Crown of Vengeance Read online

  Such a glorious moment would only be the mere dawning of an eternal day, as he continued towards that gate with his heart rising and the jubilant throng of souls walking and padding along at his side. He knew that he could laugh, seeing familiar, beloved four-legged forms bounding along the edge of the pathway to the gate, imbued with the fullness of health and vitality.

  His gaze would then focus in on the figure walking at his side, regarding that single face before he could even take in the endless, awesome beauty of the horizons spreading out to infinity beyond the great gates.

  That moment would be the beginning of a reunion that would never be broken or tarnished by death or disease ever again; the beginning of a glorious and wonderful time that would never, ever end.

  His heart ached thunderously with the burning desire for the realization of that luminous image, even as a few tears welled up in his eyes and began to trickle down his cheeks.

  He wished that he could just know with reassurance that something like the vision in his mind could be real; that at the end of all things, his beloved family would all be there. For if a deity did love creation, and loved Janus, then his family was truly the expression, and face, of that love. With all of life’s sorrows and struggles, it seemed like such a small comfort to ask for.

  But, he was undeniably trapped in the physical world, bereft of knowing what was or was not out there beyond the senses. There was no gateway or conduit to other worlds, no matter how hard he wished that it could be otherwise.

  Janus would simply have to pick himself up, bandage his soul’s wounds that he knew would not heal in this lifetime, and trudge forward even if each ensuing step was harder to take. Only the passage of time itself would aid him.

  “Man, that’s pretty odd … came in quick, it looks like,” Kent remarked, sharply breaking through the ambient noises of the boat’s engine and the breezes wafting across them. “I know I haven’t had that many beers.”

  “Real weird,” Derek murmured. “There was nothing when we came down the lake.”

  Janus could sense the absolute surprise reflected in the vocal tone of the others. He sighed and opened his eyes, to see what had so suddenly gripped their attentions. With the back of his right hand, we wiped the thin trails of wetness from his face.

  The shoreline on both sides of the lake was still visible, but the headlights on the boat now formed solid beams. They could barely cut through the outskirts of a vapor that hovered over the water, rising up as a vast wall of fog about a hundred feet before them.

  Janus shared the great puzzlement of the others. They had passed right through the area such a short time before. There had not been any fog or mist in the area whatsoever.

  Janus took a deep breath, and his first impression was that something far beyond normal was occurring. He battened the thought back down, knowing fully well that it was just a rising fog caused by water and temperature shifts. It had just emerged much faster than he had thought that a fog could.

  “What do you think caused it?” Janus asked them.

  Kent shook his head. “I can’t figure it out. Fog just doesn’t form like this. Not this fast, at least. I don’t know, maybe someone channeled a bunch of hot water into the lake or something, like their entire hot tub spilled over or something. Must be an amazing party going on nearby.”

  He laughed nervously, and Janus could see the anxiety in Kent’s eyes.

  “It would sure have to be a lot of hot water,” Derek added, his eyes fixated upon the thick vapors looming ahead of them. “Pretty big hot tub.”

  “Maybe it is the mists of time, and we are going to end up on the shores of some ancient land,” Kent remarked. “Then we can be like barbarian invaders and pillage and plunder. Let’s stake our claims … I get the wenches and beer, you guys can have the rest!”

  “Creative, Kent, but probably not gonna happen,” Derek said, a flicker of deep concern manifesting in his face.

  Derek cut down the speed of the engine, until the boat was going at a slow crawl. The fog soon enveloped them entirely, shearing off any extended vision to any side of the boat.

  “Lovely, just lovely,” Kent remarked sourly. “We’ll have to take it very slow, and very carefully.”

  “Maybe we should just stop,” Derek suggested.

  Janus concurred with Derek, as they were now unable to see more than a few feet ahead of them.

  “We take it real slow, if we keep going. And we keep talking and listening, because if there are any other boats in this, they need to know we’re here,” Kent said, his lightheartedness dissipating rapidly, and his mood sobering up quickly.

  Janus knew that the last thing that Kent wanted to do was to wreck Mr. McNeeley’s boat. Each passing second invited that possibility.

  “Keep talking. Keep it slow. Keep listening,” Kent repeated again.

  Janus did not argue with him, as his eyes strained to look through the shrouding fog.

  ERIN

  Erin, as was usual, slumbered lazily until it was almost three o’clock in the afternoon. There were no classes or work to be concerned with, though such things ultimately mattered little. Neither of those issues would have obstructed her intended pursuits for the coming evening.

  It took about another half-hour to rouse herself sufficiently awake to take a shower, eat, and check up on her messages. By phone and computer, the messages were the typical kind, of a largely vacuous content.

  It did not take her long to sift through them, responding to some and deleting most.

  Time slogged onward, until Lynn finally arrived to pick her up for the planned excursion. Almost as an afterthought, Erin left a brief message behind for her parents that she was going to be out for the evening, camping with friends in the woods.

  Slinging her large backpack over her shoulder, she locked the front door on the way out.

