by C. T. Phipps
“So the Lodge is actually a lodge,” Harvey said, coming up behind us. “Cute.”
“Nothing is cute about this,” Lucien said, looking at the clearing. “My family had their hearts cut out here.”
“I remember,” Harvey said. “Like six people gave a shit.”
Lucien looked ready to murder Harvey.
“No,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Don’t. It wants to turn us against one another. It did that to me, Emma, and Maria.”
The moon turned bright red again and the alarm grew louder only for me to grab Emma and Alex’s hands while concentrating really hard on trying to hold away the anger. That was when the red light dimmed and the noise abated.
“It worked,” I said, smiling.
“No,” Alex said, pulling out an amulet that looked a lot like the one I’d picked up off the ground near the lake. “I actually brought this to immunize the group.”
“Oh,” I said, reaching into my pocket and pulling out my copy before putting it on. “That probably should help.”
“A bit,” Alex said.
“Maybe I should learn magic before trying to use it,” I said.
“A wise decision,” Alex said.
None of us advanced to the clearing, all of seemingly waiting for someone else to make the first move.
Dave lifted up his rifle. It looked somewhat comical in his hands. He seemed way too nice of a guy to shoot anything. I knew plenty of decent hunters, was one some days, but we all had a killer instinct he didn’t have. “Are we going to have to kill the animals to get inside?”
“They attacked me when I fled with Emma,” Alex said, staring at the Lodge. “They’re dangerous and part of the barriers that keep this place safe. We have to get in, though.”
“Assuming Sheriff O’Henry is still inside,” Harvey said.
“I’m still for letting the crazy serial killer finish her off,” Deana said. “I’m not happy about any mission that begins with the premise of rescuing cops.”
“Then do it for Maria,” Lucien said. “Or me.”
Deana didn’t say more.
That was when the Lodge glowed and I saw images of translucent people carrying flashlights and lanterns as they surrounded the place. They were dressed in the attire of their professions from mechanics to police as a man resembling a younger Marcus O’Henry was leading the group alongside Mary Doe. I recognized my paternal grandmother from pictures scattered around my house. She was a beautiful woman with long, dark hair in a 1950s cut and wearing a waitress’s outfit despite the fact that she was carrying a shotgun. She was far from the only woman present that refuted the idea lynch mobs were strictly a male activity.
A woman walked out of the trailer, wearing a pair of pants and a flannel shirt as she carried a shotgun, which she fired in the air. The resemblance to Victoria was tremendous, except this woman was in her thirties and looked a helluva lot tougher. Behind her were four children of various ages, all copper-skinned and looking terrified. The eldest, a boy of about eleven, concealed the others behind him.
The entire scene carried on soundlessly but I got the general gist of it. Marcus O’Henry tried to argue with his sister (?) about something, she pushed back. Mary then got up in her face and the Red Wolf’s wife smacked her in the face with the butt of the rifle. That was when one of the children turned into a wolf and growled. He was trying to protect his mother. Except this mob hadn’t been formed solely out of shapeshifters. It had humans, too, and one of them lit a Molotov cocktail before hurling it. That landed right at the children’s feet, next to their mother, and she caught fire trying to rescue the eldest.
It was an ugly scene.
There was a lot of horror among the mob I realized hadn’t all been intending violence. I didn’t know the exact circumstances of what they were there for, I suspected to separate the children from their mother but a few tried to rescue the kids with her. They were held back by others as the humans in the mob actually cheered the fire on as it spread.
A nine-foot-tall wolf walked through the trees that parted for him. Its fur was blood red and its eyes glowed like embers. Marcus O’Henry turned into a wolf and fled along with several of the other shapeshifters but the rest of the mob either fell to its knees or were frozen in place by fear.
That didn’t save them.
The Red Wolf stood over the bodies of some fifty human beings and a few dragon shapeshifters that day, none of them able to escape the horror beyond. Almost as an afterthought, it huffed and it puffed before blowing the fire out from its house. I understood what it was doing now. It was explaining itself.
