Trepidation Hour 3: The Final Act

Trepidation Hour Part 31

Indexius Macabrus by AJ PEASLEE2

“The First act:3

The birth of the Creation.”4

“The Second act:5

Waiting to strike.”6

“The Third act:7

Slay the King.”8

“The Fourth act:9

Close the gap between worlds.”10

“The Fifth act:11

Create the Façade.”12

“The Sixth Act:13

Banish the Servants.”14

“The Seventh Act:15

Revelations.”16

“The Eighth Act:17

Devour.”18

Excerpt from the Indexius Macabrus.19

+TWO DAYS AFTER THE EVENTS AT THE ORDER OF EVERLASTING TORMENT’S TEMPLE+20

A large church like building hides itself from the outside world amongst the pine and spruce trees of an unknown location in Maine. Few have ever laid eyes on this unassuming church and most won‘t waste their time for it looks abandoned and long forgotten. Behind the sheets of brown wood and white window panes lies another agenda. The main hall looks like any other church, full of benches and an altar, but it is what lies beneath. In the far back of the church rests a statue of a faded saint, and underneath is a secret passage to a whole new world. That of The Paranormal Event Council. 21

The undercroft is a large maze of rooms, all having their own purpose. Demonology, Occult, Poltergeist, Intuition, and even Psychic Ability subjects have their own instructors and rooms. Within the largest room, the Council Hall, lies a round table. Many people sit around it, of various ages and clothing. A single black candle is lit in the middle of the table, barely revealing their faces. A man in a brown suit of regal quality stands near the doorway. His black hair is closely cropped and his brown eyes are filled with a sense of age, despite his youth. A voice echoes out from the shimmering darkness.22

“Antony Wooster, you have a new assignment. This is coming from the Magister himself and is of the highest importance. The recent events that have transpired have made this council anxious. The fall of the Everlasting Torment temple and the failed summoning of Herzeleid are only the beginning of something much more dangerous. The Magister has been plagued by visions and other torments that he refuses to speak of. You are charged with finding the man that holds all the answers, Jack Necron. Bring him back here and the Magister will grant you permission to his private quarters, along with truths that few know. Jack Necron must be found and there is not a moment to lose,” The thunderous voice commands while a pointing finger appears from the darkness.23

“I will not fail in this task. I will find Jack Necron and bring him before the council. I will make haste.” Antony replies.24

“We can tell you his last known location. Go to Jackman, Maine and seek the fallen temple. It will be in ruins, but any keys to Necron’s whereabouts are needed. Take what you find and continue on.” The voice commands once more.25

Antony walks out of the black room and into the light of the hall. As he walks past various rooms and other council members, he speaks to himself within his mind. Of course he knew about Jack Necron, The Order and Herzeleid. But they failed and Jack Necron won…but was it with his life? The council was always wary of Jack, treating him more like a threat than a member. He joined them years ago when he first discovered his gift. But that very gift is what bothered the council. No other human alive has his ability. Antony himself was a little frightened by his powers, but respected him none the less. 26

Antony had been an investigator for the council for years, tracking everything from missing members to the Jersey Devil. His reputation is unquestioned and his detection skills are finely honed. Never had he had a task from the Magister himself. Actually, he has never even met the man. 27

Antony continues down the hallway, heading toward a ladder that leads upward and into the church area. When he gets to the top, he knocks on the door and waits for the response. A guard above needs to pull the statue out of the way. A loud shuffling is heard overhead and the door pulls open. Antony steps out of the undercroft and into the church. A man in a dark suit looks at him and approaches. 28

“The car is ready for you Mr. Wooster. It is to take you to the back woods of Jackman. Are you prepared?” The guard asks. 29

“Yes, lead on.” Antony quickly replies.30

Outside of the church in the driveway rests an older looking Cadillac like car. The guard sits in the front seat while Antony gets in the back. They kick up a cloud of dust when they leave the driveway, heading onto the main roads of Maine. 31

About an hour later the car pulls up to a forest of nearly dead vegetation with a single worn path. The guard tells Antony this is the spot and lets him out. The guard shuts down the engine and waits for his return. 32

