by JKMelby74
“Jake!” I looked to him as he tossed me two big silver guns. I fell back as I caught them. They fell into my hands and almost without thinking I squeezed off a smooth round right into the worm’s head. Blood and flesh rained down from above and the worm fell to the ground and slid back into the darkness from where it came.
“What the Hell was that? Was that the demon?”
“No. That was a death worm. They’re scavengers that hunt along ruins and dead cities,” I held Ivar’s guns back to him. “Keep them. I think you’ll need them more than I will.” We headed back to the car and as I slid into my seat, I noticed Ivar looking at me oddly.
“What?”
“You do care.”
“Excuse me?”
“You bluster a lot about how you don’t care about your family, but you do.”
“If anything, that whole mess proves my point! A giant worm almost swallowed me because of this stupid family legacy.”
“I saw your tears.” I could detect a slight smugness to his tone. I shot him a dirty look and he started the car and drove back to the highway.
As we continued, I was plagued by images I had seen back at the church. Ghosts of my mind that I thought were buried deep were screaming back at me. I wasn’t even totally sure about what I recalled. They were just flashes and impressions. I couldn’t for the life of me actually remember holding my mother’s hand as she died. Another reason I spurned the past. I could never get a straight story out of it. I noticed the car slowing down and then it stopped.
“What now?”
“Breakfast.” I looked forward and saw that we had stopped in front of a little roadside diner called ‘Snootch’s’. We got out and I noticed how quiet it was. I checked my watch and it was just a little past five. Way past the lunch rush.
I followed Ivar into Snootch’s and the warm air wrapped around me like a fist. I could smell cinnamon in the air and hear eggs frying in the kitchen. The place was real down home. Flowery wallpaper with folksy art crafts hung around the dining room and handmade centerpieces on the tables with the gentle twang of country music playing over the speakers. We walked up to the hostess who greeted us with a cheery bright smile.
“Good morning to you. Welcome to Snootch’s. How many?”
“Just the two of us.” Ivar said.
“All righty. Follow me,” She plucked two laminated menus out of a wooden box behind her. She led us to a small booth in the back and as we slid in, she set the menus down in front of us. “May I get you something to drink? Coffee? Orange juice?”
“Coffee.” We both said together. Our hostess nodded happily and trotted off.
“How long were we driving?”
“A few hours. You seemed pretty deep in thought. Not that I blame you.”
“Where are we?” Ivar leaned aside and pulled out his map and laid it down on the table.
“We’re still in California. A few miles outside of Needles.”
“Where are we headed?”
“The Nevada desert.”
“Could you be more specific? Are we going to Vegas?”
“This isn’t GPS. I’m following where the energy guides me. When we get closer to our destination, I’m sure it will become clearer.”
Our hostess returned with two steaming cups of coffee and she set them down with a smile and returned to her post. I noticed the front door swing open and I felt my heart skip a beat but it was just a large trucker lumbering in. I turned back to Ivar.
“You think it’s following us?”
“I’m positive of it. It knows where we are. It was a part of you for a long time. Can’t you still feel it?”
“A little, I guess. If it knows where we are, why the Hell are we even running?”
“Would you rather just stop and allow it to crush you?”
“Why doesn’t it attack?”
“The demon is too weak. Even if Sam is helping it, the demon simply doesn’t have the strength yet to come after you like it wants to. How are you feeling?”
“Fine. A little stiff, I guess, but other than that I’m cool,” Ivar sat back, but his eyes were worried. They darted around nervously across the room. “So when we finish here, what’s our next stop?”
“That’s what I’m working on. I need to make a call. If the waitress comes before I get back, order me the vegetable omelet.” He slid out and headed to the pay phones in back. I picked up my cup and looked down at the dark fluid inside. The slight shimmer of the light shining above me reflected back up into my face. More people came filing in and the noise level began to grow. It seemed almost everyone looked like a truck driver. A few more waitresses appeared and they were busy buzzing from table to table. I looked up and nearly jumped in my seat as I saw Sam sitting across from me.
“Hello, Jake,” He said. “Before you freak, you should know I’m not really here. This is merely a projection I’m sending to your mind, courtesy of your demon friend.”
“You are helping it.”
“A deal was made, true. That was the plan all along.”
“Excuse me?”
“I could smell the power on you the minute you walked into that jail cell. You had something incredible inside you and I had to have it. You were all too willing to offer it to me. After I extracted it and it realized how weak it was, I was able to offer it my help in tracking you in exchange for certain considerations.”
“Power?” Sam let out a sharp laugh.
“Hardly. Once the demon destroys you and assumes its full power, it will be able to lay waste to this entire planet. You were lucky enough to be bonded to an Armageddon level demon. It’s lost so much power trapped within your flesh and it’s built a big head of steam. I help it, and I shall be given Earth as my own realm, to rule over as I see fit.” I drank in his words and they settled on my brain for a good five minutes. Finally, an abrupt giggle escaped my lips and soon evolved into a full on hearty laugh. As my eyes began tearing up, I saw Sam looking back at me with a dark gaze, but I couldn’t stop.
“Sorry, man. Really. It’s scary. You’re going to rule the world!”
