The Cult of the Black Star
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Prismatic Evil
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The Cult of the Black Star
This is a short horror story that I've currently been working on for about half a year. I would love any feedback that anyone could provide me, as it is the first short story that I've stuck with writing in quite some time.
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In the blackest corners of our humanity there is a primal belief locked away deep in the recesses of our subconscious. It is a reminder of a time when man sought refuge in trees from the beasts that lurked in the darkness below the canopy. As we huddled together in the weakening branches of the tree while our nightmares circled below us waiting for the bow to snap, it’s not for certain what made us look up into the night sky in desperation, but in the primeval darkness a faint star blinked back at us against an ash choked oblivion, promising safety in return for sacrifice.
When the first of our ancestors was thrown from that tree to the waiting horrors below, it forever enslaved us to the will of the cosmos. The ritual of the black star is thought to be the oldest religion in antiquity. Our ancestors sacrificed many of their kin to the will of that cold dark star. Though it rested millions of light years away it provided them with everything they needed to survive. Even when our ancestors were forced into caves by the night terrors and no sky could be seen, the black star found them. It saved them from starvation during the harsh winters in those caves, compelling them to eat their weakest to grant them strength to overcome the hardship.
From what I have witnessed and the dark cancerous images that have plagued my dreams, I know personally that it is embedded within each of us like a dormant disease, waiting for the time to be dire enough that we must call upon it again for assistance. The black star ceased to exist in the heavens millennia ago, but as I look up into the infinite abyss that is the sky, I can see the faint twinkling of a tinted star, laughing as the deep grey clouds choke the moon.
It was a dreary autumn night when my partner and I decided to intercept a call about a possible breaking and entering of a lower street level apartment on Grove Street just south of the harbor. We were already in the area and decided to give the boys in blue a break.
“Whaddya say Jimmy? Are you up for investigating a possible B and E in South Side?”
My partner, James Franklin, had been doing this job for nearly as long as I had. He was a great detective and probably the only person I trusted more so than my own father. His strong jaw and clean shaven face made him the picture of authority compared to my thinning hairline, pudgy nose, and scruffy face. In all honesty the man was what a detective should be. I was grateful that he had been my partner for so long and the two of us respected the hell out of each other.
“Running a routine call? Age must be catching up with you Joe.”
“I like to think of it as accumulated wisdom. Besides, I’m just considering your baby face looks Jimmy. All that stress ain’t good for your complexion ya know?”
It had been a long time since I had been on a routine call. As we arrived at the scene a light rain began to fall, casting a hazy mist over the road. The streets surrounding the old building were quiet with only the pattering of rain drops on our car breaking the silence. We were in the old part of the city and many of these buildings had been vacant for quite some time. Thirty years ago In nineteen twenty two, most of the neighborhood had been boarded up after a series of strange occurrences cast many of its inhabitants into the local asylum. The reports had long been hidden away but the rumor was that a few dissidents in the neighborhood had been practicing some kind of black magic that sent the rest of the block into hysteria. Ever since then that part of the city had been tainted by the stain of something dark.
The street was pitched in night without a single light in any window of the numerous buildings that hung over the vacant street. I don’t get unnerved easily, but something in that darkness just didn’t sit right with me.
“Joe. Everything alright?”
I had forgotten about the call as I stared down that empty street leading up to that black sky. Something in that sky was eating at me. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something didn’t feel right. It was so cloudy you couldn’t see a damn thing though and I dismissed my fears as being illogical. I reached down into my pocket and pulled out my flashlight.
“Yeah, I’m alright, just trying to find my light.”
The building had long been sealed up and as I shined the light over each window it was clear that there was no sign of any forced entry. The stairwell to the bottom apartment was boarded up in a similar fashion with no signs of disturbance.
“I’m not seeing anything out of the ordinary here Jimmy. In fact I’m not seeing anything out here at all. There’s not a damn twinkle of light anywhere on this street.”
We had no idea who put the call out as there was no sign of anyone when we had arrived. We were essentially going into the investigation blind.
“I’ll take a peek around back and we can get outta’ here,” I said, as I started to make my way toward the wooden fence.
“Alright Joe, shout if you need me.”
As I got to the fence my flashlight began to flicker before fading out. The rain was falling harder now as I fumbled for the latch on the fence.
