Part II:
A voice from under the glass said:
"Liber Samuhelis II:
Et extimuit David Dominum in die illa, dicens : Quomodo ingredietur ad me arca Domini?"
+++++
Wednesday
That morning's breakfast was prepared by Agatha and Helga for the sheriff, stopping by for a quick cup of coffee and a pretzel to close the missing persons case.
"Where exactly did you go, ma'am, before Siegfried found you out in the woods?"
Agatha sipped her coffee and smiled. "It's a bit of a blur."
"What's the last thing you remember?"
"We were watching the Bing Crosby picture."
"Any idea how you ended out in the woods?"
"Yes. It was the girl, the blonde girl in a green dress. I saw her in our living room. She held my hand and then we said the Angelus together."
Otto cleared his throat.
"May I back my mother up on this matter. I've seen our little house guests before as well. Some are friendly, some less so."
"House guests?" repeated Sheriff Brunswick,"You're talking about spooks, right?"
"This lady was no spook!" said Agatha defensively.
"I see. Dankie Sheen, Mrs. Creutzburg."
"Call me Oma, Sheriff."
"Oma," said the Sheriff tipping the wide brim of his hat,"and you, Siegfried, how did you come across Oma in the woods?"
"Honestly, Sheriff," said Siegfried,"I don't remember much other than seeing my dog run out into the woods and then...I saw Agatha with her prayer beads...there
was singing and a brilliant golden light. I also saw that lady in green as she mentioned.I thought it was a dream."
"A dream, huh...Did you happen to see any of these house guests, Miss Creutzburg?" said the Sheriff to Helga.
"No," said Helga.
"And Siegfried? How did he end up outdoors?"
Helga sighed. "One moment he was next to me watching a movie and then; gone."
"Gone, vanished, a result of these guests perhaps, Mr. Creutzburg?"
Otto shook his head. "You don't believe, Sheriff?"
Brunswick dotting one last iota in his notepad said, "Thank you for the coffee and the pretzel, folks."
Before pushing open the door, he stopped and said, "you all might want Father Lillis to take a look around the house. He should be more qualified in this preternatural situation than I."
"I've already telephoned Father," said Agatha, "called his office on Monday morning. He ought to return to Black Bear soon. He was just on a trip way out in Ceylon."
"Ceylon?" repeated the Sheriff.
"Have you been, Sheriff Brunswick?" Agatha asked in earnest.
"Can't say I've been far outside the county limits."
"It was beautiful back in the day. We travelled all over the Orient," said Agatha smiling.
"Did you now?" said the Sheriff.
"Yes, my husband once worked with the governor of Hong Kong there before the war," said Agatha.
"Fascinating. Well, don't hesitate to ring if anything else comes creeping from the shadows. Good day."
With that, he tipped his hat and left.
"I'll need to work at the Lodge today," said Siegfried. "Business is bustling for the holidays."
"Absolutely, Siegfried! Thank you for keeping watch with us these past few days," said Agatha her sky blue eyes twinkling.
"Mind if I join him a bit, Uncle Otto?" said Helga. "Just wanna get some fresh air."
"Go," said Otto in a friendly curtness. "Me and Oma will be fine. Don't forget your scary movie either. Might want to watch it outside of the house."
Agatha held on to Siegfried's hand and said,"Could the puppy stay a few days more to keep watch?"
Siegfried smiled. "Anything for you, Oma."
Agatha nodded her head her expression turning more serious.
"If you are in trouble out there, remember this, Siegfried."
"Tell me, Oma."
Into his ear she whispered: "Miserere Mei, Domine."
+++++
Helga and Siegfried took off in Helga's pickup, the radio playing 'Santa Claus is Comin' to Town.'
"I didn't sleep all night,"said Helga,"you vanished, Siegfried."
Siegfried turned down the radio and said,"Maybe everyone dozed off and we were all just sleepwalking the whole night through. The movies hypnotized us or something."
"No. We weren't asleep. I'm sure."
"How can you be so sure, Helga? I think it was all a dream."
"I'm sure it wasn't, Siegfried. Don't you see?!"
"See what?"
"We're haunted. Our family has house guests as Uncle Otto said. Some are friendlier than others but they are haunting us all the same."
