by B. Groves
Billy moved around the dusty floor making jerky movements with each limb of his body. He would spit at them and then crawl around again.
“Who put you here?” Alison asked.
His black eyes blinked rapidly, and his mouth turned into a sneer. “I’m saying nothing, you cunt.”
“Surround him while I try to get information from him,” Alison whispered to the men.
They all nodded and began to move into their positions. Kyle took the left side while Miguel and Markus were on her right.
“The first of many takeovers are happening,” Billy said with a delighted squeal.
“What takeover?” Alison asked.
“You hunters won’t know what hit you,” Billy said.
“What does he mean?” Kyle asked.
Alison shook her head. She would explain it to him later. Right now, she had to get this one out of this Billy Wilson guy.
“I know you, hunter,” Billy wheezed.
“That’s great. Now tell me who put you here,” Alison said.
“Hay,” Billy answered.
“What does that mean?” Kyle asked.
“I don’t know.”
The demon turned away from the group and everyone except Alison let out audible gasps when the demon climbed the wall like a spider.
“Fuck,” Markus whispered.
He reached the ceiling and dug his nails into the wood, hanging there like a bat.
“Come get me, hunter,” Billy said with a grin.
“How the hell are we going to get him down?” Kyle asked.
Alison looked around. There was no furniture in this old cabin. No weapons to help her bring him down.
Alison took her switchblade and before anyone protested she aimed and threw it right for the demon’s right hand. The knife penetrated his skin and the demon screamed in pain. He lost his grip and fell to the floor with a hard thud.
“Now!” Alison screamed.
The three men pounced on the man, and Alison waited while they struggled to control him. She saw a free leg and grabbed that. He was strong. The demons always gave humans almost superhuman strength.
“Hold him!” She yelled.
“We need to turn him over,” Kyle said between hard breaths.
Alison stood and waited for them to turn him over onto his back. The demon cursed and spat at them. His screamed with every movement.
“Alison, we can’t hold him long,” Kyle said.
“Goddamn he’s strong,” Markus commented.
All Alison could see were limbs flying everywhere, Miguel had enough and gave the demon two punches to the face. That worked for the moment, and the demon went limp.
“We’re good,” he said.
Alison nodded and closed her eyes. Something inside her mind always opened when she called upon her powers to free the humans from their dark cages. She tried to explain the feelings that took over her body over the years but couldn’t find the right words. Her mind cleared and a path opened up before her to find the human soul trapped somewhere deep within its mind.
She was not a trance as one person asked her once, she always knew of her surroundings, but all she could see was the path laid out in front of her.
“Oh, dear God,” she heard Markus whisper. “She’s a fucking angel.”
Alison smiled. It wasn’t the first time she’d heard that remark. She wasn’t an angel. She would deny that part of her until the day she died.
Alison walked closer to Billy, she could see him already crying out for help although she hadn’t entered his mind.
“Shit!” Alison heard the curse and blinked. She watched as the demon threw the men across the cabin.
“No, no, hunter,” he said standing to face her as the men moaned from their injuries.
Alison reached for her switchblade and realized it wasn’t with her. She cursed again wishing she’d brought Simon with her. She had no other weapon to fight this demon, only her hands.
Alison changed into a defensive stance and said, “Let him go.”
“Alison,” Kyle moaned in one corner as he crawled to help her.
The demon cocked his head and grinned. “I thought you wanted me to tell you who brought me here.”
“Doesn’t matter. Let him go,” Alison ordered.
“Hay, Alison, animals,” The demon said.
Alison tried to act bored with the riddle the demon was trying to spew. “I’ll find out on my own.”
The men rose from their respective corners. Alison posed in a defensive position, but the demon laughed and with superhuman speed, he got up and ran to Alison.
Alison felt the cold, clammy fingers grasp her neck.
Her breath rushed out of her lungs, she struggled to breathe but only gasping noises escaped her lips. The demon was squeezing hard enough to crush her windpipe in a matter of seconds.
She heard the screams behind her as Kyle, Miguel, Markus rushed to her aid, and tried to pry the demon away from her.
Black spots were forming in front of her eyes. A few more seconds and she would pass out. She heard Kyle yelling from her left as they struggled to pull Billy off her.
Alison learned this technique from Brady. No matter how she felt about her ex, he would always be her teacher and mentor.
Alison raised her hands between his arms and with all her strength she forced his hands away. Without missing a beat, Alison made her next move.
She shoved her thumbs right into Billy’s eyes with her hands secured over his head. His arms flailed as she ran down the path to free Billy from his cage. Alison gasped for air but didn’t have time to stop and take a full breath.
