Section Eleven

The Coming of Abaddon

Entry #0087: The Nonperson

 The next day, Sunday, Leo and I were down in the bunker talking and drinking coffee and eating bear claw pastries in my station of operations, when Jezz called. She told me she had a very strange dream last night, one of her premonition dreams, she said. She told me that she saw Fanny's Thrift Shop and that something creepy was going on in the basement below, that several dark robed people were chanting something very ominous, but she couldn't make out the words. But she did see a large pentagram painted in red on the floor, and she knew it was fresh blood, from some sacrificed animal, a jackrabbit she felt. That's all she could remember, but she knew this dream was telling her something. I told her that we put off long enough checking the place out some night, and I had a feeling we needed to do it very soon, to go down there and see what we could find out, or look for signs of some ritual, like the pentagram drawn on the floor. She heartily agreed, but didn't like the idea of breaking into the building, which was technically illegal. I told her the police in this town were slack, and they normally didn't stay out late at night. The crime rate here was practically zero. So we decided to do it the next night, that being Monday night. Then we hung up.

 It was a couple hours past noon, so Leo and I decided to go to the Kountry Kitchen for a late lunch.  The lunchtime session had dwindled, so it had slowed down now, only a few people seated, so we decided to seat ourselves, but Leo had to duck into the bathroom first. Minding my business, I went to take a seat in a particular booth, and didn’t even see a guy sitting there, until I was right there at the table. I said I was sorry, but he didn’t notice me or reply, so I moved to another booth. He had no plate or food or drink. Just him at the booth, staring into space. Odd. I sat in a nearby booth and looked at the menu, but when I looked up at the other booth, the guy that had been sitting there was gone. I wasn't even aware that he had gotten up and left; you think I would have noticed. I shook my head and figure it was nothing.

 When Leo finally came and sat down in the booth, I told him about it. He said I was letting my imagination go wild. Perhaps he was right, but I had a creepy feeling there was more to it than that. I had heard of cases like this before, essentially just ghost sightings, or seeing somebody that's not really there.

 Reflecting on the incident, I felt nothing from the fellow, I mean, like he wasn’t there, as if he was a nonperson, or a soulless person. Really weird. Was it one of those echoes, psychic imprints? Not a real person at all? Or some weird being without a soul, just a thought-form? Or was it an apparition? I wasn’t sure.

 Also, was I seeing this due to the opening rift? I have read that when the veil between worlds is growing thin, we can see more clearly beings on the Other Side, especially if you already have some kind of psychic sight. Honestly, I didn’t know what to think.

Entry: #0088: The Strange Disappearances

 I didn't realize it, but Leo had grabbed a newspaper and was reading it after we had made our order, both taking the fried chicken special.

 Usually there was very little important news in the Mulvern Daily Press, and Leo had been reading issues every day now since his arrival here, but mostly the online versions, unless on a given day we happened to be getting groceries or something and he would grab a newspaper along the way.

Gripping the paper in both hands, Leo’s brows jutted up as he said, "Finally, there's real news here for a change."

 "Like what?"

"Well, a few days ago the paper reported that somebody disappeared, a Clyde Fletcher.”

"He’s an old farmer, from the north part of the Valley."

"His wife had reported it, but now she is missing. And now other people across the Valley have disappeared too. Six people so far." 

"Hmm. Something strange is definitely going on."

"Considering the population here isn't big enough, just a few people are definitely noticeable."

"Yeah, I mean adding up all the weird circumstances that have been happening lately, disappearances like this are not a coincidence."

"Admittedly so, so clearly we need to get to the bottom of it."

We ate our fried chicken specials in silence and drank our coffee. Something strange was definitely going on in the high desert.

Entry #0089:  Garret Caught in the Act

As we got up to leave, I just happened to see Garret sitting at a table with some twenty-something girl who looked frightened. Fortunately his back was to me. His hands were slightly raised from the tabletop and fingers oddly pointing toward her and his voice was low, soft, and monotone, gauged to where others around could not hear him too clearly. It was a chant of some sort. She was turning white and her eyes were very wide. He was casting some kind spell on her! I knew this guy was up to no good, and now I caught him in the act. I had to break the spell.

