Something Wicked

by Brian Harmon

  “It’s already after dawn. The battle grows near.”

  “Yeah,” replied Eric. “We should get going. So if you’d be so kind as to give us the girl and then drop dead, we’d be grateful.”

  “You won’t survive.”

  “We’ll take our chances.”

  “It’s hopeless.”

  “We’ll see.”

  The monster sighed. “Why do you care so much? Why are you even here? You don’t belong with them. You’re not one of them.”

  Eric eyed the creature. The thing’s voice was so clear, so smooth, not monstrous at all. In fact, it had a very soothing voice, in spite of its massive, Johnsonville lips. He was beginning to wonder if maybe it was speaking for someone else. Was it possible that he was really talking to the magic man, himself? Perhaps this thing was only a receptacle for his voice, a means for him to communicate without having to actually be here.

  “They’re good people,” he said. “I won’t let you hurt them.”

  “But why?”

  “It’s what I do.”

  “And why is that?”

  “I don’t know. But I’m still not letting you hurt that girl again.”

  The monster grinned. Out of nothing more than pure, evil spite, it twisted its fist and made Marissa scream again. The sound was awful, less like a shout than a howl.

  Holly cried out for her sister.

  “Stop it!” Eric shouted.

  “Once I’ve killed you,” said the monster, “I can dispose of this one.” It lifted its free hand and pointed at Holly. “And I can play with that one for the rest of the day.”

  Holly ducked behind him and made another of those frightened squeaking noises in her throat.

  “Not going to happen, freak,” growled Eric.

  “It will happen, actually. When the magic man’s army surrounds that little farmhouse and begins closing in, it’ll happen to every one of those little bitches.”

  Eric clenched his teeth. It knew about the farmhouse?

  “They’ll be beaten. They’re bones will be broken, their eyes gouged out. Some of them will be eaten alive. They might even be…violated.” Its grin widened. “The thing about imps and ogres, sometimes they get a little frisky when things get violent.”

  He told the monster that it could violate itself.

  It ignored him and went on: “It’ll be slow and agonizing. I can promise you that. Horrible way to die. And they won’t stand a chance. They are only eight, after all. Ten, if you count the two strays you dragged home from the hospital.”

  Eric’s heart sank even further. It even knew about Shondra and Siena? Was there anything it didn’t know? “Why is he doing this?”

  “Because they are a perversion, of course. An abomination. They have power they don’t understand and don’t deserve. And each one of them should have died a long time ago. Desmond Weizner upset the natural order of things by saving what should have been left to rot. And Delphinium Thorngood has only compounded that in her foolish quest to seek out others like herself, changing their fate.”

  Eric felt a chill creep down his back. He thought this was all about revenge, but apparently it went even deeper. The psychopath actually seemed to believe that these women had cheated their rightful deaths and were upsetting some kind of delicate balance.

  “But he will put things right,” growled the monster.

  This was bad. Revenge was about anger and hatred. Those emotions were self-destructive, distracting. This self-righteousness was much more dangerous to deal with.

  “So his solution is just to murder these women?”

  The monster’s response was as cold as it was concise: “Yes.”

  “That’s insane.”

  It gave him another of those awful grins. “Maybe. Doesn’t matter to me. I’m just the messenger.”

  “Messenger?”

  “He sent me here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be a total waste. Like I said before, you’re not one of them. He doesn’t care about you. You don’t have to die.”

  Eric didn’t respond. He stood his ground, dagger in hand, listening.

  “Just go home. Stay out of it.”

  “And if I say, ‘Go to hell?’”

  The monster shrugged. The motion made Marissa gasp. “Then you’ll suffer with them. It won’t matter. He doesn’t care. But despite what you may think, he is merciful. He’s offering you a deal. Leave now, and you can take the redhead with you. He’ll let you have her. As long as she doesn’t go out fouling everything up like Del did, he’ll leave her alone. Just get back in the van and drive home.”

