Chapter 88

Andrew closed the garage door behind him and heard voices coming from his bedroom. He knew that Morgan was conscious and Craig was doing his best to keep him company while he was tied down with ropes. Andrew could only imagine what was going through Morgan's mind. Although he witnessed a second person die by his own hand, the idea of his dad trying to comfort Morgan has put a smile on his face. People would think that Andrew was psychotic if they witnessed what had happened before his smile.

'Thank you, dad,' Andrew said entering his bedroom. He noticed the distressed look on Morgan's face mixed with confusion and fear. He could only imagine what was going through his mind. Craig was sitting on the floor in front of Morgan almost like one would sit with a child. His legs were crossed and his hands were folded in his lap.

'Andrew, what the fuck is going on son?' Craig demanded.

'I'll explain it all soon, but I first want to have a word with Morgan.'

'Please, as I've said, I've got a wife and two young children,' Morgan pleaded.

Andrew squatted next to Craig facing Morgan. 'Morgan, I'm not here to hurt you. Please believe me. I'm sorry for hurting you earlier, it was not my plan, but of course, I did not expect you to come with Francois. I just had to knock you out for a short while. I had to deal with your partner alone. He's the one I was after, not you.'

'He's not really my partner. I just help him out from time to time depending on the workload that's all. Where's Francois now?' Morgan asked. Andrew noticed the blood over Morgan's mouth and face. There were dark stains on his blue uniform as well, but at least the bleeding had stopped.

'Francois is dead. I killed him in the garage,' Andrew said as if he had just squashed an insect that was crawling on the wall.

'Jesus son, what are you talking about?' Craig croaked. His face was white and there was fear in his eyes.

'Well, I had to find out where mom was,' Andrew said. 'I also needed additional information which I got so please let me handle this.' His eyes bounced from Craig to Morgan. Morgan's face was pale and Andrew imagined that it was caused by fear of the unknown. Morgan feared for his life and maybe for the life of his wife and children he might leave behind.

'Please God, don't hurt me,' Morgan pleaded with a blank expression.

'Morgan, I want to untie you if you promise to at least try to understand what I'm about to tell you. We need all the help we can get,' Andrew said shifting his weight to his other leg. He regarded Morgan closely.

'I'll do my best, but please don't hurt me. I've got a family. Please get these ropes off of me, I can't feel my legs anymore.'

Andrew nodded with a smile. 'Okay, I'll give your gun back as well, but you need to listen and believe me. We are not here to hurt either you or your family.' Andrew noticed Morgan's innocent blue eyes and wondered if his children also inherited his beautiful eyes. It would be a shame if they didn't.

'Thank you,' Morgan said with uncertainty.

Andrew started undoing the knot behind Morgan's back and soon Morgan's hands were free. There was no hint of Morgan trying to escape, at least not yet for his legs were still tied. Morgan pumped his hands forcing the blood flow to circulate again. Soon the rope around Morgan's legs was removed, and he was free once more.

'I just want to stand up and stretch my legs if that's okay,' Morgan said getting up slowly.

'Knock yourself out,' Andrew said winding up the rope.

'Are you going to tell us what's going on here Andy?' Craig asked.

'Yes, okay,' Andrew said. 'Morgan, you are welcome to sit on the bed if you want. You are not an animal, man. I really feel bad for what I've done earlier, but I promise you, I had to.'

'I'll live,' Morgan said rubbing his chin. 'You have power in those pipes of yours, I must admit.' He regarded Andrew as he sat down slowly on the bed.

Andrew smiled, 'I wasn't always like this until recently, but I will not bore you with the details. Not sure if you will believe me, anyway. What I want to talk to you about is that there's great evil on the West Coast. Are you aware of some strange things happening in town?'

'There are lots of strange things happening, but I suppose that's part of my job. What exactly are you referring to?' Morgan asked.

'Satanic stuff. I'm talking about rituals and people going missing. Do you know anything about that?'

