Northern Fiction - Going Underground
Wizard In Limbo
'What's up?' demanded Hamish, who was at the back.
Nick crouched down, pointing towards the nearby basement window. Although the inside was curtained by dark red drapes that obscured their view of the room beyond, it was clear to a practised eye that someone had left the catch up on the window.
'Tut, tut,' he clucked to himself, turning to his fellow burglars.
'What is it? Eloise whispered. Nick indicated the window. 'What?' Eloise repeated uncomprehendingly. Nick grinned.
'Poor security,' he muttered sententiously. 'Someone forgot to close this window properly. Just a second.'
The crustie slipped something long and thin out of his pocket, and slid it into the crack between window and lock. A few seconds jiggling and suddenly the window sprang open. Eloise stared admiringly at Nick.
'How do you do that?' she murmured. In the dark, Nick blushed, and muttered something.
'Well, come on then,' Hamish demanded impatiently. Nick shrugged, climbed over the sill and slid into the room beyond, fighting his way through the billowing drapes. Hamish heaved himself after the Scouser. Then Eloise, after taking one last glance around the shadow_shrouded gardens that surrounded the house, threw a leg over the sill and pulled herself into the mysterious room.
She forced the heavy drape aside and stumbled into Hamish. The Scot grunted. The dark shape of Nick turned at the noise.
'Quiet!' he hissed. He waved his hands towards a dull beam of light that pierced the gloom of the room ahead.
'Dodgy seventies burglar alarm thing,' he muttered. 'This business tycoon bloke must have really believed in cutting corners when it came to security. Don't cross that beam, either of you, it'll set the alarm off. We'll have to get under it or over it.'
'Some light would be a good idea,' whispered Eloise as she collided with something at thigh level. Reaching out, she felt around it. It seemed to be a table of some sort. Her groping hands came into contact with a thick wax candle.
'Nick, throw me your lighter,' she called. Something whirred through the darkness from Nick's direction, and Eloise reached out to grab it. It fell with a clatter to the floor beside her foot and she bent to pick it up.
'What the fuck's this?' came Hamish's voice from the nearby wall. The lighter flame flared up, illuminating the area that immediately surrounded Eloise. She stared down at the table.
Black cloth covered an altar upon which stood seven black candles. Before them lay a wavy_bladed dagger and a metal dish. Eloise shuddered at the sight of the greasy candles, with a horrible feeling that she knew their origin. But she ignored her fears, and quickly lit them.
The guttering flames illuminated the room, sending shadows dancing into the darkness beyond the ambit of the light. It revealed Nick crouching near the centre of the room, and Hamish feeling along the left_hand wall. The skinhead turned round as the candles flared up, then swung back to stare at the thing he had felt in the dark.
A severed goat's head hung from a hook. Its glassy eyes returned the gaze of another that dangled on the far side of the altar.
The rest of the room was furnished as a Satanic temple; red and black drapes and demonic idols ranged the walls, strange symbols including inverted pentagrams and chaos stars had been painted on the dark floor. A heady reek of incense was beginning to drift up from the smoking candles.
'Fuck,' muttered Hamish in disgust. He turned to the others. 'What the fuck is this place?'
Eloise smiled eerily at him from the altar, where she stood wreathed in sweet_smelling smoke.
'It's a temple,' she said quietly. 'This must be where Anghelides performed his rituals, when he was alive.'
As she spoke, a thumping sound came from the floor above. The three intruders gaped up at the ceiling as they heard the sound of... footsteps? moving across the floor of an upstairs room. Nick glanced at Eloise.
'You sure this guy's dead?' he asked wryly. 'Cause someone's upstairs.'
Hamish shook his head. 'Don't be stupid, Scouser,' he snapped. 'It must be one of his relations or something.'
Eloise shook her head. 'Anghelides was practically a recluse. I wouldn't have suggested we did this if I thought there'd be anyone around.'
Hamish grinned. 'Well, they won't get in our way,' he said grimly. He crossed over to the wall, where a ceremonial sword hung from a hook. He drew it, then turned and headed for the door to the rest of the house.
Nick reached him just in time. He grabbed Hamish's arm, and the skinhead swung round, glaring balefully.
'What's the matter, bollocks?' he demanded. Nick indicated the lightbeam.
'You almost went through that,' he hissed. 'Be careful.'
Eloise drifted up to them through the incense smoke.
'Hamish, where d'you think you're going with that sword?' she demanded. 'Don't be stupid!'
Hamish glowered at her. 'I'm not coming back another time,' he declared. 'I came here to rob the place, and that's what I'm gonna do, and no fucker's gonna get in my way.' This said, he ducked under the lightbeam and strode for the door.
Eloise looked anxiously at Nick, who shrugged.
