by N. P. Martin
"Stop!" I shouted without thinking. "You’re killing her!"
"She isn’t real!" Dalia snapped back.
Amelia’s legs began to kick the empty air beneath her as she dropped the gun and grabbed at the darkness coiled around her neck, but there was no way she was escaping now, and there was no way Dalia was allowing her to. As I watched in horror, Dalia kept squeezing until an audible crack filled the air. As Amelia’s body then went limp, Dalia released her and she fell lifelessly to the woodland floor, leaving me to stand staring in horror at the body. "You killed her," I said.
Dalia turned to me and slapped me suddenly around the face. "Snap out of it! She was feeding off you, just like that doppelgänger fed off me earlier."
I blinked and then shook my head as if to clear it. "It was just a spirit."
"Yes, it was."
I continued to stare at the body in front of us. "Then why does it feel so real?"
"Because it is in a way. But trust me, Amelia is still in that house. That thing on the ground is not her."
The logical part of my brain knew Dalia was talking sense, but some other, deeper part of my brain thought otherwise. Emotionally speaking, it felt like we had just killed Amelia. "The sooner we get out of this cursed place, the better."
"That’s the most sense you’ve talked since we got here," Dalia said. "Come one. Let’s get to the house so we can save the real Amelia."
Glancing uneasily at the body on the ground one final time, I walked off into the woods with Dalia, shaken up, but still determined to do what I came to do.
Chapter 15
"Are you all right?"
We were deep in the woods, heading toward the house, trying to ignore the dark shapes of spirits as they slinked around the trees, their burning eyes on us as if we were a potential meal to them. When any of them got too close, I would use my magic to create a light in my hand that served to keep the spirits at bay. Those spirits that pushed their luck and strayed closer anyway, got lashed with Dalia’s dark energy, causing them to hiss as if in pain. "I’m fine," I said, knowing she was referring to Amelia’s recent appearance, or rather the representation of her that that the Shadow had pulled from my subconscious. "This place just messes with your head."
"Well, we don’t exactly belong here, do we?" She lashed out at another dark spirit that suddenly appeared from around a nearby tree. The spirit had a mouth that showed needle-like teeth, which it bared at Dalia after she whipped her dark energy at the thing. "It’s like traipsing through someone’s nightmare."
"It’s worse than a nightmare. At least you can’t die in a nightmare." I stared at the spirits surrounding us, feeling their psychic energy probing at my mind as they searched for a weak link and a way into my subconscious. "These things are fucking relentless."
"Yes, they are," Dalia said as she fended off another of the spirits. "Are we almost at the house yet? I don’t know how much longer I can keep these things at bay. Some of them clearly want to feast on our flesh."
"We’re almost there," I said as I noticed that we had finally reached the edge of the woods. Through the trees, I could just make out the dark shape of the house, and I was unable to shake the feeling that it and the Dark One were lying in wait, knowing full well that we were in the Shadow, and thus, in their world with all its inherent dangers.
"Good." She slapped a spirit around the head with her energy and it scurried off. "If we spend any longer in here we’re going to get swarmed by these annoying bastards."
Once we reached the edge of the woods, I noticed that all the spirits that had been following us had now begun to back off, as if they feared getting any closer to the house. As if what lay inside scared even them. "The place looks the same, from the outside anyway. A bit darker maybe."
"I wouldn’t know," Dalia said as she peered at the house. "Do you think the Dark One knows we’re here?"
"It would probably be foolish to think otherwise."
"So we lack the element of surprise."
I shook my head slightly at her. "Did you really think we we’re going to sneak into that house unnoticed?"
She shrugged. "I don’t know, maybe."
"Well, we’re not, so we need to be on our guard from here on out." My heart beat faster as I stared at the house, and my mouth felt dry as I felt for the poison in my pocket, hoping it would do as Davey said it would. If it didn’t, I had a back-up plan that I’d told no one about. It was a spell that I found in one of Davey’s books. In the event that the poison didn’t have the desired effect on the Dark One, then I would try the spell instead, even though I had no idea if it would even work, or what the consequences would be if it did. Given the nature of the spell itself, I hoped I wouldn’t have to use it.
