by Bryan Nowak
“If someone won’t stop at murder to ensure their power remains intact, then something has gone terribly wrong.” Matthew put the truck back in gear and backed out onto the main road, speeding away.
“We need to get my mom, and we need to get her now.” A spike of terror laced Kyle’s voice.
“I think you are absolutely right. It’s time to finish this. Just understand that, the entire church building needs to burn along with it. You need to be ready to do the unthinkable to save her. Donny has a group of people called ‘The Committee’ who assist in the ceremonies, and they’ll do anything to protect him. He has something solid on each of them and if they don’t do his bidding, he’ll exact revenge.”
“How many are we talking?” Mike wondered out loud.
“The committee is normally made up of seven. But, with Waylon dead, only six are presently serving.” Matthew nodded to Mike. “You met the leader already, George. I suspect he’ll be tied up at the house, he’ll get here, but not until later. They’ll all be armed and take particular pleasure in doing The Master’s bidding. All committee members are required to commit a murder in the name of the high priest.”
“What about The Master?” Kyle asked.
“Everyone thinks The Master is an omnipotent being. I’ve done research, and something does live down there, but I doubt it’s actually immortal. Although Donny has convinced the town The Master’s powers are limitless, I don’t think that’s true. Its ability to sense things is limited. Outside that cave, it’s essentially blind. Now, here’s the important part, I think it can be hurt. Not by regular weapons though. There is a weapon of sorts we can use to make sure that thing never harms another living soul.”
“What's that?” Mike asked, suspiciously.
“A necklace, with an amulet. I’ve only seen it once, when Donny wears it during ceremonies. It makes him invincible. Well, mostly. The amulet makes the wearer invincible to bullets, blades, and The Master himself. Essentially it puts a shield around the wearer and the area surrounding him. If The Master gets too close, it causes him pain. We can use it for our own protection … if we figure out how to get it away from Donny.
Kyle looked dubious. “If it protects Donny, then how do we take it from him?”
Matthew turned onto a narrower country road. “That protection doesn’t extend to physical human contact. The three of us need to overpower him and take the amulet.”
Kyle furrowed his brow in confusion. “I still don’t understand.”
Mike turned to Kyle. “We can kick his ass, but shooting him is out of the question as long as he has the amulet.”
Kyle nodded in understanding, “Ah, got it.”
“Don’t get wrapped around the axle about the amulet for the moment. I’m not even sure where it is, but I suspect in Donny’s office. I’ll let you know what to do when the time comes. I just need you both to promise me that whatever I tell you to do, you’ll do it. Most importantly, no one leaves that church until it’s burning to the ground.”
“Won’t others try and stop us?” Kyle mused.
Matthew considered the question. “Probably just the committee members. The regular people of the town won’t get involved unless specifically ordered to. They’ve been beaten into submission and behave more like sheep. If we’re careful, no one will be able to call for help until it’s too late. The committee members are beyond my control. If it comes down to it, I’ll have to kill them. They won’t stop any other way.”
They drove on, lost in their own thoughts. That’s when Kyle caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye. A girl on a bicycle, looking dumbfounded at them as they slowly turned the corner onto the main road toward town. It was Elizabeth, and there was no mistaking the look of recognition on her face.
Cry Havoc
“ … and here is another thing Reverend. When Matthew pulled up to the intercom station to be let in, I looked at the monitor and I’d swear I saw three people in that truck. I even asked that government man about him. He gave me a story about him being sick. I didn’t think about it until after they left, but only two people drove out of here.” George finished the report and awaited further instructions.
“I thought the security monitor was broken.”
George smiled, “We got it partially working. It’s taking stills every five seconds. Need to get a guy out here to look at it.”
