Part 7: Blessed Are the Merciful, Who Are not Here

“Granny!” I cried out while Cormac ran towards her at full speed. Despite being dishevelled and missing her thick glasses, she seemed alright. Especially since she was able to endure the full force of Cormac’s embrace. She was a lot stronger than I thought.

“It’s good to see you too, Cormac! I hope that nasty wendigo didn’t give you too hard of a time.” He spouted some gibberish reply while shaking his head violently. “That’s good, but what’s that on your face?” Cormac suddenly froze before beginning to tell a tall tale while pointing in every direction apart from me and the can of peaches on the ground. “Well, I’m just glad you’re okay, dearie.”

For some reason, I found it difficult to approach the pair or remind the two of them of my existence. Once Cormac had finished his tale, his tone and mannerisms shifted as he pointed his finger towards me. “Rowan! What happened to your face?”

“I must’ve hit my head when the wendigo attacked me,” I said dismissively. Cormac didn’t tell her what I did to him, so I wasn’t going to snitch either about the bruise by my eye. “I’ll recover quickly.”

Granny Liadan came closer and lifted my curly hair, which was now clinging to my face from the blood and sweat. “This is going to take a couple of days to heal,” she tutted as she examined all the cuts and bruises I’ve sustained today. Cormac looked like he was about to faint from clearly seeing the severity of my face. “We should go back home quickly and get a bag of frozen peas on your chin.”

“Sounds good.” I was relieved at the idea of going back to Granny Liadan’s cabin. “But we’re going to have to stop this wendigo before we can do that.”

Granny Liadan nodded. “It’s far too dangerous for Cormac with that beast out there.” She pinched Cormac’s cheek. He tried to weakly bat her away in embarrassment before quickly giving in. “It’s a good job your father left a few tools to help. I lost my glasses when the wendigo took me. Rowan, would you be a dearie and help me read the instructions?”

“Sure.” Granny Liadan began to lead the way through the tunnels. “How did it snatch you anyway? Did you forget the nightly ritual?” Was dementia starting to take over?

“Nonsense,” she gave a small chuckle at the idea. “I noticed your door was open in the middle of the night, and Cormac wasn’t there sleeping. The wendigo made some noises that sounded like him, so I went outside to check. Pretty silly of me.” She was very relaxed about the situation. “But it’s good to see you’re safe.”

Cormac seemed to be in disbelief that this whole situation was caused by him. Stomping in front of us, Cormac began frantically rambling in gibberish while pointing at Granny Liadan and I. It was exhausting just watching him. “So, what were you doing?” I finally asked, not really expecting a reply. Cormac began to make a “bshh” noise. It took me a moment to understand. “Static? You were watching tv?”

“That explains it! Cormac! You know you’re not allowed to watch tv at night.” Cormac pouted. Granny Liadan whispered in my ear, “I always hide the remote in my knitting room before going to bed.” … This all happened because Cormac went hunting for a remote so he could watch some midnight static?

After following Granny Liadan through the tunnel, we eventually came across a thick iron door with a disturbed line of salt in front of it. Granny Liadan gestured for me to begin twisting the dial for the padlock. “Thank you, dearie. It took me forever without my glasses. The combination is 03-04-11.”

I froze when I heard the code. “My birthday?”

“Of course. What other number would your Dad use?”

My chest was beginning to ache a little. Cormac must’ve noticed as he started thumping my back with his open hand. It was winding me, but the gesture was appreciated. “What about Cara’s birthday?”

“As if Cara would go off into the mountains by herself.” Granny Liadan gave a little snort. It would be out of character for my sister. “No, your Daddy knows you very well, so he placed emergency tools all over the mountain. Every one of them has your birthday as the combination in case you got lost or in a spot of trouble. We knew it was a number you could never forget.”

“Then he could’ve told me about it,” I grumbled. The padlock popped open confirming Granny Liadan’s story.

“We didn’t want to encourage you going off by yourself.”

“I guess it worked since I didn’t come here alone.” I finally returned the favour to Cormac and walloped him in the back. The force was a little too much for him as he fell to the floor. Just before starting to grumble his complaints, Cormac began frantically pointing in the direction we came from. A high-pitched scream sounded.

“I suppose we better go in,” Granny Liadan said in a relaxed voice. She ushered the two of us in before gently pushing the iron door close behind her.

The abandoned storage room was lit up by a single orange bulb. It was dusty and filled with old rusting equipment. The only thing that was relatively new was the flamethrower, a stack of filled jerry cans, some guns that were undoubtedly filled with silver bullets, and bags of salt. Cormac looked a little pale as his big eyes took in the emergency equipment festooning the room. “Rowan, dearie, can you help me start the flamethrower? This model is just too new for me.”

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“Sure thing, Granny.”

“Why do I have to be bait,” I grumbled under my breath. Granny Liadan’s hearing aids were starting to run out of battery, but Cormac could still hear me complain. He had good hearing. I shook the chains that once held me captive. The wendigo was taking its time.

