CREEPAS

Copyright (c) 2016 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.

CREEPAS

By R. Peterson

With Bowsers warming his feet, Tony was so absorbed in the video game; that he didn’t notice the lightning flashing outside as he looked at the map showing herb locations. He maneuvered his level-sixty Paladin “Astonos” through Arathi Highlands. The multi-player PvP realm was overcrowded and the best-selling items were getting harder to find. Tony’s best friend David Wickham was putting together a group to challenge the Scarlet Monastery. Luckily his parents were at their cabin near Yellowstone, because Tony might just be playing all night. A small yellow dot appeared at the top of his computer screen to indicate that another herb had just spawned. Riding his Chestnut Mare, purchased in Stormwind, Astonos would have it tucked safely inside his Traveler’s Backpack in about twenty seconds.

Just as Astonos dismounted, a horribly ugly level twenty-nine Horde female Rogue named Creepas came out of stealth and began to harvest the plant. Tony was angry. He charged his Paladin in from behind wielding his Lightforged Blade. A whirl of pixels later, the low-level player fell, twisting to the ground with a horrible hissing sound that made Bowzers jump from under the desk with a growl. The Irish Setter’s hair was standing on end. “It’s okay boy,” Tony laughed. “It’s only a game.” The audio techies, who create these things, love to come up with new sound effects Tony thought. He smiled at what turned out to be three Fadeleaf, each worth forty-silver at the Stormwind Auction House. Then he laughed out-loud. “This is why Player verses Player is the best.” He shook his head at the lifeless pile of rags and bones lying on the grassy computer-generated ground. “Enjoy your corpse-run buddy!”

Tony was about to make another ride along the cliffs at the top of the map looking for Wild Steel Bloom, an even more valuable herb, when a tremendous bolt of lightning struck close to the house, and an instant later, the power went out. Bowsers followed with a whine as Tony went looking for candles.

In the far dark corners of cyberspace, a very-angry something ran across the landscape as a ghost looking for its body.  All dead know nothing of computers or electricity … they only know murder … and revenge.

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

The light on the microwave was blinking when Tony woke up. The power must have come on sometime during the night. He reset the correct time on the appliance using his watch and decided to jump right in the shower. It was ten after seven and he had to catch the school bus by eight. He’d feed and water Bowzers after he got dressed.

Tony stared at the message written sloppily with red lipstick on his bathroom mirror. WE HAVE UNFINISHED BUSINESS. “Cute David,” Tony muttered as he turned on the hot water. The power must not have gone off at the Wickham house and his best friend was mad that he’d missed playing together on the game.

“Bowzers where are you?” Tony opened the back door and called for the third time as he poured milk on his cereal. Puddles of water stood in the street and dripped from the house eaves. The electrical storm sure had the dog freaked out. He was probably curled-up under Mrs. Dern’s’ Elderberry bushes.

Tony filled a bowl with dog food and placed water on the back porch. If Bowzers was off chasing squirrels he’d have to fend for himself. Since the murder last year, everyone in Cloverdale locked their doors. It was just a hobo, but the way he was found, gutted and hanging from a tree, was enough to scare a small town for centuries. He couldn’t be late for Mrs. Hicks’ first hour class again or he’d have to retake geometry in his senior year.

The computer showed the game log-in screen when he ran past to get his coat. Strange he thought. I usually have to load the game manually after a blackout.

David Wickham was not on the bus and the only vacant seat was next to Cynthia Bowles the prettiest girl in Cloverdale High School. “Hi Tony!” she said as he sat down.

“Hi,” he said, then blurted. “I can’t wait to get my own car so I won’t have to ride this crummy bus.”

“When you do, be sure to drop by my house and pick me up!” Cynthia smiled.

Thank you so much David for being sick. Tony grinned back. “I’ll do that,” he promised.

Tony was walking on air as he made his way down the crowded hall for his first-hour class. Cynthia was not at all stuck-up like everyone said. Sure Eddy Hicks and a dozen others had asked her out and got turned down, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t try. The junior prom was a week from Friday. Why not ask her. What did he have to lose?  Cynthia looked over and smiled as he opened his book. What a string of luck he was having lately!

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

The day was seven hours of joy mixed with apprehension. Cynthia practiced with the cheerleaders during lunch hour and he didn’t see her. Just before sixth-hour he saw her talking to Jeff Miller the captain of the football team and his heart sank. The last period was forty-five minutes of confusion mixed with the smell of Mr. Lowder’s chemistry class.

Cynthia stood up as he boarded the crowded bus. “I saved you a seat,” she said. “But you can sit by the window. I don’t want to get my cheerleading dress dirty.” She pointed.

Written in red lipstick on the bus window were the words. WE HAVE UNFINISHED BUSINESS NOW!

“What kind of people does Mr. Lewis let ride in his bus?” Cynthia asked as she brushed dust from her skirt.