“Piece o’crap light. Damn thing never works when I need it to."
I tapped it on the fence to no avail. Frustration eventually overtook me as I slammed it harder until it flickered back on.
“What a cheap piece of crap.”
I wasted no time in finding the handle and prying open the mud stuck fence. The backyard was empty and overgrown with crabgrass. I shined the light toward the ground, but found no evidence of trespass that night or any night before that.
It was a wasted call and all that it accomplished was possibly causing me to come down with a cold later. I began to turn back towards the fence when I heard a rustling coming from the corner of the building. By force of habit I pulled out my revolver and shined the light towards the end of the brick building. There was nothing. As silently as I could I moved my way across the saturated ground until my back was against the building. As I rested against the brick I could hear a low growl coming from the other side of the wall. I closed my eyes and tried to remember if I had heard anything like it before. Nothing came to mind. It was a distorted tone that had a deep echo to it and I could feel it reverberating through my body. Never before had a sound caused such cold dread to well up in my gut. I shook it off and pulled the revolver close to my chest.
A low rumble of thunder sounded in the distance as I slung myself around the corner, gun and flashlight drawn into the night.
Darkness stared back at me. I lowered the gun and moved the flashlight toward the backside of the building. The low growl struck my ears again and this time I saw movement out of the corner of my eye.
“Freeze!”
As my flashlight rose swiftly to illuminate the suspect, a sense of being swallowed up by the night fell across me as a shadow stood over me. A brief thought fired inside me that I couldn’t be seeing what was in front of me. The sheer size of this shadow sowed a feeling of insignificance in me that I’ve never experienced before. I stood there, motionless, gun falling to my side as I felt my breaths becoming heavier. I could feel my mind slipping as it tried to comprehend what it was witnessing. All inherent logic and preconceived beliefs left me as I watched the shadow slip quickly to the building behind me; slink up the wall, and to my horror fly into the black sky. Unless I imagined it, I watched it slide behind a faint glowing star peeking through the maw of clouds. The longer I stared up into the sky, the brighter the faint star became, until as though it was laughing at me as it twinkled at a sinister pace.
Heavy squashes on the ground sent me whirling towards the gate, gun drawn, and my eyes wide with fear. As the flashlight showed the concerned look of my partner, I lowered the gun and sighed with relief.
“Jesus Joe, put that damn thing down. It’s me.”
I swung back around and frantically searched the yard for signs of the shadow, but only darkness greeted me.
“Jesus Christ. What did you see Joe?”
How could I explain what I saw? He would think I was mad. Claiming that I saw a monstrous shadow with black wings fly into a star would land me in the loony bin with the rest of the neighborhood. He knew I was scared, there wasn’t any hiding that. You can’t fool a detective, especially not one like my partner.
“Nothin’. This darkness is messing with my nerves a bit is all. There’s nothin’ back…”
I didn’t have time to finish as my flashlight found the back door to the building nearly ripped off its hinges.
I stood frozen in the grass as James got a better look at the door. I couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. That lonely star continued to laugh at me, mocking my cowardice at how easily it broke a bitter son of a bitch like me. I didn’t want to go into that building, but I knew we had to.
The skies opened up and a torrential rain began to fall, as if commanding us to enter the doorway. An empty room laid in front of us, cast in darkness with any fleeting shadows disappearing as the last scraps of moonlight were devoured by the storm. Our flashlights became the only source of illumination and a beacon to anything hiding in those halls.
The room had been stripped bare of any worthwhile belongings and a musty scent that had been trapped in the building for three decades hung heavily in the air. Our investigation continued as we moved throughout the first floor of the building, each step creating an eerie creak, further notifying any inhabitants of our whereabouts. A feeling of dread washed over me again as I glanced out the dirty dust stained window into the roiling black sky. There I saw the faint twinkle of that malevolent star peering back at me through a small gash in the clouds.
“Joe, you might want to get a look at this.”
James held the light close to his face and I could see by his demeanor that this was no mere clue. His eyes showed trepidation as he focused the light against a wall leading to a descending stair case. On the wall, written in a deep black, were symbols, the likes that neither of us had seen before. Egyptian Hieroglyphics were the only things that came to my mind that were relatively close to what I was seeing, but even these appeared more alien. Strange shapes and lines of different contours covered the entire wall and as I placed my finger on one of the strange symbols I recoiled in horror.
