Kiara had slowly crept up behind us. I had spotted her as Ishita was talking and let the wizard narrate.
“All this time, watching me struggle through school and knowing who I was, why didn’t you say anything?” I asked Ishita.
She gave me a sad smile. “I understand you’re hurt. I wanted to tell you, but I’m part of a secret branch of the Wizarding Society of Great Britain and North America. We work alongside the government in research and development. I work part-time as a professor at the university to have access to their resources and maintain appearances. I can’t live in this dimension—it isn’t meant to sustain life—but I am still expected to keep an eye out for any potentials, and when I saw your work disabling those necromancers, I knew I’d come across the best candidate.
“Speaking of—those are your servants outside engaging my chimeras, are they not? I’d like you to call them off. Their repairs will take time away from this project, and by my calculations, the angel will expire before tomorrow, and I need to run a couple of tests before then.”
I gulped and then turned away as Kiara raised a stool and cracked Ishita over the head with it.
Kiara might have been physical in this dimension, but she had been completely silent as she’d snuck up on us.
I couldn’t look at my professor, sprawled out on the floor. My guilt was planted and rooting in deep.
“I had no idea,” Kiara said, coming to stand beside me. “I had no idea the government was sanctioning this type of work. This is shit I’m meant to stop.”
“We can rely on governments and lawyers to find loopholes and keep secrets, can’t we?” I stepped over to examine the rifter’s pretty prison. “I’m here. We’re going to get you out,” I told her, assuming she presented female as Ishita had labeled her.
“Step back,” Kiara shouted, raising the stool again.
“I don’t think that—” I started to protest, but it was too late. The stool hit the glass-like surface and a burst of light sent Kiara stumbling back.
I stepped over and helped her up. “Magick...” I didn’t need to say more.
Looking back at the globe and the strange moving symbols, I decided to give it the ol’ demigod spell-disrupting handshake. I walked straight up to it and, like an overconfident idiot, put my hands on it.
Symbols appeared on the glass and floor and shot me backward, just as they’d done with Kiara.
“YOUCH!” I shouted.
My hands were sizzling. I shook them and blew on them. “Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow!”
“Magick...” Kiara smirked.
I scowled at her. It was time to call in my backup. It was likely I would need them, anyway, with the massive undead monsters outside. I briefly wondered if everyone was all right.
I visualized the rat patch on the back of my jacket, raised my fingers, and snapped.
My body arched as the force of my mischief surged forward. Rats suddenly appeared all over the lab, their glowing eyes peeking out from behind monitors, on top of books, and all along the floor. Tanner danced through the air until he landed on my shoulder. His light, gray mist trailed behind him like grains of sand.
Kiara pursed her lips and nodded. “Creepy, but cool, Cecile.”
I smiled. I was going to miss her.
I snapped again and all of my rats sprinted for the sphere. At first, their little bodies were flung back, but once the bulk of the mischief had reached the base of the sphere and begun climbing onto it, the wards could no longer repel them.
In moments, the mischief swarmed the globe and as their mass covered it, the light in the room dimmed, until Kiara and I were almost in complete darkness.
The monitors in the room turned off and a series of sounds, like electrical shortages, popped and snapped all across the lab.
“What...” Kiara began, but was cut off by an eruption of light.
I threw my hands up and was momentarily blinded as light burst through the mischief and knocked me back.
I was dazed and on the ground but felt my rats returning to me. As they passed into me, I pushed myself up and into a seated position. I shook my head and looked around.
The lab was a shit show. Half of it had blown out into the larger building space. Undead creatures struggled under debris and what animals had survived were fleeing. Electrical wires and pieces of ceiling hung down and lay on the floor.
I had miscalculated and felt terrible for the animals that had died and those that now ran away in terror.
“Kiara,” I croaked, hoping she was all right. I hadn’t considered what that blast might do to her soul.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to find her standing beside me. “I’m here,” she said, and offered me her hand. I stood up and together we went over to see if the rifter had survived.
Rats continued to sprint to me and crawl up and into my chest and back. I was so used to it, I hardly noticed. Their energy pulsed inside of me and let me know they were staying close. Tanner scurried up and nestled into my neck, reassuring me he was fine and our spell had worked.
Light pulsing from under a piece of vinyl from the drop ceiling caught my eye. “Kiara, help me,” I instructed as I removed the debris.
Between the two of us, we had the angel uncovered in seconds. She appeared conscious, but it was hard to tell because of her translucent body. The dimmer her inner light became, the harder it was to see her features.
I brushed my hand along her cheek. “Can you stand? We’ll get you out of here, we just need your help.”
She was heavy and tall, and Kiara and I could not move her without her help.
Her elegant head nodded and I could just make out her eyes opening. She pushed herself up and we helped her the rest of the way. As we all stood, Kiara asked, “Cecile, where’s Ishita?”
“Damn,” I swore. “Listen, Kiara, can you try to help her out of here? I need to go after that wizard.”
“Yeah, I think we can manage,” Kiara replied.
As I jogged out of the office, I heard Kiara ask the rifter her name.
“Laurel,” the rifter’s voice chimed. “I am called Laurel.”
