than now, in the heat of the day and with the sheriff beside him. This was definitely his best chance, no matter how he looked at it.
Then, suddenly he stepped into a clearing in the middle of the forest. The sun shone down from overhead, and the grass was trimmed, as if it had recently been mowed. He felt it before he saw it-the altar stone stood in the very center of the clearing.
“I’ll be damned!” Collins said. “This just can’t be!”
Erik stopped at the edge of the clearing, but the sheriff kept on walking, almost as if he were drawn towards the stone. Erik called out to him but he didn’t seem to hear. Then he saw a man enter the clearing from the other side of the altar stone. He shouted a warning. Still, Collins did not hear. If anything, he walked faster.
Erik took one step forward, and then stopped. That same inner feeling that had shown him the way here now spoke to him again. Only this time the stone called him towards it.
On an instinctual level, Erik knew better than to respond to the call. Although his feet yearned to pull him forward, he resisted. Again, he called out to Collins, but the man would not respond. In fact, he was now heading across the field at a full run. Erik couldn’t have caught him now if he’d tried.
Collins pulled his gun from his holster, and Erik thought he was going to shoot the man heading towards him, but he merely held the gun out in front of him. The man was too far away to clearly distinguish his features. He walked slowly, almost robotically, as if he, too, were under some sort of spell. The man had short hair, Erik noticed, and held his head at an odd sort of angle. As he came closer, Erik noticed an odd-looking growth on the side and back of his neck.
The sheriff ran up to the altar stone and waited until the stranger reached the other side of the stone. The two of them stared into each other’s eyes like two cats sizing one another up before a fight.
Collins pointed his gun at the man, and then began to scream. Slowly, he turned the gun back towards himself and pressed the muzzle against his abdomen.
“No!” Erik screamed. Without thinking, he rushed out into the field and towards Collins. Before he had even taken two strides, though, he heard the muffled pop of the gun. Collins doubled forward, then fired again into his stomach.
As Erik came closer, the sheriff turned and faced him. Erik could see the excruciating horror on his face as blood flowed from his abdomen, staining his shirt red. Whimpering softly, he climbed onto the altar and collapsed onto the polished black stone. Then he put the gun to his own left shoulder and fired again.
Erik stopped and looked at the stranger, the man with the growth on his shoulder. The man was grinning, licking his lips in pleasure as he watched the sight. And Erik swore the thing on his neck was getting larger.
Finally, Collins put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger one last time. Only then did the man turn and look at Erik. Power and hatred clouded his eyes, and Erik felt himself shrivel under the terrible gaze.
5
Todd sat by the side of his bed and cried. He didn’t know how or why, but he knew his father was in trouble. The stone was trying to get him, too. It had already gotten one man and now his Dad was on the list.
If only he could stop it. He had somehow stopped it from getting him. Why couldn’t he stop it from getting Dad?
He balled his mind up like a fist, imagined the terrible black rock, and struck out at it with all of his will.
“I’ll kill you!” he screamed out loud. Then he sent out another mental attack.
It felt like hitting a basketball with a fly swatter. The thing stopped for a moment and realized he was there. But his mental blow bounced off as if it were nothing. He tried again, and felt the thing laughing at him, taunting him, and he knew he could never win this way. The thing had become too strong, or else he was too far away. It was Dad that needed help….
Then, without even realizing what he was doing, he imagined his father standing beside the rock, and he sent out another burst of mental energy. Only this time it wasn’t sent towards the rock, but directly at his father. He felt the demon thing’s puzzlement and then he felt his father’s reaction. He felt his father’s strength, and in the demon’s moment of confusion, he knew his Dad was safe. For a brief moment the thing had toyed with the son and forgot about the father. By the time it turned its attention back, Todd knew that his father had broken the spell and was already on his way back through the woods.
Todd dropped to the floor, just as his mother came rushing in to see what was wrong.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
1
Johnny Dovecrest sat on his filthy cot and wondered how he had gotten himself into this mess. Now he was in jail and of no earthly good to anyone. What was worse, he knew something was happening in the woods; he could sense it. He hoped and prayed that Erik hadn’t done anything stupid. He wasn’t ready to take the demon on yet, even if he were able to find the stone. Dovecrest feared that he had acted rashly though. If so, he suspected he was already dead.
They’d arrested him for the murder of the cult member and for involvement in the death of the girl. They had interrogated him for hours, but he had refused to say anything. He knew they had matched the bullet taken from the dead man to his gun. He didn’t know if they had any evidence linking him to the girl or not. But it didn’t really matter. No one would believe his story. Besides, once they convicted him of the one crime, the other was simply overkill. He almost laughed at his own unintentional pun.
He put his head in his hands and tried to think this through. How had he gotten himself into this mess? Everything he’d tried to do had gone wrong. He hadn’t saved the girl and he hadn’t stopped the demon. He’d killed the wrong cult leader-he knew that the real leader hadn’t been hurt badly and was already up to no good. He had lured Erik into a dangerous situation and probably had him killed-or worse. And now he was in jail where he couldn’t do anything about anything. At least they had left him in the local jail, he thought, and not taken him to the Adult Correctional Institute yet. He was due to be arraigned tomorrow, though, and then they’d move him on.
They told him a Public Defender would be coming by to see him this afternoon, but he really wasn’t interested in talking to someone he didn’t even know. He would rather meditate and try to come up with a plan-any sort of plan.
He was just about to doze off when the guard came and tapped on the bars.
“You’ve got a visitor.”
Dovecrest nodded. He expected it was the lawyer and was rather surprised to see Pastor Mark.
“They won’t let me come in,” Mark said shyly. “But I wanted to speak with you.”
“I appreciate it,” Dovecrest said.
The guard watched for a moment, then left. “I’ll be right outside when you’re done,” he said to the Pastor. “Just bang on the door.”
Mark nodded. “Johnny, I’ve been praying for you and for this community. There is something very wicked going on here. The devil’s work. I feel it.”
Dovecrest sat back down on his cot and nodded. “The devil,” he said softly. “He exists in every land, in every culture, and in every time.”
“Indeed,” Mark said. “Though some might claim he is not real, he walks among us. Johnny. Tell me what happened. Tell me what I can do to help.”
“I told you about what happened in ancient times. When your ancestors and mine banished this demon from the world and locked him away. That was true. All of it.”
The pastor nodded. “I wasn’t sure I believed you the other night. But I believe you now.”
“Now it is coming back, stronger than ever. It feeds off pain, suffering, and destruction, and there is no telling how far it will go before it stops.”
