Chapter 12

  The farm wasn't hard to find, although it took me a bit longer since I didn't have a car and had to walk the almost 90 minutes out of town. It was a good walk, so I wasn't complaining.

  I saw the lights from very far away as the whole farmland was pitch dark but the farmhouse was lit like it was Christmas - every single light was on in the main house, huge floodlights covered the garden, and what looked like a drone flying around the place, beeping with a red light.

  Slipping in quietly would be impossible, so I decided to try something else. I decided to start walking on the main road, following the main path. If it had been day, I could have pretended I was an insurance salesman, but that would be really hard seeing as how it was midnight. I would have to find some other way.

  As I was getting closer to the building, I saw that the drone was being operated from a small post set up on the road. I recognised the security guard sitting there. He recognised me too.

  “Mr Raine. Late night visit?”

  “Ram Charan. What are you doing here? This late at night?”

  I had helped Ram out a few months ago when his daughter was being harassed by some supernatural beings. He had been very grateful to me, but as far as I remembered, he had a proper day job at a bank, and he didn't look like the cultist type. He was a traditional religious person, so why was he here so late at night?

  Tears came to his eyes as he said to me, “I was laid off at my job at the bank, and it's been hard to find another desk job. I got a job at a cashier at the local supermarket, but that doesn't pay enough to even cover my rent, so I'm working night shift here as a security guard.”

  “I hope it works out for you. Isn't it tiring working two jobs?”

  He shrugged. “What can I do? I don't know how else to support my family. But Mr. Royce, this is a very dangerous place. These people are very dangerous. I only took this job because they are paying triple wage and working just one week here will pay my rent for the whole month. But I would advise you to stay away from them. They are very nasty people.”

  “I know Ram, I know that. But then it makes me wonder, why are you here if you know this place is so dangerous and the people are nasty. Is it worth the extra money?”

  He wiped more tears from his face. “At this point, I'm more scared of looking at my children's face when I say I cannot buy them a birthday gift. Last Christmas, I had to get them second-hand toys from the charity store. They didn't say anything but I cried all night with my wife hugging me. So I don't care how dangerous these people are, Mr. Royce. I'm more scared of disappointing my children. I've let my family down, and I can't do that again.”

  “I'm really sorry man, I'm really am. Who are these people? What do you know about them?”

  “I don't know much except they are not to be messed with. I am NOT allowed in the building, and sometimes I hear screams and the men leave covered in blood. They must be criminals or gangsters of some kind. The only people allowed inside are the two caretakers and their daughter. They are illegal immigrants from Afghanistan and don't speak any English. The woman speaks a little English, but her husband and daughter do not speak any English. They are the only ones allowed inside the house. They're working there now.”

  My mouth dropped open. “Working now? But, my man, it's almost midnight.”

  “You're wrong, Mr. Royce. It's not midnight; it's one in the night. They have some special ceremony, something religious, and so we have all been ordered to work late. Like I said, triple pay, so I'm not complaining. The Afghani woman and her husband have been asked to cook a big meal when they finish. They brought some homeless woman with her; they say they're going to convert her to her religion.”

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Shit. They were going to sacrifice another homeless woman. I turned to Ram: “Ram, forget that triple pay. Go home now! Go!” I grabbed him by the shoulder and shook him violently. “Ram, they are about to murder someone. Trust me. Go home!”

  I ran towards the house, but when I looked back, Ram was still standing there, looking very sad.

  I had to get that Afghani family and Ram out of there but I also had to save that homeless woman. What the hell?

  The main door to the house was locked so I ran to the side and saw that there was a small entrance that led to the kitchen. I ran inside and saw an foreign woman cooking what looked like enough food for 20 people. How many people were there? She looked at me surprised. “Yes,” she said, “Ceremony in back garden, not here.”

  “Show me where,” I told her, “And then you take your family and run.”

  She pointed to the back of the farm where there were a few trees, and inside the trees, I could see a few candles burning. I turned to the woman. “You need to go. You need to leave now.”

  She looked at me like I was an idiot rambling on and went back to her work.

  In the kitchen, I saw a small handheld mirror and a familiar face appeared.

  Take this mirror with you.

  I picked up the mirror and started walking towards the back of the farm. In the day, it would have been a lovely place. Maize field for miles and miles and what looked like a small forest of around two dozen trees. Great place to have a picnic with the kids and relax during the sunny afternoons.

  Tonight the place looked creepy and eerie. I could see the cultists standing in a circle, candles burning all around them and seven large mirrors placed in front of them and the homeless woman tied up in the middle.

  The woman in the mirror spoke to me.

  It is too late for the woman Royce. Leave her and release me. You only have seconds before they complete the ritual. You have to kill the cultists now.

  “And what of the homeless woman? What will happen to her?”

  She's already dead. Forget her. Kill the cultists. That is the only way.

  “No, never. If there is even one percent chance of saving an innocent person, I will take it.”

  I put the mirror in my pocket and quietly started creeping up on the cultist, hoping to take them by surprise.

  If this had been an American movie, I would've been carrying a gun and would’ve started shooting. But I don't have a gun, nor do I know how to use one. My only hope was that I could quietly take out two or three of the cultists and disrupt the ritual. I didn't have to fight them, just confuse them enough to slip away with the homeless women. I was sure I could lose them in the farmland on this pitch-black night.

  The cultists were chanting some sort of ritual but the more I listened, the more wrong it seemed. It looked like they had gotten their magical chants from Reddit or 4chan rather than a proper occult group. They were making simple mistakes in pronunciation and they had drawn the magical circle completely wrong. This was the worst type of cult - an incompetent bunch of nincompoops who got their information from the internet and had no practical experience. They were still dangerous, as the tied-up woman showed me.

  “Come to us, oh Nashgartul,” they chanted, “and serve us and obey our every command.”

  They kept saying the same chant over and over, asking this demon to come forth and serve them. I knew it wouldn’t work as the magical circle was wrong. Plus, demons didn’t just appear to serve you, no matter how nicely you asked.

  I wasn't paying attention to my surrounding and if it was too late before I realised I had stepped foot on a magical rune drawn on the ground. It sent me flying in the air and crashing to the ground hard. Too late I realised that even incompetent cultists could create a small magical trap and someone as stupid as me had walked right into it.

  “Stop!” I said. “It won’t work.”

  One of the cultists, who looked like their leader, pointed his hand at me and said a spell. I saw fire burst out of his hand and hit me square in the chest. It hurt so much I almost passed out from pain. Before I realised it, the cultist had tied me up and placed me right next to the homeless woman.

  I saw into her eyes and saw terror. She knew she was going to die.

  “It’s okay,” I whispered. “I will save you.”

  Which was stupid as I was tied up myself.

  The ritual had stopped as had the chanting. I wondered why when I heard a cry of pain. I looked and realised that the man who had cast the spell at me had also burned his hand. It was now as black as burnt coal, and he was writhing in pain. I realised what he had done wrong.

  “You idiot, you don't even know how to cast spells. More than half the power of the spell burned your own hand. That spell should have killed me but all it did was cause me a little pain. You fool, you don't know what you're doing, you'll get yourself killed.”

  “We know enough,” said the leader who had been burned. “They told us how to do this ritual and they told us how to carry out the sacrifice. We will not be stopped. Now we will sacrifice two people instead of one. This will be a great start to next week’s bigger ceremony.”

  He walked up to me and smiled at me. I saw complete and utter madness in his eyes.

  He calmly slit the throat of the homeless woman next to me as nonchalantly as he was cutting onions. “Your turn next.”