Bones and Ash

[YanYanGanaffi]

"So, what the hell are we doing here, Jimmy." I looked over at my partner-in-training, Terry. He had that whole 'Opie' look about him; all sweet and 'all American' save for the sawwed-off single shot 12 GA. shotgun and the smell of 'Tai-stick' all over him. I still wasn't happy about him showwing up to the church high. He claimed he needed to 'take the edge off'. Frigging stoner talk.

 

"I told you," I explained for the third time," body recovery and necromation neutralization. Did you pack silver slugs or salt shot?" In case you didn't know, 'necromations' are undead; in this case a suspected vampire. I got the call earleir in the day from a guy I know, Herman Laak. Laak was the head of a local hunter's guild that sometimes freelances bull**** assignments that they feel are too dangerous or aren't worth their time to guys like me who either are willing to accept the pay or have a death wish. A hunter's guild, as I know some of you are asking, are monster hunters, for lack of a better term. There are several chapters around the world. Where there is a major city near by, you will have at least one or two. You can't volenteer to join. You are either born into one or are recruited based on your skills in various paranormal abilities. If you have a useful gift, they will contact you eventually. Oh, by the way, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is James Vincent Conway, but everyone on the dark side of 'reality' call me "Voodoo Jimmy.'

 

"I packed both," Terry answered. He was on of Laak's little 'goofers' that the guild leaders sometimes send along with me. He seemed decent enough. According to Laak, Terry had been on a few missions before, which was good news. I didn't want him to freeze if we get jumped by a damned wraith or a bunch of zombies saunter out. The zombies wouldn't be much of a problem because of the machettes I keep for that circumstance.

 

"Good," I said," God only knows what the hell we are going to find in this pile of sticks." We looked at the outside of the Rocksink Baptist Church. From what we had been told, it had been an old 'cracker' church built in the 1880's by Rev. Stewert Greer. During the yellow fever outbreak in the 1890's the church had been used as a make-shift hospital. The graveyard that was long overgrown was filled with many that had died from the epidemic. Rumor had it that the Reverend had taken a few of the bodies into a basement in an effort to 'resurrect' some of the dead lost to the disease. That is when a demon crept in and 'animated' one of the corpses while the reverend was practicing an ancient rite that was supposedly passed on from the Early Christain Movement when the apostiles healed the sick and brought bakc the dead.

 

Unfortunately, the magical formula was flawed creating soul-less husk while driving out the residing soul of the person. The Reverend found out quickly that his efforts were not useless, but detramental. The possessed corpses that looked to all outside apperances normal people recovering from the fever were in fact speading it even more. The demon finally revealed itself when Reverend Greer was at death's door from the fever. Though the demon had slain the enitre town of Rocksink, Florida; it's victory had been bitter sweet. With the last ounce of stregnth and faith, the preacher cursed the name of the demon to be bound to that spot inside the church.

 

I hoped to hell there wasn't a demon in there. That is one of the fewer things that worried the s*** out of me. The reason we were here was that a local politician's son had went missing in the area during a hunting trip. Laak's boys had already checked out most of the likely lairs in the county save this one. They claimed that they didn't have time to check it themselves. I'm sure you can smell the BS in that statement from over there.

 

 

 

(To be continued)