Immortal Memories

by Hibbard, Michael

  “Dude,” Justin said his tone more respectful than before. “There’s no other way out?”

  “You can walk out the door and let the unkindness tear you apart,” the man said. “And then you’ll maybe get a second chance at life.” He paused, and then snuffed out his cigarette on the floor before standing once more. “But there is one other way.”

  “Equally as terrifying and full of potential for death, I’m sure,” Jakob responded with a frown.

  “Ayup,” the man said. “Try the basement. Though, I don’t really see that as much of an option. Its either face the Unkindness or face the Beast. I’ll take the Unkindness any day, personally.”

  “The Beast?” Justin asked with a hint of excitement. “There’s a beast here too?”

  “Ayup,” the man responded again. “But that’s a whole different story, one I ain’t privy to. I assure you, he’s prolly already waiting for one of you to come.”

  “Where is this ‘Beast’?” Justin inquired, curiously. “I mean a video of a beast…”

  “Young ‘un,” the man started, and then stopped. “You know, you just might be the one.”

  “The one what?” Justin asked with piqued curiosity.

  “Only one way to find a way out,” the man smiled. “It’s always your choice. Always remember that.”

  “Have you tried it?” Jakob asked.

  The man shook his head slowly. “Naw, I knew I wouldn’t be here all that long, and I’ve got patience. ‘Sides, I don’t need no beast in my life.” He paused considering before speaking again. “I have enough sin to deal with.” He pushed passed the three with a tip of his hat and a grin. “I’ll be takin’ my leave now, young ‘uns.”

  “Who are you?” Justin insisted, blocking the man from opening the door.

  “Name’s Bastion, most folks call me Papa,” he said, regarding Justin with a discerning gaze. “You...I will be seeing again.” He glanced between Jeremy and Jakob. “But I won’t be seeing either of you again.” Something in his eyes and tone communicated to the others that he knew more than they did, they believed him deep in the depths of their being.

  He opened the doors to the cacophonous croaking of the ravens surrounding the house. “Evenin’, Gents.” He stepped out onto the porch, trepidatiously at first, then pulled his duster around him and made his way through the throngs of ravens, who cleared a path for him as he walked.

  “Oh!” he said, his voice almost drowned out by the noise of the thousands of ravens that had assembled. “Free will. One of you must choose to be the caretaker, or y’all die.” He turned and began to whistle as he walked down the long dirt road leading up to the house.

  As the three stood there with the door open, they noticed that something was strange about the landscape. Something had changed, and it did not resemble the field they had crossed when coming to the house. The weather was a bit warmer, and the trees were gone from the center of the large field. They were no longer outside Morgantown; they were, impossibly, somewhere else.

  “I’m gonna take my chances, this is crazy,” Jeremy said frantically. “I can’t stay here.”

  “No!” Jakob went to grab Jeremy, but it was too late. He leapt from the top step of the porch and began to run towards Papa as he’d never run before. However, it was all futile.

  Justin and Jakob watched in horror as the birds erupted into a tempest of shadow and formed a vortex around Jeremy as he ran. The calls of the ravens drowned out the blood-curdling screams of Jeremy as the birds tore at his flesh, despite waving his arms wildly to fend them off, there were too many.

  It wasn’t but a few moments when the screams stopped and the vortex dissipated. As it did, the two remaining friends could see Jeremy’s skeleton, still standing upright on the dirt path, his bones glinting in the light of the full harvest moon. As they closed the door, the skeleton collapsed into a pile in the center of the drive.

  “Dumb ass,” Justin said callously. “I’m not going down like that shit.”

  “What the hell is your problem?” Jakob screamed at Justin. “Our friend just got killed by a shitload of ravens, and all you can say is ‘dumb ass’? This was all your idea. I should throw your ass out there and let them get you.”

  Justin smiled darkly, “Are you saying you want to be the caretaker?”

  “Fuck you, Justin,” Jakob spat and shoved him away. “I won’t sacrifice shit for you. You really are an asshole.”

