Story October and Steve McCoy watch two men approaching. Behind Story and Steve, the rest of the group remains quiet and is crouched in the darkness in the antechamber. Adelle squeezes Ivory's hand, terrified they will be caught and placed back in the cages or possibly killed. Ivory Campbell does her best to reassure her and keep her quiet. John Hanson is suffering from a slight case of PTSD from his ordeal and is simply holding his head up with his hands on his face. Dr. Paul Abernathy considers himself the last line of defense if Story and Steve can't stop the approaching men... if it comes to a fight.
The two men get ever closer as Story and Steve contemplate such questions as: Will they pass by, are they armed, are they skilled fighters and what will happen to everyone else in the group if they fail to stop these men? Story and Steve begin to feel the tension build and the pressure they are under, Steve is more accustomed to high pressure and dangerous situations but for Story, not so much.
Not really a thinking man usually but Steve starts to think maybe Story is feeling the pressure like he is and realizes Story doesn't have combat training. Steve is confident he can take one of them down, but he needs Story on top of his game to take the other one down or at least delay him. Steve whispers to Story, “Look man, you got this, you cut a rope bridge in half while hanging from underneath as a giant spider was attacking you... you got this.”
Story nods in acknowledgment and feels his resolve bolster, knowing what's at stake if they fail.
The two men in dirty black robes are now close enough that Story and Steve can hear them talking, one of the men says to the other, “Let's have some fun with that young little bitch, it won't affect the ritual as long as she's still alive, right?”
The slightly taller man in black robes says, “Hmm, yeah, fuck it, it should be okay, and it would be a waste if we didn't... just don't let Devil-head Ted know,” as they both laugh.
Story and Steve look at each other with disgust at what they are hearing and Steve quietly whispers, “It's on.”
The two men reach the corner and turn, their lantern lights shining on Story and Steve and one man says, “Oh shit!” as he reaches for a holstered pistol. The other man is Jerry Johnson and is carrying a club and swings it at Steve's face but misses when Steve ducks.
Steve uses his pistol to smash the face of Jerry Johnson, it makes a loud thump-sound, knocking his front teeth out, causing him to stumble backward and drop his lantern. Steve points his pistol at Jerry's face but hesitates with shooting him, he is thinking it might make too much noise. The thought only occurred to Steve at the last second, long enough to make him pause. Jerry gathers himself enough to swing the club hard enough to hit Steve's hand that's holding the pistol, causing it to fly out of his hand.
Jerry holds his mouth with one hand as he spits all of his front teeth out and says, “You son of a fucking bishh, you knocked my teef out!” as he swings for Steve's head, but his helmet takes most of the brunt-force trauma or his head would have been smashed-in.
Story sees the shorter man reaching for his pistol so he swings the sword as hard as he can at his hand and completely misses his mark and slashes into the man's foot instead. The sword easily slices clean through the man's foot. The man drops the pistol, and it falls on the ground as he screams in pain. Story says “sorry...” and crashes the pummel of his sword down on the man's nose, making a crunching wet sound, making him fall backward to the ground as blood pours down his face and out of his foot.
Jerry hits Steve square in the stomach with his club, knocking the wind out of him. Then Jerry looks at his colleague on the ground with a smashed face and blood pouring out of his foot and sees the pistol on the ground and leans over to pick it up and fumbles with getting it just long enough for Story to drop the sword down on the man's neck as hard as he can, and misses. The blade is so sharp it goes into the floor a little bit. The impact of hitting the floor causes Story to let go of the sword for a moment, but he quickly grabs it again and pulls it free of the ground. Steve steps on the man's chest to hold him down long enough for Story to get it right this time, the sword cuts through his neck with ease just before he can shoot Steve. Blood sprays all over Steve as the severed head rolls into the antechamber and stops in front of the group. When Adelle sees the unblinking eyes of the severed head of her stepdad, she screams.