"Are we ready then?" Dalia said after checking there were no spirits sneaking up on us, which there wasn’t. They all seemed to be keeping their distance, which only caused me further alarm. Given how powerful the Dark One had been in the Earth realm, I couldn’t help but wonder how much more powerful it would be in this realm, the place where it was born.
"All right," I said finally as I looked at Dalia. "Let’s go and get Amelia."
We stepped out of the woods and onto the overgrown front lawn, the house looming ahead of us like some dark citadel. It was difficult to look at it and not get flashbacks from the last time I was there, recalling the feelings of fear and powerlessness I had felt at the time. Was the Dark One in there now, smiling to itself as it watched us move across the lawn toward its abode? It was hard to think otherwise.
"How we getting inside?" Dalia whispered, seeming on edge herself now, more so than she had been since entering the Shadow…how many hours ago now? I glanced at my wristwatch and looked at the timer I had set to count down twenty-four hours. According to the timer, we had been in the Shadow for nearly seven hours now, which shocked me, because it only felt like a few hours at most.
"We go through the front door," I said as we edged onto the gravel driveway. As I looked around, I saw no sign of any of the ghosts that had appeared in the Earth realm. Either they existed on a different plane, or they were staying out of sight, perhaps watching us right now with a sense of sad inevitability, knowing we were heading to our doom. When we got to the front door, we stood staring at it for a moment. The frame around it was no longer broken, as if it had been fixed in my absence. "Should we knock first?" Dalia said, a slight smile on her face.
I couldn’t help but smile nervously back. "Avon calling," I said in a girlish voice.
Dalia sniggered. "What shade of lipstick do you think the Dark One prefers?"
"Black. Definitely black."
"I can’t believe we’re joking about this."
"Fuck it," I said, feeling a sudden rush of confidence as I stepped up to the front door and used my magic to force it open, the wood cracking loudly in the heavy silence. "As the Iron Maiden song says, if you’re gonna die…"
"Die with your boots on," Dalia finished.
"Fucking-A. Let’s go."
As soon as I walked into the entrance hallway, I could tell immediately that the inside of the house was different to what I remembered. For a start, the black mold that had been on only some of the walls, now seemed to cover every surface, pulsing slightly as if it was alive. When you walked on it, it felt soft and gooey, and I knew that if you stood in one place for too long, that the mold would begin to grow on you as well. But that wasn’t the only thing that was different. The interior of the house seemed much bigger, with a lot more hallways leading off from the main one. And when I looked up, the stairs seemed to wind on forever, as if the house contained multiple floors, certainly many more than the two floors it was supposed to have.
"What is this stuff?" Dalia asked as she lifted one of her feet to look at the dark substance sticking to the bottom of her boots. "It’s disgusting, and it smells bad."
"I call it mold, as it seemed like mold last time I was here. Now it seems more like ectoplasm or something."
&nb
sp; "Should we call the Ghostbusters?"
"I wish we could."
"I guess it’s just us then. Where do we start looking for Amelia?"
"I don’t—"
"Amelia! You in here?"
"What are you doing?"
"Seeing if she answers. Amelia! Amelia—"
"Stop, would you."
"Why? The Dark One already knows we’re here."
"Maybe so, but I’d prefer not to call the damn thing to us, not yet anyway. We need to find Amelia first."
"That’s what I’m trying to do."
"More quietly, I mean."
"Fine, where do we go first then?"
"I’m not sure," I said. "Let’s search the bottom floor before we have to go climbing all those stairs."
As we both began to move forward, something suddenly fell over the banister of the staircase, something that made us both jump back in fright, and Dalia to issue a slight squeal. "Jesus!" I said, suddenly realizing there was a body hanging by the neck over the banister, held there by a rope. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, the body—belonging to a man—had its belly slit open so that ropes of intestines drooped from the open cavity like dead snakes.
"That’s fucking gross," Dalia said.