Protected slightly by a salt ring at the bottom of the ladder, Granny Liadan waited patiently. Or maybe she had fallen asleep. It was difficult to tell in the darkness and shining my torch at her would just bring unnecessary danger to the pensioner. Above, where the chains were once attached to, Cormac was supposed to be waiting. I wasn’t entirely sure if he really understood what was going on.

“Oh no, I’ve escaped.” Rattle, rattle. “I’m injured.” Rattle. “And unarmed.” Rattle. “I hope no one ties me up and makes me into food.” Rattle, rattle.

Suddenly a pebble had been thrown from above and landed by my feet. A sign from Cormac that it was coming. And this time it didn’t even hit me. He was cleverer than I gave him credit for.

I braced myself in case the plan failed. Using the torch, I checked the different tunnels leading into this room. Eventually, it made its appearance. It was abnormally tall, reaching almost seven feet, naked and pale. Even paler than most people from this part of the world. Its mouth and nails were stained with blood. And its bloodshot eyes maintained eye contact with me as it charged in my direction.

BANG. BANG.

The wendigo fell to the floor with a thump. Silver bullets in its left arm and leg weren't enough to stop it as it began to slowly crawl towards me. “Great shot, Cormac! All that training really paid off!” Granny Liadan yelled as she stepped out of her salt circle. With confidence, she walked in front of me. Upon seeing the old lady with the flamethrower, the wendigo began turning around and crawling back to where it came from. “Let me see,” she tried activating the flamethrower, but it was difficult without her glasses.

“You need to pull out the red tag before using it,” I reminded Granny Liadan.

“Thank you, dearie.” With a woosh, the flamethrower ignited and covered the crawling wendigo in flames. It still wasn’t enough. The wendigo continued trying to crawl away at a snail’s pace while the pensioner stayed right on its heels with the flamethrower. “‘If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire.’” Cormac had managed to climb down and catch up with us. We watched as Granny Liadan kept the fire on the wendigo. “Now Cormac, which passage was that from?”

Cormac pointed at the wendigo and made concerned noises while making eye contact with me.

“That’s right, clever clogs!” Cormac was confused. Whatever he said, it clearly wasn’t to answer her question. “Matthew 18:8.”

“I don’t think this is what that passage is referring to…” I said while watching Cormac try to mime something. The wendigo let out a howling shriek making Cormac flinch.

“‘And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.’ Which passage, Rowan?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. She didn’t seem to hear me, so I had to shout my confession a few times.

Granny Liadan temporarily stopped the fire of the flamethrower and made eye contact with me. “Come now, Rowan. That was Revelation 20:10. We’re going to have to get you to read the Bible more.” She resumed the task of torching the howling, half burnt wendigo.

It finally clicked what Cormac was asking. How much longer will this take? I whispered to him, “I don’t know. It’s a wendigo. Maybe a few more minutes? Maybe hours?” Cormac looked displeased as he covered his ears, so he couldn’t hear the fire or weak screams as clearly. “Granny, how much longer do you think this’ll be? Cormac is a bit… disturbed.”

“Patience is a virtue.” Granny Liadan’s voice and movements were calm, like she was mowing the grass. “We’re giving this sinner a taste of hell before it goes there.”

Cormac stomped in front of me causing me to stop. Before I could ask him what was wrong, he held out the pistol he had used to shoot the wendigo earlier. “What are you- You want me to shoot Granny?” I hissed under my breath before snatching the gun away from him. Cormac began to panic while shaking his head violently. “Then who do you want me to shoot?” He pointed at the wendigo being tortured by the fire.

I let out a sigh. “Granny? Can you hold off for a moment?”

She paused in the middle of another Biblical verse. “What is it, dearie?”

It was easy to sidestep her and shoot the wendigo’s other arm. “We’ve got a long trip back to your cabin, Granny. We need to be careful with you walking too much since your knees are getting bad.” The wendigo moaned in pain, but it was unable to crawl anymore despite attempting a few times.

“Thank you, dearie.” She pinched my cheek with fingers that smelled of diesel. “So considerate.”

“Earlier, we found two humans hanging up. I don’t know if they’re still alive, but Cormac and I should go and check.” Granny Liadan looked over at Cormac, who began nodding to show his support for my concern.

“Oh, I don’t think that’s necessary. They’re probably dead by now.” Granny Liadan cooed without any worry in her voice. “Besides, your horns are showing.” My baseball cap! I reached up and finally realised my cap must’ve fallen off when I was abducted and strung upside down. Before I left, I had carefully styled my curly hair to hide them, but it was probably dishevelled by now. “It wouldn’t be good if they saw them. Let me finish torching this sinner, and I’ll get them down.”

“Yours are also showing.” The poofy mound of white hair usually covered them up, but they were peeking through now. “They’ll be unconscious if not dead. We’ll just take them down and leave them near the exit of the mineshaft.”

“Okay, dearie. Remind me to call Officer Gary when we get back so he can handle them.”

Cormac and I exchanged a glance. “We found Officer Gary earlier… He’s dead.”

“What a pity,” Granny Liadan got ready to reignite the flamethrower. The wendigo raised a charred hand towards me for sympathy, but there was none to give. “We’ll just have to call Office Larry then. Remind me when we get home.”

The screaming and flames resumed.