Part 11: Fathers, Sons, and Old Friends
”You sniveling little shit,” my father sneered, moving in closer to where I braced myself for whatever he had planned for me, “this is all your fault! We never woulda been locked up in here if you hadn’t been festering in your momma’s belly!”
”Don’t listen to them mate,” Grant said in an attempt to calm my trembling extremities.
”Your father is right,” my mother added, casually prancing across the floor behind him, “it wanted you, not us. Do you have any idea what it did to us!?”
As soon as my dad got close enough, he slapped me across the face. I was almost stunned at first; frozen in place while my mind flashed me back to my tortured childhood, but when he attempted to strike me again, I caught him by the wrist before he could make contact.
”My fault!?” I asked, pushing him back and to the floor, “I wasn’t even born yet! You wanna talk about what you went through? Do you have any idea of the Hell you put me through!? I was a child; YOUR fucking child, and you treated me like a fucking virus in your happy home!”
As my father attempted to push back from the floor, I kicked him back down. When I lifted my foot again, my next attack did not work out as I had hoped. I had been so focused on my father at the time, I hadn’t even noticed my mother’s body contorting back into the creature that I still saw in my nightmares.
When I felt the jarring sensation of my body being picked up and slammed to the ground, I was only vaguely aware of Grant battling against the clutches of the Orchid goons holding him down.
”You show some respect, boy,” my now deformed father said as he staggered up beside my monstrous mother.
After he snatched me up from the floor, tossing me closer to where Max stood right in front of the pulsing globe of energy, I had a feeling I would be faced with a decision very soon.
The two mutated husks shambled closer, while Max let out a satisfied chuckle.
”You do what the man asked and walk into that thing, or I’m gonna tear off bits of you until you do,” my father said, staring down at me.
”You do what your daddy says, boy, for once in your damn life,” mom added.
Grant was still attempting to break free of those who now took turns kicking at his gut and face. With the husks of my parents glaring down at me, my closest friend being beaten to a pulp before my eyes, and the quite sizable gathering of lost souls just waiting for their chance to join in, I knew I was fucked.
My father reached for me with the bone already pushing through the flesh of his hand, and the skull enlarging beneath the skin of his face. As the gruesome, gnarled and ripped fingers drew closer, I felt every ounce of the pain I had suffered bubble up inside me like a pot boiling over.
I screamed out again, not in fear, but fury. The rage practically consumed me as I gripped the meaty tissue of his wrist, pulling him closer towards me. The foot that still remained somewhat human, stumbled over the one with jagged bones pushing through the skin. As the mutated shell of my old man began to topple, I pressed my feet to the floor, thrusting my body up to fuel my tightly balled fist hard against the grizzled and ripped tissue of the face I grew to despise with every fiber of my being.
As my swipe adjusted the trajectory of his fall, he crashed to the ground, snapping the bone of the shoulder that made contact. He wailed out an anguished screech; one that I quickly muffled with the heel of my boot. Over and over again, I thrust my foot to his face, tearing more and more strips of meaty flesh and fragments of chipped bone.
With every kick, he attempted to break free from the floor, but I would not allow it. He attempted to curse me, but I would silence every word he tried to shriek from his disjointed jaw. I was so blinded to everything else around me, while I waged an assault fueled by every single beating the bastard so freely gifted to my brother and me. Had I not allowed myself to be so consumed by my hatred, I may have been able to avoid what happened next.
Somewhere beyond the furious thumping of my chest, pulsing against the inner walls of my ears, I heard my name being called out. Though I was able to register that it was Grant who fought to get my attention, in between trying to fend off his own attackers, I would not allow myself any such distraction at the time.
When I felt the impact of something hard and jagged against my right temple, it left me so bewildered as I fell limp to the ground, I didn’t understand what was happening at first. The howling squeal of what remained of my mother finally pulled my attention back to the world around me, just in time to turn my head enough to avoid her ragged toes impaling into my eyes.
