Dire Symbols

by W A Rowland

  “Bye bye,” she said sweetly and dropped him into the channel where he flowed down the river of energy as well.

  “Liam, we can’t fix it this time. The connection is too far gone,” Lily said as the silver stream in front of them began to turn into a rapid.

  “Ok, time to go,” he said and glanced back to the wall where he saw himself, dragging Bast as Lily pummeled the Wendigo.

  Maybe he can save them. Maybe they can save him.

  Liam felt a jerk then as Lily pulled them out of Bast’s core and back into his own.

  DEMONS AND DESIRE

  Rough hands pulled Liam back. He was disoriented and stumbled, falling onto the gravel. Someone was screaming. Another was crying. Several were crying actually. A wail sounded. He got his wits about him to see Hand standing over him, his face screwed up in a furious expression. This was possibly the only time he’d seen the big calm man get anything beyond mildly annoyed other than when they’d been down below.

  Hand bellowed at him in a deep angry voice, “What the hell are you trying to do?!”

  Just then Bast’s body convulsed for a moment, and then lay still. Sarah let out a muffled sob.

  “She’s dead. She’s actually dead,” Steven said as the group gathered around the still form.

  “Just her body,” Liam said, stunned at Hand’s outburst.

  “What?” Thea said, also looking angrily at him.

  “It’s just her body,” he said, not sure how to make it make sense.

  “Have some fucking respect, man!” Steven shouted.

  Liam let out a frustrated growl and stood up, facing the irate faces of his friends.

  “I mean her soul wasn’t in it when she died. It’s just her body,” he explained again trying to emphasize his point.

  “I doesn’t work that wa-” Thea started angrily then stopped with an intense, suspicious look. “What did you do?” she said dangerously.

  “Look, I don’t have time to explain. If it worked, Bast should be fine in the astral plane, and I know where the anchor is. But we need to go now or Cindy is dead!” he replied angrily.

  “Bullshit, what did you do?!” Thea screamed.

  Liam let out a frustrated groan and, not seeing anyone who looked willing to listen, decided it wasn’t worth the time. So, turning, he started to walk away.

  “Liam?! Get back here!” Thea shouted at him, but he’d stopped listening. He didn’t have to tell Lily to start making launch fields, he created his bubble and just threw his hands down towards the ground, using fields attached to his hands to launch him into the sky where Lily evened him out.

  He knew where Black was going, and he needed to beat him there. He increased the strength of his bubble and streamlined it so it only affected the air directly in front of him, giving him the effective aerodynamics of a bullet. Lily kept making stronger and stronger fields and he gained speed quickly as he passed through each one. He’d be there in a matter of moments. He just hoped he wasn’t too late already.

  * * *

  Black sat in the back of the sedan as it sped down the highway, his hand lying on the side of the tied-up girl next to him. Anita had said her name was Cynthia or something like that; he’d stopped paying attention to the names of his toys though. Like that Jennifer girl that he’d gotten from Cork. She’d been delicious, especially once her mind broke. He was a bit sad that she was probably dead already. He’d been forced to cut their session short before he cleaned the wounds, so she’d definitely bled out by now. Ohh, well, that was how it went some days.

  Black looked down at the girl next to him. She was still unconscious from where he’d disrupted her nervous system after Anita had lured her away from her friends. This was the demi she had told him about. Their precog and Bast’s favorite broken pet.

  Bast, that bitch had cost him a lot today, but he’d have his vengeance satisfied. His followers were expendable; they would do to distract the kitty and the rest of her people. Maybe if he was lucky, the Wendigo would kill several of them, maybe it would even kill Bast herself. That was too much to hope for though.

  The girl began to stir and he hit her with another paralyzing burst of energy shocking her back into drooling oblivion. Soon, he would be unstoppable, and not even Bast and her little group of miscreants would be able to challenge him.

  Her favorite project would provide the last core he needed to get through that infernal lock. He’d spent nearly a hundred years trying to break through. He’d sacrificed followers, friends, even his wife before Anita trying to break that damnable stone. But now, he’d finally have what he’d longed for. The car rolled off the highway onto a dirt road. The chamber lay at the end.

