Book 3 Chapter 25-4

Cyrus spit in the other man’s face. It was the only recourse he could think would get his position across.

The other man slapped him across the face. He drew back from Cyrus and raised his hand to his face. As he wiped away the spittle, Cyrus watched the hand shrink. The nails elongated. In a second it was clearly a female’s hand, even as the transformation started to work over his—or her—arm.

The man looked up at it, stared as his own body changed before him. He smiled as his form seemed to betray him. If what he said was true, he already embraced his own death, subsumed into some new existence with the other personalities Cyrus met. He prayed to his father that Marilyn would not be lost inside them. He wasn’t sure he could bare her loss after everything he’d been through in the months before.

The transformation continued. The thing before him was half man, half woman. All three forms he saw in the last few minutes all mixed into one. The body moved unnaturally, the shifting bone structure causing arms, legs and neck to spasm in ways not quite human.

Then she came.

It was only for the briefest moment. The figure’s hair turned blonde and suddenly Marilyn’s face stared at him. He pulled forward, strained against his chains as they locked eyes.

“Help me. Stop them, Cyrus. Stop them.”

A second later, she was gone as Solomon’s face mixed with that of the two other women. Cyrus’s rage boiled inside him. It was the rage of his father and uncle, the unrelenting rage only a god could feel. He felt his power surge inside him.

He opened his mouth and that rage washed out from him. It struck the shifting body in front of him. The body that was once Marilyn seemed to explode as the wall of sound struck it. Suddenly liquid it flew back and slammed into the far wall. It stuck like slime in large chunks, several oozing pools slowly making their way back to the floor.

The room shook with it. Stones fell from the walls. Bits of ceiling flaked away. The power shook everything. Cyrus’s chains caused him to reverberate with it.

Then all was silent again but for his deep hard breaths. He was alone again, but Cyrus knew this misery was far from over.

Book 3 Chapter 25-3

“Ah, the lover. I almost forgot about you.”

The voice was nothing like Marilyn’s. It was smooth and calculated, with the careful inflection of someone used to public oration.

He was a handsome man with a clean cut bald head, perfectly groomed van dyke beard and a sweater to make Steve Jobs proud. He looked like a modern millionaire instead of some strange personality once buried deep inside Marilyn.

“Give Marilyn back her body.”

“Marilyn is gone, godling. Or at least she will be soon enough. She was never supposed to exist in the first place. The mistake is being corrected now.”

Cyrus struggled against his bonds, but the metal wouldn’t break. He wasn’t strong enough to free himself. He couldn’t stop this bastard. Even if he could, he knew he didn’t have the ability to bring Marilyn back from inside her own mind.

“You can fight all you want,” the bald man said. “But this is our body now. Even now, I can feel the power welling up. Soon we will overtake it. Audrey, Jolene and I will disappear with your precious girlfriend. In our place, will be something new, a power unlike the world has ever seen. And we will take our place at the side of our king.”

“You’re sick in the head. You’re just some dark corruption. You need to be purged. And I will see you destroyed, one way or another.”

The man laughed. “You will do nothing, godling. Any harm to me would only make it easier for us to take control of your dearest love. We will soon be in control. We will soon have our way. And you will survive to be our plaything. We will learn what makes a god tick when we pull you apart a piece at a time.”

He walked up to Cyrus. His hand caressed Cyrus’s cheek. His flesh was cold and damp. Not quite human.Cyrus tried to pull away, but his bonds held him fast.

“I will have so much fun playing with you. And when I am done you will beg me for the sweet release of death. You will want an end because your continued existence will be naught but agony. And I will deny it until I’ve taken every ounce of fight you possess and broken you down to the pathetic nothing you truly are. I will rule over you as your parents once ruled over this world.”

Walking Shadows Book 3 Chapter 21-3

“You weren’t supposed to survive,” Audrey said. “You were supposed to be wiped away by the power of the ritual. But somehow you held on. Somehow you took what was supposed to be ours.”

