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58
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As Mort and the girl reached the top of the stairs that lead to the balcony, the chanting grew louder and louder. Reaching the top of the stairway, they were faced with another door, only this door was different. There was a logo on it that portrayed a snake devouring its own tail (Much like the tatoo that had been on Liana's thigh that Mort had failed to see). Mort stared at the logo, extended his arm and and ran his hand over the symbol. After a moment, he cautiously reached out and opened the door. A wave of sound hit him.
He and the girl walked through the doorway and into the shadowy balcony, which ran around three sides of the hall where the meeting was taking place.
They walked to the railing and peered over. Standing at the front of the hall behind a podium holding 'The Nine Gates', was Amy. The rest of the hall was crowded with guests, all clad in the black robe & pentacle get-up. Each person held a lit black candle.
Amy and her guests were taking turns in reading out the Latin passages from 'The Nine Gates'.
"You stay here and cover me. I'm going down," Mort whispered to the girl.
Pulling the hood of his robe over his head, he sneaked down the staircase, secreting himself in the rear row of guests. He tried to concentrate on Amy and the book as the readings continued. Suddenly, the doors at the end of the hall swung open with a crash and a man's deep voice punctured the air.
"Mumbo-jumbo-mumbo-jumbo-mumbo-jumbo...," He chanted against Amy's reading.
The guests stopped chanting and their hooded heads turned to look for the source of the disturbance. Behind her podium, Amy froze and looked up towards the doors.
"Mumbo-jumbo-mumbo-jumbo-mumbo-jumbo...," The man continued.
Mort turned his head around to see Boris Balkan striding toward the front of the hall in Amy's direction. Any guests failing to get out of his way in time were elbowed aside. Amy watched
him, transfixed, as he climbed the steps and turned to face the confused guests.
Nothing is making sense, Mort thought. Nothing is making sense at all.
"Look around all of you. What do you see?" Balkan asked. The guests all began turning around and looking at each other. "I'll tell you: A bunch of buffoons in fancy dress. You really think the Prince of Darkness would deign to manifest himself to the likes of you? He never has and he never will - never!" He said and closed 'The Nine Gates' with a snap. He held it up. "You read from his book, yes, but you have no conception of its true power. I alone have grasped its secret. I alone have fathomed the Master's grand design. I alone am worthy to enjoy the fruits of that discovery: absolute power to determine my own destiny."
Amy finally spoke up "You're insane. Give it back to me," Amy ordered.
Balkan rounded on her. "As for you, Amy, you're even guiltier than the rest of this pathetic rabble. You have at least some idea of what this book can do in the right hands, yet you lend yourself to these farcical proceedings, these orgies of ageing flesh conducted in the Master's name. You're a charlatan!"
Amy tried to grab the book, but Balkan held it high above his head. In desperation, she clawed his face. Balkan clasped his wounds, dropping the book to the floor. Amy made a dive for it, but Balkan pounced on her. They rolled over across the floor, struggling fiercely.
Balkan grabbed Amy by the throat. She tried to break his grip, but he redoubled it. Halfway down the steps with Balkan on top of her, she fought for breath. Her suffocated, agonized face turned toward the hall.
The guests shrank back in horror, some of them dropped their candles. Hysterical screams filled
the air.
"You thought you'd get away with it, Amy. You thought you'd get away with it. But that book is mine. I was the one who paid for it. Me," Balkan said, still in his struggle.
Mort watched from the back rows as his ex-wife was being killed before his eyes. So many things weren't making any sense at the moment. Why was Balkan here? But more importantly, why had he just said what he had said before? Something was not adding up...
Clad in his robe, Mort made his way for the podium area as fast as he could, shoving his way through frightened guests in the process. He took hold of Balkan's shoulders and tried to haul him off Amy.
Balkan, still struggling on top of her, turned to look. He glared at Mort through eyes with rage. Then, removing one hand from Amy's throat, he dealt Mort a backhanded blow that sent him a few feet away.
Amy seized the chance to break free. She crawled away and almost regained her strength, but unfortunately Balkan was too quick for her. He grabbed her pentacle chain from behind and proceeded to strangle her with it. Amy, on her knees, pawed frantically at the chain that was digging into her neck. Her face was beginning to turn shades of purple, tongue to protrude.
