Excerpt:
Dorian said, “And from what we saw, Victor’s higher self may be like Billy Bingo’s higher self.”
Alice said, “Wait. What?”
The Legman said, “Sabian Blackrock may have unknowingly transported a god into his spaceship. You need to know with what you are dealing.”
Alice asked, “But with whom will we be dealing?”
The Legman said, “I don’t know. And he could just be a very powerful witch, but the energy reading was at that level that suggests a god.”
Hearthville Serial 4
Book 4 (Title Undecided):
A Paranormal Suspense Gangster Horror
By Charles Peters
Copyright 2019
All Rights Reserved
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Chapter 14
Sam Bigalo’s mother, Samanjela Bigalo, attended her garden in the Inner Witch City that was not a city of the living but a city of the dead. It was where many upper class witches dwelled who were between lives. These were the witches who were space aliens or worked with the space alien witches. They were witches who did not have to dwell in the honey combs or lower realms or the outlands.
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Souls tend to take on the relationships they’ve enjoyed in their various lives and their between lives. Souls tend to form clans and communities similar as in the world of the living. Some communities do try to discourage souls from maintaining the roles they had in the world of the living but then some souls shun those communities as being run by assholes.
A young man ran up to Samanjela Bigalo. “I just heard on my scanner that Sam has killed Billy Bingo, the spawn of Iapetus. I could not get much information on whether Billy has been caged or not. So far the Witches Council has not put a price on his head.”
Samanjela stared at the young man who had kept trying to befriend her. She knew very little about him. She didn’t even know his name in the Inner Witch City. She gave him very little reaction to the news he had just presented to her. In truth, she wasn’t sure what to think.
Finally she asked, “Was the killing sanctioned?”
“I don’t know. My grandfather said it was because Iapetus is harboring General Gorgan. And of course that with what General Gorgan did to Amelia. How is Amelia?”
“Her soul continues to sleep.”
“My grandfather said he saw her sleep walking.”
“She does sometimes move about and the doctor says she may be dreaming but she doesn’t wake. She may never wake.”
“I am sorry.”
“Son, I know this is rude of me. You have been friendly in the last months and I don’t even know your name.”
“People who acknowledge I exist call me Biscuit. My grandfather is the great Christopher Rome.”
“How is Christopher?”
“He is considering being reborn. I hope he doesn’t make that choice for I will miss him. I have so few friends.”
Samanjela smiled. “I understand.”
***
The Legman looked at the astral body of Victor. Then he looked at the computer monitors as he typed in some stuff. The Legman shook his head. “Where the fuck is your physical body? You aren’t dead. But where the fuck are you.”
George said, “Other than knowing that I am right here, I have no idea. I have no idea where my physical body is.” An image flashed in George’s mind of Donny Maxtone. He heard a whisper, “You should be on the helicopter.”
The Legman looked at Pam. “Where did Dorian send his body? None of the fucking logs are showing us the correct information.” The Legman zapped Dorian to stand in front of him. “Where is Victor’s body?”
Dorian attempted to snap herself to escape into the outlands.
The Legman grabbed her by the lighted silver cord that showed through her black dress. He caught her light, the cord, tightly in his angry fist and yanked her down to stop her from flying. “No way in hell are you going to escape. You are going to tell me where Victor is or the next cage I put you in is going to be a cage of burning fire and and a cage of brimstone that will scorch you down to your very soul. Understand.”
“You wouldn’t do that. You are not Satan.”
“The hell I wouldn’t. Where is Victor’s body?”
George thought back to when the woman said, “I hate to mention it but you need to put your spawn Billy back into the helicopter to be with his aunt.” George remembered that his body was supposed to be transported to the helicopter about the same time that Billy was transported back to the helicopter. He remembered being separated from his body after his body had been moved to the chamber to be transported back to the helicopter.
George said, “Even though I was separated from my body, I wasn’t totally separated. I remember holding Billy’s hand in flight. There was something happening to us, though I can’t remember what. There was some force. It yanked me one direction and Billy a different direction.”
The Legman listened to Victor. “Dorian, what did you do? Where is Victor’s body?”
Dorian said, “Victor is on Sabian Blackrock’s spaceship.”
The Legman called Alice.
Alice answered. “Please don’t go to war against us. Please.”
The Legman said, “You tell Sabian Blackrock he has exactly 5 minutes to put Victor Duddley’s body on the ground or I will cage him and all of his spawns into fire and brimstone. There will be none of him left on earth.”
Alice asked, “Sabian has Victor?”