“I understand,” I said, taking a deep breath. “But the people involved are dead. Most of them. You can’t avenge yourself further.”
In fact, a part of me wondered why it had spared Marcus O’Henry and my grandmother. Was it because they hadn’t taken direct part? Or did it just want to make sure they experienced what it had? If so, it was a lost cause. Mary Doe had been dead since before I was born and Marcus O’Henry didn’t give a crap about his grandchildren. I suspected the Big Bad Wolf knew it too.
“I will have my bride and my sacrifices, Deerchilde,” a voice sounding like a distorted Victoria’s spoke from the Lodge. “I am still hungry.”
That was when all of the animals woke up and came at us.
Chapter Twenty-One
The chaos that followed was something I had difficulty navigating. Hundreds of monstrous black birds rushed at me and I battered them away as best I could. All around me, the much better armed people opened fire on them. It was deafening as I usually was wearing ear mufflers whenever guns went off during my dad or grandpa’s hunts.
Lucien turned into a sixteen-foot-long crocodile that breathed out a cascade of fire that consumed a large number of the crows attacking us. It was accompanied by another torrent of water created by Deana, drowning many in air and exposing they were nothing more than a charge for the possessed dogs.
Emma charged forth and started mauling as well as biting everything around us. It was a furious and berserker-like attack I’d never imagined her capable of. Then again, who would have guessed I’d be taking down ancient corrupted water spirits before today?
“Forgive me, Mr. Bear!” Dave said, firing his rifle into the head of the black bear that lifted itself up to attack Emma. It promptly fell over.
“Oh no!” Dave said, horrified at hurting an animal.
“Keep shooting!” Harvey shouted, firing one shot after the other with deadly accuracy.
Then there was Alex. He just simply walked forward, carrying his amulet toward the door as the various monsters ignored him.
“How are you doing that?” I said, amazed at his use of magic. It made me regret not wanting to be a shaman. More than ever, I wanted to be able to use the power I’d seen to protect myself and people like Emma.
Corny but true.
“The Lodge spirit is distracted!” Alex said. “Come with me!”
I pulled out Victoria’s amulet and held it in front of me, feeling the power inside it. I didn’t believe the kelpie’s story that I’d traded my cousin for freedom from my powers. However, I’d run from them for most of my life and that was a block on them.
That block was gone.
I couldn’t pick up magic instantly, but I’d learned the basics from my mother and sister. Focusing on the amulet, I poured my energy through it and caused it to glow. It produced an aura twice and then three times as powerful as Alex’s, creating a nimbus that incinerated possessed crows that flew into it as well as causing the Hellhounds to flee in opposite directions from it.
“Like this?” I shouted, more than a little proud of myself.
“Yes!” Alex said, knocking away one of the possessed dogs with a backhand. The creature exploded into Hellfire as a result. Damn his magic kung fu was good.
“You guys gonna be all right?” I said, aiming the amulet at the headless bear that was getting back up to attack. It caught fire and burned away to
ashes.
“Yes!” Lucien said, clawing at a mountain lion slashing at him. Emma pounced on its back and tore its head clean off. “Just get it done!”
“Right,” I said, not sure how the hell I was supposed to do that but realizing everyone was depending on me.
I followed Alex up to the Lodge’s front door. I was scared Harvey would shoot me in the back but continued on. The lights on our amulets began to flicker as they approached the door, a terrible power sapping at everything I was summoning to fight it. My amulet eventually grew too hot to hold and fell to the ground as Alex cast his own away.
“That’s not good,” I muttered.
“We’re almost there,” Alex said, pulling out what looked like a drumstick before I realized it was an honest-to-Goddess wand. What was this, Harry Potter? I mean, at least use a staff when you’re a wizard. “Stay behind me.”
“Like hell!” I snapped. “I’m going to get this sucker!”
“You don’t have horns,” Alex said. “Only pregnant deer do.”
“It’s a figure of speech!” I snapped, embarrassed.
