Terrance gave her a weak thumbs-up as his feet dangled over the nothingness below him. He then saw something approaching from behind. “Look out!”
Shannon turned but not quickly enough, as a Sister of Torment on a chimera flew toward her, swinging a sword. Shannon tried to bring her own sword up in defense, but the cut went right through her arm, severing it from her body. The chimera holding Terrance spun off to the side and quickly lost its grip on him, but the fall was once again brief, as he soon landed on another hard surface. This one was smooth and gray, but he didn’t spend long trying to figure out what it was and instead got to his feet, brandishing the sword he had somehow kept a grip on. Shannon was lying near him, clutching the nub that remained of her arm. Before he could try to comfort her, someone landed near him. A Sister of Torment. Lacey. And she was no longer missing a hand. “Oh, the sword says he’s ready to fight, and the pink pants say he fears nothing.”
Terrance tried to look fierce. “You don’t want to mess with me!”
Lacey pointed her flaming sword at Terrance. “But I’m so looking forward to seeing you bleed a little.” Two more chimeras landed near her, and Elissa and Vicky dismounted, also pointing swords at him.
I’m going to die very badly, Terrance’s mind yelped as he slowly backed away and stood over Shannon. “She’s done with you people. Let this go, or it will not end well.”
The three Sisters of Torment laughed. “Oh, he is cute,” Lacey said. “He’s like a little puppy. Now be a good boy and turn around so Chet can punch you in the face.”
“Huh?” Terrance said as he quickly spun around, just in time to get an armored fist slammed into his face.
Chapter 27
Terrance was dizzy and his face ached. He was vaguely aware that someone was dragging him. Soon after, he was thrown down on rough-carpeted ground. There were voices around him yelling, and an odd, constant hum in the background. He kind of just wanted to go to sleep, but he remembered that the situation was urgent, so he couldn’t do that yet. He slowly sat up as he felt his sore face, which was sticky from his own blood. When he looked to his left, he saw Shannon, who appeared extremely worried. “It will be all right,” he told her. He had no idea if that was true, as he was still trying to remember what was going on.
“What the hell, Shannon?!” Lacey shouted. “I mean really, what the hell?!” She was standing over them, still in armor, her long blonde hair looking quite immaculate for having just been inside a helmet. Elissa and Vicky stood next to her, looking down on them with disdainful expressions, as though Terrance and Shannon were racists or something. He could see his sheathed sword in Vicky’s hand. All around were light-colored walls on which hung inoffensive art, like one might find in a hotel.
“I’m not sure that what we do is right,” Shannon answered. She was clutching her arm…or what was left of it.
“Don’t tell me you’re listening to those morons!” Lacey yelled. “And it’s all because of this?” She pointed at Terrance. “This pathetic excuse for a boyfriend?”
Terrance tried to get to his feet. “Why don’t you—”
Lacey charged at him, and Shannon tried to intervene but Lacey backhanded her, hard. Terrance quickly reached out to hold Shannon, and noticed that where Lacey had slammed her face, there was no bruise. And he caught a glimpse of the wound on her severed arm. There was no blood where the bottom half of her arm was missing, just darkness at the wound with little bits of flame emanating from the edges.
Vicky chuckled. “So what was the plan, Shannon? Plead with the faeries until they filled you back up with goo and red stuff?”
“Oh, yes; then she’d be an infinite being like her boyfriend,” Elissa said. “So, Terrance Terrington, do you feel like a being of infinite power right now?”
Terrance was aching. He was dizzy. He was tired. He was scared. He felt small. But when he saw that Shannon was almost in tears, the main thing he felt was anger. “All I know is I don’t want to be a part of you people.”
“What a brave little man,” said a deep voice behind Terrance, followed by a laugh. Terrance turned to see Chet and his giant axe, towering over him. He shuddered but tried to keep his face defiant. He realized he had no idea what these people were ultimately going to do to him and Shannon.
“Are you enjoying this?” Shannon asked angrily.