Donny smiled and nodded at his head of security. “Thank you, George. You’ve shown me great loyalty today. The Master will be appreciative of your service. I need you to summon the committee to the church. Make sure everyone parks on the other side of the building. I don’t want anyone to know you’re there. Listen to me carefully, George. Matthew has turned on us. He’s planning to disrupt the ceremony tonight. I want Matthew and the boy brought to me unharmed. Take whatever actions you think are necessary. I’m relying on you to stop him. Bring them before me, alive if you can, dead if you must. Do I make myself clear?”
George nodded.
Should Matthew and the two others return, they weren’t to leave the property alive. Donny hoped the plan worked a little more smoothly than it had thus far. Unfortunately, he’d misjudged who played the part of the betrayer. He thought the problem solved with Waylon dead. The situation wasn’t all bad, now he had something additional to lord over Matthew. That little rat of a conservation officer would now die for his transgressions.
Matthew once had his complete confidence; that was until someone called to confirm the receipt of a body for an autopsy in a county morgue in West Virginia. Due to a difficult to read phone number, Donny received the phone call through the town’s switchboard. It was too late to stop the report from being transmitted; however, it signaled the beginning of the end for Matthew.
At first, Matthew’s gall in exhuming a body and sending it out of state infuriated him. The Master theorized that Matthew should be brought closer rather than drive him away, adhering to the age-old wisdom of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer. They made Matthew a deacon in the church, and it gave Donny almost unfettered control of him.
Donny gave George the order to prepare for the defense of the church. As soon as the preparations were complete, he was to join the other members of the committee. The plan was simple, he wanted Matthew, the man with him, and the boy trapped inside the cave. Once they were inside it was essentially a tomb, and unless they died in a hail of gunfire, the three would be presented to The Master.
Breathlessly, Elizabeth tumbled through the door, panting as she ran up to her father.
He scowled at his daughter. “Where’s the fire, pumpkin?”
“Dad, I saw him!” she gasped.
“Who’d you see?”
Kyle, with Matthew and another guy,” she said, matter-of-factly. “They were all in Matthew’s truck together. You said, you wanted me to keep an eye out for Kyle and I saw him. Did I do alright, Daddy?”
He gave her a paternal grin and pushed a lock of blond hair out of her face. “You did excellent, baby girl. Unfortunately, you are a little late. George already saw him in the truck.”
She pushed out her bottom lip in a pout. “Aww, I wanted to find him.”
“You did really well. And, I am really glad you kept your eyes open. Right now, George is getting things set for the ceremony tonight.”
“Oooh … can I come, Daddy? Please? I’d really like to help out of I can.”
“Really?” He smiled at her. For years he’d worked to desensitize her to the idea of killing. It was The Master’s plan that someday she would take over as high priestess of the church. Starting with small animals, he’d managed to work his way up to where she observed whole ceremonies. The Master seemed to enjoy how intently she watched the proceedings. However, over the years and the introduction of hormones, she took on a darker bend. Tonight, for safety sake, he preferred to keep her out of the cave. If something were to go wrong, he didn’t want her in harms way. Until Matthew and the others were safely bound to the
iron rings in The Master’s lair, he wanted Elizabeth nowhere near them.
Donny shook his head at her, “Sorry sweetie. You have to sit this one out. Unfortunately we don’t have everything set and I don’t want you in harm’s way.” He thought back to her first ceremony. She watched intently, never blinking at the violence. She drank it all in.
And this is how you make a serial killer.
****
Matthew unlocked the church door with a dull thud. Along with George’s suspicions, Elizabeth’s sighting of Kyle would certainly raise the alarm. Time was suddenly a luxury they didn’t have. Behind the altar a cave opening sat below the floor where The Master resided. However, the opening was inaccessible to most people. The reverend normally interacted with him by entering through a heavy steel door in the back of his office. Down a long passageway were a row of cells and storage caves allowing the reverend to keep people prisoner when the need arose. In sharp contrast to the police department jail cells, this was the real prison of the town. Or rather, it was Riapoke’s version of death row.
The foyer of the church opened onto a huge sanctuary. The center of the floor was made of a polished marble and had several slabs of brass encrusted symbols which marked the final resting places of prominent Powhatan leaders. Although the church maintained these were the real grave sites, Matthew doubted it since the sub-floor was suspended several feet over solid bedrock.
