The Altar

by James Arthur Anderson

  After about five minutes, the door opened and a man wearing a blue suit entered. Erik stood up as the man extended his hand.

  “I’m so sorry to inconvenience you, Mr. Hunter. I’m special agent Thralls. I’ve been put in charge of this case.”

  Erik nodded and took a good look at the man. He seemed vaguely familiar. He had short, close-cropped hair, a light complexion reddened by the sun, and piercing blue eyes.

  “Would you like some coffee?” he offered.

  “Ah, no. Thanks.”

  Erik sat down and Thralls took a seat across from him.

  “Could I speak to Sheriff Collins?” Erik asked.

  “Sheriff Collins isn’t available tonight,” the agent said. “This case has involved a kidnapping and crosses state lines, so the F.B.I. is handling the investigation now.”

  “I see. So how do I fit into this investigation?”

  Thralls laughed. “Well I can tell you that you are not a suspect. However, your friend Johnny Dovecrest is. That means that if you are withholding any information, you could be charged as an accessory.”

  “Is that a threat?”

  “No, Mr. Hunter. It is simply a legal fact.”

  Erik looked at the agent for a long moment. “Ok. What is it you want to know?”

  Thralls sat back in his chair and folded his hands on the table. “Good. I’m glad that you’re willing to cooperate. As you know, this has been a very serious case. The stakes are always much higher whenever children are involved.”

  “I understand. I have a child of my own and I’m very worried.”

  “Then let me ask you about Johnny Dovecrest. How well do you know him?”

  Erik told the agent that he’d met Dovecrest just a few nights ago when he’d warned him about the woods and asked him to hang the amulet at his door.

  “Do you believe he could be involved in supernatural rituals?”

  “Frankly, I don’t know what the man believes in, or how he worships,” Erik replied. “But I know he isn’t involved in murdering children.”

  “How do you know that?”

  Erik told him about how Todd had become lost and how Dovecrest had found him.

  “Mr. Thralls,” he said. “I’m going to tell you something that may be difficult to believe, but I don’t know who else to tell.”

  “Go for it.”

  “I think there’s a Satanic cult living in those woods and I think they have killed the missing girl.”

  “That’s not so hard to believe, Mr. Hunter. We also believe a cult is behind the murders. We’ve been following them for some time now. And we think Johnny Dovecrest is part of that cult.”

  2

  When Erik got home, he explained what had happened to Vickie, then took a sleeping pill to try to relax. The next thing he knew, the sun was shining in on his face through the bedroom window.

  “Hey, Sleepyhead,” Vickie said.

  “What time is it?”

  “It’s almost noon.”

  “I guess those pills were more powerful than I thought.”

  Vickie smiled. “You want something to eat?”

  “No. Just coffee.”

  “It’s already made,” she said. “Sheriff Collins called about a half hour ago. He said it was very important.”

  “That’s one person I really have to talk to,” Erik said. “Let me call him back.”

  Erik grabbed the cordless phone from its cradle and dialed as he made his way to the kitchen. Collins picked it up on the first ring.

  “I need to see you,” Erik said. “Can you stop by the house?”

  “I’ll be right there,” the sheriff replied.

  Collins was ringing the doorbell before Erik had even finished his first cup of coffee. Erik poured the sheriff a cup and explained what had happened the night before.

  “Dovecrest showed me how to find the thing,” he said. “I think I can take you there, if you’d come with me.”

  The sheriff thought for a moment. “What the hell,” he said. “Let’s go.”

  Erik told Vickie he was going out with Collins and two men went out.

  “Let’s start at Dovecrest’s place,” Erik said. “That’s my landmark.”

  3

  Seti was having sex with Shanika when the thing on his neck sent a lightening bolt of fire through his body. He screamed and rolled off, holding onto his neck and writing in pain.

  “Woah, where’d that come from? Don’t tell me you’ve come already! I’m not near ready yet.”

  “Shut up, you bitch,” Seti gasped, and gave her a backhanded slap across the face.

  “What’s the matter with you?” she said.

  “Get out!” he screamed. “Get out and leave me alone.”

  She scurried off the bed and ran naked from his trailer as he swatted at her again.

  Seti lay back down and wailed. “What now! What the hell do you want now! Can’t you just leave me alone?”

  The pain slowly fell away, and Seti relaxed. Then the thing made itself known.

  “I had to get your attention,” it said, its very presence vibrating throughout his body.

  “Couldn’t you have just called?” Seti asked.

  The thing sent him another quick jolt of pain for his insolence.

  “You do not question me,” it said. “You serve me.”

  Another jolt of pain racked Seti, and he doubled up in agony.

  “I am hungry,” the thing said. “And we have visitors in the woods. It is time for a snack.”

  Seti rode out the wave of pain, then sat up.

  “Whatever your wishes, Master.”

  4

  Tentatively, Erik led the sheriff into the woods behind Dovecrest’s cabin. It had been pitch dark when he’d been here last night, so he had nothing to go on but his instincts. He decided to just charge forward a ways into the woods, and then let his instinct take over.

