Read Online The Black Tattoo by Sam Enthoven - Free Book Online Page B

certainly wasn't going to do it for him.   Not if it meant risking looking like any more of a spare part than he did already in front of Raymond and (especially) Esme.
    Everyone was looking at him, and he could feel his face going red.   Jack took a deep breath and said:   "Um... what does the demon want?"
    Charlie made a snorting sound in his nose.
    "Actually," said Esme, "that's a good question."
    "There's a place," said Raymond, "not far from here.   We call it the Fracture."
    "It's a weak spot in the fabric of reality," said Esme.   "A magical gateway:   a door.   The Scourge wants to open the Fracture and escape back to where it came from."
    "And where's that? asked Charlie, with a skeptical expression — and to be fair, even Jack wasn't sure how much more of this stuff he could take.
    Esme and Raymond looked at each other.
    "The Brotherhood's earliest accounts speak of the Scourge as having come from a 'dark place,'" said Raymond.   "An ancient place:   a dimension of chaos and violence.   This place, apparently, is where our universe began and it's where — the record says — it will end.   The last time we fought, the Scourge spoke of the place by name.
    "What place?" asked Charlie, becoming exasperated.   "What are you talking about? What name?"
    Raymond looked at him.   "Hell," he replied.
    For a long moment, there was silence.
    "When you say 'Hell,'" said Charlie slowly, "you don't mean the real thing:   fire and brimstone, eternal torment and damnation, that sort of hell.   Hell ... do you?"
    "That's the one," said Esme dryly.
    " Cool ," said Charlie.
    Esme blinked.
    "What happens if the Scourge goes back to Hell?" asked Jack.
    "It could form an army of demons and invade the Earth," Esme put in.   "That's what we've always thought — right?"
    "We don't know for certain what the Scourge's intentions are," said Raymond, acknowledging her   with a nod.   "But if it's been imprisoned here all this time just to keep it away from Hell, well, you can bet whatever it want to do can't be good."
    Jack frowned again.
    "But... Hell!" said Charlie.   "Has anyone been there?   I mean," he grinned, "what's the place look like?"
    "I'm sorry?" asked Esme.
    "This gateway," said Charlie impatiently.   "Has anyone ever opened it and, you know, had a peek?"
    "Listen, son," said Raymond, "maybe you don't understand—"
    "We think only the Scourge has the power to open the Fracture," Esme explained.
    "But even if anyone else could open it," said Raymond, his voice getting louder, "do you seriously think they would? "   This is Hell we're talking about!   If the Fracture were to be opened... why, who knows what might happen?"
    "Not you ," snapped Charlie with sudden venom.   "That's for sure."   He looked at Raymond and shook his head in disbelief.   "I can't believe you people!' he said.   "Do you really mean to tell me that you've taken all this stuff, all this weirdness, on trust , without asking any of these questions before?"
    "Yes," said Raymond flatly.   "We trusted Nick completely."
    "But now Nick's dead.   And you , it seems, don't have the first clue about what's really going on!"
    Jack was staring at Charlie now.   Tact had never been Charlie's strongest point, but the way he was acting was getting weirder and weirder.   How did he manage to be so certain all the time?   Where was all this confidence coming from?
    "Where is it?" Charlie was asking.   "This... 'Fracture.'   I mean."
    There was a pause.   Esme and Raymond exchanged another look.
    Raymond grimaced, then shrugged.   "It's... a pub," he admitted.
    Both Jack and Charlie gaped at him.
    "But it's no kind of pub I'd be seen in, that's for sure," Raymond added quickly.   "The Light of The Moon, they call it now.   It's all chrome and steel and stripped pine floorboards, and about as much atmosphere as the real bloody moon."   He shuddered.   "Horrible."
    "A pub," said Charlie.
    "Yes."
    "The gateway to Hell is in a London pub,"