The man with the cut foot is laying in the fetal position, cradling his foot as he curses them, saying, “Y-you will all suffer for this! For what you have done to us, the Order of the Nocturnium, he will make you pay, he will cut out your hearts as I laugh!” Then loses consciousness from the injury to his face and quickly goes into cardiac arrest from shock from the heavy blood loss from his foot, surrounded in a pool of his own blood. Story hit an artery in the man's foot.
Steve stands there in a bit of a shock, covered in blood spray and says, “Holy hell, Story, Jesus Christ.”
Story leans his palm on a wall to hold himself up as he vomits, then gathers his composure and says, “Well, that was fucked up..." and continues, let's see what this asshole knows.”
Steve checks his pulse and says, “I don't think he's gonna say much, he's dead.”
“Fuck, dammit,” says Story, only slightly disappointed because he was hoping to get information but glad he's dead.
The group turns their lights back on and survey the scene in silence. None of them has ever really been witness to such an extreme level of violence, not real violence and certainly not at such close proximity, with their freedom and life on the line.
Ivory says to Story and Steve, “You guys did what had to be done, or we'd all be dead, I for one, am thankful and are you okay babe?” the latter part directed at Steve.
Steve puts his hands on his hips, let's out a sigh and leans his head back and speaks up, “I'm okay... look, Story, I messed up, I hesitated, I'm sorry, man,” and looks down, hanging his head and continues, “I could have gotten us all killed.”
“Hey, it's okay, we didn't get killed, we're okay and I couldn't have done this without your help, no way,” Story says to Steve.
Steve replies after a moment, “Yeah, I guess,” as he kneels by the tiny steam to clean off the blood on his face.
Ivory interjects, “Hey babe, I know you were in the US Marines but that was a long time ago. You are a Fireman, you're trained to save lives, not take lives... it's okay to hesitate.”
“She has a point Steve, so stop beating yourself up,” Dr. Paul Abernathy says as he puts his hand on Steve's shoulder.
Steve nods in acknowledgment to their wisdom and asks, “Story, have you had combat training or something? You just killed two armed men, like it was a walk in the park..."
“No, not really, I've just lived a crazy, weird life... especially in my youth... and I don't know if I would call it a walk in the park, I just got lucky,” replies Story, then he approaches Steve and gets up close and whispers, “I may have had an easier time killing these men... you see, when I picked up that key to unlock the cage, I had a Vision that these bastards are using captives for human sacrifices for their ritual dark magic,” as he looks Steve in the eyes.
Steve looks at him and says, “Jesus..."
“So don't feel bad for killing these men, they are truly evil men, the worst of humanity... they will not hesitate to hurt us or kill us or use us for human sacrifice,” adds Story, whispering so as not to alarm the rest of the group.
Steve reassures Story, “I won't hesitate again, I swear,” stated firmly.
Ivory steps in close to them both, “Um, guys, I heard that... this situation is beyond critical,” she says in a whisper.
“Okay... I know baby,” says Steve as he picks up his pistol and holsters it, then picks up the pistol dropped by the man in the black robe and checks the clip and puts it back in the pistol and hands it to Ivory, “here Ivory, it's a Beretta 9mm, fully loaded with a 17 round clip and one in the chamber, it's just like when we shoot bottles... only difference is; Aim for their heart.” Then shows her where the safety is located and says, “Make sure you have the safety off when you're ready to shoot. I'd give it to Story... but he seems to be doing just fine with that decapitator,” referring to the short sword. Steve continues as he speaks to Story, “And I've never seen her miss..."
Story nods and says, “I can't shoot for shit anyway... and you should see her with a rifle.”
“I got this, guys,” Ivory says with resolve in her voice as she looks at Steve and Story and puts the pistol in the back of her pants waistline.
John Hanson picks up the club that was dropped.
When no one is looking, Adelle walks over to the severed head of Jerry Johnson and kicks it in the face, then gets up behind Story and stays two steps behind him as the group walks down the tunnel.
The group is near the end of the tunnel where the light source is emanating, Steve says to Story, “You said they were using human sacrifices for some kinda dark magic, what kind of dark magic... for what?”
“For this,” Story motions Steve to peek around the threshold to view the source of the light.