Antony walks into the forest, keeping on the old trail that should lead to the temple. As he proceeds into the woods, he notices that the further he goes, the more the land seems dead. Trees have become rotten and the grass appears to be scorched. In the distance lies two damaged pillars. A small trapdoor has been blasted open by an unknown force. Antony heads down into the catacombs and begins his search. Many of the walls have been stained with tar and burns, while many of the passageways have been blocked off by various debris. As Antony searches the ground for clues, he sees a mass of red underneath a pile of rock. Antony walks over to the mass, noting that it is a servant of the Order. He flips the top part of the robe upward and leaps backward. The face of a man stares back at him, horribly warped and twisted. His mouth curls around to his ear and his eye sockets are pulled toward his nose. His skin is a light green and a dried gel of blood coats his forehead. Antony shakes back the need to gag and turns away from it.33

The largest part of the temple is too damaged to thoroughly examine, and Antony decides that if there where anything to find here, it would either be ruined or impossible to find. Walking back toward the ladder that leads out, he notices something strange on the floor in certain areas. Small patches of coagulated blood leads toward the exit, and even up the ladder. Antony feels some hope and goes back out. Once outside, he tries to find the trail of blood. Around the trapdoor are more spots and they lead toward the main road. As he follows their lead he notices that there are areas of splatter that are larger than others. The trail stops dead nearly ten feet from where the guard is parked. Who ever managed to escape made it far, but not far enough apparently. 34

“Judging from the blood and areas of impact splatter, I would say someone was heavily wounded and collapsed several times during their escape. I can’t be sure, but I fear it was Jack Necron. I don’t understand why the trail stops here. There are no large areas of blood that would indicate that he died here….so what happened to him?” Antony questions as he walks away.35

“Something the matter sir?” The guard questions.36

“I would say so. This is going to be harder than I thought. Jack was a recluse most of the time. I mean, he would do his investigations but other than that, he stayed out of the public view. Few people would know his whereabouts…except for the person that helped him in the beginning of this whole event. Take me to Boothbay. I need to speak with Lady Pixie,” Antony rushes toward the car. 37

As they leave the forest behind, Antony can’t make sense of what happened to Jack. If he had died there, there would be a fairly large blood pool. But then again, not all of the Order have been disposed of. One of them could have moved him and cleaned the area up….or perhaps Herzeleid….” Antony pushes the words and thought away. 38

The guard turns on to the main route and looks at the sign on the right. It lists several town and Boothbay is among them. Antony had been there before, but he had never gone there from here. The mile count is fairly high.39

“If you want Mr. Wooster, feel free to take a nap. The drive is going to be fairly long. I can wake you when we are close.” The guard politely asks. 40

“Sure, that sound alright. I would probably wind up falling into a sleep on the way there anyway,” Antony replies while leaning further back in the seat.41

Antony’s body begins to calm and relax itself. The sounds of the car begin to slowly fade after a moment, allowing his mind to close the reality and open the door of dreams. He sees a strange landscape before him, one of darkened skies and flesh like ground. The image shakes and throbs violently, filling him with the sensation of a headache. A familiar voice pleads out from the unknown:42

“Help me. I am trapped.”43

Antony snaps back to reality and tries to shake the daze away. It is now night time and most of the street is dimly lit. He looks out to see a gray house with darkened windows. The lawn looks untamed and most of the area is in disarray. It sticks out from the rest of the homes, being the only dark color amongst a row of whites and yellows. Apparently Lady Pixie has either moved or doesn’t care about it anymore. The guard turns toward Antony and points toward the house.44

“This is it. I tried to wake you but you were in a deep sleep I guess.” The guard explains.45

“That’s fine….I had a vivid dream….maybe too vivid,” Antony mumbles to himself, exiting the vehicle. 46

He had been to Lady Pixie’s home a few times in the past until she left the council and set out on her own. It has been a very long time since he has been here, so it is no surprise that the house looks different. But something ominous lingers in the air and Antony can’t help but feel that something is not right. He adjusts the collar to his brown suit and walks toward the front door. Ivy has grown all over the windows and it even managed to snake its way around the door handle. Antony knocks on the door and waits. 47

