The Last Rite

by Chad Morgan

  “Jesus,” he gasped as he took in the scene.

  The seats were shredded as if they were torn up by a lion. The blood was all over, the coppery smell filling his nose. There was no sign of a body or even parts. A picture started forming in Daniel’s mind of that gray dog, maybe a wolf, attacking the driver and pulling the corpse away into the woods. That seemed close, but not quite right. Something attacked the driver, but he couldn’t imagine a pack of wolves doing this much carnage. Mountain Lion? That seemed more likely, but still not quite right. The claw marks in the seat and the fang marks in the dash were huge.

  There was no body, nothing for Daniel to do but call it in, but as he began to back out of the car he froze. On the passenger window, written in blood, and Daniel swore to God it wasn’t there a moment before but it was sure as hell there now, were the words “RUN DANIEL”. His heart dropped into his stomach. Slowly, not tearing his eyes off the message in blood, Daniel backed out of the car. From behind him came a noise that made him jump and spin around, but it was Bethany opening the car door.

  “I said stay in the car,” Daniel said.

  “I want to see,” she said, sliding out of the car with her doll in the crook of her arm.

  Daniel wasn’t sure which parent she got her stubbornness from, it could have come from either of them to be fair, but now was not the time for it. “No, there’s nothing to see. C’mon, we’re going.”

  “Are they dead?” she asked. Daniel couldn’t tell if he heard fear or curiosity in her voice. Maybe both?

  “The car’s empty, there’s no one . . .”

  He heard the thing landing on the roof of the car behind him, heard the fiberglass buckling under the weight. At the same he saw Bethany freeze in her tracks, her eyes growing wide, clutching her doll so hard it was a mystery how the head didn’t pop off like a rocket. The thing behind him growled if you could call it that. The noise it made sounded not of this world. Daniel froze, not wanting to make any sudden moves and invite an attack. With his free hand, he gestured for Bethany to back up.

  “Get back in the car, Beth,” he said as quietly as he could while still being heard. “Slowly.”

  Bethany didn’t argue and Daniel let out a small sigh of relief for that. Very slowly he turned to see the thing on top of the car. The thing was hideous, with huge blisters on its misshapen head, as if different pieces of flesh were melted together. Its mouth was wide and lopsided, one side pulled and stretched out with a random collection of large fangs. A crown of horns sat atop its head, and it stared at Daniel with its one good eye. One forward leg looked like it came from a large bird of prey, with three large talons grabbing the edge of the frame and digging into the plastic interior car panels, but the other arm was human-looking, thick and muscular, with scratched and blood-stained fingers.

  Before Daniel could conceive of what he was looking at, the dog monster attacked.

  4

  The dog monster launched itself into the air with a grace that should have been impossible with its asymmetric form. From its large mouth came its hot breath, filled with a stench of decay and rot. Daniel took a step back and swung the lug wrench. The thick iron made a loud thump against the head of the creature, the thick skull cracking. The dog monster landed awkwardly on its feet and fell onto its side, momentum forcing it to slide across the asphalt with a scraping sound. The thing shook its head and lifted its torso off the ground with a shaking arm, looking back at Daniel with an unfocused eye.

  Daniel heard Bethany scream. He spent a precious heartbeat to look away from the dazed monster and see Bethany running into the car. She didn’t even bother to climb onto the seat but jumped into the floor of the back and slammed the door closed. Daniel snapped his attention back to the monster which now was on all four wobbly legs. The monster staggered as it tried to maintain its balance. He held up the tire iron as he made a slow arc back to his car. The dog monster started to arc around Daniel, it’s footsteps more steady as it stalked Daniel, its sole eye regaining focus, but it was too late. Daniel reached out blindly for the handle of his car door. Just another moment and they’ll speed away from the abomination.