The soft organs bled beneath her thumbs. She pressed harder and the skin around Billy’s head formed dark lines.
The demon screamed in pain. In Alison’s mind, she found the cage and opened it to free Billy’s soul.
Both she and Billy fell to the ground as the three men held him down. Alison didn’t loosen her grip. The demon hadn’t released his hold on Billy just yet.
Alison led a confused Billy away from the cage and he disappeared.
The demon opened his mouth and the blackened soul escaped from Billy’s mouth.
Alison let go of the still man and with the rest of the men in the room, the demon soul, swirled around the room and escaped through the door.
Alison sank to the floor gulping for air.
Chapter 21
“That woman is not human,” Markus said pointing to Alison, who was standing off to the side while the ambulance pulled away with Billy Wilson.
Alison had left the house and sat by a tree while Markus called for help.
Billy woke up screaming about his eyes and not knowing where he was and how he got there. Markus tried to question him, but he couldn’t talk.
Kyle identified himself to the man and prayed with him while they waited on the ambulance and Markus’s officers to arrive.
Miguel left to check on Olivia and brought her and Simon back with him. Simon sauntered over and put his head in Alison’s lap and she was petting him but Kyle realized she didn’t pay attention to him.
Markus sighed and said, “I hope she didn’t blind poor Billy for life.”
“What was she supposed to do? Let him strangle her?” Kyle asked.
Markus scratched his head and glanced back at Alison. “It’s not that. We can only hope Billy won’t remember what happened to him, but damn man, her eyes were glowing. They were fucking glowing.
“I told you what she could do and you didn’t believe me,” Kyle said. “She’s the one who’s gonna solve our problem.”
One officer approached his chief and Markus had to leave Kyle to his thoughts. He watched as Miguel and Olivia talked with Alison as she sat by the tree. She waved her hand and shook her head in response to something Miguel said.
He could see the regret etched in her features as the ambulance door closed and the vehicle drove off into the woods.
Kyle was about to approach them when Marku
s walked back over to him. “You better come see this.”
Kyle followed Markus back into the cabin where another officer was searching around with a flashlight.
Because of Billy Wilson’s exorcism, they left the cabin, and when Billy woke up, he was screaming, so they took him outside and called the ambulance.
Markus took the flashlight from the police officer and shined it on the walls for Kyle to inspect.
All Kyle could see was scratch marks on the walls and floor. Then Markus shined the light over on the far wall and Kyle spotted blood streaks near more scratch marks.
“That’s not the only thing,” Markus said. “I wanted you to see this before I declare this a crime scene.”
Markus walked over to the corner and shined the light on the floor.
Kyle sucked in a breath and stepped back in shock. A decomposed finger lay on the floor in the corner. As Kyle stared at the mummified digit, he saw bright red nail polish on the fingernail. Surrounding the finger were other small bones, possibly more human remains.
“Jesus,” Kyle breathed and looked around. Markus shined the light up to the ceiling where more scratch marks and blood appeared under the light.
“We’ll talk more about it later. Now get out before the detectives get here,” Markus said. “I’ll call you about it when I’m done.”
Kyle nodded and walked out of the cabin. Alison was still sitting in her spot at the tree, while the police officers were putting up the police tape around the cabin.
Olivia was sitting next to Alison and petting Simon so Kyle took the moment to call Miguel over.
“Did you see what was inside that cabin?” Kyle asked.
Miguel turned his gaze over to the cabin and back to Kyle. “No. What’s in there? We were kind of busy.”
“They found a finger and bones and who knows what else,” Kyle answered.
Miguel blessed himself and spoke a few words in Spanish. “What will happen?”
“I don’t know yet,” Kyle said. “Markus called state detectives. He will update me later. How about you take Olivia home and get some rest.”
Miguel nodded. “That’s a good idea. I don’t want her to see that. She’s already scared.”
“When Markus updates me, I’ll text you, but if Olivia needs counseling, bring her right over,” Kyle said.
“I will,” Miguel answered.
Kyle turned his gaze to Alison who was talking to Olivia. It looked like she was trying her best to give the little girl a pep talk although her features told a different story. The little girl hugged her and Alison returned the favor.
“We’re going home, hija,” Miguel said to Olivia.
Olivia looked back at Alison and gave Simon one last pet. He licked her face and she giggled before father and daughter walked off into the forest to go home.
Alison turned her gaze up to Kyle and said, “Does Markus need us to stick around?”
