My vision started swirling and closing my eyes didn’t provide much help. We cut through the web of tree roots and soared into the Deep Burrow. I couldn’t see anyone as we neared the ground. I tried to swallow the lump in my throat knowing that I couldn’t even fight anyone to escape.
If someone found me, I would go right back to Clara Spiritus, and there would be no escape this time. Redridge landed on the soft grass and I craned my neck to look around in every direction.
Nothing. At least, I couldn’t detect anything.
I got down from Redridge’s back and wrapped my arms around his neck for a big hug. I stroked his back, realizing that if the Gods found out what he had done, it would be his life on the line too. Rules were rules. I kissed the top of my savior’s head and continued the escape mission.
I crept along the grassy landscape toward the little patch of woods where the portal elevator was located. I tried to walk silently as I neared the bushes. I tracked along the tree line to check for an ambush and didn’t hear a peep other than the normal sounds of a forest.
I found a small stick and tossed it into the woods. No voices. I trampled into the woods, making much more noise than I would have preferred, and quickly encountered the portal.
Even at night, the rectangular door emitted an argent shine. I stood in front of the portal wondering if someone had adjusted the magic door to make it go somewhere else. The realization that this was my only hope quickly entered my mind and refused to leave.
I closed my eyes and walked forward. The tight air pressure squeezed my body, threw me into the elevator car, and the upward movement started. The elevator built up speed and zoomed upward causing my stomach to tie in knots. I got the normal queasy feeling during this ride and it suddenly came to a stop.
I exited the elevator car and entered the dark tunnel. I held my arms out to feel both sides of the tunnel walls. I walked the dark, but familiar path to Pittsburgh. I popped the wooden door open and came out near the rushing river in Blawnox. I was met by a dreary night sky with an almost full moon.
I let out a monumental sigh of relief. Then I realized I was a wanted man by the Pittsburgh Police too. Before too long, the Gods will also realize I’ve escaped. I was now running from the Police, the Jersey Devil, and the Gods. That wasn’t the trinity I was hoping for.
My first thought was to gather all the money I had and make a run for it. Maybe avoid the Gods and police long enough for everything to blow over. But what good would it do? One of the two would eventually find me and punish me. Maybe Gretchen could save me?
My phone buzzed in my pocket and I ripped it out as I kicked dirt over the door to the Deep Burrow. I hoped for some good news. Perhaps they had located the real murderer and wanted to drop the charges.
Message from Gretchen. My heart skipped a few beats and a positive buzz ran through my body. I held down the number 1 to get to my messages and pressed the earpiece to my ear.
“First New Message.” Gretchen’s voice came in. “Merlino, you need to stop this right now. You need to turn yourself in. We are going to find you, so you can stop running right now. Look, if you give yourself up, I might be able to have them lift the death penalty. You’d still face life in jail, but that’s a light sentence considering you killed two cops.”
I dropped the phone and had to listen to the message two more times. Apparently, there was video footage of me at the police station. She informed me that I had escaped and killed two cops in the process. How could they have video footage?
I rubbed the stitches on my forehead and it hit me. When I had woken up naked on the bathroom floor, there was a tape measure next to me. It was different from the one I owned. Had the Jersey Devil instructed his cronies to measure me so they could replicate my body?
I decided that against all odds, I was going to press on. Fuck the Pittsburgh Police, the Jersey Devil, Alayna and the Gods. I was doing this for my mother and me. She would never allow me to quit on an oath, no matter the circumstance.
I had a mission to get back to my house. With the crooked cops and hitman stopping by for a visit, I wanted to make sure the box was still safe. Along the walk, I thought about waking up Reg so I could make sure Colossus was still with him. I scratched it because I didn’t trust Ronald to keep my secret if he were home.
I noticed headlights coming toward me, and immediately veered right and walked up the walkway to someone’s house until the car passed. Luckily, the owners didn’t detect me and the car never even slowed down.
