Demon Hunters

by JKMelby74

  I had called for Ivar and Gwen as soon as I woke up the next morning. I instructed Ivar where to go and just as the sun was beginning to rise, we were driving down Wilshire Boulevard.

  “I really find this hard to believe.” Ivar said as he weaved his way through the emerging traffic.

  “That’s real good, coming from you,” I kept my eyes glued on the street, checking the street signs as we passed. “There!” Ivar hung a quick right onto a small street named Cedar Lane. It was as though we had passed through some invisible wall. We had just been driving over a street that was riddled with potholes and through neighborhoods that made the streets of Iran seem tame, but as we turned the corner, we entered some utopian suburbia. The street was freshly paved and the homes on either side of us were beautiful. The term mansion seemed to fail in the description of these palaces. They were works of art.

  Dontavius had pointed us in the direction of that neighborhood claiming The Reborn were held up in a compound nearby. I had heard rumors that many cults were setting up shop there due to the fact that the residences were so large and opulent. They were able to dazzle their weak-minded followers more easily and at the same time house more of them. It made sense to me.

  “What was the address Dontavius gave you?”

  “Seven Eighty Three Cedar Lane, but he said he wasn’t sure if they’d really be here. This is something of a long shot.”

  “Where else would they go?”

  “I’m not sure, but I bet we would have heard about a group of zombies walking around these parts. Right now, it’s the only lead we’ve got.”

  We came up on seven eighty-three and parked half a block away from it. It didn’t look any different from the other properties. There was a large concrete wall surrounding the front of the domicile. It was painted a faint blue color to match the main house and there were wrought iron spikes running along the top of the barricade. I could see the top of a large oak door and in a small window over said door; I could see a massive chandelier. More than likely it was crystal.

  “You really think these Reborn guys are in there?”

  “I don’t know. We know Jackal is in bed with the Reborn, and if we can find them, maybe we’ll find Jackal. We just have to get in there and prove that little theory correct.”

  “Well?” Ivar asked. “How do we do that?” I had been hoping I would have had an answer for him by then, but I was at a loss. We couldn’t charge in with guns blazing, because we didn’t have any guns and if we did, and we were wrong, we’d be in even more trouble. It was one of those moments where I knew what we did had to be played out very carefully and with great subtlety.

  “We wait,” Gwen seemed fine by my suggestion but Ivar looked at me as though I were wearing a feather boa around my neck. I caught his stare. “You heard me. We wait.”

  Three hours had passed. Gwen was asleep in the back seat while Ivar and I kept our vigil in the front.

  “If we’re wrong, we’re wasting a lot of time here.”

  “I know.”

  “You must be pretty sure then.”

  “Reasonably.”

  Hours passed into each other but we kept to our stakeout. Ivar had gone to a supermarket a few blocks away and brought back a cooler with some food so we wouldn’t have to worry about eating. Nothing fancy, but it was enough to get us through.

  A few times a police cruiser would come by and I ducked down as low as I could to keep from being spotted. I was beginning to think just sitting there in that car was arousing more suspicion than was needed.

  The sun had begun to set and the sky was growing dark and I noticed that there was less traffic surrounding the area, as all the businesses were closing down and everyone was heading home for the evening. I looked down at my watch and saw that it was well past seven and I began to realize I was getting pretty hungry. I reached into the cooler with the food but looked away in disappointment.

  “Damn.”

  “Cupboard bare?”

  “Yeah. I really didn’t think we’d be out here this long.”

  “You want go get out of here?”

  “Not yet. Would you mind making a run to the market for some dinner?” I asked. “I’d go myself, but, you know.”

  “Yeah, I know. It’s fine. What do you want?” I dug into my pocket and pulled out my wallet. I handed her the last of my cash.

  “Anything. Doesn’t matter.”

  “Okay. I’ll be back as fast as I can.” I watched as she turned the corner at the end of the block. Ivar suddenly began to stir awake.

