by Joshua Brown
There wasn’t an immediate response, and I took it as a bad sign. Stronger, but not powerful.
I inspected myself further while working a tie around my neck. A minor cut on my chin from shaving healed over nicely since I got out of the shower. My black hair slicked back like an old greaser. My tight shirt and pants showed off a muscular frame beneath, one I didn’t command. I was thin, somewhat gangly, but the right clothing has a way of changing a whole look.
I flexed in the mirror, on pure instinct. There wasn’t much meat on my bones, but the shirt tightened around the thin bulge of my bicep. My usual outfit compromised of short sleeves or tank tops, jeans, and sneakers—a far walk from the suit I donned that evening.
“Tonight begins your transformation. Tonight, you become whole. No longer a phantasm on the wind, a specter hidden in plain sight. I will give you life, Mother. I will give you a receptacle to inhabit and control. And this time, I won’t fail. It will not happen again.”
Something touched the back of my neck, making the hairs stand on end. I felt her touch, shooting bolts of electricity through me. A shiver ran down my spine, though I felt no fear. Lust and desire consumed me, beckoned me onward—the Earth Mother was ready to break free from her astral form.
It almost hurt, knowing Lee-Anne was another sacrifice in awakening the Earth Mother. The Inquisitors were easy to hand over and strengthen her, but Lee-Anne formed part of the Holy Land; Priest River. She was an innocent bystander in this crusade for redemption, but my oblation of Lee-Anne meant conquering evil.
Sadly, it had to be done.
I left my bedroom and entered the dining room. I set up the four-seater table with a red and gold linen that draped over the edges. Plates, forks, glasses for wine and water, with a vase of fresh flowers in the middle. I lit candles for ambient lighting instead of the harsh overhanging bulb.
I pulled out a chair for the Earth Mother and tucked her in beneath the table. She was the guest of honor and my only guide in ensuring Lee-Anne’s vessel wasn’t wasted. I made no more attempts to speak with the Earth Mother. There wasn’t much need without a response. Having her present was good enough.
A little after an hour later, a knock came at my door. It was gentle enough that I knew it was Lee-Anne but rapid letting me know of her eagerness to enter. A smile tugged at the corner of my lips.
“And so it begins,” I told my goddess, drawing a necklace from my pocket. The thin silver chain ran down my palm, displaying the onyx gem in the shape of an arrowhead. It glistened and danced before the candle’s flame. For an instance, through the lens it created, I swore I saw the Earth Mother in the reflection.
Sitting stoically, a smile on her face, long white hair surrounding her compact frame. She wore all white, an accurate representation of purity and elegance. But with the same flash she appeared in the stone, she vanished once more. Like a drug, I needed another fix, doing my best to re-enact the circumstances of her appearance. To my dismay, she never returned.
Disappointed, I clutched the onyx trinket in my hand and made my way to the door.
“Holy shit, you look amazing,” Lee-Anne said, eyeing me up and down as I swung it open. “You didn’t have to go through all the trouble of getting a suit.” She chuckled.
“It’s a special night, baby,” I wrapped the hand wielding the onyx around her waist, pulling her into a kiss. “Wanted to make sure you know it, too.”
After our kiss, Lee-Anne pulled back, quizzically staring at me. She bit her bottom lip, mind racing at my cryptic message of what was to come. She wore a thin black hoodie, a pair of tight yoga pants that showed off her ass, and trainers. What a stunning woman, I thought, leading her into the house.
“So, I got you something,” I said, holding out the necklace to her.
The Earth Mother herself bestowed my title, Onyx, onto me. At an early age, she showed me the light and guided me to find my power gem. Though, I suppose if honest, it was her power stone. In all my research and understanding, it was the catalyst needed to aid her in flowing through her astral realm and into the corporeal.
Lee-Anne looked at it, reaching out and touching the arrowhead. “It’s beautiful.”
She spun around, pulling her hair aside and allowing me to enclose it around her neck. Once more, as she faced me, I saw another flash of the Earth Mother in the onyx, pleased and content. How wouldn’t she be with Lee-Anne being her host?