"You’d better get used to it," I told her, turning away from the gently swinging corpse. "I’m willing to bet we’ll encounter a lot worse than that."
Dalia shook her head. "I can’t wait."
We headed down the nearest hallway, which when we entered it, felt like we were walking inside a labyrinth that was reminiscent of the labyrinth I had encountered in Hell, only not as big. I just hoped there was no Grinders in these halls, although it wouldn’t have surprised me if there was. The hallway was so dark that I had to use my magic to light the way, feeling liking I was moving closer to the bowels of Hell with every step taken. It certainly smelled like it. It stank like an abattoir filled with rotten carcasses, although something told me these carcasses were not animal, but human. Given the power that dwelled in the house, it wouldn’t surprise me if real flesh and blood humans were simply conjured up when needed. And going by the human remains to be found on the floor of the hallway, this appeared to be case. Amelia’s parents, monsters that they were, would have needed victims to participate in their sadistic games, which made me wonder if we were the Tasars’ next victims, and what sick delights they had in store for us.
Soon, we found ourselves inside a large dining room that may once have been the height of grandeur, at least in the Earth realm. Here in the Shadow, however, the room was like a serial killer’s dark fantasy come to life. On the walls, stuck into the black mold, were arrangements of human bones, many of which still had bits of flesh hanging from them. The bones were arranged into shapes that seemed to represent glyphs of some sort—occult symbols that I had no doubt were connected to Apep, the Egyptian god of chaos and darkness who was worshipped by the Tasars when they were alive, and also by the cult they left behind after their deaths. Clearly, Apep was still a big influence on them, even in the Shadow.
"These are creepy as fuck," Dalia said as she examined the bone symbols. "Though strangely cool."
I shook my head at her. "What, you’re a fan now or something?"
"I can’t help being drawn to these things, it’s in my nature."
"Well, don’t get too drawn. We’re here to kill the Dark One, not admire its taste in interior decor."
The bones on the walls, as gruesome a display as they were, weren’t even the worst of what was in the room. The worst was laid on the long dining table, in the center of which was the body of man without legs, his innards trailing out behind him like bloody rags. The half-man was sitting on a massive silver serving tray, a rotten apple placed in his mouth as his eyes bulged out of their sockets, still full of terror despite being completely lifeless. Around his body, placed like gruesome accompaniments, were various internal organs—hearts, kidneys, livers—looking all too fresh, as if they had just been harvested. The rest of the table contained bowls and dishes all full of human flesh that again, showed no signs of decay.
"Do you think this spread was laid on for our arrival?" Dalia said, probing at some the mounds of flesh with a thin tendril of her dark energy.
I shook my head in disgust, wondering what anyone could ever get out of doing something so sick and twisted. "It wouldn’t surprise me," I said. "Come on, let’s search the rest of this charnel house."
We spent quite a while searching the bottom floor, going down hallways and in and out of rooms, finding all of them empty except for the human remains that lay around everywhere like so much detritus. "Where do they get all their victims?" Dalia asked as we headed down a hallway that seemed like it would lead back into the main entrance hall.
"They get them from here in the Shadow," I said. "This place might be a spirit world, but the occupants are flesh and blood nonetheless."
"I’ve never seen so much death in one place."
We emerged into the main entrance hallway and stood in front of the staircase.
"Well, that was a bust," Dalia said. "There’s nothing but silence in this place. Where is this dark spirit? Where is Amelia?"
"Amelia is right here."
We both spun around at the same time to see Faelyn and Shaerra Tasar standing by the front door. They were both dressed immaculately, which was surprising, given the state of the house and the amount of blood and gore around the place. Faelyn had on a black suit, his dark hair perfectly combed, his blue eyes full of menace. Shaerra wore a red ball gown, her silvery blonde hair spilling over her bare shoulders, a diamond encrusted necklace around her slender neck. They both looked young and vibrant, and not at all like spirits, or even like the type of people who would commit such evil acts as seen all around the house. Before Dalia and I could say anything, they both parted to reveal Amelia standing just behind them.
