Chapter 8
1 Peter 5:8
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”
Tobias's Journal:
Years passed and my training continued. Although, now I would also go on missions with Simon and anyone else working in the area. My skills improved drastically with a blade as well. We had flintlock muskets, and pistols as well but they were only good for one shot. Still I got to where I could hit a lycanthrope at a good distance if needed. Nevertheless we rarely carried them into battle. With all the smoke and noise, it just wasn't worth any advantage, as it could spook the target or bring a crowd. We could really only get off a few shots before the distance was closed and hand to hand methods were necessary anyway. War broke out in the Americas and for a brief time a few of us were dispatched into the area to help. Not to help either side in the war, although we did help protect several bands of runaway slaves making their way up north. The Wendigo was quite a ferocious foe for any man to meet on the battlefield and the constant death and mayhem brought out hoards of Ghouls. Unfortunately, war would always bring out the Ghouls… On a positive note, war would also bring out great ingenuity in the design of weapons. I picked up a Whitworth Rifle, an absolutely ingenious design. It was a .451 caliber rifle that had a hexagonal bore and fired a matching hexagonal projectile. This was the beginning of what we now call rifling and it drastically improved the accuracy of the rifle. When we got back to The Order compound Thomas managed to inscribe a few ruins on it and we got rid of the smoke cloud as well as the report, after much trial and error.
As the years went on it was so bizarre to watch so much of the world change around me, and so many other things stay the same. I talked about it in passing with Simon and his advice was to stay focused on the job. “Things will always change around us, that's just life. Do what you can to learn from it. Embrace new methods or advances but try to ignore the rest. At the end of the day, our job hasn't changed, and I don't see that ever happening. It's just what we are here for. Certain aspects of the job may change, like that long shot rifle of yours, but we will always be here to fight Evil". So for many years I kept my head down and continued to focus on the job. After the American civil war was over we spent a few years in what was then called “The new frontier” basically the western part of the United States. There were a lot of wide open spaces and absolutely gorgeous land. I was amazed one moonless night just how many stars you could see out on the plains. Part of the blessings from the cross gives us greatly enhanced vision at night or in dark places. It's not perfect, but many of the creatures we fight are nocturnal so it makes sense. I could see as well on a moonless night as if it were a full moon out. In an area such as a cave, it had a very similar effect. Unfortunately with all the beauty and breathtaking views, there was also a lot of random and sometimes new evil for us to fight. We would hear word about a boom town or a settlement vanishing overnight. We would ride into town and investigate. If it was a situation where our skill set was required, we would handle the situation. There were a lot of… bizarre circumstances from time to time but we were still able to handle most of it without too many complications. Firearm technology improved as well over the years, and cartridges that were self contained became normal and commonplace. I discovered that if you dropped a little bead of silver in the bottom of the bullet mould, it would stick to the lead. Giving you something that would harm many of the damned more than just the lead. By this time I had worked under Thomas for a few years as we enchanted several firearms for members around the globe. I had gotten rather proficient at this as well as having a real knack for all the moving parts of the weapon. I could look at it long enough, take it apart slowly and just know exactly how all the parts related and how they could be changed slightly or enhanced to fit my needs. By the time we left the Americas, I had a beautiful set of enchanted colt peacemakers, as well as a gorgeous Winchester model 1873. Both of them were chambered in .45 colt of course.
