Fall into Darkness
Chapter 14: Assault
Bellatrix started awake. An immediate pain shot through the front of her skull. There was a warm wetness running over her forehead and her cheek, down her neck. She let out a groan just as soothing magic eased her pain. Something soft and furry pressed against her. When she opened her eyes, she could see dark clouds above. The winds were still raging, but the rain had thankfully let up. Apparently she'd been sat up against the car while Nymphadora knelt over her and was applying magical first aid. Max stood near her, tail wagging and licked her hand when she moved to pat his head. She was still soaked to the bone and getting colder and colder.
"Careful," said Nymphadora. "You hit your head rather badly. Nothing seems to be broken, though."
"If I get hit in the head more time," Bellatrix muttered. "I'll probably end up a blissfully moronic shopper shuffling through the nearest Walmart."
Bellatrix struggled to get to her feet but found it difficult to keep balance with her head being as cloudy as it was. Nymphadora kept her from toppling over. Bellatrix looked at the ridge they had driven off. Easily a six meter drop. And to think they had driven off it at nearly full speed…
Still, she was better off than the car was. Which was upturned, smashed and leaking fluids. Though she was no mechanic, even she would hazard a guess that it was unlikely to ever drive again.
"Well, I don't think I'll be getting back my deposit," Nymphadora put her hands on her hips.
"I'm sure if you explain it to the rental company…" Bellatrix snorted.
"… what a great aunt you are," Nymphadora rolled her eyes while Bellatrix consulted the map.
"You did 'land' at the correct spot," said Bellatrix. "This is the valley the Anderson farm is in. We'll have to continue on foot from here. Ooh…"
Bellatrix wobbled again, her head throbbing. The dog barked happily, feeling up to the task of a hike through the forest. Her head felt heavy as she walked, though through some further application of healing magic, her foggy head cleared up a little more. That small cantrip has been beyond useful during this misadventure.
Thankfully, the trek through the dark landscape was uneventful. There were dirt roads to follow, signs directing towards the farm and, best of all, no shadow-creatures along the way. The trees offered a bit of cover from the whipping wind and Max didn't seem at all agitated like he usually was when the darkness was near. After about a twenty minute walk, the Anderson farm came into view. The farm itself was quite large, with the farmhouse nestled in between steep hills and half a dozen fenced off fields with one barn each surrounding it. It looked like a cozy place where the Andersons could live a mostly self-sustaining lifestyle.
One element, however, was distinctly out of place.
An unmarked white van had been parked haphazardly in front of the Anderson's property and it blended in about as much as white dove did among a flock of ravens. Apparently, even the shadow-creatures seemed to think so. The back doors had been ripped from its hinges and it looked as if the vehicle had been tossed around. Upon further investigation, the van itself was kitted out with complex-looking surveillance and measuring equipment on the inside, with several small workstations. There'd been some sort of struggle, likely with shadow-creatures. Some paperwork was strewn across the ground and Bellatrix picked up a folder.
"Federal Bureau of Control," said Bellatrix after examining the crest on the folder. "That one wasn't on the citizenship test."
Nymphadora snorted. "I've heard of it. Some sort of muggle organisation to deal with 'unreality'. Controversial within MACUSA for obvious reasons, but they have power to operate indepedantly from both MACUSA and the US government. Looks like they were ill equipped to deal with this threat."
"I'm not sure we're any better equipped," muttered Bellatrix as she opened the folder and found some sort of report.
Bright Falls (AWE investation #35)
Possible Threshold manifestation at Cauldron Lake, WA.
Notes:
Site has unusual amount of missing person cases at set intervals.
1970 - Eruption at Cauldron Lake. Diver's Isle destroyed. Event too localised to be natural Ref case # 2302.
1975 - Anderson event. Ref case # 2674.
Bright Falls has unusually high reports of claimed Bigfoot sightings.
In folklore of local Native tribes, Cauldron Lake is regarded as a gateway and features heavily in local creation myths.
Objectives:
Confirm if event is Threshold manifestation.
Determine extent of reality alterations.
Apprehend and question possible cause.
Make preparations to secure possible Objects of Power for transport and containment at the Panopticon.
Classification:
Assume class-alpha threat level until confirmed otherwise.
Daily reports to be submitted for approval to director Zacharias Trent.
