3 Gates of the Dead (The 3 Gates of the Dead Series) (27 page)

“We are now on the back of the serpent, Aidan. Shall we find the head so we can crush it?” he whispered, a new strength entering his voice as though he was using all his energy.

“By all means, but how?” I scrambled up after him.

“My guess is this is the tail, so all we have to do is continue in this direction until the end.”

I nodded. “Lead the way, priest.”

We followed the curvy mound as it wound its way across the open plain. I squinted into the dark to see if I could see the head. Nothing.

As I reached out to tap Father Neal on the shoulder, a hard smack to my chest knocked me onto my back. All the air rushed out of my lungs, and I struggled to breathe. I looked up to see Father Neal stagger, but he caught himself with his cane.

“They know we are here,” he rasped.

“What do we do?”

Father Neal crossed himself and said something quietly under his breath as he bent down at my side. He reached into the canvas bag and pulled out something I couldn’t see. He touched my arm and then touched my leg. Heat flowed down my arm.

“Thanks. What’s that in your hand?”

“Don’t worry about it just now. Let’s keep working our way to the serpent’s head.”

As we walked on, the wind beat at us with hurricane force. Father Neal grabbed my arm as we struggled to follow the path. The wind began to howl as if it had become a living being. I thought it was just my imagination, but I started making out voices in the gusts. Faint whispers grew louder and louder as though someone had turned up the volume to a full ear-splitting blast.

The Masters summon us. We will raise him. He will serve us…

A death is coming, we will obey…

I want to see blood, her blood…

Her body shakes and her cries. Mmmmmmm. I hope they cut her now, just to give us a little pleasure. I am thirsty…

“No!” I shouted into the air. My voice boomed as if it had been amplified with a stadium-sized sound system. I felt naked as I sensed invisible eyes turning to me with their full interest.

Why are they here?
A voice hissed right next to me.

I felt a hard slap across my face, and I cried out in pain.

They do not belong here! Beat them!

Invisible blows struck my body. Palm prints appeared on my exposed arms, and hands tore at my clothes as I continued to cry out.

“Aidan?” A woman’s voice cut through the darkness.

“Jennifer?” I shouted, feeling hope spring up in my chest.

“Over here, they’re gone. Help me, please!”

Panic rose in her voice as I ran to the serpent’s head, the frozen ground crunching under my feet. The spirits ramped up their attack until my skin grew numb from the invisible slaps.

Another blow to the chest and I went down hard. I looked around for Father Neal, but I couldn’t see him anywhere.

“Father, help me!” I didn’t know if it was a prayer or if I was asking Father Neal to save me. At that point, I didn’t care as I felt something lift me up by my coat and stand me on my feet. I turned around and saw no one. I ran the rest of the way to the earthen egg in the serpent’s mouth.

As I approached the mound, I found Jennifer in the center of the egg. They had covered her with a white ceremonial robe and tied her to a wooden doorframe. This was how they planned to hang her.

No one else seemed to be around, and I began to descend the mound. Someone grabbed my shoulder.

“Aidan, don’t go to her,” Father Neal said. “You will not be able to do it. Let me.”

“Come on, there is no one here.”

Before I could finish, piercing shrieks tore through the air and brought me to my knees. My ears ached as I tried to crawl down the mound to Jennifer. Gray-colored shadows swirled around me and assaulted my body. I tried to raise my arms and shield myself as two figures struck me at once. I hit face first on the ground, and I tasted the cold grass. Invisible arms pinned me down, making it impossible for me to move.

And then, I heard another voice, a voice of command
speaking words I couldn’t make out.

Was this actually the voice of God? I wondered. Or maybe some high ranking angel? The voice boomed into the darkness as if pumped through a giant subwoofer.

I turned to look at its source.

Father Neal stood erect, his arms extended above his head, his fingers stretched to the sky. His white hair flew in the relentless wind, and his face had been transformed from a kindly old man into some kind of powerful, angelic warrior. He reached into his bag, and it glowed white. The light crawled up his hand, to his arms and engulfed his entire body. He held up something I couldn’t see. Light sprang from him, white, hot, and bright to the point that I needed to shield my eyes.

The world as I saw it turned upside down just beyond the light. Giant thuds hit the ground, and the whole earth shook.

