Daughter of Kali- Awakening

by Shiulie Ghosh

"What am I doing here? Why are you showing me this?"

  "You can choose. You have the power."

  "What power?" The demons had started stalking towards me, thousands of them jostling for space, and the snarling noise was getting louder. "I don't know what you're talking about! I don't have any power!"

  Kali started melting away, leaving me alone in my nightmare.

  "You'd better find it soon. The prophecy is almost upon us. This is just the beginning."

  "Wait!" I turned to find her, and came face to face with a howling demon, its teeth inches from my face, so close I could feel its stinking breath...

  I woke screaming, heart pounding, brow soaked in sweat. Just a dream, I told myself. Just a dream.

  Something moved at the end of my bed.

  In a panic I flung my arm out, scrabbling to switch the bedside light on. Brightness flooded the room, and I had to squint to protect my eyes. A figure was standing in the shadows of my bedroom.

  "Who's there?" I croaked.

  The leather coat was lying at the end of the bed, and I remembered the baton was still in the pocket. I wondered if I could get to it in time. Then the figure moved out of the shadows, and I realised I didn't need it. My fear turned to joy as I leapt across the room.

  "Mum!"

  She stood motionless as I hugged her, almost crying in relief.

  "How did you get away?" I asked her joyfully.

  "I had to come. I realised I had a job to do."

  Her voice sounded cool, and I pulled back from her, confused.

  "What job?"

  "The same job I've always had. Killing demons," she said.

  Her lips parted in a humourless smile, exposing the sharp, pointed teeth of a piranha, and with a snarl she plunged a dagger deep into my side.

  I woke for real - please god let me be awake this time - clutching reflexively at my side, almost expecting to feel blood and gaping tissue. There was nothing. I buried my head in my hands, trying to make sense of my dream.

  Mum would never hurt me, I thought fiercely. Never.

  Gathering myself with a few shaky breaths, I looked at the clock on my bedside table. Not yet dawn. I knew I wouldn't sleep again. The room was full of shadows, and throwing back the tangled covers, I got out of bed and padded to the window. I'd drawn the curtains across to block out the night, but now I wanted to look out at my street, to comfort myself with something familiar. I pulled the curtains back.

  A drone was hanging upside down outside my window, looking directly at me.

  I stumbled backwards in terror, catching the back of my legs on the edge of my bed and falling to the floor beside it. I wondered numbly if this was still a dream, if I was still asleep. Then the window exploded inwards, showering me with glass and splinters, drawing little scratches of blood on my hands as I tried to shield myself.

  The sharp pain told me I was awake. The demon struggled to get in, the window too small for its muscular body. It broke the dresser under the window sill as it tried to prise itself through, its snarls so loud I was sure it would wake the whole street.

  Wildly I looked round for a weapon, and again saw Mum's coat, now crumpled on the floor beside me. Panic-stricken, I rummaged feverishly through it. Where had I put it? Which pocket? Come on, come on... my hand closed on the smooth metal shaft as the demon tore and kicked its way into my room, leaving the window frame crushed and splintered.

  It crouched in front of me, too big to stand, filling the room with its stench of decay and sulphur.

  "Mistress wants you," it spat. I was so astonished it hadn't already leapt on me and disembowelled me, I gaped at it.

  "Huh?"

  It stretched out a paw towards me, huge claws wide enough to grab me round the waist.

  "Mistress says you cannot be possessed. Mistress wants to know why."

  I scrambled backwards as the creature reached for me.

  "Where's my mother?" I yelled. "What have you done with her?"

  The thing stopped and cocked its head on one side, its tentacles slithering, its teeth dripping drool.

  "She is dead."

  Panic gripped me, and I struggled to breathe.

  "You're lying. She can't die, not like normal people."

  The demon snickered, a low, depraved sound.

  "She has died seven times since we caught her. When her neck heals, we will break it again."

  It made an obscene gurgling sound which I finally interpreted as laughter. In that instant, I stopped shaking with fear, and started shaking with anger instead.