 I walked up behind him, slapped him on the back, and said loudly, "Garret! Good to see you, old buddy! You should’ve had the fried chicken special! It was great! Well gotta go, see you later!"

 The girl had gotten up and ran across the dining room and out the front door, as I turned and slowly walked on, catching up to Leo who was paying at the front counter. As we turned to leave out the door, I glanced back, and saw Garret frowning darkly at me. I just chuckled, and left.

 As we drove down Mulvern Avenue in my Blazer, Leo asked me who that was. I told him as much as I knew about this creepy person named Garret Simms, the strange connection he had with Fanny's Thrift Shop, that he somehow knew her personally, and that I believed she was a witch of some sort. Perhaps he was a practitioner of black magic himself, considering he was trying something insidious on this girl in a restaurant -- and in public! He probably figured no one would notice -- except I did.

 As if these two incidents were weird enough for one day, we drove west down Mulvern Avenue, then I slammed on the brakes when I saw what should be Fanny's place, but again the sign read Rook's Books!

 I blurted "Damn! It's back! Do you see what I’m talking about? You yourself know that's where Fanny's Thrift Shop is supposed to be."

 "So? Just a new business took over the place."

 "You haven’t been listening to me lately. It's been changing back and forth between the two businesses. Same location, two different establishments, yet taking turns."

 "All we can do is check it out."

 We parked in the small dirt parking lot, and we gingerly stepped inside. Only one other time had I been within this strange establishment, and I recognized the elderly man with the trimmed white beard behind the counter, and this time I noticed a certificate on the wall (perhaps I didn't notice it before) that read "Proprietor: Tobias Rook." I had a feeling the man sitting behind the counter was him. So I figured he had lied to me the first time I was here when he claimed he was a recent hire, and that he didn’t know Fanny.

 Leo and I looked around briefly, noticing the wall-to-wall bookshelves filled with old and new books, hardbacks and paperbacks. Then I thought about the book on Aleister Crowley that Garret claim he purchased at Fanny's. So with that wild hair up my ass, I came up to the gentleman and asked, "Sir, do you have any books on Aleister Crowley by any chance?"

 The man, Tobias Rook I presumed, glared at me and snarled with clenched teeth, "You don't belong here. I suggest you leave."

 As I got ready to turn and leave, I saw something on the shelf behind him that I hadn’t noticed last time, a framed photograph of this man, Fanny, and a younger teenaged Garret.

 Leo and I quickly left, hopped into the Blazer and took off. That was truly weird!

 As we drove up Highland, heading back up the slope and toward the cabin, we discussed both incidents briefly, Garrett’s psychic voodoo display and the book shop that shouldn’t be there. Leo admitted there was definitely high strangeness going on here, but he had no logical explanations. Especially concerning the reality shift from Fanny's Thrift Shop to Rook’s Books.

 Then I told him about the photograph I got a glimpse of. It all made sense now. Garret was the son of Tobias and Fanny!

 Entry #0090: Telling Jezz the Latest Weird Events

 I had an impulse to call Jezz on my cell phone, but I decided to wait till we got back to the cabin. Driving on some of these badly paved roads and the rocky dirt trails through the cabins up on the slope could be treacherous, so I needed to grip the steering wheel with both hands.

 So when we got back to the cabin, Leo proceeded to do his humdrum work on his laptop in the living room, while I called Jezz, and the first thing I told her was about the weird reality shift concerning Rook's Books while Leo was there, and that the white-bearded man I saw there both times I realized was the proprietor himself, Tobias Rook, and that he curtly told us to leave. Then I told her about the photograph, the Garret was the son of Tobias and Fanny. She said that made a lot of sense. I remarked that I had no idea that Tobias and Fanny were a couple, or even knew each other -- considering they each seemed to exist in two different parallel worlds.

