Jim turns to Kat. “One of us would’ve died checking for that trap if you hadn’t. So, I’m staying, too.”
“You guys go,” I say to Lia and Shar.
“No,” Lia and Shar say simultaneously. Guess they were moved by what Jim and I said.
“I want you to go,” Juliana says to Lia. “You and Shar can take the car.”
Lia shakes her head. “That’s not happening.”
Shar looks disappointed. I can tell she still wants to leave.
“You can take the car and go,” Lia says to Shar.
Shar thinks for a moment before she answers, “No. I think we need each other more than ever right now.”
George comes rushing over. “Why aren’t you leaving? You need to get out of here.”
“Maybe it’s over and the flames just need to burn out?” I wonder aloud since all is quiet and still except for the circle of flames.
“I don’t think so,” Kat says in a soft little voice. She can barely talk from yelling so much.
“Something most evil is coming,” the high priestess shouts. “I think this is hellfire.”
My friends and I all look at each other with worried expressions.
Whatever it is, we’ve got this, January says telepathically.
I hope you’re right, Juliana says.
The ground starts to rumble again and we all back away from the circle, the high priestess and coven right along with us. We don’t stop until our backs are nearly touching the tall rose bushes that separate this yard from the neighbor’s in lieu of a fence. I can’t help but notice the sweet scent of the white roses behind me. It’s a nice break from the smell of burning flesh.
“It has to be a demon,” the woman from the coven closest to me yells.
The high priestess nods. “You’re probably right.” She raises her hand and says something in the language I don’t know and the athame comes soaring over from the altar, stopping in her hand. Now it’s glowing even brighter than before. She holds it like a weapon.
The ground rumbles again, just as hard. It seems to be coming from the circle. In any case, it’s creating another earthquake. And fast!
Pete, Lia and Shar fall down.
January goes into fairy mode and hovers in the air.
The rest of us lower ourselves so that we are crouching. If only we could lean back on the rose bushes for support, but, hello, thorns fucking suck.
Everyone in George’s coven, including George, falls down except for the high priestess and Kat, who levitate.
After thirty seconds, I fall backwards onto my ass just before the ground stops shaking. I remain sitting for a moment before I get up, fearing it’ll start trembling again tout de suite.
The neighbors come outside to see what’s going on. A few have dogs, which are barking like crazy. It looks like everyone is asking each other if everyone’s OK. I see scrapes and cuts on people, even from here. And some people are wincing and favoring one arm or leg over the other, a few people being propped up by others. A tree fell on one poor family’s house, demolishing the second floor. I hear lots of sirens in the distance so I’m pretty sure whatever is coming caused the whole town to shake, if not further. I think we’re in serious trouble here. Is this the beginning of the end? As in, the apocalypse?
My friends and I also ask each other if we’re all OK as we stand up. The same for the members of Kat’s coven, including George. Lia and a few others have cuts, but nothing major.
“Is it over?” Shar asks. Is she trying to jinx us?
“No,” the high priestess says, lowering herself back onto the ground.
There’s a loud explosion nearby and the power goes out. The only light in the backyard now is that produced by the flames and the candles on the altar.
The earth only trembles slightly now, but we hear the sound of... stone moving? We stare at the flames and mutter various spells to arm ourselves. Jim holds a lightning bolt. January has her fire balls. Pete makes icicles and holds one in each hand. Lia, Shar and I pray to Electra and are promptly electrified from head to toe, ready to electrocute the fuck out of whatever it is. Juliana holds these red, fiery looking balls in her hands. But where January’s fire balls have flames roaring up a few feet high and aren’t perfectly circular, Juliana’s fire balls are round orbs and aren’t producing any flames, looking more like lava balls. I find myself staring, trying to think if she’s used them before.
“New spell,” Juliana says. “What do you think?”
“What exactly are they?” I ask.
“Fire bombs,” she says. “Very powerful.”
“Like when January throws fire balls?”
“You’ll see,” Juliana says and smirks at me. Let’s hope these fire bombs are our secret weapon.
