Tom and Dolores died together, their skeletal fingers wrapped together forever.
The first shot exploded over Sadie’s head and slammed into the Weeping Lady’s back, knocking her forward. She stumbled, staggered, then stood upright again, continuing with her ceremony, hardly paying attention to the sudden wound in her back.
Mandy’s body rose another foot, hovering in anticipation as her face turned white with terror and her eyeballs popped from her skull.
“The body of the Prophet!” the Weeping Lady screamed.
Thunder above and behind Sadie clapped the air as she watched another bullet punch the Weeping Lady between her shoulders this time, shoving her down to her knees. She howled in pain but kept up her stream of invocations, her voice faltering here and there, but never stopping.
There was a pause as The One Who Brings Redemption roared from the Other Side and the ground shook, violently bucking up and down. Sadie, just getting her head straight again, turned and yelled at Jacob.
“Shoot her again!”
But Jacob was not there. He was running away from the conflict, leaping over the rats devouring the bodies of Tom and Dolores and dashing into the woods. She couldn’t believe it. In the end, despite all his bluster and big words, he’d turned into a coward. He was running for his life now instead of standing strong.
The One Who Brings Redemption bellowed again, another one of its tentacles, this one longer than the others, reaching down and scraping the earth. Getting a taste of the soil drove the monster forward; it pressed its giant mass against the barrier and the blue and green pulsing of the sore grew brighter and bent outwards, ready to burst.
The Weeping Lady, on her knees now, still calling out her enchantments, screamed out in English, “The time is now!”
Lightning streaked the sky above and the ground rumbled as Mandy’s body spun in place, whirling around and around until she looked like the blades in a giant blender. Veins of blue and green lights flashed from the corroding barrier, lighting up the entire area in a brilliant flurry of fireworks.
Sadie, not knowing what to do, stood up on wobbly knees, determined to meet her fate on her feet.
Jacob appeared next to her carrying the two sacks that Sadie had brought to the area but thought she’d lost. He nodded to her and smiled.
“This is it,” he yelled over the roar of the apocalypse. He handed the bags to her and told her what to do.
Behind them, howling like wild dogs, the bodies of Dolores and Aggie rose from their deaths, shivering wildly. Aggie’s face split open down the middle as his body transformed into the new incarnation of the Mad Gasser. Dolores grew flesh; a patchwork of wet, discolored skin covered her skeleton in seconds, shaking the feeding rats off. Her feet ruptured at the heels and long, twisted springs slithered from them as the tatters of her clothing grew and changed to black Victorian. Her eyes, devoured by the rats, grew buttons as replacements.
Both Men of Perdition, reborn from the dead, stared at their enemies, and lunged forward to kill them.
Jacob fired his last bullet. His aim was off slightly, for he meant to shoot her in the head, but the shot was good enough. It cleaved through the Weeping Lady’s throat, cutting off her final words of invocation, freezing the spell incomplete. She turned, enraged, black blood burbling from her throat. She hissed and raised her eyes to turn her gaze upon Jacob.
Sadie made her move. She ran, as hard and as fast as her weak legs could go, digging into one of the bags and grabbing a handful of the dust inside it. She averted her eyes at the last second to avoid the Weeping Lady’s damning stare and tossed the handful of dust into the Weeping Lady’s face.
The powder, filled with bits of silver, iron, garlic, crushed rose petals, and wolfsbane, splashed against the Weeping Lady’s visage. The particles scorched her flesh and burned her eyes from their sockets. Her skin sizzled and melted. The Weeping Lady threw her hands up to her face and screamed in agony as she fell to the ground, rolling and crying.
Sadie kept running past the Weeping Lady and to Mandy’s spinning body, hanging where it had stopped floating up, waiting for the final words to be spoken before it was hurled against the barrier to slice it forever open. She opened the sack and tossed it on top of Mandy’s body, its spinning acting like a fan blade, blowing the dust up into the cracked barrier and through to the Other Side.
