Lord of the Feast, page 11
“You killed my husband and my daughter, you little shit!”
Ethan felt her gathering her mental resources in preparation for a psychic strike on him, and while he thought it would be interesting to see if his power could measure up to the old woman’s, he had work to do. He still held the meat tenderizer, and he swung it at Tressa’s left temple as hard as he could. The impact caused a jolt of pain to shoot through his forearm, and he felt part of her skull cave in from the impact. Her head snapped to the side, and she collapsed, the bottom half of her body across her husband’s putty legs, pinning them down. Her eyes were closed, and there was a concavity now where her left temple had been. The skin there had been shredded by the tenderizer’s pyramid points, and the wound bled freely. Ethan didn’t know if she was dead, but he could no longer sense her mental presence. If she still lived, she wasn’t going to be capable of mounting another psychic attack anytime soon, if ever.
He looked at Delmar and saw the man wasn’t dead yet. His breath came out as a gurgling wheeze, but his chest rose and fell visibly, meaning he was still getting a good amount of air. Given that Delmar had no skeleton to contain his internal organs, they could shift around inside him to a certain degree, and it was possible the knife hadn’t hit anything vital. If it had pierced his heart, he’d have died almost instantly. This was good. Ethan had a few questions he needed answered.
“This probably wasn’t the kind of reunion you’d imagined when you thought about seeing me again,” Ethan said. “If you ever thought about me at all, that is. I’m sorry to see what happened to you. Clarice never filled me in on the details, assuming she knows them. I’d imagine that life as a blob hasn’t been a laugh riot for you these last ten years.”
Without a skull to anchor his muscles, it was impossible for Delmar to display a facial expression, but his eyes – which looked like large doll eyes floating in a flabby mass of flesh pudding – burned with an anger as intense as Tressa’s had a moment ago.
“If I were you, I’d pray for death every fucking moment of every fucking day. I’d just want it over with, you know?”
Some of the anger drained out of Delmar’s eyes, replaced by sadness and – maybe – a little hope.
Ethan continued. “The knife’s already in you. All I’d have to do is stir it around in there real good a few times, and that should do it. I suppose you could try to do it on your own, but I’m guessing your hands don’t have much gripping strength the way they are.”
The last of the anger left Delmar’s gaze. His eyes now pleaded with Ethan to finish what the butcher knife had started.
“I’m happy to do it, Grandpa. What’s family for, after all? But there’s one question I need you to answer first. Two, actually, and I’m beginning to suspect they may be connected. Where is Kate and where are the Lord’s eyes?”
Delmar’s lips opened and closed silently, reminding Ethan of some kind of fish. A flounder, maybe. Weren’t they supposed to be flat?
“You can think your answer to me. I’ll hear it.”
Kate left…before you got here. Took the eyes…with her.
Delmar’s thought-voice wasn’t as strong as before, but Ethan could still make out his words.
“And where is she taking the eyes?”
Instead of words, this time images flashed through Ethan’s mind. He saw Kate – all grown up – sitting at the kitchen table with Tressa and someone he didn’t recognize. A friend of Kate’s? That felt right. This was followed by an image of a silver Camry pulling away from the curb in front of his grandparents’ house. Kate was sitting in the passenger seat, her friend behind the wheel.
“You couldn’t have seen these things. You can barely move. Did Grandmother tell you about them?”
Yes.
Ethan remembered feeling an odd sensation as he was driving through Ash Creek to get here, a similar sensation to when he first got close to the leg his mother had kept stored in the basement freezer. Had he passed a silver Camry when he’d felt that? He couldn’t recall for certain, but it seemed likely.
One final image came to him, a small white building with a sign above a wooden door that read High Strangeness. He smiled. He knew precisely where Kate was going. In fact, it was already on his list of stops for the day.
“Thank you, Grandfather. I hope you enjoy Oblivion.”
