Burning Man Ch. 05

Noami's door was open when Key arrived, he carefully pushed on the door and heard the television on in the living room. "Noami!"

"I'm in here," he followed her voice to the living room. She was lounging on the couch naked with a marijuana pipe smoldering on the end table next to her. "Hey baby," She purred as she got up from the couch.

"You went into my files," He said.

She pulled him into a kiss. Her tongue was probing his mouth as her hands reached for his pants. He pulled her hands away and broke from the kiss, "Mmmm, I've been a naughty girl," She laughed. Her eyes were bleary and tinged in red.

"You saw him didn't you?" Noami had certainly been sexually aggressive at times but never like this. This was like a bad film. Something felt wrong.

"Saw who?" She nibbled at his ear.

His mind raced. How could he have gotten to her so quickly? He stepped away from Noami blasted through every room flipping light switches as he went. "Where is he?"

"I'm the only one here," He turned in time to see her standing in a doorway with her arms stretched out against the jamb with a pairing knife in her right hand.

"What are you doing?"

She laughed and bit her lip as she pulled her hands together gripping the knife. Her expression shifted from lusty to murderous in half a breath as she thrust the blade at his stomach. He easily parried the strike, but her assault wasn't finished. She struck at him again and caught him on the arm. The blade sliced neatly through his skin. He grabbed at his arm and moved away from her as well as he could into a narrow hallway.

"Fight it! Whatever he's done to you fight it. You are Noami Hunyadi, remember Seth, remember me," His words fell on deaf ears as she pinned him against the wall trying to shove the knife into his face. He was stronger then her, but she had leverage. His arm was already making her grip blood slick. The knife was going to go into his flesh unless he worked it out quickly. What would wake her up? Love didn't seem to be working, perhaps anger would work better. "Make me some coffee," He yelled, Then swallowed hard and followed with, "bitch," Her brow furrowed. There was a glimmer in her eyes, just a momentary flash. She felt the stirring of anger in her brain, the kernel of rage, but Collodi's still partially eclipsed whatever emotion she felt. "Think about your Mother, Sandra Hunyadi, how did she talk to you? What did she say when you were a teenager?" The flash came again. Collodi had forgotten to include her in his reprogramming. He was hasty, sloppy, and wanted her to be his assassin. The only thing he implanted was devotion and the desire to obey. Her mother had been a constant source of angst in her teen years. Their battles lasted months between explosive yelling and silent treatment. They hadn't spoken in years but she still seethed at the name Sandra. The tension in her arm loosened subtly. The blade was less then an inch away from Key's eye and he could feel his footing was becoming tenuous as his arm bled onto the floor. "She said you dressed like a tramp and looked like a hooker," She said more then that. She called her a disgrace. She howled about her family and what they would see in her. Her mother called her satanic and said she would be pregnant within a month when she left home. Sandra's daughter the whore. Noami roared as the memories of her mother flooded her mind and dropped the knife. Key slid to the ground and she crumpled into his chest and started sobbing. The blood from his arm was spread across his coat and onto Noami's naked body as she shivered against him. "It's okay," He whispered into her ear and repeated, "It's okay."

Almost an hour passed. In that quiet hour Key could feel her naked chest rise and fall against him. An arm would twitch only to fall motionless in the next moment as he breathed in the smell of her hair. She silently got up, showered, and got dressed. Key bandaged his wound and waited in the living room. Another hour passed before she sat down next to Key. "I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything," Key responded.

She shook her head slowly, "It was like I was two different people. I was going to kill you. Part of me still wants to kill you because he told me to. Part of me loves him because he told me to."

"Anger seems to drive it away, so stay angry. Hold onto it as long as you need to," He put his arm around her and she fell into his chest.

She pushed herself away from him, "I need you to go. I need to fight this. It's crazy, but he's still in here making me want to hurt you. So give me a little time," She said as she stood.

Key nodded and stood up. "Can I ask Seth to check on you?"

"Yes please, I could use the company," Noami hugged herself and leaned against a wall. "You can't go after him Marty. He will fuck you up."

"I have to."

