As I continued to run, I shoved into a couple, pushing the guy over hard. He screamed. Before he could grab out a handy hex and throw it at me, Sonos stalked up behind me, his wings unfurled.
The guy, terrified, bowed. Meanwhile revelers grabbed out their phones and started snapping pictures of him. If news hadn’t spread already, it was about to hit the Internet like wildfire.
I finally reached one of the mezzanine levels that was built up around the main foyer. Rather than take the stairs, I took the direct approach. I leaped over the railing and sailed down in a cloud of magic.
While it was now clear that Hilliker and his priests could remotely control my body, obviously they didn’t have a perfect handle on my magic. Because while sparks did cascade around me, they weren’t strong enough. As I struck the floor, I did so hard, my left ankle snapping as easily as someone crushing twigs underfoot.
“Bastard,” I heard Sonos mutter, his voice dark and deadly.
Limping, Hilliker let my injuries slow me down for a few seconds – but only for a few seconds. By the time I made it out of the foyer, I was running again, every move sending crunching shudders down into my foot and up into my leg.
I would’ve looked like quite a sight – an injured, bedraggled woman dragging herself through the bar, her expression crazed as the most popular general of Hell stalked behind her and a nun hurried behind him.
I reached the main foyer. That snarky receptionist from earlier took one look at me, realized I was creating a commotion, and jumped right over the counter to deal with me. Whatever snide comments she had died on her lips as Sonos deliberately got in her way and protected me from her.
Reaching the front door, I shoved away several customers who were dressed inside hollow skeletons. And I struck the city street.
It was midday. As I stared up at the unrelenting sun, I winced. But not for long. Turning around, my ankle still crunching, I headed toward the primary transport node. So Hilliker wasn’t in New York, then? Hardly surprising. If it were me, I would take me back to my stronghold – in Hilliker’s case, that was his monastery.
It didn’t take long to reach the node. By now I was drawing a crowd – not because of who I was, but because of my entourage. Sonos never got too close, but he also never allowed himself to fall behind. As for Mary, she maintained her distance. Once he reached the node, Sonos muttered something to her that was probably along the lines of her staying behind. She was a nun – and things were about to get decidedly non-nun-ish.
The fight was almost here.
I staggered down to my knees inside the node. To an ordinary passerby, they would have no clue what this thing was. It looked, for all intents and purposes, as if I’d just fallen down underneath a random streetlamp – but this lamp was unlike any other.
I quickly brought my hands up, rubbed them together, and let magic charge through them – all at the remote instruction of Hilliker.
I felt a name on my lips – saw a set of blueprints flitting through my mind.
Sonos came right up close behind me but still didn’t touch me as the portal began to open. Magic blazed around us. Hilliker and his team now had such fine control of me that I couldn’t even decide where I looked. Though I wanted – maybe even needed – to make eye contact with Sonos, I wasn’t allowed to. I couldn’t even jerk my head up. I continued to rub my hands together until they suddenly stopped in a praying position. “Where Heaven meets Earth,” I found myself saying, though my voice was not my own.
More and more energy picked up through the portal. I was tipped back into oblivion.
Sonos was right there, right beside me. I almost broke through Hilliker’s control to reach a hand out to Sonos, but at the last minute, I didn’t have the strength. For magic suddenly took hold of me. Surging within my veins, blasting through my heart, it was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. Usually a portal journey was over in the blink of an eye and you didn’t have the time to speak, let alone think. But this one dragged. It became slow enough that I noticed as that magic was wrenched right out of my soul. My head was jerked back in this nothing-space, my eyes bulging wide as a flare of light surged up from within me and exploded.
I thought I heard Sonos screaming. Then there was nothing – nothing but the sound of my own two knees as I fell down on some cold concrete floor.
As my eyesight resolved and I finally glimpsed through the darkness, I saw a broken, abandoned hospital around me. But beside me? There was nothing. Sonos hadn’t made it.
Chapter 4
My whole body shook. Steam rose off me. It mostly collected around my eyes as they opened wider and wider.
I suddenly gained control of my lips. They cracked open. “Sonos?” I whispered through a choked breath. “Sonos?”
There was footfall behind me. “You have been truly tarnished if you would dare call for a General of the Damned with such an entreating tone of voice.”
I didn’t need to turn to confirm who that hateful voice belonged to.
Squeezing my hands in my lap, I tried to push up, but my legs wouldn’t work. I settled for whipping my head over my shoulder, my hair fanning out around me. I narrowed my tear-struck eyes. “Hilliker. What did you do? Where did Sonos—”
“The fool had no clue what he was up against. Did he honestly think he’s on my level anymore? Did he forget who’s behind me?” Hilliker spread his arms wide. There was no one behind him – not even his entourage of priests. There was nothing but this dark, damp room.
It was very clearly an abandoned hospital. There was a rusted scalpel in a puddle of old, molded and half-dried blood beside me – not that such a weapon would be of any use against my enemy.
There were the mangled remains of gurneys and operating tables. There was a bashed-in stainless steel cupboard. There were also the broken, twisted frames of drips – even some ripped-apart blood bags.