  From behind him again came the sound of fiberglass buckling under the weight of another creature, the footsteps of four feet and the screeching of claws against his hood. He spun around to see a second dog monster leap into the air as Bethany screamed from inside the car. The second dog monster reached out with its human-like arm, this one thinner and more feminine than the first, its one eye a dark brown. Daniel raised his free arm to block the monster, and the monster clamped down on it with its mouth as it landed on top of him. The large fangs punctured and ripped at his flesh in odd angles, the saliva from the thing burning his exposed skin. Daniel hit the ground hard, the weight of the dog-like thing slamming on top of him. The lug wrench flew from his hand and clattered away from Daniel. He contorted his body under the weight of the beast to try and reach for the lug wrench, but his fingertips fell short of touching it. The monster pulled on the other arm like a dog with a chew toy, shaking its head back and forth as it tried to rip the arm free. Daniel screamed in pain and panic as the dog monster tugged towards Daniel’s feet and pulling him further away from his only weapon. Pinned from the second dog monster, the first had shaken off the blow to the head and was now walking towards them.

  Daniel saw no way out. Maybe he deserved to die, to pay for the sins, and a weird calm came over him as he thought the end was coming. But then the first dog monster ran past Daniel and leaped on top of his car. Bethany screamed and hid out of Daniel’s line of sight, but the first dog monster started pawing at her through the open window. It reached inside with its talon and fished for the girl.

  Daniel planted his heels down and anchored himself against the second monster. Using the monster’s clamping on his arm against it, Daniel pulled the thing towards him. Daniel’s vision blurred from the pain and the tears, but he didn’t let up until the creature was within striking distance. Daniel pounded the thing in its single eye over and over. The monster growled at him and tightened its mouth on Daniel’s bloody arm as he continued to pummel the thing with his fist. Then the dog monster crawled off Daniel and pulled at him at an angle. Daniel was spun around, the asphalt like sandpaper under him. His feet no longer effective anchors, Daniel was dragged even further away from the lug wrench. He grabbed at the ground, no longer trying for the weapon but just trying to keep from being pulled away to his death. The skin tore from his fingertips as he clawed at the ground.

  The dog monster let go of Daniel with a yelp and spun around, chasing its tail. Daniel didn’t know what happened and didn’t care, scampering to the lug wrench while he could. As his hand grasped the lug wrench he rolled over to see the dog monster in the air above him, it’s mouth wide open, its arms reaching out for him. Daniel held out the wedge side of the lug wrench with both hands like a spear, and the monster landed on top of it. The momentum shoved the wrench straight through its chest, black bile pouring over Daniel’s hands and chest, then arcing the two onto their sides. Daniel pushed his aching body to his feet, keeping one hand on the lug wrench. He stepped on the creature’s chest and pulled the tire iron out with a squelch. The creature whimpered and turned its body until it was looking at Daniel with its one good eye. He had expected primal rage or fear in the human-like eye, but it looked up at Daniel with a distorted smile, it’s brows high and eye wide. A single tear rolled down the scared face of the monster, and the human-like hand reached out to Daniel with its palm up. Before Daniel could decide what to do, the monster dropped its arm and it let out a last shuddering breath.

  Daniel turned to the first dog monster, his shirt drenched in whatever these things used for blood, to find the first monster staring back at him. With a primal scream, Daniel bolted to the surviving monster, the lug wrench over his shoulder like a club. The monster leaped off the car and soared through the air at Daniel, but he pivoted and brought the lug wrench down on the monster’s head. He heard th
e crack of the skull under his hand as the monster crashed into the ground. This time Daniel didn’t wait for it to recover. He knelt on top of it and pummeled it with the lug wrench, breaking bone and splattering its blood. Even after the monster quit twitching he kept hammering away, yelling out his rage as the black blood splattered across his face. Gasping for breath, no longer able to raise the iron lug wrench, Daniel collapsed to a slump in front of the thing. Looking at the creature, the rib cage spiraled and formed ridges along its spine and tail, fusing into mismatched legs.

  “What the hell are you?” he asked the corpse.

