Occult Assassins

I thought I could get out of the assassination game and just live a quiet life in the suburbs, but the problem is when someone needs your services bad enough they'll find a way to track you down and get you to help them, even when you don't want to. That's exactly what happened when my old mentor Bill showed up at my doorstep out of the blue. He wasn't supposed to know where I lived or what I was doing, but he found me anyway. Of course it helps that Bill's a magician, and I don't mean the party trick type. I mean the kind of magician that summons spirits and casts spells.

I heard a knock at the door and there Bill was, standing with a grin on his fuzzy face. He barged past me into my house.

"Terry we need to talk. Oh and close the door and your mouth!"

"Bill, how did you find me? I took every precaution to erase my tracks, including using a few boundary wards and shield spells that should have hidden me from you."

"Hehe. Do you really think something I taught you was going to hide you from me?"

"I guess I naively did think that, but I should have known better."

"I've known where you've been all along. I let you be, because I figured you needed a sabbatical, but rest time is over. I've got a job for you that you can't say no to."

I warily eye Bill, because when he says something like that it really does mean you can't say no. He's not the kind of person who takes no for an answer, and if you say no, you'd better be prepared to back it up and have a plan to survive. I only said no once to Bill, when I retired from the business. He didn't take it well and we got into a fight. I only survived that fight because I knew the incantation of Orkos and was able to call up a barrier demon to shield me from his attack. Bill grinned and let me go and I realize now he still wasn't taking no for an answer.

I look around at my home, a place I've put a lot of work and effort into the last year. I really don't want Bill to blow it up or to start over again.

"One job, Bill. That's it."

Bill chuckles unpleasantly and says, "One job?! Bold answer Terry. Maybe you'll find once you do that job that you'll want to come back to work for me. We'll see. Let me give you the specifics of the job."

"Alright, let's hear it."

Bill walks to the kitchen table and beckons me over. He pulls out a folder and flips it open. Inside is a guy who looks like he's wearing a goat mask. He's got a golden chain with a reversed pentagram on his hairy chest and he's wearing a red stain suit, and holding a gun in his right hand.

"This is your target, Satanic panic. That's what he calls himself anyway."

"Is he one of your rivals?"

"Yes, he is and I've sent three other assassins after him and they've all come back in pieces or barbecued or in the case of the last one, insane. I'm tired of sending people that can't cut it. I know you can beat this guy and I want you to take him down for me. You'll get your standard and a bonus."

"Why can't you do it, Bill?"

Bill lunges at me, grabbing me by the collar and pulling me close until his fetid breath is in my face.

"I don't get my hands dirty, Terry. That's what you're for and its time to get back in the game."

"And if I say no?"

"Then I make your life very complicated in the next couple of moments, and keep doing it until you say yes."

I can't beat Bill. And even when I thought I fought him to a standoff, evidently I didn't. He let me think I did and now he's back in my life, making a demand and threatening to complicate my life if I don't help him. the problem is if I do help him that also complicates my life. It's a no win situation, but maybe I can find a way out of that situation further down the line if I take this job.

"Where do I find Satanic Panic?"

"I knew you'd see reason. I don't know where he is. He's pretty good at throwing off locator spells. But his pattern of attacks is always a reversed pentagram so that actually can work in our favor. Take a look at this map."

The map is for Portland, Oregon, where Bill is based out of. I used to live there, used to love living there. It's a small town that thinks of itself as a big city. On the map I see a place in the North East Section of PDX marked in red, then a place in the northwest section of PDX marked in red, and between the two in Milwaukie, Oregon, a third circle in red.

"How do you know he does a reverse pentagram with his attacks."

"Because that's what he's done in every other city. So far he's hit three of my operations and he's got two more places to go. I have a pretty good idea of the locations he might hit in SE PDX and SW PDX. I'll have Kruger covering the location in SW PDX, but I need you to cover the location in SE PDX."

"Does Kruger know I'll be there?"

"Not yet, but I'm sure she'll be thrilled to welcome you back."

"Yeah with open arms, I'm sure. or a swift kick between the legs."

"Well you did up and leave without warning. She doesn't take rejection very well."

"Let's keep her in the dark for now. What location am I staking out?"

"The Meadhall. I just opened it recently. I'm the silent partner and I'm running some business through there. Satanic Panic seems to enjoy hitting up places of pleasure that also double as a front for dirty money. I don't know if he's a fellow criminal or an activist. With his name, he could be either. All I do know is that he needs to be stopped and either you or Kruger will do it or die trying."

"Alright Bill, I'll head up to the Mead hall. After that I want out of this game for good."

"Sure, sure." Bill says and grins at me.

*******

I'm at the mead hall. The people working here are dressed up as vikings, but so are a lot of the customers. Satanic Panic will likely stick out like a sore thumb, especially with the goat head mask.

