Gertrude had been busy while we were preoccupied in the toy room and had tied a long piece of lace trim across the room to act as a trip wire. The lantern had been turned off and so long as their eyesight was similar to our own, I thought this just might work. If they passed through my circle to no effect, then we were going to head to the back room, prepared to shoot our way out of this.
We hadn’t noticed that one of them had a sickle however. He sliced through the trim without a second thought. They might not be familiar with this world’s doors and glass windows, but apparently, they were not unintelligent. We all took a few steps backwards.
Gertrude in a moment of madness jumped in front of them and showered them with several handfuls of salt. They paused for a moment and then they both howled in unison. I began shooting them, and Colin followed my lead. The shook violently for a moment, and then they roared again. It looked as if the bullets and salt were only irritating them. The gator man on the right batted Gertrude away with one sweep of his hand. She crashed into some shelving along the side of the wall. I couldn’t run to check on her though, because they were quickly advancing on us.
When they got to the trip line, they walked right over it. Then when they reached the edge of the circle, they stopped.
Come on, cross the damn thing already.
They both looked down at it, and then they started to step in unison around it, one on each side. Drats!
Colin started to pull me back by my arm, but I twisted out of his grasp and grabbed the portion of the chain that was closest to me, even though it put me within reach of the brothers. I then threw the loop over Colin and me, and attempted to banish us. I said the words, and prayed that even though I wasn’t able to create a doorway as I had done in the past, we could be transported somewhere other than here, even if it was the fifteenth dimension.
The spider’s mark on me must have run deep, as we were successfully transported to a dimension that I had never been to before. We were able to breathe and we were not on fire or under water; I was relieved.
It was nearly pitch black with sub-zero temperatures that stole our heat and breath away, however. The skin on my face felt as if it was being stung by a million insects, even though it was probably only the grit of the alien soil hitting us from the fierce winds. We wouldn’t be able to stay here long, and I only hoped that I could bring us back to our realm. The only other alternative was to die.
Colin bent over and wrapped his arms around me, shielding my face from the worst of it. I still had an iron grip on the magchain, and although I hated leaving Gertrude behind, I also didn’t fancy my burial chamber being in the back room of Renee’s Recontres.
Did you come to play with me? I heard spoken in my mind and then I panicked. My body started shivering and twitching uncontrollably. Colin must have thought it was from the cold, but I knew better, it was a Cthulhu.
Colin gripped me closer to him, and somehow he was still warm, even in the bitter cold. I found myself finding my way into his coat. I still had the chain wrapped around us, and after a few moments of no more whispering thoughts being forced into my mind, I began thinking of transporting us back.
I drummed up whatever residual power remained in me to return us back to our plane of existence. Although there had been more than one occasion when I would have liked to use whatever electromagnetic resonances were available from other dimensions, for now, it remained too dangerous of a proposition for me to chance it now.
“I added markings for our own dimension when I added the ones for this one too,” Colin told me. His voice sounded strange in this place, but I didn’t let that stop me from being thankful for his foresight.
I peeked one more time out of his jacket to make sure we were not bringing anyone back with us. That was when I saw a group of tall skeletal figures cloaked in a smoky darkness approaching us. Best be leaving I thought, as I refocused my efforts in bringing us back to the store using the magchain circle.
I started saying the words like a desperate mantra to send us back home. I ducked back into his jacket and closed my eyes. I needed no distractions now. Then without warning, the magic kindled around us in a fierce lightning arc, and we popped right back from where we had departed, in the middle of Renee’s Recontres. The only noticeable difference was that it was full dark now. How long had we been gone?
Colin fiercely held me in his arms, and I returned his enthusiasm. I did not want to let go, and we stood together like that for a long time. Finally, he lessened his hold on me, and I pulled back a little. He pressed his lips to mine and we kissed in the dark, like there was no one else in the world. Our hearts met and matched their rhythm. We fit. Even if we only had this one moment, I wanted it to last, but it was not to be.
“It is about time you came back,” Calidum said and then he flicked on the lantern. “I understand humans cannot see in the dark very well, unless you are part wolf.”
I took out my watch and looked at it. Even though it said nine o’clock, it was not to be trusted since we had travelled to the other side and back. I next looked up at Colin’s face and saw an iridescent sheen roll over his eyes, just as I had seen at the lake house. I found that it didn’t disturb me as it once had. In fact, I rather liked it. He might not be an immortal, but he was unique, one of a kind… and he wasn’t mine.
He dropped his arms and asked, “I’m suddenly happy I am not a Summoner, if the other dimensions are anything like that one.”
“They aren’t all like that, but none of them are exactly pleasant. They are all alien worlds after all, just as this one is for them. Some demons like it here, while others can only visit, because they can’t live outside of an ethereal circle.”
“If we had been there much longer, we might not have survived it either,” he commented. “What was that thing whispering in my head?” I hadn’t realized that he had been touched too.
