Of the Blood

by Joshua Laack

Chapter 11

  As they ran, Andrew tried to recall the feeling of what he had done in his living room to take control. He struggled to reach for that feeling. He came close several times. But each time that he was close, the demon rose up and squashed him back down. It laughed at his pitiful attempts.

  “It is too late for you,” it growled, “just give up.” Andrew refused to give up though. He strained time and again to overcome this thing inside of him. He threw his mind at it until his mind was exhausted. He didn't even know the mind was something that could get tired, but each try was weaker than the last. With each try, the demon mocked him more. The combination of tiring and the mocking was taking its toll on Andrew's mind, driving him to the darkest place he had ever been. He screamed as loud as he could, but no sound left his lips. It was at that moment that he gave up. There was nothing he could do to save himself. He did something then that he had never done. He prayed to the God of his parents.

  The path ahead of them was empty, and then it was not. Josefina stood there, feet spread, arms crossed and the answer to a prayer that Andrew had not expected to be answered. He had given in to the demon. He didn't deserve to be saved, yet here was salvation.

  “You will not take him.” The demon spun him around to run the other way. The man that Andrew remembered from the side of the road the other day stood there, blocking his path. The demon rushed him with a howl that curdled Andrew's blood. The man, or demon hunter, or whatever they were, stood fast as Andrew and the demon blurred toward him. Just before the demon in Andrew's body reached him, his fist blurred up and then Andrew was flying back at twice the speed he had been running forward. Josefina and the man appeared above where Andrew had landed on his back. The man looked at her.

  “I thought you said we couldn't touch him without a reaction?”

  “I don't know. It happened before.” The demon rolled and stood up as fast as it could. Josefina rushed to where it stood and wrapped her hands around Andrew's face. The jolt of energy lifted both of them into the air with a visible blue ball of lightning that flared out in all directions. This time, Josefina didn't let go and the current continued to explode into Andrew skull while the demon within howled in pain. After that initial blast, they fell to the ground rolling as Josefina struggled to keep her hands on his face and the demon fought to get away from the burning of electric fire.

  Andrew felt like howling along as every fiber of his being was fried to a crisp with the the power coursing through it. As he struggled to adjust to the pain, he found that he could feel the separate lines of power flowing into him from Josefina, except that wasn't her name.

  With the link between them, Andrew felt a vastness of knowledge within her. He couldn't get at all of it, but the surface of that knowledge slipped into his mind with the pain. The light of that power illuminated every part of his being. He could visualize that light flowing through him and in spite of the pain, it was the brightest and most beautiful thing he had ever experienced. There was one exception to that beauty. Inside of his mind, there was a dark shape that kept shifting to avoid the lines of light flashing around.

  Andrew reached for the light with his thoughts and found that he could touch it. He tried to grab a piece of it and felt it slip through his thoughts like squeezing a handful of water. He refused to give up. Josefina was giving him a chance at freedom. It was up to him to grasp that chance while it was offered.

  He kept trying again and again. After countless tries, he had a different thought. If he couldn't grab it, maybe he could just guide it. Andrew imagined a path for the light and to his surprise, the light grabbed onto that path and followed it. He thought of a path to the center of that blackness. It couldn't move in time to avoid the flowing light and the surface of the darkness rippled like a lake in a turbulent storm as the light punched through. The demon screamed and the sound echoed out of Andrew's mouth.

  “Get out!” Andrew shouted in his mind as he guided more lines of the light into the demon. Each strike left the blob shuddering and twisting in an attempt to avoid another blow. Andrew was relentless, creating new paths each time the demon moved to avoid him. Another idea occurred to him and Andrew gathered up all of the light that he could, spread it in a large net of paths around the demon. Then he began to squeeze the net. The net tightened on the surface of the blackness until it was covered by light. That ball of white grew smaller and smaller as Andrew pressed in upon it with all his mental might.

  The final gut wrenching scream burst from Andrew's lips, but cut off as the black bubble burst. The light collapsed into a pinprick with the remnant of the black still within. The tiny point of light exploded and Andrew's body shook from the force as it expanded to fill every part of him. An instant in that blazing agony and then the blaring lines of power faded to a soft tingle that Andrew barely felt after the current that felt as though it should have blasted him into dust.

  Johari, which was Josefina's real name, released her hands as the current faded. To his surprise, the soft lines of current within him did not disappear at the loss of her touch. Andrew lay still for a minute and then gingerly rolled onto his back, eyes still closed. He let out a long sigh and opened his eyes.

  Above him stood Johari, glowing as she always had, but the glow was different. It was a soft halo that simply separated her from the light around her. Andrew gasped as he beheld the world before him. The sun was shining from its place near the horizon, but despite the late hour, the day was brighter than Andrew had ever seen it. Light was everywhere, so bright he almost wanted to close his eyes, but at the same time it was so beautiful that he never wanted to close them again. Shivers of joy echoed through him as for the first time in his entire life, Andrew looked out of his eyes at a world without any darkness in it.

  “Beautiful,” he breathed, and then it faded away as he slipped from consciousness.