Legacy (Anathema #2)

by Nick Roberts

About a month later, he got the call about the fire at Ron’s shitty little dealership. Someone had used gasoline to blow up the trailer with Ron in it. The local cops had ruled it a suicide, and at the time he accepted it. Ron’s continuing odd phone conversations, the withdrawing from friends and family, abrupt life changes when he should’ve been settling down into a nice, stable retirement with his wife—all of it made sense. Burning down the building and making it look like an accident would cash out a nice life insurance policy for Holly. But due to the chaotic nature of life—one of Ron’s favorite discussion topics late in life—Holly di...

“Unit 237, come in,” Rhonda said. Hoffman picked up the receiver. “Unit 237 here.” “Everything still quiet on the western front?” Hoffman smiled. “Yes, ma’am. We are currently en route to 25 Lee Street. The crew decided to stay the night at Christine Swanson’s house. Apparently, the little girl was getting tired of staying with gramps, so they’re

changing locations. We’re tailing Mitchell and Derrick right now.” He waited for her response. Nervousness began to creep in, but he reminded himself of who he was truly serving, and she had assured him that this was all part of the divine plan, part of his purpose. “Thanks for the update 237. Keep me posted. I’m still bored over here.” “You got it, darlin’.” He smiled and put the radio back on its stand. Something shifted in the seat behind him. Hoffman glanced over his shoulder at Derrick, who was moving around. The kid wasn’t supposed to come to for another hour.

Goddamn radio must’ve woken him up. Why didn’t she give him a stronger sedative or an increased d...

Grunts and panicked breathing came from the backseat. Shit. Go back to sleep, kid. “What’s going on?” Derrick said with a slight slur. Hoffman looked in the rearview mirror and saw him pushing himself off the seat until he was sitting up and looking around in a daze. Derrick gripped the metal partition and jerked on it. “Hey, what’s going on? Where are you taking me?” “Just be quiet, kid.” “Fuck you! Let me out of here!” Hoffman made eye contact with him in the mirror.

“Why are you doing this?” A fire burned in the officer’s stomach that he soon felt in his flushed cheeks. Just picturing what had happened to Ron made him irate, and the fact that this little shit didn’t even have a clue gave him half a mind to park the car now and just put a bullet in the whiny fucker’s head. Instead, he just gripped the steering wheel and scoffed.

“You want to know why I’m doing this? Bryan fucking Stockton. That’s why.” “My dad?”

“Are you still a little woozy from the shot or just slow in the head? Who else would I be talking about?” “What does he have to do with this?” “Your asshole father killed my brother.” Derrick squinted in disbelief. “What are you talking about?” “My brother, Ron. Your dad killed him and then burned his business down to cover it up. People thought it was a suicide.” The kid just sat there with a blank look on his face. “You got a dial tone in your noggin or what?” “When?”

“When did your dad kill my brother?” “Yes.” “Almost twenty years ago.” “What business burned down?” “Ron’s car dealership. He had a trailer on the lot. Your dad shot him in the back like a fucking coward.” “What? There’s no way. How⁠—” “I saw the fucking footage, kid! I saw it.” He looked in the mirror and saw Derr...

“How did you meet her?” the kid asked.

Hoffman sighed. He was getting annoyed, and the more he was forced to think about his actions over the course of the last two weeks, the more he had to suppress what was left of his conscience.

“I guess it doesn’t matter at this point,” he began. “She snuck up on me. I got in my car after a shift. It smelled like something died in there. It was so bad, I had to roll the windows down. I thought I hit some roadkill or something. And then she put her hand on my shoulder. I damn near wrecked the car. I turned around and saw this dark-haired woman wearing this mask that looked like porcelain. I tried ...

She asked me if I wanted to know who killed my brother. “I think she knew by the look in my eye what my answer was because she took the blade away right then and there. I could’ve whipped around and blasted her to Hell if I wanted to, and she knew that. But she also knew what she’d done by saying that: she opened up a whole can of worms that I had thought I’d put to rest. She’d activated that nagging suspicion I’ve had all along that there was something off about

Ron’s death. Of course, I said yes, and that’s when she said that I had to do something to earn it.”

“What did you have to do?” “Submit,” he said barely above a whisper. “Submit?” “She told me to look under her mask. I turned around just as she lifted it off. When I looked into her eyes…that’s when I knew.” “Knew what?” “That I would surrender my will to her.”