Well. It seemed these people were quite serious. In that moment, Bellatrix grasped for her head again, dropping the file as she steaded herself. Her entire body trembled and her vision faded. It was as if someone had stabbed a dagger right into her brain. Bellatrix grasped wildly to anything which could stop her from falling. She leaned so hard into one of the work-stations she almost smashed her arm through its monitor.
In front of her, one of the monitors sprang to life. She once again saw her own face, heard her own voice. "I've run every possible scenario in my head. If I continue on the course the Dark Presence wants me to, Hermione will be lost forever. The story is going to kill her and me and everybody in this bloody town. Darkness will consume all," her own voice spoke. "That's what it's always wanted. To be free, unstoppable. It used Hermione to make me do its bidding, I see that now. It dangled her in front of me to keep me going. But it's not going to let her go. I'm going to change this. I need to escape. If life is a story then I'm making myself the main protagonist. There'll be victims along the way. Escapes, cliffhangers. It can't be clear if the protagonist will succeed or fail. I'll need help. Nymphadora. My niece. The perfect person for the role."
Bellatrix looked away, the light from the screen hurting her head. When she looked back, the screen was blank. Nymphadora was stood next to her and, in that moment, Bellatrix just needed to know she wasn't losing her mind.
"Did you see that?" Bellatrix asked, but Nymphadora's frown didn't inspire confidence.
"See what?" asked her niece. "All I saw was you staring at a blank screen for half a minute. You sure you didn't hit your head too hard in the car?"
Not an encouraging answer. Bellatrix just hoped that hitting her head was indeed the reason, even though in the back of her mind she knew better.
Leaving the van behind, the trio swiftly moved towards the farmhouse. The quickest route would be through the main barn of one of the largest fields. Though the barn was locked, it was not of a magical nature and the chain swiftly fell to the ground. The darkened barn lay beyond, but the electricity was still working. Welcoming both the light and the reprieve from the wind, both women noticed just how wet and cold they now were in their drenched clothes. Max had an easier time of it and shook his golden fur dry before sniffing around the barn for a bit.
Though the barn contained some farming equipment, it was mostly used as a display for viking-themed items. Massive kegs with drinking horns, shields with runes hung from the wooden walls, weapon racks with axes which looked to be very real, furs lain out and hung from the wall. But it all paled in comparison what was suspended from the ceiling.
"Whoa," Nymphadora gasped in awe. Above them hung an authentic Viking Drakkar. The ship looked to be twenty meters long and barely fit in the barn. With its massive bulk, it was a miracle the barn could even hold its weight, but Bellatrix could feel in the air that it was magically secured. Aside from the beautiful craftsmanship on the boat itself, both the head and tail-piece were intricately carved out of polished birchwood.
"Is that a longship?" asked her niece.
"No," smiled Bellatrix. "It's the longship."
She closed her eyes, reliving the memories of she and her sisters sneaking out of the house to visit a concert when they had learned that the Old Gods were playing Manchester. By then, she'd already been deep into the Death Eater cult rabbit hole, but that was still before Andie had… left. Good times, for the most part. "Imagine. A dark stage, a fake wall. Then that very boat slamming through that wall with all four Old Gods dressed up as the Norse gods of old rocking up a storm. It was fantastic and, oh Merlin's beard, the three of us went wild. 'Children of the Elder God'. Best song ever made. No contest."
She opened her eyes and saw Nymphadora smirking at her. "I've never seen you like this, auntie."
"It wasn't just me," she chuckled. "A certain middle sister ended up being so impressed she threw her knickers on stage."
Nymphadora's eyes bulged out of her skull for a moment, until she exploded in a gale of laughter. "No way! NO WAY!"
"Ask your mother next time you see her. If things had gone differently, you'd be named Nymphadora Anderson," winked Bellatrix. "In fact… wait… wait a minute. You were born end of August '73, right?"
Nymphadora narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Yes. Why?"
"Might be nothing," replied Bellatrix. "But I distinctly remember your mother telling me that she went to the Old Gods concert when they were playing Glasgow. In '72. December '72."
Her niece paled a little. "W-what are you trying to say, exactly?"
"Oh, nothing," Bellatrix shrugged. "Only that your mother went absolutely mad for Odin. Knickers on stage, remember?"
Bellatrix could barely suppress a smirk when she could see Nymphadora doing calculations in her head and was fast sinking towards an existential crisis.
