Session 08 (Agent Jason)

Monday, 18th March 1996, 11:03pm

“Mind your head…” 

One of the guys with the balaclavas pushed Jason roughly into the back of the car. It stank of cigarettes and old, greasy food. As soon as Jason had gotten in, the other guy jumped into the car next to him, poking the barrel of a pistol into his ribs. Two more masked guys entered the front of the car. As the driver was about to pull out, another car swerved and pulled into the driveway, boxing them in.

Jude.

He jumped out of the car, gun raised, aiming at the two people in the front.

“Just fucking ram him, Klaus”, the guy next to Jason said. Klaus, behind the wheel didn’t say anything.

He could see Knight walk up to Jude, clearly trying to explain something, while showing his hands. It took a few second, but Jude stood down, nodding to Knight. With a final look at the car, Jude got back behind the wheel and removed his own vehicle.

As the dark blue sedan pulled out of the driveway of 1206 Spooner Avenue, the three men removed their balaclavas. Jason didn’t pay them much attention. He sat slumped, staring at his blood and gore crusted hands. They were shaking. Strange… that had never happened to him before.

The guy behind the wheel looked in the rear-view mirror

“It’s going to be ok, Agent Jason” 

He looked to be in his 40s, a lean face with blue eyes.

“Just sit back and enjoy the ride, old-timer. And avoid sudden movements, they make me nervous…”

Jason turned his head sideways to have a look at the guy who was holding the gun that was painfully jabbing his ribs.  Big guy, bearded, probably early to mid-thirties. Jason caught a glimpse of the guy’s eyes as they passed a petrol station. He had seen that look before. When he looked in the mirror…

The third guy, sitting in the passenger seat up front, shoved a bag in between them.

“Donut?”

Jason looked down at his hands, folded in his lap. Blood and tissue was crusted on them. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He was just so tired…

Monday, 18th March 1996, 08:25pm

They had opened the door and headed straight forward. Jude and Knight, back-up sent by A-cell, were waiting at the garage to bring the guy in. Jason had told them to stay outside, as it had been clear before that the house did play tricks on anyone entered it, enough to drive one insane and kill himself. That’s why they both had plugged their ears and left any weapons behind. Last thing he needed was Jasper getting spooked and shoot him in the back.

They had made it about 4 meters into the house when he felt, rather than heard, a loud thump, and saw the beam of Jasper’s flashlight go wild, swaying wildly back and forth, and then spinning. He turned just in time to see Jasper hit the ground on one knee, clawing at his back. In the blink of an eye, Jason saw the large fresh bloodstains sprayed around Jasper’s feet. In the fraction of a second that it took him to take it all in, his light reflected on the head of a log-splitter that came down, this time hitting his cell mate in the shoulder, right next to his head.

Time stopped. The first thing he thought of, as Jasper’s body slowly tipped sideways and hit the floorboards, was that he couldn’t do this without him. The ritual clearly stated two had to invoke and summon the Black Man. Second, he realized he was unarmed against something wielding a large log-splitter with ease. Then his flashlight lit up the one wielding it. Yarrow… Fucking Yarrow!

Time returned to normal and Jason bodyslammed the Friendly (…) to the ground. They both went down, and rolled into furniture, pulling down sheets and boxes around them. His flashlight was gone, and it was hard to see what was going on, as the only light came from two flashlights that were rolling across the floor now. He got back up, as quick as he could, but Yarrow was quicker. The axe hit the wood only inches from Jason’s head. He kicked at Yarrow’s leg, resulting in a grunt, while he grabbed the handle of Yarrow’s weapon. They both pulled at it, wrestling for control of the only weapon in reach. Jason took it, only to lose his grip on the blood-slick handle. They rolled away from each other, and got up, Yarrow moving too fast for a guy his size.

Jason felt a massive blow hitting his side and could feel at least two ribs cracking. Yarrow had hit him, but his aim had been bad, and the weapon had connected with the side, rather than with the sharp edge. Jason dropped down, pulling Yarrow off balance, forcing him down on the ground with him.

