Part XLII

Part XLII

I opened my ad hoc apothecary cabinet in the van and started whipping a little something special together. It'd just come to me out of the blue. As I ran my fingers down the labels I realized that in fact it had not come to me in this way really. It was grandfather Lee whispering secrets into my cerebral cortex. Tricky old bastard. It took about twenty minutes to pour, smash, crush and combine everything in the little pestle. When I was done, I poured it in a mojo bag and cinched it tight.

Back at the falls, I used it like a tea bag and chucked it out into the reservoir at the fall's base. Then I waited. I stood at the edge of the water and watched the run of the water slow. I then watched it gel, and finally after about an hour, it had hardened, all the way up to the top.

I took a tentative step out and felt the water beneath my shoe. It was the consistency of hard rubber tiling, or the stuff they use to make indoor running tracks out of. It'd have to do. Leaving the land, I walked on the water right to the base of the falls, which looked now like some bizarre modern sculpture made of frosted latex. Reaching out my hand, I mumbled under my breath and watched the symbol on my hand, the one I'd picked up in San Francisco etch itself into the gelatinous spray of the falls. It glowed for a second and then winked like a flash bulb. The falls began to quiver as the nullifying force of the mark skittered up like lightning through Jell-o.

Then I turned and ran as the water began to turn liquid again. I could feel the spray of the falls on the back of my neck as the once hard rubber pool became more akin to an under-filled water-bed. I almost made it too. Five feet from shore, the water became water again and I took a very cold bath.

On the shore, I started to shake. I hadn't been in long enough, nor was the water cold enough for hypothermia to set in, but it was damn cold. I mumbled under my breath and the water evaporated into a cloud of steam that both warmed me up and dried me off. I then sat down and waited. An hour passed before I heard it, the sound of a rock, or something like it, falling into the water from what I guessed was at least half way up the falls. Then I saw it, floating toward me. The reliquary, bobbing with the current as it floated through the spray.

I wasn't going to wait any longer so I waded back out into the water, feeling my balls scream and run for cover as I swam out into the clear pool to intercept the reliquary. It was a bottle. More specifically it was a wine bottle. The label was mostly worn away, but I could make the date on it as 1876. Back on shore I held it up and peered inside. There in the bottle, just like in an old story, was a note.

I climbed in the van, and pulled the door to. I flipped on the ceiling light and gave the bottle the once over. The cork in top was sealed over with wax, with a pull string sealed in it. The Old Man didn't seem to care, so I took that as a good sign. He had a nose for trouble and magic. I pulled the string and removed the wax seal. I turned the bottle up and the note slipped right out. I put the bottle on the floor and untied the string on the note. I opened it facing down just in case what was written on it decided to jump out and bite me. That wasn’t entirely a joke. I'd once been witness to someone opening a book that caused his face to melt. Luckily he hadn't dripped on the book. I'd needed what was in it.

Holding the note face down I mumbled under my breath and then blew on the back of the note. The paper went slightly transparent, but the ink didn't. It looks liked someone had used a nice fountain pen and had excellent penmanship. I turned the note over and read it.

It had been written in 1879, by someone named Joseph Stanton. It was written to me. I didn't like that. I didn't like to think something had been in motion long before I or my uncle had been born, something that culminated in him losing his soul and my trying to find it. I didn't like that fact that The Tall Man thought this was just a big game. More importantly, I didn't like what it told me I had to do.

It told me I had to kill Destiny before I would be allowed to continue. It wasn't a reliquary at all. The Tall Man had set rules that I didn't know about. I hate when people don't tell me all the rules at the start. Actually, what it said was:

All of the pieces of the puzzle must be assembled in turn. If you have found this then you have looked Destiny in the eye and have walked away without addressing what you have seen. No man can walk away from their destiny. That includes you Aubrey.

I opened my phone and started to dial. It rang before I finished.

Destiny?

I told you. Men never listen.

I'm headed back your way.

I'll be here.

I really wish you wouldn't.

You don't have a choice, and neither do I.

I hung up the phone, got into the driver's seat and started the old girl up. I pulled out of the lot and headed back through Portland.

I was angry as Portland slid past and beat myself over the head for wasting the three days I had drinking myself blind. I had until I got to Venice to figure out how I was going to save Destiny. I already knew how I was going to kill her.