Another showed the interior of a cave, and the sea beyond it. The cave, however, was a bloody mess, with three skulls sat in white circles. These circles all had markings within them: an inner ring, and also symbols that were alien to Beth. The skulls were connected by chalk lines, and it did not take Beth more than an instant to recall the scene Jim had described. Worse still, she saw a giant, monstrous figure half-hidden by the dense fog above the sea and just breaking through the mist. It had many legs, as well as curling tentacles that punctured the fog. Any face it had was hidden, but Beth recognised its form. It was titled The Harbinger Comes.
The artist of all the pieces was Aldrich Kent. The pictures were dated, and all were from the early eighteen hundreds.
There were other paintings lining this wall as well, all as grotesque and as nightmarish as the last.
Eventually, Beth and the others stopped outside of a door, midway down the hallway. It was just as the others were: dark oak panelling. One of the men pushed the door open and forced Beth and Jim inside.
The room was, for the most part, empty. The floorboards were old and stained. The wallpaper, too, was worn, and some of it was hanging loose. It was a room that appeared to have received no care or attention in a long time.
A window sat on the far wall, tall and narrow, and a thin strip of daylight—the only light source in the room—shone in through it.
Two men were sat central to the room, each facing forward, and both bound to their respective chairs. They were naked and bloody and had burlap sacks covering their heads. One of them groaned.
It was the man on the left who drew Beth’s gaze, however. Even without seeing his face, she knew instantly who it was.
26
The men that were holding Beth released her, and she ran forward towards her brother.
There were multiple cuts and lacerations on Josh, and blood ran freely from each. However, even though she wasn’t medically trained, her initial, panicked conclusion was that they were all surface level. His body was also covered with a layer of sweat and grime, and the hairs on his chest were matted down. She quickly pulled the burlap sack free of his head and, for the first time in a long while, looked down at her brother’s face.
Tears erupted from her and she started to sob.
It was him, without question. Even after so long, Beth recognised the strong jaw line covered with black stubble. His greasy hair was slicked back, messy and wild, and it fell to his shoulders. Josh also had their father’s thin nose. And, even though he looked terrible—with a swollen and beaten face—his blue eyes locked onto hers, and Beth saw a wave of realisation wash over him. She cupped his face delicately with her palms.
He coughed, then wheezed out a word. ‘B… Beth?’
‘Yeah, it’s me, Josh.’
‘You came?’
Beth nodded, tears still running from her eyes. ‘I did.’
He shook his head and started to cry as well. ‘You shouldn’t have. You made a mistake. Go. Please. Run.’
‘But you called me,’ she said.
‘I know,’ he replied. ‘I shouldn't have. Get out of here, Beth.’
‘She isn’t running anywhere, Josh,’ a voice said. Beth swivelled her head to see William Kent step into the room. ‘She’s staying right here. You three will be needed tonight.’
‘No,’ Josh said, pain evident in his voice. ‘Let her go, please. Just let my sister go. You don’t need her for any of this.’
William, flanked by the four men in black, shook his head. ‘Afraid not, Josh. You know that isn’t true.’
‘What the fuck are you talking about?’ Beth snapped. ‘What the fuck is going on?’
‘Please,’ Josh said again, fighting against his bonds. ‘I’m begging you.’
‘Too late for that,’ William said. ‘You made your choice, and now you will live and die by it. You should have done what was instructed of you. Instead, you ran—even hurt a number of our brethren in the process. What? Did you think you’d stop what was coming? Stupid, Josh. Naïve. You were destined for something truly magnificent, boy. Your role would have changed things forever. You could have brought about permanent change and opened the door to the Gods, but you threw all that back at us. For what? A misguided sense of right and wrong?’
‘I’m sorry!’ Josh cried. ‘Let me make it right.’
‘Oh, that will happen,’ William said with a sinister chuckle. ‘It will all be made right. The ritual will be completed. Then—and only then—when your blood is spilled and flesh is torn and the doorway is open… then you will have made it right, Josh.’
