Recruitment

“You have nothing, everything is gone… and you are justified in leaving it all behind you.”  The voice spoke softly.

“I haven’t left anything?”  The man replied as he checked his phone for a small signal verifying activity

The voice was silent.

The man slowly walked as he stuck his phone in his pants pocket.  He struggled to remember the events from the night before and gave up when only the same tiny bits and pieces kept running through his mind playing like a broken record.

It had started raining outside and the man cursed as he realized he had forgotten his jacket.  The day was forecast to be bright and beautiful.  He scoffed as he thought about the weather center on the weather channel.  All this new technology and they still can’t make a fucking decent forecast.  May as well give a fortune teller a buck or two for a half assed prediction it might work out better.

Dark clouds hung over head and a cold chill ran up the man’s spine and down the length of his body.  It was odd that it was the middle of July and it would turn so cold so suddenly.  Then again it was Seattle, but still.  He paused for just a quick second to light up a cigarette while under an overhang the man took in a long drag and blew it out slowly he continued to walk up the sidewalk toward his home. 

A burnt out neon sign sparked with a small trace of luminescence and then died again.  That small glimmer of light caught the man’s attention.  He turned as he heard a light clanking behind him.  Sure that it was someone trying to pass he moved over but the clanking continued steadily behind him.  He stopped and the sound stopped.  He gazed down at his watch 6:20 in the afternoon it read.  He continued on his way and no sooner did he take a step than did the person behind him.  Soon the steps behind him grew a little closer.  He wondered what would make such an odd clanking noise.  What shoe would do that?  A tap dance shoe perhaps even a combat boot maybe?  He tried to recollect what sound those shoes made.  Looking down he saw his sneakers and decided that he had no clue what a tap dancing shoe would sound like.

Still, the clanking grew a little louder as it grew closer.  Deciding that he could not take it anymore he spun on his heel to confront his stalker only to meet dead air give for the rain that poured down.  The man took another drag of his cigarette and tossed the remnants to the ground.  His long black hair was soaked as was the rest of him.  Running his hands through his hair he looked around to see if there was anywhere for a place to hide.  His eyes found an empty parking lot to a building long been demolished.  Other than that there was empty land from all angles.  He looked back down at his sneakers and realized that the pavement he had been walking on had turned to a dirt road which means he must have taken a wrong turn somewhere.

Of course then it dawned on him that shoes would not make a clanking sound on dirt.  For that matter he hadn’t even taken any wrong turns anywhere.  He had never turned.  The road from his shop to his home is a straight one and he scratched his head as he tried to remember if he had turned.  He looked around and realized that nothing looked familiar.  There are no dirt roads in the suburbs where he has spent his whole life growing up in.  He turned around and resumed walking.  Perhaps he could stop at that little hole in the wall bar and find use their phone.

No sooner had he started walking then he heard an all familiar clanking noise.  He stopped and it stopped he moved and the noise continued.  He spun back around and met cold emerald eyes looking up at him.  He gasped stumbled backward and fell as he lost his footing.  The source of the clanking let out a giggle.

“Wha... Wha..?”  The man stammered and he attempted to back up further scooting himself on the ground.  His ass had fallen on a great deal of his hair and scooting back pulled his head back painfully. 

He examined the person before him.  Shoulder length black hair as thick and brilliant as his but not nearly as long, a soft face that came to a delicate rounded point at the chin.  She had high cheek bones and he wondered for a moment about her place of origin.  Her body was dressed in lose fitting full length dress type wrap which was black and trimmed in silver.  On her feet were silver slippers trimmed in black.  She was petite, breath taking, and smiling like an imp.

The woman moved toward him and her shoes hit against each other making a clanking sound.  She bent down offering him a hand up.  “You have finally come.”  She smiled as he lifted himself off of the ground.

He looked confused “Do I know you?”

“My name is Gilda”.  She said “You do not know me but I know you.”

“How do you know me?  Where am I?”  The man asked as Gilda took his hand and proceeded to walk

She giggled slyly. “You left finally.  After all these years you finally left and I am so proud of you for it.” She looked directly into his eyes and her smile vanished. “I just know you Theus”.

Theus focused on the road trying to remember what he left, what she was talking about.  He wasn’t quite getting the jist of the whole conversation if there was one anyway.  He glanced up and noticed that neon sign again.  Theus looked at his watch and was stunned to see that 5 hours had passed even though he could have sworn he had just looked at his watch just moments before.  He sighed heavily as the clanking from Gilda’s shoes seemed to intensify.  Scratching his head in aggravation he pulled his hand out of the woman’s hand.  His wife would surely kill him for being out this late and with an attractive woman to boot.  He looked around as Gilda slipped off into the bar and steadily he followed in after her.