“Certainly not,” Chet said in a dull, flat tone. “After we parted ways, I wished you the best. It pains me to see you this low.”
Lacey laughed. “Chet’s probably too nice to tell you, but the reason he strayed was that you bored him. And did you ever consider that if your plan actually works and you go back to your old self, maybe Terrance will lose interest in you, too?”
Terrance wasn’t sure what they meant, but he saw the worried look on Shannon’s face and it broke his heart. He let go of her and stood up. “I’m getting sick and tired—”
A shove from Chet sent him back to the ground. “No one cares what you think, little man.”
Elissa smiled. “But I do find his squeak of righteousness endlessly amusing.”
“Things are getting a little too heated here,” said another voice. Despina sauntered into the room, once again wearing what looked like a black cape and little else covering her gold-skinned body. She grabbed Terrance’s arm and helped him to his feet, her claws digging into his skin. Once he was standing, she smiled at him with her sharp teeth and brushed him lightly on the cheek with a fingertip. She looked at Shannon. “Someone cut off your arm?”
“I did, and it was rather satisfying.” Lacey flexed her hand that had been recently severed. “I think we should leave it that way.”
“Maybe give her a hook instead,” Vicky suggested.
“And an eye patch and a parrot,” Elissa added. “We’ll call her Shannon the Pirate and make her walk the plank.”
“Let’s be nice,” Despina said as she gazed at Shannon. “Hold out your arm, dear.”
Shannon held out the stub, and Despina touched it. Immediately, dark flames erupted from the wound. When they died down, Shannon’s arm was as good as new.
Terrance looked around the room again. Out a round window he could see the sky, and he had the sense they were moving. “Where are we?”
Despina moved closer, nearly pressing against him, her sickeningly sweet smell causing Terrance to almost lose his train of thought. “You are in our flying fortress.”
He listened to the hum permeating the room, and an odd thought popped into his head. “Are we in a blimp?”
“It’s a rigid, lighter-than-air vehicle.”
“A Zeppelin,” Lacey explained.
“It’s very modern,” Despina said. “It has wireless communication and GPS. And it is filled with either hydrogen or helium.”
“That’s neat.” The mere presence of Despina was strangely panic-inducing for Terrance, but he tried to focus. “What happened to everyone else—my friends on the ship?”
Despina shrugged. “They were inconsequential to us. We kept them occupied while we spirited you away. It’s of no concern what’s happened to them since.”
Terrance wondered if they would be coming to rescue him and Shannon, but he wasn’t sure they would know where to find them or how heavily guarded the “flying fortress” was. And he didn’t know what they’d be saving them from. “What happens to us?”
“Yes,” Lacey said. “What are we doing with the traitor and the twit?” Her hand went to the sword at her hip. “I think it will help Terrance grasp the reality of the situation if we make him bleed.”
“Oh, let’s be nice, Lacey; he and Shannon just made some mistakes.” She reached up and ran her hand through Shannon’s hair. “We all have.”
Shannon’s expression was somehow both intense and neutral. He could tell there was a lot going on in her head and he wanted to reassure her, but surrounded by the enemy, he wasn’t sure he could fake assurance. “Has this happened before?” Shannon asked.
“People get silly ideas al
l the time, but nothing ever comes of them,” Despina said. “I don’t want to downplay this—it was of great interest to the Caretaker himself—but let’s not act like it’s the end of the world. Now, why don’t we all just relax for a bit and think things over. We like you, Shannon, and we want you to be happy. Terrance seems nice, too, and there’s no reason for him to be in all this craziness.” She looked at him. “I bet you’re tired. Would you like some rest?”
Terrance had the notion that maybe he should act tough, but he ended up nodding anyway.
“So let’s get you some rest—but just a short talk first.” Despina turned to Shannon. “Is it all right if I borrow your boyfriend briefly?”
Shannon looked quite unsure of that prospect, but Despina didn’t wait for an answer. She grabbed Terrance by the wrist and started leading him away. “Watch dear Shannon but treat her nicely,” Despina said over her shoulder as they headed down a hallway. They soon came to what looked like a suite, sparsely decorated with a queen-sized bed and a small couch. Despina shut the door behind them. “Sit. Get comfortable.”
