The Beast Inside

by Monique Singleton

  Sure enough, in front of me was a clearing of sorts. The canopy was still more or less closed, there were just less trees with longer branches. More light was let in between the leaves. Under the green dome I could see several buildings. They blended in with the jungle, making them virtually invisible. I stopped inside the tree line and settled in to observe. The canopy almost closed overhead, effectively hiding everything underneath from prying eyes in the sky. It was no wonder no one had discovered this place.

  There were four partially ruined buildings as far as I could see. By the looks of them they had been built out of the sand coloured stone that I had seen in the cliffs near the river. The colour was broken and camouflaged by the growth of vines and other creepers. Bright jungle flowers interspaced between the green and sand of the masonry and masked the presence of the unnatural structures. The buildings were single story, with dark cavernous windows. The streets in front, and to the side of them were tiled and bordered with what probably used to be cultivated planting. In front of the buildings was a large circular hole in the ground with a wooden construction above it. It was a cistern. More than six meters across. The depth was impossible to determine from where I was. The wooden structure was probably the frame that had lowered the buckets and hauled them back up again filled with fresh water. There was no rope attached now. But it still looked sturdy. To the side of the cistern I could see an aqueduct. That would have supplied the water in olden days. Now it was dry.

  It was difficult to age the buildings. They could have been anything between two hundred and ten thousand years old. I wondered who had created this town in the middle of the Amazon. And why. Who had these people been? What was the function of this place? And why was I drawn to it?

  CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE

  Everything seemed so familiar.

  I’d never been here. I knew that for certain. And I couldn’t remember ever seeing pictures or streams of anything resembling the set up. So why did it feel so familiar to me, as if I recognised it? And what did that mean? I was bewildered. My mind told me that my feelings were not making sense. But my intuition told me that they were. Maybe for the first time in my new life. This was something very significant for me. I just didn’t know why.

  Memories washed over me. I didn’t know if they were mine or someone else’s. It was so confusing, yet so expected. I almost felt as though I had come home. But I knew for certain that I had never been here before.

  I closed my eyes and concentrated on the images that the memories projected. They would not be ignored, so it was better to acknowledge them and decide what advantage I could get from the information hidden in them.

  I understood that the memories were the collective dreams, experiences and thoughts of all the Primals before me. There was a connection between us, and this place seemed to amplify it. We had been here before. Though I had no idea of when or why.

  The connection gave me strength. It fortified my courage and resolve. It heightened my senses. The jungle and I became one. This was where I belonged.

  I stayed where I was. Taking everything in. All the details. I even knew where they were before I saw them. It was all so alien, and yet so familiar. So contradictory.

  The smells were more informative. I could detect at least five different human scents. Two women and three men. One of the men was Panat. He was here. Or had been recently. That, I was sure of. I didn’t know if he was alive, but at least I was in the right place. One of the other men would be Azazel. The scent of one of the women seemed strangely familiar, though I couldn’t place it. Where had I encountered that scent before? It would come back to me, so I let it rest. I could also smell machinery, oil and some kind of aviation fluid. Probably from a helicopter. There was no way a plane could get anywhere near here. There had to be a way that Aze and his people had arrived here, a helicopter was a probable option.

  There were no foreign animals. Good, no dogs. Dogs and I don’t get on. Probably a cat and dog thing.

  I waited a little longer. Contemplating my next move. How would I go about this? All the planning we had done was centred on getting me here. After that there was no way we could have known what to expect. So, we had decided that I would wing it. And now I had to, but I had no idea how, so I started with things I could decide.

  One of the choices I needed to make was in which form I would proceed—as the cat or in human form. Both had their advantages and setbacks. As the lion, I was much more susceptible to the Primal forces and so, more apt to lose control. But that form gave me an unbelievable strength and naturally built-in weaponry. As a human, I would have more control over my sanity, or at least that was what I hoped. The impact would probably be less on the acolytes, but maybe that could work in my favour—they would underestimate me. It was a difficult choice, so I went with what felt best. I decided to stay in feline form for the time being.