  “I’ve been out here dozens of times and haven’t found anything,” Collins said. “How do you know where to find this…this stone of yours?”

  “I’m not even positive I can,” Erik said. “But it doesn’t involve looking. It involves feeling.”

  Collins shrugged. “I don’t get it.”

  “Neither do I,” Erik said. “Ok. I need to stop and get my bearings. Just be patient and let me…feel.”

  Erik found a relatively clear spot and stopped. He closed his eyes, folded his arms across his chest, and began to breathe slowly and deeply. He felt the hot midday sun beating down on him from the breaks in the treetops. There was no breeze, and he heard the buzzing of mosquitoes and the chirping of birds. A crow cawed a warning from above, then flew away. Nothing but the mundane sounds of the forest. He waited and opened up his mind and his soul to whatever might come in. Still nothing but the ordinary sounds of the forest.

  He was about to give up and go home when he felt it. It wasn’t a sound, or even a sensation, but a feeling, not of the body but of the soul. It was like weak push, the feeling one gets when putting two magnets together and feeling them repel one another. It was a feeling of avoidance. Don’t go there, it seemed to say. There’s nothing for you in that direction. He suddenly remembered the Star Wars movies and how “the force” could make people do things. In this case this force was trying to make him not do something.

  “I have it,” he whispered, and slowly moved in the direction he was being pushed away from.

  The feeling grew stronger, the force in his head more insistent. Now that he could recognize it, it was abundantly clear, as obvious as a street sign pointing the way.

  “This way,” he said, and opened his eyes. Once he recognized the feeling, he found himself navigating easily through the dense forest, making his way around trees and bushes and still following the unspoken command.

  Dovecrest had said that the thing could only be found if it wanted to be, and Erik had the sudden frightening thought that maybe this time it did want to be found. How else could the feeling have grown so strong so quickl
y?

  But whether or not it wanted to be found didn’t really matter, because it must be found, and what better time than now, in the heat of the day and with the sheriff beside him. This was definitely his best chance, no matter how he looked at it.

  Then, suddenly he stepped into a clearing in the middle of the forest. The sun shone down from overhead, and the grass was trimmed, as if it had recently been mowed. He felt it before he saw it-the altar stone stood in the very center of the clearing.

  “I’ll be damned!” Collins said. “This just can’t be!”

  Erik stopped at the edge of the clearing, but the sheriff kept on walking, almost as if he were drawn towards the stone. Erik called out to him but he didn’t seem to hear. Then he saw a man enter the clearing from the other side of the altar stone. He shouted a warning. Still, Collins did not hear. If anything, he walked faster.

  Erik took one step forward, and then stopped. That same inner feeling that had shown him the way here now spoke to him again. Only this time the stone called him towards it.

  On an instinctual level, Erik knew better than to respond to the call. Although his feet yearned to pull him forward, he resisted. Again, he called out to Collins, but the man would not respond. In fact, he was now heading across the field at a full run. Erik couldn’t have caught him now if he’d tried.

  Collins pulled his gun from his holster, and Erik thought he was going to shoot the man heading towards him, but he merely held the gun out in front of him. The man was too far away to clearly distinguish his features. He walked slowly, almost robotically, as if he, too, were under some sort of spell. The man had short hair, Erik noticed, and held his head at an odd sort of angle. As he came closer, Erik noticed an odd-looking growth on the side and back of his neck.

  The sheriff ran up to the altar stone and waited until the stranger reached the other side of the stone. The two of them stared into each other’s eyes like two cats sizing one another up before a fight.

  Collins pointed his gun at the man, and then began to scream. Slowly, he turned the gun back towards himself and pressed the muzzle against his abdomen.

  “No!” Erik screamed. Without thinking, he rushed out into the field and towards Collins. Before he had even taken two strides, though, he heard the muffled pop of the gun. Collins doubled forward, then fired again into his stomach.

  As Erik came closer, the sheriff turned and faced him. Erik could see the excruciating horror on his face as blood flowed from his abdomen, staining his shirt red. Whimpering softly, he climbed onto the altar and collapsed onto the polished black stone. Then he put the gun to his own left shoulder and fired again.

  Erik stopped and looked at the stranger, the man with the growth on his shoulder. The man was grinning, licking his lips in pleasure as he watched the sight. And Erik swore the thing on his neck was getting larger.

  Finally, Collins put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger one last time. Only then did the man turn and look at Erik. Power and hatred clouded his eyes, and Erik felt himself shrivel under the terrible gaze.

  5

  Todd sat by the side of his bed and cried. He didn’t know how or why, but he knew his father was in trouble. The stone was trying to get him, too. It had already gotten one man and now his Dad was on the list.

  If only he could stop it. He had somehow stopped it from getting him. Why couldn’t he stop it from getting Dad?

  He balled his mind up like a fist, imagined the terrible black rock, and struck out at it with all of his will.

  “I’ll kill you!” he screamed out loud. Then he sent out another mental attack.