Undisclosed location. Rome. Tobias. Present day
Deep in an underground bunker at an undisclosed location, Simon and I arrived at what was simply called “The Facility". Thankfully it was a quick trip, because an awkward silence and tension hung heavily in the air between us. I was exhausted and wasn't in the mood for another argument. In all honesty, it was a moot point anyway. There was no relationship, or possibility of one. I was just frustrated by how the elders seemed to think I was incapable of being in the same room as a beautiful woman without hitting on her. I have been nothing but professional for hundreds of years on the job and I couldn't see why this would be any different. I’ve worked with thousands of women over the centuries, from nuns to littoral prostitutes and have always kept my personal life just that, personal. Sure, I have “dated” women while on assignment in different areas when working on an assignment, but never anyone I contacted through my position in the church. The holding areas are not used very often, and it's a smaller area just off Vatican property. The main reasoning behind this is simple, many of the unholy creatures we fight can not step foot on consecrated ground. It's also a relatively small facility because we don't really take prisoners very often in this line of work. It's more for interrogation and holding than a prison. It's not like the things we hunt can be “reformed”. After winding our way to the back of the building we arrived at an underground parking garage. There was an unremarkable delivery truck backing up close to the rear entrance. Once the truck parked the two men who had met Simon and I upon arrival walked over and lifted the roll up door on the back of the truck. Four men in body armor carrying SCAR-H rifles sat along benches running the length of the truck bed. One of the men stood up and grabbed an impact wrench off the wall as the other three stepped out of the back. The man still in the truck began to remove the 4 bolts holding the large steel case from the truck bed. Once finished, he pushed the large rectangular box to the edge. Once positioned on the edge the four men from the truck grabbed and carried the large steel casket to a waiting dolly. Three of the men got back into the bed of the truck as the fourth, the one who unbolted the casket, walked over and handed off a small remote control to one of the two men who worked here at the facility. With all four of the men back in the bed of the truck, the door was closed by the man who had been given the remote and the truck drove off. All of this happened without anyone saying a single word. It was strange, but now that I thought about it, no one had said a single word since we got there. We followed as the two men who met us at the door began to wheel the cart down a narrow hallway. I glanced over to Simon and nothing seemed to be bothering him. I hadn’t been here before so I didn't know what to expect. The two workers rolled the cart into a small room lined with silver and a large thick panel of glass along one wall. The floor to the cell itself was lined with silver and there was a small 3 foot by 3 foot square bare spot in the middle marked by yellow paint. Chains were attached to the top of the metal casket and it was hoisted into the air until it hung about a foot above the ground, all with a push of a button. The metal casket was hanging there just behind the yellow square on the ground. We followed the 2 men walking out of the door as they shut and locked it after we exited. We all went into the room next door and had a clear view of everything through the thick glass wall between the two rooms. There was a small work station against the far wall and not much else. One of the men handed Simon the small remote, nodded and left the room, closing the door behind him. Simon smiled at me and said “For security, everyone who works in the holding facility is a mute. Okay let's see if we can get this guy to talk”. I looked at him a bit puzzled for a moment but in all honesty it made sense. Simon walked over to the workstation and pushed a button on the remote. I watched through the window as the locks on the suspended box released, as Simon calmly started pushing buttons making adjustments to the workstation, then began to talk into the microphone. An absolutely enraged vampire jumped out of the box leaping to the glass, as soon as his bare feet touched the ground he screamed in agony. The Vampire was tall, about even with my 6 foot 2 inches but super thin, gaunt even. The transport team had stripped him completely nude and removed the stake before locking him in the box for transport. He was pale (of course he was pale) but his skin was covered in thick, long jagged red scars that stemmed out from an oily black DP symbol tattooed in the middle of his chest. It was so odd, the oily marking shimmered and looked alive, or moving in the pale light. Simon began to speak into the microphone, “The yellow square is the only safe place you can stand, the room is lined in silver. If you refuse to talk we have pressurized jets of holy water and powdered silver. If you try to escape we flood the chamber with either sunlight or napalm, at the moment, it's a bright sunny day, so we will go with sunlight”. The vampire leapt onto the square outlined in yellow about mid sentence and just crouched there glaring back at us through the window. Simon pushed another button on the workstation and the chains moved the casket up and out of sight. Stepping forward and looking up through the window I saw that the ceiling of the holding cell was easily 40 feet tall. I walked over to the workstation and started to question the vamp. “Let's start with what we already know... We know who you serve, we know who the dark pope is, and we know that he’s based in Africa at the moment”. The vamp cut me off with manic laughter. “You don't know ANYTHING!!! My master will turn the sky to darkness, the rivers will run red with blood, the birds of the sky will fall and there is nothing you can do to stop him”. Ahhh, “Well, Aallrighty then”. I said looking over to Simon. “Looks like we are going to have to…” Before I could finish the sentence Simon had turned back to the workstation and began to twist a knob. He hit a small button next to the knob, and the Vampire began to scream with an ear piercing banshee wale. I trailed off mid sentence. “We will start with 30 seconds of powder silver and holy water. I set it on a mist from above, in case we have to keep at this. I can change it to a pressurized jet with enough precision to remove fingers, and then limbs, if needed”. Simon said into the intercom as the vampire cowered in the fetal position. It’s blasphemous skin hissing and blistering as the mist turned off. “Let's start with something simple, What is your name?” I asked as the vamp's skin finally stopped smoking and hissing.
