Chide Sonata
of the Escalade Boston had rented, sitting in a parking lot on the outskirts of the city, they gaped at a large warehouse. Lorcthe sat beside Amber in the middle row, Boston and Ralph in the front, and Jayson took the back bench by himself. All of them had taken off their UVB vests.
One white paneled van sat in the parking lot, no person within, and no activity whatsoever in the area.
“Here?” Boston asked.
“Yes,” Lorcthe said, “here, and nine other warehouses around the outskirts of the city have all been rented out to the same person, a Chide Sonata.”
“Chide Sonata?” Jayson said. “That sounds made up.”
“Yes,” Lorcthe said, “Eziel does like his games. It’s an anagram: I Hate Codans.”
“Fucker,” Jayson said.
“Mmm, yes,” Lorcthe said. “We coined that term long ago for your kind. Codan. It is why Eziel says it with such disdain now. Believe me, he hates me more than any creature of day and night.”
“Anyway,” Amber said, “is this the new storage place for the shadows?”
“Believe so,” Lorcthe said. “It appears Eziel has a new strategy, if I were to make a wager: build an army of shadowy creatures around the outskirts of the city, then when the time comes, encircle said city and move in, obliterating everything that moves.”
“Well,” Boston said, “best confirm. Amber?”
“I’d like to stay with Lorcthe, if that’s okay?”
“No problem. You and me, Jayson. Feel free to record.”
“Way ahead of you.” Jayson had his cell out, an oversized thing, almost like a tablet. Boston had no idea how pocketing such a thing would be comfortable.
Boston looked over at Ralph in the passenger seat beside him. “I need you to jump in the driver’s seat. We may need to exit quickly.”
“Really,” Ralph said. “Not sure if I should. I really haven’t driven in a couple of years.”
“I’ll do it,” Amber said.
Boston put a hand on Ralph’s shoulder. “Perfect. And no worries, Ralph.”
Lorcthe seemed to watch it all with mirth. Either they amused her with their antics, or she did have some affection for human beings. Maybe a little bit of both.
“Be careful,” Lorcthe said. “Eziel will have lackeys doing his bidding, and they are probably armed.”
driver’s seat, watched Jayson and Boston quickly get to cover, as much as they could under the small awning over a doorway. The door opened, and they disappeared inside. Please be careful.
Ralph took Amber’s seat and sat beside Lorcthe. Everyone observed the warehouse. Without turning while continuing her surveillance of the perimeter, including watching for any incoming vehicles, Amber had burning questions that couldn’t wait any longer. How nobody else had asked yet was beyond her, but she could have done so when the whole group was in the vehicle and didn’t.
“Lorcthe, can I ask you some questions? Would that be okay?”
“Yes, of course. I am at your disposal, so to speak. I have nothing to hide.”
“Is the person you’re possessing, or whatever you call it, still in there, still trying to get control back?”
Amber hoped Ralph saw Lorcthe’s expression, because Amber could feel her smiling even though Amber’s attention was toward the warehouse. So many questions. Maybe if they could understand her, they could find a weakness in Eziel.
“Not at all. There is no other spirit or soul or whatever you call it in here but me. When we, the Quisling that is, move into an unborn child, we do it early enough that we can gently push the human spirit out, and we take over.”
Ralph piped up. He had been so quiet lately, since they came back from the other reality. “And what happens to them then?”
“Oh, I can’t honestly say. I would think they would join another body, but they could go elsewhere; I don’t fully understand all of it. Death and life are as much a mystery to me as they are to you. I have certain abilities you don’t have, of course, but it’s innate, something I just know how to do; I don’t know the origin.”
“So what are you, then?” Amber asked. She swallowed hard. “A demon?”
Lorcthe laughed, sweetly, like a grandmother would at a child’s behavior. “No, not a demon at all. Is that what Eziel told you?”
“Yes,” Amber said. “Sort of. I think Boston assumed that’s what he was, and Eziel said it was close enough or something like that.”
“I’ve no real memory of my origin or what I am. I just am. I know that’s confusing, but I can’t explain it any better. I am missing pieces of my memory.”
“Is that the same for all of you?” Ralph asked.
“I believe so. It has been a source of frustration that none of us can explain.”
Amber wondered. Her gut whirled and she couldn’t tell if Lorcthe was one hundred percent truthful or not. “Do you know how old you are?”
“I don’t. I’m aware of the time that has passed, that I am at least two hundred years old. I’ve lived many human lives.”
“The rings on your hand,” Ralph said, before Amber had the chance. “Are those from some of those lives?”