"He's too dangerous. If I see him ever again I know I will likely cave instantly. I can't let that happen to you," She ordered.

"I'm the only one who can Ami."

Her eyes were welling with tears, "Please Marty. Please don't do this," She reached out and wrapped herself around him. "I'm begging you."

"Look what he did to you in a few hours and he's had Morgan for over a week. I have to find her, luckily I have a few tricks against what he does," His tone shifted to optimistic.

"Like what?" She asked.

"Like magic Ami. I use magic. I don't like to because it can be risky, but from what I've seen this guy is dangerous enough to warrant it," He hugged her tighter.

"Yesterday that would have sounded ridiculous," She let out a little laugh.

"What is his name?" He asked her.

"Don't make me say it. I'm holding on by a thread here as it is," She shivered at the memory. "If you meet him you'll know. I did, but I ignored my gut."

"Can you lead me to him?"

She shook her head. "I was unconscious when I was brought there and I was too blissed out to pay attention when that biker dropped me off here."

"Biker," Key said to himself as he stepped away from her, "I have to go."

Noami nodded as Key went to the door, "Thank you, by the way."

"For what?" he asked back.

"Not fucking with me on this, not blaming me," She smiled as she wiped tears out of her eyes.

"No problem," He said with a crooked smile as he left.

Key stopped by his office. It was decimated but it looked like the rest of the building was relatively intact if not a little water damaged. He climbed the stairs to his burnt out place and crossed the police tape. Nothing made it but the safe. It was under a pile of burnt debris and to the manufacturers credit the combination still worked. Inside was an envelope full of cash, his.38, a box of bullets and several small objects. He pulled everything from the safe and stuffed it all in his pockets. One of the objects was an amulet. The amulet was a pair of coffin nails in the shape of a cross tied together with red string. He pulled the amulet over his head and tucked it under his shirt. His magic was limited, but almost universally effective against demons The amulet around his neck was blessed by a high priest and a conjure man who anointed it with special oils and powders for protection. He stood in his office for a few more minutes trying to breath in the essence of the place to give him strength for what was to come.

"Key." A voice rasped behind him.

He turned and saw Hotspur and his thrall. It was as if all the oxygen left the room. His voice was lost in his throat as he shook his head in denial, "You can't be here," It was difficult to push the words from his mouth. He knew some of it was the terror rising in his brain, but it was also Hotspur his very aura exuded horror. Hotspur's head was wrapped in the red cloth revealing yellow eyes. The wound in his chest was a gummy mixture of black, red, and brown swirled around the hole where his heart once was. He wore a scrap of fabric as a loincloth but was otherwise naked and somehow larger than he had been when they first met. The girl behind him was dressed in a bikini. Her bare feet were covered in days old scabs and bruises. She pulled her foot off the floor and revealed a charred nail had dug into her fleshy heel. Her eyes were sunken and her cheeks were hollow. It looked like she hadn't eaten in days from the ribs beginning to show on her waist. There was only the hint of her tan skin under the dirt and grime she accumulated from her journey.

Key wasn't prepared for this fight and whatever plan he came up with would involve confronting the demon. He only raised his hand. "Cody!"

The demon shook his head, "I am Hotspur! I am your death!" Hotspur speared Key into the ash floor then brought his hands together as he hammered them down on Key's chest. Key's vision went dark and he heard ringing in his ears. Distant impressions of his past appeared in his mind's eye, his grandfather, his grandmother, the parents he never met. Then he saw Noami's face covered in blood in her apartment hallway. She was the strength he needed. He had less than a second before Hotspur's fists came down again and crushed his sternum. The first hit had been a love tap that nearly stopped his heart, but the second would be his end. Key pulled the small piece of iron with the Hebrew symbol for destruction otherwise known as Abaddon etched into it wrapped in a bandanna from his pocket. He let the lump unfurl from its wrap and pressed it against Hotspur. The lump ignited Hotspur's makeshift head wrap. He tore the wrap from around his head and revealed the rotting carcass of Cody's face beneath. His teeth gnashing at the ash in his mouth.