There was a single light in the room – not that it was on. It had been half pulled from the ceiling – its wiring inexplicably fluttering in a nonexistent wind.
I noted all of these details, but they couldn’t possibly detract from what I’d just learned. I tried to push to my feet again, but my legs just wouldn’t work. “Where is Sonos, you bastard? What did you do to him?”
“He will never pull himself from the hole I have thrown him in. He failed to recognize the truth and power of my master.” As Hilliker said the word master, he spread his arms wide again.
I started to see this unusual energy picking up over his body. It curled around his limbs, starting at his fingertips then raging up his arms and around his bulging neck. The tendons and skin of his throat looked as if he was being hung up – but the only thing strangling him was his own anger. He took a forced step forward, his hands tightening into fists. More of that unusual gray energy surged up around him, reaching higher like hands groping for the ceiling. Or perhaps something more – perhaps they wanted to shoot right through to the sky to grab Heaven above.
Long before my current episode with Hilliker, I’d known that he was a powerful practitioner – but the way his magic affected the air in the room was something else.
“What the hell have you done to yourself?” I hissed through a choked whisper. “Where is all this power coming from?”
“I imagine that by now that demon general has told you everything. You know of our Lord, Beelzebub – the true chosen one. He was thrust from the three realms for daring to utter the truth.”
His cheeks were so stiff, it looked as if he was about to suck them into his mouth and cause the skin to shatter like glass. I’d seen fervor in my life – of course I had. That came hand-in-hand with my job. But this was something else. It was dark and horrifying in a way that set my teeth on edge. I slowly began to shake my head, but all too soon that became too hard. I could feel the marching control of Hilliker’s spell taking me over again. It spared my lips – for now.
“I thought it would take more power to draw you to my side – but I see that w
as not the case. I should’ve saved my money and time. If I had known it would only take this meager effort to capture you, I would’ve done it sooner. Why wait,” he turned his hands up and spread them toward the ceiling, a strange energy picking up in the center of his palms, “for absolution?”
I took one look at his eyes and realized that there was no point in talking to him. The only words he would bother to spit were repetitions of his vile, obsessive beliefs. But if I didn’t talk to him, he would simply turn around and use me sooner. I had no clue what had happened to Sonos. I didn’t want to believe that – even with Hilliker’s new power – Sonos could fall so easily. But without him by my side, I was on my own.
One last time, I tried to regain control of my body and move, but I simply couldn’t. That marching control had already reached my throat. I could barely breathe on my own. I wondered if these fools would be stupid enough to kill me. Then I quickly concluded that was exactly what they were after.
He stopped in front of me. It took him a long time to angle his head down. There was this coldness in his gaze – this terrifying depth of attention that made me want to scream.
He slowly reached his fingers out to me. My gaze got caught on his stiff, pale knuckles. He settled his hand alongside my cheek. He brought his hissing face close. “I have been waiting my entire life for you to be ready, my sacrifice like no other.”
My blood chilled at the fact that my title had gone from the Cursed One to something so horrific.
If there was any doubt in my mind – even the faintest and most pathetic wish – that Hilliker might have some good left in his heart, it was crushed now. It was clear he no longer served God anymore – just his own dark desires. Heck, whoever this Beelzebub was, I doubted Hilliker had any true feelings of loyalty toward that fallen god – he would simply be after power and the shortest route to it.
“Arise,” Hilliker said as he clicked his fingers right in front of my face.
I had no option but to push slowly to my feet. That was when I became aware of the fact that my ankle was still snapped. It was becoming swollen and ever more painful to put pressure on. I winced, my eyes growing wide with tears. This had no effect whatsoever on Hilliker. He turned, his purple robe furling around him. He clasped his white-knuckled hands behind his back as he thrust forward. Whenever I slowed down, my injuries winning, he simply twirled his finger in a circle, and more control surged through me until it felt like I would never regain hold of my body again.
In similar fashion, we continued through the broken, murky halls of the hospital. I didn’t know where this place was, but one thing was for sure – it must’ve been abandoned decades ago. We reached a corridor with windows, and I stared out into a yard. Maybe once upon a time it had possessed a garden, but the only thing it had now were choking weeds. Fallen down trees were interspersed with the guts of mangled cars. It looked like monsters had attacked this place – ripping through everything – living or inanimate – with no remorse.
While I was being controlled, the bastard didn’t favor my ankle. I continued to damage it more until I felt a bone starting to protrude from my leg. Terrifying, unspeakable pain rose through me at the same time. This came from my heart, though. It was my body telling me this was it. But now Hilliker had me, the real pain was about to begin.
We finally made it to a large operating room. Once upon a time, there had been a domed glass ceiling above. Perhaps the architect had created it to let in the afternoon light. The only thing it allowed in now was a steady rain. It drummed against the cracked concrete floor and the remnants of operating tables. It sent this dank puddle expanding through the room. Hilliker stopped underneath the rain just as it turned into a deluge. He turned his face up as he opened his hands wide in supplication. It was as if that murky downpour was the holy light of God. He smiled, tipped his head back, and even swallowed down mouthfuls of it.
