Whiteout III: 5 (The End)

5. The End

     “Five minutes until the sun sets.” I said quietly. Lopsang, James and Siana stood at the far edges of the cave, gripping their ropes. One tug and the net would fall, redirecting their force to keeping it on the ground. The dead man sat, propped up in the center like a macabre homage to Weekend at Bernie’s. I almost laughed at it, but thought it in poor taste. Those last five minutes were some of the longest of my life. The time ticked away with heavy thrums on my watch, counting down to the end.

     “Sixty seconds everyone.” My heart pounded in my chest. Nervously I opened the book, reading over the passage that I had rehearsed so many times in my head. Quickly I ran around the circle and lit the candles. My fingers fumbled with the matchstick and nearly lost it, but I held it steady. I then crouched in a corner, just behind a large boulder waiting. Sweat beaded on the back of my neck and ran cold down to the base of my spine. I shivered violently, prickling the hairs on the back of my neck.

     “Ten seconds. This is it everyone. It’s been a pleasure working with you.”

     “You as well.” Came the murmur from the rest of the condemned. They stood silently at their posts. James had a resolve about him that I had never seen. A few near-death experiences in a couple of days had changed him. He was growing into the apprentice that I had always hoped he could be. The door to the cave opened silently and snowflakes blew in, instantly melting when they hit the warm air.

     Silence, was all we heard for the first minute. Maybe it’s not going to come. It may have stayed out on the mountain too long and died! The thoughts were idiotic of course, but anything to stay my execution a moment longer. Then the roar came. It was worse than before. I had not heard it in a while and the bone chilling horror that it brought with it shook me once more to my very core. The cave rumbled with the creatures sound and weight as it stomped towards it.

     The candles threw heavy shadows on the walls, and soon a figure emerged. I could smell the stench of it from behind the boulder. It carried with it death and decay. The booming of its footsteps stopped, followed by a heavy sniffing. Then came the jarring crunching of bones as the creature bit into the dead man in the center of the circle. Well, this is it. Fortune and glory kid, that’s what you wanted isn’t it? “NOW!” I yelled, and jumped out from behind the rock.

     The yeti was dead center in the middle of the circle and let out an earth shattering roar as the net fell over it. I began the incantation. The words flowed like water from my lips, easy to speak, and carrying with them great power. The cave shook as the beast threw all of its weight against the net. James was briefly lifted off his feet, but their strength together managed to hold it. I had no time to think. I continued to circle and speak.

     “The days of your reaping are over and you are no longer welcome on this plane of existence. Your cause is called to another, far away from here. The time that you have spent on this earth has brought nothing but pain and suffering. For that your are sentenced to go to the world between worlds where you will never cause harm again!” The beast roared loudly and looked directly into my eyes. I faltered momentarily as it caught me with its gaze. Nothing lived in the pits that hid behind its matted fur. I could feel the blood boiling inside of it, and watched as the muscles flexed beneath the rope, trying to escape and eviscerate me.

     “Nick, keep reading!” James yelled, clearly faltering under the strain of the weight.

     “Follow these guides to the land beyond lands and be gone from ours forever. With my own blood I seal this command, and carry out your banishment. Leave this place and never return.” Now for the hard part. Nervously I stepped into the circle and drew the knife from its sheath. Can’t be that much worse than a bee sting. I grabbed the blade with my hand and drug it across the skin, cutting deeply and spilling my own blood into the circle.

     I was a mere five feet from the yeti. It’s stench was overpowering. It hunched over and looked right at me, bearing its massive teeth and flexing its jaw. As my blood dripped to the floor the creature lunged violently for me, biting at the ropes as it did so. The net pushed him violently back to the floor, but the force pulled James off of his feet and threw him into the circle opposite me. Time took an even slower edge to it in that moment.

     The beast turned quicker than I could lunge for it. “James move now!” It was too late. The beast had him by the leg and tore into him, spilling his blood all over the stones. It seeped in deeply, covering the yeti’s fur. “No!” I shouted running towards the beast with my knife outstretched. The candles blew fire to the roof of the cave, singing the flowers and creating an inferno above us. The heat was beyond my imagining and I dropped to the floor, as my back sizzled and singed.

