Dark Magic

58

Peter parked the stolen motorcycle in the alley behind the theater. Normally, the back door was kept closed. Now it was open, the lock jimmied. If he’d learned any lesson watching TV cop shows, rushing into an unknown situation was never a smart idea. He again called Liza and Snoop. When neither answered, he called Garrison, who picked up right away.

“I can’t talk right now,” Garrison said. “I’ll call you back.”

“Wolfe’s hiding in the basement of my theater,” Peter said.

“What? Are you sure?”

“I wouldn’t call you if I wasn’t.”

“Did your witch find him?”

“It was a group effort.” Peter gave him the theater’s address, then said, “How quickly can you get here? I don’t want him to slip away.”

“I’ll be there as fast as I can,” Garrison said. “I’m on the rooftop of an apartment house on Twenty-first Street, running down some crazy guy we thought was Wolfe.”

Peter was calculating how long the FBI agent might be when he heard Liza’s screams from inside the theater. “That’s not fast enough. I’ve got to go.”

“Don’t go in there yourself,” Garrison said. “Let me get a team over there.”

Peter heard another scream. It sounded like Snoop.

“Too late,” Peter said. “Wish me luck.”

He rushed inside. The back of the theater was dark and foreboding, and it took a moment for his eyes to adjust. Sound was magnified inside a theater, and Liza’s cries for help could have been coming out of a loudspeaker. He charged across the area behind the stage.

Coming through the curtains, he found himself bathed in a soft yellow spotlight. Wolfe stood at the foot of the stage with his hands around Snoop’s throat. The deadly knapsack lay at Wolfe’s feet.

Liza lay on the floor, looking dazed. Peter had fallen in love with her the first time he’d laid eyes upon her. The effect was no different now, only painful, knowing that she was in peril. She saw him as well. Her smile melted his heart.

“Peter, help us,” she shouted.

“Hold on. I’m coming.”

Wolfe’s head snapped at the sound of the young magician’s voice. Wolfe’s eyes were dead, and his frozen expression did not change. Hideous scratch marks ran down the side of his face where Liza had raked her fingernails across his rotting flesh.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” the dead man said.

They met in the center of the stage and squared off. Peter struck his nemesis in the face with all his might. To his surprise, the blow had no effect. Wolfe threw his hands around Peter’s throat, and began to choke him.

“Die, you little bastard,” Wolfe said.

Peter struggled to break free. Wolfe hadn’t been this powerful the last time they’d fought. Staring into the dead man’s eyes, he was taken to another place and he saw three men in black robes and wearing masks sitting at a table covered in astrological symbols. Then he understood. He wasn’t wrestling with Wolfe, he was wrestling with the elders of the Order of Astrum.

His knees buckled as the air was cut off to his brain. He gazed up at the posters of the great magicians of yesteryear hanging from the ceiling. Their faces mocked him. Do better, they said. This is not the way you want to die.

Wolfe tightened his grip. Pools of black appeared before Peter’s eyes. He tried to summon the demon inside of him, but the demon refused to come out. Without the demon, he had no chance. His world turned utterly still, and he felt himself relax. So this is what it’s like, he thought. You black out, and end up somewhere else. No different than falling asleep on an airplane, and waking up in a different place when the plane touched down.

His world changed. He was now floating on the bottom of the frozen lake in the town of Marble with his parents and their three little friends. His parents had bubbles pouring out of their mouths, and were drowning. So were their friends. So was he. He had gone from one end-of-life experience to another.

A large, circular light appeared before him. It was the Seal of Satan. One by one, the children were drawn into the seal, and disappeared. His mother was the last to go. She turned her head to look at him, and offered her hand. Take it, her eyes said. Do not be afraid of what’s on the other side. He had nothing to lose, and clasped her hand. Together, they were pulled through the seal, the beginning of a terrifying fall through space.

The fall ended. He was standing inside a cave covered in human skeletons. The children of Marble were gone and he was alone. Tortured groans and the sounds of chains being dragged across the floor filled the air. He’d been transported straight to hell.

A purring black cat was rubbing against him. The cat crossed the cave, and jumped onto a throne of skulls. Before his eyes, it grew to human size, and became a man dressed in a long black robe. It was no ordinary man, but a towering figure with snakelike fingers that moved with a life of their own. One half of his face was handsome, the other half burned beyond recognition.

The wicked one.

“Are you ready?” his unearthly host asked.

“Do I have a choice?” Peter replied.

A demonic laugh that made Peter’s hair stand on end came out of his mouth.

“Of course you have a choice,” the wicked one replied. “Become one of us, and you will be sent back to earth with powers beyond any mortal’s comprehension. Refuse, and you will die a thousand deaths. Those are your choices.”

Peter had never felt more afraid. Being a devil’s disciple was not the life he wanted. But what other choice did he have? As he wrestled with his decision, Milly’s words came back to him. No matter what evil spirit infested his body, he could always choose to be good. That option was always there, no matter what horrible transformation he underwent.

“I choose to be one of you,” he said.

“Very good. Step forward, and give me your hand.”

Peter approached the throne and stuck out his hand. His host clasped it. His flesh was cold and slimy, and felt like a reptile’s.

“Repeat after me,” his host said. “Darkness, take my hand and give me the power to destroy whoever stands in my way.”

“Darkness, take my hand and give me the power to destroy whoever stands in my way.”

“And rule the world as I see fit.”

“And rule the world as I see fit.”

“This is my destiny, forever and ever.”

Peter choked on the words. This was not his destiny, and never had been. He’d been brought here against his will, just like his parents and their little friends.

“You tricked me. And my parents,” he whispered.

“Yes, I did. Now, say it or die a thousand deaths!” his host thundered.