  From my position, I observed the scene a bit more. It was quiet. On the right side a woman came into view. She was statuesque. I estimated her age at about forty-five to fifty. I didn’t recognise her, maybe she was the phantom woman that Joseph had spoken about. She looked around and called out to someone. A reply came from behind one of the buildings. A large man came out from behind the structure. I recognised him from Canterbury—it was Rafael. He spoke with the woman a while, then they both went their own way. Something about being ready to leave as soon as it was necessary. I got the impression they were counting on a hurried departure. Made me think about why. What was the incentive for the haste? Me maybe?

  During their short conversation, they shot quick glances at the tree line. They knew I was near and were understandably nervous. Ok, now what? Lying under the low branches and therefore effectively camouflaged, I stayed put.

  Soon enough there was some commotion, Rafael came back, accompanied by another man and a woman. The woman was Sarah. The familiar scent. I growled a silent growl. I would get around to her soon enough. She would not escape my wrath.

  The man turned to look at the jungle and my adrenaline kicked in full time. It was Azazel.

  Seeing him again had a much greater impact on me than I had hoped. My heart raced. I felt the Primal urge taking control. All my senses were working overtime. The colours seemed brighter, the smells much richer. I could hear my heart-beat raging, but I could also hear theirs. It took all of my control just to stay put.

  Azazel knew.

  He was searching the tree line, trying to pinpoint where I was.

  I was willing him to miss me. Not find me. To no avail. He closed his eyes and homed in on my position. He was feeling my presence as much as I was feeling his. We had a true connection. Once again, I doubted the mission. Doubted killing him.

  ‘There you are.’ He said out loud. His eyes still closed.

  I stayed put. Not reacting visibly. Internally I was in turmoil.

  ‘Don’t fight it’ he continued speaking directly to me.’ Come out. Let’s meet. It’s been long overdue.’

  I knew he couldn’t read my mind, but he was so close to what I was thinking that it was eerie. I wanted, no needed, to get closer.

  Slowly I stood up. The shrubs and leaves all around me heaved up as I rose to my full feline height.

  ‘That’s it’ he said encouraging me to come out. I didn’t need his stimulus. I was committed now.

  Taking my first steps out of the gloom under the trees I stepped into the clearing.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

  ‘You are truly magnificent.’ Aze was impressed by the magnificent lion-like feline that slowly padded out of the tree line. The others—Rafael and the woman, stepped back in abject fear. Sarah turned white. The cat’s size and presence exceeded even their expectations and they were terrified.

  Anadi slowly advanced on the group of people. Her senses were on high alert. She could feel every blade of grass under her paws, hear every insect and feel each breath of wind that blew past her muzzle. Keeping her eyes on Azazel she took in all the information her senses gave her.
Sarah was ready to faint. Rafael looked at Aze and nodded. They were communicating directly. Aze was reading his mind and planting thoughts there. Anadi could not follow what was happening and that frustrated her. She roared. A magnificent bone-chilling roar. Sarah screamed and ran. Rafael went after her. Azazel stayed where he was, a big smile on his face.

  He was standing three metres from the edge of the cistern. Slowly he walked to the side, around the edge, she followed him. Not hearing any others, she focussed entirely on him.

  He bowed in an exaggerated way, reminiscent of Edwardian times, like he had in Canterbury. ‘I am so happy to finally make your acquaintance. I have heard so much about you.’ she stopped her advance and observed him. He was a handsome man, but she already knew that. His scent seemed very familiar. But she knew that this was the first time she had ever smelled it. It was all very confusing. Again, she roared. It had no other impact on him than that he smiled even more.

  ‘You are a wonderful thing to behold.’ He continued. ‘Such a shame that you come here as an enemy, not as a friend.’ She advanced again. He backed away, matching her pace, the continuous smile on his face all the time. ‘It doesn’t have to be this way, you know. You could just give in to your instincts. Join me here in this paradise.’