He grabbed hold of the knife handle, shoved the blade in deeper, and stirred it around inside Delmar with swift, violent motions. Delmar gasped, his eyes widened, and his pores exploded with jets of yellowish gunk. Then a final soft breath escaped his lips and he fell still.
“You…disgusting…piece of….”
He turned, saw Tressa, conscious now, struggling to rise.
Ethan yanked the knife from Delmar’s dead body, and laid open Tressa’s throat with a swift backward slash. As she coughed and choked on her own blood, Ethan rose to his feet.
“Thanks for a lovely visit, Grandmother.”
Ethan was covered with Delmar’s yellow gunk, both from having fallen on him and from when the man had shot the last of it out as he was dying. Ethan knew he couldn’t keep wearing these clothes. The stink would tell everyone he was coming from a mile away. He needed to ditch the clothes, take a quick shower, and see if he could find some replacements. Delmar wouldn’t have any clothes – you couldn’t get a shirt and pants onto a blob – but maybe Kate had something that would serve. He’d have to look. But first, the shower.
He dropped the knife and headed for the bathroom.
* * *
“So this was your grandma and grandpa’s original home.”
The plastic bag containing the jar with the eyes dangled from Kate’s left hand. She hadn’t felt comfortable leaving it in the car, but she didn’t feel comfortable having it with her, either.
She nodded. “Doesn’t look like much now, does it?”
She tried to keep her tone light to cover how much seeing the ruins of her grandparents’ house was affecting her. This was the first time she’d been back here since That Night, and while she’d imagined what the place must look like a thousand times, the reality was both more dramatic than anything she’d envisioned while at the same time being depressingly mundane. A stone foundation, a couple limestone walls, some charred support timbers, a gaping pit that had once been the basement, grass and weeds growing all around. Nature hadn’t fully reclaimed the area yet, but it was only a matter of time.
“Entropy is All,” she whispered.
“What?”
“Sorry. Just something my family used to say.”
Lee took her right hand and held it firmly, and Kate gave them a grateful smile.
Kate wasn’t completely sure why she’d brought Lee here. After what had happened at Tressa’s place, she felt she owed them an explanation, but now that they were here, she wasn’t sure how to start. How did you tell your partner that you were raised in a family that belonged to an entropy-worshipping cult that had tried – and failed – to create a god whose purpose was to bring about the early death of all reality? She remembered something Tressa had once told her. It was supposed to be a mercy killing. What arrogant fucking morons we were.
She wondered what was happening at Tressa’s now. Had Ethan arrived yet? If so, how had he reacted to learning that Tressa no longer had the Lord’s eyes in her possession? Tressa had said that Ethan had killed Delora, his mother and Tressa’s daughter. If she was right – and Kate had no reason to think she wasn’t – what would Ethan do to her and Delmar?
“We should’ve stayed with Tressa,” she said. “We should’ve helped her.”
“You did what your grandmother wanted you to do. If all of this weird shit is true, then the worst thing you could’ve done is stay back there and give Ethan a chance to get hold of the eyes.”
“And if it’s not true?”
Lee shrugged.
“Then there’s no harm in doing what your grandmother asked, is there?”
They were silent for several moments after that, then Kate began speaking again.
“I guess I wanted to bring you here to show you some kind of physical proof that what’s happening is real. But some old ruins don’t prove much, do they?”
“The eyes are pretty convincing,” Lee said. “They move like they’re real. And there’s something about this place…. It feels like we’re being watched. And do you see how dark it is inside the basement? The day’s overcast, but there’s still plenty of light. The shadows shouldn’t be so thick in there, but it’s pitch-black, like the inside of a deep underground cavern. And it feels wrong. I don’t like it.”
Kate had been so worried about Tressa that she hadn’t paid the ruins much attention. But now that Lee pointed it out, she could see what they meant. She could sense the wrongness too, experienced it as pressure in her head. Her instincts told her not to get any closer to that darkness – because it was hungry – and she intended to heed them.