As I dodged the attack to the best of my ability, I still could not avoid the sharp, boney digits from tearing through the flesh of my scalp. When the intense pain finally broke my mind free of the fury, the fear set back in while my blood splashed across the glossy floor.
Once more, I looked up to see my father bearing down on me, with the ragged strips of his cheek flapping with every uneven step he took. For a moment, when he got close enough, he just gazed down at me. I could see the twitching of the muscle fibers in his face attempting to force what was left of his mouth into a smile.
Before I could ready myself to defend against him, he snatched me by the collar, punching me over and over with the barbed bones of his fist ripping through my skin, widening the crimson pool that surrounded me. My head was growing loopy, while I saw the blurry shape of my grotesquely deformed mother jumping in place with more grizzled strips of meat slapping to the ground around me.
With the laughter of Max growing as muffled as the sounds of the continuous attacks both Grant and I were suffering, I was only barely aware of the other sensation I was feeling. It was as if someone was tugging at the leg of my pants, which, for a second, I thought to be perhaps my mother jumping on my leg instead of the floor, or even someone attempting to pull me free.
When it finally registered in my bloody and swelling head that it was the contents of my pocket that shook, I fought to convince my weakening hand to reach into it. After successfully gripping my fingers around the small, vibrating sphere, I quickly pulled it out and slammed it to the ground as hard as I could.
I was barely hanging on to consciousness when I became aware that the attacks on my face had stopped. Raising my head to the best of my ability, I saw not the deformed husk of my father, but a man who somewhat resembled the one I had detested my entire life. While my mutated mother wailed out in an attempt to convince the man to pick up where he left off, I felt arms wrap around my back, as someone lifted me from the floor.
I felt as though I was weightlessly floating as I drifted further away from the glowing orb, with the angered, but still muffled wails of Max and my mother somewhere behind me. When I felt my back press against the floor once more, one arm still angled me slightly. I blinked my eyes open to meet those of the man who was supposed to be my father, dripping tears across my chest.
With my awareness returning, I looked over to see even the goons who had been beating my friend, along with Grant himself, staring back at us, seemingly in just as much shock as I was feeling at the time.
”I’m so sorry son,” my father said, attempting to wipe away the blood he had splashed across my face, “I’m so very sorry for everything. Please know that I…”
He was cut short when what remained of his wife pulled him away from me while attempting to kick at my midsection. He pushed her back, wrapping his arms around her deformed frame, shedding just as many tears for her as he did for me.
What happened next was something I would not comprehend until sometime later; something I still don’t fully understand, truth be told. As the mutated woman in my father’s arms writhed and fought to break free, some sort of light began to shine out from somewhere inside him. It grew so bright that I could barely make out anything around them as it engulfed the couple, before dissipating as quickly as it had formed, leaving only the young and happy couple they once were in its wake.
Whether he had carried the fragmented soul of his wife with him when Malphas pulled him from the pit, or that he somehow formed some manner of bridge between the realms, I can’t say, but it seemed clear to me that the two were once again whole for the first time in decades. I stared on as the two gazed into each other’s eyes as though they had only just remembered who they once were before this damned building stole their lives from them.
After that lingering moment of being mesmerized by their love for one another, they walked to my side, crouching down to wrap their arms around me. Before I knew it, the three of us were sobbing in the safety of each other’s arms and for the first time, I felt like I understood how powerful the bond of a loving family could truly be.
While the memories of my childhood in the house I shared with the two whose shoulders I now cried upon, still left such deep and grizzled scar tissue across my soul, I now truly believed what Malphas had told me back in that old house; that I was destined for a very different life.
When my loving mother and father finally released me from their grasp, getting back to their feet while smiling down at me, I almost wished that brief moment had never ended. As they casually walked, hand in hand, to the old man who still proudly stood before the shimmering portal, I screamed out, begging them to run away.
As they drew closer to the man who once more outstretched his arms to his sides, I tried to push my weakened body up to intervene. Everything appeared to move in slow motion as the couple who were meant to be my parents released their hands, charging at the old man. His sinister grin widened with malicious intent, as the blacked waves of the walls spiraled out towards him, encasing him in that very material that lined every single wall in his house.