“Sabian has Victor’s body. I have Victor’s soul. If Sabian kill’s Victor’s body, Sabian is gone. I don’t give a flying fuck to what the Witches Council response might be. I am fed up.”
Alice said, “I don’t think Sabian’s intent is to kill Victor, but I understand your concern. Please give me 10 minutes.”
“No more than 10 minutes.”
Alice called Sabian. “You put Victor on the ground, right now, or your sorry ass is gong to be caged in fire and brimstone.”
“You don’t have that power and even if you did, the Witches Council would not allow it.”
“Bitch, I do have that power. Still. I am simply delivering the threat, the Legman’s message, to you. That said, let me add, if you think the Witches Council will stand up for your trying to locate a time portal for nefarious reasons, you are crazy in the head.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“You son of a bitch. The hell you don’t! If you do not stop your insanity, you are going to turn earth into Pluto Viso. Do you understand that?”
“I would never…”
“You are threatening war with the god of Iapetus. He does not want to do to earth what Belial did to Pluto Viso. He does not. But you stupid piece of shit, you’ve pushed him to the brink. You have caused him to fly the flag of war.”
“I do not have Victor Duddley.”
“Stop lying.”
“But his body will be alive and on the ground pronto. I do not confess responsibility.”
“Understood.”
Alice called the Legman. “Sabian does not admit anything but Victor will be on the ground pronto.”
“Good.” The Legman disconnected from talking to Alice.
Pam keyed commands into the monitor systems to focus on the ground. She watched the scrolling computer messages. “Okay Victor’s body is on the helicopter. Sabian has pulled back out of range. We can transfer Victor’s soul back to his body. Of course Sabian could swoop back in and try to beam Victor with his soul back up.”
Dorian watched the monitor as Pam was talking. “Victor is walking out of the helicopter. That is what is there on the monitor but…” Dorian looked at Victor’s soul. “You are still here but he is awake and walking.”
Pam watched the monitor. “Okay. Victor has just vanished into thin air. I am fairly certain that Sabian did not do that.”
George said, “I feel so weird. My thoughts are like in fog.”
Dorian said, “I would not be so sure that Sabian is not pulling some kind of trick.”
Pam said, “Sabian’s ship is out of range, but maybe you are right that we should not trust what we are seeing.”
George said, “Something is happening to me. What is happening? I feel so weird. It is like I have a rubber band around my waist. And I can’t think clearly. God damn it, why are my thoughts so muddled?”
The Legman tried to cast a spell to prevent Victor from leaving the spaceship. His spell pinged. It didn’t work. The astral body of Victor vanished from the Legman’s spaceship.
Pam studied the scrolling data. “Look here.”
The Legman looked to see what she was talking about.
Pam said, “This is what it looks like when you and Billy merge. A second soul entered Victor before he vanished.”
The Legman said, “Wow. But Victor’s soul was still on this spaceship when he vanished.”
“Strange. Three souls.” Dorian asked, “So if the data is correct, of who is Victor Duddley the spawn?”
The Legman said, “I don’t have a clue, but he must be a witch.”
Dorian said, “Or like you, a god.”
Pam said, “Maybe. That is what the file suggests.”
Pam was so busy looking at the data that seemed to show that Victor had three souls, she didn’t notice the time variables in the data. No one on the Legman’s spaceship did.
Dorian said, “Yeah, that is what the file suggests but maybe we should not trust what we have just seen. Victor knows where a time portal is and that is the information that Sabian is after. Sabian’s plan is to convince Victor to change time so that Billy Bingo does not get on that helicopter.”
The Legman asked, “So it was all Sabian? The Witches Council was not responsible?”
Dorian shook her head. “I am fairly sure the Witches Council was not involved.” Dorian cleared her throat. She looked at the data on the computer that Pam was studying. Dorian said, “I am not so sure Sabian would have given up on his plan so quickly.”
Pam said, “But I go back to the fact that Sabian has been out of range to have beamed Victor to his spaceship.” Pam pointed to some data. “And this right here is what I see when the Legman and Billy Bingo merge.”
Dorian said, “I know the data suggests that Victor is the spawn of a witch or a god, but Sabian is good at games.”
The Legman listened to Dorian. It was as though she had not betrayed him. But was her banter with Pam, her warning, just a game? The Legman said, “If I catch you ever acting as a spy against me again, I will send you into torment. I must be able to trust you. Now please be honest with me. Do you really think that Sabian might still have Victor.”
“I don’t know how. And I see the data Pam has that gives reason to believe Victor vanished on his own. And I know Sabian was out of range. But, Sabian is Sabian. You must not underestimate him.”
