The smiling man stood as he asked, “what is your decision, my time has come, and I have other things to attend to before I go.”
Cici shook her head, lost in her thoughts, but before her mind could catch up to her mouth, she replied, “I will do it. Tanner and I will be married.”
She no longer cared about the consequences or the bound she would put on herself and Tanner. The thought of Tanner’s wife came to her and left just as fast. None of it mattered anymore, her mind was made up. The demon had asked her a favor and she would deliver, but she also knew she wanted to wish her dead parents back to life. Yeah, she was aware that the smiling man told her it wouldn’t work, but she was going to try it, nonetheless. The man left as she sat and waited the arrival of her former employer’s grandson, her soon to be husband, her ticket to freedom.
Chapter 16
Tanner and Hannah stopped at Wal-Mart in Atkinson. They knew they would need some extra blankets as a precaution for the heaters at his grandmother’s place were not effective enough against the frigid temperatures. As they approached the entrance to the store, Tanner looked around at the falling snow and began to hope that it would slow its pace. The snow had slowed their trip down dramatically. As he walked inside the store, he shook the cold off himself as he watched Hanna do the same. His eyes fell from her just as fast. Once again, he found himself unable to look at her. She reached for his hand, but he pretended not to see it and began walking further into the store.
They were going to need a few overnight essentials. The storm was going to keep getting stronger according to the weather on the radio, and he knew they would be unable to drive back after the visit to his dead grandmother’s house. From the corner of his eye, he saw Hannah glance down at her phone and then shoot her head up quick with excitement.
She looked over at him and he stopped, she spoke slowly but victoriously, she finally had phone service, “your mother’s maiden name was Kupp. According to this, you have a grandfather named Arthur Kupp.”
Feeling bemused, but not surprised, he responded, “Well, I figured I had a grandfather, just never met him, hmm, maybe he was the raggedy man she had with her the one time. Anyway, it doesn’t matter now, he is probably dead like her. Guess we will never know.”
Clicking her phone off and returning it to her pocket, she sounded almost defeated when she spoke, “you’re probably right about your grandfather, but at least your grandmother left you the house to do whatever you want with. Don’t you think that will be pretty cool?”
Looking her in the eyes for the first time in several hours, he just shrugged his shoulders and turned to walk away from her. Before he could take a step, though, she grabbed his shoulder and turned him back toward her. Her eyes were watering, and he knew what was coming.
She sadly spoke, “we’re never going to be the same again, are we? Why do we keep pretending like you have moved on? It’s obvious you’re never going to forgive me. I know you said you have, but you’re not fooling anyone. I get it, what I did was a bad thing and I’m so sorry, I’m so, so sorry. I wish there was anything I could do to make it up to you, anything.”
Expressionless, he looked at her as tears slowly flowed down her cheeks, he did feel sorry for her, but she was right. He had not forgiven her, and he knew in his heart that he was never going to. Speaking to her wasn’t an option for he had nothing to say. He just kept looking at her and listening to her cry,
“I just wish none of this ever happened. I wish I could have been a better person for you. I was so selfish, and I just want us to go back to normal, but I know it’s never going to happen. So, when we leave here and get back home, I’m going to leave. I think it’s time we gave up on this relationship. It’s over and, like I said I would do anything to fix it, but if you can never forgive me then it doesn’t matter. I already talked to my mom. I will just go stay with her, even though she is upset about my affair as much as you are. I truly hate myself and I fear this ordeal would be my undoing.”
Hannah knew the last words she spoke didn’t really hold true. Yes, she felt bad for what she had done, but she didn’t hate herself. Desperation had set in; she needed a man’s touch. Tanner had been unable to provide that for her. She knew it wasn’t fair to him, because it wasn’t his fault, but she had needs to. Speaking to him, she watched as he stared at her blankly, and she knew she was making the right decision to leave him when they returned home.