Morgan thought about it for a moment and said, 'I've worked on some missing person's cases, but I didn't really relate them to any satanic rituals. Those missing people still have not been found, but I suppose that happens across the world from time to time.'

'It didn't strike you as weird in such a small place?' Andrew asked. 'People going missing.'

'It did a little, but I never thought about rituals or anything like that before.'

'What about the kids?' Andrew asked. 'Do you think they are normal with their weird behaviours?'

'Well, I busted a few for drugs. Some had strange tattoos, but I just locked them up, doing my job I suppose,' Morgan said shaking his head. There was a frown on his face.

'Okay, please bear with me here,' Andrew said. 'It might sound like complete bullshit to you, but I promise, this is no lie. There is a group in town, Vredenburg and Saldanha area, who knows maybe even further up the coast. This group is into some bad shit. They worship Satan, curse people and deal with drugs. I know for a fact they have taken my mother for a reason I don't yet know, but I'm sure we'll find out soon. Since we arrived in Saldanha, shit started happening.'

'That's for sure,' Craig said. He moved closer to Andrew, but there was still uncertainty on his face. Morgan's stare bounced from Andrew to Craig and back to Andrew again.

Andrew nodded,' Yeah, my dad had it worse than anyone else. It started small at first, but it is completely out of control at the moment. We found a guy on the R27 on the day of our arrival. The case was handled by the Saldanha police department. To date, we have not heard a single thing about this missing man. When my dad asked about him, his docket could not be found. No case number, nothing. Shortly after, we found voodoo signs on the beach. There's a group of kids in school that's part of this satanic cult. I'm not sure if you know about the boy they found in the toolshed at E.D.S High yet. Anyway, I killed him too.

'Jesus son. What's gotten into you,' Craig complained and dropped his head in his hands.

'You know what happened, but you didn't want to believe me,' Andrew shot back. He looked at Craig for a moment before he returned his gaze to Morgan. He noticed complete confusion and terror on the police inspector's face.

'I'm not supposed to hear this you know. I'm a police inspector and I'm supposed to lock you up which will probably be for life.'

Andrew regarded him for a moment. He nodded and said, 'Sure you do and I admire your honesty. It's a pity Francois wasn't anything like you. You see Morgan, Francois was dirty. He was part of this satanic cult.'

'It can't be,' Morgan said, shaking his head.

'Remember that this satanic cult had people everywhere. In this case, Francois was covering their tracks, but he was no different from them. He attended their ceremonies. He was the one who told my dad there was no docket for the man we found on the R27. As far as I'm concerned, that was one of the tracks he cleaned up for his friends. What he told me just before I killed him, was that I will never be able to stop them. They are strong and they have help from hell itself with demons roaming the coast and who knows where else. I'm not making this stuff up either Morgan.'

Morgan stared at Andrew for a long time trying to grasp what was being said despite what happened within the last hour, 'But why would he do such a thing.' He asked as if he did not want to hear bad things about the police department.

'For power and money. I know you guys don't get paid a lot, no offence, but that was one of the reasons why he joined them. You didn't notice anything strange when working with Francois?'

Morgan was in thought for a moment as if retrieving memories from a long time ago then said, 'Come to think of it, he was quite strange, but I thought it was just part of his personality. He preferred to work alone most of the time.' Morgan paused for a moment. 'I remember this one time when he picked up a fight with one of the guys in the office, you know, an exchange of harsh words. After that he started behaving quite strangely, he was different though. I thought I saw his eyes change in colour and for a moment that day he spoke another language none of us understood. We did not think anything strange about it. We thought he was just very angry. We had fun in the office about it when he was not around of course, but yes, that was quite odd. The other thing was that he never invited anyone to his place. We all thought he didn't want friends. Whenever things started to hint into his residential direction, he would change the subject to keep us away from his house. Not sure what the story was exactly with that, but after a while, we all stopped trying.'

'Has he got any family?' Andrew asked.

'Not that I know of. He's definitely not married with kids. That I know, but he usually kept to himself, not talking much about his personal life.'

