Fires Rising by Laimo Michael

Author:Laimo, Michael [Laimo, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Horror
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Published: 2011-10-15T15:14:40+00:00

Chapter 16

The subway station lay silent and desolate. Like the street outside the Church of Holy Innocents, not a soul gathered. The main overhead lights were out, but all the emergency beacons still glowed, bathing the wide area in sickly yellow light.

Pilazzo passed the attendant booth and saw with dismay that someone had smashed the plexi casement and looted what cash they could find inside. A sunburst of blood was painted over the subway system map inside. Pilazzo guessed that on the floor below, amid the shards of inch-thick Plexiglas he'd always presumed to be shatterproof, the body of the attendant lay in a dead heap.

He stooped beneath the turnstile and walked briskly down the steps to the platform.

A subway train sat on the tracks, its doors open, interior lights flickering; he could hear the electric charge of them buzzing, a stench of ozone and urine saturating the air.

He turned around, and with both fear and an odd sense of comfort, saw that he was alone.

Seeing no place to sit, he leaned against the closest support column and began to cry. It was just a few sobs at first but soon the floodgates opened and the wails spilled from his mouth ungoverned, joining the warm tears streaking down his face. After a time, he stopped and gazed up the stairs that led to the outside world…and then, to the train that continued to sit motionless amid a thin wisp of acrid smoke and sputtering lights.

The open door beckoned him.

He was afraid…but wasn't terrified as he felt he should be, and couldn't fathom as to why. There were murders being committed on the streets, chaos erupting into what might be riotous proportions…and yet inexplicably he still maintained his composure—his will to press forward and move on with his mission.

Your church awaits…

He took a step toward the open train door.

From behind him came a voice, a mocking call: Uh-boo-hoo-hooooo…" It was the type of feigned blubber a schoolyard bully might make after shoving a nerdy nemesis into a mud puddle.

Pilazzo froze, abrupt fear whizzing up and down his spine. He peered over his shoulder and saw not just one man but four men standing perhaps twenty feet away. They were huddled alongside one another, staring at him, eyes feral beneath the dim lighting.

One of the men, taller than the rest, called out with derision and sarcasm, "Time to play, priest. Time to plaaaayyyy!" His head jerked back and forth, shoulder length hair brushing in and out of his face.

The men moved forward as a group, gaits hideous and unnatural, jerking and wrenching as if manipulated by intermittent surges of power. Pilazzo could see none of them boasting any kind of construction gear. But he knew: they were workers. They had muscles. They were tanned, with soiled jeans and red tee-shirts emblazoned with graphic logos.

They were afraid of him.

Like the others, they fear me. Here I stand, utterly defenseless, in a place where they could murder me as they did Thomas, and that hobo.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.