  He’d considered killing the girl as soon as he’d gotten her, but, while he couldn’t feed off of her as a demi, he still planned to inflict as much pain as he could on her, if just to satisfy his hatred for the trouble Bast’s enclave had caused him. Yes, he’d bring her up, just enough to be conscious. Enough to feel pain, but not enough to do anything or try to escape. Then, after he’d broken her mind, he’d cut out her core stone. He hoped it was somewhere deep. Maybe in her heart? He’d always wanted to try to extract someone’s heart, but just had never gotten around to it.

  The car stopped. They were here.

  * * *

  Liam saw the large mound approach and let up off of the fields, letting himself slow naturally for a second before hitting the breaks and descending towards it. A car was parked in a grassy field a few hundred feet away with a dark figure standing next to the driver’s seat. It looked like a young woman smoking a cigarette, but as Liam got closer, she happened to glance up and curse before drawing a handgun and firing up at him. The rounds hit his bubble and stopped.

  Neat, he thought before he threw an individual field onto each round and accelerated all ten of them back at the woman. Each one was going at roughly Mach 2 when they struck her and the car, tearing through flesh and metal alike. Just for good measure, he drew a field around the vehicle and the driver and collapsed it in, causing both to roll up into a crumpled ball.

  As it turned out, with enough kinetic force, almost anything would crumple. He glided past the ruined car, now smoking and spewing fluids everywhere, and landed in front of the entrance. Inside, he heard someone begin to scream.

  * * *

  The girl’s screeches were shrill and powerful, everything Black loved from a scream. He’d killed many people over his long life, but the screamers were his favorite. He drew the knife along her back, cutting cloth and flesh as he gleefully began his ritual, his free hand resting on her skin, keeping her paralyzed except for her vocal chords. He wanted those working.

  The setting was appropriate, as he did enjoy the ambiance the architecture of the old world gave to his games. The room was roughly twenty feet high and a couple hundred square feet. The gray stone walls were covered with a layer of moss and vines. The dirt floor compacted from the feet of millions of people over the millennia, all coming here to gawk at the achievements of the long dead.

  Maybe he could get her to scream so loud, it would echo and the driver could hear it at the car? Now, that was a goal worth achieving in Black’s mind. He started a new cut, into the girl’s thigh this time, careful to avoid the major arteries. If only he could drink her.

  He was sure she’d be delicious with the pitiful sounds she was making. He’d just made it to her knee when he heard a second scream meld with the first, and then he felt something incredibly strong hit him, and he yelped as his body flew straight back against the wall, where he fell, crumpled and broken.

  * * *

  Liam hoped he’d broken every single bone in Black’s body, and if he hadn’t he’d make sure he had by the time he was done. Then he’d get Steven to put Black back together, just so he could do it again.

  He seethed, having seen that monster cutting on Cindy. It had overcome his sense, and he’d thrown the strongest field he could make directly on top of Black, sending him careening back, leavi
ng a large divot in the stonework of the wall. A normal person would have splatted against the stone, but Black had instead made a huge dent in it.

  He ran forward towards where Cindy lay sobbing on the ground. Blood dripped from her back and leg where two long cuts ran down her tan skin. He was almost to her when he heard the scream and something slammed into him. He fell to the side and looked up to see Anahita standing over him, her hand formed into a claw with a crimson red light emanating from it. She lunged forward, grabbing for Liam, but a quick kinetic field from Lily pushed him out of the way of her strike. He got to his feet and looked; she had sprouted wings and her skin was red now. What the hell?

  “Succubus!” Lily yelled.

  “What!? What’s that!” he thought as Anahita dove at him, her red glowing claw now actually had claws on it. He put fields up in front of him, but she dodged and weaved around each one. He tried a large field, but she stopped just short of hitting it, sliding sideways. He kept throwing kinetic fields up around him frantically as she moved supernaturally fast.

  “What the hell is she?” Liam asked Lily.

