Psychic Company: Case 03 - Amon Pt.2
Oliver offered her a bottle of water and placed a comforting hand on her quivering shoulder. "You did good, Ethel," he said, "but where's Emily?"
Oliver and Emily chose a cabin on an isolated farm between Eastend and Loomis in Saskatchewan as their headquarters. Although the location was far from their mission, they felt secure there. They arrived in the morning and were settled in by the time noon rolled around.
Emily put the kettle on, wiggling the stove switch into actually coming to life. The building was showing its age, but it wasn't anything she couldn't handle.
Solid knocks came from the front door and Oliver leapt to his feet, saying, "I'm getting it." Emily felt a wave of domesticity wash over her. She let herself wonder if there was a future for her and Oliver.
Their field team rushed in from the heat, the air conditioned cabin providing a welcome reprieve. Kain and Ethel went over their gear, making sure nothing was left at the airport, while Charles fell back on the couch with a sigh of relief. "It's sweltering out there," he said.
"You guys want some ice cream?" Emily called from the kitchen.
Charles immediately jumped up and headed over. "Yes, please!"
"I know you guys just got in, but could we maybe turn down the AC a little?"
"You cold?" Charles asked. She nodded. He shrugged. "I don't see why not, then. We'll just take off our clothes," he said with a grin.
Emily pursed her lips. "Never mind," she said and returned to her kettle.
"What you boiling water for?"
"I'm making iced tea."
"Kain will take his without sugar."
"You remember his preferences?"
Charles shrugged, his expression turning pensive as he sucked on his spoon. "When you work with someone for as long as the two of us have, you start to remember the little things, you know? Even if they don't matter. They just build up over time."
Emily stared at Charles in silence for about a minute before asking, "How old are you and Kain?"
His smile returned as he replied, "You supposed to be asking that?"
She shrugged.
"Why do you want to know all of a sudden?"
"You made me curious."
Charles breathed an inward sigh and let his eyes wander down to the black and white tiled floor. "Well, I'm thirty. Got no clue about Kain." His eyes flickered over to Kain and then to Emily. "We've been working together for... about ten years, though, now."
"That's a long time."
"I suppose. Doesn't feel like it."
"So you don't know how old Kain is?"
"Nope."
She looked over at him. "He looks young."
"Yeah. He hasn't changed at all." He looked Emily in the eyes and grinned. "Makes you wonder, huh?"
"Hey Charles, I'm not putting your stuff away," Kain called from the living room.
Charles sighed and roused himself from the kitchen table. He placed his empty bowl in the sink, said goodbye to Emily, and left.
Once everyone had settled in their rooms, Emily gathered the group in the living room to go over the mission details.
"You've all received copies by email, right?" she said.
Everyone answered that they had and pulled up the files.
"Beginning with Oliver, he will collaborate with the police to seal off a safe outer boundary using silver fencing. Everyone within the immediate area has been evacuated, so we don't need to worry about civilians being hurt if things take an unexpected turn. Oliver will stay on the outskirts of the zone and provide support via comms. Charles will act as his guardian in case protection is needed. If there are any further complications, Oliver will report back to Willoughby for instructions."
Oliver frowned. This was the part he wasn't happy about. "Do I have to be guarded?" he asked.
"Yes," came Emily's immediate reply.
"I also wanted to object to this," Kain said. "
"Given the present situation, it's an inefficient use of resources to have someone on guard duty. Even though protecting Oliver is essential, Charles should be with us in the bubble."
"Oliver doesn't have—"
"And that's why he's outside the perimeter, with other normal people who—I'd say—are even more trained than him." Kain sighed and continued, this time more exasperated, "Look, I get that you're together or whatever and want to protect him, but this is the field. Reconsider."
Emily looked at Oliver and knew he agreed with Kain. She pursed her lips and quickly looked back down at her tablet. "I'll make a note of your suggestion but as Field Captain I'm overruling you. The plan will continue as I've initially outlined."
Kain let out a frustrated grunt, rose from the sofa, and advanced toward the kitchen where he poured himself a cup of tea.
Emily cleared her throat. "Anyway, to continue... While Oliver and Charles are outside the perimeter, the rest of us will head inside to look for Amon. Ethel and I will draw him out, make him focus on us, while Kain readies the capture device. Once Amon is weakened enough, that'll be the end of it."
That night, Emily couldn't sleep. She and Oliver were lucky enough to have the master bedroom that was spacious and had its own washroom. She appreciated the privacy it allowed her to sulk. Over and over again she went over her argument with Kain, wondering if she made the right decision. She kept replaying the mistakes from Mexico in her mind, questioning her capability to lead, and she tugged the blanket tighter around her body.
"Can't sleep?" Oliver said. His voice was tender and sort of melancholic.
"Mhm."
"Nervous about tomorrow?"
"Mhm."
