Evil Agreement

by Richard L Hatin

  Twenty-three covens since the beginning of human history have tried and failed to complete the fateful ceremony. Their failure left their souls suffering and tormented in Hell. They were abandoned by God, and were now despised by Lucifer. Each individual coven member was consigned to suffer one human pain, to the extreme, for all of time.

  ***

  Ed pulled up behind Bob’s tow truck. Judy and Ed got out of Ed’s car. They approached the tow truck on the passenger side. The truck shielded them from view by anyone in Mother Nature’s.

  Ed opened the passenger side door of Bob’s truck for Judy, who hopped up inside the cab.

  “Any sign of him?” asked Ed.

  “Nope. I’ve only been here a few minutes though. I’ve been checking the place out with these,” he said tapping a pair of binoculars sitting on the dash.

  “Good. Listen I’ve got some work to do so I’m going to leave you two for now. I wouldn’t try to get any closer than you already are Bob, okay?”

  “Sure.”

  Ed closed the truck door and headed back to his car. Bob had parked the truck about four hundred feet to the north of Mother Nature’s. Ed backed his car up just a bit and then did a U-turn in the street and headed back into town. He was heading over to Reverend Mitchell’s place. He had a hunch he wanted to follow up on and now was the perfect time.

  ***

  Inside Mother Nature’s Aaron was sitting in his room on the bed, reading the last twenty pages of his family’s diary while Korie showered.

  His mother had written all of the last twenty pages. She wrote of close encounters with coven members pursuing her. She wrote about car chases, tapped phone lines, and opened mail. She wrote about elaborate disguises and constant moving. She also wrote about her fears for her son, who doesn’t even know she is his mother.

  In the last couple of pages Aaron read about her hopes for him. She is clearly expecting Aaron to be the one Powell who will ultimately face the coven straight on.

  It will be my Aaron, who will be called on to do battle with Moloch. Of this I am now certain. Oh, how I wish I could be the one, and take his place. I can only pray he will be graced with all the powers of our family. Dear God, grant him the power of second sight, so that he can truly see evil in all of its forms. Grant him the four powers of earth, wind, water and fire. Oh merciful God, please bestow on Aaron the power to heal. Also, extend to him the great power to condemn. I beseech you Lord, to protect him until he is called upon to do battle. May his Guardian Angel be ever vigilant.

  These prayerful words seemed to hang in the air for Aaron. He closed the diary and set it on the bed.

  At that moment Aaron sensed the need to look outside. He rose from the bed and headed over to the window. Parting the curtain only slightly, he looked outside. Nothing unusual stood out to him. Then his eyes closed in on the truck, as if he were looking out the window with a high powered telescope. He could plainly see two people sitting in the truck. The driver, a man, was looking at Mother Nature’s with a pair of binoculars. The other person was a woman who was busy applying some lipstick.

  Aaron let the curtain gently fall back into place.

  Without knowing how, he knew they were coven members sent to watch the place.

  The sound of the shower stopped. Aaron picked up the diary and placed it in the bottom drawer of the dresser. He felt strange. Aaron turned to look at himself in the dresser mirror. He didn’t notice anything unusual, yet the feeling was unmistakable.

  “Your turn honey,” said Korie as she padded into the room.

  He stepped closer and pulled her to him. He kissed her hard. She winced a bit at first but soon succumbed to his passion. The touch of his lips felt as if they were on fire.

  After a breathless moment, their lips parted and Korie said “Wow, that was some kiss. So what do you have in mind now, big fella?”

  “I just had to kiss you,” he said with a playful wink.

  He pulled away from her and headed into the bathroom to take his own shower.

  Downstairs, Miss Beacon had also looked out her own window and noticed the truck parked down the street. The coven was wasting no time. They undoubtedly had a plan to contact Aaron, and try to lure him into the coven of his own free will. That would make everything easier. Failing that, she knew the coven would willingly resort to force. They were not going to let this Powell slip away.

  She had told Aaron to read the rest of his family’s diary. What he didn’t know, was that the last words were the most powerful of all. These words, when read by Aaron would complete a transfer of all of the powers each of his ancestors had at one time possessed, and were now conferred upon Aaron. He would need these gifts to be able to meet the challenges that lay ahead.

  She heard the shower starting up for the second time.

  ***

  Ed Townsend knocked on the door yet again. After a moment the door opened just a crack and one human eye looked through this crack at Ed. Suddenly the door swung wide open. In the foyer stood Reverend Mitchell. He was grinning from ear to ear. He seemed excited to see Ed.

  “May I come in?”

  “Why of course,” said the Reverend.

  “The Judge and I were just conferring on the current situation with our Powell. He’s in my study. Would you care to join us?”

  “Interesting choice of words, Reverend.”

  The Reverend was knocked off guard by Ed’s mocking of his invitation. He suddenly felt uneasy.

  Ed walked past the Reverend and headed straight to the study. The Reverend followed closely behind.

  “Could I get you something to drink? Ice tea perhaps?”

  “That would be perfect, thanks.”

