It is past time for me to speak of this. I guess the place the tale picks up is when I was captured. Somehow my mind was disconnected with what they were doing to me. As my mind floated in the ether, the old man appeared. I have seen and spoke to him many times over the past few months, but it almost always has been in dreams. I believed that he was Odin, god of Norse mythology, then. Now I know better.

During our time, he told me many things. The biggest thing was that he needed me to start recruiting worshipers for him so that he might be able to take a more direct hand in matters. I was selected because of my Nordic bloodline, and I knew what was at stake if he did not return. In order to gain my trust, he told me how to find two people that would help me recover the tome. Shortly afterwards, I returned to the physical world and all it's pains.

I was told to put an ad into a newspaper in Columbus, OH. It was simply to read, "Computer Specialist looking for employment, training includes reprogramming faulty AI and recovering lost data." along with a contact number. The fake Odin told me that I would get a response that night and sure enough I did.

I now wish I had never placed the ad, let alone answered that phone.

DarKnyht wrote:I now wish I had never placed the ad, let alone answered that phone.

I sort of know the feeling.

That's Apes Natasha and some of us don't.

Shadowstalker wrote:That's Apes Natasha and some of us don't.

Oops. My dictionary gives the same word for 'ape' and 'monkey'. But closer look seems that 'ape' is something like 'man-shaped (anthropoid) monkey'.

Monkeys have tails. Apes (anthropoid monkeys) do not.

Sometimes I wish I paid attention in Anthropology class.

To continue my tale. I answered the phone and there was a raspy voice on the other end. As I was told he gave a sign to which I replied with the counter-sign that I was also given. The raspy voice then told me to be at a designated place and time to be picked up. The conversation ended.

I arrived at the location and was picked up by a white commercial van. There were too men that were driving and they had a wooden box with them of the sort like a band uses for speakers. Both men seemed to be slightly shifty, and only one spoke. He asked me what the plan was, to which I detailed the information that was again given to me before.

He said he understood and that we needed to go get the proper supplies. Before I knew it we were moving towards a warehouse district.

The plan was simple. There was to be a courier to take the tome from one location to another. We were going to intercept that courier and replace him with one of our own. The one I think of as the ugly one (I say that because his face looked like it had been broken and poorly fixed) had means of getting the needed information from the real courier that would be needed. The other man, who I thought of as pretty boy, had means of removing the memories that the courier had to make the pickup. I was to be the replacement since I looked the most like the courier and could double for him with makeup, plus I have a gift for making machines do what I want.

We would intercept the courier on a lonely stretch of road in West Virginia.

The plan went wrong from the beginning. We managed to succeed in blocking the road with a tree brought down by explosive. The courier was trapped between us and the tree. The pretty one, jumped out and demanded that the courier get out of the car with the help of his shotgun. The person that got out was a young woman in her 20s. Me and the ugly one got out quickly, and I started to call the plan off.

However the ugly one just said, "Time for plan B, you keep a gun on her while Ben does his thing." He then went to the truck and started to unload the box from the van.

Ben then added his voice, "You heard him, get your damn gun out! I need both hands for this." I hesitantly complied.

By then the box was here and the Ugly opened it. Inside was a chainsaw which was obviously for the tree and a cage. Inside it was a creature bound in copper wire. The ugly one saw my look and chuckled, "Nothing like having a power source for our gifts." Then he was off to clear the fallen tree.

Ben on the other hand was locking gaze with the girl. His voice took on an odd quality as he spoke. "You are going to calm down. You need to calm down. I have something important for you to do for me."

The girl seemed to be dazed by this, and slowly started to gaze at something far away. He continued, "You are going to continue to your pickup. You are going to act as if everything is fine, you are late because a tree fell and the road crew had to come clean it up. Do you understand?"

She nodded slowly and he looked at me, "You don't need to do that anymore, you can go back to the van." I found that I had to fight hard to immediately do what he said, and because of it I made myself stand there although I did put the gun away.

"You are going to pickup the package. But instead of taking it to the location they tell you, you are going to bring it to this spot. And you will need to give it too us. Do you understand?" Again she nodded.

"Go on and do what I have asked you." At this she got back into her car. We quickly cleared the remaining tree so she could proceed, and we waited.

I definitely had a bad feeling about it all.

We waited patiently, and eventually the car reappeared and pulled up to our spot. The girl somewhat stiffly got out of the car and walked towards us. She handed the tome to Ben and sort of stood there half dazed. Ben make a half glance at me and Ugly. He then said, "Since Jerry here is going to wipe her mind of the past day, why don't we have some fun with her." Then he chuckled.

There really was no thought to what I did next, I just sort of reacted to the vileness of what he was suggesting. My gun cleared it's holster in probably record time and I didn't hear the shot until it's echoes came back from the hills. My rationale side must of been somewhat working however because I only shot Ben in the knee. I then turned the gun on the now named Jerry.