The place was dead give for two people sitting at a far corner table.  The solemn looks on their face were fixed on him.  An eerie sadness permeated the entire room.  Gilda had skipped toward the pair and as she approached they winced and retracted as though she was made of flame and her nearness scorched them.  Theus sat in chair far from the stares of the other two and away from Gilda.  He grabbed the glass from in front of him and poured the contents of a decanter from the table at his side.  He smelled the drink and his memory was taken back.

“Do you still love me”? His wife had cried as he sat on his sofa trying his best to watch television.  She had screamed through their one bedroom apartment letting all the neighbors hear her hysterics.

He had grunted and tried blowing her off but her insistent behavior had seriously tugged on the last piece of restraint he had.  Theus had turned his head to face her as she sat behind the sofa cowering like some rabbit looking to get slain.  He glanced down at her and smiled deviously.  “What is there to love”?  He asked. “I see nothing”.  With that he turned back toward the television.

She seemed to melt into the floor and such a terrible groan had escaped her lips.  Her heart had shattered again and she crawled toward the bathroom. 

Theus got up from the sofa.  He went into the bedroom to grab his shoes and put them on.  Sitting on the bed he looked around at the room he absolutely hated the décor that his wife Sheila had picked out.  He got up and felt a hand on his ankle.  Looking down he saw Sheila begging at his feet to stay.  “Stop being so pathetic.”  He had said as he shook her off with his foot.  She cowered backward curled in a fetal ball on the floor.  On his way out the door he gazed back a slight twinge of pity tweaking in his brain.  “I have to go to work”. He said flatly.

Theus downed the rest of the drink in his glass and poured some more.  He was going to have to call home to find out exactly where he was and that was something he was not looking forward to doing.  Just the sound of that woman’s voice was enough to send him spiraling into an eternal state of annoyance.  He threw back the glass of fluid and made his way to the bar. 

Gilda walked up beside Theus and pulled his hand to hers.  He quickly jerked it away.  She giggled again and slid off with her voice trailing behind her. “There are no phones here Theus.”  Her giggles turned into a series of sinister laughs and for the first time Theus was afraid for his situation.

Theus lifted his head up and searched the room again and noticed the two people that were there before were now gone.  Turning around he started off down the hallway following Gilda.  A great amount of apprehension filled him as he searched empty rooms for her.  It was as if she vanished.  He had reached the end of the hallway and a big flashing EXIT sign met his gaze and below it was obviously the back door.  He pushed it open and it slowly creaked as the bar seemed to give despite an overabundance of rust. 

It was snowing out and Theus let out a heavy curse.  First cold and then snow was getting a bit too much for him to handle.  His tall and sturdy physique shivered as the snowflakes hit is exposed shoulders and caused his light tank top to become saturated with wetness even after only moments.  The blood rushed out of his face and left him with a pale complexion as he stared in terror at the sight before him.  On the ground were what appeared to be the two people in the bar earlier.  Blood covered the snow encrusted ground in torrents.  Theus staggered backward trying to feel for the door.  Nothing met his touch and when he turned around the bar was gone, vanished.  There were only empty plains before him blanketed in thick snow.  He turned his head back toward the corpses and panicked as they too were gone. He let out a howl as his head dropped into his hands.  Opening his eyes he stared into his palms which were filled with blood.  His howls turned into a silent scream as he is saw droplets fall.  He touched his fingers to his eye lids and to the corners.  When he looked at his fingertips they were strained in bright new blood.  He closed his eyes and screamed again.

            “Really now?  What in the world is wrong with you?”  Asked an all too familiar giggling voice

            Theus turned around and was once again standing by the back door of the bar.  A skinny teenager brushed by him mumbling some apology and dumped a bag of trash into a nearby dumpster.  Theus blinked hard trying to understand the situation but try as he might he could not.  He looked around and noticed all the snow was gone and the weather outside was warm.  He turned toward Gilda who was motioning for him to come inside.

            “I would like to dance.”  Gilda playfully stated as she stared at Theus waiting for him to respond.

            “What is going on here?”  Theus charged “What the fuck is going on?” He was getting more frustrated

Gilda’s green eyes sparkled brightly in the moonlight and her hair glistened.  Her smile was entirely enchanting.  Had Theus not spent so long despising the entire female race he might have actually found her appealing?  That was a long time ago and before his nightmare of a marriage had taken its toll on him along with his and his wife’s crazy as hell mothers and sisters.  When he looked at Gilda all he could see was the ways she would lie to him, deceive him, trick him, use him, and inevitably cause him more misery.  Giggly voice and sparkling eyes aside, fuck women.

