Faithfully
yours,
Princess Angelique
Bosc
Angelique pushed the chair
away from the desk, straightened her legs, and turned to leave the
room. She used her free hand to wipe moisture from the corners of
her eyes and cheeks. Dr. Stine and Razor followed her as she
strolled through the foyer, stepped onto the front porch, and
opened the screened door. They gathered on the front lawn. Stanley
flapped his wings and hovered in the air. Angelique folded the
piece of paper into thirds and handed it to Stanley. He hooted and
seized the message with his left talon.
“
Please take the note to
Zachary. And be safe during your journey!” she said.
“
And search for some oil
supplement tablets while you’re away, Stanley. Razor is beginning
to develop a mild case of rust,” Dr. Stine said. Razor moved his
front legs back and forth, which allowed everyone to hear a harsh,
grinding sound.
Stanley’s wide, yellow eyes
blinked. He ruffled his white feathers and hooted at them, which
they knew was his attempt to say goodbye. Then he soared beyond the
overlapping limbs of two dogwood trees and vanished from
view.
“
It’s time for us to visit
the town of Blanton and obtain holy water from a cathedral. It’s a
huge church. It stands on top of a tall hill and overlooks the
town. After we stock up on holy water, we’ll take a few shortcuts
to Xavier’s castle,” Dr. Stine said.
“
Why do we need holy
water?” Angelique asked. She patted Razor on his head.
“
We’ll need it to survive
Polinus’ labyrinth. Polinus is a creature of the undead, a huge
vampire bat, who is strong enough to survive in direct sunlight.
Once we reach the peaks of Mount Zahn, we’ll be forced to travel
through the labyrinth to get to The Cursed Sea. Xavier’s castle is
on Cadaver Island, near the coastline,” Dr. Stine said.
Their conversation ended
abruptly when they heard people scream. Dr. Stine stepped toward
the road and peered around the bulk of an oak tree. He watched a
middle-aged man and a young woman hold hands and run together
across the dirt road. The man’s sweaty, black hair, boasting
streaks of gray in his sideburns, clung to his forehead and face. A
long ponytail of blonde hair dangled from the woman’s scalp and
swung back and forth. The man wore a blue-and-green, flannel shirt,
blue overalls, and brown work boots. The woman’s long, green dress,
which draped to the middle of her shins, exhibited a long gash down
the right side. A layer of dust covered her bare feet.
“
Find shelter, Sarah! I’ll
keep them busy!” the man yelled.
“
No! I won’t let you
sacrifice yourself for me!” Sarah said.
The man and Sarah listened
to chains rattle and rats squeak. Two large oafs lumbered from
behind a steep hill. They wore metal collars and tugged on long,
massive chains with their green, bloated hands. The oaf on the left
wore a black, pinstriped suit, a bloodstained, white shirt, and
black dress shoes. The oaf on the left was naked. A Y-shaped
incision, which he’d received during an autopsy, spanned his upper
torso. Both of the oafs scanned their surroundings constantly. They
watched Sarah bolt into the woods while the man lunged into a
sprint.
A Roman-style chariot
rolled around the corner as the oafs grunted and pulled the chains.
Rats and mice flowed over the edge of the chariot and swarmed
across the dirt road. A tall skeleton, who wore a red, silk robe,
stood in the center of the chariot and held the oafs’ chains in his
bony hands. Dr. Stine estimated that the priest stood at least
twenty feet high. The red robe draped across the back of the
chariot and stretched behind the wagon at a distance of half a
mile. A swarm of rodents scurried along the sides of the chariot.
Flowers withered and grass died near the Doom Wagon as it rolled
by.
“
Do you think those rats
caused the plague?” Angelique asked.
“
Be quiet! They might hear
us! Let’s get inside the house!” Dr. Stine said.
Dr. Stine, Angelique, and
Razor ran across the front yard, scampered onto the front porch,
pushed their way into the foyer, and watched from the front door.
Dr. Stine told Angelique and Razor that the naked oaf was Lefty and
the one in the suit was Righty. Angelique bit her tongue so she
wouldn’t laugh out loud. Then she gasped when Razor’s tongue
tickled her ankle. She picked him up and hugged him.
