by David Skato
The two didn’t speak much as they drove for an hour or so. This was due to Dontae’s confusion about Rochelle and Calvin, allowing him to calm down a bit. Dontae’ was a shell of his former self. Any other time he would have asked a thousand questions. But things were different now. He didn’t worry about who this man was, where he was going, or even why. He was living in his mind. Revenge would have been nice, but death more convenient.
The van stopped at an old gate just off the main road. Calvin got out and opened it, drove in, got out, and locked it back. They went up a hill and through a few more trees until they reached a set of old buildings. The place had overgrown grass all around with puddles here and there that were probably Disneyland for mosquitos. The windows were mostly boarded up except for a few of the larger ones. Dontae’ thought the place looked like a community college campus. The van weaved through the first few buildings, coming to a stop in front of one with a barely visible placard. He could make out a few letters but not enough to read a full word.
Calvin looked at Dontae’. “Follow me.”
The two got out of the van and headed to the door of the building. Calvin then went to the side of the door and pulled a thin strip of wire from it. Dontae’ wasn’t sure what it was but didn’t care at that moment. The man then opened the door, and they walked in. He placed the device that he pulled from the outside of the door on the inside. The two walked down a small hall into an open space with a massive machine in the center. It vaguely resembled the hydron collider but on a much smaller scale. They moved through this room and into a smaller space, which Dontae’ immediately recognized as a computer lab.
“Why are we here” Dontae’ finally broke the silence in a raspy, defeated voice.
“Welcome to Synofusion Labs.” Calvin proudly explains with his arms opening as if he was Willy Wonky in the chocolate factory. “We are here because they can’t track us behind these walls.”
Dontae’ pulls the gun from his pocket and places it on the table. “I was about to kill Walsh,” He confesses to his new friend.
“I know. That’s why I stopped you.” The man admitted.
“Who are you?”
“Name’s Calvin Talbert.”
“What the hell is happening? I feel like I’m losing my mind.”
Calvin Talbert stands and walks over to a whiteboard. He stares for a moment, then starts to speak.
“I'm going to say this as simply as possible. What I’m about to tell you is hard to grasp, but you have to believe me. Everything you know and everything you have been taught is a lie. The world is controlled by something dark. Beings that hide in the shadows. A Secret society that influences how we talk, dress, think. All for a plot of world domination.”
“And that's simple as possible?” Dontae’ questions.
“Everything from social media to new age religion were all created to manipulate people into thinking, acting even being what they want you to be,” Calvin explained.
Dontae’ takes a seat and stares blankly into space. “I saw something. It killed my girlfriend.”
“Yes. You saw The Carasaca. It is a demon that can temporarily manifest into a physical form.”
“That was you standing outside of my apartment?”
“Yes.”
Dontae jumps up and grabs Calvin by the neck. “You knew it was in my apartment, killing my girlfriend and you just let it?!
“There was nothing I could do.” The man said, struggling with every word.
Dontae’ releases him, believing what he had just heard. He paces back and forth for a second before plopping back into his seat. “I’m sorry.”
Calvin takes a seat opposite of him. “I couldn’t save her even if I'd tried.” The man states as he rubs his neck, which is now red with handprints.
The feeling of hands being around his neck was too familiar. He thought about it for a second and then realized that it had all come full circle. A long time ago, Calvin studied computer science at M.I.T. before anyone knew what computer science really was. Between the partying and the experiments, he graduated top of his class well rounded with experience in drugs, alcohol, and technology. It’s incredible how these things go together when the bigger picture is exposed. At the dawn of the computer age, Calvin became a hacker, mostly for financial gain but sometimes for fun. Oh, it was the excitement of the challenge. That’s what he was all about, the challenge. What could he break into next? He stumbled upon a three-word post on the dark web which read: “They are here.” This was laughable but very intriguing once he dug a little deeper into who posted it. It was from an IP address in Guatemala of all places. A country with little to no internet access, especially back in these early days. This piqued his interest, and the challenge made him dive deeper. He discovered that the person who wrote it, Mateo De Leon, went missing soon after. Looking into who Mateo was, Calvin found that he had an instrumental hand at discovering what we now call social media, but he abruptly quit the project, stole the files, and ran back to Guatemala. This was the type of thing Calvin had been waiting for, a conspiracy. With a hot pocket in his mouth, he pecked away at the keyboard for hours, trying to find everything he could about this project now known as “Quest.” He became obsessed with finding out who was behind this and what happened to Mateo until he received a knock at the door. Calvin, naive to the situation, casually opens the door to two men in suits claiming to be FBI.
“Where’s your badge?” he asked one of the gentlemen.
Suddenly, without saying a word, the man pushed him into the house, causing him to crash into the living room table.
“What’s going on? I know my rights!” He screamed.
One of the men waited by the door as the other one approached Calvin. He kneeled and began to choke him. Calvin blacked out.