  Daniel’s whole body ached, but his left arm was on fire. Fresh blood trickled from the wound, but none spurted out. Probably missed any major arteries then, which was good. He clenched and unclenched his left hand, testing to see if his muscles and tendons were intact. While the bite itself was agony, everything below it was partly numb. With a groan, Daniel got to his feet and headed back towards the car. Passing the other dog monster, he saw what had distracted it and caused it to let go, allowing him to escape. Sticking out of the dog monster’s back was an arrow, its wooden shaft etched with rows of bright bluish-green. Its feathers were, well, actual feathers, not the plastic things found on modern store-bought ones. Daniel gripped the shaft and gently pulled the arrow out. The wound hissed as if the tip were bathed in acid, but as Daniel touched it he found it sharp but otherwise harmless. The arrowhead was carefully crafted stone, strapped into place with leather, with ornate designs carved into its edges. Daniel looked around for the archer, but the only thing he saw was the encroaching fog.

  Bethany did as she was told, however reluctant, and knelt next to Daniel while she wrapped up his wounded arm. Daniel sat on the ground, his back against the side of the car, holding his left arm out for her to clean. He had taken off his blood-soaked shirt and cleaned up as much of the gunk off him as he could, but he was still dirty and smelly. In Daniel’s first aid kit were gloves, so at least she didn’t have to touch the stuff, but she still had to look at the holes in his arms, forming pools of dark black blood. If that wasn’t bad enough, the bodies of those monsters lay on the ground nearby. She kept expecting them to get back on their feet, or something worse to come out of the woods. The fog was getting thicker. Anything could be in there . . .

  Daniel hissed beside her. “Not so tight.”

  “Sorry,” she said, freezing in place.

  “It’s okay,” he said. “You’re doing good.”

  She didn’t feel like she was doing good. All she did was hide and scream like a little baby while Daniel beat off two of those dog monsters with that tire thing. She didn’t meet his smile when she mumbled, “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” Daniel said. He sounded a little like Mommy used to after the end of the day. Not angry, just tired.

  Bethany continued to wrap up Daniel’s arm. The blood was already soaking through the bandages, turning them from white to dark red in spots, but Bethany rolled over more of the bandage like she was painting over a stain. Every other second, she had the urge to look over and make sure the dog monsters still lay on the ground.

  “It’s okay, Bethany,” he said to her. “They’re dead.”

  “Mr. Burns?” she began to ask.

  “Don’t call me Mr. Burns,” Daniel said. “I’m your father. Call me . . . I don’t know, Dad?”

  Dog monsters were forgotten as a new terror gripped her. She looked up at him with wide eyes and slack-jawed.

  Daniel sighed. “At least call me Daniel? Can you do that?”

  “’Kay,” she said, still not all that comfortable calling an adult but his first name but at least she didn’t have to call him “dad”. She looked back at the dead creatures. “Daniel? What are those things?”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “Some kind of dog, but it’s diseased or something, I don’t know. But look at this.” Daniel handed the arrow to her. She took it with her fingertips, afraid she’d break it if she gripped it too tight. Its bright colors were very pretty. She stroked the feathers on the end as Daniel added, “Looks hand-made.”

  Bethany looked back at the diseased dog things. “Where did they come from?”

  “I don’t know, but I think someone shot that dog thing when it was biting me,” he said, taking the arrow back from her. He looked at the tip, but whatever he got out of it was lost to her. When he spoke, he was miles away. “It had me, then it just yelped and let go and spun around. Don’t know who he is or why he didn’t stick around, but looks like we have a friend.”

  Bethany looked down at the tire thing he had used to beat the dog monsters with. The dark blood blended in with the metal. “Daniel? Aren’t you a policeman?”

  “Used to be,” he said. “Why?”

  “Why don’t you have a gun?”

  Daniel didn’t say anything for a moment. Bethany was about to ask again when Daniel said, “I don’t like guns.”

  She cocked her head to the side. “That why you’re not a policeman anymore? Because you don’t like guns?”

  “Something like that,” he said.

  Bethany knew when adults weren’t telling her the whole thing. Adults always felt they needed to keep the truth from her like she was still a little kid. Daniel didn’t know the things she had seen though. She wasn’t a baby anymore. She stared up at him, waiting patiently. After a moment, Daniel gave in.

