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Message: <blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 4191084" data-attributes="member: 3285">Thin Jack: Part 8 – My Final StandArchive helped patch up the others with his medical kit.  And yet it seemed they recovered better than they should have without a trip to the hospital.  If they suspected other forces at work, none of them mentioned it.“I’ve been reading up on this place,” said Archive.  “Members of the Apache tribe were said to have a very rich gold mine located in the Superstition Mountains. A man called Miguel Peralta discovered the mine and began mining the gold there, only to be attacked or massacred by something in about 1850. Years later, a man named Jack Thorne treated an ailing Apache chieftain and was rewarded with information about the cursed goldmine. But when he found it, he encountered a thing known as ‘The Thin One’ or ‘The Skinny One’. Jack sacrificed himself to kill the Thin One, collapsing the gold mine on them both with dynamite. The Thin One is supposedly vulnerable to daylight and gold, of all things.”“When Vanvon dug up the gold, he released the ward,” said Guppy.“More than that,” said Archive.  “I think that thing WAS Jack Thorne.  They implant eggs in humanoids and use it to gestate…”“Poor bastard,” said Blade, scratching his ribs.“Doesn’t matter now anyway,” said Hammer.  “He’s dead.”The body was more than dead, it was dismembered.  They had blown the thing’s head off and shoved a stake of wood, taken from an old mining cart, into its heart. It was wrapped up in a bag that Blade and Hammer dragged through the desert back to the set.When they arrived, they found the crew setting up at the saloon.  Kalms was putting the finishing touches on the set.  Christine was in a wig and make-up. She was wearing a plain nightgown as well as a pair of stylishly anachronistic high heels.“What the hell?” asked Blade.  “Why is everyone up so late?  What is going on?”“Listen, Blade.  This is the big finale,” muttered Christine.  “Now stay out of the way, we’re cramming to fill the final scene.” She caught sight of Vanvon.  “What the hell happened to you?”Vanvon looked ignored her.  “They’re filming His movie.” He looked around wide-eyed.  “Whether they want to or not.”“Whose movie?” asked Blade.“Jack’s,” said Vanvon. “This thing…it has control over everyone.  Can’t you see?  We’re powerless to stop it!”Nobody looked up from their duties.  The sight of a dismembered body in a bloody plastic bag, or their beaten up director, failed to give them pause."All right, Christine," said Kalms. "In this scene, Drake, whom Dolores has put up in a spare room at the ranch house, sneaks into your bedroom after you've gone to sleep, and bites you on the neck. Really all you have to do is lie there in fear and Jack will do the rest."Christine got into bed. Out of the shadows materialized Jack wearing a red duster.  “Son of a bitch! What the hell did we just kill?” asked Blade. He looked back at Hammer to confirm.  Hammer nodded back – the headless corpse was still dead.They struggled to move, but it was like swimming up a waterfall.  Harming Jack seemed impossible; their will was sapped with the very notion of the effort.  Only when they diverted their minds to other things did the feeling disappear.  Jack took position between the bed and the mirror mounted on the wall behind him. He looked down at her, gently brushing her breast with his long nails.Christine pushed his hand away. "Watch it, @$$hole."Kalms exchanged an indecipherable glance with Hammer.  Then he walked over to one of the cameras and nudged it over. It shattered in an explosion of glass and uncoiling film."Damn!" shouted Kalms. "Hold it! Set up the other camera. Bill, there's another reel up in the gallery. Sorry, actors. It'll just be a moment."Jack, irritated, marched off the set.“They’re stalling,” whispered Archive.  “We may not be able to interfere with the film, but they’re rebelling in their own little ways.”The crew finished setting a new camera on the tripod. Jack, climbing the walls, stormed over to them."I'm tired of waiting," says Jack."All right, places," says Kalms. "Let's have lights..."Jack walked over to the set and resumed his position. Kalms adjusted the lights."Camera..." said Kalms.Christine lay, acting fearful, in bed. Jack, between her and the wall, kneeled and was preparing to bite her when she stared him full in the face.  