“Beg for mercy and forgiveness, and perhaps you’ll get to see another day,” Darlor said, still pressing Terrance against the cracking window. Terrance could see the faces of his coworkers staring, but no one was going to help him. What did you expect? asked the rational voice inside him. How was this going to lead to anything other than you dying pathetically? But Terrance didn’t feel pathetic. Perhaps he could do nothing to fight, and perhaps he was going to die, but he would have a head held high.
“Screw you. You’re a lousy boss.”
Darlor slammed Terrance into the window again, and this time it shattered. He dangled Terrance over the street ten stories below. “Goodbye, Mr. Den—”
Something metal had lodged itself into Darlor’s head. Terrance could feel the demon’s grip loosening, so he clung to Darlor’s arm tightly as his feet kicked out at the nothingness below him. But Darlor began leaning forward, and Terrance fell from his hand, grabbing onto the window ledge as Darlor’s huge form toppled out the window, his useless wings rippling in the wind as he fell to the street below.
Terrance looked up, and there above him in the window, with battle-axe in hand, stood Karen, wild-eyed. She quickly regained her senses, dropped the axe to the floor, and reached through the window to try to pull Terrance up by one arm as his feet unsuccessfully attempted to find a foothold on the wall below him. “Someone help!” No one came. “Lance!” Karen shouted. “Come on!”
“Fine.” Lance ran over and grabbed Terrance by the other arm, helping pull him back inside. Terrance miraculously suffered only a few small cuts against the leftover pieces of broken glass, and when he was fully inside and on the floor, he let out a sigh of relief, then picked himself up. The rest of the office still silently stared, and Lance looked at Karen and Terrance with a raised eyebrow. “You know you guys are in big trouble, right?”
“Oh, really? Thanks, Lance!” Karen yelled, picking back up her axe.
“Everyone is in big trouble,” Terrance told Lance as he dusted himself off. “And some of us are trying to do something about it.” He turned to Karen. “When did you get that axe?”
“Not long after you brought in your sword. I found a…gnome village near my house. I got the axe there and I’ve held on to it for a while, but I just wasn’t sure about using it.” She looked out the window to where Darlor had fallen. “This doesn’t really seem like my sort of thing.”
“Well, thanks,” Terrance said, catching his breath.
“Where is your sword?” Karen asked.
Terrance looked at the floor. “I sorta chucked it.”
Karen groaned. “I’m surrounded by idiots.”
“So are you battling evil now, too?” Lance asked.
“I guess.” She looked at Terrance. “What do we do now? There are things everywhere today.”
“We’ll meet up with others.” Terrance didn’t look forward to seeing Vivian, since he’d abandoned her after getting her husband and the others captured, but he didn’t know what else to do. It was a heavy pressure, someone else looking to him for answers in these matters. He thought he could tell Karen the truth, which was that he was clueless, but he didn’t want to scare her.
Terrance looked around at all the coworkers watching them, and spoke as steadily as he could muster. “As you have probably seen, the forces of evil are out…in force. They’re getting harder to ignore, and we are not going to do that anymore. We are going to take them on. Who is with us?”
No one spoke or moved forward.
“Okay then.” It had seemed worth a shot. He turned to Karen and Lance. “Let’s get going.”
Lance hesitated. “I’m not really a part of this.”
“Just come on!” Karen shouted. They headed for the elevators and pushed the button for the ground floor.
“Are they going to be down there waiting for us?” Karen asked.
“If they are, we fight them,” Terrance assured her.
Karen looked down at her axe. “I have no idea how to even use this thing. And you don’t have your sword. And Lance…well, I don’t expect Lance to do anything.”
“That’s good,” Lance said.
“The first thing you need to understand,” Terrance said, speaking slowly and steadily, “is that our enemies try to appear fearsome, but they are much weaker than they seem, and we are much, much more powerful.” That seemed to ease Karen’s fears a little, and it helped Terrance’s fears as well, even though what he said was only what he hoped to be true, not what he was sure he truly believed.
