“Unless you would rather be shot, I think yes.”
I scowled and limped back to the cage, pushed Vinnie’s groaning body out of the way and closed the door. I was sure I was going to pop if I couldn’t let out a few choice curses soon. I quickly discovered there were four reasons for Colette’s strategic withdrawal. Specifically, four unsmiling men in blue uniforms with guns drawn.
Their timing made it obvious that they had been watching the room through the camera. They forced Colette to throw out both scalpels and the tranq gun. Then, they unwrapped Vinnie’s head to check him out. When it was clear that he was just stunned and shaking it off, they gave him some grief about opening the cell and then left. Unlike Vinnie, none of them seemed particularly impressed that we hadn’t followed the boss’s commands.
After that, Vinnie (whose first name turned out to be Rafael—though he would always be Vinnie to me) would not talk to us. Couldn’t say I blamed him. It looked like he was going to have quite the colorful bruise, undoubtedly decorated by a whopping headache. He went about his business in the main room in surly silence. He loaded the dart gun and then headed for the gorilla’s cage. The shadow-ridden gorilla, who had been sitting near the entrance to the cage placidly watching our antics, looked up at Vinnie. The great ape stood up on its legs and knuckles and growled at him. Vinnie paused momentarily, then raised the gun and inched forward. The gorilla leapt at the bars of the cage door and slammed into them with a deafening crash. He let loose with a bowel-liquefying roar and hurled himself around the cage, smashing into the door repeatedly.
Vinnie froze in his tracks with his blood pooled somewhere south of his head. Myself, I was happy there was another cage separating us from the frenzied gorilla. I couldn’t imagine the cage holding much longer. I had to wonder what was going on in the poor shadow-ridden beast’s head.
“Shoot him, you imbecile!” shouted Colette. “The gorilla, he is hurting himself!”
That sank through Vinnie’s paralysis. He raised his shaking gun and fired. He managed to miss.
“A child could shoot better!” said Colette.
Vinnie shakily reloaded and fired again. This time he hit. Very quickly, the gorilla’s frantic movements quieted down and soon, it collapsed to become a motionless mound of fur again. I used my Sight on it. Unlike the motionless gorilla, the black stain covering its aura swirled with rapid, agitated movements. Unlike its smaller cousins, Wendigota didn’t send questing tendrils my way. I think it recognized me as the one who had trapped it. Of course, I didn’t have the Caduceus any more, either.
Vinnie was visibly trembling as he put the gun down onto his cart and cautiously approached the cage. Amazingly, the gorilla’s aura was brighter than Vinnie’s. The lackey’s was a weak reddish color. I guess it showed the human chauvinist in me that I had never considered that possibility—even though Vinnie was obviously no human dynamo. When I got out of here, I needed to discover what determined aura strength and what it meant. If I got out of there, that is.
“Vinnie, I mean, uh Mr. Vincent, I am concerned that the gorilla is just faking being sedated. For your own protection, I think perhaps you should stay away from him, or perhaps, shoot him again.”
“Right, and get in trouble with my uncle? I’d rather face the gorilla,” he replied without looking at me.
“I assure you, I am most serious. There is something very wrong—”
“Shut up! Just shut up! If you don’t, I’ll tranquilize you.” Vinnie fumbled with his ring of keys.
Colette moved up beside me and put her hand on my arm. She addressed Vinnie. “Finn is correct. Zee ape, it carries the devil’s touch.” I was momentarily surprised that Colette could see it, until I reflected on who she really was.
“That’s ridiculous. You’re just trying to mess with my mind,” said Vinnie in a wavery voice.
“I assure you, Mr. Vincent,” I said. “I am very serious. I fear that you may put your body and soul into mortal peril by going near that creature.”
Colette looked troubled. “I have never seen an animal cursed so. Evil, he cannot infect the innocent and the just.”
“Not for a normal shadow. I’m afraid this one is not normal. It is much, much worse.”
“How do you know this?” Her voice had taken on an edge
“Believe me, I know. It can kill a man by ripping out his soul without ever touching that man.” The delicious warmth and gratification of ripping out Daniel’s essence and devouring it came back unbidden into my mind. I tried to suppress the shiver of pleasure that came with it.
“
Mon Dieu!
How is this possible? An ape could not have sinned against God.”
I looked into her troubled eyes. I guess it didn’t really matter if she knew. “I am terribly sorry, but as far as I can tell, it has nothing to do with God. I put it there.”
