by D V Wolfe
Scratch was screaming in pain, his muscles seizing and jerking. His eyes were bloodshot, the lids fluttering. I lowered the stake, shaking with anger. I poked his cheek with the stake, leaving a small pockmark on the otherwise unblemished skin. “Guess your boss isn’t going to get a chance to come after me,” I said.
Scratch was screaming and wheezing, “You….stu...stupid human. You threw away your only chance.” He was crying now, turning his head to watch as his arm fell away, becoming a pool of black liquid inside the burned remnants of his suit jacket sleeve. “You could have had freedom, but you chose death!”
I drove the stake through his neck. “I guess that makes two of us.”
I moved off him as the convulsions got worse and turned to look at the other two grease stains on the floor. Noah was sitting up, pulling at the straps still tying his legs to the credenza.
“Help me get these off,” Noah said, frantically pulling at the straps around his legs. I grabbed the silver dagger off the floor and started hacking at the straps. Despite looking impressive, the dagger was blunt like a butter knife. Scratch probably preferred it that way, to make the pain last longer. I glanced back over at Scratch’s corpse which was beginning to liquefy into a black, greasy puddle. “Nope,” I said, “not sorry that he’s dead, the sadistic fucker.
I heard the muffled sound of the elevator dinging outside the office and then there was shouting. Shit, I’d forgotten for a moment that we were trapped in an office on a floor full of blood-thirsty and, from what I’d seen, corporately strung-out demons. And to top it off, I had just killed the only demon that could control them. Perfect Bane. Well done.
I looked around frantically for a plan. Barricading the door was the only thing that I could think of. I gave the silver dagger to Noah to continue hacking at the straps with and I put my back against the heavy desk and shoved it an inch at a time across the floor, keeping a hand pressed against the wound in my side. The shouting and the sounds of running feet were getting closer.
The elevator dinged again and there was a roar and the screams got louder. Something else was here. Had the ritual been completed enough to get Berith into the building? Maybe the blood was just to let him skip the elevator and zap right into the office with us? I shoved as hard as I could and I was an inch from the door when it was shoved inward and two hands forced themselves around the door frame, clawing at the door to try to get in.
I closed my eyes and shoved. There was screaming from the other side, more roaring that turned into maniacal laughter, then the frosted glass was sprayed red from the outside. More bodies bounced off the frosted glass and then seemed to be dragged away, back to the center of the room. I leaned against the desk and braced my feet on the floor as more weight was thrown against the door from the other side, trying to break in.
There was a hissing, growling noise coming from the hall, followed by a scream from somewhere nearby. Whoever was shoving against the door, stopped. I heard the growling turn to the crazed laughter and the sound of running as if they’d lost interest in the door and decided to follow the scream. The scream was growing fainter as it moved away from the office. There was the sound of ripping clothes and breaking bones, followed by screams and moans of pain outside the door. I moved away from the desk and went back to help Noah. We were both frantic and Noah started just yanking at his legs, trying to slip them out from under the straps. He howled in pain and I put a hand out to stop him. In our panic, we’d forgotten what Noah was capable of.
“Burn them,” I said.
“I forgot,” Noah groaned. His voice was soft and hollow and he gritted his teeth against the pain as he shifted. He probably tore something trying to wriggle free. He closed the strap in his hands and smoke started to fill the room. He burned through all three straps and slid to the edge of the desk. The smoke detectors had been going off since Noah had burned the first demon but I hadn’t heard it over the sound of my own heart pounding in my chest and then the chaos in the room outside.
I helped Noah down off the desk and he winced as he put weight on his right leg. I pulled his arm across my shoulder and helped him sit on the edge of the desk against the door. The screams and noise outside were quieter now. There was one more bang and a single scream, echoing as if in a stairwell, and then the sound of the heavy stairwell door slamming shut. Then, silence.
I looked down at Noah, still straining to hear anything outside the office door. “You ok?” I asked.
He nodded. I bent down and picked up the other stake from the grease spot and handed it to Noah. I wasn’t sure what we were going to face when we opened the door. If the Duke had risen and was sitting out there all by himself, filing his nails, waiting for us to come out, I wanted us both to be armed.
“So we learned that these work,” I said, turning the stake over in my hand. Some of the spice had been burned away, black grease stained the wood in its place but other than that, it seemed to have stood up fairly well.
“Yeah, that was lucky,” Noah said. “The way things were going, I was pretty sure that they were going to laugh at us, and then we’d end up being the ones impaled on the corndogs.”
We both turned to look at the wall of frosted glass, stained red.