The bus rumbled along the busy streets of Cloverdale.

Tony didn’t answer. He was furious. What the hell are you doing David? He thought.

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

It took six rings for David Wickham to answer the telephone. His voice sounded hoarse and breathy.

“What’s the big idea?” Tony almost shouted. “So I missed going into Scarlett Monastery … there’s more to life than playing a stupid on-line video game.”

            “What are you talking about?” David yawned. “The power was off last night and our house has electric heat. I almost froze to death wrapped up in a blanket, and now I’ve got this terrific cold.”

            “You didn’t write a message on my bathroom mirror with lipstick?”

David laughed. “Hell no,” he said. “You’ve got me confused with the killer in Halloween Part Four. Besides …” he let the sarcasm flow freely. “I wear an invisible shade of lipstick so people won’t notice when I’m cross-dressing. Call me back when you sober up-you #%$^%$# !”

The line went dead.

The load-up screen for the computer game glowed invitingly as Tony put on his coat. Bowzers was still missing and he’d have to go out looking for him. He’d already called the Cloverdale Animal Shelter and they didn’t have any stray Irish Setters. “See you later Arathi Highlands,” he said as he went out the door. “I hope there’s still some Fadeleaf left when I get back.”

-------5-------

Tony looked everywhere for Bowsers, but the dog was nowhere to be found. It was just after his parents returned from their cabin near Yellowstone that a knock came on the door. John Walker, a fifth generation sheriff of Comanche County, stood with his hat in his hand. “I believe you’re the ones with the missing dog,” he said.

Bowsers had been found hanging upside-down from the apple tree behind Mrs. Dern’s house with wire wrapped around his back legs. His throat had been cut so he couldn’t bark or make a sound. Tony knew the term was called garroting: wounding an enemy so that they drown in their own blood. He learned it from playing his current video game. It’s the favorite tactic of a Rogue.

“You got any enemies that would want to cause you or any of the things you love grief?” Sheriff Walker asked.

“Not that I know of,” Tony told him. “Why?”

“We found this note attached to the dog’s head with a nail.” The Sheriff looked like he wanted to puke when he handed a piece of paper inside a clear plastic evidence bag. THIS ISN’T OVER! The note said. It looked like it had been written in blood.

The wind whispering through Mrs. Dern’s orchard was the same spine-chilling sound Creepas made while dying in the Arathi Highlands. Tony felt like he wanted to pass out … but his mother put her arms around him … and he cried instead.

Tony had a hard time going to sleep that night. The eerie glow from his computer monitor, still with the log-in screen from the video game, felt like it was alive watching every time he closed his eyes. Finally Tony got up at two AM and shut the computer down … something he hadn’t done for months.

An hour later he was snoring softly. He didn’t notice when the computer turned itself on and loaded and entered the game. Four minutes and nineteen seconds later a close-up of a very ugly face appeared on the screen. The eyes were too-real and they found Tony as he slept in his bed. “THIS ISN’T OVER,” the lips formed the words without sound from within a cluster of bushes in Eastern Arathi Highlands.

-------6-------

Tony was still groggy when his mother shook him awake. “Get dressed for school now. Your father will have to drop you off early at school on his way to work.” She looked upset.

“Why what’s wrong with the bus?” Tony asked sleepily.

“The bus is fine,” his mother said.  “The driver, Mr. Lewis has had an accident.”

“What kind of accident?” Tony asked. “The week was beginning to be like one long nightmare, all except for Cynthia Bowles.

“It doesn’t matter,” his mom was busy with the toaster. “I laid clean pants and shirts on the top of your drawers.”

It only took five minutes after Tony arrived at school to find out about Mr. Lewis’ accident. His bus had sat idling in the bus compound for at least twenty minutes after the other drivers had all left. Mr. Johnson, the busing superintendent, found Tom Lewis slumped over in his seat and at first thought he might have had a heart attack. It took the fire department more than ten minutes to force open the door; it was locked and chained from the inside. Only a thin strip of skin kept Toms head from being completely severed from his body.

“That’s not the worst thing,” Tony heard a girl whisper to another as he stumbled in the fog down the hallway toward first hour geometry. “The killer wrote THERE WILL BE MORE on the inside windshield glass with the driver’s blood.”

Her friend shivered. “I’ll never ride a school bus again,” she moaned.

Tony discovered that really wasn’t the worst thing. Cynthia was not at school and just after lunch Sheriff Walker and two deputies began asking all of her friends questions. Cynthia had disappeared from her bedroom and her parents swore all the doors were locked. Tony kept thinking about the Rogue in the game. A Rogue was expert at picking locks. When he went to get his chemistry books from his locker after lunch he was sure. Hanging on the inside of his metal locker-door was Cynthia’s cheerleading shirt. Written in what looked like blood, were the words COME AND GET HER.

