Here Be Monsters - an Anthology of Monster Tales (11 page)

“The prophet sent you to get me?” I asked.

He raised an eyebrow. “You’ve met a prophet?”

“Well yea, he’s the reason you’re here, the reason I made the deal with Leviathan.”

“Right, the deal with Levi,” he repeated.
 
“So tell me more about the prophet, and what his instructions were specifically.”

“Not right now,” I yawned suddenly feeling tired. “I just want to sleep, I’ll explain more later.”

Two things happened on our almost three-day trip to
Louisiana
. First, I completely lost my voice due to a throat infection.
 
Second, after a trip to the emergency room I realized nurses didn’t like
Tyler
for some reason. I wasn’t sure if it was simply because he looked like a pimp in comparison to me, or they simply just didn’t care for him. Two of the nurses refused to make eye contact with him, and a third had held my hand long enough to say she’d be praying for me. If I’d been feeling better I’m sure I would have laughed.

We made it to
Louisiana
though, unharmed and still no barking to be heard. I knew the dogs would be closing in. I was down under the three week mark of time left on my pact, surely they would be coming to collect. But
Tyler
was here now, and when he was around I didn’t hear the barking. That alone restored my faith that everything would be all right.

Tyler
got me settled in the hospital which wasn’t really a hospital, and my voice still wasn’t strong enough to ask him the burning question:
 
Why, after I had lived in the slums of
New York
for almost ten years attending meetings and rehab on my own, did I now need to be hospitalized?

It wasn’t until my second day in Jericho Hills that I realized not everything was what it seemed. There was no reason for me to be there. I was not even close to being as bad off as what these other patients were. This was a psychiatric hospital and I didn’t have any mental disorders that I knew of. This was protection. It reaffirmed my belief that
Tyler
was what the prophet had spoken of. He’d said that Angels would come to protect me when it came time; that they would be the ones to take the dogs captive.

The prophet had told me that they needed one of the beasts of hell, a pack of their rabid dogs. That all I had to do was offer my soul in exchange for something I wanted and when it was time to collect, the dogs would come and the Angels would grab them.
 
He had described them as being bigger than wolves and that I would hear them before I’d ever see one. He hadn’t been wrong so far.

One day in the gardens, while watching the other patients around me and waiting on
Tyler
, I noticed one particular man who seemed even more out of place than I did. Everyone else was a mess, and while he made no sense when he talked, Jamie Sullivan looked at me and it was easy to see he comprehended everything going on around him. He would watch the others, his eyes taking them in and I noticed the smiles that occasionally tugged on his lips in reaction. The nurses spoke of him being autistic or something—a term I wasn’t familiar with—but I enjoyed watching him wander around the gardens.

Jamie was in his thirties, but had a cherub face with big blue eyes and sandy brown hair, flecks of gray already shading his hairline.
 
I had watched him every time I could, intrigued that he spoke in riddles. All of them rhymed and made no sense to anyone who heard them, but I found it rather endearing even if some of the rhymes were completely morbid.

 
“Is your voice any better today?”
Tyler
asked as he sat down across from me.

“A bit,” I managed to croak out as I grinned.

“Do you feel up to telling me more about this prophet?”

“Sure but don’t you already know all about it?” Something was spinning in my stomach, making me feel uneasy.

“Well of course. We just needed to,” he paused, flashing a wide grin, “make sure he told you everything you needed to know.”

“He just gave me the information of how to summon Leviathan. He told me that I was needed and my soul was pure, which I thought was nuts because I was a junkie.” I took a few sips of water, my throat screaming at me for straining it.

“Yes, but he told you why it had to be Leviathan?”
Tyler
asked.

“No, not really. He said the chances that there would be more of these dogs come after me in the end were higher if it was Leviathan.”

“And he fully explained all of the conditions of what you were offering in return?”

“Yes
Tyler
,” I chuckled. “I thought I was having a bad trip, I didn’t believe him.”

“But you did it anyway.”
Tyler
pulled his lower lip between his teeth in an odd sort of grin.

“Did he explain why they need the dogs?”
Tyler
asked.

“Two of four, three of three, five of one,” Jamie said in a panic and gripped my arm, his eyes fixated on
Tyler
as he tried to pull me from my chair.

“Jamie what are you doing?” I said, trying to free myself.

“Two of four, three of three, five of one. Two of four, three of three, five of one. Two of four, three of three, five of one!” Jamie was screaming by the time the orderlies got to him. It took six of him to pull him off of me.

“What does that mean Jamie?” I asked. Before he could answer, they sedated him and carried him away. I rubbed my throat and tried to fight back the cough I felt at the pain. I felt a poke in my arm and I turned, finding another orderly pulling an empty syringe from me. Everything spun as
Tyler
caught me.

“I didn’t do anything…” Everything went black.

I am not sure how long I was asleep for but when I awoke in my room, a figure loomed over me. As I opened my mouth to scream a hand clamped over my mouth.

“Shhh.” I realized it was Jamie. He uncovered my mouth and handed me something cool and round.

