The Scent of Death

by Shelby Skabelund

  Nick swung the door all the way open. Just as he did he noticed something down by the base board. A black book was leaned against the wall right below where the hinges were. It was about seven inches by nine inches. There was one hand print that wrapped around the spine of the book. It looked like someone had grabbed the book with a muddy hand. Nick leaned over and picked it up. It looked very, very old, but it was in good shape. The cover was made of black leather. Arching across the front in fading silver in a calligraphy like text it read “ODD FELLOW”. All around the edges of each face of the book was a lacing of fading silver ivy. The back cover had been made with extra leather so that it could wrap around to the front and protect the contents. It had a clasp made from what looked like white polished bone that was pushed through a slit in the leather from the back to hold it shut. Even though it looked very old, it had an elegant appearance.

  “What is that?” Joe moved in closer with the flashlight. “I am not really sure.” Nick said as he slumped to the floor with his back against the brisk white paint. He slid his hand over the cover. There was not even a speck of dust on it. He moved his hand to the clasp and opened the book. He noticed immediately the pages were yellowing with age. The edges looked worn, like the book had been well used. Even with all the signs of use, the book was in incredible shape for something that seemed to be so old. He started to turn the pages and noticed that even though they looked old, they were not brittle, and he had no fear of damaging the book. He started to read some of the titles out loud. “Morte”, “Ilumino”, “Natura”… “these look like spells or something.” Nick said with awe in his voice. “Gimmie a break.” Said Joe. “That is the dumbest thing I have heard in a long time”. It was quiet for a moment as the two read the instructions below the title. “Hold your wand high in the air and bring it down in a zig-zag motion….Make Eye contact with the person you want to control and say in a commanding voice “Iussus.”

  Nick looked back at Joe and said, “Maybe this is just some person’s book that is way into fantasy.”

  Joe looked at Nick for a moment, and then said, “That doesn’t explain why the door and wall aren’t burnt”. As this slipped from his lips, they both felt shivers running through their body, not the cold chills that you feel when you are scarred, but the shivers you feel when you witness something inspiring.

  Nick continued through the book until he came to a portion in the very back where the pages went blank. He quickly turned back a few pages. And read “I do not know exactly the amount of time I have been running from her now, but I do know time is growing shorter each day for me to find a solution. It seems I have less and less time before she finds me now. Sleep is so precious, yet I get so little of it.”

  “If you are reading these pages, it means I did not make it. You must now keep this book. You must protect it from her. She can’t have it, or she will destroy it. The things within this book are so precious. It is the only way that man can survive. Remember she calls herself Mortes and you will never forget the first time you smell her stench.”

  “What is this nonsense?” Nick said out loud.

  “You got me.” Joe replied.

  “This is all just too odd for me.” Nick said.

  He put the clasp back through the slit of leather and set the book down. He walked back over to the door to inspect it. “Can you shine that light over hear?” he asked Joe. The light jumped from where they had been reading to the nicely finished door. “How could everything else in here burn, but not the wall and back side of this door?” Nick slid his hand over the nice finish and just stood there thinking. As he thought his eyes wandered to the floor. He noticed that on the floor there was a triangle wedge the length of the door. It was not black like the rest of the floor. He could see brown on the floor. Nick bent down and touched the brown surface. It was dried mud. He brushed his hand back and forth and it revealed the most beautiful marble he had seen. It was dirty, but it wasn’t blackened like everything else in the building. He started to brush his hands back and forth on the floor. As he did he realized that all around the closet there were ripples on the floor. He looked up at Joe. “This closet was full of mud when the fire happened”. He said excitedly. “How do you know that?” asked Joe. “Well, look at the floor. Look at these ripples. They are hard but look what happens when I push on them with my thumbnail.” Sure enough, he pushed down with his thumb nail and the ripples would break of in big chips, revealing more of the marble finish underneath. “Help me for a second.”