  It felt like hitting a basketball with a fly swatter. The thing stopped for a moment and realized he was there. But his mental blow bounced off as if it were nothing. He tried again, and felt the thing laughing at him, taunting him, and he knew he could never win this way. The thing had become too strong, or else he was too far away. It was Dad that needed help….

  Then, without even realizing what he was doing, he imagined his father standing beside the rock, and he sent out another burst of mental energy. Only this time it wasn’t sent towards the rock, but directly at his father. He felt the demon thing’s puzzlement and then he felt his father’s reaction. He felt his father’s strength, and in the demon’s moment of confusion, he knew his Dad was safe. For a brief moment the thing had toyed with the son and forgot about the father. By the time it turned its attention back, Todd knew that his father had broken the spell and was already on his way back through the woods.

  Todd dropped to the floor, just as his mother came rushing in to see what was wrong.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  1

  Johnny Dovecrest sat on his filthy cot and wondered how he had gotten himself into this mess. Now he was in jail and of no earthly good to anyone. What was worse, he knew something was happening in the woods; he could sense it. He hoped and prayed that Erik hadn’t done anything stupid. He wasn’t ready to take the demon on yet, even if he were able to find the stone. Dovecrest feared that he had acted rashly though. If so, he suspected he was already dead.

  They’d arrested him for the murder of the cult member and for involvement in the death of the girl. They had interrogated him for hours, but he had refused to say anything. He knew they had matched the bullet taken from the dead man to his gun. He didn’t know if they had any evidence linking him to the girl or not. But it didn’t really matter. No one would believe his story. Besides, once they convicted him of the one crime, the other was simply overkill. He almost laughed at his own unintentional pun.

  He put his head in his hands and tried to think this through. How had he gotten himself into this mess? Everything he’d tried to do had gone wrong. He hadn’t saved the girl and he hadn’t stopped the demon. He’d killed the wrong cult leader-he knew that the real leader hadn’t been hurt badly and was already up to no good. He had lured Erik into a dangerous situation and probably had him killed-or worse. And now he was in jail where he couldn’t do anything about anything. At least they had left him in the local jail, he thought, and not taken him to the Adult Correctional Institute yet. He was due to be arraigned tomorrow, though, and then they’d move him on.

  They told him a Public Defender would be coming by to see him this afternoon, but he really wasn’t interested in talking to someone he didn’t even know. He would rather meditate and try to come up with a plan-any sort of plan.

  He was just about to doze off when the guard came and tapped on the bars.

  “You’ve got a visitor.”

  Dovecrest nodded. He expected it was the lawyer and was rather surprised to see Pastor Mark.

  “They won’t let me come in,” Mark said shyly. “But I wanted to speak with you.”

  “I appreciate it,” Dovecrest said.

  The guard watched for a moment, then left. “I’ll be right outside when you’re done,” he said to the Pastor. “Just bang on the door.”

  Mark nodded. “Johnny, I’ve been praying for you and for this community. There is something very wicked going on here. The devil’s work. I feel it.”

  Dovecrest sat back down on his cot and nodded. “The devil,” he said softly. “He exists in every land, in every culture, and in every time.”

  “Indeed,” Mark said. “Though some might claim he is not real, he walks among us. Johnny. Tell me what happened. Tell me what I can do to help.”

  “I told you about what happened in ancient times. When your ancestors and mine banished this demon from the world and locked him away. That was true. All of it.”

  The pastor nodded. “I wasn’t sure I believed you the other night. But I believe you now.”

  “Now it is coming back, stronger than ever. It feeds off pain, suffering, and destruction, and there is no telling how far it will go before it stops.”

  “That is the nature of sin and evil. It leads men to their own pain and destruction.”

  Dovecrest sat back and rested his head against the stone wall. This man seemed to
understand. But what would he be able to do?

  “Ok,” he said, finally. “Last night I met with Erik Hunter. I wanted to show him how to find the sacrificial stone.”

  “Show him?”

  “That’s right. The stone is not of this world. It is not always in the same place. It must be found by feeling not by seeing.”

  “Ok.”

  “So I took him and I showed him. He’s a quick learner. He headed right for the stone.”

  “So he’s found it?”

  “No. At least not then. The police followed us. They took us back. I was arrested.”

  “And Erik?”

  “They let him go. But I’m afraid he went back looking for the stone today. If so, he’s in serious trouble.”

  Pastor Mark paced in front of Dovecrest’s cell. “I should let someone know.”

  “The State Police and the F.B.I. won’t believe you. The sheriff might. But even he’s skeptical. You might tell him Erik went off into the woods and you’re worried about him.”

  “Hmmm. That would work. Now what about you?”

  “Don’t worry about me.”

  “How can you say that? Didn’t you say we need to destroy this thing? You’re the only one who knows how to do that.”

  “When the time comes, it will work out the way it needs to. How do you say it, Pastor? God will provide.”

  “Yes. God will provide. But God also helps those who help themselves. Does the Narragansett Tribe have an attorney?”

  “Yes. But he’s arrogant and doesn’t believe in the old ways.”