Navigating through the early morning in darkness, I hit the alley behind my house and strained my sore neck to locate intruders. Early detection was the key. I didn’t trust my normal instincts so I summoned some magic to heighten my senses.
I opened the creaky back fence to my house and slowly tiptoed up my backyard to my basement door. Confident the cops were gone, my fear shifted to getting into another supernatural fight. Even if I were to win, the brawl would surely arouse the suspicion of the police and effectively get me killed.
I pushed the key in the slot and twisted.
Chapter 33
I TURNED THE KNOB AND pushed, covering my nose to cancel out the funky smell. I walked quietly up my basement steps and stuck my head into the kitchen. The room was empty, so I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and chugged three-quarters of it.
The apartment still looked like an official crime scene with note markers in the kitchen and living room. The caution tape through the crack of my misaligned door was visible from the kitchen. I went into the living room and there were still bloodstains on the hardwood floor.
Quietly going upstairs, I noticed the cops had gone through my bedroom and bathroom. Had they gone into the attic? Looking at the handle on the ceiling for the secret door, it appeared to be untouched, but I reached up and pulled on it to check it out for myself.
The steps came down. I unfolded them and climbed up into the attic. There was still a strong signal of magic coming from the room. Why hadn’t the Jersey Devil sent someone else to destroy or recover the box? The only sensible notion was that the Empusa had assumed that music box was the real thing and told him that the job had been completed.
I hustled across the dusty hardwood and felt the power of the box before opening the panels on the floor. Dust mites danced in the dim light as I dropped to my knees. I pulled the loose floorboards aside and pushed the blanket away.
The object had a red glow surrounding it that moved with the box when I picked it up. I dragged it downstairs and used all my strength to get it up on my kitchen table. I stared at the intimidating piece of wood, knowing it could kill me to open it. Opening it could also unleash an unknown virus around the world. It could literally do anything.
Was the Jersey Devil setting me up with the box? Maybe? No. Why would the Empusa have come after it? I imagined he had expected the Empusa had destroyed it. Nothing made sense anymore as I played with the sticky duct tape around the edges.
I started peeling it away to see if anything seeped out from the cracks of the box. Not feeling a substantial increase in magic, I kept prying the silver tape away. I had gotten most of the tape off and the red glow remained around the rectangular object.
As I ripped away the last piece of tape, something started to move inside the box. I could hear it scraping against the sides, and suddenly the top of the box started to bow out. A thumping followed, like the beating of a heart and the top of the box went up and down.
The wood cracked, splintering down the middle of the box, and I made a quick choice, which was sometimes more important than making the correct one. I grabbed the sides of the top of the two-piece box and pulled. The stubborn adhesive still tried to hold the box together until one mighty yank did the trick.
The top blew off and rocketed toward the ceiling, shattering the wood, and dislocating the rafters above. A dark energy in the form of a red fog started to spill from the box. The powerful energy knocked me onto my back and the rotten egg stench made me w
ant to puke.
The red cloud streaked in different directions, flowing through the cracks in the house to get outside. It streamed through the opening in the front door and a cracked window in the kitchen as I made it back to my feet.
The red fog had disappeared, thankfully taking the odor with it, and leaving an innocuous bottom of a box with Manila papers inside. The top few pages had been singed from the explosive opening. I found several cockroach talismans in the box, one in each corner. I scooped out the papers, brushing the backs of my fingers on the red velvet bottom.
Most were in the 4 x 6 inch range and the page on top had a sketch of an eclipse on it with the date 10-31-17. I grabbed a few more pages, but they were written in a language I had never seen before. I quickly became demoralized because most of the pages were in the same language.
I was prepared to give up when I got to the last piece of parchment. Somebody had messed up. This one had English writing next to the other language. I laid it out on the table.
“A God, a demi-devil and one thousand alike.
Drive that spike, Drive that spike, Drive that spike.”
