Detectives Vs Boogieman Ch 3

I'm writing today from Cairns, Australia, the last location on my outback destinations, then I will be on to Tokyo! Still hard at work writing, writing, writing, but--for better or worse--this scenic paradise has not taken the darkness out of my writing. It's still dark shit, so if you're into that, read on, my friend! This is the first big action scene, so if you're just tuning in, you've come at the right time--the detectives take on The Boogieman, and figure out what he really is. 

(in traditional Law and Order style... DUN DUN)

134 Franklin Street, Burgundy

1:04 AM

 

After a week more research and stakeouts, Ollie knew they already had all the information they were going to find. The alleged kidnapper fit some categories—he could disappear like a ghost, he was active at night like a vampire—but not others—he didn’t cause a foul odor or a presence of terror like a phantom would have, he commanded more dark magic than a vamp should have. Saphim revised his initial hypothesis in an official report: “Subject exhibits behavior similar to a wraith, an elder vampire and a dark magician. Species analysis inconclusive. Confront the subject only with the utmost caution. Recommend organization of raid to catch the subject off-guard. Recommend use of white magicians trained in offensive and defensive magic, detection, control, magic suppression and healing.”

                Ollie was both glad and surprised to see the cold man take the case so seriously. He half-expected the Senior Agent to chalk it up to a haunting, give him a new magician half-trained in séances and a “good luck.” But the plan Saphim outlined included himself and four other well-trained white magicians. Captain Reeves signed off on the operation and added six Monster Force officers. They planned the raid for one o’ clock AM, when surveillance had shown the monster and the children would be in the house, after the powerful dark magic hour of midnight, and before the second one at three AM.

                Standing under the cover of the slumped elm in front of 134 Franklin Street, Ollie watched the dark windows of the house. He glanced up at the second story window where he’d seen the orange light peeking through so many nights. This night, everything was dark.

                El kept watch next to him, her dark eyes running over the front yard to the door of the house. Between them, Saphim knelt on one knee, drawing a spell in white dust on the grass. If the monster could vanish into darkness, it had to be assumed it could disappear from the house, possibly taking the children with him. That was unacceptable. The sorcerers, Saphim at the front of the house and three other agents on each side, devised a white magic perimeter to trap the subject inside. The Monster Force cops accompanying them, El and Ollie included, made a physical barrier, to stop the creature from running out.

                Throwing another quick glance at the upstairs window, half-expecting a dark shape to look down at him, Ollie looked back at Saphim as he carefully—slowly—drew a cross inside the circle. Sure is taking his damn time.

                “What is that?” Ollie hissed.

                Saphim didn’t look up. “Salt.”

                Ollie glanced at El, reflecting his raised eyebrow. “Salt?”

                “Yes.”

                “Why?”

                He kept drawing the tidy circle, unperturbed. “Ghosts, wraiths, undead, they can’t cross salt.”

                Ollie expected something like holy water, silver or fire, the things that hurt vamps. “Why?” he said again.

                “You really want to know the history of salt as a spiritual cleansing device?”

                Ollie frowned. “No. Just hurry it up.”

                The short, thin man’s pace didn’t change. He made an array of white symbols on the ground, murmured something Ollie couldn’t make out, and scattered red petals over the design.

                “Rose petals?” Some salty flowers are going to keep this thing contained?

                “Rose petals once laid over a grave.” Saphim looked up askance. “I could explain every spell we’ll use against the subject, but I don’t think this is a very good time.”

                Ollie closed his mouth with a snap. He saw El try and fail to bite back a smirk.

                Looking back up at the window, Ollie ran his thumb reassuringly over his gun. Crafted by the Burgundy chapter of the Holy Office, the intricate spells etched into the metal made it possible to incapacitate—and kill—any vampire, undead, giant and a slew of other monsters just as well as any person. The Holy Office also made each gun with a unique signature, so it was irrefutable which gun did the shooting—or the killing. Like all Monster Force officers, Ollie didn’t shoot for no reason, though he had used the gun before. And he’d use it again if he had to.  

Saphim stood up and put a finger to his earpiece. “Main entrance secure. Agents, perimeter check.”

“East secure, sir,” Ollie heard through his earpiece.

“West secure.”

A pause. “South secure. Surveillance confirms the children and the subject are inside.”

 Saphim nodded to Ollie and El. “Perimeter secure, detectives. Proceed with caution.”

Ollie signaled to the cop outfitted in a helmet and flack jacket, protective spells on the front glinting in the moonlight. The cop moved swiftly to the front door, Ollie, El and Saphim following. Though Saphim didn’t carry a weapon, wasn’t licensed to use one, he didn’t need it. Certified in offensive and defense spells, the Senior Agent had all the weapons he needed tattooed on his hands.

