The Complete Hidden Evil Trilogy: 3 Novels and 4 Shorts of Frightening Horror (PLUS Book I of the Portal Arcane Trilogy)

by J. Thorn

  Major laughed at his own joke. He looked at the confused look on Samuel’s face and decided to continue. “I was great at the table games, too. Five- and ten-dollar blackjack led me to the high-roller rooms. I played where winnings came with a chick on your arm and a vial of blow. AIDS was breaking then, but when you’re strung out on crack and cards, it’s not much of a concern. Not sure how in the hell I escaped that, but I did. You tag so many assess without a jimmy hat, you’re rolling the dice.

  “I wasn’t much of a family man. I mean, I had a wife and kids, but I wasn’t part of the family. My money provided housekeepers, pool boys, nannies, whatever we needed, but the money couldn’t listen to my wife or help my kids with homework. The family made me legit, somehow gave me the air of a responsible citizen. That’s the thing with the white-collar criminals. They sit next to you at the PTA meetings, you see them in the grocery store, you wave at them as they walk their dogs. Hell, some of them even pick up dog shit with a blue, plastic bag, and yet they were robbing taxpayers blind.”

  “The bailout?” Samuel asked. His face twisted, as if someone else had used the term.

  “Oh, you bet I got a chunk of that. We all did. By the time the mid-2000s rolled around, I had several business holdings in various countries. I had secret, offshore accounts, and enough capital to pay my mid-managers hundreds of thousands in bonuses. We had holiday blowouts that made the gangster movies look like children’s birthday parties. Women everywhere, and not the skanks from the street. I’m talking top-notch girls, good pussy. The kind that makes you forget your name.”

  Samuel shrugged.

  “By 2008, I had offices in Manhattan and Newark. Jersey was a dump, but it was easier to hide assets there than it was in the five boroughs. I had departments trading mortgages for years, and we all knew that shit was going to crash. Anyone—including the Fed—that claims they didn’t know is a bullshitter. There was an unspoken panic that rippled through our ranks about six months before the shit hit the fan. Guys were getting out fast, selling assets, liquidating the adjustable-rate loans. We all knew those were going to kill us. By the time Goldman Sachs became the media’s whipping boy, I had stashed four hundred million that I thought would be invisible. That’s what I thought.”

  Samuel noticed a hitch in Major’s throat. His pace on the trail quickened as they turned directly into the path of the cloud that soundlessly rolled over trees as it approached the east.

  “But then a few of my guys turned. They had been working with the FBI the entire time. I had no idea. These were guys that had been with me a long time, going all the way back to our private bordellos and roulette wheels in the shadow of the boardwalk in Atlantic City. These were guys I trusted with my life.

  “My wife had left and taken the kids with her by then. My new girl tipped me off. I was shacked up with this broad in one of my Manhattan penthouses. I can’t remember exactly how we got together, but she was doing some hardcore porn at the time. I saw her in a film and knew I wanted a piece of that ass. Anyways, she rang my cell about eleven thirty in the morning, which I knew was trouble because she never got out of bed before noon. She told me that the Feds had been there and were on their way to my office. She said they had warrants and paperwork and all the bullshit they needed to put me away for a long time.”

  Samuel stopped. As the path curved to the right and descended down the gentle slope of the mountain, he saw the tops of several cabins. They looked exactly like the others he’d encountered, and the curvature of the land would no doubt reveal more as they approached. Major followed Samuel’s gaze.

  “Yep. That’s it. The Barren. We still got another hour to reach it.”

  “So what did you do when the cops arrived?” Samuel asked.

  “I had to take care of things before they did. There was no way I was going to rot in a cell, become Bubba’s girlfriend. I couldn’t do that. Plus, the lead prosecutor was a dickhead from way back. In fact, I think I may have jumped him in a subway station, back in the day.

