Chapter Twenty Five

“Am I dead?”

“No…you’re not.”

“Then, where am I?”

It was a reasonable question, Dave thought, and in the void, without Vros enveloping him like a warm winter’s coat, Dave felt naked and exposed. The voice that had spoken to him was calming and reassuring, even though it gave him little information. From far away, there was a small finger of light sifting through the empty darkness, moving closer to him. The voice spoke to him again, also moving closer with the light.

“You’re Brother Dave.”

He was confused how he was known to the voice addressing him.

“Who are you,” he said, and then repeated, “And where am I?”

“You’re nowhere right now…this is limbo. Or maybe it’s capital L limbo. Or Purgatory. I don’t know for sure. But it is something somewhere between life and death. Or maybe outside it. I don’t really know for sure…I just got here myself.”

The light grew brighter and painted an outline of a person, which became more detailed as it approached, filling in more lines and contours until a female form floated before him sculpted out of pure light and energy. She was beautiful and naked, though the ribbons of golden illumination that she gave off obscured her intimate details.

“I have seen you before, haven’t I,” Dave asked.

She giggled with recognition. “Yes, I sought you out. And you gave me the most wonderful gift.”

Hovering ever closer, she was almost blindingly luminescent. Her small hands cupped Dave’s face, palms warm to the touch, making his face radiate like a Halloween pumpkin. Her lips touched his forehead and pressed with such little force it was almost difficult to tell that she was touching him, but from his scalp, racing back over his head to the base of his cranium, and down his spine was a jolt of hot electricity that was like a wheat grass shot for his soul. Instantaneously, Dave was awash in a flood of information.

It was the entire life of Ivy Collier.

---

The ATV quad drove slowly in circles around the northern foothills. The PA was on, and rather than broadcasting instructions and hailing, the transmitter was playing music. The trees and brush rustled with the faint slapping of a bass drum, like wet leather getting punched. As the rider drove the four-wheeler over the terrain, he scanned the foliage for movement. The sound of the music accompanied the purr of the engine nicely, but grew louder as additional instruments entered. It was a steady melody of distorted guitar rising, chunka-chunka-chunka-chunka chunk-a chunka-chunk, it growled. Soon, the booming blast of a crisp snare drum fell in-between the hard scrubbing of guitar stings, finally tapping out a fill before engaging the guitar with a relentless beat.

The force of the music drove the indigenous creatures away, but the man had little interest in native beasts. All the instruments locked into a ferocious rhythm, chunka chunk chunk chunk chunk chunka-chunka chunk, and the hi-beams vibrated from the volume. A dirty man lept out in front of the quad, causing the rider to grab the handbrake so tightly he nearly fractured his fingers from the force. The ATV skidded a few feet on it’s front wheels as the back end rose and then dropped as it came to an arresting stop.

“EYE OF THE FUCKING BEHOLDER, MAN! YEAH!”

The rider was more scared by the compact, muscular man before him than the fact he’d appeared suddenly out of the shrubs.

“Um, I was sent to get you by my boss…he said you would come with me.” There was nervous perspiration forming on the rider’s temples, and under his helmet the sweat created a moist climate similar to a tropical jungle. “Please don’t disembowel me,” he whispered under the blasting Metallica tune.

“BRONCO,” said Bronco, not really giving the rider much to say in response. Still, he tried to go about his instructions, and ignore the small animal that Bronco was somehow wearing as a loincloth that look as though it may still be alive.

“Please follow me back to the compound.”

He rolled the vehicle back and started to turn it around, confident that he had managed to adhere to Dolph’s words to “bring Bronco back”, yet still made it clear that it was not going to be riding tandem, even though there would clearly be room on the ATV. Bronco was in the shadows for a second, but appeared with a handful of belongings, ready to go. The rider, feeling successful in his mission, killed the music, and began back whence he came.

“LOOK TOWARDS THE SKY JUST BEFORE YOU DIE…IT’S THE LAST TIME YOU WILL! FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS!”

The rider, in abject terror, fumbled at the ATV controls at the sight of the suddenly enraged Bronco. He had tried to hit the throttle and flee, but instead managed to turn the PA and music back on. Bronco slowly straightened up from the coiled stance he was in.

