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Apa Vie the seed of the Devil
Chapter FIVE
The day was drawing to an end and the sun was hanging low in the sky. Carson had finally dragged Pei Chee over to where the
old wagon was hidden by the vines. All the hustle and bustle of the circus could still be heard as it was only a few hundred
yards away in the field but the wagon was an interesting curiosity that he thought Pei Chee would like to see not to mention
it was a nice place to get away and have some privacy and if he played his cards right there might even be some oral sex in
it for him.
“Come on, it’s over here.” He limped along dragging her by the hand over to the wagon door that was already
ajar from his earlier visit. “You have to see this place. It’s some sort of circus wagon from a long time ago.”
Pei Chee’s eyes widened in wonder at the sight of the dilapidated but very ornate circus wagon smothered in the overgrowth
of the forest’s edge. “Wow, this must be left over from that other circus I read about.” Pei Chee had done
some snooping into the history of the town of Ashbrooke and she knew the last circus to roll into the town was a long time
ago. “They say this circus disappeared and was never heard from again.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Carson dismissed the information like yesterday’s newspaper. “Who cares where it came
from… wait till you see what’s inside. It’s almost like nobody has touched it in years and everything is
in tact.”
The two adventure seekers snuck into the wagon and started to rummage around. Pei Chee was in awe of the stuff that had been
left behind. There were clothes and hats and a trunk that had a very moth eaten ringmaster’s suite pop up top hat and
all. There was a very expensive shaving kit with an ancient bar of soap that was sitting on the counter as if someone had
just used it…. About sixty years before and a corked bottle of whisky that was probably still good but she was not going
to try it.
“Can you imagine how much this stuff must be worth?” Carson was fondling a silk shirt he pulled out of the truck
that was still in very good shape. “Based on the style this stuff has to be late 40’s”
“Well based on the name stenciled on the side of the wagon, this belonged to that circus that disappeared in the late
40’s.” Pei Chee’s wealth of knowledge was now sounding a bit more interesting to Carson. The older this
stuff was the more it would fetch on e-bay.
The interior of the wagon was about the size of a modern day Winnebago but the wood work and detail to the interior design
was much classier. In some strange way the thick layer of dust had preserved many of the artifacts left behind but the wood
itself was in very bad shape. Some of the cracks in the wood were large enough to almost see though and the hundreds of beams
from the dusky sun that shown through the cracks into the wagon were a tell tale sign that it was in dire need of repair.
The long forgotten inhabitants of the wagon had been someone with very eclectic taste indeed with his strange collection of
weird and wonderful relics. There was a wild boar’s head mounted on the wall as well as what appeared to be a dried
up monkey’s paw under a glass dome. And the most exotic of all the things in the wagon was a human skull mounted on
a stand with the top missing and the interior of the brainpan lined with silver. In deed the ringmaster Hal Zimner had been
one strange and eccentric character.
“Jesus Christ on a pogo stick!” Carson exclaimed as he knelt down on his gimpy knee to reach way under the wooden
cupboard. “This looks like something important.”
“Yeah it looks like someone hid it away.” Pei Chee took a flat wooden box from Carson as he pulled on of the dozens
of little glass vials from it. She held the box and watched as Carson examined the little corked bottle with an almost florescent
blue liquid writhing inside. The liquid inside was a stunning electric blue and it seemed to move almost as if it were writhing
inside the bottle just waiting to get out. Tucking his cane between his chest and gimpy arm, Carson took the bottle in his
good hand and put the cork between his teeth and gave it a tug. After a few tugs on the cork it finally came popping from
the mouth of the bottle, but the last try was so forceful that the blue liquid splashed all over Carson’s mouth and
hand, getting some of it inside his mouth just giving him enough of a taste to let him know it tasted like CRAP.
“Holy shit! That stuff tastes awful.” He attempted to wipe the thick blue liquid from his mouth and chin. “I
don’t know what this crap is but it’s horrible. There’s no way anyone’s going to pay money for this
crap.” With that Pei Chee frowned and set the carton of bottles on the floor almost where it had come from. Carson shook
his head and puckered his face. The taste was still in his mouth. As he tried to rise up off of his gimpy knee, he lost his
balance and almost fell to the floor, but without even thinking about it he reached out with both hands and caught himself
before he fell.
“Oh my god…. Carson.” Pei Chee’s eyes were as wide as saucers as if she had seen a ghost.
“What is it?” Carson asked as he stood up.
She could hardly speak. She could only point at Carson’s arm that had been gimpy and withered just moments before but
now was as good as new. From the looks of it, you would never know anything had ever been wrong with it.
********
The organ was playing and Brian’s gran was sitting in the back of the auditorium with Bill and Pete Johnson on either
side of her. The Wednesday night service was about to start and Brian was nowhere in sight.