  Joe dropped to all fours with Nick. They were breaking up chips of baked mud and revealing a beautiful marble floor. In the next twenty minutes they were able to clear a four-foot semicircle on the floor in front of this closet. Then they started to hit the end of the baked mud. The floor turned black again and nothing would come off. They both stood back up and backed away for a better look. Joe picked up the flashlight and pointed it right to where they had just been brushing away the dirt. “Look” Joe said, “Is it me, or are those hand prints at the edge.”

  “You’re right.” Said Nick.

  Just along the edge of where they had been clearing the black from the floor, was two clear hand prints. It looked as though someone had been struggling toward the door. Nick checked the back of the door, and sure enough there was part of a muddy hand print towards the bottom of the door on the unburned side. It was obvious that this had all been here from the time of the fire because the mud was blackened on the top. You had to break through the top to get down into the original color of the mud. Nick was amazed at how well preserved the marble was that had been under the mud.

  Nicks head was running at a million miles an hour. Why was there mud on the floor? Why was it just in this area? Whose hand prints were these? Was it the same hand print that was on the book? If it was, why would they be trying to protect this silly book of imaginary spells?

  He grabbed Joe and pushed him towards the next closest door. “I need to see over here.” he said to Joe. He reached out and pulled the door away from the wall. The door was charred on both sides. The entire wall was black. They checked every door on the whole floor. Every door was the same. They found themselves standing in front of the closet door again. Nick knelt again and reached inside the closet. The floor was black and there was no mud. He rubbed his hands along the floor between the mud and the closet floor. A perfectly straight line appeared as he rubbed. “Where did this mud come from, and how come there is a perfectly straight line right here?” he was asking himself. “No idea” said Joe.

  Nick walked back over to where the book lay. He sat down again and started thumbing through the pages again. As he did, Joe put the light right in his face. He turned his head quickly away as the light temporarily blinded him. When he opened his eyes again, he saw something he hadn’t noticed before. There was something dark and slim leaning up against the first hinge of the door. Nick slid his hand over to it and grabbed it. He felt as though he had just grabbed a pin cushion. He dropped whatever it was to the ground. Joe looked at him surprised “What is it?” he asked.

  I don’t know, but it hurt. I need your light again. As the light shone to the object, Nick realized what it was supposed be. It was a magic wand. Not the kind that you would see in a professional magic show with the white tip, but a strange ancient looking wand. It had a handle that was carved from the wood it was made from. In the handle were odd looking markings that wrapped around the wand in swirls to make up the grip. A small ridge made an end to the handle and then it tapered down to a point at the end. The wood was dark, almost black like the book. Nick was drawn to it again. He reached out his hand and picked it up. This time the feeling of pins shot into his hand again, but he did not drop it. The feeling subsided and he felt a tingle run up his arm and down his back to his feet.

  He couldn’t tell if it was really happening or just in his head. He swished it back and forth in a trance. Nothing happened. For a moment he realized he almost had expected something to happen.

&nbs
p; “I’m going crazy!” Nick said to Joe.

  “You didn’t expect it to be magic, did you?” Joe mocked.

  “To be honest, for a moment, I did.” Nick came clean.

  “Okay then…we better get going.” Joe replied uncomfortably.

  Nick couldn’t put his finger on it exactly, but he felt different since he had found the book and the wand. His thinking was suddenly more open, and he wasn’t really embarrassed to say what he was thinking. He almost wanted magic to be real. He wanted an escape from normal life. He just wanted an escape.

  “Bring your light over here one last time.” Nick said, “I want to see if there is anything in the closet.”

  “Fine.” Said Joe walking back towards the closet.

  Nick took a step towards the closet with the book and wand in hand. As he neared the closet, he could make out the blackened remains of a janitor’s closet. There was an old mop sink on the floor. Nick wanted to get a better look at something he could see glimmering out of the blackened sink. He stepped through the door and suddenly felt funny. He turned to look at Joe.

