Sam knew he could wait no longer. Lucas needed help. Now!
He ran toward the timber, ignoring the snarling and the growling. He raced toward another human being in desperate need, knowing he was running into the unknown. The smell became heavier, more powerful, almost unbearable. Branches whipped at Sam's face, the heavy cross bounced on his chest. A powerful roar stopped him. The smell was sickening. The Beast—and it had to be that—was very close to him.
"No, Sam!" Lucas shouted. "Run! Oh, my God-SAM, GET OUT!"
The voice was pain-filled, in terrible agony. Sam moved toward the sound, edging his way through the darkness of the timber, his flesh crawling with the uncertainty of what lay ahead of him. He didn't dare use his flashlight; the Beasts would be sure to spot him then.
The stench was making him sick.
Suddenly, something warned Sam; some inner sense for survival he had developed in combat told him to duck—shift direction, hit the ground! Or perhaps, he would later think, it was God warning him. Sam hit the ground, throwing himself to the right, rolling, coming up with his back to a huge tree, on his knees.
A huge clawed hand tore through the air, swiping. Powerful jaws, dripping saliva, snapped at nothing. The fangs, thick, yellow, four to five inches long, gleamed in the dimness of the forest gloom. The Beast, well over six feet tall, stood a few yards from Sam, roaring at him, its stinking breath fouling the air.
For a few heart-pounding seconds, Sam squatted with his back to the tree in total shock. Nothing he had ever seen or done or read could have prepared him for this. The Beast glared down at him, hate shining blood-red in its small evil eyes.
The Beast was huge, tall, perhaps two hundred and fifty to three hundred pounds, very wide across its trunk. It had massive jaws that slowly narrowed almost into a pinhead at the top. Its body was covered with thick coarse hair, matted with filth. And the face. God! the face. It was the face of all that was evil. It was insane human; cunning animal; crazed night prowler. It was a walking nightmare.
And Sam was in the middle of the waking incubus.
Sam touched the cross on his chest, grasping it, holding it up to the Beast. The grotesque, subhuman howled with fear, jerking its hairy arms up to shield its eyes from the Holy Cross. Its roaring rattled the leaves of the forest. The Beast's hate and anger finally overcame its fear, and it moved toward Sam, huge bare feet shuffling through the undergrowth.
Sam clawed the .45 from the holster, jacked back the hammer, and shot the creature twice in the chest, the heavy slugs slamming the creature back, blowing holes the size of quarters. It shook itself, screaming in pain, then charged. Sam leveled the automatic and squeezed the trigger twice, shooting the Beast in the face, the slugs going into its open mouth, clipping off a fang, then traveling up into its tiny brain, blowing out the back of its head. The Beast flipped off its feet and fell backward, slumping against a thick tree trunk. It quivered, its bowels relaxing, then was dead.
Sam's chest was heaving as he got to his feet, standing over the dead Beast. He was almost numb with shock. He had never seen anything like this.
Suddenly, he remembered there were two of them, at least. Surely the other Beast would come to avenge the death of its friend or mate. Sam ejected the half empty clip, put it in a pouch, and pushed in a full clip, jacking in round, leaving the weapon on full cock. He waited.
Some .. . thing was stumbling toward him, through the dark timber, its breathing harsh. Whatever it was, it moved closer.
Sam lifted the .45, steadying the butt with the palm of his left hand, finger on the trigger. Sweat ran into his eyes. His finger tightened, taking up slack on the trigger as the thing moved nearer. Sam almost screamed as the bushes parted and the creature stepped out into the small clearing.
Lucas Monroe.
Sam lowered the .45, easing the hammer down with his thumb. "Lucas! My Lord, Lucas—what happened to—" His words stuck in his throat as clouds moved past the moon, giving light to the scene on the ground. The Godly, the dead Godless, and the bloody old man.
Lucas's left arm was ripped and blood-stained. His face and bare chest were claw-marked, dark and shiny-black in the moonlight.
"Oh, Sam, Sam—I tried to stop them." His words were strangely harsh. "Foolish of me, I know. I'm too old; don't have the strength. Sam, there's too many of them. You young fool! Get away, get out!"