Nothing.48

Antony tries knocking a second time, hoping to get a response. 49

Nothing, not even a wind whisper.50

Antony pulls the ivy away from the doorknob and gives it a push. It slides open with a loud creak and reveals a dismal atmosphere. A lifelike mist hovers around the room, shifting as if it has it’s own will. The carpet is heavily mildewed, sticky and rotten in many places. Much of the furniture has been obliterated, and appears smashed by some powerful force. Once again, the deep burn stains coat the walls. But if the house was in flames…why didn’t it burn outside as well?51

Antony proceeds further into the house and continues searching. A large lump appears in the carpet and has a human like shape. Antony fears the worst but knows he has to look underneath it. He reaches toward the shape, his hair standing on end, and pulls it away. Lady Pixie lies there, her face warped much like the Order servant. Antony wants to look away, but something stops him. A strange marking on the floor underneath her. He lightly pushes her out of the way, nearly gagging and heaving his lungs up. A carving has been etched underneath her body with a jagged edged object. The words are:52

Not Herzeleid.53

Antony is filled with a sense of dread and confusion. What did this mean? Was the force that had been coming not Herzeleid? Did Lady Pixie discover something before her death? Antony cannot be sure, but he feels that something has happened that was not seen by the Council. 54

As he walks back out of the house, holding his head in puzzlement, he sees a fairly new looking piece of paper resting on a small end table. It was torn from a notebook of some sort, and has only a couple of things written on it:55

Jack56

Flagship Apartments, Room 657

Four roads away58

Antony holds the paper in his hand and rushes out the door. He yells at the guard, telling him to make haste to this location. The car speeds away, squealing and peeling rubber when it leaves. Antony looks back at the house, terrified and deeply worried about what all of this means below the surface. The guard gives him a bewildered look and Antony tells him not to worry about it. He is too worried about what is happening around him to even think about explaining what is running through his mind. He hopes that Jack will be at this address and that the Council can solve this matter. 59

It takes only a matter of moments to reach the apartment complex, a large building of a pinkish brown hue. Many birch trees have been planted in gardens around the complex, along with various wild flowers. The scenery is dramatically different than the previous. Antony steps out of the car, his heart beating at a slow yet hard pace. The guard tells him to be careful as he walks away.60

Within the lobby are two younger looking women with Ipods in their hands, an older gentleman with a cane and gruff looking man with a pitbull. The receptionist is a small framed woman with a blonde ponytail. She looks at Antony with a tired and aggravated stare. 61

“What do you want? We are out of rooms,” The receptionist sighs. 62

“I am just here to visit a friend, and I am unsure where his apartment may be. It is number six, but what side of the building is it on?” Antony does his best to remain polite.63

“It is to the right, up one stairwell. It shouldn’t be hard to find,” The receptionist rolls her eyes. 64

Antony walks away, a little irritated by her attitude, and goes to the stairwell. The carpet that leads the way is a sea green like color, while the walls resemble beach sand. This must have been one of Jack’s many hideaways. An apartment is what he was always living in. When Antony reaches the top of the stairs, the rooms four, five and six rest within the wall to the right. He knocks on the door with the six, waiting for a response. Once again, silence. Antony takes no chances this time and takes a leap back. He runs toward the door, his elbow extended, slamming into it with a mighty blow. The door flails open and allows his entrance. 65

The room is a state of chaos. Books are piled in towers all over the room, crumpled notes lay all about the floor and the ashtray is overflowing with cigarette butts. Various religious relics and other spiritual items are sitting on the bed. A laurel crown, a cross dagger, a Japanese talisman, a ritual doll and even a strange looking glass eye are amongst them. 66

“Jack is not here. I have failed at every turn thus far. Perhaps there will be something in this room that will lead me to him.” Antony thinks aloud. 67

