by Tim Miller
Luke walked toward the back of the apartment and looked into the yard, but there was nothing. He turned back to the door, but this time heard a growl. It was low and guttural, as if it were preparing an attack. Whatever “it” was, it didn’t sound like a dog, or a bear. Not that he’d ever actually been around a bear to hear what it sounds like.
Since he didn’t have a gun, he grabbed his D cell flashlight and slid the door open. Walking into the yard, he held the flashlight out to his side, ready to bash in anyone’s head that jumped him. Times like this he wished he’d become a real cop. That wasn’t for a lack of trying. He’d applied to every department between Austin and Dallas, but never got hired anywhere. Each time because he couldn’t pass the written exam. Test taking had never been his strong suit and because of it, he was stuck in a life of checking doors in the wee hours of the morning.
Just as he came around the corner, he jumped at the sound of glass shattering. He looked next door and saw Mrs. Jackson’s glass door had been completely shattered.
“Shit!” he whispered to himself. “Shit! Shit! Shit!” This was a real break in! He thought he should call the police. But if he were to catch a burglar himself, they’d give him a job on the police department for sure. Holding the flashlight up by his head, ready to bash anyone that came along, he stepped over the broken class into her home.
The shards of glass crunched beneath his feet as he made his way through the kitchen as quietly as possible. He heard the roar again from the bedroom. This time it was followed by a scream and then it was abruptly silenced. The little dog was barking at who or whatever it was. The roar sounded again. This time the dog came running out of the bedroom toward Luke.
Before he got to him, a huge hand reached down and grabbed it, picking the dog up who was now yelping for its life. The hand squeezed and the little dog burst open in its hand. It tossed the dog’s carcass aside before stepping into the living room. Luke turned on the flashlight to see just what he was facing.
Shining the light straight ahead, he saw a thick, brown chest. It was hairless but had leathery loose skin. He raised the light up further and saw this enormous beast with an elongated skull with huge jaws that protruded and filled with razor sharp teeth. Its eyes glowed red hot as it approached him.
“What the fuck?” Luke said. “Umm, I’m the police! Get on the ground!” he called out, but it ignored him as it inched closer. “Uh. Down boy! Sit!” Fuck. The thing was still a good ten feet from him. Luke had no idea what the hell it was. Maybe it was Bigfoot, or the devil himself. Whatever it was, he wanted away from it immediately.
Dropping the flashlight, he turned and ran for the backdoor with what he thought was great speed. But before he reached it, a huge hand struck his shoulder, knocking him to the ground. He rolled to his back to see the thing standing over him. As big as it looked before, it looked even larger from lying on his back. The thing reached down and pulled him up by his jacket, off his feet.
It held him inches from its face. He tried not to look as its acrid breath filled his nostrils, making his eyes water. The fiery red eyes were actually giving off heat as the thing let out one more roar. This one almost deafened him as he tried to pull away. The thing took its other hand and wrapped it around its head. The things large paws could hold his head as if it were a pitcher gripping a baseball.
The thing began to squeeze. The pain was intense, unlike anything Luke had experienced before. This beat any migraine he’d ever had in his life. It continued to squeeze as he felt the bones in his skull beginning to give, and then to crack. His right eye began to throb and swell as the squeezing intensified until it popped completely out of his head. He screamed as the pain intensified. Right before his head caved in, his final thought had been wishing that he’d just gotten in his car and left for work. With a final pop, his skull gave way and his head imploded, turning his bones and brains to mush.
Chapter 20
"There’s something I need to tell you guys,” Angela said. “There are a few things about me you don’t know.”
They were at the church in Merle’s office. Angela had parked the stolen truck in the church’s garage in the back of the building.
“How can you guys be in here?” Merle asked. “Isn’t this like holy ground or something?”
“Seriously?” Summer asked as she rolled her eyes.
“Well, you’re witches,” he said as he went to a closet, and put on a clean shirt and suit jacket.