The elevator stopped.
And then it accelerated downward with at least twice its normal speed. It shot past the ground floor and descended to the unmarked floors below. It finally stopped at the bottom—the sub-subbasement. Terrance tried pounding the ground-floor button and then the others, but none reacted.
The elevator doors parted. Outside stood several hooded figures with eyes shining out from shadowed faces. One hissed, “Offerings for the unnamed thing that resides below.”
Lance was crouched in the corner of the elevator. “You’re supposed to take the stairs in case of an emergency.”
Chapter 32
The hooded figures were armed with what looked like old, well-worn swords with uneven edges and cracks. Still, they were far more than Terrance had.
“The ancient creature from below will feast upon your bones,” one of the figures said. Terrance could make out little of its face in the shadows, but something didn’t seem human about it. “And then you will—”
“Shut up!” Karen screamed, stepping in front of Terrance and brandishing her axe. “Out of my way or I will hack you to pieces!”
“Silence, woman! You have—”
Karen’s face went red and she let out a sound somewhere between a roar and a scream as she swung her axe at the nearest cloaked figure, cutting him down. She followed that with another wide swing, hitting two more of them. Terrance was impressed; Karen really seemed to be jumping into the battling-evil thing with much more ease than he had. Still, there were about half a dozen of the armed cultists, and it looked like Karen would soon get overwhelmed. They were all focused on her, though, which gave Terrance an opportunity to dash forward and snatch a sword from one of the fallen cultists. As soon as he had a weapon, two of them turned their attention to him, and he was blocking attacks before he had the chance to deliver any. He dodged around them looking for an opening and soon found himself next to Karen, who was still screaming and swinging wildly. It was then that Terrance realized the cultists had moved between them and the elevators, and were pushing them backward.
Though he really didn’t want to, Terrance took a glance behind him. There was the stage, and from the pit in the center emerged long, writhing tentacles like a swarm of anacondas coming for them. “Trouble!” he managed to yell as he turned his attention back in front to block a sword strike. Karen didn’t seem to hear, and kept swinging at her attackers until a tentacle wrapped around her arms and chest. She let out a much less fearsome scream as it began to pull her backward.
Frantically, Terrance shoved away the cultist he was parrying with, to give himself a moment to turn his attention to Karen. He ran and swung with all his might at the tentacle that gripped Karen, but the battered sword he held was as dull as it looked and didn’t even seem to scratch the rubbery flesh. The mouth of the creature rose out of the pit, an opening filled with sharp teeth, easily large enough to fit them both in at once. And Karen was being slowly pulled toward it. Terrance took a glance at the cultists, but they were now hanging back to watch the show. Seeing the horrible maw loom near, Terrance frantically stabbed at the tentacle, and this resulted in some progress as he actually broke flesh. The grip on Karen loosened, and she squirmed free and grabbed her axe, now screaming fiercely while hacking at the many tentacles. Something grabbed Terrance’s leg and he fell over. As he was dragged across the floor, he tried to swing his sword, but another tentacle grabbed his arm. He was headed toward the mouth with nothin
g to grab on to or brace against. He yelled to Karen for help, but she was overwhelmed by the creature’s other appendages. The mouth of the unnamed beast, held aloft by a long, thick neck, rose into the air in anticipation of swallowing Terrance, as thick, mucous-like saliva oozed between its three-inch razor teeth.
Suddenly, the mouth tilted back and let out a horrible, pain-filled shriek that shook the whole room. Near the creature, he glimpsed something white. A horse. With a horn protruding from its head, which was now embedded in the unnamed beast’s neck.
A small figure in white jumped into the fray, slashing at the tentacles with a sword in each hand. Talia. The tentacles holding Terrance loosened, and he slipped free. The cultists now charged, but Terrance saw Felicia and Donald run past him to meet them, and soon Karen was at their side, wielding her axe. Behind him, Talia was going after the creature’s neck, stabbing it repeatedly as its wounded limbs flailed about. Terrance found the battered sword he’d been using and was about to decide who to help when he realized it was all over. The cultists lay dead, and the unnamed beast was now a motionless pile of tentacles. Terrance ran to Talia. “You’re alive!”