Oliver sat up and turned to her. She couldn't make out his features in the darkness but knew from his voice he was concerned for her. There was a weird feeling of finality in the air. "Hear me out, okay?"
"Okay."
"I know you're trying to make up for what happened in Mexico by trying to control everything and making sure everyone's super safe, but I don't think that's going to work. This is a different situation so you need to come at it differently." He met her silence with a sigh. "For what it's worth, I want you to know that I don't think what happened was your fault."
"It is," she quickly replied. "I let everyone down. I embarrassed Willoughby, betrayed his trust in me."
"You did no such thing," he said, his voice firm. "You did the best you could."
"And it wasn't enough. Now the seraph we were supposed to contain is dead, there's a huge hole in the ground north of Mexico City, and I've lost the confidence of the team and everyone at Office 3."
Oliver didn't know what to say. He felt like she was deeper than he thought she was. A feeling of desperateness came over him and he said, "Emily, I believe in you. Do what you feel you have to, and I'll support you any way I can."
She smiled sadly and said, "Thank you."
In the morning, Charles and Oliver used satellite data to establish a safe outer perimeter. With the help of the local police, it took no time at all to setup the silver fencing and soon the pair were just sitting on the hood of a cop car, idling their time with empty words. Still, Oliver was unable to avert his gaze from the giant cloud of darkness in the distance where, a little while ago, his beloved had entered.
"Worried?" Charles said, grinning.
"Concerned."
"Same thing."
Oliver shrugged off Charles' attempt at comforting him and continued, "They're up against one of the worst combinations of supernatural."
Charles leaned back on the hood and contemplated the darkness. "Even if they manage to bungle up the capture, I'm sure Kain will at least make sure they all get out alive. Then, we can regroup and figure things out from there. Worst thing that can happen is we need backup. Ain't no problem more agents can't solve. Except maybe our hurt pride."
This didn't seem to ease Oliver's nerves at all. "I believe there are problems that can't be solved with more agents." He sighed. "I just hope Emily doesn't try to stun Amon the same way she stunned Athena."
"Why's that? If it works, it works, right? She didn't get hurt last time so she won't get hurt this time."
Oliver furrowed his brow. He thought Charles' way of reasoning was too sloppy. "While the two may appear similar, that's just on the surface. Godhood and madness is where those similarities end. Amon has an entire other facet to it."
"You told her this?"
"Of course. She told me not to worry."
"Then you have nothing to worry about!"
Oliver clenched his jaw and said, "I hope your optimism isn't misplaced."
Inside the bubble, Emily led the other two down a black dirt road toward the farm, their main point of interest. She looked down at her tablet, reviewing the report, and said, "According to the recon team, the family that lives here hasn't been seen since the darkness appeared so our first priority is to check on them and, if possible, save them."
"Emily..." Ethel's voice shook as she spoke. "Are those... cows?"
"What cows?" Emily looked back at her subordinate and followed her gaze. Her face paled.
Once green grass was now a dark purple, and scattered in huddled piles were mounds of black and bloody flesh. They shuddered and groaned, indicating they were still alive. Their stench made Emily spin around and vomit. It didn't take long for Ethel to join her by the side of the road, hunched over and heaving.
Kain's mouth was a firm line as he pressed his lips together, fighting back against the urge to gag. He opened a bottle of ink, made a couple spears from it, and proceeded to skewer every fleshy mound, relieving each one of its painful existence. He then waited patiently for the other two to recover.
"Is that going to be us? Are we going to turn into blobs?" Ethel asked, panic rising within her.
"As long as we don't stay for too long, we should be fine," Kain said. He glanced back at what were once cows, grimaced, and then said to Emily, "We should keep going."
Emily wiped her mouth with her sleeve. "Ugh, yeah. Ethel, you okay?"
Ethel nodded and they continued their walk to the farm house, horrifyingly more solemn than before. They didn't dare voice it, but they all thought the same thing: If that was what happened to the cows, what about the family?
As they approached the fence at the edge of the front yard, something skittered into a nearby bush, startling them. Kain opened another bottle of ink, creating fresh spears, and Ethel removed her sunglasses. Emily kneeled, steeling herself for whatever it was, and used her voice, whispering, "Come out."
Out of the foliage, a creature resembling a feline-arachnid hybrid raced toward them. Kain's spears flew past, but Ethel cast her eyes on it and soon after, it caught fire with an agonizing wail that could have belonged to any cat in its dying throes. She instinctively shielded her ears in an unavailing effort to suppress the guilt that was starting to consume her.
Kain strode up to the charred corpse, prodding it with one of his inky spears.
"What are you doing?" Emily asked.
"Making sure it's dead."
"Careful." She looked ahead at the farm house. It looked untouched.