“They have a phone.  You said you needed one.”  Gilda winked at him as she turned to go back inside the bar. 

Theus followed her.  He needed the phone so he could call his wife for an idea as to where exactly he was at.  How exactly he had gotten so lost was beyond him and this part of town was new to him even though he had lived in it his entire life.  This was definitely not a part of his suburb.  How far did he walk?

Theus reached the bar and ran his hands though his long black hair.  “What is the name of this place and may I please use you telephone?”  He asked the bartender

The bartender handed a gentleman a pint of beer and picked up the phone and handed it to Theus.  “Jerry’s Tavern.” The bartender replied

Theus nodded and dialed his home number.  It rang twice and a woman picked up.  She was out of breath and her voice barely audible.  “Hello”. Theus spoke quickly into the phone hoping to get the conversation over with.  Listening to his wife bawling her eyes out was something he was not in any kind of mood for.

The voice on the other end was shaky and low.  “Hello?” She replied “Who is this?” She added

“Sheila.” Theus said sharply.  “This is no time for your ignorance.  I need you to get online and find out where Jerry’s Tavern is located and tell me the quickest route to the house.  Be quick about it.” Theus had always had a niche for getting to the point and not leaving space for pointless conversation.  Sheila liked to babble about everything and none of it ever had any substance.  Even when he first met her she would babble continuously about absolute dribble.  He found himself wondering why he had settled for something at such a young age.  He just kept telling himself it was because of his need for someone to take care of his personal life which he had neither time nor patience to do.  If she was one thing Sheila was good at taking care of house and performing trivial tasks that would bore the hell out of any normal person.  She didn’t complain about it either.  In other areas of life she was boring and aging was not doing her any favors.  He compared her once to a bottle of wine that was subjected to a small air leak during bottling and was aging as vinegar instead of wine.  A friend of his had laughed hysterically at that comparison but Theus had not meant it as humor.  After all he was married to her.  There was nothing funny about that.

“Who are you?  Why are you doing this to me?  Leave me alone?”  Sheila was getting into hysterics on the other end of the phone.  She began crying inconsolably. 

The line went dead and Theus just stood there holding the receiver.  “Bitch!” The only word he could manage to say.  He handed the phone to the bartender.

“Do what you need to get done?” the bartender asked

Theus shook his head “Uh... yeah.” He sucked in a deep breath and let it out and leaned over the bar trying to get his bearings a little better.

Two hands moved up his back onto his shoulders.  He twirled around and saw a tall blonde woman staring straight at him.  She was nearly as tall as he.  The woman smiled warmly at him. 

“Buy a girl a drink?” She cooed moving her hands down his bare muscled arms. Slowly, sensually she slid her hands down until her fingertips touched his own.

He turned around toward the bartender and he was gone.  Theus turned around to the woman who had also disappeared along with the rest of the crowd in the bar.  He saw Gilda sitting at a table with another woman.  His eyes were transfixed to the other woman.  She looked almost just like Gilda but she was more mature with the body of woman instead of that of a girl as Gilda was.  The woman stared at Theus.

“Are you sure?” Gilda asked the woman

“Darling I am.  He has what I need.  He has the gift of sight.  We need him.  You can’t kill him.”  The woman said.  She smiled at Gilda “At least not yet”. 

Gilda looked impish and entirely evil for a split second.  She looked at Theus who looked completely beside himself with confusion.  “He looks lost mother.” 

The woman took in a heavy breath.  She stood up and walked toward Theus who still stood semi-entranced.  She smirked and rolled her eyes as she made her way to Theus.  She held out her hand toward him palm down. 

Theus reached out to take shake her hand and the woman quickly retracted it as if in disgust.  Her hair was as long as his and a deep black/blue that shone vibrantly it was thick and full of curls that framed her face.  Her neck was long and she kept a wide chocker around it.  She wore a billowing black blouse that hung off her shoulders and a pair of jeans that hugged her hips beautifully.  She smelled of the night and of the flowers that bloom under the moonlight.  Intoxicating and he could feel himself be drawn in. 

The woman reached out and took his wrist in hers and powerful images flashed through his mind.  Images of worlds, of places long dead to man, and of rituals of magic long forgotten.  He screamed out as his brain felt like it was about to explode.  Visions of the woman and of a man murdering, torturing, and ransacking place after place filled his mind.  Blood and death and a vision of a world, Earth, barren, a wasteland with massive gates surrounding a palace as big as a city lush, living, and vibrant inside.  He blinked and the headache was gone.  He turned his head and vomited everything that was in his stomach.

