Evil Agreement

by Richard L Hatin

  22

  Korie pulled the car off the highway at the exit marked Town of Sutton. She pulled into an all night Sunoco gas station. Aaron got out of the car and began to pump gas into the car.

  “Fill’er up, ma’am?” asked Aaron.

  “Yes, and please wash the windows while you’re at it. We seemed to have driven through a fog bank of bugs.”

  “I can handle that.”

  Korie climbed out of the car. She stretched her back by placing her hands on her lower back, and pushing her hips forward. The move was not missed by Aaron.

  “I have got to use the bathroom. I’ll pay for the gas and then, I’ll see if I can get directions to this Mother Nature’s we were told about.”

  “Fine, I’ll just wait in the car.”

  Korie headed off to the gas station where a young woman sat behind a counter which allowed her a complete view of the entire array of fuel pumps.

  Aaron could see the woman and Korie talking. Korie headed to the bathroom at the rear of the store. Aaron finished pumping the gas. He replaced the gas cap and got back inside of the car. He sat there in the dark for a couple of minutes. Only the overhead lights of the gas station provided illumination.

  Aaron noticed headlights reflecting in the rearview mirror. The other car was leaving the interstate, coming down the road past the gas station. Aaron began to experience a feeling of fear—it was a sort of ‘deja vu’ for him. This sensation was exactly the same feeling he had experienced before, while he and Korie were at Mojo’s.

  The car slowed down as it approached the gas station but did not pull in. Instead, it slowed down and came to a stop alongside the gas station lot. This car was parallel to Aaron’s car. Aaron saw the car was occupied by one, lone driver.

  The son of a bitch is looking at me, thought Aaron.

  Aaron could feel an icy cold sensation begin to seize him. He shuddered and unthinkingly felt the need to blow into his hands. It had to be nearly eighty degrees on this hot humid summer night, yet Aaron felt chills that made him feel as if it was thirty degrees with a strong northeast wind. He was now chilled to the bone.

  A woman’s voice spoke to him.

  “You are much more powerful than he. He’s just testing your powers. Go on and let him think you are terrified. You can do this. Give him back a message of fear and weakness. Just think back to your childhood of the time you were chased by that big dog. You remember it. He chased you up a tree, and you were terrified he would come up the tree to get you. That feeling is still with you. Find it again and send it to him.”

  Aaron didn’t recognize the woman’s voice, but she seemed to connect with Aaron. He closed his eyes and searched his memory banks and quickly pulled back into focus that long ago, seemingly lost terror she had directed him to. His mind replayed the moment from his youth. Aaron could feel the fear building up inside of him.

  When the childhood fear peaked he commanded his mind to embrace the feeling, and then send it out to the man in the waiting car.

  With that, his own mind sent a flash to the mind of the man sitting in the idling car.

  Aaron opened his eyes and focused upon the silhouette in the car. The car was at least a hundred feet away, but somehow Aaron could see the man seemed to be moving inside of the car.

  Did he just raise his hand to touch his temples? thought Aaron. He couldn’t be sure. The car now began to move away. The taillights soon disappeared down the road.

  Aaron was still staring intently at the car as it faded from his view, when the driver’s door opened and Korie slid into the car.

  “Did anything interesting happen while I was gone?”

  “Uh no, why are you asking that?”

  “Because, Aaron Powell. You have that same look on you face like you had back at Mojo’s tonight. I figured something had to have happened. Am I right?”

  “No, I don’t think so,” said Aaron. “I’m just very tired, that’s all.”

  It was the first time he had ever lied to her. He didn’t know why he did, it just came out that way, he thought.

  Korie looked at him suspiciously, but that lasted for only the briefest of moments.

  “Well, anyway. I’ve got directions to Mother Nature’s.”

  “What is it, or who is it, I should ask?” said Aaron.

  “You’ll see when we get there. It’s only about five miles down this road.”

