How To Recognize A Demon Has Become Your Friend (Necon Modern Horror Book 9)

by Linda Addison

  …or forever…

  It took Claire three hours to go through the pictures of Ron and her with the scissors.

  A pile of little pieces of paper collected on the bed. She smiled as each picture was transformed into a smaller picture of her alone. The emptiness began to bubble away.

  She stuffed the money from Sharon in her blouse pocket and packed quickly, hoping for the first time Ron wouldn’t return early. Claire took only things that belonged to her, leaving behind his clothes and the little pieces of paper sprinkled throughout the room like confetti.

  Sharp, Shiny, Hurting Things

  Don’t sit with your back to the door

  change seats 3 times on a public bus

  sleep with the windows closed.

  These rules will keep them away

  from day time dreams

  and night time desire.

  Look at me twice but no more

  don’t touch your ears

  or remove your gloves.

  These rules will keep me away

  from shadowed doorways

  and multi-plexed garages.

  Or do as you wish

  I’ll bring my toys

  and we can make the stars cry.

  Future, Past, Imperfect

  Rising Wind crouched in the hole and rubbed the bone charm on the braided deerskin necklace, as she always did before the Run began. The necklace was the only thing she had from the time before being devoured by the Blood Moon Beast.

  “I will find a way to kill it,” she said to herself. Vibrations increased violently, bouncing her and the large parfleche bag against the hard cold walls of the hole. The cold cut through the layers of animal pelt shirt and pants.

  The usual constant screeching and cracking sounds rose to a roar, making her ears ring. The acrid air burned through the moss filled mask she wore. Rising Wind fought building panic that urged her to jump out of the hole and fling herself onto any sharp edge to end the sounds trying to shatter her soul. Coughing and gagging, she pressed her eyes closed and held images of her teepee and village in her mind. Red Man had taught Rising Wind that was the best way to not lose her reason.

  He’d been a good teacher. The first time she saw him in the Beast’s belly, with his pale skin and long, red beard and tangled hair, she thought he was another devil. He saved her from being consumed, dragged her to the cavern in the Beast’s skin and taught her how to survive.

  Curled in a tight ball to protect her small rounded stomach, a quick flutter inside reminded her why she had to continue, even in this place of madness. Her son. She carried him without a sunrise or sunset to tell her how long she had lived as a mite in the Beast. Her stomach hadn’t grown bigger, but she felt him quiver every now and then. As long as he was inside, he was safe from this horrible dream.

  A violent shudder went through the Beast and the vibration stopped. She peeked out of the hole. The high ceiling and walls of the cavern glowed with veins of bright green. Red Man popped his head out of his hole and pointed up. Cracks in the outer skin of the Beast were opening, dark light poured down. Rising Wind thought she could see the stars. Tying the parfleche on her back, she wrapped the climbing claws on her hands and pulled herself out of the hole and started running.

  More than twenty other runners moved at the same time, each with a large bag on their backs. They scrabbled over the grey boulder-sized bumps of the Beast’s inner skin. Each took a different path up towards the opening cracks. Rising Wind concentrated on choosing her next foot and hand hold. The inner skin alternated with rock hard edges and wet soft crevasses. She slapped her climbing claws to the crevasses and pulled herself up towards the widening cracks. Stronger scents of decay wafted from the crevasses. Horrible screeches and inhuman screams rang around her as small flesh devils scuttled underfoot, snapping at her ankles with their claws.

  Rising Wind reached the edge of one of the openings, pulled herself up and onto the outer skin. Above her a planet filled space, speckled with dark craters, and laced with ridges and grooves. Other runners popped out of fissures along the endless undulations of the Beast’s body. The Beast’s tubular arms, wider than rivers, twisted and grey, reached towards the planet. Runners quickly filled their bags with the white fungi growing in the fissures on the Beast’s skin. In the distance, a maw, bigger than the moon, was being filled with chunks of the planet.

  Rising Wind ran towards the mouth, searching for anything different, something that could be a weakness. The closer she got, the bigger the debris in the air grew, until she had to retreat.

  She scrambled around the opening to the chasm, filling her bag with fungus. Wind began to pound down on her signaling time to return to the under-skin. The Beast was finished feeding. Rising Wind and others raced to the opening. She vaulted over the edge, a spike cutting through her left calve as the crevasse began to close. Sliding down the moving walls using the claws to slow her descent was faster than climbing with her wounded leg. She looked behind her and saw the blood path being consumed by tiny devils no bigger than the tip of her finger. She kept moving or they would enter her wound and eat her from the inside out. Trying to stand and stumbling, she almost fell into Red Man’s arms at the bottom.

  He wrapped his arm around Rising Wind’s waist and dragged her into one of the larger caves. He signaled other runners, who rolled a rock to block the opening. She could see the anger in his eyes by the bright green light of the walls. He propped both of their backpacks against the wall.

  “You were searching again, weren’t you?” Red Man asked. He used his knife to cut off the bloody section of the pants.

  She nodded, pulling off the mask and gulping the bitter air into her exhausted lungs.

  “Why do you keep looking for something that doesn’t exist?” he asked.

