Evil Origins: A Horror & Dark Fantasy Collection (56 page)

“Cannot what?”
asked Gaki. “You signed her over. What should the manner of her passing matter
to you?”

“She is my
wife,” replied Drew.

“She no longer
belongs to you,” said Gaki.

Drew shifted in
the chair, testing the strength of the bindings. He moved his waist in the
chair, but his arms and legs remained fixed. “Where are my children?”

Gaki waved a
thin, tubular arm at the wall. A dim light spread from the center as if a dying
bulb was hidden in gauze. Figures moved on it, slowly coming into focus. Drew
saw Billy and Sara at Molly’s parents’ house. They sat on the floor of the
living room, watching television.

“How do I know
that is not some trickery of yours?” Drew asked.

“You don’t. What
you do know is that all creatures are bound to the Code. The bargain I struck
with you must be sealed and I can no more back out of it than you can.”

Drew winced, a
dull throbbing starting on his left side under the rib cage.

“Is this it for
us?” Drew asked. “Will you leave me forever and let me die in peace?”

“Yes,” replied
Gaki.

***

Ravna stood
over Drew. The blow to the head and the kick to his ribs appeared to knock him
unconscious. He laughed, thinking of the countless horror movies where he
cheered for the death of the villain, the bad guy. And after all that, he could
not do it. Even a wild, possessed man that killed his friend could not evoke a
cold-blooded murder. If Drew came at him, he would defend himself, but Ravna
could no more kill the man that lay at his feet than he could bring Mashoka
back.

He turned to
the door, where the storm had descended to ground level. The winds and the
darkness dropped from high above the old oaks to the leaf-covered ground. He
remembered the woman he had carried out of the cabin and ran toward her. He saw
the edge of the woman’s jacket protruding from a pile of leaves. Ravna ran,
dodging projectiles launched through the air by the storm. He reached down to
grab the woman and came up with only the jacket.

The wind
knocked Ravna off his feet and tossed him into the trunk of a dead tree. He
felt the breath pushed from his lungs before passing out.

***

Drew blinked. His
eyes burned and he held them closed, hoping he would be back in his cubicle,
joking with Brian and making fun of Johnson’s tie. The cave remained, as did
the bindings. The office did not return and Gaki stood in front of him, with
one significant difference.

“Help me,
Drew,” said Molly.

He looked up
and saw his wife on a mattress stained with various shades of yellows and reds.
She lay naked on her back, wrists and ankles bound to the corners.

“I will not. You
cannot make me,” he said to Gaki.

“Hunger is not
the only desire that I find insatiable,” replied Gaki.

He walked
toward the mattress and bent down. His thin, black tongue lashed out at Molly’s
feet and slithered up her leg, stopping at the top of her thigh.

“No! Stop!”
yelled Drew.

Gaki’s neck
twisted and he turned to face Drew, retracting his tongue. “You gave her to me.
She is mine to do with as I please.”

Drew closed his
eyes and pulled as hard as he could on the bindings. He felt a slight give in
the rope on his wrists, and he pushed and pulled until he felt the pressure
ease. His fingers squirmed, resuming the circulation to his hands.

“No, please
don’t,” Molly said.

Drew kept his
eyes shut, trying to block the mental images of the creature lording over
Molly. Through it all, she bore his children and he would not let her suffer
undue pain. If she had to go so the children could live, so be it, but Drew
would not sit by and let Gaki desecrate her.

Drew pulled his
left hand free and looked over his right shoulder as he focused on freeing the
right hand as well. A sharp cramp struck in his upper back, beneath the
shoulder blade. The pain stole his breath and paralyzed him for a moment before
he bent down and began untying the bonds on his ankles. He opened his eyes and
saw Gaki on top of Molly, his bare, bony frame on her white skin. He heard
guttural noises coming from the creature and Molly crying softly beneath them.

He stood and
kicked the chair to one side. Pain shot through both feet and his left arm was
numb. Gaki hissed and stood. It turned to face Drew, rotting teeth protruding
through a desperate smile.