            Sheriff Walker and his deputies were still interviewing students in Principal Wright’s office when Tony handed over the blood stained shirt. The Sheriff quickly ushered the other students out and listened intently as Tony told his story.

Twenty minutes later Tony was in the front seat of the Sheriff’s car driving across Cloverdale. “Am I a suspect?” Tony asked.

            Sheriff Walker glanced at him and shook his head. “I’m sure you’re involved, but in a town this size … we all are.”

Tony noticed they weren’t headed toward the police station. “Where are we going?” he asked.

            “We haven’t had a murder here in years and now this week is turning into a blood-bath,” Walker explained. “None of the homicides can be rationalized without invoking some kind of supernatural explanation.”

The Sheriff parked his patrol-car in front of a large stately mansion on the south-east corner of Galbraith and Main Street. The sprawling house looked at least a hundred years old.

            “I’ve heard stories about this house ever since I was a kid,” Tony gasped. “It’s the house everyone dared each other to trick or treat … no one ever did … who lived to tell the tale.”

            “This is the residence of Melania Descombey,” Sheriff Walker said. “A fine woman. She’s the oldest person in Montana … maybe in the whole World.”

            “Then she’s not a witch?” Tony released the breath he’d been holding.

            “I didn’t say that.” The Sheriff said as he leaned across Tony and opened the passenger’s door.

To be continued …

           

 

The Bone Planet Witch part 3

Copyright (c) 2016 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.

KEEPER and the

BONE PLANET WITCH

Part 3

By R. Peterson

Even though the massive Centurion starship had initiated its landing process more than four miles away, still Obscorité 9 heaved violently, as if the ground were undergoing an earthquake. Many of the twisted trees growing without light on the perpetually dark world caught fire from the ship’s massive reverse-light engines. The resulting glow illuminated the eerie landscape.

Oóg and Lómn were both on their knees in front of Féltékeny pleading for their child’s life.  “Lomna is too young to know what she’s doing,” Oóg sobbed. “Take our lives but spare our daughter … please!”

“I want to see you feed your mate to the spiders,” Féltékeny hissed, smiling at the weeping Lómn. “If you do, I will kill your daughter quickly.” The exoskeleton holding Lómna over the edge of the pit took a step back, obviously enjoying the child’s screams.

“Throw me in,” Lómn pleaded with her mate. “I don’t want my daughter to suffer.”

Oóg threw his arms in the air and wailed in pitiful agony. “We have submitted ourselves to your every desire.” He pleaded. “Why do you seek only to hurt the people on this planet and cause them pain?”

            “You pathetic excuses for humanoids deserve no better,” Féltékeny hissed. “Males are loyal only when they get what they want.”

Keeper sensed the witch’s rage and thought he knew the reason for it. “Many in the universe are hurt by love,” he said. “I’m sure someone somewhere will make you an acceptable mate. You might even grow to love him.”

            “An acceptable mate?” Féltékeny leaped off the ground and yanked out clumps of her own hair as she screamed. “I should cut your tongue out, but I want to hear you beg for mercy.”

She lunged toward the cage and Keeper stepped back just in time to avoid having his eyes gouged out. “Just wait until your ship lands,” she said. “Getting Leika is too important.” Féltékeny pointed a jagged-nail finger at Keeper. “I promise you I won’t forget your sick mind or your vile suggestions!”

            “I’ve known women like that back on Earth,” Jeff whispered to Keeper. “Being in a relationship is the most horrible thing they can imagine.”

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

The rumble of the Centurion engines throttling-down became intolerable. The ship had to be less than a mile above the surface. Soon the crew would also be trapped. The confiscated photon swords lay on a table next to the largest tractor beam generator Keeper had ever seen.  The possibility of returning to space from this hellish planet would be remote.

Jeff banged his hands on the bars of the cage as Lómna screamed in the arms of the exoskeleton. He had to save her. And then it hit him. Oóg, Lómn and Lómna were all here but where was the tiny boy who didn’t like Lemon Head candy: ? Oóga? Out-loud, he whispered “Oóga,” just loud enough for Keeper to hear.

Oóg had collapsed on the ground and Féltékeny was trying to jerk him to his feet cackling with glee at his misery. Keeper caught his eye as the witch lifted him off the ground and used universal sign language to ask where his son was. Oóg shook his head in terror as the witch dragged him toward Lómna. Keeper made another sign telling him that it might be their only chance. Just before Féltékeny twisted Oóg’s head up and made him look at Lómn, Oóg pointed toward the same discard pile Lómna had hidden in. Keeper could just make out a small pair of terrified eyes watching from under the skins.

