AFTER MIDNIGHT part 5

Copyright (c) 2019 by Randall R. Peterson ALL RIGHTS RESERVED This is a work of fiction. All persons, locations and actions are from the author's imagination or have been used in a fictitious manner.

AFTER MIDNIGHT

Part 5

By R. Peterson

“There are two dreams going on at all times … and we’re always awake in at least one.”

“There are no clocks and rocks in small time,” Hamiton Fisk said as she closed the gate behind her companion and stopped the bull’s murderous charge. “Everything floats!”

Joanie Otter was out of breath. She bent over at the waist and used the dark hood she carried as a fan. The bull planted all four legs and skidded to a stop throwing up a cloud of dust just before the barbed wire. Joanie looked at her companion and laughed. “You talk babble! You were as scared as I was!”

            “But I used my  fear to close the gate.”  Ham searched in the borrow-pit for a long-stick and used it to herd a few strays into one group on the road. “I’m just repeating a mantra that I learned from the witch who taught me.”

            “She must have been very powerful!”

            “It wasn’t a she … Alvin was a child’s pumpkin head drawing with stick figure arms and legs when he was my boyfriend at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.”

            “You had a boyfriend … and he taught you magic?”

            “The closest thing I ever had to a lover,” A note of sadness crept into Ham’s voice. “He taught me the universal laws of physics … and yes … also abstraction.”

            “Abstraction?”

            “The laws that control the unseen or dark matter … magic … however you want it.”

            “Where is your friend Alvin now?”

            “Rumor says that he has built a floating city in the Nevada desert that the government is keeping top secret and quarantined until they can find a way to control him …and his inventions.”

Joanie shook her head.  “Why would you repeat a mantra after danger has already past?”

            “Most people know that the past creates the future,” Ham said. “But only a handful in the world can grasp the concept of retrocausality the idea that … the future can also shape the past.”

            “Okay, let’s hear your mantra ….” Joanie found her own stick and was helping to herd.

Ham was silent for more than a minute as they walked along. Joanie didn’t think she was going to speak but when she did her voice was like a wind that can be heard for miles.

“There are no clocks and rocks in small  time … everything floats.

Drowning thoughts and works of man kind … crying in boats.

Storms hunt those who listen … so woman up the oar.

And sink your waves to children … from far and distant shore.”

Joanie shook her mind as if trying to remove the vile magic from her head. “What does it do?” she asked.

 “I think this was about the same time that Alvin first tried LSD,” Ham muttered, then her voice became louder as she finished.

            “It makes the tides roll up and down,” Ham said, “… for futures ever more.”

The things Ham were talking about seemed too complicated for Joanie. She decided to ask her rival about things she knew about. “Is that how you get your bicycle to fly by using abstraction?”

            “Indirectly I guess,” Ham said. “Alvin was the first person to produce dark matter in a laboratory and to experiment with its properties.” Abra Cadaver’s Goth Queen opened a small pouch attached to her belt and tossed Joanie a shiny object. “He gave this to me as a token of his affection.”

Joanie caught the small metal disk and turned it over in her hand. “It’s just a nickel,” she said holding the coin up to the moonlight.

            “Look closer,” Ham said. “The coin has been split into two perfect halves a front and a back and then placed on both sides of dark matter.”

Joanie looked at the coin’s edge and could barely discern a wire-thin black line. “What does it do?”

            “The coin halves are there only to keep the dark matter intact and they are balanced to make the coin appear to be normal.”

            “Normal?”

            “Yes,” Ham said. “All matter has mass and occupies space … dark matter has negative mass and creates space.”

            “You lost me when you said normal,” Joanie told her.

            “Because it’s a negative … when you decrease the amount of dark matter you actually have more of it. The more weight you add to dark matter the lighter it becomes.”

            “Drop the coin on the road.” Ham commanded. When Joanie did as she was told Ham went on. “Now stand on it but be careful to keep your balance!”

When Joanie stepped on the coin she was immediately lifted into the air. She wind-milled her arms from two foot off the ground and then hopped down. When she did the coin also fell.

            “I tape the coin to my bicycle frame and when I climb on, my weight lifts us both into the air,” Ham said.

            “Why are you telling me your secrets now?” Joanie asked her.

            “I have a feeling this night might not end well,” Ham said. “I have to tell someone!”

-------2-------

            Most of the dead had already risen from their graves by the time Joanie and Ham returned. They left the cows eating grass a hundred feet from the open grave. The dead were already starting to shuffle toward their grazing meals.

            “They’re cheaters!” Baby Bat wailed. “Their champion has a magnet attached to his hand!”

 Avidità laughed. “There is no game in Vegas that isn’t rigged,” he said. “The faster you learn that … the better off you’ll be!”

He back-handed Baby Bat and she tumbled to the ground.