  Joe was staring back at Nick with wide eyes of disbelief. Nick was trying to figure out what was going on. Joe was getting blurry and his feet were tingling. Joe stood looking at the Closet blinking to see if this were really happening. What looked like smoke, had appeared in an arch in the door that Nick had just walked through. He could see Nick, but he his image was wavering like he was a reflection in a pond. Nick suddenly looked at Joe concerned and frightened.

  “Joe, are you all right? I am feeling weird!”

  Joe couldn’t get a word out. He just stood there with wide eyes and his mouth opening and closing like he was trying to say something. Nick took a quick step back through the doorway, as he did, he felt as though he were falling. As he fell he could see Joe in front of him wavering like a reflection on water and then all he could see was black. His head was swimming and spinning. Then he lost consciousness.

  Joe saw Nick step back towards him and directly under the newly formed arch. As Nicks foot hit the plane of the arch, it disappeared inch by inch as he stepped forward. This slowly happened with all of Nick until finally his whole body disappeared as he walked himself into nothingness.

  The moment he was gone completely, the smoke arch vanished instantly. Nick was gone, and the only thing that Joe had heard was the sound of rushing wind. Joe stood looking at where Nick had been. He blinked again and called out in a question “Nnnniiiick?”. When all he heard back was his own voice bouncing off the walls, Joe was running back to the boiler room. He wasted no time climbing back up and out through the coal chute. In a blink he was on his bike pedaling for home. His hands were shaking, he couldn’t explain what just happened. What was he going to say to Nick’s parents? He decided to go to the police station instead. He would just tell them they were checking out the place and they got separated. He would tell them Nick didn’t have a flashlight and he was worried because he hadn’t seen him since they got separated. It was half true.

  As Joe rounded the old warehouses, Nick’s bike slipped from the wall where it was leaning and fell to the ground.

  Chapter 6

  Cold and Alone

  When Nick came to, he was lying on his back. He noticed that he was shivering and cold. He also noticed that something wasn’t right. He could feel things poking him in the back and he felt cool air all over his body. More of his body than he should. Nick sat up quickly and opened his eyes. He was outside. Not only was he outside, but he was not wearing any clothes! He instinctively covered himself and looked around.

  He was in a pine forest. The floor was covered in ferns. The pine needles he was sitting on were poking him everywhere. He jumped to his feet and started to brush the needles that stuck to him off while trying to protect his decency. He closed his eyes and pinched himself. “This must be a dream!” he heard himself say and his eyes flew back open at the sound of his own voice. He noticed that it was dusk. He must have been out for only a few minutes. Long enough to catch a good chill in the cold air of the forest.

  There was only one possible answer in his mind. “Joe?” he called, “What is going on? Where are my clothes?”, “This isn’t funny! This is actually pretty sick!” He yelled full of anger. He looked all around under the trees looking for signs of Joe hunched over laughing at his best prank ever.

  There was no reply, just the sound of an animal scurrying off at the sound of his angry voice. Nick focused on his surroundings. He could see tall pine trees all around where he stood. He could see orange light peeking into the forest from the autumn sky. The forest floor was covered with ferns, grass and pine needles. To his right on the ground lay the strange black book and the wand, but there was a new item that Nick didn’t recognize, but he welcomed it. It was a pile of black material. He picked up the silky black cloth that lay with the book and saw that it was some type of a robe. He quickly slipped into it to cover his body. He was surprised that for as thin as it seemed, it was very comfortable, and he immediately felt warmer. He felt less self-conscious having covered himself up. He was still shivering, so he sat down again next to the book and wand, so he could wrap his arms around his knees to try and get warm.

  He continued to look out under the trees into the forest. Where ever he was, he didn’t recognize any of it as Evanston. “Where did that jerk take me?” he wondered to himself. “The last thing I remember was walking into the closet and then everything went fuzzy and black.” Nick wondered if he had used some type of chloroform or ether to make him lose consciousness. He had heard that could knock you out if you were to inhale enough. Either way, it was getting dark and he had no idea where he was. By the looks of things, he was all alone, lost in the woods.