The first cop kept a gloved fist aloft, as if he carried a bomb. On the palm of the yellow glove was a single black symbol, a powerful spell and the only one Ollie knew the meaning of: BREAK.

Standing across from the cop by the front door, Ollie pounded a fist on the wood. “Burgundy police, open the door. We have a warrant to search the premises.” He waited a moment, listening for shuffling sounds of hurried running, but heard nothing. “Burgundy PD, open the door or we will break it down.” He waited again for a response, but got nothing. This time, he did hear footsteps.

Stepping back, Ollie nodded to the officer. He flung his open, yellow-gloved hand against the wood and the door burst open, the lock splintering. A dark room yawned beyond.

 Flashlights cutting the gloom, Ollie followed the first cop inside. The white beams ran over a small, empty foyer, a staircase to the right, a large painting on one wall, and an archway in front of them revealing the living room beyond. A figure ran past the archway. With long hair flying behind, Ollie assumed it was a woman, or maybe a girl.

“This is Burgundy PD, we are here to help,” Ollie announced. “We are not here to harm you. Come into the light slowly.

“Dis!” she cried.

It must be the teenage girl. The monster’s victim? Or a complicit conspirator? Ollie wished he could have found out more from the stake-outs. It was too late now.

Her footsteps rushed towards the back, where the back door to the yard would be. Whether victim, a possessed co-conspirator or the creature’s willing partner, she wouldn’t get far, not with the cops and agents waiting outside the backdoor.  Ollie signaled to El and the other officer to pursue the girl through the next room.

Looking towards the stairs, Ollie nodded to Saphim. He nodded back.

Moving sideways with his back against the wall, Ollie eyed the upper hallway. His flashlight moved across the wall to the far door. Behind that door was the room where the orange light shined through every night. As he stalked down the hall, Saphim behind him, Ollie thought of small, frightened Ruby, trapped in the monster’s claws.

“Ruby? This is the police, we’re here to help.” He leaned close to the door. Behind, bed springs creaked. Ollie twisted the knob. It opened, unlocked.

Stepping into the room, holding his gun and flashlight up, the beam crossed over an unmade bed, a chair, an open closet door, and two entwined figures. He lurched the beam back, spotlighting them. At first, Ollie thought it was a shadow, some trick of the light that made the strange shape he saw. But it wasn’t. The stark light illuminated a black and red figure, stooped, holding a clawed hand in front of its face. It wore clothes like a human, but draped over too-long, too-thin limbs it looked like a perverse skeleton. Behind its long, spider limbs and stretched out torso, a child cowered. Ruby.

“Give me the child, monster.” Ollie trained his gun and flashlight on the beast.

Pushing the girl back with one clawed hand, it stepped slowly away. Ollie glimpsed red ridges, like exposed, bloodied bone, sticking out of its hands, arms and legs.

“We have one child secure, female, teen,” Ollie heard in his earpiece. Then, a different voice, “Second, male, teen, secure.”

 Just Ruby left. I hope. “The house is surrounded by white magic and cops,” Ollie said. “There’s nowhere to go. Give it up.”

A low growl rose from the creature’s chest.

“D, I’m scared,” Ruby uttered behind it.  

“It’ll be all right.” At first, Ollie wasn’t sure who’d spoken. The voice was low and soft, but so human. For an uncertain moment, everything was still. He realized it was the monster’s voice.

Downstairs, something shattered.

“Let go of me!” A girl screamed below. “D, help me! Help me!”

The monster straightened, its shielding hand dropping from its face. The creature’s glaring countenance, a red skull with oil-black eyes and hollow cheeks, almost knocked Ollie back a step.

“Violet!” The monster shouted.

“Help me!” she pleaded again from downstairs.

The soulless eyes narrowed and the dark red lips curled back over thin, splinter teeth. The monster glowered at him and snarled, a face full of hate.

When it pulled Ruby up with one arm, Ollie thought at first the beast meant to use her as a shield. An instant later, the monster—and Ruby—vanished. Tendrils of black smoke writhed in the air, evidence of black magic.

Ollie turned on Saphim. “You said it couldn’t leave!”

“It’s can’t.” Saphim spun towards the door. “It’s downstairs, it wants the other girl.”

Ollie dodged past Saphim, down the hall to the stairs. On the staircase, he heard the older girl cry out again from the back of the house.

“Subject on the ground floor,” El said into the earpiece. “Using dark magic.”

Something slammed against a wall. The house shuddered.

“El!” Ollie hurried down the stairs, back into the foyer. His flashlight lit on El, standing just inside the archway in a solid stance, holding her gun up towards the darkness in the next room.

 “Stand down or I will shoot,” she declared.

Lowering his gun, Ollie moved towards her. She fired a shot and he stopped, watching her back. In an instant, he saw the monster appear behind her, a looming shape of snarled black limbs.

