self-righteous and stubborn. So now, the time has come for you to pay for your mistakes. But take comfort, your sacrifice will not have been in vain.'
'Who are you?' Carlos demanded, still straining to free himself, wanting nothing more than to rip the man before him limb from limb with his bare hands.
'Come on, Carlos.' The shadow man shook his head. 'Do I really look that different now? The old body was so soft… It was a liability. When you forced my hand, I had to go with one of my contingency plans. The spell had already been prepared, but it was something that I had lacked the courage to implement on my own. There are many things that can go wrong when you swap bodies. Really, I should thank you. I found a way to trade up to something better, switch places if you will. I took this body from a poor addled nitwit, an easily manipulated man- child. I moved in and the poor sod got my old body. Lucky for him, he only had to put up with it for a few minutes before Earl ate him!'
'M-M-Marty?'
Hood pointed at his chest with both hands and smiled. 'In the flesh! And the ladies love this body a lot more than the old one, I'll tell you that.'
Painful realization hit. 'But… but you're dead!'
'See?' Hood laughed. 'I've conquered death, just like I told you I would, all those years ago. You shouldn't have mocked me… Nobody should have mocked me.'
Carlos screamed. It was pure, primal hate. It went on for a long time as he struggled, futilely trying to break his bonds. Finally, rationality returned. 'Marty, you worthless sack of shit, those were your friends.' He jerked his head painfully toward the other table. 'We were your family!'
Hood spread his arms wide. For the first time Carlos noticed the rotting things standing in neat rows behind his captor. The creatures had been spliced together, bones screwed to steel plates, bolts and wires crisscrossed, ivory, muscle, and iron conglomerated into a grotesque parody of life. 'This is my family now.'
Rage turned to fear. 'You're insane!'
'That's a matter of perspective. I'm rather sure that I'm the only sane one here. See, things have changed. I was naive. I thought I could beat the Old Ones at their own game. But I realized the truth. They can't lose. So I cut a deal to benefit us all. And now you're going to help me help them.'
Carlos' eyes flicked back and forth across the line of slavering monstrosities. 'What do you want from me?'
Hood chuckled. 'After I ‘died,'? ' he made quote marks with his fingers, 'you kept something of mine. I need my book back. It holds information that will allow me to open a portal to the other side.'
'You can't do that!'
'Actually, you're correct. Very few people have the potential to unlock that kind of mystery. Sadly, I'm not one of them. I'm going to arrange for it to fall into the hands of someone who can. He's not even aware that he's helping me yet. He needs to be broken first, but I've already arranged for that.'
Devious bastard… It all made sense. Hood was behind what had happened at the Christmas party. He was responsible for Susan's turning. He'd tricked Ray into opening that rift.
Hood leaned in close, stopping his face inches from his old leader. Carlos remembered it so clearly that he could smell Hood's aftershave. 'So, where did you hide my book?' he whispered.
Carlos spit in his face. 'I'll never tell you anything!'
The shadow man nodded slightly, not noticing the saliva in his eyes. 'And I wouldn't have expected anything less from you. So once again, we'll do this the hard way.'
'You going to torture me, pendejo?' Carlos demanded in typical MHI style defiance. 'Bring it!'
'You wish. Torture would be easy. See, working for the Old Ones does grant you a few perks, a few abilities, if you will. They've sent some friends to… how should I say… live with me. Sure, I could torture you, knives, hot pokers, electric shocks, all that nonsense, but that would take time, and I don't have the stomach for such things.' He gestured at the operating table full of mismatched body parts. 'I'm a creator, not a destroyer. Rather, I'm going to send something to root around inside your brain and take what I need. So to answer your question, no torture. This is going to be much, much worse.'
'What are you talking about?'
'Good-bye, Carlos. I learned so much from you, and really enjoyed our times together. You were one of my best friends. It really was a pleasure.' His neck swelled as something crawled up from inside his torso. Hood opened his mouth. It was like staring down a deep well. Two tiny red eyes opened and blinked in the inky blackness. Miniscule pincers extended past Hood's lips. Carlos began to scream.
The tiny creature latched onto the Hunter's face, soft, black ooze crawling into his eyes, up his nose, down his throat. The screaming turned into choking and convulsing. I had to look away.
The scene went black. We were back in the void.
'It was a little thing at first. Like a headache. But it grew, and grew, and grew. The more it ate, the fatter it got. Everything I thought of, destroyed, torn apart. Just bits and pieces of me. It found what it was looking for, but it didn't stop there. No… it's just been taking ever since.'
I had narrowly avoided the same fate in Mexico. I shuddered. The bagpipe howl arose as the mind demon approached.
'You better go now. Please, keep your promise. I'm begging you. Finish this.'
Feeder surrounded us, a bloated, disgusting thing. Slobbering, chewing, tearing and flinging, as the last few visions of a mortal life were rendered into nothing.
'And this is the way the world ends…' my host said.
Back in the real world, I gasped and jerked my hand away from the wheelchair. Carlos' head was still rolling around weakly from side to side as a puddle of drool collected on his robe. He was humming softly.
'What happened?' Lucius Nelson demanded, concerned for his patient.
Glancing around, the doctors and Trip were still in the same spots in the gazebo as when I had left. Franks was approaching up the path at a brisk walk.
'How long was I gone?' I asked.
'You didn't go anywhere,' Joan replied.
'Five seconds, tops,' Trip answered quickly. 'Did it work?'
'Yeah, kind of.' I stood. 'Doctors, we have to let Carlos die.'
'What?' both of them responded simultaneously.
'Please, believe me. There's something terrible living inside his head. It's devouring him, piece by piece. He made me promise to kill him.'
'Owen, that's ridiculous.'
The wheelchair began to vibrate. I looked down. Carlos was going into some sort of seizure. It stopped. He was no longer humming. That too had been taken from him. His final memory was erased. The shaking ceased.
Joan knelt beside the chair and placed her fingers on Carlos' neck. 'I think he's dead.'
Suddenly the patient's head snapped up. His eyes opened, revealing blood red orbs. One thin hand locked around Joan's wrist with bone-crushing force. He jerked her to her knees.
My STI came out of the holster so fast that it practically materialized in my hand. I clicked the safety off as the front sight landed between those red eyes. 'Let her go!'
'Noooo,' the thing inhabiting Carlos' body hissed. Joan cried out as it squeezed her arm. 'Feast is over… Need new shell to live in.'
'What's going on?' Lucius cried out. 'Carlos, let her go. We've been trying to help you.'
'That ain't him, Doc. This thing is from the other side. Isn't that right, Feeder?'
The body wheezed. 'Not true name. Name given by weak fleshling.' The voice was raspy, not used to creating speech. 'So hungry. Must feed.' His other hand reached toward Joan's face, as if to caress it. Nostrils flared as it drank in her smell. 'So many memories in this one… to feeeaaassst.'
His wife in danger, Lucius Nelson's reaction was a split second faster than mine. Carlos' head jerked one way and then back as our bullets crossed an X through his skull. Joan fell. I stepped forward and booted the frail body in the chest, sending the wheelchair rolling back down the ramp and into the sunlight. The chair toppled over.
Even with the back of his skull missing, the animated body tried to rise, atrophied muscles driving forward, in search of another host. The movements were jerky, awkward, painful to watch. 'Feeeaaassst.. '
