“Mike?” Lisa asked, pulling the Pathfinder back onto the road.
“Yes?”
“I don’t suppose you have any more magic spices on you do you?”
“Magic spices?” he asked.
“Yeah you know. Mustard seeds. Pumpkin seeds, watermelon seeds. Heck at this point, I’d settle for Johnny Appleseed.”
“Sorry,” Mike said. “No seeds.”
Lisa sighed.
“Hope you have something up your sleeve,” she said, her voice trembling with nerves. The rain appeared to be slacking off somewhat. The wind died down.
Trees no longer swayed under near hurricane strength. Clouds that had covered the night sky began to break slightly, letting an occasional star twinkle behind the fat plopping rain soaked sky.
“I do believe it’s going to rain,” Mike said, staring out the front window. “Yes, indeed, I believe we’re in for some rain.”
From the back, Danny said, “Thank you, Captain Obvious! Mike, just between you and me, stick to your day job. You’d make a lousy weatherman.”
Chapter 26 ~
There was no secret approach to Gilmer Passive Exercises. The two large windows and huge double-paned door provided a near complete view of the small parking lot. Alex knew they’d already been seen and though the father in him wished to charge head first, guns blazing, Police Lieutenant Alex Mendez was in firm control of an uncertain situation. He afforded “Daddy Alex” enough latitude to answer the call of his daughter, which reached out from her soul to his.
“Daddy’s coming, sweetheart,” he thought, praying deeply that her soul was receiving the reply. Looking around, Alex considered his options, not to mention available resources. Danny, Lisa, Mike, Brandy and himself. Packed in Mike’s Nissan Pathfinder, Alex felt like a circus troupe traveling to their next gig. Lisa had driven. Mike sat to her right; Danny sat behind Lisa, to Alex’s left. Brandy sat loyally between them, nervously panting.
“How’re we playing this, Boss?” Danny asked Alex.
“It’s not really my show,” Alex acknowledged, though his mind was at work busily trying to formulate a plan of attack. “Mike?”
When Mike turned his face toward the back seat, his eyes were filled with tears. Though weeping, he released no sob. A soft glow swam across Mike’s eyes. Alex knew the glowing presence and did not fear. Mike’s eyes locked in tender resignation on Alex. Though filled with tears, his eyes seemed to relay peace. If ever eyes could smile, Mike’s eyes were grinning like a new father staring into the eyes of his newborn child.
“I must warn you,” Mike whispered, his voice gently shaking, “the things you will see, the things you will experience will test you in ways you cannot imagine.”
“Mike,” Lisa said impatiently. Still focused on the back seat, panning slowly from Alex to Brandy, to Danny and back again, Mike continued,
“You must all die tonight.” His face suddenly covered in solemnity. “You must give yourself as a sacrifice if you are to save Christina. Death cannot touch her. If Death comes for her, we have all lost.”
Brandy whimpered, looked out Alex’s car window. She pricked an ear, sneezed and, for reasons known only to her, growled softly, a short, low growl.
“Mike,” Lisa said, “we’ve been over this already.”
Looking out his window, Alex saw a large bird flying off into the night. As he reached up to pet Brandy’s head, she let go with a loud, vicious barking fit. Jumping on Alex’s lap, she began to scratch feverishly at the window. Startled, Alex looked again at the window. His eyes saw Teresa Roelig but his mind tingled with millisecond fright. Danny, too, caught off guard by the sudden appearance of Teresa Roelig, cursed.
He grabbed Brandy’s collar and tugged gently as Alex stroked her head, trying to calm the startled beast.
“So what’s the plan?” Teresa asked, opening Alex’s door. Brandy maintained a low-pitched growl, almost inaudible.
“What are you doing here?” Danny asked.
“You forgetting who found this guy?” she asked.
“You forgetting who your superior officer is?”
“Danny,” Alex interrupted, “save the authority garbage for later. I’ve got a little girl to save.”
“Alex! Look!” Lisa shouted.