Sam stepped toward the Methodist minister. "Come on, Lucas. We've got to get you to a doctor."
"NO!" he backed away from Sam, shaking his bloody head. "Too late, Sam. It's too late. For me, maybe not for you. Don't touch me." His words were painful to hear. "Kill me, Sam. For the love of God—kill me. Use your weapon. That's all I ask."
Sam took another step toward him. Lucas held up his hand, and Sam heeded the warning. "Stay away, Sam. I'm warning you, son—don't you understand? You've got to kill me before I—become one of —Them!" he cut his eyes to the dead stinking Beast.
Sam heard movement behind him; a quiet rustling of the leaves. The second Beast was stalking him through the timber. With the pistol hanging by his side, Sam gently eased the hammer back to full cock.
"Tell me about the Beasts, Lucas."
"Sam, I—don't have much time. It's—working in me right now. Son, I don't have much longer in this form. Please, when the time comes, give me the dignity of dying a whole man—a human being. Give me that much."
The Beast moved closer to Sam, slipping stealthily behind him. The stench grew stronger. Sam wondered if Lucas knew the Beast was stalking him? If the minister—what was left of him—was stalling? He decided not.
"I've got to know about them, Lucas."
"Have Wade show you Duhon's journal, Sam. It's among those he got from Father Dubois. That will tell you all you need to know. For the love of God, Sam, you're a merciful man—kill me!"
The Beast behind Sam stopped moving. "They've bitten you, Lucas. They're rabid? Is that it?"
Lucas shook his head. His face seemed swollen, seeming to change with each second.
The Beast behind Sam took a cautious step, then was silent in the timber. Waiting to pounce.
"No, Sam. Not in the way an ordinary animal is rabid. These are the Beasts mentioned on the tablet." He moaned, almost a snarl.
Sam had to know more, although he hated to put Lucas through this. "I don't understand, Lucas—but I'm trying. How did the Beasts get here?"
"Sam, they've always been here. I believe they've been here since God expelled Lucifer from Heaven. I know they've been here since the first Sixth Day."
"The FIRST Sixth Day!" the words exploded from Sam's mouth.
"Listen to me, Sam. Listen to me very carefully. I've only time to say this once, then for the love of God, you've got to kill me—for your own safety.
"I can't really explain them; I don't believe any mortal can. They are part human; part animal— all evil. I heard you calling out for me; it enraged them. They have to be killed. Wiped from the face of this earth! Oh, Sam, nobody knows how many times God tried to make man in His own image—or woman. We don't even know what His image is! The Beasts breed, with anything, Sam—anything! keeping their species alive. Sometimes, Duhon found out, as did Dubois, they capture humans and breed with them. But they can sleep for years, Sam, with only a chosen Sentry awake on guard. They can do that because they answer to Satan. I don't have to explain that to you!
"They're God's failures, son. The devil took them, made them his own. Don't ask me how—I can't answer that. I'm just a man. Or was." He snarled, the sound coming from his mouth chilling Sam.
"I don't have much time, son. Sam, the Bible doesn't make reference to God's mistakes— naturally. Who was around to record them? Confirm them?" Lucas began to slobber, his jaws growing thicker, the saliva, a stinking drool, began dripping from his mouth and thickening lips. The transformation of this gentle man was horrible to witness.
"They're cunning, Sam. They survived the Flood and everything else God did in His attempt to destroy the
evil on this earth. He failed there, too. I don't know why, or how, but He did. You know God rules the Heavens and Satan rules the Earth." He growled. "The Beasts belong to Satan—they answer only to him." Lucas screamed; a roar, the slobber spraying from his lips.
"Only a moment more, Sam, then you have to do it. I'll be brief. No! Don't come any closer." His voice had deepened, the words slurring, hard to understand. "Be very careful, for there are many more towns like Whitfield around the nation, around the world. The Beasts can lie dormant for hundreds of years. Yeti? Sasquash? I agree with Michael—yes. Probably, but of a higher intellect than these foul things." He snarled, his face changing into a horror of man/beast. "I'm all out of time, Sam. God . . . bless . . . you."