  “Judge, it’s good to see you,” said Ed as he boldly strolled over to the Judge who had not risen with Ed’s arrival. The two men shook hands.

  In a moment, the Reverend arrived with a tall glass of ice tea. He handed it to Ed and then he too sat down. Ed took a long swallow. The judge and the Reverend exchanged sideways glances.

  “Ah, that’s good. A real thirst quencher.”

  “So, do you have any news about our Powell?” asked the Reverend.

  “Indeed, I do.”

  The Judge sat forward in his chair and said “Tell us, is he still here in Sutton?”

  “Oh, yeah. He’s staying over at Mother Nature’s Bed and Breakfast. Bob Senecal is keeping an eye on the place for us.”

  “Does Samuel know?”

  “Oh, he knows, all right. He had me pick up Judy and run her over there to sit with Bob. She dressed up like a teenybopper and we all know how far she is from one of those. She’s wearing a pink spandex two piece suit the color of penny bubble gum.”

  “I see. So Judy gets to play vixen for this Powell. Think he’ll go for it?” asked the Judge.

  Ed took another drink of his ice tea, finishing the rest.

  “We’ll have to wait and see. It’s Samuel’s plan. I just take my orders.”

  The three men looked at each other wearily.

  “I see,” said the Reverend.

  “And what do you think about this plan?” asked the Judge. He studied Ed closely. It was an opening gambit.

  Ed sat back in his chair and closed his eyes for a moment.

  He then sat back up and looked at both men, as he cleared his throat.

  “Maybe it will work, maybe it won’t. My guess is that it won’t work.”

  “Then what?” asked the Judge.

  “Okay, look. Let me put my cards on the table here. I believe you two might be forming a backup plan. Am I right?”

  “What do you mean?” asked the Reverend in mild protest.

  “Look, Reverend. This is not the time to bullshit me. Look me straight in the eye and tell me you’re not planning something,” said Ed.

  “Ed, surely you understand . . .” said the Reverend.

  “Okay, you two, I’m out of here,” said Ed rising from his chair.

  “Sit down, Ed,” said the Judge.
>
  “Why should I?”

  “Because we need your help,” said the Judge.

  “And what sort of help do you have in mind?”

  “If I may quote you, let me put the cards on the table. The good Reverend and I believe Samuel is being swayed by Moloch to not help pave the way for the Great Dark One. Rather, we believe Moloch, at the least, is deceiving Samuel, or at the worst, Samuel is in league with Moloch. In short, Moloch may be using us all to serve his own ends.”

  “That’s fucking incredible,” said Ed.

  “We think so,” said the Reverend.

  ***

  Bob Senecal looked over at Judy in her pink spandex outfit.

  “Damn, Judy, aren’t you overdoing it a bit?”

  “Now Bob, don’t give me any shit. Samuel approved of this personally and I just know that he would be pissed if anyone tried to bail out on him. So you just watch yourself.”

  Bitch, thought Bob.

  Judy reached over and turned the air conditioner fan up another notch.

  “I’ll sure be glad when that cold front comes through later today,” said Judy.

  Bob Senecal passed on the chance to continue making small talk with Judy.

  ***

  Korie and Aaron came downstairs and entered the air conditioned kitchen.

  Miss Beacon was standing at the window looking through the parted curtains.

  “Are you checking out that truck down the street?” asked Aaron.

  “What truck?” asked Korie.

  Turning from the window, Miss Beacon said, “It’s Bob Senecal’s tow truck that’s parked down the street. He’s a member of the coven. This means the coven has concluded that you’re here. He’s been assigned to watch us and to report on our movements.”

  “He’s not alone,” said Aaron.

  “I know,” said Miss Beacon.

  “Know what? Will somebody tell me what’s going on?” demanded an exasperated Korie.

  “Aaron, they are probably going to try and make contact with you directly. They will also try and make contact with you too, Korie.”

  “What about you?” asked Korie. “Do you think they know about you?”

  “I don’t think so, but time will tell.”

  “So what do we do?” asked Aaron.

  26

  Walter pulled his Jeep to a stop. He put the emergency brake on. He had a hunch he wanted to check out.

  Walter walked over to the barn and checked the lock. It was engaged and showed no visible signs of tampering. He walked around the barn perimeter. There were no outward signs of anyone having been snooping around. He stood at the southeast corner of the barn and scratched his head. He was missing something, he was sure of it. He refocused his eyes and surveyed the perimeter again, this time at a greater distance.

  There it was. He had missed it the first time around because he was looking only around the immediate perimeter. Now that he had searched the grass and woods around a hundred feet away from the barn, he had discovered a trail. More specifically, three trails of recently tramped down wet grass were evident, where at least three people had passed, heading away from the nearby barn. Now he returned to the barn and using a key that was among several chained to his belt, he unlocked the barn door.

  He swung the door wide open. Stepping inside, he quickly surveyed the interior. Nothing seemed out of place, although he couldn’t be absolutely sure without a complete inventory. He still felt uneasy about this.

  Who was here? What do they know? he thought.

  He quickly left the barn locking the front door.