“
Que?”
“I had it trapped within my mind, but without my Caduceus—the black stick—I couldn’t hold it, so I moved it to the gorilla. I feel terrible about it, but my only other choice was to put it on you.”
Colette’s confused scowl indicated pretty clearly that she didn’t understand yet.
“Colette, I do not wish to disturb you, but this being has existed for centuries. It lives to devour life. It sat at the bottom of a burial mound in Ohio for a thousand years before I dug it up. It killed three of my... three brave men before it was subdued and trapped. After I unburied it, it took over another guy who then killed several people. After that it took control of me for a while before I could throw it off and trap it. I bound it with the power from the Caduceus, what you call a piece of the cross.
“When this thing takes someone, it takes them completely. You become... twisted, hungry and evil. When it finds a new person with a stronger soul or healthier body, it arranges for the death of its current host, so it is free to move.”
Vinnie, standing tense a foot away from the cage listening to us, scowled. “You’re lying! There’s no such thing.”
“Mr. Vincent, I assure you I am telling the truth. I don’t know if it can kill its host on its own when it wants to move, but I am afraid of what might happen to you if it can. I would not wish such a fate on anyone. Unless your uncle’s displeasure is worse than mental slavery and eternal cold hunger, I would suggest you find something else to do.”
I shut up and anxiously watched Vinnie’s mental processes cross his face in various ticks, scowls and mutters.
“Screw you.”
Arrrgh! This was so frustrating, I’d beaten the command not to leave, why couldn’t I beat this politeness? I could! I knew it. I believed it. I said, “Don’t be a stupid asshole!” It came out as, “I am afraid you are making an unwise choice, sir.”
He flipped me the bird and fumbled with the keys for a moment before successfully opening the cage. It took an active effort of will to keep up my second sight, so I concentrated on watching that mystical spectrum. I Looked at the gorilla apprehensively as Vinnie walked by its still form. Nothing happened, either with the gorilla or the shadow. I let go of the breath I’d been holding, then I heard a scuffling in the room behind me.
I turned to see our new visitors. Dave and Jen stood together in the corner under the room’s camera. Dave was casting his shit-eating grin at me. When he saw that I had seen them, he smiled wider, twiddled his fingers at me and put his finger up to his lips. In contrast to the great time Dave seemed to be having, Jen, standing next to him, looked pale and sick. Her eyes were closed, and her lips were moving inaudibly.
Vinnie came out of the cage to drop a load of nasty straw into a large plastic trashcan. He couldn’t have missed my friends, but if he saw them at all, he didn’t seem to care. I looked back at Dave and Jen. They were still there. I dropped my sight and nothing changed. I took another look at Vinnie, who was just going about his task. I looked back and forgot what I was looking for. Oh right—hadn’t I just seen Dave? On a hunch, I raised my sight again and there they were. They didn’t appear so much as resolve out of the background.
I’m sure I looked pretty silly to Colette gawking at an empty corner with my jaw hanging down around my feet, but this was incredible!
I noticed that Dave and Jen were holding hands when Dave cupped his other hand next to his mouth and said in an excited stage whisper. “Pretty freakin’ cool isn’t it.”
I looked back to Colette. Her gaze was pinned on the gorilla. She hadn’t noticed Dave’s “whisper.” I tried to shake the
Twilight Zone
music out of my head and understand what this meant. It was pretty obvious it meant that Dave and Jen had snuck in unseen and were going to try and rescue us. But, from the pained look on Jen’s face, it was taking a toll on her, and she wasn’t going to keep this going much longer.
“Hey Mr. Vincent,” I asked. “Could you possibly find it in your heart to get us a drink of water?”
He didn’t even glance at me. “You can effing die of thirst for all I care.”
Crap. I had to come up with something else to get him out of the room before Jen’s hoodoo failed. I hoped they had a follow-up plan to get us out of here. I didn’t know if the two of them could free us, but even if they could, the guards would see it and come in, guns-a-blazin’.
As if summoned by my thoughts, two guards walked into the room, followed by Dr. Smith. They all walked by my two friends without so much as a glance. The Doc scowled at Vinnie cleaning the cage. “You haven’t finished that yet?”
Surprised, Vinnie almost had a heart attack. He jumped and spun around. “I’m, I’m sorry, but the monkey was going crazy! I thought he was gonna break the cage!”
Smith’s scowl deepened with disbelief.