“I am so sorry Tanner; you know I love you, and I think I always will. But you know as I know it will be for the best if we split ways when we get home. I know you do, and I’m just so sorry I did this to us, and that you’ll never be able to forgive me.”
He looked at her as she wiped the last of her tears away. He responded by shaking his head and speaking so softly that she barely heard him, “it’s your fault we fell apart.”
“What? I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you.”
“Doesn’t matter what I said, let’s get what we need and head to my grandmother’s house.”
Looking at her phone, once more, trying to hold herself together, she said, “according to google maps we are only two miles from the house. Oh, let’s get some food while we are here, because you don’t know what she may have to eat, it might be all bad if the power was turned off after she passed.”
Turning and continuing down the aisles, he remarked, “yeah, you’re right, her food could be bad, better not risk it. We can just get some snacks. We can live off those for at least an evening. When this storm clears out in the morning we will head out. I might give that lady my grandmother spoke of a call and ask her about any paperwork that might be packed away in the house, so we can look it over. Also, I’m thinking about asking her some questions about my grandparents.”
“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. You never know, this might be a fun little trip for us to have one last time.”
She looked down at her feet as she spoke, and Tanner could read defeat all over her face. He tried to dig deep down inside himself and forgive her. He wanted to love her as he once had, but no matter how hard he tried he just couldn’t. Their relationship was over. His heart was broken in more ways than one. Time would heal him, he knew that, but time always had a funny way of running things; in his opinion.
Chapter 17
Burning from the wind and snow, his face was numb with a dull ache. His pace quickened but still he moved slow. His cigarette refused to stay lit in the tumultuous snowfall. Arthur felt he had little time to make it to his old lover’s house. All he could think about was her, Mathelda. There was no other person he loved or could have loved more than her. She had cast a spell on him, and he never wanted that feeling to leave his soul. Because of his wish, he knew he had a long time to go on living. The thought of living without her scared him dearly. She had reassured him in her final days that he would make it along just fine. Reassurance was what he still needed, and all he could do was hope his memories of her never faded.
The year was nineteen-eighty-nine and they had been fierce lovers for twenty years. He had done everything his enthralling companion had asked of him. Their small home in Atkinson, was warm with welcome. They had known everything there was to know about each other. Well, almost everything. See, Mathelda held fast to the secret of the smiling man. Over the years, she had almost forgotten the man’s threat. If it wouldn’t have been for the reoccurring nightmare she frequently had, she may have forgotten about him. As it was, however, she knew time was slipping away, ever so fast, toward a confrontation that was going to happen sooner rather than later. The last twenty years had been more then she could have hope for. Peace and tranquility.
Her stomach grew large with child. Their child would be a charming baby; they were both confident of that. Arthur was excited to be a father; he had never felt such an enlightenment. There was going to be a small person running around with his likeness. The air was ripe with ecstatic electricity. The world was a place of pure incumbering happiness. Then the night came. When all was qui
et and they were lying in bed, they both heard it. From the front door, three loud knocks came.
“He has finally come.”
Trepidation slurred her words as they both sat up in bed. Arthur stood and walked to the closet to retrieve his gun.
The pregnant Goddess got up and followed him as she spoke softly, “there’s no need for that, hun. I have been expecting this visitor, assuming it is who I’m thinking it is.”
His face was distorted with a perplexing expression.
Looking at his captivating lover he took her hand in his and asked, “what are you talking about? Who is this person?”
Keeping it simple was how he always had been toward his lover. He never pressed her for any information, he just loved her. Seeing the fear build in her eyes was a look he’d never seen from her before, though.
Her hand tightened as she spoke, “a year before I found you, I met a man at his broken-down home. As far as I could tell he was a sick and dying man; supposedly, he could tell fortunes and grant wishes. Well, I don’t remember if wishes were part of the package, but that was how he hooked me in anyway, and wishes were what he offered.”
Arthur nodding along, showing her he was keeping up with her as she spoke, he asked briefly, already knowing the answer, “the crystal ball, this has something to do with it, doesn’t it?”
