David dropped his bag. He shoved both hands into it, pulled out a long silver dagger with his right hand and grasped a brilliant white orb in the other. “Kara, move!”
But she couldn’t. Glued to the spot, Kara’s body suddenly turned ice cold, as though the temperature in the room had dropped by twenty degrees. Weakened by the evil the creature oozed, Kara felt icy hands tighten around her neck, suffocating the life out of her. “What’s happening?” She brought her hands to her throat and felt the weight of the demon pull her down. Darkness lurked inside her, threatening to consume her mind.
But Kara wasn’t about to let this ugly demon kill her. She was stronger than that. With her inner strength, she strained and fought against its evil. After a moment, the cold released itself and dissipated.
“Quick…behind me!” David pushed Kara hard to the ground. He ran past her and planted himself in the middle of the hall, swinging his weapons before him.
And at that moment, Mrs. Wilkins decided to join the fun.
“What’s all this racket?” She bellowed as she bounced into the hallway between David and Kara. First she saw David, who was holding a very large dagger, and then she turned her attention to Kara on the floor a few feet behind him looking very pale.
“Good Lord!” Shrieked Mrs. Wilkins, cowering against the wall. “What are you trying to do with that knife?” she cried. “Are you going to murder us…cut out our innards and sell them on the black market?” she squealed as she clutched her chest.
“Lady, we’re here to protect you!” cried David, his eyes locked on to the shadow.
Mrs. Wilkins followed the direction of David’s eyes and saw the demon at the end of the hallway. She gave out a yelp. Taking on a solid form for a moment, the demon showed its true self, a putrid core of intertwined monsters. Wormy tendrils formed legs that it used to propel itself towards them. It shimmered before changing back into black mist.
“Go back to the Netherworld, shadow demon!” David thrust the white orb before him. Brilliant rays of white light shot out of the globe. They flew straight at the shadow demon. They hit. The demon let out an ear-piercing cry as its solid form reappeared, covered in light. Convulsing, it flickered and changed back into a black cloud, then vanished.
“Kara!” shouted David as he turned around and faced her. “Take Mrs. Wilkins outside…quickly…before more demons come!”
Kara blinked. She stared into David’s face, her feet glued to the ground. Images of demons flashed inside her head…her childhood nightmares were real. Her mother had been telling the truth all along. The demon that tormented Kara in her dreams, time and time again, had just appeared a few feet away from her. She shook herself out of her trance and forced herself to concentrate on David’s words. She had to do something. Mrs. Wilkins’ body was trembling, her face screwed up in complete terror and bewilderment. She needed Kara’s help. Kara was the guardian, after all. Compelled to do the right thing, she pushed herself up and jumped towards Mrs. Wilkins, tripped, and fell flat on her face.
Mrs. Wilkins, on the other hand, decided to move. Trampling over Kara she stumbled into the kitchen, screaming like a banshee.
“Kara!” yelled David, as he saw Mrs. Wilkins wobbling into dangerous territory. “Mrs. Wilkins is in the kitchen. The dishwasher. Keep her from it!”
A chill prickled on Kara’s M suit as she felt the temperature in the hallway drop again. She lifted her head off the ground and flinched as another shadow demon appeared behind David. “David! Behind you!” She pointed towards the corrupted creature.
The shadow demon glistened back to a mist and grabbed David from behind, enveloping him in a black cloud. For a moment, Kara thought the demon had devoured him—there was nothing but a black fog where David had stood. Suddenly, the creature materialized back into its true self and David emerged. He leaped into the air as he fought the shadow demon off with his dagger, stabbing and slicing off parts of the creature. Black liquid sprayed the walls.
“Get—to—Mrs.—Wilkins…” he panted as he fought the demon.
“Right,” said Kara. She had to try to keep the lady away from the dishwasher. She struggled to her feet and staggered to the kitchen. She spotted Mrs. Wilkins hiding under the kitchen table, praying.