  “You awake, bud?” Ivar rolled over onto his back and looked up at me.

  “I believe so. How long was I asleep?”

  “A few hours.”

  “Did anything happen?”

  “Nothing yet. You sure you’re up? Alert and everything?”

  “Yes, I’m fine. Where’s Gwen?” He asked as he sat up.

  “She went on a food run.”

  “Why? We have enough food. The cooler’s not empty is it?”

  “No, but I told her it was. I had to get her out of here for a bit. I didn’t want a fight.”

  “A fight about what?”

  “About me breaking in there and ending this at last. Don’t you say anything either.”

  “What about waiting?”

  “We have waited. We’ve waited all god damn day! I have to get in there and find out what’s really going on. When she gets back, keep her quiet, and here. This won’t take long.”

  “Here,” Ivar said and produced a small gun. “Just in case.” I took the gun and slipped it in the waist of my pants. I jumped out of the car and skulked quickly to the compound.

  I looked around. It was dark, there were no cars coming down the street and the major traffic on Wilshire was close but too busy to notice anything. I ran across the street to the gate. I took a deep breath and leapt up the wall guarding the compound. I grabbed onto one of the iron spikes and pulled myself up. I could feel the metal cutting through my hand. It stung like Hell, but I held on. I managed to balance myself on the wall, but I quickly toppled over and fell to the ground on the other side. My hand was dripping with blood but it healed up quickly. I got up and made my way to the front door. It was Oak. I pressed my ear to it but I heard nothing. I was beginning to doubt if Dontavius’ information was on the money. I took a breath and figuring if I was in police custody, I’d be looking at a hefty sentence regardless, I committed another crime. I kicked at the large oak door with all my strength. It flew open, almost as if it had been waiting for someone to come and try. I walked in.

  It was quiet. To my right was a long, curved staircase and to my left, I could see a large family room. There was no furniture. There was no light. I could see that there were large marks on the walls. I couldn’t tell what it was. Some parts looked dark red like blood; other parts seemed to take on a green hue. I walked in further and I could see large scars in the walls.

  It was dark beyond the family room. It seemed as though the windows further back in the house had been blocked off. I crept further along. The carpet started to make a sickening squish sound with every step as I progressed. It was one of the parts of my job I encountered a lot, but for some reason I couldn’t get over. It just grossed me out. I picked up the pace and as I crossed over. I was unable to figure out which room I was in. It was smaller, but still no furniture to serve as an indicator. Suddenly, some large object on the floor caught my foot. I kicked it a bit and it seemed like a large ball filled with cement. I turned and went for the nearest wall, hoping cults still believed in paying the power bill. My hand found the wall and it was covered with a slick slime. I felt along until I found a light switch. I flipped it up and a small lamp unit attached to the wall came to life and illuminated what might have been a kitchen. I looked down and saw I had tripped over a head. A rather mutated and oddly shaped head and I could see the mutated and oddly shaped body it had been attached to lying in a puddle of blood. There was another similar situation not too f
ar away. I soon found myself ankle deep in dead, disfigured corpses. The Reborn, it seemed, could be killed.

  From what I could see, every last member of the cult had been murdered. I was not washed over with surprise. Just seeing the bodies lying before me, the picture of what happened became clear as day. It was obvious that Jackal, being the unstable psychopath I knew him to be, double-crossed The Reborn. I thought for a bit and in hindsight, it did seem odd to me that Jackal would work for anyone, no matter how powerful they may have been. The only detail that did worry me was the fact that Jackal was nowhere to be found. He found a way to kill The Reborn and did so and then booked with the dagger, Morgan’s body, and Demonica.

  I started back for the front door when I heard a weak thump come from above. I pulled out my gun and ran up the stairs. I got to the top and turned the first corner only to be faced with a long hallway. I heard a soft moan from a nearby room. I looked in and saw Demonica sprawled on the floor. I rolled her around so I could see her face. She was pale and there were bruises along her cheeks and near her eyes. I checked her pulse. She had one. It was weak but present. Her eyes slowly opened.