“My body? It’s mine. It always will be mine.”

“You are a foolish woman,” Solomon said. “The Survivors’ Club wasn’t about sex. It was about the end. The literal end of this world. We were to create two beings, humans perfect in anyway. Able to shape their bodies, realign their very DNA. They would be able to repopulate any world. They would be able to survive any journey or any environment. But it took a massive amount of energy and a massive sacrifice of flesh. The inner circle knew our fates. Audrey, Jolene and I knew we would be composited into something new, but we knew our combined mind would be more powerful than the pieces. But your little brain had to get in the way. It’s time for you to end, Meredith. You’ve been in the way for far too long.”

Solomon and the women started towards her. But they didn’t walk exactly. They floated over the scene around Marilyn. She watched them come. She knew what they wanted. But she didn’t know how to fight it.

“You can’t have me,” she said. “My mind is my own.”

They laughed. “Your body hasn’t been your own for fifty years,” Audrey said.

“You can’t even retain your own memories,” Jolene said.

“You are a shadow too stupid to move on,” Solomon added. “This is a mistake we plan to remedy.”

Marilyn looked at all of them one in turn. Solomon’s face was impassive, as it always was. Audrey gave her a familiar smile, a knowing grin about what she did, but this one more sinister than in her memories. Jolene held a sneer, her disdain for Marilyn—or Meredith—obvious.

“You will try to take my mind, but I have held on to this body for fifty years. You won’t take it away from me now. I will fight. And I will win.”

“We will see,” they all said as one.   

A moment later they all swept towards her as one. Their spectres rushed into her body, one by one. Her very cells seemed to roar in agony at the touch. Marilyn felt her form, whether in her or own mind or in reality, suddenly shift. She lost control of the careful control she had over her form. Her skin shifted and melted around her. She felt their minds inside her own, ripping at her memories and her thoughts and her very being.

She tried to scream, but her mouth was already gone.

Walking Shadows Book 3 Chapter 21-2

Another woman chuckled. Marilyn’s head turned to her right. The raven haired woman in front of her reminded her vaguely of Melinoe. Her demeanor was just as dark. “She was always a fool, Audrey. We lured her in with the games and she never suspected the true purpose of the Club.”

Solomon cleared his throat. “Audrey, Jolene, no need for such cattiness. Our friend here was far from the only one that didn’t know our true goals. She just has the misfortune of sticking around even after the ritual was complete. Her soul was supposed to be subsumed. Instead she somehow maintained control of her vessel. That is what must change. After all, her memories are muddled. She can’t even remember her own name.”

“No, I’m Marilyn. I may not be the original, but that’s still who I am.”

The man and the two women laughed at her.

“What is this? What do you want with me?”

“Come now,” Solomon said. “You must at least remember your own death.”

“My—” Flashes of the room around her filled her head. She remembered the bodies and as she did, they appeared all around her. Dozens of corpses, throats slit, some eviscerated from stem to stern. It was a charnel house. Marilyn couldn’t fight back the tears.

“I do believe she’s starting to remember, Jolene.”

“I think you’re right, Audrey. And the weak little fool is already breaking down. This will be easier than we thought.”

Marilyn’s eyes flashed around the room. She saw the bloodstained altar. She remembered it all too well. She remembered Solomon slitting his own throat. And she remembered someone else. Another figure in the shadows, but he wasn’t here. Because this place wasn’t real. With that revelation, memories flooded into her mind.

“My name was Meredith. I knew all of you. I saw you all dead. It was all part of some insane ritual. It was a trap because you wanted me to serve as a ‘vessel’. I think I understand now. This isn’t any part of the real world. I’m inside my mind. And you’re in here with me.”

Audrey and Solomon stayed impassive, but Jolene showed her surprise.