Before Kalms could say "action," she started screaming."…end!" shouted Kalms. Blade rushed to her side."What is it?""His face..." said Christine. "He doesn't...Jack glared at Kalms."Let me have her," demanded Jack. "NOW.""She's hysterical."  Kalms walks over to Christine.  "Let her calm down first…"Jack pointed at Christine. She relaxed, fallen into a stupor. “Now she’s calm.”“Give her a moment, for God’s sake!” Jack once again stood beside Christine, whose eyes fluttered in a daze. Jack kneeled down beside her, ran his fingernails slowly along her legs and arms. She barely noticed."I'll take her now.""Control yourself for a moment, Jack. Let’s do the final scene." There was another set already prepared outside in the street.  "Okay, this is the scene," said Kalms. "Dolores, weakened by the nocturnal visits from Robey that she has already endured, begins wasting away; we know she’s headed downhill fast when she acquiesces meekly to Dan’s renewed efforts to make her rescind Robey’s contract with her on Buffer’s life.  There's no help for it; the only way to settle this is an old fashion duel between men.  A gunfight."Kalms looked around.  “We need a stuntman for this scene.”Hammer stepped forward. “I’m the best shot…”Kalms shook his head.  “Sorry, but our lead hero isn’t a black man.”Caprice took a deep breath.  Beneath his clothes, his shoulder was bandaged.  “That’d leave me then.”Kalms nodded.  “Fine.  Costume?  Makeup!  Get him ready.”The crew scurried, prepared for this eventuality.  “I need a hat,” said Caprice.  “A big ten gallon hat.”Jack stormed at the edge of the set. Although they couldn’t see his face, he was visibly frustrated.  “And boots,” said Caprice as the hat was screwed onto his head.  “Big alligator skin boots.”Archive slipped his pistol into Caprice’s holster.  “Use this gun.  It will penetrate his defenses, I hope.”“Oops,” said Hammer, spilling a glass of water down Caprice’s shirt.  “Did you have to make it so obvious?” muttered Caprice.“Sorry, Hotpants,” smiled Hammer.“I need a new shirt here!” shouted Caprice.“ENOUGH!” roared Jack.  “We will finish this now!”“Places everyone!” shouted Kalms.  Jack’s back was to the east, where the sky was beginning to lighten.  Dawn was coming soon.  The two combatants faced each other across the dusty road.  “And…action!”Caprice drew his pistol, but Jack was too fast.  The pistol was shot out of his hand.  “Pathetic,” came Jack’s voice in their heads.  “This is the best you can do?”Jack fired again, and Caprice fell to one knee, clutching his bleeding leg.The spotlights flickered. Suddenly Jack howled, clutching his face.  Guppy stood, arms outstretched, holding a flashlight-type device connected to the generator. He had mustered every ounce of his will to resist Jack’s mental domination and fire the beam in the thing’s direction. Its hat fell away.  Tentacles writhed where its face would normally be. Its whole body was a latticework of pink tentacles stretched over a skeletal frame.  It was if a human body had been stripped of its skin and the muscles rebelled, all struggling to tear off their moorings. “If you’re going to do something,” shouted Hammer, “do it now!”Blade surged forward, whipping his belt off.  He wrapped the leather around his knuckles with the gold belt buckle facing outward. Jack looked up from its convulsions in time to see Blade’s fist.  He punched it in the pulpy mass where its head should have been.It hissed and clawed his left arm.  Blade retaliated with an uppercut. “This is not how it’s supposed to be!” shouted Jack, its telepathic roar echoing in everyone’s minds.  “My final stand…”Blade grabbed both of its outstretched claws by the wrists.  Straining, he forced them behind Jack’s back, wrestling it so the thing faced east.  And the rising sun.Blade held it as the first rays of the sun came over the mountaintops.  They sliced through Jack’s flesh like laser beams, sizzling and popping the muscle.  Jack’s shrieks reached a crescendo, and then it abruptly burst, sizzling and popping into nothing but a puddle of goo. “And cut!” said Kalms with a smile, even though the cameras had long since stopped working.</blockquote>

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