Maleficarum Chapter 5: It’s All Going to Hell
Chapter 5: It’s All Going to Hell
“We’ve got to go,” Mike stated.
“Where?” Ann gasped.
“The Black Crystal,” Beverly screeched as she sprinted.
“Sounds good,” Ann said, taking off after her.
Mike raised his gun, blasting off a shot at Hegel. The shot burrowed through the roof instead of its intended target. The four of them pushed their bodies harder than a bulimic in the bathroom of an all-you-can-eat buffet as they rushed for safety. The figures from the woods poured into the lonely streetlight. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of them gave chase.
The Black Crystal seemed so far to the terrified runners. A naked woman jumped in their path and bared her teeth like a feral animal. Mike popped off two shots, hitting her in the chest. She fell from a flat-out run onto her face.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Mike muttered as more took her place. He fired wildly into the crowd, as hordes of them ran screaming from behind. Rick stumbled as he tried jumping over the naked woman.
Beverly and Ann reached out, barely righting him before he took a fall again. The Black Crystal, their only hope, lay just yards in front of them. A naked, bearded man snatched Beverly’s arm and sucked her into his flabby chest. In one motion, he bit down on her collarbone with his brown chipped teeth. The bite sunk deep, and Mike could see the old man’s drool leaking down her chest as she screamed. It was like the life was being leached out of her. Mike jammed the gun into the wicked man’s head and pulled the trigger. The wrinkled head ripped back as the hollow point ravaged the inside of his skull. Mike yanked his sister from the leprous old man’s arms and forced her to start running.
Onto the porch they jumped, just as Ann and Rick burst into the store. From his left, Mike saw a hideous beast crawling after them. Its body looked like a skinned corpse, but its arms were a twisted boiling mass of flesh that had two fearsome claws attached. Its legs were that of a cow’s, and it dragged them behind itself as if they were broken. Its head was large and misshapen, but its face was human. Mike fired, hitting the creature in the head as he and his sister swung open the door that was like a cemetery gate. They slammed it behind them and tried to lock it. Beverly screamed as she shoved her shoulder into the door to brace for the inevitable push from a thousand tainted bodies.
“How do you lock this thing?” Mike roared, looking for any help. He saw Nick standing at the counter of the store, wide-eyed, staring at him. He was frozen in the act of handing a customer her change.
“Fuck!” Mike yelled, throwing the weight of his shoulder into the door. Heavy thuds and the clacking of hooves could be heard rushing onto the porch. Ann and the fat man got behind Mike and Beverly. Like the members of a phalanx, they drove their shoulders in as the blitz of noise rushed right to the door and suddenly halted. Not a sound could be heard outside, except the now ever-present wind.
Nick finally blurted out. “What the hell is going on?”
“Get the fuck over here and lock the fucking door,” Mike shouted.
“What are you doing?” Nick said with a dumbfounded look on his face.
“I swear to fuck, Nick, come and lock the fucking door, man, or we’re all going to die, man!” Mike screamed, desperation radiating from his words. Nick jumped the counter and rushed to the door. He stuck his key into the latch, and the group heard the relieving click of the lock.
“There are all sorts of fucking monsters or…aliens…or…demons or…crazies out there, and they’re all trying to kill us,” Mike said, running to the large stained-glass window in the front of the store. He slightly parted the purple curtain and peered out the multi-colored window to see nothing. Not a living or undead soul was in sight. Even the bodies of the people he had shot were gone. All he could see was the lonely streetlight, his destroyed car, and the abandoned porno store. Waves of fog rolled around the tree line, but other than that, everything looked normal. Nick walked up to the stained-glass window and looked out.
“Mike, you’re starting to freak me out. What’s going on?” Nick placed a hand on Mike’s shoulder.
Mike’s face had a puzzled look. “You didn’t hear any of that?”
“What?”
“All the screaming and gun shots and howling,” Beverly chimed in.
“I didn’t hear anything out there until you guys came in,” Nick answered.
“We’ve got to lock this place down with whatever we've got, man. There are fucking hordes of the motherfuckers out there, and they’re trying to fucking eat us or fuck us or both, dude,” Mike replied, rushing from the window. He grabbed hold of a large bookshelf that sat to the far left side of the store. He scooted the bookshelf across the room, knocking off all manner of glass statues to the floor. Most crashed and broke on the thin gray carpet that lined the establishment’s floor.
