Excerpt one

from Jack's Inferno, chapter 27

"Damn, that's a sweet ride! Hey Jack, check out that car beside us! You think that's a V-6 or a V-8? Man, look at the shine on that baby! You know how much a*s I could get with a car like that?"

"Damn it, Coal, I was trying to sleep. Now what the hell--"

Oh f**k. I know that car. Her name is Sheila.

"What? What's wrong with you, Jack?"

"The two men in that car are here to kill me."

"Kill you? What for?"

"Oh, this and that."

Hello Bob. Hello Francis.

"I don't know if I can lose 'em in this truck," Coal tells me.

"Well," I say, "give it a shot anyway."

We accelerate. Sheila follows.

Karl cuts an evil eye at me and says, "Alright Jack. What'd you do? Let's hear it."

"Aside from screwing the one guy's wife?"

Coal cheers, "You dog! High five!"

Memnon says, "Yeah, real nice, Jack. There's a couple a' suit n' tie psychos chasin' us down in a car that costs as much as a f****n' space station, but hey...at least you got your dick wet, right?"

"I never said I was proud of it."

"Why not?" Coal asks. "Was she ugly?"

The girl in the back finally shouts, "God, what the f**k is wrong with you a******s?! This is why girls become lesbians!"

The trucker says, "Hey speakin' of lesbians--"

"Shut up! Whatever it is, just shut up. I don't want to listen to you talk about some s****y f*****g porno movie, okay?"

"But it won an award!"

"Don't care, shut up."

"B***h."

"A*****e!"

The distance between us and the car in pursuit is steadily increasing. They're almost out of sight, and not because Sheila can't outrun us. She could run laps around us if she felt like it. They're toying with us, and I don't like it one bit.

We lose sight of them altogether. Coal starts a premature celebration. Race ain't over yet, though. It's gonna get ugly before it gets easy.

Karl looks up ahead and asks, "What's that s**t up in the sky?"

Huh. Good question. As I look up, I see five satellites orbiting overhead in a circle. They emit red laser beams that reflect off of each other. The lines connect to form a red glowing pentagram in the sky.

This does not look good. Not at all.

The grey sky blackens. The grass dies and becomes dust.

A vortex rips open in front of us. A thing appears. A horrible thing. A familiar thing. Moloch.

There aren't enough curse words in the English language to express the shock that hits us.

Coming up behind us is a silver speeding blur like a mercury fireball. Sheila in fifth gear.

Coal stomps the brake pedal with both feet. We fishtail off to the side. Truck spins and flips a few times. By some miracle we land rightside-up. We're not on the road anymore, though. Mainly because there is no road anymore. Or ground. Or sky. Something has gone entirely wrong with time and space in a way that I am completely unqualified to explain.

All that remains in the void is us and Moloch and the laser pentagram. And Sheila, hurtling straight towards the demon. Too fast to change course. They collide. They explode. And not the way dynamite explodes. The way stars explode.

Oh dear God. We've pierced the veil.

We're floating through a multicolored supernova in a dead space void. Planets and molecules and nebulas and amoebas. Energy and matter and confusion and terror. We stare helplessly into the unknown and incomprehensible horrors of ugly, raw infinity. A cosmic infernal abyss filled with sleeping giants. Monster Gods, unnamable and indescribable. The displaced Kings of the Inferno. If Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking ever got stoned with Lovecraft and Satan, I imagine that this is what they would see.

I'm gonna need a drink for this one.

"Coal! Whiskey!"

He hands me the bottle, too awestruck to speak. I take a shot.

And then, piece by piece, stitch by stitch...the universe puts its clothes back on. The view through the windshield returns to...well, obviously normal isn't the right word for it. It returns to abnormal, I guess. At any rate, we're back on the road. Just in time to drive off of a bridge.

Author's Note

Ignore the fact that you have no clue who any of the characters are or what the hell is going on.

Reviews

[roarke]

lol. ok then ignore my first review post, as its all different now.
First I want to congratulate you on having the insane courage to even WANT to "pierce the veil" in this realm...... big brass ones..... swingin'... lol.

Second, why does this excerpt allegorically remind me of two horny teens in the backseat of a '57 caddy at a drive-in showing bob and carol, ted and alice?

still a party man.

[scatterbrain]

i like roarke's sentence better than yours :/

"Ten years ago I lost ten minutes of time and didn't catch back up until two years later."

[roarke]

that happened to me seven years ago. Ten years ago I lost ten minutes of time and didn't catch back up until two years later. I got nothing in the explanation department. Nice to see I'm in good company. lol