Paco screams from the other side of the pit and monster he’s called forth, “Veronica dear, I thought that’d you’d like to know that while you’re being devoured, I will be completing my last ritual, sacrificing this.”
He holds Rachel up in front of him, already bound back into her dead corpse. She’s gagged, but I can still hear her screaming in agony.
A wicked attempt to smile contorts his face as his enormous worm, in the space between us, swings wildly trying to force anything it touches into its rows of jagged teeth.
”Once I’m finished my power will be too great for any here to oppose me.”
Before I have time to respond, telling him he sounds like a cheap B-movie villain, the thing lunges forward out of the hole toward us.
It’s fast for something that size. It wraps one of its limbs around Sunny’s leg, pulling her to the floor off balance and almost succeeds in pulling her into its cavernous mouth.
Frank empties a magazine into the tentacle holding her leg. The sound it makes in pain as it drops her is the most awful guttural cry imaginable. This was definitely worse than we had planned for.
It lurches forward again with its grasping appendages thrashing wildly, knocking Frank and me to the floor. We’re both able to roll away fast enough to avoid their grasp. Now we’re both aware, as Sunny already was, of the barbs on the inside of the tentacles. Once this thing has its would-be meal it doesn’t mean to let it escape.
Jules takes the opportunity of its next violent jerk toward us to leap up onto its back. Using it as a springboard he jumps again, landing in front of Paco.
I can see the two of them struggling with each other, but I can’t follow what’s going on closely. It’s all I can do to keep Frank, Sunny and myself from being eaten.
Frank gets smacked back out into the hallway by the creature’s next advance, and that’s when I realize what Paco’s spirit servants are really doing.
They lift Frank off the floor and knock him back at the monster’s mouth hard. They are acting like the bumpers in a sadistic game of pinball. Conserving their energy, they’re simply watching to prevent us from escaping.
Sunny leaps in front of Frank, stopping his slide toward oblivion. They crumple to the floor in a heap of arms and legs. Smacking the things grasping limbs, I manage to buy them enough time to stand and get back out of reach.
Garrett and Julie are both trying to hit it as well, but it doesn’t even seem to notice them, as it rolls and smashes trying to get at me.
The floor is buckling under us, and it’s only a matter of a few more thrusts upward before that thing will have a clear shot at us. Then we really are all done for.
From across the room I can hear an inhuman scream from Paco. I can’t see through the gargantuan maggot in front of us to where he’s at, but the shriek is followed in quick succession by an electric crackling, and Jules screaming in pain.
I can’t help but feel déjà vu from last night’s events. It’s like we came back to let this putrid cadaver finish what he couldn’t before.
When the beast slumps back into the pit between us to prepare for its next onslaught I can see Jules smoldering on the floor, as Paco continues with his ritual. Terror begins to grip me like a vice. I believe that hope is truly lost until I see Jules’ arm shift position as he slowly moves to stand.
Paco can see him move as well, though. Distending his jaw, he issues forth another unbearable howl and sends a second surge of dark energies into Jules’ rising form. He’s battered back to the floor with fury. I lose sight of him as my view is suddenly blocked by a massive tentacle, radiating darkness.
With no time to react I find myself blinded by the thing now wrapped around my head. There’s an intense stinging pain in my head, as a large talon, like a hook, digs into it. My skull almost comes loose from my spine as it roughly drags me, kicking wildly, across the floor.
Someone grabs my arm and tries to pull me back, but the demonic slug wins the tug of war, pulling me free of whoever’s hands held me. Without warning my back is ripped open, as it’s pushed forcefully over bladed edges.
I’m shoved deep into its cold sticky mouth before I’m released. I have only an instant to orient myself, and try to keep my head intact as the barbed hook is removed, before the teeth begin to grind.
Now, I know I’m dead. I can only hope that someone kills this thing for me. The constricting darkness and digestive juices that surround me are not at all how I thought I’d meet my end. Thanks to Sunny my memorial will probably read ‘killed by giant potato maggot.’