“Didn’t he say he was coming?” Pete leaned in and whispered in Gran’s ear.
“Yes, yes he did, but don’t worry he told me he was going to try to drag Randy along and that might take some
doing. I’m sure he’ll be here.”
Just as the organ music was winding down, the door creaked open and in came Brian, Steffi and a reluctant Randy bringing up
the rear. Gran looked back at them and shot Brian a disapproving smile. She believed in punctuality and even though she wouldn’t
admit it to the Johnson bro’s Brian being late bothered her a bit. She felt it reflected on her since she practically
raised the boy.
“So this is what the inside of the Ashbrooke community church looks like? Dammm!” Randy had never set foot in
the church before. Brian hardly had but recently he was spending more and more time there and the reason for his sudden interest
in the church was a mystery to Randy and Steffi.
The moment the organ music wound down a door opened and in walked the new pastor of the Ashbrooke community church. His name
was Fredrick Douglass and he was not only young but he was extremely handsome. Brian could hear Randy swallow hard the moment
he stepped out.
“Oh my god… I just found religion.” Randy whispered way too loud. “So you wanna tell me again why
you are spending so much time in church these days?” Randy ribbed Brian and giggled.
Steffi shot them both a nasty look and was very uncomfortable with Randy’s cracks about the pastor.
Pastor Fred went on and on about love and relationship and how people should not spend as much time judging as they should
getting to understand each other and if we concentrated on that, there would be much more tolerance in the world. The entire
time he was talking he and Brian were exchanging the occasional glance. Randy was noticing that there was some sort of connection
going on between the two but he wasn’t sure exactly what it was.
********
“Oh my GOD!” Carson was ecstatic over his new found healing. His leg was completely fresh and new and without
any abnormality what so ever. He grabbed Pei Chee and kissed her. She was happy too but the realization of what had just happened
was taking a while to sink in.
“Do you have any idea what this means?” Carson flexed his left arm trying it out for strength. It was every bit
as strong as his right if not even stronger. “This stuff is a miracle cure. I bet it will cure anything… Cancer…
Paralysis… hell it will probably cure HIV. You and I baby, are going to be millionaires!” Carson kissed the little
blue bottle and giggled. His excitement was over the top and Pei Chee was trying to be happy but she was still very unsure
of what had happened exactly.
“You know we can get out of here now.” Carson held Pei Chee close. “I can sell this stuff and make millions
and you and I can run away from this fucking circus and live the good life.” For the first time in ages, as he pressed
up against Pei Chee, Carson could feel his manhood becoming aroused. As much as he and Pei Chee had fooled around in the past,
they had never gone all the way due to his “problem” and now the time had come. “Baby can you feel it? I’m
ready to rumble.” He kissed her but she pulled slightly away. “Come on baby… just you and me. We’ll
run away from this place and make the big time, but first I’ve got a little something I want to give you and I’ve
been dying to give it to you for a very long time.”
“Stop it!” Pei Chee pulled out of his grip. “Are you fucking crazy? I’m not running anywhere with
you, Carson.”
“What do you mean? Finally I can be a real man for you baby… let’s fuck.” Carson grabbed her arm again.
“I’m not going anywhere with you and I’m certainly not going to fuck you.” Pei Chee had gone past
delight at his healing and was now angry at his assumptions.
“But I thought you and I were….”
“Well you thought wrong. I never said I loved you, Carson. I have no intention of leaving my father and running off
with you.”
“But all those times we….”
“Carson, I only fooled around with you because I felt sorry for you… and let’s face it, it worked out to
benefit both of us. I never pretended to love you… it just was what it was.”
“Why you fucking little prick tease.” Carson was angry and horny as hell and he wasn’t about to just let
it go. “So you only did it because you felt sorry for me huh? Well I’ll show you sorry, you BITCH!”
Carson grabbed Pei Chee and threw her back against the wooden counter. He began to undo his belt with the intention of forcing
himself on her.
“STOP IT!” Pei Chee slapped Carson across the face and pushed him off of her. She made a move for the door but
he got between her and the exit.
“You think your going somewhere?” Carson pushed her back against the wall. “Nobody slaps me you ungrateful
little chink bitch!” With that, Carson hauled off and slapped Pei Chee across the face as hard as he could with his
newly healed left hand. It was almost like everything stopped and went into slow motion. All he could see was red. When he
realized what had happened as he heard the bone cracking sound of Pei Chee’s head smashing against the wooden interior
wall of the wagon, he realized that he was covered in blood. With her eyes bulging out and her jaw completely dislocated and
ripped from its socket, Pei Chee slowly slid down the wall into a pile on the floor. She was obviously dead.
