Thursday, November 20, 2008

THE AMULET: Part III

Ted pulled into Kalamazoo at 3:15 a.m. and eased his Jetta onto Westnedge Avenue from I-94. He was tired, there was absolutely no doubt of that. In fact, he'd spent the last three hours struggling to keep his road-weary body from swerving off the freeway. He'd never been a consistent smoker, but he heard that keeping a burning cigarette between your fingers would not only offer up its gag-inducing odor, but also potentially burn down enough to singe your fingers if you nodded off. The tunes remained cranked to a station featuring an evening of nothing but Metal, the passenger-side window was as open as Ted felt comfortable with despite the frigid, twenty-degree air, and the heat remained as low as it could be while still able to keep the windows frostless. All of these things ought to have combined to make a volatile solution for staying awake, but in fact, all they did was make his mind wander off into near-dream land. Frustration and irritation got the better of him, and eeking off the highway was his only safe recourse.
Ted was hungry; not for fast food, but for something a bit more forgiving to his stomach. He was here for the weekend at the Radisson just a few miles downtown, but his stomach was protesting even the minor jaunt to a more comfortable location. So, it was time for a little snack to while away another fifteen minutes to bed time. Just past the off-ramp on the right was a local 24-hour grocery and sundry supply chain called Meijer. Though they were all over the central states, Ted had only heard about them since his travels brought him from Arizona, where such a store didn't exist. The parking lot was a wasteland of sporadically parked autos, a few orphaned shopping carts, and a small group of -what, kids?- trotting through the lot.
Ted shrugged, pulled into a spot, and stretched the stretch of a thousand miles as he cracked and popped his frame free of the car. He sighed deep, hollered a bit as he arced and loosened his spine, and made his way to the eerily-lit front entrance. The low thrum of the automatic glass partition spread open belching free a torrent of stale heat. Ted walked in, and was immediately overwhelmed with the sudden realization that this store was just far too big for a simple snack search and rescue mission. He stopped, looked around, and just barely heard a greeter bid him welcome as she nonchalantly went back to her magazine. Well, one thing became obvious: the food was off to Ted's left. He smiled distantly, and made his way to an aisle with on-sale chips for its end cap.
Ted loomed at the end of the row as choice after numerous variety offered itself like an eager hand. Ted walked past potato chips of every flavor nature never intended, Doritos from spicy to cool, and all the way to good old tortilla chips. He snatched a bag of Tostidos and a jar of medium salsa from the accessory rack just beneath, and quickly retraced his steps back to the junction. He wasn't especially thirsty at the moment, but with his munchie choice, he surly would be soon enough. Ted opted for a 2-liter of Brisk iced tea, and slowly, awkwardly, stuttered to the front check-out. A quick transaction with the only open lanes: automatic for your convenience, Ted left the hugging comfort of the toasty store and seethed a little as the blast of chilly December air punched him in the face.
Ted marched to his car to excise himself from the chill as quickly as possible. He pressed the unlock on his key chain with its characteristic double-honk, and opened the passenger door.
"Excuse me, mister? Could I help you with that bag?"
Ted whirled around as he left the pavement in a panic. He was quick to hold onto the plastic bag's handles and the glass jar of salsa would have certainly broken otherwise. Standing close enough to Ted for him to clearly see his face from under the giant, humming fluorescent lights, stood a boy of maybe ten.
"I can help you load your things for just a ride home."
Ted was speechless. Another glance over the boy's far-too-small-to-be-out-this-late features made him shake his head and gesture a little toward his one, small bag. But the most odd thing about the boy was most certainly his voice. Possibly a product of the cold air, maybe shivering, he sounded empty, hollow, lifeless even. It had risen the hair on Ted's neck to even listen to it and certainly had no intention of doing it again.
"N-N-no thanks, kid. I've got it. You really ought to run along home, it's really late."
The boy just stood there, not even flinching one way or another. Then, it really struck home and Ted felt an icy hand tickle from his ass to the top of his head: the boy's eyes were black. Not just the iris or the pupil: all of it. The boy's eyes were solid, deep, black. No trick of the light here. No optical illusion could have created such possessed and grotesque eyes on a child. No reflection, no glimmer from the lamp, just solid, dead, black eyes. And around his neck hung the weight of a CD-sized necklace. No, an amulet of some kind. It let off just enough of a glow to easily discern its deep, bloody hue.
Ted took a step back, and the boy, forward. Ted dropped his back to the floor of his car, quickly slammed the door, and sprinted to the opposite side. The boy was there before Ted could even recoil.
"I just need a ride mister... just a ride."
The white-yellow protection of the light crackled and burned out. A man; displaced, exhausted, and alone, wailed into the frigid night.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

