The Chardon Chronicles: Season One -- The Harvest Festival (33 page)

Keith leaned over, and the girls and Morgan
gathered around the screen.

Vampire Elvis knelt down, “you’re gonna kill
that bunny, boy, then I’m going to wreck you. Then I’m going to
take your blood.”

The eastern european man ran into the room,
“Go! Go!” he shouted, then an arrow sprang from his chest.

The video stopped. Keith put a hand to his
head. “Wow.” he muttered. Tracy and Morgan were aghast.

Dana said, “We rescued the kids and killed
those two.”

Chloe snarled, “These people are disgusting.
They were going to rape me.”

Keith said, “But she kicked their asses.”

Chloe said, “But they got five other
girls....”

Keith said, “Apparently sold or traded by
their parents. Lovely people.”

Robbie filled them in on the background. They
talked for a couple of hours, and finally he said, “I think they’re
interested in something
here.
The Sheriff’s been poking
around. There are cameras out back.”

“Sheriff?” Keith said.

“Yeah, the Sheriff. These guys get their
fingers into everything. National governments, state governments,
crime, businesses.” Robbie said.

“Believe it or not, the Sheriff was
there
tonight. Him and that Judge… I can’t think of the
guy’s name. He always uses his first name...”

“Judge Ralph?” Robbie asked.

“Yeah… That’s it.”

“He was here… in our house!” Tracy
shouted.

“Death star plans…” Morgan said.

“What?” Keith asked.

Robbie deferred to Morgan. He walked around
the room and climbed up to the second floor near the sun lamp.

“Robbie told us a few weeks ago that this
room contains the plans to the Death Star.” he gestured around.
They all watched him as he walked the catwalk. “Maybe they’re
looking for the ‘droids.”

Keith was flustered, “Morgan, you totally
lost me. I’m not up on my
Star Wars
trivia.”

“With the knowledge in this room, you could
build a death star…” Morgan said.

“Or blow one up.” Chloe said with firm
resolve.

Robbie gently thumped his fist on the table
as if he were forging an idea. “We have immediate problems and
longer term problems.”

Keith nodded, “first things first?”

“We don’t want to get Waco’ed or Ruby
Ridged.” Robbie said bluntly. “With all of us here, they could
trump up some reason to raid this house, come in guns blazing.”

Keith offered, “We’ll get back to the condo.
Plus, the case I’m working on leads back to the apparent murder of
Marcus Rice. That’s the trail that led me to Hudson. There might be
a line of attack there.”

Johnny chimed in, “Now that we’ve got names,
we can start to get after them and dig up their dirt. I already
started on the Sheriff, but now with the information from Hudson,
and the Judge, we can start to trace out their networks. I’m going
to start squeezing.”

Robbie asked, “Before you get to that, can
you take those cameras out in a non-obvious way?”

Johnny smiled, “Yeah. I’ll go do that, now.
Then I’ll park the Fox back in the woods.” He went outside.

Morgan asked, “What about me?”

Robbie said, “I think we’re still relatively
safe here, but it might be a good idea for you young folks to stay
away from the house for a couple of days. The best thing for you to
do is go back to your ‘normal’ life.”

Tracy, looked at Chloe and Morgan. For her,
normal was already a distant memory.

Demetria sat in the back seat of the
Sheriff’s Escalade with Saul and Yuri. Ralph sat in the front and
Chuck was at the wheel.

“I will need a car. This one won’t do.”
Demetria said.

“Anything you want, we can get.” Ralph said
eagerly.

She frowned. She didn’t like him. He and Saul
were overcome by her presence. At least Saul stayed quiet and just
smiled like an idiot. His normal gregariousness, combined with his
reverence for her just tied his mind in knots. Yuri and Chuck just
treated her like another person, with only slight acknowledgement
of her status.

“Two of you are
men
. Fully human. Two
aren’t.” she announced. “What’s the matter with you two?” she
looked at Ralph and Saul with disgust.

“I am… awestruck…” Ralph said.

“That’s a nice thing to say. An admirable
sentiment, but is it worthy of a man, or just slaves?”

Saul cast his eyes down. She sneered at him.
“I thought so. I bet your ancestors stomped bricks.” she squeezed
his chin and stared into his eyes.

She made him feel very small and
insignificant. “How do you do this?” he asked.

She shoved his face away. “Do what?”

“I feel this way, now. But I met this girl,
Stephanie was her name, before you inhabited her, and did not have
this feeling.”

“Are you a philosopher?” She laughed. “Are
you probing into the nature of things?”

Saul nodded. “I suppose I am.”

“Did you know people used to throw their
infant children into fires to talk to us and to please us?” She
laughed ruefully.

“Moloch?” Ralph asked quietly.

“Yes, that was one they fed children to.” She
nodded. “For centuries, they thought I brought the
spring
.
It took sooooo long to instruct them in the proper way to help me
cross over here. So many piles of poor dead virgins. So
tedious.”

They pulled into the driveway of a palatial
house on Fairmont Road. The house was surrounded by immaculate
landscaping and an entire forest had been mowed down to open up a
view of the valley. The walls were illuminated by floodlights.

“Is this mine?” she put a hand on her chest
and feigned gratitude.

“Yes.” Ralph said. “We’re at your command.
Anything you need, let us know.”

“Get me a vehicle. Something fast and
dangerous and appropriate to me. I will need to assemble a
household staff.” She got out of the car. “You two
men
, come
with me, and we will discuss this plan of yours.” Yuri climbed
out.

Chuck rubbed the back of his neck. “Do you
insist? I think Yuri can take care of you.”

