A strange man was William Gross, clad in his shiny black tuxedo and standing there in the hotel conference room that had once again been hastily converted into a makeshift “theatre”. He was man of medium height and rather thin, with a long moustache decorating his strong African-American features. He raised his hands and addressed the small audience that had gathered there -- all of them hotel guests that were mobility challenged due to age or obesity -- with a voice tinged with a controlled pomp along with his carefully-modulated Southern drawl.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I am William Gross,” he announced, “The City’s greatest magician and illusionist. I’m here this evening to give you all a night of wonder. Because right here tonight in the magic theatre of the Lord Biltmore Hotel I am going to show you the very powers of my heritage; a heritage that fills me with pride. Let me tell you, ladies and gentleman, what I am going to show you is no joke. It is not simply slight of hand. It is a great power passed on to me by my ancestors for so many generations. It is a power borne from my great African heritage and brought to this country so many years ago by them. It is the power of spirits, gods and fetishes originally from the darkest equatorial jungles that can be commanded only by one of my blood. It is a power whispered of in fear and horror by black men and white men alike. It is a power I will use to gain power over this world. It is the power of Hoodoo!”
By now, some members of the audience had already waddled out of the room in boredom. These small time magicians, with their ridiculous come-ons and claims, were seemingly a dime a dozen these days. In fact, they were less than that, since none of them ever seemed to make any money. The ability to advertise for free on the internet and social media had given rise to an entire subculture of them, bereft of talent and of any understanding of actual show business.
Despite this, and also despite the fact that the few who remained in the audience were obviously dozing, William Gross continued unabated.
“LeRoy,” he called, “my hat!”
With this, a small dwarfish creature, hairy and hideous of countenance and dressed in a smaller copy of Gross’s tuxedo on which was a plastic nametag, approached the magician and handed him a tall, old style top hat.
“That is my friend LeRoy,” introduced Gross. “He is also from Africa, from a tribe hidden deep in the Congo region. In fact, it was at one time thought that the area from which he comes was inhabited by nothing closer to man than pygmy chimpanzees.”
The creature known as LeRoy had by now left the centre stage area and William Gross stood alone, holding his hat aloft.
“And now, ladies and gentlemen,” he went on, “I invite you to witness the initial conjuration that will commence our show here tonight. Please welcome with me the black gods themselves -- the spirits of Hoodoo!”
With this pronouncement, a thing of grotesque eldritch horror occurred; for at that moment there suddenly erupted from William Gross’s top-hat a stream of ebon black energy, forsooth an energy that swirled and whirled above him, giving glimpses of darksome horrors -- shapes of deformity and animalism and obscene perversion beyond imagining.
Then William Gross let out a peal of deeply triumphant and utterly mad laughter! …
My name is RUMANOS -- DOCTOR DANIEL RUMANOS, Extraterrestrial Espionage Agent and Intergalactic Man of Mystery. Even though I have the physical appearance of an human being, I am in fact several thousands of years old and do carry within my blood the vastly superior genes of the legendary Watchers of the Daemon-Star ALGOL. Originating ninety-three light years from planet Earth, we are the most intellectually advanced race in all of the known galaxies, whose technology is so sophisticated it often appears to be miraculous to lesser beings.
Whilst most Algolites tend to keep to themselves, preferring to live in elitist seclusion from the rest of the Universe and thus merely observing the goings-on of the myriad races of the vast reaches around them, I am an Operative for a secret organisation known as the KOSMIKOS or Cosmic Intervention Department, tasked with maintaining peace and order throughout the farthest reaches of Space and Time. It is our ongoing mission to defend the weak, the unfortunate, and the innocent from those who would harm or exploit them.
Currently assigned to Earth -- and assisted by the beautiful Miss Millie Drake -- I protect its people from the hideous manipulations of the arch-villain known as Magister Don Wingus and his occult terrorist organisation Spectral Paranormal; as well as from alien invasions, mad scientists, and indeed all manner of menace. I am the living embodiment of Algol on this world. I am a Knight of the Eternal Spires. I am the saviour of the Cosmos and the sword of justice from the planet Daemonia. I am the cosmic crusader. I am the stellar swashbuckler.