"And you wanna watch a horror flick at this hour?" said Siegfried pointing to the VHS tape of 'Dante's Inferno' on Helga's lap.
"Anything to get my mind off these past few days. Remind me, how close is Christmas?"
"Christmas Eve is this Sunday."
"So we have four days still. We can spend some quality time together until my folks come by."
"Your folks?"
"Yeah, Mom and Dad."
"But...I thought your Mom..."
"What?"
"I thought she died, Helga. Years ago."
Helga shook her head irritated. "You're confused...We're not on the best of terms though, but even I wouldn't say she's 'dead to me.'"
"Right...and your dad?"
"Don't you know?...Mom and Dad separated...After the war. He came back home and she..."
Siegfried didn't pursue the subject further.
Helga parked the pick-up against a pine stump.
The two hopped out of the truck and made their way to one of the Lodge's guest rooms marked with an "8" on the door, its bedroom window strung with dull, red Christmas lights.
Across from the Lodge roadside stood a girl with a cigarette pressed between her lips. She watched the couple enter the room combing her cigarette-free fingers through her long black hair. She sighed, shaking her head.
"You should be happy for her, Annie. You don't need him in your life." She flicked the cigarette onto the pavement and trudged back inside the Black Bear Diner.
+++++
Siegfried popped the tape into the VCR and pressed play. Minutes after were the two half-dressed and tangled upon each other, the movie depicting the Tartarean horrors from the mind of Dante Alighieri ignored in the throes of their rising passion.
As if struck by lightning Helga started to her feet.
"I should go...get back to my grandma's."
Siegfried shook his head. "Why?"
"I just need to go, Siegfried."
Going in for a kiss, Helga pulled away from him.
"What is up with you?" said Siegfried scowling.
Helga dressed herself and headed to the door.
"It's been years, Helga... you're still not ready?"
Helga said nothing, standing before the door.
"Yes, we've dated for years, end of high school, now college is nearly finished... but you're not ready," she said dully.
"Not ready for what?"
"You honestly don't know? How many people do we know are married...have a family...And you treat me like..."
"Like what?"
"...Like a whore."
"Helga! come on..."
Siegfried tried to grasp her hand. She pulled away and said, "I need time to think things over." said Helga, tears welling in her eyes."Give me some time."
"See you soon?"
"I'll call you."
Sighing, the blonde maiden left the room, Siegfried plopping half-naked upon the bed.
He felt around for his t-shirt, his wandering eye falling upon the television depicting a great throng of interlocked flesh blown across a red sky like a ribbon thrown to a hurricane.
Presiding over the whirlwind of bodies was a giant of a man, sat on his throne, apparitions of the damned presenting themselves to
his royal decree before being dragged away from his dais by horned beasts.
The dread and hopelessness of the place was unlike anything Siegfried had watched in a film before, so intensely real it felt that he began to push himself up against his bed-frame in fear.
The door opened.
"Helga?"
No answer. The red lights strung from the windowsill died.
"Who's there?"
The red, dark light of the movie enveloped the room.
Half-blind to the visitor coming up to his bed, Siegfried could make out a rough outline of its inhuman shape and stature, eight feet tall at least, hoofs and horns were its
extremities, its limbs long and muscular; its face wore a mask of abyssal dark.
Siegfried was paralyzed, unable to breathe.
The shape reached out its fur covered arm.
Claws drove into Siegfried's flesh pulling him netherward.
He fell into a circle of ten tall hooded figures, their robes wrinkled and incarnadine like drapes of human skin.
One of the circle pointed a gray finger to the numeral VI engraved in the stone tablet held in its hand.
The claws pulled Siegfried further down, pythonic briar thorns wrapping and constricting around his limbs.
Near him was the hellhound Cerberus frantically slobbering its three tongues over the thorny ground.
Under the dog's tricephalous noses it sniffed out a man. He bore Siegfried's likeness but his hair was gray, his body skeleton-thin. He wailed, flailing his single free arm from the thorns.
The doppelganger was flayed by the dog with a gentle nip and pull of his taut skin, undressing him down to his scarlet musculature.
