Mr. Tilts III (Continuum)

Another motel passed, and then another, and then Tom and lenny Nichols were in the middle of nowhere again. Zooming in and out of pop-up towns that hugged the interstate. They had some money. Lenny had saved alot of off the books birthday cash through the years. Tom had some funds stashed.

But a night in a motel was risky. Tom was a wanted fugitive and as it stood; he was wanted in connection with the kidnapping of his son lenny as well as the murder of his adoptive parents. Because the truth of what happened was to hard to believe.

All the same, Tom needed time; To stop and explain everything to Lenny. So regardless of the risk; on the 6th night they pulled the stolen Camry into a mom & pop motel and paid for the room in cash.

The tiny double twinned room wasn't a luxury suite but it felt like it to the two men. Sleeping 2 hours at a time, trading shifts and driving west as much as possible drained the soul.

Lenny walked to the furthest twin bed that set closest to the light and lowered his bag to the floor. Without saying anything to Tom he rummaged around in the duffel and produced an old worn down hard back book and opened it to the residing book mark.

Tom watched him for a moment. Expecting a slew of questions from the young boy but none came.

With a sigh Tom placed the Camry's keys on the cheap two seat table near the window and lit a cigarette.

"I suppose we should talk."

Lenny didn't look up from his book but instead kept reading as if Tom hadn't spoke to him.

Tom tapped his lighter against the table for a moment and continued.

"We arent running from anything Lenny. We are running toward something. Towards Tilts."

Lenny pulled his head back from the novel and looked at the ceiling.

"Why would we even dream of doing that. He wanted me. You stopped him. My parents are gone. You claim to be my father but I don't know you? Why in the fuck would I follow you any further now that you've said that shit?"

Tom cocked an eyebrow.

"Why have you followed me so far?"

It was a fair question. Lenny had nowhere else to go to be honest and with his parents dead he'd most likely be a ward of the state for the next year or so. So why follow an escaped convict toward an entity that brutally murdered the only family you've ever known?

As childish as it sounds; Adventure.

He did plenty of reading and possessed the dying ability to transcend a reality through written word. He'd seen life through the eyes of pirates and settlers, he'd traversed mountains and been spectator to a valiant knight slaying a mythical beast.

But this shit was real.. And the only reality he'd ever known until now was the childish bullying at his school back home. So even if Tom was crazy as bat shit and had some twisted fantasy going on. Even if this was all horse shit or some dream; it felt real. Which made Lenny feel alive for the first time.

They didn't talk anymore that night. Nor the next night and it was another 13 hours and a state away before either of them spoke.

"This gas station, we should stop here."

Tom pulled the Oldsmobile that they had swapped the Camry with at the motel a day prior into the small lone convenient store and let it idle by the door. Lenny hadn't looked up from his book once, not even when Tom was shuffling around in the back seat. Not even when the arguing inside ensued.

Not until the gunshots went off and Tom jumped into the car and whipped the car out of the parking lot. Covered in blood and $180 dollars richer.

"What the fuck did you do Tom?!"

Lenny was staring at the bloody paper bag full of cigarette packs and loose 1s and 5s that Tom had thrown into his lap.

"You're out of your fucking mind dude stop the car!"

Tom didn't stop. Instead Tom and Lenny took a hard left off of the interstate onto an old logging road. Sirens in the distance grew louder behind them. Tom took another hard left onto yet another ancient road when the red and blue lights peaked the horizon in the early morning sky behind them. It went on like this for awhile. A right and then another left.

Tom lit a cigarette and wiped his gun off on his shirt. They were doing 80 down a gravel road as they passed the sign.

"Welcome to Calfrey"

The pursuit had subsided and the Nichols slid their Oldsmobile to a stop near an old abandoned barn just on the edge of town passed the sign.

Lenny jumped out and slammed his pack over his shoulder amd started to walk the gravel road the way they'd came.

Tom lit another cigarette and after a moment yelled back to him.

"Its in your book Lenny, read it at the motel."

Lenny turned around.

"Whats in my book?!"

"The anthologies? You thought it sounded like tilts right? Well me too."

Lenny flashed back to the story of the pioneer he was researching before all of this shit hit the fan.