“Hey, what the hell are you doing?” Nick yelled.
“Fucker, there are all kinds of things out there, and Chuck’s fucking dead. Some other poor fuck had his throat slit, and they’re going to do the same damn thing to us if we don’t board this fucking place up!” Mike screamed with all his might. His face changed to the color of a ripe tomato as he finished his rant.
Nick pulled out his cell phone. “Well, let’s call the cops.”
“No! That’s how they got Chuck,” Ann warned as she ran to help Mike in his efforts.
“What do you mean?”
“They’re witches, like real, magic, flying-on-a-broomstick kinds of witches. They cursed him or something, and he went crazy and tried to kill us,” Beverly added.
“OK, guys. This is nuts. I have to be back in time to make dinner for my husband in half an hour,” a female voice said. Mike turned to notice a tall, pretty blonde woman standing next to a large display case of ash and hickory wands. She was slim, athletic, and dressed in black yoga pants and tank top.
“You guys almost had me, but you pushed it too far with the spell stuff.” Ironically, she said this while holding a book of love and sexual magic. She started to tromp toward the door, looking confident that she would so
on be in the parking lot heading home, and she would have been, if it hadn’t been for the slight thump on the window. Then another thump sounded, followed by a deeper grinding noise that began to echo off the walls. The blonde froze in place.
“What the fuck is going on?”
“Witches,” Beverly whispered. The sound of a dozen footsteps stomped across the roof in unison and stopped above the blonde. She looked up. She stared for a moment, her eyes locked on the scraping sound that hung above her head. It was almost as if a dog was lightly pawing at the shingles. The blonde woman, as quietly as she could, stepped to her left, and a look of relief came over her. She would have kept that expression, too, if the sound hadn’t followed her. Dread and confusion were slapped all over her face as she rushed about fifteen feet down the aisles. She was out of sight now. She was lost in the small maze of mismatched bookshelves that inhabited almost everything except the middle of the store. She stopped moving, and as soon as she did, the flood of footsteps followed her, resting once more above her.
“Run, bitch!” Mike shouted as he dropped the table he was toting. As soon as his words registered, she took off in a blind panic. The footsteps followed thunderously overhead. They were always in lockstep with the woman, chasing her like a swarm of bees. Mike whipped out his gun and pointed it at the bulk of the footsteps. He pulled the trigger, wildly missing his target. The slide slammed back, locking. He was empty. He hadn't reloaded his gun when he came into the store. He was a good marksman, but he didn't know the gun and had never shot under this kind of pressure.
“Fuck, man,” he shouted, slinging spit out of his mouth. He pulled the clip from the gun and reached into his pocket, snatching out a box of shells as the young woman still ran screaming. Her screams were so violent there was no way her vocal cords wouldn't tear if she kept it up for long. Mike accidentally dropped his magazine. The blood rushed to his brain, causing his fingers to lose their precision. Frantically, he snatched the magazine off the floor and tried desperately to jam a bullet in. No part of his body seemed to work. The flow of time slowed around him as he feverishly tried to push the bullet in.
“Ohhh, God,” Beverly screamed.
The bullet finally snapped into the magazine, and Mike raised the gun as the blonde ran past him and into the maze of bookshelves. The footsteps rushed over Mike’s head as he fired. The bullet ripped into the roof with a loud crack, and from outside came a hellish scream of pain that sounded like the roar of a bear. Like a faucet, black and red blood sloshed through the hole and onto the floor. The footsteps stopped in place at the sound of the scream, and Mike loaded another shell into the magazine. Thrusting the gun back up, he fired another shot. Again a horrendous scream arose, followed by the sound of a heavy body flopping on the roof. Blood streamed through, turning the gray carpet a sickening shade of purple.
Nick shouted as he rushed over to Mike. “Stop.”
Mike was still trying to jam another shell into the chamber. “Why?”
“You said they were devil-worshipping witches, right?”
“Yeh, either that or aliens,” Mike said as he pointed the gun back up to the roof, ready to take his next shot.
“How many did you say are out there?”