‘Beth,’ Josh said, turning his wild, wet eyes to her. ‘You need to get away. I don’t care how. You need to escape. I shouldn’t have brought you here. I shouldn’t have called.’
‘But you did, Josh,’ William said. ‘The blame for all of this lies with you for your betrayal. You could have been one of us, you could have seen true paradise, but you threw it away. And you should know, Josh, that we aren’t the forgiving type.’
William then walked over to the other restrained man in the room, whose body was shaking. The burlap sack was quickly yanked free and the man’s face was revealed. He was young, in his early twenties, and had dark hair and wide, terrified eyes. A length of duct-tape covered his mouth.
‘For example, take Kyle here,’ William said, and ruffled the man’s damp hair. ‘He had the chance to stop you that night, Josh. Do you remember? When you tried to run, Kyle here actually showed a little initiative and stepped out in front of you to stop you. However, when you held up your knife, Kyle failed. Despite us giving an order to attack and stop you, Kyle put his own well-being before the needs of the group. He showed fear and stepped aside. If Kyle had simply stood his ground, I think we would have caught you. But he failed, and he let you escape. That is something we cannot forgive.’
The young man started to thrash around in his chair, fighting against his bonds. Tears started to fall, and though his cries were muffled by the tape, Beth knew he was begging for mercy. William retrieved his phone and stepped back a little, holding it up and pointing it at Kyle.
‘Kyle, my boy, you know what your punishment will be. I will record your death so that the others can see the price of failure and cowardice. And it will also show our guests here just how serious we are.’ He then turned his head to the group of four men who were with him. ‘Proceed.’
One of the men stepped forward, and a disturbing smile grew over his face. It was the first show of emotion Beth had seen from the zealots. The man stopped just before Kyle, reached behind his back, and pulled something free from the waistband of his trousers. Beth let out a gasp when she saw the size of the Bowie knife. The blade was huge and looked horribly sharp. Kyle started to thrash with renewed vigour.
‘Stop,’ Beth pleaded.
‘There is no stopping any of this, my dear. Something you would do well to keep in mind.’
The three other men stepped in front of Beth and Jim, blocking them off from Kyle. Not that Beth would have tried.
William chuckled, then turned to the man with the knife. ‘Have fun, Brother Sutton. And make the boy feel it.’
Brother Sutton’s smile increased, but his gaze was a manic one. To Beth, it seemed like there was no humanity behind his eyes, only darkness.
The knife was brought up, and the tip pressed into Kyle’s cheek. Sutton made a quick swipe sideways, nicking the skin and drawing blood. Kyle yanked his head back and squirmed in pain. The knife was then pressed into the young man’s chest. Another nick.
And again.
‘Let him go,’ Beth said to William, but the older man just ignored her and instead concentrated on recording.
Brother Sutton took hold of Kyle’s head and forced it to the left. He then grabbed Kyle’s ear with one hand, while he used the knife in his other to begin cutting. Beth winced as Kyle’s muffled screaming intensified. Blood flowed down the side of his face. Brother Sutton worked furiously, with violent sawing mot
ions, and hacked at the ear, forced the blade through cartilage. Eventually, the ear came free, and he dropped it to the floor. Once Kyle’s head was released, he shook it frantically and continued crying out behind the tape in absolute agony. Beth saw a glimpse of the raw and exposed flesh where the ear had just been.
Brother Sutton then grabbed the chair Kyle was bound to and spun the man around so that his tied hands were facing William. Sutton took hold of the index finger on Kyle’s left hand, and the tip of the knife was moved beneath the fingernail. Sutton thrust the blade forward.
Kyle exploded in a fit of writhing muffled screaming, but it was useless. Sutton took his time in pushing the large blade deeper beneath the nail, and started to twist the knife as well. Most of the fingernail was forced away from the bed, and dangled uselessly as blood dripped from the finger.
The process was then repeated on three other nails. After this, Sutton grabbed the small finger on Kyle’s right hand. But he didn’t use the knife this time. Instead, he just quickly snapped it back, breaking the digit completely. Beth heard the crack. Her body tensed and she started to sob, unable to cope with the violence.