I crawled on my knees toward Jennifer. “Are you okay?” I reached out to her as I rose up near the doorframe.

“Aidan,” she sobbed, tears streaming down her face. “Aidan, you’re here.”

“Let me get these ropes.” I took out my pocketknife and began to cut.

“Hurry, Aidan!” the voice of Father Neal roared from the light. “I can’t hold them any longer.” Then he boomed, “Michael Militant! Come defend us! Father, Son, and Holy Ghost hear my prayer!”

The ground rocked with the force of exploding dynamite.

I cut at Jennifer’s ropes with fury until my hands ached. First one, then another. I tried to ignore her wrists and ankles, which were now bleeding freely from chafing. With each tug of the rope, she cried out a bit.

“I’m sorry.” I tried to keep my voice steady.

“Don’t apologize, just keep going. They could be back.” She grimaced as I pulled the rope for more room.

I glanced around quickly. “Where did they go?”

“I don’t know. They vanished when you shouted.” Her voice became hoarse.

“Maybe they ran away.”

“I don’t think so.”

With a final grunt, I sliced through the rope on her wrists and caught her as she fell forward. I helped her stand, and she shivered as she leaned against me. I took off my coat and wrapped it around her.

“Let’s get out of here,” I whispered, trying to remain calm.

“I can barely walk,” she moaned, leaning on me with most of her weight.

“Is something broken?” I looked down at her bleeding ankles.

“No, my legs are asleep.”

“Just lean against me, I’ll help you.”

“Aidan, it’s Daniel Mueller. I saw his face when his hood slid down. But Father Neal is right, there is another.”

“Probably another mega-church pastor. Seems to fit. They control people through magick or control people through preaching. I always knew I hated big churches.”

At that moment, a deep, familiar chuckle resounded through the air.

Chapter Thirty-Six

“Ah, Aidan, such a product of your generation. Everything that is immense and corporate is automatically evil. But it’s so useful because you ignore the evil that is right in front of you every day.”

“Mike…” I shivered.

“Very good, Aidan, very good.” He laughed again.

Mike and Daniel, wearing dark red ceremonial robes, stepped into the dying light generated by Father Neal. Mike cast back his hood and smiled at me. Oddly, it wasn’t the cold smile of an evil villain, but the smile of a proud father or teacher.

The bright light that had illuminated the whole snake’s head had gone out. I looked to my left and saw Father Neal’s face buried in the ground. I pressed my fingernails into my palms until they sliced my skin.

“What did you do to him, you assholes?” I ran toward them and hit an invisible wall. My limbs locked, and I stood paralyzed.

“Aidan, you must learn to watch your language,” Mike said in a soft voice, wagging his finger at me. “Assholes is so vulgar and coarse.”

“Go fuck yourself!”

“Well, the Irish are not known for their refined tongues,” mocked Daniel as he stood next to Mike like a bad version of the Grim Reaper.

“Keep them talking,” Jennifer whispered in my ear before looking up at Mike and Daniel. “Yes, because that is so much worse than killing people.”

Mike smiled as he stood in front of me. “Sometimes sacrifice is necessary to accomplish a greater purpose.”

Daniel came up behind me. “Because everyone kills, or would if it served his own desires. Consider it a scientific experiment.”

“And what would yours be?” Jennifer began inching closer to Father Neal.

Daniel grinned. “To give Aidan his answers, to meet his questions in a way Yahweh and his disgusting church never allowed.”

I felt sick. This whole thing had been about me? For what purpose?

Mike spoke as though he could read my mind. “Behold, Aidan, and you shall see.”

He began to chant. I thought it was in Latin, but it was much older and more guttural.

I felt as if someone had removed a filmy wrapping from my eyes. I began to see beings leering at us, some with full bodies and some with half-rotting faces. They filled the air, too numerous to count. The eagerness in their faces looked as though someone had mixed the sins of lust, desire, and pride in a bowl and bathed them in it.

Mike laid a hand on my shoulder. “Now you finally see, Aidan. Now you can place your hands in the side of the Nazarene. Become one of us, one of the Bone Masters.”

“Reach out and touch one of them, Aidan,” Daniel said with a sadistic grin. “See how real they are becoming.”