“Whatever is coming, it probably thrives on fire so don’t hit it with much until you see if it’s working,” the high priestess instructs everyone.
That grating sound – like stone scraping against stone – continues and the ground trembles, but not nearly as bad as before. After a moment of this, something comes rising up from within the flames. Horns. First we see two huge ones then several smaller ones in between them. And they’re all bloody. I swallow hard. It feels like I have dry cereal stuck in my throat.
This must be one huge demon, I say telepathically.
The demons at J’s were hard enough to kill. How are we supposed to handle this? Shar asks as the top of the demon’s head emerges from the flames. The largest horns prove to look like giant bull horns, those on the top of its head shoot straight up like unicorn horns. Its skin is a shade of green so dark it’s almost black, and it has a reflective quality about it, resembling a metallic green OPI brand nail polish I have. In the light of the flames, I notice that it has scales like a reptile.
I open my mouth to say something encouraging to Shar, but instead my jaw drops as the demon’s eyes become visible. Not surprisingly, they’re completely black, like those of the demons we fought in J’s lair, except that these are practically big enough to drive a small car through. And they’re shedding tears of scarlet blood. Worse, this demon looks to be fucking huge. Monstrous in every sense of the word. Its head is twice the size of those huge, golden teddy bears outside FAO Schwarz toy stores. Maybe even a bit larger.
The high priestess points the athame at the demon and these circles of golden light – almost like halos – emerge from around the blade. They come out small, but they grow in size as they move closer to the demon, which opens its mouth now, showing that it has fangs – that could easily chomp one of us in half – and a forked tongue like a snake’s.
“Unholy shit,” Lia says.
“Hit it now!” the high priestess yells as her circles hit the demon’s left cheek, causing it to smoke as they burn it.
“Goddess Electra, help us now,” I say as I aim my hands at the demon and thrust electricity at it, as do Lia and Shar.
January whips fire balls at it. Juliana hurls her fire bombs.
“Those might not help,” the high priestess snaps at them.
Pete throws his giant icicles, although one pierces one of Juliana’s fire bombs, causing it to explode, and that explosion makes her other fire bomb blow up, too. And we’re talking about serious explosions. Grenade-like. They have to be a hundred feet away from us, but my eyebrows are singed all the same.
Jim throws lightning bolts like Frisbees, whereas one of the people from Kat’s coven hurls lightning as if she’s throwing daggers. Another person from the coven magically produces gold throwing stars in her hands and whips them at the demon’s head. Like the high priestess’ circles, the stars grow and grow in size, the further they go, until they hit its head and slice the tops of two of its straight horns clean off, making it howl as blood gushes out of them, straight up into the air, which forces us to focus on remaining standing up since a gust of hurricane-force wind – smelling like puke – leaves its mouth, blowing right at us.
Kat, Goddess bless her, manages to fight the
gust and holds her arms out with her palms facing the demon. She whispers a spell or a prayer then strong wind emerges from them. So strong it counter-acts the air leaving the demon’s mouth, taking tree branches with it as it blows in its face. One very large branch gets inside the demon’s mouth, but it simply chomps down on it, breaking it into pieces, which it then spits out. Unfortunately, some of its spit hits one of the men from George’s coven and it burns through his head like something a “cleaner” would use to get rid of a body on TV.
Now Juliana throws fire bombs at it again and Pete quits it with the icicles to give them a chance. They’re not very big and don’t grow in size as they approach the demon so we can barely see them by the time they reach it. But then there are two explosions like before, fiery explosions that take out chunks of its chest that are large enough for us to see the holes where its flesh was from across the large yard.
“Arrêtez!” the demon growls and laughs. But we keep hitting it as its torso rises up from the ground. Damn, this demon is already 30 feet high and its legs have yet to show. We are so fucked. [Maybe we should bow down and offer to be its humble servants already?] No. No fucking way. “Aim for its left eye!” I scream.
“His left or our left?” Shar yells.
