Mask of Flies (35 page)

Elias tucked the book
under his arm and they went out of Morrow’s office, walking deeper
into the hall, passing several doors reinforced with metal bars. He
noticed another placard on the wall engraved, “Interview Rooms”.
At the end of the hallway, a white metal door stood blistered with
rust spots. A chain was routed through its handles, fastened by a
sturdy looking pad lock.

“Might want to plug
your ears this time.” Johns pulled out his piece, aimed, and
blasted the lock off. “Key to the city.”

Elias went inside
first. Huge, concrete blocks crowded out the room except for a narrow
walkway up the center. They must have weighed over a ton a piece.
Around the mass, he saw something that troubled him: chains attached
to the blocks, riveted to the floor. Then, upon his next step, he
felt a tremor in the ground from below. He looked back to Johns, who
stood by the doorway pinching his brow, a snake of blood ran down
from his nose to his lip.

“You all right?”

Johns smiled and wiped
the blood with his sleeve, “Gettin’ close.” His flashlight
caught a door at the end of the walkway. Three bar locks secured it
from their end. He walked past Elias and began his attempt to force
the corroded slides over.

“Sure you want to be
doing that. It’s sealed up for a reason.”

“I am well aware of
that. Don’t worry, whatever’s down there, I’ll handle it.”
Johns pushed his leg off the wall while pushing his whole body into
the lock. He almost fell when it broke free.

Elias took a metal
stanchion, which sat unlinked from its kind, from around one of the
concrete boulders. After a few good whacks, the remaining locks gave
way and the door croaked open.

Past the threshold a
metal ramp sloped downward. Their footsteps clanging out on the ramp,
at the bottom there was another door locked with five bars.

“Shit.” Elias
looked back shaking his head.

“We came this far,
can’t turn back now.”

Elias sighed and
backtracked up the ramp for the stanchion. It took thirty minutes,
taking turns, to break the locks free. The door opened to a pitch
black hallway, and it smelled rotten inside.

“You sure you want to
do this?” Elias asked.

“Sure as shit. Johns
waved Elias. “Ladies first.”

He flashed his headlamp
into the darkness. For a second he thought he saw something move out
of the light,
a face
?
On the wall he found a row of half melted candles with his light.
“Come light this, quick.”

Johns approached and
flicked his Zippo. With each burning wick the shroud of darkness
lessened, and the hallway began to materialize, along with its awful
inhabitant.

A bloated face hovered
ten feet above them, mumbling and breathing heavily in excitement. It
looked almost human— almost, except for its mouth, with serrated
fangs lining the entire circumference. Its head was double, maybe
triple normal size, laden in bulbous growths; the overall shape
tuberous.

It floated up and away,
exposing an enormous worm body. The ground trembled.

Elias froze, not
wanting to draw attention, but then realized his light was still on.
He clicked it off and heard Johns pistol.

Either Johns missed or
the thing was unfazed. It moved towards him with unnatural speed.
Doubling back, he let off another shot, and mist sprayed from the
things head. Elias tasted the discharge, alien and bitter. But it
didn’t stop the man-worm from coiling back and spreading its
horrible jaws. It sprung onto Johns, ingesting his entire upper half.
The worm’s jaws clamped down and twisted away, peeling Johns’s
torso from his bottom half.

Elias pressed himself
against the stone wall. Somewhere above, the bloated face ground its
meal into grizzle. The sound of bones popped in the things jaws as
fleshy bits dribbled onto the floor.

He braced himself, but
the monster turned and slithered to the back of the cave. Its
intonations almost had a sexual quality, expressing pain and
satisfaction.

Elias felt his whole
body tremble and for a second he thought he wouldn’t be able to
unpin himself from the wall. Wiping blood from his eyes he began
walking backwards towards the doorway.

After a few strides
something tightened around his calves, and he fell to the ground.

Another worm slithered
in front of him on the ground, smaller, perhaps the size of a large
boa. Its face less defined than the large one, but still looked
partially human, like a partially finished mask of clay. It opened a
mouth of needles and made a high-pitched screech.

