Horror

189

When his ex-wife, Margot asks to meet for dinner, Nick’s life had long been in a downward spiral. Plagued by hallucinations and voices that he attributed to his rather liberal use of alcohol, he was soon to discover something far more sinister was at play. Through brilliant research, Margot had discovered that both she and Nick were possessed by a demon known only to a seventeenth century Indian tribe. She tells Nick of how the creature slips unnoticed through time and space and orchestrates its victims to enact hideous acts of violence upon loved ones and neighbors. Worse, the demon, Ouintan-Mantua, was calling them both back, back to the place of their first encounter, Clarion, Pennsylvania. Its beckoning is inexorable, its powers of illusion commanding. Their only hope to break the spell is an obscure tribal rite discovered by Margot with the help of a discredited college professor and a tribal medicine man. But, before they can fully enact a plan, Margot disappears with their daughter Marissa, lost in the autumn festivals of Clarion. Nick follows, only to fall into the creature’s trap where, in a pitch-dark railroad tunnel, he makes his final stand against the beast.

“Beckoned” is the story of an ageless Native American demon encountered by two college lovers, Nick and Margot. In a barn littered with the remains of slaughtered animals, at a place and time where two worlds intersect, Nick stumbles upon the beast and falls under its curse. Unwittingly, he brings Margot to the scene and she is likewise possessed.
Many years later Nick is divorced and alone. He has lost everything; his home, Margot, and their daughter Marissa to what he believes are his own demons; alcohol abuse and infidelity. But now, many years after their first encounter with the evil spirit, it summons Margot and Nick back. Through brilliant research, Margot, a cultural anthropologist, discovers the nature of this beckoning. She calls her ex-husband, convincing him to meet her. Over dinner, Margot tells Nick of a creature that hides its crimes in the monstrous actions of those it has possessed. Margot takes Nick through the course of her research and the discoveries that lead to a realization that a previously unknown Native American demon possesses both her and Nick and is in part responsible for their failed marriage.
It is a tale that weaves a historical journey of the American Midwest of the late 1600s, the Illinois and Peoria Indians, the French Jesuit missions, and a connection to northern Pennsylvania. Margot tells Nick of the unspeakable acts of a creature working outside the bounds of time and space, a creature that slips from one world to another in order to act out its hideous crimes through the unfortunate souls it has possessed. To find and track the beast’s crimes she ties together sequestered letters from a rogue Jesuit priest, and several heinous crimes in Clarion Pennsylvania. Through ancient sources Margot uncovers an Indian exorcism rite passed down through oral tradition by a brave band of Peoria Indians who recognized and battled the beast, known to them as Ouintan-Mantua. The only reference to this ritual is a lost letter by the Jesuit, long sequestered by the church. This letter holds the key to a cure and becomes their only hope.
Nick realizes that many of the strange things that are happening to him of late are the callings from the beast. Margot likewise feels the creature’s calling and they understand that everything is converging on a singular time and place, the Autumn Leaf Festival in Clarion. Nick agrees to help Margot and they enlist the aid of a History Professor, Raymond McMasters whose belief in the demon has cost his professional standing and career. They form a strategy and in the course of the planning Nick and Margot find each other again. Working side by side they rekindle old flames, old feelings. But they must first encounter the beast once more. The confrontation will take place during the week long festival. But the demon also realizes that it has been discovered and attempts several affronts against Nick, causing him to have second thoughts about their attending the festival. Then, against Nick’s objections, Margot takes Marissa and travels to Clarion during the festival. She is imprisoned by the demon and Nick loses all contact with her.
Following her to the festival, Nick catches a glimpse of Margot at the parade but cannot reach her. He is then contacted by the demon through dreams and cryptic clues, drawing Nick ever closer into its web. In the final battle, played out in a pitch-black railroad tunnel, Nick finds that he must confront more than just the Ouintan-Mantua.

Excerpt
"Was this latest journey into the sub-basement of the human mind evidence of the beast? Or was it merely further evidence of how far I’d slipped into alcoholism and madness? And which answer did I prefer?"