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.
Hamilton
Fisk
Part 4
By
R. Peterson
A
bewildered Walter Havens gaped at the birds circling him. He had never seen
such a large number of great horned owls
flying together. They seemed bizarrely aggressive. He wasn’t watching the water until something
rubbed against his leg. “Whaaa ?” A blue-grey dorsal fin skimmed past his wake-board
… then another. Sharks? The furious birds circled closer now and there were
more creatures coming up from below in the water. The six foot long body of a barracuda racing past terrified him. A box jellyfish floated just under the
surface and more could be seen rising from the darkness below. An owl swooped
past his head and raked his neck with its talons. A bomb of feathers exploded
in the air as he struck one with his fist. He lay on the board and began to
paddle. Three manta rays, their
deadly barbed tails twisting in the air, broke the surface a hundred yards to
his left gliding toward him.
Liberty
Johnson handed the binoculars to Hamilton Fisk. “We have a caller,” she said as
she scanned the beach.
“A
caller?” Ham watched Worms paddling furiously toward shore.
“Red
Point Trident members all specialize in various types of dark magic … as we
do,” Herman Wilson explained. “The ability to call dangerous animals and have them do your bidding is an
especially treacherous gift.”
“But
who is doing the calling?”
A
woman and two barefoot youngsters walked along the wet beach. The children had
long pointed sticks trying to dig clams from the sand where small bubbles
appeared. Several people lay on large beach towels. A man sold sandwiches and
drinks from a small wooden shack. Two black labs chased after a Frisbee.
“The beach appears to be filling up
with people,” Dorian Edwards said pointing toward a parking lot overlooking the
sand. “And some of them look out of place.”
“The
beach was always crowded,” Liberty said. “It’s just that for some reason our
magic is washing away.”
A
large black SUV had just pulled up and two men wearing dark suits and
sunglasses climbed out.
-------2-------
The
children carrying the sticks began to squeal as dozens of sand crabs suddenly burrowed up out of the sand.
“Worms
needs help!” Ham pointed toward the surf.
Several
of the owls had landed on the board Worms was on and one was perched on his
shoulders with its beak lost in his hair.
“Porta
l'acqua grande!” Liberty called raising her arms in the air.
The
water under Worms began to swell until he was riding a wave nearly twenty foot
high.
The
children carrying the sticks smiled wickedly and began to herd the crabs toward
the clustered Abra Cadaver members. Wrinkles under the youngster’s eyes made
them suddenly seem decades older … and murderous!
Both
dogs abandoned the Frisbee and yelped away when a large panther appeared from some trees and charged down the beach.
“I think we’re about to get wet!”
Creeps moaned.
“Not if we’re already dead!” Liberty
pointed toward the men who had exited the SUV. Both had pulled automatic
weapons from under their coats and were riddling the refreshment stand with
bullets.
“What the Hell?” Ham shrieked.
“The Trident’s first concern is to eliminate
us,’ Liberty said. “But they also don’t want any non-coven witnesses to their
dark magic. I’m thinking the snack shack is about the only thing on the beach
not involved in witchcraft!”
All
the members of the coven began muttering defensive spells.
The
panther was at a full run when it pounced toward Creeps. Dorian raised his hand
and the vicious predator froze in md-air. If he hadn’t been distracted he might
have noticed the small round and flat object, seemingly with a mind of its own,
that fell into his pocket. “That used up everything I’ve got.” Creeps said to
Liberty. “I hope you’ve got enough mojo left to get us out of here!”
The
ten members of Abra Cadaver who minutes before had been lounging on the beach
now huddled around their leader.
“Gather your things, form a circle
and don’t forget the bike,” Liberty said. “If fate delivers Worms to us before
we move then we are favored if not … the Trident will have a new disciple.”
Ham was about to pick up Walter’s
clothes when she noticed a pile of coins next to his wallet. One of the silver
pieces seemed out of place. She suddenly had a premonition not to touch it. She
ran toward the others.
The
wave Liberty had summoned was now thirty feet high and starting to break on the
beach. Worms rode the wake board halfway to the crest. He appeared to be
fighting entanglements coming from all directions.
Leave the sun, for
skies grey cold.
The
wave broke and Worms tumbled end over end toward them.
Leave the fun, for
darkness old.
The
coven’s newest member disappeared as two foot deep water and foam roared up the
beach.
Leafless trees, in
place of dead.
Water
from the giant wave crashed against the sand barrier and splashed the parking
lot behind it. Liberty hesitated to finish the spell until the water began to
recede. Walter Havens appeared as a clump of seaweed struggling on the sand covered
with slashing teeth and sting tentacles. It was as if every dangerous creature
in the ocean was attacking him at once. Before any of the other coven members
could utter counter curses the men holding the guns turned the squirming
cluster into an explosion of blood. The woman and the two children, who now looked more ape than human, laughed.
