by Phil Maxey
“Who?”
“My f… there was a demon here.”
Knotty looked around. “My men are searching the other corridor, but it just leads to a parking lot. We have to go, Seb. If we’re caught here, it’s going to be a problem.”
“No… I have to find the professor…” The demon’s words drifted back to me and I swore under my breath. “Okay, fine, let’s get out of here.”
*****
I watched the skyscrapers fall away, as we moved north. The silhouette of a stadium stood out against the lighter blue of the coming day, and we passed into Yonkers, always following the Hudson. “Where are we going?” I said to Knotty who was in the passenger’s seat in the front of the black SUV.
“Somewhere safe! We’re almost there.”
We drove through congested neighborhoods, train lines keeping parallel with us, until two large chimneys were visible against the clouds of the waning night. We drove over a small bridge which crossed the tracks and along a narrow road. The destination was already obvious. A five-story building, at least a hundred years old, covering half a block down to the river bank, and with boards and sheet metal where windows used to be, loomed above us as we parked up. There were already a number of other SUVs there, as well as other more militaristic vehicles.
Knotty turned around in his seat. “Welcome to the Praesidium headquarters.” His radio crackled and he responded. We got out and made our way up a staircase to an innocuous door. On both sides of the steps was water, a runoff from the river giving the whole building a steampunk castle vibe.
The door opened, a guard in black allowing us entrance, and we walked down a dimly lit corridor. My enhanced hearing could already pick up the sound of machinery and people, a whole lot of them.
The second door was unlike the first, being modern and metal. It also had an eye reading security system, which Knotty used. He pulled the door open and I realized I had only been getting around ten percent of the scents and sounds of what lay inside the Praesidium’s base. We stood on a gantry about halfway up the building’s interior walls which scaled another thirty feet above us. On the ground floor people fought, evidently in some sort of lesson, while in other walled off areas, people in white lab coats pondered over microscopes, and others ate and drank in an eating area. It was a super-sized modern version of Fortacan’s bunker.
“As you can see, lad, we take what we do seriously.”
We walked along the gantry, then started to descend a narrow flight of stairs.
“And that is what?”
“We protect the innocent.”
I heard that once before, but they appeared to be selective who they thought was worthy. We reached the ground floor and kept on going, moving into the bowls of the building. After a short walk along a corridor, a guard opened another secure looking door and we moved in a room as impressive as the space above. Large computer screens covered the walls, which mirrored the terminals and screens filling the space across the floor.
“You planning to launch a rocket?” I was only half-joking. A small group of people were at the end of the room, gathered around the largest of the wall-mounted screens, and an individual. I recognized the heart beat but not the medium gray armored bodysuit she was wearing.
I went to speak to Fletcher, when I realized they were looking at an aerial view of my family home. Hell-Lock manor. And far from the creepy shadow ridden building I was used too, the windows were bursting with light, and a myriad of cars were parked around the fountain, which… appeared to be working.
“Looks like the new owners of your home are having a housewarming party,” said Fletcher, looking at the screen.
Of course they are.
I quelled my anger. “There’s something you should know…”
She turned, then looked at Knotty. “I got it from here.” He nodded, walking back to the stairs.
“Go on.”
“I think my father’s… alive.”
She looked confused. “You told me he was dead. Died with your mother in an accident.”
I sighed. “I thought so too until a few days ago. I saw him on a conference call the other day, and then tonight… I still don’t know how it’s possible, but there’s a demon that seems convinced he’s my father… and with all this craziness, maybe he is.”
“Don’t tell me. He wants you to join him?” She smirked. “Where have I heard that storyline before. I guess the fact that you’re standing here, meant you did not…”
“The only side I’m on, is the one that rescues my friends, and gets the seal back.”
She rolled her eyes. “Not that again.”
“Well, that demon say’s two of them were already destroyed, meaning two horsemen are already doing their thing, and if they break my family’s seal, then…”
“Nothing good…” She looked down at the computer operator. “Keep me informed if there are any changes.” The woman nodded, Fletcher then turned to me. “Lets go for a walk.”
“Walk! I need to find Alyssa and Fletcher! I thought that was why I was brought here?” I looked around. “You got all this equipment, surely you can find them?”
Some of those around us stopped doing their jobs for a few seconds before returning to them.
Fletcher walked closer. “Follow me…”
We moved past the neon screens, and into another corridor, then staircase that took us even deeper below the building. She opened a final door into a cavernous space, which on first glance looked to me like an underground parking garage, except in place of cars, were metal boxes, from mini cabin size all the way up to fall blown duplex. Each one with a computer screen near a door.
“What is this place?”
“This is where we study the enemy…”
I almost took a step back when I realized what she was referring too. “You mean paranormals?”
“Yes. Fortacan likes to think of what goes bump in the night as mystical. He fights with spells, and arcane books, like the one you gave me to protect.” She saw the question I was about to ask. “And it is well protected, even if I believe it is of no value. But for over four hundred years the Praesidium have taken a more practical approach to protecting people from what stalks them from the shadows. For us it is more science than art.” She nodded to what I realized were cells. “See for yourself.”