The One Who Brings Redemption howled in anguish as the dust shot up into the air in a concentrated blast, slinging the holy powder and pummeling its body.
Jacob spun, feeling the encroachment of the Men of Perdition behind him. He pulled his knives just in time as the Mad Gasser was on him, stems sticking from its slit and spraying his face. Jacob held his breath, closed his eyes, and thrust his knives forward, gutting the Mad Gasser with his silver blades.
Spring-Heeled Jack hopped into the air and flew down, his own knives out and hungry for blood, but Jacob’s insight, his psychic ability, saved him. He sensed the creature and dove to his left, narrowly avoiding being beheaded.
One blade slashed across his chest, however, opening up a long, bleeding gash. Jacob hit the ground and rolled clear of the gas. He opened his eyes and watched as Spring-Heeled Jack responded to the cries of the injured Weeping Lady. He leapt away from Jacob, hurtling towards Sadie.
“Sadie!” Jacob cried.
She opened the second bag, her back to the flying Spring-Heeled Jack. She reached in, grabbed two handfuls out, and threw the rest of the bag up onto Mandy. She stepped back and watched as the dust blasted the barrier, cutting and burning the tentacles and body of The One Who Brings Redemption, causing it just enough pain to hold it in place, to keep it from coming through the barrier.
That’s what Jacob had told her. All they had to do was hold it, use the dust to delay its entry, and then the window of time for the incantation would pass, and it would either manage to slip through or be sealed off, forever. And given that Jacob had cut the final words of the invocation from the Weeping Lady’s throat, chances were good that they could hold it off long enough.
Jacob screamed Sadie’s name again and she spun as Spring-Heeled Jack plummeted down, blades scraping together and sparking. She smiled and tossed a handful of the dust against it, catching Jack in the chest and slamming him backwards and to the ground.
Spring-Heeled Jack writhed on the ground as the powder burned a hole through his chest. Sadie stepped forward and kicked him in the balls and stepped back. She watched as he died again, his chest melting and sinking in, his lips parting in a screech.
Jacob ran to her side, grabbing Sadie and holding her to him. He pointed to the barrier as the streaks of blue and green flashed across the air and The One Who Brings Redemption shrunk back in pain from the spraying powder. Its tentacles sizzled and sparked as it cried out in pain, the power of its voice pushing the two of them to their knees.
More black oil dripped from its tentacles, slapping the ground and spewing out its obscenities. Jacob and Sadie covered their ears and screamed, their voices lost in the clapping thunder of the closing barrier and the cries of anguish from the One Who Brings Redemption. The two of them curled into a ball, holding each other.
There was nothing to do now but wait and hope. Jacob prayed, his eyes shut and words feverish as the barrier quaked and trembled. Sadie held Jacob tight, cursing the darkness.
The dust ran out.
Jacob and Sadie clung to each other as three spindly legs pierced through the opening and scraped the ground twenty feet from where they crouched. The legs were tan, almost clear, with a blue fluid pounding inside them like blood through veins, and pointed at the ends, like those of a Daddy Long Leg spider. Everywhere the legs touched the earth the ground scorched, smoke rising in long wisps as a yellow poison dripped from the ends of the legs, killing the grass and corrupting the soil.
The One Who Brings Redemption howled again, this time in triumph, as more of its black tentacles wiggled through the rift and two additional legs slid out. Jacob and Sadi
e held tight to each other as the sound of the monster pounded them to the ground, their stomachs churning and their ears bleeding.
Across the clearing, Tom’s dead, gnawed body twitched and rose, slowing taking on the form of the Weeping Lady. What was left of his clothing shifted and changed, the colors bleeding out into the ground and turning white, weaving threads and becoming a long gown. Tom’s body quivered and transformed, growing breasts, new flesh to replace that eaten by the rats that now cowered in the grass, stunned by the howls of The One Who Brings Redemption.
The barrier shook and quaked, ripping open another ten feet at each end to accommodate the bulk of the creature on the Other Side, streaks of blue and green lightning crackling across the open air. Then the eye of The One Who Brings Redemption peered through the opening, fixing Jacob and Sadie with its gaze. Jacob grabbed Sadie’s head and buried it into his chest as he averted his stare, sure that if he looked upon the creature, he would go insane.