Two large central staircases, one on each side, led up either direction to a balcony overlooking the sanctuary. A register of pipes towered over the altar area. A small elevated platform, dwarfed by the sanctuary, held the organ consul. It was connected by stairs to a large choir loft.
Though he’d lost faith in The Master long ago, the grandeur of the church still filled Matthew with reverent awe.
“Where do we look?” Kyle broke the silence, anxious to begin the search.
“We need to get into the reverend’s office,” Matthew replied. “The door to the left of the altar leads to it. Inside there, we’ll find another door taking us underground. A large cave is used to hold those waiting as tributes to The Master. Your mother is likely being held there.”
Walking toward the office, they were suddenly stopped by loud voices outside the church. Males, sounding like they were trying to be quiet and failed miserably, one person kept admonishing the others to ‘keep it down’. Mike peeked out a small opening in the drapes, exclaiming, “Guys, we have company. And not a lot of time. Looks like five men, coming this way.”
Matthew grabbed Kyle by the arm. “Come, quickly.”
The trio ran across the sanctuary. Matthew hastily pushed them toward the altar and into a small opening behind the pews. Only large enough to crawl through, an access panel for the infrastructure supporting the sound system allowed Mike and Kyle to scurry under the pews on all fours. Few people even knew it was there, and no had been down there in years. Matthew, wanting to stay in a position to cover them if their hiding place were discovered, took shelter inside a small closet filled with robes and extra chairs.
The door to the church opened and closed with a metallic scrape. Sounds of heavy boots echoed through the sanctuary. Matthew held his breath as they drew near.
A deep baritone voice rang out through the open space. “Well, now, isn’t this nice? All of us together in the holy of holies. Our little sanctuary away from the rest of the world. C’mon out Matthew. I know you’re in here somewhere. Who knows, if you give yourself up, we might go easy on you. The Master might only take your badge and not your life. What do you say?”
Matthew prayed Mike and Kyle would crawl as deep into the sub floor as they could. Accessing the space a few times over the years, he’d never explored it fully. Mike and Kyle weren’t large men and they could make it quite a distance under the building before they’d run out of space.
He unconsciously backed away from the doors of the closet, hoping to find a better position to hide in case someone decided to check his hiding place.
He considered hiding within the folds of the thick robes hanging in the closet, when his foot stepped on a fluorescent bulb someone carelessly left on the floor. The bulb shattered with a loud pop. The noise rang out like a bell in Matthew’s head. There was no way the others outside the closet could’ve missed that.
Oh, crap.
The baritone voice growled again, “Well now, what do we have here? Someone’s hiding in the closet, fellas. Let’s have a look.” Matthew knew he’d was caught. He only hoped Mike and Kyle found somewhere to hide. Drawing out his pistol, he waited for an opportune moment.
****
Inside the crawlspace, Mike and Kyle heard a sudden gunshot and then a scuffle. He could only assume it was Matthew and the men. A sudden scream of pain and then quiet made for an ominous sign.
Mike wished there were something he could do to help Matthew, but right now his responsibility was to protect the boy. They slithered down the natural curve of the rocky surface. The farther they got from the entrance to the crawlspace, the less dusty the air became. The rock changed from dry and warm to cool and wet.
The light should have faded, the deeper they moved into the crawlspace and it did for a time. Then a light source in front of them took over. Dimly at first, and then a thin veil of light cascaded from an unknown source, reflecting off the polished surface of the rock. Kyle tapped Mike on the shoulder and motioned that they should go toward the light.
The light seeped up from a hole in the floor only a few feet in front of them. It was enough to illuminate the rocky floor and the underside of the buildings superstructure. Peering down the hole, the light’s source became apparent. Fire blazed forth from the rocks, generating an eerie, but welcome glow. The hole, large enough for them to fit through, led down to a stairway hewn out of the bedrock itself. They were at least seven feet up with a landing on solid rock. It might be possible to jump down without serious injury if they were careful.