“Tell me what it was like,” Lee said. “That night, I mean. You’ve told me a little, about how there was a fire, and several of your relatives lost their lives in it, including your parents. But that’s really all I know.”
That was all Kate had told them because that was mostly all she’d been able to remember. But now, standing here among the ruins of where it had happened, she found her memories returning – and they were far more horrific than she could’ve imagined.
“I…I’m not sure I can talk about it.”
“Just try.” Lee squeezed her hand. “It’ll be okay. I’m right here.”
Kate nodded, took a deep breath, and began.
* * *
Kate, nine years old, sat on a large sectional couch with her cousin Ethan, twelve, and her ‘big’ cousins Weston and Reyna. Weston was a teenager and was taking driver’s ed classes, and Reyna was an actual adult. She was old enough to drink alcohol, and she even worked in a bar. Kate had never been inside a bar before, had only seen them on TV and in movies. Grandma and Grandpa Shardlow had a full bar down here on the other side of the basement – which they called the rec room – but Kate didn’t count that as a real bar. It was more like a pretend one, a barroom playset instead of the actual thing. Normally a thought like that would’ve made her giggle, but not now. There was nothing funny about what was going on here tonight.
The adults were gathered around the pool table – Kate’s mother and father, both sets of grandparents, Ethan and Weston’s parents, as well as Reyna’s, and Great-Aunt Caprice, who Kate thought of as the boss of the whole family, Shardlows and Lintons both. Reyna should’ve been standing with them, Kate thought, but she’d gotten stuck babysitting her, Ethan, and Weston. It’s too dangerous for you kids to participate, Kate’s mother had told her. If it’s too dangerous for us, then it’s too dangerous for you, Kate had shot back. Her mother hadn’t responded to that, but she hadn’t changed her mind. Ethan and Weston’s parents evidently felt the same way, because they were exiled to the couch with her. Reyna didn’t seem to mind babysitting duty, though. In fact, Kate thought she seemed kind of relieved that she didn’t have to participate with the older adults.
The only light in the base— In the rec room came from the glass-covered fireplace in front of the couch. The fire’s flickering glow made everything seem soft-edged and slightly unreal, as if she was dreaming. Dark ambient music – if you could call it music – played at low volume over the sound system: guttural chanting voices accompanied by discordant instruments that she couldn’t identify. The adults were dressed formally, as if for a wedding…or a funeral. Freshly pressed suits and expensive dresses, all purchased especially for this occasion. Mom had taken Kate shopping with her when she picked out her dress – which made Kate feel very grown up – but she wouldn’t tell Kate what the outfit was for. When Kate asked, all she’d said was, You’ll see. She’d seemed excited, and maybe a little scared, too. Kate, Ethan, Weston, and Reyna all had new clothes too. Kate thought the boys looked funny in their suits, although she’d never say so. Certainly they looked uncomfortable, Weston especially. He kept tugging at his collar as if it was too tight, and his face was redder than normal. Kate liked her dress, even if it wasn’t as fancy as Mom’s, but Reyna usually wore jeans, and she kept crossing and uncrossing her legs, as if she didn’t know what to do with them, and smoothing out her skirt with her free hand.
She’s scared, Kate thought, but she dismissed the notion as soon as it occurred to her. Reyna was smart and tough. Kate couldn’t imagine her being afraid of anything or anyone. She admired the hell out of Reyna and wanted to be like her when she grew up.
Kate sat between Ethan and Reyna, and she held her big cousin’s hand. She wasn’t certain, but she thought Reyna was just as grateful for the contact as she was. She leaned her head close to Reyna’s ear and whispered, “What’s happening?”
Reyna didn’t answer right away. She didn’t look at Kate either, instead kept her gaze fixed on the adults.
“They’re trying to make something. Something special.”
“Something dangerous,” Weston said.