“So, why’s tonight so special then, huh?” Lee-Anne took my hand and led me to the living room. I stopped her with a tug, gesturing towards the dining room opposite the hall.
“Because tonight, my precious, I reveal all,” I pressed my lips against her forehead. The words clearly left her confused, but in due time, she’d understand. And if I was lucky, she’d be more than willing to release herself for the Earth Mother.
I got Lee-Anne sitting at the table and fetched a bottle of wine from the kitchen. I poured a glass for each of us, lifting and clinking glasses with her. She brought it up to her nose, took a deep whiff, and had a sip. She reached out to take my hand, and I gave hers a soft squeeze.
The brimming smile that stretched from ear to ear released any tension I felt for what came next.
Days of hunting the Inquisition and the monsters from hell that wanted to bring Priest River to its knees left me feeling exhausted. This moment rejuvenated my soul and prepared me for everything else. One final catalyst, once Lee-Anne accepted her role as the Earth Mother’s host, was to feed my Goddess more souls of the wicked.
Those bastards who want to take my town, they’d fall in her honor. I had my next target lined up and ready, but now I needed to prepare the sacrifice. Lee-Anne had to be primed and ready to accept the Earth Mother’s blessing as soon as she had the strength to move in.
Days of contemplation led me here, and we were so close.
“So, you going to tell what this is all about then, sexy?” Lee-Anne asked, breaking my intense concentration on the plan.
“You’re always so eager,” I replied, swirling the wine glass around.
“You’re all dressed in a fancy suit, giving me gifts and treating me like a queen. A girl’s gotta wonder what she’s done to feel so special.” Lee-Anne winked at me.
“Well, it’s one hell of a ride, I can tell you that. But let’s eat first, huh?” I had to have my strength up.
“Oh, you tease,” Lee-Anne shook her head, giggling. “But if you insist, go ahead.”
I went to the kitchen and collected our meal. A takeout order from a steakhouse down the road presented on a plate with garnish and all. We ate in moderate silence, enjoying the food over the conversation. Reaching my last few bites, however, became a chore with the excitement that bubbled up from my core.
After dinner, Lee-Anne leaned back in the dining room chair. She rubbed her belly, letting out a hefty sigh. “I’m stuffed. Thank you, baby.”
“Anything for you,” I said, rubbing her arm. I reached out and touched the onyx arrowhead, leaned forward to kiss her cheek, and stood up. “Do you remember the day we met?”
“Of course,” she cocked a brow at me quizzically. “Why are you asking such a silly question?”
“The old willow tree,” I felt the smile tug up on my lips. Much like Lee-Anne, I met the Earth Mother at the same tree. There, beside the river, feeling the ebb and flow of Priest River, my city, life, death, and so much more. An overflowing sensation of decadence and purity.
“I remember you could barely say two words to me without blushing,” Lee-Anne snickered.
“There’s a war coming, Lee-Anne. One that we’ve got to prepare for if we want to see it out of alive,” I sighed. Ignoring her joyful reminiscing. She shook her head, giggling away. “It all started at that tree, and that’s where this is going to end. Amidst the beauty and serenity, a flowing of pure, ecstatic power.”
She gave me this dumbfounded look. As beautiful as Lee-Anne Jefferson was, there wasn’t all that much in her head. Book smarts meant nothing against
the spiritual.
“Come with me,” I said, reaching out to her.
Lee-Anne took my hand, getting up and following me through the house. I led her from the dining room, through the hall, towards the short wooden door that led to the basement. She didn’t question it, not even the descent into the dark.
“You trying to spook me? It’s not going to work,” Lee-Anne said when we got to the bottom. She wrapped her arms around my waist, giggling. We still stood in the dark. “What the hell’s that smell, though? It’s putrid.”
“Lee-Anne, I need you to listen to me,” I said. “What I’m about to tell you is of the utmost importance, do you understand?”
“What are you going on about?” she replied, her jolly expression replaced by concern.