The hound's middle head slurped and swallowed the flayed hide like a noodle, sniffed the ground and readied its colossal jaws for another victim.
"Here! Take it", said one from within the pit,"if you are ready for the second mystery, then take it."
A white candle was held to Siegfried's face by an ancient long bearded man in green robes. In his other hand he held a sickle, the blade gleaming red in the infernal light like the moorish crescent moon, slashing away at the thorns trapping Siegfried.
The old one grabbed Siegfried's hand, pulling him up from the thorns.
"Take it! And don't let its light be extinguished."
Siegfried recognized him as the man in the little hut by the forest, the father of the maiden in the woods.
The hound tilted its left-most head towards Siegfried.
"Take it!" begged the man.
The hellhound pounced.
Siegfried clasped the candle between his palms.
At once, Siegfried was lifted up from the pit. There he witnessed a great mountain of creature, not unlike the golden messenger from the night before, yet clad all black in an ethereal fabric like the night's sky. The black mountain's head turned to him, revealing a skull-like visage.
"Miserere mei, Domine," said Siegfried.
The mountain disappeared.
Siegfried lay on the bed immobile still, his wide unblinking eyes helplessly gawking at the space around him.
Night had fallen; his window curtains were wide open.
The red lights outside the window were burning bright again, the evening's chill wind gently rustling them.
Rolling over on his side, his paralysis receding, his hand fell to the bedside dresser.
Immediately he recoiled in pain, the hair on the back of his hand singed and stinking.
Beside Siegfried's bed burned a little white candle, the very one the old man had given him in the pit.
+++++
Thursday
Siegfried spent the night at the Black Bear Lodge.
The morning after he ate the Lodge's continental breakfast, a glass of orange juice, bratwurst, an omelette and buttered toast.
He lingered in the main lobby chatting with Jackie the front desk worker, checking out a few guests and picking up the phone eagerly.
"You didn't get any calls last night for me, did you?"
"No, Mr. Dornwald. I did not," said Jackie smiling, her braces gleaming in the Christmas lights strung overhead.
Siegfried shrugged. "I'll be out, needa pick up some groceries for the staff fridge."
"Can ya pick me up a bottle of Cactus Cooler?"
"You got it, Jackie."
He drove off in his black pick-up, turning the heat up and tuning into the local AM weather report:
///Expect a dry next couple of days, with a low chance of snow right before Christmas///
"Low chance?" grumbled Siegfried.
He pulled into the local Vons grocery store stocking up on Cactus Cooler and beef jerky, promptly returning to the Lodge with the booty.
Jackie's eyes zeroed in on the orange bottle of Cactus Cooler.
"You're the best, Mr. Dornwald!"
"Siegfried is fine."
"Sure, Boss," said Jackie smirking.
He could feel her breath on his face. He began to pull his own closer to hers before the door's welcome chimes rang out.
Two customers wearing snow clothes fit for an igloo stumbled inside.
"Can you help these two out?" Siegfried said quietly.
"'Course, Boss."
Siegfried headed outside putting on his red leather, black sleeved jacket, his little gold wrist watch gleaming in the noonday sun.
He strode down the road, his fists in his jacket's waist pockets, fighting against the wind whipping him with a near freezing temperature.
Unable to resist the bone-chilling gust, he stopped his course and turned left down the pine laden road, the smell pricking his sinuses.
Before him stood a lone building in the woods, its facade like a ghost town saloon, its front gable strung with multicolored incandescent bulb Christmas lights.
Hung above the front doors was a green neon sign spelling out 'The Crying Cougar' illustrating its namesake with a cartoon cat, its eyes spurting flashing droplets.
Siegfried stepped inside the dimly lit Cougar and scanned the room. There he saw a lady, her hair long and black sitting at the bar, a golden beer bottle in one hand, a cigarette in the other.
Siegfried sat down beside her and before he could say a word she interrupted him, blowing smoke his way.
"Hey, Siggy."
He winced, pawing smoke from his face.
"Annie...what are the odds I see you here?"
"Small town makes for good odds in running into people...but a beer at two o'clock?"
"Sure. Small town rules call for two o'clock beers," said Siegfried hailing the bartender for "una cerveza por favor."