Keeper knew they had to escape from the cage. Oóga had to disengage the locking beam his sister had failed to disrupt. He motioned for Jeff to get the boy’s attention. The Earthling had proven resourceful in times of great stress. Jeff looked around for something to throw but could find nothing. With a shrug he pulled off his heat detecting glasses and tossed them at Oóga. They landed close enough to make the boy look. Keeper used sign language to tell him he had to disrupt the locking device. Oóga stared with wide eyes obviously terrified. Keeper placed a hand over his heart, and mouthed: “Be brave.’ Relief ran through him as slowly, Oóga  emerged from the reeking skins and began to walk toward the light bath.

Féltékeny dragged Oóg and Lómn to the edge of the pit. Oóga clung to Lómn sobbing like an infant. Lómna once again screamed over the pit of spiders. “Toss in your mate or your daughter goes in now,” the witch promised.

Lómn didn’t wait for Oóga to act. She struggled out of his grip and with a last lingering look at her mate and daughter flung herself over the edge.

Oóga was almost to the light bath control system when he saw his mother go over the edge. “No!” he screamed. Féltékeny turned and screamed with laughter at the sight of the boy, frozen less than a yard away from the controls. “At last! The entire family is together,” she screamed. “Seize him!”

Oóga somehow slipped out of the exoskeleton’s grasp. His tiny arm broke the beam controlling the locks and the cage door opened. Keeper dashed toward the table with a blind Jeff hanging on to his belt. Lómn was already in the bottom of the pit thrashing wildly in a sea of hairy legs. An ear-shattering whine followed by a grinding sound came from above.

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

Keeper had been captain of the Centurion for almost a millennium, and he knew every tiny tweak the ship made when it was performing each of its more than two-hundred operations. He grabbed the swords, handed one to Jeff and then forced himself and his most trusted crew member flat on the ground. A split-second later, the dark planet was illuminated like a photo flash. A hundred thousand ferocious exoskeletons, armed with glowing fork weapons, became suddenly visible charging in all directions toward the landing site.

Keeper saw Féltékeny grab for Oóg and miss, as the wailing husband and father leaped into the pit after his screaming mate and daughter. Scorching winds, which followed the burst of light, roared across the landscape uprooting trees and scattering debris in all directions. The Centurion was only seconds from touching down seemingly without any resistance.

Féltékeny’s hooded dark robe spread-out like an umbrella and she became a blur spinning high into the air, seeming to ride the terrible wind going up instead of being blown back as she screeched profanity. Keeper noticed for the first time that the robe she wore was not black but a deep rubicund against the ashen atmosphere … like old death.

            Keeper and Jeff were swept across the ground for three-hundred yards by the blast, becoming tangled in a clump of thorny brush. “I finally have one second when I can see and then this happens,” Jeff moaned spitting dirt from his mouth. “What was that?”

“Teuth obviously released negatively-charged photonic energy in a pre-landing dump,” Keeper said.

“Isn’t that required by law to be done in space, to avoid destroying the planet you’re supposed to be landing on?” Jeff was using his photon sword to extract a thorn branch from his arm.

“I think this was Teuth’s pay-back for being forced to land.” Keeper smiled.

The massive star-ship, a collection of conjoined global structures with a total area three point seven miles in diameter, had indeed landed hard on the surface of Obscorité 9. It looked like like a small city surrounded by dust clouds on the horizon. The planet’s surface for a ten mile radius appeared as bright as a cloudless day on Earth. “Good,” Keeper said as he got to his feet.  “Teuth must have some reserve power. Féltékeny’s superior technology did not deplete it all. He’s turned on the deep-water illumination lights. If anything can cut through this darkness those high-power beams can”

            “It’s better this way-” Jeff stood beside Keeper. “I like to be able to see my enemies before the kill me.” Several hundred bleeding and injured exoskeletons, their fork weapons glowing orange-red, were once again advancing toward the crashed ship … this time at a run.

Three howling bone warriors who had sprinted ahead of the the mob leaped over an uprooted tree-stump. Keeper slashed one, ducked, and then got the other while Jeff blocked two ferocious jabs then cut the third trident wielder in half. “There’s too-many coming,” Jeff yelled. A hundred more, some much larger than the first three, were just vaulting out of the ravaged woods.

            “We make a good team in a fight,” Keeper said, “but not that good.” He was already running beside Jeff as they headed toward the Centurion.

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

            Keeper’s plan was simple: Make it to the stricken ship, hope that Teuth could beam them inside, and then pray they had enough power left to fight Féltékeny and her Bone Planet Army while they figured out a way to leave this little part of Hell in the universe.

            Féltékeny and a thousand soldiers were waiting outside the crashed Centurion when Keeper and Jeff arrived. “Did you think a little hot air could stop me?” the Bone Planet Witch cackled as she wiggled her finger and their photon swords once again disappeared. More than a dozen bay doors on the ship were open and hundreds of Centurion crew members, with hands held over their heads were being escorted outside. A sheepish-faced Teuth followed dragging his tentacles and flanking two medical technicians carrying a covered gurney. Keeper could just see the top of Leika’s head. “I’m sorry,” Teuth told Keeper with bulging eyes. “She is just too powerful for our current technology. I did what I could … but it was futile to resist her numinous powers.”