It seemed like a lifetime ago.

"Okay so fucking what?!"

Tom sighed and reached in the oldsmobile producing lenny's book.

"Almost every story in this fucking book is tilts. And tilts can only be found either right before or after someones fate has been changed."

"So you're insane, still a murder and now a fucking thief too."

Lenny sat his bag down and continued.

"Okay so lets say that you're onto something and not just bat shit.

So what then? You killed those innocent people to change their fate?"

Tom shook his head

"No I shot that bitch behind the counter because she said i needed a shower. But I didn't think twice because it changed our fate."

Lenny shook his head.

"How?!"

"Tom pointed to the town sign they had passed still visible from the barn."

"Had I not done that we'd still be on the highway. The fucker's here somewhere."

__

The men spent the night in the old abandoned barn. Sleeping uneasily on the moist piles of old hay; that to Lenny smelt alot like the rotten pumpkins that set on the sidewalks of his old neighborhood days after Halloween.

Early the next morning they set off into town on foot. As to not raise alarm with the locals.

__

It was around 5:15am when the men parted ways at the town square. The town seemed lifeless from both ends and a deep fog kept visibility to mere feet in front of them.

By 7am the realization set in... they were both lost..

A short trip around the block that should've taken minutes turned into a walless labyrinth of vaguely outlined old houses just on the edge of eye sight. Swallowed in their entirety by the morning mist that didn't seem to dissipate.

Panic sat in and Lenny set out in a jog. Feeling an invisible entity seemingly trailing right at his heels.

His heart began to race and his jog broke into a sprint and in the distance behind him a low growl began to grow..

checking his watch mid sprint, the ticking hands were locked at 12pm. He screamed for Thomas as he plunged further into the grey.

The Growl developed into a deep booming shriek and was catching up to him fast.

"Tom! Tom! Fucking.... Dad help me!"

As Lenny tripped fell toward the asphalt the fog broke away and he landed hard...

Onto soft dirt and cool grass..

"You okay?"

Tom pulled Lenny up from the forest floor and Lenny turned back the way he came assuming he'd get a glimpse of the pure terror that had almost enveloped him..

Instead what he saw was much more terrifying.

A wall of fog. That abruptly halted at where the two men stood. Peering deeper into the nothingness they could see the faint outline of the asphalt and the outlines of structures in the distance.

"Its like looking through a hole into a completely different reality"

Tom lit a cigarette and cocked an eyebrow.

"My guess is that we crossed over to a place that we shouldn't be."

Lenny turned around and was awe struck by the enormous Hemlock forest that jutted from the earth before them.

"Y-yeah.... I can get behind that idea.."

Tom tossed a crumple set of papers into Lenny's hand.

"Picked that up in an old house while I was finding my way. From what I glanced its an old Sheriff's journal or something. Anyway, turns out this place has always been whacked out."

"Does it say anything about Tilts?"

"Most of it's about some fuckin cult or something.. Is a mention of a freak in a suit a few times.. Not sure though kiddo."

Lenny glanced at his watch that read 6:13am and gagged.

"The time! It's-"

"Way back there I know.. It's like we never stepped foot into that ghost town."

Tom threw Lenny's backpack over his own shoulder and started up the Hemlock's trail.

"Don't be so disheveled; everything's Fuckin off here. My advice? Throw that watch away.. Won't do you any good."

__

The Hemlock smelled of old life. The kind of dirt and moss smell that softened your inhibitions. Like the trees are telling you: "This place is ancient.. We have secrets."

__

Gargantuan roots weaved in and out of the mossy bedding of old leaves and moss. The Forest was silent. All life steering clear of the Elder trees. All except for the Nichols men. Ripping a hole of sound through the eon old silence with every crunch of a step and curse of a rooted trip.

__

The men had hiked nearly 4 hours before Lenny collapsed against a tree big enough to put a californian Red Wood to shame.

Tom rummaged around their bags amd produced a pack of Marlboros and that stolen jerky and two Gatorades that came as a reward of Tom's earlier murders.

"An hour, then we gotta move Len."

Lenny nodded and chugged the sugary beverage.