“No, he’s got it covered,” Kyle said. “They found a finger and some bones. What the hell was going on in there?”
Alison didn’t look surprised. Instead, she looked defeated as she stood up and wiped off her jean shorts.
She picked up Simon’s leash and said, “I’ll explain it on our way back.”
Kyle took one last look at the crime scene. and then followed Alison back to their original destination into the meadow before he spoke up again.
“I guess I won’t be burning that mattress today,” Kyle commented as they made their way back to the original trail that led to his house and the church.
“I guess not,” Alison said.
She’d been quiet since they walked away from the cabin. She spoke a few words to Simon when he went sniffing around the trail and stopped to do his business against a tree.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Kyle asked.
Alison glanced at him and gave him a half-smile. “I gouged his eyes. I hope I didn’t blind him, but it’s not looking good.”
Kyle rubbed his aching shoulder. He found two bruises forming on his right arm and a small cut on his hand from their confrontation with Billy Wilson’s demon.
“You didn’t have a choice,” Kyle said. “He threw the rest of us around like we were nothing.”
Alison turned away and said, “It’s never easy. I have to live with that and other things I’ve done for the rest of my life.” She turned back to Kyle with a sad smile. “I’m sure you understand that from your experiences in Iraq.”
Kyle nodded. He didn’t want to go that deep. Alison was a veteran, but a different kind of veteran. Kyle realized she battled her own inner demons from hunting. She looked evil right in the face every time she extracted one of those things from a human body. It had to take its toll as it did with Kyle during the war.
Simon was again sniffing around as they walked along the path, both of them caught up in their own thoughts. He turned to gaze at Alison. She had her hair pulled back and red finger marks formed around her neck.
“I wish you have gotten checked out,” Kyle commented.
Alison shrugged. “I’ve had worse. I’m fine but thank you for your concern.”
Alison would not change her mind, so Kyle dropped the subject. He wanted to know more about the cabin.
“You said you would explain the cabin to me?” He asked.
“I wish had more time to explore it before we discovered Billy,” she explained. “It’s obvious that abandoned cabin is the place where the leader,” Alison formed quotation marks with her fingers, “keeps the feral ones until they integrate with the body and kill that person’s soul, or where they go to die if it doesn’t work out.”
“There are feral ones?”
Alison nodded. “Sometimes they’re like rabid dogs and never integrate. There are different levels of intelligence among them just like humans.”
That made sense, because of his experiences with the mayor and others that he interacted with.
“If Samuel Manes is who you claim he is, then he’s of a higher order and integrated right into his body and society,” Alison continued. “There are those who are benevolent. I worked with one for a year before he left the person’s body.”
Kyle stopped in the middle of the path and turned to face Alison. He couldn’t accept what she said. After all the evil these things have committed against humanity and she doesn’t do a damn thing with one she worked with?
“You mean you left him inside the body?” Kyle asked.
“I did,” Alison answered. “Why?”
“With all your powers, you would leave one of those things inside that human to slowly kill him?”
Kyle was incredulous. He fought tooth and nail with these demons. Their mayor had to be one of them and was taking over his town, but Alison lets some of them go?
“You don’t understand how this works,” Alison said keeping her voice calm. “If that human’s soul is gone, I can’t do a damn thing about it. My co-worker? Well, he wasn’t hurting anyone and he gave me info. I took him out because it told me to. He was fine after I exorcised it, but I was taking a huge risk.”
Alison stopped and waved her hand. “You know what? I don’t have to explain it to you.”
Kyle could feel the anger building inside of him. He had been fighting these things for years and now this hunter comes along and only exorcises when she sees fit? No.
“So, in other words, you don’t give a fuck about these people,” Kyle said waving his arm in the air. “To hell with these people, and to hell with saving their souls, right?”
Alison’s hands balled into fists and gritted her teeth.
“Don’t you dare question me or my methods. You don’t have a fucking clue about what I do,” Alison said.
“I’m questioning your methods because you told me you sometimes let them go. You allow those spirits to continue inhabiting a human body. You don’t send them all back to Hell where they belong. Instead, there’s a chance, a chance they might… Oh, I don’t know, take over the Earth.” Kyle was n
ot backing down. “Then what? They take over the Earth and kill innocent people? Start the end times? Because that’s what they seem to want, but no, let’s let some of them go because they told you they won’t hurt anyone.”
Alison laughed. Not in a funny way, but a sarcastic way, making Kyle more annoyed.
“You try to say you’re different than other preachers, but you’re not,” Alison said. “Keep preaching your end time bullshit, and I’ll keep doing my job.”