  He decided he needed to check on the young boy who was guarding the altar. He jumped into the jeep and after releasing the emergency brake, he drove off towards the altar.

  After a brief moment, he pulled his jeep over next to the lower edge to the field his coven and church members so often worshipped in. He turned the engine off and reapplied the emergency brake.

  Stepping out of the jeep he hollered, “Danny…”

  Only a faint echo of his own voice came back to him.

  He shouted louder this time, “Danny, answer me, boy.”

  Still only silence.

  Something’s wrong, he thought.

  Walter turned and headed up across the field towards the altar. He had traveled about half way across when he noticed there was something on the altar. He broke into a half run and quickly closed the distance to the altar.

  Walter stopped next to the altar and blurted out, “Shit, this is bad, real bad!”

  He pulled the portable radio from its belt holster. He flipped the “on” switch. Static crackled noisily from the radio.

  “Base, this is Walter, over.”

  The radio hissed, “Walter this is Charlie, over.”

  “Find Ed Townsend for me will you, Charlie? It’s urgent. Have him call me on channel 23, over.”

  “Roger, Walter.”

  The radio went silent. Walter turned his channel switch to channel 23. He set the radio to monitor the selected channel. Now he would wait. He wouldn’t attempt to move the boy’s body without Ed’s approval. He sat down in the grass and waited.

  Gases had begun earlier to build inside the dead boy’s body, hastened by the exposure to the hot afternoon sun. His body’s belly had begun to swell.

  A swarm of small flies hovered over the body, with several of the shiny insects landing on the boy’s head wound. They scampered over the now dried blood, with some of them exploring the crevices of torn flesh. After these brief landings, the flies rose up and hovered again while others landed and repeated this gruesome ritual.

  Walter watched several of these landings and takeoffs when his radio suddenly crackled.

  “Walter, this is Ed, over.”

  “Ed, I’m up here on the mountain at the altar, over.”

  “Yeah, and what’s the situation?”

  “Ed, someone killed Danny Almore.”

  They had both dropped the radio formalities.

  “Dead, how?”

  “Looks like he was slugged from behind by a large piece of oak. His head’s split wide open. The piece of wood that hit him appears to have broken in two.”

  “What else?”

  “The killers put his body up here on the altar, Ed. They even put the broken piece of wood here, too. They laid it across his body in the shape of a cross.”

  There was no response from Ed.

  “Ed, did you catch what I just said?”

  “Yeah, Walter, I did.”

  “Walter, a moment ago you said killers. How do you figure there’s more than one?”

  Walter then reported to Ed what he had seen earlier at the barn.

  “I think you may be right, Walter.”

  “You gonna tell Samuel?”

  “Yeah, I will.”

  What do you want me to do with the Almore boy’s body?”

  Bring it down to Ed Foley. He’ll take care of it. I’ll get word to him to expect you.”

  “Okay.”

  “Later,” said Ed.

  “Yeah, later,” said Walter

  Walter set the channel on his radio back to 19 and the radio back to its monitor mode. He put the radio back into its holster. He walked down the hillside to get his jeep. He would load the boy’s dead body into the back.

  ***

  “Aaron you’ve got to leave here, alone. We have to continue to act as if we don’t know anything, for as long as we can get away with it. When you leave they will try to make contact with you, maybe even try to trick you or test you somehow. You’re going to have to have your wits about you. They’ll try anything,” said Miss Beacon.

  They had been debating what to do next for the past half-hour. Miss Beacon was insistent that Aaron was ready to handle direct contact with coven members. Korie and Aaron both were reticent to accept the prospect of Aaron being alone with one or more coven members. Miss Beacon knew the risks, yet she felt confident that Aaron, at this point, was as prepared as he could be.


  “Look, time is ticking here. It won’t matter what we do if we just wait. Sooner or later they’ll just come in here and take Aaron, drag him kicking and screaming to their sacrificial altar and the calling ceremony. At least this way we might learn something that could be useful later. You can do this, Aaron. I just know it,” said Miss Beacon.

  “Maybe she’s right, Aaron. After all, she is your guardian angel,” said Korie.

  “Okay, for my family, and for you two,” said a reluctant Aaron.

  “Good,” said Miss Beacon, “now what I think you should do is take the Land Rover into town, and go to the grocery store. Buy some bread or something. I’m sure they’ll try and make contact. Go along with them. When you think you might be getting into some danger, just use that Powell instinct of yours and get out. Don’t even hesitate,” said Miss Beacon.

  “Okay, I will. I promise,” said Aaron.

  He reached out and hugged Korie and gave her a warm lingering kiss goodbye. He then hugged Miss Beacon. He turned and headed out the door.

  “Whew . . .I don’t know about this. Maybe we should follow him,” said Korie, obviously concerned for Aaron’s safety.

  “No, we have something important to do,” said Miss Beacon.

  “What’s that?” asked Korie.

  “We have to save a girl’s life. “

  ***

  Bob sat up like a shot. He reached for the binoculars. In a moment he was letting out a whistle.

  “What is it?” asked Judy.

  “It’s the Powell fella. Looks like he’s about to leave the place, alone.”