by Cassandra
She squeezed his shoulder briefly as she stood from the table. “That’s all right. Thanks anyway. Besides, I think I’ll take the shortcut home. It’ll be a lot quicker that way.”
“The shortcut through the alley?” Ashely asked, her eyebrows raised. “Jessica, you know that’s not a good idea.”
“Yeah, I’ll be out of the neighborhood in the blink of an eye and home even faster.”
“Be careful then.” Erik was obviously worried.
“Right,” Sara agreed. “And if you have any trouble, call one of us.”
Jessica nodded. “Okay. I’ll talk to you all later.” She pulled her coat, gloves, and hat on and left them to their ice cream.
As she stepped out into the brisk evening air, Jessica wondered why she and her friends had thought it was a good idea to go out for ice cream in this kind of weather. A cold wind whipped across her face and she shuddered despite being so bundled up.
Get moving, she told herself and decided that the quicker she moved, the sooner she would heat up and better brave the cold.
She set off at a brisk pace, crossed the street away from the ice cream parlor, and made her way to a back alley. By her estimation, it would take her no more than fifteen minutes to get home.
Her brisk pace warmed her a little, but soon, a chill came over her that had nothing to do with the cold. She quickened her steps when she heard suspicious noises around her. Voices drifted through the air from a distance. Small groups huddled around the edges of the alley—no doubt people of the night up to whatever sordid deeds and exchanges happened at that late hour.
Jessica even suspected a few catcalls had been directed at her, but she kept her head down and walked on.
The thought crossed her mind that she should have taken Erik up on his offer to walk her home.
Jessica Palmers, you are a strong and capable woman. You can look out for yourself. You are the granddaughter of a powerful witch, remember. Her inner pep-talk worked.
Now slightly less afraid and more confident, she hurried on. Once she remembered the weapon in her bag, Jessica felt even more confident and held her head a little higher. She was now determined to prove that the so-called ‘bad’ area of town wasn’t anything to worry about at all.
She would be home in no time.
Quickly, she crossed into the next alley, covered the distance in record speed, and turned a corner.
As she stepped forward, the temperature seemed to plunge right on the spot. She thought it was only her imagination at first, but the air was almost too cold to breathe and her lungs protested
To make matters worse, the streetlights suddenly flickered.
Please don’t go out. Please don’t go out, she chanted in her head.
She knew she should pick up her pace, but her body wouldn’t cooperate. Her legs felt like lead and her fear made her slow to a crawl. Her pupils dilated and tried to take in as much of the dark alley as possible. She wanted to see exactly what surrounded her in case the lights went out entirely.
There wasn’t another soul in sight. Jessica couldn’t figure out if this was a good thing or not.
While she’d been anxious to get away from the creeps who stood around and whistled at her a few alleys back, she now thought it would have been better if there was at least one other person around. Even if they were a creep.
Then she wouldn’t feel so alone.
Or so stupid.
How many times had her parents warned her that as a young woman, it wasn’t a bright idea to walk around sketchy areas alone at night? She had always chalked up their warnings to being overprotective parents. Now, she desperately wished she had followed their advice.
She should have stayed with her friends so they could have all left at the same time. She would have missed her curfew, but in hindsight, that seemed preferable to leaving on her own and refusing an escort.
Way to go, Jessica.
For a brief moment, she contemplated calling her friends and telling them to meet her, but that would require her waiting there so that they actually could catch up to her. She immediately felt repulsed by the idea of staying alone in an alley with flickering lights longer than necessary.
If she kept walking, she could get out and be that much closer to home.
Her mind made up, Jessica took a painful deep breath and began to jog onward. She was smart enough to know that if she sprinted down the long narrow area, it would hurt and more than that, it would leave her tired and winded. If trouble waited for her somewhere nearby, she wanted to have the strength and energy to fight it.
Fight or flight—she needed to be prepared for whichever one the moment called for.
Jessica had made it halfway down the alley when the street lights flickered off completely.
She wanted to swear at the top of her lungs.
Abruptly, she halted and squinted, unable to see even a foot ahead of her. Her short-term memory allowed her immediate surroundings to flash into mind. There was nothing in her vicinity but a couple of crumbling garages and overflowing trashcans.
Or so she thought.
It was hard to hear anything over the rush of blood in her ears and the pounding of her heart, but she thought she heard movement.
Scratching noises as if something—or someone—dragged their feet across the pavement.
Jessica looked in both directions, despite still being unable to see anything. She wondered if anyone had followed her without her knowledge. Somehow, that didn’t seem likely. She had been being exceptionally careful and was certain she would have heard someone walking behind her.
Taking deep breaths, she tried to slow her racing heart and focus on getting home.
She was so close.
Almost there.
But, in times of danger, ‘almost’ didn’t count.
Just keep walking, she told herself, painfully aware that the longer she stood there, the more time she wasted. And the more time she wasted, the more time she would spend outside the safety of her home.
Jessica took several hasty steps forward, ready to run and not slow down until she stood safely in her own living room.
She heard a low chorus of laughter drift through an icy cold wind.
