Crimson Falls (The Depravity Chronicles) (25 page)

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I am ready now to summon it.
I spent the past several days studying my family’s background and our powers. I
know now that if I am to understand and one day become part of the afterlife of
damnation, I must encounter all the spiritual realms.

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I think it was successful,
but I am not sure. I felt weird for a while. It’s like I was so hungry I almost
couldn’t handle it. This lasted a few minutes, but then went away. Then I heard
heavy breathing, kinda deep. And it rattled.

October 18, 2011

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I have summoned it every
night. I know the incantation is right. I tried to scry for Lilith tonight, then
Beelzebub, then others, but none would answer.

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Sometimes I think there is
something down here with me, and sometimes in the woods. I see things
sometimes, a shadow. I wonder if it could be him, but I thought he was supposed
to come to me in my dreams. And I haven’t dreamed. At least I don’t remember
dreaming.

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I’m trying again one more
time. Tomorrow I am going fishing behind the house. It’s getting cold and soon
I won’t be able to fish anymore. While I am fishing I will try to figure out a
new incantation to summon it.

After Anish
finished reading, he closed the book. “And that is the last entry Mr. Brickton
made. As we know, fishing did not end well for him.”

“You can say
that again,” Sam agreed.

“This also
explains why he had the book on Native American spirituality,” Matthew added.

“Can you
determine what he was trying to summon by having read that?” Anna asked. “That,
coupled with that demonology book there, should give us a pretty good idea.”

“So would this,”
Amy said. She was standing over the grimoire at the center of the altar.
“Look.”

Matthew walked
up to the book and quickly read the incantation spell. It was then he saw the
name of the demon on the page.

“Wendigo,”
Matthew read aloud. “He was trying to summon a Wendigo.”

“What the hell
is a Wendigo?” Anna asked.

“It is as I
feared,” Anish said.

“That’s
comforting, but it doesn’t answer my question,” Anna said.

Anish closed his
eyes again. Every time he closed his eyes it seemed that something bad was
either about to happen or already had.

“Death is in the
woods tonight,” Anish informed them. “It knows we are here, and will now
attempt to stop us.”

“That’s even
more comforting,” Anna echoed herself.

“We need to find
out all we can while we have time,” Anish said.

Anna sighed,
committed to figuring out this mystery. So together they prepared for the
Wendigo, whatever the hell that meant.

* * * * * *

2

Dogs were
barking and people were beginning to talk loudly throughout the yard. Tim
wasn’t sure how to manage the growing hysteria, especially since the Lofton
family decided to run into the woods, start screaming, and scared the shit out
of everyone.

“Everything is
going to be okay!” Tim shouted to the growing crowd. “We need to hold this
line!”

The line became
difficult to control. The dogs that Dean and Dylan were leading suddenly ran
past Tim and Geraldine, stopping in the middle of the yard and lying down.
Everyone could hear the screams coming from the Lofton brothers, accompanied by
a terrifying shriek that didn’t sound human. Tim shuddered when he remembered
the face of the killer that had stared at him through the ladder. People began
running through the yard toward the house.

“Everyone stop!”
Tim screamed. Most people listened, although a few people managed to make it up
to the house, get into their cars, and peel down the driveway toward safety.
Tim couldn’t really blame them, but they would probably get earfuls from their
families later.

“We are safer
when we stick together!” Geraldine shouted. “Now everyone get back here, hold
hands, and hold this line!” She yelled with such authority that Tim almost did
as she asked without thinking. He smiled at her, appreciating the support.

“Shouldn’t we go
out there and help them?” Aaron said in a soft voice so others wouldn’t hear
him.

“How smart do
you think that would be, considering what has happened in these very woods
tonight?” Tim asked. He understood why Aaron wanted to help them. “You do realize
that we are probably not going to find Lionel in those trees, right?”

Aaron nodded. “I
get that. But now four more people are missing. When does it end?”

“I honestly
don’t know, Aaron,” Tim admitted. “We can only hope and pray that it’s sooner
rather than later.”

“I second that,”
Geraldine agreed.

“Look!” Aaron
yelled, pointing into the woods. Tim could see something moving slowly in the
trees.

“Where are the
floodlights?” Tim asked. “Didn’t Sam say he knew someone with lights?”

“I think he just
got here,” George said as he joined the group. “I’ll go up and help set them
up.”

“What is that?”
Aaron said, still staring into the woods. He pulled the Beretta from his belt
and prepared to shoot.

“Put that down!”
Geraldine yelled. “That could be one of the Loftons!”

The shadow drew
closer, just outside of the lights they were shining into the trees. Finally
the figure became clear. It was Dylan Lofton.

Tim and Aaron
ran to Dylan, helping him stand. Blood was pouring from his forehead and the
back of his neck. His eyes were glossed over. Tim wasn’t sure if he would
remain conscious for long.

“Dylan,” Tim
said as he slowly turned Dylan’s face toward his own. It took a few seconds for
Dylan to recognize Tim. “What happened?”

Silence. Dylan
could barely manage to keep his head in an upright position. It kept slumping
down as if he was trying to fight off sleep.

“Dylan!”
Geraldine said as she tried to rub his back soothingly.

“Alan,” Dylan
murmured.

“What did he
say?” Geraldine asked.

“I think he said
‘Alan,’” Tim responded.

“Alan Brickton,”
Dylan said a little more clearly. “He’s in the woods.”