He checks the crumpled notes. They are written in an unknown language, and some are in backwards English. The cross dagger has a dried coat of blood on it, and it appears to have gone deep into it’s victim. The books are on the subject of demons and the occult. Antony notes that copies of the Book of Lifeblood and the Dictionarre Infernal are among them. A single book is far away from the others, and seems to have an eerie glow about it. The cover looks to be flesh, but it is a deep red color. A single, serpent like eye has been burnt into the flesh of the book. Antony opens the cover and looks at the first page. In blood, the title reads:68

Indexius Macabrus. 69

Antony searches his brain in the hopes of recalling that title. But nothing comes to him. He browses the pages, wondering if anything inside it may help. On some of the pages are notes that look like they were written recently. They point out various things involving the Order and Herzeleid. Antony takes the Indexius Macabrus and leaves the room, planning to show the Council what he has discovered so far.70

+AT THE COUNCIL OF PARANORMAL EVENTS, DAYLIGHT+71

“What have you learned Antony Wooster?” The commanding voice asks.72

“I found this book. It is called the Indexius Macabrus, a title I have never heard of. It appears to have Jack Necron’s notes in it, which may lead to his location. His apartment was empty. The Order of Everlasting Torment temple is in complete ruin, and I would assume that any survivors are now in hiding. And, Lady Pixie has been slain. Her body was….in horrible shape.” Antony explains.73

The figures in the darkness begin to whisper and chatter amongst themselves with worried tones. The commanding voice tells them to be silent and still. 74

“Will will look into these matters more thoroughly. Lady Pixie was not a member at her death, but she was well respected regardless. This occurrence will not be taken lightly. Read this mysterious book and the notes within it. You also have the permission to speak with the Magister directly.” The commanding voice booms out once more.75

A council member in dark, heavy robes approaches Antony and takes him into the darkness. The light of the candle fades and eventually Antony cannot see anything. The robed man continues to pull him forward, and Antony reluctantly follows. A burst of light blinds his eyes and he is in a hall that is light by several torches. The area is a deep marble and stands out from the rest of the undercroft. The robed man point’s toward a room that is further back. He then walks away and vanishes into the darkness. Antony is anxious to meet the Magister, but frightened at the same time. Does he really want to know all these truths?76

When he reaches the room, a man in a green silk robe sits in a throne. His face is covered by a ceremonial mask that is in the image of some deity. His hands seem badly damaged and he tries to hide them from view. He looks at Antony and tells him to come closer.77

“Forgive my appearance. I was heavily scarred when I was a child, and I do not wish to let people see my horrid visage. You have done well to gain this honor. And I know all about your mission to find Jack Necron. Herzeleid is at the heart of your woes.” The Magister softly speaks.78

“What exactly is happening? Jack Necron has encounter the beast twice and, apparently, lived. What happened after the events at the temple? And Lady Pixie….” Antony questions.79

“The Indexius Macabrus will tell you everything you need to know, and more. Are you prepared for these truths? Can you bear the weight of the universal secrets?” The Magister gravely asks. 80

“I don’t know. I don’t know if I can handle that burden, but I must. I want…I need to know the truth. What the hell is happening?” Antony asks while shaking his head.81

“An event occurred thousands of years ago, an event that would contradict every religion you ever believed. Lucifer, who grew jealous of God’s powers, decided to create something of his own. He succeeded, and perhaps too well. He created Herzeleid, and that would be his undoing. Herzeleid has the ability to create a bridge from Hell to our realm, and as such, he will complete it eventually. What has happened recently is only the beginning, the bridge has not yet been finished.” The Magister explains.82

“But how is that possible? Satan did not have that ability! And this is only the beginning? That cannot be right, Jack Necron defeated Herzeleid!” Antony retorts.83

“I told you, everything you have believed and learned was incorrect. I was right at one time, but it has since become outdated. And Jack Necron did not defeat Herzeleid, he merely prevented a façade, an illusion. That being that was at the Carver’s residence and the Everlasting Torment temple was not the Herzeleid,” The Magister continues, his hands shaking. 84

Antony falls to the floor, filled with grief and despair. Any hope he hade has disappeared like the wind before a storm. He slams his fist into the hard marble, gritting his teeth and holding back the rage that is fuming from within. 85

