by Ripley, Ron
Something wasn’t right about the house that they were walking towards.
Brian didn’t seem to mind, though. He kept plodding along, the flashlight’s beam never wavering as they moved closer.
Soon the stone walls of the lodge were before them, the red light dancing along the stones. Together they crept up to the building. Brian made his way to the door, but Nate stopped him with a hiss. The man stepped over to Nate.
“What’s wrong?” Brian asked in a soft whisper.
“Don’t you smell that?” Nate asked.
“What?”
“The blood. The whole place stinks of blood.”
“No,” Brian said. “Can’t smell a thing. Still getting over that head cold.”
“Well, the place stinks, something fierce.”
Brian shrugged.
“Don’t be stupid,” Nate said, keeping his voice low. “Let’s take a peek in and figure out what’s going on.”
Again Brian shrugged, but he followed Nate over to the left window. They slipped up to it and peered in through the slim crack.
Nate looked over the interior of the place, which was a decent size, and saw that the fireplace had a fire in it. The flames were tall and cast light on—wait a second.
Nate looked back at the fire.
“Brian,” Nate whispered.
Brian looked over.
“Fire.”
Brian put his eye to a crack, looked and then pulled his head back, shaking it. He looked again and then over to Nate. “Where the hell’s the wood?”
“I don’t know,” Nate said.
“And what about the damned skulls?”
Nate frowned and immediately put his head back to the window. He looked around the room and saw nearly a dozen skulls stacked neatly around the hearth.
Suddenly there was a gentle sound behind them, and they both turned around. A red dragon came out of the darkness, dragging a shape with it. The shape mewled like a sick kitten as the dragon dropped it to the forest floor.
Well, what have we here? A voice asked in Nate’s head, sending him staggering back into the wall. Through pain-hazed eyes, he watched as Brian dropped to his knees, moaning loudly. Nate sat with his back against the stones, and he felt a curious heat emanating from them.
A late dinner has strolled right up to the front door, the voice chuckled, the dragon moving forward. Yes, a late dinner.
Suddenly the dragon lunged forward, and Nate watched, horrified as the dragon struck Brian. The man screamed in fear and pain as the dragon sank its teeth into Brian’s shoulder. Blood exploded out of the dragon’s mouth, splashing against the lodge. Several drops hit Nate where he sat.
The thing that the dragon dropped when it arrived had begun to rise up. Nate saw that it was a young woman. As the dragon tore into Brian, she ran away from the lodge.
The sight of the girl running brought Nate to his senses. He tried to stand, and found that he was stuck.
He couldn’t move.
It felt as though something was grabbing his clothes and holding him down.
In the dim light escaping from the house, and the half-moon’s light piercing through a gap in the cloud cover, Nate saw that this was exactly the case. The earth seemed to have taken hold of his pants and boots. His jacket clung to the stones of the lodge itself.
My friend does not wish you to leave us, the voice said.
Nate jerked his head to the right and saw the dragon looking at him, its face dark with the blood of Brian. Nate’s friend lay, half-eaten, on the ground, his blood and exposed flesh steaming in the night air.
No, the voice chuckled, my friend doesn’t wish you to leave. And since my sparse dinner seems to have fled, and I’ve no real desire to chase it down, well, I’m afraid that you’re next on the menu, my dear boy.
Nate screamed.
A long, terrified scream that echoed out through the woods and into the town.
Chapter Eight
Escaping from the Beast
Kaitlin saw the Jeep at the same time that she heard a scream rip through the darkness behind her.
She knew what it meant.
The wounds in her shoulder oozed blood, reaffirming what that scream meant.
She slammed into the Jeep, tripping on something.
Gasping for breath, she made her way around the front end of the Jeep and to the driver’s side. She reached in, felt around the steering column and nearly wept with joy as her hand found the key still in the ignition.
Pulling herself into the Jeep, she started it, took off the emergency brake, tried to remember the basic rules for driving a standard, and shifted the gears until she found reverse.
Wincing and letting out a moan as she twisted in the seat, she started backing out the barely visible trail that Jeep was on.
But she didn’t slam the gas pedal down.
She got her breathing under control, and focused on driving backward, no mean feat, considering she wasn’t that good of a driver to begin with.
She kept the Jeep steady, though, moving along, taking the occasional shift in the road slowly. She wanted to get out.
Kaitlin wanted to be alive.
After a few minutes, she found that she could see light—a street light. She had to be in Enfield still. The dragon hadn’t dragged her for that long.
A moment later, she could see a parking lot, the back of a building, and what looked like two guys at a grill.
Then the Jeep was in the parking lot itself, and she drove the Jeep straight in reverse, forgetting to put the brakes on until right before the back of the building. The Jeep still hit the wall, but the two men raced to the truck. One of them put it in ‘park’ and pulled up the emergency brake while the other helped her out of the Jeep.
It took a minute for her to realize that they were speaking to her.
“Where’s Nate?” one of them asked. “Where’s Brian?”
She shook her head.
The other said, “Jesus, Joe, she’s bleeding.”
“Aw, hell, she is! Dave, go call 911.”