With all the self-discipline I can muster, I concentrate on other, better ways I should have died. The concepts aren’t enough to take my mind off being chewed to pieces, but I’m distracted enough that when the being ground up becomes sharply jarring bounces in short bursts, I don’t immediately realize it. When the motion stops I hear a familiar sound, though it is deafening now.
The ugly worm creature screams in pain, and while its mouth is open Sunny jumps in and grabs me.
It looks like suicide on her part, until I hear Frank outside firing rounds into the beast from the automatic rifle. Now I get it.
Before it can even close its mouth from the first shriek of pain, it’s made to cry out again. The mouth still isn’t open long, but with Sunny’s speed it’s enough.
“Quick, jump for it,” she yells at me.
It clams down on her heel as we are diving out, and she yells as it pulls her backward. I grab her hands and yank her free, almost completely severing her right foot.
“Thanks!” she says, thankful not to lose anything else.
“No, thank you!”
I can feel from her that she’s more than a little freaked out by the lacerations all over my body, and the fact that she can see my spine. I try not to show her any pain, and hope that I heal as fast as possible.
It would be nice if I had learned better than to get distracted from the last incident, but I’m no more than out and back on my feet before I’m looking to see if Jules has killed Paco and saved Rachel yet.
What I see is not comforting. Jules is seriously wounded. I’ve never seen anything like it. Paco is spewing green flames from his hands, covering most of Jules’ body. His skin is beginning to slowly turn to clumps of thick ash and slough off of him, but he doesn’t stop fighting.
Jules falls, and I’m not sure if he’s getting back up again as Paco intones more of his ritual. I can see him twitching a bit on the floor, so I know he’s alive, but trying to get back up into that would be suicide.
I narrowly dodge another strike from this massive speed bump, and I’ve had enough.
“Everybody start grabbing those unquiet lackeys and get them into this things reach. Start with the ones in the assault team’s bodies.”
All five of us make a mad dash for the spirits that are keeping us herded in front of the hungry giant. I’m not sure if it’s out of determination on our part, or their sheer surprise, but we manage to buy ourselves some time. The eating machine in the floor is temporarily distracted chewing on things we threw at it, that aren’t us.
I look back to the altar and realize that Paco’s ritual has failed. He’s broken down part of his own altar, and thrown his precious ritual supplies across the room. His enraged tantrum would be funny if he weren’t venting his wrath on Jules.
Everyone around me is now embroiled in a free-for-all, as they try to force more of the spirits surrounding us into the reach of their master’s summoned pet.
Paco is attacking Jules in earnest. His hands are awash in green flame and he’s throwing it down onto Jules. Not only does it burn, but it appears to cling onto flesh. Even at this distance I can smell his hair and skin burning.
Jules draws his sword and stumbles to his feet. Shielding his face, he walks slowly forward through the gout of green flames, and blindly slashes downward twice. His second blow finds its mark, taking off Paco’s left arm at the elbow.
Paco screams in agony as the flames w
ash over them both. His servants, coming to his aid, begin to pummel Jules.
The rotting wizard puts himself out with a few words screamed in misery, but he’s badly wounded. He barks orders to the spirits nearest to him as Jules falls to the floor again. More flesh falls in piles of ashes around him, as he continues to burn.
I’m watching Jules with panic for his life, when the giant beast heaves itself up at us again. This time it’s more than the floor can take and it gives way under us.
I’m knocked backward at first, falling hard on the floor. Then, sliding at an angle downward I can feel exposed vertebrae drag across the ripped carpeting, pulling at the weave as I go. I’m pretty badly wounded and Frank and Sunny aren’t much better. We can’t hold out like this.
I’ve almost reached the conclusion, through my suffering and prolonged exposure to this thing, that we have failed, when I can see the black skinned demons keeping us pinned in here begin to struggle. It takes a moment to realize what’s happening as white light begins to pour into the room, but it becomes clear.