Terrance sat, but he did not get comfortable. He was alone in a room with a half-naked she-demon and had no idea what was coming.
“Do you want something to drink?” Despina asked. “I have Ovaltine. Do you like that?”
“I haven’t drunk that since I was a kid.”
“Oh. What do people your age usually drink? Mead?”
Terrance saw the small bar in a corner of the room and realized he really could use a drink. “It looks like you have Johnnie Walker. I’ll have some of that.”
“Oh yes. Scotch whisky. That’s a pretty popular new thing.” She filled a red coffee mug with scotch and handed it to Terrance, then sat down. The couch was so small that she was right up against him, and she stared quietly into his eyes with an expression like there was a secret shared between them.
“Wha…what are we doing here?” Terrance asked. “You just want to talk?”
“Yes, we’re just going to talk.” She leaned over and pressed her lips to Terrance’s ear and whispered, “Unless you want to do other things.” She leaned back and smiled at him.
Terrance took a big gulp from his mug of scotch. “Talk is…is fine. I already talked to the Caretaker, though, so I think I know all you have to tell me.”
She placed her hand on Terrance’s inner thigh and tightened her grip, her long black fingernails digging into him through the soft material of the pink sweatpants. She smiled, baring her sharp canines. “But I am so much more pleasant to talk to.”
Terrance wanted to get up and run. He wanted to grab Despina and…do things to her. His mind wasn’t focusing, so he took another drink and tried to think of something to say. “Am I in trouble?”
Despina laughed. “So you do the computer programming languages?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you enjoy that?” She leaned into Terrance, overpowering him with her sickly sweet smell.
“Um…yeah. It’s good work.”
“You’ve ventured quite far away from that, though. Quite far away from everything.”
“Well, I’m just trying to understand…”
“More than that.” Her long fingernails traced Terrance’s cheek. “You’ve taken arms against vast, powerful forces and ventured to places apart from your world. Places you know you shouldn’t be. It sounds exciting, but tell me: right now, do you want to be out in the great unknown, adventuring, or back in your bed?”
Terrance felt so tired he could barely think. When he could think, all his thoughts were focused on how he didn’t know what lay ahead for him. “Bed.”
“So why are you here, Terrance Denby?”
“I…I’m just trying to do what’s right.”
Despina giggled. “And in this realm of things so far beyond anything you’ve ever known or understand, how are you supposed to know what is right?”
Between the sleepiness and the big gulps of scotch, Terrance couldn’t come up with an answer.
Despina looked more serious. “You are putting everything you have at risk on foolish notions that you don’t even understand. Anytime you want, you could be back at your computer language programming job and spending the evenings with your lovely girlfriend, or you can continue down this path you’re on now and lose everything. And to what end?”
It seemed like a good question. The Infinite had told him that he was a being of great power and that the forces of the Darkness would slowly eat him away if he didn’t fight back, but before he was given his sword, he used to think everything was fine. And now that he had fought back, he felt worse than ever.
Despina pressed closer to him. “We are very powerful. You can rail against us, tempting us to destroy you to preserve the order of this realm, but that is not what we want. We want to work with you. This power we have—vast and in control of everything—can instead be for your benefit. You just have to allow it.” She came in so close that she was now on top of him, her body rubbing against his. The mug fell out of his hands, spilling the remainder of the scotch onto the carpet. Despina put her cheek against his, lightly pressed her lips to his ear, and whispered, “The only thing standing between you and everything you’ve ever wanted is a little voice in your head telling you that you shouldn’t have it. Ignore the voice. Take what you want.”
Terrance put his hands on her naked shoulders. Her skin was smooth and warm. He was so tired and scared, and he could barely keep his thoughts together. It was a nice thought that he could just choose to end this all—choose to make things go back as they were. And there was nothing he had to do. In fact, that’s what they wanted him to do: nothing. When he saw evil, he must ignore it. When he heard cries of terror, he had to stand back. When he saw what they had made Shannon become, he had to let it be. That was the price for all they offered.
