Ash Return of the Beast

CHAPTER 73



Moorehouse Manor…

Kane raced down the stairs into the living room with Ravenwood on his tail. He stopped short at the front door, not expecting it to be closed. “Did you shut this door after you let me in?”

“I don’t think so. No.”

Kane turned the knob and gave it a tug but the door wouldn’t open. He glanced at Ravenwood and tried again. He checked the bolt. It wasn’t locked. He tried again but it wouldn’t budge. “Was it stuck like this when you opened it to let me in?”

She shook her head, no. “The window.” She moved quickly to the broken window, released the latch, raised it up and crawled out with Kane following close behind.

***

The Doppelganger’s finger slowly and meticulously traced out the sigil of Kutulu upon Pastor Pete’s pasty white flesh, burning it from the inside out. Every muscle in the old man’s face rippled from the pain. Inside his head, his own stifled screams were deafening.

“Kutulu!” the Doppelganger called out. “Ninth and final Offspring of the Old Ones! Fire of the Earth!”

The old man’s wet eyes bulged from their sockets.

The Doppelganger’s voice grew louder. “O, sleeping demon! Thou who dost hold the power of all Magick! Soon I will awaken thee! This is your sign! I give you this soul, this sacrifice, knowing thou shalt spare me when thou dost rise from thy slumber!”

Pastor Pete’s pulse was pounding, his heart pumping to the point of bursting as he prayed for death.

The hooded figure laughed. “Your prayer is about to be answered, you f*cking little child-molesting maggot. On your hands and knees. Now!”

***

The darkness of the night seemed thicker than normal as Kane and Ravenwood made their way across the mansion’s long back yard, heading toward the garden shed.

Kane took the flashlight and shined it on the shed door while Ravenwood tried to open it. “C’mon,” he said. “What’s the problem?”

“It’s stuck.”

“Shit.” He nudged her aside, handed her the flashlight and tried it himself. He pulled the latch with such force it should have torn the door off its hinges. “The hell is it with the doors around here?”

Just as he was reaching for the handle to try it again, the door flew open by itself. He jumped back and let loose with a string of curses. He looked at Ravenwood.

She returned the look. “After you,” she said.

His foot barely crossed the threshold when a tsunami of rats came flowing out––hundreds of the hideous things, crawling over each other, screeching like a horde of tiny banchees. The force of the wave swept Ravenwood off her feet. She let out a shriek. The flashlight went flying as she hit the ground with a swarm of rodents scrambling over her body. Three and four deep, the swarm covered her, crawling over her face, smothering her screams. She flailed her arms and struggled to get up but the rats kept coming. She cried out. “Get ‘em off!”

Kane scrambled over to where the flashlight had landed, grabbed it up, ran back to Ravenwood and began swinging it back and forth like a warrior wielding a club, beating the monsters off of her. He seized her hand and yanked her up. Then, as soon as she was on her feet, it was over.

Kane scanned the yard with the light but the creatures were gone, vanished into the night as if they’d never existed.

He suddenly realized he was still holding Ravenwood’s hand. He let go and brushed her hair out of her face. “You all right?”

She shuddered. “Yeah, I think so.”

“That was f*cking weird.”

“Crowley. Had to be Crowley. He’s trying to stop us.”

“Yeah? Well, we’ll see about that,” Kane said, drawing his gun. “You ready?”

Ravenwood brushed herself off and drew her own gun. She took a deep breath and let it go. “Like I said. After you.”

***

Pastor Pete expelled his final gasp of life in the midst of receiving his ultimate humiliation. His abused body collapsed under the weight of the Hooded Figure and lay sprawled out on the floor like a wrinkled old dead thing washed up onto a deserted shore.

The Hooded Figure stood up, arms raised victoriously, and then slowly faded into the aether.

At the center of the Lucifer Seal, Rodney Duckworth rose to his feet, exploding with rapture. He laughed loudly as tears of joy streamed down his face. It was a moment of glory beyond anything he’d imagined. Revenge was so goddamned f*cking sweet!

Then he heard a voice inside his head.

Feels good, yes?

Cowl laughed, exuberantly. “Good? Are you kidding? It feels great. I could die right now and I wouldn’t care.”

I’m glad to hear you say that.

“What?”

You’ve had your moment as promised, your revenge, your Someday. Now it’s time for you to leave.

“Leave? What do you mean, leave?”

Your body… your soul. They’re mine, now. You’re moving out. I’m moving in. Simple as that.

“What? No!”

Oh yes.

“Wait!”

Say goodbye, Rodney Duckworth.

***

The old tire swing, hanging from the huge chestnut tree, suddenly swayed gently back and forth in the cool night breeze. Inside the house, Lieutenant Brian Kane’s daughter and her mother were asleep in their beds, blissfully unaware of the nightmare that was about to invade their home.