  At a mini-mart near the main highway bypass, Lynn and Erin made their rendezvous with Razor, Uli, and the others that would be going on the camping trip. The group took a few moments to fuel the vehicles, and to procure an assortment of drinks and snacks, before finally setting off for their intended destination.

  In total, the entourage consisted of a convoy of ten people situated in three different cars. The two-hour trip passed by quickly enough, the travel broken up by various antics as the cars took turns passing each other on the highway, the occupants giving each other obscene gestures.

  It seemed like only moments before they were unloading the vehicles within an official national forest parking lot. Packs readied, and hiking boots laced, the ten started off together in a loose column onto the trail.

  About two miles inward and upward, they broke off of the trail to find themselves a suitable spot for the evening. The park rangers required a minimum distance from the trails for overnight camping, but they elected to go well beyond that limited requirement, with Razor in the lead.

  Eventually, they found themselves on the summit of a small hill, surrounded by thicker growths of brush. It was far away from any of the main trail paths, and required a little effort to reach.

  It was not likely that the place would be disturbed by fellow hikers or park rangers. Razor, Lynn, and Uli quickly set to making a clearing for a small campfire, as the others staked out their camping spots.

  A few tents were set up, three suited for single persons, and three larger capacity ones to accommodate the others, with two couples each claiming a tent.

  It was not very long before the drinking and festivities began to get underway. The frivolity grew as the afternoon dipped into night, the sun tucking itself away below the hills.

  As night drew onward, the group started to fragment as the flow of libations continued. A few of Erin’s friends opted to go farther up the hill to get a grander view of the area, while one of the couples headed in the opposite direction to find some space for privacy.

  Erin, Lynn, Uli, and Razor were the last four remaining around the campfire. Erin was simply glad that the quartet w
as not sitting in Uli’s cluttered living room.

  “Dissipation. Always happens on these trips,” Lynn said, laughing in a carefree manner as she looked into the flames of the campfire.

  “Dissipation, like this,” Uli repeated, as he blew out a puff of smoke from the tightly rolled joint that he was taking deep inhalations from. The mind-numbing herb left a sweet smell hanging in the air, a scent that Erin had become quite accustomed to. Uli laughed hysterically.

  “Surprised that you even know what that word means, Uli?” Erin teased, laughing, though her words had an intended jab within them.

  “Don’t care much ‘bout words, but this will do,” Razor said, carefully accepting the rolled herb from Uli.

  He held it reverently, as he closed his eyes and inhaled upon the end of it. The others could see the flaring red of the other end as it burned down towards its stump. Razor held the smoke inside for several moments, before finally exhaling in a broad puff.

  “So good to be here,” Erin observed, without a trace of sarcasm. “Could do this every day, all day.”

  “Wouldn’t you get bored?” Lynn asked. “I mean, I want to figure out something that makes me happy.”

  The others gave her strange looks in response, as usually occurred whenever Lynn invoked realities in the midst of a carefree party. Erin found such moments annoying, noticing that Lynn was bringing them out with greater frequency as of late.

  “Don’t get me wrong, I won’t leave nights like this out of the equation,” Lynn added, having recognized the sudden hesitation in the others.

  Lynn laughed as the others relaxed. Erin refrained from expressing her personal irritation with Lynn, as there were other aggravations to express.

  “Getting nagged to death, working for nothing, or wasting time at school … those are the options life offers, if you want to get real about it,” Erin said. She rested her chin in the cup of her right hand, propped up and braced by her arm, looking as if she were deeply contemplating the matter.

  “World isn’t changing anytime soon … So, after some careful … thought … I’ll settle for the herb. It’s a lot easier on the stress levels,” she then added, replacing the mock seriousness of her expression for a wide grin.

  Accepting the remnant left from Razor, she took a deep inhalation of it, held it inside her lungs, and then slowly exhaled. She could feel her anxieties ebbing already.

  “Got that right, ‘bout that part, ‘bout after some thought… I mean. That is … cuz after the herb, there is no thought,” Uli said, stammering through his words and barely making any sense. He guffawed in laughter, and the other three laughed heartily with him.

  For the moment, none of the four had a care in the world. Erin was freed, and did not have to worry about school, work, or any other type of mundane activity. It was almost too good to be true.

  The thoughts of that consuming liberation were embedded in the forefront of her mind as she excused herself from the group to attend to a call of nature. She fumbled about in her backpack for a flashlight. She clicked it on and a strong beam emerged. She was glad that she had just replaced all of the batteries.

  Walking slowly to keep her balance, as she was feeling a little lightheaded, Erin made her way over to the far edge of the campsite. She carefully navigated the brush just beyond it until she deemed herself to be ensconced in full privacy.

  Glancing around, she noticed some cool tendrils of vapor crossing over her. The silvery mist outlined the beam of her flashlight.

  Looking about, her heart gave a flutter as she observed a significant amount of mist rolling swiftly in towards her. The light of the moon through the trees cast an eerie glow on the advancing fog, giving it a ghost-like aspect as it flowed through the depths of the dark foliage.

  The strange phenomenon fully captured her attention, taking her mind instantly off of the task that she had left the campsite for. It was a few moments before she came out of her momentary stupor, and hurriedly finished her intended business.

