The Conduit - Part 2

'Good idea, I'm off to get some kip.' Ben said tiredly.

'I think it's the same for me. What are you going do Dan?' Jim asked.

'I've got some reading to do. I've a feeling we'll need plenty of advice for this one. Goodnight lads.' Dan said to them as they went their separate ways. It would all go down tomorrow and Dan had to come up with a plan and quickly.                       

Dan read every text he had accumulated over the last few weeks and he knew that the plan would have to be expedited to prevent The Conduit becoming all powerful on the 29th and wreaking havoc and mayhem the like had never been seen before. Dan rose early and headed over to Seven Bells Cathedral hoping to catch a word with Father Murphy. He was in luck and was shown in to his quarters.

'Ah if it isn't my spook catcher. How is the little minx anyway?' Father Murphy in his thick Irish accent.

'Very very dangerous. She has already got to Pete and turned him to the forces of evil. Last night he picked me up without using his arms and flung me against a wall with the power of his mind or some shit like that, sorry Father, but it seems to me like The Conduit has more power than either of us realised and the plot may be even worse than we thought.' Dan said firmly. Father Murphy rose from his chair and walked to the windows of his quarters.

'And had Pete any useful information about this Kim girl? It's very important that I know what kind of state the girl is in. Does her eyes change colour? Is there a foul stench around her when she's in her lair? Are there any other with her?' Father Murphy said still looking out of the window.

'I asked Pete a number of questions like that but he ignored them all but I can tell you there was a god awful, eh sorry Father, stench off him when he returned, it was horrendous.' Dan explained feeling a little powerful in relating the story of last night's proceedings.

'This is bad, very bad. We must grab this Kim and take her here to the crypt and perform the ceremony of the damned.' Father Murphy said ominously.

'But won't she be able to break any chains we'll put on her?' Dan asked.

'It not like the movies. You see the spirit that has taken her as The Conduit is confined by her body so we simply must break a few bones to incapacitate her body and the spirit will be confined.'

'But won't she fly around the room or move things with her mind and try to destroy us?

'She could were it not for my special concoction. It renders its target helpless.'

'Will it be strong enough Father?'

'It's the strongest one we have here so it better be. Tell you what, you run along now and I'll see if I can improve the strength of the concoction. Meet me back her in two hours with the others, we're going to need all the help we can get for this job and we'll just have to hope it's enough.' Father Murphy said pensively. Dan detected that the priest was worried. Dan left Seven Bells and returned home uncertain and full of worries himself.

Dan rounded up his gang who all appeared to be charged and ready. When they approached Pete's house there were sirens sounding loudly and police cars and ambulances screeching to a halt right outside Pete's house. Flames were visible from every window and the roof had been destroyed by the inferno. Dan ran up to the first police officer he could find and pleaded with him for information but all he got was the news that there were no survivors which meant Pete, his parents and his two small brothers had all perished.

'Bad news. Bad news I'm afraid. Very bad news. That officer said everyone had died, no survivors at all. I can't believe this is happening. My God poor Pete and his folks and the two little boys.' Dan said trembling and clearly upset. Always cool in a crisis Ben surveyed the carnage, 'We don't know if Pete has been killed. That police guy is just telling us what he's been told to say that's all. For all we know Pete could come walking out the front door!'  

'No one could survive that blaze, are you crazy, look at the house: it's a shell that's going to collapse at any moment.' Dan retorted regaining his composure.

'Guys look, fuck sake look, it's......Pete.....it's fuckin' Pete coming out the front door.' Jim interrupted sharply. They all looked in disbelief. The Policeman in charge grabbed a megaphone and said, 'Son you're safe now just put down the weapon and we'll sort everything out. Son don't point the gun at us or we'll open fire. Let's talk about this...'

Pete opened fire on the officers killing three of them before dying in a hail of bullets.

The gang stood there open mouthed and unable to come to terms with such brutality.  

'Let's get to Father Murphy's place at Seven Bells, we really have prevent worldly destruction. No time to lose.' Dan ordered and they all headed in the direction of Seven Bells.  

What awaited the gang at Seven Bells was yet more police cars, ambulances and fire engines. Huge flames were billowing out of every window and the roof had caved in. To the boy's relief Father Murphy had escaped through an underground tunnel and he had saved the other priests too, including some very frail older residents. Seven Bells, however was history. Dan found Father Murphy who was still badly shaken.

'Father, thank God you're alright. What the hell happened here?' Dan asked quickly.

'I saw a devil......I saw a devil, a demon carrying his own head around like a football casting flames everywhere.....there was nothing I or anyone else could do. He was about your size and now that I think of it, ah I think I know the lad who's now a demon, isn't there a friend of yours, eh, Pete yeah that's right, it was Pete.' Father Murphy said shakily. Dan turned white with fear. Ben stepped in. 'Do you still have the concoction Father?' Father Murphy reached for his pocket and brought a bottle, 'The devil may be powerful but this concoction will annihilate his power and he will flee in terror. No time to lose, we must get that Kim girl before she unleashes more strayed souls on this town. Where is she? Does anyone know?'

'Probably up at Hangdog, she's always up there.' Jim said positively.

'Then to Hangdog we must go.' Father Murphy replied beginning to feel much better.

'We need to get up there unseen. Is there such a way?' Father Murphy asked the others.

'I know of such a route, it's a little longer but it's very hidden and few know of its existence.' Dan said showing why he was the leader. The others nodded in agreement. Father Murphy was a really fast driver and they arrived at the point Dan had told him to go to in under half an hour.