I'm sitting at a table nursing a mead horn and I've been there for a couple hours, trying to look unobtrusive. The staff knows why I'm there and they've been instructed to leave me alone. I idly look around, bored with this waiting game. Most people think assassinations are exciting, but they aren't. You stake out your target and you wait for the right moment and ice them. There's no changing of costumes or any of the other activities that are done in video games. You just wait, watch, and seize your opportunity.

The door jingles and I don't bother to look. The first couple of times I looked, but that door has opened so often that there's no point in getting excited. I wonder if Satanic Panic has hit the other location.

"Give me your mead and your money. Satan needs a pony!"

I look and there he is, in all his infernal glory. Satanic Panic is wear goat fur pans, a black T-shirt with a red upside down pentacle, and the goat mask. Although...that goat mask looks awfully real for being a mask.

The people around Satanic Panic clear out of the way and he clops forward to bar.

"You heard me," he brays. In his left hand he holds an Uzi and his right hand starts glowing with a fey green light.

He really practices magic, which means I'll need to be prepared for whatever he throws me way. The question is do I attack him now or wait. I decide to wait and see what he does.

The cashier gives Satanic Panic a frantic look and shakily hands him a mead horn. Satanic Panic grabs it with his right hand and downs it in one gulp and then burps.

"Not baaaddd. Now the money, since I've gotten the honey."

I want to groan. Bad puns on top of everything else?

The cashier hands Satanic Panic money from the cash register, but Satanic Panic impatiently scatters.

"Not THAT money. The real money. The money you're laundering here."

"I-I d-don't know what you're talking about."

Satanic Panic roars and extends his right hand, emitting a flash of green light that melts the poor cashier on the spot.

"Give me the real money!" Satanic Panic roars.

The other workers cower. None of them know about the money operations going on here. He'll kill them in a moment, and while I'm not adverse to death myself, I hate seeing needless death occur. Getting into a battle with him here will increase the likelihood of more such deaths, so I decide to do something that will hopefully get him and I out of the way of potential casualties.

"I'll take you to where the money is."

Satanic panic swivels around and looks at me with a jaundiced goat eye.

"You will, hunh? Why'd it take you so long to speak up?"

"I didn't know you were going to liquidate someone. Follow me and let's get you the money and get you of here."

"You seem awfully confident you can help me. Everyone else here is scared, but you aren't. Are you a cop?"

"I'm not a cop. Let's just say I work for the person whose operation it is that you're targeting."

Satanic Panic brays with laughter and says, "I've already dealt with a few of your co-workers. If you try anything funny I'll waste you too, as well as the rest of the people here. In fact, you come over here!"

Satanic Panic gestures to a woman who's near the door, looking like she's going to wet herself. She reluctantly gets up and comes over to him. He wraps his right arm around her and points the Uzi at me.

"A little insurance. Take me to the money and your leader if they have the balls to show up."

I eye the woman and then shrug. I stand up and the Uzi stays trained on me. I walk toward the back of the restaurant. There's a basement there with some casks of mead and that's about it. It's the perfect place for a fight. I'll try to save the woman, but I've got to take stop Satanic Panic's rampage before it goes any further.

I open the door to the basement and gesture with my hand, making a slight twist with my hand as I do.

"The money's down here."

"You go first, and we'll follow. And if there's any surprises, you and her will die."

I slowly walk down the stairs planning out my next move. I hear the woman come down next. She's crying, tears pouring out of her face. I hear the clop of Satanic Panic's hooves. He has to lower his head as he comes down the stairs, and that's when I pull the woman toward me, and then push her behind me.

Satanic Panic straightens up and looks at me, with the goat eyes going a bit wide.

"I see there's no money down here. Do you think you can save her? And do you think tricking me to come down here is going to save you or anyone else?"

I don't bother replying with words. I loosen my hand and a wave of force pushes out from me. Satanic Panic raises his right hand in response and the green fire splashes against that wave, trying to stop it, but some of it goes through and he's pushed back.

"So you're a magician like me. Good thing I don't rely on just magic."

He pulls the trigger to his Uzi and starts spraying bullets at me. I twist my hand again and turn it fully horizontal, and the bullets hit an invisible wall.

Satanic Panic sees this and brays loudly. I double over in pain, my concentration broken, with the shield failing. I dive to the side, and then I hear the sound of the Uzi firing again and hear a sharp gasp of pain. I look over and the woman is clutching her body, with a shocked look on her face. Then she stumbles and falls, a pool of red spreading out from her body.

"Hail Satan!"

A moment later I see a flash of green light and smell the stench of sulphur. Satanic Panic is gone and I'm left with a dead woman; dead because I couldn't protect her.

I didn't want to come back into this game, and her dead eyes stare at me accusingly. I crawl over and put my finger tips to her eyelids and close them, but even with them closed, I can't escape her stare.

I pull out my phone and call Bill.

"He hit the mead shop and killed two people, and then got away."

"I'm disappointed Terry. You've gotten rusty."

"He's a wizard Bill. A sloppy one, but he knows to sling some spells. I'll stay on until we bring him down.

"I appreciate that. I'll be in touch."

The phone clicks and I know with that click I'm back in the assassination game.