The Festival Ch. 03 - Conclusion

"There's the crux of the matter, Roland. I did find a way. Quite some time back I discovered that what I was seeing was just a manifestation of the demon, it was able to project a bit of itself into our plane of existence by using the amulet as a focal point and the energy of its wearer as a power source. The trouble was that that first spell had bound me to the amulet and I realized to destroy it would kill me. I was simply too much of a coward, even given all the pain I was inflicting, to make a sacrifice like that," answered Caleb.

"What did you mean when you said that your time was up?" questioned Roland as he made the turn down his home street.

"Carrying the amulet all these years has taken its toll on me. I don't think I have much time left and the demon must know that as well. I believe it knew this day would come and it has been husbanding the power I was feeding it most recently to find a new connection to our world. No, more than a connection that's not accurate, I think it wants a bridge, and it wants whatever is growing in your friend to be that bridge," said Caleb.

"My God, Kim!" exclaimed Roland as he turned into his driveway and slammed on the brakes, his feet hit the pavement a second later but amazingly despite his age Caleb was already out of the truck and up the stairs.

The two men burst into the bedroom seconds later. Patty was sitting on the bed with a cold rag held to Kim's head while Jason paced back and forth and Teresa stood by the far side of the bed her face a mask of concern.

"This is where you went to bring back a carnival barker?" shouted Jason.

"Gypsy, jackass, and you should have more respect for your elders," said Caleb dismissively as he moved to Kim's side.

"Pardon me, Patty," said Caleb gently as he moved her aside and sat next to Kim on the bed. He placed a hand on her forehead feeling the burning fever raging inside her and then peeled back one of her eyelids, beneath her once beautiful green eye was black as night.

"What's happening to her?" asked Patty urgently as Caleb stood from the bed.

"Explanations later I don't think we have much time. Roland pull back that rug and make me a space on the floor," commanded Caleb.

"What the fuck!" said Jason incredulously as Caleb set about drawing a pentagram on the floor of the room using a bag of salt from his knapsack and then etched arcane symbols at each of the points. In the center, he placed a square piece of iron about six inches across and maybe an inch thick.

"You have a hammer, Roland?" asked Caleb briskly.

Roland nodded and ran from the room returning with a simple carpenter's hammer.

"That will do," said Caleb with a nod.

Carefully Caleb removed the amulet from around his neck and lay it on the piece of iron at the center of the pentagram. From his knapsack he pulled forth a small leather-bound book, it bindings crumbling with age, the pages crackling and dry.

"I'm going to read the incantation when I give you the go-ahead you swing that hammer at the amulet like you're going to drive it into the Earth," instructed Caleb to Roland.

"This is nuts, you two have lost your minds," said Jason angrily.

Caleb ignored Jason and started to read in a guttural sounding language that fell harshly on the ears of those in the room. Behind them, Kim began to moan and thrash. Teresa went to her side trying to hold her down. Caleb continued speaking but her thrashing became more violent, and she started to scream.

"Do something, Patty," begged Teresa, but Patty stood starring at the pentagram that was starting to glow with steady white light.

The light grew brighter until the whole room was lit and Caleb finished his reading snapping the book shut. With a deep sigh, he turned to Roland and nodded.

Roland took a breath and swung the hammer back aiming at the small metal target in front of him but before he could complete the swing a dark shadow appeared out of nowhere in the center of the room.

"Son of a bitch!" shouted Jason as he stumbled backward and away from the thing that now appeared in their midst. As Roland looked at it frozen where he stood it raised a vaguely human-like appendage, and a tentacle of pure darkness erupted forth slamming into Roland's chest and flinging him against the wall near the bed. The hammer slipped from his fingers and fell next to the pentagram as he was propelled backward by the creature.

Jason attempted to intervene, grabbing a vase from the mantle he charged at the pulsating darkness before him but met the same fate as Roland with a tentacle of inky blackness striking him back across the room.

The thing began to grow and swell, its head almost touching the roof as it moved forward toward the bed and Kim's screams became louder as it approached.

"Enough!" shouted Caleb as he stepped between the demon and the bed.

