AFTER MIDNIGHT part 4

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 4

By R. Peterson

“Light must always follow darkness … one does not exist without the other.”

The violent shaking continued. More than half of the ancient graves in Black Rose Cemetery were split open. And the dead crawled out. The man who called who called himself Avidità smiled as the cadavers assembled around him. “An army marches on its stomach,” he said. “My troops are famished! Some haven’t eaten for years!” He spread his arms wide and walked about with a supplicating gesture. “Who among you would volunteer to feed my ranks?”

            Trout looked horror stricken. “What do the dead eat?”

            “Why the living of course!” Avidità snapped his fingers just as two Mortuary Frost forks took off running. The hooded bear and jackal chased them down. The screaming went on for less than a minute. The creatures returned licking bloody lips and dragging the two bodies. Bits of torn-flesh stuck to their matted hair.

            Trout began to babble nonsense as tears rolled down her face. “I should have held them. David Williams had only one season! It was Jeff Andrew’s first Ceremony of Týr.”

            “Shut up!” Avidità slapped her so hard she crumpled to the ground.

            Any thoughts of escape were quickly extinguished as the three other Goth covens found themselves surrounded by the Seven Deadly Skins and an army of recently animated corpses.

            “We are prepared to preserve ourselves!” Avidità ordered.

            “Which coven?” Ham asked.

            “Let’s get this done with shall we?” Avidità spread his arms wide. Joanie noticed what looked like tiny streams of electrical current flowing between his fingers. “Every spoon under the moon … with their fingers splayed on the ground! Blood will spill much too soon … and no more forks will be found.”

Joanie stared at Hamilton Fisk. The leader of Abra Cadaver was always the most powerful witch until these new comers arrived. She was strangely silent. Joanie edged closer to her, careful not to be conspicuous. “Can you do anything?” she whispered.

            “All power has a weakness,” Ham said. “We must discover theirs.”

Ham nodded to her followers and they formed part of a large circle. The members of Mortuary Frost looked for guidance from their leader but Trout remained crumpled on the ground. Baby Bat nudged Joanie. The whites of her eyes showed all round. “Are we going to do this?”

            “I don’t think we have any choice,” Joanie whispered. She turned to Ham. “Perhaps Avidità is over confident of his skills. He must think he is all powerful if he thinks he can take us all on at once!”

            “Will the forks be equal?” Ham asked the man prancing in the top hat.

            “Of course not!” Avidità smiled. “I shall use but one fork against ….” He paused to count the coven members sitting on the ground in a large circle. Joanie noticed sparks came from the ends of his fingers. “Forty-four … you may add a few more if you like. I want this to be fair!”

With a nod from Joanie, nine Cloverdale forks joined the circle and placed combat forks in their hands.

Joanie stared at the dozen or so men with their white faces painted like skulls. “I wonder which one is their champion?”

            “Winner takes all?” Avidità stared at them.

            “We agree!” Ham said.

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

Joanie and Ham helped Trout to her feet and together they walked around the circle blindfolding each member and placing a black candle behind. When they were finished, all three Goth Queens closed their eyes and the candles lit themselves. The flames would be a link to the minds of those without sight and the eyes which guided them.

Abra Cadaver, Cloverbone and Mortuary Frost all began to chant in the common tongue as the back door to one of the hearses opened. Eight of the men with white faces catted a black coffin and set it in the circle. Avidità looked at the sky in all directions (the moon glowed like a huge spotlight and no clouds covered any stars) before smiling. “Let my power come forth!”

Streams of blue/green electrical current flowed from Avidità’s fingertips toward the coffin and it opened.

Joanie and Ham both gasped at the same time. Trout fainted. A creature with the head of a black cat and the body of a dwarf sprang from the black box and danced around the circle. He appeared to hiss at each blindfolded member and whispered things in their ears that no one else could hear. Finally he placed his clawed fingers on the grass in front of Ham’s best fork.

