What if Maurice had set them up? Inside they’d find a few of his friends carrying steel pipes, looking to score cash, sex, whatever they could get high on.
“You coming?” Will asked, peering up at her.
She marveled at his young face, unblemished, clear sparkling eyes - and yet he stood comfortably in the basement of an abandoned asylum, anxious to meet a man they knew only as Dr. Evil.
Reluctantly, she dropped in.
“Katie sucks cumquats,” Sarah read aloud, studying the graffitied walls.
“This one’s original,” Will said, pointing to scrawled red writing. “Sumwun was heer.”
“That kid better quit skipping school,” Sarah said, following Will into a dark hall.
As they walked, Sarah felt equal parts dread and a morbid curiosity that had her imagining life in such a place. They shuffled down dark corridors littered with debris and leftovers from the building’s asylum years. A steel table, missing one leg, lay crippled in the hall. Dredges of sunlight filtered through smashed windows that had been partially covered with boards or plastic.
They found Doctor Evil sitting in a battered wooden chair, gazing at a peeling wall.
“You’re Dr. K?” Sarah asked, glancing at Will. How could they possibly know if he’d once been a doctor? Today, he looked like he lived under the bridge with Maurice.
“Out of practice, but yes,” he hissed, casting dark eyes on Sarah and Will.
“We need help,” Sarah said. “We heard about the brotherhood and your interest in supernatural things. Do you think we can trap an evil spirit in the asylum woods?” Sarah pushed the words out in a rush, and Will gave her a peeved look.
The man regarded her coolly.
“There’s only one place where you can rid yourself of a dark spirit. The Chamber of The Brotherhood.”
“Can you get us in?” Sarah asked.
“You think I have a key to the chamber?” The old man cackled, and his sour breath filled the room.
Sarah pretended to itch her nose with her arm to block out the stench.
“We assumed it would have been entrusted to someone who knew it best,” Will said.
Sarah gaped at him. His prickly nature could transform in a moment.
The man’s eyes sparkled as he gazed at the grimy window, one pane smashed and plastic flapping noisily in the wind.
“Dr. Coleman,” the man murmured, touching his fingers to his lips. “Yes, I do believe the key lies with Markus Coleman.”
“He was in the Brotherhood?”
“Is,” the man hissed. “The brotherhood never dies. It is an oath for life, more sacred than blood, more valuable than gold. The knowledge - you can’t begin to imagine…”
“Where is Dr. Coleman now?” Sarah asked.
The old man pulled his lips away from his teeth, as if he’d eaten something rotten.
“Nearby, I’m sure, in some uppity hellhole that God’s forgot. He always put on airs, Markus.” The man spit on the ground, leaving a drip of saliva clinging to his stubbly chin.
“How do you shave?” Sarah asked.
Will looked at her, surprised, but the man seemed unfazed by the question.
He grinned and lifted an eyebrow, digging into a pack around his waist. It had come from Crystal Mountain ski resort, likely a souvenir discarded by tourists and now this man’s prized possession. He pulled a swatch of fabric clearly dotted with blood from the pack and opened it to reveal the lid of a can.
“You shave with that?” Will asked, grimacing.
“Used to be weak, had a sleek leather bag with a straight razor and whipped froth I put on my face. The conveniences of the modern world make you weak, boy.” The man spat again, and Will took a quick step back as it landed where his feet had been.
“I don’t understand the cloak-and-dagger around this chamber. It’s decades old. What’s there to protect?” Sarah asked.
The man shook his head, as if disgusted.
“And you are why women were not allowed in the brotherhood,” he hissed. “No loyalty. Fair-weathered, self-serving lot that you are.”
Sarah ignored the bubble of rage that surged in her chest. She considered giving him a lecture on feminism but bit her tongue.
“And the brotherhood never dies. Do you believe such a powerful entity could cease to exist?” The man scrubbed at a spot on his arm and smiled, his eyes gleaming. “It is eternal. We no longer reside in the asylum walls. Now we are in the world. The magic, the evil, the power is all around us.”
“Did this brotherhood experiment on Ethel Kerry?” Sarah asked, suddenly wondering if the brotherhood had been alive and well a century before.
The man pulled his lips away from his teeth, surprisingly straight. He looked at her, disgusted.
“Experiment,” he grumbled. “A fool’s word, the fodder of small minds. Ethel was chosen. Her sacrifice brought vast knowledge.”
“Can I ask how you know about Ethel?” Will interrupted. “I mean, she was dead before you were a doctor.”
The man planted his good eye on Will, as if he’d forgotten him.
“The Enchiridion of Umbra,” the man said proudly.
“I’m sorry, the enchirio-what?” Sarah asked.
The man spit at her feet and she jumped back.
“Enchiridion,” Will said. “A text, then? Or a book of writings?”
The man nodded, appraising Will with renewed interest.
“More, so much more. Case studies, hypotheses, conclusions. The implications. It is a book of magic, a true glimpse into this world.”
“How many were there?” Sarah asked.
He glared at her.
“One. There could only be one.”
“Does it still exist?” Will asked, leaning forward. Sarah knew from his tone that he desperately wanted to get his hands on that book.
“Can you destroy fire? Air? It exists. It will always exist.”
“Do you know who has it?” Sarah asked. She, too, wanted to see the book. Although she feared the horrors contained therein.
“There’s no who,” the man said. “It lives in the chamber. It belongs to the chamber, as does the brotherhood.”
“The chamber?” Sarah shuddered, not sure she wanted to know more.
“How do we get to the chamber?” Will asked, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
The man watched him.
“Only a brother is allowed entrance to the chamber.”
“So, you could get us in?” Sarah said.
“I would sooner cut off my own leg,” he told them, staring hard at each of them.
“What if we paid you?” Sarah asked. “What if-?” but Will shushed her before she could go on.
“We need the chamber,” Will said, stepping close to the man. “We have a woman filled with dark magic. How long has it been since the chamber received its due?”
Sarah glared at Will, ready to interrupt him, but he shot her a glance and she stayed quiet.
The man rubbed his hands together and blew a puff of pungent breath between them. Sarah wanted to turn her head, but knew better than to insult the man.
“Dark magic,” the man murmured. “It is real, you know? More real than flesh and blood and bone. We perish, but it lives on.”
“I know,” Will said, and Sarah knew he meant those words.
“We need the brotherhood,” Will continued. “Your knowledge is our only hope.”
CHAPTER 30
Halloween Night 2001
Then