Arrows of Acid

Chapter 12

"So, this is the place?"

The Morgensterns stood staring at a quaint, sleepy little farm, a huge mountain behind it, and several smaller mountains in the distance. The rest of the scenery was open farmland in the middle of nowhere. Nothing moved in the blustering heat save for a few birds gliding lazily overhead. Lady M looked around.

"I don't understand." She said. "We followed his directions precisely..."

Just then, the automatic door to the garage attached to the house began to raise. The Morgensterns were not worried of being caught, as they were choosing to be invisible to humans for the moment, so they just watched with interest.

The tiny garage was not big enough to house one car, much less two, but two cars it was that impossibly drove out in tandem. Once the vehicles were through, the door closed behind them.

The Morgensterns exchanged a look and walked over to investigate.

Just as they reached the garage door, it opened a second time to let more cars out. That's when they caught a glimpse of an underground tunnel leading off into distant darkness. It led off toward the large mountain behind the farm.

They grinned at each other. Just as a car passes them by, they fluidly dropped themselves into the backseat, unnoticed by the woman driving.

Jennifer was just coming off a shift at the office and all she was thinking about was getting home to a shower and some supper. She cranked the volume on her car's stereo and drove happily away.

"Concentrate! Just jump in and dig your claws in. You need to latch onto the soul, and it's much easier to do if you take it by surprise."

"Shut up, woman. I know how to do it." Lord M snapped. Lady M folded her arms and huffed.

He stalked the woman around her apartment as a lion stalks its prey.

Jennifer was totally unaware of these two entities in her home. She was going about her nightly rituals before going to bed.

The only thing she had noticed out of the ordinary had been when her cat hissed at an empty corner (and Lady M hissed back), and then ran out the front door. He was both an indoor/outdoor cat, so she wasn't too worried about him coming back.

Just as she turned out the last lamp and the room fell pitch dark, Lord M attacked. He jumped into her with such vigor that Jennifer was knocked backwards onto the bed. She screamed and thrashed at her invisible attacker, the bedsheets becoming twisted and tangled around her.   

But Lord M was not able to establish a good "grip" on her. His attempt had been sloppy at best, and after a valiant struggle, Jennifer threw him off and out of her body. He was ejected with such force that he was splattered into pieces against the wall.

She grabbed at the lamp switch and frantically searched the room, sobbing wildly. She saw nothing. She wiped at her tear-stained cheeks. Badly frightened, she threw some clothes in a bag, grabbed her keys and her phone, and dashed out the door.

As Lord sat and slowly pieced his matter back together, they heard her squealing tires disappear into the night.

Lady stood glaring over him, arms still crossed, as he was rematerialized.

"Gods and the Dark Lord damn you! Do you never listen to what I tell you?!" she raged at him. His answer was one final scream of pain, then he was whole again. He sat nursing his ego for a few sullen moments.

"Damn! Still too weak!"

"We cannot afford to screw this up. Think of what he promised us if we succeed!" Quieter, "Think also of what he promised if we fail. Do you want to go back there?"

"No," came the gruff response. She bent to him and ran the back of her hand tenderly across his face.

"I've been ba-aa-ad, Mother," he said to her. She smiled.

"Yes, you have. You've been a naughty little goat. And you need to be punished." She said slyly. "The sooner we can inhabit flesh, the sooner I can exact my punishment on you." He smiled wickedly.

                                                                     *          *          *          *          *

"Asha! Look!" Orbie was fluttering his wings again, multi-colored feathers floating down onto the desk.

Ashalee looked up from her screen.

"Whaddaya got?" She wheeled her chair closer to him.

"The ecto-filters caught a few interesting things from that surveillance footage from Strataca. I put the findings into our facial recognition database and a few hits came back! Check this out!"

An old timey photo of a severe man and woman stared back at them from Orbie's monitor. The couple wore expensive looking clothing. She was seated on a fancy high-backed chair, while the man stood off to the side and behind her, one hand on her shoulder, the other grasping his coat lapel. On the woman's other side stood a black goat on a leash.

Orbie read a description as Ashalee studied their faces.

"Lord and Lady Morgenstern of Cajzsylvania, circa 1634. They were the bloodiest rulers in the region from 1631-1650. They were reputed to be extremely evil and powerful, in league with dark forces. They prized their goats above all else. They never had any heirs. Every time a child was born to them, they would sacrifice it in Satanic rituals to some goat-demons. It's believed they became more powerful and favored by their dark lord with every sacrifice. They eventually branched our to the village, stealing away their children to use in these horrible rituals. It is believed that the Morgensterns killed upwards of 20 of their own offspring and countless others throughout their lifetime, eventually disappearing without a trace in 1650."

A shudder ran through Ashalee.

"Nasty," she muttered. Orbie turned to her with his big owl eyes. They were huge to begin with, but she could see the worry in them all the same.

"These two don't sound like such a lovely couple. I think we should find out all that we can about them if you intend to catch them. This could be very dangerous," Orbie cautioned.

"Yeah, I agree with you there. Let's see what we can come up with." Agreed Ashalee, and they turned back to their screens and lost themselves to their research.