The chanting grew louder. I couldn't count them, but a lot of people surrounded the table I was put on. They all wore hoods, unlike my father.
He pulled a huge knife out from under his robe.
“What the fuck?” Cindy said. She grabbed my arm.
He raised the knife over my little baby body. Cindy buried her head in my shoulder.
Before he could thrust it down, there was an inhuman scream. My father was stunned. All the other members of the cult jumped to their feet and looked around. Then the camera started moving as well, searching for the scream.
There was only a single voice, my mother.
“Mark? What's going on?”
A body flew in front of the camera. Following that were some more screams.
The camera went wild, moving all over the place. I heard my father screaming at his followers to find the demon and trap it. I could hear people dying. Beth's screams were the loudest, being right next to the camera. She dropped it to the floor.
“This is where I ran,” she told us.
A stream of blood fell down the camera lens. A female body fell just inches away. My mother. Her eyes were wide open, staring right at me.
The carnage lasted maybe three or four minutes. Then all went quiet. The only thing you could hear were my cries in the background. The camera angle barely showed the table I was on.
It looked as if the shadows in the room actually started to crawl toward the table, toward me. I watched in horror as they crawled up the table. My crying turned into something inhuman for a few seconds.
Beth stopped the video.
“There's nothing else. It's just you crying for another ten minutes before I get there with the police. This was in a run-down church on Patt Street.”
I didn't speak for a minute. Cindy dug a hand into my shoulder.
“What...was that?”
Beth sighed. “Alex, I was in a cult that your father was the leader of. He and Sarah decided to have a child for one reason. To capture a demon, and take its power.”
Cindy stood up. “I can't listen to any more of this.”
She left the room. Smart woman. But I had to hear the rest of it.
“Go on.”
“It was some kind of ritual. You were the sacrifice. Then your father would steal a demon's powers. But something went wrong.”
“Gee, you fuckin' think so?”
A tear rolled down her face. “Something that we couldn't see, killed them all. Ripped their throats out. Tossed them around like they were nothing. I'm only alive because I ran away.”
“I can't believe this.”
“I was your legal guardian after that. And I gave you up for adoption.”
I can only imagine the look on my face. “At least you did something right.”
She pointed at the TV. “Your father was very convincing. We all followed him, even Sarah. I was a stupid kid. I have to live with that for the rest of my life.”
I wanted to throw up. I was having trouble thinking clearly. I sat there like a zombie. Beth kept on talking.
“The town knows I had something to do with it. It's a local legend now. They all hate me. I can't say I blame them.”
That image was still stuck in my head, the one of my own father holding a knife over me.
“The church was supposed to be a very rare gateway, one that ran through all three worlds. I really don't know what happened. Your father must have underestimated the power of the demons on the other side. Or the ritual was wrong somehow.”
I glared at Beth. “He's not my father.”
She ignored me. “Either way, I think somehow you absorbed that demon's energy. Who really knows what power you have.”
I stood up. I was sweating and didn't even know it. I felt nauseous. I popped the video tape out of the VCR.
“I'm taking this.” It wasn't a request.
She nodded. “It's yours.”
I went to move by her. I was more than ready to leave. She grabbed me by the arm.
“Alex.” She opened her mouth, but didn't say anything. Her face was streaming with tears. “I'm so sorry.”
I didn't show any emotion at all. “Goodbye,” was all I said.
I would never see her again.
Cindy was waiting for me outside by her car. We didn't say a word as we drove back to the hotel. I played that whole thing over and over again in my mind.
My biological parents were in a cult. They had me, just to kill me for a ritual. And instead of my biological father becoming all powerful, apparently I did instead.
A very short summary of something that fucked with my head a long time.
Chapter 16
As soon as Cindy and I got back to the hotel, she started packing. I sat on the bed and put the tape in the VCR. Gotta love hotels that haven't upgraded to DVD players yet. Cindy folded a pair of shorts and shoved them in her traveling bag. She noticed what I was doing.
“Uh, Alex?” she asked. “You ready to go?”
“Not yet. I want to watch this again.”
“Why?” There was irritation in her voice.
“I just need to.”
“Aren't we done here?”
“Yeah.”
“Then why don't we go home?”
“We will. I want to watch this first.”
“You should burn that tape and forget you ever watched it.”
Yeah, right. Very easy to say.
“I can't, Cindy. I have to know what happened.”
“You're starting to obsess over this. You said we were coming here to find your parents. Well, we did that.”
I looked at her. “What killed them? Why didn't it kill me?”
“Watching that disgusting tape isn't gonna answer that.”
“It might.”
I pressed play. Cindy angrily slammed her traveling bag closed and went to the door.
“What is your problem?” I asked. “Where you going?”
“I'm going for a walk.”
She left. I shook my head and studied the tape as best I could.
I easily watched it for hours. Cindy never came back. I knew she was really mad at me then. She was right. Watching that massacre over and over again didn't answer any more questions. But I did notice a few things.
