Blue Flame, Book Three, "ASHES:" Part Five
Part V: The Bringer
“They used to call it The Devil’s Tower, back in old times.” Roy said walking next to Shuffle and staring into the sky. The sun glistening off his face. “I guess we still refer to it as that, ‘cept nobody likes to say it. Nobody likes coming here. Folks say it’s haunted. Freaks everyone out looking like it does, so unnatural. An ungodly pillar. It’s just sticking out of the ground like that.” He points up at the massive stone slab erupting from the Earth. “Looks like an altar from hell.”
“You may not be too far from the truth, Roy.” Shuffle says, looking up. “Not far from the truth at all.”
The explosives hardly cracked the exterior surface of the earthen tower. When they ran out, the twelve men and Roy began breaking stone by hand and hammer, digging, and hauling rock out the sliver shaped entrance. Shuffle produced more gunpowder. One of the twelve boys lost an arm in an explosion. Another was buried alive.
Shuffle took up residency at the Sheriff’s office. Days became weeks. Weeks became months. Time blurred on. The earth cracked open and night bled out.
Nights in the desert can be the darkest hours.
Days in the desert can be the brightest.
Both times are equally blinding.
Dogan hooved and kicked in the dry dirt outside the Sheriff’s office, his tail swatting back and forth to keep cool. Even in shade, the heat found a way to creep its unwelcome fingers into the flesh and suck moisture like an invisible leech. A geyser of dark yellow urine shot out from beneath the horse, causing Roy to leap out of the way.
Half out of breath, he had run all the way into town.
“We found it!”
His face was covered in ash and dirt. Sheriff Shuffle looked up from his desk, neatly dressed in a white collared shirt. Calmly he set down a thick red, leather bound book with a black square cross emblem embedded on the cover. A wide smile wrinkled the corners of his eyes.
“About time.”
Roy leads Shuffle with a torch through the darkness. The cold narrow tunnel winds through the earth. They both are in an abnormal hurry; their boots pattering against damp stone floor. The tunnel ran a few hundred feet until opening into a wide chamber room with unearthly carvings: spiraling formations from floor to ceiling, and geometric patterns etched across the walls.
A faint blue light glowed from deep in the belly of the opening. The remaining boys—only ten now—stand staring down at the blue light. Their faces are covered in dirt, their hands are bandaged, their clothes ripped.
Shuffle walks past them to the edge. Roy approaches beside him.
“You are the Bringer,” Roy said. “I understand that now. It is so beautiful. I never would have imagined. You are the Bringer.”
There it was, what Alex Shuffle had searched for, had killed for. Burning endlessly for eons at the bottom of the desolate space. The Blue Flame loomed, ethereal. A source of light floating over an opening. A dark pool in a well. Black liquid rippling in colorless waves and reflecting no light. A sea of magnificent darkness. It mesmerized his thoughts.
Shuffle was not expecting this. He knew nothing of it. The individual from whom he had received the map never mentioned anything other than the ancient magic relic and its intrinsic value. Shuffle has buyers waiting. Shuffle stood in awe and felt good.
He descends the stairs lining the exterior of the cavity. Blue light illuminates the walls, casting dark shadows across the sharp features of his face. The room feels like a tomb. At the bottom, Shuffle approaches the crystalline flame with widening eyes. Eagerness leads to foolishness.
“What splendor we have.” He says, unable to stop himself from reaching down and touching the surface of the liquid. It didn’t move. His hand hit solid form. The vibration shocks and repels him. The surface moves in a breezeless space, breathing on its own accord. “What is this?” Shuffle looked at the palm of his hand, dried, white, and cracking.
He looks into the flame. Some sort of circular amulet hovers at the center. This is the object he needs. Reaching his hand into the blue glow, he feels it, solid and cold. He grips it, to pull it free. His body feels on fire. Lightning surges through his veins and heart. He is unable to scream—or move. The amulet snaps in his palm and he hears an escalating, high pitched frequency. Colors form sharp angular patterns inside his mind. Electric heat burns as visions of things beyond this world fill him, piercing like a dagger, cradling like a mother, hungry like a killer. His eyes turn white, and his skin begins to crack and boil.
Unable to let go, the flame began to consume him.
He saw the vastness.
The vision of the eternal void feels delicious. Like razor sharp metallic desire burning in the center of his skull, to open up, and bleed out all his thoughts. The bliss of non-existence. He smiles, engulfed in flames, burning alive.
And begins to laugh.
Thanks for the Visit
If you aren't caught up, don't worry, each book stands alone as a piece in the longer narrative.
Here's the rest of the story to enjoy:
Book One:
Part One: https://steemit.com/writing/@ghostfish/blue-flame-book-one-part-one
Part Two: https://steemit.com/writing/@ghostfish/blue-flame-book-one-part-two
Part Three: https://steemit.com/writing/@ghostfish/blue-flame-book-one-part-three
Part Four: https://steemit.com/writing/@ghostfish/blue-flame-book-one-part-four
Book Two:
Part One: https://steemit.com/writing/@ghostfish/blue-flame-ii-extinguish-pt-1
Part Two: https://steemit.com/writing/@ghostfish/blue-flame-ii-extinguish-pt2
Part Three: https://steemit.com/writing/@ghostfish/blue-flame-ii-extinguish-pt-3
Book Three:
Part One: https://steemit.com/story/@ghostfish/blue-flame-book-three-ashes-part-one
Part Two: https://steemit.com/story/@ghostfish/blue-flame-book-three-ashes-part-two
Part Three & Four: https://steemit.com/story/@ghostfish/blue-flame-book-three-ashes-part-three
It's been a long time coming, couple-few-three years, mostly I've been waiting for the illustrator to finish, 'cough' start the drawings for this third and final chapter of the Blue Flame. I'm sick of waiting, felt it was time to share the final chapter of the Blue Flame Saga.
Written by Charles Denton
Cover Illustration by Joe Lipscomb
Copright 2018 Dim Media