Preta's Realm (29 page)

Drew yanked the frayed end of the rope through the hoop, freeing the last limb bound to the filthy mattress. He grabbed Molly by the back of the head and slapped her across the face. Her eyes shot open.

“Run. Run into the darkness as fast as you can and don’t stop until you wake up.”

Molly nodded. She stood and cantered into the cavern wall, stumbling and fighting to regain her balance.

“Go!” Drew screamed. He pushed her in the back and turned to face the creature bearing down on him.

“She is mine!” Gaki roared, his voice bouncing off the cavern walls with enough force to blow out Drew’s left eardrum. He collapsed into the dirt, wincing and believing a skewer was now lodged inside his head.

Drew looked up in time to see the white sole of Molly’s foot disappear into the darkness. He took a deep breath, not knowing whether or not she would make it out, but knowing he did everything he could to save her.

A thin line of saliva appeared in front of Drew’s face like a wet, filthy spider web. The line broke and formed a circle of moisture in the dirt. Drew heard the heaving breath coming from Gaki and smelled rotting garbage and sewage.

“I will still have her. And when I get her back, I will pull her body apart, piece by piece, with you as my witness.”

Drew shook his head, still hunched on his knees and reeling from the aural impact that made his head ring.

“Get up,” the creature said.

Drew shook his head, refusing to obey.

“Get up,” the creature said again. Gaki’s knee met Drew’s chin with enough force to knock out three teeth.

Drew rolled on to his back, coughing and spitting blood.

“Your distraction only delayed the inevitable.”

***

When Ravna regained consciousness, his head felt dense. The rain continued to pummel him and the light had not changed. Ravna surmised that he was out for a matter of minutes, not hours. He stood on wobbly legs and saw that the door to the cabin stood open.

He walked towards it when he heard sobbing coming from behind the structure. He stumbled towards the noise, using the trees for support, and turned the corner to see the woman sitting on the ground, her dark hair cascading over her shoulders, arms wrapped around her legs. She sat naked, shivering, and covered in grime.

Ravna removed his coat and draped it over her. She looked up at him with what he recognized as the “thousand-yard stare” from all of the war movies he watched on Saturday afternoons.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

The woman shook her head and mumbled something about a nightmare.

“Where is Drew?” he asked.

The name struck her like a lead weight. Her body stiffened and she grabbed Ravna’s shoulders, her nails digging into his flesh. “Fighting the demon, the blue beast. They are both in my nightmare, but not in West Palm Beach.”

Ravna turned his head sideways, trying to decipher the words of the woman, who was clearly in shock. Before he could question her further, her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed. He slid his arms underneath her and carried her away from the cabin. Ravna found a fallen tree and set her down behind it, pulling his jacket over as much of her as he could. The rain began to turn into snow. He looked at her again, knowing the elements would trigger hypothermia and take her life. Even the best gear would stave off death only temporarily, and this woman was naked except for his jacket.

A hideous snarl came from the cabin, followed by high-pitched sounds like two alley cats fighting to the death. Ravna remembered Mashoka and what the demon had done to his body. He shrugged the mental image from his mind and walked towards the gaping maw of the cabin.

***

Ravna stood at the threshold, staring into the unnatural darkness. He heard long sighs like gusts of wind blown across time. A deep cold emanated from the doorway, much colder than that brought by the late-winter storm pummeling the park and all those inside it.

The air felt heavy in his lungs, wet and brackish. Ravna forced his eyelids all the way up, but could not tell if his eyes were closed or not. He felt the floorboards beneath his feet give way to a gravel path. The screams he heard outside the cabin subsided, leaving only the ghastly breath of whatever he had entered.

It’s a cavern, but not one of this dimension. Be wary of Gaki’s wordplay.
Mashoka’s words came to Ravna inside his head.
Be the Hunter you aspire to be and send the creature away.

Ravna felt the pitch of the floor drop as if descending deeper into the earth. His prior knowledge of the one-room cabin conflicted with the perceptions returned by his senses. He continued on until a hazy patch of dim light appeared on the horizon. It grew from the center of a dark chasm until it filled his vision. Ravna walked towards the light. He saw the features of the cave walls appear through the moist darkness. The light came from an ambient source.

The ceiling of the cavern opened into a long room. Ravna could not see the other side. The natural walls blended into a space where ancient stone bricks had been cut and placed. An old mattress, soiled and crawling with foreign insects, sat in the middle of the floor.

Gaki smiled at Ravna through tiny kernels of black teeth. His bald head glowed with a blue tint, as did the rest of his translucent skin. Streaks of dark matter covered his appendages. Gaki tapped his foot on the ground, as if enjoying a tune on a warm, Saturday afternoon. His eyes fixed on Ravna’s, yet he did not move.

“Welcome, man-child.”

Ravna stopped and looked beyond Gaki. He could see nothing of the room or the objects inside, save the mattress and the chair. The whispers about his head intensified and he struggled to decipher them, so many spoken at one time.

“Are you Gaki?” Ravna asked.

The creature nodded in affirmation.

“I am here to banish you,” said Ravna.

“I enjoyed eating the entrails of the old man. I imagine yours will be sweeter, not aged by so many years of sickness and decay.”

“Where’s Drew?” Ravna asked, ignoring the remark that made his skin shrivel on his bones.

