"Revenant"
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dochermes"Revenant"
6/11/2000
I.
At this time of year, darkness had not fallen until eight-fifteen outside the cottage when the doorbell rang. Standing inside by the door, Lauren Sable Reilly listened carefully to the footfalls outside. With her enhanced hearing, she could gauge the weight of the individual outside, the man's height and length of stride, the interval between steps. She could even have told if he was carrying anything by whether his footsteps were even or sounded more emphatic on a side burdened with extra weight. Most importantly, she knew beyond doubt he had come alone. No one was trying to skulk around the outside of the building, no matter how stealthily.
Easing back down to normal perception, she turned her head back toward her teammates. "Definitely not the Revenant," she said in a low tone. "But stay on guard, of course." Sable turned the knob and swung the door inward to catch their visitor with knuckles raised to knock.
Wilford Schaeffner was an average-looking man in late middle age, still possessed of a full head of greying hair and a short beard more thoroughly white. Behind the round wire-rimmed glasses, his eyes darted over the strangers before him as if desperately seeking support. He swung around to peer back out into the gloom.
"Come in, Mr Schaeffner," Sable invited him with a sweep of one arm as she closed the door behind him. "I'm Lauren Reilly of the Kenneth Dred Foundation and these are my teammates. I'm glad you came so promptly."
"Of course, of course," he babbled. "I've heard of your KDF, everyone in the Midnight War knows about you. You're Tel Shai knights. Your leader used to be the Dire Wolf himself." He took a deep steadying breath. "To be honest, my group has always tried to avoid drawing your attention. After what has happened to Red Sect, to the Preincarnators and to Those Who Remember.. well, clashing with your team always seems to invite destruction. You knights of Tel Shai do not tolerate rivals."
Behind them, Unicorn scoffed loudly. Sable ignored that and said, "Your misconceptions can be straightened out later, Mr Schaeffner. Our concern right now is with an implacable enemy heading this way. We are directly in its path. Now, correct me if I'm wrong about the following. You are the chairman of the Mystic Revenant Society."
"Umm, yes."
"Your group's interest is in extending life by any means. Longevity, restored youth, even bodily resurrection."
Despite himself, Schaeffner's eyes moved over the stern faces arranged before him. He saw no warmth, only a cold scrutiny. Sheng, Josef, Ashley... all were staring at him with barely repressed anger. To Sable, he said, "Yes. That's all true."
She folded her arms across her chest and added her unfriendly gaze to the eyes fixed on the mystic. "One of the methods you researched was Darthan magick. Including the forbidden spell of life-drinking, which siphons lifeforce from others. This is the basis for vampires, zombies, mummies. This was what made Avathor a Gralic Leech."
Schaeffner gave a start, looking over his shoulder as if he expected the door behind to crash inward at any second. "Yes, yes, please hurry, miss. We can't have much time."
Even though she was less than half this man's age, Sable had quiet confidence in her voice that reassured him. "One member of your Mystic Revenant Society died recently." She tilted her head slightly, listening to the man's agitated heartbeat from three feet away and judging by it how close he was to complete panic. "This is speculation but it explains the situation. He died during a ritual intended to feed life force into his body. Sacrifice was involved, whether animal or human. We don't need to deal with that now, but something went terribly wrong. For the Darthan magick to work, the subject could not be a living person simply made stronger... he had to be dead himself first."
"We didn't know that! I swear." Schaeffner glanced from one grim face to another but saw no sympathy anywhere. "I admit, we were dabblers. We thought we knew what we were doing but we were in over our heads."
For the first time, Josef Jubilec spoke in his flat unemotional tone. "Six people have paid for your foolishness."
"We thought vitality could be transferred like a blood transfusion. When the goats all died and then our leader convulsed and passed away himself, I admit we panicked."
"I've checked all hospital records for the past six months in a hundred mile radius," Sable went on. "You did not report the death. I think your group panicked and buried the man out in the woods as far from possible discovery as possible. It was a shallow grave and you realize now the man did not stay there long."
Fumbling for a plain wooden chair nearby, the mystic fell onto its seat rather than lowering himself. His head drooped. "I know! I know all this! What a nightmare. Why do you think I have come here to meet you... here, of all places?"
"Three days passed after the ritual," Sable went on. "The Darthan curse took hold. Already stronger than it had been in life, the undead thing dug its way up to the surface and began its murderous hunt. With every victim, it absorbs lifeforce and becomes still more powerful. To the best of my knowledge, your Revenant has taken the lives of eleven human beings. I doubt if conventional weapons could destroy it now. So I'm asking you, what can stop this monster?"
