CREEPY CRAWLERS

Part II

Wesley Overhults

San Francisco, California

The reptilian creature snarled at Rachel and then sprang, its legs uncoiling like a spring and propelling it forward.  Rachel telekinetically threw the loose debris she had picked up and watched the motley assortment of weapons collide with the creature.  Her attack didn’t slow the thing down in the slightest but it bought her the precious second or two she needed to create a telekinetic shield that would stop the beast in its tracks.  The giant lizard was smarter than it seemed however.  When it realized what Rachel was doing, it hopped in the air and clung to the ceiling of the tunnel.  It scurried along the ceiling and then dropped down right on top of Rachel.  Rachel almost gagged as she caught a whiff of the creature’s hot breath in her face and struggled to keep its razor-sharp teeth from sinking into her flesh.

“I was trying to be nice,” she warned the thing, continuing her attempts to extricate herself from its clutches.  “Now you’re just making me mad.”  She let out a blast of her telekinesis that launched the beast away from her and into the wall of the tunnel.  “Trust me, you definitely don’t want that to happen.”

The beast readied itself for another attack and then abruptly crawled away into another tunnel.  Rachel cursed to herself and ran after it.  She had spent the entire day trying to track the thing down and she wasn’t going to lose it after all that hard work.  She struggled to keep it within eyesight and tried to match its frantic pace.  The creature lead her through the twisting maze of sewer tunnels and she realized very soon that the thing was more at home in the tunnels than she was.  Rachel assumed that the creature had once been human judging by the small flickers in its emotional aura.  If that was true then she also assumed that the creature had been a native of the city in its past life.  Only someone or something who had spent their entire life in the city could know it as well as this thing did.

Rachel turned a corner and realized that the creature had escaped her.  She couldn’t see it anywhere although that didn’t say much considering the lack of proper lighting in the tunnels.  She struggled to catch her breath, huffing and puffing as if she had just finished a marathon.  She realized that she was still woefully out of shape when it came to her chosen line of work as a vigilante.  She didn’t see how other people did it without dying from an early heart attack.

“Fine, be that way then,” she said to the darkened, empty tunnel.  “I’m going to get you sooner or later.”

“You firsssst!”

Rachel realized that it was the creature who had said those words to her.  She could tell by the hissing and she knew that she was right about the beast having once been human.  Rachel turned to look in the direction of the voice and saw a giant body blot out the light from the lamps in the tunnels.  The creature was on her in a second, knocking her to the floor.  Rachel felt her head hit the concrete and it dazed her.  Her vision was swimming and she desperately tried to think of something to do.  It was likely that she was slightly concussed from the impact and because of that it was hard to apply the necessary concentration to use her powers.

“No, you.”

Rachel saw a mass of greenish-gray tendrils wrap around the creature and reel him backwards.  She coughed up the sewer water that had invaded her nose and mouth and tried to get back to her feet.  She wasn’t sure if it was the blow to the head causing her to misread the situation or if what she saw was actually real.  There was another creature now, this one more humanoid in shape.  It looked like a man in some kind of costume made out of rags.  He was where the tendrils had come from and Rachel watched as the Ragman used those rag tendrils to choke out the creature.  The beast roared and thrashed against the simple cloth bonds but they had to have been stronger than they appeared.  The tendrils held the creature fast and Rachel realized that some of them must have clinched around the beast’s throat because its movements were becoming weaker.

“Don’t kill him,” she ordered the Ragman.  “He’s still human somewhere in there.”

“You don’t know that,” shot back Ragman.  “This is the reason I came to this city, to take care of this thing.  The spirits of its victims cry out for justice, for vengeance.  This thing will be punished for its crimes.”

“Preach it to someone else,” snapped Rachel, using her telekinesis to separate the two creatures.  “I’m not letting you murder him in cold blood.  That’s not something I can stand for.”

“Don’t get in my way, Rachel Roth,” warned Ragman, turning his anger towards her rather than the creature.  “Maybe the suit got it wrong after all.  Maybe I’m here for you instead of that thing.”

“How the hell does everyone know who I am?” wondered Rachel aloud but she had no time to ponder that question.