Before he could get to
his feet, the worm wrapped around his legs, imposing itself with
crushing force. His knees crunched together. Elias tried to fight,
tried to break free, but the worm worked its way around midsection.
Its grip tightened—Elias couldn’t breathe. He felt the blood in
his head, felt it pulsating in his eyes. Something flashed by the
entrance; three shots sounded, and the coil of muscle wrapping around
him suddenly went limp. He untangled himself, struggled to his feet
and hobbled towards the light.

Over his shoulder two
pale masses approached from the depths, excited by the gunfire. More
shots, Elias heard the bullets rush past. One met its mark in a meaty
thud behind. Looking back, one of the worms lay still on the ground,
but the other approached quickly. Elias fought forward—he was a few
feet from the door when a lightning bolt of pain shot through his
right knee. In his mind’s eye, he visualized the some ligament or
tendon tearing. Attempting another step proved too much; he fell to
the ground.

Ready to face death
again, Elias knew it wouldn’t be as quick as Johns; he would be
slowly squeezed and eaten by the oncoming worm. But something came
forward and lifted him up, dragging him out through the door.

Nicolette was in the
process of reloading Elias’s Smith and Wesson.

“Shut the goddamn
door!” Elias said

She dropped the gun and
slammed it shut just as the worm rammed from the other side. It was
not giving up its meal without a fight.

Elias looked to his
savior, who was the only thing holding him upright. “Go help her!”

Calvin set Elias down,
and ran to the door, pressing all his weight against it while his
girlfriend engaged the bar locks. They wouldn’t budge.

One worm pushed its
head through the crack while another one joined and rammed. It
screeched, snapping serrated teeth, barley missing Nicolette’s arm.

Elias struggled to his
feet. His right knee gave, and he fell forward into the door,
crushing the worms head. It yelped and retreated out from the door,
leaving a smear of purple grey jelly in its wake. “Calvin, grab
that pole and hit those locks closed.” He felt the worms slam up
against the door again. “Hurry, I can’t hold this door much
longer.”

Calvin banged on the
locks with the same stanchion Elias and Johns used earlier, while
Nicolette and Elias held the door.

“C’mon Calvin, put
some ass into it.” Nicolette said. “Evan would’ve got it done
on the first try.”

Elias didn’t know who
Evan was, but his name brought out the worst in Calvin. He let out a
shrill yell, leaping into his strike. He hit the slide handle square
breaking it loose.

“We need more than
one lock to hold these bastards. Try the others.” Elias held the
door while Calvin lashed out at the other four. He got all five.

Calvin breathed heavily
and took a knee still holding the stanchion. The blood swelled up in
his sinewy arms in a web of veins. “Pretty Evan would have shit his
pants at the sight of those things.”

Nicolette said nothing
and kissed her man on the mouth.

Elias sat with his back
against the door, absorbing the shock of the worm’s now hopeless
blows. He slid his ass over the stone ground and picked up the big
book from Morrow’s office, he had forgotten that he had left next
to the doorstep earlier.

“Looks like you got
what you were looking for.” Calvin pulled Elias up to his feet, and
put his arm around his shoulder.

“You guys followed me
this whole time?”

“Naturally, like we
believed your story about some lame ass humanities project. Wanting
to come out here is a little bit too ambitious for an A.” Nicolette
smiled her dimpled smile. “We saw that asshole torture you . . .
Oh, and we got some of your stuff from upstairs.” She picked up
Elias’s duffle bag from the ground.

Inside Elias found his
ammo, Angeni’s diary, and the Farseer cipher. He put the big book
in and slung the bag over to Calvin. “I think it would be wise to
let her hold the gun until we get out of here.”

Calvin shrugged

“Where the hell did
you learn how to shoot like that anyway?”

“My mom didn’t tell
you? Dad is the sheriff around here. He had me shootin’ just out of
diapers.”

* * *

Nicolette dug her
heel into the step, helping Calvin push Elias’s dead weight up the
last flight of the Leolyn. She felt the sweat pouring inside her
heavy winter garb, the heater in the hotel must have been cranked
over 80. Elias’s underarm was pinned around her neck; he smelt like
a man who just escaped death twice. Tough guys like Elias are usually
sensitive about receiving help from a woman in such matters, but from
the look on his face, his pride was the last thing on his mind.