“Drag that big one over here and start butchering him,” Avidità ordered. “Me and my men are hungry. We gots to eat too!”

            “You do your own killing!” Joanie cursed him.

            “Too squeamish to see a little blood?” Avidità laughed. “Very well then … you two go gather some wood. We need us a big fire if we’re going to roast some beef.”

            “It’s cold! We need our coats,” Ham insisted.

Avidità spit on the ground then shrugged his shoulders. He picked up both women’s coats and threw them. “You bring back plenty of wood or I’ll make things real hot for you,” he said.

-------3-------

Joanie and Ham wandered as far away as they could while gathering wood. “What now?” Ham asked as Joanie took the ancient Tarot card that Melania had given her from her coat pocket.

            “I need to chant the words written on the back of this card under direct moonlight,” Joanie said looking up. The once clear night sky had become cloudy and a dark shape like a hand covered one section of the moon. Avidità could be heard in the distance yelling. “Bring back that wood … Now!”

            “We need some kind of diversion,” Joanie said. “Long enough for those clouds to go away!”

            “I’ve got just the thing,” Ham said. “She stepped back and stuck two fingers into her mouth. The resulting whistle was the loudest Joanie had ever heard.

            “What are you doing?”

            “Calling on that bull to save his herd,” Ham told her.

            “But we closed the pasture gate!” Joanie insisted.

            “I closed it … but it’s not secure!” Ham smiled.

Seconds later they heard the snorting beast crash against the partially open cemetery gates and come inside. “I’ll carry this wood back … and maybe our guest won’t look for you,’ Ham said.

The night was punctuated by screams and pounding hoofs. Joanie stared up at the sky willing the clouds to move away from the moon. Finally they did. Joanie strained to read the words under moonlight and make her voice loud and clear.

“Invito i poteri di notte per liberarci dalle tenebre...”

There was blinding light and suddenly Ham was beside her with the large key in her hand. Joanie had no idea how long she was knocked out. “Take my bike,” Ham said. “The light has knocked everyone to the ground … but a few are already starting to recover.”

Moments later Joanie found herself peddling with newfound fury skimming over the heads of those awakened who were trying in vain to keep out of the way of creeping corpses and rampaging cows.

-------4--------

Joanie slid her butt off the back of the seat and felt the ancient 1938 Adler Damenrad ladies’ bicycle settle to the ground. The giant key felt heavy in her pocket and it snagged on her coat lining as she pulled it out. In the distance she could hear cries of panic as the cattle charged through the awakened dead. Most lock mechanisms turn left to lock she thought as she was about to insert the key.

Avidità was suddenly behind her and he was holding a gleaming blade to Baby Bat’s throat. “Give the key to me … or your friend dies!” he commanded.

“Don’t do it,” Baby Bat begged. “He means to kill us anyway!”

“Shut up!” Avidità’s hand moved ever so slightly and a drop of blood appeared on Marsha’s throat and ran down the outside of her neck. “Give it to me now!”

Joanie started to hand him the key when flashing red and blue lights suddenly appeared moving rapidly down Vineyard Road. “What have you done?” Avidità  hissed.

Joanie shrugged her shoulders. “I have no idea,” she said. The large key slipped out of her fingers just as she handed it to him. He was enraged and made an inch long cut in Baby Bat’s throat. “Pick it up!” he bellowed.

Joanie reached down and when she did she slipped Ham’s coin into Avidità’s shoe. When she stood up she held the key over her head so that the freak from Las Vegas had to reach for it. She said a silent prayer that the coin would slide under his foot and it did.

            Avidità screamed as his almost three hundred pound mass was lifted eight feet off the ground. The knife in his hand clattered to the ground and Baby Bat rushed into Joanie’s arms.

Sheriff John Walker slid his police car to a stop in front of the cemetery. He and three deputies piled out with guns drawn.

            “How did you find us?” Joanie gasped with relief.

            “We lifted some prints from the broken display case in the library,” the sheriff said. “Your friend here’s real name is Loren Coots. He’s an escaped convict and the great grandson of Jim Coots one of the early desperados buried in this cemetery. Hicks must have rummaged through old newspaper articles while in prison and found out about the magic cemetery gate key. He and his gang were going to use the dead to help them rob casinos back in Nevada.”

One of John’s deputies stared through the fence at the horrible carnage going on inside. “I’m sure I don’t want to go in there,” he stammered.

Joanie put the key in the lock and turned it. “Things should be back to near normal once you get back there,” she said.

            “How do we get this one down?” John Walker asked staring at the cursing man dangling helplessly in the air.

            “Take off his right shoe and then give it to me,” Joanie told him. She handed the large key to the sheriff. Ham would want her magic back.

Sheriff John Waller shrugged his shoulders. A shoe was a small price to pay to put an end to the night’s madness.

THE END ?