Constantine; The Laughing Magician Presents; Life in the Real World
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Chapter 2: Surmise
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The doorways were latched from the inside, so with a spell -
The latch came through, undone by the magician's prowess. I'm just as good as the writers depict.
"An unbinding spell." I push at the broken frame. "Was this tomb always so airtight, Hurley?" I'm just as caught up in Hurley's lies as the next sorcerer of the cloth, but I need to know. What is he so afraid to show me?
"I'm not sure why I am so frightened, my friend. Ness is a dear ally. As are you, John." Gulped the meek director of the keep. "We aren't well on top of the tombs since death lingers here, in these halls... I try to keep it away from prying eyes, a thing of nightmares it is to folk above us."
"Tell that to a man who's been to hell and back, mate." I'm rolling my eyes at Hurley's excuses. He's definitely keeping a beast below these chambers. Torture, and can feel the stink leeching into my clothes and hair. A miasma that just won't let up. We scale the wall for a torch. I make one, and the director flinches. He'd not last a day in Tartarus. Nor Hades for that matter.
Let alone a vampire's keep in Hong Kong. I almost lost my soul to it once. Rancid dogged figment of myth and reality...
We walk along this beaten trek of sand and lime. I wonder how old this chamber really is? If is connected to the waking world or I'm just dreaming that it could be somewhere else, maybe I could use a nap on the way back to London on my next flight out of this pit – stink castle.
"Is that the dip? I see shallow waters, down there. When did this get blocked off? Hurl –
He's gone! I swing around with my torch and trod through puddles on the floor. It looked to be unused. Waterways that had simple run dry. As if a canal had recently been fixed…
"Hurley, mate! This isn't all fun an' games, you know! Where'd you go hidin' off to –
I froze. Here, I see it. A white – as - snow - face, in the dark with eyes as red as a harvest moon in the dead of those forbidden, autumnal nights.
I step back, looking round to see that I'm surrounded by ten of these eerie figures. Right. Eyes watching.
~ Step in to our domain, drown in the waves of your solitude!! ~ The red – eyed spooks chant out, but I run as fast as my legs will bring me to another answer. "Hurley! Hurley!" I shout as echoed words pound the walls, making my voice crack. My screams will not be heard, tonight. Everyone has come to the ending of the tour, and I was supposed to be a V.I.P. Up front, with a tall glass of Scottish Whiskey to my right to unwind after a hard day's belly – aching an' groaning for a puff had gone awry.
Dear gods…. The ones below pull me in, trying to drag at my limbs as I kept screaming, nearly blacking out as the night dragged on.
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The Loch has an interesting history that you lot' ave' probably never taken to heart… Not like me. I'm sure of it. There is a necromancer or a quieted gang of bogey men in the dark of this tunnel. They pull a bag all in black from over my mop as a flicker of candles and chanting spells descends over my weakened form.
The one with eyes of red stares; masked in mystery and intrigue. Damn! I just want to spit in that wanker's pink – eye. Make him bloody well, tell me what's going on below the castle. He knows. Because, it's old Hurley staring blankly down at my shoddy blue. His red orbs are just for show. Masks, the lot of em. This was why I'd come to the Loch. Not to save Mr. Hurley, yet to stop him from harming the last living mystery on this planet. On this earth. The waking world was in trouble as I looked on about the room. This steady glare in my vision must have been a gas to keep the high ones higher than that.
I notice the masks by shape and form…. Snakes. They are devoted to a monster, and not a very open minded one, mind you…
"Siblings of the gods! We are here to reclaim the hour – of Loch Ness and all her mysteries!"
I grunt and pull at my binds. No good. Bloody enchanted. Was this a real-life cult? Why was it below the castle? Be it his balding rights as a patron to the devil's brigade, or Hurley's incessant whimpering, I had to get out of this place and back to Chas.
"Bring in the sacrifice!!"