Cerveza in hand he clinked glasses with Annie and took a gulp.
"Really wets my whistle," said Siegfried to Annie's giggles.
"'Wets your whistle'...How old are you?"
"You know damn well how old I am," said Siegfried without a hint of humor.
Annie sipped her beer the two sitting in relative silence, other than the tune of 'O Tannenbaum' playing from the jukebox.
Annie eventually broke the silence. "So...what are your plans till Christmas?"
"Plans? No plans. Work. You?"
"Christmas Day I've got off. Christmas Eve in the afternoon too...but it's a Sunday and we usually close shop early on Sundays."
"Hmmm, wise decision. I take it you still go to church on Sundays then?"
"Not so much these days. You?"
"It's been years."
"How about, you know, Helga's family? You go with them?"
Siegfried tensed up a little bit. He sipped the beer and said, "No."
The two were silent again.
The front door swung open.
A man with a long white beard in red ermine trimmed robes stepped in ringing a bell. In a loud teutonic-accented voice exclaimed:
"To Sons of Peace, Yule Brings Release! From worry at this tide; but men of crime this holy time their guilty beads must bide. So never fear, ye children dear, but innocent sing 'Nowell!' For the Holy Rood shall save the good, and the bad be burned in hell. This is my carol and Nowell my parole."
Finishing his poem he smiled and then ordered a Hefeweizen at the bar.
Annie grinned. "I remember that...it's a line by Sir Andrew Caldecott from his story 'Christmas Re-union.'"
"The poem?" said Siegfried.
"Yeah, it's a quote, rather a warning from a man dressed as Santa Claus to his nephew who...well, I can't spoil it."
Annie passed a paperback book titled 'Not Exactly Ghosts' by Sir Andrew Caldecott to Siegfried.
"It's a collection of short stories. Caldecott was the governor of Hong Kong and Ceylon in the '30s. My parents knew him in fact."
"This fine young lady knows her stuff," said the Santa with a golden glass of Hefeweizen to his lips. "You two a couple?...Or something else?...wait Santa knows...Santa knows."
The man said crinkling his brow. He unfolded a piece of paper from his breast pocket and smiled
"Shouldn't you be at the North Pole about now, Santa?" said Siegfried.
"That's just a myth---North Pole. No, I'm from a less remote country. Born on the North Sea but found my way over to America after the war. Me and my servant Belsnickel have been around all over the globe though, making sure you children all aren't misbehaving."
Siegfried smiled, "Can I buy you a beer, Santa?"
"Ha, you think that will get strike you off the naughty list, Siegfried? No, my schedule here says...you need to go to Saint Gertrude's tomorrow at...7:22."
"Awfully specific," said Siegfried.
He glanced over at the paper.
The top was labeled 'Adventskalender 1995.'
"Siegfried goes to Saint Gertrude's after Father Lillis says mass," he read aloud. "Why did you write that down?" Siegfried asked, puzzled.
"I didn't write it! I held the quill but someone else moved the hand."
"Someone else?" said Siegfried.
"A ghost I'd reckon," said the Santa Claus. "So far it's been a fairly accurate record of the past few weeks."
He pointed to the day's date reading aloud: "Santa Claus meets Siegfried and Annie at the Crying Cougar at 2:02 pm."
"Remind me what time did it say I'm supposed to be at St. Gertrude's?" said Siegfried.
"7:22 am. Father Lillis says a quick low mass-ah, and for you, Miss...You'll know what's prepared for you 3:03 Saturday afternoon next to the Burger Bear Soda Shop."
Santa passed a red and white candy cane striped package into Annie's palm.
"Don't open this until the time comes."
The man rose from the bar and bade them a good evening, the barman insisting he need not pay.
"Who was that?" said Annie. "He looked so familiar..."
"That was St. Nicholas," said the barman cleaning a glass.
+++++
Annie and Siegfried stayed at the Cougar for a few hours more.
They strolled outside after 'Holly Jolly Christmas' by Burl Ives began playing on the jukebox.
Warming hands in her pockets, Annie pulled close to Siegfried their breath visible in the cold air smelling of seven beers between them.
"Well, Siggy, can I offer you a smoke?"