  He gestured around us with his arms. ‘You belong here you know?’ he said. ‘This place. It’s in your blood.’

  What did he mean?

  Why did I belong here? It felt right, that I knew, but why?

  He could see the turmoil in my eyes and body, even in this form.

  ‘This is your home.’ He dropped one bomb after another. ‘This is where you and I originated from. This is where it all started.’

  I looked around, I couldn’t stop myself. I was losing control rapidly. The place and Azazel, were getting to me. Hanging on by the thinnest of threads, I shook my head. I needed to do something to regain control.

  ‘Feel it.’ He urged me. ‘Let it seep into your bones.’ His voice was soft, but to me it sounded as though his words were spoken through a megaphone. They banged around inside my head, painful with every tone. I shook my head again.

  ‘You can’t fight it. It’s in your blood, it’s you.’

  As a last resort, I changed back to human form. Hoping that I would at least have a bit more control over the Primal side.

  ‘It’s not me.’ I said in a guttural voice. It only brought a bigger smile to his lips. He even clapped his hands elatedly.

  ‘Yes, it is, even you cannot deny that. I felt it, you feel it. This is your origin. This is where you belong.’ I advanced on him, my hands formed the claws—my weapons of choice. I had to kill him, stop his influence, before it was too late, before I lost it completely. He led me around the cistern. Slowly getting closer to the edge and manipulating me to do the same. My back was to the jungle where Sarah and Rafael had vanished into.

  Suddenly Azazel stopped. The smile deepened. But it had an edge. There was something I was missing. I concentrated. I focussed on him, and on him only.

  That was my mistake.

  From the corner of my eye I saw Rafael. He was standing within the clearing again, only now he brandished a massive double-barrelled shotgun, pointed at me. It took me a second to register what was happening. One second too long. Without thinking, I started the change again, ready to launch myself at Rafael. But it was too late.

  Azazel laughed.

  As though in slow motion I saw the muzzle blast, first one, then the second barrel exploded its load in a fireball. The charges hit me in the chest, one a fraction of a second after the other. The blast was enough to lift me off my feet and throw me back.

  I was clawing at thin air as I was hurtled over the edge of the cistern into its depths.

  I hit the bottom with a bone crunching smack. Agony rampant in my partially changed body.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

  ‘Ohhh that must have hurt.’ Azazel was standing on the rim of the cistern, looking down. ‘Though it won’t kill you, because I wasn’t the one to shoot. Rafael here’ he indicated his acolyte who had joined him, brandishing the still smoking shotgun. ‘He’s the one who shot you.’

  ‘Not the first time that you’ve been shot, I’m guessing. Might be one of the last though. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

  ’See Rafe’ he said to the acolyte. ’She’s already healing. The broken bones have knitted back together and the blood doesn’t seep out anymore. Give her a few more minutes and she will be right as rain. Somewhat anaemic though, so she’ll need to replenish the blood. Observe the effort it’s taking?’ He was having fun. Rafael just stood there and watched. Having been around Azazel for many years, he was familiar with the healing process. What unnerved him was the constant blurring change that she was going through. Parts of her body morphed from human to feline and back again. She was straining to regain control.

  ‘Ok… Ok.’ Aze spoke to Rafael again. ‘The show’s over, go do your chores… …go on… …get.’ Rafael turned and went back into the jungle to take care of the last preparations for their departure. They would need to get far away as soon as possible. Once Azazel got down to business, they would not have long before the jungle imploded. He made his way to the helicopter to start the checks.

  ‘It’s so much fun talking to you’ Aze said from his perch sitting on the edge of the cistern. ‘We should do this more often. Oh no, I forget. We’re not allowed, are we? Our pesky Watchers. They get in the way all the time, don’t you think?’

