99 Souls

by Thomas Malafarina

  The creature held the man directly in front of its hideous face. Cogan could now see every detail of the creature’s monstrosity. Its eyes were blood red and puss yellow, its skin like oily leather. Its black pig like snout had greenish wet snot dripping from it. Coogan could smell the stench of decay that surrounded the creature. From the bottom and corners of its huge mouth, maggots fell like rice and clung to his matted insect infested beard. For the first time, Coogan saw the incredible size of the beast’s bottom tusk-like fangs.

  It mocked Coogan’s stuttering and in doing so, puss and spittle splashed onto Coogan’s face. “B...b..b…bbbbbbb! Who’s the blubbering idiot now you stuttering fool? Who’s the buffoon now... You! You are the buffoon now, Coogan! I didn’t kill your lackey McHale out of anger… I did so simply because I was saving the special place of honor for you. And after killing you I am going to kill every member of your family, but I will do so very slowly and torture them for hours. Perhaps I will kill your wife while your pathetic son watches. Then I will kill him slowly as well. How sweet will that be?”

  Coogan held back the urge to vomit using all of his will power. He knew what would come next. He knew what the creature would do. He slowly reached down into his pocket with his right hand and withdrew his gun placing the barrel against his own head. “No… no you don’t… you won’t put me in that wall, O’Boyle. I won’t let you. I’d rather die.”

  The creature stopped, staring with surprise into Coogan’s bloated sweating face. “So… what have we here?” the creature said in surprise, “A Coogan with guts? How can that be? You Coogans are all spineless worms. Do you really think you have what it takes to pull the trigger? Do you really think you can actually blow your own brains out?”

  “I.. I ….w..w..w..w…will. Do it. I will…” Coogan threatened, “I’ll kill myself… …before I’ll end up in there.”

  The creature looked at him with even more curiosity. Coogan noticed the slight hesitation from the beast and took the opportunity to strike. He pulled the gun away from his head, and in one rapid movement pointed it at the center of the creature’s forehead and pulled the trigger.

  The thunderous sound made by the revolver in the confines of the cave was deafening. The creature stood still holding Coogan and looking directly into his eyes but not moving or showing any signs of life. Coogan stared back in disbelief. The demon appeared to be in a trance; alive but not really alive.

  Coogan could see the huge hole the bullet made in the center of the beast’s forehead. Smoke was coming from the hole and the surrounding fur and flesh was smoldering. Then he saw the hole begin to change. First, he heard what sounded like the buzzing of a thousand insects as maggots crawled from the opening dropping one by one to the floor of the cave. Then greenish, blue colored flies, the kind Coogan had seen once feasting on road kill began to emerge from the wound and swarmed around Coogan’s face. He tried to swat at the flies but the creature’s hand around his neck made the attempt fail miserably.

  Then just as quickly, the swarm funneled back through the hole and into the skull of the creature. They began to link legs together forming a type of net over the hole, closing it as tendrils of the beast’s flesh began to crawl snake-like from the edges of the hole across the living web of flies toward the center, completely closing the opening.

  Once again, the beast regained its focus, as a slight smile appeared on its slime covered leathery lips. “You really have no idea of my infinite powers. Do you, Coogan? You think something as trivial as a handgun could kill me?”

  Coogan sadly realized that he had only one option. He would never be hauling his precious coal from this mine. He would not get the money he wanted so badly. He would never see his wife Sally or his son Billy again. But at least he could save them, at least for now by robbing the creature of his final soul.

  Coogan quickly put the gun into his mouth and pulled the trigger. However, before he could complete the act, the creature’s free hand grabbed the gun and ripped it from his hand, bending Coogan’s wrist backward. Coogan could hear several of his fingers as well as his wrist breaking. The useless hand dangled from the broken wrist, the pain excruciating.

