the cemetery in the heart of the night, Jake was no longer so certain.
Jake wrestled with his thoughts for several more minutes, until he realized he had reached his destination.
There, not ten feet away, was the tomb.
Maybe it was the sense of evil which pervaded the place, or the nerve-jabbing feeling that all was not as it should be here or the perception of wrongness that penetrated to the bone like an ice-cold February rain, but whatever it was, Jake suddenly knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that his conclusions had been right. He could feel it in his heart, in his head, and in his soul. Where five minutes before he had come close to convincing himself that it was all nonsense, now, staring at the crypt, all his suspicions were swept away by a mental tide of profound certainty.
The beast was real.
As if in confirmation of that fact, the open door of the crypt creaked loudly.
Jake felt his breath vanish in a sudden rush. 'Oh, God,' he said softly.
Shining the light out on the ground before him, his feet suddenly unsteady, Jake cautiously made his way closer to the crypt until he stood only a foot or so in front of the door.
He was sick with dread.
Praying that his mind was right and his instincts were wrong, Jake lifted the flashlight until its beam shone directly into the tomb.
He felt his mind tilt crazily at the sight before him, and his knees grew dangerously weak. He knew that if he fell here, this close to the tomb, he might not have the strength to get back up. That was the last thing he wanted right now. If he didn’t get away from here, he knew he’d go crazy. As it was, he couldn’t bear to look any longer.
Try as he might as he slowly backed away, Jake found he couldn’t tear his gaze away from the sight before him.
The beam of light shone directly on the rear wall of the tomb.
The emptiness of the chamber seemed to mock him in return.
As impossible as it was, it was true.
The tomb was empty.
Chapter Twenty-nine: Decision Time
'Can I come in?'
Jake nodded and stepped back slightly, allowing Katelynn just enough room to get through the door before he quickly closed and locked it thoroughly. He then checked the locks twice before peering out the keyhole into the night.
Katelynn watched all this without a word.
Jake didn’t look so good. His hair was uncombed and wildly tangled. A five o’clock shadow lay heavy on his face.
Jake turned to face her. He put one finger to his lips and motioned for her to follow with his other hand.
They went through the living room, where Katelynn saw Sam asleep on the sofa, looking even worse than Jake. The large circles under his eyes were exaggerated by the pale, pasty color of his skin. One hand lay atop the blanket that covered his body, and Katelynn could see that it trembled while he slept.
Jake took a seat at the table and with an unsteady wave of one hand indicated she should do likewise.
'What happened to Sam?'
Jake shook his head. 'He showed up here a few hours ago but passed out before he could tell me anything. I haven’t bothered to try and wake him.'
'What’s going on, Jake?' she asked in a quiet voice.
For several long moments she thought he wasn’t going to answer. He sat there without moving, silently staring at the table, a distant glazed look in his eyes. When at last he did answer, his voice was a low monotone. 'Earlier, when I told you that you must have been dreaming, I was wrong. It’s real, Katelynn. It’s real, and it’s out there somewhere. Waiting to kill again.' He told her everything that had happened from the time she left him in the Roost until he called her to come over.
Katelynn didn’t say a word the entire time he spoke, she just patiently heard him out.
When he was finished, she got up without a word and started out of the room.
'Where are you going?' he called after her, then reluctantly got to his feet and followed.
He found her in the living room, sliding the video back into the VCR.
Watching it a second time, Jake felt the fear that had been gnawing at his gut for the last few hours come back for a second course. Knowing Gabriel was telling the truth gave his plea for help that much more of a punch. It was no longer the fanciful ravings of a lunatic; it was stark, cold reality. Jake shivered with the implications.
Again, Katelynn didn’t say a word, only quietly got up when it was over and returned to the kitchen.
Jake spared a quick glance over at Sam, saw that he was still asleep, and followed her.
She was sitting at the table, waiting for him.
'I’m afraid there’s more, Jake,' she said.
He looked at her, thinking he was about to get the second half of a one-two punch.
'Does the name Edward Beckett ring a bell?'
He shook his head.
Taking a deep breath, she began her story. 'Beckett was a minister, a traveling one, who spent a good deal of time around these parts in the late 1700s. He kept extensive journals of all he did and saw. I’ve been using some of his works as references on my thesis.
'In October of 1763, Beckett arrived here in Harrington Falls just in time to witness the one and only witchcraft trial this town has ever seen. The man who was accused, and later convicted of the crime, was Sebastian Blake.'
'What’s that got to do with Gabriel and the thing you keep seeing in your dreams?' Jake asked.
'I’m getting to that. It seems that Blake was practicing what everyone considered to be black magic. Among other things, he supposedly had a demon familiar, a kind of magical companion, that followed him and did his biding.'
Jake nodded that he understood. He was familiar with the concept of familiars from their weekly session of Swords and Sorcerers.
'At the trial, several witnesses came forward and admitted to having seen this familiar. One of them even claimed to have survived an attack by it. The authorities took them at their word and searched Blake’s house, but they never found the familiar. They did find a statue of a demonic-looking creature carved from stone, so life-like in its appearance that they believed Blake had used a living beast as a model. That was all the evidence the authorities needed to convince the jury that the witnesses were telling the truth. For Blake, it was the final nail in his coffin.
'Beckett recorded all this in his journal, including a description of the beast, and went so far as to name it Blake’s Bane. I believe the statue you found in Sebastian Blake’s tomb is the statue Beckett mentions in his journal.'
They sat in silence for a moment, digesting the implications.
'What happened to Blake?' Jake asked.
'They supposedly sealed him alive inside his tomb as a warning to anyone else that might be tempted to fool around with witchcraft,' she answered matter-of-factly.
Jake stared at her in surprise. 'Are you kidding?'
She shook her head.
'Nice neighbors.' said Jake.
Katelynn went on. 'It is my belief that statue was not a model of Blake’s familiar, it was the familiar itself, somehow transformed into stone. And by breaking into the tomb, Kyle unwittingly provided what the Nightshade needed to secure its release.' Katelynn finished.