The two attempted to slide to a halt as the tar-like substance caused the old man to expand to multiple times his former stature, while his limbs extended to sharpened tendrils that so easily slid through the flesh of my parents, they hadn’t the slightest chance of survival. Once more I shrieked out in such an anguished wail as Max spun in place, with my mother and father impaled on each of his arms, slamming them hard against the surface of the glistening sphere of purple light.
My screams only grew more horrified after he pulled back his glossy limbs, with the couple he had pasted to the orb, desperately reaching out for one another as it consumed them, melting them away more and more until there was nothing left.
”That’s what happens if ye don’t go willingly,” Max said in a deepened and echoed version of his arrogant voice, “so how ‘bout you two play along already, or…”
Given that his face was now a rippling mass of blackened goo, I couldn’t exactly make out his expression when the agitated wail let out from somewhere behind me, but as the ground shuddered with every step of the enlarged and muscled feet that charged towards him, it didn’t take me long to realize that our old friend Ed had managed to break out of his friend’s room.
For being such an immensely proportioned titan, it was unbelievable how quickly he moved, swiftly ducking under the blackened tendrils Max shot at him, before tackling the midsection of the tarry behemoth, and full-on pile driving it to the floor behind him. The glossy beast pushed back from the ground quickly, sending more strings of sharpened goo at the big guy, who effortlessly swatted them to the side.
After that failed attack, Max seemingly got the point that such assaults were useless against such a battle-hardened foe and their fight devolved into a good old-fashioned street brawl. The old man finally landed a hit to Ed’s gut, before the big guy sent an elbow to the tarry face, spilling darkened ooze across the shimmering orb.
The two continued to trade punches back and forth, with Ed’s face lighting up as though he was having the time of his life. He spit thick chunks of blood to the floor, wiping his mouth with the back of his scar-lined arm, smiling wider than a six-year-old birthday boy.
I took the opportunity of our host being distracted to slide across the floor to where Grant lay, beside the four goons who watched the spectacle in awe. When the man whose face I recalled glaring up at me from the stove, back at that roadside diner, came running up to us, carrying a trenchcoat and fedora under one arm, I had to assume that his friend had managed to free him from his room.
”How the hell did you guys find us?” I asked, genuinely curious enough to be momentarily distracted from the ongoing battle.
”Dumb ass threw open all the doors to bring all of them down here,” he replied, gesturing to the almost zombified crowd of onlookers, “guess he forgot he’d tried to hide Ed away for good measure.”
”Is he gonna be okay?” I asked, staring back as Ed uppercut the tar beast with an exhilarated and maniacal grin.
”Oh yeah,” he said, helping my friend and me up to a sitting position, “he’s got this.”
Almost as soon as those confident words left his mouth, Max screamed out in a rage-fueled howl,
”ENOUGH!”
Whether it was his words that caused the shockwave that sent Ed flying a good twenty feet back, toppling over a great many blank-faced people who were still huddled up behind us, or some other power he had yet to reveal, I feared that our brief moment of victory had come to a close.
As Max allowed the blackened ooze to drift from his body, back to the walls around us, Green and his fellow goons lifted Grant and me back from the floor, once more training their guns on our backs. The room fell silent, aside from the pulsing in my still swollen head, while Max rolled his neck, straightened his shirt, and glared down at us again.
”No more distractions,” Max said, strolling closer, “it’s time for y’all to do what yer told.”
With the big guy down, the hoard of souls at our backs, and no more wild cards hidden away, I couldn’t help but fear the worst. If nothing else, I was thankful for the friends we had made along the way. Between Malphas, who I had not expected to grow so fond of, having freed my father from Hell, only to have that thwarted by the old man, and Ed, who had put up a fight that could rival the gods, I think we fared a lot better than I had expected.