  “No,” Justin sneered at Jakob. “I’m in it to win it, dude. Just like every single game we’ve played. This time is for realz.”

  “Well if you aren’t going to volunteer,” Jakob said calming himself. “Guess we better check option two.”

  After some silent searching, the two found the door to the basement, which was just beyond the Grandfather clock.

  The door to the basement opened with a bit of effort, and as it did, it gasped as if sucking in air, then released a foul, dank stench and a flurry of dust. The staircase descended to a stone floor, which glistened under the light of the hand cam.

  “You first,” Jakob said, “Since you got the cam and the light.”

  “You are such a wuss,” Justin said rolling his eyes. “You really should just stay here and let me go. We both know I’ll be the one that wins.”

  “Just go, asshole,” Jakob urged.

  The two descended the stairs into a large, bare stone basement, the walls made of fieldstone. The only thing in the basement was a single, iron door, set against the western wall, looking more like a door from some prison, than something one would put into a house.

  “Look,” Jakob nudged Justin.

  Words carved into the stonewalls of basement, haphazardly covered just about every free space, including the floor. It was the same message over and over again, “I know that I can leave, but it won’t let me.”

  “Jesus,” Justin said, “someone was down here for a long time to carve all of this.”

  “I don’t even know what that means,” Jakob said, slowly losing his ability to remain calm. “Dude we gotta get out of here and now. It’s worse down here than then upstairs.”

  “No,” he pointed the light at the door. “We’re going that way, because I’ll be damned if I’m gonna be turned into a pile of bones like Jeremy.”

  “Do you not ever listen when someone tells you something?” Jakob said exasperatedly. “Papa said he wouldn’t recommend it.”

  “Screw him,” Justin said walking to the door. “He’s probably the one that caused all this. I’m not staying here to find any more creepy shit. I’m out.”

  Justin opened the door, total darkness beyond. He had shown his light into the inky darkness, though it did not penetrate far enough to see more than a few feet. They both could see what appeared to be a stone corridor, but what lay beyond, was shrouded in darkness.

  “Maybe it’s a way out,” Justin said, straining to see.

  “Or another trap,” Jakob replied. “Don’t you think Papa would have tried it?”

  “No, I think he’s is the one who started this whole thing. Probably some crazy hermit who trains ravens to kill anyone who tries to escape. I bet if we don’t get out, he’ll be back to kill us. Like some sick game.”

  “Ravens prefer dead meat, dude,” Jakob reminded. “And why we didn’t see or hear those birds when we were coming up to the house?”

  “I’m not going to stick around and find out,” Justin said, taking a step into the darkness. “I’m taking my chances--” But his words were cut off as the door swung closed, sending Jakob sprawling to the floor with the force of the blow.

  He quickly picked himself up and tried to open the door. “Justin!? Open the door!”

  The door wouldn’t budge; he kept pounding on the door, and then listened for Justin on the other side. There was no sound penetrating the door.

  He slumped down against the door, holding his head in his hands. He knew that he now had no choice. It appeared that Justin had won, again.

  He continued to
listen at the door for what seemed like an eternity, before climbing the stairs out of the basement and up to the hallway. He paused in front of the ebony clock – it had stopped its ticking. He stared at the ornate face, the moon dial centered just above the hands locked at 12 o’clock. Instinctively, he opened the great glass door, and pulled the chains to lift the weights.

  As he moved the pendulum to the side, “I accept,” he sighed in the silence of the house and the clock began to tick once more.

  Meanwhile, in the total darkness of the stone corridor, Justin could hear his heart beating to burst from his chest, his breath becoming almost a wheeze as he frantically tried to find a latch to open the door. He could hear nothing else on the other side of the door, though he knew his friend would try to get him out. The cam light had died, leaving him with nothing to defend himself against whatever lurked beyond.

  “Hello?” he screamed, calling out in the jungle at night foolishly. “Get me the hell out of here!”

  He pounded on the door with his fist, but it was like throwing a rubber ball at a concrete wall. “Jakob?” He screamed again, trying to penetrate the iron door with the terror and fear in his voice.