“My name is of no consequence, I am but a servant, we are legion”. He hissed out. “Hit him again”, I said to Simon without missing a beat. “WAIT! I will tell you what I know, You cannot stop him... hehehe... you will see his works soon enough…” The vamp's voice trailed off. His speech, cadence and tone sounded bizarre, even to me, and I've dealt with a lot of vampires. He began to talk again, sending a chill down my spine. Catching Simon shiver out the corner of my eye, I knew he felt it too. “I was turned in the year 1666 te he he heh, by a vampire who IS, no more”. He kept rocking back and forth and staring into space turning his head from side to side and giggling at the most random and inappropriate times. “I would WANDER from town to town and pick off the lovely maidens, ONE, by, one... OoOooo and the LITTLE children heheheaaaa ooooohhh how I loved to feast ON the helpless, and the innocent hahahahhhh. THENNNN around 1700 or so The Master found me... GROOMED me... I have been HIS right hand for the last 2 and a half centuries hehehee of course I had to kill my predecessor but HEY, shit happensss!!!! When this ALLLLL started, The Master had a simple GOAL, to unite the many creatures of the dark... !!!GODS OUTCASTS!!! Hahehe and begin to undo creation... This WILL be ours and we will succeed where the son of the morning star has failed... so... MANY... TIMES... hehehe” The vampire trailed off again and kept rocking back and forth staring off into space. “How exactly does he plan to go about undoing creation?” I asked, A bit caught up in the story. “Hehehe…” He took a deep breath and began again. “It's really quite elegant in its SIMPLICITY when you THINK about it... He started with uniting AS many of GODS outcasts and teaching THEM to hide from the ones who WOULD hunt us down... Like YOU, your organization, and the HAND full of freelance groups and Inspired individuals lulling you INTO a false sense of safety and ACCOMPLISHMENT. Then, once EEEEveryone WAS nice and calm, and ONCE his army was ready... hehehehe hahahaha !!!BOOOOOM!!! and its bye BYE sunlight, goodbye crops, hello darkness, CHOKING dust, SICKNESSSSS and hhhhmmm OOooo soOO much DEATH hahaha.... BYE bye now!!!” He finished his rant and began to wave at the glass window. Suddenly the ground below him bulged and began to crack open as he started to laugh hysterically. Several black ropes of tar and eyeballs burst through the ground lifting the vampire up into the air, as he posed in the form of a crucifix, the vampire's laughter getting louder and more manic by the moment. “Flood it with sunlight, that's the shoggoth!!” I yelled to Simon as he was already smashing the button on the control panel to roll back the sun shade, filling the cell with brilliant sunlight reflecting off the polished silver lining of the cell's interior. The laughter stopped and the vampire began to scream as he burst into flames. As soon as the vampire was engulfed in flames the Shogoth recoiled its tendrils back into the hole and vanished into the smoking crater, taking the body of the roasting vamp with him. “SSHHHHHHHHIIIIITTT!!!” I yelled at the top of my lungs and punched the thick bullet proof glass divider. A large crack in the glass spider webbed away from my knuckles. Simon, clearly irritated, either from my outburst or the loss of our only lead just shook his head.