The Legman moaned. “Fuck. We need to find Billy’s soul. We need to find Victor. Shit.” The Legman took down the flag of war. The Legman said, “Pam, give orders to fly us toward Sabian’s spaceship.”
Pam asked, “What about Victor?”
“We need to locate him and make sure that he hasn’t been taken by Sabian or the Witches Council. That record suggests his higher self merged with him but we have got to make sure his higher self has stepped in to protect him.”
***
When George’s soul was pulled from the Legman’s spaceship, George had felt as though he were a fish on the end of a line. That line, that force, pulled him into the dark void. As he felt that force reeling him in, he fought that force. He struggled to free himself. He fought hard. Then suddenly he was free, but in the darkness he did not feel so free. In the darkness, he mostly felt fear. George moaned, “What is happening?”
Artorius had been watching Victor through a crystal ball, hoping that he might get a glimpse to where Jossette was, his Nette was. Artorius had wanted Victor dead or that is what he had thought. But now there he was watching Victor and sensing Victor’s fear. And more than that he was sensing that the Victor he was watching was not Victor.
Nanny Ogleby came upon Artorius in the secret, or maybe not so secret, room in the attic of the Ramsey Mansion. She saw him looking into his Crystal Ball. “What mischief be you stirring?”
“I’ve done wrong.”
“More than once I’ve told you that, but of what wrong do you now speak?”
“Victor is floating in a void in the Outlands. He is scared. And I am scared for him.”
Nanny looked into the Crystal Ball. “Surely that does look like Victor, but something is not right.”
“I fear I’ve been messing with the spawn of a powerful witch or maybe even a god but why would he leave his spawn in the void?”
“How did he get into the void?”
“He was on a spaceship controlled by Iapetus.”
“Oh my fucking hell.”
“I know. And something pulled him from the spaceship or Iapetus threw him from the spaceship. I am not sure which.”
“You know, they call him the Legman. Iapetus. He is our only hope.”
“I’ve done wrong. I don’t understand exactly what is happening but I can’t leave that boy lost in the void.”
“The Witches Council has forbidden you from going into the void.”
“You see that other spaceship. That one there.” Artorius pointed. “There is a hunter on it. His name is Sam Bigalo. He is in trouble. I am going to go to his spaceship.”
“Wait. How is he in trouble?”
“He killed a young boy that was the spawn of Iapetus.”
“You are going to risk the wrath of the Legman. Why? You are not making any sense. Why not go to the Legman’s spaceship and tell him where Victor is so that he can rescue Victor?”
“What if he is the one who put Victor into the void? I don’t know if he is or if he isn’t. But Sam is in trouble. And Victor is in trouble. I need to talk to Sam.”
Artorius vanished. He appeared in Sam Bigalo’s spaceship.”
Sam stared at Artrorius. “What the fuck do you want?”
“I need your help and you need my help.”
“How can you help me?”
“Victor is lost in the void. We need to get him out of the void.”
“What? So you can make him tell you where the time portal is?”
“No. So he can use the time portal to undo this madness. You should not have murdered that boy.”
“He is a threat to earth. The Legman is protecting a General from Pluto Viso. If they aren’t stopped they might turn earth into Pluto Viso.”
“The wars of Pluto Viso are etched in your soul. Those wars are not etched in his soul. You are the threat. He is not the threat. For there is a part of you who wants to fight those wars all over again. He doesn’t. And to be clear, I was in those wars. I know how those memories can haunt you. But you did wrong. You know you did wrong.”
“You know? I don’t know.”
“Yes. I know. And you do know. You did wrong. That wrong must be undone.”
“Sabian Blackrock wants to use Victor to learn where a time portal is. If we try to use Victor to locate that time portal, we might help Sabian Blackrock achieve his goal.”
“That must not happen.”
“On that we agree.”
“But your evil must be undone. My evil must be undone. Victor must be brought out of the void. He must undo the death of Billy Bingo.”
“Okay. I agree to bring Victor out of the void and into my spaceship. But then what?”
“We have to play this ear and be very careful. I will tell you that Victor is the spawn of a more powerful being but I don’t know the identity of that being. I don’t know why that being allowed his spawn to become disoriented in the void.”
Sam nodded. “Okay. So we are dealing with Iapetus and some unknown witch or God. Shit. I do not like this.”
“Neither do I, but we have to do right.”
***
George felt a tractor beam grab hold of him. “Oh shit.” He tried to fight the force that was pulling him but he couldn’t fight it. He surrendered to force that had him within its grasp. He closed his eyes as he flew through the air.
Then he found himself in the spaceship of Sam Bigalo. George asked, “So what now? Are you going to cage me? Are you going to try to force me to tell you where the time portal is?”
