I nodded, seeing the sense in just letting the ugly emotions go. I gave him the details of my plan. He offered a few changes, then we agreed on it. We'd meet a block from the studio and try to implement it.
We were sitting in my car at 4pm the next day. I had parked across from the PBS Studio lot in my usual spot. I imagine that someone might think I just worked at the office building for how many times I sat here. At this point in the afternoon, some of the employees were starting to leave the studio, but the lot was still rather full.
"I'm seeing too many people and too much light," said Charlie. "We'd look like we're mugging her and everyone would see it."
"We're kind of doing that anyway. But yeah, I know. Last night she wasn't out until after six, when it was dark. She's a workaholic. She'll stay late and that's when we'll make our move."
"We're not hurting her, that's clear, right? I'm still an officer of the law."
"Of course, but we might, y'know, imply that we might, right?"
Charlie gave me a sidelong glance. There were bags under his eyes from poor sleep, but he assured me that any remnants of his hangover were gone. I was glad he changed his mind. This seemed like the best lead and I wanted to finish this. I didn't want to have to keep staying at Motel 6.
"So how did you survive the stabbing?" he said.
"Charlie, c'mon. None of that."
"John, seriously. I'm here to help you on a plan that's a little lacking and probably violating my now-suspended job. We're trying to stop some demon that can appear wherever there's a picture of him. It's a bad dream and completely stupid if I think about it objectively, but I'm still here doing it. I think I deserve to hear the details of your uncomfortably fantastic recovery, no matter how unlikely, while we're waiting."
I grimaced but nodded. Despite my reluctance, despite the fight where I pushed back against him, he had a point. He'd swallowed more unbelievable things. And we were both in this together. I'd asked him to trust me, but I hadn't been completely truthful. He deserved this. I took a deep breath and started in on what little I knew. "Okay, so I'm not sure of it all myself. You got me into the car. I remember feeling like I bled out, losing consciousness. I thought that was it, that I died! But then I woke up in this... I don't know, a cave or something. It was..." I closed my eyes remembering the cold and the pain. "I... Okay, long story short, there were some dark figures there. They offered me the chance to come back to life. I thought it was a dream. Some stupid fantasy."
"What did you say?" said Charlie.
"What?"
"When they asked you if you wanted to come back to life, what did you say?"
"Well, I didn't say anything, because I couldn't talk. But I agreed... And then I was covered in black tar. Just when I thought it would suffocate me, I woke up in the car screaming. You know the rest from there... probably better than I do."
Neither of us said anything for a long moment, both staring out the windshield. "No bullshit, John?"
"No bullshit, Charlie." I said with a sigh and a nod. "As fucked up as that sounds, that's pretty much what happened."
"That's some deal with the Devil shit, you know that, right? What did they want in exchange?"
"Nothing," I said with a shrug. "If they wanted something, I wasn't told about it."
"That's probably even worse than if they called something out. Seems like if they didn't tell you, it's worse than if they tried to make you an offer."
"Maybe it was out of the goodness of their hearts," I said feebly, but "goodness" was not something I associated with that experience.
Charlie shook his head. "Be very careful, John. That's the sort of thing that will haunt you... in this life and the next."
"I know..."
"So this had nothing to do with Hornswaggle?" he said.
"I don't think so... it didn't feel right, if that makes any sense. It was different... It was..." Something from my past. Something from Bellingham. "It was different."
"What about the stabber?"
"What?"
"C'mon, John, you know who stabbed you. I'm not buying the trauma erasing your memory. You saw them. Who was it?"
I sighed. "A young woman. Blonde hair, slight. It wasn't the first time she attacked me. She claims I'm going to bring about the end of the world. She claims she's part of a whole big organization of people who see the future and have seen my part of the end of things. A doomsday cult, in my opinion."
"There's definitely a whole lot of crazy shit going in your life, John. Are you sure it's not you? Are you making this all into something else? Are you sure she wasn't a jealous ex or something?"