When Beth got wild with the camera, I paused it a few times. I could actually see strange shadows on the walls all around. They looked like they were moving. In one shot, I saw one of Mark Fuller's followers missing a hand, with blood shooting out of his arm. They didn't stand a chance to whatever killed them.
I also noticed that Sarah didn't hold me once. I went right from the womb to that sacrificial table. They didn't address me by name. Probably never even thought of one for me. No need to, when you only plan on having your child alive for five minutes.
There was one last thing I noticed. As I watched that video, I thought less of them as my biological parents, and more as Mark and Sarah Fuller.
The sun was starting to set when I finally had enough of watching the tape. Cindy hadn't come back yet. I didn't worry, as this was like her. When she was mad at me, she just stayed away.
I looked around the hotel room for everything I'd have to pack. Before I did so, though, there was one more thing I had to do to put my mind at ease.
I had to see the place. I needed to see it with my own two eyes, and not on a TV. After that, we would leave, and I'd never come back.
I went down to the hotel lobby. The same man who had been working there the night we checked in was back again. He recognized me and gave a nod.
“Hey. Where's that pretty young lady of yours?”
I smiled. Everyone loved Cindy. “Probably out wishing we hadn't come here right about now.”
“Ah. Blossom isn't the most exciting place. You take care of her.”
“Hey, listen. I hear there's an old church somewhere around here.”
He looked at me and shook his head. “Everyone wants to see the old church when they hear about it. Hell, so
me people come here just to see the damn place. My advice, don't. A lot of bad memories there, son.”
“What do you mean?”
“Mark Fuller, everyone liked him. Then the whole town finds out he was a devil worshiper or whatever, using a church of all places for his little meetings. People don't like to talk about it. And they especially don't like seeing tourists walking around the place.”
“I'm not a tourist.”
“Ah. More personal for you, I take it? Look, if you need to see the place, it's two streets over. You can't miss it really. You can walk there from here. But be quick. Besides getting the stink-eye from the people who live around here, that place has its own share of ghost stories, as you can guess.”
Just what I needed. More ghost stories.
I nodded. “Thanks a lot.”
“No problem.”
I walked the two streets over, noticing that Cindy's car was still in the parking lot. It was a nice night for a walk anyway. When I got to the street, I realized that I didn't know which way to turn. However, the guy was right, it was hard to miss. I could see it a little further down.
I stood in front of it for a moment. It looked exactly like you'd think a twenty-year-old church that no one wanted would. No glass in the windows. No front door. Grass that hadn't been mowed. No visible sidewalk of any kind. But I almost chuckled when I saw there was a gate with a chain and lock wrapped around it.
I searched the street for anyone at all. No one out tonight, except for a dog watching me from a neighbor's yard. Gotta love quiet towns. I did see a few living room lights on, but no one was looking right at me.
I vanished and walked through the gate without a problem. Then I appeared right away. An ominous feeling crept over me as I approached my birthplace, but I pushed it aside.
That familiar cold chill hit when I stepped inside. There was just enough light out to let me see without any problems. It looked like a hurricane had hit the place. There was graffiti everywhere. Many of the old benches were missing, or just plain destroyed. I could actually see old yellow police tape on the ground mixed in with the debris.
This was where I was born. This was where a lot of people died.
As I walked around, I could see familiar settings from Beth's recording. The bed where Sarah gave birth to me was in a heap in the corner. Not too far away, near the front of the church, stood the table where Mark placed me. It was still standing after twenty-three years.
I reached a hand out to it.
“Well, hello.”
The voice was right behind me. I spun to see a man standing ten feet away. His feet were missing. He just kind of hovered there. He wore a smile on his face, and right away I knew he, or it, was evil.
There was a blood curdling scream to my left. I turned to see a skeleton pinning a woman down. He was slowly sawing at her neck with a knife. Blood shot everywhere, but she refused to die.
Suddenly, horror surrounded me. The light from the outside took on an eerie red glow. There was a man on his back not too far away from me. He was in half, his legs just a few feet away. He was trying to grab his spilling intestines and shove them back inside. Near the front was someone missing an arm shoving a woman's head into a bucket of water, laughing the whole time. The entire floor of the church was covered in blood. I don't know how many people, and monsters, were there. I honestly couldn't count.
“We've got a new one to play with,” the creature in front of me said.
My first small taste of the demon world.
I ran through the church, stepping on someone's guts as I did so. I made it to the front door and stopped in my tracks. The town of Blossom was gone. The only thing beyond the church's walls was a barren landscape. A red moon was high overhead. Things that weren't human ran like wild animals, chasing each other and torturing people as they ran in fear. Screams and cries of pain filled my ears. This was a scene right out of Hell. An arm shot from the ground right in front of me. My heart jumped in my chest and I backed up a step. Some kind of creature pulled itself out of the ground.
“Where do you think you're going, spirit?”
I backed up into the church. Sounds that I would never forget echoed all around me. Blood being spilled, flesh being eaten, organs being ripped out. Yet the victims weren't dying. The demons wouldn't let them move on from the demon world.
I heard a voice behind me that was familiar.
“Please help me.”