"Amelia…" I said, at first so relieved to see her. But my relief didn’t last long as I realized something was very wrong. My face began to twist up in consternation as I saw that Amelia’s eyes were completely black, as though she were possessed by some demon or dark spirit. A malevolent grin spread across her face as she stepped forward, coming to stand between her parents. She still wore the same leather trousers and jacket that she wore before, but now her clothes appeared to be covered in blood, and in each hand she held a hatchet. Blood dripped off the blades. "What have they done to you?"
"I don’t think that’s the Amelia we know," Dalia whispered.
Faelyn smiled as he must’ve heard what Dalia said. "Before Amelia came home, she was just a sliver of who she should be."
"Now our little girl is exactly who she was born to be," Shaerra said, smiling at her daughter.
"And what’s that?" I uttered despite myself.
"Why, a killer, of course," Shaerra said almost proudly.
"A connoisseur of death," Faelyn added. "Isn’t that right, my darling daughter?" When he looked at Amelia, her malevolent grin only got wider, but she still said nothing.
"No," I said shaking my head. "Amelia! Snap out of it! It’s me, it’s Corvin."
Faelyn and Shaerra both laughed at the same time, as if my feeble attempt to get through to Amelia was pointless. "It’s no use," Faelyn said. "Amelia has seen the light now."
"Or rather," Shaerra said, with a wicked smile on her face. "The darkness."
They both laughed again, causing my body to tense in anger. As I gritted my teeth, all I wanted to was attack them, but I knew it would be pointless. In this house, they were too powerful. I needed them to merge into the Dark One, first. Then I could use the poison on them.
But as it turned out, the Tasars had other plans.
"Amelia," Faelyn said. "Why don’t you show your former friends just who you are now."
"Kill them, daughter," Shaerra said, her face twisted by bloodlust now. "Strip them of their flesh so we can make a shrine from their bones."
Amelia took another step forward, the woode
n-handled hatchets gripped tightly in her hands. "With pleasure," she said, her voice still the same, but at the same time, not sounding like her at all. The Amelia I was looking at was nothing more than a collection of murderous urges it seemed, no doubt controlled somehow by her parents’ dark influence.
As she came forward with one of the hatchets held aloft, I raised my hands in alarm. "Amelia, wait! It’s me! It’s—"
But she didn’t seem to care who I was as she came screaming toward me, bringing the hatchet down with full force at my head. I was able to step aside and avoid the blow, but as I did she swung the other hatchet and the blade sliced across the top of my thigh, causing me to cry out in pain as I lost my balance slightly. As she went to bring the hatchet down on me again, though, Dalia used her powers to grab Amelia around the waist and fling her across the hall and into the wall.
"Easy!" I shouted at Dalia. "That’s still Amelia!"
"She was about to kill you!"
"I know, but we’re here to save her, not kill her."
"Fine, I’ll let her cleave your skull open next time."
As Faelyn and Shaerra remained by the front door as if blocking the exit, watching everything with a smile on their face, I looked toward Amelia to see her get to her feet, none the worse for wear after Dalia threw her across the hallway. If anything, she seemed more determined than ever to kill us, which became obvious when she thrust out her hand and used her magic to lift Dalia off her feet, raising her high into the air before slamming her down onto the marble floor with such force that I felt sick to my stomach having to see it. Then as Dalia somehow got to her feet again, dazed and unsteady, Amelia let out a scream and ran at her with the hatchet in her other hand. Realizing with horror what she was going to do, I ran toward Dalia to move her out of the way, sending a blast of magic at Amelia at the same time, a blast that she expertly avoided as she kept running. By the time I reached Dalia, who was too dazed to move, Amelia had already started to swing the hatchet, catching Dalia across the stomach with it. Only for the fact that I was able to grab Dalia and pull her back, the hatchet would no doubt have disembowelled her on the spot. Regardless, Dalia screamed in pain as the blade sliced open the flesh of her belly, though how deeply I couldn’t tell yet, but it seemed deep enough for a disturbing amount of her blood to splash onto the floor, which the black mold seemed to greedily devour at once, as if it had been waiting this whole time for blood to spill.