     The beast roared and was dragged upward into the portal. The ropes snapped and the portal closed, filling the chamber with smoke. The roar cut off in a second and was then silence. I looked up bewildered to see Lopsang and Siana both on the floor, singed rope in hand, and then looked forward. James lay in the center of the circle in a pool of his own blood. I hurried over to him. “Lopsang, get bandanges now!” He was up fast and running over to us.

     “Nick.” James muttered weakly. Deep gashes oozed blood from his chest. He coughed violently and spit up more onto the floor.

     “Hold on James, we’re going to patch you up and get you out of here.” There was no way. The nearest hospital was too far, and air evac wouldn’t go above a certain height. His wounds wouldn’t even allow him time to get out of the death zone.

     “Siana went back to her world and Lopsang and I climbed back down the mountain to ours. We had an easy time of it. The weather changed for the better and there were no storms to hamper us on the descent. We buried James just beneath the summit. It’s a simple grave, one that probably will never be seen again. He’s got a nicer empty one just down the road in a big family mausoleum. It’s what he would have wanted. So that’s that, the end of my tale. Now can I have my money and go?”

     The pain is hard to recollect. The booze has completely worn off, and the drinks I’ve been getting are too weak to get the edge back. The man is sitting across from me smiling. He smiles at the saddest moment of my life, as if it’s all been some cruel joke of his devising. I have a right mind to punch you in the face you fat fuck.

     “I’m afraid you can’t have your money just yet. You haven’t told me the thing that’s most important. Where is the mountain? I would have guessed Everest from your early description, but it doesn’t fit.”

     “I’m not telling you that. Like I said, some parts of the map need to stay blank.” A cold barrel presses to the back of my neck. I look up to see the butler standing behind me, holding a pistol. “Ah, so the story was your bait. You wanted to know what happened so that you could go there yourself, not make the same mistakes I did. Is that it?”

     “The gates are still open Mr. Ventner, only now there’s nothing to guard them. You made sure of that didn’t you?”

     “Son of a bitch.”

     “Now I’m going to ask you once more, where’s the mountain?”

     “Go ahead, kill me. I’m the only one who knows where it is.”

     “I had a feeling you would say that. You know James still has some family in town, maybe we should go and look them up, pay them a visit?”

My own life doesn’t mean as much to me as it once did, but I’ll be damned if anything is going to happen to his. Taking your sweet ass time… I begin to laugh. It’s taken me longer to notice than I thought it would.

“What are you laughing about Mr. Ventner? This is no joke.”

“Oh I know. I’m just so bloody slow sometimes. Really? Inside a suit of armor? How cliché.” There’s a puff of multi-color smoke and the pressure from the gun behind me eases suddenly. “Took you long enough. I thought he was going to plug me.” I stand up and away from the chair. “Did you have to water down my drinks though?” I turn around to see Lopsang holding the gun and the butler lying motionless on the floor.

“The Demi-god?”

“What, you didn’t think I was making that part up did you? Oh you silly man. Now, we have a couple of things to discuss.” The man looks at his butler on the floor, disturbed. “Oh don’t worry, he’ll come round in an hour or two. Right now what I want to talk to you about is what you’re going to do next. See we have a few ways this scenario can go.”

“Go to hell.”

“Most likely, but not yet. Now, I can have my associate here shoot you, effectively ending your little search for Shangri-La, or you can swear off it forever. Now I know what you’re thinking, you could just break that promise in an instant, but I’ve got a plan for that. So what’ll it be sir? I’m done with story time.”

He looks scared, shivering, and enraged all at the same time. “Fine!” He spits out.

“Glad to hear it! I’m really not fond of killing people. One more thing, I’m going to need my money.”

“It’s in the safe behind you. 32,42,53.” I walk over and open the safe. Inside are bars of gold and stacks of cash beyond my wildest dreams. It takes all I have in me not to rob him blind. I take only the cash he has promised and close the safe.

“Right, now that we’ve got that squared, Lopsang, get the chalk, we’re going to need to make a pentagram…”

The End

Written by,

Ashton Macaulay

In: 24 Days