“Fuck, I don’t know, man, a lot.” Mike looked confused.
“If there’s that many of them out there, they could tear down this place in no time. So why haven’t they?”
“Well, it sounds like they’re about to,” Mike said, stepping back from the ever-growing pool of blood in the center of the floor.
“I don’t think they can come in. Not if they’re witches. This place has wrought iron bars on its doors. In European folklore, a witch can’t enter a house that is guarded by cold iron. I think they’re trying to do something different.” The thunderous footsteps fled to the back of the building, and soon they were leaping off the roof. Mike ran to a window and nervously peered out into the darkness, looking for any sign of their attackers.
“I think they’re trying to defile the place, and their corrupt blood is one way they’re trying to do it. This place has all manner of purifying objects and elements in it. Salt, garlic, Saint John’s Wort, silver, iron, and witch balls are everywhere. They should have a hard time casting spells on us without corrupting us and this place first,” Nick said.
“Are you telling me not to fight back?”
“Hell, no, just be smart about it,” Nick said as he ran among the winding bookshelves looking for something. Mike rushed back to the center of the room and picked up bullets that he had dropped. The blood still dripped from the ceiling, making a sickening splash as it hit the carpet.
“We still need to barricade this place,” Beverly said, placing a hand on Nick’s shoulder.
“Yep, let’s get on it,” Mike said. The two of them rushed to find a way to seal off every entrance as fast as they could.
“What’s your name?” Ann asked, sitting down next to the quaking blonde girl.
“It’s Kim,” she stammered, her lips quivering.
“Kim, we’ve got to help them board up this place,” Ann said as she pushed Kim’s shoulder-length blonde hair out of her eyes.
“OK,” she whispered. The four of them worked as fast as they could. Ann and the blonde woman were pulling nails and screws from any piece of furniture they could find, and Mike and the fat man were hammering the boards to the windows. They worked silently. The only words spoken were the ones needed to give directions in the effort or to clarify exactly what needed to be done. Panic was like another person in the room as they toiled.
* * *
Nick tried to use the computer to send some kind of message, but all it pulled was hard core pornography, and trying to send a text didn’t fare much better. Beverly never knew there were so many ways to make dicks in text art, but you learn something new every day.
“To hell with this,” Beverly grumbled as she stormed into the bathroom, leaving the others to their work. The lights popped on like a road flare sending out its blinding rays. When her eyes fully adjusted, she was hunched in front of the mirror looking at a face she didn’t believe was hers. Thick black bags sagged under her eyes, making her look like a boxer that had taken the wrong fight.
“God, I wanted to look older, but not like the before and after shots of a crackhead,” she muttered as she twisted the creaking handle on the faucet. Clean, clear water flowed into the dingy sink, and she turned the other handle to warm it up before use. Her body could not sustain another shock to the system, even if it was just frigid water.
Next, she carefully peeled off her blood-soaked hoodie. Its crimson color had masked exactly how much she was bleeding. Both her stab wound and her bite were still oozing. They should have closed by now, but she had not exactly been taking it easy on them. The sight of the wounds churned her stomach, as if her insides had been thrown into a cement mixer. She splashed the wounds with water as best she could before the sight of them started to overwhelm her.
“Shit,” she muttered as she pushed her back against the cool tile that lined the walls and slid into a sitting position. She knew it was probably not a good idea to be sitting on the floor of a bathroom that Nick maintained, but she needed to be close to the ground. Resting her head in her hands, she repeated to herself, “Just breathe.” Beverly had no clue how long she had sat there before she heard a light knock at the door.
“How are you doing?” Nick said from the other side.
“I’ve been better.”
“Can I come in?”
“Yeh,” she said, still cradling her head in her hands.
The door eased open, and Nick peeked inside. Beverly never looked up as he came into the room. He stood above her, looking like a helpless child before he gathered the nerve to slide in beside her, gently resting his arm on her bare shoulders. His skin was almost as soft as hers. Normally she would have thought this was sexy, but they were in a survival situation. Beverly longed for a more masculine grip—one that was rough and ca
llused from years of hard labor, one that could crush with sheer power, and one that could scoop her up and carry her away from all this—like her father’s. The old fat construction worker would have handed her his beer, walked outside, and knocked half a dozen of those things out before they took him down. It was a feat she knew Nick could never accomplish with his spindly arms and weak chin.
