There was no sign of an escape. No hint of the surface. It wasn’t the spell Maya was following. It was a hallucination after all.
I slid to the ground, Maya still in my arms.
She took my chin and goatee, touching it like people do when they’re high and need to feel textures.
I slapped her hand away. “Stop it.”
“I’m going to die down here. Aren’t I?”
I huffed. “Looks that way.”
“It’s not fair…”
“Whoever told you life was meant to be fair?”
“Tell me one of your stories,” she said in a broken whisper.
If we were going to die anyway, a story couldn’t hurt on the way out. I took a deep breath. My lips were dry and cracked.
“This is the story of the King and the Golden Bird,” I said.
“It sounds like a poem. I like it already.”
“There was once a boy who had a dream. In it, a beautiful angel visited him and foretold of the day he would bring peace to all the lands and protect his kingdom from the Nine Realms, an alliance of evil empires who wished to destroy any kingdom not of their own.”
“They’re the bad guys.”
“Hush and let me tell the story.”
“Go on…”
“The boy grew to become a valiant knight. For years, his courage was expressed on the battlefield as he destroyed evil invaders, barbarians, ogres, and giants.”
“Even dragons?”
“Yes. Even dragons,” I said. “He outlived most of his warrior brothers and sisters. In time, he became a general and led armies. Eventually, he became king. A warrior king. One day, after a savage battle, they drove away the invaders from the Nine Realms. On that day of victory, the king found a bird on his doorstep. A baby golden birdie with a broken wing. While the broken wing gave him doubts, he took the bird as a sign of good fortune from the gods and it led to an era of peace.”
The timber in my voice got lower as my heartbeat slowed, matching Maya’s heart pressed against me.
I continued, “Without the lure of battle, the warrior king began to care for the bird and mend its wounded wing. He became less a warrior and more a caregiver, tending to her every need. But the bird was enchanted. At sundown every fortnight, it would transform into a beautiful woman, an angel. The same angel that had foreshadowed his reign of peace.”
“The plot thickens…”
“Are you going to keep interrupting or do you want me to tell the story?”
“Sorry, keep going. Please.”
“Every fortnight the angel visited him and when the morning arrived, she became the wounded golden bird once again. In time, her wing was healed. And the day came when the king wanted her to fly away and be free. But when morning came, she didn’t transform into the bird, but instead morphed into a witch.”
Maya gasped. “Oh, no…”
“The witch said, ‘I am the Sorceress Queen of the Nine Realms. Now that your heart is soft, your edge is dulled, and your blade rusted, I shall claim this land as my own. As surely as I own you.’ With one last kiss completing the witch’s spell, the king transformed into a blue bird with a broken wing. And the evil Sorceress Queen ruled the kingdom without a single swing of a sword. For she learned that her enemy could only be defeated from within.”
Maya’s voice faded. “That’s sad. This story kinda sucks.” Her warm breath blew over my neck.
“Not every story ends with rainbows and unicorns, kid. Some only end in blood.”
“Pastor Man,” she said. Her voice broke. “I need to tell you something.”
She wanted to get something off her chest. Maybe how she screwed up with Marcus. And how bad she felt about it. Or how much she hated me for making her do it.
She was a child. Her moods, feelings, and secrets changed on an hourly basis. It was Drama Central in that little brain. And I wanted no part of it.
She was also oxygen-deprived, impregnated with a beast, and high as a kite. She wanted to tell me her deep, dark secrets. But I wasn’t her mother, lover, or BFF. I wasn’t her pastor and this wasn’t a confession. She knew she was dying, but I didn’t want to know whatever it was she wanted to tell me.
“You don’t need to tell me anything,” I said.
“Yes, I do…”
“I don’t want to hear it. Keep it to yourself, you hear?”
“But I want you to know…”
“Keep your secret, dammit,” I said. “That’s an order.”
The air was hot and stale. Sweat beaded down my forehead. We were going to die down here. Maya squeezed her arms around me and kissed my neck.
She leaned into my chest and whispered, “I love you.”
That’s what she needed to tell me? She was saying her goodbyes.
Her blonde hair fell over her forehead. She was beautiful and damaged. A hot mess if I ever saw one. And now she told me that she loved me. I called B.S.
I brushed the hair from her face. “No, you don’t,” I said. “You don’t know what the word means.” She buried her head further into my chest, like a cat burrowing into a blanket. “Save your love for someone who gives a damn. Not a killer like me.” She was silent. “You hear me, firebug? I don’t want to hear it. You save it—”
I peered down at her. She was passed out.
Goddammit, Ivy. Why the hell did you call her ‘firebug?’
I didn’t know why I said that. No, that was a lie. I did know why. It was a term of endearment. Because she was small and had a fiery spark inside her. Like a firefly.
Don’t get attached, goddammit. Attachments get you killed.
The lack of clean air down here was affecting my brain. The darkness was depriving my senses. I wasn’t myself.
Don’t get fucking attached.
As I was about to rest my eyes, an angelic ray of light peered down the chasm in front of us. A ring of sunlight from the surface peeked down.
Still holding Maya, I got to my feet and peered up.
It was the well.
