The Cult

“HELP! Someone help me!”

“Sarah! Don’t worry, I’m coming!”

“There is nothing you can do, boy! The ritual is complete! He will come to save us all!”

“No, STOP! Vincent, help!”

“Feast of this child, my lord, and bring us salvation!”

“NO, DON’T DO IT! SARAH!”

“Sarah!” I shot up while calling the name of the little girl I was trying to save. I panted and looked around in confusion. This wasn’t the forest, it was my bedroom. The sun’s rays were just pouring into my dark and bland room. I caught my head in my hands, feeling the sweat in my black hair and on my forehead. It was just a nightmare, or rather, it was much worse than that; it was a memory.

That poor child. She was only eight years old when she was killed by those monsters. There was nothing I could do. There were too many in that cult, more than I thought. I was overwhelmed by them, and she was sacrificed before I could get to her.

I don’t know when I started, but my tears rained down my flustered cheeks, stinging my blue and green eyes, and sobs shook my whole body. I mourned for the child I couldn’t save, I cried for my failure. What made it worse, I didn’t even capture a single one of those psychopaths. They got away and let me live with the guilt.

After that day, I stopped being a cop. I couldn’t live with myself if I were to fail in such a way again. I was right there. I could have reached out with my hand and touched her, but her life was ripped away just before I could.

I sat on my bed, letting my woes go. This wasn’t the first I pained over my failure, and it surely won’t be the last time either. After what felt like an hour, but was really 30 minutes, I stopped choking on my grief. I needed to get up and take a shower. So that’s what I did.

After taking a warm shower, drying off my short, spiked-up, black hair and golden skin, and changing into clean, hang-out clothes, I went downstairs to eat a bowl of cereal. I turned on the small, flat-screen TV and watched the news. First, it spoke about the weather. It matched my mood perfectly, rainy with a high chance of thunderstorms.

I finished eating and took the bowl over to the sink to clean it and the spoon; then put them away after drying them. I then walked into the living room to continue watching the news. Nothing very interesting happened, just a bank robbery and speed chase. I kept watching until my stomach protested for food again. It was time for dinner.

I ordered a small pizza at the pizzeria down the street. I decided to grab a beer while I waited for the delivery man or woman to get here. By the time they did, I finished my first bottle and watched as the robber was caught. I stood up and answered the door, paid for the pizza, and ate it delightfully.

Hours later, it was time for me to go to bed. This had been my routine since I retired, and I had to say it was a very boring existence, but I felt that I deserved it.

I changed into my plain red PJ’s and pulled back the covers. Just as I was about to get on the bed, a sharp, pin-like pain bloomed behind my eyes. I fell to my knees while clutching at my head, eyes screwed tightly shut. I don’t know when my eyes opened, or if they were open at all, but I was no longer in my room. It was dark, trees all around an open field with torches lit up close to where I was and all around the edges of the clearing. People were surrounding me in black or brown robes, chanting something I couldn’t understand. I heard scared hiccups come from me, they sounded young and feminine, but that couldn’t be right. That’s when I realized I was looking through the eyes of someone else, someone small.

“The seed has been planted. Now we just have to wait for him to come to us,” said a man in a red robe, his back toward me, or whoever I was looking through. I didn’t know what was going on, but I knew it wasn’t good. This reminded me far too much of my failure. These people looked just like the cult.

Suddenly, in a blink of an eye, I was back in my room. I looked around to see any sign of the forest I was in, but nothing. What was that? Was that a drunken or sleep-deprived vision? I shook my head, it could be both for all I knew. I stood back up and crawled into bed. I decided that I wasn’t going to think about what I just saw. It was probably just my PTSD messing with me again. I needed sleep or else it could get worse.

()()()

I woke up in a cold sweat again and took a shower to wash it off. I ate breakfast in the living room while watching the news. What showed on the screen made me pause. There was a picture of an eight-year-old girl, the reporter informing that she had gone missing some time last night.

Seeing and hearing the news made me think back to the vision I had before going to bed. Could the two be connected? Pain spread around my eyes, and I was in the forest again. The woods were dense and thick, barely letting any light of the sun in, making the small clearing look sinister with the tree’s shadowy fingers.

A man in a red robe walked up to the one I was seeing through. I couldn’t see his face - a white, demonic mask was covering it. He stopped in front of us, and said, “Soon child, he will come and watch you die, just like the last one.”

“W-why are you d-doing this?” asked a quivering child’s voice.

“I need to feed,” replied the masked man, “but he got in the way last time, believing he could stop the ritual. I need to teach him a lesson.” The vision vanished and I was in my living room again.

I knew what I saw now was no hallucination. That child was in the hands of the cult I couldn’t apprehend. ‘I have to save her before they kill her too.’ I ran upstairs and changed my clothes. I put on a red T-shirt, a black jean jacket with belts around the sides, navy-blue jeans, and black and red sneakers. I ran out of my house once I was ready and practically threw myself into the driver’s seat. I turned the car on and drove down the quickest route to the police station.

()()()

I walked into the station and straight to the front desk. “I believe I know where the missing girl is.” I didn’t want to waste any time, so I quickly finished the rest. “The cult has her.”

Karin, the lady behind the desk, looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “Vince, I know that that night still haunts you to this day, but the cult has not shown itself for years now. I understand why you would think that, but it can’t be them,” she said.

“No, I know it’s them. The child fits their MO,” I said insistently.

“She’s eight, yes, but she’s not the same girl you couldn’t save. Vince, it’s not the cult, it’s not the same girl. This is just a normal kidnapping.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, but I didn’t have the time to argue. So I sighed in defeat and told her maybe she was right. Of course, that was a lie.