Deliver us from that we
dread.
The
ten surviving members spun in a circle alternating between dark and light. The
world they were leaving gradually vanished and a new one began to take shape.
A
large circle of snow in the northeastern section of Salt Lake City Cemetery
began to melt just before the ten coven members appeared with a loud whoosh. A flock of starlings nesting in
a nearby leafless-tree took flight and were captured by the moonlight.
“Poor Worms,” Hamilton moaned. “I
don’t really think he knew what he was getting into! I’m sure I saw the eye
with the other coins he kept in his pocket. It’s my fault; I should have
trained him better.”
-------3-------
“It’s nice to be back,” Creeps
smiled while the rest shivered. “I’ve always hated that baked-in-the-sun look.”
Ham
looked around. The ten surviving members of Abra Cadaver looked worn and tired.
Two trips in one day and the fight with the Trident had exhausted their supply
of magic. “Do we have enough magic left to perform the ritual?”
Herman
(Inks) Wilson still had his face buried in a large book. It was as if
throughout the entire mayhem on the beach he had kept reading. “I think so,” he
said. “The ritual is rather simple. The 1938 Adler Damenrad ladies’ bicycle was
owned by a devoutly religious man named Samuel King. He was a tabernacle caretaker for many years at a
small town in Idaho. The children who played around the outside of the stone
building used to be terrified of him. They said he had the ability to appear
out of thin air. He is buried not far from his spot.”
“What do we need?” Liberty scanned
the frozen headstones illuminated by the full moon. Their escape had been too
easy. Intuition told her they must proceed with great caution.
“We
need dirt from his grave, a tear from any new one and a stone from a tree.”
Inks read from the book. “There’s an incantation that must be read while the
bicycle wheels are rolling.”
“Half
of you search the trees for a pebble lodged in the branches,” Liberty said.
“Look for an empty crow’s nest. These birds like to gather shiny things. There
is a good chance one of them dropped a stone while lining their nests with
treasure. The rest of you look for a fresh grave with mortuary flowers. Bring
all the blooms you can carry. There is a good chance someone cried over a
loved-one’s passing. All we need is a tiny bit … frozen or not.”
------- 4 -------
Ham went with the group searching
for a stone. She climbed several trees and even looked in one of the
ball-of-sticks nests before she finally found one. It was smooth and had been
polished and had a small eyelet for attaching a chain, probably looted by a
crow from someone’s jewelry box, but a stone from a tree was still a stone from
a tree.
When they returned to the circle the
others were already there. Ham was surprised to see the grass inside the thawed
portion of the graveyard was growing and turning green under the moonlight.
“Plant life doesn’t understand magic,” Liberty said. “All they know is that it’s
warm and feels like spring.”
“The cemetery sextant is going to
freak out,” Creeps snickered. “Looks very witchy to me!”
“The city never hires people who
believe in witches,” Liberty said. “If they did, they would never keep their
employees.”
“You climb on the bicycle,” Liberty
told Ham. The rest of you hold up the front and the back while she pedals. Not
too high she just has to be able to pedal.”
Ham
felt a jolt like electricity run down her spine when she sat in the seat. For
an instant she saw the future becoming the past and was aware of the circle of
eternity. She only captured a fraction of what passed before her eyes. The Damenrad
hadn’t always been a bicycle. A thousand years before it had been a tinker’s
cart, ten centuries before that a trebuchet and long before that a crude log
boat … but it had always been … and would forever be.
“We need everyone to focus … we
barely have enough magic left to perform this ritual. Everyone close your eyes.
There will be no more comfort spells tonight. We might have to check into a
motel if we want to sleep.”
Liberty
scattered the grave dirt and the stone on the ground beneath the wheels and
held the flowers in her hand.
“A
wheel within a wheel,” she read from Ink’s book.
“A
seal inside a seal!”
Ham
heard a sound and turned her head, several cars were turning into the cemetery
entrance.
“An
ever hungry worm.”
An
ever breading germ.”
Ham
tried to speak … to warn the others but the only parts of her that would move
were her feet. The bicycle wheels began to turn slowly … then faster.
A half dozen cars skidded to a stop
on both sides of the group. Ham recognized Joseph Amati and another man who had
to be his brother exiting one of the vehicles. They were stomping snow from
their feet as they moved forward. Liberty kept on reading the ritual … oblivious
to what was going on.
“Give us now these
wheels with wings.”
“And
keep your hidden other-things.”
Hamilton
Fisk felt the bicycle start to rise seconds before a ball of fire exploded into
the group. Liberty had finally stopped talking now her eyes looked wildly at
the attackers surrounding her coven. She raised her eyes toward the night sky
just before she burst into flames. Ham pedaled across the face of the moon high
above a sleeping Salt Lake City.
“With
her dying breath, Liberty called, Ride child … ride toward a new beginning.”
THE
END ?