“We’re here because no one would think to look for us here,” Angela said. “Zachary is the one doing the human sacrifices. He reached out to the dark spirits and they have given him the ability to create and manipulate fire. We all saw it first-hand. Then you, genius, went and summoned a sentinel.”
“That was an accident. I was trying to lift this curse!” Merle said.
“You’re not cursed you fucking tool!” Summer said. “You’re gay. Lots of men are gay. Lots of women are gay. It’s not a big deal. God you Bible freaks make shit so hard on yourselves.”
“Well, I disagree with you there,” Merle said.
“You want our help or not? That thing you summoned is going to be looking for you and it will destroy anyone and everything in its path until it finds you. So let me tell you what I need to say,” Angela said.
Everyone gathered around listening intently. Angela felt like she was sitting around a campfire telling ghost stories.
“I know I look like I’m thirty years old, and that’s what I’ve told you girls. I’m not. I’m almost two hundred years old.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Merle said.
“Are you kidding?” Regina asked.
“No. I’m not kidding. Hear me out. I was born in Houston in 1845. We came here when I was little, maybe five or six. My parents were killed in a fire so one of the women in town helped raise me, Mrs. Cooper. She was a witch. The first witch I had ever met. So as I grew up, she taught me everything.”
“How do you not age? Are you like a vampire too?” Merle asked.
Angela ignored him as she continued.
“When I was seventeen, I was attacked by a group of local men. They had gotten drunk and I was walking back from the market. They grabbed me and dragged me behind the bar and were going to rape me. They beat me badly. I fought back as hard as I could but was no match for these guys. At some point I lost consciousness. Once I was out, they all took their turns on me. Mrs. Cooper had found me and put me on a carriage, taking me to a man she knew. This man was a healer. Truth was, I wasn’t knocked out. I was dead. The men had hit me with rocks repeatedly; until my head was cracked open.”
“Jesus Christ,” Summer said.
“Were you in Hell then?” Merle asked.
“No. I was nowhere. To be honest, I don’t remember anything. I just remember waking up in this cave with the healer. He’d revived me and healed my injuries, but it came at a cost. Mrs. Cooper had to give up her life so that I could live. He removed her heart, and put it here.” She pulled the top of her dress apart just enough to reveal the heart shaped tattoo.”
“How’d he tattoo it on?” Regina asked.
“I don’t know what he did. He said he’d removed her heart and through a spell gave it to me and it was like this. Part of the spell, is I can’t die or age. The heart also has a special connection with the spirits. When you’ve seen it glowing is when it’s reaching out and drawing their power.”
“Why’d you never tell us this before?” Regina asked.
“Because it’s not something I broadcast. Just by the looks on all your faces now I can see it’s a lot to take in. Here’s the thing though. This type of magic he used is blood magic. So for the rest of my life, I have been walking a balance between what we call white magic and black magic. Which usually don’t go together at all, but I’ve managed to not let it corrupt me.”
“That is amazing,” Regina said. “So what does it all mean? I mean, you’ve only taught us white magic.”
“Right. But we
might need to use both to take out both of these things. Sentinels are no joke. They are big, vicious, and nasty creatures. They are made for one thing and one thing only and that is destruction.”
“Could we use them against each other?” Regina asked.
“How do you mean?”
“I mean, Zachary and his fire throwing, and then this sentinel. Maybe we could get the Sentinel to kill Zachary or have Zachary burn up the sentinel.”
“That’s an idea. Not sure how we’d get them both together. My money would be on the sentinel though. But then we’d have to get rid of that thing,” Angela explained. “Not sure how we’d do that.”
“Can you kill a sentinel?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve never come across one. I don’t know anyone who has and lived.”
“How about we just give it the preacher?” Summer asked.
“What?” Merle said.
“You said he summoned the thing, and it wants him. Will it go away if it gets him?”