I had a quick smirk. "I have another of her daggers in the glove box. I took it off her in a previous attempt. Tell me if that's jealous ex or crazy cult territory."
Charlie opened up the glove box and carefully pulled out the bundle of my torn shirt wrapped around the dagger. He carefully pulled off the tatters and examined the long blade. I flipped on the overhead light so he could better see the inscription.
"Tell me that doesn't look like a cult to you," I said. "If that's jealous ex, her violent anger takes a pretty interesting form."
Charlie nodded as he shifted the blade in the air. "Do you think they're connected?"
"What are connected? Hornswaggle and the girl? Nah. Doesn't feel right."
"No," he said. "Do you think the girl and whatever helped you survive the stabbing are connected. The dark place. Maybe that's the doom."
A cold shiver went through my body. Why hadn't I made that connection? Or had I been just afraid?
"I... I don't want to talk about it."
Charlie shrugged. "Your call. You're the one that's damned, not me."
"Damned?"
"Or whatever you want to call it."
We lapsed into a silence. Charlie kept his attention on the people leaving, but I was now distracted thinking of the Seer and the darkness. They said I would bring about a doom... Could this be it? Was coming back from death really a deal with the Devil, as Charlie said? Should I have died? I wrestled with these thoughts for a long time while Charlie watched the parking lot and searched for something he wanted to listen to on the radio. I must have been introspective for longer than I thought.
"You said she was blonde, right?" said Charlie, breaking me out of my reverie. I glanced at the clock and noticed that it was after six; about time for Deb to emerge from the studio. Charlie had seen my digital pictures of Deb, but it was always hard to identify someone from a distance. I looked out the window to see Deb nonchalantly heading across the parking lot. There were more cars in the studio lot than last night, but she was clearly heading toward the blue sedan.
"Yeah, that's her," I said. "Let's go!"
We got out of the car and crossed the street rapidly, watching for cars and trying to neither make noise nor look too conspicuous. Luckily, Deb wasn't in a hurry to get to her car. We wanted to reach her before she got inside, but we also didn't want her at the entrance to the studio. We didn't exactly know Hornswaggle's range, but the studio door seemed too close to his puppets and merchandise.
I reached her car first, squatting on the other side of it while Charlie got into position. I figured I'd be the most obvious person for her to notice. Charlie she didn't know, so maybe if she glanced at him she wouldn't think anything. I squatted in front of her car. I heard the click of her heels as she walked toward the car, then the jingle of keys. This was the moment.
I stepped out from in front of the car. "Deb."
She saw me and stepped backward, startled. She stepped right into Charlie, who grabbed the keys from her hand. In the dim light, I saw a dark form behind Charlie, towering above him on hooved feet. I opened my mouth to warn him, but he immediately dropped the keys and smashed the figure on the keychain with his shoe. The dark presence behind him vanished.
"What - what are you doing?" said Deb, stepping back from Charlie to stand against her car, awkwardly eyeing both of us.
"Getting th
e truth," said Charlie.
"We need answers, Deb," I said.
"What are you talking about?" she said. "Is this is about firing you? That's your fault! You abandoned your job by not showing up!"
"Drop the act," I said. "This is about Hornswaggle."
"The show? Are you one of those people who say PBS is giving children the wrong idea about things? Contrary to rumor mongering, PBS does not have a political agenda."
"Stop," I said. "Not the show. Hornswaggle. The puppet. The demon."
"Demon? I think you're mentally disturbed."
"Oh, you want to talk about the mentally disturbed? Tell us about the hospital, Deb," I said. "Bell County."
"I really don't know what you're talking about." She had been keeping up a good façade, but now she was agitated. I tried not to explain it away as her seeing us as muggers.
"I saw your car," I said, my eyes dark and holding her gaze.
This broke the act. Her eyes narrowed, then her expression changed. More confident, slightly amused. "You've been warned a few times. What is it going to take to get you to stop meddling where you don't belong? Your patron can only protect you so far."