“We are amid a war, for Priest River. Those fools out there, they don’t know what’s coming, they don’t understand what this expansion means for our town. It’s a tale as old as time, Gods against the Devils, and the war is being lost on all fronts,” I turned to face her. My night eyes kicked in; nevertheless, I could barely make out her form in the pitch-black basement. “Lynne Sawyer was the first to fall. She was a sacrifice that had to be made to strengthen the Earth Mother, our Goddess, and the last God to stand in this eternal struggle.”
“Vi… Victor, you’re scaring me,” Lee-Anne’s voice, soft and weak. “It stinks down here, let’s go upstairs, and you can….”
“No, Lee-Anne, it has to happen down here. I need you to understand,” I reached for a light switch and flicked it on. Lee-Anne’s eyes adjusted to the brightness, but they nearly popped out of her head when she saw what was hidden down here.
My mother’s corpse rested in the center of the room, in a makeshift coffin made of rotting cardboard boxes. She was the first experiment and attempt to bring the Earth Mother into this world, a failure due to the Earth Mother’s lack of strength. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake with Lee-Anne, however. I’d awaken her mind to the idea, have her understand, while I continued the crusade to strengthen my Goddess.
But she didn’t understand. Before I could explain any further, Lee-Anne started screaming. I shut her mouth with the palm of my hand before her screeching hit a crescendo. She fought, trying to break free. Terror filled her eyes. But she was small, weak, and I overpowered her.
“Don’t let it be this way, baby,” I said, forcing her to the ground. I kept her in place, weight pinning her down.
She shook her head, kicked, muffled noise barely escaping my hand.
“You will be the vessel, the host to our goddess. Your sacrifice will mean the survival of our people and further strengthen our bloodlines. Don’t fear your future, embrace it, and you will be rewarded in the lands of the Gods,” I whispered into her ear. Yet, she continued struggling against me.
With a sigh, I pressed a hand around her throat, squeezing. I cut off circulation to her brain, and I watched as consciousness slipped from her. I stopped as she drifted off into slumber. The Earth Mother needed a living vessel to inhabit, though that was going to be a complication since Lee-Anne wasn’t willing to hand herself over.
Having her here now, I’d be able to convince her that this was the right thing to do. That she had to give herself over to stop the Inquisition. It was only a matter of time.
First, there were more preparations needed. Another sacrifice to strengthen the Earth Mother. One more of those vile demons should’ve been enough, I suspected. And I already had my sights set on him—Dominic Cornelius.
He was the last piece to the puzzle, empowering the Earth Mother to enter our world in Lee-Anne’s form.
One final push, I knew, and we would cast these demons from our world back to their fiery torment.
Chapter 13
Jack
That night, I found myself sitting outside on a lounger, on the short patio of my bungalow. No light shone in the distance, no pollution covering the picturesque skyline. A full moon hung heavy amidst the stars, coating the earth in a milky white light.
I enjoyed a glass of scotch and a cigarette, taking in the natural beauty I lacked in New York. With every passing second out here in Priest River, a lot changed in me. My outlook on the situation, the place I was in, went from a horrible nightmare into a more peaceful serenity by the second.
Exposure therapy, I think that’s what they called it. A way of using a phobia against you. The more you expose yourself to it, the less it holds power over you. That’s how Priest River felt. For all intents and purposes, it was just a place, like any other. A small town that had a bad past. That didn’t mean these streets were bad, just the people who inhabited them.
New York was no different, I supposed. There were good, and there were bad, and it was thanks to the bad that I had a job.
What a twisted way to think about things, and yet, it was all that made sense.
I didn’t lose myself to the bottle that evening, rather enjoying the taste of my drink. After my conversation with Ruby, I wasn’t all that sure I wanted to be a part of what I agreed to. I was still investigating a murder. If there’d be time to visit family or not was beyond me. But for the time being, I felt I got her off my back for a while.
And though tragic and horrific, I suppose Lynne Sawyer’s murder wasn’t riding on my shoulders the same as a case would back home. Though I used the phrase as a way to make Rodney feel better earlier in the day, I was very much a consultant on this rather than a lead investigator.