“Christ! This is ain’t any paint…its… blood.”
James reached for his revolver and cocked it as we moved towards the stair case, the brim of his hat casting a foreboding shadow across his determined face. Our training reflex had kicked in, for now it was no longer a breaking and entering we were investigating, but a possible homicide.
As we moved slowly down the stairs my ears were perked, listening for any hint of company that might await us in the basement. As we reached the bottom the same familiar darkness greeted our arrival. The basement was as empty as the first floor with the only difference being the concrete floor that seemed to echo every step. A small room sat at the south end of the building and as we turned the corner into the doorway I’ll never forget the pure terror of what I witnessed on that cold dark floor.
In a crescent shape, littered across the floor, were the fresh remains of four women. Each had a large chunk of flesh missing from their backs. I felt a warm sensation rise up my throat and it took everything in my power to force it back down.James hid his disgust slightly better, but the sweat rolling off his face did little to disguise it.
“Oh my God… What kind of sick freak did this?”
The bodies had been placed in the form of a crude crescent with their bound legs and arms fully stretched out, making the shape even more prominent among the blood pool on the concrete floor. It was almost too much for me to take. It had been the worst crime scene that I had seen and the fact that we believed we would find nothing in this dilapidated building added to the shock to our systems. Near the bodies, carved into the floor,was a large star.
“It looks like some kind of satanic ritual or something,” said James as he wiped the sweat off his brow.
I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was afraid. Seeing James as scared as he was frightened the hell out of me. Silence crept into the air.
"We need to call this in," I said, breaking the silence.
"I'll ca..."
A sound of gnashing began to come from the adjacent room.
We both looked at each other as the grinding sound continued. I’m not too proud to admit that I considered running at that point but the cop in me pulled me toward that room with revolver drawn, ready to send whomever or whatever did this, straight to Hell.
The smell of blood immediately hit us as we entered the room. That’s where we found him.
“Drop the knife!”
Fear and disgust filled James’ eyes as he stared down the culprit of the blood soaked nightmare that we had stumbled upon.
The man paid us no attention as his knife sliced into the dead flesh on his plate.
“Put down the knife! I’ll blow your goddamn head off. I swear to God!”
James’ finger was now putting pressure on the trigger.
The man looked up, blood caked on each side of his face. His soulless eyes were protruding from his gaunt face as he glanced at both of us; finally he rested his eyes on me. A crooked smile spread slowly across his face revealing stained yellow teeth, pieces of flesh still clung to his canines as he began to speak.
“You’ve seen it…” He said while pointing his long yellow nailed finger at me.
I stood motionless, paralyzed by his words, with the tormented thought that what I had seen was a reality. The dark wings soaring through the void into that laughing star ripped into my mind as he slowly stood up from the table.
“Stop right there! You’re under arrest for murder you piece of filth. Get on your knees now, or I swear to God I’ll send you straight to Hell,” shouted James as the man stood in front of the table.
The man cocked his head to the right side and stared at James.
“They were willing,” He hissed at James.
He turned his attention back to me and smiled again.
“It called to each of us. My devotion to it was just greater. They gave their bodies to me so that I could feed it.”
The man picked up the knife again and held it at his side.
“Drop the knife!”
“It has plans for you,” He said, pointing his sickly finger at me with a stern look upon his twisted face.
“It calls to me from the twilight. The gates of oblivion have opened for me!”
The knife slid across the man’s throat as he smiled insanely, spraying black blood among the walls as he collapsed to the ground, the blood pooling into the circle of depravity forming the five points of the star. As the body laid motionless on the floor I witnessed the darkness writhe in the four corners of the room before scurrying like roaches to envelop me. Then came the fall. I could feel cold wind slashing at my face as I continued to fall into the abyss. I closed my eyes and awaited the jarring halt before succumbing to the darkness forever.