Ragman came at Rachel even as she used her telekinesis to throw some debris at him.  He used the tendrils from his suit to bat aside the projectiles and then send a hoard of them for Rachel.  She used a telekinetic shield to block the tendrils before teleporting behind Ragman and locking him in a telekinetic vice.  Ragman smirked though she couldn’t see it because of his mask.  She thought she had won the battle but he and the suit were both more resourceful than she gave them credit.  What he told her was true.  He had been drawn to San Francisco because of the creature’s actions, because of the people that thing had murdered.  Their souls cried out for justice and he was there to deliver it.  If the creature still possessed a soul then Ragman would add it to the collection that made up his suit and if not then he would simply put it out of its misery.  Either way, it would no longer stalk the tunnels of the city again.

“The suit knows you,” explained Ragman.  “I’ve taken out people that worshipped your father and their memories give me all the information I need.  Maybe you’re a bigger monster than that thing.”

The anger flared behind Rachel’s eyes and it blinded her to what was really going on.  Ragman had shot off tendrils from his hands, tendrils that had snaked along the floor and now sprang up to ensnare Rachel.  The distraction caused Rachel to let Ragman go and he was on her in seconds.  He was intent on taking her soul and ridding the world of the evil she carried with her but as he attempted to do so, he saw something.  There was an evil inside Rachel Roth, that much was true, but there was also good in her.  Ragman saw the daily struggle inside her soul, saw the good she attempted to do just to make up for the simple fact that she existed.  Rachel Roth was more human than anyone he had ever encountered and he wasn’t in San Francisco to end her life.

“Maybe I’ll show you how big of a monster I am!” snarled Rachel as her eyes glowed red with anger and she used a telekinetic blast to launch Ragman into the wall of the tunnel.

Ragman actually struggled to get back to his feet but he knew now that his intention wasn’t to harm her.  He watched the dark power glow behind Rachel’s eyes and then her expression changed from one of anger to fear.  He knew that she had lost control before, knew all about what she had done to Brother Blood thanks to the psychic bond he initiated with someone while trying to take their soul.  When Ragman tried to add someone to his collection, he saw straight into their soul and knew their every secret sin.

“You’re no monster, Rachel,” he told her and his suit began to recede from his body at least to take a form she would recognize.  “I spent that money well, by the way.  I’m sorry for earlier.  The suit isn’t as forgiving about things as I am and sometimes it’s hard to control.  I suspect you know what that’s like.”

“It’s you,” realized Rachel as she gazed upon the homeless man she had met at the bus stop earlier in the day.  “I wondered how you disappeared like that.”

“I have my own tricks,” he told her as he extended his hand.  “Rory Regan.  Never thought I would meet someone with the same initials as me.”

“Gotta love alliteration,” cracked Rachel as she shook his hand, being careful not to hang onto it for too long.  “Just so we’re clear, you’re not going to kill that creature.  There’s a person still inside there.  I can feel him.”

“The suit has pretty strict rules,” said Ragman as his costume morphed to cover his head again.

“Then tell it to go to hell,” ordered Rachel.  “Do you never even stop to think about the people you . . . do whatever to?  I know they’re all bad people, mostly anyway, but maybe some of them were like me or like that creature.”

“I’ve never given it much thought.”

“Maybe you should sometime.”

Both Rachel and the Ragman looked at each other.  There was a connection there and it came from the fact that they were both good people forced to live in an evil world. Rachel sensed that underneath all those tattered rags was an equally tattered and worn man in Rory.  She wondered if she would ever get that way.  She wondered if her current actions as a vigilante would keep going until she got to the point he was at now.  How long had he been wearing that suit?  How many souls had he collected in his time?  Would she be destined for the same fate?  These were questions that Rachel Roth couldn’t ponder at the present moment.  They still had a creature on the loose in the sewers and they still had to find out where the thing came from.

“The creature got away but I can track it,” said Ragman, moving in the direction he knew the beast had gone.  “Are you coming with me, Rachel?”

“Just to make sure you don’t kill him until we have all the facts,” she clarified as she followed him further into the dark.

“So this is it?”  June Moone looked less than impressed with the disheveled building in front of her.