Her hand squeezed even tighter than it had before and he knew, something wrong was going on. Whoever the man was at the door; something was not right about any of it.
Her voice quivered as she continued, “the man showed me the crystal ball. I remember looking into it, even after all these years. The ball got me, it pulled me in. I remember as I was caught in its mysterious power. It creeped me out. I wanted to leave the old man’s house, but the old man begged me to stay and look further into the crystal ball. The man was so sick, well, so I thought. He was coughing blood and dry heaving on the floor. So, when he told me the crystal ball had the power to grant three wishes. Naturally, I thought it to be a bunch of hoopla. He told me to make a quick wish so that I had proof that the crystal ball was indeed magical. The old man was folded over on the floor coughing his life out. I made a wish that, at that moment, I thought I was doing something good. I wished that the old man’s health had gone back to normal. What happened was out of this world. The man’s whole body transformed. He grew younger. Oh, I forgot to tell you. The old man never ceased to smile, even through all his coughing. When the man’s body had finished transforming, even his clothes looked fresh and new again. The man continued to smile, he laughed in my face and thanked me. Then he told me he was bound to the crystal ball and now I to him. He was going to tell me his name. I don’t remember if he ever told me it, but somehow, I feel as though I know his name is Moloch. He told me that I would have to serve him, not anything like you would think, hell, that might be better. No, I remember clearly what he said he would have me do. Arthur, he wants me to feed him children.” Sobs her voice shook as she finished speaking and her body twitched with fear.
Arthur rubbed her belly as he responded, “he didn’t come for our child, has he? If he is here for our baby, I’ll kill this Moloch guy or whatever he is.”
“Oh, will you now?”
They both jumped with fright as they turned back toward their bed. They had not been paying attention to their surroundings. They had been facing the closet while she told him the story of her encounter with the smiling man. Moloch was laying on their bed, hands crossed behind his head with one foot over the other, wiggling to a silent beat.
Arthur pushed his pregnant lover behind him to protect her and the unborn child.
Moloch stayed relaxed, speaking as if he had been their best friend for many years.
“There’s no reason to fear me, good sir. I am not here to harm neither of you, nor the child. You see, I’m famished. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a proper meal. Mathelda, please don’t look so shocked, you knew I would come eventually. As it is, it took me a lot longer to regain my full powers than I thought. Well, anyway, I’m here now and I want to be fed. Bad little boys is my favorite course. So, Mathelda, it’s time for my payment. Wait, wait a minute I sense that you…” he pointed at the beautiful pregnant lady, “…may have put this task on your lover. Am I right?”
Arthur dumfounded, looked from the man relaxing on their bed to his lover, and she nodded in agreement. He stepped away from his lover and looked at Moloch and anger fueled his veins.
His words were hot when he shouted, “I will do nothing you ask of me, whatever she has made you think I will do, I will not.”
Before Arthur could continue yelling, Moloch rose from the bed. He stood swiftly, and as nimble as a gymnast. Shoving Arthur to the ground, Moloch removed his shades that were a ridiculous wardrobe item with it being dark outside. His eyes shot down toward Arthur who was being held tight by his lover. Moloch’s body began to make a crackling sound. His teeth which had been shiny white grew black and razor sharp. His all white eyes filled with blood. His neck stretched three feet. Cracks and pops of bones snapping filled the room as the smiling man transformed into a beastly figure. The face which once was a charming face was now wrinkled with skin that hung limp on all sides. The nose folded back like a pig snout, and the lips stretched thin from ear to ear. White scaly claws replaced the hand and long hairy legs helped the creature stand eight feet tall or more. The hooves the feet had turned into clacked on the floor as the beast stepped forward. Its blood-filled eyes stared into their soul. A long tentacle stretched from beneath his waste and moved around the room, stopping to rub along Mathelda’s face and bare chest. The voice that came from the creature was an overlap of growls and shrills of agony, and inside of the deep gargles you could hear the voice of the smiling man that had been laying on their bed.