I awoke to the sight of nothing, just the void, not an orb of light anywhere. The air was heavy with saturation and the smell of piss and excrement was overwhelming. I could sense the presence of others, not human, but not animal either. I could feel their eyes upon me as they moved cautiously closer to me. I had nowhere to go. I felt the area behind me and pushed my back as far as it could go before I felt the familiar sensation of bark. I was in a tree, how high up, I could only estimate. The sounds of movement ceased as a deep growling came from the darkness below. The familiarity of the rumble sent chills down my spine as I had heard it before! What laid in waiting beneath the tree, hidden by an ocean of black?
A hairy palm grasped my right shoulder and began to pull me forward. I tried to resist the pull, but I felt my balance slip as I tumbled forward into the darkness. If it wasn't for the sensation of free fall I wouldn't have been able to tell that I was falling. The darkness permeated everything and it was only when I struck the ground did I feel any other sensation.
My vision was blurry as I struggled to open my eyes. A figure stood over me, obscured by a bright light.
"Joe? You alright?"
My vision began to settle and reality once again returned to the backdrop.
"Thank God. You had me worried."
I did my best to sit up and propped myself up against the wall.
"What happened?" I asked, my head throbbing with every heartbeat.
"You went down like a ton a bricks is what happened," Jimmy replied, extending his hand.
"That doesn't answer my question," I said, waving off his hand. I didn't want to move.
"Do I need to call an ambulance?"
The room went quiet and Jimmy's voice became muffled. I stared past him to the shadows on the wall. They were shifting. I watched them jump from one corner to the next until they were close to the crime scene. The shadows converged into one and a familiar form began to manifest. In that abstract horror I witnessed the shadow crouching next to the body of the perpetrator as it began to feed on the massive wound to his throat. I wanted to scream but my vocal chords were frozen. I watched the shadow turn its body until it was facing me and with one flap of it's giant wings it shot through the walls and back into the night.
"Joe? Do I need to call an ambulance?"
I snapped my head back towards Jimmy, my eyes wide with fear and confusion.
"What the hell's happening to me?"
Rain pelted the glass as I watched the storm brew through the trees, looking for that sinister star. Though it was not visible through the clouds, I could still feel it gnawing away at me. Never before had I felt such a sense of insignificance to the point that I wanted everything to fade to black and go silent.
"Do you remember that first murder case we were assigned to Joe?"
I couldn't bear to look at James but I answered nonetheless.
"Yeah. I do."
"It involved a mother and a daughter. I remember coming up on the scene and just smelling the blood. You can never forget that smell. I remember Lea was almost a year old at the time and the girl lying there on the ground wasn't much older. I blanked out when I looked into those lifeless eyes as they stared at me. I don't know Joey, something about that look on that little girl's face still haunts me to this day. It was almost like a look of blame."
A light rumble of thunder sounded off in the distance as light from the street lamps raced across the dark interior of the car.
"James, there was nothing you could have done," I said staring down at the dash.
The intense rain had begun to subside and James let out a sigh as he was trying to spin his thoughts into words.
"I remember asking you why such terrible things happen to such good people. You came over and rested your left hand on my shoulder and said the--"
"There are just some evils in this world kid that we aren't meant to understand," I said, finishing his sentence.
"Your quote stuck with me and for whatever reason it always makes me feel better when we're dealing with terrible crimes that happen to good people. Joe... I know what's going on."
I kept my eyes staring into the dash, though I could feel his concerned look out of the corner of my eye.
"You're afraid Joe."
I said nothing. But he was right. I was petrified.
"But we're all afraid."
My head shot up and I looked at him in the eyes.
"You know nothing about fear James," I said sternly but calmly.
The car came to a stop with a slight squeak.
"Don't I Joe? Everyday I leave my family I worry about not coming home. I worry about my daughter waiting up for her daddy to come home and when I never do, I see her eyes, lifeless, like that little girl staring down at me with silent blame. And my wife... my wife..."
Not once in our ten year history together had I witnessed my partner break down. I witnessed a single tear run down his face before he buried his head into the steering wheel, quiet sobs coming every few seconds afterwards.
My expression changed to embarrassment and concern, embarrassment for how callous I had acted and concern for my partner, who like me, was only human.
"You and Christy still having problems?"
The sobbing had ceased and was replaced by the quiet streaking of the wiper blades.
"Yeah," He said slowly raising his head from the steering wheel.