  “Jake?”

  “Are you all right? What happened?”

  “Jackal. He...” She began but she was too weak to continue.

  “I’ve seen what he’s done. He killed them all, didn’t he?” Demonica slowly nodded. “Where did he go?” Demonica closed her eyes again.

  “He found a way... He’s going to use her. He’s...” She stopped. I set her down carefully and bolted for the door downstairs. I didn’t know what to do to help her, but I was sure Ivar would. Just as I made it to the door, a swarm of police greeted me. I froze on the spot. I could see Gwen and Ivar being brought forward by two other cops. They were already cuffed. I held my gun tightly in my fist.

  “I wouldn’t try it.” A calm voice called from out of the crowd of guns pointed at my head. I looked to Gwen and then to each of the gun barrels that were trained on me. I had seen worse odds, but despite that, I set my gun down and gave up.

  “There’s a woman inside. Upstairs. She’s hurt.” I said. The cops came up on me and slapped the cuffs on. I heard one of them reading me my rights before he started pushing me toward a squad car. I kept yelling at them about Demonica and only assumed they were listening. Ivar and Gwen were carted away in one car and I was taken in another.

  Chapter 31

  All Caught Up

  “And that’s what happened.” Samantha still had her eyes on me. The echo of my story hung in the air and I could understand her apprehension. If I didn’t know myself the way I did, I’d think I was insane too. My cigarette had burned out in my hand and time seemed to have stopped.

  “Interesting,” She picked up the folder on the table and opened it up. Her eyes scanned whatever was inside. “We can strike kidnapping and attempted murder off the list.”

  “What? Why?”

  “The woman we found at the house has been made stable and she claims you had nothing to do with it. That I find hard to believe, but as she is the only witness, I have no choice.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Sure. Now, two charges down, a dozen to go.”

  “Could I speak with Demonica?”

  “She isn’t here. Ms. Shallows was taken to First General and you won’t be going anywhere; other than a holding cell.”

  “I just told you! I didn’t kill Tyler! Everything else was just a big mistake!”

  “What you just told me sounded more like the mad rantings of a very disturbed man. You claimed to be possessed by a demon and engaged in the abduction of a corpse you believed to be a witch, which was taken by a male witch who was employed by a cult of zombies.”

  “Warlock.”

  “What?”

  “A male witch is a warlock.”

  “I don’t care! The fact is all of that is fantasy but the reality is we have a dead body with your prints all over it. You knew the victim and were at the scene of the crime before and after it had occurred. If you were me, what would you do?” I hated trick questions.

  “Let me go?”

  “Close. I will be sending you to a holding cell until a trained psychiatrist can meet with you and then I assume you will then be sent to the nearest mental health facility for a very long time.” Samantha then pushed herself up out of the chair and turned toward the door.

  “What about Jackal? He was released from Kennison Asylum! You may not believe he’s a warlock, but you know he’s seriously screwed up! He’s dangerous and now he’s out there! Doesn’t all this sound more like things he would do?”

  “Mr. Bledsoe was released legally and into the custody of a licensed therapist and since his release there have been no reports of any illegal activity on his part.”

  “Who released him?” Samantha looked back in that little file of hers.

  “Dr. Hobart Zucker. Here.” She slid the form over to me. I looked down at the signed release form.

  “You’ve checked this guy out?”

  “He’s clean across the board.”

  “Jackal told me The Reborn sprung him.”

  “Maybe he lied to you.”

  “He’d never pass up the chance to taunt me. He hates me much more than he hates you.”

  “I’ll be sending someone in to take you to your cell.” She walked out. I fell back into my seat. I could hear some footsteps outside the door echoing through the endless halls. I was helpless.