“El, look out!”

She half-turned just as its distended fingers slapped against her head. It pushed her back, headfirst, into the archway and she let out a cry that scratched at Ollie’s spine. She crumpled to the floor and the creature turned. Finger on the trigger, Ollie raised his gun, but the monster vanished before he could fire.

“Damn it!” He searched the room quickly, but the monster was gone. Ollie crouched down next to El. “El, you all right?” Propping her up, she winced and hissed.

“Not now, detective!” Saphim snapped, moving into the room behind him. He put a finger to his earpiece. “Healers, officer down on the ground floor.” His flashlight ran past another officer, face-down on the carpet. “Two officers down, ground floor. Assailant—”

“Dis!” a boy’s voice called from the back yard. “Help! We’re in the back!”

“Assailant is in the backyard,” Saphim continued. “Using black magic teleportation to attack officers. Agents, contain if possible, use force if necessary.”

Gritting his teeth, Ollie stood up, leaving El moaning on the floor. The Healers will help her. His grip tightened on his gun. This son of bitch is going down.

A small kitchen extended from the living room. At the end of the corridor of appliances and counters was the back door. Shouting rang out from behind.

“Ollie.” Saphim held him back as he moved towards the door. “Switch your flashlight to UV.”

Ollie glanced, but didn’t argue. He twisted the head of the flashlight and the long, white, electric beam turned to a wider, gentler spread of ultraviolet light.

“Assailant attacking!” Ollie heard behind the door and through his earpiece. A shot snapped the air and a girl screamed.

Goddamn it, they’re shooting at the kids! “Officers, check your fire!” he said into the communicator.

“Backya—ugh!” The voice cut off with a sharp crack and a thump on the ground outside.

Hand on the doorknob, Ollie listened. Nothing moved on the other side of the door.

“Theo, Violet, take Ruby,” That somehow-human voice said. “Run.”

The older girl tried to protest, “D, what about—”

Ollie flung open the door. “Nobody move!”

In the dark backyard, two cops and an agent sprawled in the grass. Ollie’s UV light fell on a teenage boy and girl, little Ruby between them, and then the monster, a tall, thin, twisted shape like a dead tree. It spun around to face him, it’s furious face illuminated only an instant before it recoiled, hissing.

Saphim jumped on the creature’s weakness. “Adiuro vos! Adiuro vos cum sanctum!” He threw out a hand. “Adiuro vos!”

The monster stumbled back a step, then dropped to its knees, hands behind its back. Ollie trained the sun-powered flashlight on it. It screamed. It should’ve been a snarling, bestial cry, but it wasn’t. It was a human’s scream in agony.

“Stop it!” The older girl stepped in front of the creature and reached down on the ground.

“Don’t!” Ollie tried to stop her, but too late. She snatched up a fallen officer’s gun.

Standing up, she leveled the weapon at him. “Stop it or I’ll kill you, I swear to God!”

Ollie turned the flashlight towards the sky. The undirected light painted the teen’s face in gray, making shadowed gullies of her narrowed eyes, her hard, straight mouth. Behind her, the monster moaned, rolling on the ground.

Ollie kept his gun pointed at the monster, but looked at the girl. “All right now, listen to me,” he said evenly, calmly. “You don’t want to do that.”

“I will, I swear to God I will. You hurt him and I’ll shoot you.” She was just a kid, not even sixteen, but Ollie saw the look on her face and believed her.

“Look, I know you think this thing is looking out for you, but it isn’t.”

“You don’t know anything about it.”

“He’s brainwashed you. Taken you from your family, your home. But it’s over now, okay? We can take you back. To—”

Her stern face turned into a teeth-baring snarl. She raised the gun. Ollie held his breath.

“Violet,” a quiet voice entreated behind her.

“Listen, he can’t hurt you anymore, all right?” Ollie said slowly. “It’s over.”

“He is the only person that has ever loved me!” Tears filled her eyes, choking her voice. “I won’t let you hurt him!”

Ollie felt control of the situation slipping away. Whether the creature had brainwashed her or she was complicit in his crimes, she was willing to die for him and probably kill for him too. All he had to do was say the word. The gun felt suddenly heavy in Ollie’s grasp, only a slight turn away from killing a teenager.

“Violet,” the creature repeated.

“Don’t listen to him,” Ollie argued, growing desperate. “I know you think—”

“Shut up!” she shouted.

“Violet, put the gun down.” Outside the light, the shadowy shape of the monster struggled to its knees.

She glanced at the creature.  The weapon shook in her hands. “What?”

“Put the gun down, Violet,” it said. “This isn’t you.”

She hesitated and looked back at Ollie. “Look, just leave us alone, all right? We’re not hurting anybody, we just want to be left alone.”