Paralysis seized Dr. Stine
and Angelique when the man stopped running, stood in the middle of
the dirt road, and gasped for air. Lefty pointed at him and exhaled
a high-pitched scream. The sheer volume of the scream caused
countless birds to take flight from the limbs of nearby trees.
Deer, rabbits, raccoons, and squirrels emerged from the foliage and
darted for cover. All of the windows in the abandoned house
shattered.
“
Please don’t kill me,
Reverend Stark! I’m begging for mercy!” the man said.
Reverend Stark ignored his
plea. He pointed at the man and laughed. The priest’s hands pulled
his robe apart, revealing a large split where the garment covered
his chest and stomach. More rats emerged from the gash, dropped to
the floor of the chariot, and scurried over the sides of the wagon.
The rodents flocked across the dirt road, climbed the man’s legs,
and covered his entire body in less than ten seconds. The man
collapsed to the road. He kicked his arms and legs while the rats
nibbled on his skin and ripped his clothes. Pink tails thrashed,
sharp claws ripped cloth, and filthy teeth dived into flesh to
deliver the plague. In the nearby woods, Sarah wept and curled into
a fetal position.
“
Do something, Dr. Stine!
We should help them!” Angelique said.
“
There’s nothing we can do.
I’m not strong enough to fight him,” Dr. Stine said.
Reverend Stark reached for
a gold chain, which dangled around his neck. An amulet glowed on
the chain. Dr. Stine realized the amulet was shaped like a
pentagram. When the amulet stopped glowing, Reverend Stark exhaled
a loud, crisp whistle. The rats flocked away from the man’s corpse.
Blood oozed from lacerations on his skin while his torn clothes
fluttered in a strong gust of wind. Sarah emerged from the woods,
ran toward the man’s body, and cradled his head in the cupped palms
of her hands.
“
You killed my father, you
bastard!” Sarah screamed. Saliva and phlegm burst from her puckered
lips and landed a few inches away from Lefty’s right foot. The oaf
giggled.
Reverend Stark exhaled a
roar of deep laughter. Lefty guffawed so hard that a couple of his
stitches ruptured along the Y-shaped zipper of his incision. The
long fingernails of his green, left hand shoved his decayed
intestines back into his abdomen. Righty shook his left index
finger at Sarah, as if to discipline her. Then he opened his mouth
extremely wide. His jaw popped and snapped while a swarm of giant
maggots surged from his esophagus and dropped to the dirt road.
They inched across the road and swarmed across green grass and
fallen leaves. Sarah tried to run, but the huge maggots surrounded
her. She held her hands in front of her face and begged for someone
to help her. One of the maggots wrapped around her upper torso and
squeezed the breath out of her. Another maggot wiggled between her
lips, forced itself down her throat, and constricted her trachea.
She moaned and twitched while her fingernails clawed at thick grass
and wet soil. Angelique buried her face against Dr. Stine’s chest.
After Sarah stopped moving, Razor whimpered and groveled against
Dr. Stine’s legs.
“
There’s nothing we
could’ve done to save them,” Dr. Stine said.
“
It’s so horrible! What
could cause a
priest
to turn evil?” she whispered. Dr. Stine
hugged her while he watched the Doom Wagon roll across the dirt
road.
“
I don’t know. I’m sure
Xavier is somehow involved,” Dr. Stine said.
Dr. Stine and Angelique
watched Lefty and Righty pull and tug on their chains. Enormous
rats covered the road on all sides of the wagon as the chariot
moved slowly away from the corpses of Sarah and her father.
Reverend Stark ducked beneath the limbs of trees as the chariot
passed beneath them. Several minutes later, the final stretch of
red cloth from Reverend Stark’s robe disappeared from view after it
slid across the steep incline of an adjacent hill. When Dr. Stine
felt confident that The Doom Wagon was gone, he emerged from the
house and approached the dirt road. He glanced to the left and to
the right to confirm that the coast was clear. Then he beckoned for
Angelique and Razor to join him. He realized that the black
stallion ran away with the startled animals.