'We'd better stop him,' she said wildly. Ducking under the beam, she headed for the door, which was just closing as she approached it. She pulled it open and disappeared into the corridor beyond.
Nick took one nervous glance round the temple, then followed the example of his two companions.
He found Eloise and Hamish arguing outside the door, in a long, narrow corridor.
'I'm going this way,' he heard Hamish say defiantly, as he came up to the pair. The Scot broke away from Eloise's restraining arm and strode off to the left, holding the sword out in front of him. Nick caught up with Eloise, and together they hurried after the Scot.
They followed him into a larger hallway. Ahead of them was a staircase going up to the ground floor. Doors led off to the left and right, but Hamish had ignored these and was striding purposefully up the steps.
'Hamish,' hissed Eloise. He ignored her, and disappeared out of sight round the corner. Eloise and Nick pursued him up the steps.
They caught up with him in the front hall, which was dark and shadowy, except for one end, where eerie silver moonlight shone through the front door windows. Hamish was standing silently near the back of the hall. On a table beside him was a large box.
'Hamish,' Nick hissed. 'Slow down. We've got to talk about this. Even if that noise up there is Samael Anghelides' walking corpse, you can't just go and attack it...'
Hamish swung round.
'Whoever or whatever is upstairs,' he said brutally, 'it isn't Anghelides.' He indicated the box. They hurried over, and peered inside.
A motionless figure lay within what was clearly an open coffin. Immaculately dressed, with a pale, handsome face and iron_grey hair, a strong jaw and a pointed beard, the mortal remains of the shipping magnate and chaos magickian Samael Anghelides seemed merely to be sleeping. Eloise moved closer, gazing down at the corpse in dark fascination.
'What secrets will he take to his grave?' she murmured.
A clatter from upstairs alerted them.
'Nick, see if you can work out what's happening,' Eloise ordered. As the crustie slipped silently away, she turned to Hamish. 'And now I think you and me had better have a little talk.'
'What about?' demanded Hamish truculently.
'You can't just go about killing people...' Eloise began.
'Why the fuck not?' The skinhead shrugged. 'Who's to stop me? You?'
'What about the police?' Eloise asked quietly. Hamish glared at her. 'You already have a police record,' she added.
But before Hamish could think of a retort, Nick came running back down the stairs. They turned to greet him. His face was pale in the gloom.
'What happened?' Hamish asked him.
'I couldn't find them,' Nick stuttered. 'But I don't think I want to. I heard it scuttling towards me... and I ran... And I... Oh my god!'
He broke off, staring over their shoulders. Eloise looked uncertainly at him.
'Yes, very funny,' she said. 'Then what?'
But all Nick did was wave his hand vaguely in the direction of the coffin. Nervously, Eloise turned...
And found herself face to face with Samael Anghelides.
The corpse stared at her. She stared back. It had sat up, seeming surprised to find three people in its house. Eloise wasn't afraid _ she just felt numb. She kept on telling herself that this was absurd. By now, Hamish had also turned round. Seeing the cadaver had risen, he leapt into a battle_stance, and threatened it with his sword.
A look of mild distaste crossed Anghelides' face as he stared at the desperate figure.
'Put that down, please,' he murmured.
The three intruders stared at him in shock.
Anghelides took hold of the sides of his coffin and swung himself lithely out. Pushing Hamish's sword aside, he stared at the burglars in some surprise.
'What exactly are you doing here, incidentally?' he asked in mild tones.
'Er,' said Eloise. 'Well, we thought you were dead.'
'And you intended to burgle me as I lay lifeless?'
'We weren't exactly expecting an open coffin in the hall,' Eloise replied, spiritedly. 'What are you, a vampire? Why did you make the police think you were dead?
'I was dead,' Anghelides shrugged. 'To all intents and purposes. My body was lifeless. My soul was elsewhere.'
'So where the fuck was it?' Hamish asked, raising his sword again.
Anghelides gave him a weary look. 'I was on the astral plane,' he explained condescendingly. 'Not something petty criminals would understand.'
'I would,' said Eloise indignantly. 'I've been there myself, once or twice. I've been to the Akashic Records, and read the Book of Dzyan.'
<< Previous Page Next Page >>
© 2004-2007 Northvegr.
Most of the material on this site is in the public domain. However, many people have worked very hard to bring these texts to you so if you do use the work, we would appreciate it if you could give credit to both the Northvegr site and to the individuals who worked to bring you these texts. A small number of texts are copyrighted and cannot be used without the author's permission. Any text that is copyrighted will have a clear notation of such on the main index page for that text. Inquiries can be sent to info@northvegr.org. Northvegr™ and the Northvegr symbol are trademarks and service marks of the Northvegr Foundation.
|