“Our left!”
Everyone shifts their magick, striking the demon’s left eye. At first it seems like it’s just absorbing everything we hit with, like it’s completely unaffected. That is until one of Juliana’s fire bombs hits it and explodes like a small bomb, taking a huge chunk of the eye along with it.
The demon roars and a much stronger gust of wind than before blows out of its mouth and hits us all, knocking us all the way back into the rose bushes. Its breath smells even stronger now. It’s to the point that Shar and one of the dudes from Kat’s coven begin puking.
As we pull ourselves out of the bushes, the damn thorns pricking my bare shoulders, we begin to hit the demon with everything we’ve got again, still aiming for its left eye, which looks big enough even without the missing chunk that it’s probably still functional. Another firebomb connects with it, blowing another chunk of it away. Now a good third of it is gone. Of course, now the demon shields the eye with one of its hands.
Without saying a word, we all start striking its right eye. We continue doing so as it rises up until it stands nearly 50 feet tall. It halfway blocks the right eye with its other hand, but it’s so tall now that we can’t get the eye from this close to it.
This thing could probably kill half of us with a kick. What chance do we stand? But we can’t give up. If we left, it would probably have a feast on the neighbors, who are all running and screaming now. I hear even more sirens in the distance, too. What the fuck is this demon doing, revealing itself like this? Merde, maybe this is some end of the world shit? Or is this demon just pissed that we killed so many of his kind when we killed J? [Maybe we should have just let Jenna have our magick. I’m sure she could’ve come up with some way to do it without killing us. And we wouldn’t have had to worry about something like this happening.] No, that’s stupid. She’d still be out there killing witches – and she’d be a lot stronger – if we hadn’t put her down. Sans doute, we did the right thing. Also, shame on me for just thinking her full name instead of just J.
The flames suddenly vanish and there’s another revelation: Sati, the Donatello twins, and five of their friends are gathered at its feet along with two smaller, dark green demons, roughly 10 feet tall, which are standing at its sides. And they’re all holding tridents. The only difference is that the demons’ tridents are about twice the size of Sati and company’s.
My friends and I all exchange worried looks.
So, that’s why we couldn’t hypnotize them, January says telepathically, motioning toward Sati and the Donatello Pigs.
“Told you I’d see you soon,” Sati shouts, presumably to me. [What a fucking cunt!] No, I don’t use that word. Never the c-word.
“What is your name, demon?” the high priestess yells to the gigantic one.
“Aetheal,” the damn demon says and laughs.
“And the other two?”
“I am Bezzalagon,” says the demon to its right.
“Je suis Aratasson,” the other says and laughs. Leave it to a demon to use French against me.
I’ve never heard of any of them, but we’re fucked regardless of what they’re named.
Shar pulls her pentacle talisman out from under her shirt and starts whispering our protection spell.
“We’ll have none of that,” Aetheal says and holds up one of his hands. As if they’re magnets being drawn to metal, everyone’s talismans – including the high priestess’ – and mine are ripped off of us, soaring into Aetheal’s hand, which he then closes around them and laughs. Then he hurls them into the night so hard they probably land a mile away.
The high priestess says, “Demon Aetheal, we dismiss you. Demon, go back into the pit of fire from which you sprung. Demon, you’re an abomination and don’t belong in this world. Demon, go back into the pit of fire from which you sprung. So mote it be.”
“Demon Aetheal, we dismiss –.” We start to repeat it, but suddenly we’re all mute. That is, until I try to say it again. “Demon, we worship you,” I say then bring a hand to my mouth and shut up. What the fuck did I just say? I know I have black magick in me and I’m not wearing my necklace but, seriously, worshiping a demon? What the fuck, Emma?
“Run!” I shout to everyone, but I look and nobody’s moving. Not even the high priestess. They’re not just mute. They’re paralyzed. Their eyes aren’t even moving. I’m the only one who isn’t stuck.
Sati and the Donatello twins chant, “Spirit return to the summerland, the place you now call home, the place where you belong, spirit return to the summerland, spirit return to the summerland.”