“It might, but—“
“Well then I say hand the fucker over to it. He was gonna watch us burn.”
“Hey now! That wasn’t me! I never told them to do that!” Merle said.
“We’re not handing Merle over to the sentinel. Merle’s an asshole, but we aren’t, as much as I’d like to see that thing rip his head off. We don’t just hand people over to be killed out fear or convenience,” Angela said.
“Wow, there’s a concept,” Regina agreed.
Merle sank down in his chair. It was almost funny how this man who stood so tall and purported to be a man of God; this man who would pound on his chest taking the moral high ground in anything and everything was sitting there with a group of witches looking pathetic and defeated. Now he constantly looked like he was about to cry.
“I have an idea though. Merle, you’ll be in some danger, but we’ll do everything we can to minimize it. I think it will work,” Angela said.
“You think?” he said.
“Unless you can do some exorcism to banish the sentinel and cast the demons out of Zachary I’d like to know what you propose?”
“Ok, I’m listening,” he said.
Angela began to explain her plan. By the time she was done, he was crying.
Chapter 21
Barry entered Billy’s stolen truck into the national database, hoping it would turn up somewhere. He also sent some units to the Tyler house, but it wasn’t likely they went back there. As he contemplated his next move, his phone went off. It was an email with a video attached. He opened the video and watched as on it he could clearly see a local young man walk into the store. After several minutes the video jumps as you see him coming out with the building ablaze behind him.
In the body of the email the officer had written: “I recognize that kid. It’s Zachary Nolan. His parents both passed away a few years ago. They live down the street from my place.”
“Son of a bitch. Why the hell would he do that?” Barry asked himself. He closed the email and called the dispatcher, issuing an all-points bulletin on Zachary Nolan. He opened his desk and took out a bottle of Pepto-Bismol and chugged it straight from the bottle. Stress tied his stomach into knots and this whole mess was doing a number. His wife wanted him to go to the doctor, but he hated doctors. So he used whatever over the counter remedies he could find to soothe it.
Moments later his radio went off about a fire at City Hall, just a few blocks away. He ran to his car and raced to City Hall. He arrived moments before the fire trucks did. As he pulled up, there was Zachary standing in front of the building. If Barry hadn’t seen it himself, he wouldn’t believe what he was looking at.
Zachary was standing in the road watching City Hall burn while holding out this hand and shooting balls of fire into the courthouse next door. The kid was literally shooting fire balls from his hands. Barry tried to see if he was holding on to something, a blowtorch or flamethrower, but there was nothing visible. Just his hands.
Barry got out of the car and drew his gun, pointing it at Zachary.
“Put your hands up Zachary! Don’t make me shoot!” Barry called out.
Zachary stopped firing and paused, listening to Barry’s commands. He spun around and shot fire balls in Barry’s direction. Barry managed to dive out of the way, but the fire balls struck his squad car head on. The car burst into flames with a whoosh! As Barry rolled away. Zachary had resumed shooting fire the way an old man would go back to watering the flowers after chasing off the neighbor’s cat.
Barry stood, feeling the heat from the squad car. He looked at the car, watching the flames engulf the vehicle. He jumped when there was a popping sound, and then another. Shit. He had a department issued AR-15 in the car with an extra box of ammo. The heat was causing the rounds to go off.
He turned to run away from the vehicle. When he was about ten feet away a round struck him in the back, knocking him to the ground. Barry thought for sure he was about to die. The breath went out of him as the bullet struck with the force of a sledge hammer to the middle of his back. He lay there and finally reached and felt where the bullet struck him. His vest had stopped the round from penetrating his body. Though he was sure he’d broken a rib.
It actually shocked him he wasn’t hurt more. Last he knew a bullet proof vest couldn’t stop a round from an AR-15. Due to the way the round went off, it could have slowed it down, though it didn’t feel like it. Looking toward Zachary, the courthouse was now ablaze and he’d started on the bakery. When one of the fire trucks tried to get close enough to fight the fires, Zachary unloaded a barrage of fire into the truck. Barry watched helplessly as the engine rolled to a stop, consumed by flames.