"Alright..." said Siegfried.
She took a drag from the cigarette, blowing smoke in Siegfried's mouth.
"Oh, no... your lips are a bit chapped," she said.
"Huh?" mumbled Siegfried in a daze.
"Yeah, here lemme help you."
She planted another kiss on his lips.
"Scheisse, What's come over me?" said Annie, shaking her head.
A blonde man in a denim jacket poked his head out of a gray van, his mouth agape, his face pink due to the cold or rage or both.
"Annie!" he barked, his voice an octave too high to sound manly.
"Damn, that's my ride..." said Annie
The man pulled the van around in a donut close enough to nearly flatten both Siegfried and the girl.
"You're dead to me...dead!" shouted the man.
"Gunnar...look-," said Annie beginning to explain herself.
The van sped off leaving Anni and Siegfried alone again in a cloud of black exhaust.
"I may have had enough smoke for one day," said Siegfried waving the exhaust from his face.
Soon the two, arm in arm, under the cover of night returned to the Black Bear Lodge, heading to Room 8.
Siegfried turned the key to the door and faintly smiled.
Annie screamed.
She held her hand to her mouth, pointing to the window. She ran off in hysterics to Siegfried's vain pleas to stop.
Turning slowly around he faced the window.
On the other side of the glass clenching the middle of a white candle was the form of a child, its skin like wax dripping onto the window pane, staring mournfully into Siegfried's eyes.
"Veni," it said.
+++++
Friday
Siegfried spent the night sat sleepless at the Lodge's check-in counter.
When Jackie came in that morning before sunrise, he told her nearly all that had gone on the night before.
"You and Annie used to be lovers?" asked Jackie sipping a cup of coffee.
"It was a different time. We split but I don't think she ever quite let me go."
"Gunnar looks a lot like you, now that I think about it," said Jackie stroking her chin like a scholar deep in thought,"but..." she continued, "Helga looks a bit like Annie too...just blonde haired."
"I suppose," said Siegfried.
"There you have it! You both have a type. But that doesn't explain what spooked you and her from going back into room 8."
"And I won't go back in. There is something really wrong with that room."
"What did you see?" said Jackie sipping coffee.
"...A child. It's skin was like white melting candle wax."
"That's horrifying. You should call Father Lillis."
"Father Lillis?"
"Yes, the priest down at St. Gertrude's. He's an exorcist."
Siegfried thought back to the man dressed as Santa at the Cougar.
"I gotta go, Jackie..." he said walking out the door.
Siegfried walked briskly in the blue hour under the pines. He relished the fresh air mingled with the trees' sharp, sweet, scent bristling at the nose. He went on for a few miles up and downhill, the sun having risen over the hills by the time he arrived at a blue steepled church with an entrance sign bearing the name St. Gertrude the Great.
He glanced at his watch: 7:20.
Pushing open the doors, he looked to the rows of pews seating about twenty congregants variously kneeling or rising from their pews turning to the exit.
Near the altar rail was an elderly woman praying her rosary.
Agatha! He thought.
At the side of the church at the wooden confessional booth he saw a girl kneeling wearing a black headscarf. Making the sign of the cross, she rose from the confessional and turned towards Agatha. The two upon genuflecting began to walk to the door.
Siegfried hurriedly stepped outside.
The sun caught in his eyes, he was momentarily blinded. When his vision cleared again, he saw a pregnant woman scaling a hill among the pines, wearing a blue head scarf.
Siegfried was tapped on the shoulder.
Agatha looked up at him and half-smiled.
"Two mysteries for you. Just because your puppy's been a real pleasure to have around the house."
She walked on as Helga approached Siegfried.
"Well," said Helga. "Why are you here?"
"You wouldn't believe it if I told you..."
"You want to say confession? Father hears confession until 7:45 on weekdays before and after mass."
"I just want to apologize, Helga...you're right, we've been together for years and, you'd think I'd be ready to go up to the altar with you."
Helga nodded. "People are saying you and Annie were hanging out yesterday. That you kissed her...is that true?"
"I don't know what I was thinking, Helga...really."
"I do know what you were thinking! If you want to be with Annie, then that's your choice, but leave me out of that mess."