Mort scrambled to his feet, looking around wildly for a weapon. He seized a three-foot candlestick and raised it over his head. He was about to bring it down when suddenly the girl called out, "Don't, Mort!" Startled, the candlestick fell from his grip and paddled Balkan atop the head. Unnoticing, Mort turned his head upwards and looked. He saw the girl perched on the balcony just above.
Too preoccupied with Balkan and Amy to wonder what the girl's problem was, Mort turned away from her and looked back at the struggle which he had to deal with. He gasped, seeing Amy underneath a collapsed Balkan and the large candlestick lying next to their bodies. Mort furrowed his brow and leaned over the two bodies.
He carefully rolled Balkan off of Amy and looked at him. There was just something not right with the whole thing.
Mort moved his head in closer to Balkan's face and studied the lines of the scratches that Amy had placed there moments ago. They had some sort of fake quality to them. Mort couldn't quite put his finger on what it was... Or could he?
He placed a finger over a scratch and moved it along the line. As he did so, his finger ripped through Balkan's face. Mort let out a small scream and pulled his hand away quickly, cringing. He gulped, adjusted his glasses, and looked down at his finger. There was no blood or anything.
Mort placed his whole hand this time on Balkan's face. As he moved it along, Balkan's skin seemed to ripple and wave. Mort grabbed onto the skin surrounding one of the scratches and began to pull...
Balkan's skin was coming off of his face! Mort quickly turned his head away from Balkan's peeling face and drew in some breaths. Finally, he covered his mouth with his free hand and turned back to the peeling Balkan. Only.. it was not Balkan anymore. Under the flap of skin which Mort had pulled free, there was another man's face!
Mort stared down, still a bit squeamish, and studied the new face. He remembered seeing the face somewhere before. He'd seen it only once, but he supposed that once was just enough.
"Hello, Ted," Mort said aloud to the unconscious man. Why Ted had wanted to kill Amy was beyond him, as everything else as well. He still didn't understand anything at all that was happening, but he didn't care.
Suddenly Ted's body began to stir. Mort seized the candlestick from the floor once again and was about to bring it down, purposely this time, when the girl flew down from the balcony and landed on top of him, pushing him to the ground. She held his arms behind him so he could not break free.
"But he's not dead yet!" Mort argued.
"Let him be," the girl replied calmly.
Screams and cries of horror went up from the guests, who had been recoiling further as Ted Milner, the man who Mort loathed, got up from the floor and straightened up. He walked down into the front row of the crowd and stopped.
He leaned forward, eyes narrowed in a mocking, menacing way, and stomped his foot. "Boo!" He yelled.
With more hysterical screams and cries, the guests turned around and began to flee the hall as fast as they could, some peeling off their robes and pentacles and dropping them to the floor as they did so. They all headed out to the parking lot and began escaping in their vehicles.
Calmly, Ted ran a hand through his hair, picked up 'The Nine Gates' from the floor, and strode slowly back to the podium area where Amy's body lay next to Mort and the girl.
Ted bent down, scooped Amy up with impeccable ease and slung her unconscious body over his shoulder. With Mort and the girl's confused gaze upon him, Ted made his way out of the hall and into the parking lot.
With everyone gone from the hall, the girl released her grip on Mort, got off him and rose to her feet. Mort sat up, holding an arm and staring at her confusedly. "What is it with you?" He asked, completely annoyed with her.
"Some things are meant to happen. That was one of them," The girl said calmly. Mort simply stared at her angrily.
Meanwhile, Ted placed Amy's limp body into the backseat of his car and drove off with 'The Nine Gates'.
"You're out of a job; it's over. What more do you want?" The girl asked.
"You know what," Mort replied, scrambling to his feet. He quickly made his way outside to the parking lot. He chased after Ted's car, but could not catch it. Seeing an unlocked car nearby, he started off toward it. Mort got behind the wheel and started the car, then recklessly backed it up toward the mansion making the tires squeal against the pavement. As he was just about to turn the car around, he saw the girl standing outside his open window. She passed his bookbag and coat through the window to him, all the while Mort staring at her angrily.
"Not taking me for a ride?" The girl asked sarcastically.
"You were working for him all along." Mort replied, angrily.
"Funny, I thought you were," the girl said, ironically.
Mort put the car into gear and took off after Ted Milner, recklessly. The girl stared after the car as it disappeared into the horizon.