After Kain finished his examination, the three of them advanced on the house. Emily stepped onto the porch, the wood creaking under her feet. To her, everything seemed normal. She turned the handle of the screen door and knocked on the main door. Then, when she discovered it was unlocked, she opened it with a push. At that point, they divided up to search the house.
It was like someone froze time. Morning coffee still steamed and the smell of French toast still wafted from the kitchen. It looked like an ordinary moment in time, snapshotted and made to last forever. What this moment meant, however, weighed heavy on Emily as she came to believe it was when the family disappeared. Wherever they were, they clearly weren't here. That meant something must have happened to them. She feared Amon had killed them.
A chime over comms brought her back from her thoughts. "Go ahead, Charles," she said.
"I don't know what you guys did but the shape is changing." His voice was a little high, like he was nervous but was trying to keep himself together. "It's like it's alive."
"The darkness?"
"Yeah."
Emily shouted for the other two and they gathered in the antechamber. "Did either of you touch anything?" she asked them. After both shook their heads, her anxiety spiked. She spoke into the comms: "What do you see, Charles?"
"An... embryo?"
"We're leaving." Emily wrenched the front door open, dreading what might happen next. She stepped out onto the porch and felt an icy chill descend upon her. She spotted the shadow of a disembodied hand far in the distance quickly closing the gap between them and gasped. As it approached, she made out its pointed claws and thick fingers. She froze, half in fear and half in wonder.
Suddenly, Kain came from behind her and shoved her down the porch steps. "Get down!" he yelled as the invisible hand plowed through the front door. He frantically reached for the ink bottle, hoping to protect himself from the piercing hand that lunged at him. But his hasty attempt was in vain as a sharp claw nailed his thigh, ripping out chunks of flesh and leaving behind a deep, bloody gash.
Emily looked up from the ground and watched in horror as Kain's blood seeped across the splintered porch. Ethel cradled him in her arms, tears streaming down her face as he gasped for air. "Ethel, cauterize his wound and get him out of here!"
Ethel reluctantly obeyed, grasping Kain beneath the arms and hauling him in the direction of the backdoor. The sight of it made her stomach churn as she watched the crimson liquid slowly seep across the pristine white floor. She was transfixed by the gory trail, her eyes glued to every glistening drop that trailed behind them.
"Wait!" Kain protested, grabbing Ethel's wrist. "Are we just leaving her here?"
Ethel's heart pounded as she glanced out the splintered front door and watched Emily running frantically in circles, launching powerful sonic blasts. It was clear that no one else could do anything—Emily seemed to be the only one capable of action. Knowing that this could be her only opportunity, Ethel gritted her teeth and quickly cauterized Kain's wound shut. He fainted almost immediately afterward. With no time to waste, she slung him on her back and ran away at full speed, not daring to look back even once.
"Can you stop shaking your leg?" Oliver said.
"Sorry," Charles replied. "Nervous."
"I'm worried, too."
"It's just that—I can't shake this feeling that something bad happened. That I should've been there, too."
Oliver looked over at the orange-haired man. "You regretting guard duty now?"
Charles' leg started shaking again. "No," he said, obviously lying.
It was just for a second, but Oliver was sure the cloud of darkness shuddered. Like a ripple of madness. Then he saw two figures emerge from within. Just two.
Charles was with him in witnessing what just happened and immediately launched himself from the hood of the patrol car. "That's them!" He sprinted toward the silver fencing and waited there as the two drew closer, recognition darkening his face as they did so. Kain wasn't bleeding anymore, but the damage was obvious. He opened the fence and transferred their team lead to his back, whisking him away into the back of a patrol car. Ethel tried to follow but her knees buckled halfway and she sank to the ground.
Oliver offered her a bottle of water and placed a comforting hand on her quivering shoulder. "You did good, Ethel," he said, "but where's Emily?"
"She—she's still inside. Don't know what hap—happened."
Oliver straightened himself and looked at the undulating darkness. "Then we need to launch a rescue mission right away."
"No," Ethel wheezed and then downed the entire bottle of water. "Without Emily, Kain's in charge. And right now, he's in critical condition." She looked over to where Charles was assessing Kain's condition and then back at Oliver. "He was poisoned."
They laid Kain out on the bed in the master bedroom. Ethel boiled water while Oliver cut his pants away and Charles grabbed the medical supplies from the living room. Kain's wound seeped a thick black ooze, the smell sickeningly sweet and pungent. No one wanted to talk about it but they all worried about what it meant for his future.
Charles came back into the bedroom with the medical bag in one hand and a ringing vidcall in the other. "I'm calling Dr. Agassi."
"Good." Oliver grabbed the holy water from the bag and straight up poured it on Kain's wound, causing it to hiss. "I'll need him to look this over before I begin in earnest."
"What are you planning on doing?" Charles asked.
Oliver quickly glanced at Charles before taking the scalpel and slicing away the charred tissue, exposing blackened and purplish skin. "You see how his veins are turning black?"