  After a few minutes of thinking to himself, Nick decided that he better get moving. “Sitting here will get me nowhere.” Nick said out loud. He stood up and grabbed the black book. After contemplating which direction to go he finally headed out in the direction of the setting sun. He remembered that there were trees up the Mirror Lake Highway to the Southeast of town. He guessed that this is where Joe had brought him and stripped him and left him for a good laugh. If he headed to the West, he should come to the Highway and at least then he could follow the road back into town.

  Nick decided then that Joe was no longer his friend and that he would never speak with him again after pulling something like this. “What a jerk!” he mumbled.

  Nick made his way very slowly through the trees. It was painful to walk through the forest with no shoes. Some areas were just smooth dirt while other areas were covered in pine needles, broken branches and sharp rocks. Nick started to worry when he realized that it would be completely dark soon and he would have an extremely hard time finding his way around especially with no shoes. He wondered how cold it would get tonight and if he would be able to stay warm. He might be out here all night.

  He started to watch for pieces of wood. He wondered if he could start a fire without matches. He had just watched a reality survival show last night. The contestant had used a stick and another piece of wood to create a hot ember and started some dry grass on fire. He decided it was worth a try. He looked for a spot with a comfortable looking tree trunk and some soft dirt to sit on where he could wait out the night. He found one of the larger pine trees in the forest that had some very large roots bulging out of the dirt around it. It had a space between two of the roots that looked like a king’s throne. He figured if he sat between them he could lean his back against the trunk and rest his arms upon the large roots for armrests. He would start the fire just a few feet beyond to keep him warm. He felt good as he looked over the campsite. It seemed like the perfect spot. It even had other trees lined up in sort of a circle to give it a safe secluded feeling.

  Nick collected some dry wood and placed it by the tree. He also looked around for some rocks to make a fire pit to keep the fire from spreading to the forest floor and trees around him. He remembered from his time in scouts that
he should clear the area around the fire of dry grass and anything that would burn. He began clearing the dirt of all debris that might catch fire. It was getting dark quickly and he needed to hurry.

  Nick grabbed some dry grass and made it into the shape of a bird’s nest. He broke up some small pieces of wood for tinder and placed them near the ring. The hard part would be making a flame. He grabbed two pieces of wood. One was skinny and long, the other was short and wide with no bark. He grabbed the skinny piece with both hands and began to rub it against the other piece.

  Nicks hands were aching now. He could feel the sting of forming blisters on the palms of his hands. Sweat was running into his eyes and he could only smell a hint of scorched wood. It was getting very cold and it was completely dark. He knew if he didn’t keep trying that he could get hypothermia or even freeze to death. Nick forced his arms to move.

  They burned with every motion and the stinging in his hands got worse. He had no idea how long he had been trying to make this fire, but he was sure that it was more than an hour. He continued to stare into the blackness where the wood should be clutched in his hands and pushed harder and harder. Suddenly he thought he saw something glow red. He stopped but saw nothing. He quickly started again. He saw the red but did not stop. He saw it grow brighter. His heart jumped from his chest as he stopped, and he could still see a soft red glow. He reached for the small bird’s nest he had made. He gently tipped the ember into the dry grass and blew softly into it. The grass crackled and started to smoke. His hands trembled with excitement as he saw yellow flames licking out at his face. He moved the burning grass into the fire pit with the tinder and started to stoke his precious fire.

  A few moments later Nick sat by a warm fire. He was examining his bleeding hands. The man on the show had made it seem so simple. He decided that it was worth the pain as he felt the heat warming his body. He felt a sense of pride as he gazed into the flames that he had made. The light of the fire contrasted vividly against the dark blackness of the forest. For the first time Nick felt a chill of fear creep up his neck as he realized he could see the fire, the tree trunk that he was leaning against and a few feet all around the fire. What brought the chill was the brief thought of what else was out there in the forest watching him. What was out just beyond the light of the fire?