  He was having a ball. She was successfully trapped in the cistern. It was too high for her to jump out in one leap, and the tiles were too slippery for her to get a hold. So he could take his time.

  ‘Don’t you just hate the way they try to manipulate us all the time. Take this last plan that Joseph concocted. Don’t like that guy by the way. Much too intense. And his dark side. Oops, not a politically correct remark.’ He laughed at his own joke.

  ‘Or haven’t you found that side of him yet? Took me a while. You were on the right track though, I got that much from our mutual friend Panat. Just ask yourself, where do the clans get their money from? Cause they’re rich. Richer than me. And that takes mucho money. Anyway… …. Where was I? Oh yes. Their income. They’re not the angels you think they are, you know? Your new friends. Though to be honest, your little beau Panat was blissfully unaware, so you probably are too, though I see that you’re more difficult to convince. A bit paranoid, are we? Well you have reason to be.’

  Panat. Where was he? Was he still alive? Anadi was frantic, between the struggle to keep sane, the proximity of Azazel and her distress about whether Panat was alive or not, she was rapidly losing her mind.

  He must have noticed her reaction to Panat’s name. ‘Don’t worry, he’s alive. For the moment.’

  That didn’t help much.

  ‘Back to Joseph. He’s quite the character. Did you know that he is effectively the boss of the whole lot of them? He’s the one who calls all the shots. Cause he’s the one with his mitts on the purse strings. Think on that for a while.’

  He was silent for a few moments.

  He giggled. ‘This is so much fun. Oh, I’m just pulling your leg, there’s no way that you can ask him, you’re not leaving here, not alive anyway.

  ‘I love screwing around with Joseph’s head. It’s a challenge, that man is super manipulative. He almost got me under his spell. And he got you, that’s for sure. But he makes mistakes. He tells people his plans, and that’s where I get the info.’ He stood up and moved around the rim of the cistern, trying to disorientate her.

  ‘I don’t like his new plan. Been there, done that, and it hurt the last time.’ serious now. ‘When I’m done with you, I think I’ll go pay him a visit. This time, I won’t let him persuade me. This time, I’ll kill the bastard. Get rid of him once and for all. The world will be a better place for it. There are more where he came from, other partners. You might even thank me in the end. But oh no, I forget. You’re not going to
survive this one.’

  He finally stopped. ‘I’m getting quite tired of killing you, you know. This is the what? … Third time? Yeah it must be. We keep running into each other. And you keep dying. You and your predecessors. Me and mine have kicked your ass multiple times.’

  Three times? She thought. That’s one more than she knew. How long had this animosity been raging? And what did Aze mean by Joseph’s new plan?

  ‘You know we could work together. Now that would be a great idea. We could really make this world rock.’ He continued his monologue unperturbed.

  ‘Have you ever wondered why he sent you? He has all the other forces he could use. Oh, you didn’t know? He controls them all. In one way or the other. Anyway. There is a reason why he sent you after me, why he let Panat be captured. Yes, he knew it would happen.’ He was silent for a few minutes.

  ‘He’s scared of you, you know. Really scared. Of your morals, your beliefs and your power. Seems you’re the most powerful of your kind ever. Arguementely, the most powerful of us all. Not that you’d think that, the ease with which I caught you. But you have potential. And an inner strength. That scares the shit out of him. You are an even greater threat to him than I am. And that’s saying a lot. All this…’ He gestured around at the buildings and the cistern. ‘This whole place, the predicament you’re in now. It’s all part of his plan to get you and me back into the fold. Back under his influence. Won’t work though. Not this time. I’m going to screw his plans. It’s time that things went my way. Shame you won’t join me. But I can see that now. Your beliefs are too strong. You are too powerful. Such a waste.’

  ‘Another thing to wonder’ he added. ‘Why do you think “War” is his favourite force? He is, you know? He’s “The Man”. The most valuable of us all. Any idea why? Here’s a hint. Follow the money trail.’