I walked to the first and looked into what I thought was an empty room, but then I noticed something hanging in the air. “What is that? A Jellyfish?” Even if that made no sense.
“That is a phantom. Not a particularly powerful one, which is why we were able to capture it, but nonetheless is useful for study.”
The ethereal creature, pulsed and flowed around the room. I wondered if it could sense me looking at it. I walked to the next cell and looked at a small screen near the door. It featured an image of the person or thing inside, and their name and age. ‘Jacob Vellor: Age 46: Demon.’ This time the contents were more obvious. A disheveled man wearing a suit sat on a bench. “You imprisoned an accountant?”
“He’s a demon.”
I turned around slowly. “I’m a demon.”
“It would seem you are different to most of your kind. It would be a big help to us if we knew why that is…”
I was done being a lab rat. “I got places to be. I need to go and rescue my friends.” I walked towards the stairs.
“And how did that go last time?”
I halted my progression to leave. She had a point.
“I can help you get the professor and the vamp back, and even that family heirloom you’re so concerned about, but in return you have to let us study you. We want to know what makes you different. It’s probably in your DNA, but we want to know what exactly. It could be a breakthrough for humankind in their fight against the paranormals.”
I looked back at the cage with the average looking Joe inside. I was in no doubt if she could get away with it, I’d be sitting right alongside him. Still, any help…
“First, we get the
professor, Alyssa and the seal. Then you can stab me with as many needles as you want.”
She nodded.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
I felt light. I pushed my arms and legs, as I floated deep in an ocean. Another dream, although I did wonder if I could drown. I presumed demon’s could, but then Alyssa didn’t seem to suffer from that human affliction. I looked up, light from a refracted moon was visible through the waves, but I was calm, just… floating. Something tugged my foot. I shook my leg, but it happened again. I looked down. Alyssa was below me and something was below her, a mass of hands, demonic faces and other things were trying to drag her into the oily depths, into hell. I reached down grabbing her shoulder and heaved but I had no leverage. Bubbles sprang from her mouth as she cried out, trying to rid herself of her fate. I tried to tell her to hold on, but the result was the same, and salt water flooded into my lungs.
I pulled harder, my legs now thrashing, but instead of moving upwards I was sinking with her, the space around us growing darker. Other hands, claws and fangs took hold of my legs. I was becoming part of the mass, being eaten by the void…
I awoke in the small room Fletcher had given me, covered in sweat, but there were no windows to shine any rays of sun onto me. I looked at my damaged watch. It was noon. I had been sleeping for over five hours, and no one had woke me meaning they still hadn’t located Alyssa or the professor.
I swung my feet around, and placed them in my boots, then stood, grabbed my jacket and pulled the door open. A guard standing just outside glanced at me then returned to his stance.
“Where’s the restroom?”
He hesitated.
“Yeah, shocking, demon’s need to take a leak.”
He frowned. “Down the corridor, first right, then left and it’s the second door on the right.”
I nodded gratefully, and followed the first part of his route, until I was out of sight, then I moved quicker, a lot quicker, flitting from corridor to the other, until I found what I was looking for, stairs that descended.
I came out to the computer room, and slowed, grinning and nodding at the operators, who wondered what I was doing there. Fletcher was nowhere to be seen. Before my loitering was too obvious I walked to the end of the room, and enquired if Alyssa and the professor had been found.
They hadn’t. No surprise there. What did the Praesidium have to gain from finding them? I gave the super secret paranormal bashing organization a shot. Now I had to find another way.
I walked a few paces back the way I came, when like a piece of elastic attached to my back, I felt a tug, and slowed. I went to walk forward, when the same strange sensation prickled my skin once more. I turned around to face the stairs to the ‘Paranormal containment floor’ to give it, its official name. I glanced around. There were no eyes on me and sped into the stairs that headed deeper. I pulled open the final door, and walked into the cooler air of where they kept their pets.
The feeling of being pulled hadn’t let up though, if anything it was stronger. I closed the door as quietly as I could, and moved in a few different directions until I felt the way I needed to go, and it led me right back to the cell of a certain middle-management looking individual. Except he wasn’t seated, but looking directly out of the small glass window, and at me.
I took a few steps to each side. His eyes followed me. I wondered if it was like when the eyes of a painting follow you.
I stepped closer and he mouthed something.
I held my hand to my ears and mouthed I couldn’t hear him back. He looked at the control panel a few inches to the left.
“I can’t help you buddy. I don’t have the code, or whatever it is you need too...”
Six… nine… zero… four… two.
I backed away and the sequence repeated. I looked back at him angrily. “Get out of my head!”
He frantically waved at the control panel, his eyes then looking further afield at the door I came in through.
“Even if I let you out, there’s no way you’re getting out of this place! And maybe you’re some kind of weird demon thing, that’s going to kill everyone!”
He rolled his eyes, then mouthed something, which I couldn’t understand. “I don’t read lips!”