  “After I got the call, I went to a hidden panel in my office. I didn’t even have time to open the safe, and if I did, what was I going to do? They were coming. I couldn’t find the bullets to the revolver that was under my desk, so I pushed through a drawer of sex toys until I found the velvet rope. I had glass walls in my office that gave you a stunning view of Manhattan. That turned the ladies on, and they’d even let me tie them up. Some of those lays got crazy. I stood on a chair and pushed the ceiling tile to the side. With the rope in one hand, I tossed it over a steel beam. The end came back to my other hand, and by that time I could hear them coming. The private elevator dinged a single tone, and I heard footsteps in the marble foyer. If I had more time, who knows? I might have reconsidered. But I didn’t. I tied a knot at the top underneath the beam and took the other end and twisted it around my neck. I wasn’t schooled in the knot-tying, Boy Scout bullshit, so I triple looped it just to make sure it wouldn’t give. I remember standing on the chair with that noose around my neck, and I was laughing. Maybe it was the absurdity of it all, or maybe I had lost my mind by that point.

  “The door to the waiting room slammed against the wall, which meant the raid was only seconds from reaching me. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and leapt off the chair. I think they came through at the same time, because I remember someone shouting and feeling hands grasping my legs, but they were too late. Those knots held better than they were supposed to because they snapped my neck.”

  Samuel stopped walking and turned to face Major. He shook his head and coughed. “Is that all you remember?”

  Major shook his head. “I remember waking up at the foot of a tree. I remember looking around and seeing other ropes hanging from branches and dangling next to streamers of yellow caution tape.”

  “You woke up here, in this locality?” asked Samuel.

  “Not far from your swingin’ tree, my friend. But it wasn’t my first rodeo. I quit counting how many times I’ve dropped from that cursed tree.”

  Chapter 9

  Samuel peered down the path at the Barren. The three roofs he saw from a distance crystallized into full cabins. Although not identical to the two he had already discovered, they had the same look.

  Major led them through towering trees and into the valley. He had gone very quiet since finishing his story, and Samuel wondered if there was a price to pay for hearing it. Major looked over his shoulder as he walked, measuring the pace of the cloud as it approached from the west.

  Samuel could see two people at the Barren, but they were still too far away for him to make out features. The shapes appeared to be gathering things off the ground.

  “A week, maybe two.”

  The comment caught Samuel by surprise. He stopped walking and shifted his weight to one hip, waiting for Major to elaborate. When he did not, Samuel spoke.

  “Until the cloud arrives? Until this, uh, Reversion gets here?”

  Major did not reply. He kept maneuvering down the path, stepping over jagged rocks and debris, and trying not to twist an ankle in the process.

  Samuel shrugged and followed Major. As they approached the Barren, the shapes began to take form, revealing a man and a woman. He noticed the eyes first. It wasn’t their gazes so much as the hurt behind them. Samuel shivered and felt an ache in his heart. The woman appeared to be in her twenties, thin yet magnetic. He imagined her to have once been an actress or possibly a singer. She had scraggly, black hair that had not been washed in days. She had remnants of makeup brushed across her face in random places, and eye shadow that ran down her cheeks like cracks in a porcelain cup. She held her lips together, creating the single line of her mouth. The woman’s pointy nose sat in perfect symmetry with the rest of her face. Samuel flushed after realizing he had been staring at her longer than was socially acceptable. He looked at the ground and then back up at the woman—this time, his eyes locked on her neck. Underneath her jaw and across her collarbone was a diagonal, black bruise. The discolored ski
n made a line toward her heart, and the bruise looked recent, but not fresh.

  The man stepped in front of the woman and broke Samuel’s gaze. He sneered at Samuel and shook his head. “Who’s this?” he asked, directing his question at Major.

  Major walked up and placed a hand on the man’s shoulder. He smiled. “It’s speeding up, Kole.”

  The man shook his head and nodded his chin toward Samuel, who stood behind and to the right of Major.

  “Find him in Aokigahara?”

  “Yeah,” replied Major. “He landed in the Sea of Trees, like the rest of us.”

  “We don’t need his help,” said Kole.

  The woman stared at the top of the path, through Samuel, as if he did not exist.

  “Posturing,” replied Major.