He was surprised to hear himself verbalize the feeling he’d had. He thought of her eyes, eyes of total blackness like two wells leading to the depths of Hell.

Once he looked into them, he let her into his...

“And I thought I was fucking crazy,” ...

“A killing spree is how you make things right for my dad shooting your brother?” “Millions of people die every day. Good people. Bad people. There’s no rhyme or reason to it. It’s just chaos…pure pandemonium. Once you accept that, you’re free. She freed me, Derrick. So, no, a few more bodies don’t bother me. I am eager to see what she has in store for you, though.”

“Now you’re getting it,” Hoffman said and ripped the radio cord from the dashboard, destroying any chance of communication. He turned to Derrick with a grin and a wild look in his eyes. “I have a feeling this is going to be my last shift.” He saw the fear spread on Derrick’s face and then got out of the car, shutting his door and leaving

the young man behind, just as he’d been instructed to do.

Feeling defeated, he leaned his head against the window and stared at the house for what felt like fifteen minutes. He knew he was a sitting duck for something, but he would be damned if he didn’t go out fighting. He thought of his dad and how strong he was, how he would effortlessly pick Derrick up and carry him around in one of his burly arms. He thought his dad was tough enough to fight anybody. It was in those moments that he felt the safest of all.

It was a little kid. Even though she was shrouded by shadows upon shadows, he had a pretty good guess who the child was. When she took a few more cautious steps toward him, his suspicions were confirmed. May.

He recalled his last conversation with Dr. Strobel when she’d told him that absolute evil has no motive. It exists in our world simply as a counterweight to the good. Maren was absolute evil; of that, he had no doubt. Whatever she had in store

for him involved this girl or she wouldn’t be here. Unless she escaped.

He remembered all of this because in that present moment, he had too. He had to remember what it felt like to be May and know what was going through her brainwashed mind right then. Keeping a watchful eye on his surroundings, he slowly walked back to the girl. “May, where’s your Mommy?” “Daisy told me she was getting dinner ready.” “She said your Mommy was getting dinner ready?” May nodded. “When was the last time you saw her?”

Her tactics of manipulation hadn’t changed at all.

“Yes. I did it just like the lady police officer said I could do before the Demon attacked her. I knew that if Daisy and the police officer believed in me then I could do it.”

Her name is Officer Wrenley.” “Yes!” May practically shouted.

“The Demon hurt her real bad.” “What did it do to her?”

“The Demon made her go to sleep, and then it carried her upstairs.”

“We went upstairs. All the lights were still off, and it was scary, but Daisy held my hand. She took me to my room and told me not to look in the dining room because that’s where she’d trapped the Demon.

We got

in my room, and she told me that she would take me to The Land of the Princesses, but she couldn’t do it without her knight.” “Did she say who her knight was, May?” She nodded. “She said it was you. She told me that she needed your help to go home, and that she would take me with her.” “Did she send you to come and get...

“No. She said you were close by, though. But that’s when someone came in the house when we were in my room. I think Daisy was even scared because she got up real fast and told me to stay put. She shut my door, and I heard her go downstairs, and then a man started talking. He sounded upset. I don’t know who he was. I thought it was Pawpaw at first because she told me he was going to come over, too, but it didn’t sound like him. I opened the door real quiet and snuck about halfway down the stairs. The front door was still open just a little bit. I thought they went outside, but then I heard the man crying. I peeked over the stairs and saw the man standing near the kitchen, and I remembered that’s where Daisy said the Demon was. I couldn’t see into the kitchen, but he went in there. I knew if the Demon was back and it was strong enough to hurt that big man, then Daisy might’ve...

because I saw this car parked in the road. And that’s...

As soon as he ran down those steps into the torrential downpour, he knew in his heart that he was an orphan and never felt more alone. Everything about the familiar neighborhood looked bigger, more intimidating. The fact that he had to rely on his own wits and had no one to ask for help nearly made him run back to his Mom inside the house. But she had told him to be brave and to keep on going, so that’s what he did. He found the flashlight in the car she assured him would be there and trudged his way through increasingly deepening water and rain that felt like he was getting peppered by thousands of BB guns. Still, he trudged on because he had no other option. Something inside of him refused to let him give up. His mom had called it the Light, and as he grew up he let that light die off. It wasn’t until he found the rooms of AA that he found the help he needed, not just to stop drinking, but to reconnect with the Light he’d always associated with his mom. Some people