Ollie shook his head. “I can’t do that. I know you don’t think so, but you’re in danger. It’s my job to protect you.”

“You never protected me! Any of us! We—”

“Violet.” Hands locked behind its back, the monster leaned its head against her. “Put the gun down. Please. Do it for me.”

Tears rolled down her cheeks. “But they’ll hurt you.” Her stern voice was suddenly small.

“I’m not hurt. I’m all right. I’m fine. Put it down, Violet, please.” It waited and then it pleaded, “Please.”

The teenager looked from the monster behind her to Ollie, to Saphim and back to Ollie. “I’ll put it down. But only if you swear not to hurt him. And stop doing whatever you were doing.”

“Ok, you got it.” Ollie slowly holstered his weapon and twisted the flashlight back to electric. “That was UV light, sunlight, that’s why it did that. Now it’s just a regular flashlight, can’t hurt anybody. Okay?”

She didn’t lower the weapon. She looked at Saphim. “Undo the spell.”

 “No.” He didn’t hesitate.

She turned the gun on him. “Undo it!”

Ollie intervened. “Look, it’s just a safety precaution, so nobody gets hurt. I know everyone is really, um, excited right now. We just want to de-escalate, okay? The handcuffs won’t hurt him. We won’t hurt him. Nobody’s gonna get hurt.” Nobody’s gonna get shot. I hope.

“It’s all right, Violet,” the creature said, a voice so tragically human. “I don’t want to fight anymore.”

New tears ran down her face as she crouched and set the gun down. Before Ollie could move, she dashed away. At first, he thought she’d flee. But she didn’t. She threw her arms around the monster and sobbed. “I’m sorry, D. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.”

It laid its head on her shoulder. “You did great. You were very brave. I love you, Violet. Everything will be all right.”

Before Ollie turned the flashlight on it and saw it’s squinting demon face, an odd thought startled him. That’s what I’d tell my kids.

The monster grimaced in the light, its black and red face twisting. “I give up. You got me. Just leave the kids out of it. They were just doing what I told them.”

“That’s not true!” the girl protested. Saphim took her by the arm, pulling her away from the creature.

The monster looked Ollie in the eyes. Blistered burns bubbled on half its face. “You’re right. I brainwashed them, her most of all. She didn’t know what she was doing.”

“Dis, don’t say that!” She tried to push Saphim away, who looked a second away from putting her in a binding spell as well. “Why are you saying that?”

Ollie frowned and hauled the handcuffed monster to its feet. “Oh, don’t worry. We’ll get to the bottom of it.” As it stood up, standing more than a foot taller than him, Ollie saw more burns on its neck and arms.

“It was all me,” it said. “I admit it. Let her go.”

“You have the right to remain silent,” Ollie began. As he recited the monster’s Miranda rights, a poisonous question pricked his mind. If he controlled the kids, why didn’t he tell her to shoot me?

Ollie had gotten used to shutting sub-human criminals into the back of the police car. He’d stuffed in vampires, dark wizards and witches, goblins, even a giant or two, though with considerably more difficulty. He’d worked ghost cases, but they ended in a séance or an exorcism, not with a ghost in the back of a car. He’d never filled a police car with a creature like that. But there it was. A phantom, a wraith, an evil apparition handcuffed in the back of the cruiser.

“How’s El?” Walking up behind him, Saphim interrupted his reverie.

“The Healers have her. They said she’ll be fine.”

“What did it do to her?”

Ollie glanced at him. “It smashed her head into a wall, you saw it. Looks like it did that to all the officers. What else would it have done?”

Saphim didn’t answer.

“Your agents did a lot of good, by the way.” Ollie crossed his arms.

“About as well as your cops,” he said dryly.

“Your people have magic.”

“Yours have guns.”

Ollie took a breath, ready to storm into an argument, but stopped. Through the police car windshield, through the grate, he looked into the captured monster’s face. It stared back at him, black eyes not blinking.

“It’s not a phantom, is it?” Ollie said.

“No.”

“Do you know what it is?”

“I think so.”

Ollie waited. He finally tore his gaze from the monster and attempted a laugh. “Well, don’t keep me in suspense, Agent.”

“It’s an incubus.”

His weak smile evaporated.

Saphim met his eyes. “You know what that is.”

“Yeah. I do. Worked a case as a rookie.” The uncertainty crawling under his skin turned to rotten disgust. “They’re evil ghosts. They hunt women. Rape women. In their sleep.”

“I think this one hunts—” Saphim’s white eyes shifted to the sobbing eight-year-old and two grim-faced teens in the back of police cars “—something else.”

Ollie swallowed. Not a child-eater. He glared at the monster, still looking at him, but couldn’t hold its evil gaze. A child-raper.