 Jezz acknowledged that something very strange was happening here in the desert, and especially with this particular location housing two separate businesses, but in two different planes of existence, and she speculated that it might have something to do with the cause of the opening rift, especially from what she gathered in her strange dream.

 Then I told her about the strange encounter with Garret at the Kountry Kitchen, so I described it, and she said she had a suspicion all along as to what he was. So she spelled it out to me: he was a psychic vampire, one who knew how to drain energy from people. That made perfect sense. She said there were two kinds, those that were unconscious of their ability, mostly needy individuals that glommed onto others, and those that consciously latched onto others and drained them of their energy, or to be specific, their life-force. That explained why I felt drained every time I met with him. She also said he was most likely no novice in black magic, that he was probably more adept than we had thought. So he was obviously more dangerous than we realized.

 She said she was also worried about that cracked mirror and the dark entity that had gotten out. I told her what Sheila told me, about the chief demon known as Abaddon. This sounded familiar to Jezz, something she probably read long ago, and that the whole thing gave her the creeps. Considering the weird reality shift that took place once again between the two businesses, I asked if she was ready for a little investigation down there, and she said she definitely was. We agreed to meet at the Mulvern Market, Monday night at Nine o'clock pm.

Entry #0091: Scoping out the Thrift Shop

 I parked in front of the Mulvern Market and waited for her. It had just closed, and people were leaving. Jezz arrived shortly. I had asked Leo if he wanted to come too. He declined, saying he had some client work to do on his laptop. She and I stealthily walked over to Fanny’s little thrift store, which was back to normal now, and no cars were in the small parking lot. We circled around back, observing that the whole place was dark inside, not even any lights from the narrow basement windows. The front and the back doors were locked and there was no other way in. I suggested we break in, since I had a lock pick with me. But Jezz said she was hoping there'd be some kind of activity here. She sighed and looked up into the night sky, and I followed her gaze, observing that the moon was almost full. Then she smiled.

 She said, "In a few days there will be a full moon. It's quite possible they might perform some kind of ritual then." 

I looked up at the plump oval-shaped moon. "Hmm. Great observation. But who exactly are ‘they’?"

 "Good question."

 "I was hoping to sneak down into the basement and see if there's a blood-painted pentagram on the floor, like in your dream."

 "There may or may not be. Some cult groups only mark their special signs and symbols right before they begin their rituals, and then clean them off afterwards. But perhaps if there is a long-standing spell they are trying to generate, they may leave the pentagram down for several days."

 "We should go down and find out."

 "I think it's better that we wait for the night of the full moon, see if a ritual will take place."

 I sighed, "Alright."

 We returned to the Mulvern Market parking lot, got in our vehicles, and left. We decided to meet again the same time same place in two days when Jezz said the moon would be full.

Entry #0092: A Most Sinister Ritual

 The moon was full Wednesday night. Leaving our cars at the market, we scurried over to Fanny’s, observing several cars crammed into the small lot. But we double-backed and then snuck down the back alley and to the rear of thrift shop where we found several more cars parked there, and Garret’s motorcycle. Of course.

 We saw lights shining from the basement windows and we heard ominous chanting from over a dozen throats, male and female alike. Jezz and I hunkered down and peered through one of the narrow rectangular glass pane. We witnessed a circle of black robed people, hoods covering their heads and faces, all chanting something in a foreign  language I did not recognize, and they slowly swayed back and forth to the rhythm of the chant. Between the heads and shoulders of the people I glimpsed something on the empty cement floor, a large pentagram painted in red! Blood red, in fact! So far the whole scene fit Jezz’s premonitory dream to a T. But at each of the five corners of the pentagram rested five black beeswax eternal flame candles, as if flickering sinisterly. I wanted to ask if she had seen these candles in her dream, so when I began to whisper, she shushed me. Of course, we didn't want to be caught.

 One of the robed figures stepped forward, holding a large volume. Removing the hood, we saw that it was Tobias Rook. He opened the volume and read aloud something in some language that sounded like Latin, so I had no idea what he was saying. Then he closed the book and stepped back.  Then somebody else came forward, a shorter person who flung off the hood, and it was Fanny.

