A World Darkly (Wrath of the Old Gods Book 3)

by John Triptych

  Within seconds, the screaming had ended as the sacrifice rapidly lost consciousness. Tepiltzin held up the heart as he pivoted four times to face the four corners of the world, all the while saying a silent prayer to each one. Then he placed the throbbing heart on a smaller, adjoining shrine. As he put down the sacrificial knife, the still beating heart began to levitate above the stone altar, the blood pouring out of it seemed suspended in midair. Seconds later, the pulsing heart floated out through the window. Tepiltzin knew that the heart would ultimately keep flying away until it reached the sun. He started the next phrase, holding up a longer, thinner flint knife he took from the nearby table.

  With mechanical precision, Tepiltzin quickly started the skinning process. He cut off the man’s genitals and placed them in a clay pot sitting near the base of the altar. Then he quickly made a long cut from where the genitals were and made his way upwards, intersecting with the cut underneath the ribcage, then all the way to the throat. Tepiltzin had been practicing on animals before, but this was the first time he was skinning a human being, and so he wanted to make sure he didn’t make any mistakes. The flint blade was very sharp, so he didn’t have much of a problem as he sliced away the windpipe and took it out so that it wouldn’t get in the way. Since he wanted to preserve the face, Tepiltzin made a cut around the edges of the dead man’s cheeks, from the base of his chin and then he cut upwards, slicing at the side of the jaw and behind the ears. Taking the skin from the body was easier now that the chest was split open, so he just used both hands to peel the skin back from side to side. The legs he had to treat separately, so he cut along the inside of the legs and around the ankles until he could peel them all back.

  It was hard work and it took hours. By the time he was done, he had a pair of leggings and a suit made from human skin. It took him a little bit longer for the face as he wanted to make sure that it would be a single mask rather than separate strips of skin. A few hours later, the blood on his body had started to dry and thicken as he took off his cloth jacket and put on the skin suit. He tied the loose leggings around his lower limbs using some fine silk thread. The general had been a large man and there was plenty of membrane left over. As he placed Benteen’s face over his own, a loud trumpet was sounded from across the corridor outside. It was a signal for the final phase of the ceremony.

  A few minutes later, each of the apprentice priests filed out of their respective rooms and walked back into the temple’s inner hall. Each of them now wore a second skin over their own. The remains of the sacrifices would be cleaned up by a new batch of apprentices, who would simply throw the bodies out through the massive windows. As they lined up along the sides of the hall, three senior high priests came down from a nearby stairwell and stood in front of them. Tepiltzin recognized his uncle as the one who was standing in the center.

  Avatar Tlazopilli raised his hands and faced the group of apprentices. “The Night Drinker smiles upon all of you. Xipe Totec has blessed us on this special day for we now wear the skins of renewal. While you performed your rituals in the chambers within the temple, myself and the other high priests performed these same ceremonies above, so that the citizens of our divine city can observe that our sacred ways are to be respected. I congratulate you all, for each of you shall now be given the title of high priest to the Flayed One. You shall be assigned to other cities in our growing empire, and you will train your own apprentices to the ways of Xipe Totec. Our great god grows stronger with each sacrifice, and with his alliance with Huitzilopochtli, it allows us more war captives to sacrifice with. Our ways are now unstoppable, and we shall be the vanguard for this new age.”

  The group of new high priests all raised their arms in unison. “All hail Xipe Totec, for he is the Night Drinker. He shall open the way to our eternal renewal. It is through his power and blessing that we have been gifted with a new empire for our people. Let our god walk through the streets of Tenochtitlan unimpeded, let our god traverse across the lands of the Mexica with all his power and might. Let our god smite our enemies and wear their skins. For he is the real god, for he is Xipe Totec.”

  As the ceremony ended, Avatar Tlazopilli walked over to his nephew and shook his hand using their respective second skins. “Well done, Tepiltzin, you have made your family proud on this day.”