“Just how much mojo was Rosetta packing? Do you think that was our crew out there, racking up bodies?” Noah asked.
I shook my head. “I didn’t hear any gunshots.”
“Do you think it’s, you know, the Duke guy? Maybe he turned on the other demons because we’re still alive? Or because Scratch didn’t finish….?” Noah glanced at the grease stain on the floor that used to be Scratch. “He said the Duke had your contract and if you had let him kill me, and let him raise the Duke, you could have killed him and been free.”
“He said a lot of things,” I said.
“Thank you,” Noah said quietly.
I shook my head. I was ashamed. For a minute, I’d actually considered it. To have all the townsfolk of Ashley free from Hell. To have my soul free from hell. To have time and years and freedom... “Don’t thank me,” I said to Noah. I looked down at his boney frame, his hair missing a chunk at the back and his bruised and scraped pale skin. He was a hitchhiker. His life should have never been a bargaining chip. He didn’t belong here. “And when we get out of here, I’m sending you back to Pennsylvania.”
Noah looked down, but he nodded. “I know.” I paused. I had expected Noah to argue with me. “I know I’m in over my head,” Noah added. We were quiet for a moment. Noah raised his head up and looked at the door. “Do you think it’s over? Out there, I mean?”
“I dunno,” I said. After another minute of listening to the silence outside the doors, I looked at him. “Should we be curious rabbits and stick our heads out of our hidey-hole?”
“And get them blown off? Sure, why should we break tradition,” Noah said. It took us about five minutes to pull the partner desk back from the doorway. I didn’t want Noah to help with his leg being injured, but he wasn’t in the mood to listen.
“What about that stab wound?” Noah asked, nodding at my side.
I looked down at it. “Doesn’t seem to be bleeding as much now.”
“You must be a good clotter too,” Noah said. “Damn useful skill to have in this line of work.” I rolled my eyes at him. I pulled Noah’s arm over my shoulder. He was blocking the wound on my left side with his body and I was blocking easy access to his right leg with my left. I pulled the office door open and the two hands that had tried to force their way in, fell to the floor, still attached to partial forearms that looked like they had been ripped or chewed off.
“Eww,” Noah said.
The room beyond was empty. Not a single body remained... but there was blood everywhere. I felt something crunch under my foot. I moved it and looked down to see a human molar. I surveyed the mess. Did Berith do this? Was this the price of demonic incompetence?
And then I saw it on the elevator door.
A smiley face, in blood.
> “Fuck,” I said.
“What?” Noah asked.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I said, my knees going weak. I hit the ground, staring at the elevator door.
“What is it?” Noah asked.
“We’ve got bigger problems now,” I said, pointing at the bloody symbol.
“Is that Sister Smile’s?” Noah asked, horror and realization in his voice as he slowly turned to look back at me. “Like on the thing at the warehouse when she took Festus?” I nodded. “Well, what does that mean?” Noah asked, his voice ratcheting up an octave.
I shook my head. “It means that not only do the cannibals have Festus, a demon who can track me…” I met Noah’s gaze. “Now, they’re fueled by demon blood.” I gazed around at the reddish-black blood smeared on every surface in the office. I tipped my head up and looked at the arterial spray on the ceiling.
“What do you mean?” Noah asked, on the verge of babbling.
“See the black blood,” I said, waving at the room in general. “When a demon inhabits a human body, they merge with the human flesh. If they’re wounded and can’t leave the human body and Sister Smile’s crew eats their human bodies while the demon is still inside of it...they gain their powers.”
“Fuck,” Noah said. He was wobbling on his feet and he dragged his leg over to lean against a desk, but paused when he saw it was covered in blood as well. I got to my feet, slowly. The wound in my side sending a shock of pain rippling through me. At that moment, I felt every injury from the last week. I felt as old as my last Empty House. Beaten down and defeated. What the fuck had we just done? From demons, to demon-fueled cannibals. I moved over to help Noah who was still trying to balance without putting too much weight on his leg.
“We can’t stay here,” I said. “We need to see if anyone else….we need to get out.” If there hadn’t been easier prey around, I had no doubt in my mind that Noah and I would be half-digested by a cannibal at the moment. Sad news for the cannibal, if he was expecting us to give him demon superpowers. Still. What if they were still in the building? How were we going to get out? I moved with Noah as quickly as I could across the room and I reclaimed my .45 from the carpet. Not much use without ammo but I was still kind of fond of it. I punched the elevator button.
“Wait!” Noah said and he took off, limping on his right leg.