"But I don't know anything about that!" he wailed. "All I did was supply money for the group. I own a chain of car rental agencies. The magic angle was handled by those two Lundborg girls, maybe they can help."
"The Lundborgs again!" she grumbled. "That family has caused nothing but death and misery since Red Sect was founded a century ago. There's no time to try to track them down, that Revenant is on its way. It fully intends to kill you, Mr Schaeffner. If you've been holding out, it's in your best interest to tell us while you still can."
"Then I'm going to die," Schaeffner moaned. His face had gone white and his breathing was short and rapid as anxiety boiled over within him. "We're all going to die. We have to run, scatter in different directions...."
Sable abruptly hushed him with a raised hand. She tiled her head and her teammates drew closer, knowing how superhumanly sharp her senses could be. "I hear footsteps on the gravel outside. Heavy, dragging footsteps coming this way."
II.
They were assembled in the front room of the cottage, which was the kitchen. Its old-fashioned phone on the wall, gas stove and round dining table under the picture window left little space for the five of them. Through the doorway behind them could be seen the living room with a bedroom door to one side. In a short hallway after that stood the bathroom and a tiny guest room, with the rear door finishing that end of the building. Sable turned to her team. "Josef, take this man back by the rear door. Your bow needs distance to be most effective. Ashley, you and I will face the Revenant first as he enters."
"Gosh, that's exciting," chuckled Unicorn as she swung the leather sheath around and extracted the spiral horn. "It's always been my dream to get first crack at a giant killer zombie."
Grabbing Schaeffner by one arm, the Blind Archer hauled him roughly back toward the rear of the house. In his free hand, Josef held the longbow he had already strung. "Come on, you."
"You're acting like we were the bad guys in this, but all we wanted was to extend life," Schaeffner bleated. "We would have benefited humanity with the secret of delaying or even reversing old age."
"By using Black Magick and animal sacrifice," Josef snapped. "Save your breath." He hauled the mystic out of the kitchen.
Left with Sable, Ashley Whitaker tossed her leather sheath onto a chair and hefted the horn in both hands. Three feet long, tapering to a point and capped on the flat end with a silver disc, the ancient talisman had given her the code name Unicorn as it had her mother before her. "Standing by, captain," the little blonde said.
Sable swung the door inward an instant before a huge gnarled fist would have crashed into it. Filling the doorway from side to side, its lank white hair scraping to the top of the opening, the monster had grown even larger since they had last seen it. Every killing gave it increased size and strength. The heavy brogans had split from within, the tattered pants cuffs barely reached halfways down those bloodless shins and the shirt and jacket were tattered strips hanging off that massive hulk. Chalk-white skin showed everywhere.
"I know you're here, Giraud," the hollow sepulchral voice boomed. "Come take what you deserve."
Stepping toward him without the slightest sign of intimimdation came a young woman not even an inch over five feet in height. A faint smile turned up the corners of her mouth. Ashley held up her talisman in both hands and sang out, "With this horn, I remove-- EEEK!"
Her mantra had been cut short as the Revenant lunged forward much faster than she had expected and wrenched the horn out of her grip.
The little blonde instinctively crouched down and hopped far to one side, barely escaping the vicious swing of that horn as it whooshed past an inch above her head. The giant flung the talisman like a dart to imbed itself into the wood paneling on the other side of the kitchen, dislodging a framed print to clatter onto the floor. The Unicorn herself scrambled to retrieve her sigil.
Stepping forward, Sable reached into her field jacket pocket and drew out a glossy eight by ten photograph. "This has gone on too long. Listen here. You say you want to find Auguste Giraud?"
"Look what he has DONE to me," rumbled the undead brute. He hesitated, then accepted the photo to glare at it suspiciously. His mouth fell open. "I don't believe it..."
"Auguste Giraud placed this curse upon you," Sable told him evenly. "You said so yourself. Do you finally understand?"
The deepset rheumy eyes closed. "My mind is clearing. I remember everything. Of course. I am Auguste Giraud."
Directly behind him, Ashley Whitaker's voice rang out, "With this horn I remove thy power!"
The effect of the ancient talisman rushed over the Revenant, disrupting the spell which had revived him. The misshapen hulk shuddered, dwindled, shrank down to normal proportions. In the final second of his unnatural half-life, the monster fixed a look of gratitude toward Sable. Then he fell. The stench of a corpse dead for weeks rose from the body.