‘Very good, Brother Sutton,’ William said above Kyle’s moans of pain. ‘But I don’t think this young man has learned his lesson just yet. I think we need to step things up a little.’
Sutton nodded, then turned Kyle back around to face everyone. The large man wrapped an arm around Kyle’s head to keep it still, then again brought up the knife.
This time to Kyle’s right eye.
The blade was forced in beneath the eyeball, cutting through the skin of the lower lid as it moved. Sutton was slow and deliberate, wiggling the knife as he pushed it in deeper. The tape over Kyle’s mouth came free at one side, and his horrible screams of agony were allowed to bellow out unhindered. Kyle desperately tied to pull his head away, but Sutton was far too strong.
The knife was pushed farther in, but was too big and cumbersome for any kind of delicacy, and only succeeded in cutting into and partially mashing-up the eyeball. With a twist, the mangled eye was popped free and dangled down on a fleshy cord.
William chuckled at the sickening torture. ‘Oh, Kyle, if you could only see what you look like.’
Sutton then smiled and took hold of the ruined eye. He lifted it and twisted it around, so it was pointing back at Kyle.
‘There you go,’ he said in deep voice.
William and the other three men all erupted in laughter. The sight of such violence had Beth on the cusp of vomiting, but the sheer joy these people were getting from the pain and suffering only made things harder to deal with.
‘Just kill him,’ Beth said. ‘Put him out of his misery.’
‘Not a chance,’ William said. ‘Keep going, Brother Sutton.’
And like an obedient dog, Brother Sutton got to work cutting off Kyle’s lips.
The top was first, which was stretched out before the sharp blade messily cut through the flesh, leaving a small jagged flap just above the now exposed teeth and gums. The bottom lip was then taken. Blood smeared Kyle’s disfigured face, which was then relieved of its nose. Next, Sutton got to work scalping poor Kyle, whose screams and cries continued to get higher and more intense. With the younger man’s hair pulled back in Sutton’s grip, the cultist used the sharp edge of his knife to hack and saw at the skin as he yanked it free. A large section of skin and hair was cut loose, revealing an expanse of bone wet with blood.
With each feature lost, Kyle’s head looked more like a twisted skull than that of a living human. His one good eye flittered around in utter panic and anguish.
‘Okay,’ William finally said. ‘I think we can draw this to a close. But make it good, would you, Brother Sutton?’
Sutton nodded, then thrust the knife deep into the gut of Kyle in a quick and savage motion. Kyle drew in a gasp of breath, then Sutton forced the knife upwards, cutting the young man’s stomach open as Kyle screamed. Brother Sutton then dropped the knife and, with both hands, forced the newly created wound open, pushing the two sides apart and letting guts and glistening-red intestines spill to the floor. A pile of gore lay at Kyle’s feet as his single eye rolled back into his head.
‘You fucking monsters!’ Beth screamed. ‘You’re a bunch of fucking animals!’
‘No,’ William said, shaking his head. ‘What we are, is devoted.’
‘I don’t see much of a difference,’ Beth shot back.
William just chuckled again and put his phone away. ‘That might have seemed savage to you, my dear, but that is only because you are blind to the truth. Soon you will learn. This base, animalistic savagery is needed. It is to be both understood and embraced if we are to ascend.’
Beth’s head was spinning. The insanity was all too much. ‘I don’t understand what you’re talking about! What the fuck is going on, here?!’
‘I can show you,’ William said. He then addressed the men under his command. ‘Follow me with the girl. The other one,’ he pointed at Jim, ‘leave here. Tie him up with this traitor.’
‘Let me go!’ Jim commanded as two of the men grabbed him. There was fear in his voice. Beth fought, but she was quickly overpowered by the other two men—one of whom was Sutton. Beth was then dragged out of the room and away from her brother.
‘Beth, I’m sorry!’ Josh cried out just before the door between them slammed shut.