Andrew nodded, 'Morgan, there are other things I would like to tell you, but I think it would have to stand over for another day. Time is running out on us. Tommy was a bad kid, and I killed him. Francois was a bad man, and I killed him too. I'm not saying what I'm doing is right, but I gave them the choice. They refused to change their bad ways. Somehow they were proud of what they were doing. They were hiding behind the power of Satan and they thought they were untouchable. Once again, I'm not making this up. I guess this does not make me any better than them or any other murderer out there, but I will as sure as God destroy them all. This is only the beginning. Innocent people and families are in danger. These people won't think twice about raping and killing in the name of Satan. They deal drugs and spread diseases and curses. If you don't believe me, my dad is one of the victims.' Andrew pointed towards Craig. 'Dad, why don't you show Morgan what happened?' Andrew looked at Craig who seemed caught off guard.

Craig took off his shirt and looked at the cut on his shoulder. It seemed bigger than it was this morning. The cut was running down his bicep to the fold of his elbow. It was a large and deep gaping slid with a red rash-like skin surrounding it.

'What happened there,' Morgan asked in disgust.

'One of these bastards cursed me last week. If you were wondering about my face, yeah, they kicked the shit out of me first. One of my work colleagues-,' Craig paused. He knew he had never told anyone that he was the one who found Ferris. He reckoned since the conversation turned out to be beyond bizarre, his story was not even close to Andrew's killings. 'My colleague was cursed as well possibly by the same group. No doctor was able to help him. They did not know what was wrong. No chemicals or antibiotics were able to save his life either. I found him dead in his house on Monday. I went to his house because he didn't answer his phone. His door was unlocked, so I walked in and found his body on the couch.'

'Did he stay in Vredenburg?' Morgan asked with a frown.

'Yes.'

'Oh God, I've done that case,' Morgan said. His face was filled with surprise. 'An anonymous caller reported him dead.'

'That was me,' Craig said. 'I could not stand another statement so I called in anonymously. I felt guilty for doing that and I never told anyone about it until now.'

Morgan nodded, 'I understand. He was a total mess. I could not stand the smell when I walked in, and the flies, oh my God. We thought he had been dead for quite some time, but I'm starting to see the picture now.'

'I know what you mean. The smell, the flies, the maggots. He was almost a skeleton when I got there, well the left half of his body, anyway.'

Andrew shook his head, 'Morgan, I know this is a lot to take in, but we are all in danger, my family and yours. I feel I'm the only one that can kill the evil that lives here. My dad is dying of the same thing that killed his colleague. Just before Francois died, and I'm sorry for putting it so bluntly, he told me about a place on a farm apparently not too far from here. He said it was the gate to hell which opened not so long ago. If that gate does exist, I think it's time to close it. I cannot do this alone. I need your help here, all the help I can get. We are outnumbered and they know I have something they fear. I have been blessed or cursed depending on your point of view. I've been blessed with a power far greater than theirs and that is why they are coming after me. That's the reason why they kidnapped my mother. I suppose they want to use her to bargain or to come to terms with something they need. I'm not scared at all. I will go and believe me I want to go. In fact, I'm surprised my phone did not ring already, but it soon will. From there onwards, things will be unstoppable and messy. We are outnumbered, but I can handle them. I know blood cannot wash blood, but this is somewhat different. I want to stop the evil for good because it's spreading as we speak. They are growing stronger and we are growing weaker.'

'What do want me to do?'

'I'm not sure Morgan,' Andrew said. 'I levelled with you and now that you know what I'm busy with, I think you can use your own discretion. There will be killings involved but it will not be in vain and victims will not be innocent. That I promise you. As I said, I'm not forcing you to make the wrong choices or go against your beliefs, just do what your heart tells you to do.'

Morgan regarded Andrew for a moment and nodded, 'I'll see what I can do.' He got up from the bed and looked into Andrew's eyes. 'I know one thing though, you cannot fight these people alone.'

Andrew nodded, 'I'll go get your gun.'