She raised her head like a rabbit checking to see if the fox had gone, and as she did, she caught sight of hazel eyes. It was like looking into compassion itself. Instantly she could feel that he would give up far more than his life for her. She still didn’t think he could fight, but at least she knew he would try. She raised her good hand and placed it on his cheek.
“I always liked you, you know that?” she said timidly, still keeping her eyes locked on his.
“Yes.”
“I’ve been coming in here for three months now. How come you never tried to kiss me?”
“You’re eighteen. I’m twenty-three.”
“So?”
“I didn’t want to take advantage of you,” Nick admitted, hiding his face like a puppy that had been caught chewing on his master’s slippers. Beverly gently pulled his face back to hers, and before he could react, she leaned in and planted a firm kiss on his soft lips. She pulled him in closer, increasing the pressure, as the pressure in her body seemed to release. In that moment, there was only the two of them, and as they parted, Beverly gave a full-lipped smile. When her eyes opened, she could see Nick doing the same.
“That’s one of the things I like about you. You don’t take advantage of people,” she said, still grinning.
As she finished her words, it came. The tiles on the wall fractured into spider-like patterns. Each crack ripped across grout and dingy tiles. Dozens of them splintered off, forming new cracks that raced to do the same. Chunks fell to the ground like disintegrated glaciers into the sea, and as they hit and shattered, all that was left of them was their hollow ring. Nick clung tightly to Beverly as the walls crumbled around them. In the center of the wall across from them, the breaking tiles formed one sentence: Sinners will be.
“They found us,” Beverly uttered, but the overflowing dread that seemed to drown her let her know she was mistaken. It was something far darker than a human being could ever be. It felt like hate that had been brewing from before time. It was the same sense that had come over her when she saw Nick holding that dreadful book.
“No, I don’t think it’s the witches,” Nick said. “I don’t know what it is, but I don’t think it likes us.”
“Let’s tell the others.”
“No, there is nothing they can do about it.”
“I think they’re going to find out as soon as they come in here, anyway. At any rate, let’s get the hell out of here before something worse happens,” Beverly urged as she rose to her feet and went for the door.
Nick followed her into the stock room, and as they tried to collect themselves, there was a massive crash that shot from the main room. Both Nick and Beverly rushed through the doors and burst into the front of the store, not knowing what horrendous sight they might find.
However, everyone seemed relatively at ease, and they were still going about their work. The two of them scanned the room till their eyes fell on Ann. She held one of the great tomes from the store over her head, and just as an old-time whale hunter would do, she flung it like a harpoon at one of the display cases. The book smashed through, sending chunks of glass flying. As soon as she could, Ann rushed to the display case.
“What are you doing?” Beverly asked.
“They have swords in there,” Ann explained, peering into the wreckage.
“I have a key for that,” Nick yelled.
“Too late,” Ann retorted. Despite Ann’s gentle nature, the sound of breaking glass had always satisfied some primal need in her, and if given the opportunity, she never passed it up.
Ann snatched the three biggest swords she could and rushed them to the others. She passed a long sword to Beverly and a claymore to Nick, and she kept a rapier for herself. She pulled the scabbard off the sword and flicked the tip of the blade into an oak display case. A devilish smile spread over her face. They were all armed now, but the weapons brought little security to anyone but Ann.
“Why do y'all have swords in a magic shop?” Beverly asked as she looked down at her new silver blade. She ran her fingertips across the sleek golden hilt as she looked to Nick for a response.
“They’re used a lot in ritual spell casting,” Nick said.
“Let’s get back to boarding up this place,” Mike barked. The newly armed crew set back to work, but this time they had weapons that might actually kill something. However, with the number of attackers that Beverly had seen outside, the new weapons gave only a little comfort. Neither Beverly nor Nick said a word about what had happened in the bathroom.
* * *
They had labored for about twenty minutes or so when someone knocked at the door. All of their heads snapped to attention. There was no mistaking who it was.
Mike rushed to the door, pulling his gun from his waistband. “Nick, you and Ann go guard the back door and make sure they’re not trying to fuck us in the ass.”