“It was either a Cthulhu or something very much like one,” I told him. “It will probably recognize you again, should you two share the same plane again. It might even seek you out.”
“Delightful. I presume this means you are now a level fifteen Summoner.”
“Are the levels higher up than that one worse?” I asked him.
“The ghost realm is thought to be pleasant and hospitable for ghosts,” he said, which meant it wasn’t for the living.
“I do know the Cthulhu does not like its realm.”
“No, I don’t think it does either,” he agreed.
“Gertrude is waiting for you,” Calidum informed us. Thank goodness, she was safe.
We went back and sure enough, Gertrude was examining some of the more outlandish costumes. She was touching one with lots of straps and buckles and not a whole lot else.
“Would you ever wear that?” I asked her.
“I might for the right fellow,” she replied showing her bloodied and toothless gums when she smiled at me.
“What happened after we left?” Colin asked, obviously trying to keep us on track. He lifted the lantern off the floor and lifted it to her face. One side was scraped, bruised, and swollen.
Gertrude said, “Those creatures left right after you did. Thank the marsh gods that they weren’t after me. I think they thought they killed me, when all they did was hit my noggin real hard. I just took a little nap for a spell.”
“Did you see where they went?” I asked.
“They went back into the hotel,” Calidum told us.
“By the time they came back out for a second visit, I had come to my senses again. They brought that person wearing them overalls again,” she told us. “I hid in the back room, I did. It was easy enough to spy on them and see the stranger draw some marks on the floor. Then them gator boys stepped into it and disappeared, right in front of my eyes.”
“Overall man waited a while, but eventually went back to the hotel.” Which most likely meant he would be returning any moment again to summon the twins back.
“You know according to ancient Egypt
ian mythology there was only one Sobek,” Colin told us.
“Fascinating, but do we smudge out the Summoner’s marks to buy us some time before they can summoned them back here? It do that, it will most likely blow our cover that we have returned.”
Gertrude told us, “I found a trick panel in the back room that leads to an exotic bedroom. From there, there is a door that connects to a short tunnel. I think it opens up by the bank.” That must have been how Sophie was getting her clandestine visits.
“That’s near Brick’s Securities, isn’t it?” I asked.
“Two doors down, if my memory serves me rightly,” she said.
“Still in sight of the hotel?” Colin asked.
“Definitely,” I replied.
“Show us,” Colin said. I left the circle as it was, but took the magchain, and then we went where Gertrude led us. I was looking forward to seeing these scarabs she had mentioned earlier.
···•Ͽ Ѡ Ͼ•···
To say it was an exotic bedroom was an understatement. If I thought the back room was improper, Sophie’s secret bedroom was absolutely scandalous. Swings hung from the ceiling. Bloodletting instruments sat upon the tables, and there was even a stretching rack. Was this a pleasure room or a torture chamber?
I turned around taking it all in while Gertrude reaffixed the locking mechanism in the door. Then she said, “Thinking about coming back and using this room?”
I laughed, while Colin blushed in the lantern light. I said, “I don’t think that is any of your business, Gertie.”
“Mrs. Basquiat, would you be as kind as to show us out of this place? We don’t know when this location will be compromised,” Colin firmly said.
She honest to goodness cackled before she led us to a curtain that hid another door. She opened it and we took a short tunnel out to a back alley. The exit was below street level, and we ascended the short flight of stairs up. True enough, not only were we just a door down from the security office, but there were dead scarab beetles everywhere. Their dead little black bodies littered the ground around us, and they crunched underfoot as you walked across them. These were dire times indeed.
Once we made it to the back exit of the security building, we discovered that it was locked. We then looped around the building to Station Drive. The front of Brick’s Securities was definitely still in plain sight of the hotel’s main entrance. It was also dark enough that they shouldn’t be able to see us break into it.
We made it to the door quickly enough, and since no one was shooting at us, I took this as the bit of good luck that we desperately needed. It held as the door was unlocked and I went in first.
The place was a mess, but after seeing that no one alive was walking around in it, my attention was drawn to the guardian ghost in the corner of the room. He was a man who looked no older than thirty when he had died. He also appeared to be safely ensconced within a circle. He was sitting on the ground with his knees drawn up, and he didn’t move even after Gertrude shut the door behind us. He just sat there, staring at us, resigned to looking thoroughly bored.
Gertrude then double checked the blinds, and pinned up a piece of fabric she must have brought over with her. After Colin set the lantern on dim, the rest of the shop came into sharp focus, reinforcing its ransacked appearance. Shelves had been turned over and glass from display cabinets sparkled along the floor. There were even holes punched out in the walls, which must have hurt, since brick had been revealed through the broken plaster.
Colin paid special attention circle encapsulating the ghost, and once satisfied with its construction, he began looking through the shelves and display cases for anything that might aid us. Not everyone could see and hear ghosts, but most Users could. Even though purebred wolves were not able to kindle Earth’s forces, wolves were also known to be one of the few Ordinaries who could see them as well.