I am -- THE DAEMON-STAR!!! …
Millie Drake and I arrived at the Lord Biltmore Hotel in one of my especially modified automobiles -- this one a bright orange 1958 Cadillac Eldorado convertible, affectionate known as “Lolita 2”. We parked the car in the garage underneath the building and stepped out to go to the elevator lift.
I was wearing my usual finery, including a frilled poet shirt, purple velvet suit, leathern boots, panama hat, and one of my favourite opera capes.
Millie is an exceedingly beautiful young lady, petite and perfect with luxurious chestnut hair, lovely violet eyes, sun kissed skin, and cherry red lips. The tight, short, magenta coloured dress she wore only served to highlight the soft curves of her slender adolescent figure.
“So, Daniel,” said my companion, “what do we know about this William Gross person?”
“We know that he has been promoting himself as a stage magician for some time,” I replied. “This has mostly seemed harmless enough, until recently when he started also calling himself ‘The Master of Hoodoo’.”
“Hoodoo?” queried Millie Drake.
“It is a word taken from the Ewe language of western Africa,” I explained, “that can be translated as ‘spirit work’. It is basically a type of supposed witchcraft that was brought to this country from the Dark Continent during the days of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.”
“So what are the ‘spirits’ they work with?” asked Millie.
“That is thus far uncertain,” I admitted. “Perhaps they are some alien life-form, or the mentalist essence of some powerful beings from Earth’s past. These things have not been thoroughly analysed as yet, but perhaps this assignment will enable us to take care of that particular omission in our knowledge concerning the particularly demoniacal forces utilised by the various ‘occult’ criminals that it is our ongoing mission to fight against, hmmm?”
By now, we had come to the lift and entered it. I set the controls for the hotel’s second floor, forsooth the one in which was the location of the conference room cum theatre in which William Gross was currently performing.
“Daniel,” said Millie, “why is it that the Lord Biltmore Hotel in particular has become such a frequent place to find these occult criminals?”
“I believed it has taken upon itself a bit of a ‘curse’,” I opined, “due to its at one time having been used as a headquarters by that particularly execrable Spectral Paranormal lieutenant Vincent Gale Wilson, Jr. -- the same who is known to eternal infamy as ‘Vince Wilson the Paranormalist’.”
“Yes, he was awful!” shuddered the girl.
“Quite so, love,” I agreed. “but now we have this William Gross to deal with and… What on Daemonia?”
My sudden exclamation was caused by noticing that the elevator lift had gone past the second floor and was continuing upwards -- upwards to the very top of the skyscraper building.
“Daniel, what’s happening?” enquired Millie Drake.
I reached into my jacket pocket and removed the Transonic, an highly advanced scientific instrument in form somewhat resembling a large writing pen. I then utilised it to scan the elevator controls.
“By the Triple Star!” I swore upon viewing the readings obtained. “It appears that the lift is being influenced by the forces invoked by William Gross in his currently ongoing stage performance.”
“But… what are they?” questioned Millie.
“Apparently, the spirits of Hoodoo,” I answered, “are a combination of the remains of numerous other such forces, including ones we have faced before -- like the Cacodemons of Andromeda, the Shaitans of Eblis, and the Maskim of Mercury!”
“Oh my goodness!”
“They are taking control of the elevator, and will cause it to…”
Before I could complete my statement, it happened. The lift reached the very top of the hotel building and stopped for a mere moment -- before reversing and beginning to plummet down, taking us on a potentially fatal course to crash at the bottom!!
Millie Drake screamed in terror and clung to me as the elevator fell to our apparent doom. I quickly began programming various sequences into the transonic device and attempting to see the outcome on the lift controls. Finally, as we had almost reached the bottom the shaft, the elevator suddenly slowed down and stopped.
“Are you all right, Mills?” I enquired concernedly whilst returning my device to my pocket.
“Yes, I think I’m okay now,” she replied.
“Fortunately, there was an override system the spirits had not as yet found,” I explained. “I was able to activate it via the transonic and stop the lift -- just in time!”
“So where are we?”
“It seems that we have managed to make it to the second floor after all, hmmm? We must now find our way to the ‘magic theatre’ and face William Gross directly. Please do be cautious, my dear. The spirits will have informed him of our arrival, and we know not what other horrors he may now have in store for us.” …
Back in the theatre room, William Gross had continued with this magic show in front of the small audience. He had already gone through several routines, which were in themselves not much different from the usual things you would expect from a stage illusionist, but nevertheless punctuated by the presence of swirling dark forces -- in truth the very extraterrestrial horrors that had amalgamated themselves into the so-called ‘spirits’ of Hoodoo!