“It’s over,” Sadie said. She moaned and rocked against Jacob. “It’s all over.”
Thunder boomed overhead as dark clouds rolled in, obscuring the moon. Lightning crackled and sizzled the air and suddenly, the rift stopped opening. The One Who Brings Redemption screamed from the Other Side, using its tentacles and legs to try and pry the barrier open more, to allow room for it to finally get through as Mandy’s body, still spinning in the air, ceased movement and fell to the ground, the enchantment broken.
The ceremony had not been finished, the final words not said, and the appointed time had passed. Now the process was reversing itself, and the rift closed, retreating and inching back towards being whole once again.
The Weeping Lady sat up, body still not completely reformed yet, and opened her mouth to speak, to say the last incantation, to snatch victory from defeat, but her mouth would not work because it was not fully formed yet. She spoke the words but they had no sound and thus no effectiveness. The window of time had passed.
The barrier sealed itself with a long, loud, horrendous screech, like glass scraped across sheet metal. The One Who Brings Redemption desperately clawed at the opening as it closed, screaming in agony as its tentacles and legs were sheered off and flopped to the ground, bleeding blue blood that charred the earth and spoiled the ground. And then, suddenly and finally, the rift closed with a wet smack.
It was over.
Dark clouds roiled overhead, moving silently through the air. No thunder sounded and the lightning died. All was silent.
The Weeping Lady found her voice at last and squealed in anger. She glared at Jacob and Sadie, veil drawn over her face, and wept furiously.
Sadie let go of Jacob and rolled over to her right, scooping up an empty bag that had contained the dust they used to keep the creature at bay. She thrust her hand inside the bag and acted like she’d scooped a big, heaping handful. Sadie walked towards the Weeping Lady, hand in the bag, tensed for a fight.
“You want some more, bitch?” Sadie yelled.
The Weeping Lady stopped squealing and rose silently. She stared at Sadie for a long moment, measuring her up. Finally, she floated back and into the woods, crying, the sounds of her sobs echoing through the forest until she disappeared.
Two black shadows, in the shapes of the Mad Gasser and Spring-Heeled Jack, whispered from their current, dead vessels, and lifted high in the sky. They flew off like giant, black bats, searching for new bodies to inhabit.
Sadie sank to her knees. Jacob turned to her.
“There was some dust left?”
Sadie held the bag up, smiled, and turned it over. “Completely empty,” she said, her voice hoarse.
Jacob laughed.
“What about the others?” she said. “Won’t they find bodies and come back for us?”
Jacob shook his head. “No. We were lucky. When we killed them, the most readily available bodies were nearly destroyed, so they had to take the time to reform them and by the time they did and got around to attacking us, they were severely weakened. We wouldn’t have beaten them so easily otherwise.”
“So they’re gone, tails tucked between their legs?”
“Yes. They will find new forms and move on.”
“What about here? What about Constance?”
“There was only a certain window of time for them to perform their ceremony. That time has passed. Where once the barrier was weak, now it is strong from the scar tissue this incident has left behind. Constance is one of the safest places on Earth right now.”
Sadie looked around at the dead bodies and intestines, the pieces of tentacles and legs, and the blood, all the blood, and shook her head slowly.
The clouds above broke and thunder rumbled as rain poured on them. It came down in big, heavy drops. Jacob looked up into the sky and blinked, a smile creasing his face.
“The Earth is cleansing itself.”
He stood to his feet and helped Sadie up. Flashlight beams slashed the air and darted about the clearing as a dozen State Troopers, all armed with assault rifles and shotguns, trampled into the meadow. Right behind them was Mayor Reed, his face worried by fear and repulsion.
“You came back,” Sadie said.
“I told you I would,” Mayor Reed said. He looked around, the rain drenching him. “What in God’s name happened here?”
“Victory,” Jacob said.