Lorcthe touched the one Amber was most curious about, the yellow butterfly ring. “Yes, those that especially taught me something. This little fellow was a gift from my parents. Just five years old when I died. Like you, I am often overwhelmed by emotions I can’t seem to control. And when my mother wouldn’t give me a second piece of sweet apple pie, I cried like a baby and flipped the pie pan onto the floor. Got a whooping and sent to my room, cried even more, and wished my mother dead. I popped the window open, ran away, and swore no one would control me or tell me what to do, and got a true taste of nature. Six wolves bore down on me and ripped me to pieces. It was painful and horrifying.” Lorcthe kissed the ring.
“And the other rings?” Amber asked.
“No, that’s enough of that. They are personal to me. What of you, Amber, your story?”
And Amber didn’t know what it was for sure that caused her to spill her guts to this stranger, this creature, thing, whatever it was, but spill she did, right back to her bratty self as a child, through to her abusive boyfriend and parents that believed him over her, to all the events that recently transpired. She missed her parents, wanted their support, and she thought, now more than ever, she knew how that would happen: she needed, no, wanted to apologize to them for every shit thing she had done as a child, every thing that made her own parents trust a man who they thought they knew, instead of the daughter they didn’t understand at all.
As she spoke, she kept her attention at the warehouse. A bird caught her gaze, a massive raven sitting on the corner of the building. It popped up in the air and started flying across the length of the roof before it appeared to vanish even though it didn’t dive or turn.
“Did you guys see that?”
“See what?” Lorcthe asked.
And then it appeared again, same line of travel along the roof, but it had made a distance of over fifty feet.
offices within its confines, from what Boston could see from their vantage point hiding behind a wooden-slatted crate with Jayson. Mostly, it was long and massive, open, and had narrow windows with mullions running the length on both sides high up near the ceiling. And scattered along its length—statues among the weed-grown cracks of the concrete expanse—were at least one hundred shadow creatures.
“How can there be so many already?” Jayson whispered.
“I was wondering the same,” Boston whispered.
They hunched and watched for minutes, waiting for any movement.
A door opened somewhere within the offices. Was there a basement? Couldn’t be though, if weeds were growing up through the floor.
Voices.
Three men.
“Get ready,” Boston said.
“Ready for what? If we do anything, won’t those things attack us?”
“I don’t think so, but get ready to run. Need to chat with whoever that is. We have to find out where Eziel is.”
Jayson nodded, lips pursed, eyes set. Without a doubt in Boston’s mind, he knew he could count on him.
Silence for a moment, only the strangers’ footfalls in the near distance like tapping. Tap, tap, tap, out of sync, which made sense if it was indeed three people. He hoped there weren’t more.
“Wait for me here,” Boston said. “I need to know if they’re armed.”
Tap, tap, tap.
“Be prepared for me to fire. I will take out the one I deem the biggest threat on the slightest motion to harm us.”
Tap. Tap. Tap.
“It’s going to be loud as hell. If they fire back, I’ll disarm the others or kill them all if I have to.”
The voices started up again as they came into the main area.
“Fuck,” one of the men said, his voice raspy, “they are creepy.”
Three men; all had guns. Two of them had a single holstered pistol. The other man had a shotgun dangling in his right hand.
Boston stood, holding a hand to stay Jayson, and stay he did. Boston walked around the crate, never taking his eyes from them as they sauntered without a care across the room.
Shit. There was no way to say or do anything without surprising them. Somehow, they had not spotted him yet as he moved toward them, probably because of the scattered shadows.
“Hey,” one of them said, the one with the shotgun.
Boston had a clear line of sight on them. He stopped.
“Hands—” Shotgun Man started before Boston drew on him, one shot to the head. The man dropped, and thankfully the other two men were not remotely prepared. Boston’s ears rang a little, but he could still hear.
The men fumbled for their pistols.
Boston had both revolvers out. “Draw those guns and you’ll both be dead before you clear the holster. Jayson.”
Jayson came around, his PMR-30 in hand, eyes wild.
The men had stopped, gaping at them. “Who are you?” a windbreaker-wearing man said, looking like he belonged on a golf course.
“Trouble,” Boston said and Jayson snickered. “Tell us where Eziel is and you’ll never see us again.”
The other man, wearing jean shorts, said, “A who now?”
Boston walked toward them, holstering one gun. “Please, no games. I would just as soon kill both of you and find him myself, but you know you know. You’re the ones dropping bodies off. Where are those bodies coming from?”
“Hey, man,” Windbreaker said, “we just happened upon this place. The cops are on their way, so I’d leave if I was you.”
Boston sighed. “Jesus Christ, intelligence is obviously not a job requirement, is it? Eziel will hire any fucking idiot who will do his bidding. You’ve no idea what you signed on for.”
“The fuck we don’t,” Jean Shorts said.
Windbreaker dropped his head, shaking it from side to side slowly.
Jean Shorts continued, “We know exactly what he is and what he’s doing, and fuckin’ A, bubba, I hope he succeeds. Fuck this planet and the people on it. Never done nothing but dick things up, the whole of this putrid, rotting shit place of a planet.”