As soon as she spoke the words, Alex heard a loud crashing noise that caused him to flinch violently. Looking up, he saw the door to Gilmer Passive Exercises had ripped from its hinges and fallen to the sidewalk, warping into a twisted mess, clanging with the call of aluminum against concrete. The glass spider webbed but did not shatter, despite the violent force throwing it to the ground. In the door way stood Scott Bryan, or what had once been Scott Bryan, smiling. His hair was slightly darker, it appeared, though obviously darkened by rain as by any ethereal force heretofore uncalled. He was standing unaided by crutches, canes or sticks of any kind. Though the wind was blowing violently, Scott stood as though in the peaceful eye of a hurricane, untouched by even the slightest breeze. His eyes glowed bright blue. Luminescent spheres danced where once his eyes had been. He let out a cackle that, though much deeper, reminded Alex of the wicked witch from the Land of Oz.
“Okay,” Alex said, “you all want to know what the plan is. Here’s the plan. There’s one way through that door and that thing is in the way. If we don’t get in the door, we don’t save Christina. So the plan is get in that door!”
Pulling out his gun, Danny threw open the car door and exited the Pathfinder.
“We’re on it, Boss!” he said, tugging Brandy’s collar. Brandy remained increasingly distracted by Teresa Roelig.
“Lisa,” Alex said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Save our baby. Danny can’t do this alone.”
“I can’t do this without you, Alex,” she said, her voice trembling.
“I’ll be right behind you,” he assured her. “You and Mike have to help Danny. Hurry!”
“What about you?”
“Officer Roelig will help me with my chair. Now move!”
* * *
Alex didn’t have the luxury of being husband or father right now and Lisa understood. What she’d never understand is how he could so calmly turn off husband and father and just do his duty. When he told her to move, yes there was husband and father urgency in it. She knew it. Unmistakably, Alex was battling inside, just as Lisa was.
Still, his self-assured manner comforted Lisa. His “take charge” stance invigorated her, reassured her that Lt. Alex Mendez – husband, father and cop – was on the job.
Tapping her arm, Mike shouted, “Let’s go!”
Exiting the car, she spotted Danny nearly at the entrance to Gilmer Passive Exercises. Scott Bryan had not moved. Gun drawn, Danny fired directly at Scott Bryan. Lisa saw the muzzle flash, saw the gun jolt with the bullet’s expulsion, but she heard no sound. It fact, not a single sound from the night intruded into Lisa’s mind. Not a breath of wind, not a night bird, not so much as a cricket. Without warning, Lisa had been stricken deaf. For a moment, she thought her vision was clouding, as the image before her grew hazy. Just as in her living room earlier, the entire building seemed to drown behind a shimmering liquid force field. It did not happen in slow motion.
To the contrary, almost too quickly, Danny was, in one instant, standing with gun in hand. In the next, flat on his back, his gun flying toward Lisa. She darted toward the drowning doorway of Gilmer Passive Exercises. She half expected to either be thrown back by some mysterious electric force, or as she got closer, to find herself drowning behind the same ripples and waves that imprisoned the small strip mall. There was no way around the blurring, shimmering prison’s walls. Though the dark night swallowed up much of the available light, Lisa knew the futility of searching. It wasn’t what she saw, but what she felt. The only way was through it, but what would that do? Would she find herself trapped in the primordial goo like a helpless fly caught in Satan’s spider web? Danny had already proven that the armed desperado approach was no good. To her left, about ten fe
et away, Danny stood dusting himself off. The ripples and waves covering Gilmer Passive Exercises distracted Brandy. In fright or perhaps mirroring the anger and frustration of those around her, she barked furiously. Lisa was shocked to find voices, canine or otherwise, penetrating the deafness which had overtaken her. She almost found it confusing that she could hear anything at all, and for a second wondered why she was able to hear Brandy’s barking, but nothing else. She could see the branches of trees waving in the wind. She could see dust and leaves floating to and fro. She was certain there was sound to be heard. Yet somehow only Brandy’s barking was able to penetrate the silent veil covering Lisa’s ears.
“You hurt?” Mike asked Danny.
Voices, not just canine, were getting through. Her hearing, much like everything else about the night, seemed to be mastered by a force she could not see. Control was not hers, no matter how hard Lisa struggled to obtain it.
“Just my pride,” Danny grumbled. “Let’s get in there!”