Sam said, “No. Artrorius told me that you needed help and I helped. I wish you could undo Billy Bingo’s death but I know it is dangerous to even try. Sabian Blackrock must not discover where the time portal is.”
George said, “Here is the thing. I don’t know where my body is or who or what might be in control of it.”
Sam said, ” I would guess either your higher self has control of it or Sabian Blackrock has it. I am not sure which. I may be making a mistake but I am going to call Alice Malokey.”
George said, “Okay.”
Sam called Alice. “Hey darling. I guess you know that I have gotten myself in a mess.”
Alice moved away from where other people were standing. She walked to a tree near some bushes. Madison watched her but didn’t follow.
Alice moaned into the phone. “Why? Why?”
“Crazy I guess. Missing Amelia. Obsessing on General Gorgan and the Pluto Viso Wars. I may have been drinking a little bit.”
“And Sabian Blackrock?”
“Yeah, he figures into it all. But listen, here is a thing. Artorious showed me where Victor Duddley was becoming lost in the void. I have beamed him aboard my spaceship. He does not know where his body is. Do you have any ideas?”
Alice said, “Neither I nor the Legman have any idea where Victor’s body is. Under threat, Sabian put his body back on the ground. There was some soul in control of it but the Legman told me that Victor’s soul was still on the spaceship when Victor emerged from the helicopter. Then some force removed Victor’s soul from the spaceship.”
Sam said, “And cast him into the void and his higher self did not move to rescue him.”
Alice said, “Sabian’s spaceship was too far out of range to pull Victor back up from the helicopter.”
Sam said, “I’ve done the two spaceship trick myself. So we can’t assume Sabian was out of range.”
Alice said, “Do you have proof that Sabian was in operation of two spaceships?”
“No, because I wasn’t looking for proof. And I did not collect the data to be able to do any kind of forensics.”
“I am going to put the Legman and his people on this call.”
“He is going to want to kill me.”
The Legman said, “I am not going to try to kill you or cage you. Talk to me.”
Alice said, “Sam rescued Victor’s soul from the void.”
The Legman said, “Thank God. That is a relief. Do you have any idea where his body is?”
Sam said, “No. With the right data I might be able to figure it out, but I don’t have the data.”
Pam said, “We will share what we have and hope that we have what you need.”
Sam said, “I need spherical data from the area where Victor vanished into thin air at the helicopter. I need to look for any blue light in the spectrum.”
Pam said, “He talks like he knows his stuff. I am pulling the data.”
The Legman nodded. “Do that.”
Sam said, “Now at some point the two spaceships would have been in the same place as though they were one spaceship. So you need to look back at the data from where Sabian was pretending to move out of range and then you need to circle the coordinates to look for yellow light.”
Pam said, “I see the yellow light. So does that in itself prove there were two spaceships?”
Sam said, “No. But it is an indication. Now go back to when Victor vanished. Does the blue light move toward the yellow light.”
Pam said, “It does.”
Sam said, “So we can assume that Sabian put Victor back on the ground and then transported him back up when he thought the Legman had moved Victor’s soul back into Victor’s body.”
George said, “But I wasn’t transported.”
Sam said, “Obviously. But there was some soul operating your body and that is what Sabian saw. He thought you were back in your body.”
Alice said, “Okay. So Victor’s higher self took control of the body and then Sabian transported him to his second spaceship.”
Dorian said, “And from what we saw, Victor’s higher self may be like Billy Bingo’s higher self.”
Alice said, “Wait. What?”
The Legman said, “Sabian Blackrock may have unknowingly transported a god into his spaceship. You need to know with what you are dealing.”
Alice asked, “But with whom will we be dealing?”
The Legman said, “I don’t know. And he could just be a very powerful witch, but the energy reading was at that level that suggests a god.”
Artorious said, “Yeah.”
Sam looked at Artorious. “So what should I do?”
Alice said, “You’ve got to locate Sabian’s second spaceship and locate Victor’s body and perhaps higher self and then get him the hell out of whatever cage Sabian has put him in.”
Sam said, “Fuck. Fuckity fickity fuck, fuck, fuck. I don’t like this.”
Alice said, “Tough shit. You find Victor’s body.”
***
Sam Bigalo beamed himself aboard Sabian Blackrock’s spaceship. Holding his sword in a defensive position Sam screamed, “So you want the Legman to kill me? You seriously wanted the Legman to kill me. You cold blooded asshole.”
Sabian said, “Cold blooded! So says the man who killed Billy Bingo. Pot calling the kettle black much.”