A couple of the firefighters ran out of the vehicle, also covered in flames. Neither of them got far before they collapsed. Barry went to a knee and pointed this gun at Zachary. He was further away than he cared to be for the shot, but had to try. Squeezing the trigger he fired, but the shot sailed over Zachary’s head. The young man turned around, rage burning in his eyes as he walked toward Barry, shooting fire once again from his hands.
Barry dove once again, but this time he was too slow. A ball of fire caught him on the leg. In seconds, his legs were engulfed in flames. He rolled around, trying to put it out as it swept up his body. The fire licked his skin as it went through his clothes and moved up to his torso. He swatted at the flames, but nothing would extinguish them.
As the flames burned through his clothing and onto his skin, his movements became more frantic. Barry thrashed about, rolled and screamed trying to get the fire off him or stop the pain but it was no use. Soon it moved into his face and hair. The heat felt as if his skin were being torn off with thousands of needles as his flesh popped. His tongue was dry and hot as he felt it shriveling up in his mouth. As he tried to scream, no sound came out while his eyeballs popped. Surrounded by darkness, all he felt was pain as his skin melted away until Barry Harmon was no more.
Chapter 22
Angela drove the women downtown, toward the fires. Regina kept an eye on Merle in the back of the pickup. He hadn’t been too keen on their plan, but Angela didn’t leave him much choice. From the church, it looked as if all of downtown was on fire. As they got closer, it indeed was.
There were police cars and fire trucks scattered along the road, all of which were engulfed in flames. There were charred human remains along the road as well. Buildings were ablaze as people tried to run for their cars, only to be lit on fire by Zachary who was standing at the end of the road.
Angela stopped the truck as everyone climbed out.
“Should I stay here?” Merle asked.
“Nope. Come on Rev. This is your party,” Angela said as he climbed out. They walked toward Zachary who saw them and began laughing.
“Glad you came back!” he said. “This was starting to get boring. You even brought a preacher with you. You guys must be desperate.”
Angela didn’t reply. There was no point in arguing with him. She signaled to Summer
and Regina to come alongside her. Merle stood behind them as they joined hands and began to chant the spell Angela had given them earlier. Regina yelled it out as loud as she could; speaking quickly hoping it would work. After saying the spell, lightning shot down once again from the sky. Unlike earlier, several lightning bolts hit at once, this time it struck Zachary, knocking him flat on his back.
He stood after a second. This time his clothes were ragged as burns covered part of his body.
“You fucking cunts!” he yelled.
Regina felt her stomach tighten. She had fully expected that lightening blast to kill him. She looked at Angela who was stepping backwards as all three of them continued holding hands. Zachary hurled several fireballs in their direction. Angela used her magic to catch them and hurl them back at Zachary. This time, Zachary held out his hand and they absorbed back into his body.
Rearing his arm back as if he were reloading, he fired again. This time with both hands, on rapid fire as if firing a machine gun. The girls all dove in different directions as the fireballs exploded around them. Merle had run and hid behind the truck as the bombardment continued. Summer ran toward the truck as Angela had been hit head on and knocked down. Regina’s knee cracked on the pavement as she went down.
She tried to crawl toward the truck, but never saw the next fireball that hit her square in the back. Instantly she was covered in flames. Regina cried out as Angela ran toward her. Angela’s dress had burned completely off her. Regina tried to roll and slap the flames out to no avail. She watched her flesh burning away from her hands and body as she screamed in horror. Looking up at Angela who stood by helplessly as one more wave of pain went over her body before everything went black.
***
Angela knelt down over Regina’s charred body as the fire burned away. Looking up at Zachary, he had become distracted by the loud roar that occurred from behind him. The sentinel had found its way to town and was about to engage Zachary in an epic battle.