"Wow, I almost started to believe you were wrong, John," said Charlie.
"Tell us what we need to know," I said.
"Or what?" she challenged me.
"Or we get physical," I lied. I didn't want to do that, but I didn't mind threatening that. Across from her, Charlie frowned but he said nothing.
"You'll regret pushing too far," she said. "There are contingencies for your lack of compliance. One just went into effect. Will you regret what you've done? I guess we'll find out."
That bothered me, but it was a vague threat, possibly empty. "Maybe we'll just put a stop to things before they get that far."
"You can't stop him," said Deb. "This is bigger than you or any of us. This is just setting the scales right after they were imbalanced long ago. The world needs this; we need this. The alternatives are so much worse. You of all people should know that."
"Cut the cryptic bullshit," I said. "I've had enough of that lately. Hornswaggle - what is he?"
She smirked, as if my question was idiotic. "He's a god, of course."
"C'mon, tell me another one," said Charlie with an eye roll. "There's only one God."
"And that's the lie we've all been told, but it pales in the presence of a real god. There are many in play, but only Hornswaggle gives us any hope."
"Hope?" I said. "He kills people! He killed Nick! He killed Jennifer! He's tried to kill us!"
"Interlopers, distractions," said Deb. "Nick was needed, but then he got too close. He was a liability and a loose end. As was Jennifer."
"And Hornswaggle killed them both when we met them," I said. "To keep us from finding out more. Deb, what are you hiding? What does he not want us to know?"
"Why would you think I would tell you?" said Deb with a laugh. We heard the door to the studio open, likely another employee heading out for the night. "And now you'll never get that chance." She turned toward the door. "Help! Somebody help me!" Charlie immediately stepped forward and grabbed her arm, holding her in place in case she made a dash for it.
The two employees who had just exited heard her shout and then trotted toward us, more clumsily than I might have expected. When they got closer, I realized who they were. I wasn't sure if I should be relieved or not. It was Ben and Terry.
"Whoa, what's going on here?" said Ben, looking at Charlie's grasp on Deb's arm.
"This is not good," said Terry.
"Help me!" said Deb.
"John?" said Ben, noticing me. "Wow, dude, you're like weeks late for work."
"They fired him already," said Terry.
"No shit?" said Ben. "I know we were picking up the extra work for him, but I didn't know they went that far."
"We're doing extra work because of Deb's New Vision," said Terry. "Hi Deb."
"Help! These two men are trying to hurt me!" said Deb, her damsel in distress demeanor marred by her frustration with Ben and Terry.
"Really, John?" said Ben. "Harassing a poor, defenseless, but hot woman? I thought you were better than that. I thought we were all better than that. I misjudged you, man."
"It's not what you think," I said. I looked over to Charlie, seeing if he was willing to flash his badge and say "Police Business". But he shook his head; I realized he didn't want to do that while suspended and get in even bigger trouble. Hell, he might not even have a badge to flash anymore.
"They've been threatening me unless I get in the car with them!" said Deb.
"That's totally not cool," said Terry. "We can't let you do that."
"Not at all!" said Ben. "Get ready for some of our awesome kungfu. You were warned!" He then got into what had to be the most awkward martial arts stance I had ever seen.
"It's really not what you think," I said, trying to grasp for something that would convince the two grips. "Deb is... Deb is a bad person."
Charlie looked at me like I was an idiot. It wasn't one of my best lies.
"You're mugging me because you think I'm a bad person?" said Deb. "Ben, Terry, he's crazy! Please help me!"
"Be straight with us," said Ben. "There's something else going on here, isn't there? This isn't... one of those nasty roleplay situations, is it?" He finished with a leering grin. "I just learned about those today."
Terry rolled his eyes. "I'm pretty sure this isn't a play rape situation. I don't even know why you were looking at that on a work computer."
"Someone mentioned it in a thread! I needed to know!" said Ben defensively.
"This isn't roleplay!" said Deb. "I need help!"