SUMMON GODDESS
Tanner hopped back into my jacket as I ran. I didn’t see Ishita and realized she could have exited from anywhere inside the sphere, so I went with a hunch and jogged in the direction we’d come in. Once outside, I scanned the area for my undead.
The ground was torn up, cars were overturned, and a few houses had caved in.
Cheetoh was closest to me. Her hair was wild and her jeans and shirt were torn, but she appeared unharmed as she took on the hideous lobster-clawed chimera.
Raven was further away. The grim was on top of the moose chimera. It was on its back, flailing. An antler had broken off and all its tentacles lay in pieces scattered on the ground. Raven was ripping its insides out in a horrible, nightmarish display.
I couldn’t see Salem though. Where was he?
My eyes darted in every direction, but there was no sign of the black shadow that was his darker self.
“Salem!” I called.
“Here!” he answered.
I was relieved until I turned and saw him. Salem was held together by mere pieces of skin. His limbs were barely attached and his clothes were nothing but shredded fabric. My hands balled into fists. I had to think fast.
Cheetoh was closest to him, clawing at the lobster-man-thing. I stared and then inspiration struck.
I shouted, “Cheetoh! Summon your beetles!”
She paused and looked at me, realization crossing her face. When she turned back, I watched her plant her feet and roar at the horrible creature. As she did, obsidian horned beetles poured onto the ground in front of her. As the insects swarmed the chimera, it screeched and stumbled back. An extra set of human arms tried to wipe the insects off, but with little effect.
Once it was successfully being eaten by the swarm, Cheetoh rushed over to help Salem.
“That’s my girl,” I whispered, and then I spotted Is
hita.
The wizard was moving by the tree line and making her way to downtown.
I stumbled, already tired from everything we’d been through, but I managed to get my feet under me and run.
I shouted, “Raven! Raven, stop her!”
The grim was still tearing the moose chimera apart. The undead were so hard to kill a second time, but Raven left the mangled body to struggle in the grass and then leaped into a full sprint after the wizard.
I only hoped Cheetoh and Salem could handle the chimeras if the creatures got back up.
With her size and four legs, Raven was in front of Ishita in no time, baring her teeth.
As I drew closer, I noticed Ishita was carefully carrying an antique chalice. When I finally reached her and the grim, the wizard pulled out a wand and moved the chalice into one hand.
“Ishita.” I was going to try to reason with her, but she held up her wand.
“Don’t come any closer!” she warned. “This is your last chance, Cecile. Call off your ghouls and come with me. Don’t do this. I want you to have a future free from all of this. Let me help you.” Her eyes pleaded with me.
I raised my hand and hesitated. I held Ishita’s gaze and knew I wanted to go with her, even though it was wrong. She believed in me, and I cared about her.
I shut my eyes, swallowed, and snapped.
My rats appeared in the grass, one by one at first, and then in large numbers in succession. I couldn’t look away from the disappointment in Ishita’s eyes. Guilt lay heavy on my heart as I betrayed her faith in me.
“It didn’t have to be like this,” she said, and then cast a spell so fast, I was unable to stop her, but her spell wasn’t for me.
I heard a sound like glass ringing and Kiara screaming, “No!”
I spun around and saw too late that Kiara had come this way to escape. She and the rifter had just made it to the side of a nearby house, but Ishita had seen them first.
Kiara knelt over the dead rifter and cried as she tried to wake her. No one could see an angel’s light go out and not feel the loss.
Thunder cracked from above and Sunnyvale darkened with its first thunderstorm. Clouds rolled in as the pocket dimension began to lose its integrity from the loss of its power source. I ran forward and grabbed Ishita’s wand hand. My mischief followed my lead and began to climb up her legs as the two of us struggled for control.
“Don’t!” Ishita yelled. “If you spill the demon blood on human skin, it’ll summon a demon that will kill us!”
She must have been talking about the contents of the chalice. I hesitated, but my rats didn’t. They were all over her.
I moved as quickly as I could, in an attempt to grab the chalice before she dropped it. The mercury liquid swished around dangerously as we struggled.
Ishita’s grip loosened and I just managed to hit the chalice away from all of us. It clattered to the asphalt, and the silvery liquid poured out, bubbling and hissing where it made contact with the ground.
My rats all stopped and stared, and so did Ishita and I.
The storm above us suddenly blackened, and lightning began to strike everywhere. I hit the ground, holding my arms over my head, even though I knew it would do absolutely nothing.
I sensed Ishita close by and the presence of my rats, but I couldn’t look up. A powerful gale pressed me into the earth, the pressure almost unbearable. The ferocity seemed to reach a crescendo and then finally started to dissipate.
I shivered as a sharp cold hit me—I was covered in snow.
I shot up, shaking. I thought Ishita had fallen right beside me, but when I looked, she was walking several feet away and was pushing through the snow with the chalice once again in her hand. She was bleeding from hundreds of cuts and bites from my rats. Her tenacity was almost inspiring.
“What are you doing?” I shouted in frustration.
Ishita turned and raised her wand. I held my hands up in defense, but Raven’s black form flashed in front of me, and her jaws came down on the wizard’s arm.