I turned to see Mark Fuller. Something that looked half-human, half-dog was poking its thumb in and out of Mark's eye socket. Sarah wasn't too far away. She crawled towards Mark with her hand out. A demon walked by and cut it off. She screamed in agony.
I looked around and realized that everyone I saw was in Mark's cult. I saw a few familiar faces from the videotape. This was the price they had to pay for trying to manipulate the demon world.
“We've got a spot picked out for you.”
The demon tried to reach out and touch me. It stopped when a new voice echoed around us.
“Alex? Are you in here?”
I turned to see Cindy walking into the church. She was almost completely invisible. It was obvious she wasn't seeing into the demon world, but only the living, as she didn't react in horror. She was just beyond us, and for that I was thankful.
The ghastly voices of the demons spoke around us.
“Another human!”
“She looks delicious.”
“I want to taste her!”
“Let me touch her.”
One of the demons approached her, its claw stretched out. All of the fear, all of the terror that was inside me disappeared. There was only rage. I don't know where it came from. I ran forward and grabbed the demon by the neck with one hand. It was missing half its face. A maggot fell from its mouth to my arm. I ignored it. It snarled and raked my arm with its claws. I felt nothing. In fact, it seemed to hurt the demon.
“You won't get near her,” I said. My voice was different.
It hissed at me.
I tossed the demon like a softball into another that was eating someone's arm. That had everyone's attention, demon and otherwise.
“Listen!” I shouted.
Everyone and everything froze. My voice echoed all across the church. I suddenly felt stronger than ever before. They were afraid of me, and I was feeding off their fear.
Like a demon.
“If you get near that woman,” I pointed to Cindy. She continued to study the church, unaware of what was going on in a world over top of our own. “I will punish you.”
A demon decided to test me. It ran toward her. I extended my hand and the demon stopped, in pain. I somehow pulled it toward me, with just my mind. It thrashed as I grabbed it in my hands. The demon was about my size, but I lifted it over my head easily and snapped its back over my knee. I didn't kill it. I don't think you can kill a demon. But it cried on the floor in pain.
They dropped their focus on Cindy and all eyes were on me.
“It's him!”
“The one with our power!”
The once living people who gave their hearts to a cult stared at me as well. I can only imagine what was going through their minds.
I smiled. Just a minute ago, I was terrified out of my mind. Now the only thing that scared me was the fact that I wasn't afraid, if that makes any sense.
I spoke once again. I was different. I don't exactly know what the demon world is about, but I'm in charge there. I knew it. They knew it.
“I'm guessing everything here is surprised to see me.”
There were a few hisses and snarls. Another demon ran at me. This one was naked with a gaping whole in its chest. I didn't even have to do anything. It swiped at my face, but it didn't hurt at all or leave a wound of any kind. It fell to the ground, holding its claw.
I was surprised when every demon knelt and lowered its head. The less human looking ones did the same thing.
“Master,” one of them said.
“I'm not your fuckin' ma
ster.”
“But we're inside you.” That thought scared me. “What do you want from us?”
I gestured around the room. “These people you're holding on to. Let them go. Let them move on.”
“Master-”
“Do it.”
There were some groans of protest. Then slowly the mutilated spirits started to vanish. Where they went, I have no idea. I bent down in front of Mark Fuller. He was still missing an eye. Sarah held on to him with her one good arm. They were laying in a pool of blood. I felt nothing for them. That also scared me.
“That...was...my power,” he muttered.
I was angry. Even after twenty years of torture in the demon world, he was still the same evil person I only saw glimpses of on that video tape.
“You're welcome. And fuck you.”
He and Sarah vanished.
I did more for them than they ever did for me.
The demons still bowed before me.
“You'll be back,” a demon said with a smile.
“You won't be able to resist. You're part of us.”
I said nothing. I willed myself to vanish from the demon world. It wasn't any different than moving between the living and the spirit. Of course, with the exception of the pleasant scenery.
The red glow of the demon world faded away. I was back in the church with the moonlight pouring in from where windows used to be. No ghosts, no demons. Even the cold chill was gone. I started to process what just happened. My confidence and strength were gone once again. The sight of blood and body parts flashed through my mind. Mark's last words, basically condemning me for stealing his power. Nausea washed over me. I leaned on a broken bench.
Cindy was near the sacrificial table with her back to me. She ran a hand along it. “Jesus, this place is creepy.”
“Yeah. Tell me about it.”
She jumped and turned around. “Alex?”
“Yeah.”
She saw I wasn't doing good. She was at my side in a second. She put a hand on my chest to help me keep balance.
“What's wrong?”
“I'm fine. Just a little dizzy.”
“Don't sneak up on people like that.”
She backed away to give me some space. The nausea left and I started feeling alright.
I wanted to go home. There were still questions. How did I have the demons' power? What else could I do? But I was done. No more questions. No more digging into my past. I'd already regretted nearly everything I'd learned. I wanted to go home, go out on the weekends with my friends, hang out with my sister and best friend, load a few trucks at work. No more demons. No more spirits.
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