The Sacrifice of Sunshine Girl

by Paige McKenzie

  CHAPTER 41

  Escape

  Tonight?” I repeat numbly. “You mean, like, here in Ridgemont?”

  “Yes, here in Ridgemont. At this dance likely, since you’re here and so are about a thousand other people. As in, maximum potential casualties.” Lucio grasps my arm and points to the exit. “Come on.”

  But I can’t move.

  This isn’t happening.

  Nolan puts his hands on my shoulders, squeezes, and stares deeply into my eyes. “I know you’re scared. I promise it’s going to be all right. But Lucio’s right—we need to move.”

  “But… what about Ashley and Bastian?”

  “I’ll go and grab them. And Victoria too,” Nolan offers. “Lucio, please get Sunshine out of here. Keep her safe. I’ll be right behind you with the others.”

  “Shouldn’t we evacuate this whole gym, in case the pentagram spell…” I can’t finish the sentence.

  “The first priority is to keep the spell from being completed. That means extracting you, stat,” Lucio tugs on my arm. “Now come on!”

  I take a deep, shuddering breath. This isn’t just about me. It’s about the safety of everyone at the dance… everyone in Ridgemont… maybe everyone in the entire world. “Yes, okay. I’m ready.”

  Nolan kisses me quickly. “I love you, Sunshine. For always. Now go!”

  He turns and disappears into the crowd.

  “I love you too!” I call after him, but the music drowns out my words.

  Lucio and I make a beeline for the exit, or we try to, but it’s not easy with the crush of bodies now dancing to some loud, screechy song about a revolution. As I run I touch Helena’s necklace under my scarf, and I can feel the weight of my luiseach knife inside my purse.

  Courage, I tell myself. I know how to do this. I know how to protect myself.

  But what about Aidan? This means he has to move up the timeline on his guera spirito ritual, that he has to die, physically die, and engage with Dubu on the spiritual plane—tonight.

  I remember noticing on Wednesday how tired and old Aidan looked, as though he’d aged overnight. I remember too last weekend how he tried to keep me from exorcising the ghost inside Tiffany Ramirez, and I managed to resist him completely.

  My father trained me well.

  Will I have to say good-bye to him tonight? Am I ready?

  Lucio and I are about thirty feet from the exit when, lo and behold, there’s Aidan himself. He rushes into the gym and pauses in the doorway, looking this way and that. Behind him are Helena, Aura, Xerxes, Mikhail, and Giovanni. Zalea’s here too, peering around in wonder, her curious gaze landing on something on the ceiling.

  Aidan spots us and waves agitatedly. “Hurry!” he shouts.

  Lucio and I head toward them. I trip on someone’s feet, and Lucio clutches my arm to right me. I glance around quickly to see if Nolan has Ashley, Bastian, and Victoria, but I can’t locate them—there are too many people.

  “Hurry, Nolan,” I whisper.

  Lucio and I are almost at the exit now. Just then I notice that Zalea’s wandered away from her mother and is walking into the crowd, her eyes fixed on… the disco ball? What’s she doing? She’s acting like she’s hypnotized or maybe just having one of her visions? Aura’s conferring with Helena and doesn’t seem to notice. None of them seem to notice.

  “Zalea!” I yell, although there’s no way she can hear me—she’s moving in the opposite direction and the band is playing at full volume.

  But she does hear me somehow. With her keen ears or with her telepathic mind. Zalea stops and turns slightly; her gaze falls on me.

  She points to the disco ball, and her lips move.

  At that exact same moment a tall figure seizes her from behind and lifts her in the air… and runs.

  “Zalea!” I scream.

  The tall figure and Zalea melt into the crowd. I change course and start to pursue them.

  But Lucio catches hold of my arm. “What are you doing? Wrong direction!”

  “Someone took Zalea. We have to help her!”

  “What? But there’s no time!”

  “Let me go!”

  I twist out of his grip and take off. He tries to follow but gets immediately blocked by a group of girls who surround him, trying to make him dance with them.