“This is my destiny, forever and ever.”

“Very good. You are now one of us.”

The wicked one’s snakelike fingers ran up Peter’s forearm, and sank their deadly fangs into his flesh. As their poison entered his body, Peter’s head felt like it might explode.

He screamed.

His world changed again. He was back inside the theater wrestling with Wolfe. He had survived his encounter with the wicked one. But he had paid a terrible price.

Wolfe still had his hands around his throat. Peter pried back the dead man’s fingers, breaking each of them with a sickening snap. Making a fist, he struck Wolfe squarely in the jaw. The blow resonated, and sent the dead man staggering backward.

“Way to go,” Snoop called out.

“Yeah, Peter,” his girlfriend exclaimed.

Peter nearly told his friends to shut up. They’d been nothing but trouble lately, and the thought of getting rid of them ran through his mind. He’d break their bodies like sticks and toss them in the river, and no one would suspect a thing. Just thinking about it filled him with euphoria. Get rid of them, a voice inside his head said.

What on earth was he thinking? He loved Liza, and Snoop was his closest friend. Yet the thought of killing them would not go away.

“Peter, he’s getting away!” Liza exclaimed.

Wolfe had grabbed the knapsack and was walking stiff-legged across the stage. If he got outside and released the nerve agent, half the city would perish.

“Let him,” he heard himself say.

“What did you say?” Liza asked.

“I said let him.”

His girlfriend pulled herself off the floor and rushed toward him. “Why are you talking like that? What’s come over you?”

“Do I sound different to you?” Peter asked.

“Yes. Your voice has changed. And your eyes look weird.”

“How do I sound?”

“You sound evil, Peter, and it’s scaring the crap out of me.”

Milly’s words again rang in his ears. Being good or evil was a choice. It sounded easy, only the evil had kidnapped his soul, and would not release it.

“Maybe I am evil,” he replied.

He expected her to run away. Instead, his girlfriend wrapped her arms around his waist and gazed longingly into his eyes. “No, you’re not. You’re the most wonderful boy I’ve ever met. Now, please do this for me.”

“Why should I,” he heard himself say.

“Because I love you, that’s why.”

“You do?”

“Yes.”

He read her thoughts. Despite the nightmare he’d put her through, Liza still loved him. It was the only thing he’d ever wanted, and he pushed the demon back into the farthest reaches of his soul. It was like pushing a boulder, and took all his strength.

“I’ll do anything for you,” he said.

“Good. Then stop him.”

“Hey! He’s going up to the roof,” Snoop called out.

The wooden stairway that led to the roof was located beside the stage. Snoop was chasing Wolfe up the creaky steps by the time they reached him. Soon the three of them were standing on the theater’s flat roof with its view of the gloomy Hudson.

“There he is,” Snoop said.

Wolfe stood on the other side of the roof next to the building’s ventilation system. He’d removed the bomblet from the knapsack, and held it above the system’s powerful fans. If the nerve agent touched the fans, it would be distributed into the air, and spread across the city.

“Stay here,” Peter said.

“Be careful,” Liza said.

Peter sprinted across the roof. He needed a distraction, something to take Wolfe’s mind off his deadly mission. Garrison had said that they’d found a girlfriend’s snapshot in Wolfe’s wallet. What was her name? Rona. No, it was Rita.

“Don’t you want to see Rita?” Peter shouted.

Wolfe’s head turned slightly, his face filled with pain. It was the first expression he’d shown. Even the dead know love, Peter thought.

Peter kept coming toward him. “Don’t you?”

The pain in Wolfe’s eyes grew more intense.

“I can take you to her,” Peter said.

“She’s here?” Wolfe asked.

“She’s downstairs waiting for you.”

“That’s a lie.”

“She’s in a limo by the curb. Take a look if you don’t believe me.”

The temptation was too great. Wolfe moved away from the fans, and glanced over the side of the building. Peter seized the opportunity and ripped the bomblet from his grasp. He tossed the deadly device through the air to Snoop.

“Catch!” Peter said.

“You’re not funny,” Snoop said.

Wolfe spun around, and they began to fight. The images of Madame Marie and Reggie flashed through Peter’s mind, and the demon inside of him reared its ugly head. He grabbed Wolfe by the throat, and lifted him clean off the ground. He shook the dead man, and broke every bone in Wolfe’s body that wasn’t already broken. The dead man’s teeth flew out of his mouth, and his shoes fell off his feet. His head spun from side to side like a rag doll.

Peter gazed into the dead man’s eyes. The elders of the Order had been jostled out of their chairs. Their masks had come off, exposing their faces. The elder in the middle had a twisted nose and crooked teeth. He’d finally found his parents’ killers.

“I have a score to settle with you,” Peter said.

He gave another violent shake, causing the walls around the elders to collapse. They screamed for mercy, something they’d never given to their victims. By the time the dust had settled, they were lying motionless in a heap.

It was over. Peter let Wolfe slip from his fingers. Then, he summoned all his strength, and forced the demon back into its hiding place. He could deal with this, he told himself. It was just going to take some getting used to.

He crossed the roof to where Liza and Snoop stood. His girlfriend had buried her face in her hands, unable to watch. Snoop shook his head in disbelief.

“I’m sorry you had to see that,” Peter said.

Liza lowered her hands. “Are we safe? Is the city safe?”

“Yes, we’re safe.”

Tears ran down her face. She’d witnessed a side of him that no one was supposed to see. Without a word, she turned her back, and slipped into the stairwell.

“Liza, wait.”

“No, Peter. No,” he heard her say.

Snoop edged up beside him, clutching the bomblet to his chest.

“Remind me to never piss you off,” his assistant said.