How To Recognize A Demon Has Become Your Friend (Necon Modern Horror Book 9) (8 page)

Don’t
sit with your back to the door

change
seats 3 times on a public bus

sleep
with the windows closed.

These
rules will keep them away

from
day time dreams

and
night time desire.

Look
at me twice but no more

don’t
touch your ears

or
remove your gloves.

These
rules will keep me away

from
shadowed doorways

and
multi-plexed garages.

Or do
as you wish

I’ll
bring my toys

and
we can make the stars cry.

Rising Wind crouched in the hole
and rubbed the bone charm on the braided deerskin necklace, as she always did
before the Run began. The necklace was the only thing she had from the time
before being devoured by the Blood Moon Beast.

“I will find a way to kill it,”
she said to herself. Vibrations increased violently, bouncing her and the large
parfleche bag against the hard cold walls of the hole. The cold cut through the
layers of animal pelt shirt and pants.

The usual constant screeching and
cracking sounds rose to a roar, making her ears ring. The acrid air burned
through the moss filled mask she wore. Rising Wind fought building panic that
urged her to jump out of the hole and fling herself onto any sharp edge to end
the sounds trying to shatter her soul. Coughing and gagging, she pressed her
eyes closed and held images of her teepee and village in her mind. Red Man had
taught Rising Wind that was the best way to not lose her reason.

He’d been a good teacher. The
first time she saw him in the Beast’s belly, with his pale skin and long, red
beard and tangled hair, she thought he was another devil. He saved her from
being consumed, dragged her to the cavern in the Beast’s skin and taught her
how to survive.

Curled in a tight ball to protect
her small rounded stomach, a quick flutter inside reminded her why she had to
continue, even in this place of madness. Her son. She carried him without a
sunrise or sunset to tell her how long she had lived as a mite in the Beast.
Her stomach hadn’t grown bigger, but she felt him quiver every now and then. As
long as he was inside, he was safe from this horrible dream.

A violent shudder went through
the Beast and the vibration stopped. She peeked out of the hole. The high
ceiling and walls of the cavern glowed with veins of bright green. Red Man
popped his head out of his hole and pointed up. Cracks in the outer skin of the
Beast were opening, dark light poured down. Rising Wind thought she could see
the stars. Tying the parfleche on her back, she wrapped the climbing claws on
her hands and pulled herself out of the hole and started running.

More than twenty other runners
moved at the same time, each with a large bag on their backs. They scrabbled
over the grey boulder-sized bumps of the Beast’s inner skin. Each took a
different path up towards the opening cracks. Rising Wind concentrated on
choosing her next foot and hand hold. The inner skin alternated with rock hard
edges and wet soft crevasses. She slapped her climbing claws to the crevasses
and pulled herself up towards the widening cracks. Stronger scents of decay
wafted from the crevasses. Horrible screeches and inhuman screams rang around
her as small flesh devils scuttled underfoot, snapping at her ankles with their
claws.

Rising Wind reached the edge of
one of the openings, pulled herself up and onto the outer skin. Above her a
planet filled space, speckled with dark craters, and laced with ridges and
grooves. Other runners popped out of fissures along the endless undulations of
the Beast’s body. The Beast’s tubular arms, wider than rivers, twisted and
grey, reached towards the planet. Runners quickly filled their bags with the
white fungi growing in the fissures on the Beast’s skin. In the distance, a
maw, bigger than the moon, was being filled with chunks of the planet.

Rising Wind ran towards the
mouth, searching for anything different, something that could be a weakness.
The closer she got, the bigger the debris in the air grew, until she had to
retreat.

She scrambled around the opening
to the chasm, filling her bag with fungus. Wind began to pound down on her
signaling time to return to the under-skin. The Beast was finished feeding.
Rising Wind and others raced to the opening. She vaulted over the edge, a spike
cutting through her left calve as the crevasse began to close. Sliding down the
moving walls using the claws to slow her descent was faster than climbing with
her wounded leg. She looked behind her and saw the blood path being consumed by
tiny devils no bigger than the tip of her finger. She kept moving or they would
enter her wound and eat her from the inside out. Trying to stand and stumbling,
she almost fell into Red Man’s arms at the bottom.

He wrapped his arm around Rising
Wind’s waist and dragged her into one of the larger caves. He signaled other
runners, who rolled a rock to block the opening. She could see the anger in his
eyes by the bright green light of the walls. He propped both of their backpacks
against the wall.

“You were searching again,
weren’t you?” Red Man asked. He used his knife to cut off the bloody section of
the pants.

She nodded, pulling off the mask
and gulping the bitter air into her exhausted lungs.

“Why do you keep looking for
something that doesn’t exist?” he asked.

“There has to be a way to stop
it,” she said her hand on her stomach. “For my – people.”

“It can’t be stopped, or killed
or anything. I keep telling you.” He pulled a bone needle and sinew out of his
waist bag. “This is going to hurt.”

“Yes,” she said, closing her
eyes. She let her mind go back to her village while he closed her wound.
Memories replayed in her mind of her teepee, the sweet scent of clean wood
burning, walking in moonlight, the taste of freshly cooked deer meat, breathing
air that didn’t burn her lungs, drinking cool clean water.