  I trip and wind my way through the crowd, barely making out the top of Zalea’s captor’s head, much less Zalea’s. The captor seems to be carrying her toward the center of the gym. What does this person want with Zalea, and why isn’t anyone helping her? Of course it’s incredibly loud and chaotic in the gym… maybe everyone is just oblivious.

  I peer over my shoulder. Is Lucio somewhere behind me? I feel bad about ditching him back there, but I know he’d try to keep me from rescuing Zalea so I can make my escape, which I’ll do as soon as I can do what my gut’s telling me: save Zalea. I assume that Aura and Aidan and the other luiseach have figured out she’s missing. They must all be frantically combing the gym—for her, for me. But the room is wall to wall with bodies.

  Just then I spot Bastian and Ashley squeezing their way through two dancing couples.

  “Guys! Where’s Nolan?” I call out.

  “He went to find Victoria. He told us we have to leave the dance immediately. What’s wrong?” Bastian asks anxiously.

  “Come with me and I’ll explain!”

  Bastian hurries to my side. Ashley removes her stiletto heels and trails after us.

  “This is the lamest high school dance I’ve ever been to,” she complains loudly.

  “Bastian, it’s happening,” I say breathlessly. “The pentagram spell, the thing I told you about. It’s tonight!”

  His jaw drops. He pulls a white handkerchief out of his tux pocket and mops his face with it. “That is very bad. All right, please tell me what you need me to do.”

  “Someone kidnapped Zalea… she’s one of us, she’s a luiseach. I have to help her. Can you get Ashley out of here?”

  “Yes, of course. But what about you?”

  “As soon as I have Zalea I’ll get out of here too. Aidan has a plane standing by.”

  “A plane? Why?”

  “I’ll explain later. Just—”

  I halt in my tracks, as do Bastian and Ashley. We’ve reached the center of the gym. Something’s wrong. The crowd there has parted and formed a circle.

  I shoulder my way through a swath of bodies.

  Coach Martinez stands in the middle of the circle holding Zalea in his arms.

  Black tape covers her mouth.

  The coach’s eyes gleam red as he gazes up at the disco ball.

  “When the five-pointed star is completed, the world will be washed in fire and be reborn as the kingdom of Dubu!” he shouts.

  Someone screams, and the band stops playing. The lead singer taps on the microphone, “Hey, is everyone still having fun out there? Or—”

  The students begin yelling randomly, incoherently.

  Call 9-1-1!

  My phone’s dead.

  Mine too!

  Let’s get out of here!

  There’s a mass exodus—at least half the students anyway. The other half stays behind, gawking at Coach Martinez and Zalea and trying to take photos and videos with their phones, which aren’t working.

  “What’s the coach doing?” Bastian whispers.

  “I don’t know. He’s obviously possessed. We have to stop him before he hurts her!”

  “But why does he want to hurt her?”

  “Because…”

  Zalea suddenly spots me in the crowd and stares wildly, her eyes wide with terror. Above her the disco ball spins around and around, peppering her body with flecks of light.

  A fleck of light catches her wrist.

  Oh my gosh.

  Of course.

  There’s a pentagram mark on it.

  Zalea is a luiseach.

  Who’s also a girl.

  Who said she was a few months old when she and Aura left Llevar la Luz…
so she must be sixteen?

  Just like me.

  If she dies here tonight, the pentagram spell will be activated.

  CHAPTER 42

  The Penumbra of Darkness

  I turn to Bastian, trying to keep my panic at bay as I improvise a hasty rescue plan. “I have to perform an exorcism on Coach Martinez! You have to make sure no one tries to stop me!”

  Bastian nods, although his expression is strangely calm. Has fear shut him down? He seems frozen in place, like I was a few minutes ago.

  “Bastian, focus! I need you!”

  “Yes, yes, of course.”

  Ashley clutches his arm and whispers something in his ear. He nods again.

  Fingers crossed Bastian will do his job. Regardless, I need to act quickly and carefully. First and foremost I inch to the right so I’m out of Coach Martinez’s sight line. Then I close my eyes, trying to tune out the confusion and commotion, and extend my hand toward him. I have to try to find the demon inside him, lock on to it, and destroy it.

