The Adventures of Dead Dan: The Old Religion

by John Rossi

Table of Contents, parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

part 5

The waitress happened by. She was an older, attractive blonde woman. She looked over and said, “Drina, honey, I didn’t know you were here tonight.”

“Hey, Helen,” Drina said with a mock smile.

“What is all over the table?” Helen asked, pointing to the rust. Drina tried to explain it away but Helen wasn’t actually interested in her explanation as much as in cleaning it up. When she stepped away after getting up most of the rust, Drina relit the candles and reactivated the spell. Then she looked at Dan with those dark, pleading eyes, expecting an answer.

“Look, Drina,” Dan said, “you are asking me to do more then just get involved in this tragedy. You are asking me to turn away from the normal life I have been trying to lead and get involved in stuff right out of a horror movie. I don’t want to battle with dire dogs in the Pine Barrens, I want to protect my family.”

“You would be protecting your family; you would be protecting everybody’s family,” she explained.

Problem was, he knew she was right. The very thought of those things out there disturbed him. This was a situation far worse than lifting forklifts. He knew he should do something but, by doing something, he was stepping into the world he wanted so desperately to avoid, the world of night that Drina had been born into.

“Dan,” she continued, “look: I can make this worth your while. I promise. I didn’t come here intending to involve you unfairly in this nightmare I’ve inadvertently created and not at least try and compensate you for it.”

She bent down into the bag and pulled out what looked to be a skillfully created, hand-crafted bracelet made out of yellow ribbon and fawn-colored hair. She held it out to him.

He looked at it and asked what it was.

“A charm,” she explained. “It’s crafted in the color of friendship, and with pug hair. They way it works will make any pugs think of you as one of their own, sort of like a bonded playmate.”

“How much have you been spying on me?” he asked in agitation.

“Dan, you’re a super-strong revenant who we thought was an agent of the Council of the Dead. Can you really blame us for taking an interest? Plus, that poor little dog must be terrified of you.”

Dan sighed. “It’s complicated; I had my reasons,” he offered.

“You don’t need to explain,” she told him. “Just take it as a gift. It’s just the beginning of what I am willing to do for you if you help me.”

“Can you just skip the mystery and tell me exactly what you mean by that?” He took the bracelet and examined it.

“I don’t want to sound hokey when I’m saying this, and I don’t mean to insult you. When I say I have never heard of anything quite like you before, I mean anything so powerful. There are other legends, Dan, tragic legends of others very much like you. Undead who had the same dilemma; they cared for those mortal beings who were their friends, families, or lovers. They found they couldn’t leave them so easily, just like you. There are ways to deal with the problem you’re facing, Dan, with the whole never getting old complications while those around you do.”

“How?” he asked with intense interest.

“Magic, of course. Legend speaks of a vampire who had a crafter create a talisman for him with a very specific effect. It cast an illusion over him, it made him look like a human being of the appropriate age. It allowed him to stay with his mortal family until the time came when he should have passed away, and then he faked his death, rose from his grave and moved on. Some say he started another family, and then another, moving through the ages living with those mortal beings he came to love until it was time for them to leave him behind.”

“What happened to him?” Dan implored.

“I don’t know. I don’t even know if he was real. I know this: there are undead who ask us to craft talismans like that for them, and they do work, Dan. That’s why I’m giving you this bracelet. Take it home, put it on. I promise you’ll be pleased with the results.”

He looked down at the talisman in his hand. A magical object not unlike this was wreaking havoc out there right now. Was it wise to take this one? Would it work for him, given his strange talent for “pushing” magic?

He looked at the candle and knew that the anti-charm worked in his presence until he broke the mystical door lock she had given him. He didn’t really know how it all worked, but it seemed magic could work around him well enough, given the stone and the spell. He tucked the bracelet in the breast pocket of his flannel shirt and buttoned it closed for safekeeping.

“So you’ll help me?” she pleaded.

He sighed. “What’s your plan?” he asked with resignation.

“I don’t like guns,” she told him as they drove down Caines Mill Road on the way to E’s farm.

“I don’t like the prospect of going out to a farm in the middle of the Pine Barrens where there’s dire dogs roving about,” he told her as he loaded the sixth round into the cylinder of his nickel-plated revolver.

“They’re mastiffs,” she insisted.