“Hold,” Mike said, raising his palm toward Danny, who grew instantly still. He struggled against whatever force had suddenly bound him but to no avail. Mike’s palm seemed to radiate a deep blue glowing presence. It lightened to near sky blue, then to yellowish green, then darkened to a deep green kaleidoscope of metamorphosing shades. A single thin white cloud wound its way around Mike’s hand. Lisa tried to move but found her own body paralyzed as well. She felt no pain. It wasn’t like hands restricting her movements or being bound by ropes or locked in cuffs. Nothing on the outside seemed to hold her. To Lisa, it felt like her body would simply not obey her commands. She felt like a remote controlled toy waiting for her master to direct her course. Only her eyes were still her own to control and she directed them toward Mike, who had raised both of his arms out to the side in a ritual that felt all too familiar to Lisa.
“Fool!” boomed a voice, like disembodied thunder. It came from everywhere, but Lisa recognized a quality that was unmistakably Scott Bryan. She directed her eyes toward him and saw his dark, shadowy figure standing in much the same fashion as Mike. His entire body surrounded by an ethereal blue glow that seemed to pulse as if keeping time with Scott’s racing heartbeat. The ground shook, knocking a helpless Lisa over like a dry twig snapping from the tree to which it once held fast. Both Scott and Mike seemed immune to the chaos surrounding them. Not a breath of wind, not a single shuttering grain of sand appeared able to penetrate the eyes of these two supernatural hurricanes.
Distracted by the dramatic light show to which they were subject, Lisa had not noticed the release of whatever force had impeded her movements. Had she not noticed Danny sneaking toward the entrance of Gilmer Passive Exercises, she might not have been aware of his own mobility. Though he moved with cautious fluidity, Danny clearly was not blinking. He did not appear lost in a trance, but merely focused. Focused so intently that he appeared unaware he was inching steadily closer to the now unguarded doorway. Strangely immune to the stormy chaos that had arisen. At some point, he’d retrieved his gun, as it was gripped firmly in his hand, pointed toward the ground. Further testimony to Danny’s zombie-like state. A loud explosion forced Lisa to bury her face into the muddy earth and, moments later, she directed her attention back toward the entrance of Gilmer Passive Exercises. The huge windows on either side of the doorway had imploded, shooting tiny shards of glass flying in all directions, inward and outward. Scanning the area, Lisa found Danny lying face down, some eight to ten feet in front of her, to her left. He wasn’t moving.
“Alex,” she whispered. “Where are you?”
The swirling, lighted rims of the two supernatural hurricanes inched closer to one another as the size, magnitude and strength of their destructive forces threatened to tear apart everything in their combining paths. The entrance to Gilmer Passive Exercises continued to drown behind a now opening liquid porthole. The gap struggled to close against a rhythmic belching of black-gray smoke and orange-red flames that radiated no heat but gave off a nauseating stench of sulfur and brimstone. Bright yellow and orange-red flames mingled with a building fire of blue, purple and green. Waves of liquid air rippled outward from the widening porthole until the entire entrance was covered by the gateway. A long tunnel had formed and seemingly went on forever. From within, the echo of Christina Mendez’s cries reached Lisa’s ears penetrating her soul. As if attempting to answer, Lisa’s soul cried out to sooth her child’s tortured call. Slowly, timidly, she approached the flame-kissed porthole, not sure if she’d be sucked in, burned alive, or by some horribly sick joke, simply be denied entrance, forced to listen to her daughter’s repeated calls for help that could not come. If ever Lisa believed in Hell, it was this exact moment when the truest meaning of Hell finally crushed her like lead weights, thousands of pounds each. Behind her, she heard another loud explosion. She turned, but only half way. Out of her peripheral vision, she caught sight of the burning Pathfinder, just as she felt the hands on her shoulders.
Too slow to respond, Lisa stumbled forward, shoved by her unseen assailant. She actually fell for a couple seconds before she reached something akin to solid ground, though whatever “ground” was under her felt like nothing she could describe. It gave the impression of something solid, but there was no better word – it felt blank, like she was resting atop a glass floor with an unexplained quality about it that would allow Lisa, with but the slightest thought, to fall into the very pits of Hell.