“You thought I was some weak fool,” Marilyn said. “You thought I was an easy target, the perfect mind for you to take for whatever sick scheme you have here. You thought you could erase my mind, steal my body and use it. I just don’t know for what.”

Walking Shadows Book 3 Chapter 18-3

As he met my eyes, I saw the same jagged dagger Saul held before, the one he used to kill Franz and Harry. As Solomon met my eyes, he pulled the blade across his own throat.

Blood jetted from the wound. I felt it splash across my face and chest. My skin burnt at its touch. I tried to struggle away, to clean myself, but I couldn’t break free of whatever they used to drug me.

The energy grew into a palpable force all around me. It whirled and twisted in blue and purple lights around the room. The energy circled and flowed through me even as I could feel my own skin bubble and blister where Solomon’s blood had struck.

But while the energy ripped through me, it also encircled Saul. As I felt my skin melt into something else, I watched the bursts of energy fly directly into Saul’s frame. Each burst shook his frame and he screamed out in the agony I felt but could not express.

His body seemed to glow with some kind of dark light. And as I watched the dark light seemed to fall over him like a veil. It consumed his entire frame and he disappeared from my view. The light took in the entire altar. It darkened in front of me, almost as if it formed some sort of energy shell. I tried to move, to break free of my own agony before something similar could happen to me.

But I couldn’t move. Thinking started to become more of a strain, even as I watched the shell darken blacker than the darkest corner of the abyss. My vision started to blur as I took it in. I felt Solomon’s hand fall away from me and I caught only a glimpse of his body before it fell to the ground between Saul’s shell and me.

My thoughts were growing hazy. At first I thought it might be the drug that held my body in check, but as I watched bits of skin dribble across my vision, I realized it was something else. I was slowly falling apart. I would soon cease to be me.

I wasn’t going to be—no, even my name escaped me. Whatever they did to me, my mind was slowly turning into something else, while my body melted into nothing else.

For some reason, a quote popped into my head at that very moment, from one of my favorite actresses. The nicest thing for me is sleep, so at least I can dream.

I closed my eyes and let myself drift into an endless sleep, one which I’m not sure I would ever wake from.

Walking Shadows Book 3 Chapter 18-2

He reached down and grabbed my head. I tried to pull away, but still my body betrayed me. He turned my head to one side and for the first time, I took in the rest of the room.

We were in some kind of basement. The stone floor was unfinished and the walls looked like foundation brick. But across the floor were spread body after body after body. I recognized most of them, various other members of the Survivor’s Club. Franz and Harry’s body were near the altar I rested upon, almost as if they had just fell away from it the way they had the bed on which they were murdered. But it was the cold dead eyes of Audrey, just a few feet farther away that caught my attention. She seemed to stare at me, but her lips were curled into a smile, even as her clothes were left bloody from the long slice across her jugular vein.

I wanted to panic and I wanted to run. My body could only twitch.

Saul chuckled at the slight amount of movement. He walked back into my line of sight and bent down to meet me face to face. I tried to spit in his eye, but managed only to let a thin vein of drool slip from my lips.

“I didn’t expect her to be so willful. She should make an interesting vessel for the power.”

“As will you, brother.”

Saul rose up and patted Solomon on the shoulder before me. He turned and walked from my view again. Solomon closed and once again twisted my head, this time lulling it to the other side.

From here, I could take in the other alter. Saul disrobed as he approached it. He climbed on it completely naked. He rested his head on it and crossed his arms in front of him, a mimicry of the position they left me in.

“I know you are fearful, Meredith. But know that you will be reborn as a greater being. You will become something more than just a lonely woman. Your future will be one filled with power and strength. And one day, you will be responsible for the very survival and propagation of the human race. But for now, just know that I do this out of care and love. I want to see you survive, even if I cannot.”

I still didn’t know what he was talking about, even as he rested a hand on my chest. It was cold, as if lifeless. But I felt something flow from it to me, as if some kind of energy was channeling into my frame.