“The Council has tracked Herzeleid for decades, and I have had visions of his coming. I have seen the teeth of the Devourer and he comes soon. A world of horrible landscapes, a land gripped with the agony of pain and the promise of everlasting torment. That is Herzeleid’s wish, his purpose. There will be no Hell, no Heaven, no reality as we know it. And, for the first time, the Council will do nothing,” The Magister replies while looking upward.86

“What?! You are going to just sit here and let the end come? You won’t fight it? Why did you send me to find Jack Necron then?!” Antony lashes out.87

“We wanted to know how much progress Herzeleid has made. You see, everything that has transpired is all part of his demented plan. Actually, perfect is the better word. He slew the King of Hell, began closing the gap between worlds, allowed his presence to be known through an illusionary version of himself, and killed his servants. They believed that he would grant them a seat of power in his new world. Wrong. Herzeleid only wanted to use them to help him gain access to this realm faster. And in truth, I believe he even knew this conversation would happen. He wants you to know the truth…he wants you to find him. Just like the Indexius Macabrus explains, there are the Eight Acts of Reality’s Destruction. It has begun and it has started to come to a close,” The Magister stops.88

His body becomes solidified and somewhat statue like. Antony steps up and begins to back away. Blood begins to spatter from the mask’s eye holes and rain down on the floor. His chest muscles push inward and outward, as if something was gripping him and squeezing. A large lump begins to slither up his throat, pushing it’s way onward. The skin around the lump begins to peel and split, creating a wave of red liquid. The mask is forced off the Magister’s face, allowing his burnt features to show. A red circular object begins to force it’s way out of the mouth, a series of tubes come with it. His heart begins to dangle around his chin, his veins and canals desperately trying to hold on. A mass of shimmering pink blasts out from his abdomen, coating everything in it’s wake in a mess of flesh and blood. Antony screams with terror and runs from the room, heading into the darkness. 89

He cannot see anything, and he tries to feel around with his legs and hands. He touches objects of silk that feel like robes. A slimy and sticky substance attaches to his fingers and he continues to run. A heaving, panting sound fills the room, making Antony’s legs push harder and faster. The faint glimmer of the candle make him feel lightly relived, but his heart tells him to keep running for his life. As he reaches the table with the candle, he sees the Indexius Macabrus. He runs to it and reaches for it. A hand slams down on his own and he yelps with fear. A council member has fallen from thin air, his eyes have been burnt out in a cindering mold of white and red. Antony rips the back away and runs out of the room, dashing for the exit. His hand latches on to the ladder and he begins to climb. He slams his head into the doorway and begins to franticly knock on it. He continues to bang on the wood, staring at the floor below. A massive shadow with even bigger claws fills the light beneath and Antony screams out. The doorway flashes open and Antony leaps outward. The guard stands near the hole, looking at Antony with a look of perplexity. Just as he tries to speak, a black hand skewers his ankle and pulls him to the floor. Antony grabs his hand, trying to pull him away from the creature’s grasp. Antony is thrown toward the wall by an unseen force and the guard is pulled into the hellish blackness below. A chorus of gurgling screams break the air and Antony runs for his life, feeling the church and into the night. 90

Antony runs for what seems like miles and hours, not caring where he goes. He only wants to escape the church of mind destroying truths and vicious bloodbaths. He continues his run, the book still in hand, until he reaches a bus stop on the main route road. He collapses into the bench, trying to breathe the burning sensation out of his lungs. His head and hands shake, filled with horror at the truth of Herzeleid and the traumatizing deaths he witnessed. He looks at the Indexius Macabrus and opens it’s worn pages. He begins to look at Jack’s notes:91

“I believe I have found something that even the Order did not know of. I can confront Herzeleid in his own plane, If I so desire. I have amassed an array of weaponry, and I plan to finish this once and for all. I was going to seek the aid of Lady Pixie, but the bastard got her. If only I had been one step faster, one thought ahead of the beast. This is it, this is the end of one of two things: It or I.”92