"I won't let you destroy another life! This was all my fault, I was a coward, but that ends today!" cried Caleb and he reached for the fallen hammer. His fingers just brushed the handle when the demon lashed out with another tentacle but this one wrapped around Caleb's neck jerking him from the ground and holding him aloft. He choked and kicked as he dangled in its grasp before it tossed him violently aside where he crashed into the farthest wall and lay still.

The momentary distraction Caleb provided allowed Roland to recover and he managed to get unsteadily to his feet as he watched Caleb being held by the thing. He closed the distance between him and the hammer and gripped it tight, but the demon turned toward him raising another tentacle prepared to strike. Before it could deliver its blow, another body imposed itself between Roland and the creature.

"Get away from my Boy Friend!" screamed Patty wielding a fireplace poker like a baseball bat.

To Roland's shock, the shadow thing lurched backward as if it had struck an electrified fence, shrinking slightly as it went, the tentacle vanishing in mid-air. He didn't hesitate, seeing his opening Roland step forward and brought the hammer down with all his strength. As the steelhead made contact with the amulet and an even brighter flash of white light filled the room momentarily blinding everyone. Roland closed his eyes to the brightness, and his ears were filled with an inhuman howling noise that chilled his blood and sent shivers down his spine. He regained his vision as the light quickly faded just in time to see the strange shadow creature burst into a thousand tiny fragments each one burning briefly in the air before it vanished.

"Holy Shit!" exclaimed Roland.

In the center of the pentagram, the amulet was gone, just fine dusty metallic powder remained where it had rested moments before. A few whiffs of pungent smelling smoke welled up from the scorched iron as Roland bent to get a closer look but a gasp from behind him caused him to spin back around.

Kim was sitting up on the bed looking around with a bewildered expression at her friends.

"Wow! I think I must have missed something. Why are you guys all staring at me?" she asked.

"You're not pregnant anymore!" blurted Teressa and she was exactly right, there was no sign of Kim's previously swollen stomach it had vanished as if it had never been. Whatever dark hybrid had been conceived by her and Jason's illicit act had been banished along with the demon.

"Pregnant? What the hell are you talking about, Teresa? Oh, and who is the old guy on the floor?" questioned Kim her expression indicating that she was more than a little worried about her friends.

At the mention of Caleb, Roland moved swiftly to his side turning him gently onto his back, a thin trickle of blood was running from one side of his mouth, and his breathing was shallow.

"Patty!" called Roland urgently and she joined him.

"His pulse is weak. We need to call an ambulance," Patty said, and she ran to use the phone.

Caleb's eyes fluttered open, and he looked up at Roland.

"Did we get the bastard?" he whispered weakly.

"The spell worked Caleb its gone for good," answered Roland.

Caleb smiled but his face quickly contorted in pain, and his body shook with violent coughing.

"Just hang in there, Patty went to call for help," advised Roland his eyes flicking over to the doorway that Patty had run through before lingering again on the smoking remnants of Caleb's amulet.

"I don't know what happened there at the end for some reason it seemed to be afraid of Patty. I don't get why but it fled from her," he mused.

"It was because she loves you Roland and that kind of love, pure and simple, its anathema to a thing like it," said Caleb weakly.

"We are all going to have one crazy story to tell now that's for sure," said Roland as Caleb coughed again.

"It's too late for me Roland. I knew this was how it would end. At least I finally did something right. Boy, my wife is going to be pissed though," groaned Caleb.

His eyes began to flutter closed, and Roland leaned closer,"Caleb! Just hang on a little longer!"

Caleb's lips were moving, but his voice was too low to hear, Roland bent closer just catching his words before his body gave one last shudder and grew still.

"Is he dead?" asked Jason

Roland nodded as he stood up.

Teresa joined Jason staring down at Caleb's body, "What did he say to you?"

Roland smiled as he related the whispered words, "He said that he was probably going to a bad place, but he hoped the Devil was a woman and she had really nice breasts."

"I don't think we should tell his wife that those were his last words," said Teresa with a frown.

"Somehow I don't think his wife would be the least bit surprised," observed Roland.

The three continued to stare at Caleb's body as the sound of distant sirens reached their ears.