THE AMULET: Part II

"So tell me, Mr. Davis: what makes you think that everyone is, somehow -inexplicably- out to get you?"
WE ARE ALL GOING TO KILL YOU...
"Uh, well, Doctor... it's just that I know. We'll leave it at that: I know."
WE ARE ALL GOING TO KILL YOU, JACK...
"Mm Hmm... I see. So, by no apparent or evident rationale of your own, you have come to the conclusion that the general populous -can I assume that is what you mean?- is going to *ahem* kill you?"
JACK... ALL OF US ARE GOING TO KILL YOU, AND SOON YOU WILL SEE...
"OK, OK, well it's not entirely without basis. I mean, I can... I mean, I do hear... uh... the voices. In my head; the voices that tell me, repeatedly that... well, that they're going to... uh... k-k-ill me; that they're going to kill me and that I-I-I will see. Soon see."
IT IS APPROACHING. WE WILL KILL YOU. AND YOU WILL SOON UNDERSTAND...
"Mr. Davis... Jack, look, it has become much of a cliche to my profession to have people blame any number of deeper issues on hearing disembodied and mysterious voices coercing them into doing something or into having something done to themselves. It's all very common, Jack, and I see no evidence otherwise to assume your case is somehow different or special from any other. However, as I will stipulate, when did you first notice these troublesome voices?"
JACK DAVIS: WE WILL KILL YOU. THE PUNISHMENT SHALL SOON COMMENCE.
"Well, Doctor Torrence, I guess it was about two weeks ago, or so... I think. Yeah, about on the seventh, because that was the day I got that card... that card with the check in it..."
KILL KILL KILL KILL
"A card with a check in it. Hmm... from whom, may I ask"
KILL SOON KILL SOON KILL SOON
"I, uh, don't remember... or really, I just don't know; I didn't know then either, it just came in the mail with a hundred dollar check made out to cash with a small note prompting me to head to, um, where was... oh right... to head to Hanson's Antiques and purchase the silver and red amulet from the front display case. Or, as it put it, "post haste". That means right away, I found out."
WE WILL KILL WE WILL KILL WE WILL KILL
"Mmm, yes it does. So why do you suppose that a strange, nameless card with a check should arrive at your address more or less demanding your immediate purchase of some amulet from a crummy antique distributor?"
IT IS CLOSE WE WILL KILL IT IS CLOSE WE WILL KILL
"I-I-I have no idea... I wasn't out any money from anyone; no one really owed me anything, that I can think of. I don't know... but I did what it said to and bought that weird, old amulet from the store. Funny thing: it was only priced at fifty bucks, I remember that, but I felt that I somehow needed to offer the clerk the entire thing, just to, sort of, get it off his hands... like a tip."
JACK JACK KILL KILL JACK JACK KILL KILL
"Interesting. Is it too much to hope that you have this amulet on your person at this moment?"
WE WILL KILL JACK WE WILL KILL JACK
"Uh yeah... I mean no. It's right here..."

Jack pulled on the gaudy chain that held the weighty amulet around his neck. For a mere moment, the blabbering voices drifted to nothing more than background noise, and Jack was suddenly relieved. The Amulet was roughly the size of a DVD; it had etched on its surface a half dozen runic symbols, a deep ruby background that almost shimmered too much in such dim light, and a black circumference that held several, tiny, deep-red stones. As Jack held it at arms length, it hummed with a vibration one could easily feel deep within the chest, and it was at this that Dr. Torrence clutched himself in terror and fell into the Amulet's depths.