Well, nobody said she wasn't allowed to tease her niece. Still, it was a striking coincidence regardless.
"Wuf" sounded Max as the dog had arrived at the other side of the barn. The dog seemed a little restless, but waited for them to approach the double doors leading into the field. Or so they thought. In fact, when they emerged on a wooden platform outside, they both needed a moment to realize what exactly it was they were stood on.
"Tell me this is real," said Nymphadora, eager to leave her emerging existential crisis behind her. "Tell me I'm not seeing things."
"Oh, it's real," said Bellatrix, a grin forming on her face as she looking out into the sprawling field.
Bellatrix stared at the Viking paraphernalia that littered the area, surrounding the unlikely centerpiece they were now stood on: a full-sized stage, complete with an impressive sound system with all the trimmings, including a dragon above their heads. It took a special kind of crazy to build something like this in the middle of nowhere, but Bellatrix was oddly pleased by the thought that the Anderson brothers still wanted to relive their old glory days.
"Auntie…"
Bellatrix was snapped out of her thoughts when she saw Max stood at the edge of the stage, growling at the field in between barking angrily. The source soon revealed why: shadows were moving through the field. Dozens of them. Shades of what once had been living men and women. Hikers, hunters, lumberjacks, tourists, poachers, tourists… judging from the way some were dressed, these were some of the people whom had gone missing decades again. Now they were here, armed with clubs, sticks, axes and bats and headed straight towards the stage.
Bellatrix tried to do a headcount, to get some measure of what they were up against, but they simply moved too erratically or disappeared and reappeared from dark places. One thing was clear, however: The Dark Presence was making its big push.
"Auntie…" Nymphadora moved closer to her. "This is more than we can handle."
"Don't be so negative," Bellatrix hissed, raising her hands. Though she didn't want to admit it, she couldn't help but agree.
Help came from a very unexpected place: the heavens. The dragon, with its wings folded over the top of the stage and its head angled down, apparently had a metal skeleton and had become a rather effective lightning rod. When the sky split open with a deafening boom and the music started blasting, it felt strangely appropriate.
Lights sprung on all over the sage and the fields, causing the approaching horde to hiss and gnash. Dark tendrils were already being burned away from some of the approaching creatures.
For a moment, Bellatrix was back in her youth, at that concert at Manchester with her sisters. The song that played was 'Children of the Elder God' from their album 'Memory Thought Balance Ruin'. Her favourite. It was a song to which she knew the lyrics by heart, having sung along with it with her sisters so many times before.
Only now it was her on stage and she'd need to fight for her life.
Warriors, torchbearers, come redeem our dreams
Shine a light upon this night of otherworldly fiends
Odin's might be your guide, divorce you from the sane
Hammer's way will have its say, rise up in their name
Definitely appropriate. Nymphadora however, dashed to a booth to the side. For a moment Bellatrix was about to ask her what the hell she was doing until that became abundantly clear. After pressing a few buttons, several barrels in the middle of the field exploded in a hail of pyrotechnics. Several of the creatures were actually so close to the explosion that they dissolved by the flood of light. Bellatrix saw cables running from the booth to all the barrels in the field. Though sheer luck, Nymphadora had gotten several to go off, but was now struggling with the buttons to get the rest to go.
Clever girl.
Meanwhile, several of the creatures had arrived at the stage. Bellatrix grinned wickedly, cracked her neck, and got ready to start the slaughter. She was going to make sure Nymphadora could continue on fiddling with the pyrotechnics.
Memory and Thought
Jet black and clawed
Ooohhh, children of the Elder God
Children of the Elder God!
Ooohhh, scourge of light upon the dark
Scourge of light upon the dark!
The first creature was decapitated by one of Bellatrix' bolts before it could even climb the stage. Bellatrix whipped around her axis and raised a shield to block a bat brought down upon her. With a pump of her arm, she pushed the creature back and slammed a bolt of magic through the heart of an ex-tourist coming at her with a sickle. Feeling the raw power, fueled by her rage, run through her, Bellatrix let out a cackle and turned to face the next group.
A huge, but slow lumbering hunter moved towards her flanked by two more sickle-wielding poachers.
"THIS IS AWESOME!" she heard Nymphadora scream as she managed to bathe the entire field in another set of exploding pyrotechnics. Flames shot from the barrels, meters into the air. The creatures screamed in scorching agony.