“Three-hundred pound, dire-dog mastiffs,” he challenged.

She tried to assure him. “Look, Dan, E keeps them locked up in the kennel in his barn. I promise you won’t have to deal with them.”

“Three people are dead,” Dan countered. “If he keeps them locked up, he’s doing a damn poor job of it.”

“You won’t need that,” she told him anxiously. “Besides, what makes you think that gun might kill them anyway, if you did have to use it?”

“This is a three-fifty-seven Colt Python. It belonged to my grandfather. If those dogs can take a hit from this and keep coming, we are both screwed,” he announced with absolute certainty.

She sighed with trepidation and looked out the window as the nearby forest along the road rolled ominously past them. “If you were going to bring a gun, then why the hell did you bring that huge-ass crowbar you have stuffed in my back seat?” She pointed back at it with agitation.

“It’s made of high-carbon steel. When I swing it at cinder blocks, they crumble like sand castles. If I need to be close. it should do a number on even giant mastiffs.”

“It won’t be necessary,” she asserted again. “All you have to do is wait just off the edge of his property where I drop you until I have him distracted. I’ll text you a simple ‘G’ for ‘go.’ You run up to his house, rip off the Bilco doors to his basement with your supernatural strength, rush in and smash the skull. Then just run back out. I’ll calm down E, pick you up afterwards and take you home. That’s all there is to it.”

He looked at her in disbelief. “You really think this is going to be that easy? This guy is surrounded by murder monsters that have killed three people. From what you tell me, he’s not in his right mind. He’s too strong for your whole coven to handle, and we are just going to walk in there and end this whole thing in one stroke? Drina, I think you’re kidding yourself here. I think your friendship with this guy is blinding you to the danger. I really don’t even think you should go in at all. I think it's too dangerous.”

“I’m not helpless, Dan. Just because I’m not two hundred pounds of undead muscle and can’t lift forklifts doesn’t mean I can’t take care of myself.”

“Three hundred pounds, three ten to be exact, and I didn’t say you were helpless. I’m dead, you’re not. I don’t know how witches defend themselves, but I’m armed to the teeth and, hopefully, I can’t die a second time. Do you really want to take the chance on dying a first time? Besides, how do witches defend themselves? Do you guys hurl fireballs or something?” he asked sardonically as he looked at her from the passenger seat.

“Fireballs!” she exclaimed with wry incredulity. “I see someone spent a lot of time playing Dungeons and Dragons when they were a kid.”

“Well then, how do you defend yourselves?”

“It’s different for each of us, and it doesn’t matter,” she retorted. “E wouldn’t hurt me. Besides, it’s your kind that do insane stuff like throw around fireballs and call lighting to strike their foes.”

“You’re full of it,” he challenged mockingly.

“Not according to legend amongst our craft. I told you earlier, the old tales tell of ancient revenants wielding horrifying magic. You may not want to believe it, but if you are only ten years undead and lift forklifts, what do you think a revenant who is a thousand years old can do?”

Dan was not in a mood for further conjecture. He finished loading the revolver and put it into the holster on his hip. He looked over towards her with genuine concern. She found his worried stare uncomfortable and an awkward moment of silence settled over them.

* * *

When she saw the house, she was almost relieved. She pointed it out and began to pull over. E’s closest neighbor was over a mile away. She also knew that hearing gunshots around here wasn’t uncommon; there were people here who hunted on their own property. So, hopefully, if Dan did anything stupid with the gun, it wouldn’t draw too much attention.

Besides, E’s home had an anti-charm that the coven had placed on it years ago when E’s mother was still alive. It was common practice for witches to make sure mundane people took no interest in them. She did not intend to tell Dan that. She feared it might make him even more likely to start shooting off the hand cannon he had brought with him. When she stopped, she said, “Okay, here we go.”

Dan didn’t want to leave her to go inside by herself, but it was obvious she was resolved to carry out her plan. He sighed and stepped out into the night. He then pulled the six-foot crow bar out of the back seat and closed the car door. She looked at him as if he were nuts.

The lonely road stretched out ahead and behind him. All around him the pervasive darkness of the Pine Barrens reached out towards the night sky. The ancient trees that had been here for centuries towered over him. Dan watched Drina pull away and drive up to the nearby farmhouse.