“This is no game, fools! She made her wish and now payment must be received! You, Arthur, were wished to protect and serve her, therefore you shall be my servant! If you don’t want to obey me, fine! Your choice will have dire consequences!” He growled.
The long tentacle with a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth picked up the pregnant Enchantress and suspended her in the air. The creature pulled her closer to him, running one long scaly finger between her legs. Mathelda screamed out in fear as Arthur scrambled to his feet.
The creature pushed him back down, effortlessly, as he spoke, “I will kill her right now; no, I will wait. I will take the child and keep it alive until its old enough to defile. I will do unimaginable atrocities to the girl. I will slit your lover’s throat right in front of your eyes. I will keep you alive and captive to watch me kill your lover and defile your daughter repeatedly for eternity.”
The creature dropped Mathelda back to the floor, she scrambled to Arthur’s embrace. The creature then returned to the size it had been as a man. Soon the transformation had completed, and the smiling man stood before them; nude and unblinking.
He softly asked, “so, Arthur, are you going to find me the meal I am entitled to?”
He stood to his feet pulling his lover up with him and shook his head, acknowledging that he would give the smiling man what he wanted.
Moloch turned his nude, muscular body to leave, but he looked over his shoulder and spoke one last time before departure, “the boys of which I prefer would be, what do you call it, teenagers? Not just any boy will do, either. I am on this world to eat only the bad ones. You must search to find me a bad boy, but I’ll tell you, there are plenty to be found. Look for murderers of animals and people alike. Liars that have destroyed people, drug abusers, entitled brats that think they can get away with rape and harassment. The bad ones will serve my desire and their flesh will be scrumptious in my mouth. I will wait patiently in the basement hidden in the walls. Oh, and Arthur, I am patient, but I would prefer to be fed sooner than later, and if I were you, I would make it sooner.”
Moloch walked away from the expecting couple and left without another sound. Arthur looked at his lover lost and confused. She was
crying softly and couldn’t gain the courage to speak. He himself couldn’t find the words he wanted to say, but somehow, he knew that she knew that her wish of protection and servitude would be detrimental to their relationship. However, he had no choice, he would have to find the smiling man what he wanted.
As the snow pasted against his face, seventy-three-year-old Arthur finally got a cigarette to stay lit. He tried his best to rid himself of the memories that flooded his mind of the years to come following his introduction to Moloch. The screams of the boys the demon had devoured still echoed in his head. He knew now, that the smiling man was a demon, and though he may had been doing the world a favor by ridding the world of future serial killers and psychopaths alike; it was still a terrible fate for anyone to encounter. Every year the demon had to be fed. Even on the day his lover died, the demon had to be fed. He thought of his lover once more, her wish for death. She was a woman of precision, so precise that she had wished her death to be quick and graceful as she always had been. Her death had been the third wish she asked of the crystal ball the day she took it to her grandson. As the snow blasted his face, he wondered why she never told her daughter; why, after all that time, had she taken it to the boy. Her grandson had no idea what he possessed, and if he got rid of it, well, the world would be in trouble indeed.
If the wrong person came across the crystal ball and unwittingly discovered its ability, bad things could happen. The magical ball could be a powerful destroyer in the wrong hands. As the snow continued to freeze his face, the thoughts of the crystal ball fluttered through his mind. All he could think about was Mathelda’s death day. The poor boy who begged to be let go. The boy was a bad one, torturing cats and who knows what else. That day Arthur had creaked the door open at the top of the stairwell and had witnessed, after years of feeding, what the demon did to the boys. He stopped in his tracks, removed a cigarette from his pack, and made sure it lit. He sucked it down in three hits and continued to the house where his lover lived and died. A tear formed in his eye and froze to his face as it tried to make its way down. The old man had been a part of too much death in his life; now wishing for death himself, he only hoped Tanner, his grandson, had the crystal ball.
Cold Fear Page 8
