James Swain - Shadow People

“Tonight? But I’m not coming out until Friday night.”

“I know. But I didn’t think you’d want to pass up this opportunity. Kevin and Bob and Marty and Roland will all be there, and I know they want to meet you. Roland’s a long-distance runner, just like you. If I’m not mistaken, Kevin attended the same college you did. And Marty and Bob are both great guys. They were all thrilled to hear they’ll be having a nice young lady in their ranks.”

He heard the hesitation in her voice. Four single men, one single women. Those were a lot better odds than she was going to find in some stinky bar in the city.

“But I have to work tomorrow,” she said rather lamely.

“I realize that. Here’s what I’d like to suggest. When the party’s over, I’ll drive you back to the city in my car. The trip won’t take more than an hour and a half. It will be a late night, but I think it will be worth it. You game?”

“You sure it’s no trouble?” she asked.

Munns smiled into the phone. “Not at all.”

“But I don’t have anything to wear. This is too sudden. No.”

He frowned. “The party is strictly casual, jeans and sweaters. No one will be dressed up.”

“Casual is different between men and women. You know what they say. You only get one chance to make a good first impression.”

“Trust me, you won’t make a bad impression.”

“You sound awfully determined to get me out there. Is there something else going on here I should know about?”

Rachael’s intuition was kicking in, and intuition was the messenger of fear. If Munns didn’t put this fire out now, she would not enter his trap. “Of course not,” he said in his smoothest tone. “It’s just that I already told the dean that you’d come, and his wife is making a special dessert to serve the guests. They’ll both be terribly disappointed if you cancel.”

“Oh, God, now I’m backed into a corner,” Rachael said. “I really wish you hadn’t committed for me. That wasn’t fair.”

“I didn’t feel comfortable saying no,” Munns replied. “The dean’s my boss, you know.”

“Oh, that’s right. I forgot.”

“Do you want me to cancel for you? I can, you know.”

Rachael hesitated. It was at that moment that Munns knew she was coming.

“I’ll call him the moment we hang up,” he threw in for good measure.

“No, I want to come,” his next victim said.

“You sure?”

“Yes. It sounds like a good time.”

“That’s wonderful. You’ll love the dean, and everyone else, too.”

“I’m sure I will. I’ll finish up my work early, and grab a late afternoon train out of Grand Central. I’ll text you when I know my arrival time.”

“That works for me. I’ll see you at the station. I’m looking forward to meeting you.”

“Same here. Good-bye, Doc.”

Munns ended the call. That hadn’t been nearly as difficult as he’d thought. A woman’s greatest weakness was her desire to be loved. It blinded them to so many things.

“All done,” he called into the next room.

Ray skillfully maneuvered down the twisting gravel driveway outside Munns’s house. He hadn’t liked setting Munns up, and hoped it did not come back to haunt him.

At the bottom of the hill, the road turned smooth. The lassitude of highway driving took over, and he fired up a cigarette and settled in for the ride back to town. Tonight was going to be the end of the line for Munns. The elders of the Order of Astrum had said as much, and they were never wrong.

Ray took a deep drag on the cigarette. He needed to get out of town. He didn’t like leaving on such short notice, but had no other choice. There would be bloodshed tonight, and he needed to distance himself from the carnage.

But where would he go? To the hinterlands of upstate New York? The wilds of Maine? Or to a remote town in Vermont? They were good places to hide, with plenty of farms and wide open spaces. He’d grab a map when he got back to the tattoo parlor and make his decision.

Music came out of his radio’s speakers like a funeral dirge played extra slow. As the noise grew louder, he fiddled with the dial to make it go away. Instead, the sound became deafening, and the interior of his car turned black.

He hit the brakes, fearful of hitting something in the road. When the lights returned, he found himself sitting in a deserted theater, dead center with the stage. The strange music he’d heard was coming from the orchestra pit, where a quartet of skeletons plucked discordant notes on violins and blew savagely on wind instruments. Had he died, and gone to hell?

“Hello, Ray,” a voice said.

Three men wearing black robes appeared. One sat to his left, the second to his right, the third directly in front of him, positioned backward in his seat. Ray was trapped. Were these the elders? He had to think so. They were handsome devils, with strong facial features and good teeth, and appeared to be in their late twenties, although Ray knew the elders were much older, having been granted eternal youth as part of their pact with Satan. It was not a bad deal, only the spark of humanity that colored all human beings was missing, and they looked like ghouls.

“You’re the elders of the Order of Astrum,” Ray said respectfully.

“We thought it was time we had a chat with you,” the elder facing him said. “You’ve been an outstanding recruiter, the best we’ve ever had. You’ve done such a good job, we decided you deserved to be rewarded. Would you like that, Ray?”

Ray started to get excited. He’d become a member of the Order in prison after hearing stories about members gaining mystical powers as rewards for pleasing their masters.

“Are you going to give me special powers?” he asked.

“We can. Is there something in particular you’d like?”

“I know this is going to sound stupid, but I’ve always wanted to bend silverware with my mind. You know, like spoons. I always thought that was really cool.”

The elder facing him smiled like a department store mannequin. The elder didn’t possess a soul, and it showed through in everything he said and did. Ray imagined himself as an elder one day, immortal and able to wreak havoc on the world whenever it suited him.

“Consider it done,” the elder said.

“Cool,” the tattoo artist said.

“There’s something else we’d like to give you as well.”

“What’s that?”

“Call it the gift of knowledge. It’s time for you to be enlightened.”

Enlightened. That was a strange word for the elder to use, and Ray nearly laughed.

“I’m game.”

“Good,” the elder to his right chimed in. “You see, we have a master plan which involves the good citizens of New York being exposed to something that will forever change their lives. A portentous event designed to alter their souls, so to speak. We cannot put this plan into motion with Peter Warlock in the picture. Warlock must be erased.”

“I thought that was Munns’s job,” Ray said, uncertain where this was going.

“You must make sure that Munns does not fail.”

“Whoa. I was going to leave town.”

“You cannot leave,” the elder facing him said sternly. “You must stay, and make sure that Munns does away with Warlock.”

Ray shifted uncomfortably in his plush velvet seat. He didn’t like when plans got changed at the last moment. Yet at the same time, he understood the elders’ concern. Munns was erratic, and could very well screw up. If Peter Warlock was going to be taken out of the picture, it would probably be better if Ray hung around and made sure the job got done correctly.

“If I say yes, will I become like you?” Ray asked.

“You will be given the opportunity to become like us,” the elder facing him replied. “The process takes time. First, your old self will fall away, then your new self will be born. With your new self will come new responsibilities. You will become one of Dante’s disciples.”