Haunted Blood

by Elik Katzav

  She’s making a rapid incision, cutting her own hand, allowing the blood to cover the blade and run down her arm. Liat then climbs on top of Dagon, during which her robe falls off. Naked, she lays atop the statue, rests her head on its chest and allows her blood to drip over it. She’s moving her hands over the statue as if it were a man she was trying to revive.

  Adam reaches Liat, picks the shard up and lifts it towards the sky. Then, he shouts some indiscernible word, which the choir repeats loudly. He then walks over to Eldad and keeps chanting the same sentence over and over as he places the knife in Eldad’s open hands. The chanting changes into rhythmic repetition; loud, then soft, then loud again. Eldad and Adam turn back to face the three bound figures.

  Yuval remains by Dagon. I can tell by the look on his face that all this is hardly his cup of tea.

  As Adam and Eldad approach the three bound figures, their paces matching the same rhythm of the chanting, I hear Adam saying, “Just remember that unlike the previous times, right now, the point is to merely gather the life force. There is no need to drink the blood down to the last drop. Dagon is going to require their souls when he rises.”

  They stand near the three poles. Adam grabs the first person who is tied up and lifts the unconscious figure to its feet so that it stands up. He then faces the statue and calls unto Dagon in some strange tongue. He points at the statue and then at the tied up person, as if to highlight the offering he is about to bestow on Dagon. Adam then produces a knife and tears the hood off, only to reveal the face of a young girl whose eyes are blindfolded. He’s holding her by her chin. I can hear her crying faintly. He addresses Dagon once again, points at the girl again and shouts loudly. The choir echoes his shouting and then ceases all at once.

  The sudden silence that ensues allows me to realize how strongly my heart is beating. With everything that has been going on, I hardly noticed the emotional turmoil I was in: mostly fear, but now, all this adrenaline pumping away. I can feel it in the sides of my head.

  Eldad goes over to the bound girl. He’s stroking her face with one hand, so softly, as though he has no sinister intentions. “Don’t worry,” he tells her, “your life will not have been taken in vain. You’ll live forever; you will always be a part of me.”

  Then, he swings his other hand high and plunges the glass blade in her chest.

  Instinctively, as though this was some mechanical act taking place somewhere else, I draw my Glock and turn to face them in slow motion.

  The glass knife begins to glow in the reddish light, but it isn’t blood that’s flowing from her body, but rather a cloud of red particles. They fill the knife, whose handle, which is made of the shell, is beginning to shine, conferring additional force to the power of the blood as it converts the blood into energy, which now fills the hollow blade: energy that was but a second earlier this girl’s life force.

  I swear and rise over the boulder, raise my gun and fire in their direction, over their heads.

  - Put the knife down and step away from the girl!

  Eldad and Adam bend over instinctively as they attempt to figure out where the shot came from.

  The shot caused the choir to stop chanting.

  From the corner of my eye, I catch a glimpse of Yuval pulling his gun and assuming a firing position on his knees as he too attempts to find his target.

  Eldad is watching the dark which still cloaks me, but then he sees me behind the rock and smiles. His hand has never let go of the knife.

  “Oh, hello, David. Glad to see you’re alright. I heard you were in some explosion last night. I do hope everything’s fine with you.”

  Adam looks at me, then at Eldad. “Is that the investigator? Didn’t you tell me you had that problem covered?”

  “I got this. I sent Meir after him yesterday, but sadly, he didn’t get the job done as he was told,” Eldad replies coldly.

  I catch another glimpse of Yuval aiming for me, or at least trying to.

  - Don’t even think about it. One move, and your employer’s brains will be scattered all over the desert.

  Yuval looks to Eldad, who gestures towards him with his head to lower the gun. Yuval remains alert, though.

  - And you, drop the knife. Now!

  “Well, if I let go of the blade this instant, the girl dies, her life force scattered, squandered, you see? This is an exact science, the art of drawing energy from a live person. One has to know precisely when to pull the blade out without killing the energy donor.”