“It is,” confirmed Faust.  “I confess that my plan will have to be revised a little bit since you can’t . . . ‘do your thing’ as you put it.  I had hoped that you could turn into your other half and take apart the men inside that building without much fuss.”

“Sorry to disappoint you then,” said June, making a mental note that Rachel’s sarcasm must have started to rub off on her at some point.  “Why did you even bring me along in the first place?  Can’t you just talk your way out of whatever happens?”

“I could, yes,” he answered as he started moving towards the entrance to the building.  “I believe we’ll go with that.”

“You’re just going to go in there and tell them to shut this whole thing down?” asked June as she followed.

“I will ask them very nicely,” assured Faust before kicking the door in.  “Gentlemen!  I’m sorry for my sexism in assuming you’re all males but I come bearing a wondrous proposal for you.  Who is the man in charge of this establishment?”

June struggled to maintain her composure as everyone in the drug lab drew their weapons on both her and Faust.  She tried to envision what exactly he was thinking or if he was even thinking at all.  Recklessness didn’t seem to suit him but then again could she really call it that?  Was it really recklessness when you had your silver tongue to back you up and get you out of any situation you got yourself into?

“That’s me,” said a muscular African-American man, stepping to the forefront.  “I ain’t interested in whatever deal you got.  If you know who we sling for then you know you best get gone.”

“But first listen to my proposal before you intend to fill me full of holes,” suggested Faust as he hopped up on an empty table to his voice could carry to the rest of the room. “You probably don’t even know me and that’s alright.  Let’s just say I’m a businessman looking to tap into new markets.  I consider this market very lucrative but I see that Brother Night has a monopoly on it.  What if I told you I could offer you better pay and better opportunities than him?  What if I told you I could give you everything you ever dreamed of?  Surely there is something you dream of, isn’t there?”

June watched as all the people in the room stood transfixed by Faust.  She had to admit that the most apt word to describe it was “magic”.  She knew that if it weren’t for the protection of The Enchantress then she would most likely also be caught up in Faust’s web of words.  Everything about his voice, his tone, and his cadence literally cast a spell on his audience.  June wondered again exactly why she was there.  Was he showing off for her?

“What’cha want in return?” asked the leader.

“It’s a very simple deal,” explained Faust.  “I will see to it that all of you improve your lives and in exchange I simply ask that you get out of this lifestyle.  As a show of your faith, I’ll need you to destroy this establishment and all the product inside.”

To June’s complete amazement, the thugs started doing exactly that.  There were plenty of flammable chemicals in the area so they had no shortage of ways to start a fire. Faust hopped down from his perch and smiled at June though June wondered if that smile was genuine.  It was bizarre to see someone so comfortable with lying to so many people.

“You can’t keep up your end of that deal,” said June.

“I have money and connections that will get them into programs to better their lives,” corrected Faust.  “What they do with them after that is up to them.  Do you take me for some heartless monster, June?”

“Kinda yeah,” she admitted.

“Honesty is so refreshing,” said Faust, not even acknowledging the issue of whether or not June was right to think so about him.  “I think it’s something of a lost concept in today’s society.  So is the art of bargaining.  People don’t understand how binding deals can be.  I think it’s quite vexing.”

“Do you ever listen to yourself talk?” inquired June.

“All the time,” said Faust glibly.  “Let’s discuss this more outside, shall we?  I would hate to be trapped inside this impending inferno.”

While his new allies finished the task of torching their former employer’s place of business, Faust escorted June out onto the street.  He took out a pen and paper and scribbled something down on it before handing it to the thug in charge.

“What’s that?” asked June.

“This is a program that will help you and the others get back on track,” said Faust to the gang leader, not paying attention to June but answering her question anyway.  “I have honored the terms of our deal as you have honored yours.  Our business with one another is concluded.”

The lead thug took the rest of his crew and departed for the address Faust had given him.  Faust turned to look at June and he couldn’t help but let a smug smile cross his face. It warmed what was left of his heart when he could do something that would hurt Brother Night.  He knew he would pay for it at a later date but right now he could afford to show his happiness at how the night had progressed.

“You’re still shady,” warned June.  “Yeah I’m pretty impressed that you made all this work out without having anybody get hurt.  I won’t lie about that but I also won’t lie and tell you that I’m suddenly going to trust you.”