Jesus, Eziel sure could pick them. This needed to move along. They were stalling.
“Well,” Boston said, “congratulations, you made a deal with the—”
Ping. Someone fired and it wasn’t the men in front of them.
Boston slap-cocked his revolver and body fired on both men in quick succession. They fell.
Jayson fired his PMR-30 toward the offices, panic-firing into the glass like a madman: bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang until he emptied the magazine.
The shooter ran away, down the hallway, into the maze of offices.
“Go,” Boston said, “get to the SUV. Get it to the other side of the building. Don’t let him get to a vehicle. Run him over if you have to.”
Jayson scrunched his eyebrows.
“I mean it,” Boston said. “Now go.”
Jayson ran. So did Boston, toward the offices, firing a shot into each of the men’s heads as he passed. He could leave nothing to chance.
Through it all, not one of the shadow creatures budged.
He couldn’t slow, but a hallway junction came up. Thankfully, all the lights were on. Keeping one revolver in hand, close to his body, he edged up to the intersection as quickly as he could and dipped his head around the corner, catching a quick glimpse.
A short, empty hallway. He brought his gun up and edged into the open. A glint caught his eye. He glanced down. Near the next hallway junction, attached close to the floor, were two round black infrared alarm devices opposite from one another. Jesus, they didn’t even try to hide them: an obvious beam that he assumed was a booby trap.
He paused, his body tensing, especially because every office door had been closed, and not one office had a window. He needed to step lightly. Not knowing what the man carried for a weapon, one sound from Boston and a bullet could easily be fired through a thin office wall.
His heart pounded, mostly because he had to hurry. If the shooter had already left the building, there was no time, but he had no idea. Before two offices, the doors across from each other, he stopped and pulled his cell out. He typed: Did anyone come out? He sent it to Jayson.
Jayson responded within a few seconds: No one came out this side. I am waiting by the van. The others took car to other side. Let me ask Ralph. Two secs.
Boston held in place, listening, his phone thankfully silenced. He debated whether to try a door, but if the shooter was waiting, he’d be listening too and probably start firing.
Jayson replied: Nobody on other side, and no other vehicles.
Now he knew. He typed: Perfect, stay. I’ll flush him. Let others know.
Jayson responded: Be careful. Followed by: Or Amber will kill me.
Boston smiled. He did a three-sixty and looked at everything around him. The floor, concrete, relatively free of debris, would allow him to walk quietly with his running shoes. Only a couple chocolate bar wrappers littered the floor.
KATHUNK!
The lights blinked out.
Fuck! He backed up to the end of the hall where he came from and activated the flashlight feature on his cell. Did he dare go forward, through unknown territory? The cell light revealed nothing. But he had to know what the infrared beam was for. It might be nothing, something left over from the days the warehouse was in its heyday. Yet, it didn’t make much sense with its placement, even though Boston had no idea what was around the corner. Why would they set a trip beam in the middle of an office hallway?
In the near distance, a car rumbled to life, something with a big motor. It reminded him of his truck’s engine. His heart panged for a moment. The car sounded further in the complex, beyond the offices. It was now or never. He moved forward, careful to step over the invisible beam, edging into the intersecting hall, his light pointed down a long hallway with more office doors. Something sat in the middle, something squat. He couldn’t tell what it was.
“Help,” came a timid voice—muffled, male.
Boston couldn’t wait. He called Jayson.
“What’s happening?” Jayson asked when he picked up.
“I hear a car further up, but the building lights are out, and I’m in the middle of a hallway with something blocking my path. And… I heard someone.”
“Jesus, I’m coming back in.”
“No.”
“Too late, on my way. I’ll let Amber know about the car. He’s probably going to make a run for it.”
“They can’t let him get away,” Boston said. “Whatever they need to do to stop him. Make sure she understands.”
“I will. Hopefully whoever that is somehow doesn’t have a cell phone on him, or it might already be too late.”
For whatever reason, that hadn’t occurred to Boston. Shit! It wouldn’t take much explaining for Eziel to figure out it was them pursuing him. “That might complicate things. She needs to keep him alive, somehow. If he has a phone, we need to find out if he called anyone who could inform Eziel.”
“Got it,” Jayson said. “Be there soon.”
Jayson hung up.
Boston edged up the hallway, scanning every nook and cranny for any more traps or triggers, anything out of sorts. As he brought his light back down the hallway from the ceiling, he first saw a wide metal door, and then he brought the light to the thing in the hallway. His heart pounded as soon as he realized what it was. What the hell did they need that for?
“Help me!” said the voice again, a little louder. He swore it came from behind the metal doorway.
Boston turned his cell’s light off, the battery getting low.
When he heard Jayson’s approaching footsteps, Boston realized he had not told Jayson about the infrared beam.