Kara fell to her knees, inches from the table. “Mrs. Wilkins, come, come with me…we have to get out of here.” She grabbed hold of the old woman’s droopy arm and pulled. “Please, we have to go!” she urged.
But Mrs. Wilkins wasn’t moving. With her eyes wide, she just rocked back and forth, praying silently. Kara could hear David still fighting the shadow demon. She knew she had to move fast. She yanked Mrs. Wilkins with both hands, pulling as hard as she could. But nothing happened. Kara couldn’t pull her out from under the table.
And when Kara thought things couldn’t get any worse, she felt a chill as another shadow demon materialized in the kitchen, two feet away from Mrs. Wilkins’s crying face. Nasty black cloud-like tentacles rippled along the kitchen floor, slipping their way towards them. Mrs. Wilkins screamed and rushed out from underneath the kitchen table, sending chairs and Kara flying back and crashing into the wall.
Kara watched the events as they happened as if she were watching a movie clip in slow motion. Mrs. Wilkins clambered out from under the kitchen table, slipped, and flew two feet in the air. Her body hovered for a moment—and crashed face first onto the open dishwasher door. With a loud crunch, the dishwasher’s door fell off its hinges and flattened under Mrs. Wilkins’ weight.
Kara stared open-mouthed as Mrs. Wilkins lay spread-eagle on the kitchen floor, knives protruding from her bloody scalp. Her unspoiled left eye fixed on Kara, accusingly, as though this was her fault. After a moment the woman’s body sparkled, as though her skin was painted with millions of tiny diamonds. The diamonds then detached themselves and hovered above the body, slowly coming together in a ball of light, like a tiny sun.
Something moved in Kara’s peripheral vision. As she turned, she watched in horror as the shadow demon crawled towards the dead woman. Without thinking, she pushed herself up and ran towards the ball of light. Something inside her told her to protect it. But after three strides, she felt something grab a hold of her left foot. She fell flat on her face. Then her body was lifted in the air by her feet and thrown across the room. She hit the wall with a crash and fell hard on the floor. Kara struggled to her feet and whipped her head around. A pulpy mass of flesh with exposed veins slithered on the kitchen floor. Blood red tentacles lashed out, like an overgrown octopus. Multiple heads and mouths with razor-sharp teeth covered its body. The demon ignored Kara and crawled towards Mrs. Wilkins.
Stiff as a statue, Kara watched in horror as the creature’s tentacles wrapped themselves around the woman’s feet and pulled itself up, inches from the ball of light. Its misshapen form rolled onto the dead woman’s corpse. Its touch corrupted her body, and her skin turned immediately black and rotted away, peeling. The shadow demon pulled itself up towards the light.
“No!” howled David, appearing suddenly in the doorframe. He ran towards Mrs. Wilkins.
But it was too late.
The shadow demon shimmered and grew. It then threw itself forward, swallowing the ball of light completely, and vanished.
David ran towards Mrs. Wilkins and looked down at her blackened body.
“Oh…this is not good.” He dropped to his knees. “We’ve lost the soul. I’m going to get sacked,” he said, as he narrowed his eyes. “I shouldn’t have let this happen. I should have seen it, been more prepared. This is my fault.”
He jumped up and started to kick the dishwasher. Mrs. Wilkins’s shriveled body rebounded as it jiggled and bounced up against the door. Black ooze dripped out from the corners of her mouth.
David shook his head. “Wait a minute…I don’t understand? How did they get here so quickly? It doesn’t make any sense.”
A chill rolled up inside Kara at the panic in his voice. “What…what do you mean? David, wha
t are you talking about?”
“The demons. They never show up that fast. It usually takes an hour or so for them to sense us. But this was like…they knew we’d be here.”
After a moment, he looked up at Kara, his eyes wild. “We have to get out of here.” He stood still for a moment, then sprinted out of the kitchen and vanished into the bathroom, leaving Kara staring open-mouthed.