"Both of you slowly take out your guns and throw them my way. Move too fast or if you start to get that weird tone in your voice and I will shoot first, worry about issues later. While you are at it, Ben get face down." I then shouted at the girl who seemed to wake up from her daze when the gun went off. "Pick back up that tome and bring it to me. Then I want you to use the tie-down strips in my bag to bind his hands, his feet and then put them together."

Jerry's face had somehow become even uglier than before. "The boss isn't going to be happy that you aren't listening to him. You know this makes you a dead man."

I didn't trust myself to reply except to say, "Shut up and get on the ground too." The bastards were going to commit rape and then erase her memory of the event. I should have shot both of them on the spot, but this would have to do.

The girl finished binding the two up and then slowly stood. "What are you going to do to me?" I could tell she was terrified by what had just happened.

"A lot less than what they were going to do. I need you to get the keys to the van from his pocket and throw them to me." I lowered my gun but didn't put it away. "And I need you to listen to me."

I really wasn't sure how I was going to clean up this mess.

I was thinking fast. I was realized that if something didn't happen soon, I would be dealing with people from the cult. I made my decision.

"I want you to hand me that tome. If you argue, I will leave you here with these two and you guys can play until your people trace you here. Knowing your employer, they will not treat you much better than them."

"What am I supposed to do if I do help you? They will hunt me down just like you. I am dead either way." She had a point, so I changed my plans. I raised the gun again and ordered her to the ground. Once she got there I bound her up like the other two.

I then pointed the gun at the Jerry. "Fine, you are going to do your trick on her anyways. If you argue, I will shoot once each time you refuse."

"You aren't that kind of person," he laughed. So I shot him in the kneecap.

"Want to try again?"

"Get bent," was the reply from pain. So I shot him in the other knee.

"I have plenty of bullets, I think you will die first though." I was surprised by the coldness that had entered my voice, but I guess desperation changes you.

Through tears he said, "No, please no. I will do it, but I need her closer, and I need my hands free." I pulled her roughly over. I pulled my knife with my left hand, pointed the gun at his head and cut the bonds.

He roughly pulled himself into a sitting position. He sat there calming himself for a few seconds and then suddenly grabbed her head. Instantly she convulsed like she was shocked. He held her for a little longer and then said, "It's done." She collapsed to the ground and I cut her loose.

I quickly bound him back up, and then I threw the keys to her car away. I suddenly was hit by the horror of what I did. I then forced the two into the van, and loaded their box into it. I had to help Jerry into it because of his injuries. I drove a ways down the road and stopped. I looked at the creature in the box and struck a deal with it, knowing I wouldn't keep it.

Now for the final part of this confession. Once I finish this and the current hunt, I will be taking some time off to do some reflecting on these events. I cannot help think that this mess as it was could have been avoided had I been more aware of those around me.

The deal with the creature was simple. He sabotaged the vehicle and he got his freedom, but the occupants had to survive the crash. Looking back the creature did do what he was told, it was just that I did not realize it. I don't think it matters because it was going to die either way, just odd that it did keep it's word.

The crash wasn't quite what I intended and the vehicle was totaled. As I said, I immediately killed the wretched thing because at the time I thought it had killed to humans. Not that I was exactly kind to them, but injury and death are two different things. I thought they deserved worse but I can't bring myself to kill another fellow human being. As normal when the supernatural around me is killed the extra boost I get started to fade away. With it's last bit of leftover energy the horror of all of this was fully revealed.

The entire time I had been sensing something wrong and evil around the van. I foolishly believed it was the creature in the box, but now it was gone I could still sense the presence. I opened myself fully to it and saw it emanating from the van for a second before it was gone.

I rushed back down to the van and found it empty. There was no sign of either man inside of it. I never saw them get out of the van, yet they were gone. I can only come to one conclusion from this, and that is that they both were like the creature in the box.

It bothers me how easily I let them use me, manipulate me. They probably took great satisfaction in the fact the pushed me towards becoming more like them. Likewise, the old man in my dreams has to be part of this. He led me down to this road, probably knowing that the information that he fed me was only half true. Worse of all, I let them. I look back and see nothing but points where I could have walked away, should have walked away. Yet I let my obsession led me on.

As I said, once I finish this hunt I will be taking a few days off. There is a old saying, "If you can't recognize the man in the mirror, it is time to step back and see when you stopped being yourself." I am not sure I know who I am right now, and I think that makes me unfit to be doing our work for the moment.

If you need to talk.......

I fully understand not recognizing the man in the mirror, It took me a while to recover my senses after my encounter with my "guest". (Master Tendai helped me a great deal)