  High Priest Tepiltzin bowed in reverence to his uncle. “I thank you for giving me this opportunity, uncle. It is a great honor to be a high priest to our patron god. I can only hope that I can continue my faithless service to the Night Drinker until my final days.”

  Tlazopilli nodded. “Xipe Totec has been observing you all this time. He has seen your loyalty and your dedication to his divine will. Even when that cowardly general was pleading for his life you did not falter. You are truly a child of the Flayed One.”

  Tepiltzin nearly recoiled with surprise. “But h-how did you know that the general was pleading for his life? Weren’t you in the top part of the temple making sacrifices as well?”

  Even though he wore a skin mask over his face that gave him two lips, his nephew could see that he was smiling. “Xipe Totec sees through it all. He is watching all of us. Did I not tell you how he came to me?”

  “No uncle, I hadn’t really spoken to you since you became the avatar. All I heard was stories and rumors.”

  “Then let me tell it to you now,” Tlazopilli said. “A number of months ago, I was relaxing at my hacienda, my estate near Toluca. You see, I was celebrating my apparent victory over the Federales, the fools who used to run our former country. I had thought that I was the king back then. I had my own cartel and we were in the drug business. You remember what they all called me then don’t you?”

  “Yes, Uncle. They used to call you El Paco.”

  “Yes, that was my old name. Before the tzitzimitl came to my house and slaughtered all my men. I had thought they were going to kill me too, but they didn’t. Instead, I was brought before Xipe Totec. He was a man of red skin and he already wore the golden hide of his victims above it. He showed me the way. The Night Drinker said that I was to be his avatar here on earth. His blood now flows through my veins. His commands are uttered through my mouth. And soon enough, the rest of America will soon be his as well.”

  4. Rivers of Voodoo

  Louisiana

  It was literally the end of the road, so Tyrone Gatlin stopped the car and got out. He stood facing what had once been the city of Shreveport. Now it looked like a swamp of half-sunken buildings out in the distance. It was dusk, and the sun was a fading yellow disk behind him. He could see where the road had ended and it was like standing in front of a pier. Dark, brackish water ebbed and flowed just a few feet in front of him. He was surprised that the skies were actually clear, since he had heard that the rains in the South had been nonstop when the Glooming began.

  Tyrone crouched down as he rubbed his sore ankle. It had been less than two days when he ran away from the front lines in Texas and started making his way home. Dallas had been a nightmare. All he could remember were stop-motion scenes of panic and horror as the Aztecs swept in. He still couldn’t believe how lucky he was to be able to get away from the demons and the half-crazed men who shot at everything. He drove nonstop and made it onto the deserted highway as he turned eastwards and proceeded into Louisiana. Now there was no way he could use the car anymore, since the land ahead was completely flooded. He needed to find an alternative way eastwards, or he would have to try and bypass the state entirely and go north, perhaps through Arkansas. He sensed that there was something here, something that he had to do, and that was what drove him to take this particular way. He didn’t want to go up the northern route anyway, he knew for a fact that the roads up to Arkansas and Oklahoma would be jam-packed with fleeing refugees.

  He turned around and sat in the driver seat of the car. As he took stock of his meager supplies, he decided to turn off the ignition. There was still some fuel left in the gas tank. Tyrone figured that if someone wanted to use the car to go the other way,
then that person would be more than welcome to it. He took the backpack from the rear seat and rolled up all the windows. Tyrone had gotten rid of his Army fatigues awhile back. Now he was wearing a brand new pair of jeans and a t-shirt that he took from an abandoned department store in Dallas. Even though he had on a pair of sneakers, he stowed his army boots in the backpack, along with some canned food. He figured he could use some rugged footwear if he needed to do some long distance walking. The ouroboros medallion was now tied in a necklace that hung around his neck, the military ID tags that he once had were lying on the road somewhere. His Gerber Mark I boot knife was strapped to his right leg, underneath his jeans.

  “Yo, mister. You need a ride?” a voice coming from out in the water said.

