A Disease Called Hope
an excerpt

There will now be a slight interlude while Detective Benji and his faithful crew investigate a lead. Outside the door of the mysterious and ramshackle building, he paused.
“OK, men, this is the place,” he said.
“What are we supposed to find here? It looks like it has been abandoned for years, “ said Officer Pardtree.
“Well, this is the place that idiot Centrifuge was last seen entering, so we should check it out. Knock down the door, Officer Pardtree.”
The rest of the officers tensed as Officer Pardtree prepared to kick in the door. He raised his foot, and then fell through the door as it opened from the inside.
“Oof,” he said, falling into the building, as the rest of the officers drew their sidearms.
“You allright, Pardtree?” said the Detective.
A muffled “um-hmm” emerged from a significantly more embarrassed floor than usual.
“Great...the rest of you men, let’s storm the building!”
The officers cheered lightly and charged in following their heroic detective. They ran through the abandoned foyer, Officer Pardtree recovering and following behind cautiously, until they came upon a large set of double doors. Which were locked.
“What should we do, Detective?” asked Officer Quimp.
Detective Benji put his ear to the door.
X’li...X’li...
Disturbed, he jumped back from the door.
“There’s someone in there!” he shouted. “And they’re chanting or something.”
“What?”
“Get these doors open!”
Officer Quimp tried the handle, but found it locked.
“Permission to break down the door sir” came a voice from the rear.
The officers all looked back to see Officer Pardtree, who had girded his loins to restore his honor after the previous door-related incident.
“Go for it, officer.”
The massive Officer Pardtree picked up a convenient brass candlestick. Then he held it in front of him, and ran at the doors, which conveniently did not open. He rammed the doors and wedged the candlestick between the crack of the double doors. He roared with the power of his strength, to little effect. The doors visibly buckled.
“OK, the rest of you, shoulders to the door!” shouted Detective Benji.
The rest of the squad rammed themselves into the door, which suddenly collapsed in splinters for some reason. The squad drew their weapons and charged into the room beyond.
“Hands up, whoever-you-are!” shouted Detective Benji.
Ignoring them in the middle of the room was a ring of black-clad figures. In the midst of them stood an even equally black-clad person, but who seemed to be in charge, in that he was raising his arms in a vaguely occult fashion while the rest were chanting.
“Hey!” shouted Detective Benji as they continued chanting obliviously.
“What should we do, Detective?” asked Officer Quirm.
“This is disconcerting,” remarked Officer Pardtree.
The rest of the squad remarked along similar lines as Detective Benji strode toward the ring. Suddenly, the black-clad person who was probably in charge looked up.
“More interlopers? We...heheh...have gotten popular recently.”
“Listen, you, have you seen Centrifuge?”
“Heheh, he was here...however briefly.”
“Allright, I think you all should come with me down to the station...you seem to have a bit of a cult thing going on here...and that’s probably against the law.”
“Heheh.”
“Detective, he seems to be laughing,” said Officer Quirm, in a rather obvious aside.
“Hey, cut that out!” shouted Detective Benji.
The high priest made an occult gesture and the chanting increased in volume. From the depths of his darkened robe he pulled forth a snake-headed wand. The chanting droned on. He pointed it at the officers.
“Leave now,” he said.
“Screw you, you bastard,” said Officer Quirm, moving forward with his sidearm drawn.
“Officer Quirm, stand dow-“ started Detective Benji.
The high priest smiled and flicked his wrist holding the wand. The chanting reached a crescendo. From the tip of the wand emanated a silvery beam that intersected Officer Quirm in the chest. He was briefly outlined in a dark field before he started to scream. He began to writhe in apparent agony, as he was drawn into himself in an imploding manner. As the chanting began to die down, Officer Quirm was drawn into a singularity where the grey beam had smote him, unto another realm undoubtedly, still screaming until the very end, when there was a slight “pop”. The rest of the officers stared in blank confusion and incomprehension.
“What the hell did he do?” gasped Officer Pardtree.
“I don’t give a damn, defend yourself boys!” screamed Detective Benji, pulling his sidearm and pointing it at the high priest.
“Heheh, you will feel the wrath of X’li!!!” laughed the High Priest as he prepared to send out another blast of magical power.
“Open fire!”
The squad all began firing into the high priest with their pistols, but the bullets ricocheted off an invisible field. The high priest began to have convulsions and the wand shook violently. Another bolt flew out of it and destroyed a priceless painting above the shoulder of Officer Crabforth. Officer Crabforth, in a panic, fired his pistol a few more times until he ran out of bullets, then threw the pistol at the High Priest. He missed. The rest of the cultists continued chanting, but looked to be close to the breaking point, and shifted nervously at this unexpected development. Officer Pardtree, having run out of bullets, charged forward and tackled the high priest, just as another spell went off. The spell, thrown off its original course, struck one of the cultists glancingly on the leg, who screamed as he was drawn through the singularity. The rest of the cultists broke and started to run, only to be beaten down by the remaining police officers. The high priest struggled briefly in Officer Pardtree’s grasp, but was soon silenced with a crack. The blood-crazed Officer Pardtree threw the high priest’s limp body from him and advanced on one of the cultists. Detective Benji ran to stand in front of him, and Officer Pardtree raised his fists and suddenly froze.
“Officer Pardtree, no more!” shouted Detective Benji.
Officer Pardtree continued to freeze, but tried to move forward. He shook his head violently.
“Officer Pardtree, stand down!” shouted Detective Benji.
As the rest of the squad watched in horror, Officer Pardtree started to bring his massive fists down on Detective Benji’s unflinching head. Then, he shook his head violently again. The rather slow thought processes of Officer Pardtree slowly worked themselves out, and his unreasoning rage began to subside. His arms fell to his sides and he slowly reverted to his normal state of mind. Detective Benji sighed with relief and walked over to the high priest.
“What’s the hell is all this then?” he said, as he spotted the mysterious wand that had so recently befallen his colleague. He hesitated briefly before picking it up, then grabbed it.