            “I’ll have fun with you later,” Féltékeny seized a trident from one of the soldiers and jabbed at the ship’s navigator playfully, “right now I have bigger-fish to fry!” She dropped the glowing fork and approached the medical attendants … forcing them to set down the gurney.

            “I’ve waited for centuries to look on the face that destroyed my world,” she hissed as she pulled back the sheet. Leika sat up holding a gilded mirror with an attached chain that Keeper thought looked remarkably like the one they had found broken on the path when they first landed. “Mother you’re looking … exceptionally … stunning,” Leika’s voice was filled with undisguised venom as she directed the looking glass at the witch.

Féltékeny’s scream lifted leaves off the ground a mile away. She instantly began to change. Her beautiful face, that had before mirrored Leika’s in every way, became the visage of a time-ravaged hag, twisted, scarred and rotted. “What have you done, you man-stealing bitch?” The witch stood frozen … vibrating with fear, hate and loathing.

            “Only cleaning-up the kitchen and putting things in order,” Leika said. She stood and hung the mirror around Féltékeny’s neck. “I thought I smelled a rat …” she looked around at the Bone Planer army, “or more than one when I woke-up this morning.” The witch was mesmerized by her own reflection … unable to look away for even an instant.

Jeff gasped. “We thought you were dying! How long have you been concious?”

            “Since you knocked over the cauldron,” Leika said. “It was my mother’s vile brew that kept me in a deep … shall we say … sleep.”

            “I’m sorry,” Teuth blubbered to Keeper. “Ever since Leika awakened … I’ve been under her control.”

            “Féltékeny is your mother?” Keeper could not disguise his astonishment as he gazed at his Organic Science Officer.

            “I should say … mother-in-law,” Leika said. “You didn’t know that I was once married did you?”

            “I knew you liked to torture men with your unusual charms,” Jeff said, “but to actually marry one! That’s going a little too far isn’t it?”

Leika ignored his attempt at wit. Her voice held a note of sadness.  “Féltékeny’s son Michaél was everything a woman dreams about. I was used to men lusting after me … it was different to be infatuated with another. He was of course a Szellem like his mother, that is to say a person of very unusual numinous powers, but his magic was of a very pleasant type. I’ve never known anything like him in all the places I’ve traveled.”

            “On Earth, we call it love,” Jeff smirked.

            “So what happened?” Keeper was astonished at the tale.

            “Féltékeny idolized her son and was infatuated with him,” Leika said. “Like many Earth mothers, she could never stand him paying attention to another.” Leika gaped at the ugly face peering into the mirror and shook her head. “She used magic to make herself resemble me in every way, hoping that Michaél would forget about me and come home to her.”

            “I take it that didn’t work …” Jeff was becoming more sympathetic.

“The day of our wedding, Féltékeny, although invited, had refused to come.” Leika’s voice now became bitter. “She arrived just after we cut the cake, drunk on Benävian wine and riding a bearded Orgondo-beast. Michaél tried to escort her from the festivities, but she became enraged. She screamed that if she could not have her son … no-one would. She opened a portal to another dimension and cast her own son into it with a special key called an Üveg.” Leika walked in circles around her frozen mother-in-law. “The key disappeared moments before she also vanished. Over the years she became more and more bitter like a dark plague ravaging whole planetary systems and destroying those who love with fear.”

            “And no-one could stop her?” Keeper gasped. “That’s incredible!”

            “The Szellem have their own laws and my mother was finally tracked down and made to pay for her crimes,” Leika said. “She was convicted and forced to wander the universe wearing a special mirror called an Eatai that made her always aware of what she had become. She was not allowed to speak and lived by selling apples wherever she wandered. That she somehow ended up on a planetary system with no light allowed her to break the enchantment of the mirror … Oh! I almost forgot!” Leika took a basket filled with apples from under the gurney’s disgruntled blanket and placed it in Féltékeny’s statue-like hand. “Mother has to make a living somehow!”

            “And what about this key … this Üveg … what is it? What does it look like? If you got it back could you brink back your one true love?” Jeff was fascinated.

            “It looks like you … narrow at the top, glassy-eyed and wide at the bottom,” Leika smirked and then became serious. “It could be anywhere in the universe, in any one of a billion or more galaxies,” Leika said. “It’s impossible to locate … and I know Féltékeny will never disclose where it was sent.”

            “With your connections in the universe you must have a clue …” Jeff would not give up.

            “A very wise Szellem with far-sight, on Getamon 419, says the Üveg lies at the bottom of a shimmering green ocean filled with cerulean flowers and paradisiac fish. It rests half -buried next to a chunk of growing-iron that has been carved into the likeness of a strange female wearing flowing white robes. The Üveg sleeps under a pile of rust inside the shell of a sea animal,” Leika said, “But as most worlds in this universe are made of water … it is of little help.”

