“Bullshit!” Aaron pressed the barrel of the gun against her forehead. “I’m not going anywhere near that place again.”
Agent Kramer jerked her head to the side, grabbed Aaron’s wrist, and twisted it. She snatched the gun out his hand and slammed her elbow into Aaron’s jaw before pointing the weapon at him. He grabbed the rearview mirror of his car, keeping himself from falling to the ground.
“We are not your enemies, Lieutenant,” Agent Kramer snarled and then relaxed. She flipped the gun around with the handle facing Aaron and offered it back to him. “We can help you, but you need to trust us.”
He rubbed his jaw and took the gun with an unsettled look on his face. He held a tight grip on it and relaxed when Agent Hirsch holstered his weapon. Aaron did the same. “Why should I trust you?”
“Because other than Cody, your spouse, and Luther, we’re the only two that know the truth about what happened,” Agent Kramer said. “And we have a mutual personal interest.”
“And what might that be?” Aaron asked while rubbing his jaw. “And how do I know you’re not just feeding me a bunch of crap?”
“Because you’re not the only one that was directly affected.” Agent Kramer handed him a photo of her posing with the former director of Saint Hedwig Youth Home. They both smiled and held each other close. “Jerry was a good man. He cared for every one of those children as if they were his own.”
“You knew Jerome Hadley?”
“Yes I did,” Agent Kramer said, while pulling the photo back from Aaron’s fingers. “He was my brother.”
†
“Right there.” Aaron pointed to a crevice in the wall underneath what used to be Dr. Jerome Hadley’s office. Something glittered inside the crack in the wall when Agent Hirsch shined his light on it. “I think I know what we’re looking at here,” he said.
Aaron and the two agents found a hidden door in the wall and travelled down a dark and narrow passageway. It led them to a candlelit room lined with bookshelves. Agent Hirsch flipped through several of the books and tossed them to the ground. Agent Kramer rummaged through the drawers of a desk on the far side of the flickering candlelit room. Aaron scanned the area with his flashlight, when something on the floor caught his eye. He crouched to get a closer look at a familiar-looking pentacle on the floor. It had the same masonry build as the one he’d found in Robert Smith’s secluded cellar. He ran his fingers over the pentagram and runes within the circle. His ears rang, and a bright flash blinded him.
When his vision returned, Aaron was running down a dark, narrow passageway. There was more ringing in his ears and another flash of light. He was suddenly back in the basement room underneath Mr. Hadley’s office. The room was flooded. Rainwater flowed from the trapdoor above like a waterfall. The wind howled and lightning revealed a large three-headed beast peering down at him. It let out a multifaceted cry as the sound of a ringing phone came from somewhere behind Aaron. The ringing got louder. When he turned around, a deformed and grotesque humanoid beast reached out at him with long, clawed fingers.
†
Maria woke Aaron from his nightmare and held out his phone. “It’s Agent Hirsch.”
Aaron rubbed his eyes and checked the time on the digital clock on the nightstand. It was 5:53 on Saturday morning and too damned early to be getting a phone call from the FBI. Hell, it was too early to receive a call from anyone.
“Should I tell him you’ll call him back?”
Aaron sighed, but motioned for the phone. “No, I’ll take it.” He closed his eyes for a moment before raising the phone to his ear. “You do realize what time it is, right?”
“We want to get an early start. It’s a three-hour drive from here.”
“You want to go now?”
“Do you enjoy living with this curse? Or would you rather take care of it now and be done with it.”
Aaron rested his head back on the pillow and shut his eyes again.
“Are you there?”
“Yeah, I’m here.” Aaron forced himself out of bed. “I’m just not sure I’m ready to go on a field trip back to hell.”
“Well, it’s necessary.”
“Tell him we’ll pick him up in twenty minutes,” said Agent Kramer in the background.
“The hell you will. I’m not going anywhere until I’ve had my coffee, a shower, and a big breakfast. You and Scully can wait in the car until then.”
“Mr. Sanders, we—”
“I’m hanging up now.” Aaron ended the call and headed straight for the bathroom.
