Blood and Beasts

Chapter 24

***The last chapter told the story of John Delaney, a serial killer known as the Huntsman or the Fairy Tale Killer.  Over the decades he murdered multiple people, killing every six years, taking inspiration for his methods from the original darker versions of classic fairy tales.  He was never discovered in life, but then died of a brain aneurism, and his true nature was revealed after death.***

Abraham looked down at the coffin of John Delaney. The finely made oak had held up well during the months underground, and now only a thin layer of dirt rested over the polished surface. The freshly exhumed casket now lay on a bunch on wooden planks over the empty grave, hoisted to the surface only moments earlier by members of the Imperial Cult. Abraham glanced at the carved words on the tombstone with a smirk: John Delaney, Beloved Brother and Uncle. He was willing to bet the family were regretting those words dearly.

The cool autumn air nipped at his cheeks, standing in that cemetery as midnight approached. He was not dressed in his customary robe, out in public he still needed to be more inconspicuous, and so had adopted a clean black suit with a simple white button down underneath. His hair was pulled back in a bun, and if no one looked too closely he'd easily pass as a respectable official in day-to-day society. There were other members of the Imperial Cult with him in this Nebraskan graveyard, all dressed as he was, but most stood further out at the perimeters of the yard, keeping it closed off from the public for the night. The local police were helping with the process and to keep everything hush hush. With enough money in the right hands, Abraham pondered, it was possible to get away with anything in this civilization; a fact that Abraham abhorred about the modern world. Still he guessed the local police would be happy to have the body of one of America's most notorious serial killers taken out of their quant little town.

Only two members of the Imperial Cult stood next to him at the grave site, Brother Raul and Sister Collette. They were here because Abraham trusted them more than most in the Imperial Cult. He felt they understood what their true mission was; saw the fake and vile greed of most who called themselves Brothers. Their time was ending whether they knew it or not. They were helping to usher it in, whether they knew it or not. They had sacrificed Adam and Eve to the serpent; that was the first step. Now they only had a few months left to gather the trinity for the final ritual. Abraham felt they had the first of the trinity in Mitchel Crawford, who was already turning into a strong and vicious beast: one who turns to evil. John Delaney was prophesized to be the second. But then he had died, and made things more complicated.

"Brother, if I may ask," Sister Collette asked, looking to Abraham for permission.

"Go on Sister."

"Why are we going through this trouble with Delaney? Surely there are other killers in America, probably ones who have killed more than him, that could fill this piece of the trinity. So why – "

"So why are we bothering with a dead man?" Abraham finished for her. He nodded. "Because a voice spoke out through the pool, the same voice that first told us how to perform this ritual years before, and it whispered out the Huntsman." Abraham brushed a hand along the coffin, knocking some clumps of dirt aside. "It is only a slight inconvenience that he is dead. That can be remedied for the time being, he only needs to hold together for a few months after all." Collette nodded, satisfied. Abraham looked up at the moon in the sky. Midnight was upon them. "Shall we begin?"

Abraham placed both hands on the coffin of John Delaney, while Collette and Raul each placed a hand on his shoulders and the other on the coffin as well. Abraham would lead the ritual and the other two would follow, speaking the infernal words passed to them through blood from the other side. They would be loud. The police in the area might get concerned but nobody would stop them, nobody could stop them. Abraham would have preferred to do this sort of ritual in the dark caverns of the Sanctum, but to bring a man back from the dead the gravesite was a necessary part.

Their voice rang out loud in the night, rustling the dying leaves on the trees. A faint orange glow shone up from the empty grave below the coffin. It was only a momentary flash and then it was gone, but Abraham knew it well. The spirit of John Delaney had been sent back up, on loan, courtesy of the True God.

A long, deep moan came from the coffin, the gasps of a suffocating man. He was stretching growing lungs inside the rotting cavity that his chest had become. Abraham smiled down and scratched his nails along the outside of the cask. This was met by a much rougher scratching from the inside.

Abraham knelt down and whispered into the coffin, "Welcome back Mr. Delaney. The world has missed your unique contributions. Rest now while your body regains its strength. You will walk among us soon." Abraham stood back up and directed his attention to Raul and Collette. "See to it that this coffin makes it safely back to the Sanctum or your lives will be forfeit. And make sure to restrain him, he does have a history of violence." Abraham walked away, a faint smile on his face. Only one more being was needed to complete the trinity.