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “I’m sure you are enjoying the show, and we have much more to come here tonight at the magic theatre of the Lord Biltmore Hotel! In fact, we might even be having some very special guests joining us here soon. I’m sending my assistant LeRoy to greet them!”
With this, Gross motioned to the little black creature and it obediently left the room, making a strange animalistic cackling sound. …
Millie Drake and I had exited the lift and were even now walking down the hallway to-wards the location of the horrid makeshift theatre. We heard the sound of William Gross’s voice in the distance, but could not as yet make out his words. As we approached, an odd animalistic cackling noise also began to become obvious.
“Daniel, do you know what could be done to banish the Hoodoo spirits?” asked Millie.
“I have some idea,” I rejoined, “but we shall have to ascertain as to exactly what level of expertise this William Gross person has risen in conjuring and controlling them. Seeing as they are in actuality a conglomeration of several alien forces, none of the usual exorcisms formulas would effectively work against them, so…”
At that moment, my speech was halted by Millie Drake’s scream. It was a scream of horror at what had suddenly issued forth from the shadows of the corridor; forsooth a scream of fear and terror at the grotesque abomination that at that very time leapt forth into our path, cackling a bizarre sound of challenge through its hideous grin of sharp subhuman teeth.
The thing was like unto a small, hairy, apelike man, dressed incongruously in a tuxedo emblazoned with a nametag that said “LeRoy”. It was obviously the result of one or more unholy acts of interbreeding between a primitive tribe of human pygmies and chimpanzees or bonobos. Before I could react, the horrid jungle-born miscegenation jumped forwards, hurling itself upon me. It was far stronger than I would have assumed, and the resultant impact sent me falling to the floor of the corridor with the obscenely horrid beast upon me!
I quickly recovered from the fall, but then realised that LeRoy’s hairy hands were on my throat and squeezing hard against my windpipe. I knew that I only had a few moments until the pressure would send me into unconsciousness. I just then managed to reach behind the savage creature and apply a touch of my fingers to his lower spine. With this, he screeched and his hold on my throat loosened so that I was able to partially regain my footing, standing up somewhat from the prostrate position to which the little horror’s attack had initially brought me.
Then LeRoy opened his horrible mouth and began to snap his rows of sharp apelike teeth at me. I only barely managed to hold him off from making contact as I attempted to inch to-wards a certain destination in the hallway. It was to what appeared to be a fuse-box.
By now, Millie Drake had somewhat recovered from her initial fright at the sudden appearance of LeRoy. Just when the little monstrosity’s horrid teeth were about to make contact with my face, Millie managed to contact a precise kung fu kick to his side, sending the black ape-man up and away from me.
Before LeRoy could recover from this, I landed a blow of my fist to his simian face, sending him directly into the fuse-box. There was a brief flash of light as he made contact with it, the impact causing some wiring to be exposed and to fill his body with deadly electricity. In an instant, LeRoy crumpled to the floor, his life extinguished.
“Chimp out,” said I.
Without wasting a moment, Millie Drake and I hurried onwards down the corridor to the theatre room. We entered it and beheld the few remaining audience members and the weird figure upon the stage. It was William Gross himself, oddly resplendent in his tuxedo and surrounded on all sides by the howling horror of the darksome Hoodoo spirits.
“Greetings, Doctor Rumanos and Miss Drake,” he said. “We have been expecting you. The spirits have told me much of you both.”
“If that is the case, Gross,” I returned, “then you should know that we can under no circumstances allow you to continue this outrage. You have called forth dangerous otherworldly forces that you cannot possibly understand or control. These ‘Hoodoo spirits’ of yours are vile extraterrestrial entities, the very existence of which is an abomination against all that is holy. They are wicked and evil; grotesquely distorted remnants of beings that no longer have any rightful existence in this Universe -- or indeed in any sane reality. Any attempt to utilise them is doomed to utter and dismal failure, and it is a failure that shall lead to your doom!”
“Oh, but you are wrong, Doctor,” replied William Gross, his voice edging further and further into madness. “I am the master of Hoodoo, and the spirits are under my control. I will use their power to gain complete domination over this world!!”