  Coogan screamed in agony as blood flew through the air. Looking at his wrist Coogan could see the flesh was torn away as the bones of his forearm jutted from the gaping wound. Blood pumped from the rip and Coogan knew that an artery was severed as he watched his lifeblood run from him. He noticed oddly that his destroyed hand was missing an index finger and thumb, which must have gotten caught in the trigger and been severed.

  Blood ran down his shattered hand forming a puddle on the ground at the creature’s feet, mingling with the severed finger and thumb. Worm-like creatures crawled from some dark corner of the cave, and began feasting on the blood and flesh soup.

  The creature lifted Coogan up further until the man’s feet were no longer touching the ground and stared directly into Coogan’s dying eyes. Savoring the moment, the beast slowly began to pop the buttons from Coogan’s shirt one at a time with one of its long claws. It then began to shred Coogan’s tee shirt. In another context, the act might actually be considered sensual. This twisted sensuality was further confirmed by the unbearable expression of ecstasy on the creature’s face and the demonic glow in its eyes.

  As the creature shredded Coogan’s tee shirt, the man could feel the outermost layers of his skin slowly ripped open just near the surface as if someone were scraping a razor blade along the surface of his lower chest and abundant stomach. Very slow and slight trickles of blood began to spill from the thin shallow gashes. The pain was agonizing, yet Coogan was unable to scream.

  The beast looked into Coogan’s eyes and said, “I will enjoy feasting on your steaming pile of guts, Coogan. ……The feast is just part of the ritual as taught to me to my master. …..It is the climax of the act… It gives me pleasures the likes of which you will never, ever experience.”

  Coogan hung helplessly in the creature’s grip, legs twitching weakly, gagging, eyes bulging from their sockets. The expression of fear, suffering and absolute terror was evident on his tortured face.

  The creature asked the dying man, “So, what say we get this over with, Billy Boy? Then I can finally leave this boring place and begin my new life as a God among the miserable humans above. If it is any consolation, after I kill every member of your family, I am going to be a lot more careful about whose soul I steal. I will pick and choose only those souls that please me and that I feel would best please my master.

  “And I won’t appear like this to your fellow humans. I will be quite handsome.” The creature’s face started to change and it was transformed into a very good-looking young gentleman. “Maybe I won’t kill your family right off. Maybe I will go to your home, court the widow Coogan and become young Billy’s loving new daddy. That is to say, before I rip out his guts and devour them on your dinner table right in front of her.” The beast’s face returned to its hideous appearance.

  Coogan’s face was just a few inches from the creature’s hideous snout. Without breaking eye contact, the creature sunk his claws deeper into Coogan’s blood soaked belly, dragging them across opening up wide gashes. Streams of blood began to spill forth from the mess, a preamble to the flood of innards, which would follow in just a few seconds. Coogan could smell his own insides as they were beginning to seep through the incisions.

  Coogan hoped that he might die soon before this creature could complete its task. That would be the only way to buy some time for his wife and son. He begged for death to come, he prayed for death to come, but it did not.

  The creature opened his mouth as if he were preparing to devour the man. Very faint specks and blinks of white light began to flow from Coogan’s gaping mouth as he gasped for air. The light floated toward the creature’s maw. At the same instant Coogan’s insides burst from his ripped stomach and spilled from his body dangling just above the floor, splashing blood, bile and stomach contents all round the floor of the cave; and
onto the creature’s hairy feet and legs. The worm-like creatures on the cave floor slithered wildly anxious to sample the new feast.

  The twinkling white lights coming from the Coogan’s mouth became more plentiful and began forming an intertwining cluster of filaments. Before the ritual could be completed, a voice shouted out from the darkness of the tunnel behind them.

  The voice yelled, “That’ll be enough of that, Devil Dan!”

  Chapter 35

  The creature was caught off guard; its ritual was interrupted, as Coogan hung breathing his last few breaths in the beast’s grip. The creature snapped its head around and looked out into the darkness of the main mine shaft. The flow of Coogan’s soul stopped as Coogan finally died hanging in the air.