While I glanced over to my friend; my brother, accepting that I would at least have him by my side at the end, I allowed my rapidly beating heart to rest a bit. It wasn’t until I noticed that, even bruised and bloody, Grant was still wearing that mischievous grin, that I thought our circumstances may have not yet reached their bitter conclusion.
”You still trust me, yeah?”
The smile that I could not even think to hold back, reached across my lips before I even knew it.
”Always.”
With that, he gave a quick click of the tongue wink and turned to face the tall man with the salt and pepper mustache, once more.
”Firstly,” he said, pulling the quintessential nefarious madman’s attention back to him, “as I asked before: are you taking the sodding piss!?”
The man looked stunned again; something that only brought me joy at this point.
”We will not be so casually sauntering through your shiny little portal, mate.”
”Enough of your insolence! I will not tolerate one more…”
”And secondly,” Grant interrupted, placing his hands behind his back, “what the hell did Malphas do to my bloody hair!?”
As my friend looked so insulted by finally taking note of the far more conservative hairdo, I became aware of an incredibly strange sensation; one that felt both foreign and so very familiar at the same time. It was as though my heart was pumping jet fuel through my veins as opposed to the regular AB positive that would normally circulate my system.
”Gotta do something about that, don’t I,” Grant said, as he raised his hands, to run his fingers through his hair.
As the many wounds across his face faded away, while the long, blonde locks fell over his shoulders and down his back, he swiped at his shirt as though dusting it off. Similarly to how it happened back in that huge cathedral, somewhere high above where we now stood, the clothing flaked away from his body, leaving a very nice, black and grey, pinstriped suit.
As Green and his fellow goons turned their firearms on my friend, Grant looked back at them with that mischievous, crooked smile.
”Don’t,” he said softly, shaking his head slowly from one side to the other.
It would seem these fragments still held the memories of what happened to their human bodies, sometime before they were grotesquely constricted and pulled through the gateway to Hell. The second Grant spoke that solitary word, they dropped their guns to the shimmering floor, backing away with their arms held high.
”This cannot be!” the old man professed, while his face reddened with rage, “you have no power here!”
Grant placed his hands back behind his back, straightening his posture while the wind swept his hair back into the braided ponytail he favored for such occasions.
”Your confidence was your undoing,” he said, having reverted to his business voice, “your arrogance that blinded you.”
”NO!” Max screamed, waving his hands to the crowd at our backs, commanding them to close in.
With my body continuing to pulse with that intoxicating energy, the sight of those who walked through that rippling black surface now moving again only served to quicken my heartbeat even more.
The ground shuddered again as the many feet began to march closer, but it would not distract Grant, who continued to speak so casually to the old man wearing the dumbstruck expression.
”You forget, old man, that I know evil…you are nothing new to me.”
”You two are goin’ in there one way or another,” Max exclaimed, pointing back at the pulsing orb, “ain’t nothin’ you can…”
”You also clearly did not do your research, you stupid, old git,” Grant cut in, barely missing a beat, “have you not heard about the master of lies; the Lord of deception?”
The flock drew closer by the second, while I fought to control my trembling limbs as they still twitched from the invigorating sensation pulsing through my veins. I didn’t know if my body was giving into the fear, finally being overcome by the immense weight my subconscious had carried all these years, or if something I was still struggling to accept was indeed true after all. When I felt my face to find that I did not wince from the many injuries my father had beaten into me, I had no answers for how they could have faded so quickly, without the healing touch of my friend.
”You gave it your best, mate, and I can’t fault you for trying,” Grant said as his carefree expression adjusted itself to something far more sinister, “but this ends now.”
When the approaching hoard stopped in place, only feet from us, I was not the only one surprised by this. The old man appeared completely lost for words at the time; for a moment anyway.
”What are you doing!?” he shouted with his face almost glowing red, “TAKE THEM! DO AS I COMMAND!!”
They continued to ignore him as they stood in place, looking almost lost at the time, as though they had no memory of what led them here. They glanced around in all directions, whispering to one another words I couldn’t make out until every one of them fell silent again.