"Look, surely you two have noticed weird things going on at the studio," I said. "Something is wrong there. Really wrong."
"Deb may have strict commands and isn't the friendliest, but she's still getting things done," said Terry. "She's not corrupt or... extorting the studio. She does believe in the project, despite her brusque nature."
"Yeah, she's like the Iron Woman of PBS," said Ben. "Well, after Adele. Deb is the Sexy Iron Woman of PBS!"
"No, it's not that..." I said.
"They're crazy!" said Deb.
"Just tell them the truth. This situation can't get any worse," said Charlie tiredly.
I shrugged and nodded. I studied Ben and Terry's confused but guarded faces for an opening. Finally I just took a deep breath and said the best summary I could. "There's a monster in the studio."
Ben and Terry each took a glance back at the studio. "A monster?" said Terry.
"Hornswaggle," I said, trying to find words and disappointed at my lack of them. "The monster is Hornswaggle. He's some sort of demon and he's controlling people. He's the puppet but not the puppet. This sounds completely stupid, but it's not, it's real." I finally shrugged to Charlie, not know what to say better. His displeasure with my explanation was summed up by an eye roll.
"See?" said Deb, seizing upon my weak explanation. "They're crazy! Please help me!"
There was a long moment when both Ben and Terry looked back and forth between my face and Deb's.
"That actually makes a lot of sense," Terry finally said.
"I told you there was something weird about that puppet!" said Ben. "I told you that I totally saw it look at me. It's always had those crazy eyes!"
"You were really high that day," said Terry. "You could have just been mistaken."
"Or through my powers of being super stoned, I saw the real reality!"
Terry shrugged. "I don't know about that, but there's been some weird stuff and unlikely as it is, that explanation would give reason to all of it."
"What's wrong with you two?" said Deb in disgusted exasperation. "You two are completely useless!"
"Maybe you're thinking twice about making us stay late tonight, huh?" said Ben. "You coulda been Nice Deb, Sexy Deb, but instead you were the It's Not Good Enough, Do It Again Deb. Why are you changing Nick's vision anyway?"
&nbs
p; "Nick's dead," I said.
"We knew that," said Terry. "The police came by and asked all of us about it."
"A very sad day," said Ben. "Bongs at half mast."
"What you might not know was that Deb was involved," I said.
"That's a lie!" said Deb.
"You evil minx!" said Ben. "Nick was my friend!"
"I think you were more involved in that death, John," said Deb. "I didn't do anything to kill him. But you were there!"
"I was only involved accidentally," I said. "Wrong place at the wrong time. I put the guilt on you. You've been working with the monster. You're the one that made Nick run in the first place. And now you're subverting his vision. For Hornswaggle."
"I'm still getting used to this whole evil puppet thing," said Terry. "The puppet's like right back in the studio. Can't we just go beat it up now and get this over with?"
"Of course we can't do that," said Ben. "You can't kill an evil puppet with your fists - even though that would be awesome! Well, unless you're a priest or something, and then you have fists blessed by gods - Fists of Righteous Fury! I want to see that Bruce Lee film! No, you kill an evil puppet with a stake through the heart! And some holy water and some shit."
"That's how you kill a vampire," said Terry.
"And a puppet too! Or a vampire puppet!"
"He's not a vampire puppet," I said with a sigh. Then I looked at Deb. "He's not a vampire puppet, right?"
Deb simply scoffed at me. "You might have defused these two fools, but there will be someone else passing by eventually. I'll scream rape and you'll be done."
She had a point. Four men accosting a woman in a parking lot, alluding to violence and not letting her leave. It did look bad if you didn't know she was collaborating with an evil god inhabiting a puppet. Well, on second thought, that explanation didn't help it sound any more reasonable.
"Nah, that's not what's happening here at all!" said Ben.
"But to someone who didn't know what was going on..." said Terry.
"Why don't we let her go and just stake the puppet in the heart?" said Ben.
John Keats 02 Paper Moon Page 22