  It was a fact of my life I had come to terms with years ago. To the outside observer, so much of my life seemed to make no sense and for it to make sense, said observer would need to believe certain things that the general public had been trained not to believe. From my point of view, I’ve been trying to stop the return of a horrible evil, to others; I’ve just been running around making a lot of noise and leaving bodies in my wake. Jackal had been released in a supposedly legal fashion and was free to make all the chaos he saw fit and I was about to be trussed up into a straightjacket for the rest of my living days.

  The door opened and a uniformed officer walked in. He walked up to me and held out his cuffs.

  “Up.” I complied and he quickly slapped the cuffs on. He pushed me out the door and led me down the hall. I heard the noise around me but it seemed like we were held in our own little bubble and nothing else seemed to get through. I really wasn’t sure why I was so upset. I began to think of Gwen.

  The officer took me below to the holding cells. We stopped at a small office where they checked inmates in. They put me through the paces. Mug shots. Fingerprints and then they assigned me a cage. The officer led me down a long corridor flanked by cells on either side of us. A few catcalls and whistles escaped from behind the bars. It was too dark to tell where they were coming from for sure. We finally stopped at my cell. It was small, of course. Dirty, naturally. The officer released the cuffs and then pushed the cell key into the lock and the door slid open. I walked in and as he was about to shut the cell he stopped.

  He was stuck in mid motion. His hand was on one of the bars firmly and it looked as though the cell door was already in moving. I stepped out quickly and there was no response. He just stood there like an ice sculpture. I headed back down the hall. I walked by the small office in front and the guy in there was just stuck staring up into space.

  When I made it back to the front lobby, I saw the occurrence wasn’t limited to below. Every single person was stuck doing whatever they had been doing a few minutes earlier. There was a fist fight just about to break out and the two fighters seemed to be stuck in some kind of freeze frame shot just before they were about to both land a punch on their opponents’ faces. An old man sitting on a bench was hunched over with a wad of spittle hanging in midair just in front of him, clearly intended to land on the shoe of his arresting officer who was standing right in front of him. I saw Ivar standing at the door to the building. He had his hands pressed to his temples and his eyes squeezed shut.

  “Ivar?”

&nb
sp; “Don’t talk! Just go!” He nudged me toward the door and I could see Gwen sitting in the car just outside. I looked back up at Ivar, his face was straining and pearls of sweat were trickling down his face.

  “Thanks.”

  “GO!” I bolted through the door and leapt into the car. Gwen pushed down on the pedal and we screeched out onto the street.

  “What was that?”

  “I don’t know. We were waiting to be processed when Ivar said he knew this trick. He told me that when he put his hands to his head, I was to get out and find the car and to just wait outside with the motor running.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “I have no idea. I thought you’d know.”

  “Stop the car.”

  “What?”

  “Stop the car,” Gwen slid the car to a stop along a quiet street. I sprung from my seat, dashed around and shoved her out from behind the wheel. “We’ll probably get around faster if someone who knows where they’re going is driving.”

  “Okay then. Where are we going?”

  “First General.”

  “Are you nuts? They took Demonica there. There are cops all over the place!”

  “I need to talk to her!” Gwen turned to me and her eyes were wild but still seemed to be curious and desperate.

  “This is crazy.” I smiled.

  “I am absolutely aware.”

  I pulled into the parking lot of First General Hospital and it seemed calm. We found a space far from the entrance in a dark corner of the lot.

  We got into the hospital and it seemed normal. I hadn’t been in many hospitals, but as long as there weren’t people running around with blood pouring out of their veins or dead bodies being wheeled around, things were normal.

  The waiting area was practically abandoned except for a little old lady knitting what appeared to be a scarf and a homeless guy stretched across three chairs.

  “Now what?” Gwen asked.

  “We find Demonica.”

  “I’ll get her room number. You just wait here and keep out of sight.” Gwen went over to the nurse’s desk. I was about to sit down one seat from the old lady but she just shot me some crazy look. Her eyes were bulged out and with her thin, frail head, they seemed even larger.