Free Night Of The Beast by Harry Shannon

collected above the corpse and became entangled in her hair. She began to glow and writhe like a prone Medusa.
    Jason smeared himself with her blood and stepped back again. "I offer these chattel to Thee, oh grand Beelzebul, by the names ABADDON the dark angel, and by ASTAROTH,
    ISHTAR and BAAL. I call BELIAL to open The Gate for Thee; to speak unto me, and to accept this tribute to the honor, glory and power of Thy Name, which is superior to all spirits!"
    Thunder from within. A presence was coming. His ears popped. Ecstatic, Jason rolled on the floor. He was now completely covered with blood.
    "Grand one, vouchsafe to receive these acceptable offerings. BELIAL, speak! Come hither ! E Mortuis Revoco — from the dead, I summon thee!"
    A shrill giggle.
    Beth Reiss sat up on her slab. She yawned and stretched. Jason had loosely fastened her neck together with fishing twine. Some of the stitches complained. The head spun slowly, like a ventriloquist dummy's, to face him. Jason, despite himself, felt his skin crawl. His first reaction was to shrink away, but then he shouted for joy and jumped to his feet.
    The dead child's features split into a ghastly grin, but her eyes stayed flat, cold and lifeless. She spoke to him with a man's voice.
    "Thou art persistent," the demon said. "Lo, I am here. Why dost thou disturb my repose? Smite me no more with thy dread commands."
    Jason, naked and filthy, bowed low. "I shall not," he said respectfully, "should you choose to obey me."
    "So, human… why hast thou summoned us?"
    "For knowledge."
    "What dost thou wish to know?"
    "All."
    "All?" the thing laughed, its voice dropping even lower. It caused the girl's body to shake, and her pretty head fell off with a rasp of popping stitches. Jason swallowed as the skull bounced briskly across the floor and landed near his feet. It stared up at him and winked lewdly. Am I crazy, really crazy, is that all this is?
    "Approach me!"
    Jason hesitated. "If I leave this pentagram, my soul will be lost forever."
    Beth's severed head, the white neck tendons twitching, laughed again. "Dost thou wish to meet The Beast?"
    "Dog? Yes!"
    "Then kiss me."
    And so he did. The head went still and the eyes closed peacefully. Jason waited in uneasy silence for the next manifestation. It seemed to him that the entire world was like a gigantic clenched fist, compressing the very air he breathed; squashing the building he worshiped, murdered and lived in... Then one shadowy corner split in two. Something stepped out of this rip in the fabric of space.
    Dog.
    Smaller this time, but still with an impossibly long tongue. His fur seemed healthy, but the deep-set red eyes burning above the long, wet snout were exactly the same. They bored into him and fondled his soul.
    Fool, Dog said in his mind. You looked everywhere for me, but I was right there inside you all along. Watching. Waiting for my chance.
    "Chance?"
    And now you are mine. I am The Dark One, puppy. The Beast who lives backwards, in parallel time. I hunger to enter this world. You shall assist me.
    "I don't understand..."
    Black Son, I selected you over twenty years ago, far in the distant future. It is yours to open The Gate and Feed me. You must do combat with white, so that I may at last ascend the throne. That is why I brought you here, to this desolate place.
    Jason Smith began to comprehend, for the first time, the enormity of what he had unleashed. He barely noticed that his hated birthmark was receding, vanishing. His mind was already racing ahead.
    He trembled.
     

9 

    ROURKE/ROBERT REISS/THE BAXTER FAMILY
     
    "You think you're ready to go back out there again?"
    "Yes."
    "And maybe back home to Nevada?"
    "I think so."
    "So do I," Dr. Noah Silverman said. He produced a thin smile. "But I want to hammer something into you one last time." His gentle brown eyes pinned Rourke to the couch. "You've suffered a psychotic episode, Peter. I want to stress to you that modern medicine still knows very little about