  Samuel watched as Kole put two hands on his hips. His dark, rich hair crept far enough down on his forehead that it could have been fake. He wore a tattered, white T-shirt that accentuated the taut muscles underneath. A black belt fastened black jeans on a slender waist, and he wore black, leather boots. A sleeve of tattoos circled his right arm, and a needle track ran up his left. The top three punctures sat atop a blue, swollen vein that oozed pus. Two red lines bisected both of his earlobes where earrings had once hung.

  “We’re wasting time. Did you find anyone who can slip?” the woman asked Major, clearly indicating that Samuel could not be the man for the job.

  “I was hoping someone else here would, at the Barren.”

  “Well, nobody’s here but us,” said Kole. He kicked at the dirt with the toe of his boot.

  The woman stepped past Kole and Major until she stood face-to-face with Samuel. He caught a whiff of vanishing fragrance, masked by natural body oils, and then it scuttled off, leaving the vacant emptiness of the locality with its silent stillness. He felt her eyes latch onto him again, and he could not turn away. Samuel’s mouth went dry, and he felt a tingling in his feet.

  “What’s yer name?” she asked.

  “Samuel.”

  The woman nodded. “I’m Mara. That charmer over there is Kole.”

  Samuel dropped his head to Mara and then turned to look at Kole.

  “He’s a dick. You’ll get used to it.”

  Kole glared at Mara. “Fuck you,” he said to her. “And fuck you,” he added, pointing to Samuel.

  Major laughed, tossing his head back and grabbing his abdomen with both hands.

  “Kids, kids, stop. You’ll have time for your schoolyard scraps tonight. For now, we need to get our supplies in order. Kole, make sure we have enough wood. You know how hard it is to maintain a fire here. Mara, get the gruel going. I think it’s been days since Sammyboy here ate, and he’s going to start feeling it soon.”

  Kole waved a hand at Mara and Samuel. He shuffled past the cabin and toward the edge of the tree line.

  “Whatever you say, old-timer. Apparently someone put you in charge when we weren’t paying attention.”

  Major smiled and put his arm around Samuel. Mara turned and headed into one of the cabins, shutting the door behind her.

  “You and I need to examine some things, see if we can punch a hole in this locality. Based on the speed of the death cloud over there, we’re running out of time.”

  Samuel shook his head, trying to use the physical motion to make sense of the situation. After several more attempts, he realized it was not working.

  “We have to get out of here,” he said.

  Major turned and looked at the cloud, then toward the cabin with Mara, then beyond the path to where Kole was picking up firewood.

  “Without a doubt,” he replied.

  ***

  Major poured the steaming liquid into a filthy, clay mug, where it bubbled with a light froth.

  “Drink,” he said to Samuel.

  Samuel sniffed the mug and wrinkled his nose. “A hint of licorice?” he asked. “I hate licorice.”

  “It’s one of the few things in this locality that you’ll still taste. That’s gotta be better than a colorless, bland drink?”

  Samuel shrugged and sipped. The tea burnt his lip and caused him to inhale.

  “I want you to try something,” said Major.

  Samuel set the mug down on the table. He looked through the greasy window of the cabin and saw Kole and Mara facing each other, arms gesturing back and forth.

  “What are they doing?”

  Major grabbed Samuel’s right wrist with his left hand. “I need you try something.”

  Samuel nodded.

  “There’s a man that might be trapped in the ether. It’s a nowhere place, a void. He might have the ability to punch a hole in this locality.”

  “Slip.”

  “That’s right,” said Major. He let a smile creep into the corners of his mouth.

  “We can slip into another locality. That’s not to say we escape the existence and drop into our home locality. That might be lost forever. You know that, right? Mathematically speaking, odds are you’ll never see that place again.”

  “Now you’re a statistician?” asked Samuel.

  Major released his wrist and rocked back on his chair. “When you’ve sat at as many table games as I have, you get to know the odds.” Major continued, not allowing Samuel the time to respond. “This guy may be able to punch the hole if he’s not damaged.”

  “Damaged like us?”

  Major laughed.

  “Yeah, like that. Let’s hope he doesn’t swan dive from the top of a skyscraper or shove the end of a shotgun in his mouth. That’s what I call damage.”

  Samuel looked at Major, not sharing in his lighthearted giggles.

  “Is this hell? Are we dead?”