†
The aroma of breakfast filled Aaron’s nostrils when he stepped out of the bathroom. He inhaled a deep breath, taking in the scent of fried bacon, eggs, toast, and coffee. He also detected the scent of Maria’s delicious cinnamon buns.
Aaron dressed in casual clothes and fastened a holster with his personal Glock 17 to his belt. On his way out of the bedroom, he grabbed his wallet and cell phone. He followed the fragrance of breakfast towards the kitchen.
Agents Hirsch and Kramer were seated at the kitchen table with plates full of eggs, bacon, refried beans, and hash browns. Aaron raised his eyebrows at his wife and pointed at the agents. “What are they doing in here?”
“They were waiting outside, so I invited them in for breakfast.” Maria poured a glass of orange juice for Agent Hirsch. “Now sit and eat before your food gets cold.”
“On second thought, we should get on the road now. It’s a long drive.” Aaron pointed to a tray of cinnamon buns on the counter. “But I’ll take one of those to go.”
“Now, you’re being rude,” Maria protested. “Another half hour isn’t going to kill you. Besides, I want to know more about why you’re going back to Austin... again.”
Agent Hirsch held a piece of toast and waited for Aaron’s response. Agent Kramer squeezed ketchup over her eggs and hash browns, but glanced at Aaron.
“What did you tell her?” Aaron asked, not specifically addressing either of the agents.
“They told me that you were going back to Saint Hedwig to find something that could end this devil’s nightmare thing.” Maria poured some hot brew in a coffee cup. “Why didn’t you tell me about this last night?”
“Because the last time I went to Austin didn’t go so well. I didn’t want to upset you.” Aaron turned his attention to Agent Hirsch. “And I don’t appreciate you discussing this with my wife.”
“They did you a favor,” Maria said, while she set the cup of coffee on the table in front of Aaron. “And I’m not upset. I just wish you would have been more open with me about this. Now sit down, so we can enjoy breakfast together.”
Aaron had difficulty enjoying the meal while sitting next to the FBI agents. He barely knew them, and he still didn’t trust them. He especially didn’t trust Agent Kramer. Maybe it was those intense gray eyes of hers.
“So, Mrs. Sanders,” she said while cutting into the hash browns on her plate. “May I ask what you do for a living?”
“I’m a guidance counselor at the high school. I used to be a social worker.” Aaron sneered at her, but she ignored him. “How did you find out about this… this devil thing? I’m also curious. Why are you going out of your way to help us?”
Agent Kramer drank some coffee before answering. “We’ve been investigating the cult responsible for the Saint Hedwig Massacre for some time. While Aaron was conducting his investigation, we were conducting one of our own.” She showed Maria the photo of her and Mr. Hadley. “I also lost someone close to me there.”
Maria’s eyes widened. “That’s Jerome Hadley.”
“Mr. Hadley was her brother,” Aaron explained, empathy in his voice. “Apparently, there’s an entrance to a hidden chamber underneath his office that he never told Agent Kramer about.” He shoveled a forkful of eggs and put them in his mouth.
“We also lost one of our own that night,” Agent Hirsch said. “You knew him as Detective Steven Riley.”
Aaron wrinkled his forehead, stopped chewing, a
nd stared at Agent Hirsch.
“He was undercover. Assigned on a special task force we set up in conjunction with our investigation. We suspected Chief Hernandez was involved in this cult, but we didn’t have any proof.” Agent Hirsch drank some orange juice and pointed at Aaron with the hand holding the glass. “We also had you on our list of potential suspects.”
“What?” Aaron said with a full mouth, and swallowed. “Why was I a suspect?”
Agent Kramer explained, “This was not the first time this cult had shed innocent blood. We linked them to least fifteen other murders, including those three teenagers we found recently. Most of this cult’s members have either been captured or killed, but we are quite confident there are others that we do not know about.”
“And this whole thing about hell-spawned monsters and curses never fazed you one bit?”
Agent Kramer smiled and wiped her mouth with a napkin. “Everything that happened at Saint Hedwig is attributed to David Hernandez and his cult. They murdered all those people, and we believe they also killed those children at Memorial Heights Cemetery. Officially, we can only link the massacre to satanic rituals and sacrificial offerings.”