The front door! It swung loose as a being of lesser might stepped forth. A creature inside a cage of glass and fluids as it rocks over the waterways beside us. Outside was a passage to Nessie's den. Her grotto was under attack!
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The creature wasn't just a figment. I gasped and saw its fear. It was a wee thing. A small copy of the original.
"We shall now send our "sacrifice" to the land of the immortals! My brothers, sisters…. WE shall recreate the balance that our forefathers saw to! We are the Druids of olden, we are –
"Seriously, mate! I'm still talkin!" I got ready to cast with my lips gone off a mile a second. ~ Bris saor, mo shlabhraidhean! Biodh fios aig mo naimhdean air do neart! ~ The cast is good enough. I pulled my clinking shackles apart so easily that it, hurt! The men in hoods call after their god, until I see what god would ever be willing to take Ness's child.
It's not a what, but a misconception. A monster called, Beithir-nimh.
A serpent and demon – snake of the Loch. I had not a clue how to tame it. It was akin to the elements provided by its followers. It made them believe it was a god. It was a thing of sorcery and evils I cannot speak aloud to you, the audience. I will say, that it is not from our world. Ness is the lucky one. She was a kind beastie, until this home wrecker made me mad as a harpy out for blood.
"Leave the kid! You're worshipping a demon! Stop this! Hurley! Tell them!!" I cried out and used spells to get closer, before a whip caught my bloody arm…No, not whip. Tendril. Snake.
They weren't real. Hurley and a few others were still under its curse. The door behind young Ness's child revealed that a rift was pulling this dimension into its own. The kid was in danger, so I threw myself into the flames. Babe wasn't cursed. I was the cure. No one else would, so why the hell not?
They called out to it, entranced by the gasses it breathed. Mind control! I used the water cloth from earlier in my pack to protect myself from the gut wrenching appetite this demon had for human souls.
"It ends! Call off the summon! NOW!" I shouted, demanding an answer. These cultists are looney as I'd believed! They don't only not stop, they sing even louder! Bullocks!
~ Tha sinn a' tairgse suas a' chreutair so do'n aon fhirinn dhiadhaidh ! Dia nan neo-aithnichte. An dorchadas agus an naomh. Biodh do bheannachdan air an co-dhùnadh cho math. Is sinne an àm ri teachd airson do rìoghachd tìr is mara agus dorcha! ~
The chant has the floors and waters rock to and fro. Until now, I'd believed Hurley to be a man off many faiths. Druid from his ancestor's line, the monster must have fed off of those insecurities he'd clung to for as long as I'd known the bloke. He was a dead man. now.
A roar entered throughout the tunnels. I jolted and finally got over to the scaley, lad as it whimpered with a dolphin's whine in my ear. "It's ok…I'm not gonna hurt you, lad. We have to move –
~ LEAVE MY DINNER!!! LEAVE IT!! ~
That frightening rumble certainly sounded famished enough. I had no choice. I took to wheeling him off myself and with Ness's child off the water to find a new tunnel, inside it, I found more than I'd bargained for.
More tendrils and tails. This beast, was a hydra. It just whacked at the walls, startling the poor child. And me! Hurley stood in a tremble over his losses and is still looking' for a place to hide? What went on with ya' mate?? The rest of the cult has abandoned their cause. All when they'd seen the size of their "god," wouldn't you?
" Cowards…" I spat at my luck. The greater beast roared back and with a snarl, set its head to knock me into the water, diving deep as any orca. I used a way of a curse on it to counter the blow, a clearly useless spell as the waters below us started churning up again. Whirlpools took us through the tunnels...
Sea monster, serpent. Whatever you'd call it. Sputtering water from my lungs,I got back up onto our little craft in time to check on Ness's lad.
He's quite a sprout, has the will of a monster in him. The heart of a mammal from the unknown.
Beithir - nimh batted at my tiny vessel. I now felt like the lovely sacrifice, but to hell with it!
" Bullocks !" I had bigger fish to bait, so me and the mini beastie took to usin' a new tactic to destract this homewrecking piece of...
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