The fight turned into a vicious brawl. Jason was gouging Yarrow’s eyes, while he tried to strangle Jason by the throat, clawing at the skin. He could feel one of Yarrow’s eyes pop and pressed his thumb deeper. It was clear this wasn’t going to be enough to stop the academic. Jason had seen the man’s eyes a few seconds before as the beam lit him up. This wasn’t Yarrow anymore. Something else was in control of him now.

He kneed him hard in the groin and reached out for the log-splitter. This time he had the drop on the madman, and he was able to swing the weapon hard, making it crash into the bulk of the man’s torso. This would have killed any man, but as he pulled himself up on the edge of the counter, he could see the body move again. He pulled the axe out of Yarrows chest, making a sucking sound as it left a gaping wound that exposed crushed organs, and he swung it at the things head. Jason felt the slick handle slip again as the back of the axe-head crashed into Yarrow’s face, shattering teeth and cartilage. The weapon spun away, coming to a standstill under a sideboard.

Jason dropped himself onto Yarrow, straddling him as he landed blow after blow onto the man’s battered head. He could feel his fists sinking into the pulped face, shattered bone cutting his knuckles, but he kept going, pounding his fists deeper and deeper  

Suddenly light fell into the room. As he looked sideways he saw Jude, weapon drawn, and Knight, scanning the room over the barrel of a shotgun. Only then he realized he had been calling for Jude all along. He reached up, fumbling to remove one of the earplugs with blood and gore covered fingertips. He wiped the blood out of his eyes, looking at Knight and pointed at Jasper.

“Do you have medical training?”

Knight shook his head, scanning for other movement in the room.

“Jude, patch him up. I need him alive for another two hours.”

Monday, 18th March 1996, 11:54pm

“Wake up”

Jason felt a sharp pain as the barrel of the gun was rammed into his broken ribs and let out a groan.

“Ease up, Krobar. Help him into the barn.” Klaus turned the engine off and got out of the car, heading towards the door of the abandoned barn.

The big bearded guy got out and walked around the car, opening Jason’s door.

“Fuck this, Klaus. Let me just put a bullet into Agent Jerry Atric’s skull and we can all go home.” He grinned at Jason “Need a hand getting out, old man?” 

Jason ignored him and gritted his teeth as he pulled himself out of the car. He followed Klaus into the barn and sat down on wooden crate. Krobar and the other guy were making noise outside, removing items from the boot of the car. The shabby and overweight agent with the greasy hair, addressed by Krobar as Kodiak, came in with 2 large collapsible water containers. Krobar dragged a few go-bags in, as well as a couple of six packs. He dumped it all on the floor and dragged a few chairs out of the shadows towards the centre of the barn, where Klaus lit a couple of camping lanterns.

“Take a seat, Agent Jason. Kodiak, bring some water so he can clean himself up.”

Jason slowly scrubbed his hands, which were still shaking, then washed his face, still covered in blood from his fight with Yarrow.

He got up and took his shirt off.

“I’ll need a first aid kit”.

Klaus nodded to Krobar, who left the building, returning a few minutes later with a kit. Without saying anything, he got to work on Jason, bandaging his ribs, and cleaning the deep scratches on his throat. When he finished, Jason sat down and looked at Klaus.

“Why don’t you start from the beginning, Jason?”

Jason told him in broad lines about the issue with the house, the effect it had on people and how he had found the diary, and what it contained. He discussed the fact that from what his cell had investigated, only the performance of this ritual seemed like a permanent way to stop the threat. HE told them he had called A-Cell, and given them that information, and that they had called back and told him to eliminate the threat.

At that stage, Agent Knight stepped through the door, joining the other. Jason continued, telling them Friendlies had been involved who were at that stage sent away, leaving only himself and Agent Jasper. He had called for back-up, which was sent in the form of Jude and, nodding at the Agent, Knight.

“A-cell had given me 48 hours to finish the Op, so I sent Jude and Knight out to arrange a body, as the ritual required a human sacrifice.” He stopped for a second and looked at the Agent.