“And unofficially?”
“Unofficially, we know demons are real. And people should not trifle with books of the occult if they are ignorant of the power they hold in their hands. Books such the 666 Rites of Demon Summoning, for example. Unfortunately, Cody did just that. And now he is victim to a horrible curse that can only be reversed in one of two ways.”
Aaron took a deep breath and sat back in his chair. Maria held her hand over her chest as she listened.
“David Hernandez and Robert Smith had chosen to believe that Cody’s death was the only way to send the chimera back to hell.” Agent Kramer shook her head. “But I do not believe that. I believe there is another way.”
“And what is that?” Aaron crossed his arms over his chest.
“Clavis Salomonis,” she said in perfect Latin. She placed the necklace and old pentacle pendant key on the table. “The Key of Solomon.”
Aaron grinned. “That’s the Key of Solomon?”
“No, of course not,” Agent Kramer said while reaching for her coffee mug. She drank the rest of it. “The Key of Solomon is not an actual key. It is an ancient book of spells.” She pointed at the pentacle on the head of the key. “These markings are not mere decorations. They are symbols, similar to what I have seen in some manuscripts. I believe Jerry may have had an original copy of a translation we have never seen before. The original manuscript was written in the fourteenth to fifteenth century, but it inspired a number of other works up until around the seventeenth century. I believe my brother may have had one of those manuscripts.”
“Okay. So, let’s say that’s true. How does that help us?”
“At first I considered the most common use of the Key of Solomon, which is the Devil’s Trap. But that is attributed to exorcism. So it does not apply here.” Agent Kramer held the key and necklace and studied the runes. “If we are able to acquire that book, I believe we will find exactly what we are looking for within its pages.”
“The 666 Rites of Demon Summoning is also a book of spells,” Agent Hirsch added to the discussion, “but it focuses specifically on summoning demons. Cody’s lack of knowledge about the occult and the proper rituals for—”
“Yeah-yeah-yeah, he screwed around with shit he wasn’t supposed to,” Aaron said, “and now he’s paying for it with this curse. Tell me something I don’t already know. How do we stop it? Making Texas barbecue out of the chimera apparently didn’t do the trick, so—”
“Are you certain it was that thing?” Maria said.
“I’m positive,” Aaron said, and eyed Agent Kramer. “This all seems too easy. It sounds like something you could probably find on the Internet. And you a solution all along, why sit on the sidelines this whole time? Why didn’t you contact me if you knew there was a way to beat this thing?”
“We had no reason to,” Agent Kramer said. “We thought it was over, as you did. We believed that somehow the deaths of Robert Smith and David Hernandez, the leaders of their cult, had rectified the situation. We made several arrests, disrupted the cult following, and never had any reason to believe that this hadn’t also broken the curse.”
“So, how did you know about it in the first place?”
“You don’t trust us, do you, Mr. Sanders?”
“Would you? You have to admit the idea that a couple of feds would be…”
Aaron interrupted his own statement when he noticed Cody enter the living room. His hair was in shambles and he was still rubbing the sleepiness from his eyes. Agents Kramer and Hirsch turned around in their chairs. At that moment, whatever drowsiness remaining in Cody’s face was suddenly flushed away. He stumbled backwards against the couch and stared at the woman seated at the kitchen table.
“You must be Cody,” Agent Kramer said in a pleasant motherly kind of voice.
Aaron studied Cody’s face, the slight frown and widened eyes, the way he backed up against the couch when he noticed the federal agents. It was a sense of fear, or at least strong discomfort.
Aaron stood and stepped away from the table. “Would you excuse me for a moment?”
“Of course,” Agent Kramer said. “This is your home.”
Aaron jerked his head towards the hallway. Cody followed him and glanced back over his shoulder a couple of times as he walked. “I know that look, Cody,” Aaron whispered. “What’s wrong?”
“Who are those people?”
“They’re with the FBI. They know about the chimera and this curse.” Aaron glanced down the hall. “They also claim they know a way to get rid of it.”