  “And let him kill the others.”

  Again, it flashed him that evil grin. “It has to be put right.”

  “It’s not right. It’s savage.”

  “It’s nature.” The monster rose to its feet, lifting Marissa into the air again and making her wail. It was taller than he’d thought, and it stood with its head almost touching the ceiling while the poor girl writhed in agony, her feet kicking in the air.

  “Stop it!” screamed Holly.

  The monster ignored her. “Tell you what,” it said. “He’ll even throw in this one. Just to show you how generous he is.” It swung its arm and tossed her. She struck the floor with a shriek of pain and rolled, coming to rest at Eric’s feet, where she crumpled into a pitiful pile.

  Holly knelt down and put her arms around her. “Marissa!”

  Eric stepped over her, planting himself between the girls and the monster messenger.

  It stepped toward him, its beady eyes fixed on him. “It’s a good deal. The only one you’re going to get. I’d take it if I were you.”

  “And trust a murderous psychopath to keep his word? No thanks. Not even if I was selfish and cowardly enough to abandon the people who came to me for help.”

  “Suit yourself,” said the messenger, stepping even closer. Eric pressed the tip of the blade against the thing’s bloated belly, trying to warn it away. “It’s a shame. He could’ve used someone like you.”

  “You can give him a message from me,” said Eric. “I’m going to kick his wizard ass.”

  It bent over, its hideous face hovering over him. “Tell him yourself.” With that, it seized Eric’s hand and forced the dagger blade into its own, swollen belly.

  Eric cried out, startled and repulsed. He tried to pull his hand back, but the monster’s grip was too firm.

  It forced the blade downward, unzipping its flesh all the way to its groin.

  Then it let go of his hand and stepped back. Smoke poured from the wound as the weight of its foul innards pushed the cut open, spilling them to the floor in a wet splatter.

  Holly screamed and pressed her face into Marissa’s hair, unable to watch.

  Eric tried to tear his eyes away, but he couldn’t.

  It dropped back into the chair and then lowered its head. Just like that, the monster messenger was gone. Smoke began to rise from the rest of its body. Its messages were delivered. It was dead.

  That was all this was about? The magic man told Delphinium where to find Marissa and beat the poor girl half to death just to tell him he could go home if he wanted? The message was that he was excused?

  Maybe the monster was right. Maybe they couldn’t win this battle. But he knew one thing for sure: if he took Holly and Marissa and left, Delphinium and the others would die. And without Delphinium, nothing could stop the magic man from making his way to Wisconsin and killing them. This guy’s promises would dissolve into smoke just like the messenger who gave it. When the smoke cleared, it’d be like it never existed.

  Confident that the creature wasn’t getting back up, he turned and knelt, examining Marissa. She was unconscious, and it was no surprise. Both her eyes were black. Her lip was split. Her face was swollen and puffy. Her body was covered in bruises, her clothes torn. The thing had really worked her over. Was that part of the magic man’s plan? Or had the ugly freak only been amusing itself while it waited for them to arrive?

&n
bsp; Holly looked up at him, her pretty eyes glistening with tears. “Will she be okay?”

  “I think so.” It felt strange, working his hands over her body, but he needed to make sure she was okay, and as far as he could tell, she seemed mostly fine. He couldn’t find any broken bones, but the arm was definitely dislocated. That would have to be taken care of, though it made his stomach squirm a little. The poor girl had already been through so much. “Hold onto her. Tight. I have to set this.”

  Holly made a sick noise in her throat, but she did as he said and hugged her tightly.

  He was thankful she was unconscious. At least she wouldn’t see it coming. He sat down on the floor, gripped her arm, set his foot against her armpit for leverage, and prayed he remembered how to do this correctly.

  The pain dragged her back to consciousness with a piercing scream, but by then it was done. She lay in Holly’s arms, sobbing and clutching at her shoulder.

  “She needs a sling,” said Eric. “Then we have to get her back to Delphinium.”