Walking Shadows Book 3 Chapter 18. Then

I woke in dim light. I rested on something cold, a slab of metal that offered no comfort. I moved to sit up, but couldn’t. For a moment, I thought I was tied or bound by chains or manacles. But I was naked, with only the cold metal beneath me. Still I could not pull myself off of the slab, no matter how hard I tried. It was like my body had betrayed me.

I heard the sound of steps somewhere around me, but it was hard to see anything other than straight up towards the dim ceiling lamp. The room smelled of formaldehyde, a scent that sought to pervade every smell in the room. She could see the flash of lights from something to her right and left, but could not make them out anymore than the approaching footsteps.

“Oh, excellent. I’m glad to see you’re finally awake. You’ve been unconscious for quite some time, young lady.”

I knew the voice instantly. It was Solomon, but I didn’t understand why he was here. I remembered the adventure in the club earlier in the evening. But the night’s end seemed like a blur in my aching mind.

The memories returned in screaming color as the two men approached the table. Solomon looked like he always did, but it was the grim form of his brother Saul that brought the death around me back to vivid life.

“No,” I said. My lips would only move slightly and the word slurred as I said it.

Solomon turned to his brother. “It appears her memories are still in place. I expected them to fade already.”

“The process isn’t yet complete. It won’t be long until she becomes the perfect vessel.”

I didn’t understand their meaning. Maybe this was some kind of weird impregnation routine the brothers invented. But I had a feeling it was something far darker than that. I saw Saul smile as he murdered the men with us. I doubted he was interested in just procreation.

“She’s worried,” Saul said. “She thinks we’re going to hurt her.”

Solomon bent down and gently kissed my forehead. “Don’t worry, my dear. I haven’t fucked you for the past year because I just want your corpse. I have looked for a perfect vessel to create the perfect being, a figure that will survive the coming storm. A being that can carry worthy souls through the coming apocalypse and into the new world that comes after.”

Walking Shadows Book 3 Chapter 13-7

As dinner turned into more drinks, I realized it was getting late. But only a handful of the guests left after the food. As it grew from evening into night, I continued my time with Solomon, Audrey and the rest of the Survivors’ Club. About two dozen of us still filled the floor and no one was feeling any pain from the free flow of the alcohol in the room.

Audrey hung on the shoulder of a young man probably barely out of college, while Jolene had paired with a thirty something with a weightlifter’s build. They laughed and played around, clearly letting the men get a bit more physical than one would see in polite company. It intrigued me that these two women could be so free in front of others, even if it was the limited scope of the club.

I downed another rum and eggnog concoction that was mostly rum as I watched Audrey pull in her young man and kiss him passionately on the lips. I could feel their lust as an almost palpable force.

“They are something together, aren’t they?”

Solomon’s voice came from behind me and before I could react his arms were around me from behind. I was startled at the sudden contact, but I sunk back into him seconds later. I hadn’t expected landing him to be so easy, but I was more than happy to keep him close.

“Yes, they are,” I said. “But I’m not used to such public affection.”

“We have no secrets in the Survivors’ Club. We aren’t about forming attachments. Instead we focus on ways to fulfill our needs, rather they are those of everyday life in America or of a more primal nature.”

A few of the couples had disappeared into the closed office doors around the area. I realized now why they were gone. Jolene and Audrey were both slowly undressing the men with them, even as they pulled them both closer to one another. The half naked men watched as the women released them to turn and kiss each other.

I felt my cheeks grow red as I watched. But I could not draw my eyes away. When Solomon started to kiss my neck, I kept my eyes on the women and men in front of me as their kisses turned into more. I watched them as I let Solomon take me, and I knew I had found a place as a member of the Survivors’ Club.

Walking Shadows Book 3 Chapter 13-6

While a few conversations continued at the table, over a dozen faces turned myway. I suddenly felt very put on the spot. I forced an awkward smile onto my face.  