  “Shhhh,” a voice whispered from the darkness behind him. “You’ll wake the others, and that would be a very bad thing for you, little man.”

  Justin whirled to face the direction of the voice, pressing his back up against the door as if to merge with it. He stopped breathing, straining to hear, but the thumping in his chest gave him away.

  “It’s of no use now, silly boy,” the voice whispered again, dark, disdainful and disturbing. It almost seemed a chorus of voices, ever so slightly out of phase. “You should have listened to the caretaker, but, luckily for me, a fool has finally arrived.”

  “Wh-who are you?” Whispered Justin, timidly.

  “Who I am,” the voice continued, “is of little meaning to you now. But you will learn because we will be together for quite some time.”

  Justin tried to move along the wall, trying to escape his unseen tormentor, but he stopped quickly. Something like a tentacle wrapped itself around his waist and jerked him like a rag-doll closer to the source of the voice. He struggled, but the more he did, the more the grip tightened.

  “As I’ve said already,” reminded the voice dripping with annoyance. “You had your opportunity to avoid this situation all together. You were not misled, you were not coaxed. You were simply warned, but your own naïve arrogance has put you in a bit of a pickle.”

  “What do I have to do?” Justin asked in a strained voice, his chest constricted as the oily tentacle continuing to wrap around him, almost up to the neck, pinning his arms to his torso.

  “Hush now,” the voice said soothingly. “All you need to do is make a choice. And, it is a very simple choice. Your foolish friend has already made it possible for us to go. But now, you will carry me from this place.”

  Justin could now see the faint cobalt glow of enormous eyes, watching him from a distance, the size of basketballs. The fear within him, threatened to cause him to faint; this had to be a dream, he told himself repeatedly in his mind.

  “I have been here for a very long time,” the voice said, its mouth opening wider to allow him to see the dagger-sized teeth lining its mouth. “This is MY prison that you’ve stumbled upon. And, I have wandered this labyrinth, the Spaces Between, trying to find a way out. But, there is only one way out.” The mouth dripped with viscous saliva, which sizzled as it hit the floor.

  “I need a host,” it continued. “But not just any host. A certain kind of host. And you, my lost little friend, just so happen to be exactly what I need.”

  “A host?” Justin gasped, his adrenaline kicking in, fueling his normal arrogance. “Why me?”

  “Yes,” it continued, taking a deep breath, as if sniffing a fine wine. “A dark place to hide so that the others won’t find me and imprison me again. Soon, very soon, it will be too late, and I will be free.” It considered Justin silently for a few moments. “Your soul has been steeped in darkness for so long; you scarcely see the difference between light and the dark. You didn’t come here for some childish ghost hunt. The darkness drew you here. It beckons you in your dreams, yet you are unwilling, or too cowardly to embrace it. But you couldn’t allow the darkness to be denied, despite the caretaker’s warnings. “

  “What,” Justin asked with tenacity in his voice. “What do I have to do?”

  “You don’t have to do anything,” the voice chuckled deeply. “You still have not realized you are not bound by anyone or anything. But, I will answer your question with a question.” The spectral menace pulled Justin closer. He could see the light swirling in its horrible eyes, a coriolis of shadow and translucence swirling like the winds of Neptune. “Do you wish to be my host, or shall I eat your sins and remove your darkness?”

  “That’s really not much of a choice,” Justin said defiantly. “Either way, I’m dead.”

  The voice chuckled again, “No, being my host, you will become more powerful than you have ever imagined. More powerful that you could ever be on your own. And together, we will consume the world.”

  “But I don’t want to destroy the world; I just want to live the way I want.”

  “You will have time to indulge the darkness within you, only if you assist in quelling my hunger. But, time grows very short. The others can already smell you. Soon, I will eat you, or they will. Choose, and choose now”

  Justin’s mind whirled; he was dizzy with the situation. He felt the darkness within himself nagging at him to accept. He knew he had done terrible things, but he did not feel remorseful for them. It didn’t matter what anyone else thought. This was his life, and he wasn’t about to let it end before he had done all the things he wanted.