            “That’s the thing about eternity,” Jeff rationalized, “There’s always plenty of time.”

            “What about this army that Féltékeny had under her control?” Keeper, Jeff, Teuth and Leika all stared at the thousands of Bone Planet people now wandering lost and without purpose.

            “I think our planet can now be saved,” Oóg appeared along with Lómn holding loving hands with Oóga and Lómna. “Féltékeny was right,” he said. “The spiders were non-lethal … they were meant to scare a person to death over many months.” He gestured toward the army. “These are good citizens of our planet. Fear has turned them into the kind of creatures that hate.” The bone planet inhabitants were already beginning to disperse, to make their way back to their homes … and to escape the unwanted light.

            “And of your mother Féltékeny, what is to become of her?” Keeper could barely look at the disabled hag.

            “The Szellem have already been notified,” Leika said. “They should be here to pick her up before our ship is repaired and ready for liftoff.”

            “Let’s just hope the Szellem don’t let her wander-off again,” Jeff shivered.

            “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of women!” Leika teased. “Where is your sense of fun?”

            “I’m afraid of nothing,” Jeff tried to make himself stand taller as Keeper and Leika both laughed.

            “We’ll see about that,” Leika selected an apple carefully from Féltékeny’s basket and smiled seductively at the Centurion’s First Officer as she polished it on her blouse …

… and then she took a bite.

THE END?

The Bone Planet Witch part 2

Copyright (c) 2016 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.

KEEPER and the

BONE PLANET WITCH

Part 2

By R. Peterson

          Keeper and Jeff both thought the woman stirring the cauldron was Leika … until she spoke. She looked exactly like their Organic Science Officer in every small detail; it was her snake-like hiss that gave her away. “So you brought her to me … good … I want to watch as she takes her last breath.”

“You’re creating numinous energy that is causing her to die,” Keeper said pointing at the energy beams rising from the cauldron. “Why? What has Leika ever done to you?”

“Oh, this simple charm is not meant to kill her,” Féltékeny laughed. “I have something much more painful in mind for her.” She wiggled a boney finger seductively at one of the exoskeleton creatures that had brought Keeper and Jeff to her. The guards were standing far back from the strange light. One large individual approached fearfully. When it was close enough, Féltékeny grasped its clawed-hand and thrust it into the boiling cauldron. The creature screamed in pain until the witch allowed it to remove its smoking appendage. Keeper and Jeff gaped as the creature thrashed about holding a now bloody stump of bone and charred flesh.

“I hope that’s not tea you’re brewing,” Jeff said. “If it is … I prefer coffee.”

“Bring Leika to me and you can leave … after,” Féltékeny said.

“After what?” Keeper was getting angry.

“After you watch beauty become a beast.” The old woman approached and scratched just under Keeper’s bottom eyelid with a jagged fingernail. “Many on this planet do not have the luxury of sight.”

Keeper grabbed Jeff, jerked him back and spun him around just as a blast of energy made the planet’s surface as bright as the sun for a few seconds. The boiling cauldron rolled-over spilling its gruesome contents onto the ground.

Seconds later, Keeper and Jeff were running through the darkness. “What the heck was that?” Jeff couldn’t believe they hadn’t been knocked unconscious by the blast.

            “You didn’t think I’d walk right up to a witch like that without a plan “B” did you?” Keeper said.

            “You’re full of surprises.” Jeff yelled as they jumped over a fallen log at the last second.  “These high-powered Flerovium lights will surely give us away though,” Jeff said. “Talk about being easy to follow.”

            “I’m counting on it,” Keeper said. “Keep moving! That Veridium flare will stun any creature for a few minutes. I used one just like it to disable a Konka Beast on Dremadare when I got caught stealing eggs for a very wealthy collector. Those things can strip the flesh off your bones with their eyelashes”

            “The Konka Beast or the Collector?”

            “Both,” Keeper told him.

They splashed through the same kind of murky liquid they’d seen earlier. “We’re back at the lake already?” Jeff sounded astonished. “I knew we ran fast … but not this fast.”

            ‘Not a lake, a river,” Keeper said. “All lakes need to be fed by a source. I just hoped I’d picked the correct side of the hill we were on.”

“We were on a hill?”  
“The way you were gasping on the way to Féltékeny’s party I thought you knew.”

They could hear the howl of the exoskeleton creatures in the distance … drawing closer.

            “Give me your light,” Keeper commanded.

Jeff reluctantly handed over the only thing that was keeping him sane on the most dismal planet he’d ever been on. He heard a two quick splashes as Keeper tossed both lights into the fast moving stream.

            “So this is what it feels like to be blind,” Jeff said.