“BRONCO FOLLOWS YOU BACK. YOU RIDE THE LIGHTNING. OF YOUR PISS,” he snorted, which was as close as there was to laughter, noting the warm fear that had spread on the rider’s pant leg and the ATV seat. The others would ridicule him when he returned, but the rider would still have functional arms and legs, which was more than some of the others could boast after their encounters with Bronco

---

It was as though somebody had punched him in the stomach with a tree, and while he was not in pain, Dave was winded and gasping. To experience a whole life of experiences and emotion instantly would have probably lobotomized any regular person, but years of expanding his mind through psycho-mystical studies and the hosting of Ru made him strong enough to withstand the intensity. Ivy was still before him, waiting for Dave to take it all in before speaking.

“I died. I saw myself out of body. I felt my soul leave my body, and I was not scared. Ru explained to me what was happening and I accepted it. In those last moments before we were separated, I understood all the answers to my questions. The years I spent traveling and learning and experiencing life had prepared me, but it was Ru sharing the time he was bonded to you that made me feel complete. You don’t realize how much the two of you are intertwined, conjoined from your prolonged bond. I was very happy to have felt just a small amount of what you have gone through with Ru, and I understand what it is like to have that part of you missing and incomplete. It is how I felt until Ru found me.”

“I’m so happy for you,” he said, still gaining his composure from the injection of Ivy’s life.

“I can see you have hosted another. The aura is faint upon you. A recent thing.”
“Yes, it is Vros, who left his longtime host and ended up with me. He was looking for my father. What was left of him.”

“There is still a small part of him in there, and if you can force the demon out and back through this portal, you may be able to save him. When you return to your body, I believe Vros will return to you. He is here to force the beast from this world, or destroy it. He will know what to do. We are all here for that purpose.”

“All? Who?”

“Your friend Pam is looking for you, and within her is another named Hrel. Ru gave me true sight the instant I surrendered my physical form and left for this place.”

“What’s going to happen to you,” Dave asked.

“I don’t know, but I was…compelled in a direction. It is a place that is forever wide, yet impossibly hidden away between the fabric of existence. I was drawn by a sound so terrific that I couldn’t explain it, and to call it angelic would still be insufficient. And before I was there, I sensed you here, lost. I feel strangely disconnected now from what I considered being alive although it is now so much more vibrant and distinct than any memory I have of it. I wish you luck, Dave, and I wish for this peace and warmth of eternal love I feel to be yours one day. Thank you for the things you have shown me, and for sharing the gifts Ru has brought us.”

Dave wanted to speak but held silent. Ivy dematerialized, fading away until her form was just a glowing shape, and then a sparse twinkle of points in the darkness.

---

Agnes Bullock was convinced her test of faith was being administered in her current life, and not waiting for her in the next. The horrible things she had been subjected to, and of Claude, who had endured worse. The voices and threats and things that she had seen since they had been taken from their home were the last gate for her to cross under. Because if it were not, if her God had failed her through all her years – a lifetime of devotion – it was too horrific to contemplate. She focused on prayer, since the conversation her rescuers was too unbelievable for her to believe to be true.

Pam walked towards Ivy. “Is she really gone?”

Ru spoke through Ivy to Hrel, not addressing the question Pam put forward. “We have very little time if there is any chance to succeed. Do you have anything else that could help us?”

Hrel responded as Pam was animated to take the arachnid-bots out of garment and throw them aside. “These are nothing more than a child’s toy now. Other than what firepower we have in our hands from the dead here, we’re on our own.”

Interrupting Hrel, Pam spoke, “Did you make her go away? Is she going to come back?”

“No,” said Ru, “And I do not belong here without her. I can not maintain control for very long. This body welcomed me, but without her, it is dying. It fights me because her essence is part of every last cell. She would have never brandished that weapon, but I was able to guide her actions as she surrendered this mortal coil. As time moves on, I will have less control of even simple, basic functions. Eventually I will be rejected and then the body will be animate no more”

“You’re like Hrel? You’re also one of them? How long have you been with Ivy?” Pam was seething with anger.

“Not so much like, but the same. I am Ruahadavalat, and I have known you for a long time. It was some surprise that I found my brethren with you, for you are so strong a will."