“Do you believe them?”
Aaron delayed his answer. He wasn’t sure if he did believe them, but he also wasn’t certain that he didn’t. “I don’t know, Cody, but—”
“I’ve seen that lady before.”
“In a dream?”
“No…” Cody grabbed Aaron’s neck and pulled him close. “In the cellar, where Jackson’s dad had the ceremonies.”
“What? Are you sure? Are you absolutely positive it was her?”
“I recognize her voice… and those eyes.” Agent Kramer’s eyes were distinct, and Aaron had never seen any other person with eyes that cold, that grey. “They only used candles for light, so I couldn’t get a good look at her face. She was also wearing a hood, but I’ll never forget those eyes. She also had a dragon tattoo on her left ankle.”
“What was she doing there?”
“I don’t know. I saw her when they were dedicating me to… to Satan. She said something to me in Latin, but that’s it. I couldn’t understand it. But it was those eyes. They were like… hypnotizing.”
“All right.” Aaron unbuttoned his holster. “Come with me.”
Cody followed him back to the kitchen table. He stared at Agent Kramer with pressed lips. She glanced at him once, but then resisted any further eye contact with him.
“We have a bit of a problem here,” Aaron said. He placed his hand casually over his gun and rested his other hand on the chair in front of him. “You know Cody has been through hell and back, and there’s something that has me a bit concerned.”
“Concerned about what?” Agent Hirsch said, and glanced towards his partner.
“You,” Aaron said to Agent Kramer. “He recognizes you.”
“Me?” Agent Kramer smiled. “He must be mistaken.”
“He says you were at one of Robert Smith’s give-glory-to-Satan ceremonies.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Mr. Sanders,” Agent Hirsch said in defense of his partner. “He’s obviously confused. This is the first time we’ve ever met him.”
“We’ll see about that,” Aaron said, and then he asked Agent Kramer if she had a tattoo of a dragon on her left ankle.
Maria got out of her chair and stepped back into the kitchen. Agent Kramer followed Maria with her eyes and then settled t
hem back on Aaron. “Yes, Mr. Sanders, I do.” She lifted the bottom of her slacks and revealed a tattoo of a black dragon.
“Wait,” Agent Hirsch said, a look of confusion on his face. “How did—?”
Aaron held a hand and index finger up at Agent Hirsch while continuing to focus on Agent Kramer. “So, you were there when Smith brainwashed Cody into that satanic cult crap.”
“I am not one of them, if that is what you are implying.”
“Let me guess. You were deep undercover and—”
“Yes,” she said. “That is exactly what it was.”
“Bullshit! Who are you? Tell me the truth.”
“Exactly who we said we are,” Agent Hirsch answered for his partner again.
“I wasn’t asking you.” He turned back towards Agent Kramer. “You said something to Cody in Latin. What was it? Was it you that put this curse on him?”
“No, of course not.”
“Then what?”
“If you will calm down, Mr. Sanders, I’ll explain.”
Aaron pulled the chair back and sat on it with his arms crossed over his chest. “I’m all ears, lady.”
Agent Kramer looked at Cody and then at Agent Hirsch. “Shall I tell him?”
“Oh, I think you shall,” Aaron said.
Agent Kramer sighed, and with compassionate eyes, she turned to Cody. “Deus autem omnipotens benedicat tibi. Et proteget te in Deo. Deus dimittat et matrem tuam.”
Cody’s eyes moistened and his chin quivered.
“God bless you,” she translated into English. “God will protect you. God forgive your mother.”
“Why did you say that to me?” Cody said to Agent Kramer. “Why did you say that my mother needed God’s forgiveness?” Cody’s expression turned to anger and contempt. “My mother is dead because of you and that stupid cult, you bitch!”
Agent Kramer looked back at her partner and lifted her eyebrows, not at all fazed by Cody’s outburst. They maintained eye contact for a moment until Agent Hirsch shook his head. Whatever it was that she asked him with non-verbal communication, he apparently didn’t think it was appropriate for her to mention.
Devil's Nightmare: Premonitions (Devil's Nightmare, Book 2) Page 14
