There Is An Occult Store Near The Seattle Underground Where You Must Never, Ever Go. And Here’s Why.
Despite the intense unease he had been feeling mere moments ago, Tad found himself inexplicably engaged in Blackstone’s story. When the man paused to look down at the skull in his hands, Tad said, “And eventually, it was?”
Nigel chuckled, “No. I found my true power in the loo.”
“The what?”
“The toilet.” Nigel gently laid the skull on the table near the stairs, setting it down on the other side of the large crystal ball. “My father was a violent drunk. He came home from the pub, an all day bender, fire in his eyes. He was pissed off his rocker, angry that he spent his feeble paycheck in one night and even angrier that he had to feed my mother and I. As she often did, my mother locked us in the bathroom to wait out the storm. That was how we spent most weekend nights, but that evening my dad had other ideas. He kicked the door in like it was nothing, waving his manhood around.”
“Fuck! He was going to rape your mom right in front of you?”
“No, that’s what he called his snub nose .38. So my mother, cunning lass that she was, grabs the ceramic top off the toilet tank and smashes it over his head. Nothing like a mother protecting her cub, ay?”
Tad nodded again, this time more intently.
“Well, my father was a factory man, as big as an ox and numb from booze. He wasn’t going down that easy… The drunk fuck stood up with a blind fury and the devil in his heart and he raised my dear ole’ mum up by her neck, intent on squeezing the very life out’a her. That’s when I started feeling the power surging up from deep inside me… I squinted as hard as I could, focused on the smallest pinpoint I could on the back of his head. I imagined every capillary in his brain popping one by one, gaining speed until they burst like a line of Chinese firecrackers.”
“And then?”
“And then nothing.” Tad thought he saw a glint of a tear welling in Blackstone’s eye. “I realized I was nothing. Always would be nothing. My destiny was that of a son of a worthless drunk next in line for a strangling when he finished with my mum.”
“Fuck me.”
“And then I made his bloody head explode for real.” Nigel burst out laughing as a sudden shock surged through Tad.
“You did it?”
“If by ‘did it’ you mean I picked that .38 up off the floor and blew his brains clear out the back of his head, then yeah… I did it.”
Blackstone extracted a felt bag from the inside pocket of his jacket and gently slid the skull inside. He shook the bag in front of Tad’s face. “There is real power out there, of the kind that not even I can comprehend. But I found out that day that if you don’t have it, you take it.”