            “Our pursuers will hopefully follow the lights and allow us time to escape,” Keeper said.

            “It will take some blind-luck for us to get out of this alive,” Jeff quipped.

            “Not if you always have a plan B,” Keeper said. He removed two special eye-pieces from his belt and handed one to Jeff. All life forms, and even non-organic things produce heat in varying degrees,” he said as he adjusted controls on his Z-Pak. “The computer will analyze the heat we detect from our surroundings and send it back to us in a visual form.”

            “Why didn’t we use these earlier?” Jeff shook his head.

            “What! And have no plan B?” Keeper smiled.

They listened as the howls of the pursuing exoskeleton creatures grew faint in the distance. “I think we lost them!” Jeff sighed with relief.

            “But not for long,” Keeper told him. “We have to keep moving.”

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

            The heat-detecting eye-pieces took some getting used to, but by the time they had covered a couple of miles Jeff was no longer stumbling over fallen trees. They could detect a small group of dome-shaped huts in a sheltered valley. “So this is where the Bone People live,” Jeff said. “I thought they just spawned from a crack in the ground.”

            “All humanoid species possess social skills of some degree,” Keeper said. “I noticed the fear those who assisted Féltékeny displayed when they were doing her bidding. Let’s hope that in this village we can find some that will assist us.”

            “Like asking cougars to help you bring down a deer,” Jeff grumbled, but he followed.

They were close enough to the group of huts now to detect movement. An exoskeleton with breasts, obviously a female, was carrying a bucket and a stool towards what looked like a cross between a large rhinoceros and a sperm-whale, tethered to one side of the dwellings.

The woman sat on the stool beside the beast and hummed what sounded like a song as she began to work.

            “That’s the problem with milking monsters on a planet without light,” Jeff snickered. “You have to do it every night … and all night.”

Several large creatures resembling snakes with multiple long thin legs, obviously kept as pets and watch-animals, dozed by the door openings. “Watch that you don’t wake the Katowebs!” Keeper warned.

            “My old man always kept a few watch-dogs around his trailer,” Jeff said. “Their growl is always worse than their bite.”

            “Remember the Obscorité 9 specimen Teuth told us died shortly after it was delivered to Mateuse 17?”

            “Yah! No known antidote for its poison.”

            “That,” Keeper said as he pointed to one of the guard animals, “was a Katoweb.”

A flap that looked as if it might be made of some kind of skin opened on one of the huts and a large exoskeleton stepped outside. He whistled softly and the sound carried in the darkness. Seconds later the same sound came from behind then. Keeper and Jeff both turned as huge boney hands lifted them from the ground.

            “Come with me,” the huge exoskeleton said.

            “Like we have any choice,” Jeff moaned.

Their legs dangled at least a foot off the ground, as the armor-plated humanoid carried them toward the village.

           

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

            The stone floor of the hut the creature dropped them on was covered with some type of fur. A stream of the dark water ran into a tiny pool at one end and then outside into the darkness.  The woman who had been milking the beast, stood protectively in front of two sickly-thin children. “I am Oóg,” the creature who captured them said and then gestured toward the female, “my mate is called Lómn. We are members of the Gentälion tribe.”

            “I am Keeper, Captain of the starship Centurion,” Keeper told him. “We wish no harm to come to anyone on this planet. We are here only to stop a stream of numinous energy that is causing one of our crew members to become very sick … perhaps to die!”

            “Féltékeny’s magic powers cannot be stopped,” Oóg said. Keeper thought he detected a note of sadness in the exoskeleton’s voice. “She is God of this world and many others.”

            “I assure you this woman you think of as a God, is only using technology you don’t understand,” Keeper said. “Help us and you will no longer have to live under her rule.”

Oóg conferred with his mate, while the odd but adorable children peeked from behind their mother’s legs. They stared at the elaborate devices covering the stranger’s eyes. Jeff took his heat-detecting glasses off and pretended to stumble about the room like he was blind. The children made popping noises that could have been laughter. “What are your names?” he asked them.

            “I am Oóga,” the oldest said. “Father says that I may get my own Toda to ride when my head reaches his shoulders.” He pointed to the younger. “This is my sister Lómna.”

Jeff looked at the large creature towering over his arguing mate. “It may take some time for you to ride.” He said. Jeff took a box of Lemon Heads sour candy from his pocket, stuck one in his mouth and gave a piece to each of the children. Oóga made a face as if to spit his out, but Lómna smiled and made popping sounds.

Their strange host’s argument was over. The woman began to strain the milk into another pail, using some type of spider web and setting several lumpy clots onto a bark covered table made of stone.

            “We can show you the power source for Féltékeny’s numinous spells,” Oóg said glancing at his mate. “But my family must not get any more involved. Féltékeny has offered three month’s food rations for your capture, and a slow and painful death if we are caught helping her enemies. The Gentälion people are starving; many will seek to find you for the reward.”