Kyle stared up the stairs. Looking in the same direction, Mike saw what the boy spied. A door, the bottom of which was only partially lit by the firelight. The sight provided an enticing reward for their efforts.
Mike silently indicated his intention to jump down, and then Kyle could follow suit. Matthew moved around to dangle his legs over the hole. Lowering himself down as far as possible before letting himself fall made it less likely he’d suffer a broken bone or sprained ankle. Most importantly, it might minimize the noise.
As he hung from the rock, momentarily, anyone walking down the stairs would see him. As if fate dealt them a crushing blow, the door in the hallway issued the grating metallic strike of a deadbolt retracting from an old door frame.
A man’s voice rang out. “All the way down.” The door opened slowly and the shuffling of feet echoed across the cavern as people entered. “You gentlemen have rendered a fine service to The Master. He will be grateful.”
“Keep moving, you traitor,” a different voice added to the gruff chorus.
Mike’s eyes grew as large as dinner plates. This was the point of no return. He’d have to climb back up without making any noise. Kyle reached for his hand and pulled. For a moment, nothing happened as Mike hung precariously in between the hole in the bedrock and the rock stairs below. With a tug, Kyle pulled Mike back up to the top.
Surprised by the boy’s strength, Mike’s legs disappeared over the top of the cavern lip before anyone had a chance to see him. Scooting over to the side, Mike cast a look of appreciation to Kyle.
Peering down at the floor, Mike noticed, with horror, the phony identification tag they made as part of his uniform had fallen off while Kyle pulled him back up. All it would take is for one of the men to notice the identification card and they would know something was up.
As the shuffling of the men’s feet echoed down the stairs, Donny’s voice boomed through the hallway. “Now boys, don’t rough him up too bad. I want him in good shape tonight for the ceremony. You know, Matthew, if anyone would have told me that you were the
one who’d betray us, I’d have thought they were mad. I have to admit, when I discovered you’d sent that corpse out of state l was more than a little impressed. You managed it right from under my nose.”
“Fuck you,” Matthew hissed.
“Now … now, Matthew. You’re in the house of The Master, show respect. After all, as far as we know, no one has decided your fate. Why don’t you just tell me where the boy is, and I’ll go a little easier on you. He’s not at the jail so I can only conclude you stashed him somewhere.”
As they dragged Matthew under the hole in the ceiling, he glanced up. For a moment, Matthew and Kyle’s eyes met. The look must have lingered a little too long because one of the men raised their head to see what had drawn Matthew’s attention. Thinking fast, Matthew yanked his arm away from the man and sucker punched him in the gut.
“Oh, you have some fight left in you, huh?” another goon, standing nearby said. The man punched Matthew in the ribs with a pair of brass knuckles. As he did, something fell from the captor’s belt and skittered into the cell opposite the hole in the ceiling. In the firelight, Kyle and Mike could see it was Matthew’s gun. They must have taken it during the scuffle upstairs. None of the men noticed it fell during the scuffle.
Mike could only look down, helpless to act. Matthew was taking a considerable beating on their behalf. The pain on Matthew’s face was intolerable; however, it distracted the man and avoided a possible disaster. Matthew spit a mouthful of blood out onto the floor of the stairs and the wall. For now he’d just have to watch and listen.
“Donny,” Matthew’s voice, gurgled with blood suddenly spoke. “Wait, Donny, … listen.”
“You have something to say, my dear Officer Tanner?” Donny turned on his heels and looked at the bleeding man.
“Yeah … your men hit like fucking little girls.” Matthew suddenly burst out laughing. “No … no … I take that back. Girl scouts could hit harder than that.”
Donny’s face turned red. “Take him to The Master’s lair and make sure the ropes are good and tight.” He leaned in close, “Let’s see how much humor you have left in you after The Master has removed your spleen.”