Steve looks and sees the huge stone ring in the middle of the cavern, with a glowing sphere of light and energy in the center of the ring, he says, “What in the hell?” as he sees five or six men around the structure. Closer to the group there are some crates, debris, fire pit and a few cots, just beyond the threshold. Steve looks at Ivory and Story and says, “We have a problem guys, that's a lot of men... and I think there are more zombies in there too. What's the plan and what the hell is that... thing?”
Story October takes a breath and then lets out a sigh, then starts to quietly speak, “Okay, I had a Vision of this and was able to kind of figure out a few things, but I needed to see it in person, to better understand what it was built for,” as he takes another peek at the stone ring, because of Story's special senses, he can see what others cannot. From this ability he is able to see the metaphysical nature behind the magic and the supernatural. Story continues, “It's practically impossible to do this. I'm not even sure how but what I'm pretty sure about is that it's a gateway... a gateway to another dimension, a place of unimaginable terror. It's breaching the barrier between worlds, connecting our world to the Outer Realms of Madness and Chaos, using the Aethereal as a conduit, being bolstered via human sacrifice in a dark magic, blood ritual."
“Um, Story, you're starting to scare the living hell out of me,” says Ivory and continues, “To what end, dare I even ask?”
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Story replies, “I'm sorry but this shit is scaring the hell outta me as well... It's not really made for anything from here to go 'there', it's made so something from 'there' can come here..."
Dr. Paul Abernathy interjects a question, “... And what would that be?”
“The Nocturnium, to set the stage and act as heralds to the coming of the Forgotten Gods, from an ancient Epoch of the Cosmos, they were originally cast out of our World just before the dawn of life on Earth, about four billion years ago if science is correct but it's so far back through the veil of time that it's far beyond my Sight... most definitely through strange eons and all that,” says Story, then continues, “From what I understand, these are not friendly gods, life couldn't even exist until they were cast out.”
Ivory asks, “Wait, science? …And what do these gods want with us?”
“Yes, science. You see, the Material World is casually linked to the Aethereal. There is a saying with regards to this phenomenon: As above, so below... or something like that. Anyway, when significant events happen here in the Material, you can bet that something is occurring in the Aethereal. From what I understand, thus far, is that pretty much all deity-types feed off metaphysical energy of life force, emotions, sentient belief in them and a few other things but these Forgotten Gods, they aren't interested in shaving the sheep, so to speak, they want to skin it..."
Steve says, “Skin it? What's that mean, man?”
Ivory and Dr. Abernathy look at Story in anticipation for his reply.
“Destroy us and the entire World..." says Story.
Ivory manages to say, “Um... that's very alarming and disturbing... and I thought I was scared before..."
“Hey babe, it's gonna be okay..." Steve says to Ivory, his voice wavers a bit because he's usually confident and self-assured but is starting to get seriously disturbed and terrified at all of this.
Then Story says, “Look guys, I know we all want to get out of here and get home... but if we don't figure out how to stop this, soon there won't be a home to go to, or anything left at all, they will consume this World.”
“Maybe we should try to sneak past, get out of here and come back with a SWAT team?” Steve suggests.
After a moment, Story speaks, “I've considered that as well, however, from the looks of this set up down here, I am certain there is conspiracy at work here. These guys have been at this endeavor for many years. It's unlikely they could have achieved all of this without outside support, so it's highly likely they are connected to the outside world through their various cult members and agents. So even if we can somehow make it out of here, that Theodore-guy knows who we are and whatever organization he belongs to will ensure we do not see the dawn of the next day. Our only hope of being able to live after we leave this place is to make sure there is no reason from them to stop us from talking because there is nothing left here to protect or hide anymore.”
“Crap..." Steve says, realizing that Story is probably right.
Dr. Paul Abernathy just looks at the ground in silence, contemplating the gravity of the dire situation.
Ivory speaks up and asks rhetorically, “So, where does one go to recruit a bunch of violent, homicidal sick-asshole, occult fanatics, anyway? I mean, like, is there a special temp service for this or what? And how does that interview go and what would one put on their resume for the position of sick-asshole-occult-fanatic?”