The same white-brick well I passed on my way to the pit. The sky was overcast, that’s why so little light shined in. It wasn’t because the surface wasn’t near, it was because there was no sun at the moment to shine down.
The clouds cleared up, allowing a hint of sunlight to reach us.
The well was small. The bricks interlaced unevenly. It would allow me to scale it without much interference. I crouched down to one knee and shook Maya.
“You have to wake up,” I said. “I need your help.”
She stirred and creaked open her eyes. “Wh-what?”
“Get on your feet.” I lifted her up.
She wobbled and leaned on me. “I don’t feel well.”
“I know. Now get on my back,” I said. “We’re getting out of here.” Something stirred in my peripheral. In the deep shadows. But when I looked, nothing was there. “We have to go. Now.”
Maya wrapped her arms around me and climbed on my back. I raised her up and pressed my right boot on the first brick. I pulled myself to the next brick. A few feet. A few yards. I was making strides and focusing on every step.
Maya hung on for dear life, her arms digging into my chest and throat as I scaled the wall. This level of the cave must have been closer to the surface than the bottom of the pit, by almost half the height.
I felt something slither against my thigh, like it was dipped in a barrel of snakes. Maya screamed, her stomach squirming against my spine. My protection spell had worn off.
The beast was back.
Chapter 21
The Cleanse
Climbing up the white brick well with Maya hanging around my neck, she screamed bloody murder and lost her hold, sliding down my back. She dug her nails into my arm and grabbed my throat, practically strangling me with a death grip. In short, she wasn’t helping.
It was a long drop to the bottom and Maya wouldn’t survive a second fall. With the dark entity growing in her belly, she was growing weaker and barely
able to hold on. Climbing up a wall of rocks with a hundred-pound weight on my back meant I wasn’t in a position to offer multiple-choice options, so we needed a new tactic.
“Climb around me to the front,” I said.
“It hurts,” she said. She tried pulling herself up—
And slipped.
I snatched her wrist just in time. Luckily, I had a good grip on one of the bricks, but she dangled in the air. And the brick was loosening. I couldn’t hold her. The stone was about to give way.
Far below me on the ground, an old friend stared up at me.
Maggie Walker.
“Where are you going, Ivy?” she asked. “I thought we were having fun? Don’t you want to have my baby?” A second later, it was Jack. “Get back here, boy. Don’t run away from your problems.” It shifted to Maya. “Come on, boss. Don’t leave me here. I don’t want to be alone.” Serena scoffed. “You’re such a spoilsport, Solomon. Fine, get out. Run away like a coward. Who needs you?” She threw a rock up at me. It pinged off my temple.
I wasn’t sure if the rock was in my mind or real, but it sure hurt like it was real. It was times like these I wish I had a grenade.
Serena shifted into my son, Jason. “Dad, don’t leave me down here. I’m scared…”
I growled. “Now you went too far, asshat.”
My strength was weakening, but the rage gave me renewed energy. The brick was pulling loose, so I needed to find that new tactic yesterday.
From the corner of my eye, I examined the other side of the well, roughly a five-foot distance. Still holding Maya’s wrist as she dangled beneath me, I let go of the brick and fell backward into the well. My neck and shoulders drove into the other side. I was horizontal in the well, my feet pressing one end and my neck and shoulders digging into the other.
Hanging thirty yards above the rocky well bottom, Maya groaned in anguish, like her organs were being chewed on from the inside. But if we were going to survive, I needed to get her on top of me.
“You need to climb on my chest, Maya,” I said. She didn’t say a word. She was completely unresponsive.
Goddammit.
I shook her by the wrist. “Maya, get with it, girl.” She opened her eyes. “I’m going to swing you. When you hit the wall by my feet, you need to shove off the brick and jump on me.”
“I-I don’t know if I can do it,” she said. Her voice was fading.
“You can and you will. That is an order.”
I began to swing her. She swayed back and forth but hardly seemed awake. Her eyes were losing life.
When she got to my feet, she punched her boot on a brick, but it gave way. I snatched her arm.
“We’ll try again,” I said. I swung her back and forth several times, gaining momentum. When she reached the side of the well by my feet, she stepped on a brick and heaved.
She reached out, but her arms only made it around my waist. She hanged below me, dangling with her arms around my stomach.
She yelled, “Oh, God. Don’t let me fall—”
“I got you,” I said, reaching down to her waist. My muscles were on fire. My strength was gone. But I grabbed her belt and, with a massive heave-ho, yanked her up on top of me.
She plopped down on top of me, her chest crashing into mine. Resting her cheek on my shoulder, she wrapped her arms around me, interlocking her fingers by my spine.
She breathed a heavy sigh of relief. “I almost didn’t make it.”
“But you did,” I said, grunting as the bricks dug into my neck and shoulders. “Now take your legs and straddle my hips. Lock your legs so you don’t fall.”
I had to shimmy myself another thirty or forty yards up the well before I reached the surface. Suffice it to say, this shit wasn’t going to be easy.
A tiny stumble, a little slip, a single loose brick, and it would all be over in a heartbeat.
One hand at a time, one foot at a time, one push at a time, I shimmied up that damn well with Maya on top of me.