The moon offered him sparse light. When he began to walk away from the road, it didn’t dawn on him that he had no problem seeing. He made his way towards a large copse of trees that he hoped would cover his approach. When he stopped at home to get the weapons, he had changed into the darkest clothing he had. He put the hood on his dark blue sweater over his head. He even had on his workout gloves. His skin was pale, and he wanted to cover as much of it as possible.

Dan made his way towards the back of the farmhouse at a brisk pace after he saw Drina enter the home. Despite the fact that he was at least sixty yards away, he got a good look at the young guy who came out to meet her. Even from his distance, he could sense the tension between them.

When E finally let Drina in, Dan made his move towards the back of the house. Even in the dark he could tell the home was in good repair. It definitely had an old colonial air about it, but the new siding lent it a modern feel that made the house appealing, at least from outside.

Dan came around the back of the house and looked for a place to hide until he got the text. He also looked for the barn where the dire dogs were supposedly kenneled. It was easy to find, since it was bigger than most garages. He saw a tool shed nearby and made his way toward it.

He was about halfway there when he turned back towards the house and froze. He wasn’t sure how he knew they were there, but he did. There were three of them. Two of them were nearby coming at him warily from direction of the barn. One was behind him towards the woods. Given their dark, grey coats and how quietly these massive beasts moved despite their terrifying size, he should have had trouble making them out, but he didn’t.

The beasts were as huge as Drina had described them, and they sure as hell weren’t in the barn. Each was muscle-bound, with massive chests and paws that could rival a brown bear’s. Their dark grey coats lay in wrinkled folds all about their gigantic forms as was the signature mark of their breed. Their dark fur would have blended in perfectly with the shadows if Dan’s senses hadn’t been so keen.

The irony of the moment struck him. Just this morning he found the idea of doing battle with supernatural creatures out in the woods utterly ludicrous, and now here he was surrounded by three massive beasts out in the farm country of the Pine Barrens. He should have been terrified, but he wasn’t.

He was not consciously aware of what happened to him next. His senses began to magnify several times fold. His vision began to change, to shift into some strange argent-colored spectrum that saw the world around him with an acuity that no mortal human could describe much less experience. It was as though the light of the moon had changed to an arcane silver and bathed the entire world around him in an argent radiance through which he could somehow perceive everything with perfect visual clarity.

His auditory sense followed a moment afterward. His hearing sharpened to the point that he could hear the heartbeats of the massive beasts closing in on him. He could hear the snap of any twig that happened to be under their huge paws as they crept closer and closer. Even the sound of the wind moving past the blades of grass beneath his feet was apparent to him.

He could smell the anxiety of the creatures. They sensed his preternatural nature, and it alarmed them. They had never encountered anything so strange before. Despite their gigantic size and terrifying physical power, they still approached cautiously giving him time to observe them.

Any fear or anxiety he had was gone; it was replaced by a low, simmering rage. A sense of angry resolve forbade him from attempting to flee from this situation as any sane being would. On an instinctual level, these creatures offended him; their very existence was an affront to his own. He couldn’t think about why, nor did he want to. He just felt it and knew it was true.

His state of mind no longer allowed for contemplation beyond the immediate perception of his environment. That’s why he was completely unaware of the fact that his eyes had begun to glow with a soft, silver radiance. He was also oblivious to the fact that he was emitting an eerie, pale aura of light around his entire body.

The dogs stopped. They got lower to the ground and began to growl menacingly. The creature that stood before them showed no fear. Instead, its unearthly silver eyes glared at them with a barely contained fury. The dogs began to bark ferociously, and their hackles rose. Dan could tell his defiance infuriated them.

He knew that his strength was untested against these beasts. So he had no idea what he could do to them or them to him. It never even occurred to him as his instinctual state of combat awareness overrode his ability to think rationally that he had his grandfather’s Magnum on him. He had momentarily forgotten its existence. His hands tightened on the crowbar. It was the only weapon he could even conceive of using in his primordial state of mind.

The dogs began to bark louder and press closer. He understood in order for him to have chance to use his strength he needed to face them one on one. So he did the last thing that even the savage dire dogs would have ever expected: he turned around toward the one approaching alone from behind him, and ran right at it.

* * *

Proceed to part 6...

Copyright © 2021 by John Rossi