If I had teeth like Bishop and could move, they would have both lost fingers. As it was, they seemed too intent on me to notice that Jennifer had reached Father Neal and was trying to wake him. I had to keep them distracted. “Guess you’re the men in black, eh?”

They both laughed. “Such a bad name,” Mike said. “As you can see, it’s dark red. It just looks black.”

“So, this is what you are, Mike. I knew you were fucking around on Sheila, but I didn’t think you were a killer. Or a man in
dark red
.”

Mike smiled. “Aidan, there is so little you understand. Such infantile views of good and evil. There is much more, so much more you could learn.”

“Amanda and Jessica?” I seethed.

“Tools used for our purposes,” Mike said with dry callousness. “And, if I may say, killing Amanda was Daniel’s initiation. Took some time, as she was quite committed to you.”

I closed my eyes. I knew it would be a long time before I would be able to wipe those words from my mind. “Why? For what purpose? To control Ohio?” I asked. “Hope you enjoy the cold gray skies and declining population.”

Mike gave a soft chuckle. “We’ve been waiting years for this moment. Soon our master will be awake.” He paused. “And for you, it’s an offer to join us. To become the ultimate scientist, the ultimate knower.”

Father Neal’s history of magick replayed in my mind. Mike’s eyes bored into mine as I stared back, not flinching despite the darkness I saw — the soullessness of a man who had long ago sacrificed his whole self to complete evil.

I laughed in his face. “I’m not joining you, so save your monologues.”

Mike licked his lips and ran his hand over his goatee. “I have wanted you to be one of us since I first interviewed you. Such a mind. I had to figure out a way to get you. Think of the power, Aidan. The answers to all mysteries at your fingertips. Our master can give them all to you. And your beautiful lady friend here … she is yours, you know. She would do anything you ask without question.”

I shook my head. “You obviously don’t know Jennifer.”

“No, it’s you who doesn’t know her. Jennifer has low self-esteem and flings herself at any man who pays attention to her. Why do you think she offered herself to a person she had once suspected of murder? Aidan, she’s a total slut. A tramp. A filthy whore.”

Mike’s jeering was only to provoke me, I knew, but I clenched my fists and fought to keep from punching him.

“So, all of this, the murders, Jennifer’s kidnapping, was to get me here?”

Daniel laughed manically. “Yes, and it all worked together very nicely, didn’t it?” He pointed to the spirits around us. “And they are waiting on your decision to follow the master.”

“Does this master of yours have a name?”

“His name is not to be spoken.”

“Like
Lord Voldemort
?”

I felt an invisible whip strike my face. Blood flew from my cheeks.

“Don’t mock him or us, Aidan. They don’t like it.” Mike spat. “If you must call him anything, you may call him the Grinning Man.”

I wiped my lip and smiled. “Wow, what a mysterious and threatening name. For someone so fucking happy, he obviously doesn’t like to be mocked. Like all evil spirits, full of pride.”

“For someone who doesn’t believe, you talk a lot of filth,” Daniel said as he yanked my head back by my hair.

“I always thought you were the one who talked a lot of filth, Mueller. And your neckties. Hideous.”

Daniel struck my head and I fell on my hands and knees, blood oozing from my nose, mouth and ears.

“Aidan, come, this is pointless.” Mike sighed. “Join us. Make us three and powerful. Take Jennifer. She is yours. Finish the priest and serve the one who is about to wake.” Mike turned and faced the spirits surrounding us.

I looked around and finally understood the depths of the power they wielded. Mike and Daniel had summoned ghosts and had broken through the barriers of the physical universe. They achieved something no scientist ever accomplished; they broke the veil between worlds. And they offered it to me. All the answers I wanted to know were right there. I could have them.

A faint glow emanated from over near where Father Neal had fallen. I stared at it, drawing on its strength, and felt warmth return to my body.

“And join the dark side? No, thanks Emperor Palpatine. I’m insulted, Mike,” I said, trying to stand. “Did you really think that I would bow at your feet for the secrets of the universe you say you can deliver?”

Two pairs of black boots appeared in front of me. One of them connected with my face. I crumpled to the ground in a heap and spit out a mouthful of blood.

“Regardless of what you choose, Aidan, they will die. It’s just a matter of whether or not you will save your own life. Why stand up for something you don’t believe in anyway? Why stand for a God who isn’t there?” Mike’s voice oozed with sympathy.