“Your ignorance aside, I will attain the power I need to make this world mine.”
“Seriously? I mean, why would you even want to? Seems to me ruling the whole world would just be one giant headache. All those people. If I were you, I’d just take the cash.”
“It’s hardly a consideration as I will have the strength to bend the minds of every living creature to my own will. I get the idea you don’t really appreciate the gravity of the situation.” He was right, to an extent. I just couldn’t see that misfire ruling over a colony of ants much less the whole planet.
“You read a lot of comic books as a child, right?”
“I won’t just rule this world. I will be given the power of a true demon! I will finally be the being I knew I was destined to be and when I am, I will crush humanity under my heel! Satan will call me brother!” His face was twisted in a hideous smile as his eyes burned like yellow flames. He dug his nails into the table and clawed at it like an animal.
“So you came here to warn me about all of this?”
“I just felt you deserved to know everything, and by sitting here, I’m giving the demon a chance to zero in on you. I’ll see you soon.” He then vanished into nothing. I waved my arm around the air where Sam had been.
“Hey,” Ivar said as he came up behind me. “I just called a friend of mine at a nearby airfield. It took some convincing, but he agreed to take us to our final location.”
“That’s great. Could we go now?”
“We haven’t even eaten.”
“I know, but I think this is a bad place to be.”
“Why? What happened?” Before I was able to tell him about Sam, the sound of wood breaking shot out. A large, black tentacle whipped up and snagged one of the customers around the neck. Soon, other tentacles started sprouting up and with great force. We dove from our booth and soon Snootch’s had transformed into a jungle of wild,
snapping tendrils.
People tried to get away, but their panic prevented them from acting fast enough to escape. Ivar and I weaved through the chaos to the front door, but as I reached it, a pang of conscience came over me. I pulled out Ivar’s guns and I turned to see people pleading and screaming for help. I aimed quickly and blasted. Black flesh flew up onto the walls and as one tendril fell, its victim was freed and dropped to the floor and scrambled toward me.
“Thank you!” The woman uttered as she passed by. The tendrils started to shift and move. I heard more cries from others in the back and despite every instinct of self-preservation I had, I forged ahead, tearing at the dark growths that were writhing all around me. I pulled at them; freeing one person at a time.
I fought my way to the back of the dining room and began wrestling with two tentacles that had an older woman cocooned. I pulled one bit free to expose her mouth. Her eyes were terrified but before I could say anything she screamed.
“There!” She called out and turned her head to the right. I followed her eyes and saw a little baby crawling along the floor, seemingly invisible to the tentacles, at the other side of the room. “Save her! Save my baby!” I finished tearing through to release her.
“Run,” I said as I pointed toward the front door. More tendrils began breaking through the walls. She looked over to her baby and I saw a pain and yearning in her. “I said go!”
“I can’t leave her!”
“I’ll get her!” After only a moment of hesitation, the woman hurried out. I turned around and saw the tendrils begin to swirl around the little baby. I leapt up and landed hard on one particular tendril and flattened it. It seemed they knew what I was doing. The dark things began darting and jabbing at me like spears. As I tumbled forward crushing several tables and chairs on my way, I landed before the baby, who was then being held up by a long tentacle. Others began to form around it and soon it began to cry. I never paid much attention to baby cries, but I could tell that one was a cry of pure fear. I jumped up and tore away at the dark flesh and pulled the baby out and held it tightly to my chest. The tendrils all began moving toward me. I stooped down and charged forward with the baby held tightly in my arms. I bulldozed through the oncoming hostiles and pushed through and out to the parking lot where I was greeted by a very grateful crowd of diners. I delivered the baby back to her mother and as I did, it stopped crying.
“Thank you. Thank you so much.” She said through a torrent of tears. Soon the whole crowd was closing in on me, smiling and thanking me for their rescue. I caught a few of their eyes and I started to feel some kind of warmth inside that I hadn’t felt before, or at least not very often. A fire truck and a couple police cars came roaring up. The fire truck parked at the other end of the lot and the fire fighters got their gear ready. The police stopped close and hurried over to the crowd.
“What the Hell is going on here?” He asked with a hint of anger. I slinked through the crowd toward him, fully prepared to describe the situation, but before I could, the parking lot began to quake. Everyone ran for their cars and hurried away. I heard the unsettling noise of asphalt tearing apart. I turned to see all of Snootch’s wrapped up in a giant stalk of black tendrils. It was pushed up high into the sky and towered over us like a monument. The police pulled out their guns and fired at it and the firemen were quickly gathering their axes and hatchets. I stepped back and heard a car rev up and turned to see Ivar driving toward me. The car came to a sharp stop in front of me and the passenger door flew open.
“Get in!” Ivar barked. I did as he said and Ivar peeled out and in the rearview mirror I saw the giant stalk that the diner sat upon swing around wildly. Soon after, I saw the police and fire vehicles racing away.