They all followed Dan's lead, Father Murphy had a few minor falls along the way but in under an hour the gang could see Hangdog from the cover of the thick forest. They watched in silence but could see no activity there at all. 'This is good lads. Ok here's what we'll do. You see the stump over there? That is her altar if you like. Who's the fastest runner?' Father Murphy whispered. All fingers were pointed at Dan. 'Dan I want to sprinkle a little of this concoction at the base of the stump, eh, she will urinate on the base and the concoction will take its effect. She will be weakened and we can grab her at that point.' The gang looked at each other and Dan took the concoction and ran like he had never ran before and sprinkled a little of it around the base and ran back to the safety of the forest. 'Excellent Dan. Now we wait.' 

The gang heard a rustling suddenly coming from behind where they had installed. They all looked around with terror in their eyes - it was Pete. He seemed to be swaying and not in full control of his faculties. Father Murphy stepped forward and Pete became agitated.

'What the fuck are you doing here Priest? You think you can defeat us? You think your prayers can save you? You can shove them up your holes.' Pete shouted at Father Murphy who remained cool. He took the concoction from his pocket and looked at its contents with interest.

'What's that?' Roared Pete.

'A simple thirst quencher. Would you like some?' Said Father Murphy moving the bottle nearer to Pete.

'You mean to trick me with your filth. You drink some first Priest.' Pete said spitting venom.

Father Murphy drank a little and then quickly brought the bottle over to a curious Pete. He was tentative and just took a sip. He became instantly weaker and Father Murphy raced at him and grabbed the concoction before knocking him out cold. The gang looked at Father Murphy in awe never having seen a cleaner right hook in the flesh. Father Murphy immediately started chanting some bizarre latin rite at the helpless and unconscious Pete who almost straight away seemed to becoming more peaceful. Dan whispered, 'Look at the stump, she's there pissing on it.' Father Murphy signalled for absolute silence. Then suddenly Kim began to sway from side to side before collapsing in a heap. Father Murphy raced to her still body and began his Latin rite while sprinkling the remainder of the decoction all over her. He covered her nakedness with some leaves and blessed himself and put a small crucifix on her chest. When she came around she was peaceful and calm. But Pete didn't regain consciousness and died there on the forest floor. They all walked Kim out of the forest and back down the mountain trail to the safety of Father Murphy's car.

Kim's father knew that all her plans had unravelled. He felt his skin burning with the holy rites that were performed on his daughter's body. But he had a rite of his own that would bring great vengeance to bear on his daughter's captors and The Conduit would be free to unleash what was her sole purpose: Armageddon. He began to chant with all the energy and gusto of a man possessed. He cursed them all and his rite became more aggressive and more violent. He knew what he had to do. Quickly he located a petrol can and doused himself with the liquid and lit the petrol while still chanting. He began screaming and rolling around on the floor which quickly caught fire. He had sacrificed himself so that his daughter could wreak havoc.

The gang were silent when they reached the car. Kim wasn't too talkative either which was understandable given her ordeal. They headed towards town, towards their home, towards safety. Suddenly Kim became very animated and lashed out at everyone in the car. She overpowered the three boys and then grabbed Father Murphy by the throat and attempted to strangle him. He wrestled with her and lost control of car which burst into flames instantly. It was Kim that crawled out of the wreckage and began laughing at the gang trapped in the burning car. Kim ran back into the forest and returned to Hangdog to continue her work. Dan woke first and shook the others. Luckily they were all ok. Dan kicked the glass window and crawled out followed by Jim and Ben. Poor Father Murphy expired in the crash.

'Jesus what the fuck are we going to do now?' Dan exclaimed examining his cuts. For once he was at a loss. The others sat at the side of the road with their heads in their hands.

'We must return to Seven Bells. In Father Murphy's quarters he will have a back up decoction and hopefully some instructions we can use. So let's start thumbing, no time to lose.'

'What about Father Murphy? We can't just leave him?' Ben asked.

'Nothing more we can do for him. We'll alert the police when we get back.' Dan replied. 

They wearily started to hail down passers-by and luckily they got a lift to Seven Bells.

Dan explained to one of the other priests what happened and that they needed to get inside Father Murphy's rooms. Inside Father Murphy's quarters they managed to find three more bottles of concoction but unfortunately no instructions could be found.

'Fuck. Look all we can do is head back up to Hangdog and just see if we can, I don't know, repeat the actions Father Murphy took and hope we get lucky. It's all we got. I'll ask one of the other priests to drive us up.' Dan said with authority but feeling less than confident.

They reached Hangdog almost totally exhausted but fired up for a showdown with Kim. Dan boldly ran over to stump and poured a whole bottle all around the unholy stump, then quickly returned to the cover of the forest's edge and the gang waited for Kim to return. They hadn't long to wait and were alerted by piercing screams and wailing. The sky turned blood red and fireballs rained down on anyone or anything exposed to their hellish destruction. The sounds of screaming were accompanied by almost triumphant trumpeting and deafening drum rolls. The air was consumed by the most overpowering sulphurous stench that choked anyone human in its path which was everywhere. Kim arrived but she wasn't alone, she had a legion of displaced souls screaming so loudly that the gang's eardrums burst and they too screamed in excruciating pain before the toxic air overwhelmed them. It was too late. The legion quickly located their unwanted observers and threw them into a pit of decaying carcasses and excrement. Kim had urinated on the stump but the decoction had no effect on her. She seemed to become more powerful. She went to the pit's edge and enjoyed urinating all over the helpless gang's heads as they squirmed with disgust but there was nothing they could do, it was their final humiliation and the last thing they witnessed before they expired in agony. The legion then floated down the mountain to sweep up and destroy all traces of civilisation in their path that escaped the satanic inferno. In a matter of minutes the everything and everyone was consumed by the unholy and demonic fires of Satan. Kim observed the gang from the pit's edge and cast the fatal fireball. They were lambs to the slaughter and they became fuel to an satanic fire.