“Quickly, this way,” yelled David from the bathroom doorway. “It’s clear.” He disappeared inside the bathroom.
“I don’t have a good feeling about this.” Kara struggled to her feet. “Ow!” She felt a sharp pain on her right ankle. She lifted up her pant leg. A tiny black mark in the shape of a spider web traced her ankle. “What the…?” She rubbed her finger across it and felt no discomfort. The pain was gone. She rolled the bottom of her pant leg back down and took off after David.
When she reached the bathroom doorway, David was kneeling beside the toilet convulsing, but he wasn’t puking his nonexistent guts. Instead, raging mad, he rummaged through the contents of his bag and pulled out a file. He shoved it in Kara’s face. “Here, take this…you’ll need it. We’re going to Level Four. We have to tell them we’ve lost a soul and it’s not going to be pretty. Get ready.”
Kara stared down at her shoes, feeling miserable. She wasn’t entirely sure what this meant, or what she had done, but from the crazy expression on David’s face, she figured losing a soul was very bad.
“I’m sorry,” she managed to croak. “I…I—tripped and then I couldn’t pull her out. I kept pulling and pulling, and then I tripped again and the demon…”
“Don’t worry about that.” David straightened up and he threw the duffel bag back over his shoulder. “Right now, the best thing for you and me is to get out of here.” He lifted up the toilet seat with his foot. He glanced up at Kara and cocked his head towards the toilet. “You go first, I’ll cover you.” He jumped over and stood in the doorway protectively, watching.
“What? What are you doing?” cried Kara, flabbergasted, her eyes bugging out of her head. “You don’t want me to—you can’t be serious. That’s disgusting.”
David turned to face her and said sharply. “We really don’t have time for this. Haven’t you noticed the demons here—hello?”
Kara blinked. “You’re crazy. No, you’re insane. There’s no way I’m touching that. It’s nasty.”
“That’s what they tell me.” David turned his head and watched the hallway, then turned back to Kara and met her eyes. “I need you submerge your head in water, and I’m not going to wait to draw you a bath. Do you really want to wait around and see if the shadow demons decide to come back? Because they will, you can count on that.”
Although she didn’t want to admit it, Kara knew David was probably right. Reluctantly she leaned towards the toilet and clasped her hand on her mouth “It stinks. Are toilets normally that small? I’m not sure my head is going to fit in that.” She grimaced as she gawked at the yellow water and the slimy brown ring around the inside.
“It’ll fit.” David sighed loudly as he dropped his shoulders and looked up at the ceiling. “You’re not going to catch a disease or anything, you’re dead remember? You’re going to have to get used to it. It’s your new career. Quickly…I’ll be right behind you.” He came forward and edged her towards the toilet.
“Wait,” said Kara desperately. “What happens after I put my head in it?” She pointed to the toilet.
“You’ll be back in Horizon, on your way to Level Four,” said David after a long pause. “You’ll be safe. I promise. Now, let’s go. Come on.” He pushed her forward.
There was a sudden loud crunch from the kitchen.
Kara winced. She turned and looked at David with her eyes wide. He jumped into the hallway, his dagger clasped in his hand. Kara strained her legs to move and stepped into the doorframe. Sticking out her shaking head from the bathroom doorway, she realized the noise was only Mrs. Wilkins’s shriveled up body slipping a few inches off the dishwasher’s door.
David jumped back into the room and pushed Kara forward towards the toilet. “Okay, that’s it. Don’t make me throw you in there.” He cocked an eyebrow. “I will if I have to…trust me.”
Kara wobbled over and stared down at the empty toilet. “I can’t believe I’m about to do… what I’m about to do. We need water—right.”
She clasped the file against her chest. “I can’t catch anything. I’m already dead.” She shut her eyes. “It smells like roses…big, beautiful roses like at Nanny’s house.” Kara pinched her nose, plunged her head in the toilet, felt her millions of molecules separating, and vanished.
Chapter 5
The Hall of Souls