Chapter 5

For a few days there was no sign of Bughuul. Lena didn't know what exactly he was up to, but she remembered him mentioning about a new family he found, so he could start his deadly ritual once again. It was interesting to know whom he had chosen this time, of those four people that lived in the house Lena was sent to a few nights before. In any case, all she had to do was waiting for any occurrences. She only hoped that Bughuul won't wake her up again in the middle of the night. That is not a nice feeling when you get disturbed while resting peacefully, at least on workdays when you know you have to get up early for work. Luckily, she heard nothing from him until the weekend.

Lena thought she could sleep longer on Saturday morning, but her hopes were broken like a piece of fragile glass. She nearly jumped of sudden noise of her cell phone calling. It was her habit to put it on the nightstand at the bed as she usually put the alarm clock in her phone. She stretched her hand to the phone lazily to check who it was, and what a surprise it was when she saw it was the deputy calling. Lena huffed in irritation, as the clock showed nearly fifteen minutes after eight. At the first moment a sting of fear pierced her body through, as she thought that he or anyone else among the police found out about her "night walks".

Great, just freaking perfect, - Lena thought angrily. - Even on the weekend I cannot sleep as long as I want. If not Bughuul robbed her of her sleep, then someone else would do that. But she decided to answer the call anyway. Maybe it was indeed something important.

"Hello?" she said in a sleepy voice.

"Hello, Ms. Firth? I'm sorry to wake you up this early," deputy's voice answered on the other end of the line. "But there is something you would definitely want to know. Looks like I found some information about your strange pursuer."

So they found out about Bughuul? Now this already raised Lena's interest. She was sure there is nothing new he would tell her, but she was curious about how exactly he managed to find it out. She had to do her best to pretend that she knew nothing about it.

"Oh? Really?" Lena tried to sound interested. "Did you find out who he is?"

"Yes, I did. And I…"deputy stammered, but continued nonetheless. "I don't want to scare you, Ms. Firth, but… I'm afraid the strange figure that stalks you… It's not even human."

"What? Are you sure?" Lena tried to sound frightened now. She was thankful for having a true talent in pretending and imitating sounds and people. This is something she was good at.

"I wish I was wrong, but, unfortunately, we are dealing with something… supernatural. And this thing is apparently of a malevolent nature. Ms. Firth, I actually have something to show you."

"Really? What exactly?"

"First, there are some new pictures that might interest you," deputy explained. "Second, I obtained a recording that contains historical information of this entity that we are dealing with. And most important, now it's absolutely clear that this thing is responsible for each family murder, at least from the sixties, starting with the family that was drowned in a swimming pool. But I'm pretty sure that this crime is far from being the first one."

Well, this indeed might be something new that Lena had probably no idea about. She knew only the basic things about Bughuul, but now some details might provide some interest.

"All right, deputy, thank you for the news," Lena said. "I think it would be good for us to meet again at my place. This already sounds interesting. Besides, if we know what exactly we are dealing with, maybe we could also find a way to fight it. If you have time, feel free to come here with all the information you got. Today I'm free all day, tomorrow as well. Just call and warn me where you are planning to arrive, alright?"

"Of course, that will do," deputy agreed. "I think I might visit you today closer to the evening. I'll call you again later to tell the exact time. So for now, goodbye."

"Goodbye, and thank you once again."

***

Time passed rather fast, and Lena couldn't wait to know what the deputy managed to find out. Despite knowing the demon personally, there might be something still obscure about him. She knew his name and that he devours the souls of the children to survive, plus that he exists for thousands of years. And, of course, that he's the one who forces the kids to kill their entire families before kidnapping them to his dimension. But that was it. Just the basic stuff, and no more. Bughuul ordered her to do what she is told without asking questions that he found unnecessary, so now deputy might shed some light on the things unknown. Around twelve he called again and informed that he was planning to visit her at five, so Lena had time to walk to the nearest grocery store and buy some baked stuff for tea. Last time she was so frightened that she couldn't think of anything else, but now the situation was different. She felt more relaxed. At least no shocking surprises awaited her, or so it seemed.