 She raised her arms and began speaking in a loud ritualistic voice, in English, "Once again, and finally for the thirteenth time this year, we call upon thee, O Dark Goddess, the Mighty Lilitha, Lady of the Dark Depths, we endeavor to increase the length and breadth of the portal even further, the door to our Abysmal Plane, to tear down the gossamer curtains of separation, that no barriers block the way, to allow one great gulf of reality alone, which will be filled with our most unholy Darkness! This is our supreme goal! Likewise, we have continued to communicate to our eminent Lord of Darkness, the great Abaddon, to summons him once again, and to prepare a way for him to manifest into the earth world. We have endeavored for many long months, and now upon the thirteenth assembly, we shall invoke the final summing.  And to allow this grand transmogrification, we shall call upon the great Abaddon!”

 At that, another dark robed figure came forward and stood next her. Moving the hood back, we saw that it was Garret Creely, who then stepped over and stood in the middle of the circle.

 Fanny continued to loudly intone, but as she did we saw her face transform into that ugly witch-face I saw earlier. "This man shall serve as your vessel for the allotted time that is necessary, to manifest and speak to us. O great Lord Abaddon, we beseech you to come forth!"

 Suddenly, Garret began to tremble, and sweat formed and dripped from his forehead, then his eyes turned red and his mouth opened wide as a gravelly deep base voice spoke, "I am here! I have tolerated your petty pleadings and rantings thus far. However, I do not serve you… but you knaves serve me! I do not do your bidding, you do mine! For thousands of years I have taunted and teased the fleshy worms of this despicable plane of wretched existence. Now you have given me a way in. But I care not about your whims and fancies to merge two realms, a silly and futile request. The Abysmal Plane is my domain and it shall remain exactly as it is. However, I do seek to wreak havoc and destroy this despicable earthly plane!"

 Suddenly, a dark whirlwind formed around Garret as he began to transform into that hideous demonic entity with four horns and four waging arms, growing in size and shrieking abominably as fire shot out of his mouth. The malevolent maelstrom grew stronger and expanded, and the dark robed figures began being pulled into it. The whole building began to shake and rumble as if by a colossal earthquake. Jezz and I ran like hell down the back alley, but when we heard a frightful explosion, we stopped and turned around, seeing the whole building blowing up and the dark whirlwind flailing this way and that as it grew larger, acting like a raging demonic cyclone.

 We continued running down the alley until we reached the market parking lot. We agreed to meet at the old Rocket filling station, a few miles down the road, hoping that was a safe distance. Then we got in our vehicles and took off. We saw the heinous tornado tearing through town, destroying buildings and large debris was flying everywhere.

 We headed west down Mulvern Avenue that turned into Highway 18.

An approaching malevolent maelstrom

 Entry #0093: Abaddon Begins Wreaking Havoc

 We parked by the gas pumps, got out of our cars and looked into the east, seeing the shrieking black tornado growing larger and tearing through buildings back in Mulvern as the ground shook where we stood.

 We began talking excitedly.

 I exclaimed, "What the hell is happening?"

 She replied, "I don't know! But those people are tampering with powers beyond their understanding!"

 "They unleashed something evil. And that Abaddon character is not somebody we wanna mess around with."

 "His intentions are to destroy the earth plane? That's absurd!"

 "You tell him that."

 "No thanks."

 "So far Mulvern is being reduced to rubble and I'm not sure how far out this thing will spread. This whole thing sounds like something on the lines of the Apocalypse."

 "Whatever you want to call it, I'm not sticking around to see what happens."

 "They mentioned something called the Abysmal Plane. I wonder if that's the same thing as the Dark Side."

 "I'm pretty sure it is."

 We still felt tremors which emanated from the psychically dark epicenter a few miles back into town, where we saw the hideous tornado continuing to tear through the little town.

 I said curtly, "Time get out of here. Hope to see you soon."