The one named Dave ran off while the one named Joe stayed with her, pulling off a flannel shirt. He folded it several times before pressing it against her shoulder. Kaitlin groaned involuntarily.
“I know,” Joe said. “I know. Hurts. Just try and breathe. Can you tell me where the two guys are who were in this Jeep?”
“The dragon got them,” she whispered.
Joe blinked, but didn’t argue with her. “A dragon?”
Kaitlin nodded. “Out in the woods. It brought me to a stone house out there. The men were there, looking in a window when it came to them. It dropped me and went after them.”
“And you ran.”
She nodded.
“No worries,” Joe said softly. “I would have run too.”
***
Joe was sitting on the ground, his back against the Jeep, with Kaitlin leaning against his chest as he held the flannel shirt in place. Dave came hurrying back out.
“They’re on their way, Joe,” Dave said.
“Good,” Joe said.
“Should I get her some water? I’ve got a pack in the back of my truck.”
Joe nodded, and Dave hurried away, coming back a minute later. He handed it nervously to Joe.
“Thanks, Dave,” Joe said. He opened the bottle and said softly, “Kaitlin?”
“Yes?” she asked softly.
“Take a drink of this.”
She turned her head slightly, noticing the water for the first time, and lifted up her right hand to take the bottle. She took a drink and then put the bottle on the asphalt between her legs. Kaitlin relaxed against his chest.
“What happened?” Dave asked softly, looking at Joe. “Where are they?”
“That lodge that you found?” Joe asked.
Dave nodded.
“She says that they were at the lodge, and something attacked them. It had dragged her there.”
“Jesus.”
“It wasn’
t a something,” Kaitlin whispered. “It was a dragon.”
***
Tom and Kyle were walking to his truck when they heard a scream. A long, drawn out scream that ripped through the night air. Not too loud, but loud enough for Tom to know that it was from a human being.
“What was that?” Kyle asked.
Tom hesitated for a moment before saying, “That was someone dying.”
She turned and looked at him sharply, her face clearly defined in the bright lights illuminating the barnyard. “What do you mean?”
“Ka-Riu is feeding,” Tom said. “That’s what I mean. He’s getting bolder. He doesn’t seem to care now. Pretty soon he’ll probably start grabbing people in broad daylight.”
Kyle shook her head, as though the reality of Ka-Riu were really, truly setting in. “How can it just move around like that? It shouldn’t be feeding like that. It shouldn’t be this hungry.”
“Maybe it’s making up for lost time?” Tom said.
They reached the truck, and they both climbed in.
“That doesn’t make sense,” Kyle said after buckling up. “Regardless of how long it was asleep in that lodge, Ka-Riu shouldn’t be killing like this. It’s not even killing the people who imprisoned it. Or hunting down their families. It’s like the dragon’s perfectly happy to be here.”
“Why wouldn’t it be?” Tom asked, heading the truck back towards the station. He pulled his phone out of his breast pocket and set in the unused ashtray.
“What?”
“I mean, if the hunting is good here,” Tom said, thinking out loud. “And we can only guess it is, then why would it want to go back to Japan? People in Japan are probably more likely to believe in dragons, right?”
“Well, some,” Kyle said. “Yes, there’s Shintoism and some family practices that still occur, but” she shook her head, “that shouldn’t be a deciding factor as to why the dragon would stay here. Especially not when you think of the mythos behind all of it. What I’m saying is, he’s the boss over there. I really can’t understand why Ka-Riu is still here. He should have left as soon as he was freed, as far as the mythology is concerned. I’m not even sure how to get him to leave.”
“I’m thinking the only way to get Ka-Riu out of Enfield is to kill him,” Tom said.
“Which we don’t know how to do yet,” Kyle said.
Tom nodded. “Well, we need to figure it out.”
“Exactly.”
Tom went to speak, but his phone rang. He picked it up and saw that it was Henry Moran, the State trooper assigned to Enfield for assistance.
“Hello, Henry,” Tom said, answering the phone.
“Tom,” Henry said. “Hey, I’ve got a girl who got attacked by something out here behind, what is it, Holt’s Auto?”
“Yeah,” Tom said. “I know where it is. She okay?”
“They’ve got a meatwagon rolling towards us,” Henry said, “but I can’t figure out what the kid’s saying.”
“What is it?”
“She says she was bitten by a dragon, and there are two others out by a lodge in the woods, possibly injured. Plus, I’ve got two guys here who confirmed that two others went into the woods just before she came out. And,” Henry added, “I could have sworn I heard somebody scream a little while ago.”
“Probably a mountain lion, Henry,” Tom lied. “Best get her on that wagon and up to Lebanon for treatment, okay?”
“Sure thing,” Henry said. “Hey, where are you?”
“Headed back to the station, why?”
“Think you could take over the questioning of the two guys here? We just got a call in from some farmer on the far side of Mascoma, says something got into his sheep and killed a few. He’s pretty upset about it, and that’s part of my regular territory.”
“Not a problem,” Tom said, “tell the boys behind the shop to hold on, I’ll be there shortly.”
“Great. Thanks, Tom,” Henry said.
“No problem, Henry.”
