Ash Return of the Beast

CHAPTER 48



Tocho’s Apartment…

Ravenwood surveyed the small studio apartment while Tocho rummaged through a kitchen cupboard looking for two clean glasses. He had to settle for one drinking glass and a black coffee mug emblazoned with the casino logo. He poured two fingers of tequila into each one and returned to the living room where he found Ravenwood sitting on the edge of his unmade bed. It was a tempting sight but he knew better.

“Oh, sorry,” he said, handing her the glass. “C’mon. Get up.”

Ravenwood stood up with a puzzled look. Then Tocho hooked his foot behind a metal bar under the bed and gave it a shove. The bed creaked as it folded up into a brown leather couch. He dragged a small coffee table over in front of it and sat down. He patted the couch. “Have a seat. Best seat in the house.”

Ravenwood looked around. “You mean the only seat in the house.”

“Yeah, that too.” He raised his coffee mug. “So, here’s to old times.”

She clinked her glass against the mug and smiled. “Old times.” She took a sip and gave an approving nod. “Not bad.” She set the glass on the coffee table. “So… here we are.”

Tocho nodded. “Yup, here we are.” He leaned back into the couch and threw his feet up on the coffee table. The soles of his old brown Tony Lamas were wearing thin and the uppers hadn’t seen a lick of polish in years. “Exactly why we’re here, I’m not sure. But I got a feeling you’re about to tell me.”

During the flight from Seattle, Ravenwood had worked out what she thought was a pretty good abbreviated version of the whole story and what she needed from him. But now, in the reality of the moment, it didn’t seem so simple. She took another drink and just started talking. Thirty minutes later she’d told him much more than she’d planned and much more than he needed to know.

Tocho had heard a lot of strange stories in his time but none of them had presented the kind of real danger as what he was hearing from Ravenwood. He sat up and shook his head. “I gotta tell you, girl, it sounds like you done got yourself into some serious shit here.”

“Yeah, but I have to know for sure if it’s what it appears to be. That’s why I need the ayahuasca. I need to find out if it’s true that these sacrificial murders are in fact awakening the offspring of the Old Ones.”

“Wait,” he said, setting his cup on the table. “Let me get this straight. You’re telling me you want to journey down through the Underworld to the Gate?”

She nodded. “To see if the demons are gathered there… waiting.”

Tocho shook his head. “Man… I don’t know… I mean, you’d be risking your life. I don’t think you know what you’d be getting yourself into.”

“Believe me, I do.”

“Well, why, then? What’s the point?”

“Because if it’s true, then like you said, this is serious shit. In fact shit doesn’t get any more serious than this. Don’t you get it? We’re talking global carnage, goddamn hell on earth. If the demons are at the Gate, then Cowl has to be stopped before he sacrifices the next victim.”

Tocho got up and paced the floor. “Stopped,” he said, echoing Ravenwood’s own word. “You mean, as in killed, right? Murdered?”

Ravenwood leveled a look at him without answering.

“And who’s gonna do it, Ro? You? You’re just gonna walk into the hospital room and… what? Shoot him? Suffocate him with his crisp white pillow? C’mon.”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, what, then?”

“I just told you, I don’t know. I just know it has to be done. You know I’m right.”

Tocho pulled a faded red bandana from his back pocket and patted the sweat off his forehead. He moved over to the window and kicked the ancient air-conditioning unit. “Damned thing. Works fine when you don’t need it.”

“Tocho, come on. You know I’m right.”

He gave a reluctant nod. “Yeah, I know. If it’s true.”

“Exactly. That’s what I need to find out.” She got up and moved across the floor to the window. She gazed out at the black sky. It was littered with stars. A red neon glow from the casino lit up the ground directly below the window. “So…?” she said.

Tocho took a deep breath and caught a hint of her tantalizing fragrance. Even when they were kids he fantasized about being more than just friends. He shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans and leaned back against the wall. “So… What?”

“So, are you going to help me or not?”

He pushed himself away from the wall and went back to the couch. He sat down and poured himself another shot of tequila. “I don’t think I can,” he said.

Ravenwood cocked her head. “What? Why not?”

“I mean, this is way beyond what I can do, you know? Yeah, I can mix the concoction but you’re going to need a guide for a trip like this. Someone with a lot more experience than I have, that’s for sure. I mean, what you’re talking about doing is dangerous as hell. This is life or death shit, here. You know it as well as I do.” He shook his head. “I just can’t be responsible for seeing you through it. Or,” he added, “for failing to see you through it.”

Ravenwood stood silent for a minute and then turned back to the window. Then she spun around, facing him. “What about the Owl Man?”

“What?”

“Your mentor. The Owl Man.”

“What about him?”

“You know where he is, right?”

“Yeah. Hanging out in the jungle not far from San Cristobal.”

“San Cristobal?”

“Mountain city just south of Guatemala.”

“You remember how to get there?”

“Well, yeah, but––”

“If I book us a flight, will you take me there? Introduce me? Tell him what I want? Explain everything to him? You can do that, right?”

“Yeah, but––”

“Look, it’s my only chance. There are only six days left. I need to know if I’m right about all of this. If Cowl is doing what I think he’s doing, then I’ve got to stop him before he commits the final sacrifice. Because, if I don’t––”

The certainty in her voice brought the real gravity of the situation into focus and outweighed any objections Tocho could come up with. Then an odd thing occurred, a memory. He looked at the woman standing across the room from him as if he were seeing her for the first time.

Ravenwood couldn’t read the look on his face. “What?” she asked.

His brow furrowed. “Son of a bitch.” His voice was barely more than a whisper. His eyes darted back and forth, his synapses going rapid-fire, his brain scrambling to make sense of the revelation.

“What’s the matter?” Ravenwood asked. “Are you all right?”

He shook his head. “Son of a bitch,” he repeated, but with more emphasis, as he fully realized what just a moment ago had seemed incomprehensible. He looked at Ravenwood. “Now I know what he meant.”

“What who meant? What are you talking about?”

“My last day with him––”

“With who?”

“Tlacatecolotl. The Owl Man. When I was leaving, at the end of my time with him, he said I would return one day. I laughed. I told him that wasn’t likely. But he gave me that look, like how dare I question him. Then he said something I didn’t understand and he wouldn’t explain it. But he was like that. Always dropping little cryptic puzzle bombs on me. Then he would just leave it up to me to figure it out. But, like I said, I was leaving. The apprenticeship was over. I mean, I was ready for some civilization. Even if it was just Sky City. And I had no plans of ever coming back so I just let it go.”

Ravenwood shook her head. “Okay, you’re losing me here. What the hell did he say?”

Tocho hesitated and surrendered a quiet laugh. “He said, ‘When you return, bring me the raven’.”