Charles nodded.
"That's the demonic corruption. We need to cut it out as quickly as possible. Where's Ethel with the water?"
"Right here," she said as she rushed into the room carrying a large bowl.
Dr. Agassi finally answered the vidcall and, quickly reading the room, dropped his smile. "What happened?"
Oliver didn't even look over at the tablet as he spoke. "Kain's been wounded. Show him, Ethel." She put the bowl down and grabbed the tablet, swapping the camera and pointing it at the wound.
"I couldn't see it clearly, but I think it was a hand. Claw, maybe?" she said.
"It did that?" Dr. Agassi asked.
"Mhm."
"Get me closer," he said and Ethel zoomed the camera in. "The black veins concern me."
"Me too," Oliver said. "I was thinking of cutting away the corrupted tissue, repeatedly purifying it with holy water, and then cauterizing it. What do you think?"
"Hm. I'd probably do the same thing. Do you need more holy water?"
Oliver quickly checked his bag and said, "Not immediately, but we'll run out tonight if I keep applying it."
The sound of typing on a keyboard. "I'm arranging an airdrop. Should be there in two hours."
"Thanks."
"You need it. I'm sorry I can't be there."
Oliver looked over at the tablet and smiled sadly. "Neither should I, really." The two chuckled and then said their goodbyes.
"What now?" Charles said.
"I get to work."
Oliver worked with quick precision, ruthlessly peeling away any trace of corruption from Kain's leg. With each cut of the scalpel and snip of the scissors, he rinsed them in steaming hot water before dousing the wound with holy water. Kain awoke mid-procedure, screaming as Oliver cut deeper into his leg. Ethel hurried to get a wooden spoon for him to bite on, but it was no match for the immense agony that flooded through his body. An agonizing hour and a half later, Oliver stepped back with relief, panting from exhausted effort. Kain had made it through the procedure. When the area was cleaned up and Kain had some time to rest, a team meeting was called into his room—everyone ready for what his next step would be.
Kain took a deep breath in and said, "What's my prognosis?"
"Dr. Agassi said there's a lot of damage to your thigh muscle," Oliver said.
"Physio?"
"At least."
"Anything else?"
Oliver had a hard time finding the words. He hesitated, but finally said, "I know this isn't what you want to hear, but even with therapy and exercise, you may need to use a cane for the rest of your life." His heart was heavy with guilt and sadness as he saw the disappointment in his friend's eyes.
"I see." Although his tone was even, there was an unmistakable hint of sorrow in his voice.
"Also, due to the corruption, your gift is temporarily disabled. We're working on purifying you, but the corruption is very strong. It probably won't come back for a while."
"More bad news, hm?" Kain sighed, placing a hand over his dressed wound. It felt warm to the touch. "In that case, I've made my decision. Ethel, hand me my tablet. I have to call Willoughby."
Team Cropduster, an Office 4 field team, was originally on vacation in Colorado. Orders from Seven Spiegel made them cut their trip short and take a jet to south Sask.
Their team was made up of three members: Guinness, a powerful, highly trained medium with the gift of psychometry; Fabian, an ex-military sniper who was extremely loyal to Guinness utilizes a telescopic eye that can see through objects; and Jamie, a de-aged elder witch who was useless without her wand and hat.
Guinness's nostrils flared in disgust as he stepped into the cabin, assaulted by the stench of burnt flesh that clung to every wall like a thick fog. His keen senses picked up on the grim atmosphere that filled the living room and snaked its way into the bedroom, where Kain lay waiting for him. He knew that some sort of introduction would have been necessary, except they already knew each other.
"Not doing well, it seems," Guinness said.
Kain tried to smile but it looked more like a grimace. "How nice of you to say."
Guinness pushed his blue sunglasses up on his perfectly parted short black hair. "You know what I'm here to say."
"Yeah, go ahead and say it. You and your fucking formalities."
Guinness spoke with a chillingly calm tone, void of sentiment. "I'm here to take control of the situation. Like we discussed earlier, Amon is now under my team's jurisdiction."
"What are you going to do first?"
Guinness gestured to Kain's leg. "I'm going to check that."
"You want to touch my wound?"
Without skipping a beat, Guinness strode over, removed his white gloves, and slid his hand under the covers to touch Kain's thigh. The sudden movement made Kain flinch, followed by a surge of pain. He bit down on his lip as Guinness dove into a vision.
"Fields of white sand. Purple-black grass. Hairless, emaciated wolves. A cat-scorpion?" Guinness tilted his head and suddenly gripped Kain's leg tighter. "I hear them. The missing family is crying." The vision faded. The feeling of a vision ending was not dissimilar to emerging from the water. He opened his eyes to see everyone else had joined them in the room. Had they heard what he described?
Oliver locked eyes with him. "Did you see Emily?"
"No."