3/28/2020
6/11/2000
I.
At this time of year, darkness had not fallen until eight-fifteen outside the cottage when the doorbell rang. Standing inside by the door, Lauren Sable Reilly listened carefully to the footfalls outside. With her enhanced hearing, she could gauge the weight of the individual outside, the man's height and length of stride, the interval between steps. She could even have told if he was carrying anything by whether his footsteps were even or sounded more emphatic on a side burdened with extra weight. Most importantly, she knew beyond doubt he had come alone. No one was trying to skulk around the outside of the building, no matter how stealthily.
Easing back down to normal perception, she turned her head back toward her teammates. "Definitely not the Revenant," she said in a low tone. "But stay on guard, of course." Sable turned the knob and swung the door inward to catch their visitor with knuckles raised to knock.
Wilford Schaeffner was an average-looking man in late middle age, still possessed of a full head of greying hair and a short beard more thoroughly white. Behind the round wire-rimmed glasses, his eyes darted over the strangers before him as if desperately seeking support. He swung around to peer back out into the gloom.
"Come in, Mr Schaeffner," Sable invited him with a sweep of one arm as she closed the door behind him. "I'm Lauren Reilly of the Kenneth Dred Foundation and these are my teammates. I'm glad you came so promptly."
"Of course, of course," he babbled. "I've heard of your KDF, everyone in the Midnight War knows about you. You're Tel Shai knights. Your leader used to be the Dire Wolf himself." He took a deep steadying breath. "To be honest, my group has always tried to avoid drawing your attention. After what has happened to Red Sect, to the Preincarnators and to Those Who Remember.. well, clashing with your team always seems to invite destruction. You knights of Tel Shai do not tolerate rivals."
Behind them, Unicorn scoffed loudly. Sable ignored that and said, "Your misconceptions can be straightened out later, Mr Schaeffner. Our concern right now is with an implacable enemy heading this way. We are directly in its path. Now, correct me if I'm wrong about the following. You are the chairman of the Mystic Revenant Society."
"Umm, yes."
"Your group's interest is in extending life by any means. Longevity, restored youth, even bodily resurrection."
Despite himself, Schaeffner's eyes moved over the stern faces arranged before him. He saw no warmth, only a cold scrutiny. Sheng, Josef, Ashley... all were staring at him with barely repressed anger. To Sable, he said, "Yes. That's all true."
She folded her arms across her chest and added her unfriendly gaze to the eyes fixed on the mystic. "One of the methods you researched was Darthan magick. Including the forbidden spell of life-drinking, which siphons lifeforce from others. This is the basis for vampires, zombies, mummies. This was what made Avathor a Gralic Leech."
Schaeffner gave a start, looking over his shoulder as if he expected the door behind to crash inward at any second. "Yes, yes, please hurry, miss. We can't have much time."
Even though she was less than half this man's age, Sable had quiet confidence in her voice that reassured him. "One member of your Mystic Revenant Society died recently." She tilted her head slightly, listening to the man's agitated heartbeat from three feet away and judging by it how close he was to complete panic. "This is speculation but it explains the situation. He died during a ritual intended to feed life force into his body. Sacrifice was involved, whether animal or human. We don't need to deal with that now, but something went terribly wrong. For the Darthan magick to work, the subject could not be a living person simply made stronger... he had to be dead himself first."
"We didn't know that! I swear." Schaeffner glanced from one grim face to another but saw no sympathy anywhere. "I admit, we were dabblers. We thought we knew what we were doing but we were in over our heads."
For the first time, Josef Jubilec spoke in his flat unemotional tone. "Six people have paid for your foolishness."
"We thought vitality could be transferred like a blood transfusion. When the goats all died and then our leader convulsed and passed away himself, I admit we panicked."
"I've checked all hospital records for the past six months in a hundred mile radius," Sable went on. "You did not report the death. I think your group panicked and buried the man out in the woods as far from possible discovery as possible. It was a shallow grave and you realize now the man did not stay there long."
Fumbling for a plain wooden chair nearby, the mystic fell onto its seat rather than lowering himself. His head drooped. "I know! I know all this! What a nightmare. Why do you think I have come here to meet you... here, of all places?"
"Three days passed after the ritual," Sable went on. "The Darthan curse took hold. Already stronger than it had been in life, the undead thing dug its way up to the surface and began its murderous hunt. With every victim, it absorbs lifeforce and becomes still more powerful. To the best of my knowledge, your Revenant has taken the lives of eleven human beings. I doubt if conventional weapons could destroy it now. So I'm asking you, what can stop this monster?"