There were three closed doors in the showroom. I chose the first door to the right and found it was open. Inside of it were a few safes. All of them were open and empty. I next chose to go to the door that was to the left side of the room and found it locked. I went to the last door, which was also locked. Frustrated, I looked at the guardian ghost and approached his circle.
“Who did this to you?” I asked him.
The ghost glared at me, but said nothing. I bent down and added a few sigils along the side of his circle. While I did this, Colin came over and watched what I was doing. “Interesting choice, Stern’s Crescent.”
“It only works on trapped ghosts at night, in the spring months.”
“Did your grandfather show you that?”
“Yes.”
“You miss him greatly, don’t you?” he asked as he knelt down next me.
“I do…” I paused in the transcribing of symbols and I looked over at Colin. “But I know he is where he is supposed to be.”
“You don’t want to summon him any longer?” he asked quietly.
“No, I don’t think I do. I need to let him go. This preoccupation over his death will be the death of me.” Whatever Grandfather might have said to me, whatever absolution he might have graced me with was not worth dragging him out of the ghost realm to hear. The ghost realm must be a great place for ghosts, because if it weren’t, I’m sure that he would have found a way back by now.
In addition, I had to give it to Calidum. He was correct. I knew now that I had been making this about me and not him at all, and it wasn’t right. He had made choices that night too. If he had felt he had unfinished business, he would have stayed behind and contacted me in the days following his death. But he hadn’t. He must have believed enough in my competence to not need him any longer. He may have even thought that he was a crutch, one that I no longer needed. Maybe he even thought he was holding me back from my true potential.
I turned my attention back to the ghost that was in the room. These earthbound spirits were tied up with sigils that were akin to a Summoner’s markings. Traditionally, it was a Tomb Talker’s occupation to create them though. According to them, ghosts were everywhere, although I very much doubted that. I knew on good authority that most spirits left their bodies upon death within days, rather than years. I wondered who had bound this one and why?
“I know you can hear me,” I told him. He continued glaring at me. “If you answer my questions, I’ll release your tethers and then you can go your own way.” I could tell he was considering it, but after a protracted silence, I realized he wasn’t going to say anything in response.
I sighed and said, “Listen, I’m going to release you anyway, so long as you don’t try and hurt us. I’ll leave it up to you if you would like to stay and help us stop what is going on in this town or not.”
The frown left his face and then he said, “Thank you. I think I’ll help.”
I turned to Colin and asked, “Can you hear him?”
“No, but I can see him, and I’m fairly adept at reading lips.”
“How so?”
“There are many conversations that transpire in a library involving lip reading. Maybe once he leaves the circle, I’ll be able to hear him too.”
“How about you Gertrude? Can you hear or see him?”
“I can do both. It must be because of the tiny bit of Necromancer in me.”
“Very well, I’ll proceed.” I turned back to the ghost and asked him, “Who trapped you here?” I was already somewhat familiar with this ghost, as he had been trapped here for as long as I had lived in the parish.
“In this circle or to this building?” the ghost asked. It was a fair question.
I looked at the construction of the circle again and asked, “They broke your bond to the building before they trapped you in this circle, didn’t they? You are stuck here, aren’t you?” It wasn’t necessary to bind a guardian ghost in this manner, but this circle looked fairly permanent in its construction.
“Can you truly release me?”
I looked at the circle’s sigils and felt confident that I could break th
em. “I think I can, but first tell me who did this to you?” I asked him.
“Pastor Bob, one of the Morlocks, and two men I didn’t recognize.”
“Why did they do this to you? You were already trapped in the building.”
“I don’t know why.” That seemed odd. Why would they release him from his tether to the building, just to be locked up tight in circle?
“Which Morlock? The father or the son?” Gertrude asked him.
“Hard to tell. Too many years, too many faces. I get confused sometimes.”
At least we were closing in on who was in charge. It seemed likeliest to be one of two people. Either it was the mayor or it was Pastor Bob who was heading the local Isis chapter.
“Who seemed to be the one in command?”
“Morlock,” he answered. I was surprised, since I would have thought it was Pastor Bob.
“There is someone approaching the door,” Calidum announced.
I wasn’t expecting that either.
Chapter 16
Infernal Infants
Rule number twenty: You should only circle one demon at a time.
“Are they alone?” Colin asked.
Calidum slipped out of the room, not bothering to answer his question. Could the stranger be a host, one that Gertrude could use? I looked at the ghost and had to make a decision: release him or keep him bound.
“Release me now,” the ghost requested.
“If you are spotted by a Tomb Talker, they will know you were released by me. No, I think it best you stay here for a spell.”
He frowned and said, “But you will release me, correct?”
“Yes, I will, but later.”
“Don’t wait too long,” he replied, which sounded far more like a threat than the tone of a supplicant. I would have to watch him.
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