His words drove deeper than the physical abuse. All the doubts I had experienced rose up like a beast and gnawed, tempted and gripped me.

“Think. All of your struggles, all of your pain, the rejection, the failure, at an end.” Mike put his arm around me.

I looked up at the spirits surrounding us. A Confederate soldier with a rotted face leered and shook his gun. A girl in white lifted up her dress to expose a worm-eaten leg. All of the spirits wore a look of starvation, as if only I could quench some kind of eternal hunger in them. I glanced to my left and saw that Jennifer had reached Father Neal. The light underneath him started to grow brighter.

“No,” I said.

A ripple of shrieks went through the spirits.

Mike leaned his face in toward me. “I’m sorry, Aidan, I didn’t quite understand you.”

“Then let me be more clear and direct. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit
,
fuck off!
”

The spirits roared in pain and anger. The Triune name had been too much for them. It had pierced them more than any weapon, material or magick could have.

Mike frowned and shook his head. “Aidan, I guess your mind is not as developed as I had hoped. You’ve let me down. You’ve let science down. You’re nothing more than a weak-minded provincial thinker. No wonder your life is a failure.” He spat on the ground and waved his hands as if removing a barrier.

The spirits began to descend, hideous glee written all over their rotting faces. I could not look at them, but I began to feel them. Rough bone struck me. Slimy flesh oozed over mine. Hard blows rained down on me, and I cried out in pain.

This is how it will end for me.

Daniel laughed. “Now, Aidan, you will die first.”

The spirits pinned me to the ground spread eagle. Mike stood over me and drew out a curved silver knife, perfect for slicing my throat.

I took a deep breath and inwardly crossed myself as Mike began to chant. “So, what will you carve in my head?” I gasped.

“The name of the one you serve, just like your new girlfriend.”

“And why would you do that? To complete the ritual?”

“No, Aidan.” He smiled. “This is not the end of the Three Gates. That is somewhere else. I’ll just carve the name of your god into your forehead. You’ll be marked as you meet my master.”

“Keep telling yourself that. Your master is a liar and has been since the beginning.”

Daniel came down hard on my face with his knee, pinning my cheek to the ground. “And the war will soon be over,” he said. “Tonight is the beginning of the end.”

The blade pierced my forehead, and I screamed in pain. The heat of the blade, fed by their dark magick, felt like fire on my cold skin.

I closed my eyes. I prayed for the end. I prayed for forgiveness.

The inside of my eyelids grew red. I opened them, and a blinding white light filled everything around us as the spirits cried out in anger. In the distance, I saw Father Neal, silhouetted in the dark, gripping something as he walked toward us. The light seemed to come from an object in his hand.

“Do you think you can fight us with that, old man?” Daniel raged.

“I wouldn’t be standing here otherwise, lad,” Father Neal said with a hint of humor in his voice.

“The Master is looking for you,” Mike shouted. “He is so disappointed. Aleister told him you showed such promise.”

“I’m afraid he will have to continue in his disappointment.” Father Neal began to lift his arm. He held a cup-like object in his hand. The cup began to glow with a bright light.

“He will find you, you know,” Daniel promised.

“I know. I will be waiting, but for now, you will stop. You won’t be the ones to bring him back from his sleep.”

They both laughed. “We never expected to, old man. We were just supposed to find you and Aidan. Now we will take you.”

“If you can.”

“If we can?” Mike roared with laughter. “We have already knocked you out with our power. And now the spirits are almost solid. One more death and you’ll be overwhelmed.”

As Mike turned and pierced my head again, an intense heated gust of air blew past, and Daniel grunted as he was thrown off me. “That thing will not help you, old man,” Mike snarled. “It’s not magick.”

Father Neal continued toward us. “No, Michael, it’s not. It’s much holier than that.”

Another burst of white light and heat went forward, and Mike fell to the ground.

“Back to your abyss! I command you by the power of the Trinity! Await your judgment! The spell is broken by the True sacrifice!”

A roar filled the whole earth around us like the sound of a train and a thousand voices raised in intense pain all at once. Mike and Daniel screamed out. A light brighter than a nuclear blast flashed from the object in Father Neal’s hands, and everything went dark.