The rest of the car ride home was in silence. The rain had finally subsided and as we pulled up to my apartment building I saw that familiar twinkle coming through the shredded clouds.
---------------------------------
In the blackest corners of our humanity there is a primal belief locked away deep in the recesses of our subconscious. It is a reminder of a time when man sought refuge in trees from the beasts that lurked in the darkness below the canopy. As we huddled together in the weakening branches of the tree while our nightmares circled below us waiting for the bow to snap, it’s not for certain what made us look up into the night sky in desperation, but in the primeval darkness a faint star blinked back at us against an ash choked oblivion, promising safety in return for sacrifice.
When the first of our ancestors was thrown from that tree to the waiting horrors below, it forever enslaved us to the will of the cosmos. The ritual of the black star is thought to be the oldest religion in antiquity. Our ancestors sacrificed many of their kin to the will of that cold dark star. Though it rested millions of light years away it provided them with everything they needed to survive. Even when our ancestors were forced into caves by the night terrors and no sky could be seen, the black star found them. It saved them from starvation during the harsh winters in those caves, compelling them to eat their weakest to grant them strength to overcome the hardship.
From what I have witnessed and the dark cancerous images that have plagued my dreams, I know personally that it is embedded within each of us like a dormant disease, waiting for the time to be dire enough that we must call upon it again for assistance. The black star ceased to exist in the heavens millennia ago, but as I look up into the infinite abyss that is the sky, I can see the faint twinkling of a tinted star, laughing as the deep grey clouds choke the moon.
It was a dreary autumn night when my partner and I decided to intercept a call about a possible breaking and entering of a lower street level apartment on Grove Street just south of the harbor. We were already in the area and decided to give the boys in blue a break.
“Whaddya say Jimmy? Are you up for investigating a possible B and E in South Side?”
My partner, James Franklin, had been doing this job for nearly as long as I had. He was a great detective and probably the only person I trusted more so than my own father. His strong jaw and clean shaven face made him the picture of authority compared to my thinning hairline, pudgy nose, and scruffy face. In all honesty the man was what a detective should be. I was grateful that he had been my partner for so long and the two of us respected the hell out of each other.
“Running a routine call? Age must be catching up with you Joe.”
“I like to think of it as accumulated wisdom. Besides, I’m just considering your baby face looks Jimmy. All that stress ain’t good for your complexion ya know?”
It had been a long time since I had been on a routine call. As we arrived at the scene a light rain began to fall, casting a hazy mist over the road. The streets surrounding the old building were quiet with only the pattering of rain drops on our car breaking the silence. We were in the old part of the city and many of these buildings had been vacant for quite some time. Thirty years ago In nineteen twenty two, most of the neighborhood had been boarded up after a series of strange occurrences cast many of its inhabitants into the local asylum. The reports had long been hidden away but the rumor was that a few dissidents in the neighborhood had been practicing some kind of black magic that sent the rest of the block into hysteria. Ever since then that part of the city had been tainted by the stain of something dark.
The street was pitched in night without a single light in any window of the numerous buildings that hung over the vacant street. I don’t get unnerved easily, but something in that darkness just didn’t sit right with me.
“Joe. Everything alright?”
I had forgotten about the call as I stared down that empty street leading up to that black sky. Something in that sky was eating at me. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something didn’t feel right. It was so cloudy you couldn’t see a damn thing though and I dismissed my fears as being illogical. I reached down into my pocket and pulled out my flashlight.
“Yeah, I’m alright, just trying to find my light.”
The building had long been sealed up and as I shined the light over each window it was clear that there was no sign of any forced entry. The stairwell to the bottom apartment was boarded up in a similar fashion with no signs of disturbance.
“I’m not seeing anything out of the ordinary here Jimmy. In fact I’m not seeing anything out here at all. There’s not a damn twinkle of light anywhere on this street.”
We had no idea who put the call out as there was no sign of anyone when we had arrived. We were essentially going into the investigation blind.
“I’ll take a peek around back and we can get outta’ here,” I said, as I started to make my way toward the wooden fence.
“Alright Joe, shout if you need me.”
As I got to the fence my flashlight began to flicker before fading out. The rain was falling harder now as I fumbled for the latch on the fence.
“Piece o’crap light. Damn thing never works when I need it to."