Adelle speaks, “I'll tell you where they come from... that one that had his head chopped off, he was my asshole stepdad..."
They all look at her and then at each other. Ivory says, “Oh..."
“He deserved it, I'm glad Story chopped his head off,” Adelle says.
After a moment of silence Story then caps the discussion with, “Alternatively we could go on the run... for the rest of our lives, however once you get on that train, it's a hard train to get off..." and pauses for a moment then continues, “That's only an option based on the assumption that we can cross this cavern space undetected or make it out of this place at all.”
“Either way, we need a plan, there is a lot of them and only a few of us... and they have zombie guards,” Ivory states.
Steve adds in, “And we have two civilians that we made a promise to get out of here. I'm not comfortable with putting them in harm's way... but we can't leave them back here either because some of those weirdos might come up behind them while we are out there fighting..."
“And this whole thing might be over quick... there are a lot of hostiles out there and we know at least some of them are armed; between bullets, clubs and zombie guards. . . this isn't turning out to be a very good motivational speech, is it?” Story says as he rubs the back of his neck.
Ivory speaks up and says, “Let's take a vote, to either have them stay back here with Paul while we go out and fight, or we all move together in unison.”
John interjects, “We should have a say in this, because I'm not staying behind, no way.”
The group looks at Adelle and she says, “No fucking way am I staying behind,” as she steps right up to Story like she's his shadow. After she saw what Story did to those two men, she figures he's her best chance to survive.
Ivory gives Story a sideways glance and smirks at him and says, “Looks like you got a new fan, Story.”
“Just be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and buy my book,” Story states, being slightly facetious as he looks around the corner. Then continues, “Okay guys, I see three guys nearest to us, they are sleeping I think, in those cots there,” as he gestures to the cots that are about 10 yards away. Then he adds, “And I can see at least one of them has a shotgun,” referring to the one leaning on a storage container.
“Okay, are we ready to do this?” asks Steve.
Story quickly replies, “No, not yet; I can do something to aid our plight,” as he steps in front of the whole group and holds his hand up, making the sign of the Cosmos: Pointer finger and middle finger and thumb pointing up with the little finger and ring finger pointing down, his other hand is pointing downward, making the same symbol, then he speaks,
“From earth to sky
Land to sea
From the heart of Evil
Protect thee.”
A glowing blue pentagram appears on the ground under each of their feet, then fades.
“Oh, my, god, that was fucking so awesome,” Adelle says.
Dr. Paul Abernathy adds in, “Incredible..."
Ivory says, “Does that make it so they can't hurt us or something?”
“No,” replies Story, “But it will offer some protection and we could use any edge we can get.”
Steve says, “Let's hit it,” and steps out of the tunnel and approaches the three resting men on the cots. He reaches the man with the shotgun next to him and grabs the shotgun as the man wakes up and sits up, Steve smashes the butt of the shotgun into his face, knocking him off the cot.
The other two men jump up, one of the men is greeted by Story with a sword through the heart, killing him nearly instantly from shock.
The other man that's still standing, pulls a pistol out of his holster but Ivory puts her pistol under his chin and pulls the trigger but forgot to switch the safety off. The man has a surprised look but realizes that she had her safety on, and he tries to shoot her but before he can get a shot off, she says, “Oh shit,” then she quickly pistol-whips him in the face, causing him to stumble backwards.
After knocking the man out of the cot, Steve jumps over it to beat him to death with the butt of the shotgun. Each hit gets easier for Steve as blood splatters from the wet-meaty crunching sounds from each blow to his head and face.
Ivory manages to flip the safety off and shoots the one she pistol-whipped nearly point-blank in the chest, as Steve sees what's happening with Ivory, he quickly puts his shotgun to his shoulder and takes a quick aim, pulls the trigger and takes half of the man's head off as Ivory shoots him in the chest again.
The shotgun blast echoes throughout the cavern, alerting everyone within of group's presence, one of the men at the stone ring yells over because it's hard to see, it's much brighter near the stone ring but darker over by Story and the group.