Below the notes are a series of words in the language that Antony does not understand. Jack left another note underneath them:93

The key is here, by reading this passage, one can kind the Plane of the Devourer.”94

“Eid Lla Ew Dne Eht Ni” 95

Antony looks away from the words and stares at the sky. The clouds are a swirling puff of silent peace. The trees lightly sway in the breeze, dancing in a wave of green bliss. The birds sing in different tones, creating a chorus of chirps. Cars drive by, breaking the silence with a whooshing blast. The clamps of people’s feet create an endless beat. This is Earth, this is home. This is the last time he will see it. All at once, all the things normally ignored collide within his mind and the apology for not taking time to care about it all settles in. 96

“Eid….Lla…..Ew……Dne……Eht….Ni…..” Antony’s mouth speaks the words. 97

The world around him seems to stop. The sounds become inaudible, the people frozen, the sky petrified. The trees rot away in a flash, turning bare and then dropping to the ground below where they sink into mulch. The pavement cracks and shifts, becoming a patchwork of flesh and meat. The sky blackens, and the clouds turn into throbbing masses of red. A black rain begins to scream down from the skies, hitting the ground with a glob of ectoplasmic residue. An endless fog horn sounding siren faintly fills the landscape, growing quiet and then louder. The cars turn into rusting heaps of metal and barb wire, while the bench below turns become a mass of rotting corpses. 98

Antony falls from the pile and crawls away, his shoulder bumps into something. The pant leg of a pair of torn jeans fills his view. A long gray overcoat with bloodstains fills the top half. A man with a ballcap rests behind him. 99

“Jack Necron! I have seen searching for you! Where are we? What is this?” Antony asks while looking around. 100

“This is the Plane of The Devourer. The Land of the Creation. And to put it in a more simple term, this is Earth.” Jack grimly states.101

“This…is…No, that can’t be right. Herzeleid has not closed the gap between realms yet! This is just the realm he resides in! We can get out, I have the Indexius Macabrus,” Antony replies while walking away.102

“No you don’t. You did, but you don’t now. Believe me, I quickly learned that any possessions you had with you before coming here do not follow. I have been here for two days, and I should have been dead before then. How I made it back to the apartment is a mystery…but I am sure Herzeleid wanted to toy with me some more,” Jack gravely says, turning to look at the sky. 103

“But without the book…we can’t get back! No, we have to find a way out! We can’t stay here! We have to stop Herzeleid before he takes the Earth!” Antony franticly shouts.104

“We cannot. We are trapped here, and as I said before, this is Earth. This is the universe now, an endless plane of death, and despair. Can’t you see? Herzeleid tricked me from the beginning, and he tricked you too. He manipulated and orchestrated everything before it happened. He wanted us to think we had a chance, to think we knew the truth, to think we could win. What we are in right now is what the Universe will become before nightfall breaks. Herzeleid has waited for this for hundreds of thousands of years, and now that it is done, nothing will stop him…there is nothing that can. I made a powerful enemy, and for that, I pay the price. There is no way out of here friend, all we can do is walk this plane in a state of everlasting torment for our failures,” Jack walks away from Antony. 105

Antony watches Jack walk away, slowly becoming a figure in the distance. Antony’s eyes begin to swell up and overflow with tears. He falls to his knees, his head hangs down toward the ground. He begins to weep and he just wants to fall over and die. He was doomed from the start, and probably before that. Humans where as a whole, if one thing wasn’t trying to kill us, it was something else. This time, it was something that was unstoppable. Something that cannot be cured by a vaccine, by a peace agreement, a bribe or even the world coming together as one. 106

Antony looks away from the ground and stares at the sky. The clouds are a swirling mass of raging fury. The trees continue to rot into the ground, bubbling as they fade. The siren blares in different tones, creating a chorus of agony. Mist flies by, breaking the silence with a violent blast. The cracking of ground’s shifting create an endless death throe. This is not Earth, this is not home. This is the first time he will see it. All at once, all the things taken for granted collide within his mind and the regret of not appreciating it all settles in. 107

THE END