  “There has to be a way to stop it,” she said her hand on her stomach. “For my – people.”

  “It can’t be stopped, or killed or anything. I keep telling you.” He pulled a bone needle and sinew out of his waist bag. “This is going to hurt.”

  “Yes,” she said, closing her eyes. She let her mind go back to her village while he closed her wound. Memories replayed in her mind of her teepee, the sweet scent of clean wood burning, walking in moonlight, the taste of freshly cooked deer meat, breathing air that didn’t burn her lungs, drinking cool clean water.

  Rising Wind jerked awake. Red Man and two others, Grey and Bat were sitting nearby, eating the fresh fungi that had been harvested. Rising Wind sat up and moved her left leg; a dull pain throbbed under the dressing. Red Man had wrapped the wound in several layers so no blood came through.

  “Don’t stand, it might start bleeding again,” Red Man said. He gave her a hand-size piece of fungus and a bone cup filled with brown water.

  She bit into the spongy fungi, forcing herself to chew and swallow the slightly bitter meal.

  “I planted your gathering,” Grey said, bobbing his large head. The cloud of grey-white hair around his head moved as if a breeze had touched it.

  She took a swallow of the water, trying not to disturb the brown silt on the bottom of the cup. “Thank you. I will plant your next gathering.”

  “I saw you run,” Bat said. He was a small man with large ears, several fingers were missing on his left hand, but he pointed at her with the two remaining. “Why you always run to mouth? You want to die?”

  “She looking for way to kill It,” Grey said, nudging Bat with his foot. “You always ask and forget.”

  “No.” Bat rubbed his eyes, and shook his bald head. “I don’t remember, that’s all.”

  “Looking for something that isn’t,” Red Man said.

  “There has to be a way — “she said.

  “Why, ‘cause you dreamed it?” Grey said.

  “I didn’t tell you my dreams,” she said, stumbling to her feet.

  They began to laugh, first quiet and then louder, like they had lost their minds. They fell on their backs, laughing and crying at the same time,
tearing their clothes off. She backed away from them towards the barricaded entrance. Tiny green, glowing spider-like devils burst out of their chests, eyes and mouth.

  Rising Wind screamed…

  …and jerked awake. The air didn’t burn her throat and lungs. There was no glowing green light, just stars through the top of the teepee. Her husband lay next to her. She touched his face. Warm and alive. He pulled her into his arms.

  “Bad dream?” he whispered in her ear.

  She pressed her face into his chest, breathing in his spicy earthy scent.

  He rolled her onto her back, smoothed the hair from her face and kissed her. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.” He laid his hand gently on her stomach. “Not for you or our baby. Remember that tomorrow night when you’re alone. I’ll only be gone two nights with the hunting party.”

  A shudder went through her. “No,” she said grabbing his arm. “Don’t go.”

  “You know I have to, it’s my turn. We’ll need extra meat this winter with a child coming.”

  “Please,” she said.

  “I can’t pass up my turn because of a bad dream. Are you afraid of the Blood Moon?” he asked.

  Rising Wind sat up, pulled away from him. “How did you know what was in my dream?”

  Green light dripped from his eyes. The veins of his chest glowed green. Rising Wind screamed…

  …and jerked awake in the glowing cave. The rancid air burned her throat. The murmur of cracking and screeching vibrated outside the barricaded entrance. Red Man sat nearby eating fungi. Rising Wind sat up and moved her left leg; there was no pain. She pulled up the pant leg. A raised scar went down her leg below the knee.

  “Something is wrong,” she said to him.

  “You always say that and forget when I explain,” he said passing a piece of the fungi to her.

  She took it from him, but couldn’t bring herself to eat the leathery grey chunk.

  “Where are Grey and Bat?” she asked.

  “I don’t know them. Maybe they’re from your village dream or from Its dream of you.”

  Rising Wind jumped to her feet. “Stop,” she screamed…

  …and jerked awake in her teepee. Her husband’s mother slept across from her. Rising Wind knew this moment well. Her husband was dead.

  It was coming.

  First she would have her son and when he was old enough to walk the Blood Moon would come again. That night the dark clouds born from the Blood Moon Beast would reach out and snatch her son and others.

  She wanted to wake the village and tell them to run and hide in the mountains, but no one would listen to a grieving widow. Rising Wind quietly snuck out of the village. It was easy to follow the path to the Dipping Cave in the moonlight. She had walked this path many times in her dream.

  At the bottom of the steep mountain trail leading to the Dipping Cave she looked up at the half moon and felt a flutter inside. She patted her small, round stomach, and whispered, “Don’t fear, my son. This is not the night the Blood Moon Beast comes for you. You are safe. I will find a way to kill it.”

  In the cave she sat facing the moon and pulled the sacred mushroom from her medicine bag. The broken memories of dreams within dreams made her dizzy, but one memory remained: when she saw glowing green light and screamed she was pulled her back and forth from her village to the nightmare of the Beast.

  She ate the mushroom and lay down on the cave’s floor.

  Her hands began to burn. She held them up in the moonlight. The veins in her arms and hands glowed green.