 We both got back in our cars and took off for our separate homes. I took the long way around, going up the slope along Baker Rd a few miles, near the west side of Balaban Butte. Then I turned left on Carnelian Rd, practically a dirt trail, which went around the south tip of the long butte, until I reached Mesa Rd. I turned right up to this paved Avenue, until I got onto the long dirt road that wound through the cabin district, and finally reaching my own yellow cabin. Home sweet home.

 I stared down the long slope of the Valley, and even several miles away the dark cyclone of dark destruction still looked ominous and large, tearing through the town of Mulvern as large chunks of debris flew into the air around it as it destroyed buildings. I couldn’t look any longer, it was too much.

 When I got inside, I made some phone calls. I told Chad what just happened, and he was flabbergasted, but he told me he would call all the others in the group. Then I called Monica, told her about the crazy situation that just happened, that she should hold off on coming up here. She said that was unfortunate because her mother had gotten out of the hospital, and that finally she was able to get ready to move. I told her to wait, but that we should stay in touch until this whole thing was resolved -- if that was ever possible. If we were talking about some kind of apocalyptic devastation, I had no idea what that would mean, what kind of world we would be living in -- if the world would even be there anymore.

  Entry #0094: Aftermath of the Tornado from Hell

 I woke up the next morning, and apparently the world was still there. I looked out the window of the cabin, and saw darkly overcasting clouds. It was mid-March, but it felt chilly like a desert winter. It didn’t feel like the seasonal chill, but it felt more ominous. I gazed down the slope to see if the town of Mulvern was still there, whether or not that supernatural tornado destroyed it completely or what. Considering the town was several miles down the slope, I couldn’t make much out, so I retrieved my binoculars out of the glove compartment of the Blazer. Gazing through these, I could definitely see the mass destruction the dark cyclone from hell had wreaked. Only a few outlying buildings were intact, but the whole downtown area was totally devastated. Pretty much everything below Foothill Rd was toast, so the cyclone didn’t travel up the slope to far at all. I didn't know if it had petered out last night or travelled on to somewhere else -- or what. I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t sure of anything lately.

 Then Leo and I got fresh brewed coffee from the metal pot resting on the potbelly stove in the corner. He sat at the kitchen table with his laptop, sipping his coffee.

 "Odd. The Mulvern Daily Press can’t be accessed. At least I got the Apple Valley Gazette. And now I find out that not only are people disappearing, but buildings too."

 "What the hell are you talking about?"

 He pointed to a little photograph next to an article headline, which read, "Thrift Shop Disappears!” The picture showed a jagged crater where Fanny’s place had been. Another photo showed totally wiped out buildings, next to another article he scrolled down to that read, “Mulvern Devastated by Tornado.”

 Leo explained, "Apparently this all happened last night. But the article says that most of the downtown area is in ruins due to some tornado, and countess people have disappeared -- again. But how could a tornado just come out of nowhere -- there were no storm clouds last night when I looked before I went to bed. But I did feel an earthquake."

 Since Leo was asleep last night, I hadn't told him anything yet. Now I did. I told him the whole story, and all the gory paranormal details involved. He was obviously shocked and appalled.

 Leo commented, "You're always getting into trouble. I suppose I should’ve gone with you."

 I sighed heavily and said, "Things are getting far too strange, and I don’t know what we’re going to do about it."

 "Nothing. Hole up in the bunker and watch old DVDs," Leo snickered.

 "Seriously. Too many strange things have happened, and now Fanny’s shop is totally gone, and most of Mulvern is in shambles, and people have disappeared."

 "Maybe it's the rapture, and we missed it. Drat." Leo snickered again.

 I shook my head. "Yeah, right. You know I highly doubt the validity of that concept. Anyway, this is all about the dark rift, that's obvious. After that eerie satanic ritual Jezz and I witnessed, and that strange psychic tornado phenomenon started wreaking havoc, I thought this was the beginning of the Apocalypse. Now I’m not sure what happened."