  She put the car in gear and pulled out of the gas station. Aaron meanwhile looked out the open car window. Warm summer air blew inside the car bringing the sweet smell of cow manure, freshly spread in the farm fields that lined both sides of the road which paralleled the nearby Winooski River.

  Aaron’s eyes searched for signs of the mysterious car he had seen earlier. It was not to be found.

  In less than twenty minutes they pulled into the darkened, gravel parking lot of a bed and breakfast inn. The neon roadside sign announced the place to be, is Mother Nature’s Bed and Breakfast Inn. In smaller, unlighted letters beneath the lit sign, one could make out an additional message. This message announced that the place was also the home of Mother Nature’s Curiosity Shop. Further, beneath the large neon sign was a smaller neon sign that seemed to be malfunctioning. It flashed “Vacancy” at irregular intervals.

  Korie got out of the car first and then Aaron. They both looked over the exterior of the place. It appeared to be a little long in the tooth. There were no lights in any of the windows. In fact there were no other cars in the parking lot.

  “Not a good sign,” whispered Aaron.

  “I know!” whispered back Korie.

  Just then, a woman’s voice spoke to them from the shadows of the long front porch.

  “She ain’t much to look at but she’s comfortable and the price is right.”

  Aaron recognized the voice as the one, which had spoken to him back at the gas station.

  “Before you come on up, you may want to pull that car around back. Sutton folks are too curious, if you ask me. Go on now.”

  They still couldn’t see the person.

  “Help me with the bags,” said Korie.

  Korie and Aaron retrieved their bags from the trunk. Korie drove the car around to the back, locked the doors, and ran down the gravel driveway to the front. Aaron and their bags were nowhere to be seen.

  “Up here, we’re up here,” said Aaron from the deep shadows of the porch.

  He stepped to the spindled railing so Korie could see him with the help of the weak light reflecting from the roadside sign. There were no streetlights along the road. The Inn was located just north of the center of town. The closest streetlight was a couple hundred yards to the south.

  Korie climbed up the front steps and stepped into the darkness of the porch. Aaron reached for her hand and led her to the far end of the porch.

  As they neared the end of the porch, Korie could hear the faint sound of someone swinging on a porch swing. The swing creaked ever so slightly from its gentle motion. Korie’s eyes began to adjust to the darkness. She could see the outline of someone sitting on the old porch swing.

  “Sit next to me dear. I won’t bite,” said the old woman.

  “Okay,” said Korie.

  “I was just telling your Aaron that I’ve been expecting you two for a couple of days now.”

  “Expecting us? I don’t get it,” said Korie as she sat down on the swing.

  “Aaron, please bring Korie and me some of the ice tea I made. It’s in the refrigerator in the kitchen. Just go in the front door and head straight down the hall, last door on your left. There are glasses in the cupboard, over the kitchen counter, to the left of the sink.”

  “Sure,” said Aaron as he headed off in search of the kitchen and ice tea.

  The old woman took Korie’s hands in hers. The old woman’s hands seemed cool to the touch. Her grip was surprisingly strong. The woman stopped swinging the porch swing. She turned slightly to look at Korie.

  “Do you have any idea why you’re here in Sutton?
” asked the old woman.

  “Well, everything’s happened so fast. I guess I’m with Aaron, because I care about him.”

  “Caring about him won’t do dear,” interrupted the woman.

  “If you mean, do I love him, I guess I ...I guess I do,” said Korie.

  “Good, because he will need your love if he is to survive. Now go on dear, you were going to tell me why you’re here.”

  “It appears Aaron is a descendant of a family that’s been persecuted by an evil group of people from this town. They’re supposed to be devil worshippers or something. Anyway, Aaron wanted to come to Sutton, to see for himself if all this is true.”

  “And what about the diary?” asked the woman.

  “How did you know about that?” asked Korie.

  “I know a great deal.”

  Pausing, Korie said, “Just what did you mean when you said if he was to survive?”

  “Aaron is in a great deal of danger. What he does, indeed what he freely chooses to do, will affect the fate of this world for generations to follow! The forces of evil are expecting him. They are going to use all of their powers to bring him into their ranks. He is the missing piece in their plan to bring Moloch to life, human form, so he can prepare the way for Lucifer.”