Every yard was an eternity. But I focused on the light from the surface. Maya kept grabbing her stomach and moaning. When we finally reached the surface, it was like climbing out of thousand-foot hole; we could finally breathe again.
The daylight was my best friend.
Maya was passed out in pain, lying on top of me. I needed to shove myself out of the well. If I didn’t push hard enough, we’d both fall back down. I took a few deep breaths and shoved. We toppled over the ledge to the dirt and rolled several times.
Maya screamed again.
I had to deal with the thing inside her.
The monster thought it was being clever by shape-shifting into random people from my life, but it screwed up. It showed up as Maggie Walker, who was possessed by an entity. The same as Maya. And that—
—sparked an idea.
The Presence was from a different dimension, just like any demon. The fact that it didn’t come from Hell didn’t matter. The infection acted the same. Maya’s soul was possessed, plain and simple. Which meant one thing…
It could be exorcised.
I opened my jacket and pulled out my blessed silver cross necklace.
Maya was hunched over on her hands and knees. I rolled her to her back. I wanted the cross to be close to her heart. For you laymen out there not familiar with universal law and energetic patterns, the human heart generates bioelectromagnetic energy. It connects with the earth's magnetic field. The heart has more neurons than the brain.
Call it woo woo hippie shit, but the heart is the closest part of us that’s connected to spirit. That field is where the beast is crossing over into our world. It’s what the beast is moving through to infect her. It’s the doorway to her soul.
Provided her organs haven’t liquefied into a mass of monster parts by now, if I can clear that energy in Maya, the physical aspect should take care of itself and resort back to its default frequency. Like clearing up a nasty infection. Meaning, her body would go back to normal.
More or less. If I wasn’t already too late.
Unlike what new age gurus and religious figures teach people, the physical world isn’t the lower realm of the spirit. It’s the outer realm. Like an orange peel or an eggshell.
If the spiritual energy isn’t organized, however, the physical matter won’t form properly. If at all.
If I could catch this ethereal demon mother-fucker before its spirit body organized inside Maya’s soul, the beast wouldn’t have a chance to manifest in the material world and grow inside her.
Her shifting stomach could have been merely ripples from the spirit realm as the beast tried to push through. Even if it was physical, I might be able to reverse the energy and return it to normal form. Either way, I was gonna burn this dickweed from the inside out.
Time to roast his ass.
I circled the cross pendant over Maya’s heart. “I call on the name of Jesus Christ, and all that is holy and good, to banish you, beast, from this woman. Leave this mortal coil and do no harm. I protect her in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Away with you, who do not belong.”
From her core, Maya lifted off the ground, kind of like in horror movies where the possessed person floats in the air. Only not quite so dramatic. She only raised about six inches, not six feet.
She turned pale and sickly. The exorcism was working. The infection was dying off. I continued chanting and praying for several minutes, using ancient languages and the multiple names of God.
THUD!
Maya crashed to the ground. I did another blood ritual of protection around her and continued with the exorcism.
She was still holding her stomach. I was too late. It was already inside her, manifested in her flesh. I had to expel the biological component of the infection. The exorcism drove the beast’s ethereal energy away, but some residual physical matter remained in Maya’s bowels or stomach area.
It was either trying to grow inside her… or eat her insides to survive.
From the corner of my
eye, I caught sight of the green bush behind her. The Gympie Gympie. It was toxic. And perfect.
I had no choice but to touch it. I tore the leaf from the stem. I flung out my blade, cut the leaf in half, and stuffed it down Maya’s throat.
“Swallow,” I said. I coaxed her throat to get it down. This much of the plant wouldn’t kill her, but she may wish she was dead when this was all said and done.
Not only would it make her puke her guts out and get rid of what’s in her system, but it would be a symbolic representation of a purge.
You see, spirit communicates in pictures. If I could get Maya to vomit, it would do the same with her spirit and puke out any leftover shit from her system, such as the remains of an inter-dimensional evil beast who wants to hatch inside her.
Maya lurched forward and puked like it was 1999. Brown and green vomit shot everywhere. She hurled like it was never going to end. On the last heave, she spat out a salamander-like creature in the puke. No larger than an earthworm. It wriggled like it was on a hot plate until it eventually slowed. And died.
It was over.
“Oh, God,” Maya said, dry-heaving. “I’m gonna die.” She coughed and wheezed through her tears.
I patted her back for good measure. “I think you’ll live,” I said. “A few minutes ago, not so much.”
She wiped her mouth and cut her eyes to me. “What-what happened?”
“I exorcised the creature from your system.”
“How the hell did it get inside me? When?”
“It raped your mind through illusions. Believing they were real opened a door that allowed the beast to implant its seed in your soul. And manifest in your body. So I performed a demonic abortion.”
“Holy shit,” she said, spitting to the dirt. “I shouldn’t have asked. I don’t think I want to know that shit.”
“You don’t remember anything?”
“The last thing I remember, that little prick-face, Gary, threw me in the pit.” She glared at me with eyes of fire. “I’m pretty sure I’m going to murder his skanky ass, okay?”
I nodded. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
Faith of a Monster Killer: Killing Forever Book 3 Page 12