She knitted her brow together. “You are a
man, but not a
man
? How can you resist this?” She gestured
at her body.

Chuck climbed out of the car. She leered, “If
we had a third, I’d have one per hole.” She led them into the
house.

The foyer was two stories and a marble
staircase that arced up to the second floor. Demetria took it all
in quickly, then shooed them into the house. “It’s been many years
since I’ve been here. Show me things.”

They led her around the house and showed her
the bathrooms and hot tub, the TV and the Internet. There was a
folio with a set of credit cards, a drivers license. There were
guns and knives and a sword. She was enamored with a tablet
computer and started browsing the Internet. Yuri and Chuck got
bored and sat on a couch.

“I’m going to get a car tomorrow…” she
announced. “Actually, ooh… a motorcycle.”

“That could work.” Chuck said.

“For what?” She asked. She plopped down
between them.

“I mean, for the mission.”

“Aha. The
mission
.” she intoned with
mock seriousness. “Always such important business to do. Grubby
deals. Money to make!” She sat between them on a couch. “Tell me
about this mission.” She undid their pants and slipped her hand
inside.

“Uhhh… Well.” Chuck struggled to stay focused
as she tugged on him. “We are trying to recover two books from a
home. We want someone, you, since you are a young woman, to
infiltrate the home and take the books.”

“You want
me
to do this spy’s work?”
She fixed him with her gaze.

“Well, yes.” he said.

“Is it dangerous?” she asked.

“Quite possibly.” Yuri said.

“It can wait until the morning. You both come
with me to bed.”

Chuck shrugged and looked at Yuri. They
followed her.

~End of Episode Six~

Flashback to Four Years Ago

Telia, Matt, Johnny and Dana left the
warehouse and drove back to the farm. Telia was quiet and stared
out the passenger window. She occasionally sniffled. The rest of
them were contemplative. Matt looked back in the rearview at
Dana.

“I’m starting to think we are wrong about the
big picture.” he said.

She was still a little groggy from the peyote
tea, and had been trying to hang onto the feeling she experienced.
“Huh? That’s a broad statement... break that down, Matt. I’m still
a little toasted.”

“Yeah sorry. I think our assumption has been
that the other side is the source of evil, but now I’m not so sure.
The two sides are mixed--connected even. Maybe we’ve been too
simplistic, obviously part of the problem is with
us
, human
beings, I mean.” Matt said.

“Matt, it’s really not complex.” Dana said.
“All the beings over there might not be malignant as the Vampires,
but all of them are inhuman. So, even a good person, reaching out
to them with good intentions will end up tricked or corrupted. All
we can do is protect what’s human.”

The sense of satisfaction he felt about
actually making it to the other side had been short lived. A sense
of depression and doubt began to nag at him. Reaching the other
side was not a finish line, it was merely another bend that led to
a much steeper and more dangerous path.

Matt remained silent. Telia reached over and
held his hand.

“It was an amazing thing, Dana.” Telia said.
“It changed
everything
for me to see that something else is
out there. I think other people would really love to experience
that. Knowing, first hand, that something else is there.”

Dana’s face hardened. “It is an incredible
experience, but don’t be confused, Telia. It’s not the afterlife.
There aren’t any answers over there.”

Telia sighed and looked out the window.

Matt tapped his hands on the wheel and said,
“I’m going to take tomorrow and regroup.”

Johnny said, “I’ve got a little more work to
do on the rig. Anyone want to be a guinea pig tomorrow?”

Telia sat up. “I’ll do it. I’d like to get
more practice and explore much more.”

All through the next morning, Telia helped
Johnny rework some of the sections of the reflector array. It was
tedious, exacting work to reposition the elements. They took a
coffee break.She sat on a flipped over five gallon bucket and
Johnny tapped away at the computer.

“Hey Johnny...” she interrupted him, but
trailed off leaving a pregnant pause.

He stopped typing. She’d been very diligent
and thoughtful all morning and all their discussion had revolved
around getting the job done. He was used to working with people
like Dana, who were not so serious and would go off on crazy
tangents all the time. He replied, “Hey Telia...” and chuckled at
the awkward silence.

She laughed, “Yeah, I’m all up in my head.
Like Matty!”

Johnny said, “You should work with him
sometime. He was goofing off all the time we built this
thing.””

She smacked his knee, “No way!”

“I think he was a little delirious, so close
to the end of an enormous project, it can be intoxicating and
disorienting.”

She pursed her lips. “I can see that. Anyway,
I am not sure if you or Matt realizes how
amazing
this is.
This is huge--almost like the invention of fire huge.”

He grunted and nodded his head. “Holy moly, I
never thought of it from that point-of-view. I was so focused on
the task.”

She continued elaborating the thought, “I
mean every single person wonders what’s
out there.
Now
basically everyone can find out.”

“It’s
really
like a ride at an
amusement park.” he said.

She shrugged extravagantly, “Why not?”

“So far it seems safe,
but
,” he held
up a finger and made the pause last a long time. She sipped her
coffee and waited. “But maybe it is dangerous. The first day I met
Matt, we talked to a man named Jack who warned that they are
extremely subtle and act on scales we can’t perceive.”

“I am wary of that… but there also have to be
good things there, too.”

He nodded. “Well maybe you can find some
today.”

Telia sat in the armchair and Johnny
positioned the reflector. She barely closed her eyes and she was on
the shore again. This time, there was more color in the scene. She
could feel the presence of the Sun and the Earth. Her hair
fluttered in a light breeze. She walked up to the grassy plain and
decided to follow the shoreline. She saw a couple lounging on the
ridge just ahead of her.