Good. GOOD! SUFFER!
Scratching hag, rake your claws and gnash your crooked teeth
You've taken slaves like ocean waves, now feel the ocean seethe
Father Thor, bless this war, between the dark and light
In their songs let their wrongs bring dissolution's night
By now the trio had reached Bellatrix and were wailing on her raised shield. Bellatrix grimaced as she reeled from the power behind the blows: she needed two hands to keep the shield up, but would not give in so easily. Bellatrix grit her teeth, dug her heels in and let the magic do the work for her. She pushed back and forced magic forward, pushing them back through extending the shield. The two sickle-wielders were sent back easily, but the big one was not so easily thwarted. Now with one hand free, she slammed a bolt through his chest. And still he did not go down.
Bellatrix let out a grunt and slammed the flat of her hand against the creature's stone-cold forehead, disruptive magics shredding through what once had been a human brain. The big one shuddered and then dissolved into nothingness.
As she turned her attention towards the two fallen sickle-wielders to finish them off, too late did she realize that another of the creatures had gotten too close to her. Bellatrix whipped around, only to see Max growling and having his jaws clamped around the end of the bat the creature was holding. Had it not been for Max, the shadow-man would have been in the perfect position to bash her skull in.
"Good dog!" Bellatrix shouted while her bolt shredded through shadowy flesh and shadowy bone.
More pyrotechnic explosions went off.
Memory and Thought
Jet black and clawed
Ooohhh, children of the Elder God
Children of the Elder God!
Ooohhh, scourge of light upon the dark
Scourge of light upon the dark!
If they were turning the tide, it certainly wasn't clear on the stage. Dozens of creatures had climbed up or were climbing up, and a seething Bellatrix stood at the ready. She snarled and let the power flow through her. A fan of bolts shot off and hit several of the creatures, sending them to the ground. Two lumos balls formed in her hand and were very effective as magical hand-grenades, going off in a small explosion among the group of creatures. Bellatrix revelled in their surprisingly human cries of pain. Rather than fall back, Bellatrix rushed forward into the approaching horde. She felt their coldness, their malice, their inhuman nature as they clawed at her. Bellatrix lashed out at each and every one of them, slicing and destroying. She slammed a bolt through a shadow-woman's mouth, twisted around her axis severing shadowy limbs. Stripped of their dark protections by the light from the pyrotechnics around the stage, they were at her mercy. Mercy she would never give. She ruthlessly went for the kill each and every time. Creature upon creature fell. They hissed, they mumbled and yelled as Bellatrix sent them back to whatever hell they had been spawned from. One. Two. Five. Seven. Ten. Twelve. She lost count after that.
Her chest was still heaving, her arms still aching, when the music and the explosions fell silent. When she opened her eyes, she was expecting to stand among a pile of bloodied corpses. Instead, she was stood on an empty stage in an empty field.
She closed her eyes again and eased her breathing. Max sat next to her and started licking her hand. The dog was given a scratch behind the ear.
"So, uhm, yeah," sounded Nymphadora. Bellatrix could hear her niece was slightly nervous. "I, uhm, can see why they used to call you the Scourge from Manchester."
Scourge from Manchester. Some idiotic title the yellow journalists had marked her with during the first war. Still, she couldn't say it was unwarranted.
"As long as you're not bathed in shadows and standing between me and Hermione, you have nothing to fear," said Bellatrix. She closed her eyes: the dark witch had massacred these creatures in Hermione's name. All for the girl she loved and taken from her. Had she been here, Hermione would undoubtedly have been utterly horrified by her display of abject violence. Under the circumstances, she liked to think that Hermione would have approved, though deep in her heart she already knew the answer to her own question.
"If you say so," said Nymphadora, looking a bit unsure of herself. "Glad we're on the same side."
"Come," said Bellatrix. "The farmhouse is just ahead."
The farmhouse itself was a reasonably large wooden building, the place where the then four Anderson brothers had grown up. There was a fence surrounding it and, above the gate, a giant sign which read 'Valhalla' had been prominently displayed. A smaller shed stood next to the house contained what seemed to be a still to make moonshine. More viking shields adorned the outside walls and the porch.
"This is a crazy place for crazy people," said Nymphadora.
"We should feel right at home then," Bellatrix shrugged as the two of them stepped through the front door.