I tapped it on the fence to no avail. Frustration eventually overtook me as I slammed it harder until it flickered back on.
“What a cheap piece of crap.”
I wasted no time in finding the handle and prying open the mud stuck fence. The backyard was empty and overgrown with crabgrass. I shined the light toward the ground, but found no evidence of trespass that night or any night before that.
It was a wasted call and all that it accomplished was possibly causing me to come down with a cold later. I began to turn back towards the fence when I heard a rustling coming from the corner of the building. By force of habit I pulled out my revolver and shined the light towards the end of the brick building. There was nothing. As silently as I could I moved my way across the saturated ground until my back was against the building. As I rested against the brick I could hear a low growl coming from the other side of the wall. I closed my eyes and tried to remember if I had heard anything like it before. Nothing came to mind. It was a distorted tone that had a deep echo to it and I could feel it reverberating through my body. Never before had a sound caused such cold dread to well up in my gut. I shook it off and pulled the revolver close to my chest.
A low rumble of thunder sounded in the distance as I slung myself around the corner, gun and flashlight drawn into the night.
Darkness stared back at me. I lowered the gun and moved the flashlight toward the backside of the building. The low growl struck my ears again and this time I saw movement out of the corner of my eye.
“Freeze!”
As my flashlight rose swiftly to illuminate the suspect, a sense of being swallowed up by the night fell across me as a shadow stood over me. A brief thought fired inside me that I couldn’t be seeing what was in front of me. The sheer size of this shadow sowed a feeling of insignificance in me that I’ve never experienced before. I stood there, motionless, gun falling to my side as I felt my breaths becoming heavier. I could feel my mind slipping as it tried to comprehend what it was witnessing. All inherent logic and preconceived beliefs left me as I watched the shadow slip quickly to the building behind me; slink up the wall, and to my horror fly into the black sky. Unless I imagined it, I watched it slide behind a faint glowing star peeking through the maw of clouds. The longer I stared up into the sky, the brighter the faint star became, until as though it was laughing at me as it twinkled at a sinister pace.
Heavy squashes on the ground sent me whirling towards the gate, gun drawn, and my eyes wide with fear. As the flashlight showed the concerned look of my partner, I lowered the gun and sighed with relief.
“Jesus Joe, put that damn thing down. It’s me.”
I swung back around and frantically searched the yard for signs of the shadow, but only darkness greeted me.
“Jesus Christ. What did you see Joe?”
How could I explain what I saw? He would think I was mad. Claiming that I saw a monstrous shadow with black wings fly into a star would land me in the loony bin with the rest of the neighborhood. He knew I was scared, there wasn’t any hiding that. You can’t fool a detective, especially not one like my partner.
“Nothin’. This darkness is messing with my nerves a bit is all. There’s nothin’ back…”
I didn’t have time to finish as my flashlight found the back door to the building nearly ripped off its hinges.
I stood frozen in the grass as James got a better look at the door. I couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. That lonely star continued to laugh at me, mocking my cowardice at how easily it broke a bitter son of a bitch like me. I didn’t want to go into that building, but I knew we had to.
The skies opened up and a torrential rain began to fall, as if commanding us to enter the doorway. An empty room laid in front of us, cast in darkness with any fleeting shadows disappearing as the last scraps of moonlight were devoured by the storm. Our flashlights became the only source of illumination and a beacon to anything hiding in those halls.
The room had been stripped bare of any worthwhile belongings and a musty scent that had been trapped in the building for three decades hung heavily in the air. Our investigation continued as we moved throughout the first floor of the building, each step creating an eerie creak, further notifying any inhabitants of our whereabouts. A feeling of dread washed over me again as I glanced out the dirty dust stained window into the roiling black sky. There I saw the faint twinkle of that malevolent star peering back at me through a small gash in the clouds.
“Joe, you might want to get a look at this.”
James held the light close to his face and I could see by his demeanor that this was no mere clue. His eyes showed trepidation as he focused the light against a wall leading to a descending stair case. On the wall, written in a deep black, were symbols, the likes that neither of us had seen before. Egyptian Hieroglyphics were the only things that came to my mind that were relatively close to what I was seeing, but even these appeared more alien. Strange shapes and lines of different contours covered the entire wall and as I placed my finger on one of the strange symbols I recoiled in horror.