Talia flicked the blood from her swords and returned them to the sheaths under her cloak. Then she slapped Terrance so hard, it knocked him to the ground. “I don’t know what’s more likely to destroy us: your cowardice or your lust.”
He got back to his feet. “I was just trying to help her. I didn’t know things could…end up as they did.”
Talia looked at the weapon Terrance was holding. “What happened to your sword?”
“I…threw it away. I…” He wasn’t even sure how to finish. “I’m useless, okay? I fought seeing the truth about Shannon, and I tried so many times to ignore the other evil I saw. And even when I did fight, I just…I couldn’t do anything. And then after what happened with the faeries, I couldn’t face you guys again, especially Vivian and her children…”
Felicia patted him on the back. She had a backpack on and looked like she had just come from school. “It’s okay. We’ll figure it out.”
“We’ve all had trouble with this,” Donald said. He had a suit on sans tie like he had just snuck out of work.
“Everyone is held prisoner,” Terrance answered. “The forces of the Darkness now seem to be everywhere. This seems like more than a minor screw-up.”
“Your mewling about it certainly isn’t helping.” Talia turned to Karen and offered her hand. “I’m Talia. You fight with zeal. It is good to have your help.”
Karen accepted the handshake. “Karen Hunter. Thanks for coming to save us.”
“I knew Terrance worked here, and thus we came to check on him. He may be useless, but each person lost to the evil out there is a great loss despite their apparent lack of worth, and evil is out in full force, as you may have seen.” She managed a slight smile for Karen. “At least out of this we found a new fighter, which makes it seem like much less of a waste of time.”
“Well, I don’t really understand what’s going on here,” Karen said, “just that some things are evil and I have an axe.”
“Well, when you see something that is evil, make sure to smite it with your axe and not take it to your bed.” Talia shot a quick glance at Terrance.
“By the way, I’m Donald.” He smiled broadly at Karen.
“And I’m Felicia.”
Karen looked Felicia over. “Do your parents know you’re out fighting evil?”
“I left a note.”
“So you know Terrance?” Donald asked.
“Well, we’re coworkers. Also, he had been dating my friend…Shannon, who I guess you might kinda know.”
Felicia nodded. “Yeah, I met her once, and she seemed nice…though I guess she wasn’t.”
“She nearly cut me in two when she betrayed us,” Talia said.
“How…how are you alive?” Terrance asked.
“My unicorn healed me.” She turned to the white horse that stood back from the group. “Here, Cloppers.” The unicorn slowly walked up behind Talia. “They have healing powers and are good friends to have.”
“And Randolph?” Terrance uttered.
There was a touch of sadness in her face, but it quickly disappeared. “He is gone from this world; that’s what death is. Only a small measure of each man exists in this world and is vulnerable, but all that Randolph truly is has gone somewhere beyond us now. As best we understand about death, the Adversary can no longer feed on him, but he and the others who have fallen are still trapped somewhere away from their true selves. And they shall remain that way until the power of the Adversary is destroyed. So if you want to honor the dead, keep fighting.”
Karen approached Cloppers and slowly reached up to touch the spiraled horn on its head. The unicorn reared, startling Karen so much she nearly fell over.
“Only maidens may approach a unicorn,” Talia told her.
Karen backed away from Cloppers. “Well, that’s…judgmental.” She took out a cigarette and lit it.
“I don’t know if you can smoke here,” Felicia said.
Karen puffed her cigarette. “It’s an evil, underground lair where we killed everyone; I kind of doubt there are smoking regulations.”
“Actually, there’s a sign right there.” Felicia pointed to the No Smoking sign on the wall.
Karen shrugged. “Who is going to enforce it?”
Talia snatched the cigarette from Karen’s mouth, threw it to the ground, and stomped it with her sneaker. “Enough chat; let’s get going.”