“She is mine,”
Gaki said. His thin arm lashed out and caught Drew’s head with the back of his
hand. Drew winced and felt a startling pain as he tumbled to the ground, eyes
swimming inside their sockets.

“I did not
agree to her torture and rape,” Drew said. His ears rang and his eyes stung
with tears.

“Get up,” Gaki
said, spitting the words through his broken teeth.

Drew stood, tilting
to one side and holding his head where Gaki had struck him. The creature reared
back again, this time delivering a fisted blow to Drew’s face. His nose
shattered under the force of the punch, and Drew immediately tasted the warm
blood flooding into his mouth and down the back of his throat. Gaki stood back
and watched as Drew stumbled in the cavern, grasping at the slimy walls like a
sailor on a wet deck.

“I can punish
you with pain like you have never experienced, and then put you back on the earthly
plane. You will beg for death before I am through.”

Drew looked at
Molly. White streaks ran down her face where the tears had cleared jagged lines
through the dirt. Her knees moved up and down, instinctively checking the bindings
and hoping they were beginning to loosen. She kept her eyes closed and bit at
her bottom lip. He stood and wiped the blood from his face.

“Do what you
must. I will take her myself if I have to. She will not suffer your disgusting
ways.”

Gaki laughed,
the sound echoing off the cavern walls and threatening to shatter Drew’s skull.
The creature held the upper hand in his own dimension, and Drew realized his
attempt to defeat him here was futile. If he would save Molly from more pain
and himself from eternal torture, he would need to shift the fight elsewhere.

“The one you
call ‘man-child.’ He is hunting you as we speak.”

Gaki stopped
laughing and hissed. “The old man had not even begun the boy’s teachings. He
would not know where to find me.”

“Are you sure?”
Drew asked, sensing a hint of uncertainty coming from the demon.

“A most feeble
attempt at distraction, one that will not save you from me. Nor will it save
her.”

A sound like
pebbles cascading over stone came from the dark corner of the cavern. Drew
stopped and squinted, trying to find the source of the noise.

“You see? It’s
him. He is searching for a way in.”

Gaki loped into
the darkness like a creature accustomed to running on four legs instead of two.
He disappeared past Drew toward the phantom sounds. Drew ran to Molly and knelt
at her side.

“Wake me up,
Drew. I want out of this nightmare.”

He started to
reply and then shut his mouth. It might be better if she thought this
experience was a nightmare. Even if he could, Drew realized he did not have
enough time to explain it to her. Gaki would return and take his vengeance on both
of them.

“Hey, hon. Do
you remember the time we went to West Palm Beach together?”

Molly smiled
through cracked and blistered lips. Her eyes remained closed.

“We lied to our
parents, blew off school, and owned the beach for that week in October. I want
you to think of that now. Visualize the beach, the calm waters, us. Can you do
that?”

Molly’s head
moved up and down.

“Good. That memory
will get you out of this dream. Lie still and go back to West Palm Beach.”

A satisfied
look spread across her face. Drew saw her jaw relax and a slight smile turned
up the corners of her mouth. He went to work on her bindings. With frantic
motions, he freed her left hand and then her right. Drew dashed to her ankles
and pulled at the rope when he sensed motion coming out of the darkness. “Hold
on, hon. Almost free.”

Gaki appeared with
a menace, his sallow, bluish-gray skin full of rage. Drew fumbled with the
ropes while his fingers became numb from the chill of the cavern. Molly lay
still, at peace with her memory and the illusion that she was in a dream. The
creature emerged from the darkness and sensed what was happening. He was within
one hundred yards of his prey and the man that would suffer greatly with it.

Drew yanked the
frayed end of the rope through the hoop, freeing the last limb bound to the
filthy mattress. He grabbed Molly by the back of the head and slapped her
across the face. Her eyes shot open.

“Run. Run into
the darkness as fast as you can and don’t stop until you wake up.”

Molly nodded. She
stood and cantered into the cavern wall, stumbling and fighting to regain her
balance.

“Go!” Drew
screamed. He pushed her in the back and turned to face the creature bearing
down on him.