Calvin arched his back,
lifting Elias up the final step “Just a few more steps big guy.”

When they finally made
to his room, Nicolette snatched the key from the bag slung over
Calvin’s back.

“Hurry, don’t think
I can hold him up by myself much longer.”

They set the big Seneca
down on the bed. His jeans clung tight to his bad leg.

Nicolette turned to
Calvin, “We’re gonna have to cut his pants. Run downstairs and
grab some scissors from the front desk, and ice.”

She waited for the door
shut and pulled a tin of Altoids out of her purse.

“Here take this.”
Nicolette handed Elias what looked to be a breath mint, but the
etching read: Percocet 5 mg. “Don’t tell Calvin I had this, he
doesn’t like the pills.”

Elias took it gladly
and dry swallowed it. “Both of you helped enough— go, I’ll be
fine.”

“Are you kidding me,
your knee is the size of a bowling ball. We need to call a doctor.”

“No time for a
doctor. It’s important that I get this thing transcribed.”

“To find a way to
kill your Great Grandmother?”

“You heard my
conversation with Johns?”

“I did . . . ”

“I know how it must
sound, but she’s no sweet old lady. Remember the movie The
Exorcist?”

“No, horror’s not
really my thing, but I am familiar with the head spinning and
puking.”

“Well tone the
Hollywood bullshit down a bit.” Elias rubbed his engorged kneecap
and winced. “She opens up the dark side within people, feeds off it
. . . she killed the whole family.”

“Okay. . . she never
got to you?”

“I don’t—”

A knock rattled the
door; it was Calvin with an ice bucket that contained sandwich bags
filled with ice. He held a pair of sheers in his free hand.

Nicolette took the
scissors and split open his jean from Elias’s ankle to just above
the swelling

“Put that ham on
ice.” Calvin tossed a sandwich bag full over to Elias.

Elias plucked the bag
out of the air, “Thanks, listen, I’m gonna be okay. I plan to sit
here and decode this book for the rest of the night, then take off in
the morning.”

“Okay.”

Nicolette scowled and
punched Calvin in his arm. “We risked our asses to get that book.
We saved your life, Elias— I think we have the right to know what
it says.”

“I can’t argue with
you there, plus you still have my gun.” Elias grinned with gritted
teeth.

“It’s done then,
we’re staying.” Nicolette took the book from the duffel bag.
“It’s thick as a dictionary.”

“Just looking for specific dates.
All I care about is information about my Great Grandmother.”

For hours Elias sat
at the desk, hovering over his work. Nicolette challenged Calvin to
every game on her iPhone. Calvin lost at the quick reaction games,
but was dangerous on more tactical games, like Scrabble. For dinner
they grabbed subs from the deli and brought one back for Elias.
Nicolette dialed her Mom to tell her she going up to Fredonia with
Calvin. Calvin called his folks and did the same. It wasn’t rare
for the young couple to look for entertainment outside of Lily Dale
on a winter weekend.

After eating Calvin and
Nicolette dosed off. They woke to the smell of coffee brewing. Elias
sipped from his cup loudly. The bedside clock read 11 PM.

Elias turned in the
chair, “I’m almost done. Grab a cup and take a look.”

January 31st, 1905

Mr. Morrow
:
I would like to introduce to you all Mr. Roger Grasley, one of our
top talent acquisition agents. He has an interesting prospect he
would like to discuss with the board.

Mr. Roger
Grasley
: Thank you Director . . . We agents focus on a specific
set of abilities, notably, abilities that have Military application.
Finding those who can see a disastrous event before it happens, tell
us someone’s true intention, where an enemy is hiding artillery,
perhaps one person out of ten million . . . even one hundred million,
but it is what we are paid to do.

We have
interviewed a large percentage of the town’s population and has
proven the majority to be lacking such potential. Most claim to be a
master in the art of séance and most of those are capable of
producing some very entertaining parlor tricks. Needless to say we
have found little in the way of test worthy subjects here, which is
problematic.