The compliment did not diminish her anger but realizing it was Ru did seem be calming. “Well then, ‘Ru’,” she said, “you’d better be quick about your business, because it gets your buddy off my back too, and that young lady who’s body you’re just going to discard like an ill-fitting garment deserves better than this.”

“You all deserve better, but if we don’t do this, things are going to get much, much worse.”

---

Henchmen of no particular mention wheeled the cocoon from the portal.

“They’re taking the cocoon out of the portal,” said Lester.

A series of buttons on the frame of the portal were tapped and it lost the glow of power.

“A series of buttons on the frame of the portal were tapped, and it lost the glow of power,” he added next.

Dave’s enclosure was unhooked and mounted in a brace so that he was upright…if they chose to open it up.

“Dave’s enclosure was unhooked and mounted in a brace so that he’ll be upright if they chose to open it up.”

The smaller and fatter of the two men working on the cocoon turned back to where Lester was bound to harangue him.

“Hey, why don’t you just shut your mouth, okay, guy? Nobody wants to hear your running commentary.”

“Why don’t you make me, bitch? And as a matter of fact, I believe my friend over here wants to hear it. Because he can’t see shit. And you know why he can’t see shit? Because you muthafuckas put him in one of those space blankets, pressed some buttons, and popped him into your x-ray machine. You blinded him!”

“Hey, that’s not true,” the other tall, thin one countered. “It’s totally safe. We wouldn’t be putting people in there if it was going to hurt them. Besides, we’re constantly working near it. Don’t ya think there’d be something wrong with us then too?”

“How do you know there isn’t,” Lester probed.

The tall one turned to his buddy, “Maybe we should get a check up or something, just in case.”

“We’re union,” said the first one defensively, “and I know that our chapter representative would not allow for unsafe conditions in the workplace.”

Lester nodded behind them, “Well then, what do you call that?”

Claude stood menacingly, though all it really took for him to be menacing was to stand there with his rows of dagger like teeth and deadly talons. The two were not expecting the “Fiend from 16”, as he was called, to be in the same room as them. Unshackled.

‘You can relax,” Claude said with a crocodile smile, “I’m not that hungry right now. I want to see my boy.”

“Uh, that’ll take a few minutes to remove him, check his vitals, and clean him up,” said the tall one.

“Be quick about it then. We have some family issues to discuss.” Claude exited back into the adjoining room.

“You better hope his boy is in good shape, because he’s gonna take it out on you if there’s anything wrong,” suggested Lester.

The duo worked quickly, perhaps faster than they’d ever done in the past, and nearly ran out the door.

---

Pam and Ivy advanced down a corridor only to see two workers making for their direction with some haste. Unlike the others they’d come across, these two appeared not to be of the guard caliber. Ivy cautioned Agnes behind her protectively as Pam gathered momentum moving along the wall before springing out and at the pair, which knocked them the fuck down. Hard. Pam took the taller man and pinned his arm behind his back. Using her leverage over him, she used him as a garrote against the man’s partner, forcing that immobilized shoulder into the rotund, prone man’s throat. She gave the arm some pressure as she pushed down, causing both men pain.

“Tell me you know where there is a portal. And make sure I believe you.”

The man in the arm-lock pointed further down the hallway with the free hand. Pam pushed him down harder and the man underneath turned red, and then passed out. She picked her captive up and pulled the locked arm around in reverse, choking him out with his own limb.

“Do you sense him,” asked Hrel?

“Yes,” Ru replied. “We’re close, and I think that means David is too.” Ivy turned to Agnes. “We’re going to get your son, and soon you’ll be safe.”

---

There was a startling, calamitous sound as the doors to the portal room swung open, and Pam and Ivy did a version of Charlie’s Angels, guns drawn.

Harry was up to seeing light and dark shapes turned to Lester. “Are we being rescued?”

“If you call an old lady, a young girl, and a butch lesbian a rescue, then yes.”

Ivy handed the sidearm to Pam, and ran over to where Dave was, followed by Agnes.

“Is he okay,” she asked of her son.

Ivy touched Dave, and turned to his mother. “He’ll be coming around soon, but I can’t get in there…something’s blocking me.”

Hrel asked, “Is it a Kra’agnuk?”

“I don’t think so. He’s the right trait for hosting, but I’d been bonded for so long, it would have to be an ancient one to even have a chance to make its way in there.”