“I am going to give you a choice.  You can take my way or I promise you will die a most agonizing death.”  The woman pulled her hand away from his again and shook her hair out of her face. 

“Huh?”  Theus looked confused

The woman rolled her eyes “Well aren’t you the quick one?” She mocked.  The woman walked to his side and just stood there.  “You have a … gift as it were and I need to make use of that gift.

Theus looked at the woman unable to help himself from staring down into her cleavage.  “What gift?”

The woman smiled at him and her eyes gleamed.  “You have a gift of sight.  I am looking for certain objects that will help me and my… uhh... husband in our endeavors and it seems you are one of the only people around who can help me find them.” She elbowed Theus lightly in the side.

“What makes you think I would help you?  I saw those visions.  You are a monster.” He retaliated more calmly then he had ever since this creep show started.  His eyes averted back toward Gilda who was amusing herself with her necklace.

The woman smiled.  “Because I know a secret about you Theus.  A deep dark secret you don’t want anyone to know.” She moved her face closer to his and her lips touched his ever so gently.

Theus could smell honey on her breath and apples on her lips.  He licked his lips and in so doing tasted hers as well.  Her taste shot though him like a thunderbolt and he swallowed a lump building in his throat.  He gasped as her hands slid down the front of his pants just out of reach from a cock long since dead but twitching with new life.  He could hear his heartbeat in his ears its crescendo increasing with every beat with every breath this woman made.  Every inch her hands slid down into his pants.  His heart beat faster and faster and as his quickened he could feel hers quicken too. 

A hand pulled her away from him and grabbed him roughly by his neck lifting him into the air.  Theus’s eyes met those of a fierce predator, protectant over its mate.  Theus could see his world turning black.  Just before he blacked out entirely he was hurled to the ground.  He gasped for air and Gilda ran to him.  She giggled as he lay there.  She squeezed his cheeks and kissed him too but much more of a child like peck than anything else.  She began to undo his pants but the woman had stopped her.

“Gilda. No.”  The woman said sharply.

Gilda looked cross for a split second and then resumed her cheerful demeanor “I just wanted to see it.”

“See what you’re teaching her.” The man accused

The woman cocked an eyebrow at him.  “She was curious she is at that age you know.”  She shrugged and turned away.

He turned her back around to face him.  The man kissed her fully on the mouth and trailed kisses down her neck nipping her along the way drawing droplets of blood into his mouth as he did.  He smelled deeply of her and lightly brushed her shoulder with his fingertips.  “Oh Cathlina I have missed you.”  He kissed her again and turned toward Theus who had managed to make it up on his knees.

He thundered toward Theus and lifted him up to his feet by his neck.  Gilda stood with him a big smile across her face.

“Are you going to kill him daddy?”  She sounded overly excited.  She loved it when she got to see her parents kill.  Her life had been one of training and learning.  Learning how to best get information, how to best kill, how to torture, and so much more.  She remembered when she was a very little girl.  How her mother had taken her out into the woods with Gilda’s best friend.  Her mother had told her that she was special but in order to be special she would have to open up who she was.  Gilda’s first kill would do that.  That first time she would taste the blood of a pure thing she would be able to be like her mother.  Still, as a young girl she didn’t quite understand.  So her mother had bit into the other child’s leg only shallowly though so that the child could run away.  Gilda remembered that smell and how it drew her to it.  She had ran after her friend finding her by the smell of her life force, her beating heart, her blood pumping and spilling.  Gilda was too sloppy that first time and had gutted her friend sucking the blood from her entrails and biting into the heart itself to get everything she could.  She was sloppy, it was sloppy.  She had seen how proud her mother was of her though and she knew that she would get to be like her someday.

“No”.  The man replied.  “I am not going to kill him. Though I should.”  He growled low in his throat. 

“Giuseppe...” Cathlina began

The man looked at Cathlina and smiled. “Of course I am not going to.  I know his value.”  He looked back at Theus “For now anyway.  Although I have been known to be unreasonable at times.” He smiled wickedly at Theus.

Cathlina walked up next to Theus and touched his shoulder.  She moved to his ear and whispered into it.  “You are a murderer Theus.  You’ve been discovered.  I am keeping you hidden.  If you do not do as I say I will deliver you to those who seek their own type of justice.”