Jeff pretended to have only one leg and hopped about the room. Lómna made popping noises and imitated his every move.

Jeff then flipped a switch on Keeper’s Z-Pak and a hologram played back the last minute in ghostly realism.

            “I understand,” Keeper told Oóg, ignoring the antics of his First Officer. “Any help you can give us will be appreciated.

The stunned children were still staring wide-eyed at the images of themselves and the strangers moving about the room when they all left.

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

Féltékeny’s control-center was as large as a sports arena and covered with a transparent dome. It sat at the top of a large mountain. Keeper conversed with Oóg and Lómn about Gentälion culture while Jeff played with the children letting them ride on his shoulders as they climbed the mountain.

            “We lived as a peaceful society for countess generations until Féltékeny came to our world,” Oóg said. “To purposely cause the death of another individual was unheard of.”

            “Our children are all we have,” Lómn said. “We know of some who were taken away from sleeping parents … and never returned.” She looked at her children with loving eyes. “Forgive us for what we are about to do.”

            The group rounded a bend in the trail and came face to face with Féltékeny and a group of exoskeletons all brandishing trident-shaped spears.

            “You have captured the Evil Ones and brought them to me,” Féltékeny smiled at Oóg, “and you shall be rewarded.”

            “I don’t want any reward,” Oóg told her. “I just want my family to be left alone.”

            “Oh, but I insist,” Féltékeny said. “I want the entire planet to know that I take care of my friends.

Oóg leaned close to Keeper and whispered just before the exoskeletons dragged him and Jeff away. “I’m sorry, fear makes you do those things you hate.”

-------5-------

            Keeper and Jeff were locked in a steel cage inside a dome filled with sophisticated technology that would have turned every scientist on Mateuse 17 green with envy. A massive crystal attached to an antenna sent numinous energy patterns outward to the stars. Féltékeny and the exoskeletons were clustered around a large hole that had been excavated in the arena’s center. A small mountain of reeking, ragged, and bloody clothing and bones most likely from Féltékeny’s victims was piled beside them. “This is what I have planned for Leika,” the woman said. Several of the exoskeletons pushed the cage closer to the edge so that Keeper and Jeff could see into the pit.

            The massive hole was filled with millions of spider-like creatures of all sizes and descriptions. The larger ones were feasting on the smaller.”

            “Your Leika has always been afraid of things with many legs,” Féltékeny cackled. “None of these creatures’ bites are lethal … I want her to die of fright.”

            “The crew of the Centurion will never turn Leika over to you!” Keeper cursed.

            “Wrong!” Féltékeny laughed. “I have been in contact with your Teuth.  That land-adapted cephalopod idiot, you left in charge, has agreed to land your ship on the planet’s surface and hand Leika over to me … in exchange for your lives.”

            “Teuth will figure something out,” Jeff whispered to Keeper. “He’s no fool.”

            “Of course he plans to deceive us,” Féltékeny laughed. “We know of every communication that goes on inside your pathetic zoological ship. We will be waiting with a device that makes reverse light engines and all their sub-systems fail, and none of you will ever leave this planet alive.”

Keeper looked at all of the highly sophisticated equipment under the dome and he believed her.

Féltékeny decided that they needed more spiders, and she made a grand show of leaving with a group of exoskeletons to gather more.

Keeper stared at a light array control bath that was hooked to the giant crystal. “If I could just get my hands inside those beams we could warn Teuth about the trap she’s leading him into.”

Keeper and Jeff were both startled when the mountain of bloody clothing next to them began to move. They though perhaps some of the dead … had come back to life. Out popped Lómna.

            “I slipped from my bed and followed you here,” she said. “I’ll free you if I can.”

            “You are very brave to come here,” Jeff told her. “Why aren’t you afraid?”

            “No one here ever laughs,” she said. “My mother told me stories about generations long gone when our people were always joyful. If I can make it so that we can know joy and laughter again, it is worth enduring the fear!”

Keeper pointed to the control panel. “Look for a beam of green and blue light and put your hand into it. That should be the control to open these doors.”

Lómna walked to the control bath. She stood staring at the strange lights before jamming her hand inside.

Immediately alarms began to sound everywhere under the dome. Féltékeny came rushing back in laughing and dragging a bound and tied Oóg and Lómn.

            “I promised you a reward,” she cackled as the exoskeletons held a squirming Lómna over the edge of the pit. “My spiders are very hungry they need to be fed so that they don’t eat each other. I will throw your child into the pit, and then her traitorous parents. That way, you can see your child eaten alive, knowing it will be your fate soon.”

The ground began to tremble as if from an earthquake. The massive Centurion was preparing to land on the planet’s surface.

“Good!” Féltékeny laughed. “Your ship will be under our power in less than a minute. I understand that you have a very large crew. I’m not sure if we have enough spiders.”

To be continued …