            “Are you ready?” Avidità smiled. For the first time Joanie noticed the flashing sequins covering his dark suit. She wondered if he had hidden batteries somewhere on his body. He looked like a recently dug-up Elvis,

Ham stood behind her blind battle-Goth and sent mental images to him as the fork in his hand hovered over the splayed fingers on the grass below.  With lightning speed the fork was thrust into the ground missing the fingers by inches. The strike was so fast Joanie couldn’t be certain but at the last minute she swore the fork moved to one side as if pulled by a magnet.

            “That’s one!” Avidità said as Ham began to remove the corresponding fork ring from her finger. He shook his head.

            “Let us go again …. Double or nothing?” he suggested.

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

Ham readily agreed to Avidità’s terms and they moved to the next encounter. It was a repeat of the first. The downward thrusting fork missing the cat headed dwarf’s fingers by inches. “Come, come why so glum?” Avidità chanted. “Surely you must draw at least one drop of blood … and when you do … all your servants are returned to you!”

Ham became increasing agitated as she moved about the circle. None of her battle-Goths could make contact. The cat faced dwarf never moved his hand, but no matter how much mental imagery she sent, the forks always struck wild.

Just as Hamilton Fisk found her last fork defeated a commotion came from the corpses gathered outside the circle. A half dozen of the rotted dead suddenly attacked a robust gentleman who looked to have been recently placed in the cold earth. They knocked him to the ground and began peeling large strips of flesh from his bloodless body.

            “It appears my new army is famished,” Avidità said. He looked directly at Joanie. “As host of this ceremony I believe it was your responsibility to provide refreshments?”

            “If you think I’m going to dig up graves to provide you a buffet your crazy!” Joanie told him.

            “It doesn’t have to be human meat,” Avidità suggested. “A nice helping of beef seems to keeps things together!” He pointed toward one of the corpses just as two ribs fell to the ground. “Unless you would rather we feast on those we’ve recently won in battle?”

            “No!” Ham and Joanie both said at the same time.

            “Good!” Avidità laughed. “I noticed a small herd of cattle grazing in a field near here. Bring them to us and I shall spare your members …. for a time!”

            “I’m tired of doing your bidding,” Ham spat. “If you want cattle stolen do it yourself!”

At that moment, an image of Melania’s Tarot card returned to Joanie and she whispered urgently to Ham, “Tell him we’ll do it. I’ve got something that might help us … but we need to be alone to decide how to use it.”

            Ham grudgingly gave Avidità her consent. She and Joanie had just started walking toward the closed cemetery gates when Avidità and a dozen of his men stopped them. “When I send someone on a mission they always wear my garments,” he said. “I insist!” He smiled as they reluctantly removed their coats and accepted the black hoods. Joanie’s red blouse made her upper torso look like it was covered in blood under the moonlight.

As Joanie had suspected, the gates were closed but not locked. Scratches near the rusted lock mechanism showed a key had recently been used. “I hate leaving my coven behind,” Ham said. “But if you have something from a real witch that might help us … then this might be our only chance!”

            Joanie shook her head. “We’re all real witches,” she said. “Melania gave me a Tarot card Melania but it’s in my coat pocket. So now Avidità has it. I only hope I can get my coat back when we return.”

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

            It was less than half a mile down Vineyard Road to where Seth Johnson kept a dozen Black Angus grazing in a pasture next to his barn. It was a warm night and both girls removed their hoods when they were out of sight of the cemetery. They fastened them around their waists like belts. The bright moonlight made it easy to open the gate made of barbed-wire stretched over a pole-frame. “I’ve never herded cattle before,” Ham whispered.

            “It’s easy,” Joanie said. “You just walk in front of them and pretend you’re a bale of hay.”

            “Where are you going to be?”

            “I’ll be walking behind throwing sticks, rocks and anything else I can find!”

They were almost to the open gate when Joanie heard a noise behind her. In the distance a dog was barking and then another. The largest Black Angus bull she’d ever seen stood behind her pawing the ground with a hoof as big as a dinner plate. Hot steam pouring from the monster’s flaring nostrils made him look like a steam locomotive. “Run!” Joanie screamed just as the bull charged.

TO BE CONTINUED ….