“Faster,” The entire stalk began to sway and lean forward. The police car jetted past us with its sirens and lights blazing. The car jumped a bit as the stalk started to hit the ground. I saw the whole thing tumbling down on us fast and quiet. “Faster!” Ivar pulled the wheel hard and we veered to the left, missing the stalk from crushing us by mere inches. Snootch’s, which was still clasped by the giant tendrils, exploded in a giant cloud of smoke and fire. The tendril broke through the ground and looked as though it had left a rather deep gash in the highway.
Ivar kept driving on and past the smoldering remains up ahead and beyond. I watched as the lights and excitement shrunk away in the rearview mirror.
Chapter 8
Cautionary Measures
I filled Ivar in about Sam’s message on the way to the airfield. Ivar suddenly turned off the main road and started down a rather rough dirt patch. We went for a few miles toward a small forest of sorts stuck in the middle of nowhere. It was like a small park with a field of grass and a few thick banks of trees surrounding it. Ivar parked in an out of the way spot and got out.
“Come on.”
“This doesn’t look like an airfield to me.”
“We need to take a little precaution first.” Ivar walked over to a small clearing nearby. It was a small patch of rocks and dirt near a modest pond. He started searching around the area picking up rocks, twigs and flowers.
“What are you doing?”
“Figuring out what we’ve got to work with. Wait here.” Ivar then went back to the car. He popped the trunk and pulled out a large brown case. He returned and sat himself down on a nearby log. He set the case before him and opened it up. He pulled out a bucket and some bottles and began sorting them around.
“What is all that?”
“My tools.”
“Could you explain a bit more?”
“Do you realize every time you’ve been attacked by some demonic thing, you were thinking about the demon just moments before?”
“I guess. So? You said it knows where I am.”
“It does, but it’s not strong enough to close in on you that quickly. Or it shouldn’t be. Everytime you even think about it, it finds us. We’re going to fix that.” He started to arrange the small rocks he had found into a circle and filled it with kindling.
“By camping?”
“No. I am going to hide you.” Ivar then set the kindling on fire and the flames rose up into the air. Ivar reached back into his case and started pouring things into his bucket.
“Hide me?” I sat down next to Ivar.
“Yes. I know of an elixir that will block you from the demon.”
“For how long?”
“Long enough, I hope.” Ivar emptied bottle after bottle of nasty fluids into the bucket. A breeze blew by and the scent shot up at me and caused me to fall back.
“How much of that shit is piss?”
“It only has a little toad urine.”
“Man! You are sick.”
“I learned this from an old witch doctor in Spain two years ago.”
“This stuff is really important to you, isn’t it?”
“These are the practices and beliefs that we were all born from. Our sense of progression has caused many to lose their way, but I have always seen it as my personal responsibility to reconnect with that ancient part of life that we owe so much to. They all think the answers lie in the future, but it’s the past that holds the promise of the next world.”
“So for all this witchery, you wouldn’t be able to just cure me?”
“Yours is a special case. I just hope this works.”
“You hope? You just said it’ll block me from the demon.”
“Yes, but only from the demon that possessed you.”
“There are others?” Ivar turned away from me and set the bucket, which was then brimming with a greenish red fluid, onto the fire.
“Your curse leaves you vulnerable.”
“I’m not cursed right now. The demon’s gone.”
“The demon that was inside you wasn’t the curse. It was a symptom of the curse.”
“Excuse me?”
“As a Corba, you are marked. Certain primal forces are naturally drawn to you. Primarily dark primal forces. Evil.”
&n
bsp; “In other words, I’ve got a cosmic ‘kick me’ sign taped to my back forever.”
“Even if The One can free you of the demon, you may still remain cursed. I’m sorry,” I got up from my seat and paced around. I could hear the crackle of the fire and the brushing of leaves along the dirt. “It’s not fair, I realize that, but you must have faith in the universe. It deals in balance. It balances the good with the bad.”
“Would you just shut up for a god damn minute?” My shoulders began to grow heavy. I turned back around and saw Ivar stooped before his bucket. Black smoke was puffing up into the air. He looked down inside of it and looked back to me.
“It’s ready.”
Ivar drew out a small triangle and instructed me to stand in the middle of it. He held the bucket before me.
“One more ingredient.”
“What’s that?” Ivar then pulled out a small knife and looked down at my hands. “Blood? Again?”
“It is the fluid of life. Blood holds the most essential part of us and what we are made of and this potion needs to have your essence.”
“Just make it quick,” I held my hand out. Ivar gave my thumb a quick poke and squeezed a drop out into the bucket. It suddenly bubbled and coughed up a puff of steam. Ivar turned away and poured some into a small paper cup he had and then handed it to me. “What do I do? Soak in it?”
“Drink.”
“Excuse me? You want me to drink this shit? It smells like puked up piss.”
“You have to drink it. It’s the only way to mix it with your blood.” I looked at the cup. It was warm in my hand. I took a deep breath and chugged it down as quickly as I could. It burned my mouth and throat as I guzzled it. It was like pounding a shot of battery acid. I felt my legs weaken, but Ivar quickly grabbed me and kept me up. When I finally felt the last bit splash down my throat, I threw the cup down into the fire.
“How do we know it worked?” Ivar looked to me as though I had figured out the one question he had no answer for. He looked down like a confused child.