Calvin awoke to complete darkness, intense heat, and the smell of burning. He panicked, kicking and flailing his arms until he realized he was in a bag. He calmed down for a second, took a key from his pocket, and sawed away at the fabric. He poked and rubbed until there was a glimmer of light, all while he felt heat intensifying around him. He poked his finger through the hole and tore the bag open. He rose to the sight of his entire apartment on fire. The flames rolled on this ceiling in balls as smoke filled every square inch. He looked at his computer station, which was now just a pile of rubble. He looked towards his bedroom, where he can see a small opening through the flames. He darted in that direction, landing on his bed, which is directly beside a window. He then opened the window and, without a second thought, jumped from the third floor, striking a parked car before planting on the cold asphalt. He managed to hop a few blocks away before ducking into an alley to take a break and digest what had just happened. What the fuck was going on? This couldn’t be happening to him. He was just playing. He didn’t believe any of this shit.
Now a much older Calvin Talbert was sitting across from this younger version of himself all over again. He knew the questions that were going through this guy’s mind. He had some answers, but he knew that there were some things that could never be explained.
“If they control everything, how are you here?” Dontae’ questions.
“I stumbled upon a very odd code while hacking into a secret communications project. You know it now as social media. The story about it being created at Harvard, all bullshit. The deeper I dug, the stranger things got. I discovered that it was to be used as an influence experiment. They found that I was on to them, so they tried to kill me. I’m sure they still think I’m dead.”
“The Carasaca?” Dontae’ asks.
“What?” Calvin said confused
“That tried to kill you?”
“Oh. No these were people. That thing started to appear a few weeks ago.”
“Where did it come from?”
“It’s the devil’s enforcer. It’s a sign that he’s coming. And soon.”
“I don’t believe in this voodoo bullshit. There has to be some other kind of explanation,” Donta
e’ said as he rises out of the chair and begins to pace around the room.
“This existence is a much bigger place than what the eyes can see,” Calvin explained.
“They want me dead because I tried to find the truth about Rochelle. But she’s alive. Why was her hoax such a big deal? Big enough to try to kill me? Damn it; this doesn’t make sense!”
Calvin looks out of a small window staring into the woods just outside. “It wasn’t a hoax. Rochelle is dead.”
“No, she’s not. I just saw her on the fucking TV,” Dontae’ states rubbing his brow.
“Whatever that is, it's not Rochelle,” Calvin suggests.
“This is all about that video.”
“What video?” Dontae’ Asks.
“The viral video that was released this morning.”
“What does a stupid dance have to do with any of this?”
“It’s not the dance. It’s what she’s saying.”
“What is she saying? What does it mean?”
“She is chanting a ritual that opens a person to possession. Once those words are spoken, the person speaking has granted, for lack of a better word, access to their soul. For the demon knowns as Baphomet.”
Dontae’ sits. “Sandy said that name before-“He takes a deep breath. “What does Rochelle have to do with it?”
“She’s the vessel. I think Baphomet is already inside of her. In the past, he could come to earth in the form of just one person, which isn’t very effective. But, if that person, in this case, Rochelle, can get people to say the enchantment, I mean voluntarily without being forced, then Baphomet can enter that person. He has tried for centuries. Think, Hitler, Ivan the terrible, even as far back as Nero, all Baphomet. But none of that worked. People have always managed to win the world back because he just couldn’t spread to possess enough people.”
“Fuck.” Dontae’ thought out loud. “This video is viral, and it’s one of those dumb challenges, and we are talking about Rochelle, the biggest fucking star in the world. Hundreds of Millions of followers.”
“Exactly,” Calvin states as he slams his fist into the table. “The whole fucking world is now connected. Everything he has done; all leads to this moment.”
“There is still a missing piece. Baphomet needs to have something like an inclusion spell done to inhabit the vessel then take control of the other host. Someone has to bring him in to take full control of this Rochelle.”
“What if they’ve done it already?” Dontae’ asks.
“They haven't.” Calvin insisted.
“How do you know?”
“Because we are still here,” Calvin flatly stated as he turned towards his computer. “You have to stop whatever that is pretending to be Rochelle. Baphomet cannot be allowed to enter her.”
“What if he uses one of the other people that said the chant.” Dontae’s asks naively.
“Then he can only inhabit that person and any people that person got to say the chant, which is probably not many. No one else will work. They have groomed Rochelle for this very task. Years and years or making her a star, creating her influence and making “following” a normal word,” Calvin explains.
“Rochelle has a show in a couple of days.” Dontae’ informed Calvin.
“I know. I have backstage tickets.”
“You don’t really look like a fan,” Dontae’ Joked.
“That’s why they’re for you.”
“How long have you been watching me?”
“Since you left Roland’s office. That’s when they started following you. I’m assuming they will have fifty thousand new hosts after the show giving them the perfect time to finish this. You have to stop her at all cost.” Calvin stated with concern.
“You mean kill her?” Donate clarified in a dry voice.
“It’s the only way. Remember, it’s not Rochelle.” Calvin stated.
“Is she a demon?” Donate’ asked.
Calvin ignored him and stayed focused on the screen. “Go to the show. When you get your chance, don’t think about it, just do it.”
“Can’t you just put something online telling people not to do the challenge? I mean come on! People will not do this stupid shit if they knew they were selling their soul!” Dontae’ shouts in disgust.