Alex reached for the door, only for it to open and release a gale-force wind that knocked him over and rolled him across the ground ten feet. It was like the breath of a mighty monster. The Big Bad Wolf huffing and puffing and blowing us down. I managed to stand against it, barely, by digging my feet into the ground. Inside, I saw the red light from earlier glowing brightly.
I covered my face as the wind continued to blast out. I needed to convince the monster to let me in. That meant playing to its anger, no matter how stupid that was. “It’s me you want! My grandmother was one of the people who killed your family. I’m sorry but I know you don’t care about that. Let me in!”
“You would sacrifice your life for your friend?” the Big Bad Wolf spoke. It had Victoria’s same senior-class smugness, only with reverb. Of course, I now knew it had always been the Big Bad Wolf senior year. Seriously, who knew gods would want to attend high school? Why did it have a pressing need to be homecoming queen? The ways of the divine were mysterious indeed.
“No,” I said, gritting my teeth. “I’m not sacrificing myself. However, you’ll have the opportunity to kill me if I come in. I’ll also have the chance to kill you, you sick, twisted demon!”
The wind stopped for a second. I didn’t know how long its invitation would last so I turned into my deer form and ran for the inside as quickly as possible. The moment my hind legs passed through the threshold, the door shut behind me and locked. We were getting some real haunted-house stuff here. Poltergeist meets the Evil Dead movies. I still had nightmares about the television and the laughing moose head.
The interior of the cabin was completely empty with no furniture inside but scorch marks on the walls. The place smelled like burned meat and firewood, the scent of atrocities past still in the air after decades thanks to the hostile presence inside. The red light was all around us, coming from no direction in particular.
What I did see was Rudy, standing over the unconscious bodies of Clara and Maria. He was shaking as he held an identical sacrificial dagger to the one I’d seen in my vision. He didn’t look possessed despite the fact his eyes were blood red, looking like he’d burst a vessel behind them. Okay, scratch that, he looked pretty damn possessed, but it was the physical features of possession versus his body language that made him look that way. He still looked like the scared uncertain boy who’d harassed me in the parking lot. If he was actually possessed by the Big Bad Wolf, I figured he’d look more confident and regal. Call me a traditionalist about these things.
I saw black soot markings on the floor, in the shape of a form with spots for five bodies. There was a sense of the Big Bad Wolf’s presence throughout the Lodge but it felt concentrated there. I didn’t know much about shamanism but I could identify it as an enhancer glyph. Something designed to make a location more welcoming to a spirit. The mark on the ground was pretty basic stuff, but since this had been sacred to the Big Bad Wolf for centuries, it didn’t really need to be all that powerful to have big results.
I turned back into my human form. I wasn’t going to persuade Rudy to stand down looking like an adorable woodland creature. “Put the knife down.”
“Go ahead,” Rudy said, surprising me with his answer. “I don’t want to do this! I don’t want to kill my sister!”
“Good,” I said.
“Emma should have been the one.”
“Not so good. Put the knife down!” I snapped, feeling like I was trapped in an urban fantasy novel. I pulled out Alex’s gun and aimed it at him. “I will shoot you!”
“I can’t!” Rudy shouted, his voice hysterical. “It’s inside me! It’s inside all of us! It wants revenge!”
“You’re like its cultist!” I said, trying to figure out some way to appeal to him. “The Big Bad Wolf should want to protect you.”
“No!” Rudy said, shaking his head. “It only wanted Victoria! We were lambs to the slaughter for it. It wants its wife and children back.”
“What are you talking about!?” I asked, struggling to understand. “You killed Victoria!”
“Yes,” Rudy said, confused. “No. She who is twice possessed lives. Death is not a cage for the beloved of the damned. The others moved on but Victoria didn’t want to die so she let it catch her in its paw. The claws of it are sunk inside her. Even without a body, it holds her and takes her with it into new hosts. Only satisfying the curse can it be undone.”