“I’m not asking for that just yet, June,” explained Faust.  “I’m just hoping that tonight was a sign of good faith.  I’d like to see you again.”

‘You are an even bigger fool than I would have dreamed if you take him up on that offer, June.’

“Maybe you will,” she admitted.  “That was definitely the most interesting first date I’ve ever been on.”

“I pride myself on being more interesting than most people,” said Faust.  “Shall I have the cab drop you off at your place?”

“I’ll settle for going back to the shop and then leaving from there,” answered June.  “I’m sorry for being secretive.”

“Everyone’s entitled to their secrets, June,” said Faust, grinning at her before hailing a cab that would take them back to his store.

June caught herself smiling back and then tried to remember that she couldn’t trust him.  He had behaved himself tonight but she couldn’t expect him to continue doing that just for her benefit.  She knew that he was shady, knew that he had a past that he wouldn’t reveal to her no matter how hard she tried to get him to.  She did want to try though and she found herself wondering why.

‘He hasn’t once tried to enchant you,’ confirmed The Enchantress.  ‘Be thankful to me for that and be mindful that I could just as easily remove my protection.’

‘You do and then we’ll both be in trouble.  Maybe you should be mindful of that.’

“Is everything alright?” inquired Faust, seeing that June was seemingly lost in her thoughts while their cab pulled up to the curb.  “You look as if your mind is elsewhere.”

“I’m fine,” she assured him.  “It’s like you said earlier.  Everyone is entitled to their little secrets, right?”

“Of course,” he agreed.

Rachel’s legs were starting to get sore.  She had to admit that there were times when her powers came in handy.  Teleportation cut down on having to rely on public transportation but it also didn’t help her build up her leg strength for the times when she would have to rely on them as her only mode of transport.  Ragman proved his worth in tracking the creature through the strange power of his suit but Rachel knew she couldn’t teleport without a proper location in mind first.  The creature had been literally running them ragged and Rachel was sure her legs were about to give out on her.

“He better be close,” she said in between huffing and puffing.

“It is,” assured Ragman as they stopped before the opening of another tunnel.  “I think this is where the creature makes its home.”

“He probably had a name once,” reminded Rachel, refusing to resort to calling the creature “it” instead of “he”.  She knew there was a person still inside the giant lizard and she couldn’t let herself forget that.

“How can you be so sure of that?”

Rachel always found it difficult to accurately describe her powers.  Explaining the teleportation and the telekinesis was easy.  The hard part was explaining her empathic abilities to someone.  People felt so many things that they weren’t even aware of but she could sense all of it.  Some emotions came to her in the form of colors but there were plenty that had no designated colors.  Those were the ones that she could just feel, that she just knew were inside of people.  She remembered watching old detective movies with her foster mother sometimes.  Detectives always had hunches about things, gut feelings that they couldn’t ignore and that usually paid off for them.  Rachel had her own kind of hunches, her own kind of gut feelings that she couldn’t ignore either.

“You know that feeling you get when you can sense the evil in people or whatever you want to call it?” asked Rachel.  “I sense more than just evil, Rory.  I sense everything.  I sense all the good and bad and everything in between.  There’s a person inside of that creature and if I can get close enough to him, maybe even lay a couple fingers on him, I know I can bring that person out again.”

“The suit doesn’t believe in redemption,” warned Ragman.

“Nobody does except the people that need it,” countered Rachel before rushing into the dark of the tunnel.

The tunnel, as it turned out, wasn’t much of a tunnel at all.  It was just a connector to a giant open room.  The room was circular and Rachel wondered exactly what its purpose was if it still had any.  She saw other tunnels branching off of it and realized that it must have been some kind of hub or connection point.  Now though it was something different.  Now it was just a nice spot for a very big lizard to crawl into and hide from the rest of the world.

“It’s in here,” confirmed Ragman.

“I know,” said Rachel before turning her attention to the darkness in the room.  “I know you’re scared and you have the right to be.  We came down here to help you.  I know you don’t want to believe that but there’s a part of you that does.  There’s a part of you that remembers who you still are.  I promise you that we’re not going to hurt you if you come out.”