  “There was an incident,” he said. He reached over and put his hand over a circular scar on his stomach.

  “Is that like an accident?” she asked.

  “Kind of.”

  “If it’s an accident, can’t you just say you’re sorry?” Adults always made things too complicated.

  “Some sins can’t be forgiven,” he said, but Bethany didn’t think he was talking to her anymore.

  “Who do you need forgiveness from?” she asked him. Did she mean from her? From Mommy?

  “I don’t know,” he said. “Myself maybe?”

  “That’s easy.” She almost laughed. “Just forgive yourself.”

  “Wish it was that simple,” he said, and he did let out a small laugh, though Bethany wasn’t sure why. It almost made her smile. Then she remembered where she was.

  “Can we go now?” she asked. Even she could hear the whining in her voice and was disgusted by it, but she couldn’t keep it out. “I don’t like it here.”

  “We need to find a cop or something,” Daniel said, getting to his feet. “I think one of those dog things attacked the driver of that car, and I need to find a doctor to look at this arm. The closest town is down this road. Sign says it’s called Shellington Heights.”

  As Daniel packed up the first aid kit and re-pack the back of the car, Bethany looked down the fog-laden road. Something about the road was familiar. It reminded her of when Mommy had taken her to her Grandpa’s funeral. She didn’t remember the name of the town they had gone to, she was only six at the time, but she remembered trees and a curvy road. It was there that things started going bad. Then the shadows came. She shuttered.

  “I just want to go,” she said again.

  “Shellington Heights is only twelve miles away,” Daniel said, walking around from the back of the car. He laid one hand on her shoulder, and she was surprised how comforting it felt coming from a stranger. “We’ll pop in, report this to the cops, get my arm looked at, then we’re gone. Don’t worry. We’ll be back on the road in no time.”

  As Daniel led her back to the car, she looked down the fog-filled road and hugged her doll tightly to her chest.

  The fog swallowed the car as it drove down the winding road towards Shellington Heights. Charlie Lightfoot couldn’t do anything but watch it go. Of course, now that it went the wrong damn way and had crossed the veil, now he could have stopped them. Gone were the ocean and coastal highway, left behind in the real world. Now there was only endless forest road. He did what he could to help, but the alternate world they were now in controlled who came in and out. His grandfather had punc
hed a hole in it to let him and Carolyn out, but it was like fighting the tide. Holding a large bow in his hand, he walked over to the arrow Burns had left on the ground. Picking it up with his free hand, he placed it back into the quiver slung on his back. He shook the bow a bit. The soft and dangling feathers tickled and just got in the damn way. The thing was meant to look pretty, not actually be used. At least that’s what he had always thought when it hung on his grandfather’s mantle, but it was the ceremonial arrows that pierced through the veil and hit the abomination.

  A loud rustling came from behind him, but Charlie didn’t bother to look. The large creatures were different than the abominations lying dead on the ground. These creatures took more recognizable forms, though made from dirt and leaves and branches as if the forest were given form and life. Oh, and unlike the abominations, they didn’t try to kill him, which Charlie thought was a huge plus.

  The car vanished from sight, its engine roar swallowed by the forest and fog. Charlie shook his head. “Well, that could have gone better.” He shrugged his shoulders. One problem at a time. He called out, “Carolyn?”

  There was no sign of her. That was her car crashed into a tree, but peering inside and seeing the carnage made his palms sweat and the color drain from his face. The scroll was missing. So was she, and judging by the blood, she wasn’t in good shape. Carolyn had to around here somewhere.

  “Carolyn?” he called out again, his voice cracking as he choked back his fear, but the forest remained silent. He looked to his two mute companions, both of which looked something like dinosaurs grown out of ivy. “Keep an eye out. Or a branch. Or whatever.” How did these things see anyway? Just one more thing in this screwed-up mess he didn’t understand. “Carolyn’s got to be around here somewhere, let’s spread out . . .”