Sam Bigalo shook his head. “You are not denying that you want the Legman to kill me.”
There was a disturbance on the spaceship. Sabian looked at his computer monitors to see what was happening. “That was weird. I am not seeing what caused it.”
Sam repeated, “You are not denying that you want me dead.”
Sabian looked away from the monitors. He laughed. “Of course I am not denying it. It would have been nice if he had killed you today but apparently today is just not my day.”
Sam remained in attack posture but at the same time he studied the spaceship. “So you had two spaceships.”
“Change the subject much. I don’t know what on earth you are talking about.”
“Where do you have Victor Duddley?”
“I returned him to the ground. I don’t know what happened to him after that. But besides, what do you care? I would ask if you are working for the Witches Council but you killed Billy Bingo and so they wouldn’t hire you at this point. But you are friends with Alice Malokey. Still, that is not enough, she does not have the power to sanction you to come on my spaceship uninvited.”
“You wanted me dead. That gives me the right.”
Sabian tried magic against Sam but his magic pinged. “Fuck.”
Sam said, “Sword to sword.”
Sabian said, “No.” Sabian then vanished.
The Legman called Sam. “Our data shows that the number of people on the spaceship has dropped from 3 to 2. Either Sabian has moved Victor off the spaceship or he has left the spaceship.”
Victor’s soul and Artorius appeared in front of Sam.
George said, “I think my body is near.”
Sam said, “Don’t go to it until we have it uncaged.”
The Legman said, “We are scanning to try to find the cage.”
Alice appeared on the spaceship. She called out to Victor. “Send us a signal. We want to rescue you.”
George said, “I am being drawn to my body. I can feel it.”
Alice grabbed a hold of Victor. “Take me with you.”
George said, “Okay.”
George and Alice appeared in the dungeon where Victor sat naked. Victor appeared to be in some kind of trance. Then he stood. He screamed, “I am almost awake. I am almost.” Then he collapsed to the floor. George entered his body. George stood. George said, “I feel weird.”
Alice screamed. “Sabian. If you are listening or watching, don’t you dare try to take him.”
George felt a rumble inside of his head. That was the feeling he would sometimes get when Victor was trying to wake up and take back control. George thought, “Please stay asleep.”
A voice came from Victor’s mouth that wasn’t George and wasn’t Victor. “I must wake. I must wake up. Please help me to wake.”
***
Samanjela Bigalo went into the chamber where Amelia’s soul slept. She often went into the chamber of Sam Bigalo’s former wife and talked to her and sometimes read to her. She hoped on some level that Amelia could hear her. The goal was to try to provide Amelia with enough stimuli so that her soul would awake.
The chamber was a large bedroom draped in floral curtains and with a large chandelier in the center. The chandelier was not lit with light bulbs but with flickering candles. Beneath the chandelier was a small but beautiful water fountain with running water that flowed over a statue that was of Amelia. She was a beautiful woman. At her feet, in the water, were water lilies. The statue held a scroll in one hand and the other hand pointed toward a canopy bed that was draped in delicate, white netting.
At the foot of the canopy bed was a large trunk made of weathered pine wood. It had been locked by Amelia before her last mission to Pluto Viso. The trunk had not been unlocked since she locked it.
A black cat sat on the trunk and purred at the sight of seeing Samanjela. Samanjela blinked her eyes to cause food and water to appear for the cat at the base of the trunk. The cat jumped down to eat.
Samanjela blinked her eyes to cause a pan of water to appear in her hands. Holding the water she walked to the bed. She sat the water down on a bed stand that was white and had a spaceship painted on it. Samajela snapped her fingers to cause a washrag to appear in her hand. She dunked the washrag into the water.
The black cat suddenly made a terrible sound. Samanjela turned to look to see what had disturbed the cat but she saw nothing.
Holding the washrag and ready to wash Amelia’s face, Samanjela opened the netting around the canopy bed. Samanjela fully expected to see Amelia there but Amelia was not there.
Samanjela spoke to herself. “She must be sleepwalking.”
Samajela called out, “Where are you Amelia? Come to the sound of my voice.”
Naked, Amelia’s soul walked through a wall and crawled through netting around the bed. She lay down in the bed and she said the first words that Samajela had heard her speak since she had gone into the sleep. When Amelia spoke, it was almost a cry. “I want to wake.”
Samaela laughed with joy. “I now think you will. I have hope. You are so close to waking. Oh great God, please help my Amelia to wake.”
But Amelia returned to a somber sleep.
“Oh dear. Dear. My Sam’s Amelia. If only you could wake to be with him again.”
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