But they didn't move again. The Nichols' men fell asleep under that hemlock tree.

And thats where they stayed for nearly 5 hours..

Until Lenny was awakened by the sounds in the distance.

__

Tom had vanished, drag marks and muffled voices accompanied loud echoed thuds and a soft fiery orange glow in the direction of where the missing man had seemed to be dragged. The bags, gun and journal papers that were on Lenny's lap when he had dozed off were all gone as well.

He wanted to scream. Scream for Tom, scream for his parents; scream for Tilts to just find him and make everything go back to the way it was before his bad luck burnt the contract.

But he knew better. A ripping in his gut told him that if he'd make a sound he'd be found by something that a person should never be found by.

__

Lenny pulled himself together and wiped tears from his face. And in this dark and silent forest Leonard Nichols followed the only other sounds in the darkness other than himself.

The darkness played tricks on his eyes as he navigated the winding roots and twisted branches. The faint orange glow grew brighter with every step and revealed tree roots that slowly wiggled and slithered back and forth.

The voices broke into clear chanting and at a break in the woodland he saw everything. And the revelation of Tom's fate was grotesque.

A group of people in long red cloaks hid their faces behind horned masks made of wicker. They chanted loudly and monotone in a language Lenny couldn't understand as a fire roared in the center of the circle their bodies were creating.

The loud thudding rang Lenny's ears and his stomach lurched as the giant abomination stepped his way around the flames and slammed the mushed corpse he held by the leg into the ground once more.

Tom's lifeless body sprayed blood onto an already soaked ring around the fire. The flames roared higher and the cultists cheered momentarily before continuing their chanting.

__

Lenny took a step back into the darkness and turned to run when a familiar 'CLICK' stopped the mantra and the beasts in their tracks.

"So You Don't like wHAt IvE PUt toGETHer for you?"

Lenny froze; the fire crackled loudly but everything else remained quiet.

__

The Man in his grey suit put his blood red pen back in his shirt pocket. He reached down and with a finger pulled blood from Tom's open mouth and licked it clean.

"You know, this FUcking idiot didn't even know you existed right? When you were in your ignorant mother's fatty guts.. He was so consumed in his own shitty wants that he chose to throw that ALL away for some bitch he used to breed when he was a pup. Can you believe that? DAddy didn't evEN KNow you Existed."

Lenny looked at the ground. His eyes spotted the tree roots pulling from the soil slowly. The ground seemed to breathe beneath him.

He teared up.

Tilts cracked his neck to one side and groaned as he stepped closer to the edge of the light to address the sobbing boy.

"AFraid to look at ME or SOMething? TURn arOUND don't be afraid. It's only going to hurt until you're Fucking D-Dead."

Lennys sobs turned into a chuckle and then a loud cackle. Tilts cocked an eyebrow.

"What? Why the FUck are you Laughing?!"

Lenny reached into the writhing roots and addressed Tilts.

"Is this all because you want my fucking signature?"

Mr. Tilts growled and flapped his injired wing, staring back at Tom's lifeless body; remembering all the pain and inconvenience he had caused.

"Well as long as I can throw your screaming body into that FUcking F-FIre, the JOb is DOne so lets get this over with before your weak larva of a body freezes to death."

Lenny started cackling again and pulled his hand from the earth. Putting Tom's gun to his head.

Tilts gasped, "What The FUCK are you DOing?!"

Lenny steadied his resolve and met Mr. Tilts eyes.

"That will be enough death for now. Fuck you Mr. Tilts. Enjoy being the worst demon anyone has ever heard of."

Tilts' eyes widened as he screamed.

"NO!!!!"

Lenny closed his eyes and slammed the trigger down. A loud CLACK echoed through the hemlock followed by a long silence.

A soft chuckle started to creep into Lenny's ears; he opened an eye and saw tilts homding his red pen.

Dirt fell from the guns hammer and landed on his shirt.

Mr. Tilts cracked his neck.

"Yeah that was fun, that pea shooter is full of FUcking mud. SsSorry abOUT THat."

Lenny gasped and before anything other thought could be uddered.

Mr. Tilts clicked his pen. 'CLICK'