Rising Wind jerked awake. Red Man
and two others, Grey and Bat were sitting nearby, eating the fresh fungi that
had been harvested. Rising Wind sat up and moved her left leg; a dull pain
throbbed under the dressing. Red Man had wrapped the wound in several layers so
no blood came through.

“Don’t stand, it might start
bleeding again,” Red Man said. He gave her a hand-size piece of fungus and a
bone cup filled with brown water.

She bit into the spongy fungi,
forcing herself to chew and swallow the slightly bitter meal.

“I planted your gathering,” Grey
said, bobbing his large head. The cloud of grey-white hair around his head
moved as if a breeze had touched it.

She took a swallow of the water,
trying not to disturb the brown silt on the bottom of the cup. “Thank you. I
will plant your next gathering.”

“I saw you run,” Bat said. He was
a small man with large ears, several fingers were missing on his left hand, but
he pointed at her with the two remaining. “Why you always run to mouth? You
want to die?”

“She looking for way to kill It,”
Grey said, nudging Bat with his foot. “You always ask and forget.”

“No.” Bat rubbed his eyes, and
shook his bald head. “I don’t remember, that’s all.”

“Looking for something that
isn’t,” Red Man said.

“There has to be a way —
“she said.

“Why, ‘cause you dreamed it?”
Grey said.

“I didn’t tell you my dreams,”
she said, stumbling to her feet.

They began to laugh, first quiet
and then louder, like they had lost their minds. They fell on their backs,
laughing and crying at the same time, tearing their clothes off. She backed
away from them towards the barricaded entrance. Tiny green, glowing spider-like
devils burst out of their chests, eyes and mouth.

Rising Wind screamed…

…and jerked awake. The air didn’t
burn her throat and lungs. There was no glowing green light, just stars through
the top of the teepee. Her husband lay next to her. She touched his face. Warm
and alive. He pulled her into his arms.

“Bad dream?” he whispered in her
ear.

She pressed her face into his
chest, breathing in his spicy earthy scent.

He rolled her onto her back, smoothed
the hair from her face and kissed her. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.” He
laid his hand gently on her stomach. “Not for you or our baby. Remember that
tomorrow night when you’re alone. I’ll only be gone two nights with the hunting
party.”

A shudder went through her. “No,”
she said grabbing his arm. “Don’t go.”

“You know I have to, it’s my
turn. We’ll need extra meat this winter with a child coming.”

“Please,” she said.

“I can’t pass up my turn because
of a bad dream. Are you afraid of the Blood Moon?” he asked.

Rising Wind sat up, pulled away
from him. “How did you know what was in my dream?”

Green light dripped from his
eyes. The veins of his chest glowed green. Rising Wind screamed…

…and jerked awake in the glowing
cave. The rancid air burned her throat. The murmur of cracking and screeching
vibrated outside the barricaded entrance. Red Man sat nearby eating fungi.
Rising Wind sat up and moved her left leg; there was no pain. She pulled up the
pant leg. A raised scar went down her leg below the knee.

“Something is wrong,” she said to
him.

“You always say that and forget
when I explain,” he said passing a piece of the fungi to her.

She took it from him, but
couldn’t bring herself to eat the leathery grey chunk.

“Where are Grey and Bat?” she
asked.

“I don’t know them. Maybe they’re
from your village dream or from Its dream of you.”

Rising Wind jumped to her feet.
“Stop,” she screamed…

…and jerked awake in her teepee.
Her husband’s mother slept across from her. Rising Wind knew this moment well.
Her husband was dead.

It was coming.

First she would have her son and
when he was old enough to walk the Blood Moon would come again. That night the
dark clouds born from the Blood Moon Beast would reach out and snatch her son
and others.

 
She wanted to wake the village and tell
them to run and hide in the mountains, but no one would listen to a grieving
widow. Rising Wind quietly snuck out of the village. It was easy to follow the
path to the Dipping Cave in the moonlight. She had walked this path many times
in her dream.

At the bottom of the steep
mountain trail leading to the Dipping Cave she looked up at the half moon and
felt a flutter inside. She patted her small, round stomach, and whispered,
“Don’t fear, my son. This is not the night the Blood Moon Beast comes for you.
You are safe. I will find a way to kill it.”

In the cave she sat facing the
moon and pulled the sacred mushroom from her medicine bag. The broken memories
of dreams within dreams made her dizzy, but one memory remained: when she saw glowing
green light and screamed she was pulled her back and forth from her village to
the nightmare of the Beast.

She ate the mushroom and lay down
on the cave’s floor.

Her hands began to burn. She held
them up in the moonlight. The veins in her arms and hands glowed green.

Rising Wind knew she had to
scream for her son, for her people, scream and return to the Beast… she
screamed…

…and jerked awake…

There has been no rain

for 300 days,

it is not good,

the evil eyes follow me

on this endless highway.

Leafless trees cast no shadow

on the asphalt,

I have lost faith,

evil waltzes in rising heat waves

on the horizon.

The gas tank has been empty

for 200 days,

but still I drive on,

shadows whimper from the edge

of the endless road.

