by Shaun Meeks
I jumped up off the ground, grabbed my Tincher from my belt and looked for the demon. Wingers and Rouge both stood in front of me. They were out of breath, but smiled. When I continued to take in the scene, I saw Ms Mittz unconscious on the ground, and there was no sign of the demon who’d been attached to her.
“So, what did I miss?”
“When I shook that jar and saw that thing, I was pretty freaked out. I can admit that. It’s probably why I dropped the jar,” Rouge began as we stood over Ms Mittz, who lay unmoving, but alive on the ground. “I looked down at the broken glass for a second and when I turned back to her and the demon, I saw she was coming at you. I could still see that black shadow wrapped around her waist and towering over her. For a second I froze, watching you as you stumbled back away from it. You were frantically going through your bag, but couldn’t find what you were looking for. Then I saw your face change and I was sure you had just what you needed, but then you tripped on that thing there and went falling through the hole.”
I looked back towards the hole and realized there was still something on the other side, coming at us, and I grabbed my bag.
“Where’s the demon?” I asked hurriedly as I looked for the Azzeen Staff and the Firma Pitch.
“Your girl took care of it,” Winger said, and put a hand on Rouge’s shoulder. “This girl is pretty hardcore.”
“You got rid of it? You’re sure?”
Rouge nodded and started to explain how, but I stopped her.
“You can tell me after I do this. There are a few friends on the other side that are anxious to come over and see us. I’d rather they didn’t.”
I walked back over to the breech with the Azzeen Staff and tapped the edges of the hole. Two taps every half-foot would do enough to close the door. From inside the hell I’d just been in, I could see swirling shadows, growing larger as they got closer to where I was. I moved as fast as I could, and when I hit the final spot, nothing happened. The breech seemed completely unaffected by the action. I went through the routine again, felt urgency swell, but there was still no change.
“Shit.”
“Why isn’t it closing?” Rouge asked as she walked up beside me, looking into the void.
“I have no idea,” I admitted, and looked at it again. There had to be a reason it wasn’t working. I didn’t want to think that Godfrey had given me something bogus again. Not now. There was little I’d be able to do to stop a full-on monster invasion if I couldn’t shut the gate.
“Does that have anything to do with it? It’s what you tripped over,” Rouge said, pointing down at my feet. I followed her finger and saw the thing that had caused me to fall into the Beelz realm.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
It was small, maybe three inches in height, fifteen in length and four in width, but there would be more to it than that. The rest would be buried deeper in the ground. What poked out was the same colour as the floor, a dull, concrete gray, possibly made of some alien stone, and carved with unearthly letters. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen one, but usually they’re a lot bigger, which meant there was more under the floor. I wouldn’t doubt there would be some sort of cave system under this part of the city, which would be home to the rest of what I’d tripped over. What I stared down at was the top of an altar. These altars are part of a stone stairway into a demon realm, usual a one-way system. Someone had either tried to bury this when the building was built, or had uncovered it at some later date. Whatever the answer to that was, though, it didn’t matter: it was the source of the gateway, and I knew what needed to be done.
“Stand back,” I told them, and raised the staff high overhead. I whispered words I knew, spoke in an ancient tongue from a forgotten world, and then brought the bronze stick down as hard and as fast as I could. When it made contact with the stone, there was a blinding white light that rippled around us, followed by a high-pitched sound like metal scraping on metal. The ground under us shook like a mild earthquake, but it didn’t last long. I heard Winger yelp as it happened, but then it stopped and the breech began to flicker and lose its substance. The stone on the floor had shattered, and I was quick to toss the staff down and grab the Firma Patch. I put it to work to seal any chance of the breach reopening.
The gate was closed, and everything would hopefully go back to normal.
“Now, you were saying…” I chuckled and, sat down on the floor.
“When you fell through the hole, the shadow thing began to laugh and was too busy looking at where you’d gone to worry much about me. I went into my pocket while its back was turned and pulled out this stone.” She showed me what it was and I saw that it was a Swart Stone, a small black crystal that can be used to paralyze some monsters and demons. She was lucky it worked on the Beelz. “I remembered what you told me about it, so I ran over to the demon and her, and pressed it onto the demon’s back. Only, I didn’t know it wouldn’t totally be solid, so my arm went through it and it touched her,” she said, pointing to Ms Mittz. “She cried out, stumbled back and fell. The demon seemed unaffected by it, but she was out cold.”
“It didn’t affect the creature at all?” I asked, and made note of it. I’d have to remember to mark it down for others who might have a run in with something from the Beelz realm.
“Nothing, but it didn’t come after either of us. It struggled, tried to pull away from Ms Mittz, but it seemed glued to her somehow; stuck in place.”
That was strange. I held up my hand to try and take all that information in, to process it. Demons, monsters, and spirits have a few ways they can come to Earth. There are weak spots, places where one can pass through in its essence form, leaving its physical body behind in wherever it’s from. Another way is to come through a breach, a portal, or a gateway. They’re all the same, only slight differences, but it all comes down to the same thing. Whatever comes through one of them, they can bring their physical, more dangerous form along for the ride. They don’t need to call forth or inhabit inanimate objects.