  “Alright,” Justin nodded with confidence in his voice. “Let’s go.”

  Just as he got the final word out, the tentacle that had been holding him, slid up and entered his mouth. He gagged at the girth and the putrid taste of its oiliness. He could feel it filling every empty space in his body. After a few moments, it was over, and he was once again alone in the stone corridor, but he was not alone.

  “Ah,” the beast sighed settling into the back of Justin’s mind. “I have so missed being corporeal.”

  Justin could now see that the corridor was impossibly long, looking through the eyes of the beast, that cobalt blue tinted vision revealing the way.

  “Now,” the beast whispered in Justin’s mind. “Open the door; it will yield to you now.”

  Justin pushed on the door and it did open, revealing the dimly lit basement of the Charnel House, but Jakob was gone.

  “What a chicken-shit,” he remarked as the he and his new shadow stepped into the basement, the door closing behind them, and sealed once more. “Glad I didn’t sacrifice myself for that jerk.”

  “He is still waiting for you,” the beast replied. “But we are somewhere else now. Somewhen else. Time and space have no meaning when you are in the belly of this particular whale; it glides through the ocean of Weird tirelessly. But we will discuss that once we’ve left this house, never to look back.”

  Justin exited the house into the noonday sun, but the weather and landscape were nothing he recognized. It was warm, despite it being November, and there were trees covered with Spanish moss, swaying in a gentle breeze.

  “Where are we?” he asked the beast. “How…”

  “There will be plenty of time for questions,” the beast silenced him. “I haven’t eaten for quite some time, and it is time for us to feed both of our… desires.”

  Justin began to walk, acquiescent to believe in his shadow, his only choice at the time.

  “Keep following this drive to the highway,” the beast instructed. “My favorite place to eat is not too far. We’ll find a ride once we reach the main road.”

  Justin began to walk without any further question. Everything would be different now -- he already felt different. With the comforting pres
ence of the beast rooted within him, he found the will to entertain things he had never entertained before. As they walked together, his shadow somehow straggled behind; he knew that he had made the right choice, for him.

  He had won, once again, probably for the last time, against his longtime friend. But, that friendship was over now. He could feel within himself that he would see Jakob again, but it would not be a happy reunion. In an instance of fear and arrogance, he accepted an entirely new life; but he would never be alone again.

  He and his shadow walked in the light of day, down a new path to a place of sin and decadence, he could feel it. What lay before him was unknown, but he did not care. The beast soothed the darkness within him. It was time to indulge in the things he had neglected his entire life. Sometimes, that is just what we must do. Justin’s darkness, just as the Beast’s, was necessary because without it, we cannot know the light.

  Blood Dolls

  Devlin, Virginia, 2012

  The wind howled through the swaying pines of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Overhead, the Hunter’s moon shone down watchfully from a clear October sky, bejeweled with stars, planets and galaxies stretching beyond eternity. Virgil did not ever remember seeing the sky so clear, hidden away from the rest of humanity, happily. Sitting by the fire, leaning back in his canvas camping chair, next to his tiny cabin, he rolled himself a cigarette, thinking through his plans for the evening.

  Virgil was a quintessential hermit, especially after he had awakened and recognized the truth of his own immortality. He had owned the cabin since his father passed away some fifty-five years before. He learned the best lessons of his life in that secluded cabin, hidden deep within the soft, rolling ancient mountains. But soon, he’d need a new shell, his current one wrinkled with time and his bones tired – and he would return to the cabin one final time, to live out the final days of humanity. That time was near.

  However, this was not the only reason he’d return to his hidden sanctuary in the woods. He was the guardian of hidden places and secrets trapped within the primordial rock of the Appalachians, places Dreamers and Sleepers should not be. He had only been immortal for eighty-nine years, but he learned more than most of the other more venerable immortals. He learned that there were many other things to this land, to this world, that the others had forgotten.