27
Beth was led across the hallway by the two guards, one either side of her. She struggled against them, but they were both too powerful, and were able to keep her held with what seemed like minimal effort. The journey was a short one, into a room opposite. William Kent stood inside, still wearing that infuriating grin.
This room was larger than the last, and in pristine condition. There was no peeling of the wallpaper or stains on the floor like the one that Josh—and now Jim—were held in.
But despite its size, it seemed cramped, considering the number of things that were crammed inside. Like the public area Beth had visited earlier, the large room also served as a display area, with bookcases, glass cases, chests, and cabinets. Two large windows would have let in a healthily amount of natural light, except wooden shutters were pulled closed over them. The ceiling and wall lights gave the only luminance to the area.
Beth was in no mood for research or investigation, however—she just wanted to get Josh and Jim away from this madness. ‘What the fuck do you want from me?’ Beth asked William Kent through gritted teeth.
‘I’m actually going to bestow on you a huge honour,’ William said. ‘Despite what I said to your brother, you may yet have a way out of this. He was destined for something, but no longer. Perhaps you are more worthy.’
‘Worthy of what?’ Beth asked, exasperated. But he avoided the question and moved on to something else.
‘Those people who were with me back on the landing? They are very important people.’
‘More Kents?’ Beth assumed.
‘Some,’ William said. ‘But certainly not all. Many of them are here to witness what we are going to accomplish.’
‘I’m going to go out on a limb and guess you people are behind the murders out at the cliffs? And that, somehow, you—or those that came before you—were responsible for the same thing fifty years ago. Am I right?’
William smiled as he paced between the bookcases, hands behind his back, like a teacher calmly walking between seated students. ‘You are on the right track, certainly.’
‘And you are going to do something again tonight. Three more people need to die.’
‘Impressive,’ William said. ‘And how did you find that out?’
‘I asked around and put things together,’ Beth said. ‘Honestly, it wasn’t difficult.’
‘You are resourceful, I’ll give you that.’
‘What I don’t get, though, is the endgame. I mean, what is the point of the killings? And this talk of paradise? Are you guys a cult?’
She saw him bristle, and he quickly turned to face h
er. ‘I don’t like that word.’
‘Like it or not, it’s accurate. That’s all you people are. A bunch of sadistic and idiotic sheep who believe in fairytales.’
William’s scowl darkened. ‘You’d do well to stop insulting me and my brethren,’ he said. ‘You asked why we have killed? Well, I’m not sure you can handle the answer. Regardless, I’m curious. Hence why you are here, and not tied up in the other room.’
Beth didn’t really want to listen. As much as she tried to remain calm and think clearly, it was all she could do not to lose her shit and start screaming.
Instead, Beth felt she could perhaps buy for time. ‘So, what is it?’ Beth asked. ‘Because let me tell you, I’ve seen some pretty fucked-up things since I’ve been here in your town. Not least what you just did to one of your own.’
This drew his attention. ‘What have you seen?’ he asked. ‘Ignoring what just happened in the other room, of course.’
Fuck it, Beth thought, and went for broke. She had a feeling the things she was about to describe were not going to be a shock to him. ‘Where to start? Almost as soon as I arrived, I saw something in an upstairs window of a house. A weird, deformed human, with bandages around its head. It just kept knocking on the glass, trying to get my attention. I looked away, and then it was gone.’
‘Go on,’ William said with an enthused smile.
‘And yesterday, on the beach, I heard babies crying. When I looked, there were these small… things. Squirming deformities that were crying out. Again, they disappeared the second I looked away.’
‘Exquisite,’ William exclaimed in an approving tone. ‘Did you know there were child sacrifices on that beach in this town, many years ago? It was one of the first incarnations of the Ritual of Moloch. Sacrifices to the Canaanite God. I believe what you saw on the beach were the souls of the sacrificed, changed to a pure, chaotic image.’
Beth didn’t even know where to start with what he said.
‘Moloch? Canaanite?’ she asked.
The Netherwell Horror Page 14