Around five o'clock the sound of a doorbell rang throughout the house and Lena hurried to the door. Deputy was standing in the doorway with a strange, obviously old device in his hands.

"Hello, deputy. Please, do come in," Lena kindly invited him inside. "Proceed to the kitchen, just like the last time. This time there is not just empty tea, I've purchased brownies. You know, I was too overwhelmed with fear last time, so my mind was filled just with that."

"Oh, thank you very much, but… you shouldn't have," deputy smiled, putting the old device on the edge of the table and a folder near it.

"Why not? You are my guest after all, so I couldn't do otherwise," the woman smiled back. "Um… so… may I ask what is this thing that you brought with you?"

"Yes, of course. This is a record player. As I said, there is a recording that explains things about the certain supernatural entity," deputy explained, opening his folder. "But before we get to that, there are some pictures that I would like you to take a look at." He pulled out a few images with some strange, apparently ancient, drawings, but each of them depicted a death scene of a group of people. And every drawing featured the familiar symbol that she saw in the photos that deputy showed her earlier.

"So… what exactly am I looking at?" Lena asked, studying the pictures curiously.

"These are the copies of ancient engravings," deputy explained. "Maybe you remember from our last talk that I mentioned about advising Mr. Oswalt to call the University and contact professor Jonas, the occult crime expert?"

"Yes, I remember that. And? What then?"

"Well, the first thing is that professor Jonas has mysteriously vanished without a trace two days ago. We found this recorder and the images among his documents and other belongings."

"What? How?" Lena began blinking fast. Deputy sighed and continued:

"To be honest, I don't know what to tell you at the moment. We began searching for him, but it will take a while. And I believe that his disappearance has something to do with that entity. I don't claim it yet for sure, but those are my suspicions."

"It could be," Lena nodded in agreement. And when that creepy bastard appears again, he will answer a few questions, - she thought to herself, scratching her chin.

"All right, now it's time for the most important part," deputy turned his attention to the recorder. "Now we are going to listen to the entry, recorded by professor Jonas a day before his disappearance. I'm sure it will clear up the picture about your mysterious stalker."

He switched the device on and in a few seconds the recording started.

"This is professor Andrew Jonas, entry recorded on August 27th, 2012. I've received the sad news about the tragic death of Mr. Ellison Oswalt and his family, which happened a short time after I contacted him via Skype. Mr. Oswalt called for my help to provide information about the background of the mass murders of families. I got a few images from him, containing a symbol, the meaning of which he wanted to know, as it appeared in the murder scenes. It's a symbol associated with the worship of a pagan deity. A very obscure one, dating back to Babylonian times, a deity named Bughuul, the Eater of Children. The crimes that Mr. Oswalt was dealing with, they all had the element of a missing child. Well, Bughuul eats children. Now, the fragments of stories that have survived, they all revolve around him needing the souls of human children to survive. Now each story involves a different way that he lures or tricks these children away from the physical world and traps them in his own netherworld, and he consumes their souls over time. Now any worship of this deity would include a blood sacrifice or the wholesale eating of a child. In these particular crime scenes that Mr. Oswalt was investigating, there was nothing of the things just mentioned, meaning blood sacrifice or the eating of a child. It is more like a cult initiation. And before my last contact with Mr. Oswalt, I sent him a few images per e-mail, containing the ancient engravings, connected to Bughuul. These images were the only ones that survived throughout the history, as everything else had been destroyed because of the superstitions. Early Christians believed that Bughuul lived in the images themselves, and each person that stumbled upon them had large risk to become possessed. The children that saw the images, were especially vulnerable to Bughuul's possession. If a person gets possessed, he or she falls under a total control of Bughuul, and is forced to commit terrible things. This is what occurred during each crime, connected to Bughuul. Each missing child had apparently got under Bughuul's possession and was forced to murder their entire family, and afterwards they disappeared. As I've mentioned earlier, Bughuul takes them away from the physical world and traps them in his own netherworld. Sadly, I have to admit that this is exactly what we are dealing with in each of these cases, including Mr. Oswalt's case. The contact with him ended before I managed to answer his question, concerning the images serving as a portal for Bughuul to the world of the living. He asked me if it is possible to close the portal by destroying the images. Unfortunately, he didn't get his answer, but now, in this entry, I claim the following: it is possible. If everything connected to Bughuul is destroyed before getting in close contact with it, whether those are images, recordings, etc., it is possible to deny him the entrance to our world. But if you try to do it after you have managed to take a good look at the images or anything else and study it, then it is no use. The connection has been established and Bughuul won't stop until he completes his plans."

