.
“Leo,” he said, “did you find Brian?”
“Oh, yes,” Leo said happily.
After he didn’t’ say anything else, Jenny asked, “Leo, can you take us to him?”
“Well,” Leo said, “we will have to go through the fog first.”
“Yes,” she said tightly. “I know.”
“Oh, yes, very good,” Leo said, nodding. “Very good. I will lead the way in. Follow me. The fog is both a barrier and a gateway into the shadow world, a hallway of sorts, if you will. When we reach the shadow world, I may have to leave you shortly so I might be able to get my sense of direction.”
“Great,” she said. “Fantastic. Do you want to open the truck door?”
“Yes,” Leo said. With a gesture, the metal of the truck screamed as the entire door was ripped from its hinges and thrown into the marsh.
Jenny felt her eyes widen, and she looked over at Shane.
The man had straightened up, looked from Leo to the new hole in the truck and shook his head. “There’s a new way to open a door.”
Leo smiled. “Shall we?”
Jenny chambered a round into the shotgun, forgot about the cold and the pain of hours of walking through the marsh, and followed Leo into the truck. Shane was close behind her, and a moment later, she was in the thick fog where she had met Ruth.
“Jesus Christ,” Shane said, “this is strange.”
Jenny could only nod. Her stomach twisted slightly, as though it was being turned upside down.
Then the fog parted, and the three of them stood in a small room. The walls were painted bright white, the linoleum of the floor was pale blue, and the door across from them was bright red.
“I will return shortly,” Leo said, and he vanished through a wall.
“Freaks me out when he does that,” Shane murmured.
Jenny nodded her agreement. She kept her eyes on the wall and waited for Leo to return.
Chapter 43: Warming Up
“Brian,” Jacob said.
Brian opened his eyes and shivered.
“Here,” Jacob said, taking hold of his arm, “sit up. Warm up.”
Brian accepted the man’s help and saw they were in a small room. Most of the near wall was taken up by a large fireplace. Several logs burned brightly in the iron grate and threw out a continuous heat. Brian shivered again, flexed his hands and his feet and rubbed the tip of his nose.
“Don’t think we’re hurt too bad,” Jacob said, leaning against the wall. “Sure as hell didn’t feel good, though.”
Brian nodded. He held his hands out to the fire, and then he rubbed them together. After a minute, he looked at Jacob and said, “This place sucks.”
Jacob let out a laugh and grinned. “You’re damned right it does.”
Brian thought for a moment before he asked, “Did you bring me in here?”
No,” Jacob said. “I thought you brought us in here.”
“Not me,” Brian said. “So, did you start the fire?”
“Nope,” Jacob said.
Brian frowned. “I thought I saw a friend of mine in the freezing room. But I figured it was just my head reacting to everything. And if it was, where did he go?”
Brian looked around the room and saw there was a door to the left and to the right.
And the door to the right opened.
John stepped into the room, and behind him was a man who had to duck to enter the room. He was thin, his face sharp and his cheekbones well-defined. He wore a long black cloak, over robes of soft gray and his smile stopped well short of his green eyes.
“Brian Roy,” the man said, his voice deep and powerful. “Such a pleasure to meet you. I had hoped to find you earlier, in the cannibal’s room, but alas, you slipped away. I did, however, find John there. Dead, of course. But he has been ever so helpful.”
Brian glanced at John, but the man’s face was impassive.
“I am Josephus Wahlen,” the tall man said, “and I am curious who brought you here into this room. And I, especially, would like to know how he was able to light a fire. No one has ever succeeded in doing that before.”
The door to the left opened suddenly, and Leo looked in.
“Hello, Brian Roy!” he said excitedly, and then he closed the door again.
Everyone in the room was silent.
A moment later, the door opened once more. But it wasn’t Leo standing there.
It was Jenny. Behind her, Brian saw Shane, and slightly to Shane’s right was Leo. But it was Jenny that Brian’s eyes found. Her pants were soaking wet, her feet covered with a thick layer of mud.
And she had a pump-action shotgun.
Josephus smiled at her and laughed with pleasure.
“Ah!” Josephus said, looking over at Brian. “Is this your wife, dear Jenny?”
Before he could answer, Jenny spoke up.
“Yes,” she said coldly. “I am his dear wife.”
The weapon roared twice, the sounds deafening in the confines of the small room.
Both John and Josephus vanished, the ghost’s screams of rage were louder than the shotgun’s blasts.
Chapter 44: Surprised
It had been over a century since he had experienced pain. His thoughts were as scattered as his form. When he finally pulled himself together, he stood in the main crypt.
Josephus seethed with rage and caught sight of John, who lay on the floor with a stunned expression on his face. With a howl, Josephus reached down, grabbed hold of John and lifted the spirit into the air.
John tried to twist free, but Josephus held on tight. Glaring at the man, Josephus began draining John’s energy.
John’s agonized shrieks were a poor substitute for what Josephus really wanted.
Suddenly, the fog began to thicken, making it difficult for them to get away. The fog was his; both to control and to hunt in.
And he would go hunting.
Josephus continued to push until he knew the fog smothered the cemetery and the marsh. When he was finished, he turned his attention to John once more.
The man was attempting to crawl away, dragging himself forward.
Josephus smiled, moved forward and caught hold of John’s upper body. With a sigh, he slowly began to scalp John, the man’s screams pleasing to Josephus’ ears.
Chapter 45: Trouble Ahead
“Oh,” Leo said and came to a stop.
Jenny accidently ran through him, cold shocking her body. She twisted around in the fog, the shotgun still held tightly in her hands. “What do you mean, ‘Oh’?”
Leo looked to the left, and then to the right. He frowned. “This is not good.”
Brian untied himself from the man and stood by her, resting a shaking hand on her shoulder. He leaned forward, kissed her and said, “Thank you.”
“Oh Jesus, Brian, are you okay?” she asked.
He nodded and Jenny smiled with relief, as warmth and affection flooded through her. “I love you.”
“Love you, too, babe,” he said, smiling.
She saw the lines of care and fear etched into his face. His eyes were sunken slightly, and he looked older. The stranger who was with him looked even worse and smelled horrible. Like someone who hadn’t bathed in years.
Don’t judge, Jenny told herself.
Brian looked over at Shane, extended his hand and said, “Thank you.”
Shane gave him a tight grin, shook it and said, “Who’s your friend?”
“Jacob,” the man said. He looked around and said, “This fog is thicker than usual.”
“That is why I said ‘Oh,’ ” Leo said. “We may have some difficulty returning to the entrance.”