"I don't. Really. Annie and I dated years ago. It was a different time and place."
"This was back in Germany?"
"Yeah. We were young. Idealistic. I thought she didn't want me anymore."
A man in a black cassock and biretta exited the church.
"Your Grandma said she needs a little help at the cabin...something about little guests bothering you?" he said.
"Yes, Father," said Helga.
+++++
Father Lillis walked with the group to the Creutzburg cabin.
As they opened the iron gate, Crockett perked his ears up from the front porch, running to his master's hand.
Father Lillis entered the house first, his aspergellium dousing the halls with holy water, reciting Latin prayers from the book in his hand. Finishing the exorcism, he bestowed a benediction on all the members of the household and Siegfried.
"Come back and visit soon, Father," said Agatha.
"Anything for you, Mrs. Creutzburg," said Father Lillis before taking off.
Helga looked up at Siegfried then said... "I heard as well...that you and Annie went back to the Lodge last night...is that true?"
Siegfried shook his head. "I never intended for anything, Helga...when we got to the room. Annie saw something...someone in the window. I couldn't believe it myself, but it was a child, its flesh like a dripping candle. Do you believe me?"
Helga nodded.
"I told you, we're haunted. We need to stick together...but no more secrets..."
Otto stepped out the door smiling. "How are things, you two?"
"Good, Uncle Otto...Siegfried's spending Christmas with us this year."
Siegfried's eyes widened.
"Well, damn that's great," said Otto. "So, Crockett can stay here and keep Oma company...she was a little bummed when we heard you and Helga might be breaking things off, Siegfried."
A whistle, inaudible to humans, cut through the quiet of the Creutzburg homestead.
Crockett sprinted off through the gate like a blur of shadow on a photograph.
His master cried after him: "Crockett! Come back!"
They all three started to the gate after the black dog, Otto and Siegfried running ahead as Agatha stepped out the house wondering what the commotion was about.
Otto, out of breath, stopped a quarter mile down the road as Siegfried, putting his days in school athletics to good use, ran ahead.
He could see Crockett halfway down the long pine bordered lane, pausing for a moment, then racing again just short enough before pausing again, remaining in Siegfried's sight.
Going up a steep incline, the black furrry blur wove between the great trees, his master hopelessly lagging and panting behind.
Siegfried slipped on loose soil, falling face forward into a bed of pinecones and needles, his forearms catching his fall.
Crockett was about twenty feet ahead. He plopped to the ground at the base of a tall pine.
Siegfried staggered up to his feet, moving at a near 90 degree vertical climb as if he were scaling a black diamond ski slope.
In his chase the sky had darkened, a gray squally mass blotting out the daylight. It could not have been later than noon, yet it felt as if dusk had already set into the Black Bear Valley.
He clumsily made his way upwards to his black hound, its yellow eyes transfixed up towards a great pine tree.
Siegfried reached him and then his eyes too locked to the great tree.
He gazed at the tree for a minute before shutting his eyes, turning away, wiping tears away.
A man hanged from the tree, however long dead he was, his body bludgeoned and bloodied, his skin green like the a fir, the gore was unbearable to behold.
Arms outstretched on branches, the pine needles cut into his palms; his feet dangled above, his warm blood streaming down to the earth like a running faucet. There Siegfried fell to his knees and wept.
+++++
Siegfried remained on the hill all that Friday till midnight when the chill of that lofty pine grove could have frozen a man to the bone. Slowly, softly, the dark green needles of the pines turned white. Snow then fell upon whole of the valley swiftly burying it in a voluminous powder. Siegfried, wiping frost from his brow, turned his head up to the tree. The man was gone.
Under the tree stood a woman in green garments, her veiled ultramarine head covered with snowflakes like twinkling stars. She turned around facing Siegfried.
Her eyes were a dark red bloodshot, tears streaming from her cheeks like the blood from the man. In her hands she held a white candle above a round prominent belly. She spoke in a near whisper like the wind against their bare skin:
"Magnificat anima mea Dominum."
From the tree, a ghostly figure descended and said,"Benedicta tu in mulieribus et benedictus fructus ventris tui Iesus."
(to be concluded on Dec. 21)