  Holly looked up at him. “You didn’t even consider his offer, did you? It never crossed your mind to leave Del and the others behind.”

  He didn’t have to answer. She knew. It was what she did. It was her power. But he answered anyway. “Delphinium asked for my help. I’m still not sure why. I still don’t see what difference I’ll make in the end, but I won’t abandon her.”

  She gave him a smile. “I’m pretty sure I know why.”

  He cocked his head, not understanding, but she only smiled at him and then looked down at her sister again as she brushed the hair from her bloodied face.

  “I’ll find something to use as a sling.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  With a few adjustments, an old nail pouch made a fine sling. Eric secured the arm and he and Holly managed to get Marissa to her feet.

  The monster only moved once, when its smoking carcass had deteriorated enough that the shoulders collapsed and a smoking arm fell to the floor. It was harmless, of course, but it made Eric jump, Holly yelp and Marissa scream at the top of her lungs in terror.

  He could scarcely blame the poor girl. She’d been through hell and the real battle hadn’t even begun.

  “Is anybody else around?” he asked as they stepped out into the open interior of the barn.

  He was afraid that she would tell him that the family who lived here had been slaughtered when the monster first appeared, but thankfully, Marissa shook her head. “Family’s away. County fair. They left before sunrise. I’ve been living in an apartment over the garage, earning my stay by doing chores around the farm.”

  Eric didn’t bother asking how she convinced a family to let her live on their property. He was sure they were nice, charitable people, and Marissa had a disarming look about her, but chances were, it had something to do with her being a witch, and he didn’t care to think any more about that right now. He already had enough on his mind. Something about this whole encounter was bothering him, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

  “What was that thing?” she asked.

  “We don’t know,” said Eric. And it was the truth. That was no imp, super imp or ogre. Like the giant he’d seen half-hidden in the smoke of the burning forest, it was like nothing else he’d encountered. “But we do know that the magic man sent it.”

  She nodded. “Figured…” she mumbled. She turned and looked at Eric, squinting at him through swollen eyes. “Have we met?”

  “No.”

  “Good. Worried for a minute… Brain damage… Or something…”

  “I’m Eric.”

  “Hi, Eric. Thanks for saving me.”

  “Wish I’d gotten here sooner.”

  “Me too,” she replied. She looked back at Holly and asked, “Is everyone else okay?”

  Holly didn’t have much of a poker face. Her expression said it all and Marissa immediately let out another sob.

  “We’ll talk about it later,” said Eric. “We need to get you in the van and get back to Delphinium quick. Time’s running out.”

  They stepped out into the bright, morning sunlight and made their way to the driveway. No imps—super or otherwise—attacked them. No ogres lurched after them. Everything seemed perfectly normal. (Except, of course, for the broken-in barn door and the scars in the shed siding and porch railings.) But he hadn’t expected to run into anything else. If the point had been to kill them, or even to slow them down any more, the ugly messenger would’ve done it himself, rather than ending the conversation by impaling itself on the cursed dagger. And it wouldn’t have wasted its time trying to convince him to take these girls and run away.

  They helped Marissa into the back seat and buckled her in. Holly sat beside her, doing what little she could to help ease her pain.

  Eric dropped the cell phone back into the cup holder and backed out of the driveway.

  I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN, said Isabelle.

  He nodded. What he hadn’t said out loud was that the experience in that barn was bothering him.

  WHY?

  “Exactly.” Why make him an offer? Why even entertain the idea of letting him go. The man was a cold-blooded murderer. He was able to conjure a deadly army of nightmarish fantasy creatures. He spewed fire from his hands. He’d tried to kill a sick woman in a hospital bed who had no more than a fleeting connection to one of the girls. And he obviously had no problem letting one of his monsters beat the hell out of a defenseless young woman. Eric had no idea how he could be expected to stand any kind of chance against an enemy like that, even with an entire coven of witches at his side. What did it matter? Surely such a ruthless killer couldn’t be bothered by the idea of adding one non-witch to his growing list of victims.