All of the faces in the crowd grew quite expressive as they slowly turned around. I could vaguely make out some sort of commotion in the back, but with so many people in the way, it was difficult to see much of anything. It wasn’t until I heard the scuffling of so many feet against the smooth surface we all stood upon, as the throng of the many poor souls this building claimed for its own parted down the center, that I finally saw what inspired them to clear a path.
The little girl with her hair tied into pigtails, wearing a pink and purple, ruffled princess dress, looked no more than nine or ten at most. Her wide eyes and somewhat indifferent expression made it impossible to even know what she was thinking, let alone how she ended up in such a place. At first, when she so gracefully passed through the middle of the crowd, I thought her to be just another innocent victim of this house, but I would again be very mistaken in my assumptions.
When I glanced over to see Grant smiling so lovingly at the little girl, he looked back at me. In that brief moment, I once more found my consciousness being thrust to somewhere else, as it had been back at the mansion, just a ways past Alberson Bridge. It was then that the truth was finally revealed to me.
Part 12: Bridges Once Burned, May Still be Mended
After the haze of my mind being sent elsewhere subsided, I once more found myself back at the old tavern that my friend used to do business in. When I noticed him sitting on a stool behind the bar, smoking a cigarette while nursing a pint and reading a book, I tried to call out to him. While he showed no response to my arrival, before the door that led to so many places slipped open, I understood what was happening. I was only an observer this time.
Grant glanced over at the now open door, looking somewhat bewildered by it being ajar of its own accord. When the little girl walked through, the expression on my friend’s face was almost comical. The cigarette just dangled from his lower lip like a cat’s tail, while his wide and curious eyes appeared as though he were attempting to solve some sort of riddle.
”Hello, Lucifer,” the girl said in a cute, almost squeaky voice.
”How did you get in here, little…wait…what did you call me?”
”It’s been a long time, son.”
I felt my jaw drop in the same manner as Grants did, as his cigarette fell to the countertop.
”Father!?”
The two just gazed at one another, one seeming almost carefree with a somewhat underlying melancholy behind her bright eyes, and the other somewhere beyond dumbfounded and shell shocked.
”What the bloody hell are you wearing!?” Grant asked, after staring in silence for a time.
”You don’t like it?” the girl replied, “I find this to be the most unassuming form to take when I walk upon this land.”
”When you what? I thought you preferred to keep your distance.”
”Well, perhaps it’s time for a change; something that you have shown me.”
The girl lifted herself onto one of the barstools, to be able to look Grant in the face.
”I’m proud of you, my son,” she said, inspiring my friend to appear even more shaken.
”I…you…you’re proud…” he stuttered, seemingly attempting to wrap his mind around everything.
”I’ve been watching you. I have seen what you have accomplished. I always had faith in you, my light bringer, even if you lost your faith in me.”
Grant still just gazed back at her, with his watering eyes dripping to the countertop.
”There are things between us that need to be said, my son; discussions to be held, but this is not why I have come.”
”You’re…here! I never…” Grant said, seeming as little more than a child himself in the presence of the little girl.
She reached a tiny hand up, caressing his flushed cheek as his eyes shimmered in the glow, still emitting from the open doorway. When he raised his fingers to meet hers, his lightly trickling tears turned to sobs. The girl pulled herself up to the countertop so she could wrap her arms around him, and I couldn’t prevent my own tears from joining theirs as they held one another for a time.
”As I said,” the girl said, adjusting herself back into the stool, “there are discussions to be had, but that is not why I have come.”
Grant tilted his head while rubbing his eyes with the back of his sleeve.
”An ancient evil has taken root in this world; one which you have only recently escaped from.”
”The building, yeah,” Grant said, nodding his head, “we’ve been trying to get information out of the Orchid boy, but he doesn’t seem to know as much as I had hoped.”
”This house is nothing made by man, my son. It is a power not of this world, but one that could end it. We cannot allow this to happen.”
”Yeah, I’m with you on that, but I don’t even know where to start.”