“She is mine!”
Gaki roared, his voice bouncing off the cavern walls with enough force to blow
out Drew’s left eardrum. He collapsed into the dirt, wincing and believing a
skewer was now lodged inside his head.

Drew looked up
in time to see the white sole of Molly’s foot disappear into the darkness. He
took a deep breath, not knowing whether or not she would make it out, but
knowing he had done everything he could to save her.

A thin line of
saliva appeared in front of Drew’s face like a wet, filthy spider web. The line
broke and formed a circle of moisture in the dirt. Drew heard the heaving
breath coming from Gaki, and smelled rotting garbage and sewage.

“I will still
have her. And when I get her back, I will pull her body apart, piece by piece,
with you as my witness.”

Drew shook his
head, still hunched on his knees and reeling from the aural impact that made
his head ring.

“Get up,” the
creature said.

Drew shook his
head, refusing to obey.

“Get up,” the
creature said again. Gaki’s knee met Drew’s chin with enough force to knock out
three teeth.

Drew rolled on
to his back, coughing and spitting blood.

“Your
distraction only delayed the inevitable.”

***

Ravna regained
consciousness with a head that felt dense. The rain continued to pummel him and
the light had not changed. Ravna surmised that he had been out for a matter of
minutes, not hours. He stood on wobbly legs and saw that the door to the cabin
stood open.

He walked
toward it when he heard sobbing coming from behind the structure. He stumbled
toward the noise, using the trees for support, and turned the corner to see the
woman sitting on the ground, her dark hair cascading over her shoulders, arms
wrapped around her legs. She sat naked, shivering, and covered in grime.

Ravna removed
his coat and draped it over her. She looked up at him with what he recognized
as the “thousand-yard stare” from all of the war movies he watched on Saturday
afternoons.

“Are you okay?”
he asked.

The woman shook
her head and mumbled something about a nightmare.

“Where is
Drew?” he asked.

The name struck
her like a lead weight. Her body stiffened and she grabbed Ravna’s shoulders,
her nails digging into his flesh. “Fighting the demon, the blue beast. They are
both in my nightmare, but not in West Palm Beach.”

Ravna turned
his head sideways, trying to decipher the words of the woman, who was clearly
in shock. Before he could question her further, her eyes rolled back in her
head and she collapsed. He slid his arms underneath her and carried her away
from the cabin. Ravna found a fallen tree and set her down behind it, pulling
his jacket over as much of her as he could. The rain began to turn into snow. He
looked at her again, knowing the elements would trigger hypothermia and take
her life. Even the best gear would stave off death only temporarily, and this
woman was naked except for his jacket.

A hideous snarl
came from the cabin, followed by high-pitched sounds like two alley cats
fighting to the death. Ravna remembered Mashoka and what the demon had done to
his body. He shrugged the mental image from his mind and walked toward the
gaping maw of the cabin.

***

Ravna stood at
the threshold, staring into the unnatural darkness. He heard long sighs like
gusts of wind blown across time. A deep cold emanated from the doorway, much
colder than that brought by the late-winter storm pummeling the park and all
those inside it.

The air felt
heavy in his lungs, wet and brackish. Ravna forced his eyelids all the way up,
but could not tell if his eyes were closed or not. He felt the floorboards
beneath his feet give way to a gravel path. The screams he heard outside the
cabin subsided, leaving only the ghastly breath of whatever he had entered.

It’s a
cavern, but not one of this dimension. Be wary of Gaki’s wordplay.
Mashoka’s
words came to Ravna inside his head.
Be the Hunter you aspire to be and send
the creature away.

Ravna felt the
pitch of the floor drop as if descending deeper into the earth. His prior
knowledge of the one-room cabin conflicted with the perceptions returned by his
senses. He continued on until a hazy patch of dim light appeared on the
horizon. It grew from the center of a dark chasm until it filled his vision. Ravna
walked toward the light. He saw the features of the cave walls appear through
the moist darkness. The light came from an ambient source.

The ceiling of
the cavern opened into a long room. Ravna could not see the other side. The
natural walls blended into a space where ancient, stone bricks had been cut and
placed. An old mattress, soiled and crawling with foreign insects, sat in the
middle of the floor.