“
We need to get to Blanton
immediately. I think Reverend Stark patrols this road and will come
back soon,” Dr. Stine said. Angelique didn’t respond. Razor hung
his head mournfully. Then they walked in silence as they hiked away
from the abandoned house.
***
Thirty minutes later, Dr.
Stine guided Angelique and Razor toward the small, wood-framed
houses and the narrow, cobblestone streets of Blanton.
Grass-covered hills separated Town Hall and the constable’s office
from the residential areas. On the eastern side of town, they
noticed small kiosks where fresh meat, whole fish, and fruits and
vegetables were sold. Dr. Stine and Angelique felt uncomfortable
when they didn’t see anyone walking in the streets. The town of
Blanton appeared to be abandoned.
A loud voice blared from
several speakers, which were attached to the sides of homes, shops,
and other buildings. As Dr. Stine, Angelique, and Razor strolled
through the center of town, they heard the voice pause
occasionally, interrupted by the cough or sneeze of an adolescent
boy or young man. They realized that someone was reading the Bible
nearby. Somehow, an amplifier transmitted the voice throughout the
town from wherever the boy was located. Angelique’s teeth chattered
and Razor whimpered.
“
I recognize the verse. We
studied it in church many years ago,” Angelique said.
“
Yes. It refers to the
plague. It’s from Leviticus 26:25.” Dr. Stine strolled toward a
small shop. Above the store’s wood door, a dangling sign hung from
two hooks. In cursive letters, it read:
ALCHEMY
SUPPLIES
.
“
Where are you going? I
thought the cathedral was on a hill,” Angelique said.
“
I’ll need to buy some
glass flasks to store the holy water,” Dr. Stine said.
Angelique and Razor
followed Dr. Stine to the shop’s door. Dr. Stine tugged on a brass
handle and the door swung toward him. He poked his head inside and
stared at shelves full of alchemy books, potions, and flasks. A
bell chimed above his head after he stepped across the threshold of
the store. Angelique and Razor followed him into the
shop.
“
Hello? Is anyone here?”
Dr. Stine said. He plucked a flask from a shelf and smiled. A thick
cork would keep the holy water from seeping out while they
traveled. He gathered three more flasks, for a total of four, and
stepped toward the counter.
An old woman emerged from a
small room in the back of the building. Her left hand held a
kerosene lantern a few inches in front of her face. She wore an
old-fashioned, floral-printed dress, which draped across the top of
her bare feet. The stench of mothballs oozed from her and tainted
the stagnant air. When the old woman smiled, Dr. Stine and
Angelique noticed that she didn’t have any teeth. White, jagged
fragments rose from her pink gums. Long, gray hairs protruded from
her nostrils. She placed the lantern on the countertop and peered
at them from behind the thick lenses of her eyeglasses. Then she
glanced toward the window and the door. She trembled.
“
We must hurry. Reverend
Stark will come back soon. When you hear the tower’s bell ring, you
must seek shelter. Everyone in Blanton hides while the Doom Wagon
patrols the streets. And stay away from rats! If they bite you,
you’ll be infected with the plague. You’ll be cursed and sent into
exile,” the old woman said.
“
Cursed? What happens after
the rats bite someone?” Angelique asked.
“
The plague turns people
into undead cannibals. We’re very lucky that my son found a way to
put the cannibals to sleep. Otherwise, everyone in Blanton would be
dead by now. I always knew that my boy would amount to something,”
the old woman said.
“
So he’s the one who is
reading the Bible? We heard his voice on the speakers after we
arrived in town. He sounds like a pastor. Where is he right now?”
Dr. Stine asked.
“
He’s in the cathedral on
top of the hill. The cannibals are sleeping in the church. If he
stops reading the Bible for more than a few minutes, they’ll start
to wake up. I take meals up to him three times a day. I feel so
sorry for him. He’s so lonely,” she said.
“
Well, I need the flasks so
I can fill them with holy water from the cathedral. Is there a way
we can help your son?” Dr. Stine said.
“
If you can get rid of the
cannibals, then you can help my son. But as long as they are
around, he’ll keep reading the Bible. Oh, he has a tape player and
recordings, but his voice works best. I don’t know how much longer
he can keep us safe,” the old lady said.