He pushed Despina away by her shoulders. “You don’t have anything I want.”
Seeing her expression, Terrance thought maybe he hadn’t put that delicately enough. She grabbed him by his neck and picked him up with tremendous strength, slamming him into a nearby wall and pinning him there. Terrance tried to pull her hand away, but it was immovable. “We gave you a chance,” Despina growled. “If you want things to be difficult, then we will make it so.”
Terrance struggled against her grip. The pressure was mainly on his chin, which left him just enough room to breathe. “So what now? Are you going to feed me to some monster like you once were going to do to Talia?”
Despina laughed. “You don’t understand a thing. The point of that monster was not that it was going to rip her apart to bloody pieces—though that was nice, too. The point was to break her. And that’s what we’re going to do to you, Terrance Denby. We’re going to destroy all that you have and all that you are. Everything you love, you’re going to witness it crumble apart. You haven’t even begun to know pain and loss, and when you are but a shattered husk of your former self, you’re going to come crawling to us, begging forgiveness. And then do you know what we’ll do?” She let go of him, and he fell to the floor and immediately began rubbing his sore neck. Despina smiled down on him. “We’ll welcome you with open arms. You’re looking at a lot of pain in your future, but it will stop whenever you ask for it to.”
Terrance stared up at her. He felt he should offer some retort, but he was frightened and weary and all that came to mind was, “Are we done here?”
“For now.” Despina picked up a pair of jeans from a dresser and tossed them to Terrance. “And here are some trousers. You look ridiculous.”
Chapter 28
“What did you do with Shannon?”
Lacey had him by one arm and Elissa by the other as they led him down a hallway. “She got back with Chet,” Lacey said. “They’re in a passionate lovemaking session.”
They opened a door to a small, windowless room that contained only a bed, and tossed him inside. “You’re kind of a jerk, you know that?” he said to Lacey.
“Your
words wound me.” She slammed the door shut.
Terrance changed into the jeans Despina had given him (hoping they weren’t some sort of evil pants) and sat on the bed, plotting what his next move should be. He knew he had to find Shannon and figure out what they were doing to her for her betrayal, but he felt so ill-equipped to take on anyone here—assuming he could find a way out of this room. On top of it all, he was almost too tired to think. The bed looked surprisingly comfortable, so he lay down for a moment to gather his thoughts. The hum that permeated the Zeppelin was actually kind of peaceful, and the slight sway of the room was relaxing.
Terrance was awakened by an alarm blaring. He realized he must have fallen asleep, but it seemed something was now happening, judging by the screech of the alarm, the yelling, and even one voice he heard call out, “Something’s happening!”
The door to the room burst open as someone kicked it in. It was Shannon. The white T-shirt she’d borrowed from Karen was slightly torn, but otherwise she looked fine. Terrance ran to embrace her. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine; I was able to get free in the commotion. I think your friends are back and attacking; from my previous experience with them, they like doing that sort of thing.” She smiled at him. “How are you?”
Terrance smiled back. “I just want us to get out of here.” He kissed her. “I love you.”
She held him close. “I love you, too.” After a couple of moments, she released him and handed him his sword in its sheath. “I found this.”
Terrance hadn’t been very useful with his sword, but it still felt better to have it. “Any idea how to get out of here?” he asked.
“Follow me.” She led him into the hallway and quickly to a stairway before anyone could see them. They went down it into a large hangar with dozens of chimeras milling about. Terrance reached for his sword.
Shannon put her hand on his arm. “It’s okay. Just be calm and I’ll get us a ride out of here.” Her face brightened. “Mr. Cupcake!” Terrance followed her gaze to one of the dark beasts that looked no different than the rest and no less ready to eat him. “Go get on him and I’ll open the hangar door,” Shannon instructed as she headed for a panel.
Sidequest: In Realms Ungoogled Page 22