  I didn't move as the demon picked me up in both hands, didn't wince as its claws drew blood. I let the red mist grow in my mind, let the anger build. I pictured my rage as a shining jewel turning slowly in the air. I nurtured it.

  And then I spoke.

  “Put me down.”

  Immediately the creature set me down on my feet, shuddering as the harmonics of my other voice jarred against nerve and bone. I tasted its sudden confusion and fear, and relished it.

  “Where is my mother? Answer”.

  The creature snarled and whined, but it answered.

  "Underground."

  “Where underground?”

  But it didn't know. I questioned it relentlessly, but it came and went through hellholes and didn't know where they were. In frustration I took the baton and flicked the switch. Two purified blades sprang from each end. I held one to the creature's neck, hands shaking with sudden bloodlust.

  “Do not move.”

  I was going to kill it. I gripped the baton, ready to swing it like an improvised axe through its neck. Sever the head, kill the beast. And I wanted to, oh how I wanted to.

  Its words flew around my head. When her neck heals we will break it again. The demons had been torturing Mum, killing her every time she healed. Again and again. She'd died seven times in the past 24 hours.

  I felt the rage and misery well up in me, and I prepared to slash the blade against this thing's neck, to take my revenge, to take its life for what it had done. I'd already killed one, I reminded myself. Time to up the score. I wanted, needed, to see it die, to see it explode into nothing. It felt like that was the only thing that would soothe the tidal wave of rage welling up inside me.

  I watched dispassionately as the thing snapped and snarled at its own feet, well aware its existence was about to end. But it couldn't move because I had forbidden it.

  My dream came back to me. Kali's graveyard voice. You can choose. I blinked. Was that what I was? A killer?

  I took a deep breath, and steadied myself. I saw my blade had already started cutting into the creature's neck, drawing thick black blood where it had split the skin. I eased back.

  "I want very badly to destroy every last one of you," I told it in my normal voice.

  "I believe you," it said.

  "But today, you will live. You tell that Named bitch if she wants me, she has to come and get me herself. Do you understand?"

  "Yes."

  "Go. Never come back."

  It didn't need telling twice. It plunged back through the window, taking more of the frame with it as it landed on all six feet in the middle of the street. I saw one or two lights come on as neighbours finally wondered what all the noise was about. Then it moved in a blur, fading into the shadows as it sped away.

  I cleaned the blood off the blade and stowed the baton back in Mum's coat. I spent the next hour trying to fix cardboard over the gaping window, before leaving a message with Mr Patel telling him there'd been an accident, and he should take the cost of repair out of the deposit. I sincerely hoped Mum had actually paid a deposit.

  I treated the deep gashes in my side with disinfectant, not knowing or caring if demon scratches were dangerous. I felt like I was on autopilot, going through the motions, as I dabbed at the blood.

  My pyjama top was ruined, shredded with parallel rips, and I stripped it off and threw it in the bin. I remembered the time I'd seen Mum's sleeve covered in similar rips, and smiled bitterly.
Guess I know how that happened now, I thought.

  I wondered briefly about the peculiarity that had caught Nisgath's interest, the fact that I couldn't be possessed. I remembered pushing the demon essence away from me, remembered the mental command I had given in my other voice. The one that seemed to affect both demons and humans.

  I turned it over in my mind, wondering where this ability came from, if I should tell the others. But I was too emotionally exhausted, too numb to worry about it.

  I packed a small bag with some clothes, throwing in a photograph of me and Mum eating ice cream when I was ten, both of us smiling identical smiles at the camera. After a moment's hesitation, I also packed the Ganesh statue.

  And then I sat in the living room until the sun came up, waiting for Darius to collect me.

  Chapter 16

  Di was waiting when the three of us got back to the Mansion. We picked up Em on the way, but I hadn't yet told them what had happened overnight. I wasn't sure how I would explain being able to control the drone, and it just seemed easier not to say anything at all.

  Di met us in the hall as we walked in.

  "Hello, Darius," she said huskily, ignoring me and Em. I felt my friend tighten with anger, and I couldn't blame her.