“Is that what you’re into?” a youthful voice said on the other side.
Mike smiled a bit, nearly stammering as he said, “Depends if I’m the one doing the ass-fucking; I can get down.”
“You can fuck me in the ass. I like it dirty,” the ultra-feminine voice teased.
“Move to the window so we can see you,” Mike ordered as he turned to check the others’ expressions. Their eyes were locked on the door as dread filled their hearts.
“It’s a witch,” Beverly whispered to Mike.
“No shit,” Mike said as he checked the chamber of his gun.
Whatever it was, it was lightly tapping the window to the left. Mike snuck to the pane and peered out, but he tried not to get too close. In the dim light from the porch, he saw her. A beautiful redheaded woman stood completely nude outside. Around her were three other girls, each more angelic than the next, and each naked as naked as could be. The redhead was tall and athletic, with full breasts and toned legs. Her plump lips smirked as she saw Mike make eye contact and quickly look away.
He was blushing as he turned and said to the others, “Dude, it’s a bunch of hot naked chicks.”
“They’re evil,” Ann said.
“No shit,” Mike barked, peeking back out the window. The girls were flawless and everything that a man could wish for.
“So, what do you want?” he asked, waiting in anticipation.
“To talk, maybe more,” the redhead hinted coyly, flicking her long hair out of her eyes. Her voice was muffled by the window pane, but it still carried with it the tone of a woman about to have an orgasm.
“Where are the others?” Mike asked.
“We chased the bad witches off into the woods, and we have placed a spell over this land, so they can’t come back,” the fair woman said as the others started to caress her body.
“Is that so?” Mike was still grinning.
“Yes…It’s safe, and we wish to reward you for valiantly fighting the forces of darkness. It takes a strong man to do something like that.”
“Doesn’t it? So how is it you reward such heroes?”
“Any way they want,” she said, putting as much pout into her lips as she could. Nick tried to say something, but Mike cut him off, pressing his finger to his lips. The look on Beverly’s face seemed to ask, is Mike really that dumb?
“OK, I’ll tell you exactly what it is I need, but I don’t want the others to hear,” Mike said as he beckoned her with his finger through a hole in the boards. She moved in closer, her pristine face nearly touching the glass. As casually as one changes channels on a TV, Mike stuck his gun to the glass and pulled the trigger. They say beauty never lasts forever. This is especially true when glass and lead are involved. She crumpled to the deck that was now coated in her brains. The other girls scattered into the night like rats whose nest had been disturbed.
“Let’s get back to work,” Mike uttered coldly as he checked over his gun.
“Ohhhhh, my God, you killed her,” Beverly cried as the smoke from the shot still hung in the air.
“Yep.”
Kim spit out between sobs. “What if she was telling the Truth?”
“What if? Fuck your what if. Haven’t you ever seen a horror movie, man? I’m surprised they didn’t send someone dressed as a fucking cop. Besides, what hot naked chick just wants to come up and fuck random people? This is the real world, not Penthouse letters. Get over it; she’s dead,” Mike screamed. He had just killed a pretty girl, and he knew it was going keep him up at night. His hands trembled, but he did his best not to let the others see. He knew he was right, so he could deal with his sleep being disturbed for the rest of his life.
Just then there was a heavy thud on the door.
“This is the police. Open up. We have reports of shots being fired,” a deep and authoritative voice called out from behind the door.
Mike’s face twisted with rage. “You motherfuckers,” he growled as he pumped three shots into the door. There was a dull thud on the other side as something heavy flopped to the ground.
“You’re going to have to do better than that, you satanic pieces of shit!” Mike screamed. His face was now as red as a baboon’s ass, and spit rolled out of his lips. “Fucking told you,” he said as he popped the magazine from his gun and began to reload.
* * *
Nothing else was said as they got back to work. Almost an hour had passed when Nick ran out from the maze with about a dozen bottles and several bags in his arms. It was all the herbs that he had mentioned earlier , as well as some big bags of bath salts. Without a word, he ripped open the bags and bottles and started pouring the contents around the perimeter of the store.
“What the hell are you doing?” Mike asked while nailing up a piece of chair over the display window at the front of the store.
“I’m trying to set a barrier. It should help to stop them from cas
ting spells or busting in,” Nick said.
