The Nature of Your Need

By Todd Wiley

The Second Front - In an alternate World War II, the Allies make a bargain with dark powers. But at what price?

Virtual War - When virtual reality IS reality, the consequence of death are a bit different.

Allgemeine Kosten - A German solider enduring the horrors of Stalingrad comes to confront the creature he has become.

In The Company Of Christ - What if the Second Coming doesn't go quite as expected?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Todd Wiley
• Release date: Jan 13, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301530540

Book preview

The Nature of Your Need

by Todd Wiley

Copyright © 2013 Todd Wiley / Hallowed Waste Press

Front Cover Illustration Copyright © 2013 Amanda Powell

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

For Minnie Belle Vinson - thank you for creating a family full of readers.

Table of Contents

The Second Front

Virtual War

Allgemeine Kosten

In The Company of Christ

The Second Front

The bomb exploded, tearing into the fabric of Reality. The Fromm Barrier weakened under the assault, allowing the Immaterium to bleed into the real world. The silver walls of the test chamber turned white with frosty rime. A vortex of shadow congealed, opening a portal to the other side.

Bishop Logan flinched as the bomb tore itself apart on the other side of the quartz blast-shield. His silvered goggles reduced the dazzling flash, but the concussion still reached him. The packed room paused, waiting on the vortex to stabilize.

Nothing stepped through the gate.

The bomb had failed to summon the demons.

Logan stood in the center of the room, alone in the crowd as people sprang to action. He pulled his goggles off, stared down at the shattered remains of the weapon, and sighed. This failure confirmed that even the simplest design had ceased to operate. Something had changed, and they had no idea what it might be.

Bishop Logan reached into his pocket and felt the edges of the folded envelope, handed to him this morning by his secretary. Not only had the failures turned the tide of the war, but the news in the envelope confirmed everyone’s worst fears.

Hitler had successfully tested an atomic bomb.

********

Logan returned to his office to find a faint, glowing scratch on the surface of his desk. The thin line barely broke the surface of the polish, but the faint glow revealed the source. Logan glanced around his office, suspecting he was being watched. Alright, I’ll be right there. He turned to a heavy door on the back wall of his office and passed through to the summoning chamber.

He closed the containment door and traced his ward over the surface, leaving a faintly pulsating line of fire suspended in the depths of the silver. He stepped within the chalked circle on the floor, taking a moment to assure there were no breaks or defects before beginning. The words came easy to him now, almost as a habit. The low, Latin chant gave his attention the necessary focus to reach out and intermingle with the Immaterium. Slowly, he parted the thread of reality, opening a passage and extending the invitation.

A figure coalesced in the center of the room, hovering over a thick layer of ice that glazed the floor. The form moved and twisted, flickering as it transitioned and assumed reality. As it coalesced, a pulse of pressure rumbled through the chamber beneath the audible range, sending Logan’s hair and clothes fluttering as if in an outdoor breeze.

The figure stood on two legs, assuming what would be the shape of a man, were it described by someone who had never seen one before. The rough approximations of arms, legs, and head stood out from an elongated torso, articulated at the waist in an unnatural and pronounced joint. The head rested on an extended neck with oversize facial features, leaving everything beyond the outline of jaw and forehead as an unfinished lump, still waiting to be hewn from a block of raw material. A shimmering white veil crawled over the form’s body, providing modesty which was certainly unnecessary given the lack of details on the torso.

Large eyes bulged from the skull as orbs of blue. The faint suggestions of irises and pupils floated in two dark blue spheres, while thin eyelids flickered across the wet surfaces. The nose was little more than an angular block with two holes hovering over the ragged scar of a mouth. Ridges of flesh outlined the scar to form lips which looked more like a bony frame around an imprecise wound.

Logan forced a smile. You’re getting a little better at the human shape, Pontius.

The stiff lips couldn’t twist into a matching smile, but somehow the face contorted into something that conveyed the same expression. Logan tried not to shudder at the sight.

It grows easier with time. The voice consisted of separate components, competing with each other to produce something a human could hear. Logan sensed an audible war between unheard frequencies, filling the room with an energy that would shatter his skull if not for