THE PARKING LOT was empty except for my car, Daniel, and the Crawling Chaos.
Where the hell do these names come from? The Crawling Chaos? The Whore Goddess?
Actually, that one is kind of obvious.
Scratch that. I’d seen the Man in Black’s true form. Crawling Chaos actually was a pretty apt description.
They stood on the sidewalk, Daniel looking at the Man in Black like a lost puppy and the Man in Black looking up at the stars. The door creaked as I pushed it open, chill night air hitting me like a slap. It smelled clean and clear making me realize my mouth tasted foul, the back of my throat burning from being sick.
I would kill for a mint or a stick of gum.
Nyarlathotep’s red right hand came out of his coat pocket as I stepped up to them. The slick, bloodless fingers held a silver foil-wrapped object.
A stick of gum.
He held it toward me.
I stopped short. “I hate that. Don’t read my mind.”
He didn’t say anything, just stood there in his creepy coat holding out the stick of gum. It winked at me, the yellow sodium lights above us reflecting dully off the foil. I didn’t want the gum anymore, not from him.
The taste in my mouth intensified, curdling. I tried to swallow, to force it down, but it stuck to the back of my throat like a cold. Even with the taste choking me, I didn’t want that gum. I didn’t trust it not to be a trick.
“It is not a trick, Acolyte. It is simply what you wished for. What advantage could I receive from giving you a stick of gum? You can trust that no harm will come to you,” he purred, his voice tickling along the inside of me.
He’d read my mind again. It made me want the gum even less, although my mouth tasted so bad I felt sick to my stomach.
Trust him? I didn’t think so.
Daniel reached out and took the stick of gum. Unwrapping it, he let the foil flutter to the ground at his feet. Pulling the end off, he popped it in his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. He stood for a moment as we both watched him. After a long second he held the rest of the gum out to me. “It’s safe, Charlie.”
I took the gum. I still didn’t trust the Man in Black, but Daniel had taken a chance on my behalf, and that obligated me.
And my mouth still tasted like death.
The spearmint cut through like a winter breeze the second it hit my tongue. The queasiness broke, fading with each chew. I looked at the Man in Black. “I still don’t want you reading my mind. It creeps me the hell out.”
He shrugged, his coat’s flaps waving on their own. “It matters not what you want, Acolyte. The Mark you bear connects us; it is what will allow us to use Ashtoreth’s gift and complete the mission set before us.”
The second he mentioned it, I became aware again of the circle around my throat. It lay on my collarbones, bruising and heavy, making them sore underneath it. I wanted it off me. I wanted Nyarlathotep out of my life. I wanted this night to be over.
Something moved on the edge of the parking lot, drawing my attention.
A low, long shape moved next to the bushes that edged the asphalt lot. Its four-legged gait herked and jerked, all hackles and low-slung spine. The creature glistened in the sodium lights above us, one baleful yellow eye staring at me as it slipped into a shadow, the other a black hole in its skull. I stared at it, and it stared right back from the darkness.
“What the hell is that?” Daniel’s voice sounded too loud, shocking me.
The Man in Black answered. “It is a skinhound. It will hunt her until the one who sent it is defeated.”
Daniel stepped in front of me, hands curled into fists. “Then let’s kill it before it can hurt her.”
“He will send more if that one is destroyed.” Nyarlathotep put his normal hand on Daniel’s shoulder. “That one will remain at bay while I am here, but the only way for my Acolyte to be safe is if we complete our mission.”
I hate it when people talk about me and not to me.
“What do we do, then? How does this…” I searched for the right word. “… collar work?”
“Your magick is intuitive. It is a part of you, the same as the mechanism that allows you to breathe or your heart to beat is a part of you.”
I held up my hand. The Mark across my palm was red and raw and scabbed over. “I thought this was where the magick came from.”
“That merely activated what already lay inside you waiting to be born.”
I could feel the magick inside me. “What do I do?”
“Close your eyes.”
“Why do I have to close my eyes?”
Thin lips pulled back to show gritted shark teeth. “Do you have to question everything, Acolyte?”
“I’m not the trusting kind. I used to be, but I learned my lesson the hard way.”
He sighed. “You have to use your Sight to find the one we seek. It is easier if you shut off your vision of this plane.”
“That’s all you had to say.” I closed my eyes.
The Man in Black’s voice vibrated through me. I could feel it in my bones: a low, deep thrum. “Open your mind. The elder gods are out there. You now have the ability to feel the desires of others. The ones we seek desire to enter this plane of reality. Their lust for this world will call to you like a siren song.”
As he spoke, my mind loosened. It slipped like a dislocated joint, popping out of its socket and stretching. It hurt in a long, slow ache. From the edges of my mindspace came little pinpricks, swirly white spots that sparked and flared in my cerebral cortex. Emotions connected to impressions swept through me, quick as mosquito bites.
A woman lusting after a bottle.
A man lusting after a woman.
A child lusting after a meal.
A woman lusting after a girl’s youth.
A psychopath lusting after human flesh.
The pinpricks jabbed at my brain, stabbing quicker and quicker, each one crowding into a fuzz of white noise. They blanketed my mind like maggots on a corpse, my own thoughts covered like a child who’d fallen through the ice.
Two bursts of desire came in peals of thunder, rolling over all the ones before them, echoing each other.
They were vast.
Alien.
Other.
Crying out:
MUST
BE
FREE
My mind unfolded in a topographical map. I could See all the wants like a landscape. Towering over them were the two thunderous alien desires, standing like mountains, one much closer than the other.
My voice sounded hollow, tinny when I spoke. “I have them. There are two.”
Nyarlathotep’s voice was clear, vibrating through me, shaking the map in my mindsight. “Good, Acolyte. Now take our hands and complete the circle.”
I cracked one eye. The world swam for a split second as it invaded my vision, but I held onto the map in my skull. The Man in Black and Daniel were in front of me, hands clasped; they both reached out to me with their free ones. My right hand took Daniel’s left, a sharp, raw rub across the incisions on my palm as his skin touched mine. If he noticed, he didn’t say anything.
The Man in Black held out his hand. His red right hand.
I hesitated.
The map in my head slid a little, breaking along the edges.
Dammit.
I took that skinless hand and closed my eye.
Power thrummed through me. It felt as though I’d been plugged into a circuit. My body hummed through my bones and my joints.
Daniel’s voice came from my right. “Whoa.”
I guess he could feel it too.
The map sharpened, becoming brighter in my mind’s eye. “What now?”
The Man in Black purred, “Pick one and simply wish to be there.”
“It can’t be that easy.”
“Acolyte…”
I took a deep breath, focused on the mountain of desire closest to us, and wished.
Dear God, please don’t let this hurt.
He didn’t listen.