Reyna shot him a warning look, and he didn’t say anything more. Kate looked at Ethan to see if he had any reaction to his brother’s words, but he was watching the adults with fascination and appeared not to have noticed what Weston said. Kate remembered her mom and dad arguing about whether or not to bring her tonight. Dad thought it was important that every member of the family be present during the Incarnation – Kate wasn’t sure what that word meant, but it sounded important – even if they weren’t directly participating in the rite. Mom was less certain.
What if something goes wrong? she’d said.
The only thing that can go wrong is the rite fails, Dad had said. That’ll be a disappointment but hardly a disaster.
And if it goes right?
Then Kate will sit with us at the right hand of our god.
Kate trusted her parents, and if they thought it was safe to bring her, then everything should turn out okay, shouldn’t it? But despite Reyna’s confident front, Kate could feel her nervousness, and it was making her start to have doubts. If her grown-up cousin was scared, then shouldn’t she be scared too? At that moment, for the first time in her short life, she realized that maybe her parents weren’t always right about everything, and that thought was absolutely terrifying. If she couldn’t trust Mom and Dad, who or what could she trust?
Grandpa Delmar stood at one end of the pool table, holding a book open in front of him. Kate had heard the adults talking about this book before, usually when they thought she wasn’t listening, but she didn’t know much about it, other than that it was really old – even older than her grandparents – and that it could help people do amazing things. Before the rite started, Kate had asked Grandma Tressa why the book was so special. Because it has power, child, she’d said. Kate didn’t really understand Tressa’s answer, but she’d nodded as if she had. The other adults were gathered around the pool table, Grandma Tressa on Delmar’s left, and continuing clockwise, Mom and Dad, Felton and Lissette (Reyna’s parents), Delora and Cordell (Ethan and Weston’s parents), Elisha and Victorina (Kate’s other set of grandparents), and then finally, standing on Delmar’s right, Great-Aunt Caprice. They were turned inward, facing objects lying on the pool table that looked to Kate like life-sized doll parts: head, torso, arms, legs…. A pair of eyes lay to the right of the head, a brain to the left. The head had no top and its eye sockets were hollow. Kate didn’t think the parts were real. For one thing, they didn’t match up. Some were larger, some smaller, some looked like they came from men, some from women, and the skin was different shades. Another reason the parts seemed artificial was that there was no blood on them. They were all clean, the edges where they ended neatly trimmed.
Maybe the pieces were prepared, Kate thought. When Mom cooked meat for dinner, there usually wasn’t much blood, and what there was disappeared when the meat was cooked, except for the rare steaks Dad liked. Maybe the adults had done something to the parts to get them ready for tonight. But the idea that the pieces were real, that they had come from actual human beings, made her feel sick to her stomach, so she decided to go on thinking of them as doll parts. It was easier.
Delmar began reading aloud from the book, which had a funny name: Liber Pravitas Itineribus. He spoke one sentence at a time, pausing so that the other adults could repeat the words after him. Kate didn’t understand much of what they said, although she caught words like Gyre, Oblivion, and The Great Nothing, and they beseeched something or someone called The Multitude to help them. Kate wasn’t sure what was supposed to happen, but she felt the atmosphere in the basement grow heavy, like the air right before the eruption of a violent thunderstorm. The temperature dropped as well, becoming winter-cold in an instant, and she hugged her arms and shivered. Something appeared in the air above the pool table…. No, it was more like the ceiling was gone now, and above them was…was…. Kate didn’t want to look at it, felt she might die or go mad if she did, so she kept her gaze focused on the pool table. The doll parts began to shake, and then in less time than it took Kate to blink, they were joined. The eyes had wormed their way into the sockets, and the brain had nestled inside the head and made itself at home. There were visible seams where the neck, arms, and legs had joined the torso, but the pieces seemed to be firmly affixed. This was confirmed an instant later when the creature’s eyes flew open and it sat up.
Kate had never seen anything more beautiful or more terrible.
The adults fell to their knees, raised their arms high, and gazed upon their homemade god with a combination of adulation and shocked disbelief.