“Listen,” Lester said, how’s about we undo these bonds and we can talk about who’s where and what after we get out of here. There’s a nasty thing next door we don’t want to see again.”

Agnes and Ivy helped Dave out of the cocoon sheath and Pam released Lester, who went to assist Harry. Pam held both guns, and wanted to go over to Dave to shoot until they clicked empty in her hands, but knew Hrel would stop her, and if not, there rest of them would. Plus with Claude somewhere nearby, there was a better chance of getting away from that killing machine as a group than alone. She buried the though and went over to the portal.

“Okay, Hrel. Figure this thing out and break it.”

“Oh please don’t,” said Claude. “I have some friends coming, and it would be impolite to keep them waiting.

Agnes wept at the sight of her distorted and transformed husband, and held onto David tightly. He stirred and opened his eyes, seeing the assembled room.

“This is touching, my whole family reunited. Son…have you looked into the abyss and seen it staring back at you?”

“Come here and I’ll show you,” Dave said. He tried to hold his mother reassuringly as Claude approached. Quietly, he whispered to Ivy, “I’m never going to see you again, Ru, am I?”

Ivy looked back at him and smiled. “I’m afraid not.”

“It was good to see you one last time, old friend. You made a difference to Ivy. And I can’t even tell you what you’ve done for me.”

Ivy put her head down and hugged Dave for the last time.

Claude was coming over to them and addressed Pam, who was still holding the two handguns.

“I’ll rip your arms off and eat your face if you try so much as to point those in my direction,” he warned.

Slowly and smoothly, Pam put the guns on the ground and kicked them across the room, away from all of them. Claude looked suspiciously, but seeing them far out of anyone’s reach, continued forward. Pam stood by the portal, leaning away from the monster that was crossing past. She and Hrel, defenses down, stood behind Claude, who now looked proudly at his wife and son.

“If you’re fighting it, don’t. It will be much better that way.”

“Mother,” Dave said, “please stand away.”

Agnes resisted, but he pushed her gently towards Lester, who was bracing Harry.

Dave continued,” You’re right father. I didn’t fight it, and there is something in here, with me. He wants to meet you. And his name is Vros.”

Claude was shocked, but even more so when Dave lunged at him and threw his hands around his neck. Pam jumped into action and threw her arms around Claude, putting him in a full nelson and wrapping her legs around his waist, locking her feet in his thighs to try and prevent him from slipping free. Claude fell to the ground and tried to shake them off, and frail as Ivy was, she piled on to try and keep him down.

Hrel shouted over the grunting and growling, “Hit the buttons! Hit the buttons!”

Lester ran over and knew where Hrel was talking about, having seen the henchmen operate the portal, but not which ones.

“Which ones are they?”

“I don’t know,” Pam screamed. “Just hit them until something happens!”

He pounded on them with absolutely no idea what he was doing…but got lucky. The portal hummed for a second, and then opened to reveal the dark void. Claude struggled harder to break free, kicking Dave and Ivy off him. Dave jumped back at him and put his hands on Claude’s chest, which was no small task considering how much he was thrashing around. Dave concentrated, and Vros started to push against the evil demon inside Claude, trying to enter the soulspace. Ivy got back up and rejoined the fray, putting her hands on Dave’s back. Ru pushed his way into Dave, letting go of the fragile shell Ivy had provided for him.

There was screaming, but Dave’s was the loudest. Hosting the two within him was like pulling the pin on a grenade and putting into a paper bag to try and contain the blast. Ru again found the comfort of Dave’s soul and anchored himself there, giving Vros an even more stable foundation to push off against and pass into Claude. The strain made Dave collapse for a moment, and he lay beside Ivy’s lifeless body. Claude was shrieking and still flailing about. He had gotten to his feet and was trying to swat Pam off him by ramming her into the portal frame. Pam was losing consciousness from the continued hitting, and Hrel knew that if she was not engaged, he may not have had the ability or will power to control her and still subdue Claude. Hrel felt the bond over Claude weakening and pushed himself to enter, which after considerable strain, was able to achieve. Pam fell to the floor, limp.

Dave got up and approached his father, who was still battling, but the struggle was internal. Standing before him was the demon form, but it stared blankly, sometimes twitching. He put his arms back on Claude’s chest and took a deep breath.