“It’s not a special story or anything. Dad died in World War II. My brother died in Korea. Mom lost it and ended up under hospice care. I was left pretty much alone just as I graduated high school. I just tried to make a life for myself after that, so I went to trade school and got a job in the office pool.”

Solomon nodded knowingly. “You are far from the first of us that have lost family before coming to the Survivors’ Club. Some of us lost them to death, others to decisions of theirs or others. But all of us are in a situation where we have no one to welcome on this day or often, any day. Because of this we gather together and find companionship. That brings us all together for this meal, which several of our members graciously prepare every year. And it brings you to us, hopefully for the first of many such visits to our little club.”

I nodded. “I think I would like that.”

Audrey’s hand found my shoulder. “We would all certainly enjoy that as well. You’re one of us already, Meredith. You just didn’t know it until today.”

As I turned to look at her, I saw the scowl on Jolene’s face. She really didn’t like Audrey’s attention towards me, but I wasn’t quite sure why. I wondered if their bond was more than friendship in Jolene’s eyes.

“Thank you,” I told Audrey, trying to ignore Jolene’s look. I turned my attention back to Solomon. “And thank you for being such a gracious host.”

“I am not the host,” Solomon said. “We are all equals in the Survivors’ Club. I just happen to enjoy greeting new members, such as yourself.” He gave me his grin again and I couldn’t help but fall into that smile. Something about his charm drew me in. I could see myself with this man and unlike the men at the agency, I didn’t think I would regret this.

Our conversation turned more casual after that, mostly onto weather and the latest programs on television and radio. Audrey raved for a bit about Some Like It Hot, but I gathered most of her audience already knew about her affection for Marilyn Monroe. I just sat and took it all in, finally happy to feel accepted for a change.

Walking Shadows Book 3 Chapter 13-5

Audrey didn’t give me time to ask about what she meant by ‘interesting’. Instead she whisked me back into the crowd where she let me talk to a few more of her friends. Jolene followed us, but was far more quiet than she was. I wasn’t sure if she was angry, but she seemed a bit jealous of the attention Audrey was showing me.

I didn’t apply that much thought to it as I fell into a series of conversations with eligible bachelors, promising young men and a few young women that I suspected might have as much interest in me as either of the other two groups. Audrey was a charmer, able to control any conversation and at her side I quickly found myself comfortable with the ragtag group of men and women that made up the Survivors’ Club.

I didn’t even notice the hours passing until Solomon returned to the rest of the group to declare dinner to be served. A few of the younger members of the club appeared after his announcement with multiple platters and set them up around the punch bowl in the middle of the long table. Chairs came next and I found myself sitting at a feast of ham, ribs and roasted beef. Audrey sat to my left (with Jolene, still not quite happy, to her left) while Solomon took the seat to my right.

He gave me a knowing smile as he exchanged nods with Audrey. “How are you enjoying your first meeting, Meredith?”

“It’s quite lovely, Solomon. I have to say you’ve all been incredibly gracious hosts. It means a lot to find people like myself on days like this.”

“Indeed it is. We all have different reasons for coming here, but we all have a need for love and camaraderie in common. I lost my beloved wife to cancer while I was off fighting in the Pacific. I’ve never felt the need to remarry, but that doesn’t mean I wish to be alone. I’m sure Audrey and Jolene have told you how they don’t feel that societal norms for women fit their lifestyles. I can give you a dozen stories from a dozen different people at this table, my dear. But what I wish to know is why a woman such as yourself is alone on the holidays, Meredith? Please, tell us your reasons for coming here tonight.”

Walking Shadows Book 3 Chapter 13-4

Solomon introduced me to all the guests as we made the rounds. The group was about thirty strong and I certainly couldn’t memorize everyone’s name. But most of the group seemed open and inviting, even if they were a bit wary of a new outsider in their mix. I suspected the Survivors’ Club didn’t get many new members as often as Solomon implied.