This seemed like neither of those.
This was the third, more uncommon way, and if I was right, it made sense why there was the top of an altar peeking out.
Centuries ago, long before the rules for visiting Earth were put into place by the Collective, some creatures came here freely. When humans found out about them, some viewed them as blights to the Gods they worshipped. Others looked at them as the real Gods. The latter created black churches and altars to these monsters, and the altars could be used to open doorways to demonic and alien worlds. Some of these gates were one-way streets: humans could go in, but nothing could come out unless called to do so. The ones that were called forward from one of these altars would be tied to that human, unable to roam the world freely. What the human didn’t know, though, was when one of the demons became tethered to them the relationship wasn’t as symbiotic as they might’ve hoped. The demon, if it was strong enough, would control the human and could even call forth more demons who could then roam freely, far away from the gate and the human.
I explained all this to Rouge and Winger.
“So why didn’t we see it when we first met her?” Winger asked.
“I’m guessing the demon was able to hide within her when it wanted to, or she could’ve even willed it to stay hidden. It might’ve only become visible because you shook the Klask and it wasn’t able to hide anymore,” I said, just taking a stab in the dark. I had no real idea.
“And you didn’t notice it or sense it at all?”
“That’s not how it works. I wish it was, but no, I can’t sense demons or monsters. I can sometimes smell them, or see signs they’ve left behind, but when I first got here, I had no idea what I was dealing with.” I turned to Rouge then and asked her to tell me what had happened after Ms Mittz fell.
“I grabbed your bag and started pulling things out and using them.” She held up three items: silver wat
er, thistle glue, and a roll of Pagar (an elastic thread used to tether creatures in place). “None of them worked, so I ran back, worried the demon was either going to break free of Ms Mittz or she’d wake up. That’s when I found this.”
“That would work,” I laughed, looking at the Beegan in her hand. A Beegan is an iron rod made of melted nails once used in crucifixions on Earth. These rods are then dipped in the blood of a Hellion—something not easy to come by, so you can guess how rare a Beegan is—but they are super-effective against a demon. The mix of Earthly relic and Hellion blood causes a demon to come apart, to be completely undone. It doesn’t work on many other creatures outside of demons, but she made a good choice.
“When I brought it over to where the demon was, I could tell it was afraid, and it started to talk, to plead for its life.”
“That wasn’t fun,” Winger said, sounding a little sad. “The thing was pathetic.”
“It was,” Rouge admitted. “But then I remembered it had already killed two people, so I didn’t really care. I was going to do it. I wasn’t sure how it worked, but figured I would try pressing it into the thing, like I did with the crystal. Even before it touched the thing, the shadowed colour began to turn white, ashy-looking, and then the demon became dust and evaporated. It was gone in seconds.”
“You forgot a part,” Winger said, and went on: “Before you touched it, it said that if we spared it, it would tell us what else had come through the gate. It said that even though the woman had called him forth, he’d helped others sneak out of there.”
“Is it possible, Dillon?” Rouge asked, and I shrugged. I knew it was a possibility. The fact that there were no reports of a giant monster roaming around Niagara Falls made me doubt it. Then again, if it was a demon, similar to what had attached itself to Ms Mittz instead of one of those monsters that I’d seen, it might go unnoticed by people.
One problem at a time, I guess.
“So, that’s it then? It’s over?” Rouge asked and I nodded, but looked down at Ms Mittz. Winger was doing the same.
“How am I going to explain all this?” she asked, and I could only imagine how hard all this was for her. At least Rouge had an idea of what I did, had been part of this once already. For the detective, it was all so new and no doubt confusing. “What am I supposed to do with her?”
“Put everything on her. The only way that demon got here was because of her. She wasn’t a victim in any of this.”
“Why would she do it though, what was her motive?” Winger asked, and I admitted that I didn’t know. Nor did I actually care. As far as I was concerned, I was done with the whole mess. “So I just book her on the murders and hope it sticks?”
“It’s all you can do,” I explained and hoped it would be enough. Of course, it wasn’t.
“Nobody is going to buy that she did all this. They aren’t going to believe she killed my partner, her boss, and burnt down a church, killing three more.”
“I’m not saying she did the church. I think that has nothing to do with any of this, but she is responsible for the others. Somehow, she found that down here,” I said, and pointed to the shattered remains of the top of the stone altar. “I have no idea how or why it was uncovered, and I don’t know why she opened the gate and called the demon forth, but whatever the reason, she did it. That’s why it was attached to her. She was the master of it, which means she needs to take the fall for all the shit she caused. And when you take her in and she no doubt starts to talk about demons and doorways to Hell, they will call her crazy and lock her up. Take it from me, it’s easier for people to assume you’re crazy than it is to accept monsters are real.”