  “What you’re talking about, it seems so ...unbelievable. It almost sounds like you’re talking about the end of the world.”

  The old woman released Korie’s hands and resumed swinging the porch swing.

  Korie’s mind was now racing with all sorts of questions.

  Meanwhile, in the house, Aaron had located the pitcher of ice tea, and found drinking glasses in the cupboard, where the old woman said he would. He looked around the kitchen for a tray. He spotted a small tray sitting on top of the refrigerator and put the pitcher of ice tea and glasses on it. He picked the tray up, and was about to turn off the kitchen light, when he noticed a small picture hanging over the wall switch. The picture was only three inches by five inches and was set inside a dark, old, wooden frame. The picture was of a young woman, perhaps in her early twenties standing next to a young child. The child was a girl of no more than six or seven years old. Their clothes, although simple in design, suggested the picture was taken sometime during the nineteen twenties. Neither person was smiling.

  Aaron felt a sense of familiarity with the women in the picture. He looked more closely at the photo. The people in the picture were standing in front of a large house of some kind. The bushes in front of the house were in bloom. They looked like forsythia bushes but Aaron couldn’t be sure.

  I know that woman, he thought to himself.

  His eyes began to take in more of the picture’s detail. Aaron could see a number on the house, but couldn’t quite make it out. The front entrance, included wide stone steps leading up to a large porch, much like the one at this Inn. The entrance consisted of two large side-by-side doors with an arched window overhead.

  Something in the bushes drew his attention.

  It looks like there is someone hiding in the bushes, he thought.

  It seemed to Aaron there was a faint, almost ghostly shape standing in the shadows of the bushes directly behind the two people.

  As he tried to focus his eyes even more keenly on this image, it faded from sight.

  Try as he might, Aaron could no longer see the mysterious shape in the bushes.

  He decided to turn out the light and bring the ice tea outside to Korie and the old woman.

  I didn’t even ask her name, thought Aaron as he walked slowly down the hall toward the front porch.

  ***

  Reverend Mitchell was not pleased with the way things had turned out. His anger had been festering ever since Moloch had removed him as coven leader, and replaced him with Samuel Porter.

  The Reverend was a small man in stature. Envy and hatred swelled inside of him to the point he believed he would just about explode.

  As he had every night since Samuel was placed in charge of the coven, he paced the floor in his bedroom. Back and forth he went. As was his habit when he was angry, he repeatedly smacked his right fist inside of his left hand, in a gesture of explosive anger.

  “Damn that little fucker,” he shouted.

  Smack, was the sound, as he again slammed his fist into his open hand.

  “I should be the leader, not him. I’m the one who has made the sacrifices for years, who has put up with the bullshit around here, who has protected the coven from those who would destroy it. What has that little, pimple-faced, son of a bitch done? He killed one interloper. Big fucking deal. I’ve killed over a dozen myself.”

  The Reverend kicked a small table over. The table had a small crystal bowl on top of it, which shattered into several pieces.

  “It should be me who brings Moloch to human form, and who greets Lucifer when he returns in triumph. Damn!”

  The Reverend was working himself into a serious sweat.

  His devil spirit alter ego, Zeeka, was equally angered by the turn of events. Moloch had become Lucifer’s favorite. Zeeka once served at the left hand of Lucifer, as his most trusted lieutenant. His position of prominence was a tribute to the misery he had been able to bring about on earth. Zeeka was deposed in favor of Moloch, who had gained favor with Lucifer when he presented him with plans for something called a Great War. This Great War idea was to help hasten the time when Lucifer would be invited to again walk the earth and rule over all that lived upon it. How ironic that his human alter ego was now likewise deposed by Zeeka’s despised competitor. Zeeka was a devil wronged, and also a devil totally corrupted by jealousy and envy. He was the perfect match for the Reverend. Together they would find a way to regain their rightful position.

