Post by Ezra Gideon on May 26, 2023 18:42:41 GMT -5
“What is hell? Hell is oneself.
Hell is alone, the other figures in it
Merely projections. There is nothing to escape from
And nothing to escape to. One is always alone.”
― T.S. Eliot
Hell is alone, the other figures in it
Merely projections. There is nothing to escape from
And nothing to escape to. One is always alone.”
― T.S. Eliot
The Gates of Hell
I sat on the tailgate of my truck, the warm night air with that light breeze made it comfortable. Maria and I had been talking about the problem at hand. Outcast had been dead for a while, finding him required several things but most important to the spell was a piece of him. I listen to Maria speak as I finish off the last of my scotch and light a cigarette.
“To get the portal to work, you’ll need things that he values and at least a small part of him,” Maria began.
She was a witch of sorts, I often referred to her as, “little mother”. Maria was about four foot, eleven but her bark and bite made her seem like she was ten feet tall at times. She was the one that did all the tattoo work on the family of archangels that were closest to Whisper.
“Being the harbinger of violence may serve you well in this or doom you to something far worse than death, keep that in mind, Macintyre.”
I knew what she was talking about, it was never as simple as “You might find yourself trapped there.” That was not what she was talking about. I had changed significantly over the last year. She was concerned about my mortal soul, or what was left of it anyway. I joked often about not having a soul, if I did it must be black as night. We’ve all done shit that we are not super proud of. Some of us have done things so heinous that they didn’t need to be repeated or talked about. That was a thought for another day. Now I knew what was needed and so the journey could now begin, or a quest if you will.
Later that night…
Finding the cemetery and the burial site had not been difficult. Father and son were buried side by side in a family plot kind of setup. The man who had been known as “Outcast” was a key element to us winning this damn thing and we all knew it. We all had our strengths and weaknesses, but there was something about the man that was different from the rest of us. I sat in my truck as I watched the caretaker for lack of a better term lock up the entrance to the cemetery. Unlike many I had been to, this one had high brick walls instead of wrought iron gates that allow the outside world to see into the cemetery at all times. I watched him walk across the street and get into his silver honda civic. I waited until I saw tail lights, he started his car and pulled away. I gave him another five minutes to make sure he didn’t double back. I then started my truck and pulled alongside the tall brick wall, tucking in my side mirrors via the console to get as close as possible. I killed the motor and grabbed the shovel, rope ladders, and a bag of fresh meat, just in case there were dogs on the property.
Yes, I’ve had to do this before, it ranks right up there with things I never want to do again.
I climbed into the bed of my truck, I could easily see over the wall. There was no movement in the cemetery which was a good sign. I secured the first rope ladder from my side and was able to climb over the wall and down to the ground on the other side. I could stay close to the road in case an escape was needed because they were buried within six feet of the wall. I made my way toward the grave and paused there for a moment. I moved the night vision goggles down over my eyes to look for heat signatures. I scanned the area around me and found none. So I began digging. I had to be quick because the sun would be coming up in about four hours. After about one hour of digging, I finally hit resistance. I carefully hit the resistance again with the blade of the shovel and it made a subdued thumping sound. He wasn’t buried as deep as I had expected him to be.
“That’s odd,” I whispered to myself as I continued to move the dirt away from the lid. I stood up straight and used my goggles again, three heat signatures showed up. From all appearances, I’d say they were Doberman pinschers and they were headed towards me.
“Of course,” I sighed in disgust.
I reached up and grabbed the bag of meat. I had pre-treated the meat with a light sedative that would just make them sleepy, I wasn’t trying to hurt the animals that I encountered, simply put them to sleep while I finished this. I climbed out of the hole only to come face to face with the dogs. They were right on top of me before I knew it. All three pounced on me at the same time, snarling, all teeth, and bad attitude. I thought this was going to end badly at first but then they smelled the beef in the bag.
“That’s right boys,” I whispered, “I brought you a little treat.”