  "Who does she think she is, Lara Croft?" she muttered.

  Di was wearing a very small pair of shorts and a tight T-shirt that highlighted her impressive physique and showed off an admirably toned stomach. Lara Croft looked like an anorexic dwarf compared to her. I watched to see how Darius would react, but he seemed unmoved. Obviously being around half-dressed women was nothing unusual, I thought.

  "Hey, Di," he said mildly.

  "You up for some combat practice with me and Kaz?" she asked.

  "Sure," he said easily, taking my bag and stowing it in the cloakroom. "Unless you need a hand, Em?"

  She shook her head, smiling.

  "You're rubbish at computers. You go, I'll get back to those security walls. Have fun." She looked over at Di, the smile dropping off her face. "I want him back in an hour." She stalked off.

  "My, isn't she possessive," Di smirked.

  "Cut it out, Di. Did you get the bug?"

  "I've set it up in the combat room."

  I looked at them both, mystified.

  "What's the bug?"

  Darius flashed me his smile. "Come and see. It's a new toy, courtesy of Aloysius. But it hasn't been rolled out to the training centre yet, it's top secret. Di's the only one who's seen it."

  "He must trust you a lot," I commented, not bothering to hide my scepticism.

  "He does," she said evenly. "It's still got a few kinks but it's better than that old dummy you were using. You'd better change, I've got a spare pair of shorts if you want."

  "No thanks. I prefer to train without my bits hanging out," I snapped. I saw Darius hiding a smile.

  "Suit yourself. Downstairs, five minutes."

  The 'bug' turned out to look something like a thick black laptop. It looked so old, Em would have snorted in contempt. On the screen, four words were blinking in bright green: DI, KAZ, DAR, BUG. Then a sentence: 'press enter to begin'. At the top of the screen was a large lens. I looked at it curiously.

  "So what does it do?"

  "This." Di leaned over and pressed 'enter'.

  Immediately my vision was full of slobbering, drooling drone, looming over me, four massive paws in the air, tentacles waving, getting ready to pounce. I screamed and nearly fell over backwards, before seeing Di bent double in laughter. Darius put his hand on my shoulder.

  "Relax, Kaz. This is a training program. It's a hologram. Look."

  The monster stayed frozen, as he walked right through it and back again. I saw a narrow beam of light coming from the lens at the top of the laptop, and realised the projection was coming from the box.

  "It looks so real," I murmured, waving my hand through its torso. "Solid."

  Di wiped tears of mirth from her eyes. "That's the point. It's been programmed to look and move like the real thing. But it can't hurt you."

  "Why's it called a bug?" I asked.

  "Short for 'butt ugly'," said Darius. "How does it work, Di?"

  "There are sensors embedded in the holographic projectors. Whoever manages to land a killing blow on the demon gets a point. If the demon strikes you in a way the computer deems fatal, the bug gets the point. Only thing is, the program keeps crashing. Aloysius says there are too many variables to load. And if the light projection gets interrupted for too long, the whole thing shuts down."

  "He should get Em to look at it," Darius commented. Di gave a brittle smile.

  "Isn't first love a fine thing?" she asked me.

  "I wouldn't know. Can we get on with this?"

  We all chose weapons. I stuck with my baton; I felt I was more used to that then anything else. It amused me that Di used a sword even bigger than Mum's. Bit of an inferiority complex there?

  Darius also had his sword, but he added throwing knives and a mace.

  "Remember, the only way to kill a demon is by puncturing its brain, its heart, or its spinal cord with something purified," said Di. "Ready?"

  She pressed enter again, and the demon leapt into frightening life. It moved more slowly than the real thing, but its murderous attacks were very realistic.

  We ducked and rolled, throwing kicks and jabs, thrusting at it with swords and blades and daggers and trying to avoid teeth and claws. Darius quickly gave up trying to use throwing knives after one sailed through the hologram's head and narrowly avoided landing in mine.

  "Sorry," he called, feinting to one side as the demon slashed at his chest.