Tim and
Geraldine looked at each other as Aaron joined them.

“Oh, hell no!”
Aaron said. “This is what happened in the wine cellar.”

“Don’t go into
the woods,” Dylan whispered as he lost consciousness.

“That was a bit
eerie,” Geraldine sniffed.

“Yeah,” Tim
agreed. He looked around to see who had heard the conversation. Outside of
Aaron, only Ralph had been listening.

“Let’s keep this
to ourselves,” Geraldine said. “This will only cause another panic, and this
time we
will
lose more people.”

“Shouldn’t we do
something about the other Loftons?” Aaron asked.

“Yes, we pray
for them,” Tim said flatly. “Now let’s get Dylan up to the house. We should let
the sheriff know. Maybe we need to get Dr. Styles out here so if someone gets
hurt we’ve got it covered.”

“I’m an EMT!”
Jed said as he walked up to them. “I tried to call Jason Styles, but I can’t
reach him. I have a few buddies coming. I have an ambulance in the driveway.
Let’s go.”

Tim was thankful
Jed had arrived when he did. He watched as Geraldine helped him carry Dylan up
the yard and into the driveway.

“So what do you
think?” Aaron asked.

“What do I think
about what?” Tim replied.

“Do you think
we’re going to make it out of this alive?”

“Damn straight.”
Tim looked into the woods. “We just need to make sure that whatever is in those
woods dies before we do.”

“Tim, where are
Trevor and Simon?” Geraldine asked.

“Son of a
bitch.” Tim scanned the crowd, but even as he did he knew that the teenagers
had snuck away and were probably either in the woods or in the house. If they
didn’t make it out alive, Anna would make sure Tim didn’t either.

* * * * * *

3

Trevor and Simon
breathed heavily as they waited for the shadow to attack. Trevor felt like an
eternity had passed since they had shot and killed Lionel Flowers.

“Do you think we
should stay here?” Simon asked as he took turns between staring at the body and
squinting down the tunnel.

Trevor’s arms
shot out, almost losing the grip on his gun. “Did you hear that?”

“Yeah, it
sounded like it’s further away now.”

“I think we
should start moving toward it,” Trevor suggested. “Just make sure to look above
us, too, because it may jump down from a hole in the ground.”

“That would be
our luck,” Simon laughed. “This blows.”

“If we make it
out of this, we have to start planning our next hunt,” Trevor said.

Simon just
looked at him blankly. “We’ll see. You know, we still have high school to
finish.”

Trevor nodded,
but he was so beyond wanting to go back to the boredom that was high school. He
was never challenged by his classes, and he knew Simon was as sick of it as he
was. Diplomas, degrees, all of them seemed to lose meaning now. He wouldn’t
need any kind of validation from the ivory tower when he hunted werewolves. The
only thing he could even think of tolerating would be to study with Anish at
the university. Even then it seemed boring.

“What are you
thinking about?” Simon asked.

“School.”

“Really? At a
time like this?”

“I’m just
thinking that if we’re going to become hunters, we don’t need college education
for that.”

“Whatever,
dude,” Simon growled. “I’m more interested in keeping my head at the moment.
Could you rejoin me again down here in the dark? Let’s focus on the hunt we’re
on right now.”

“You’re right,”
Trevor agreed. “Let’s do this.”

“Shit!” a voice
yelled.

“What was that?”
Simon asked nervously.

“It sounded
familiar,” Trevor said. “But we can’t trust it.”

“I know that,
but we should at least try to figure it out. Otherwise we’ll just be standing
here for the rest of our lives.”

“True,” Trevor
agreed.

Splash!

Splash!

Both teenagers
lurched around. Trevor half expected to see the beast in midair, teeth prepared
to bite through his neck. There was nothing.

“Okay, is it me
or did that come from behind us?” Trevor asked.

“Well that would
explain why we both turned around,” Simon griped.

Trevor wasn’t
sure which sound they should pursue, but someone cursing seemed like the better
option than someone running toward them.

“Let’s bolt!”
Simon nudged, then began jogging toward the person who had cussed.

“Wait up!”
Trevor cried, not comfortable with the two of them having even a foot of space
between them.

As they moved
forward, they began to hear things landing in the water ahead of them.

Splash!

A moment passed.

Splash!

Another moment.

Splash!

“That sounds like
something jumping in the water,” Simon said. “I can’t imagine that’s a good
thing.”

Splash!

Splash!

This time the
sounds came from behind them, and it was getting closer.

“Okay, well that
sounds like something running toward us,” Trevor said. “I say we run toward the
jumper and not the sprinter.”

“Deal!” Both
boys sprinted forward, hoping that they were running away from the werewolf and
not toward it.

* * * * * *

4

Anna wondered
how much time they had before someone – or something – tried to stop them.

“Okay, since I
didn’t really get an answer yet, what exactly
is
a Wendigo?” she asked
for the second time.

Matthew looked
at Anish. “I am hoping you are more intimately familiar with the legend of the
Wendigo than I am. I’ve studied Native American spirituality, but if I am not
mistaken there are differing ideas about what the Wendigo really is.”

“I can tell you
what a Wendigo is with some accuracy,” Anish said.

“How so?” Anna
asked.

“Because I
crossed paths with a Wendigo once before,” he replied. “I suspected that
Crimson Falls might be dealing with one. It would not be the first time.”