At the sound of the word, their ears perked up, and then all sat down around me. I grabbed the bag and started tossing them their treats, the snarling turned to happy puppy faces, lolling tongues and all. I had brought a couple of pounds of this stuff so there was plenty. After two rounds of treats, they began yawning, after the next round they laid down and went into a deep slumber. I waited to make sure their breathing sounded right and then I got up and went back to work.
“Good guard dogs, but a little spoiled,” I said while I continued to open the casket. Before I opened it, I put a filtered mask in place. I then popped the lid, I was expecting high decomposition, but it wasn’t as much as I thought it might be. I dug the snips out of my bag and cut off a small piece, just the tip of his pinky finger. According to what Maria had told me this would be enough. I could still hear the pups snoring, so I was in good shape. I placed it in a ziplock bag, I rolled the bag, and zipped it closed.
“Now the easy part, making it look like I was never here,” I murmured to myself and the sleeping dogs.
I climbed out of the hole once more and began filling the hole back in. It didn’t take long to care for, even with having to pick up the sleeping dogs to move them away from my dig site. Covering things up was a specialty of mine, kind of goes hand in hand when you do “odd jobs” for the government. I made short work of it, removing everything I had come with. I climbed back up to the top of the wall, making sure that no one was around and I dragged the rope ladder with me back into the bed of my truck. I had double checked everything, making sure that the severed digit was in my pocket. I put everything into the toolbox, and climbed down and into the cab.
I sent a message to the group:
Item collected, on my way back to the gate.
I waited for a moment and the screen showed as “read by 3”
“Good enough, the fourth wouldn’t be able to see it anyway. He’s buried right over that wall.”
Fade
The Gates of Hell Part 2
Once I had made it back to the Hell’s Gate Wrestling School, I was tired and dirty. I sat on the tailgate of my truck once again, sipping on water from a bottle and thinking about what was to come. I had a good idea of where he was, and it would not be a pleasant journey, to say the least. Maria had heard my truck pull in and she came out with my little sis in tow, Kim was so much like me, I knew when she found out what I was up to, she’d be trying to go along. She gets very emotional where I’m concerned, mostly because she thinks that I am what is holding this family together. I agreed with her up to a point, Whisper was the real deal regarding this family. I’m not the one that had been with them since day one, that was her and I’d never accept any of the credit that she deserves for this school or the people in it. It was Kim that spoke up first.
“Uhm…what the hell have you been doing?”
I smirked in response to the question and took another drink of water to help me to continue to get the taste of dust out of my mouth. I smiled at her.
“Oh, you know, just doing some digging around.”
She shook her head and glared at me.
“Hilarious, asshole.”
At least she was saying it with a smile these days. I looked up and saw Maria not even trying to hide her amusement. Marie stepped in next.
“You have what I sent you for, yes?”
I nodded and patted my shirt pocket.
“Yes ma’am.”
She nodded in response but the look on her face, that’s what gave her away.
“Problem, little mother?”
She threw her hands up in the air.
“You need to stop reading me so well, McIntyre. Come, I'll show you.”
She motioned for me to follow, so I slid down off the tailgate and shrugged at the unspoken question that was on Kim’s face. We followed her to her office way in the back of the building. In her office were of course her tattoo supplies, but this was my first time in here and the array of “Cultish” type equipment was impressive. I stood there in awe for a moment at everything she had. The thing that caused me to pause was the black candle that was half burned. I recognized that for what it was. You could do some serious damage with one of those if you knew how. People have vanished or some cases turned up dead as a direct result of those damn things. I allowed a low and slow whistle to escape me.
“So, you are a believer, Mac?”
She asked in such a nonchalant way that it caught me off guard and threw me off balance a bit.
“Yes ma’am!”
I said it a bit louder than was necessary but it amused her so I just rolled with it.
“I grew up believing in a lot of things, god was not one of them, more an older set of gods. I’ve seen what that thing can do firsthand.”
I said as I pointed at the black candle.
“What was it you wanted to show me?”
She smiled and motioned for me to come forward. I did as I was asked to and she grabbed my face with both hands, resting her index fingers on my temples.