"But I don't know anything about that!" he wailed. "All I did was supply money for the group. I own a chain of car rental agencies. The magic angle was handled by those two Lundborg girls, maybe they can help."
"The Lundborgs again!" she grumbled. "That family has caused nothing but death and misery since Red Sect was founded a century ago. There's no time to try to track them down, that Revenant is on its way. It fully intends to kill you, Mr Schaeffner. If you've been holding out, it's in your best interest to tell us while you still can."
"Then I'm going to die," Schaeffner moaned. His face had gone white and his breathing was short and rapid as anxiety boiled over within him. "We're all going to die. We have to run, scatter in different directions...."
Sable abruptly hushed him with a raised hand. She tiled her head and her teammates drew closer, knowing how superhumanly sharp her senses could be. "I hear footsteps on the gravel outside. Heavy, dragging footsteps coming this way."
II.
They were assembled in the front room of the cottage, which was the kitchen. Its old-fashioned phone on the wall, gas stove and round dining table under the picture window left little space for the five of them. Through the doorway behind them could be seen the living room with a bedroom door to one side. In a short hallway after that stood the bathroom and a tiny guest room, with the rear door finishing that end of the building. Sable turned to her team. "Josef, take this man back by the rear door. Your bow needs distance to be most effective. Ashley, you and I will face the Revenant first as he enters."
"Gosh, that's exciting," chuckled Unicorn as she swung the leather sheath around and extracted the spiral horn. "It's always been my dream to get first crack at a giant killer zombie."
Grabbing Schaeffner by one arm, the Blind Archer hauled him roughly back toward the rear of the house. In his free hand, Josef held the longbow he had already strung. "Come on, you."
"You're acting like we were the bad guys in this, but all we wanted was to extend life," Schaeffner bleated. "We would have benefited humanity with the secret of delaying or even reversing old age."
"By using Black Magick and animal sacrifice," Josef snapped. "Save your breath." He hauled the mystic out of the kitchen.
Left with Sable, Ashley Whitaker tossed her leather sheath onto a chair and hefted the horn in both hands. Three feet long, tapering to a point and capped on the flat end with a silver disc, the ancient talisman had given her the code name Unicorn as it had her mother before her. "Standing by, captain," the little blonde said.
Sable swung the door inward an instant before a huge gnarled fist would have crashed into it. Filling the doorway from side to side, its lank white hair scraping to the top of the opening, the monster had grown even larger since they had last seen it. Every killing gave it increased size and strength. The heavy brogans had split from within, the tattered pants cuffs barely reached halfways down those bloodless shins and the shirt and jacket were tattered strips hanging off that massive hulk. Chalk-white skin showed everywhere.
"I know you're here, Giraud," the hollow sepulchral voice boomed. "Come take what you deserve."
Stepping toward him without the slightest sign of intimimdation came a young woman not even an inch over five feet in height. A faint smile turned up the corners of her mouth. Ashley held up her talisman in both hands and sang out, "With this horn, I remove-- EEEK!"
Her mantra had been cut short as the Revenant lunged forward much faster than she had expected and wrenched the horn out of her grip.
The little blonde instinctively crouched down and hopped far to one side, barely escaping the vicious swing of that horn as it whooshed past an inch above her head. The giant flung the talisman like a dart to imbed itself into the wood paneling on the other side of the kitchen, dislodging a framed print to clatter onto the floor. The Unicorn herself scrambled to retrieve her sigil.
Stepping forward, Sable reached into her field jacket pocket and drew out a glossy eight by ten photograph. "This has gone on too long. Listen here. You say you want to find Auguste Giraud?"
"Look what he has DONE to me," rumbled the undead brute. He hesitated, then accepted the photo to glare at it suspiciously. His mouth fell open. "I don't believe it..."
"Auguste Giraud placed this curse upon you," Sable told him evenly. "You said so yourself. Do you finally understand?"
The deepset rheumy eyes closed. "My mind is clearing. I remember everything. Of course. I am Auguste Giraud."
Directly behind him, Ashley Whitaker's voice rang out, "With this horn I remove thy power!"
The effect of the ancient talisman rushed over the Revenant, disrupting the spell which had revived him. The misshapen hulk shuddered, dwindled, shrank down to normal proportions. In the final second of his unnatural half-life, the monster fixed a look of gratitude toward Sable. Then he fell. The stench of a corpse dead for weeks rose from the body.
3/28/2020