“I haven’t murdered anyone.” Theus retorted

Cathlina nodded “You have Theus, many people. You weren’t really yourself when you did.  Still, you did.”  She tightened her grip on his shoulder and he could feel something wet trail down his back.  It was wet and warm and he saw Gilda move toward his back.  Cathlina moved away and nodded at Gilda.

Gilda lifted up his shirt and licked the blood from the wound her mother had made and then becoming overwhelmed she bit deeply into Theus’s back drawing more blood.  Giuseppe pulled Gilda by the hand away from Theus. 

“Don’t do that again.  You have no idea where he has been.” He said crossly

“It was good blood father. Not bad.”  She replied

Giuseppe just looked down at Gilda disapprovingly but Gilda was too cold to care for very long and began her giggling and went off to play.

Theus moaned from the two wounds on him.  “What the fuck are you?”

Cathlina placed one hand on each of Theus’s wounds and they began to heal.  “Shut up you sniveling baby.  Act like a bite is going to kill you already!”  With that she moved back to the front of him and pushed him back onto a seat with her foot.

“Here is the deal.” She said pointedly “You are a murderer whether you actually did it or not is beside the point.  The police have a video of you murdering a young girl and raping the corpse.”  Cathlina giggled herself on that one.

Giuseppe snickered a little as well.  “You did well with that one.  Do you remember their faces when they saw that?” 

Cathlina smirked “I do.”  She looked back at Theus entirely serious again.  “Back to the point.  You’ve been discovered with a little undercover help.  So, you can help us or you can die. Take your pick but choose now because I am very busy.”

Theus looked down at the ground.  Completely resigned and not wanting to die “What is it that you need?”  He felt broken but the hold Cathlina had on him was far more than he ever experienced and so with that alone how could he resist.  She had given him in only one moment what he lacked his entire life.  He looked up at Cathlina and smiled a solemn smile.

Cathlina smiled back and positioned a chair in front of him.  “There are amulets in this universe.  Amulets that belong to Gods.  There is one pantheon per world and some worlds contain information to other pantheons, other Gods.  They are numerous.  Still, they are relatively easy to access if one just knows where to look.  You, my sweet Theus are a navigational beacon to these amulets.  You carry the visions of worlds within you.  I have not been able to find anyone else like you that are living except a few small children.  Children however have proven not to be able to live long enough to help the way we need.”  With that Cathlina looked at Giuseppe who smiled slyly at her. 

Cathlina took a breath.  “Plus we have an overzealous reanimated priest gone wayward trying to track us.  We are going to need you as well to help us throw him off from time to time.”

Theus stood up and looked down at Cathlina who was still looking lustily at her husband.  “How do I do what you want?”  A hint of jealousy seeping out

Giuseppe bent down and kissed Cathlina again pulling her out of her chair and pressing her body into his.  He looked over at Theus and grinned.  “We will be in touch.  Now go home.” He ordered.

Theus began making his way out of the bar with the vision of Giuseppe bending Cathlina over a pool table.  Theus’s dissatisfaction showed heavily on his face as he made his way onto the street.  He turned around and the bar was gone.  He closed his eyes for a moment and opened them again and the vision of his street was still the one he saw.  Theus began to walk forward and soon he heard an all too familiar clanking noise.  The noise reminded him that he had not been dreaming.  He turned around and Gilda stood behind him.  She smiled with a sinister cheerfulness.

“Go home.” He said “I am not in the mood.”

Gilda walked closely beside him.  “Oh I can’t do that now.”  She grabbed his shoulder and he felt a slight stabbing pain “I have to make sure you don’t do anything stupid.”  She giggled again.  “Besides, you taste good and I may fancy me a snack every once in a while.  I am sure you won’t mind.”

Theus grimaced as he thought about having a constant tag along.  He wondered what his wife would say or what she would think.  Then there was always the possibility Gilda could eat her.  Not a trace left.  If he was a murderer being hunted then perhaps he could kill Sheila himself and make the hunt legitimate.  So many options. 

Gilda stopped and looked down at the ground.  Theus looked back entirely confused. 

“What is wrong?  My home is this way.  Let’s go.  I am hungry.” Theus stated

Gilda just stood there looking solemn and in thought.  She then pepped back up and began walking again.  Her shoes clanked as she walked up beside Theus.  “I still want to see it.” She said

Theus rolled his eyes. “No.”

“But I want to.” Gilda reiterated

“You are not going to see it.” Theus expanding on his original statement

“I want to.” Gilda repeated

Theus kept walking “Not in this life girl.”

“Fine.  Probably not worth looking at anyway.” Gilda started thundering her clanking shoes next to him

“Probably not.”