A noise clanged from the corridor outside, and the man’s waving increased. Despite not having any reason to do so, I walked forward and typed in the passcode.
The door immediately slid open, and I took a few paces back, ready to jump on the guy if he vamped out of grew an extra arm or something. Instead he walked forward with his hand out, which I then shook, to my surprise.
“Okay, now we have to go,” he whispered, then began to walk away.
“Hey, hold on. Why were you in there? You must have done something bad, right?”
He turned around. “I didn’t do anything bad! Well, there are accusations, I grant you, that in a certain light, don’t look… good, but—”
“Accusations?”
“There was a thing with pension funds, but nothing was ever—”
“So you’re in here because of fraud? And you’re a demon?”
“Yes, and yes, and I can help you find your friends!”
I folded my arms. “How?”
He pointed to his head. “I read minds. That’s what I do, and you just have to put me near whoever might know where your friends are, and I’ll be able to tell you where they are. Now do you want to stand here, or do you want to go find them?”
“You can also put thoughts into minds?”
“Yes!”
“Do you know who I am? Or what I am?”
“Some kind of big shot demon. I don’t care. I just need to get away from these lunatics.”
He walked further away, but it wasn’t towards the stairs, in fact it was the exact opposite direction. I caught up with him passing other cells and metal boxes. “Where’s this lead?”
He turned as we approached the far wall, with a smile. “Freedom!” I noticed a large grill on the wall, and felt the smell of river wafting through it. It was then another smell hit my senses. The scent of an old friend.
I turned and looked up at the largest of the cages. Standing easily fifteen feet high and square at its base. Almost lost to the shadows in the back of it, was the gargoyle I fought days before. Well ‘fought’ was perhaps not the right term, almost got flattened by was probably more accurate. The creature looked smaller than I remembered it, seeing that it was curled up, its bat like wings wrapped around it. I think it was sleeping.
“Come on!” half shouted, half whispered the mind reader.
“Wait,” I said over my shoulder. I looked back to the rhino sized lesser demon, who was snorting and breathing heavily. “Hey… you don’t look as scary as—”
Its eyes flicked open and I took a step back. Slowly it’s wings unfurled and it raised itself up, then begun to snarl.
“Look… I’m not you’re enemy, we’re like distant cousins or—”
It surged forward and slammed into the five inch bars of the cage, making the large cube-like structure shudder. The clattering noise echoed out amongst the ceiling and walls.
“You play with the gargoyle, but I’m getting out of here!” Jacob pulled the grill clear of the wall.
I held my hand out, my fingers touching the steel of the cage, and the head of the gargoyle sniffed the air, then moved closer. Its fur was coarse. Suddenly a paddle sized tongue flicked out and licked my hand. Noises were now definitely coming from the corridor at the other end of the huge football field-sized space.
Jacob put a knee into the hole in the concrete wall.
“Wait!” I said to him.
“We have to go! They do a security check once every thirty minutes! And it’s been thirty minutes!”
He went to scramble inside the hole, when I ran over, grabbing him by his shoulder and pulled him back out. “I think there’s a better way.”
“This is the only way out of here, unless you want to fight your way through a hundred heavi
ly armed fanatics. Which I don’t. So good luck with that.”
I stopped him from moving forward, and looked upwards. There was another large grill in the ceiling, about the same size as the gargoyle’s cage. “What’s that?”
He looked up. “Some kind of elevator shaft. They use it to take their pets out for walks.”
I looked back at the two-story high cage, and the creature within. “Perfect.”
Confusion, then horror flowed across Jacob’s face. “What? Are you crazy? It’s a gargoyle, not a flying bus! You let that thing out, it’s going to eat us, then it’s going to go on a rampage and eat everything else!”
I walked back to the cage. And placed my hand between the bars and stroked the huge head, which was twice the size of a lion’s.
Jacob walked forward. “Now that’s something I’ve not seen before. These things are vicious.” He looked at me. “You drug it or something?”
I scrunched my face. “No… me and Dexter—”
“Dexter?”
“Dexter are old friends. And he’s going to get us out of here.” I placed my hands on the bars and heaved. At first there was only creaking, then as I maxed out my effort, both bars warped, and I got my shoulder in-between and used my legs to push them further apart, until the gap was big enough even for a gargoyle to fit through.
Before I could react the huge creature pushed through the newly formed opening, bowling me to the floor and making Jacob cower in fright. It skittered onto the smooth floor, its claws leaving ruts in the concrete, then slowly turned, and opened its wings. I wasn’t sure if it was trying to show who was boss, or if it just needed to stretch, but I was impressed.
“We need to get out, up there!” I said to the gargoyle, pointing to the ceiling some twenty-feet above our heads.
Heartbeats were coming our way. Leaving soon wouldn’t be an option. As if the creature understood the danger, it flapped its almighty wings a few times gaining lift then shot up into the darkness, and smashed through the mesh, which crashed to the ground and kept on going…
The door on the far side of the room, burst open and the Praesidium security forces started flooding out of it.