That was it. I riffled through all the papers trying to make sense of it.
A knock on my wall caused me to jump up from the table. “Mike? Is that you in there?”
I recognized Reginald’s voice and walked closer to the permanently closed door that separated our duplexes. “Reg, I’d ask for your help, but I don’t want to get you involved in any of this mess.”
“Man, this is keeping me alive. Keeping my blood flowing. Not the bad stuff about you, but the craziness in Pittsburgh right now.”
“If you want to come over for a few minutes, I could use some help figuring this out. Bring Colossus too.”
Reginald came around to the back porch and I helped him get his chair into my house. His eyes widened when he saw the materials on my kitchen table.
“That’s the box, huh?”
“Yep. Now if I could only put this together, I could clear my name with the cops.” I looked Reginald in the eyes. “You know I didn’t do it, right?”
He picked up a couple of papers and checked them out. “I wouldn’t be over here if I didn’t believe you. I ain’t trying to get killed just yet. Plus, I know you didn’t do it. I heard the so-called cops talking to that guy in your house right after you left. They’re setting you up bigtime.”
“That’s not the half of it. I got a message from Gretchen saying that the cops have video footage of me killing two other cops at the station. You know I never went to the station.”
He looked at a few more pages and nodded. “I know that’s right. It’s all over the news though. Big manhunt for you right now. Why are the Gods after you? I thought you were friends with them.”
“Exactly. Alayna and the Gods are on my shit list right now. They want me for the supposed murders too. They prefer to inflict their justice before it happens on earth.”
“Wouldn’t they know that you were being set up?” he asked.
“Thank you. I thought the same thing but the Jersey Devil must be using some sort of shifter magic that I don’t even know about. He’s got people shifting to look like me. He’s breaking all the rules.”
Reg touched the box with his fingertips and pulled them back quickly. “Ain’t that some shit. Can’t trust demi-devils anymore, huh? Ha ha.”
I let out a little chuckle and it felt good. “Guess not. The whole world is going to hell.” My joke missed.
“Why don’t we set that aside for a few and find out what’s going on here?” Reg moved closer to the table and I sat back down.
I gave him the only note in English as he stared at the sketch of the lunar eclipse.
“Obviously, it has something to do with lunar eclipse tonight.” He read the paper.
“I’m thinking he’s going to use the lunar power to strengthen his shifters for the G20. Maybe he’s making shifters with super powers?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “That kind of makes sense. But what about the note?”
“I still don’t know what that’s all about.”
Reg tapped his bearded chin with his thumb. “One God. You said they kidnapped the Young Son, right?”
“Yes. I think you might be onto something here.” I sat up on the bench.
“So yeah, then you got the demi-devil as the Jersey Devil. And you said he’s got a bunch of shifters on his side.”
Reg, you are a genius. “Holy shit. This is totally in line with the Jersey Devil’s dream to lock the gates of hell. The G20 and having me get the Sacred Pages was just a diversion.”
Reg’s eyes narrowed. “You’re losing me here.”
I tried to slow down. “He’s going to use the power of the eclipse and enhance it by combining a God and a thousand shifters to drive the spike into the gates of hell, locking them forever. If he locks the gates, all the dirty souls headed for hell will be redirected back to the earth’s surface.”
“That’s no good.”
“No, you’re right about that. I never knew exactly how the Jersey Devil would lock the gates of hell. So a God, a demi-devil and a thousand alike. They are all going to cast a spell at the same time during the eclipse. He’s got mind control over the shifters and he’s kidnapped Mabon. The Jersey Devil is going to try to lock the gates of hell. I still don’t know how he is going to carry it out, but I think we found out his grand scheme. I’m guessing the G20 stuff was just to cause a diversion for the authorities. With everyone concentrating on that, it cleared the way for him to set up the eclipse event.”
Chapter 34
REG PUT THE PAPERS back on the table. “And he was just trying to get you out of the way by asking for that book.”