Friday
We decided to stay in Niagara Falls overnight. It was just a lot easier than driving back to Toronto after all that. We got a motel room; most of the bigger hotels were booked, but it was clean and bed bug free, so it was fine. Hours after we’d left the detective, she called me to let me know it had played out pretty well. Ms Mittz had gone on and on about monsters and demons, claiming she was some sort of witch who could call demons to Earth to take revenge on people who’d done her wrong. She warned them to release her, or they’d all be subject to the great culling. When they executed a warrant on her house, they found both Esho and Chance’s heads. Both had been dipped in some sort of wax to seal them, and then they’d been placed on a bed of black sand in her bedroom. With everything she told the police and the heads found in her apartment, it was no wonder they figured she was mentally ill. She’d be lucky to see the sun ever again.
It worked for me.
“So, you’re in the clear again?” Rouge asked when I hung up.
“Looks that way,” I said and grabbed her around the waist and pulled her to me. “I’m pretty impressed how you did out there. You might not have known what you were actually doing, but you saved the day.”
“Yet again. You still worried about me joining you?”
“Only as far as the Collective goes. You know this was big, closing the gate and stopping this demon, but they may not go for a human hunter. That guy Parks seems to be gunning for me and us as a couple. I know the Collective sent him, but I think if they want, they could call him off. I’m hoping they will. They can’t afford to lose me.”
“Or me,” she laughed. “I seem to have a knack for slaying demons.”
That she did.
We arrived back in Toronto close to six in the evening. We stopped by to pick up the puppy and then decided to head to Rouge’s house. I called Garcia to see if there was any word on Don Parks, but just got his machine. I left a message and hoped all was as it was when we left.
“You hungry?” Rouge asked as we walked into her house. “I’m famished.”
“I could go for some pizza. Want me to order?”
“Does this girl like rhinestones? Damn right I do.”
I laughed and placed an order for our usual. Pizza was one of our go-to meals, so it was easy to just use the automated line and repeat the last order we’d had. While we waited, we changed into some lounging clothes, turned on Netflix and started watching TV. For weeks she’s been trying to get me to watch Gilmore Girls, so I decided that, since she’d impressed me so much in Niagara Falls, I owed it to her.
We were almost done the first episode when the doorbell rang. Rouge went to go to it, but I stopped her.
“You sit, demon slayer. I got this one.”
I grabbed the food, tipped the driver and locked the door. The pizza smelled so good, I wanted to bury my face in it. I opened the box to take a look at it, and as my gaze was downwards, I noticed someone on the other side of the open pizza box. I closed the lid, a smile on my lips, expecting it to be Rouge.
It wasn’t.
It was Don Parks.
“Hey, Dillon,” he said, his face partially engulfed in shadows. “Miss me?”
“What are you—”
He didn’t wait for the question. Instead, he charged at me, his own spellbound blade in hand, and knocked me over. We fell backwards, the pizza, pop, and dipping sauces flying. My back smashed hard into the ground and he was on top of me. I grabbed his wrists as he did his very best to turn my body into his blade’s sheath. He grunted and used everything he had in him to stab me.
“You thought you were so slick, didn’t you? You got me arrested, as though that was going to save you.” He growled the words through gritted teeth as he grunted and pushed the blade closer and closer to my chest. I wanted to let go of his wrist for a second, so I could reach down and grab the Tincher from my belt. Would I be fast enough, or would I get gutted like a fish? I knew I was quick, but my Tincher was—
Shit!
I realized I didn’t have my Tincher on my anyway. I was already in pajama pants, my chill gear.
Well, that certainly sucked.
“Look,” I tried to say easily, but struggled to get the words out
. “It’s not… what you… think. There was… a… demon…”
“You think I care, Dillon? I don’t give a rat’s ass. You’re going back, and the Collective is going to have your ass.”
The blade moved closer to me.
I was losing the fight.
He had leverage and started to lean in harder and harder on the blade.
There was only an inch between me and the tip of the steel, a small void keeping me in this world. I couldn’t let him win. I didn’t want to go.
“I think this is it, Dillon. Any last words?”
I smiled and he didn’t like that at all, but it made him stop pressing so hard, just for that moment.
“Yeah,” I said, out of breath. “Rouge’s an amazing hunter.”
He must’ve heard or sensed her behind him, because for a moment he tried to turn his head. If he had managed, he would’ve seen Rouge standing over him, my Tincher in her hand. If he’d been faster, he would’ve seen a flash of steel before she buried it right into the back of his head, the point coming out his cheek.
But he didn’t see any of it, because she didn’t wait until he could turn around. He was dead and gone before he knew what hit him. The blade dropped from his hand and clattered to the floor.
The body Don Parks had come to Earth in soon followed.
“Are you okay?” Rouge asked, and helped me up. I was amazed by how cool and calm she sounded.
“I think so. Are you okay?”
“Of course, although, I think saving your ass is starting to get a little too common.” At that, she laughed, but there was a bit of uneasiness in her voice. It might have been because she was looking down at Parks’ body, and the gravity of what she’d just done to save me had hit her.
It did the same to me.
I’d already been in trouble for a laundry list of things. Now the Collective would add dispatching another hunter to the list of my offences. Not the best thing, but there was no real choice. He’d been about to do the same to me. He would’ve if Rouge hadn’t stopped him. The big problem was trying to figure out what happened next. There were a lot of possibilities, most of them on the side of things I’d like to avoid.