Lucy is here with her soldiers, and now I think we may have a chance.
Like a battlefield general, in a white formal gown, Lucy barks orders. Those under her command go in all directions dealing with the creature trying to eat us as well as the unquiet masses. Paco’s spirits seem seriously outnumbered next to the force that Lucy has brought to bear.
She sees me, fighting back to back with Julie, and looks around near me for Rachel.
“Rachel’s on the altar back there, behind this thing.” I point. “Help her!” She nods to me and disappears.
Just as I’m starting to believe she’s been gone too long, and must be in trouble now too, she returns carrying Rachel. The poor girl is free from her body, but not awake.
“Jules is still fighting Paco, and there are more of his unquiet on their way from below. Rachel must be taken away.”
I know she’s right, but I can’t abandon the fight.
“Julie.” It’s a gut reaction. “Julie can get her to safety.”
This kills two birds with one stone for me. I’ll know that Julie and Rachel are both safe.
“V, no! I’m not here because you want me to be. I have a stake in this,” Julie tells me. She’s impassioned and wants payback for her death. I don’t blame her.
Lucy looks into her deeply and then says, “Julie. Stop and listen to me. I need you to focus for me. I need you to stay with Rachel. Get her away from here and back to the safety of the sanctuary, if there’s a break in the fighting. Do you hear me? She will die here, you have to protect her.”
“All right. I’ll stay with her.” Julie accepts what’s asked of her, even if she doesn’t like it. That’s my girl.
“Thank you, child. If you can get her out, do it!”
Lucy and I turn our attention, as has nearly everyone, to the worm thing. It is gorging itself on Lucy’s spirits as well as Paco’s.
A quick glance back up to the altar shows me Paco and Jules. Still screaming and fighting, they both look completely devastated from the struggle.
With everyone now fighting together the deep dwelling creature begins to writhe and shriek in pain. It is being attacked on all sides, and is being wounded by more attackers than it can eat. It’s not a quick process, but eventually it turns to flee, ripping even more of the floor out as it goes. It’s not destroyed, but now the focus of the assault can shift to the ‘unquiet’ and Paco.
Paco’s ‘unquiet’ spirits put up a valiant effort, but soon realize they are terribly outnumbered and surrender, to be taken prisoner by the sanctuary’s outer guard.
I look back to the altar, not ready for the fight to be over, and Paco is gone. Not like he’s shuffled off this life into the next. He’s just gone. Somehow he managed to escape without tipping us, while we were dealing with his worm.
“I’ll find him, Jules. He can’t have gone far. There aren’t deep enough holes for him to hide in.” I look to Jules for his reassuring nod of approval and instead see pieces of his clothes and his hat lying in clumps of bloody ash on the floor.
“No. No. No!” I am suddenly acutely aware of his absence. I didn’t feel a big dramatic loss, but I know now that he’s not here. How did I not feel him die? My legs become unsteady under me. The vacant hole left in me is now a gaping pit I can’t hope to ignore.
“Jules!” I fall to my knees as tears streak my face. I can see that even Sunny understands as she looks away from me, showing a mirror of my sadness. My loss. The pain tears through me like lightning, both physical and emotional.
Why wasn’t it me who died? It should have been. It could have been. If I had killed Paco last night when he was unconscious, I would have died, but Jules would still be alive. He wouldn’t have even been here if I hadn’t asked him to be. This is all my fault.
I pick up shreds of his clothes and squeeze them tightly in my hands, trying to hold onto what little of him there is left in the room. I’m shaken, numb, and afraid.
He was my friend, my first real love, and the closest I’ve ever known to a father. He was my everything, for decades. He made me what I am. How can I hope to move on without him? How do I put my life back together, with the center missing?
I’ve been called an orphan for as long as I can remember, but for the first time I actually feel like one.
Frank walks over, leans down, and puts his arms around me, as I’m torn in two with pain and crying. For minutes on end he just holds me.