  Tyrone turned around. He noticed a small boat with an aluminum hull at the edge of the water. Two black girls holding long wooden poles stood on it. One of them looked like a teenager and both had dreadlocks. They wore torn shirts, shorts and tennis shoes. The slightly older girl had a .38 snub-nosed revolver on her hip holster. Their facial features made them seem related. Both wore red colored plastic life jackets on their chests.

  The younger girl smiled at him. “Is that your car?”

  Tyrone smiled back. Even though he was from Georgia, he couldn’t help but feeling somewhat safer among fellow black southerners. “Yeah, it’s mine.”

  The older girl stared back at him. “Got any gas in it?”

  Tyrone nodded. “About a quarter tank left.”

  The younger girl seemed friendlier. There was always something like a spark of joy and hope when it came to dealing with kids. “Where you come from?”

  “Dallas,” Tyrone said softly.

  The older girl remained suspicious. “You from Dallas?”

  “No, I’m from Georgia. I was just trying to make my way back home.”

  The older girl narrowed her eyes. She remained suspicious. “Did you live in Dallas before?”

  “Yeah, I was in construction,” Tyrone said. “I just needed to get the hell outta there now.”

  “Is it true what happened in Texas? Is it true that the Aztecs took over?” the younger girl said. Despite the seriousness of her question, her tone remained upbeat.

  Tyrone nodded slowly. “Yeah, we got beat. That’s why I left.”

  The older girl furrowed her eyebrows. “You fought them? I thought you was a carpenter?”

  Tyrone rubbed the back of his neck. The older one was a pretty careful girl. Her caution would make sense since law and order was breaking down. You needed more than just words these days. “I was a civilian volunteer. I saw that fighting ‘em was useless so I got outta there,” he said.

  The older girl seemed to accept that explanation. “You armed?”

  Tyrone figured it was better to tell the truth. “I got a US army knife on my leg cuz they gave me one. That’s about it. I lost my rifle during the battle.”

  The younger girl smirked. “You got anything to trade?”

  “I got some food,” Tyrone said. “Some cans of soup and corned beef.”

  Both girls whispered to each other for a few minutes. Tyrone looked around but he didn’t see anybody else in the area.

  “Okay,” the older girl said as she looked at him once more. “We can give you a ride to our momma’s shack and you can stay there for the night. It gonna cost you three cans of beef.”

  Tyrone let out a deep breath. That was a pretty high price to pay. “I’m gonna need the food if I’m gonna make it back to Georgia.”

  “Well we ain’t giving a ride for free.”

  Tyrone pointed to the sedan. “I don’t need my car anymore. How about I let you have it?”

  The younger girl clapped her hands. “Yeah, we got us a car again!”

  “Shush now,” the older girl said to her sister before looking at Tyrone again. “How do you expect us to bring the car over to our momma’s place?”

  Tyrone dangled the car keys in front of her. “What I can do is to lock the car up and hide it in the bushes. If you want to use it, or if your parents would like to use it, then you can just come back for it. I don’t think anybody else is coming along this here road anyway. They all seem to be making their way north, through Arkansas.”

  The older girl thought about it for a minute, then she nodded. “Okay then. Here are the rules, you help with the paddlin’ on the boat and we both stay behind you. No funny stuff, mister.”

  Tyrone nodded. The girls were just being careful. He was okay with that.

  It was dark by the time they finally set out. There was a kerosene lamp on the boat, so they could see that it cast a pale reflection in the water. Tyrone stood near the bow of the boat and did most of the pole work. The older girl, whose name was Moesha, stood at the stern and used her pole more for pushing away debris instead of making the boat go faster. The younger sister was Shani, and her older sister had placed the gun on her lap as she sat in the middle.

  The water was calm and the clouds started to form in the night sky. Tyrone could see bonfires on top of a few of the building roofs. There were a number of wooden piers and huts that had been erected alongside some of the flooded edifices. Even though Shreveport was mostly underwater, tiny pockets of civilization were still surviving in it.