‘I’ll find that child myself. I know just where to start,’ I thought as I left the station and got into my car. I turned the key to rev up the engine, feeling the car come to life for the second time today. As I was just about to pull out, a knock was heard on my window. I turned to see my old partner, Kyle. Since when did he start wearing a hat?

“Hey, old buddy. Miss me?” he asked in a voice I swore I heard not long ago, which was odd because I hadn’t spoken to my friend and partner in a couple of years.

I lowered the window and replied, “Hey, Kyle. What are you doing here?”

“I heard what you said in there and decided I should give you a hand. If it really is the cult again, you’ll need backup and a gun, right?” He’s right, I would need help and a second gun if I was going to enter that place again.

I smiled gratefully. “Thanks, Kyle, I could use your help. Get in.” He smiled and skipped over to the passenger side, opened the door, and sat down next to me.

“Let’s get moving then, old partner,” he said with his grin still on his face. I pulled out of the parking lot and drove off toward the forest.

()()()

We made it to the forest and parked the car a little behind the treeline. Kyle got out of the car while I opened a compartment to grab my other gun. I hid it under my pant leg before opening the door to start my search for the little girl.

“You ready, partner?” Kyle asked.

‘He’s been calling me ‘partner’ a lot…’ I thought suspiciously, but I didn’t understand why. I shrugged, he probably just missed me being there to watch his back. “I’m ready,” I said as we began to make our way deeper into the woods.

It was a long walk, but I remembered where the cult used to operate. I saw the clearing just up ahead. We got behind a tree and looked around, I saw no one, and neither did Kyle. I walked into the clearing and combed my gaze through it. I found where the girl was. She was tied to a table-like boulder by old, thick rope.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I noticed she was still alive. She looked toward me with fearful, wet eyes, but at least she was alone.

I moved closer to her with untying her in mind, but then the cult members appeared from behind the trees, just like Kyle and I. They were all around us, so I held up the gun Kyle handed me and got ready to fire. I heard chuckling flow around the clearing before pain blinded me from behind. I collapsed onto the lifeless grass, dropping my gun. I brought my hand up to the small cut that appeared on the back of my head and turned to see who hit me. My eyes widened with shock and betrayal. Kyle was standing over me with a sadistic grin on his face.

“Kyle, why did you…?” I couldn’t finish my question.

“I’m sorry, but Kyle hasn’t been Kyle for some time now,” he said, confusing me. “You see, when you tried to stop my worshipers last time, I took control of your friend here. In case you hadn’t figured it out yet, Vinny, let me spell it out for you. I am a demon who preys on little girls.”

I didn’t think my eyes could get wider, but they did. I thought this cult was just crazy, but they really did summon a demon. I didn’t want to believe it, but I saw Kyle, or rather the demon, take off his hat, revealing horns, but they were made of Kyle’s hair. They were sharp at the tips and thick, just like a porcupine’s quill.

“Who are you?” I demanded.

“I’m not going to give you my real name, so just call me Kyle,” he replied casually. I felt anger boil in me. I couldn’t believe I got tricked so easily, and I hated that this monster took over my friend’s life.

“Why are you doing this?” I questioned with narrowed eyes.

“You should already know the answer to that, partner. You saw and heard everything from that child over there.” He pointed at the bound girl. “It was just a little spell that linked two minds together. Once you saw what that little girl was seeing, I knew you would find your way here. It just took the news to really drill in the fact that what you saw was real. Now here you are. Welcome back, old buddy!” he said joyfully, with madness leaking through his tone.

While the demon spoke, I remembered what I heard the man in the mask say to the child, but I also recognized the voice. It was Kyle’s voice I heard in the vision.

I gritted my teeth. “What do you want from me?!” I demanded angrily.

“What do I want?” the demon asked mockingly. “I want payback for being disturbed from my meal. You stopped me from eating in peace, and I don’t like it when I don’t get what I want.” He stepped up closer to me. “So I decided that you’re going to join me for dinner tonight.” His smirk was small but filled with such evil, it took everything in me not to run. “You’re going to watch me eat this child alive.”

Horror stabbed me in the heart like a bullet from a tank. I couldn’t allow this to happen. I needed to stop this monster from hurting another child while under my watch.

The demon started walking over to the child. I pulled out my second gun from under my pant leg and fired. The bullet hit its mark, piercing through Kyle’s head. I could hear the shock running through the cultists. Taking advantage of it, I shot every one of them dead.

I looked around to see if anyone was left standing, but didn’t see anyone. I went over to the child. She was petrified, so I tried to comfort her while untying her.

“It’s okay now, sweety. I’m going to get you home,” I said soothingly as I finished removing the ropes off of her. I sighed, but before I could react, the child was attacking me with inhuman strength. I fell to the ground and tried to push the girl off, but she got my face with clawed hands. Blood leaked from my face warmly. That was when I knew that the worst had happened, she was possessed.

The demon pinned me down, much to my dismay, and saw its jaws coming closer to my throat.

“Wait, I wish to make a deal with you!” I said desperately. The demon paused in its advance to rip my throat out and pulled back with a tilt of the head. “Take me. I’ll let you possess me, but you have to let her go. I don’t just mean let go of her body, but let her go home to her family too. I don’t care what you do to me afterward,” I said.

The demon looked like it thought about my deal for a second before a giant grin ate up the child’s face whole.

“I like the way you think, partner. It’s a deal,” it said in a deep, vibrating voice; it didn’t match that of the girl at all. I didn’t care though, the child would be safe and at home in bed thinking this was nothing more than a nightmare. That’s all I needed to know to be happy. I watched as the evil left the child’s eyes and felt a dark, inky, horrible presence enter my body. The last thing I saw before the demon took complete control of my very existence was the child’s peaceful, sleeping face.