She stumbled to her feet and looked, she thought, directly behind her. The tunnel was pitch black – no lapping flames, no kaleidoscope of light – only a pinprick white dot in the distance looking like a single star in an otherwise absolutely vacant night sky. What should have been behind her – the open porthole – wasn’t. Had it closed or was there simply no way back through from this side?
Alex!
The Pathfinder!
Oh God!
Chapter 27 ~
Lisa’s mind struggled with the images of the exploding Pathfinder. In one instant, she fought to block it out, refusing to believe the inevitable. In the next, she heard Mike’s words echo throughout her entire spirit, urgently calling her to force her mind to process images her conscious mind had not even registered. Lisa’s hair fluttered, softly at first and then more wildly, as the tunnel let loose a soft howl of a chilling breeze. She felt like she was standing in a wind tunnel, though the wind’s noise brought scarcely more than a whisper into the darkness. A gentle flapping noise reminded Lisa of a flag waving in the wind. Scanning the darkness provided no answers, no return of her senses; though Lisa convinced herself she’d not been stricken deaf as before. The absence of sound, she guessed, was just that – an absence of sound, as if the very sound produced was being swallowed by some unseen evil. Choking, Lisa suddenly felt hands around her throat. Though small, the hands proved unnervingly strong. She coughed and mule kicked, hoping to dislodge her assailant, but nothing seemed to work. With both her arms, she reached over her head, grabbing for anything she could reach, clothes, hair, or eyes. She scratched a face that was unmistakably female, causing her attacker to let go with a high-pitched shriek.
Grabbing for hair, Lisa pulled with all her might and fell to the ground, burying the top of her head into the chin of her would be mugger. Teresa Roelig’s mouth was bleeding profusely and she cupped her entire face as if trying to put its shattered pieces back together. She spat bloody teeth, or what was left of her cracked teeth, wiped her mouth and nose, futilely trying to remove the spouting blood. Stunned, Lisa stood for a few seconds, unsure what she was looking at was real.
“What the…?” she asked, panting.
An uneasy feeling settled in her gut and suddenly Lisa lost all control. Officer Lisa Mendez was not in control. Mother and wife now fought side by side, in full agreement as to the source of their mutual anger. She bent down, grabbed a handful of Teresa’s hair and screamed,
“Where’s Alex? What have you done to him?”
“He’s dead!” Her voice was demonic.
Nothing about it was feminine. Nothing like the annoyingly perky Teresa Roelig. Pure evil had invaded her.
Love can have no fellowship with Hate.
She heard the words as clear as day. Mike’s words, or at least the words spoken in the living room, if not by Mike, than by someone Lisa could not possibly comprehend. The caution he’d levied to everyone.
Light can have no fellowship with Dark.
Fear overwhelmed Lisa. Her mind flashed with images of a helpless Alex burned to death in an explosion he most likely did not see coming. Had he felt the pain? Had he burned to death? Was he still burning to death? Were his lungs slowly crushing under the asphyxiating weight of smoke and fumes? Fighting anger, despair and hopelessness, Lisa prayed that Alex had been spared from pain and suffering
You must all die tonight.
One down, Lisa thought to herself.
And it was as if her own soul died with his.
“Mommy! Help me!”
Christina’s voice rocked Lisa from her lethargic litany. My Baby! As she stood up to run, not sure which direction she should even be heading, Lisa felt herself being pulled to the ground. The belt loop on her jeans snapped and Lisa was momentarily free. She felt something grab her foot and realized that Teresa Roelig still had some fight left in her.
“Oh no you don’t!” Lisa shouted, kicking Teresa in the face with every ounce of strength she could muster. “I’m stronger than you!” she demanded, kicking harder with every word she spoke.
Teresa’s body folded in a lifeless mess, but Lisa wasn’t about to take any chances. Cautiously, she reached down and checked her pulse – weak, Lisa noted, but still there. She took the lifeless head of Teresa Roelig in her hand, closed her eyes and, in one quick movement, felt the neck snap even before she heard the sound. Leaving the lifeless body where it lay, Lisa stood up and began to run toward the only object she could register, the pinprick light. Though she felt sick to her stomach, she fought hard to maintain what little composure she could. She had a child to save and the rule of law was survival, now more than ever. She would find time later for mourning, regret, anger and hindsight later.
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