In that moment, I thought about the kelpie and how it had been warped by events. I’d never liked Rudy, but there was a hell of a lot of difference between disliking someone and wanting them dead. I decided to take a chance and put the safety on Alex’s gun before laying it on the ground in front of me. He wasn’t the demon. He was just possessed by one.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” I said, not entirely truthfully. I wasn’t going to kill Maria’s brother if I didn’t have to, though.
“I want to stop it, to end it,” Rudy said. “It’s done so much evil in this town. The things I’ve seen. The things it’s shown me. You don’t know.”
“I know,” I said, lying. “But killing people is not going to stop it.”
Actually, it just might. Lucien mentioned Victoria was looking for materials for a ritual to raise people from the dead. If this ritual was all about raising the Big Bad Wolf’s dead family, it might be one of the few ways to put an end to it. I wasn’t going to let it kill anyone else to do it, though.
Rudy looked at his knife and for a moment, I thought he was going to drop it to. “The Big Bad Wolf says I can kill you instead of my sister.”
Ah, hell.
“Die!” Rudy shouted and charged at me.
I pulled out the Taser in my pants and then fired two electrodes into his chest. A glowing white light passed from the Taser and caused Rudy to scream. He fell to his knees, dropping the knife on the ground.
“Don’t die,” I said, taking a deep breath. I electrocuted him again. “Pain is okay.”
Okay, that was probably sadistic.
I electrocuted him for a third time before walking over to the glyph and using my foot to smear it. The red light dimmed. The noise in the background also receded to almost imperceptibility. Taking down Rudy had weakened it and now the ritual sacrifice was disrupted. The Big Bad Wolf was still here, though. If I entered the Spirit World, I expected I’d have seen a nine-foot-tall wolf staring down at me. It was all the more reason not to.
“You know, I don’t think you can actually do anything without people to serve as your vessels. I don’t know much about shamanism, but I know they need hosts. I also think you’ve been throwing around your energy a lot, trying to take us down. I think you’re probably spent.”
No answer, which was a good sign.
I picked up Alex’s gun off the ground but didn’t touch the sacrificial knife. Instead, I walked over to Maria on the ground and shook her. She was soaking wet and looked as waterlogged as Emma had
. I didn’t know what was going on outside but hoped everyone was alright. I didn’t want to stay in this creepy place a minute longer than I had to.
“Maria!” I shouted at her. “Wake up!”
“Wha?” Maria said, blinking. “What’s going on?”
“It’s Jane!” I shouted in her face. “You’re in the Lodge.”
“Why are you shouting?” Maria asked, looking away.
“Because you’re…” I shouted before realizing she was awake. “Right, sorry.”
I let go of her and she dropped back on the ground.
“Ow!” Maria said, climbing to her feet. “What was that for?”
“I’ve had a really rough day and am a naturally rude person,” I said, unsure how to break the news to her. “I think it’s down. Rudy is out of it.”
Maria looked over at her brother twitching on the ground and the damaged symbol on the ground then felt her face. “Oh God, Rudy, what have you done?”
“It’s not his fault,” I said, not sure about that. “He felt forced into it.”
“He killed Victoria, didn’t he?” Maria asked, a look of anguish and horror on her face.
“Yes,” I said, not sure what else to say. I could say he did it to stop the Big Bad Wolf but what was he doing here then? Besides, I doubted that would comfort Maria over the death of her lover at her brother’s hands. That was some daytime-soap levels of awful.
“We can get him exorcised so he can spend the rest of his life in jail, right?” Maria asked, managing to make all my possible arguments for me.
“Yeah,” I said, nodding. “That sounds good. Best plan I’ve heard all day.”
I was about to go over to Sheriff O’Henry when I was cut off by a stream of fire along the floor. It zigzagged around the room, forming a pentagram around us. That was when Rudy stood up, his body covered in fire but not burning. It destroyed his clothes, though, and revealed a much better developed man than I ever imagined. The power inside Rudy had changed him and made him physically perfect even as his mind was half-dissolved.