The girl went to his aid, "Master!" She yelled and went to him.

Key burst from the rubble with everything he came for and tumbled down the stairs in his haste. "Key!" He heard Hotspur bellow.

He pulled himself from the floor, and a hand was there to help. A tattered piebald man stood above him with a scowl on his face. "Elvis?" Key groaned before he blacked out.

The first thing Key saw when he opened his eyes was the cloudy sky framed by bricked walls and fire escapes. He smelled the garbage can fire before he saw it. Somebody had put plastic in there by the smell of it. A small crowd of homeless men and women stood around him as he checked his pockets. Everything was still there, the gun, the bullets, the amulet, the cash, "Where is Elvis?" He asked out loud.

A young girl answered, "He had to take care of something. He said you should be more careful."

Key tried to move, but his body betrayed him. It was a mass of wounds all gained in the last twenty four hours. He laid crippled in the alley as rain started sprinkling down. The young girl continued, "He'll be back, rest for a while."

He wanted to address Hotspur and needed to create some distance between them so he could be better prepared next time. The mind controller was his more immediate concern. Instead he could only wait, so he closed his eyes and let the rain cool his forehead.

His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he passed out. There were no dreams in that dark sleep. He woke periodically as things moved around him. Each time he reflexively checked his pockets and cursed his paranoia. Some one set up a make shift lean to over him to cover him from the rain. Later someone covered him with an old threadbare sleeping bag. He woke to pain in his arm, Elvis was sewing his wound. His rheumy eyes were focused on his task. Key turned his head and winced while he waited for the old piebald man to finish. "How long have I been asleep?" Key asked.

"About eight hours," He answered.

"Shit!" He tried to rise, but Elvis shoved him back to the ground.

"Sit your ass down and let me finish sewing your arm up." He bit the thread off and then knotted the end before applying a clean gauze bandage. "Nothing is broke, but you look like one big bruise."

"Can I get up now?" Elvis nodded. "Are you one of those magic hobos?" He asked sarcastically.

Elvis chuckled to himself, "Nah, I was an army medic. I got you some Oxycontin," He rattled a bottle of pills in front of his face.

Key shook his head as he stood, "I can't take that. It'll slow me down." a wave of nausea swept over him and he sat back down.

"I don't think you got much choice. Take the pills, it took a trick or two to get 'em." He moved away from Key as he lit a butt. "I saw your place burnt down."

"Yeah, no more late night drunken conversations I'm afraid."

"Hell, I'm just glad you're alright."

Key pulled a pack of smokes from his pocket, there were two left in the crumpled soft pack so he lit them both and handed one off to Elvis who nodded in appreciation. Key took his time sitting upright. He popped one Oxycontin, just to see how it affected him. After ten minutes the drug left him feeling plush. "I should've only taken half." He shook his head as he slowly rose from his spot. Elvis laughed at him as he stumbled on his awkward legs.

"You got to handle your drugs." Elvis proffered.

"I don't take drugs, apart from alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine. Shit I stay away from cold meds and aspirin." Key explained as he moved around the alley. The others had gone off into the world and it was just the two of them.

"What did you get yourself into?" Elvis asked.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me."

"I'm hunting a mind controller who is taking college girls and trafficking them. At least that's what I think is happening. There are a lot of unanswered questions," Key paused, "that an there's a demon chasing me down."

"Bullshit!"

"I warned you." Elvis just shook his head while Key went on. "The guy has a way of changing people," Key was lost in thought even as he finished the statement. "I need to get to Perlman's. It's the nexus."

"I been to that place. College kids at night, barflies during the day. My old lady used to hang out there when we were together," Elvis offered as he flicked his cigarette butt into the fire barrel.

"You know who owns it?"

"Yeah. Well it was Brody Maynard, but somebody bought it off him. I met him a few times, nice guy, bought rounds for everyone when he came by," Elvis drifted off for a moment and then said, "Word is he lost his mind."

Key snapped his fingers, "When was that?"

"About a year ago, maybe a little more."

"Shit! Shit! Motherfucker took the place for cheap when Brody lost his mind. I have to go to Perlman's." He headed off down the alley.