  I see nothing.

  Keep trying!

  My inner vision sweeps through his entire body. Still nothing. I bite back my frustration—at this rate the demon will kill Zalea and then kill Coach Martinez…

  But… wait. This doesn’t make sense. A demon can’t permanently destroy a luiseach. The creature inside Coach Martinez might hurt Zalea, but he can’t kill her.

  Unless…

  Is Dubu here? Is he going to finish what the Coach Martinez demon started with Zalea and activate the pentagram spell after all?

  My eyes fly open and I spin around, scanning the entire gym. Bastian is next to me. I search for him—the man in black, the penumbra of darkness, the king of all demons and dark creatures—but I don’t see or sense him anywhere. Students are running en masse toward the one exit that seems to be open—why are the other exits closed? There’s a huge logjam of bodies, people pushing and shoving, total chaos. Did Nolan get out safely? And Victoria too? Where are Aidan and Helena and the others?

  Then I get an idea.

  Its magic could annihilate Coach Martinez’s demon, seek out Dubu, end this now. Keep everyone I love safe.

  I extract my luiseach knife from my purse and balance it on my palm. Coach Martinez’s back is still turned to me so he—or rather, his demon—isn’t aware of my actions… at least for the moment.

  “Manifest!” I order.

  My knife doesn’t move.

  “Sunshine, you have a weapon!” Bastian says, sounding relieved. “Are you going to use it?”

  “Not now, Bastian. Manifest, darn it!”

  It still doesn’t move.

  “We are running out of time!” Bastian points out.

  And then, before I can react, he takes the knife from me and grasps it by the blade, which grazes his skin. Wincing, he turns it upside down so that he’s holding it correctly. The blood that trickles from his wound is dark red, almost black.

  “Bastian!”

  I try to take the knife back, but he twists away, keeping it out of my reach.

  “You must let me help you, Sunshine. You are my friend, my mentor.”

  “No! You can’t exorcise a demon with that… you don’t know how! You’ll only hurt Coach Martinez!”

  Ashley materializes at my side just then and grabs hold of my hand. I can feel her long manicured fingernails digging into my flesh. “Let him be the hero, Sunny-G. He’s ready,” she murmurs into my ear.

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about…”

  But Ashley won’t let go, and her grip is surprisingly strong. Bastian holds the knife against his side and sneaks up behind Coach Martinez as though he were “it” in a ghoulish game of hide-and-seek.

  Bastian lifts the knife in the air and prepares to strike…

  “No!” I shout.

  Coach Martinez whirls around, Zalea captive in his arms.

  Bastian stabs her in the chest.

  I scream soundlessly as Zalea slumps to the ground, her eyes wide open, her mouth taped shut as her blood seeps onto the gym floor. Tiny flecks of light from the disco ball dance across her lifeless body.

  The floor beneath my feet begins to rumble. Then the ceiling above begins to shake, and the disco ball swings back and forth precariously.

  Bastian glances at me, still holding the bloody knife.

  And smiles.

  Why is he smiling?

  “No, young lady. He is not possessed,” someone says.

  Mr. Jansen—Bastian’s father—is standing there.

  Except he’s not Mr. Jansen. He is, but he’s someone else too.

  The man in black.

  The penumbra of darkness.

  Bastian strides up to me. The awkwardness and shyness are gone, and in their place is an air of supreme confidence.

  “B-Bastian?” I stammer incoherently. What’s happening? He’s supposed to be my friend, my apprentice, my hope for the future of the luiseach race.

  To my horror Ashley prances up to him and twines her arm through his, her eyes glowing red.

  Oh my gosh, Ashley too?

  “I’m sorry, Sunshine. I don’t believe I have properly introduced you to my father,” Bastian says smoothly. “This is the man whom you know as Dubu. Father, this is Sunshine.”

  Bastian is Dubu’s son?

  Dubu smiles, and his smile is identical to Bastian’s. “Finally, at last. The daughter of Aidan Adis Cadeyrn.”