“Goodbye.”

---

Lester went over to Pam, who was breathing but stunned. She was bleeding from the head and neck, and was pretty banged up. Harry and Agnes went over to Dave, and helped him up from the pile that he and Claude had slumped over in.

“What a time to finally get my sight back,” mused Harry. “But even though I saw it, what just happened?”

Dave sat up and held his head like he’d have the world’s worst hangover. “They’re all gone. Vros, Hrel, Ru…that thing inside my dad.”

“How do you know that,” asked Lester

“I just know. They forced that evil out and back into the void. It took all of them, but they did it.”

Harry looked at Dave, “So now what?”

“We smash that portal.”

Lester had grabbed one of the guns. “Smashing is for savages. This is classy destruction.” He finished out the clip, firing into the frame and the large power conduits at the portal base. It sparked and buzzed before shorting out. A small smoke plume came from the base, signifying its death.

Dave turned to Harry and shared, “The last thing Ru said was that if we could destroy the mechanical opening, they could guard the physical one. Vros and Hrel would battle that demon back to the beyond, but Ru said that he would stand guard on the other side of the portal opening and block it from being accessed.”

“Are you sure he can do that,” Harry wondered.

“He told me that for his time here, with me and with Ivy, he owed it to us, to stay and protect our planet from the Kra’agnuk. Even if they construct another one, he’ll be in their way.” Dave had the strength to stand and made his way over to Pam. “Is she okay?”

“Damned if I know,” said Lester.

“Can you hear me Pam?”

She didn’t open her eyes, but she responded, “Dave, is that you?”

“Yes, yes, it’s me.”

Pam opened her dilated eyes and looked around confused. “Are we in the studio?”

“No, we’re not.”

“Is the show over?”

“We’re not working on a show right now.”

“I don’t understand,” she said.

Lester leaned in. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

“We were doing the show, and then there was a loud crash and a bright light.” Pam’s brain was swollen and her skull had a fracture, and with those two symptoms, plus the jarring flight of Hrel from her being, Pam had literally been erased of every thought and memory since she had been dutifully producing the last aired episode of “THE WORD” many days prior.

“I’d say it’s best not to try and figure things out until we can get out of here,” said Lester. “I wish I had amnesia and could go back to that night and forget all of this.”

There was a slow, mocking clap.

”Bravo. Really.”

Dolph was hardly amused, but hidden behind his smirk and the sarcastic tone, there was a kernel of truth.

“I really underestimated you all. My G-men. My prodigal son. Even this random pairing of girls. You’ve bested my pet monster and caused destruction in another one of my very expensive facilities. If only you’d all be weak and terrified like Agnes, or completely broken like Miss Ahern. You’ve even managed to rid me of my favorite associate. And you have no idea how hard it is to find the right mix of bootlicker and competent assistant. I should just kill you all, but it has a certain…villainy. And I don’t see myself as a villain.”

“And how’s that,” replied Harry.

“I am one of the single largest charitable donors in the country. Did you know that? I have brought in tens of thousands of builders to create an empire of services that provides jobs for nearly 10 times that number of people. My patronage has saved antiquities from around the globe from destruction. I have directly developed several dozen patents in health, science, and technology for the benefit of the public, some of which would make your jaw drop knowing I made these available. Hell, I even sponsor a little league team.”

“And you also kidnap and kill,” added Lester. “You may be disqualified from ‘Man Of The Year’ now.”

“I’m not without my faults, no, but I’m also not to be tested. You have all shown me that I had not afforded you the respect you deserved, and so I have been thwarted soundly – even as unpleasant as it is to think, let alone say out loud. But truly, I could have Vulture squadron here in under a minute to put more holes in you than a lace table runner, and then have every one of your family members killed. I’d probably kill everybody you ever met too, just because I was on a roll. But that’s not really what I’m about. Especially now that I’m trying to quit smoking and I just don’t want to have that extra negativity. The bottom line is, you are free to go, if you choose. You have earned it. But if you feel like fucking with me, well, you can first take that up with one of my other associates. His name is Bronco, and he’s just outside that door. He will not be…open to negations if I don’t make my way through that door shortly, either.”

They all looked at Dolph in contemplative silent, and he relished the moment before he spoke.

“Decide how this will end.”