Every hair on her body stood on end. Reluctantly, she stopped once more and swallowed.
The streetlights flickered again, flashes of light in the darkness.
Seconds later, they turned back on, sun-bright. Jessica thought the fact that she was no longer surrounded by pitch-black darkness would have made her feel better. Instead, the tightness in her chest became unbearable. Her eyes darted over the alley in search of whoever was there with her.
She didn’t need to see any faces to know that her visitors weren’t friendly. The laughter she’d heard had been far too sinister. Something told her that she needed to trust her gut, and that told her clearly that there was danger nearby.
Regardless, she knew the best thing she could do at a time like this was keep a level head. To stay rational.
After a moment’s thought, she decided she needed to call for help. That way, if she was suddenly attacked, it would at least be documented that she’d made a phone call, which could be tracked to find her location. She reached for her phone.
Her hand never fully made it into her pocket. A loud screech startled her so much that she almost jumped clean out of her own skin.
The sound had come from somewhere to the side of the alley. She turned to face it. An empty beer can clanged and rolled noisily across the ground. Two rats scurried from a pile of garbage and ran away from the scene and both screeched in terror. Jessica would have been repulsed at the sight of them if she hadn’t been more concerned about what had frightened them so much.
Whatever it is, stay calm, she told herself and took a deep breath.
She coughed and almost choked on the sudden stench in the air. She couldn’t even place the smell. A truckload of rotten eggs? Busted sewer pipes? Troll toilets?
It took everything with
in her to not puke on the spot.
The laughter sounded again, closer this time.
Jessica spun in a circle and her stomach clenched with simultaneous bouts of nausea and fear.
Then, her whole body froze entirely.
Farther down the alley, three tall and looming figures stood shrouded in darkness. Their shapes were human-like, but Jessica knew without a doubt that they were not human.
Those big heads and disproportionate bodies could only mean one thing.
Imps. Giant imps.
“You have got to be freakin’ kidding me!” she cried and her heart hammered in her chest.
Three stupid, ugly, giant imps. Her mind immediately sprang to Debbie, Patricia, and Marie.
Had they somehow found out that she had killed the first imp they’d sent after her? In retaliation, had they each conjured a giant imp?
Jessica shook her head in disbelief, unable to fathom what she could have possibly done to piss those girls off so badly. Was it really all because of Chad? If so, they were all far more pathetic than Jessica had ever realized.
She trembled from head to toe. The three monsters continued to laugh and stared at her with mocking gleams in their eyes. That could only mean they wanted to toy with her as they tortured her. She retrieved the voodoo doll from her bag.
While she didn’t know if it would work on all three of them, she intended to find out soon enough.
She tossed the doll to the ground and proceeded to stamp on it with all her might.
“Take that,” she yelled and brought her foot down repeatedly on its head. She stomped it, kicked it, and snatched it up to strangle it.
All the while, the three monsters continued to laugh.
When she realized that she was tiring herself out in a fight with a knitted doll, Jessica stopped. The three figures advanced slowly, their sharp teeth on display as they jeered at her.
She looked down at the beaten and battered imp doll in her hand.
The damned thing wasn’t working.
“What the hell, Grandma Ethel?” she yelled, unable to believe her grandmother had let her down at this crucial moment.
The imp voodoo doll was useless. She threw it to the ground, turned, and ran.
Jessica ran as fast as her legs would carry her. She panted and sweated despite the frigidness of the air. Her breath fogged in front of her and her feet pounded the pavement. She wanted to yell for help, but her vocal chords wouldn’t obey.
Sharp claws scraped her right calf.
“Oooof!” She bellowed as she fell face-forward to land on her belly and have the wind knocked out of her. Stars danced before her eyes for a moment. When she managed to flip onto her back, a huge imp leered at her, its stench unbearable.
It stood as tall as a man but was covered in the kind of skin she had only seen on alligators. Its teeth were as long as a vampire’s and its face had human intelligence, despite looking bestial.
Even through her fear, Jessica registered that this imp was a lot different from the ugly flying fairy that had attacked her in her home. This thing didn’t even have wings. As frightening as that earlier small creature had been, it was absolutely nothing in comparison to this new monster—and the two that hovered behind it.
Worse still, it was clearly playing with her like a cat toying with a mouse. She felt like she lived through an episode of Tom & Jerry. She could only hope to escape like Jerry always did.
The way things were going, she wasn’t very confident that she would.
The beast tilted its head from side to side and continued to laugh. It even stuck its tongue out at her.
Jessica kicked her leg out and up as hard as she could and her foot landed in what she hoped was its groin—if it even had one. The thing hardly seemed to register the attack.
That was when she knew she was in real trouble.
She scurried away from it and crab-walked backward as quickly as she could.
The creature cackled, and the other two joined in.
As quick as lightning, one ran past her to block her exit. Another stayed behind her while the third slinked to her side. Jessica’s stomach dropped to her toes. They had her surrounded.
She rummaged through her bag and fumbled blindly for anything that could be used as a weapon. As she searched, she tried to ignore the way their laughter shrieked in her ears and made her entire body break out with goosebumps.