“Oh, I have ‘contained’ him for now. I gather that he will join me in feasting on your carcass.”

“Where did you come from?” Ravna asked.

Gaki snickered and tossed his bony arms into the air. “I see no harm in fulfilling your childish curiosity, man-child. You will not leave this place alive.” Gaki motioned with one arm, inviting Ravna closer. He pointed at the mattress. “I really wish my skills of hospitality were better, but this is all I have to offer. I did not split the woman on that mattress despite its tainted appearance.”

“I’ll stand,” replied Ravna, coming within two paces of the creature. The stench from Gaki’s mouth made him want to gag. “Why are you here?”

Gaki looked to the ground and then back to Ravna. “I know not of my origins any more than you know of yours. You live, you came from another, yet you know nothing of your creator. Your kind loves to dream grand stories of these explanations. The religions of your day are pitiful compared to those of old.

“The Hunter has been chasing me for hundreds of years, so you can imagine my excitement at finally killing him. We last met in Japan, in the 1940s. War brings out the feast for us.”

Ravna shivered.

“It was then that Drew’s line became cursed. That is all you need to know.”

“Who put you here?” Ravna asked.

“Who put you here?” Gaki replied.

“God,” Ravna said.

Gaki roared and slapped his leg with an open palm. He stood and circled around to the back of the chair, clutching his abdomen. “Yes, God,” he replied through a wall of tears and smiles. “God put you here, yes.”

“What explanation do you have?” asked Ravna.

“Do I look like the work of God? If he is responsible for creating the universe, why would he create a monster like Gaki?”

“He works in ways we do not understand.”

“C’mon now, man-child. You speak like a believer. You have spent your entire life preaching the value of atheism, mocking and ridiculing those of faith. And now, in the face of your own demise, standing before Gaki, you have found Him? That is quite pathetic.”

Ravna shook his head and remembered the warning from Mashoka, the one spoken in his head before descending into the creature’s domain. “I cannot let you loose again.”

Gaki shook his head like a parent chastising a belligerent child. “You hold no sway over me. It is not within your power to detain or release me.”

Gaki stood and bared his teeth, hunching over and spreading his arms wide. Ravna took a step backwards.

“I must not let you pass,” he said.

“Disillusioned to the end, man-child. At least the Hunter taught you something.”

Gaki sprang forward, driving the top of his head into Ravna’s midsection. The blow stole the man’s breath as the two tumbled to the floor, kicking up clouds of ancient dust. Ravna grasped for the creature, the slimy, thin arms sliding through his hands each time. Ravna stood and regained his stance as Gaki came at him again. This time, the creature leapt onto his back and drove his dull teeth into Ravna’s neck. He felt the cold bite of the creature and the flesh being torn from his shoulder. The pain shot through his system like a lightning bolt, and he screamed and spun, throwing Gaki off his back. He reached up to his neck and felt the warm, sticky ooze of his own blood.

“Submit to me. I will make your passing quick.”

Ravna ignored the creature and swung a fist at its head. It connected with Gaki’s jaw and spun him around in a circle. The popping sound echoed off the cavern walls as the demon stumbled to the ground, heaving greatly on one knee.

Ravna caught his breath and stepped back, unsure of what to do next. He looked over each shoulder, expecting another demon to come to the creature’s rescue. When he returned his gaze to the ground, Gaki was gone. He looked left and right.

“Almost done, man-child?” came the mocking question from the depths of the cavern. “Had your fill of being a hero?”

Gaki came from the opposite side of the cave, strutting through the darkness. Ravna turned his head towards a slithering black ribbon, an underground river running through the cavern at the edge of the darkness.

“Don’t bother,” said Gaki. “It does not empty anywhere you’d want to be.”

Ravna looked at Gaki and then to the black river. “It gives me a chance.”

“It gives you eternal damnation!” screamed Gaki.

Ravna stepped back, surprised by the creature’s reaction.

“This ends now,” said Gaki, stepping towards him.

Ravna kicked Gaki on the outside of the knee, and the demon collapsed to the ground. Ravna ran for the edge of the river. A hand came up and tripped him, sending him sprawling to the stone floor, bouncing his head and scrambling his thoughts. Gaki crawled to him, tearing at his flesh with sharpened nails. Ravna kicked both feet, the left one striking Gaki in the face, eliciting a high-pitched whine. He dug his fingers into the joints of the stone and pulled his body closer to the edge of the river, heaving his upper body over the edge and staring down into the deep abyss of the current and its unholy water. Ravna tasted the bitter tang of the liquid and felt the eyes of the cursed staring back at him from the bottom, the River of the Dead delivering souls to the underworld.

With a final lunge, he pulled his head over the edge of the river. Ravna saw his own rippled reflection staring back at him. His hair fell in front of his face, his features drawn back, already resembling the taut face of the skull. Ravna detected motion over his right shoulder and saw the reflection of Gaki in the water. The creature’s tongue fell out and its hands reached down to grab Ravna’s shoulder. As Gaki’s fingertips brushed the fabric of Ravna’s shirt, he pushed forward with all of his remaining strength. He tore loose of Gaki’s grip and fell several feet towards the surface of the flowing water. He saw Gaki’s face before landing in the river, contorted and full of rage. Ravna closed his eyes at the moment he broke the surface, the chill of the water numbing his skin. He sunk beneath the surface, falling deeper into the depths of the profane river.