“I would rather you grab a fucking hammer.”
“I will, but after this.”
“OK, but make it quick, man.” It didn’t take long for Nick to make his rounds, and then he rejoined the group in barricading the windows.
Beverly and Mike tried to keep as watchful as they could while they worked, but nothing seemed to be happening outside. That is, until they saw the fire slowly rising. The flames were in plain sight, even through the fog that was still rolling in, but neither Mike nor Beverly saw anyone stack the wood or light the blaze.
“What the fuck,” Mike grunted. Ann and Kim dropped what they were doing and rushed to the window. From the woods, the hordes reemerged. Nearly all of them were naked, and behind them came the beasts of the fields. Wolves, mad dogs, rabbits, rats, cats, birds, and all manner of frogs and toads emerged. From no place in particular, dreadful, haunting music played. The thin sound of flutes grated over pounding kettledrums, and lutes screamed as if they were being raped. Simple combinations of notes without purpose or thought raked across their ears, and the rumbling of the drums was all that stayed constant. The unholy voices of the hordes began to chant without thought of tone or key. The lights in the store flickered and then shut off as they sang.
“Ohhh, come and dwell with us, spirit of love. Dwell in our flesh and strengthen us, O Lord of the Flies. Come and dwell in our bodies and take pleasure in them as we do ourselves.”
“Fiddlesticks,” Ann said. Most of the windows had been covered, but looking out at the raging hordes, everyone knew that they needed to double up on everything.
“Holy crap, they’re starting their Sabbath,” Nick said as the shadowy figures danced around the hateful flames. Like a great serpent’s tongue thrashing at the sky, the fire raged, and around it the damned made their defiance known to God. Bodies writhed in sexual acts and dance. No discernment could be made between the two. Not man or beast, young or old, nor life or death played a part in their thoughts or their actions. Unnatural shrills, bleats of goats, and deep voices shouted horrific blasphemies that seemed to curdle the air. Fearsome naked bodies clashed like slobbering bulls intent on murder. The demonic sex dolls poured out of the porno shop and instantly began to commit horrendous acts of carnal sickness.
The sight made Beverly’s stomach churn. For all her relativist and nihilistic musings in her high school papers, she knew on a gut level that what she was seeing was wrong. Some things were just evil. The witches were free to do anything , and anything was what they did. The sight repulsed her.
“What time is it?” Nick barked.
Beverly pulled out her phone and took a look. “Ten thirty.”
“It won’t be long,” Nick said, turning away from the hellish sight.
“What?” Mike asked, popping his head up.
“The witching hour, and as we get closer and closer to that time, their power is going to grow. They’re calling to their evil masters, and when they arrive, we’re dead,” he said, trembling.
“So, what do we do?” Kim asked.
Nick looked bewildered at the comment. “I don’t know. I have no clue,” he admitted.
The admission hit everyone in the room hard. He was clearly the smartest person in the there and had the most knowledge on the occult. With his mind blank, there was little they could do. Nick was shocked himself that he couldn’t come up with something. All throughout his life he had been the smart guy, the one everyone asked for advice, but with no brilliant plan or cunning strategy coming forth, it was like a piece of his identity was slowly eroding. He had to come up with something.
Suddenly, a metallic crash accompanied by the sound of shattering glass exploded from inside the store. Everyone went silent as they peered around the dark room. Ann raised her sword in anticipation of the worst. Then, from a dark corner of the store, out stepped Rick. His eyes were sunken and black. Blood gushed from his mouth, and his face was covered in boils.
“I think I’m sick,” he said spitting out globs of oily blood. “I think that thing gave me something.” He raised the hand that had been bitten. It was black, withered, and pulsing. As he tried to take another step forward, he crashed to the floor like a trash bag full of lard. “Help,” he whimpered.
“Fuck, dude, I ain’t touching him. I hate to be like that, but fuck,” Mike said.
Kim recoiled at the sight of the fat man trying to right himself.
“It hit me so fast, guys. I can’t move. God, it feels like something’s moving inside my arm.”
“Y’all, I’ve got to help him,” Ann said, trying to steel herself.
“Don’t do it man! He’s got Ebola or some shit,” Mike said, grabbing Ann’s arm.