  He removes the knife slowly while he is saying this. The moment the blade is out of her body, the girl shivers and resumes weeping.

  Well, at least she’s still alive.

  Eldad takes one step back and stands in front of the second bound figure. In one fell swoop, he removes the sack from the person’s head, revealing a head of curly hair.

  The curls. It’s Idan!

  The boy is uttering a few muffled murmurs. This too tells me he’s still alive.

  - Put the knife down or I’ll shoot!

  My hand is shaking, so I steady it with my second arm. My heart is pounding all the way to my ears. I am sweating all over.

  “This?” Eldad is looking at the knife he’s holding as though this was the first time he ever noticed it. The transparent blade looks partially full of a reddish cloud swimming inside it, but not entirely full.

  - There’s hardly enough life force to summon Dagon. Barely a third of what it takes, Eldad.

  “I know,” he snickers, pointing at me with his knife. “Do you want to take his place?” He gestures towards Idan. “Sadly, that it not an option. We need a volunteer who is yet to avail himself of carnal knowledge, so as to maximize the donor’s life force, whereas you,” he’s pointing at me with the knife again, “appear tainted; your energy is not without blemish…” he turns back towards Idan.

  - Turn around and step away from the kid!

  “Can you really afford the time to mess with the kid when it’s you you have to worry about at the moment, do you think?” Eldad turns to face me.

  For a second there, I frown at this, but next thing I know, someone is grabbing me by the collar of my coat and pulling me away. It’s such a ferocious pull, I can feel the wind as I am blown way back. I drop the gun, which falls away from me in the dark as I slam against the hill.

  I barely manage to open my eyes. I somehow do though, despite all the pain. In addition, the fall must have reopened some of yesterday’s wounds. I find myself a few dozen yards from where I had just stood. A slim man wearing a cap is standing there, slowly approaching me.

  Teary eyed, I can also see Yuval approaching us, as I hear Eldad through this new, tense, silence.

  “No, stay put. The ritual must continue. Let Nadav get rid of him. He’s no longer a threat.”

  I watch Eldad again and gasp at the sight of him swinging his knife again, only to plunge it into Idan’s chest.

  I attempt to rise to my feet.

  Everything I did, everything I achieved; I even made it as far as this place, and he goes and kills him now.

  I ache with every motion. I feel all my stitches bleeding. Each effort to move causes my body to rebel; it prefers not to budge.

  Maybe it’s better this way. I might as well remain laying still. I’ve failed as it is; gave it my all and lost. It can’t be helped. They were more determined and better prepared. I lost Idan. I would rather accept my fate than bring his body to his parents.

  I remain on my knees. Then, I here shoes crackling over the ground, which is littered with small stones. It’s Nadav. He comes along and assumes his position right next to me.

  So, he hasn’t killed them after all. He needs them to complete the ritual. There still might be a chance to get him back. I’m not just fighting for myself now, I’m also fighting for those other kids who are tied up over there. This isn’t just for me. This is
for them. I have to get up now. I have to be strong for them. I have to try. I must.

  I do not see Nadav’s face, but I can tell he’s smiling while he’s kicking me in the chest.

  Much to my surprise, his kick feels like a regular blow. Oh, it hurts all right, but it is no bone crusher, unlike his powerful throw.

  I try to rise to my feet. He is standing before me, smiling, just like I figured. Aloof. He’s getting closer, and tries to hit me in the face with his right fist. He does not anticipate my rapid reaction: I bend instinctively, as befitting a man who has ducked his fair share of blows—and gotten his equally fair share nonetheless. My muscles aching in protest aside, I still manage to deal him a blow to the stomach.

  Oh, that priceless look of astonishment on his face.

  The air leaves his lungs in a whistle as he falls on his face.

  So, you can’t take a punch, eh?

  We’re now standing in front of each other like two wrestlers. He grabs hold of my collar again, and before I get a chance to respond, he simply swings his arm, as though he was trying to swat a fly, and here I am, flying through the air again, only to tumble and crash a few good yards away, landing on the rocks.