The Beast behind Sam charged, just as Lucas roared, the once-human moving toward Sam, his mouth open, fanged teeth snapping. Sam shot what was once Lucas. Shot him in the chest, then between the eyes. He spun, dropped to one knee, leveled the .45, and shot the charging Beast coming up behind him, emptying the .45 into the creature. The Beast was slammed backward. It stumbled, fell, and began its death quiver, dying at Sam's feet.
In the midst of all the carnage, the stink, with the knowledge that all he had heard and seen this day and night was true; knowing he had killed his friend, a man of God, and wondering why He had not protected Lucas, Sam's mind could take no more. Automatically, survival taking over, Sam could not remember changing clips in the .45. He looked at Lucas. All trace of the man who was was gone. The minister was a Beast. A small silver cross lay on the matted hair of its chest.
Sam sank to his knees and wept.
He wept until his chest ached from exhaustion. The clouds that had kept the night dark blew away, and the moon shone with all its brilliance. When Sam opened his eyes, red-rimmed, and wiped them free of the last tear, he looked at the shining image of the cross on the ground, just to his left. The moon, hitting the branches of a tall tree, formed a cross on the cool earth of the forest. A shining silver-white rood on God's earth.
Sam did not see the Beasts watching him from the cover of the timber. Wanting to attack, but fearful of the light of the moon and the power of the cross their Master hated, and had warned them of.
Sam rose to his feet, the .45 in his hand. He put the big automatic in leather, then drew his knife. Careful not to let any blood from the Beasts touch his skin, Sam hacked the heads from the Beasts with his Bowie. Using his shirt, he fashioned a crude bag for the dripping heads. He left Lucas—or what was once Lucas—lying on the ground.
Looking at what was left of Lucas, Sam said, "God, this was a good man. A true and loyal servant of Yours. He deserved much better than this. Take him—take him home."
Sam walked out of the timber boldly, unhurriedly, carrying the bag of stinking heads. He walked past the small lake, up the hill. At the crest, he stood alone, in the moonlight. He was not afraid. His chest bare, flecked with mud, his clothing stained with blood.
He stood with powerful legs spread, fists clenched. He looked down into the blackness of the timber. "All right, Prince of Darkness, Lord of Flies, Ruler of the Night, hear me well. I have my God, and a few people I know are good, and who, for whatever reason, have resisted you and your Coven.
"I'm but a mortal man, and I know I can't destroy you, but I'm going to beat you this time around. You want a fight?" He held up the bloody bag of heads. "Come on—here I am."
Lightning danced across the sky. A phenomenon seen that night by only Balon and Wilder. The devil's agent stood outside his trailer at the Dig, watching his Master play with the minister.
Sam laughed at the lightning. "Is that the best you can do, Master of Filth?" He knew he was deliberately antagonizing the devil. He didn't care.
The lightning danced closer.
Sam laughed on the hill. "No, Ruler of Evil. My God won't let you kill me—not yet. First you must meet me face to face. I want to look at you."
A savage burst of lightning seared a tall tree nearby. Sam could see the explosive heat from the blast.
"Yes, yes," he said. He had not flinched when the tree exploded, the sap igniting. "I know your power, Captain of Rats, but you don't frighten me—not any longer. Now you listen to me, a good man went down tonight, by your hand, then by mine. And you'll pay for that—believe it!"
A violent crack of thunder momentarily deafened the minister. "Yeah, yeah, Drinker of Pus, you'll probably kill me in time. I realize that." Sam could not hear his own words through the rolling, crashing, seemingly endless cascade of thunder. The lightning came in flickering bolts, dancing as a snake's tongue through the sky. "But it won't be tonight, you evil bastard!"
The sky hissed as Sam removed the cross from around his neck, holding the silver to the sky, arm extended upward. The lightning abruptly ceased, thunder now silent as a gentle rain fell on the fenced-in area known as Tyson's Lake. The rain fell there, and nowhere else in Fork. The moisture picked up in intensity, falling in glistening sheets, the color of the torrent matching the shining of the cross.
"God's way of cleansing the earth," Sam said, slipping the chain over his head, the cross resting on his bare chest. His hearing slowly returned. He looked down into the darkness of the timber. "We'll meet again," he said. "Me or mine," he added, not knowing why he said that.