  It has lost the chance to take Coogan’s soul; lost the chance to get its final soul and most importantly, a soul for which it had waited many, many years. In frustration, the creature hurled the body far across the cave slamming it against the wall of writhing souls, where the body was immediately engulfed by dozens of writhing arms and sucked deep into the wall of ooze.

  The creature stood staring into the darkness of the tunnel with his back to the wall, trying to focus its night vision, waiting to see what manor of man had presented this challenge. Then behind the beast as if it were rejected by the wall Coogan’s corpse flew through the air toward the beast where the demon caught the body in mid air without turning its head or taking its gaze off the tunnel, as if the beast sensed the body coming. The creature let the corpse hang from its outstretched arm like a rag doll, its entrails dangling to the floor where the worm creatures swarmed about climbing onto the dangling innards and working themselves upward along the fleshy ropes toward the waiting corpse.

  The beast sniffed the air in anticipation of what would certainly be its next victim. This victim would pay dearly for stealing the demon’s chance to have Coogan’s black-hearted soul, a soul that would surely have been the crowning glory of its collection.

  Whoever this human was, he would suffer long and hard for robbing O’Boyle’s chance at revenge. The creature had waited a long time to get out of this mine, surely it could wait a little bit longer in order to make this intruder suffer long and painfully. The beast imagined that it might torture this human for days or weeks before killing him. The creature wanted to make the being’s agony last for as long as possible.

  The hulking beast seemed to recognize the scent of the human standing in the shadows around the corner, not yet making its presence within the beast’s eyesight. The scent seemed like an odor the creature may have encountered a very long time ago, right here in this very mine.

  The beast inquired, “You… you… have something of a familiar scent about you, one I almost recognize, but not quite. Show yourself. I wish to see firsthand the identity of my next meal. Come around the corner so that I may see who had deprived me my greatest desire, a Coogan. Show me who is insolent enough to challenge my might.”

  A man walked slowly from around the corner into the back of the mine tunnel. Gradually he came into the creature’s vision. Though the creature could see the man plainly using his night vision, the flashlight still attached to the rifle lying on the tunnel floor also illuminated him. Strangely, the man appeared to be very old and looked as though he was wrapped in something from head to foot. What was that? The creature was not certain. Dynamite? He had his hand on the handle of a plunger, as if ready to blow himself and the mine to kingdom come.

  The creature looked at him with some recognition, but not quite complete understanding. He had experienced this same situation over forty-five years ago when that crazy safety man had walked into the mine after he had killed those local boys. The fool had brought the mine down around them, killing himself in the process. O’Boyle recalled how long it had taken him to dig himself out of the rubble and did not look forward to doing so a second time. The beast remained silent for a moment and just growled deeply in his throat.

  “You’ll not be getting your final soul this day or any other day soon, Devil Dan,” the old man announced. “In fact, you have stolen your last soul for some time to come.”

  A light of recognition appeared in the creature’s hideous face, “So I see.” The beast said, “That is why you smell so familiar. You must be a descendant of that foolish mine inspector… What was his name? Yes, his name was Will. That fool chose to blow himself up over forty years ago in this very mine. So what are you, a son?”

  Willie looked at the creature with defiance and said proudly, “I am his son. And he was no fool, but you most certainly were.”

  The creature appeared to be amused rather than frightened by the dynamite draped human before him, “If you don’t mind my saying so, this is a very strange family tradition to embrace, don’t you think? Blowing yourselves up? What a waste. You do realize that you cannot harm me? And that I am immortal!”

  Willie spoke to the creature in defiance, “I may not be able to harm you, but I can stop you from getting you’re the last soul you need to get out of here, and I can seal you up in this mine in the process.”