Tom ended the call and looked over to Kyle.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“Injured kid,” Tom answered. “Says she was attacked by a dragon.”
“Jesus Christ,” Kyle said.
Tom simply nodded his agreement, signaled left, and drove back to the station.
***
“Your eyes are different,” Joe said.
“What do you mean?” Tom asked. He was leaning against the grill of his truck, the engine warmon his back and his arms folded across his chest.
“We told that Statie what the girl said,” Joe continued. “He didn’t believe us. He didn’t believe her when she told him. You believe us. You know, don’t you?”
It was neither a question nor an accusation. It was simply a statement.
“I know,” Tom said.
Dave groaned and walked over to the keg and got himself another beer -- the third since Tom had started questioning them. Tom looked at Joe.
“You believe her,” Tom said.
Joe nodded. “Yup. That girl’s scared out of her mind. I’ve seen lots of injuries. Lots of wounds. Animals don’t make wounds like that. Least not on dry land. Maybe a croc or an alligator might leave a wound like that, but we don’t have any of those in Enfield.”
“So it has to be a dragon,” Dave said, holding his cup in both hands.
“And she came back driving Nate’s Jeep?” Tom asked.
“Yeah,” Joe nodded. “That’s the other thing. She came back, drove it into the wall and told us how the dragon had gotten Brian. Told how it was headed towards Nate when she took off running.”
“Joe wanted to go in there,” Dave said, his hands starting to shake. “He wanted to go in and try to get Brian and Nate out.”
“That won’t work,” Tom said. “They’re already dead, both of them. More than likely they’ve been eaten as well.”
“What are you going to do?” Dave asked.
Both Tom and Joe looked at the man.
“I mean,” Dave said, taking a hasty drink of his beer, “what are you going to do about killing it?”
“That’s something that we’re still figuring out,” Tom said.
Joe looked at him. “Seriously?”
Tom nodded.
“Just shoot it,” Joe said. “Just shoot it.”
“Didn’t work,” Tom said.
“What?” Joe asked. “How do you know?”
“Got a farmer who put a couple of rounds into it,” Tom answered. “Didn’t do anything other than knock the dragon around a little bit. Didn’t even draw any blood.”
“How do you kill it?” Dave asked.
“We’re trying to figure that out,” Tom said.
“Well,” Joe said, “someone should figure that out pretty quick. Brian and Nate are dead. That girl almost was.”
“They’re not the only ones,” Tom said. “There’s at least five more that we’re sure of.”
Both of the men were silent.
“That’s why I don’t want either of you going out to that lodge thinking that you can do something about it,” Tom said, looking first at Joe and then at Dave. “Do your best to stay inside when you can. The State Police are putting out the word that we’re looking for a rogue bear. Maybe with the bite marks on the girl, they might say that there’s another animal, maybe a mountain lion, that’s gone a little off the reservation too.”
Silence fell over them for a minute, broken finally by Joe.
“You’ll let us know,” Joe said. “You’ll let us know when you figure out how to kill it?”
“I will,” Tom said.
“Good,” Joe said grimly. “I want to be in on the kill.”
Chapter Nine
Information Arrives
Kyle sat in her chair behind the desk. It was late, close to three in the morning, and she’d been drifting in and out of sleep for nearly two hours. She’d been working online and finally settled into the back of the chair to close her eyes.
As she sat t
here, drifting in and out of consciousness, she heard an email alert chime, and opened her eyes.
She had a new message from Kuribayashi Tadamichi.
“My Dear Colleague,” the email began. “I trust this finds you well. I have found your question quite interesting. There is little information regarding not only how a Dragon might be killed, but also who has killed a Dragon in mythology. There is one that is interesting, however, and that is the tale of the Buddhist Goddess Benzaiten, who slew a three-headed dragon.
“I have taken the liberty of looking for temples of Benzaiten in the United States, and I have found one near you, my friend, in the American city of Portsmouth. This is not surprising, in that she is a water Goddess. However, I am surprised that the temple was founded in 1905, far earlier than any other temple on the Eastern Coast of the United States.
“I have enjoyed this little bit of research, my dear friend, and I hope that I shall hear again from you soon.”
For a long time, Kyle stared at the screen.
Finally, she shook her head.
A Goddess, she thought. We need a Goddess.
Chapter Ten
Late Night Guests
Turk sat up on the end of the bed and let out a low, fierce growl.
The sound woke up Israel. A glance at his clock showed that it was only three. Three thirteen in the morning. In the near darkness of the room, he saw Turk sitting, ears up.
Israel sat up as well, pulled the sheet and blankets off, and got out of bed. He slipped his feet into his old workboots and lifted his shotgun out of the corner he had put it in. He slid an old canvas newspaper bag over his shoulder, the pouch resting against his left side, the shotgun shells heavy.
Israel patted his right leg, and Turk jumped down off of the bed, landing almost silently on the bedroom floor. Together they left the room, moving along the hallway quietly to the stairs.
Down the stairs they went, through the hall and into the kitchen.
Israel went directly to the back door and opened it, looking out into the barnyard and at his barn.
Not surprisingly, Ka-Riu was clinging to the side of the barn, his eyes locked on Israel.