”The building is a living organism, and all life contains within it a heart; a source of power. The trick will be locating said heart.”
The two went back and forth for some time; puzzling over the ins and outs of how to track both the house and its power source. It took some time for them to muddle together a plan, but I would have to say it was quite brilliant.
By Grant’s reckoning, there was a consciousness behind the building; one that manipulated the Orchids as much as the innocents the wealthy family would feed to it. There were pieces of the puzzle they would require before proceeding with any efforts to bring the place down, of course; pieces that the senior member of the Orchid family could hopefully provide.
Grant was tasked with the investigation to track down the Orchid mansion, as well as whoever it was they were in league with. The little girl had one request, though; one that my friend did not accept at first.
”You must have Micheal accompany you on this,” she said after they forged the beginning of their plan.
”Michael!? No! I will not put him at risk again. He’s an innocent person, and I will not…”
”He is very special, Lucifer; trust me on this. You are stronger with him by your side.”
”I’m sorry, but no. Michael has been through enough. I feel guilty enough for dragging him into that damned building in the first place!”
It was then, that the little girl shared with him the story of my parents; how my fate was supposed to be very different than it turned out.
”That’s all the more reason for me to leave him out of this,” he insisted, “that place has already taken far too much from him. I will not…”
When the little girl placed her hand back on his face, his angered expression lightened once more.
”I can’t…he’s my friend!”
”And that is why you need him by your side,” she said, giving him a light and understanding smile, far beyond the years of her youthful face, “you have been alone for so long, my dear son. Please, Lucifer, you must have Michael by your side.”
The images before me became blurry again, while my mind felt a jarring sensation, as though it traveled a great distance within mere moments.
After things came back into focus, I found myself looking down upon Lilith guiding Grant and me on the path to Jeremiah Orchids’ office. I saw my friend look upwards before another speeding sensation found us back in the bar. Again, I could only observe as the little girl regarded him upon our entry.
”The redhead is here. I can feel her draining me. I don’t have much time,” Grant said, looking flustered, “I have to get Michael to safety before…”
”She is only able to drain you because you are still connected to that building,” the girl said, wasting no time in getting into the thick of things, “what are you planning?”
”I reckon they want to take us back there. I won’t allow that to happen.”
”You can escape?”
”Lilith…she has with her a God killer.”
”No…I’m pulling you out, I will not…”
”You said you have faith in me, has that changed?”
”It hasn’t, but I will not allow you to sacrifice yourself!”
The little girl suddenly looked very intimidating, as something behind her eyes showed me a glimpse of the entity that dwelled within them.
”Father,” Grant said, crouching down to gaze directly at the small child, “I need you to hear me. I know evil, I would imagine I am quite the expert on the subject,” he gave her that crooked smile, “this thing is arrogant. All of this has been little more than a game to it, while we are nothing more than subjects playing along with it. It already believes it has won.”
The girl loosened her balled fists, allowing the vibrant aura behind her eyes to dissipate once more.
”I will not allow you to fall, my beautiful boy.”
”As long as a piece of me remains in that damned place, it will seek to restore me. Once it has accomplished that, along with luring Michael back, it will have no doubt it has defeated us. For the time being, when this next part is done, I’ll have to allow Michael to believe this is over; to inspire him to follow whatever emissary the building sends to bring him back to it. I hate to mislead him, but… it’s a necessity, unfortunately.”
He stared off for a moment, allowing a certain melancholy to rest behind his gaze, before turning back to the little girl once more.
”By my reckoning, it’ll wish to show us a spectacle before it’s done with us. I think it’ll want to feed us directly into the source of its power, just to give us that one final insult. When it leads us to the heart of that damned place, you will know how to reach me.”
”How can you be sure it will draw you to its heart?”
Grant just chuckled, getting back to his feet.
”That’s what I would do.”
As I gazed upon that all too familiar mischievous smile, the images before me once again faded away. I found myself back in that cavern with the rippling, blackened walls, to see my friend still wearing that same grin.