“Christ! This is ain’t any paint…its… blood.”
James reached for his revolver and cocked it as we moved towards the stair case, the brim of his hat casting a foreboding shadow across his determined face. Our training reflex had kicked in, for now it was no longer a breaking and entering we were investigating, but a possible homicide.
As we moved slowly down the stairs my ears were perked, listening for any hint of company that might await us in the basement. As we reached the bottom the same familiar darkness greeted our arrival. The basement was as empty as the first floor with the only difference being the concrete floor that seemed to echo every step. A small room sat at the south end of the building and as we turned the corner into the doorway I’ll never forget the pure terror of what I witnessed on that cold dark floor.
In a crescent shape, littered across the floor, were the fresh remains of four women. Each had a large chunk of flesh missing from their backs. I felt a warm sensation rise up my throat and it took everything in my power to force it back down.James hid his disgust slightly better, but the sweat rolling off his face did little to disguise it.
“Oh my God… What kind of sick freak did this?”
The bodies had been placed in the form of a crude crescent with their bound legs and arms fully stretched out, making the shape even more prominent among the blood pool on the concrete floor. It was almost too much for me to take. It had been the worst crime scene that I had seen and the fact that we believed we would find nothing in this dilapidated building added to the shock to our systems. Near the bodies, carved into the floor,was a large star.
“It looks like some kind of satanic ritual or something,” said James as he wiped the sweat off his brow.
I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was afraid. Seeing James as scared as he was frightened the hell out of me. Silence crept into the air.
"We need to call this in," I said, breaking the silence.
"I'll ca..."
A sound of gnashing began to come from the adjacent room.
We both looked at each other as the grinding sound continued. I’m not too proud to admit that I considered running at that point but the cop in me pulled me toward that room with revolver drawn, ready to send whomever or whatever did this, straight to Hell.
The smell of blood immediately hit us as we entered the room. That’s where we found him.
“Drop the knife!”
Fear and disgust filled James’ eyes as he stared down the culprit of the blood soaked nightmare that we had stumbled upon.
The man paid us no attention as his knife sliced into the dead flesh on his plate.
“Put down the knife! I’ll blow your goddamn head off. I swear to God!”
James’ finger was now putting pressure on the trigger.
The man looked up, blood caked on each side of his face. His soulless eyes were protruding from his gaunt face as he glanced at both of us; finally he rested his eyes on me. A crooked smile spread slowly across his face revealing stained yellow teeth, pieces of flesh still clung to his canines as he began to speak.
“You’ve seen it…” He said while pointing his long yellow nailed finger at me.
I stood motionless, paralyzed by his words, with the tormented thought that what I had seen was a reality. The dark wings soaring through the void into that laughing star ripped into my mind as he slowly stood up from the table.
“Stop right there! You’re under arrest for murder you piece of filth. Get on your knees now, or I swear to God I’ll send you straight to Hell,” shouted James as the man stood in front of the table.
The man cocked his head to the right side and stared at James.
“They were willing,” He hissed at James.
He turned his attention back to me and smiled again.
“It called to each of us. My devotion to it was just greater. They gave their bodies to me so that I could feed it.”
The man picked up the knife again and held it at his side.
“Drop the knife!”
“It has plans for you,” He said, pointing his sickly finger at me with a stern look upon his twisted face.
“It calls to me from the twilight. The gates of oblivion have opened for me!”
The knife slid across the man’s throat as he smiled insanely, spraying black blood among the walls as he collapsed to the ground, the blood pooling into the circle of depravity forming the five points of the star. As the body laid motionless on the floor I witnessed the darkness writhe in the four corners of the room before scurrying like roaches to envelop me. Then came the fall. I could feel cold wind slashing at my face as I continued to fall into the abyss. I closed my eyes and awaited the jarring halt before succumbing to the darkness forever.
I awoke to the sight of nothing, just the void, not an orb of light anywhere. The air was heavy with saturation and the smell of piss and excrement was overwhelming. I could sense the presence of others, not human, but not animal either. I could feel their eyes upon me as they moved cautiously closer to me. I had nowhere to go. I felt the area behind me and pushed my back as far as it could go before I felt the familiar sensation of bark. I was in a tree, how high up, I could only estimate. The sounds of movement ceased as a deep growling came from the darkness below. The familiarity of the rumble sent chills down my spine as I had heard it before! What laid in waiting beneath the tree, hidden by an ocean of black?