Sam walked through the rain to the fence, climbed it, and went swiftly to his truck, the bloody bag of heads swinging by his side. He was driving toward Whitfield, under the blanket of billions of stars, when the other Beasts emerged from their cover in the timber. They growled at the downpouring of water, disliking it, for their way was of filth, and they knew the moisture came from a God they were aligned against.
Snarling and snapping, they dragged Lucas and their headless comrades into the holes in the earth, into their caves, pulling the carcasses far below the surface of Fork County, hundreds of feet below the timber, past the ever-present Sentry watching from his post.
There, they ate the dead, stripping the flesh, breaking and sucking the bones. Nothing would be wasted in their feast. Now, Lucas Monroe no longer existed except in the minds of his friends.
Later, when one of the Beasts squatted to defecate, a small silver cross would lodge in his rectum, causing the Beast some small discomfort before he could pick it free. The Beast tossed the cross into the darkness of the cave, bouncing it off a wall. It glistened briefly, then the light faded and died.
Thirteen
Sam drove to the rectory, pulling around to the rear of the building. He banged on the door. Father Dubois answered the pounding, looking at Sam without speaking; at the minister's bare chest, a pistol belted around his waist, his stained trousers, and the sack in his hand, dripping stinking crimson. The old priest nodded his understanding.
"Come in, Sam. I'll find you a shirt. It might be a bit snug, but it will cover you. Father Haskell's here with me. We've been waiting for your return."
In the priest's small living room, Sam spoke to the Episcopalian, then slipped into the shirt Dubois handed him. He was unable to button it over his massive chest, but was grateful for the warmth.
"Could I have a small glass of wine, Michael?"
The priest smiled. "How about a couple ounces of bourbon, Sam?"
Sam returned the slight smile. "Better. Thanks."
He knocked back the bourbon in two gulps, chasing the fire with a glass of water. The glow of the whiskey spread through him, warming him, calming him.
Haskell's nose wrinkled in disgust at the smell coming from the makeshift bag. "What's in the sack?" he asked, his face pale.
"Heads of the Beasts," Sam opened the bag, the heads rolling out, exposing the stench, the red staring eyes, the opened fanged mouths. Their awfulness drew gasps from Dubois and Haskell. The Episcopalian was suddenly, violently ill. He ran to the bathroom, the sounds of his vomiting drifting to the living room.
Haskell walked back into the room. "I—I'm sorry. I was not prepared for—that!" he pointed to the heads on the floor, shuddering as
he looked at them.
"Don't touch them without some protection on your hands," Sam said. "They are highly infectious." He sat down, weariness overtaking him. He closed his eyes for a moment.
The minister opened his eyes when Dubois asked, "Where is Lucas?"
"What is left of him is dead," Sam answered. "Only God knows why he went—out there," he gestured with a big hand.
"Dead!" Father Haskell said numbly.
"He went because he said you'd go after— Them," Father Dubois poured himself and Haskell a glass of wine. "Lucas said he had to give you an edge—somehow. He said you had the courage of a gladiator, but you wouldn't stop to think things out before committing yourself. I guess he was right. How did he die?"
"When I found him," Sam's words were tinged with weariness, "those . .. things had been at him." He looked at the heads on the floor.
"Had they touched him?" Dubois asked.
"Clawed him and bitten him. He was bleeding badly." Sam looked at Dubois. "I think you know the rest."
"You killed him." It was a statement.
"Yes."
Haskell clasped his hands together and silently prayed.
Dubois poured Sam a short bourbon, then covered the heads with a towel from his kitchen. "Tell us what happened, Sam."
Sam was exhausted. He put his head back on the sofa and closed his eyes. He had told the men everything, telling them of John Benton's condition, and God and Satan fighting on the crest of the hill, everything that had occurred that night. Now, he felt drained.
Dubois said, "You did the right thing, Sam. It was the only thing you could have done. I believe I would have done the same. I like to think so. God has forgiven you. I will expect you to do the same if they come for me. And some . . . thing will."
Sam met the older man's eyes. "You seem awfully sure, Michael."
"Oh, they'll come, Sam. Some . . . thing will destroy me. I've been preparing myself for that day. Ever since I felt them surface—drawing breath."
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