  Thank goodness I had the good sense to put my coat on. Otherwise, my arms would have so many cuts.

  Nadav is heading in my direction, leaning forward. He seems to be trying to regain his breathing. He’s standing over me. Probably realizing kicking me isn’t as effective as tossing me around, he bends over me and shoves me with one arm, heaving me across the rocky ground and causing my jeans to tear. I can feel my bare skin rubbing against the dry soil until I stop right on the edge of a precipice.

  I find myself on my back yet again. Looking to my right, I see the slopes right below me.

  That’s where those priests of bygone days tossed the goat on Yom Kippur, to atone for the sins of the entire nation, the People of Israel. Didn’t I just think about this earlier? It seems so long ago…

  I try to move, unsure my body will even cooperate. The pain is a good indication that I am still in one piece.

  Oh yes, my arms are bleeding. Must have been all those rocks chafing so hard.

  It takes me a great deal of effort to get up to a sitting position. My elbows are burning, still sore from Nadav’s beating and hurling me. My leather coat is completely torn.

  So much for protection from another round of tossing me around.

  I look in all directions, trying to find anything, a piece of wood or whatever to use against Nadav’s super human arms. A few yards away, right under a bush on the edge of the mountain, I spot the familiar shadow of my gun amid the flames. It’s stuck on a branch.

  I watch for Nadav, who has returned to the circle.

  Maybe he’s forgotten all about me? No chance. He probably thinks he killed me.

  No such luck, I’m afraid. He notices me gazing at him. He looks directly at me as he pulls out a blue thingy from his pocket.

  An asthma inhaler! How could a man with such superhuman strength be suffering from asthma?! Maybe I should ask him right before he offs me…

  Nadav takes a big breath from his inhaler and walks over to the boulder I was hiding behind earlier. Holding the inhaler in one hand, he grabs the rock in one hand, lifts it over his head, and turns to face me. I can see Eldad in the corner of my eye watching Nadav as he plunges his blade into the third bound figure. Eldad then glances at me before refocusing his attention on the knife as it gradually fills up.

  He won’t let a single precious drop spill.

  Nadav is getting closer to me, so I begin to drag myself towards the bush where my gun is.

  If he throws that rock at me, not only will he crush me completely, they’ll never find my body underneath. There would be no reason for anyone to move that boulder. Why would they?

  One last tug, I try to pull the gun and the branch releases my Glock and I grab it in both hands. I lay flat on my back now, watching Nadav lifting the rock. He is about to throw it at me.

  “When I’m done with you, you’ll be nothing more than a red stain on the floor of the desert,” he says in a heavy accent.

  He swings his arm backwards like he was merely holding a ball. I fire at him and hit his right arm, causing him to utter a shriek. Much to his surprise, my shot causes him. to drop the boulder, leaving his other hand still holding his inhaler, until the boulder crushes him in a thud

  Laying back, I might have remained in this position for hours under different circumstances.

  Yeah, rest is good. Hurts much less than walking—or even just getting up.

  Nevertheless, I couldn’t possibly stay. I drag myself slowly and hide behind the boulder Nadav is now buried under. A red puddle is running from underneath, but his blood soon seeps into the desert sand. I approach, pick the inhaler up from his still trembling hand, and examine it.

  Just a regular inhaler all right, the same kind they sell at any drugstore.

  I stand up and breathe in as I attempt to regain an upright position. Then, I spot Eldad covering the distance between the three kids whose blood he just took and the statue. He reaches Dagon’s statue with their life force in his hand.

  Chapter 34

  It would seem that Eldad had not noticed the shot I just fired. He reaches the statue of Dagon and hands Adam the glass knife, which is filled with its reddish cloud of life force. Adam takes the blade and swings it way up, pointing it towards the sky as he recites a prayer.

  Liat gets off the statue and clears the space for Adam Hacohen, who repeats the prayer as the choir echoes his recitations.