 "Ah, you're disappointed that the world didn't end. You had high expectations and now you’re all let down. Time for a twelve-pack of beer, old buddy."

 "Sounds like a good idea," I grinned.  "But it's too early for beer. I'll wait till noon at least. Let’s tank up on strong coffee first, some of that exotic Brazilian blend you brought. And there’s still some bear claws and cinnamon rolls left to munch on."

Entry #0095: The Dark Entity and the Light

 Early the next morning, around 6:15 am, my cell phone rang. It was Jezz, and her voice was trembling as she spoke excitedly. "I had a terrifying dream last night, Starky! It seemed so real, in fact, on a higher frequency I know it was real!"

 "Yikes! Well, tell me about it."

  "I was in my bed sleeping last night, and I thought I woke up, but like I've done sometimes, I was actually astral projecting. I felt something was off in my apartment, like somebody was there, so I went to every room and checked it out, at first seeing nothing, but I still felt a negative energy, a dark presence. Then I opened the bedroom closet, shining a flashlight into it, I saw an ominous dark figure with orange eyes, and it had an eerie green outline, a thin aura of sorts, a yucky sick green color. Anyway, my first reaction was to run, but the voice inside said I must confront it. I asked the thing, ‘Who are you?’ But it didn't answer at first. I asked again forcefully, and it said in a gravelly whispery voice, ‘Abaddon sent me.’"

 "Holy shit! You’re kidding!"

 "No! That's when the fear started hitting me, you know, and I wanted to get the hell out of there! I called on my spirit guide and guardian angels to help, and then I started feeling strength. Because that dark entity came out of the closet and I saw it stretch its arms out, and black energy began projecting from its hands, shooting it toward me. Realize I’ve studied spiritual light for many years so I used the tools that I knew. I got centered and filled my aura with the white light, but the inky dark shit began surrounding me, but it couldn't penetrate the bubble of light I created. So I concentrated harder for the light to be stronger than the darkness, you know, but I felt the darkness squeezing in on me, trying to suffocate me, as the dark entity stepped closer with his arms outstretched, continuing to enshroud me with its evil darkness. Then I realized I had to do the same thing, you know, so I stretched out my arms, but I shot out beams of white light, directly at the dark entity, and then it jerked back slightly, losing control for a few seconds as I shot a beam of light from my hands directly at the creature, you know, and the light hit his greenish aura and tried to break through, but just pushed it inward about a foot. Then the dark entity continued shooting the darkness at me, but I shot beams of light back at it, a steady stream of light, and I felt my angels and spirit guide giving me strength. It was a tug-of-war of light against darkness for a while, you know, I don't know how long, things are timeless in the dream world, you know."

 "God! This sounds incredible!"

 "But anyway, the entity was saying, ‘You can't win, I am stronger than you.’ As far as I was concerned, the creature was lying and trying to weaken me, because I know the white light is stronger than the darkness, so I yelled, "You lie! The light is much stronger, in fact, darkness is nothing, because darkness is sheer absence of light!’ I felt the light shooting out of my hands, you know, pushing the dark entity back, and then the stream of light began pushing into the dark entity’s green aura and shrinking it as the thing began groaning. But for a minute there it pushed back with a strong surge of dark energy, damn near knocked me off my feet, but then I pushed back a stronger jolt of white light, keeping the thought in mind that the light is the source of my being while the darkness is simply the absence of the light. Soon as I shot beams of light outward and seeing the light energy surrounding the dark entity, its own dark aura was weakening and shrinking more, then it screamed hideously, you know. Suddenly the creature shrunk to a dark spot, which in turn disappeared, and there was nothing but light all around me! I won the battle and felt the glorious triumph of light overcoming darkness! It was awesome, Starky!"

 All I could say was, "Wow!" At that point, I was pretty much speechless

 Jezz continued, "Like I said, on a higher frequency I believe this really happened."

 I finally replied, "I absolutely believe that. I think you were actually visited by some dark entity, especially since it said Abaddon sent it. Wow! That was definitely incredible!"