  IT ALMOST SOUNDS LIKE HE’S SCARED OF YOU

  Eric almost laughed at the idea. The terrifying magic man afraid of an English teacher. Right. Like his one weakness was high school grammar class.

  MAYBE HE KNOWS WHAT DELPHINIUM’S SPELL KNEW

  Eric frowned. The spell that brought him into all this? He still didn’t understand that. Of all the people in the world—a world Isabelle once informed him included real-life things like demon hunters, no less—why him? How could he possibly be the only one who could save a coven of witches from an evil modern sorcerer? “What can I possibly do?”

  I DON’T KNOW

  Eric considered this. What did he know about the magic man? Very little beyond the frightening powers he’d demonstrated so far. But he knew a little more about the villains he’d faced in the past. The foggy man. Pink Shirt. The cowboy. All of them were dangerous in their own ways. All of them were murderous monsters. And all of them were members of the same, mysterious organization. If this magic man was one of them, too…

  MAYBE YOUR REPUTATION PRECEDES YOU

  Eric frowned. “That can’t be a good thing.” The last thing he wanted was to end up on one of their hit lists. It would put him and everyone he cared about in terrible danger. “Besides, I tied up all those loose ends. Didn’t I?”

  Maybe “tied up” wasn’t the best word for it. What he’d done was manage to get them all killed. He thought they’d all died before telling anyone about him. But he couldn’t be entirely certain of that.

  “Who is he talking to?” asked Marissa.

  “Isabelle,” replied Holly as she dabbed at the cut on her lip. “Hold still.”

  Apparently, she didn’t have the energy to ask who Isabelle was, because she just said, “Oh.”

  I GUESS WE CAN’T KNOW FOR SURE

  Eric thought about this for a moment. If this magic man was another of those agents, and he knew about Eric, it might explain some of the strange behavior. He might be under orders not to harm him yet. But he had a hard time believing the mystery organization would have any interest in keeping him alive. If anything, they should be eager to kill him.

  Unless their knowledge of him was extremely limited, in which case, perhaps all they knew was that he’d beat three of their agents and was dang
erous. That might be the sort of thing that would scare one of these guys. And now that he was thinking about it, he recalled that the foggy man had mistaken him for an FBI agent at one point.

  But somehow it still didn’t feel right. He was missing something. He had the nagging sensation that he’d overlooked something significant during the conversation with the messenger. In fact, he’d probably been overlooking things all night long.

  “All we know for sure is that for some reason the magic man wants me out of the way.”

  “That’s a good thing, right?” offered Holly. “It means he’s scared of you.”

  “I guess it might mean that… But why?” He kept his eyes on the road, still watching for something to leap into his path and try to stop him. “He’s right, you know. With or without me, I don’t see how you can possibly stand a chance. He has an army. We saw that much both at Clodsend and at the hospital. In spite of what Desmond believed, he can summon these things by the hundreds. We’re only nine. Four of you can cast defensive spells once. Charlotte has three. That’s seven shots, plus whatever Delphinium can throw at them. Once they’re up close, it’s a sea of claws and teeth against eight women and me.”

  YOU SUCK AT PEP TALKS, Isabelle told him.

  “It won’t be like that,” Holly said. “Del’s magic is powerful.”

  “But Del isn’t. She’s a woman. Flesh and blood. She’s just as fragile as you and me.” He glanced up at the rearview mirror. “And her.”

  Holly’s eyes washed over her sister. Marissa sat slumped over, still clutching at her wounded arm. He was right, of course.

  “I’m just not convinced that magic is going to be enough.”

  She took Marissa’s hand and squeezed it.

  “I’m sorry,” said Eric. “I’m not trying to crush your spirit. I’m just…”

  Holly shook her head. “You’re being realistic. I know.”

  Eric felt himself deflate a little. He felt so trapped. “I just wish we were stronger.”