Of course, there was nothing in her bag that she could use as a weapon. All she’d had with her was her wallet, that stupid imp doll, a ruler for her math homework, and a package of Kleenex.
Her adversaries now circled her and Jessica could only think of how absurd it all was. She would die in an alley surrounded by imps. It certainly sounded like a bizarrely epic way to die, and it seemed tragic that there was no one around to witness such a weird occurrence.
One reached for her, and without thought, she tightened her hands around the ruler and swung.
The creature cried out and recoiled with the ruler protruding from its eye. It staggered backward and hissed at her, clearly furious.
Jessica stared, shocked. Suddenly, with courage she didn’t know she possessed, she charged forward and shoved the ruler deeper into the monster’s eye.
To her astonishment, it squealed once and fell limply to the ground. Dead, she realized stupidly.
The other two stared, as shocked as she was.
She leaned over pulled the ruler free. It made a sickening suction sound on the way out. Jessica leaped up and brandished the ruler at the other two monsters. “Come on. Do you want a piece of me?”
Her boldness seemed to catch them completely off guard. That had to be the only explanation for why they simply stood there and stared back and forth from her to their dead companion.
Killing a toy-sized imp was one thing. Killing one as big as a full-grown man was another.
Jessica yodeled a war cry and took advantage of the her assailants’ shock. She focused on one and surged forward to leap onto it. It twirled on the spot as her weight landed, and in the midst of the dizzying spin, she plunged her ruler into its eye socket.
As she struggled to push the ruler deeper, she felt the other imp scratch and claw at her back. Its claws dug deep, and her skin burned and ached from the assault. When the creature she’d attacked fell to the ground, she yanked the ruler loose and it squelched out of the monster’s eye. The ruler was wet from its tip to the seven-inch mark, and it dripped with the stickiest, foulest-smelling blood she’d ever encountered in her life. At that moment, she didn’t care.
Jessica stood on top of the dead imp and had a brief moment of triumph before the third creature grabbed hold of her leg and twisted as if it planned to rip the limb off.
She screamed. It felt like her leg would snap out of its socket at any second. Using what she was sure was the last of her strength, she gritted her teeth, spun in the monster’s grasp, and kicked with her free leg. Her kick landed on its ugly bulbous nose.
It staggered backward briefly, but that moment was all she needed. The monster dropped her leg to clutch its nose. Jessica ignored the agonizing pain in her leg, scrambled to her feet, and launched herself at the giant imp. In a matter of seconds, she had the ruler deep into its eye. She shoved it deep with all her might and impaled the ruler into the imp’s brain until it fell dead like its comrades.
With a muffled sob, she collapsed. She didn’t care that she lay on dead imp or that rats ran over her legs to escape the alley. Nor did she care that she was covered in sticky, putrid monster blood. She was alive.
After expelling a steady stream of profanities, Jessica pushed painfully to her feet.
Dread filled her at a hissing sound. Her heart sank. She knew she absolutely would not survive another attack. In horror, she realized that the sounds came from the bodies. For a moment, she feared the worst—that they really weren’t dead. Instead, however, they disintegrated. One by one, in the order in which she had killed them, they crumbled into a pile of a
shes.
“This has to be the worst day of my entire life,” she muttered out loud.
Her eyes landed on the pathetic voodoo imp doll that still lay in the middle of the alley. She limped over, picked it up, and stuffed it back into her bag.
Forget going home. Right now, she needed a little chat with Grandma Ethel.
Chapter Seventeen
Her leg and back still ached from the giant imp’s assault, but she fought through the pain. Her first steps were taken with a heavy limp, but with each slow step, the pain eased and her limp became less pronounced. She realized it probably wasn’t the best idea to walk with her injuries, but at the moment, she didn’t care.
She needed to let Grandma Ethel know what happened.
The hour had grown late—much later than her parents would have approved of. Had they known where she was right now, they would have lectured her about how only women of a certain ilk roamed the streets at this time of night.
Jessica wasn’t concerned about that in the least, or anything else really. She had killed three overgrown imps who had scratched her back and legs and then tried to pull her leg out of the socket. She had a feeling she could handle whatever else came her way. Plus, it wasn’t like her day could possibly get any worse.
“Hey, darling, want a ride?” some guy catcalled to her and poked his head out of his car window.
“Bite me!” she snarled. He rolled his window up and flipped her the bird before he sped off.
All Jessica could do was laugh in spite of herself. Anyone daring to cross her path right about now would learn the hard way that she was not in the mood for games. Not at all.
After a while, she completely lost track of time. For all she knew, she’d been walking for a week straight by the time her grandmother’s house finally came into view. The lights were off, so she could only presume that the knitting party was over and the old ladies had all retired to their own homes for the night.
Grandma Ethel was probably curled up in bed with a few cats, enjoying her beauty sleep after a fun evening of knitting and gossip with the old geezers she’d befriended over the years. She had no idea that her precious granddaughter had just fought for her life—and had almost lost it—because she had put her faith in a stupid knitted imp doll that had no ability to keep her safe whatsoever.