“Ahhhhh!” Ishita screamed and dropped the chalice.
I lurched forward, trying to catch it, but the chalice fell into the snow. Ishita had somehow saved some liquid from before, but the rest of it spilled out now, melting the snow where it touched it, and then disappeared into the ground.
The ground rumbled beneath my feet, and I fell sideways into an evergreen. “Shit!” I exclaimed as the bark and branches scraped against my face.
The earth stilled as the minor quake passed, but Ishita hadn’t stopped screaming. I pushed myself out of the foliage and stumbled forward to find her struggling toward me in the snow, covered in my rats, the grim growling behind her.
“Help me!” she begged. Her pained cry cut through me.
I stepped forward and then hesitated. She’d never stop, I realized. Letting her live meant she’d do this again—or worse.
As I struggled with my decision, I suddenly became aware that we had an audience. The hairs on my arms stood on end.
Ghosts. Unhappy ghosts.
The souls from the pocket dimension surrounded us by the hundreds. Their bluish forms permeated the forest and one by one, they began to wail. It was a low moan at first, until enough of them joined in, creating a haunting, horrible sound that filled the mountains.
Their memories. The memories of the ghosts in Sunnyvale were returning.
“Bob,” I heard Kevin say. I hadn’t realized he was standing only a couple feet from me. The dimension must have dumped all the ghosts at its original center.
Kevin was staring at his husband in confusion, remembering him, but then he too started to wail.
Another recognizable voice joined the chorus and I realized Kiara had fallen to whatever enchantment they were all under.
Cheetoh made her way over to me, pushing through the heavy snow. Her clothes were almost nonexistent, but she appeared fully intact.
“What is this?” she asked me, but I had no answer. I had never seen anything like this.
I continued to scan the forest and the large clearing adjacent to us. There were so many souls, I didn’t know what to do.
Between Ishita’s screams and the wail of the dead, I wanted to throw my hands over my ears and let out my own scream—but then I noticed something unsettling.
The ghosts were moving closer to each other. They all simultaneously made their way to the clearing. It was slow at first and then—it was like they were being pulled in by a vacuum.
Kevin and Bob were gone. Kiara lifted into the air and flew past me, along with Cheryl and the rest. I thought at first that they were being sucked in somewhere, but they weren’t leaving, they were joining.
The ghosts appeared to be melding together and forming some kind of mass.
I stepped back and Cheetoh placed herself between me and the clearing. The ghosts swirled and stretched in terrible and disgusting ways until their mass took a more definitive shape. The head and body of a great, black skeleton began to emerge.
“Gashadokuro,” I mumbled, fairly certain I’d mispronounced it.
“What?” Cheetoh looked back at me. Why she wasn’t as terrified as I was, I’ll never understand.
“Big fucking skeleton! We have to get out of here,” I yelled. My eyes darted for the closest exit.
“We can’t leave that thing here,” Cheetoh replied in disbelief.
Ishita had stopped screaming, and I saw now that she was nothing more than a partially eaten carcass with rats on it. I felt sick with what I had done.
Unlike Soma, Ishita had not been a monster, not completely. The divide in me only widened as several rats returned to me, carrying bits of her soul.
I would have lost myself in my misery, but the gashadokuro was attempting to stand. The enormous fiery, black, skeletal body had formed and would soon tower over us. None of us were powerful enough to fight it.
“Oh, yes we can,” I snapped. “Where’s Salem? I’m summoning my mother. She can handle this. We’re l
eaving.”
Cheetoh looked down and was oddly quiet.
I tilted my head. “Where’s Salem?”
“Over there.” She pointed to the other side of the clearing.
“I can’t—” I began, but I stopped when I saw what was left of him.
“Salem.” My lip quivered.
Several feet from Salem’s dismembered arm, leg, and torso, the grizzly chimera shuffled through the snow, using a single claw to inch itself forward.
Its lower jaw hung off to the side and most of its legs, save a few broken spider limbs and one back leg, were missing. Even though Ishita was dead, it was still trying to fulfill its last command.
Salem watched helplessly with one eye as it drew closer.
Without hesitation, I ran across the clearing. I just hoped that the gashadokuro was still forming a single consciousness and wouldn’t notice me.
The snow was thick and I was slow, but I finally made it to Salem. I dropped next to him. His head turned to me, and I saw now that half of his face was gone.
A whimper escaped my lips as I looked at him. Something inside of me was breaking.
His skin was mottled. It was somewhere between his human and feral form. His arms were gone and a single leg remained attached, though it was missing beneath the knee. His body shook as he stared at me. I placed a hand on his cheek and the other on his chest, attempting to soothe him.
I looked him over again. I struggled to hold in a sob, but I felt the tears falling, anyway.
His throat was torn. He couldn’t speak to me, but he opened his mouth to try.
My vision became blurry as I looked up to see how close the chimera was.
“Tanner...” I managed to get out before I crumpled over Salem.
He couldn’t hold me. He couldn’t put his arms around me.
I remembered them in the early morning. I remembered how good they had felt and how, despite telling myself I needed to, I didn’t want to leave. I had wanted to be there, and I had wanted to be held.
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