  Her nerves had started to rattle inside, for she had never seen a fog moving with such a fluid rapidity. Pulling her shorts and underpants back up, and taking a moment to compose herself, she hastened back to the campsite and implored Lynn to come back with her to see the eerie fog.

  At first Lynn was reluctant to the overture by Erin, as she had gotten into a very relaxed, sleepy mood, seated close and comfortable by the warmth of the campfire. At Erin’s very insistent urging, Lynn finally pushed herself up to where she could get her feet beneath her, and stood up.

  She walked over to where Erin stood at the edge of the camp, with a look of mild irritation. Lynn’s expression changed to one of curiosity as she noticed the utterly serious countenance upon her friend’s face.

  “What’s going on?” Lynn asked her.

  “You have to see it,” Erin replied emphatically. “Just beyond here, not far at all.”

  Erin headed back into the woods, gesturing for Lynn to follow her. Her flashlight led the way, the beam soon being outlined again by the fog that it increasingly struggled to push through. She did not have to direct Lynn’s attention to the rising density of the fog, as Lynn noticed it clearly enough upon their arrival.

  “Wow! I wonder where all that is coming from. Up on a hill too? Shouldn’t fog lay low in valleys and such? Think that it will come in to cover the camp?” Lynn inquired with evident amazement at the aggressive behavior of the mist.

  “Probably so,” Erin replied, sharing the incredulity voiced by her friend. “Looks like it’s coming in pretty quickly. Never seen fog behave like this.”

  “Yes, it is coming in quick, and no, I haven’t seen anything like it. We should probably make sure that the others can find their way back to the camp, or there is a chance that they will get lost in this.” Lynn remarked, looking down at the growing slivers of the vapor starting to envelop her own body.

  Just a few feet beyond them, the density of the mist had formed into the beginnings of an impenetrable wall of fog. The full beam of the flashlight could not pierce the opaque mass at all.

  Even more disturbing, the wall of fog seemed to creep closer with each passing second, swallowing the feeble attempts of the flashlight to cut through its relentless advance.

  Within just moments, Erin could see that they would be fully surrounded.

  LEE

  Lee Chen attended diligently to his duties, enduring yet another exhausting day of managing the restaurant that bore his name.

  He had arrived even earlier than usual that particular Saturday, to work on a valve problem in one of the restrooms after getting only four hours of sleep. Lee did not think much about how little sleep he had gotten, as it rarely reached even six hours on normal days.

  The early morning maintenance was soon followed by a full afternoon and evening of almost constant activity; Clearing and cleaning tables, bringing out orders, cooking, passing out coupons, driving deliveries, taking orders, making schedule adjustments for employees, and all of the usual trials and travails of a restaurant owner-operator.

  While never doing poorly, in terms of customer traffic, the restaurant’s business had never seemed to grow enough to a point where he could hire the amount of help that was truly needed. Even with as much pressure as he constantly felt, he still could not ask the three employees in his hire to do any more than they were. They currently went above and beyond the call of duty on a regular basis. Lee was very grateful for their extra resilience, as quality workers were becoming something of a scarcity in his observation.

  The pressures of what needed to be done, in contrast to the resources available to him, resulted in Lee’s own efforts being stretched beyond the limits. Neither customer nor employee could often tell the full extent of the strain, for Lee held neither bitterness nor frustration within him.

  His regular, friendly countenance, and stalwart perseverance on the most frenzied of days, was what had won him a core of regular customers and loyal employees. Though he did not take credi
t for it, it undoubtedly elevated the performance of his small, but earnest, staff.

  When closing time finally did arrive, the most prominent desire in Lee’s mind was simply rest. He looked very much forward to the following day, as the restaurant closed early on Sundays. He was eager to indulge in a few hours of blissful recreation, even if it was only to have Ryan over to drink sodas and watch movies.

  Calling up a little extra resolve, he attended to the closing duties with Ryan and two members of his regular staff. They stacked the chairs on the tables and set about mopping up the floors. They cleaned the kitchen, including the woks, dishes, and the rest of his array of equipment.

  At the very end, Ryan bagged up the trash and carried it out to the dumpsters, while Lee tallied up the register receipts and prepared a deposit bag.

  Lee paid his two staff members a little extra bonus in cash, and thanked them for their sincere, solid efforts that day. Their job finished, they thanked Lee, wished him a good evening, and left for the night.

  Circling around Ryan, Lee bolted the front door behind them and returned back towards the main counter. At last, the restaurant was silent and still, his work for the day finally at an identifiable end. The weight and tension dissipated from his shoulders at that moment, a feeling that he had come to savor at the culmination of a long day’s work.

  Ryan extended a can of cherry-flavored citrus soda to Lee, not having to ask as the soft drink was well known at the restaurant as being Lee’s favorite. Lee gave Ryan a tired smile as he accepted it.

  Taking a deep breath, and following it with a long and gratifying draught of the beverage, Lee set it down and looked wearily towards Ryan.

  “Good job tonight, Ryan. I appreciate your help a lot, I really do. It was a very hard day today, more than usual” Lee observed.