“So…uh…is this all over?” called someone from behind them. It was Lance, carefully stepping over the bodies of the cultists.
“It has but begun,” Talia announced. “I know you; you’re Terrance’s friend and even more useless than he is. Are you ready to fight?”
Lance stared long and hard at the dead mass in the pit. “No…I’m not really a part of this.”
“Everyone is a part of this,” Talia said. “You either take a stand against evil or you eventually become its servant.”
Lance scoffed. “You know, you don’t win many friends with that ‘you’re either for us or against us’ rhetoric.”
“I don’t seek friends; I seek allies.”
“So, what now?” Terrance asked.
Talia pointed to a cave that went off the main room. “Come. Follow me. The protection of the faeries is gone, evil feels no need to hide in the dark, and much of our group is held captive. There is much to do for those willing to do it. We must make our plan to fight back.”
They all followed her, including Lance, who didn’t seem to know what else to do.
Donald dropped back to walk next to Terrance. “Sorry I wasn’t there for what happened. I was so tired, I didn’t even answer the phone when I got the call. Sometimes I’m not sure how to balance needing to keep a job in the regular world and all of this. I’m not sure I always get my priorities right.”
“It’s best you weren’t there,” Terrance said, “or you probably would have just ended up killed or captured.”
“Hey, don’t blame yourself for that. You had honorable aims with that mission, and we’re all just learning here about how we can take on the Darkness. I’m sure Randolph had no regrets.”
“Thanks.” Terrance now felt mildly less like a complete failure.
“No problem.” Donald took his tie out of his pocket and began to put it back on. “So, that Karen…is she seeing anyone?”
Chapter 33
They hiked through the caverns for what seemed like miles. Cloppers followed, but hung back a bit since much of the group were not maidens. During the hike, the only light came from sparse torches on the walls. Finally, they heard the sound of water running, and they soon came to a much brighter part of the cave, so bright that it took Terrance’s eyes a few moments to adjust. Large windows were carved into the rock wall, through which the sun was shining, but directly in front of the windows flowed water. It fell so evenly that it was like a shimmering windowpane
through which they could peer to see the green of a valley below.
They came to a rising staircase, and after ascending for a few minutes, they reached an exit from the caverns. It led out into a shaded jungle, with little sunlight coming through the dense canopy above them. The trees all looked quite old—tall, wide, and covered in moss and vines.
Karen looked around with fascination. “Didn’t know we had a jungle near town.”
“Didn’t feel near,” Lance complained.
“Come. We’re almost there,” Talia said.
“Is this a new hideout?” Terrance asked.
Talia nodded. “Yes. The previous one was destroyed when someone led the enemy there.”
Karen caught up to Terrance. “Is she talking about you?”
Terrance sighed. “Yes.”
“I thought you were like this warrior with them,” Karen said, “but you sound like a screw-up.”
“Thanks for that observation.” Terrance hurried after Talia.
They soon caught sight of what looked like a building ahead, but as they got closer Terrance realized that it was in fact the largest tree he had ever seen. Its base was as thick as a skyscraper, and it stretched so high beyond the jungle canopy that Terrance couldn’t see the top. Dotting the light brown trunk high above the ground were a number of windows. At the base, there was a large, doorless opening leading inside.
“Is this where they make the cookies?” Lance asked.
“It’s long abandoned,” Donald answered.
“So no cookies? You know, this might be where I part with you guys.” Lance looked around the jungle. “How do I get back to town?”
“There is a path that goes east of here.” Talia pointed to a dirt path leading into the jungle. “Follow it until you reach the singing crystal garden, then take a right. Keep going that way and eventually you’ll reach a bridge over a giant crevice. Head over it but be careful, as wind comes up from deep within the bowels of the earth. Keep going, and you should soon see a rock structure that resembles an eagle. Stand below, and eventually you will come to the Iron Chariot, which will take you to town. It costs a dollar twenty-five if you have cash. If you only have credit or debit, you will have to purchase a card with at least five dollars on it.”
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