Story struggles with pulling the sword out of the man's chest, the internal body pressure acts similar to a suction cup, but he manages to pull it free.
“Here they come!” Ivory exclaims as she points to the men approaching the bridge and she takes aim.
Steve takes aim and opens fire, hitting the first man in the line of men on the bridge in the chest, mortally wounding him. Ivory opens fire and hits the same man in the head and then the second man behind him, right between the eyes.
Beyond the men trying to cross the bridge, Story sees a tall man with a shotgun standing in front of the stone ring, it's that Theodore guy. He seems to be ordering the men and zombies to attack the intruders. Three more men and five zombie guards approach the bridge. Story yells to Dr. Paul Abernathy, “Use your prayer abilities on those zombies!” as he grabs the pistol from the hand of the dead man with half a head and takes aim.
Paul steps the edge of the drop off to get closer, holds his scepter up and says a prayer, causing the closest zombie to fall to the ground.
Ivory hits another man with two shots to the chest and one to the head as he took aim with a shotgun, causing him to fall over the edge into the darkness below.
Steve unloads the shotgun at the disciples and zombie group, he manages to destroy a zombie by blowing it's head off and causes a man to fall over the edge by hitting him in the leg, then Steve pulls his pistol and takes aim.
Story unloads a full clip from his pistol, killing one man by hitting him with three shots to the chest.
Theodore just stands in front of the stone ring with his shotgun on his shoulder, watching, waiting and shaking his head at the incompetence of his men.
Dr. Paul Abernathy does another prayer-spell and causes another zombie to drop on the ground.
A man with a bullet wound in his arm manages to make it across the bridge with a large dagger in hand but is greeted with a kick in the chest from Steve, knocking the man off the edge, he screams as he tumbles backward, then there is thump when he hits the jagged rocks below.
A zombie makes it across right behind the man but is met with a sword to the neck, taking the head clean off, compliments of Story October.
Paul stops the last zombie at mid-point on the bridge with a prayer-spell, it drops lifeless and falls over the rope handrails.
Theodore puts his shot gun under his arm to do a slow clap for the group and says, “Congratulations, you all have proven a worthy challenge but I'm afraid you all will die now.”
Ivory takes aim and says, “Fuck you, asshole,” and she unloads the rest of her clip from her pistol into his chest.
Theodore takes a step back and is bleeding from various bullet holes but doesn't fall. Unbeknownst to the group, he is only slightly injured from normal weapons. If he was shot with a full clip or two from a high-powered automatic assault rifle at close range, it might kill him but not with the firepower they currently have available.
Story feels a presence attempting to force its way into his mind, he feels like he can maybe hold it back but allows it to enter his surface thoughts out of curiosity. The moment he lets it through he has a Vision and impression of him, it's Theodore but he is no mere human, he is something more.
A voice from this mind invader says to him, “So, you have gifts too I sense, and I know your name now, you were foolish to let me in, Story October.”
Story uses his mind to reply, “Not as foolish as you think, now I know what you really are and more.” Story October sees a series of Visions about Theodore. He sees that Theodore was once a normal human but allowed himself to be possessed by a demon from another dimension, it was no ordinary possession, he allowed it to merge with him, so it was no longer a demon and no longer Theodore... but something new. This was the only way a creature like this could exist here in the Material World. Story senses he had help to do this feat, then he sees the face of the Dark Mage, he was the one that did this to Theodore, preyed upon his insecurities and weaknesses to turn him into a weapon. Convinced him to give up his soul and humanity.
Then with everyone watching. Theodore reveals his true self. The enchantment he put on himself to hide his true image dissipates to reveal a beautiful man with horns protruding from his head, his shoulders become even more broad, and his posture becomes perfect. The cloak/jacket he is wearing unfolds to reveal huge bat wings on his back as he rips the ruined shirt off his chest. He is muscular with a perfect body, standing seven feet tall with long black hair. The bullets in his chest are barely embedded in his skin. Then he speaks in a smooth silky deep voice, “If you want to leave, all you have to do is get past me,” as he brushes the bullets off his chest.