  Throughout the night, the Reverend paced the floor nurturing his anger. He had averaged less than three hours sleep since Samuel’s ascension. Likewise, Zeeka would share the pain with his human soul mate. This pain was good for the two of them.

  Pain is something you can build on, thought Zeeka.

  The Reverend simultaneously shared that thought. He couldn’t agree more.

  ***

  Kelley hung against the wall. The manacles around her wrists and ankles were cutting into her skin. Her wrists and ankles were swelling from the poisons, which were slowly entering her body from the spiders, which were feasting on her flesh. She was experiencing a building allergic reaction to the tiny doses of toxins. Her nose was running uncontrollably. Her eyes were swollen shut. Her ears ached with a pounding rhythm. Her lower back felt numb.

  Her mind kept revisiting the moment when her close friend, Paul Lacosse, had been sucked into the black earth of the cemetery. His voice pleading with her for help, and her own voice was unheard in response. In her nightmare fugue she was speechless. The powerlessness she felt in not being able to save him from her evil brother, dragged her deeper and deeper into the bottomless pit of despair.

  “Oh, Paul,” she whispered in a scratchy strained voice. “I’m so sorry.”

  ***

  The ice tea was superb. The night air was still quite humid.

  “So, I never got your name. It’s not Mother Nature, is it?” asked Aaron.

  “No! You may call me, Miss Beacon.”

  “Okay, Miss Beacon. You seem to know a lot about us. Will you please explain to us what is going on?” asked Aaron.

  “There are some things I will tell you that will be beyond belief. Only your faith can accept what I will tell you. Everything that has happened to you two, and is yet to happen, has been foretold and is foreseen, except for one thing.”

  “You’re talking in riddles. I don’t get it,” said Aaron.

  “Will you just relax and let her tell it the way she wants,” admonished Kelley.

  “It is the way I must tell it,” said Miss Beacon.

  Aaron sat down on the porch and leaned against the house. He took a sip of ice tea.

  “Okay, I’m sorry. Please continue,” he said.

  “High in the hills beyond,�
� gestured Miss Beacon to the west, across the road and river, “there is an old graveyard.”

  Korie leaned back on the swing as it gently rocked back and forth.

  “Buried in that graveyard are the bodies of Irene Powell’s family. Also buried there, is her mother Sarah, two aunts, three uncles, a cousin, two sisters and three brothers. They were all burned to death.”

  Miss Beacon bowed her head for a moment, before she resumed telling her story.

  “What is written in the diary you have been carrying with you is as true as can be. There is an evil presence here in Sutton. It’s been here for well over 160 years now. This Moloch’s Coven of Keepers, as they call themselves, is at their strongest since that night long ago. Their ancestors once came close to bringing Moloch to life, in human form. Your great grandmother, many times removed, stood in their way. The crossover failed because the coven was incomplete, thanks to her. When the coven learned that Sarah’s daughter, Irene Powell got away they were furious. Moloch promised them if they could lure Irene, or one of her descendants into willingly joining the coven, then Moloch would still be able to crossover to human form.”

  “Then what?” asked Korie.

  “Then Moloch paves the way for Lucifer to take on human form too, as the Antichrist. Finally, Lucifer begins Armageddon,” said Aaron.

  Miss Beacon nods in agreement.

  “How did you know that?” asked Korie.

  “I just know, that’s all. I can’t explain it.”

  “Then, Aaron being here in Sutton just heightens their chances to complete this coven and start Armageddon. Doesn’t it?” asked an excited Korie.

  “Not necessarily.”

  “What do you mean by that?” asked Korie.

  “Aaron is the only one who can stop Moloch’s plan.”

  “And how am I supposed to do that?” asked Aaron.

  “You must destroy him,” said Miss Beacon.

  Aaron leaned forward, and in an obviously nervous voice asked, “And if I can’t destroy him?”

  “Then Lucifer will walk this earth, he will bring on Armageddon. He will destroy all life on earth. It will be the end of this world.”