PART EIGHT
I
Mayor Reed
They said it was a satanic cult and it was dubbed by the media as the most brutal mass murder in the history of the country. They said that a cult some fifty strong had come to town and killed most of its residents, slaughtering them through one long night of terror. If not for the actions of a few citizens, everyone would have died.
Sadie and Mayor Reed were the heroes of the day. The others, Sam, Aggie, Tom, Dolores, Sheriff Monroe, Jenny, Mandy, Martin, and Hazel were all honored in memoriam. Jacob’s name was never mentioned and shortly after the State Troopers arrived, he disappeared completely.
There was no other way to explain what had happened. How could Mayor Reed tell the world, with a straight face, that monsters had come to the small town of Constance, Kentucky, and nearly brought Armageddon with them? No one would have thought him sane. So he got together with Sadie and they concocted their story and stuck by it. There was no way to explain the withered tentacles and legs left behind by The One Who Brings Redemption except to hide the evidence. Mayor Reed ordered those body parts destroyed by fire almost immediately.
The official story told that the members of the satanic cult, after murdering most of the town, all died in a suicide pact, their bodies littered and indistinguishable amongst the dead townsfolk. It took some work, many, many lies, and even some bribes, but eventually, Mayor Reed swept the entire affair as much under a rug as it could go.
Surprisingly, not everyone died in Constance on that terrible night. Some folks were out of town, visiting relatives, off on business trips, or simply gone elsewhere for whatever reasons. When those that were gone came back, they met with Mayor Reed and Sadie and voted, in the small numbers that they were, to keep the town alive.
“Coal moving out couldn’t kill us,” Mayor Reed famously said. “And neither can no goddamned satanic cult!”
Toyota moved in six months later, bringing with it jobs and workers. And before long, the town was up on its feet and working again. It wasn’t quite the same, but it was something.
Mayor Reed made sure that a monument was erected to those that died on that terrible night, and every day he passed it on his way to his office and every day, he stopped and stared, looking at the names and pausing on two: Hazel and Tina. Hazel, as much as he grew to despise her in later years, was a good person. She didn’t deserve his infidelity and to die how she did.
He felt a deep and terrible shame when he thought of how he’d abandoned her. But as bad as that regret felt, it was nothing compared to the loss of Tina. When they found her body, he nearly had a breakdown. After all that had happened, dea
lings with monsters and the apocalypse, it was the sight of Tina’s dead body that almost did him in.
It was then that he realized he truly did love her, and although he could have never voiced it at the time when she was alive, he swore by it every time he read her name on the monument. And not one day, even to the end of his life by a heart attack seven years later, did he not cry when he stopped at the memorial, bitter tears for how he’d acted and what he’d lost.
But up until the day he died, he worked hard to restore Constance, Kentucky, into the small town pride it had once been. He succeeded, after a spell, and it was to be his legacy.
II
Sadie
Sadie’s path wasn’t as smooth. She left town for three months, traveling around, fearing for her life and flinching at every shadow she saw move out of the corner of her eye. Nightmares tormented her sleep and dread her waking hours. She mourned Sam, missing him terribly, crying for what they could have had.
But after the three months, she found herself back in Constance, back at her alterations shop, with nowhere to go and nothing to do but stay.
In the time she was gone, the town had been cleaned up and those that had lived were trying to put the pieces back together with Mayor Reed. They all treated Sadie with great kindness, as they did the Mayor, seeing as they were the only survivors in a town full of murdered folks.
Cakes, pies, desserts and treats of all kinds found their way onto the stoop of her shop and her home, anonymously given and delightfully partaken of. She ate so many sweets she started to put on some pounds, so she started jogging, every morning at the crack of dawn, and found in her running a form of deliverance.
She’d tried to move away, to get far from the horrors that filled her dreams at night and her visions during the day, but she’d failed. Now, putting one foot in front of the other, and running until she was nearly exhausted, did she finally put to rest the demons in her mind. They didn’t go away, but they seemed less significant as time passed, and eventually they became background noise.
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