“Oh god, what the fuck…. What did I do?” Carson fell to his knees and gathered up Pei Chee’s limp
dead body. Her face was covered with blood and her jaw was ripped to one side and the flesh hung in strands like bits of red
ribbon. Carson had no way of knowing the strength of his new arm but who was going to buy that as an excuse. Having already
served time in the pen there was no way he was going to get by with this. “What in the hell am I going to do? PEI CHEE….
Wake up!” Carson hugged her body and rocked it like a baby. He had never been sorrier for losing his temper than he
was at that moment.
He looked aimlessly around as if some miracle were awaiting his discovery, when suddenly it hit him. The miracle he was looking
for. He spied the little blue bottles of elixir. Surely if they had cured his gimpy arm and leg they would be able to do something
for Pei Chee.
Carson quickly grabbed the bottle he had tossed aside earlier in his fit of anger. If it came from the same bottle that had
cured him, it should work for sure, he thought to himself. He uncorked the bottle and hurriedly emptied the bottle of thick
blue liquid into her gaping open mouth. All he could do was wait as he rocked her lifeless body back and forth.
“Come on work… goddamit! You can’t die on me Pei Chee… come on LIVE!”
Carson began to lose it and after a few minutes when it became obvious that nothing was happening, he had to go to plan B.
Pei Chee just laid there motionless and dead. Not so much as a twitch or a spasm. It became clear to him that the best way
to cover up the horrible situation was to burn the wagon down with her in it and let people believe it was just a horrible
accident. Maybe she was snooping around in the wrong place and an unfortunate accident happened burning the place down with
her in it. Carson began to look around to find flammable items that he could stuff around the body to make sure it burned
thoroughly.
Rummaging around frantically for anything he could find to aid his little plan, Carson stopped. A chill went down his spine.
Like a soft whisper he heard something. A sigh or some sort of moan. Had she revived? Had the elixir worked and healed his
precious Pei Chee? Carson heard the moan again, but he was almost afraid to turn and look. Could it be too good to be true?
That feeling that made him not want to look in fear of all the possibilities going away overwhelmed him. He heard it again,
one more soft little moan but this time it was significantly louder than the others. It was most certainly her reviving. All
healed and without any sign of harm ever having come to her, Carson took a deep breath and smiled. How could he be so lucky
to escape a murder wrap and see his sweet little Pei Chee revived. But how would he explain to her how sorry he was? How horribly
stupid he was in the first place for losing his temper and slapping her. How he could have had no idea that his newly revived
arm was so strong and that it would cause her so much damage. Again he heard the moan and this time he had to look. He had
to be sure it wasn’t his imagination playing tricks on him. As he screwed up his courage to look, everything was confirmed
for him. Over his shoulder as he faced the wall he could see the shadow of Pei Chee. She was rising to her feet so she had
to be healed and ok. Carson’s heart leapt as he spun around to face her but to his horror what he saw standing before
him was not the same Pei Chee he knew.
There in front of him was a shell of the girl he knew but with her jaw still gaping open and blood dripping down her chest.
Her skin was pale with an eerie bluish tint to it and her eyes were glazed over as if they could see nothing. She was very
dead but still very much alive.
“Pei Chee…” with his eyes, Carson slowly scanned up her twisted lumbering body. She stood as if just being
upright took ever bit of effort she could muster. “Pei Chee… sweetie… are you ok?” The dead girl cocked
her head as if trying to translate his words into some language of the undead and suddenly the recognition of who he was and
what he had done came over her face with an eerie grin of acknowledgement. She stepped toward him with her arms wide apart
as if beckoning for a hug. Carson reluctantly moved to comfort the girl but with a single lunge she buried her face in his
neck and ripped out his throat with a single bite. A scream, a gurgle and a plunge into darkness… and Carson Baily had
met his end. Pei Chee’s fury didn’t stop there. She continued to mutilate the writhing screaming Carson. Ripping
into his fleshy tissue and biting huge chunks out of his face, Pei Chee almost seemed to be making the point “who’s
going to fuck who?” In a fit of zombie rage she slung his limp body around, smashing the interior of the wagon into
bits. The carton of Apa Vie that had been placed on the floor earlier was now smashed and the precious blue liquid was seeping
into the floorboards of the rotten old wagon.
The screams and yells of the dying Carson Bailey were too muffled for anyone to hear. The wagon was too far and too cloistered
away for anyone to care. The wagon shook from side to side as Pei Chee bid her final farewell to her dead lover. With all
the shaking and moving about the oily blue elixir had found it’s way through the cracks of the wagon floor and had begun
to seep onto the ground under the wagon. Iridescent blue puddles of the liquid began to form and then slowly soak into the
thirsty soil... the rich vibrant soil that lay under the rotting old wagon. No ordinary soil mind you, but the soil that had
once been wrenched up from the earth’s surface, pitched and heaved and upturned to create a mass grave sixty hears before.