“This is one of many possibilities that I wanted you to see, so you know how very seriously I take things like this.”
My sight went black at that moment and I found myself in a pitched battle, swinging a broadsword, the same one I brought with me. I was fighting off demons and barghest by the score. I could see the others in their battles fighting similar beasts. The barghest was even more dangerous than the demons. They had the shape of a dog but with spines along their backs and fangs that oozed venom. They also had this annoying habit of blinking out of sight only to appear behind you without warning. They were wary of the sword, it glowed faintly a soft blue color in the darkened passageways, as we came out of a tunnel a new round of battles was about to commence. A Barghest leaped into the air towards my head and I swung the sword. I realized too late that it was a feint as it disappeared from view and the demon slammed into my rib cage with all its weight. That’s when she allowed me to come back to the present. I was gasping for air and sweating heavily. She gave me the warning again.
“That is one possible outcome to this endeavor you have chosen to take on.”
Fade
The War Games
There is no light, only the sound of my voice as the scene dials in….
War Games.
A momentary pause as I get ready to dig into the subject and the task at hand.
Five on five war inside a steel structure.
Another momentary pause for dramatic effect.
” They’ll never know what hit them” was the message we all heard loud and clear, isn’t that right, Lycanna? That’s not true though, is it? Every single person on your team is known to me. There will always be a certain level of respect for each of you from me, by now you’ll have seen that not everyone on my team has the same opinion. I know your story and the struggles you’ve faced, you left the industry and were missed by some and not so much by others. You are probably the closest friend that ol’ Jimbo has, and so you’ll fight until you can’t fight anymore. I can respect that Lycanna, but this is my home, and you’ll be treated like anyone else who comes in here thinking they are something more than they are. You can fucking bet on that. Like anyone else on that side of the ring, you’ll be put down like a mangy dog.
Another pause as the lights come up slightly, now only showing my silhouette.
Speaking of Jim, brother, you already know how much respect I’ve got for you. You’re a man who carries a certain stigma and reputation with you everywhere you go. You’re a big match guy, who always brings it all. Then again, there’s the reputation you carry as cancer in the locker room as well. Jimbo, you know I ignore that shit and I won’t dwell on it. As the captain of your team, you had every right to choose whoever you wanted for your team. Not a single person on your team originally came from WGWF until it was forced upon you because Nova didn’t want to do this event. Not that I can blame her, War Games are not for the weak. We’ve done enough of these to know that it will shorten your career and lifespan if you don’t know what you’re doing.
The lights come up a little more, to show me with my back to the camera.
Speaking of the guy that was forced upon you, Spencer Adams, I know you and your reputation as well. Another big match guy, but in this scenario you’re nothing more than cannon fodder. I remember the last time we encountered each other in that other place, get tired of praying at the altar of Corey Black? Yeah, I said it, and one thing you’ll discover about me is that I always say what I mean and mean what I say. A lot of us that have known Chris for a while don’t forget, and we damn sure don’t forgive. By the time this is done, it’s about collateral damage Spence, you weren’t the root of the problem, but an accessory.
The lights come on more fully now. I’m dressed for war, blue jeans, a white beater, war paint, and old cowboy boots. My fists are taped and I’m ready to go.
Dolly Waters. An amazing athlete and another person I had passing encounters with. I’ve got nothing but respect and love for you coach, but this is not the greatest time to encounter this bunch. Pretty girl, you are about to run into a buzz saw, it’s just as simple as that.
My expression is neutral as I continue to address the last member of the team we face.
Robert Main, we’ve never fought before, but I know your reputation all too well. The man that retired Chris Page from XWF. I can’t hold a grudge for something that did not affect me. Or can I? We’ll just say like Dolly and Lycanna, this is my home, and like anyone else that tries to force their way through my front door….bang bang motherfucker.
My eyes begin to darken as I go to wrap up this talk.
Unlike most of you, my team, they are made for war. Regardless of respect, I’m coming for blood, not because I have to. It’s because I want to. I know I’m ready, but do you think you are?
As the scene fades, a feral grin comes to my face.