“Looks like it. He’s quite the crafty one.” The Jersey Devil still had a great advantage and I didn’t want to run into any more of his dirty tricks.
Reg softened his tone, “I guess this puts off our plan to go check out the eclipse down in the city?”
“Are you sure you want to do that? The police have been instructed to shoot me on sight, Reg,” I warned.
“I don’t care about none of that. I want to get out and get up in the mix again. But I understand if you think I would be a burden or something.”
I had made a promise. “Reg, I’d still love to take you down for the eclipse but if duty calls, I might have to abandon you. Fair warning.”
“Man, that’s totally fine. It’s Halloween though.”
I’d nearly forgotten. “Oh yeah, sorry. Happy Halloween.”
Reg shook his head. “No. That’s not what I’m getting at. You can wear a costume today and it won’t seem out of the ordinary.”
“Reg, you are just what this scrambled head needed. Thanks for helping me figure this one out. I have a favor to ask you.”
“What’s that now?”
I got nervous. “I want to know if I can borrow your car. I need to have a vehicle now that I can’t use Uber because of my America’s Most Wanted status. Don’t worry, I won’t do anything to it.”
“I should ask my son if he needs it tomorrow.”
I tried to sway him. “Screw him, Reg. It’s your car.”
“I know I know. It’s just...aahh, go ahead. I’ll get you the keys when you take me back to my place.”
I hated to have to do this. “One more thing. Do you have any cash I can borrow? If I use my card it might set off the alarms.”
He immediately responded. “Sure thing, Mike. I don’t know how much I got, but you can have it.”
“You the man, Reg. And you can give me a call when you want me to pick you up. Depending on circumstance, I should be right there. I still haven’t processed this last twist the Jersey Devil has thrown at me. I have to figure out where he can have a thousand shifters in one place without being detected.”
Reg picked up Colossus and set the dog on his lap. He said, “Sucks you can’t call Gretchen and put the fuzz on it. I don’t think a thousand shifters could just blend i
nto a haunted house party.”
“It is a possibility, though. Every time I learn something new, it creates ten new problems. Now I have to decide on a costume for tonight. Good idea, Reg.”
“I’ve had a few in my day.” He smiled and touched the box again.
I asked him, “You getting dressed up? You gonna do Carl Weathers from Predator again so you can show off the guns and that massive chest?”
Reg picked up the sketch of the eclipse again. “Ha ha. The weather guy said it’s supposed to be pretty chilly tonight, so I don’t think I’m doing that this year.”
“Surprise me when I pick you up tomorrow.”
“All right, I think I can do that.”
I took Reg home and grabbed his car keys. I slept near the door in my basement in case I needed to slip out in a hurry.
I woke up, noticed the sunlight and panicked. How long had I been out for? I listened for footsteps from above and ran up my steps when I didn’t hear anything. I grabbed my cell phone and the charger and looked out my front window. I checked the time. 9:15.
I pulled Reginald’s car keys out of my pocket and moved my front door aside. I pushed the screen open just enough to sneak out, and peeked in both directions for the authorities. My heart raced out of control and I started to overheat. I took a deep breath, stepped through the caution tape, and ran out to Reginald’s Ford Taurus.
I jumped in the driver’s seat as fast as I could and checked the rear view mirror. No cops. I turned the car on, slumped down in the seat, and shifted into drive. I pulled out and turned around at the gas station down the street to head downtown. I yawned and rubbed my eyes with my right hand, trying to clear the cobwebs and form a plan for the day.
The first place I needed to stop was the Halloween costume store down in the Strip District. I entered the store determined to find a great disguise.
I strolled past the superhero section and saw police costumes. Some of them were very realistic, but I decided that was a bit too brazen and kept shopping. The big warehouse contained a lot of costumes, which I checked out as I walked through.
Bloodline Awakened Supernatural Thriller Series: Books 1-3 Page 18