"Wear a tinfoil hat!" He yelled out sarcastically before chuckling.

"Thank you Elvis!" He yelled as he left the alley.

* * *

Noami hadn't heard from Key or Seth and neither were answering their phones, she was worrying. When she finally slept she had a dream about Collodi. It was the one word that swirled around her head. His name was at once familiar while at the same time so alien. They were in a park having a picnic. The scene was ridiculously domestic. A picnic basket and gingham cloth laid below them. Each had a glass of wine that they sipped while exchanging glances at each other. His young boyish face smiled at her as they sat in the sunlight warmed by it. He kissed her. She eagerly let him. Even though they were in public she felt the heat rising in her pussy. He tore open her shirt and she fell onto her back as he moved onto her. He greedily pulled at her pants and finally found what he wanted and entered her.

Above her the sky tore open. The blue was cut like a cloth and a new sky emerged from the schism. It was red and purple and small objects were swarming from the opening. They were tiny at first, but soon became visible. It was a mass of demons each a misshapen creature with impossible anatomy. Swirling balls of meat, serpents, creatures that didn't correlate to anything she had ever seen man or beast. Soon there were so many that it blotted the sun from existence and left only a reddish haze covering the earth. She smiled to herself with the knowledge that this is what Collodi wanted. This was his new world and so it was her new world.

His enthusiasm was mounting. She closed her eyes and let sensations take over. In her minds eye she saw his phallus growing to impossible dimensions. It ripped through her consuming everything in its wake until there was nothing left of her except the husk of her body hollowed out by his wyrm cock.

Noami woke screaming. She threw herself from the bed and landed on the floor hard. There were tears in her eyes. Her heart was beating so loudly that she was afraid it would tear itself from her chest. She pulled herself off the floor shivering violently and crawled back onto the bed. She didn't want to close her eyes. She didn't want to go back to sleep for fear that she would see him again and be powerless again. Then she got angry. She cursed herself, got up from her bed, and moved to the kitchen. Her apartment seemed suddenly unfamiliar. The feeling passed and she shook her head saying, "Motherfucker," over and over trying to stay angry, trying to keep him from her head.

A knock shook her from her ritual. She ran to the door, "Seth!" She yelled as she opened it, but didn't see Seth, instead she just saw a girl she had only seen in a photo up until now. Morgan stood at her doorway in a slinky red dress.

Noami couldn't find any words she just shook her head and backed away from the door. Morgan took it as a cue for her to step inside. "Collodi misses you. You should come with me."

Finally her mouth made words, "Morgan."

She shook her head, "I'm Candy, silly." She grabbed Naomi by the hand and lead her to the door.

"I'm not dressed," She had a robe, but nothing else on since Key left.

"That doesn't really matter now does it?" Candy said as she and Noami walked with her out of her apartment.

Noami swooned as she entered Collodi's office. The smell of dragon's blood incense brought back their previous encounter. He sat with his legs up behind a heavy oak desk. "Welcome back," he said with a smile. "You didn't kill him," he moved smoothly from his chair to her. Noami shook her head, but found it difficult to form words. All it seemed she could do was stare in adoration at his face. She felt a dumb smile curling at her lips. There was the thought to resist but it was consumed with the implanted need for obedience. "remove your robe," he said and she did. She hoped he would take her, but instead he appraised her. "I really didn't get a good look at you last time," He pawed at her. He lifted, squeezed, and breathed her in, "You are a beauty," He frowned as he looked over her hair. "We'll have to change this but it's an easy fix." He moved back to his desk and wrote something before turning back to her. "You are Ilsa."

She felt a warm breeze float over her mind as the name was absorbed into her being. She felt wet as she tried to remember what her name was and felt a further twist of heat each time it failed to surface. "Ilsa," She said to herself.

"It's time for you to rest," He took her robe from the floor and wrapped it around her. "Candy will show you the way," Collodi opened the door and Candy beamed on the other side. She grabbed Ilsa by the hand and took her from the room.

Collodi went back to his desk and dialed his phone. After a moment he said, "Bring me Key."