“That is insane,” I countered. “Utterly insane. You cannot control these eldritch horrors from beyond, and it is our most holy duty to stop you from any further attempts to do so.”
“You cannot stop me!” he shouted in anger. “I am the City’s greatest magician, and nothing will stand in my way!”
As we approached the horrible black magician known to eternal shame as William Gross, I took the transonic device from my pocket and began to analyse the exact nature and strength of the magician and of the “Hoodoo spirits” he had conjured. Unfortunately, this took up much of my concentration, and I did not notice that, as Gross also continued to distract Millie and me with his talking, a rather large mass of the ebon spirits had crept up behind us.
“Daniel, look out!” I heard Millie Drake suddenly cry.
I managed to glance behind us just for long enough to see the horrid accumulation of darkling entities before they reached us, the resultant impact sending both my companion and me sprawling upon the floor of the hotel conference room -- whilst the transonic device flew from my hand to land on the floor several metres distant!
“You are finished, Doctor Daniel Rumanos!” announced William Gross. “You are finished!”
I sincerely hope, my dear friends and most indulgent readers, that you cannot fully comprehend the obscene and abominable horror of the situation in which Miss Millie Drake and I then found ourselves. I truly pray that it is beyond your understand to know the supreme depths of tenebrous terror that we were at that time experiencing. For if you could, the realisation of the eldritch cosmic horror of this could send you screaming into absolute madness forevermore.
“You are finished, Doctor Rumanos!” repeated the vile magician William Gross. “The spirits of Hoodoo will now continue to completely destroy you and your friend! Then nothing will stand in the way of my dominating this world!!
Fighting hard against the influence of the spirits surrounding us, I crawled across the floor and just managed to reach out my hand and grasp the transonic device. I then quickly activated it to a certain setting.
Then, with an ungodly cacophony of demoniacal howling, the horrifying conglomeration of grotesque extraterrestrial terrors -- that satanic amalgamation of Andromedan Cacodemons, Shaitans, Mercurian Maskim, and other eldritch horrors -- turned upon William Gross.
“No!” he cried in sudden abject terror as he realised what was happening. “No! You cannot do this to me! I am William Gross the magician! I am the master of Hoodoo, and the spirits are under my control! They cannot harm me! No! No! Nooooooooo!!!”
By now, the entities had totally surrounded William Gross and, when their horrid howling had finally cut off the sound of his protestations, they then suddenly faded from view. Within moments, both William Gross and the “Hoodoo spirits” were no more -- having now vanished from that hotel conference room as if they had never even been there.
I stood up and returned the transonic to my pocket, then helping Millie Drake to her feet and ascertaining that she was thankfully unharmed.
“How did you do it, Daniel?” asked Millie. “How did you get the Hoodoo spirits to attack William Gross?”
“I was able to program the transonic to what could perhaps be termed a sort of ‘exorcism cocktail’, hmmm?” I explained. “It utilised several different methods that have been embedded in the device from our past dealings with the several alien forces making up the Hoodoo spirits. Whilst the resultant combination was not precise enough by itself to exorcise the ‘spirits’ completely, it did send them into confusion and cause them to turn upon their supposed ‘master’, the magician William Gross.”
“An ‘exorcism cocktail’,” mused Millie. “Kind of like a spiritual shrimp cocktail?”
“Much more kosher than that, my dear,” I smiled back at her.
“So what has happened to William Gross now?”
“The spirits will have taken him -- body and soul -- to the inter-dimensional prison in which they now usual dwell -- the realm known to some as Gehenna. There, they will spend eternity feeding upon his very essence. I hear that is quite painful to humans, hmmm?”
“So Daniel, is something going to be done about this hotel? It has become such a horrible pace, being used by all these evil magicians and everything.”
“Indeed, we must take action about the Lord Biltmore Hotel soon,” I announced. “It has been utilised again and again to conjure obscene stygian horrors into this world. The time has come for its legacy to end.”
“Will the Kosmikos have to obliterate it from existence in Time and Space?” wondered Millie Drake.
“Nothing so Cosmic should be necessary, love. I shall simply pass along a psychic suggestion to some local investors and developers. The LBH will be torn down and, in the usual city manner of doing such things, a ‘mixed use’ shopping centre and condominium building will be erected in its place.”
***** DANIEL RUMANOS AND MILLIE DRAKE SHALL RETURN