“Look around! Think about it! You think that all the violence that has started in the last few years is a coincidence? He’s been conditioning us,” Calvin explained.
“I’m out there on the streets, I know that there’s not more violence, just more ways to be exposed to it.”
“You are a fool!” Calvin insults him, now angry. “Open your eyes!” Social media makes people do stupid shit for their fifteen minutes of fame. That same fame is something Baphomet uses to control and manipulate. And the ones that can’t catch fame are blinded by their own inhibitions because they think that the rest of the world is better than them. This demon has created the perfect formula to bring the apocalypse.”
“So, we are talking about the bible? It’s all real?” Dontae’ asks.
Calvin leans back, appearing defeated. “Dontae’, have you noticed that you can’t tell men from women? It’s all right there written in revelations. We now live in a world where negativity is sought after. We use the words bad meaning good, good meaning I don’t want to tell you it’s bad, and awesome is just a typical conformation used to agree upon something. Look at the viewed videos: fights, murder, tragedies. Get one race of people to fight with another. They make sure to show cops killing unarmed black people so they can get the black people to fight back with more violence, and in the hearts of the world, they are doing the right thing. But what is the right thing? Who is right? Participate, ignore, but whatever you do, don’t believe in evil. That’s how they win. The bible is laughed at, and the evil acts in the world are done by ordinary people. Don’t believe in the man behind the curtain. That’s crazy, right? That’s how they win.”
“I think I understand. There will come a point when people won’t know if they are doing right or wrong or what’s good or bad, and the only reference they have will be social media.”
“We are at that point.” Calvin corrected. “We’ve been there for a long time.”
“Now I see,” Dontae’ exclaimed. “People will not only accept what’s about to happen but be cool about it.”
“Not just cool about it. Run towards it with open arms.” Calvin corrected.
“If the devil is real, then so is God.” Dontae’ suggests in frustration.
“I’ve seen demons. I’ve never seen God,” Calvin admitted as he turns to the computer.
“Use the name Dontae’ Johnson when you go to will-call.” He taps on the computer. He turns to Dontae.
“It all comes down to Rochelle. If they complete the ritual, we lose.”
Calvin tilts to the left of Dontae’ to notice black mist seeping under the door. “It found us! We have to get out of here!” He throws Dontae’ a set of keys. “Go to the garage in the back and start the car. I have to destroy this.”
Dontae’ grabs his gun from the table and runs out the opposite door and then through an outside door. He sees a garage about fifty feet in front of him. He runs until he reaches the door, which he uses his shoulder to crash through. He throws the cover from the car, revealing an older model Ford Mustang. He jumps in the car, looking for a garage door opener.
Meanwhile, Calvin initiates a “kill switch,” and the computer screen turns black with small writing crawling down the screen. He then grabs what looks like a trigger and runs towards the garage. As soon as he reaches outside, he presses the button. The entire place explodes. Dust and debris fall around Calvin as he makes his way to the car and jumps into the passenger seat.
“Go!” he ordered.
“Where’s the- Fuck it.” Dontae’ puts the car in gear and smashes through the garage door, leaving a dust cloud behind the speeding car.
The two speed off but to the left, the now fully formed Carasaca gives chase. The cre
ature jumps on the roof of the car as Dontae’ swerves, trying to wiggle the thing off but to no avail. The creature's hand explodes through the window, sending glass flying and grabbing Calvin by the throat. The old man struggles to get the thing’s inky grip from around his neck but is so far unsuccessful. Dontae’, struggling a bit, finally manages to get his gun from his hoodie pocket and starts to fire into the ceiling, creating hole after hole in the roof as well as the creature. The creature shows sign of pain, but the holes they quickly seal up leaving no sign of injury. Dontae’ punches the gas sending himself, Calvin, and the monster jerking backward. The monster then starts to bang Calvin’s head against the shattered glass, causing blood to squirt and drip down the side of the door. The monster continues to pull and pull, banging his head over and over until the man starts to lose consciousness. Dontae’ looks on in shock, not knowing what to do. He starts to slow down the car, but it was too late. The monster snatches Calvin’s lifeless body from the car and tosses him on the side of the road like a sack of garbage.
Donate’ hits the brakes sending the car into a tailspin and causing the creature to fly forward, landing in the center of the street. Dontae’ mashes the gas running over the creature. He then places the gear in to reverse and runs the creature over a second time before coming to a complete stop with the thing a few feet in front of him. He gets out of the car and walks over to the squealing creature and trying to claw-crawl away. It takes a swipe at Dontae’ who is out of its reach. He takes the gun and fires, emptying the remaining clip into the creature who screams and shrieks with a sound that could only have been created in hell. He stomps the creature's head, smashing it completely, sending black dust in the air and inky residue splatting in the street.
“That’s for Sandy,” he thinks to himself.
The creature inks and oozes into the ground, leaving a large black spot. Dontae’ didn’t know if it was dead or just went back to mist, but he did know this was his win. He walks down the street back to Calvin. He kneeled and turned him over. From the odd position of his head, it appeared that the Carasaca crushed his neck when he pulled him out of the car. The man that could answer all his questions was now dead.