  “Depends on how you define ‘hell’ and what you mean by ‘dead’,” replied Major.

  Samuel fought to remain focused on the conversation. He felt like his head was buzzing with thoughts he could not quite catch.

  “What do you want me to try?” he asked.

  Major raised one hand and let it fall to the table. “I almost forgot.”

  He turned as Kole entered the cabin, followed by Mara. They stood shoulder to shoulder and leaned against the cabin wall. Major looked at them, and then back to Samuel.

  “I’m going to put an object on the table. I want you to hold it in your hand. Don’t talk, don’t ask me questions. Just pick it up. Can you do that?”

  “He’s a fucking newb,” said Kole.

  Mara was shooting him red-hot daggers. She pushed a lock of hair behind one ear. “Give him a chance, Kole,” she said.

  Major looked at Kole and Mara, waiting in silence for them to finish their verbal sparring. “Are you ready?” he asked Samuel.

  Samuel shrugged his shoulders and laid his right hand on the table, palm up and open. Major’s hand disappeared underneath his robe and returned with a clenched fist. He opened his hand and dropped a metallic, shiny object into Samuel’s hand.

  The cabin disintegrated, and the accelerated rush of lights filled Samuel’s vision. He looked up and to the right and was met by the reflection of his own eyes, but they were not his. He noticed large red eyebrows on pasty skin and touched a finger to a widow’s peak that retreated back toward thinning, red hair tainted with fine, gossamer strands of silver. His hands gripped the steering wheel of an Italian sports car as it blew past the other metal coffins in the right lane of the expressway.

  Samuel looked to his left and was met with a darkened reflection of his foreign container. The body appeared to be mid-forties, paunchy, and pampered. The silk tie sat askew on his collar, while a diamond stud penetrated his left ear. The whine of the engine caught Samuel’s attention as the speedometer pushed past ninety-five on the gauge.

  “Death wish,” said Samuel.

  Major looked at Samuel, his eyes closed and his palm wrapped around the ignition key with the blood draining from his fingers.

  “Do you know where you are?” Major asked.

  “In a car, on a highway.”

  Befor
e Major could reply, a force snapped Samuel back into the shell occupying the driver’s seat.

  He saw the glow of brake lights ahead, like the eyes of angry monsters. Samuel caught a glimpse of the off-ramp approaching in the interval between windshield-wiper swipes. He guided the car onto the shoulder amidst the sound of horns trailing off behind him. Samuel turned the wheel to the left and pulled his foot off the accelerator, bringing the car into a controlled fishtail on the rain-slicked pavement. He snapped the wheel into the turn and straightened the vehicle out as it approached a congested intersection trapped within four walls of suburban, strip-mall hell.

  “Running it into a wall or bridge?” asked Kole.

  Major shook his head. “No. He’s headed somewhere. The driving is reckless, but that’s the emotional state. He has other plans.”

  Samuel felt the car lurch as he downshifted from second to first gear. His breathing felt shallow, as if he were drowning in air. He followed the flow of traffic while checking his rearview for flashing lights. It would be miles before they caught up, and even then they wouldn’t know which exit he had taken. Samuel made several turns, until he passed the sparkling new sign for “Golden Meadow” development. The guard station sat trapped in the middle of the gate, the plump man inside smiling at those escaping from the gated community.

  He turned through several streets designed after the old, inner-ring suburbs of the twentieth century, complete with tree lawns, sidewalks, and street lamps. Samuel spun the wheel into the slick, wet asphalt driveway at 1329. His plump finger reached up to the sunshade and punched the button that opened the double-car garage. Samuel pulled the car into the silence so the rain could no longer pummel the roof. With the car’s engine idling in neutral, Samuel hit the button again, which dropped the garage door behind him.

  He sat in the front seat as the song on the CD player came to an end. Samuel let the song fade before hitting the power button. As if in cosmic alliance, the overhead light of the garage-door opener clicked off, leaving Samuel blinded by the reflected rays coming from the car’s headlights. He slammed that button too until he sat in complete darkness. Samuel’s ears adjusted as he heard renegade raindrops crashing into the steel roof of the garage, while the engine continued to idle in neutral.