Solomon left my side a bit after he introduced me to Audrey and Jolene, two of the women already hard at work on a punch bowl that I suspected held a bit more than juice. They seemed about my age and dressed as if they were regular office workers as well. I watched him return to the elevator to await any more guest arrivals.

Something about the man intrigued me. I was always intrigued by older men and Solomon knew how to groom and present himself. I wasn’t quite sure how the man could be without family at Christmas, but I wanted to know more about him.

Jolene threw an arm around me and leaned in close. “Audrey, it looks like our new friend Meredith here already has eyes on someone.”

I quickly turned my attention back to the two women. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t be modest,” Audrey said. “He’s a handsome man. A bit old for me, but I can see it if you’re into that type.”

“Hush,” I said sternly. “This kind of talk isn’t proper for mixed company.”

Audrey and Jolene both chuckled. Jolene leaned in close to my ear, her breath showing the hint of vodka under the fruity concoction she drank. “Don’t pretend like the men don’t do the same thing all the time. You’re either predator or prey when the hunt begins. Audrey and I just like to find a target that’s the right size for our appetites.”

I felt my cheeks grow red. I wasn’t sure if it was the drink, but Audrey and Jolene certainly were much more forward than any women I had ever met. In the office, the subject occasionally turned to the eligible bachelors of Davis Brothers, but it never grew so colorful.

“Now, Jolene,” Audrey chided. “I think you should settle down with that talk. Meredith clearly isn’t used to being as free and open as we are.” Audrey took my arm and pulled me away from Jolene. “The Survivors’ Club doesn’t really worry about the limits society puts on us. You see all the women here. Most of us are the type that don’t want families, but rather want to make our own way. We can be open about that here in a way we can’t when we’re working ten hours at Yancy’s. Get it?”

I nodded.

“Good. Now let’s get you some punch. And trust me when I say that if you want a shot at Solomon, stick around to later. That’s when the party gets really interesting.”

Walking Shadows Book 3 Chapter 13-3

I walked into an empty lobby. Not just empty in the sense that no one was there, but really empty. There were no desks, no chairs, no people. The tan carpet showed dark spots where dirt had been tracked into it again and again.

I wondered for a moment if I was in the right place at all.

“Welcome!” A tall man followed the voice from the back half of the office. I turned around and saw the area behind the elevator was freed with a group of people mingling over a punch bowl and snack table.

My welcomer was in his early fifties, with deep set eyes and a square jaw. He was bald, not from age, but clearly groomed that way.

“My name is Solomon Davis. Welcome to the Survivors’ Christmas Party!”

I looked around, a bit confused. “Survivors?”

Solomon chuckled. “Yes, we’ve survived without family or close friends, even through the holidays. And we think that’s something to celebrate. So our little group gathers every month, at least until we find love or friend elsewhere. It gives us a bit of camaraderie missing from our normal lives. Every holiday we invite anyone alone into our gathering. It’s something of a recruitment drive mixed with commiseration.”

“I see. Well, thanks for having me. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the paper, but I figured anything would be better than sitting alone.”

“Very, very true! The party goes all afternoon and evening. We will have dinner at five and drinks after. You’re welcome to stay as long as you would like. Generally, we run well into the morning hours, ringing in Christmas like some people ring in New Year’s.”

“That—that honestly sounds nice.”

“I hope so. I like to think our Survivor’s Club is a friendly place. We may not be family people, but that doesn’t mean we have no social graces. We just like to find time to find others like ourselves. You never know where things can go from there.”

“Do you have many relationships form in the club? I’m sure you have some success stories.”

Solomon shook his head. “Not really. It rarely is something club members end up wanting. But that’s a topic for some other time. Right now, let me take you around and introduce you to everyone. Don’t worry, we won’t have a quiz on everyone’s name, not until the drinks start at least.”

I laughed as he ushered me away from the elevator and into my first meeting of the Survivors’ Club.