  “Succubus, she made a deal with a demon. Dodge!” Lily yelled as Anahita dove again.

  “I thought demons weren’t real! Just bad demis?” he said, narrowly avoiding a taloned foot.

  “Never said that! Just that most gods and demons from myths were just demis. Demons are very real!” she said. “Duck!”

  Liam ducked as the woman swept over him, and landed behind. He spun and tried to form a field, but her hand was faster than he was and she clutched his throat between powerful fingers. He felt sharp claws dig into his neck as she lifted him, and his legs went numb.

  “What the hell, I can’t move,” he thought.

  “She’s draining your energy. You need to get away!” Lily screamed.

  Liam struggled for a moment, his body getting weaker and weaker, then an idea struck him. He only had seconds left; better make the most of them.

  “Lily, can we dive into her core?”

  “What!? No! You can’t just jump willy-nilly into a homicidal maniac’s core!” Lily screamed.

  “Die, you bastard!” Anahita hissed, her tongue having turned into a snake’s tongue.

  “Lily!” Liam screamed inside his head, everything getting a bit fuzzy.

  “Your ideas just keep getting worse!” Lily screamed, and then Liam felt himself fall into Anahita’s core.

  They appeared inside a room as black as onyx, a gray gateway to the astral plan in the corner. Through it, Liam could see a bit of silver, which he concluded was the energy she was currently taking from his body. Lily collapsed next to him gasping, and she didn’t look good.

  “Lily? What’s wrong!?” he asked alarmed.

  “Took a lot of energy to break in. Not… willing… soul,” she said, falling to her knees, her face pale as she breathed hard. He needed to finish what he came for quickly and get back out before Lily collapsed.

  In the corner of the room was Anahita, but she wasn’t as he saw her in the real world. This was a small girl, huddled in a corner crying, terrified. She looked much like Cindy had when he’d first visited her core. She looked up when he took a step towards her and screamed. “Run!”

  Liam wasn’t sure what to make of it until two other figures materialized next to the girl. One was a tall man in a pinstripe suit. He looked every bit human, except for his face, which was a twisted, malevolent grin, with many needle-like teeth showing. As Liam looked, a long narrow tongue darted out and licked pale lips.

  The other figure was most definitely not human. The towering mass of tentacles, eyes, and mouths roared and seemed to both grow and shrink at the same time. Its very visage seemed to be something that the human mind was never meant to comprehend. It let out an ear-piercing shriek and leapt at Liam. He dove out of the way and the dark mass slammed into the black wall beyond.

  “What is that!?” Liam screamed.

  “Demon. Run,” Lily said weakly.

  Liam reached for a kinetic field and nothing happened. The creature leapt again, barely missing Liam. He ducked at the last second, and when he came up, the disturbing man in the suit was there. He reached out a hand and it went into Liam’s chest.

  “You have no power here, little demigod,” it hissed.

  Liam went cold. Not again.

  “No. Mine!” Lily shrieked from nearby, her voice changing into a multifaceted, multi-octave vocalization. The man looked shocked and let go of Liam’s soul. Liam fell to the ground, and when he looked up, his diminutive, sweet Lily wasn’t there. In her place was a tall fiery figure, with wings of light and eyes of electricity. And she looked pissed.

  “But, how?” the strange man said, backing up.

  “I am Potential. I am all that is, was, or will be. I am infinite and I am finite. I am the sum as well as the parts. I am Potential. And this one is mine!” the fire being screamed and lurched, backhanding the tall man, who Liam assumed was Sadism, Anahiti’s Guide, sending him flying into the roiling mass of darkness that had leapt again from its last position across the room. Sadism was swallowed by the mass and flew out the other side. To Liam, it looked like he passed right through it.

  “I will take care of the guide. You fight the demon,” the figure said and floated towards Sadism. The demon leapt at her, but it passed through.

  “What the hell, Lily! I can’t fight that thing!” Liam screeched.