A hairy palm grasped my right shoulder and began to pull me forward. I tried to resist the pull, but I felt my balance slip as I tumbled forward into the darkness. If it wasn't for the sensation of free fall I wouldn't have been able to tell that I was falling. The darkness permeated everything and it was only when I struck the ground did I feel any other sensation.
My vision was blurry as I struggled to open my eyes. A figure stood over me, obscured by a bright light.
"Joe? You alright?"
My vision began to settle and reality once again returned to the backdrop.
"Thank God. You had me worried."
I did my best to sit up and propped myself up against the wall.
"What happened?" I asked, my head throbbing with every heartbeat.
"You went down like a ton a bricks is what happened," Jimmy replied, extending his hand.
"That doesn't answer my question," I said, waving off his hand. I didn't want to move.
"Do I need to call an ambulance?"
The room went quiet and Jimmy's voice became muffled. I stared past him to the shadows on the wall. They were shifting. I watched them jump from one corner to the next until they were close to the crime scene. The shadows converged into one and a familiar form began to manifest. In that abstract horror I witnessed the shadow crouching next to the body of the perpetrator as it began to feed on the massive wound to his throat. I wanted to scream but my vocal chords were frozen. I watched the shadow turn its body until it was facing me and with one flap of it's giant wings it shot through the walls and back into the night.
"Joe? Do I need to call an ambulance?"
I snapped my head back towards Jimmy, my eyes wide with fear and confusion.
"What the hell's happening to me?"
Rain pelted the glass as I watched the storm brew through the trees, looking for that sinister star. Though it was not visible through the clouds, I could still feel it gnawing away at me. Never before had I felt such a sense of insignificance to the point that I wanted everything to fade to black and go silent.
"Do you remember that first murder case we were assigned to Joe?"
I couldn't bear to look at James but I answered nonetheless.
"Yeah. I do."
"It involved a mother and a daughter. I remember coming up on the scene and just smelling the blood. You can never forget that smell. I remember Lea was almost a year old at the time and the girl lying there on the ground wasn't much older. I blanked out when I looked into those lifeless eyes as they stared at me. I don't know Joey, something about that look on that little girl's face still haunts me to this day. It was almost like a look of blame."
A light rumble of thunder sounded off in the distance as light from the street lamps raced across the dark interior of the car.
"James, there was nothing you could have done," I said staring down at the dash.
The intense rain had begun to subside and James let out a sigh as he was trying to spin his thoughts into words.
"I remember asking you why such terrible things happen to such good people. You came over and rested your left hand on my shoulder and said the--"
"There are just some evils in this world kid that we aren't meant to understand," I said, finishing his sentence.
"Your quote stuck with me and for whatever reason it always makes me feel better when we're dealing with terrible crimes that happen to good people. Joe... I know what's going on."
I kept my eyes staring into the dash, though I could feel his concerned look out of the corner of my eye.
"You're afraid Joe."
I said nothing. But he was right. I was petrified.
"But we're all afraid."
My head shot up and I looked at him in the eyes.
"You know nothing about fear James," I said sternly but calmly.
The car came to a stop with a slight squeak.
"Don't I Joe? Everyday I leave my family I worry about not coming home. I worry about my daughter waiting up for her daddy to come home and when I never do, I see her eyes, lifeless, like that little girl staring down at me with silent blame. And my wife... my wife..."
Not once in our ten year history together had I witnessed my partner break down. I witnessed a single tear run down his face before he buried his head into the steering wheel, quiet sobs coming every few seconds afterwards.
My expression changed to embarrassment and concern, embarrassment for how callous I had acted and concern for my partner, who like me, was only human.
"You and Christy still having problems?"
The sobbing had ceased and was replaced by the quiet streaking of the wiper blades.
"Yeah," He said slowly raising his head from the steering wheel.
The rest of the car ride home was in silence. The rain had finally subsided and as we pulled up to my apartment building I saw that familiar twinkle coming through the shredded clouds.