“I left them with strict instructions not to disturb me, as I needed the rest to prepare for studying the ritual. The next morning, I contacted them and was informed they had done their part. I started to go through the text and study it, which was harder than expected.”

Jason lit a cigarette

“It just didn’t make sense. There was no way this would work, it was just …” He shook his head “Gibberish…”

He took a deep breath.

“I took a break and started all over, and somehow, slowly things seemed to make more sense. I can’t explain it. It’s like a puzzle. You look at it and can’t make out what piece should go where, and all of the sudden, you see what you didn’t see before. Anyway. I finished studying the ritual, gathered the necessary equipment, and told the others to get ready by nightfall.”

Knight handed a small parcel over to Klaus. He opened it, and pulled out a bloodied bronze knife and bowl.

Jason nodded. “That’s it, those items were needed for the dismissal.”

“We went back and I instructed Jude and Knight to stay outside, Jasper and myself would go in and open the garage to get the body inside. We had witnessed the effect on people who went inside, and I needed them to be a clear-minded as possible. When we went in, there were… complications. A friendly involved in the Op had gone back inside and was taken over by whatever force present there. Jasper was wounded, the threat neutralized.”

Knight leaned over to Klaus, whispering something. Jason ignored it and continued.

“Time was of the essence. I told Jude to get the body inside, before more damage was done. Jasper was patched up, as I needed his assistance in the ritual. It clearly stated two people had to do it and pay ‘the price’.”

He stopped for a moment.

“We dragged the body to the bedroom. I started the preparation, drawing the circle and marking the symbols. Jasper lit the candles. There was an attempt of the Force to stop us, but that didn’t work. I recited the words, over and over again, Jasper repeating them as instructed. It didn’t work. We started over again and noticed a marked difference. It became colder inside, and there were faint noises. At the right moment, I made the sacrifice. And that’s when He appeared.”

He lit another cigarette.

“L’Uomo Nero. The Black Man. Like a ball of shadow, stretching out until is form filled the room. A presence cloaked in black. Holding a black Book. I had read in the ritual that this is what needed to be done. You summon him, he offers a book, and you sign your name in it and he’ll give you whatever you ask for. The sight of him broke something in Jasper. He lost control and fell down. This was a problem, as there needed to be two of us, to dismiss this entity. I decided to go ahead and do it by myself, there was no time to do anything else. I spoke the words and made the signs to break whatever hold this Thing had over the house or whomever died in here. It told me to stop, warned me not to continue, cursed me. I finished the ritual, and it disappeared. I could feel some kind of weight being taken of the house. I’m sure what I did succeeded.”

He looked at the other Agents.

“That’s when you burst in. I take it you removed all traces and bodies. I started to erase the patterns on the floor, but you interrupted me. The house might need observation, or you can try and burn it down, it didn’t work before. Perhaps, if this Presence is gone now, it will burn?”

“So… I feel… like a grapefruit, after it’s been juiced. There’s something missing. Something’s gone inside. You do what you need to do. I don’t give a shit.”

Klaus looked at his notes, leaning against a wall. He left after a while, pulling a mobile out of one of his pockets.

Jason nodded to Kodiak

“Think I could get one of those beers?”

With a sigh, the guy got up and walked over to the six-packs, handing a beer to Krobar and Jason, taking two for himself. They drank in silence, until Klaus returned a few minutes later.

“We’re keeping you under observation for a few days. I’ll leave tomorrow, but Krobar and Kodiak will stay here to make sure there are no issues with you.”

“Fucking hell, Klaus, I’m not doing baby-sit duty again! Christ, you always saddle me up with this shit!”

“48 hours, Krobar, then you let him go and make yourself scarce”

Jason sat on the chair, shoulders sagged. Thinking about what had happened. What had been sacrificed. All he could see what his ex-wife, Sam’s face.

Krobar came back into view, a Mossberg on his shoulder, smoking a fat joint, which he passed to Kodiak, and turned towards Jason, pointing the barrel at him.

Jason ignored him, lowered himself onto the floor and curled up in foetal position, and closed his eyes.