The rain wasn’t just dark and dingy because it was coming through the broken roof and mold-covered glass – at closer inspection, each raindrop was black. Though I couldn’t get up as near as I needed to to confirm this, my gut kicked as I thought I saw writhing dark worms in every drop.
Hilliker continued to suck down mouthful after mouthful. I watched his throat bulge and his abdomen push out hard against his robes.
I’d been forced to stop in the middle of the room. Fortunately, I was far away from the rain – for now, anyway.
As soon as Hilliker had swallowed enough of those dark, writhing droplets, he dropped his face toward me. His robes didn’t have a hood – or at least they hadn’t until now. As the rain struck the fabric of his robe, it made it stretch with the sound of skin being pulled. A hood grew right up over his head, stopping just below his bottom lip. I saw a slice of it as he opened his mouth. “The beginning of your eternal end starts now.” Dramatically, he curled his hands into fists and opened them wide.
My whole body became compelled. I didn’t walk toward him, though – I was pulled as if someone had wrapped chains around my whole body. My ankles were dragged behind me as my chest was thrust forward. My arms fell beside me limply. My eyes opened in true fear. I fell into his grip, his fingers wrapping tightly around my throat. The sound of his grasp tightening around my neck filled the air like someone scrunching up patent leather. A dark smile flickered across his face. Then he dragged me into the rain.
At first, I felt nothing – then it struck me, all at once. Every single one of those droplets was a groping hand – a biting, ripping mouth.
I screamed – the only thing I could do now.
He tightened his grip around my throat. “Time to die. Again.” He hissed. Then he squeezed, and in a snap, he broke my neck.
I had a chance for horror to fill me as the certainty of death wrapped around me like a coiling snake – but then my resurrection curse reached in. Just as my consciousness blacked out, light filled me. It blasted out of every pore, undoing the damage he had wrought and giving me back the life he needed so much.
Though often my resurrection magic destroyed anything that was nearby, it had no effect whatsoever on him. He maintained his grip on my neck and wasn’t thrust back – he didn’t even move a centimeter. I fell back into his grip – so he did it again. With another almighty squeeze, he snapped my neck as easily as somebody standing on a fried chicken bone.
Resurrection light spilled within me, furled around me, and blasted out in every direction. I was brought back to him.
This... would never end. That realization struck me as he killed me once more but I was resurrected. There was no way I would be able to get out of his clutches.
I would now die eternally just as Sisyphus was cursed to roll his stone up a hill forever. This was my punishment and Hilliker would be the one to mete it out.
As he snapped my neck once more, my hope died with it.
Chapter 5
Over and over again – it would never end; it would never change. It would roll on forever, just like time itself.
I soon lost track – I couldn’t concentrate when my mind kept being inundated with the light of resurrection. The constant driving force of the rain – the penetrating power of his gaze – all of it consumed me, ripping me apart, cell by cell, and leaving nothing intact but my sense of never-ending horror.
Just when I thought it would never end, there was a crack from far into the hospital. I was only vaguely aware of it because Hilliker suddenly snapped his head to the side. I watched his lips pull open in a dark snarl. “Deal with it,” he snapped at someone.
I thought I heard the sound of scurrying feet. They couldn’t have belonged to a priest but something far smaller and more numerous. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw rats suddenly scuttling up from Hilliker’s long, dark shadow. They climbed across the wall, toward the door, then through cracks all around it.
But far from deal with the source of that sound, they soon squeaked, their high-pitched screams shaking with fear.
“Dammit. Not now,” Hilliker sc
reamed. He tightened his grip on my throat, but before he could kill me again, the floor shook. As the powerful convulsions blasted up into him, they transferred into me, making me sway and shake in the air. “Deal with it,” Hilliker spat, and more rats burst out of his shadow, sallying forth.
But the floor just shook again. This time, so too did the walls. Cracks blasted up them, spread out like fungus, and started to take down chunks of plaster. It hailed down around his feet.
“Deal with it,” he screamed once more. This time it wasn’t rats – but bats. These elongated, disgusting versions of the creatures blasted out of his shadow – more numerous than the drops of rain that continued to hail down through the broken window. The bats shrieked, their high-pitched wail hitting such a crescendo, it broke the remaining glass in the room. It hailed down from the ceiling, dashing around Hilliker and me. As soon as it touched my body, it melted, dripping off my steaming form and pooling at my feet. There was now so much energy shaking off me, it seemed as if I would burn through the very sun.
There was another powerful shudder. This one was a hell of a lot worse than the ones that had preceded it. The wall beside Hilliker suddenly blasted inward. He had to thrust to the side to protect himself, and I was taken with him. That meant I was dragged out of the rain. I hadn’t thought the rain had been doing much – maybe giving Hilliker power, but that was it. Yet as he was forced to drag me out of it, even as his fingers tightened around my throat, it didn’t seem that he could kill me.
The bats continued to shriek.
As their keening cries became louder and louder, I watched Hilliker stiffen until, all of a sudden, they became quiet.
The ceiling abruptly stopped shaking. It stopped raining, too.
Hilliker’s eyes grew as wide as two groping hands. He jerked his head to the left and stared at the open broken door, obviously expecting an attack from that direction. But it came from above.
Better off Dead Book Two Page 6