  “It is of the outer planes; you are physical. I cannot fight it,” the vocalization said, giving no help whatsoever, as she approached Sadism, who didn’t seem to want to go down without a fight, and had materialized a rather large sword in one hand. That was a neat trick. If only Liam could…

  Liam paused. Maybe he could. This was just a projection of his soul after all. Nothing was actually real here. It was merely astral projections inside a physical core.

  Liam’s train of thought was cut short by the demon bellowing and leaping at him. He dove and quickly tried to think of holding a weapon in his hand. Except the first thing that came to his mind was a machine gun from Rambo. Suddenly, in his hand, he was holding a very large machine gun.

  He pulled the trigger as the demon came flying at him again. Bright white projectiles peppered the beast and it screeched in pain and fury as it rolled and leapt and slid around the room, hiding behind furniture, trying to get away from Liam’s barrage of projectiles. Unlike with a real weapon, this one never seemed to run out of ammo. Liam was definitely starting to feel fatigued. Must be using my own soul as energy. He looked up; the beast had regenerated almost all of what he’d done to it. His soul would dry up before he killed that aberration.

  Then, Liam’s brain ran a red light and the light bulb went off. It’s a physical creature; it doesn’t have an astral form, what if…?

  Liam ran for the gray gate, and the mass followed him, no longer deterred by the bit of Liam’s soul that he’d been flinging at it. Liam would only get one shot at it, so he stopped in the opening and waited. The beast vaulted the couch and table and flung itself at Liam again. Liam just let it hit him, and as he did, he flung his body back into the astral connection. If it was something that didn’t have an astral form, or was from a different plane, maybe taking it there would weaken it somehow.

  His body flowed along the channel the darkness attached to him like a leech, trying to feed off his soul. He exited the channel into a large green field, instead of Joshua’s cabin, which is the only place he’d ever been on the astral plane. The demon screeched as they landed and he saw the mass begin to shrivel.

  “Nothing to feed off of here huh?” Liam said eyeing the quickly shrinking demon as it began crawling back towards the gateway to Anahita’s soul core.

  “Oh no, you don’t,” Liam said, and an axe formed in his hands. He began cutting off any tentacle or bit of demon he could reach until all that remained was a single dark eye, staring up at him in horror. It didn’t even have a mouth to screech with anymore. Just one single eye. Liam hefte
d the axe and brought it down with a sickening crunch, as the demon eye split. All of the parts of it quickly dissolved away into nothingness, leaving Liam alone in the peaceful green field.

  “This is a nice place when you actually look at it,” he said to no one in particular before turning and running back to the glowing gateway.

  He rematerialized in Anahita’s core to see Lily back in her usual form, semi-unconscious. Sadism lay next to her, looking like he’d been simultaneously burned, electrocuted, and deep-fried. His body was smoking a bit as he lay there.

  “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” came a small voice from the corner. The young girl was still there, staring wide-eyed at the destruction around her. The whole of the room was trashed. The furniture was smashed and the walls looked cracked. He knew what came next.

  “Anahita? I can fix you, but I need to know, why are you doing this?” he asked her softly.

  “I didn’t want to. I couldn’t stop them, it was just too…”

  The girl grabbed her head and shook as she screamed. Her body blurred and shifted and changed to a much older version. “Fools! This is my soul! I will burn you all!” she screeched, lurching to her feet in an uneven way. Like she didn’t have full control of her body.

  The little girl reappeared. “Ohh God! Please go, she’ll kill you. Please I…” she phased again and yet another version appeared.

  “Oh God! I don’t want to die!”

  Phase

  “I will eat your soul!”

  Phase

  “Run!”

  Liam balked at what he saw as the woman’s soul fought with itself, tearing off parts of itself in the process. Each time she shifted, he saw little bits of her float into the astral gate.

  “This is not good,” Liam muttered to himself and ran to Lily. She was conscious, but just barely.

  “Stupid idea,” she grumbled as he picked her up.

  “Yes and you can tell me all about it later, but I need you to get us out of here now, Lily. Ok, I need you,” he begged, jostling her to keep her awake.

  “So tired,” she said, laying her head against his chest.