Chapter 3: The Dedication Ritual

James continued his studies and when he was satisfied that he knew the described ritual well enough he studied the calendar and picked the first night of the waning moon. The day before James went out to his private ritual area and prepared the Valknot, the three posts and the altar described in the book. The ritual called for an area just over fifteen feet wide on three sides. The altar was set on the eastern most side of the three-sided Valknot. The fire pit was to be centered in the middle of the Valknot. James spent five hours setting up the area and making sure that all was set up exactly as the ritual called for. James had spent several days learning each and every word and phrase of the ritual.

Before James could even practice the first ritual he needed to perform a ritual ceremony to sanctify his chosen tools. This meant that he would have to sanctify his tools in his own blood. James was not worried about that part of the ritual. Offering a portion of his own blood to get his beloved Shelly back was a small price to pay.

On the first night of the next waning moon, James put on a white robe and walked out to his ritual area and set out his tools. He began by clearing his mind for the upcoming event. As the time for the ritual approached, James removed his robe and stood naked in the middle of the Valknot near the fire pit. James kindled the fire, stood up, faced east, and walked to the altar. The night was cool and still, no breezes or winds were present. The leaves on the trees were motionless. All life or noises of life seemed to have stopped as he approached the altar. The silence was only broken by the sound of the ceremonial flame consuming the wood in the fire pit.

The ritual called for the supplicant to have the sacrificial dagger in the left hand and the sacrificial hammer in the right hand. Facing east, he called for the gods and wights to witness the supplicant and the sacrifice about to be proposed. The supplicant was then to turn to the south followed by the west, north and lastly east again. The supplicant was to always turn in a counter clockwise motion. At each of the cardinal directions, James put his arms into the air at a forty-five degree angle and called for the gods and wights to witness his sacrifice. After he had performed the calling in each of the four directions, James then walked over to the altar and knelt down in front of it and proceeded with the next part of the ritual. He then lowered his arms down and crossed them over his chest. He called for Loki and Hella to witness and accept his sacrifice and his pledge of troth to gain Loki s release. In exchange he asked for the return of his beloved Shelly.

James then placed his dagger and sledgehammer on the altar. He took out a small knife and lifted his left arm over his wooden bowl. Quickly and smoothly he made a small incision in his left arm just over a vein and let his blood spill into the bowl. The ritual called for enough blood to coat the blade of the dagger, the iron part of the sledgehammer, and a hand made leather garrote. James figured this would be just under a pint. James did not feel a bit upset or queasy as the blood drained from his arm. In fact, to see the blood flow was very interesting to him.

James determined that he had enough blood and quickly bandaged his arm. He had brought out some gauze pads and a tight wrapping. He then continued with the ritual. He once more picked up the dagger and repeated the words that signaled the start of the blessing of the dagger. He picked up the bowl of blood and poured enough over the blade to drench the business end of the dagger. He set the blade down and picked up the large drill hammer and repeated the motions to dedicate the hammer to its tasks. Lastly he dipped a wide leather garrote with two knots into the pooled blood. Now the hammer, dagger, and garrote were all covered in blood and dedicated to the tasks ahead. James finished the ritual and closed the circle. That was the first time that James noticed that his hands and arms were covered in his own blood. Although Loki and Hella did not appear, he felt sure that his tools were accepted as the instruments of his beloved Shelly s deliverance.

For the ritual where the victims would be offered to his gods the ritual would not require his blood, but the sacrifice of 24 victims. James determined that he would need to practice the sacrifices to fit into a definite period of time. The ritual sacrifice would be similar at the start. He would need to face each direction and call the gods and wights to witness the sacrifices. Then instead of using his own blood he would use the described means of death of each girl to fulfill the needed number of deaths to bring about Loki s release and the return of his beloved Shelly. James closed out the ritual, went inside and cleaned up his tools and himself before going to bed.

Six months remained until the night of the first ritual. James decided that he should try and run through a ritual and see if he had all the details correct. James gathered all the necessary materials and put them in the ritual area he had built so many years before. Three poles were placed in the ground in a triangle pattern then he outlined the Valknot. James had studied the use of the Valknot and had learned that it was considered as powerful as the pentagram. The Valknot is three overlapping triangles, one corner of each overlapping the others.

The fire pit was built and the altar prepared. Instead of bodies James decided to use sandbags for bodies and pumpkins for heads. James cleared his mind and prayed to Hella and Loki to forgive him for this practice. With that done James started to chant the ritual. At the proper moment James approached the first sandbag figure and pretended to carve the first rune. Then James brought the dagger to a point on the bag that represented the heart of the victim and the hammer to the head of the victim. He drew a deep breath and stabbed the sandbag and brought the sledgehammer down on the pumpkin.

The dagger plunged into the sand and the sledgehammer hit the pumpkin and split it in several pieces with a loud smashing sound. James looked at the first victim and decided that he needed more practice. He went on to the next part of the ritual and approached the second victim. James repeated the steps and this time his stabbing and hammer blow went much better. By the time he reached the third victim he knew that he could do it right. Over the course of the next two months James tied several methods of sacrifice all of which had been used by his ancestors. The methods of choice was called the Three Fold Death. This type of execution required that the victim die by three means. A dagger to the heart, a hammer blow to the head, and strangulation.

The Norse had also used methods such as cutting out the living heart of the victim while hanging the victim from a tree. One of the most gruesome, but most honored was called Carving the Blood Eagle. James practiced these and others until he was sure that he could perform each perfectly.

The book had described several acceptable methods of sacrifice. On selected nights James practiced these methods to be sure he knew how to perform each method correctly. His studies in forensics had aided him in learning the best way to perform each type of killing. The last thing to do was to invent and build a set of remote controlled collars.

In past times, two or more people preformed the ritual sacrifices. This time James would have to act alone. Being an electrical engineer, the designing and building of a triggering control was easy. The actual collar would be a bit harder, but not impossible. James tried several methods before he settled on a system that would contract via the use of a ratchet and chain. The chain would ratchet shorter so the collar would suffocate and eventually kill the victim. The collars would be covered in leather. James tried one of the collars. It worked very well. James knew that he was now ready for the first set of sacrifices.

James decided that he would perform the first three of twenty-four rituals on the mansion grounds. It would be performed in his ritual area. The poles were still set and the rest of the needed supplies already obtained.

The only thing left for James to do was to get a haircut and trim his beard to just a mustache. A shower and some good food would follow.

New York City

Three days before the night of the first full moon of fall, James drove to New York City and purchased an older, but very nice limousine. He had decided that he would drive it himself to then carryout the next part of the plan. He had brought several thousand dollars and this would be used to obtain the services of three prostitutes. James drove the car to the red light district and began to look around for the right girls. It took James two hours to find three girls on a lonely street corner. James stopped the car on the street and got out. He walked over to the three girls and began to make the arrangements.