  CHAPTER 43

  The Sacrifice

  Dubu holds out his hand as if to shake mine, and I see he has six fingers on each hand. Just like in my dream, my vision, my nightmare. I stumble backward, trying desperately to get away from him… and from Bastian… and from Ashley, who isn’t Ashley anymore.

  Bastian is Dubu’s son.

  I want to fade away, disappear, right here and now for messing everything up so badly. I brought the enemy into our camp. And now Zalea, poor Zalea, lies on the floor staring up at the ceiling with dead eyes. I want to run to her, try to save her, but it’s too late. I’m too late.

  Everyone was so fixated on protecting me…

  The floor rumbles some more, and a thin crack ripples from wall to wall.

  It’s beginning. The fifth point in the pentagram, the doomsday spell.

  I need to stop it.

  I can do this.

  First, I need backup. “Aidan!” I shout at the top of my lungs. “Lucio!”

  “They will be here shortly along with the rest of your luiseach… posse. I ordered my dark servants to detain them. But of course I very much want them here for the finale. Your father especially,” Dubu smirks.

  “The finale?”

  A terrible creaking sound… I glance up and realize the disco ball is about to come crashing down. People continue running for the exit, except that more cracks are forming along the floor. Several students fall in, screaming.

  A giant flame plumes out of one of the cracks, and another, and another. Smoke seeps into the gym, and fire ignites.

  “Look out!” someone yells.

  A whooshing sound. I glance up and see the disco ball falling, coming straight toward us. My necklace burns hot against my skin as I dive out of the way just as the disco ball hits the floor and shatters into a million pieces.

  A dozen students and also Coach Martinez lie there bleeding, covered with glass shards. Dubu smiles and moves his arms as though he were conducting a symphony. Bastian and Ashley nod and clap.

  Oh my gosh, Ashley.

  More cracks tear across the floor. The gym starts to cave in, and then demons and dark spirits begin flying out of the earth. Not just a few, but dozens, then hundreds, then more. The humans in the gym can’t see them, and the creatures take advantage by attacking them and entering their defenseless, unsuspecting bodies, possessing them en masse.

  The apocalypse is here.

  I turn and trip and right myself, making a mad dash away from Dubu and Bastian and Ashley and toward the black hole of demon activity. As I run
I try to exorcise demons one by one, but there are just too many. Dubu said his servants were “detaining” Aidan and the others. Does that mean I’m on my own here, fighting against an entire demon army? My necklace continues to scorch and sizzle. My necklace, Helena’s necklace, Dubu’s necklace—which is awful and ironic, as it may be the only thing that’s keeping me safe and in one piece right now.

  But to what end? Because if the pentagram spell worked, this very same thing is happening in those four other places across the world. Soon the darkness will no doubt spread beyond the five points of the unholy star and take over the entire planet.

  Smoke, fire, whirling demons. Humans are falling right and left, turning dark, eradicating any semblance of balance. I don’t know how much longer I can stay here, stay alive. If an onslaught of light spirits can kill me, what will an onslaught of dark spirits do?

  I pray that Nolan escaped and Victoria too.

  The thick gray smoke parts slightly, and I make out the faint outlines of Aidan and Helena and the other council members. And Lucio too. They have formed a tight circle, their backs against each other, their hands reaching out to perform exorcisms at an impossible rate. The elder luiseach especially are immensely powerful that way.

  But not powerful enough. There are only seven luiseach here—eight, including me. Hundreds of demons swirl through the air, attacking, possessing. More continue pouring out of the ground. We are horribly, horribly outnumbered. At this rate Dubu and his evil minions will take over the school, Ridgemont, the country, the world in a matter of hours.

  Is this the end?

  But it can’t be the end.

  Sucking in a deep breath, summoning every last ounce of strength and courage, I step over flames, bodies, and hurry toward the luiseach circle.

  Just before I reach it, Aidan sees me.

  “Sunshine!” he shouts, his face white with shock. “I thought you were… how did the pentagram spell…”

  “Where is Zalea? Where is my daughter?” Aura cries out.

  They don’t know.

  Before I can reply, something grabs my neck from behind and lifts me swiftly up in the air.