Like a living organism the blue liquid wormed its way through the soil deep into the ground. Eventually hitting bone and charred
flesh and coating them with the rejuvenating essence that was the Apa Vie. The giver of life long since lost… the seed
of the devil himself. It was the only thing that had the potential to bring something back that had long since been dead…
the murdered Ringmaster and his sleeping circus.
********
“Oh you’re sermon touched me so, reverend Douglas.” Gran and the two Johnson brothers came out of the church
to greet the pastor.
“Why thank you Mrs. Swanson, I appreciate your kind words.”
“Well your method is just so loving and tender… something new for our little community and I personally think
it’s refreshing.”
“Well I personally don’t think beating people over the head with the bible is the way to teach a message of love
and tolerance to your flock.”
“Yeah well… sometimes you have to scare the hell out of them,” came the approaching voice of Sheriff Tucker.
“I personally liked the old boy’s style, too bad he disappeared like that.”
“Yeah but he was older than god when he did, so it was about time for some new blood around here.” Pete Johnson
patted Pastor Fred on the shoulder.
“Well sorry pastor, but personally I’m more of a Hell fire and Brimstone kind of guy. Your style is nice but a
bit too fluffy around the edges for me.” Sheriff Tucker shook the young pastor’s hand and walked away.
“Don’t you mind him dear,” Gran whispered in the pastor’s ear, “We love your style and we’re
happy to have you with us.” Gran smiled and gently touched him on the hand, then turned with the two Johnson brothers
and walked away.
The precession of parishioners slowly emptied out of the church. Most of them greeting the pastor or at least shooting him
a smile or a glance or some acknowledgement that he existed. He and his new style had gotten a bit of a mixed reaction from
the community since he had come to Ashbrooke two months earlier. Some of the old die hard fans of Pastor Farwell had dwindled
away after he disappeared but they knew it was inevitable since he had lived to be an unbelievably old age. Nobody was exactly
sure of his age but he was still very spry and sharp up until his last day behind the pulpit.
His disappearance was still somewhat of an unsolved mystery to the townsfolk of Ashbrooke. It happened suddenly and very unexpectedly
one day when the church organist came in to check on him and he was gone. No fuss or sign of struggle, it’s just like
he disappeared into thin air and nobody, not even Sheriff Tucker could figure out where he went.
“So are you praying or daydreaming?” The voice of deputy Tarra Wood snapped Fred out of the daze he had drifted
off into. He was standing by the church door just staring out into the parking lot.
“Oh wow… sorry about that. I was just deep in though about…. well everything.” Pastor Fred smiled
and looked down almost as if he were embarrassed.
“Well its ok, you deserve to give your brain a rest. Especially after preaching such a heart felt sermon as that one.
I really enjoyed it by the way…. It’s such a nice change of pace from the dogmatic bullshit we used to get old
Farwell.” The words had already left her mouth when she put her hand over it as if to apologies for cursing.
“Ha, ha, ha… don’t worry Miss Wood, I’ve heard every word in the book and just because I’m a
pastor it doesn’t mean I don’t either think them or say them from time to time. Besides from what I’ve heard
you’re absolutely right. Bullshit would describe it just nicely… although your boss Sheriff tucker wouldn’t
agree.”
“Oh hell, he and old pastor Farwell are two peas in a pod. They both graduated from the school of narrow minded redneck
thinking, so don’t take anything he says personally.”
“Yeah I saw you two arguing through the diner window earlier today. Is everything ok?”
“Oh god yes.” Tarra chuckled. “He was just throwing a temper tantrum about the circus being in town.”
“Oh yeah I heard something about that. Wasn’t there a clown driving around in a car earlier today? I overheard
old Miss Perkins taking about seeing a pair of them driving around but I thought maybe she was just off her medication or
something.”
“Nope she was right on. A couple of them came to visit Bill over at the garage for supplies earlier today.”
“Well that explains it then.” Pastor Fred smiled awkwardly.
“You know, Pastor…”
“Please just call me Fred.”
“Ok Fred, if you would like to get a look at the circus I’ve been volunteered to go out there and check things
out for the sheriff. If you’d like to tag along I’d be happy to drag you along with me.”
“Well rumor has it that this is the first circus to come to town in 60 years, so I don’t’ really think I
could miss it.”
“So is that a yes?” Tarra smiled.
“Absolutely… I wouldn’t miss it.”
“Great, I’ll pick you up in the squad car around eight… and don’t worry I won’t use the hand
cuffs.” Tarra smiled and winked a flirty wink.
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