It’s funny how humans trick their brains to stay sane. By now, I’d be driven up the walls, sucking down whiskey just to get a good night’s rest on a usual case. That night, I managed to enjoy the evening, the cool breeze, and somehow didn’t feel plagued by thoughts of Lynne hanging from her cross.
Though, I should have. Seeing enough devastation and inhumanity breaks a person. Even the most heinous crimes don’t seem as bad as they once were.
But my night was in for an interesting turn.
I kept the bottle outside with me, alongside a box of smokes and a tray of ice. Moths were out in full force, bouncing off the porch light. I heard the brooding call of a night bird out in the distance, and crickets chirped beside the gushing river. I had dinner waiting inside, a burrito from the Mexican restaurant I planned on eating once I finished my last drink for the evening.
While I sat outside, enjoying the nightlife, Lauren sent me another text with a picture of Skylar. We got to chatting about how things were going. I told her they were great, not much headway made on the case, but feeling better about being in town. She told me that the office was dead quiet without me there. Aaron’s typing the only ambient noise in the place.
I got a chuckle out of that. I felt a sense of normalcy again, and it was a great feeling, too.
After saying goodnight and asking Lauren to give Skylar a kiss for me, I got up and fetched my burrito from the kitchen. I’d eat it outside, probably spend a few more hours out there after, too.
But as I stepped through the double doors, I saw him sitting there: Johnny Ortega, my friend in the hospital, the man who helped me through Ziggy Stark’s trauma, deceased.
“Hey there, pal,” Johnny said.
I dropped the burrito to the floor, and my jaw dropped with it.
“J…Johnny?”
Delusion; that’s what this was. There was no way Johnny was sitting in my chair, dressed in his hospital gown, feet kicked up on the railing. My first instinct was that I was going crazy, it was the only thing that made sense. Hell, maybe madness was the reason I was starting to feel okay with being in Priest River.
“That’s my name, don’t wear it out,” Johnny said, shooting me with finger guns. He let out a wheezy laugh.
“I’m going nuts,” I nodded my head. I pressed two balled fists against my eyes and rubbed them back and forth. On opening, Johnny still sat there, brow cocked in my direction. Only, there was now eyebrows, there was no hair. Johnny Ortega was a cancer patient who went through vigorous chemotherapy treatment.
/> “No, Jack. You’re just fine,” Johnny said. “God damn, this is some beautiful country, isn’t it?”
Johnny turned his gaze away from me, back to the expanse of land, river, and night that stretched out ahead of us.
A sudden surge overwhelmed me. All my thoughts back on Firefly’s case returned. Lizbeth, the Lady in Red, all parts of a puzzle I buried before returning to Priest River. Their claims to the mystical shook me, though I was still skeptical. Only now, with Johnny sitting in front of me, I had no reason to be.
Unless I was going crazy. My subconscious playing tricks on me.
I reached out and touched him, and his skin felt as real as my own.
“How can this be?” I questioned.
“What’s that?” Johnny turned over to face me. “Sorry, pal. It’s been damn long since I’ve seen something this beautiful. Got a little lost in it.”
“How are you here? You…” I couldn’t bring myself to say it, to tell him he’s dead. Even if he was just a part of my head, materializing for some unknown reason.
“Died, yes. But that’s the thing, though, Jack. Death is only a stepping stone,” Johnny stretched out, yawning intensely. “All that lives must die, and all that dies returns to the universe. Energy, floating through the void, in search of destiny.”
“I don’t understand,” my face scrunched up in confusion.
“And you’re not supposed to, either. Not yet anyway. But there are big plans for you, bigger than you can ever imagine. Don’t be surprised when those bumps in the night start revealing themselves to you, Jack. Most are here to help, not harm. Everyone’s looking for their way back home, traversing the subtle line between worlds. But that’s not why I’m here,” Johnny said.
I only just barely came to grips with being in Priest River and thinking it’s not that bad. Whatever bomb got dropped on me didn’t quite resonate with me while I stood with Johnny. He was a phantasm, a specter, a ghost, and wanted me to pretend that all of this made sense? I couldn’t tell if I should be scared of being haunted or relieved that I could see my friend again.