“Noah! Where the hell are you going?” I yelled after him as he darted back into the office. I followed him. Inside the office, he bent down and pulled the ten-gauge shotgun out from under the credenza.
I smiled. “Couldn’t leave your good buddy behind.”
“Are you kidding me?” Noah asked, moving to put his arm back across my shoulder. “I hate this thing. I think it’s the reason they caught me. I had it loaded and ready to go and they came around the corner. I was so scared I emptied all the rounds.”
“Wow,” I said. “Did you hit any of them?”
“I plastered the first guy all over the wall. The other ones just kind of hung back until I ran out of shells. Then they grabbed me.”
“Where was Rosetta?” I asked as we moved back to the elevator.
“We heard Tags scream,” Noah said. “And she went to help. She told me to stay put.”
We got in the elevator. Besides the remaining black ooze, the elevator floor was covered with black blood. I had no right to hope that anyone else was alive, especially on the tail of Sister Smile’s crew. How did they get here? Did Festus lead them to us? Was Festus still alive? How were Noah and I alive after a brush with demons and an almost brush with Sister Smile’s crew? I hoped we wouldn’t run into them now. Both our guns were empty and in our physical conditions, we were pretty much defenseless. We rode the elevator down to the first floor. I motioned Noah to hang back when the doors opened.
Silence greeted us. We didn't move. The doors closed again and still nothing. I hit the floor button again and this time when they reopened I poked my head out and looked around. The hallway outside the elevators was quiet. I got Noah’s arm back across my shoulders and we staggered down the hallway. The white tile floor had a solid streak of blackish-red leading to the front doors. Blood. Someone had been dragged, bleeding down this hallway, and by the amount of blood, I was willing to bet it was a lot of ‘someones’. Not good. I just hoped it was all demons.
There was a faint whimpering sound coming from a door to our left. Hostages? Injured demon? I raised my stake and motioned to Noah to raise his. I grabbed the doorknob and twisted, flinging it open.
And I immediately wished I could burn the image from my retinas. Tags and Rosetta were inside and they were far from decent.
“Jesus Christ and a camel,” I swore and turned to cover Noah’s eyes.
“Bane!” Rosetta cried. “You’re alive! Did you kill it?”
“If by ‘it’ you mean my will to ever eat or sleep or close my eyes again, no, you killed that,” I said.
Tags scoffed. “Sorry, but no one asked you to see any of that.” I could hear them putting themselves back together behind me and I looked down at Noah who was, if possible, even paler.
“You ok there, Noah?” I asked. “You need to throw up?”
“Is it possible for your brain to throw up?” He asked.
“You watch your tongue, sonny,” Rosetta said. “We thought we were going to die. I mean when Sister Smile’s crew showed up...” Rosetta froze. “Wait, are they still here? How did you get away?” She grabbed Big Joe off the floor and looked around.
“They seem to be gone,” I said. “Noah and I were upstairs, by personal invitation of the big man’s butler or valet or whatever. Definitely not a show I’d want to see again.”
“And Ber-the big daddy demon, did you kill him?” Rosetta asked, amazed.
I shook my head. “No, we kind of stopped the welcome wagon before he made it topside. We killed his assistant before he could properly ring the dinner bell. We do know that the stakes work though. We bagged a couple of his cronies. And you’re all still alive, so I guess that’s something.”
“Yeah,” Noah said. “And surely even crony demons are worth something in terms of souls, right?”
“I hope so,” I said. “Of course, I’ll have to find Festus to know for sure.”
“Well, shit, it was damn good timing for Sister Smile to come-a-calling and bring the family for some demon dine-in,” Tags said, relief in his voice.
I stared at him. “Tags, pull your head out of your ass. Do you have any fucking idea what’s running loose out there now? An entire tribe of cannibals who just ate or are in the process of eating sixty to a hundred demons. From the sounds of the carnage on our floor, few, if any, of the demons were able to ‘smoke out’ of their meat suits before they were too injured to do it. Sister Smile’s tribe is somewhere between fifty and seventy-five members and now, they’re super-charged. What kind of fucking havoc are they going to be raising now? This wasn’t a win. This was falling into a pile of shit and coming out smelling like shit.”
“Hey,” Rosetta said. “You stopped the bastard from rising. Can’t we at least agree that that was a win?” I looked at her, feeling the wall inside me starting to shake, threatening to topple again. I thought about the hell that was tear-assing around St. Louis at the moment and onto god-knew-where. How soon until they beat out of Festus how to find me again? Or was he already dead? Did they beat our location out of him before killing him? Rosetta put a hand on my arm. “Hey, Bane, one problem at a time.”