“You can’t guarantee that,” reminded Ragman.

“Shut up and let me work,” ordered Rachel.

A scratching noise emanated from somewhere in the room.  Rachel saw Ragman’s head turn in the direction of the sound and track it as the creature moved about the room.  It seemed conflicted about what to do, about whether or not to trust the invaders that had seen fit to trespass in its domain.  It crawled forward slowly and then stopped, sometimes retreating back and taking a few moments to figure out what to do.  Both Rachel and the Ragman remained still so as to not agitate the creature while it made up its mind.  Finally, it stepped in front of them and stood there.

“What now?” asked Ragman.

“I can’t promise you that this will work,” said Rachel to the creature, ignoring Ragman’s question.  “It’s probably going to hurt too.”

The creature tried to recoil as Rachel placed her hand on its head.  She could feel its anger and its fear.  It was deep, primal emotion that poured out of the beast’s soul and into hers.  Rachel moved past those emotions, those instincts that were not originally part of the creature.  She could sense that they were foreign to it, to him.  It was as if one being’s emotions had been overlaid onto another’s.  She wanted to bring up what was buried, what lurked deep in the pit of the creature’s soul.  That was where the truth was, buried somewhere inside the creature.  That was where they would get their answers as to who the beast had once been.

The creature screamed and Rachel felt something like a scream erupt from her throat as well as she felt the same pain that the beast felt.  She could feel the truth though and she latched onto it.  She pulled with all her mental might and yanked the person the beast had once been to the surface.  It came up kicking and screaming but it came up all the same and the forcefulness of it all caused Rachel to physically recoil.

“What did you find?” asked Ragman, the tendrils of his costume moving into a defensive position in case things got very hostile.

“Not what,” reminded Rachel as she looked upon the creature with new eyes and it did the same with her.  “I found someone who’s been missing for a long time.”

“Long time,” mimicked the creature.  “I am . . . sssorry.”

“Don’t be,” assured Rachel and caught herself actually grinning at him.  “You wanna do the big reveal or you want me to?”

“I don’t follow,” admitted Ragman.

“You,” said the creature.

“Say hello to Jimmy Tilton,” introduced Rachel.  “His father is a geneticist named Erazsmus Tilton.  He called the police to report his son went missing, said that maybe the thing living in the sewers got him.  Looks like maybe he was right.”

“Father,” said Jimmy and his eyes clouded with pain.

Ragman pulled Rachel behind him as Jimmy took up what looked like an attack position.  The lizard-man wasn’t interested in harming them though.  He had his sights set on other prey now and he wasn’t going to be deterred from the hunt.  Jimmy took off into the dark, scurrying his way through the tunnels like a bloodhound on the trail of a scent. Ragman and Rachel were quick to give chase, Rachel cursing herself inwardly for seemingly not being able to restore Jimmy’s mind completely.  She didn’t know what she had set off in him but she had an inkling as to what it was.  When she was sifting through his emotions, Rachel felt so much anger and pain.  Someone had turned Jimmy into the monster he now was and she could think of just one prime suspect for that particular crime.  Rachel knew she could live for the rest of the eternity and never figure out why fathers could be so cruel to their own children.

“He’s gone to the surface,” realized Ragman as they stopped at a ladder that would take them to the world above.  “What’s he chasing after?”

“I’m glad you decided to start using proper pronouns for him,” snapped Rachel as she hauled herself up the ladder and into the soft glow of streetlights.  “I’m sure he really appreciates it.”

“Are you going to answer my question or not?” inquired Ragman as he came up after her.

“Jimmy didn’t get this way by choice,” explained Rachel.  “Someone made him this way and I think I have a pretty good idea of who did it.  There’s only one person in his life who has the kind of knowledge needed for that job and it’s his own father.  My theory got confirmed when I was inside his mind.”

“And now Jimmy’s going to get his revenge on his dear, old dad.”

“Not if we have anything to say about it,” decided Rachel, spying the Tilton house in the distance and seeing Jimmy slither his way towards it.  “Let’s go crash this family reunion.”

Next Issue: It’s father against son and Rachel and Ragman find themselves caught in the middle.