“No really, look at him! He’s all beat up.”
Smith and his guards came forward to look. He said, “I wonder if the leech caused that behavior.”
Smith was several feet away from the cage when the gorilla woozily raised its head and pushed itself up off the floor with a growl. Everybody took a step back. Vinnie, whose exit was now blocked, let loose an involuntary squeak and tried to become one with the corner of the cage. Through the open door of the cage, the ape focused on Smith and loosed a deep staccato growl. I Looked at the shadow. It had gathered in a bulge straining towards Smith. I immediately realized what was going to happen, but before I could come up with a polite way to say, “Oh shit, run away,” the gorilla roared and leapt out of the cage at Smith. The guards stood their ground while Smith fumbled back and let loose a deafening barrage of gunfire. The gorilla never completed his leap. Blood flew from the impact points on its torso and he landed face down on the floor in a quickly widening pool of blood. His body jerked as two more high-caliber rounds made sure he was dead. In an instant, the shadow pulled free, flashed across to Smith, and extinguished his flaring aura.
Oh holy crap, we were all so fucked.
Smith spasmed much as the gorilla had. He collapsed to the ground. One guard reached down to help him.
“Are you okay, sir?”
I finally got my mouth working. “I would like to suggest that you either kill him right now or run away.” I would have screamed if it had been the polite thing to do. “Dave, Jen, please retreat, and save yourselves from Wendigota.”
They both knew what I was talking about, but before they could react, the mad doctor sat up, stretched his neck and shoulders and said, “Ah, that is so much better.” He looked up into the concerned face of his guard and smiled. He reached up his hand, patted John once and said, “Thank-you for your years of service, John.” A pseudopod of blackness whipped out, grabbed John’s yellow aura and ripped it from his body.
I screamed in horror at the sight as images of Daniel’s death flashed through my mind.
John collapsed in a heap as Smith jumped to his feet. Smith turned to the second guard and in a flash of horror killed him, too. Smith snapped a necklace with some sort of pendant off of each man and then, dipped in his new black coat of toxic waste, turned to me. His triumphant, intoxicated smile turned into a snarl. He reached down, pulled John’s gun out of its holster, pointed it at me and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. I stood frozen as he scowled, looked down at the gun, hit the safety, re-targeted me. He pulled the trigger again. This time, the gun fired.
Colette grabbed me and nearly pulled me off my feet. I lurched off balance as the whole room seemed to shift around me. A bullet whizzed by my ear and smacked into the wall. I grabbed Colette to keep from falling.
Smith roared and shot again. This time the bullet whizzed past me to the right. Once more, the world lurched around me. The hit on my head must have been more severe than I had realized. He fired again, and missed again. He was a truly pathetic shot. I gave thanks to his Coke bottle glasses, but other than that, I had no fricking clue what to do. So, I just readied myself to dodge when the gun pointed at me again.
Dave tackled him from behind. Smith went down and dropped the gun. A deafening klaxon went off in the hallway. I didn’t pay it any attention and screamed at the top of my lungs to Dave. “Dave, please don’t kill him! Please get the Caduceus!”
It turns out I didn’t need to worry about Dave killing Smith. With one arm, Smith threw Dave across the room where he smacked into one of the concrete block walls and crumpled to the ground. How the hell did the scrawny little jerk get so strong so quickly?
I screamed again and tried to rip the door off the cage. That met with as much success as you might expect. Meanwhile, Smith stumbled around and soon saw where his gun had skidded when he fell. He reached down, grabbed it and pointed it back at me.
“Don’t move, asshole!”
Smith momentarily froze at the voice that rang out from behind him. It was Jen. She had her hand out to him like she had thrown something at him. She held him for about three seconds, before he whipped around and shot her. I watched the blood spray from Jen’s chest. She went down hard.
An ice pick pierced my heart. “Jen!”
Smith spun back to me with his gun held out in front of him. If hate alone could kill, Smith would have been a burning hole. Unfortunately, gun trumps hate. Colette tackled me again as he fired. The world shifted once more as I went down. I put my hand to the wall to stop my fall, but I missed. My hand went right through it and I hit the ground hard. Another shot rang out and hit somewhere behind me. A new voice entered the cacophony. “Hold it right there, Smith!” I looked up through the cage bars and saw my uncle standing in the doorway, pointing a gun at Smith. Smith whirled on him and again I could see what was coming. I yelled, “Don’t kill him!”