I look over at Kat, who’s probably nervous, but she can’t even move her eyes, her face frozen in an angry expression.
Sati and the Donatello twins chant again, “Spirit return to the summerland, the place you now call home, the place where you belong, spirit return to the summerland, spirit return to the summerland.”
“Shut up!” I yell repeatedly the whole time they’re chanting it. “Shut up, shut up, shut the fuck up, you cunts!”
Sati smirks at me then she winks at Kat. And Kat becomes free of the paralysis and reaches for my hand, but as soon as I feel her grip, she starts fading away, disintegrating, tears in her eyes. I grab her hand and hold it as tightly as I can, clasping both of my hands around it and pulling her close. Then I give her the tightest bear hug of all time, but it doesn’t help. She vanishes completely. I can’t believe this is happening. We are so fucking fucked. And I’m pretty sure this situation merits every swear in my head right now. Except for the c-word. I can’t believe that came out of my mouth. Merde!
“Demon Aetheal go back where you came!” I scream. I’m the only one who isn’t paralyzed but I’m not about to abandon my friends to save my own hide.
Aetheal growls like a rabid dog. “Shut up and listen to me, Emma. That is, while you’re still Emma. Soon you’ll be my princess, Jenna.”
J? What does he mean? I’ll be his princess J? No fucking way. I might have black magick in me, but I’m not J and never will be.
Sati and the twins start walking toward us. They look like they’re on a mission, determined to do something. Which might be killing me and my friends.
I pray aloud, “Goddess Electra, Goddess of storms, Goddess of electricity, harness the power, inside my body, let it flow from my heart, as blood makes its way, let it pour down our arms, surge through my hands, jolt through my fingers, and go where I command – ”
“Silence!” Aetheal growls. This time there’s no wind, but he stomps a foot, though not as hard as before. Instead of producing an earthquake, the ground just splits open from in front of the demon to just before where I’m standing. As I look up from the crack, I see that Sati and the twins have vanished. Their friends rema
in, however. Could the Lord or Lady or Electra have eliminated the trio?
My whole body finally lights up, surging with electricity again. Before I attempt to fight this demon, I have to save my friends. But I turn around to discover Sati and the twins holding tridents to Lia, Shar and Jim’s necks. “Oh no you don’t,” Sati says and laughs as she holds out her free hand and slowly closes it, saying something in a language I don’t know in a diabolical voice, like the one that comes out of Linda Blair in The Exorcist. “Agnosium ebolis haert deamonius.” At least that’s what it sounds like.
Nothing happens until my chest jerks and my heart begins to hurt something fierce. I hear and feel it grow still within my chest as my electricity goes out. It remains that way for several seconds and my breathing starts to slow. I become so weak I have to drop to my knees. I am dead. I am literally dead. I cease to breathe and go face down into the dirt. Surely, my brain will stop working any second.
“Enough!” Aetheal yells.
I manage to turn my head in Sati’s direction and see her hand is in a tight fist. But she opens her hand and my heart starts beating again. Thank Goddess. Whew. But my electricity is out and, clearly, my friends and I are still fucked. There’s no way these demons are going to let us walk away from this. I’m sure Aetheal spared me because he thinks I’m going to be his princess or whatever. [By the time this is over, I’ll probably just submit to him.] Wait – no way. Why am I thinking such stupid things today? Actually, I’ve been thinking them for a few days now.
“Do you want to save your friends?” Aetheal asks, leaning over with his head titled in my direction; the left eye is turning white and bleeding – it would seem we blinded it – but the right looks perfectly fine and stares at me.
I stand and stare back it. It must know the answer to that question is yes, so I wait for it to say whatever else the stupid thing has to say.
“Do you?” it shouts loud enough that the whole neighborhood must hear it. “How? I demand.
“You know Jenna is inside you. Let her come out to play.”
“Nobody is inside me but me!” I scream. This demon is insane.
In Memoriam Page 40