  Although the revolver was on her lap, Shani knew enough not to play around with it as she kept her hands free. “Say, Mr. Ty, what’s your religion?”

  Tyrone glanced back at her briefly before turning back to concentrate on his pole paddling. “I worship Esaugetuh Emissee. The Master of Breath.”

  “Esau-get-uh E-miss-ee,” Shani said, pronouncing the words slowly so that she could remember them. “Is he an Indian god?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, he’s a Muscogee Indian god. The Seminoles worshipped him too since they used to be from the same tribe.”

  “What kind of a god is he?”

  “He created us all. There was a great flood and he climbed up the tallest mountain until the waters receded. Then he took some mud and he shaped the dirt like people. Then he breathed into them and created the first human beings of the world. That’s why he’s called the Master of Breath.”

  “So he’s like a good god?”

  “Yeah, I’d like to think so,” Tyrone said wistfully. He still wasn’t sure about what he believed.

  “What made you believe in him?”

  “I started dreaming about him first. Then one man showed me some stuff about him. I didn’t believe at first, but then he kept coming up to me, in my dreams.”

  “What’s your dream about?”

  “I dreamt of a spirit, I couldn’t really tell what he looked like since he was just a shadow. But he was friendly and told me to go this way instead of going north. He said I had a task to do for him. I think he sort of like saved me from the Aztecs too.”

  “You did say you fought the Aztecs in Dallas,” Moesha said. “How close did you get to them?”

  “About as close as you and me,” Tyrone said. “One of those star demons- the tzitzimitl- could’ve killed me but she didn’t. I like to think that it was the Master of Breath that saved me.”

  They passed by another boat that was out in the distance, about a hundred feet away. Tyrone could see a black man and two white men casting a thick fishing net alongside their boat. An old, pale woman stood at the bow of their boat as she shined a lantern at the water. They noticed Moesha and she waved at them. They waved back and smiled before going about their work.

  Tyrone turned to look at Moesha. “What are they fishing for this time of the night?”

  “They are looking to catch horned serpent babies,” Moesha replied as she used her pole to push away a floating tree trunk.

  “Horned serpent? I’m not familiar with that,” Tyrone said.

  Shani placed two upturned fingers on each side of her head. “The horned serpent started appearing a few days after the city was flooded. It’s a magical creature that swims underwater. It’s a sea snake with horns on its head. They want
the large diamond that’s in between its eyes because that gemstone has special powers. I heard the baby snakes got little gems on their heads too.”

  Tyrone’s eyebrows shot up. “Special powers?”

  Shani giggled. “Yeah, anyone who eats the gem can tell the future and it can be used for healing too. It’s a good snake though, and my momma's been warning them not to try and catch it. You know people need stuff to barter these days, and gettin’ that jewel on the serpent’s head can get you a whole lotta food in return. The big momma serpent is bigger than all of us, bigger than the tallest tower, so I think they just tryin’ to catch the little ones.”

  Their boat had now turned eastwards. They headed towards a row of wooden shacks that had been constructed on top of a series of adjacent concrete buildings, these places had platforms that connected on the waterline. Tyrone could see a few bonfires that were burning in sandpits alongside of the dock. As they got closer, he noticed two black men with rifles standing near the edge of the pier, watching him. He didn’t want to stare, so he kept his eyes close to the water level as he helped to guide the boat closer.

  Moesha waved at the two men. “Hiya, Antoine!”

  One of the men waived back at them as they pulled up alongside of the dock. As he looked around, Tyrone saw a riverboat moored at the far end of the compound, its flat bottomed hull jutting out from the side of a red brick building, serving as a port for it. A tall black chimney protruded from its topmost deck, just behind the wheelhouse. He figured it must be powered by steam. Tyrone couldn’t see the stern of the ship since it was behind the building, but he guessed it had a paddlewheel that was either made of steel or wood. What was surprising was they had somehow gotten a steam engine to work on it since most riverboats nowadays were supposed to have diesel ones.