  The creature looked at Willie in further confusion “But what good will it do? I will not die in the explosion. You will be as dead as this pathetic Coogan.” He shook the dangling body making it dance like a puppet. Blood and stomach contents flew in all directions. “And I eventually will just dig myself out of here again. You’re death will be meaningless.”

  The creature took a small step toward Willie trying not to startle the man into pushing the plunger, “Why not allow me to make your death meaningful?”

  Willie shouted, “That’s far enough, O’Boyle. One more step closer and I’ll do it, I swear I will.”

  The creature stopped in his tracks and asked, “But why do this? What purpose will it serve?”

  Willie decided to let the creature know exactly what his plans were, “It may not harm you that much and surely will not destroy you, but it will buy them some time.” He nodded his head upward toward the surface. “And it will keep you down here for just a bit longer. And as if that is not enough, it will give me my small bit of satisfaction and revenge.”

  Completely confused the creature asked, “Revenge for what, your idiot father? He killed himself, I didn’t kill him.”

  Willie looked into the beast’s yellow red eyes and said, “Revenge for my little brother Frankie. To you he would just be another boy you killed back in the 1920’s. But he was my little brother, you bastard.”

  The creature appeared to be thinking for a moment. Then a glimmer of recognition of that scent again and it knew exactly which young boy Willie was referencing. The beast decided to try to taunt Willie to distract him long enough to make a move.

  The creature taunted, “Ah yes, the young boy. He was part of a group as I recall. Oh my, that one certainly was a good one. As I recall I sucked his sweet young soul from his body while his friends looked on in horror. Then I took each of them as well, one by one. They were all incredibly delicious! He is back here in my wall. Would you like to visit him?” The creature pointed back toward the wall of writhing souls.

  Willie was angry, distracted and appeared to be losing his control. “Stop it. Stop it now you hound of Hell or I swear I do it!”

  The creature continued, “Do it? I don’t think so. You don’t have what it takes to do such a thing. Your worthless old man didn’t either. He had to get fall-down drunk in order have the courage to do it. You still look fairly sober to me. So go ahead big man. I dare you do it, you worthless human.” Willie had to fight to keep focus, his eyes continually going to that accursed wall. He could not stop himself from looking.

  With Willie now distracted, the creature took a mighty swing throwing Coogan’s massive dead body directly at Willie with tremendous speed and force. The body crashed into Willie’s legs and the old man could feel the agony of his aged legs splintering and breaking. Willie screamed out in pain as he fell to the floor of the cave.

  Within a split second,
the creature leaped across the distance and was on top of Willie, its massive arms raised high above the man, claws fully exposed, ready to rip Willie’s guts out.

  Willie looked up at the creature and smiled though all of his unimaginable pain. The creature looked down at Willie in confusion. Then the creature saw that throughout everything, Willie had managed to still keep his hand on the plunger.

  Willie shouted, “This is for Frank, you son of a bitch.”

  Chapter 36

  A police car drove up the access road near the mine stopping at the base of the hill. Police Chief Seiler sat quietly behind the wheel of his cruiser looking up at the mine. There were the two cars parked in front of him along the road, one he recognized as Bill Coogan’s Cadillac, but the blue sedan was unfamiliar. All appeared to be calm.

  He stared at the opening, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel thinking. He had only agreed to drive by in response to a frantic phone call he received earlier from that reporter woman from Philadelphia, Elizabeth Matthews. She had it in her head that crazy old Willie was about to do something drastic. He recalled his conversation with Miss Matthews.

  “But I tell you Chief Seiler - I am really worried that Willie will do something really drastic,” the Matthews woman had said.

  The chief assured her, “I respect your opinion, Miss Matthews and do not want to trivialize your concern, but Willie is a bit of a loose cannon. If I jumped through hoops every time he went said something strange, I would be chasing him around pretty much all of the time.”

  “But you didn’t see his expression, Chief Seiler.” She pleaded, “I think he is really planning on doing something rash about that mine; something potentially harmful to himself or others.”