I hear Julie and Rachel talking to Lucy. They must not have made it far.
Lucy’s ice cold hand rests lightly on my shoulder, and I am thankful to have those around me I care about. I will not take any of them for granted.
“V?” Rachel’s little voice is still weak, but at least I can hear her again. I look up to see her, blurry through my tears.
“Yeah, Rachel?”
“The Garrett man is fading away.” She points behind her, but I can’t see him.
This is grossly unfair. It’s too much at once. Sunny is feeling what I’m feeling but she’s all alone, and I know she’d never accept comfort from me.
“What else can I do, Lucy? What else? There has to be something, right? There’s got to be a way to save him!”
She looks away from me, and I can only barely hear her say, “I’m sorry, Veronica. I’m sorry.”
The reality of the situation overcomes me. There’s far more loss than I’m prepared to deal with. I drop my head and cry.
With my eyes closed and my head down in grief, I feel a nudging on my leg. I open my eyes and wipe the tears enough to see that strange black cat. It’s here again.
It looks into my eyes and everything stops. It’s as if someone had frozen all life in place, except the cat and I. It crawls up into my lap but it never looks away from my eyes.
I hear a voice speaking, and it takes me a moment to realize that it’s that cat. She’s speaking in my mind.
‘I can’t bring your loved one back, and I can’t bring back the coward who fled, but I can save the one who is trapped in the world of the dead where he was left. I can do it now before he dies as well.’
“What will it take? What do you want?” I ask aloud.
‘You will aide me in the troubled times that lie ahead. Your friends already prepare for what they know is coming. I know as well. You will aid me, and for that I will aid you.’
“Aid you? How?” I ask, confused. “Who are you?”
‘My name is Elizabeth, but I answer more commonly to Liz. This cat is a vessel I use. It’s a creature I have attuned to my essence so that I can avoid undue notice. I wish to have your aid in physical and psychological matters. It will all become clear in time.’
“If you aren’t a cat, then what are you?” I ask, sure I’m having a complete mental collapse.
‘I am a woman, a human being. I am still very much alive unlike you, and I weep for what you are being put through. I wish to help you if you are willing to help me.’
&n
bsp; At this point, even if it’s not real, how can I afford to say no to it? I can’t. I have to do anything I can to save Garrett, if he can be saved.
“I’ll help you, okay. I’ll do it. Just save him.”
As soon as the words escape my lips, I’m sitting alone again. The cat is gone, and I feel ill. This must be what losing your mind feels like.
I hear a scream and I turn to look behind me and see Sunny running to Garrett. He’s standing right in front of me, and he’s actually there.
Sunny leaps over me into his arms and he swings her around hugging her as I slowly stand up in front of him wiping my tear streaked face.
I remember Jules holding me like that.
Garret puts Sunny down and opens his arms to me. I fall into him, crying on his shoulder. I’m glad that he can hold me. I need that and only that for as long as he can bear it.
I’m not sure how long I stay there in the safe warmth of his arms letting all my grief, guilt, and helplessness out on him. I only know he lets me.
When I finally lean back from him, our arms still draped on each other, to look into his face he has a warm smile for me and concern in his eyes. Where did this guy come from?
“How did you do that?” he asks softly.
“Do what?” I ask, trying again in vain, to wipe my face clean of makeup and tears.
“Bring me back across. How did you do it?”
“We’ll call it magic.” Unbelievably I manage a small laugh.
Garrett laughs too and pulls me outside with him. We sit down on the edge of the sidewalk just outside the building, and he puts his arm around me.
“At least we won.”
Garrett’s words are an attempt to console me, I know that. I stop to consider everything that happened, as I stare up at the stars and I can’t help coming to a different conclusion.
“We didn’t win.” I’m finally able to speak without my voice wavering.
“What?”
I look at him, but I have to look away.
“We saved Rachel, and stopped Paco’s ritual, that’s true. He got away though, even with all our effort, and he’ll try it again.”