“Two of four, three of three, five of one,” he spoke softly, his blue eyes visibly upset in the small sliver of light from the window.
“Demons control the man who plays his vicious game. Oh how the mighty have fallen and now evil will reign.” He left my room and I looked down at what he’d placed in my trembling hand.
A St. Jude
emblem engraved on what looked like a coin. The patron saint of lost causes. What was that supposed to mean? It was then that I heard the dogs growling again and I started screaming.

* * * * *

“And then he gave me this,” I told
Tyler
, holding the coin out for him to see. His gray eyes turned dark as he narrowed them but he didn’t take it. He just sat back against his chair and studied my face.

“This is a very precarious time Jani. There are a lot of things that came to pass to get you here.”

“Yea I get it. I’m not blind,” I chuckled and took a sip of my water. We were seated in a small corner of the cafeteria discussing the events that had occurred.

“What do you mean?”
Tyler
asked.

“Well, addicts spend their whole lives trying to fight urges and to stay sober. I didn’t. I made the deal with Leviathan and I never had an urge to get high again, not once. Rehab and the meetings were a show for my probation and to keep me out of jail. That was it. Now I can hear the dogs all the time, Ty, except when you’re around. Plus, I’m in a mental hospital when I have no business being in one. I’m not stupid. You guys are doing this to protect me so when they come to collect, you can grab them.”

Tyler
looked at me with a wicked grin.

“Nice set-up by the way,” I said as I took a bite off of a carrot stick. “With the bank accounts and red flags with the cops just waiting to bust me on something. Good idea. Should have known you weren’t an amateur but still. Props to you my man.”

Tyler
’s smile grew a little wider.
 
“Can I give you a piece of advice?”

“Sure.”

“Stay away from Jamie.”

“Why?” I asked. “This isn’t like an angel stronghold? I thought everyone here was a protector or something.”

“No, even the strongest of fortresses still have their weaknesses. Look at the devil.”

“What do you mean?”

“Lucifer,” he said the name like it pained him, “was in heaven of all places and tried to overthrow things. Look how well that went. Nothing is completely safe.”

Tyler
finished his water and stood. He touched my shoulder, sending that same odd sensation through me.
 
Even though it was pain, that same strange burning, I gripped his hand. In twenty-eight years I’d never begged for anything, but I was about to.

“
Tyler
do you have to go? Can you please stay?” I pleaded.

“No,” he said flatly and pulled his hand away. “You’re safe here. Be good, and stay clear of Jamie. Things are going to be tense around here for the next few days. A hurricane is coming and we’re all trying to prepare for it. I’ll be back when I can.”

“Oh, a hurricane, right,” I said and nodded. It would be a good cover for the fight I was sure that was going to happen. I doubted it would be as simple as an angel coming in and taking one of Hell’s prized hounds.

“Goodbye Rajani.”

Tyler
looked at me for a moment, his eyes drifting down to my hand and his lips pressed into a thin line. He turned his back to me and walked away as I looked down at the coin still in my hand.

* * * * *

For the next few days, I did as
Tyler
had asked and stayed away from Jamie. The sound of the dogs got closer and I was terrified. The fear was gut-wrenching. I could hear them and if I let my eyes lose focus I could see them in crystal-clear perfection. They were big and black, the size of pickup trucks with shark-like teeth and red eyes. Their breath was hot against my skin. The heat left my face permanently flushed and my hair damp always, and the smell of rotted flesh was enough to make my stomach turn.

The days I spent waiting for
Tyler
to return and avoiding Jamie. Nights were spent with nightmares, screaming to drown out the sounds from the dogs and pondering if I was slowly losing my mind there.

Had I been completely insane to make this deal and believe all of this? Hadn’t
Tyler
at least proven that he was connected to the angels that were coming to save me? The longer that
Tyler
stayed away, the more I felt my faith diminishing, and fear was beginning to take its place.

The night before my contract was set to expire was the worst of it. I kept waking up screaming.
Tyler
still hadn’t shown up and I could hear the scratching of claws inside the room. The dogs were pacing and snorting, snarling and huffing. They were growing impatient.

I sat up and listened to the wind and the rain. The hurricane wouldn’t make it here fully until the next day, but the outer bands of the storm were already here.
 
The staff would start boarding up all the windows at dawn I was sure. I went to the window and stared out.
 
Lightning flashed, illuminating the gardens. There was Jamie, huddled down in the middle. I knew
Tyler
had told me to stay away from him, but I couldn’t just leave him out there. I grabbed a robe and snuck out of my room.

The gardens were secure within the hospital grounds, so I wasn’t worried about setting off any of the alarms.
 
I was, however, worried about
Tyler
finding out, so I couldn’t let the staff know. I made my way out through one of the side doors and down through one of the maintenance walkways to the west end of the garden. The temperature was colder because of the rain, and I was soaked the minute I stepped outside. I ran to where Jamie sat on his knees rocking back and forth, mumbling something in the wind and the rain.

“Jamie, come inside,” I said, putting my arms around him. An icy chill ran through me at how hot his skin felt. It was like the fires of hell were alive in him. I heard the snarls as I froze in place, listening to his words.

"Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour.”