  Adam swings the blade. The choir goes silent as he plunges the knife into the statue’s chest.

  Under different circumstances, a knife with a glass blade hitting a stone statue would have produced a very different result, but I see how, rather than shatter against it, the knife enters the statue as though this were flesh, an actual body. The shell handle is glowing as the life force begins to flow from the knife into Dagon’s statue.

  I drag myself behind one of the boulders and sit to get a minute or two of rest before taking all ten of them on, armed with one gun.

  Shuddering, I feel a strange sensation. In addition to the cold running down my spine, I feel a strange energy spreading all around me. This isn’t some heat I am feeling; it isn’t any cold, either. It is simply energy. It’s stifling as it fills the air. It even absorbs the scent of offerings that dominated the air until now. Amid all this silence, not even a cricket is heard as the wave of energy envelopes me, along with everyone else there.

  I manage to lift my head to glance over the boulder I am hiding behind. The statue of Dagon is beginning to glow with a soft blue light with spots of golden light shimmering over the statue’s hair and beard. Wherever it is made of shell, the life force animates it, making divine energies emerge from simple matter.

  “A few more moments,” Adam says in the silence, “A few minutes longer, and Dagon will rise and be upon us. When he does, Eldad Ben Ya’ar may beseech him and sue for help, by the grace of God Dagon.”

  “And then, that will be it?” Eldad asks. “Is that all the ritual? All I have to do now is wait and he will rise back to life?”

  “Yes,” replies Adam. “For a short while, God Dagon will walk among us, during which time he shall heed thy prayer, and maybe even grant you what your heart longs for: your health.”

  “All right then, this is it,” Eldad says dismissively as he walks over to Adam and to Dagon’s statue. “What I long for amounts to more than merely good health,” he lifts his hand, which is now holding a gun, in Adam’s direction. I hear one shot. Then I see Adam falling to the ground. Liat is standing there, screaming her lungs out at the sight of Adam falling to the desert sand. Yuval, whose gun is already drawn, turns towards her and fires one shot. Her crying ceases at once. He then looks at Eldad, who nods slightly.<
br />
  Adam’s four disciples, who froze during the shots just now, turn as one and flee into the darkness, only to be shot one by one. I can hear them scream and fall into silence.

  All right, so it’s two against one now. My chances just got better.

  I turn towards the statue of Dagon. Yuval returns from his chase and reloads his gun.

  “As soon as I am done here, go see what’s keeping Nadav. If he isn’t done with the investigator, you finish him,” Eldad tells Yuval coldly. Yuval watches him and nods.

  The light around the statue is getting stronger. Its beams intensify every few seconds. Then, when the blade seems empty, its handle, which is made of shell, turns white instead of its original black shine.

  The beams intensify even more, eventually turning to one single bright blue flash emanating from the statue.

  I must be suffering from acute loss of blood. How else can I explain what I think I’m seeing? I heard that when you lose a lot of blood, you get all sorts of visions of things that are not necessarily real. I have no other explanation for it.

  Anyway, Dagon’s right arm, which is made of stone, seems to be moving. It’s the one closer to where I am. Then, its head begins to move. The statue’s eyes are beginning to blink. Its head, which is covered with fish, seems to glisten with scales. It would seem the statue has come to life. It’s animated; it’s beginning to move!

  Eldad is standing right in front of the statue. “You do not seem to get what I am telling you now, but I brought you forth in order to ask you to bring me my health back. But then, someone I met along the way taught me that I can receive from you more than merely my health.” He smiles and swings his arm, where he’s holding yet another glass knife, which he lodges in the center of the statue’s chest.

  Dagon’s statue shivers as the blue energy surrounding it begins to fade. The flickers of energy seems to be drawn into the glass blade, as it begins to fill, not with the red life force of humans, which it had drawn previously, but rather golden blue energy. It fills the blade.

  Dagon’s energy! He is sucking up the energy of this God.