This is where the recording ended. Lena sat in silence for a few moments, digesting all the information she had just heard. Deputy switched the recorder off and also stayed quiet, looking at the woman sitting across him.

"Alright…" Lena finally spoke after a deep sigh. "Now it's all clear. This Bughuul is following me for some unknown reason. I can only wonder what the hell he wants from me. I'm alone, I have no children, so I actually have nothing to offer him. But nonetheless, he apparently has some interest in me."

"It seems so," deputy agreed. "But judging by what the professor said, looks like my future perspective is death. I've studied all the images, helped Mr. Oswalt with the investigation. I guess I have already gone too far as well. Now it's just a matter of time. And…" he closed his face with his palms, supporting himself with elbows. "…I beg your forgiveness. I have drawn you in all this crap by showing you the images."

Hearing this, Lena shook her head frantically.

"Oh, no, please, don't say so. You're not to blame in this situation. This entity, Bughuul, started following me days before I met you. So it's not your fault, one way or another."

And yes, to Lena it already didn't matter if he showed her the images or not. She has encountered Bughuul personally and became his helper, whether she wanted it or not. She only hoped that deputy wouldn't suffer from the demon's intrigues.

"Ah, yes, you're right," deputy smiled, admitting his own mistake. "By the way, have you seen him since we met last time?"

Lena understood in grief that she was forced to lie and gave a negative answer. She knew what the consequences would be if she told him the truth. It would end tragically not just for her, but for the deputy as well.

"Good to know you're fine so far," he said. "But our deal is still valid. If you notice him or anything weird, let me know at once, alright?"

"Yes, of course," Lena nodded in response. "And I would like to thank you for all the information, deputy. Believe or not, it's always easier to act when you know exactly what you are against, whatever it is."

"I can agree with that," deputy replied. "It's much worse when you don't know what you're dealing with. The most frightening thing possible is the unknown."

"Right you are."

Finishing his tea, deputy packed the images back into the folder and unplugged the recorder.

"Well, Ms. Firth, I guess it's time for me to go. I hope the information you heard today was useful to you. Don't hesitate to contact me if anything happens. If I find out any news, I'll give you a call." He put the folder on the recorder and picked it up, moving to the front door.

"Sure, I will if I face any strange things," Lena replied. "Thank you very much for your help. I really appreciate it. Oh, by the way, do you need any help with carrying things? Is the recorder heavy?"

"Oh, no, not at all," deputy smiled. "I can carry it myself. And you're welcome. I'm glad to help. Good night, Ms. Firth."

"Good night, deputy," Lena said and closed the door after him, locking it for the night.

She stepped back into the kitchen and washed the dishes, while thinking over all the things she found out about. Something was already familiar to her, but some details were new, like those images that served as some kind of a portal for Bughuul to the human world. And she was indeed curious about what could have happened to professor Jonas. Has Bughuul done something to him? Most likely, otherwise why would he suddenly disappear without a single trace? There was definitely something strange going on, and Lena knew that soon she will find it out. Very soon.