  Rising Wind knew she had to scream for her son, for her people, scream and return to the Beast… she screamed…

  …and jerked awake…

  Ghost Driving

  There has been no rain

  for 300 days,

  it is not good,

  the evil eyes follow me

  on this endless highway.

  Leafless trees cast no shadow

  on the asphalt,

  I have lost faith,

  evil waltzes in rising heat waves

  on the horizon.

  The gas tank has been empty

  for 200 days,

  but still I drive on,

  shadows whimper from the edge

  of the endless road.

  Where am I rushing to

  heaven or hell,

  random words hang, dim and blinking

  on billboards in the distance.

  Even in the dark,

  with hands tight on the

  steering wheel

  I feel nothing,

  but screams

  waiting in my clenched fist.

  Artificial Unintelligence

  From: Employee Benefits Department

  To: All Employees

  Subject: New Benefit System

  As a result of replacing the outdated benefit administration organization for city employees, we are happy to announce an exciting new benefit system, HRSoft, which incorporates simultaneous information processing. This latest artificial intelligence technique will accurately and consistently handle your needs. All historical data on each employee has been imported in our new system.

  Any questions and requests you may have about your benefits will be handled through email. Your new ID and passwords will be forwarded in a separate email.

  Please sign up for an online tutorial to explain how to use this improved benefit system and to receive your compliance approval. This is required to continue receiving benefits. The new system will provide improved and faster services to you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

  From: Employee Benefits Department

  To: Nancy Bailey

  Subject: New Benefit System

  Your name wasn’t found on the log-in list for the online tutorial explaining the new benefit system. Compliance approval is required for all city employees or your benefits will be discontinued. Please sign up for an online tutorial as soon as possible. Contact your benefit representative, Mike Capson, if you have any concerns.

  From: Nancy Bailey

  To: Employee Benefits Department

  CC: Mike Capson

  Subject: Re:New Benefit System

  I haven’t been able to reach Mike Capson by phone so I’m sending this email. I think the reason I can’t log-in to the tutorial is because of the misspelling of my last name. It’s BAILY without the “e”.

  If you check the original files you will find that I’ve worked for the city for thirty-five years. My employee id is B45686. I need to have this cleared up before my retirement next month.

  From: Employee Benefits Department

  To: Nancy Bailey

  Subject: Re:New Benefit System

  We are pleased to announce that all human personnel have been reassigned to other areas because our system is providing outstanding and error-free representation for all city employees.

  We have no record of a “Nancy Baily” working for the city. The employee id you sent in your previous email belongs to another employee, Nancy Bailey, who is a longstanding employee. In order to confirm you are Nancy Bailey please have your birth certificate scanned and sent to us as an attachment reply to this email.

  From: Nancy Bailey

  To: Employee Benefits Department

  Subject: Re:New Benefit System

  I don’t have a birth certificate with the name Nancy Bailey because my name is Nancy Baily. Somehow a mistake was made in transferring my information into the new system. If there is another Nancy Bailey that works for the government it’s not me. I am NANCY BAILY. Please check the records before they were entered into the new system.

  I need to have this cleared up before I lose my place in the retirement community. Summervale Center. I need to give them confirmation of my benefit coverage.

  I am faxing my birth certificate with my
name on it.

  I wish your system was error-free then I wouldn’t have this problem. It would be much easier to talk to a human being who could understand the mistake and clear it up for me.

  From: Employee Benefits Department

  To: Nancy Bailey

  Subject: Re:New Benefit System

  Your fax was rejected because the name does not match any employee. This precaution helps avoid having incorrect information placed in our system.

  As a government agency we have zero tolerance for cyber crime. If this is an attempt at identity theft you will be in considerable trouble.

  From: Nancy Bailey

  To: Employee Benefits Department

  Subject: Re:New Benefit System

  How could I steal my own identity? I’ve even tried using the toll-free number but none of the choices allow me to talk to a real person or even leave a message for someone to look into this.

  I can’t do this email thing anymore, talking to a machine is not helping me. Please have someone call my home at 311-486-2967.

  From: Employee Benefits Department

  To: Nancy Bailey

  Subject: Re:New Benefit System

  We do not make mistakes of this scale. Our system has proven itself to be 99.9994% correct which is higher than any human-based system could obtain.

  The phone number included in your email is in the home of Nancy Bailey. We have verified that your emails are coming from the same location. Since we have not heard from her we can only conclude that you are holding her against her will.

  Our law software, LegalSoft, has reviewed your case and ascertained that you are taking advantage of a disabled city employee.

  A SWAT team is currently arriving at your location. It will go easier on you if you release Nancy Bailey and turn yourself in.

  From: HipHopStarWalker

  To: Employee Benefits Department

  Subject: Re:New Benefit System

  This is Nancy Baily. I CAN NOT BELIEVE YOU SENT ARMED POLICE TO MY HOME! I was at a neighbor’s home trying to get help contacting the city government about this problem when I heard you break into my house. There was gun fire and tear gas. I have been in a wheelchair since my stroke, if I had been home this might have killed me!