  Di drove her sword through its neck, somersaulting backwards as it turned towards her snarling. I swung a blade at it and missed.

  I was nowhere near as fast and fluid as the other two, but I started to see how they opened up opportunities for attack, goading the demon into leaving itself vulnerable.

  We began to act as a team, gauging each other's moves so that when one of us attacked from the front, the others came in from the side and back. Di motioned me to go left, and as she drew its attention I slid my blade through its spinal cord.

  It readied itself to leap on me and suddenly froze, flickering slightly as it stood poised, claws raised.

  "Dammit." Di stalked towards the laptop as Darius executed a perfect kick-up, springing from flat on his back to his feet in one move.

  "Show off," I told him.

  "It's crashed," Di said, tapping at the buttons. The hologram disappeared. "Oh well, we got forty minutes. That's not bad."

  I for one was glad of the breather. I looked at the scores on the screen.

  DI 13, KAZ 1, DAR 9, BUG 27.

  "Oh dear, Kaz. You only got one kill," purred Di. "If you were training with Aloysius, you'd be on a disciplinary now."

  "If this was for real, we'd all be dead," Darius pointed out. "The bug got the highest score." Di scowled. "Anyway, Kaz has faced real demons, including a Named One." His tone turned silky. "You've never met a Named One, have you Di?"

  Di's face got even more thunderous, and she turned away.

  "I'm off to shower."

  As she stomped off, I looked up at Darius, jokingly clasping my hands under my chin and batting my eyelashes.

  "My hero!" He gave me that lopsided grin, and my heart skipped a beat.

  "My pleasure."

  I wish, I thought fleetingly, before putting that thought firmly out of my head.

  ◆◆◆

  Em's fingers were flying over the keyboard, her lower lip caught between her teeth in concentration. She had hastily twisted her blonde hair up out of the way but a few tendrils had come loose and were curling round her face. She looked adorable, and I could see the effect wasn't lost on Darius.

  "Hey, beautiful. Have you cracked it yet?"

  "Shh!"

  Darius looked at me, startled.

  "Em doesn't talk when she's concentrating," I told him.

  I kn
ew from experience there was no point trying to make conversation with her when she was working. I looked at Violet and Henry.

  "Any luck with the locator spell?" I asked without much hope. Violet sighed.

  "I'm truly sorry, my dear."

  "What about the missing children? Did you find anything new?" Henry shook his head, his normally twinkling eyes sombre.

  "Only that three more have gone missing. That's twelve in the space of two weeks."

  "Is there any pattern? Anything that links them?"

  "None,” said Violet. “Different genders, different ethnicities, about the only thing they have in common is that none of them are over eighteen. Henry did find this though. Show them, Henry." The Professor turned and tapped at the screen.

  "We thought it might be connected but it's from a long time ago, and it's probably nothing."

  I leaned forward to read over his shoulder. It looked like part of a very old newspaper report.

  On this third day of September in the year of our Lord 1612, a great catastrophe did strike. The ground beneath did open and scores of acres were swallowed into an abyss. None was spared, neither nobleman nor serf. Two hundred and eighty seven souls were lost, including one hundred and thirty six children.

  "Sounds like some kind of cave-in. Where did this happen?"

  "Here. Mallow Bottom," said the Professor with a gleam in his eye. "In fact, it's how the town got its name. Reports suggest there was a coven of very powerful witches active in this area, who wanted to summon the devil."

  "The devil? There's an actual devil?" I asked. At this point, nothing would surprise me. Darius gave me a withering look.

  "Don't be daft," he said. "Go on, Prof."

  "The witches were performing a ritual in an underground cavern. They were trying to summon the devil in the time-honoured tradition of sacrificing children. Utter hokum, of course, but apparently they got through fifty three of them before the caves collapsed."

  "Fifty three kids? Sacrificed?"

  "I'm afraid so. When the bodies were uncovered after the cave-in, villagers realised some of the children hadn't just perished in the landslide. They'd been tortured and murdered. Hence, the area came to be known as Malum Profundum. Latin for 'bottomless evil.' And that in turn evolved into..."