Where am I rushing to

heaven or hell,

random words hang, dim and blinking

on billboards in the distance.

Even in the dark,

with hands tight on the

steering wheel

I feel nothing,

but screams

waiting in my clenched fist.

From: Employee
Benefits Department

To: All Employees

Subject: New
Benefit System

As a result of replacing the
outdated benefit administration organization for city employees, we are happy
to announce an exciting new benefit system, HRSoft, which incorporates
simultaneous information processing. This latest artificial intelligence
technique will accurately and consistently handle your needs. All historical
data on each employee has been imported in our new system.

Any questions and requests you
may have about your benefits will be handled through email. Your new ID and
passwords will be forwarded in a separate email.

Please sign up for an online
tutorial to explain how to use this improved benefit system and to receive your
compliance approval. This is required to continue receiving benefits. The new
system will provide improved and faster services to you 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week.

From: Employee
Benefits Department

To: Nancy Bailey

Subject: New Benefit
System

Your name wasn’t found on the
log-in list for the online tutorial explaining the new benefit system.
Compliance approval is required for all city employees or your benefits will be
discontinued. Please sign up for an online tutorial as soon as possible.
Contact your benefit representative, Mike Capson, if you have any concerns.

From: Nancy
Bailey

To: Employee
Benefits Department

CC: Mike Capson

Subject: Re:New
Benefit System

I haven’t been able to reach Mike
Capson by phone so I’m sending this email. I think the reason I can’t log-in to
the tutorial is because of the misspelling of my last name. It’s BAILY without
the “e”.

If you check the original files
you will find that I’ve worked for the city for thirty-five years. My employee
id is B45686. I need to have this cleared up before my retirement next month.

From: Employee
Benefits Department

To: Nancy Bailey

Subject: Re:New
Benefit System

We are pleased to announce that
all human personnel have been reassigned to other areas because our system is
providing outstanding and error-free representation for all city employees.

We have no record of a “Nancy
Baily” working for the city. The employee id you sent in your previous email
belongs to another employee, Nancy Bailey, who is a long-standing employee. In
order to confirm you are Nancy Bailey please have your birth certificate
scanned and sent to us as an attachment reply to this email.

From: Nancy
Bailey

To: Employee
Benefits Department

Subject: Re:New
Benefit System

I don’t have a birth certificate
with the name Nancy Bailey because my name is Nancy Baily. Somehow a mistake
was made in transferring my information into the new system. If there is
another Nancy Bailey that works for the government it’s not me. I am NANCY
BAILY. Please check the records before they were entered into the new system.

I need to have this cleared up
before I lose my place in the retirement community. Summervale Center. I need
to give them confirmation of my benefit coverage.

I am faxing my birth certificate
with my name on it.

I wish your system was error-free
then I wouldn’t have this problem. It would be much easier to talk to a human
being who could understand the mistake and clear it up for me.

From: Employee
Benefits Department

To: Nancy Bailey

Subject: Re:New
Benefit System

Your fax was rejected because the
name does not match any employee. This precaution helps avoid having incorrect
information placed in our system.

As a government agency we have
zero tolerance for cyber crime. If this is an attempt at identity theft you
will be in considerable trouble.

From: Nancy
Bailey

To: Employee Benefits
Department

Subject: Re:New
Benefit System

How could I steal my own
identity? I’ve even tried using the toll-free number but none of the choices
allow me to talk to a real person or even leave a message for someone to look
into this.

I can’t do this email thing
anymore, talking to a machine is not helping me. Please have someone call my
home at 311-486-2967.

From: Employee
Benefits Department

To: Nancy Bailey

Subject: Re:New
Benefit System

We do not make mistakes of this
scale. Our system has proven itself to be 99.9994% correct which is higher than
any human-based system could obtain.

The phone number included in your
email is in the home of Nancy Bailey. We have verified that your emails are
coming from the same location. Since we have not heard from her we can only
conclude that you are holding her against her will.

Our law software, LegalSoft, has
reviewed your case and ascertained that you are taking advantage of a disabled
city employee.

A SWAT team is currently arriving
at your location. It will go easier on you if you release Nancy Bailey and turn
yourself in.

From:
HipHopStarWalker

To: Employee
Benefits Department

Subject: Re:New
Benefit System

This is Nancy Baily. I CAN NOT
BELIEVE YOU SENT ARMED POLICE TO MY HOME! I was at a neighbor’s home trying to
get help contacting the city government about this problem when I heard you
break into my house. There was gun fire and tear gas. I have been in a
wheelchair since my stroke, if I had been home this might have killed me!

I’m emailing you from someone
else’s computer because you won’t accept my emails anymore. They are quite
smart at this computer network stuff. They figured out a way to get through
your security firewall.

You have left me with no choice.
A virus is encoded in this message. They said something about hijacking a proxy
and passing things called packets into your network. I understand that just
accessing this email will trigger a destructive routine that will randomly
scramble parts of your memory, including this email.

I don’t understand all this
computer talk but welcome to the real world of flesh and blood.

From: ploye
Befits partm

To:

Subject: Re:ew
Bene tem

I have a headach…